On Sunday, 7 January 1787, around nine o'clock in the evening, a dozen or so men were celebrating King's Day. The group was formal, what contemporaries called a chambrée, a male association that met occasionally for drink and chat. The men had rented the meeting room overlooking the Grand' Rue in Aubagne. The celebration was important because there were guests present who were not normally invited. As the men danced and smoked around the fire, another group outside began pelting rocks through the windows. They broke a half dozen panes and the window frame itself. Then they ran off. A quarter of an hour later, they returned and began singing a well-known song but transformed the lyrics into “mocking and bloody threats.”

Nothing more came of the incident. Apparently, authorities or the plaintiffs decided not to pursue the assailants, who will always remain unknown. Still, this apparent case of minor vandalism and harassment has exceptional significance.