In the middle of a severe winter, the Knights took down the chimney of
the collector of taxes, and built it up again in one night apparently
as it was before, without making the slightest noise, or leaving the
least trace of their work. But they so arranged the inside of the
chimney as to send all the smoke into the house. The collector
suffered for two months before he found out why his chimney, which had
always drawn so well, and of which he had often boasted, played him
such tricks; he was then obliged to build a new one.
At another time, they put three trusses of hay dusted with brimstone,
and a quantity of oiled paper down the chimney of a pious old woman
who was a friend of Madame Hochon. In the morning, when she came to
light her fire, the poor creature, who was very gentle and kindly,
imagined she had started a volcano. The fire-engines came, the whole
population rushed to her assistance. Several Knights were among the
firemen, and they deluged the old woman's house, till they had
frightened her with a flood, as much as they had terrified her with
the fire. She was made ill with fear.
When they wished to make some one spend the night under arms and in
mortal terror, they wrote an anonymous letter telling him that he was
about to be robbed; then they stole softly, one by one, round the
walls of his house, or under his windows, whistling as if to call each
other.
One of their famous performances, which long amused the town, where in
fact it is still related, was to write a letter to all the heirs of a
miserly old lady who was likely to leave a large property, announcing
her death, and requesting them to be promptly on hand when the seals
were affixed.
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