prokopetz:

I’ve gotta admit that one of my favourite things about the posterity surrounding Julie d’Aubigny is how delicately most sources talk about her exploits.

Like, they’ll be all “she dueled a young nobleman for insulting her clothes, and they later became friends” to describe an incident in which said nobleman tried to give her a hard time for dressing in a masculine fashion, so she straight-up impaled him with her sword – ran him clear through, an injury that was typically mortal in an age before antibiotics – then visited him at his apartment a few days later as he lay bedridden from his near-fatal wounding in order to receive his apology. And yes, that means exactly what you think it means.

The bit about them eventually becoming friends is true, mind, but putting it that way is skipping ahead rather a lot!