mediocre ability; upheld the Left Centre, but failed of election in May, 1839, when he presented himself as candidate for Arcis-sur-Aube. (The Member for Arcis)
GILET (Maxence), born in 1789. He passed at Issoudun for the natural son of Lousteau, the sub-delegate. Others thought him the son of Dr. Rouget, a friend and rival of Lousteau. In short "fortunately for the child both claimed him"; though he belonged to neither. His true father was found to be a "charming officer of dragoons in the garrison at Bourges." His mother, the wife of a poor drunken cobbler of Issoudun, had the marvelous beauty of a Transteverin. Her husband was aware of his wife's actions and profited by them: through interested motives, Lousteau and Rouget were allowed to believe whatever they wished about the child's paternity, for which reason both contributed to the education of Maxence, usually known as Max. In 1806, at the age of seventeen, Max enlisted in a regiment going to Spain. In 1809 he was left for dead in Portugal in an English battery; taken by the English and conveyed to the Spanish prison-hulks at Cabrera. There he remained from 1810 to 1814. When he returned to Issoudun his father and his mother had both died in the hospital. On the return of Bonaparte, Max served as captain in the Imperial Guard. During the second Restoration he returned to Issoudun and became leader of the "Knights of Idlesse" which were addicted to nocturnal escapades more or less agreeable to the inhabitants of the town. "Max played at Issoudun a part almost identical with that of Smith in 'The Fair Maid of Perth'; he was the champion of Bonapartism and opposition. They relied upon him, as the citizens of Perth had relied upon Smith on great occasions." A possible Caesar Borgia on more extensive ground, Gilet lived very comfortably, although without a personal income. And that is why Max with certain inherited qualities and defects rashly went to live with his supposed natural father, Jean-Jacques Rouget, a rich and witless old bachelor who was under the thumb of a superb servant-mistress, Flore Brazier, known as La Rabouilleuse. After 1816 Gilet lorded it over the household; the handsome chap had won the heart of Mlle.
