ned
she had started a volcano. The fire-engines came, the whole population
rushed to her assistance. Several Knights were among the firemen, and
they deluged the old woman's house, till they had frightened her with a
flood, as much as they had terrified her with the fire. She was made ill
with fear.

When they wished to make some one spend the night under arms and in
mortal terror, they wrote an anonymous letter telling him that he was
about to be robbed; then they stole softly, one by one, round the walls
of his house, or under his windows, whistling as if to call each other.

One of their famous performances, which long amused the town, where in
fact it is still related, was to write a letter to all the heirs of a
miserly old lady who was likely to leave a large property, announcing
her death, and requesting them to be promptly on hand when the seals
were affixed. Eighty persons arrived from Vatan, Saint-Florent, Vierzon
and the neighboring country, all in deep mourning,--widows with sons,
children with their fathers, some in carrioles, some in wicker gigs,
others in dilapidated carts. Imagine the scene between the old woman's
servants and the first arrivals! and the consultations among the
notaries! It created a sort of riot in Issoudun.

At last, one day the sub-prefect woke up to a sense that this state of
things was all the more intolerable because it seemed impossible to find
out who was at the bottom of it. Suspicion fell on several young men;
but as the National Guard was a mere name in Issoudun, and there was no
garrison, and the lieutenant of police had only eight gendarmes under
him, so that there were no patrols, it was impossible to get any proof
against them. The sub-prefect was immediately posted in the "order of
the night," and considered thenceforth fair game. This functionary made
a practice of breakfasting on two fresh eggs. He kept chickens in his
yard, and added to his mania for eating fresh eggs that of boiling them
himself. Neither his wife nor his servant, in fact no one, according
to him, knew how to boil an egg properly; he did it watch in hand, and
boasted that he carried off the palm of egg-boiling from all the world.
For two years he had boiled his eggs with a success which earned him
many witticisms. But now, every night for a whole month, the eggs
were taken from his hen-house, and hard-boiled eggs substituted.
The sub-prefect was at his wits' end, and lost his reputation as the
"sous-