hurch, one of
the finest specimens of the Romanesque that France possessed, actually
perished without a single drawing being made of the portal, which was in
perfect preservation. The only voice raised to save this monument of a
past art found no echo, either in the town itself or in the department.
Though the castle of Issoudun has the appearance of an old town, with
its narrow streets and its ancient mansions, the city itself, properly
so called, which was captured and burned at different epochs, notably
during the Fronde, when it was laid in ashes, has a modern air.
Streets that are spacious in comparison with those of other towns,
and well-built houses form a striking contrast to the aspect of the
citadel,--a contrast that has won for Issoudun, in certain geographies,
the epithet of "pretty."

In a town thus constituted, without the least activity, even business
activity, without a taste for art, or for learned occupations, and where
everybody stayed in the little round of his or her own home, it was
likely to happen, and did happen under the Restoration in 1816 when
the war was over, that many of the young men of the place had no career
before them, and knew not where to turn for occupation until they could
marry or inherit the property of their fathers. Bored in their own
homes, these young fellows found little or no distraction elsewhere in
the city; and as, in the language of that region, "youth must shed its
cuticle" they sowed their wild oats at the expense of the town itself.
It was difficult to carry on such operations in open day, lest the
perpetrators should be recognized; for the cup of their misdemeanors
once filled, they were liable to be arraigned at their next peccadillo
before the police courts; and they therefore judiciously selected the
night time for the performance of their mischievous pranks. Thus it was
that among the traces of divers lost civilizations, a vestige of the
spirit of drollery that characterized the manners of antiquity burst
into a final flame.

The young men amused themselves very much as Charles IX. amused himself
with his courtiers, or Henry V. of England and his companions, or as in
former times young men were wont to amuse themselves in the provinces.
Having once banded together for purposes of mutual help, to defend each
other and invent amusing tricks, there presently developed among them,
through the clash of ideas, that spirit of malicious mischief which
belongs to the