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The Two Brothers-Part19_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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In ten minutes the news of the insult offered to the Constitution



Opposition and the Liberal party, in the supersacred person of its

revered journal, which attacked priests with courage and the wit we



all remember, spread throughout the town and into the houses like

light itself; it was told and repeated from place to place. One phrase



was on everybody's lips,--

"Let us tell Max!"



Max soon heard of it. The royalist officers were still at their game

of dominos when that hero entered the cafe, accompanied by Major Potel



and Captain Renard, and followed by at least thirty young men, curious

to see the end of the affair, most of whom remained outside in the



street. The room was soon full.

"Waiter, MY newspaper," said Max, in a quiet voice.



Then a little comedy was played. The fat hostess, with a timid and

conciliatory air, said, "Captain, I have lent it!"



"Send for it," cried one of Max's friends.

"Can't you do without it?" said the waiter; "we have not got it."



The young royalists were laughing and casting sidelong glances at the

new-comers.



"They have torn it up!" cried a youth of the town, looking at the feet

of the young royalist captain.



"Who has dared to destroy that paper?" demanded Max, in a thundering

voice, his eyes flashing as he rose with his arms crossed.



"And we spat upon it," replied the three young officers, also rising,

and looking at Max.



"You have insulted the whole town!" said Max, turning livid.

"Well, what of that?" asked the youngest officer.



With a dexterity, quickness, and audacity which the young men did not

foresee, Max slapped the face of the officer nearest to him, saying,--



"Do you understand French?"

They fought near by, in the allee de Frapesle, three against three;



for Potel and Renard would not allow Max to deal with the officers

alone. Max killed his man. Major Potel wounded his so severely, that



the unfortunate young man, the son of a good family, died in the

hospital the next day. As for the third, he got off with a sword cut,



after wounding his adversary, Captain Renard. The battalion left for

Bourges that night. This affair, which was noised throughout Berry,



set Max up definitely as a hero.

The Knights of Idleness, who were all young, the eldest not more than



twenty-five years old, admired Maxence. Some among them, far from

sharing the prudery and strict notions of their families concerning



his conduct, envied his present position and thought him fortunate.

Under such a leader, the Order did great things. After the month of



May, 1817, never a week passed that the town was not thrown into an

uproar by some new piece of mischief. Max, as a matter of honor,



imposed certain conditions upon the Knights. Statutes were drawn up.

These young demons grew as vigilant as the pupils of Amoros,--bold as



hawks, agile at all exercises, clever and strong as criminals. They

trained themselves in climbing roofs, scaling houses, jumping and



walking noiselessly, mixing mortar, and walling up doors. They

collected an arsenal of ropes, ladders, tools, and disguises. After a



time the Knights of Idleness attained to the beau-ideal of malicious

mischief, not only as to the accomplishment but, still more, in the



invention of their pranks. They came at last to possess the genius for

evil that Panurge so much delighted in; which provokes laughter, and



covers its victims with such ridicule that they dare not complain.

Naturally, these sons of good families of Issoudun possessed and



obtained information in their households, which gave them the ways and

means for the perpetration of their outrages.



Sometimes the young devils incarnate lay in ambush along the Grand'rue

or the Basse rue, two streets which are, as it were, the arteries of



the town, into which many little side streets open. Crouching, with

their heads to the wind, in the angles of the wall and at the corners



of the streets, at the hour when all the households were hushed in

their first sleep, they called to each other in tones of terror from



ambush to ambush along the whole length of the town: "What's the

matter?" "What is it?" till the repeated cries woke up the citizens,






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