2, by men who all belonged to Berry. The
administration of power became either a nullity or a farce,--except in
certain cases, naturally very rare, which by their manifest importance
compelled the authorities to act. The procureur du roi, Monsieur
Mouilleron, was cousin to the entire community, and his substitute
belonged to one of the families of the town. The judge of the court,
before attaining that dignity, was made famous by one of those
provincial sayings which put a cap and bells on a man's head for the
rest of his life. As he ended his summing-up of all the facts of an
indictment, he looked at the accused and said: "My poor Pierre! the
thing is as plain as day; your head will be cut off. Let this be a
lesson to you." The commissary of police, holding office since the
Restoration, had relations throughout the arrondissement. Moreover, not
only was the influence of religion null, but the curate himself was held
in no esteem.

It was this bourgeoisie, radical, ignorant, and loving to annoy others,
which now related tales, more or less comic, about the relations of
Jean-Jacques Rouget with his servant-woman. The children of these people
went none the less to Sunday-school, and were as scrupulously prepared
for their communion: the schools were kept up all the same; mass was
said; the taxes were paid (the sole thing that Paris extracts of the
provinces), and the mayor passed resolutions. But all these acts of
social existence were done as mere routine, and thus the laxity of
the local government suited admirably with the moral and intellectual
condition of the governed. The events of the following history will
show the effects of this state of things, which is not as unusual in the
provinces as might be supposed. Many towns in France, more particularly
in the South, are like Issoudun. The condition to which the ascendency
of the bourgeoisie has reduced that local capital is one which will
spread over all France, and even to Paris, if the bourgeois continues to
rule the exterior and interior policy of our country.

Now, one word of topography. Issoudun stretches north and south, along
a hillside which rounds towards the highroad to Chateauroux. At the foot
of the hill, a canal, now called the "Riviere forcee" whose waters are
taken from the Theols, was constructed in former times, when the town
was flourishing, for the use of manufactories or to flood the moats of
the rampart. The "Riviere forcee" forms an artificial