ittle man, full of dignity, busied himself with
the problems which the steam-engine requires us to solve, and lived in
a modest way, taking his social intercourse with Monsieur and Madame
Carpentier. His gentle manners and ways, and his scientific occupations
won him the respect of the whole town; and it was frequently said of
him and of Captain Carpentier that they were "quite another thing" from
Major Potel and Captain Renard, Maxence, and other frequenters of the
cafe Militaire, who retained the soldierly manners and the defective
morals of the Empire.

At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun, Max was excluded
from the society of the place. He showed, moreover, proper self-respect
in never presenting himself at the club, and in never complaining of the
severe reprobation that was shown him; although he was the handsomest,
the most elegant, and the best dressed man in the place, spent a great
deal of money, and kept a horse,--a thing as amazing at Issoudun as
the horse of Lord Byron at Venice. We are now to see how it was that
Maxence, poor and without apparent means, was able to become the dandy
of the town. The shameful conduct which earned him the contempt of all
scrupulous or religious persons was connected with the interests which
brought Agathe and Joseph to Issoudun.

Judging by the audacity of his bearing, and the expression of his face,
Max cared little for public opinion; he expected, no doubt, to take
his revenge some day, and to lord it over those who now condemned
him. Moreover, if the bourgeoisie of Issoudun thought ill of him, the
admiration he excited among the common people counterbalanced their
opinion; his courage, his dashing appearance, his decision of character,
could not fail to please the masses, to whom his degradations were, for
the most part, unknown, and indeed the bourgeoisie themselves scarcely
suspected its extent. Max played a role at Issoudun which was something
like that of the blacksmith in the "Fair Maid of Perth"; he was the
champion of Bonapartism and the Opposition; they counted upon him as
the burghers of Perth counted upon Smith on great occasions. A single
incident will put this hero and victim of the Hundred-Days into clear
relief.

In 1819, a battalion commanded by royalist officers, young men just
out of the Maison Rouge, passed through Issoudun on its way to go
into garrison at Bourges. Not knowing what to do with themselves in so
constitutional a place as I