ted
by authority and general consent, showing what are always allowed to
be sufficient provocations. First, if one man upon any words shall
make an assault upon another, either by pulling him by the nose or
filliping him on the forehead, and he that is so assaulted shall
draw his sword and immediately run the other through, that is but
manslaughter, for the peace is broken by the person killed and with
an indignity to him that received the assault. Besides, he that was
so affronted might reasonably apprehend that he that treated him in
that manner might have some further design upon him."

So that here is the boundary, when a man is assaulted and kills in
consequence of that assault, it is but manslaughter. I will just
read as I go along the definition of assault:--

(1 Hawkins. ch. 62, section 1): "An assault is an attempt or offer, with
force or violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking
at him with or without a weapon, or presenting a gun at him at such
a distance to which the gun will carry, or pointing a pitchfork at
him, or by any other such like act done in angry, threatening
manner, etc.; but no words can amount to an assault,"

Here is the definition of an assault, which is a sufficient
provocation to soften killing down to manslaughter:--

(1 Hawkins, ch. 31, section 36): "Neither can he be thought guilty of a
greater crime than manslaughter, who, finding a man in bed with his
wife, or being actually struck by him, or pulled by the nose or
filliped upon the forehead, immediately kills him, or in the defense
of his person from an unlawful arrest, or in the defense of his
house from those who, claiming a title to it, attempt forcibly to
enter it, and to that purpose shoot at it," etc.

Every snowball, oyster shell, cake of ice, or bit of cinder, that
was thrown that night at the sentinel, was an assault upon him;
every one that was thrown at the party of soldiers was an assault
upon them, whether it hit any of them or not. I am guilty of an
assault if I present a gun at any person; and if I insult him in
that manner and he shoots me, it is but manslaughter.

(Foster. 295, 396): "To what I have offered with regard to sudden
rencounters let me add, that the blood already too much heated,
kindleth afresh at every pass or blow. And in the tumult of the
passions, in which the mere instinct of self-preservation has no
inconsiderable share, the voice of reason is not heard; and
therefore th