period of youth and may even be observed among animals.
The confederation, in itself, gave them the mimic delights of the
mystery of an organized conspiracy. They called themselves the "Knights
of Idleness." During the day these young scamps were youthful saints;
they all pretended to extreme quietness; and, in fact, they habitually
slept late after the nights on which they had been playing their
malicious pranks. The "Knights" began with mere commonplace tricks,
such as unhooking and changing signs, ringing bells, flinging casks left
before one house into the cellar of the next with a crash, rousing the
occupants of the house by a noise that seemed to their frightened ears
like the explosion of a mine. In Issoudun, as in many country towns, the
cellar is entered by an opening near the door of the house, covered with
a wooden scuttle, secured by strong iron hinges and a padlock.

In 1816, these modern Bad Boys had not altogether given up such tricks
as these, perpetrated in the provinces by all young lads and gamins. But
in 1817 the Order of Idleness acquired a Grand Master, and distinguished
itself by mischief which, up to 1823, spread something like terror in
Issoudun, or at least kept the artisans and the bourgeoisie perpetually
uneasy.

This leader was a certain Maxence Gilet, commonly called Max, whose
antecedents, no less than his youth and his vigor, predestined him
for such a part. Maxence Gilet was supposed by all Issoudun to be the
natural son of the sub-delegate Lousteau, that brother of Madame Hochon
whose gallantries had left memories behind them, and who, as we have
seen, drew down upon himself the hatred of old Doctor Rouget about
the time of Agathe's birth. But the friendship which bound the two men
together before their quarrel was so close that, to use an expression of
that region and that period, "they willingly walked the same road." Some
people said that Maxence was as likely to be the son of the doctor as
of the sub-delegate; but in fact he belonged to neither the one nor
the other,--his father being a charming dragoon officer in garrison at
Bourges. Nevertheless, as a result of their enmity, and very fortunately
for the child, Rouget and Lousteau never ceased to claim his paternity.

Max's mother, the wife of a poor sabot-maker in the Rome suburb, was
possessed, for the perdition of her soul, of a surprising beauty, a
Trasteverine beauty, the only property which she transmitted to her
son. Madam