we found it practicable to carry him in a chair into the garden and as far as the entrance gate, where he could watch the passers-by. When it became known among the peasants that he was in the habit of sitting close to the highway, they came from far and near to sing and dance in groups for his entertainment. He was greatly loved by both the common people and the nobility.
At the end of six weeks the Marquis was able to get about on crutches, and two weeks later still I bade him good bye and returned to Paris. Before I left he presented me with a gift of great value, and the Duchess of Ascot insisted on my accepting a beautiful diamond ring as a mark of her appreciation of the services which I had rendered her brother.
Among the varied experiences which fell to the lot of
Paré during his association with Charles the Ninth, there
is one which throws a little additional light upon the man's
manner of promptly dealing with an event which, without
such promptness of action, might have led to serious
consequences.
He was passing through Montpellier one day in company with the King, when he stopped for a few minutes at the shop of an apothecary for the purpose of ascertaining how he preserved alive the vipers which he used in compounding the remedy which is called "theriaca," and which has been used from time immemorial as an antidote to the poison of venomous serpents. The apothecary placed before him a glass jar in which were kept a number of these reptiles; and, when Paré took one of them up in his fingers in order to obtain a better view of his fangs, the reptile bit him near the tip of his index finger, between the nail and the flesh. The pain which immediately followed was severe, partly, as Paré explains, because the tip of the finger is a very sensitive part, and probably also on account of the irritating effect of the venom. Then, to quote Paré's own words, "after making firm pressure upon the soft parts above the wound, to prevent the poison from traveling upward, I crowded the skin downward in the hope of forcing as much of the venom as possible out of the finger. While doing these things I instructed the apothecary's assistant to mix some old theriaca with brandy, and then to apply a pledget
