These men became, as is well known, nearly all Liberals.
In Issoudun and its neighborhood there were a dozen officers in Max's position.

These men admired him and made him their leader,--with the exception, however, of Carpentier, his successor, and a certain Monsieur Mignonnet, ex-captain in the artillery of the Guard.

Carpentier, a cavalry officer risen from the ranks, had married into one of the best families in the town,--the Borniche-Herau.

Mignonnet, brought up at the Ecole Polytechnique, had served in a corps which held itself superior to all others.

In the Imperial armies there were two shades of distinction among the soldiers themselves.