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# France
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/frantsiia/
- Published: 2021-09-23T12:29:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:40:24.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Society, Humour

France. Conscription by lot. A peasant is handed a hat containing two tickets: the black one will send him off to serve, the white one will exempt him from military duty and, on the whole, save his life. The fellow twigs that both tickets in the hat are in fact black, and, drawing one, promptly eats it, remarking that if the one left behind is black, he must have swallowed the white. His wits win him his freedom.

The lot had governed military levies since the days of Louis XIV, when peasants were drafted into the militia. The peasantry found this a heavy burden, all the more so as there were many abuses and swindles, of which this anecdote is one. After the Revolution the system of drawing lots was briefly abolished, but in 1804 Napoleon reintroduced conscription by lot, though with the possibility of buying a substitute to serve in one's place.