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 Issoudun, these young gentlemen went to while away the time at the cafe Militaire.  In every provincial town there is a military cafe.  That of Issoudun, built on the place d’Armes at an angle of the rampart, and kept by the widow of an officer, was naturally the rendezvous of the Bonapartists, chiefly officers on half-pay, and others who shared Max’s opinions, to whom the politics of the town allowed free expression of their idolatry for the Emperor.  Every year, dating from 1816, a banquet was given in Issoudun to commemorate the anniversary of his coronation.  The three royalists who first entered asked for the newspapers, among others, for the “Quotidienne” and the “Drapeau Blanc.”  The politics of Issoudun, especially those of the cafe Militaire, did not allow of such royalist journals.  The establishment had none but the “Commerce,”—­a name which the “Constitutionel” was compelled to adopt for several years after it was suppressed by the government.  But as, in its first issue under the new name, the leading article began with these words, “Commerce is essentially constitutional,” people continued to call it the “Constitutionel,” the subscribers all understanding the sly play of words which begged them to pay no attention to the label, as the wine would be the same.

The fat landlady replied from her seat at the desk that she did not take those papers.  “What papers do you take then?” asked one of the officers, a captain.  The waiter, a little fellow in a blue cloth jacket, with an apron of coarse linen tied over it, brought the “Commerce.”

“Is that your paper?  Have you no other?”

“No,” said the waiter, “that’s the only one.”

The captain tore it up, flung the pieces on the floor, and spat upon them, calling out,—­

“Bring dominos!”