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,
who appeared in their shirts and cotton night-caps, with lights in
their hands, asking questions of one another, holding the strangest
colloquies, and exhibiting the queerest faces.
A certain poor bookbinder, who was very old, believed in hobgoblins.
Like most provincial artisans, he worked in a small basement shop. The
Knights, disguised as devils, invaded the place in the middle of the
night, put him into his own cutting-press, and left him shrieking to
himself like the souls in hell. The poor man roused the neighbors, to
whom he related the apparitions of Lucifer; and as they had no means
of undeceiving him, he was driven nearly insane.
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