" But the flower of the flock was little
Thibault; it was reported that no lock could stand before
him; he had a persuasive hand; let us salute capacity
wherever we may find it. Perhaps the term GANG is not quite
properly applied to the persons whose fortunes we are now
about to follow; rather they were independent malefactors,
socially intimate, and occasionally joining together for some
serious operation just as modern stockjobbers form a
syndicate for an important loan. Nor were they at all
particular to any branch of misdoing. They did not
scrupulously confine themselves to a single sort of theft, as
I hear is common among modern thieves. They were ready for
anything, from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter. Montigny, for
instance, had neglected neither of these extremes, and we
find him accused of cheating at games of hazard on the one
hand, and on the other of the murder of one Thevenin Pensete
in a house by the Cemetery of St. John. If time had only
spared us some particulars, might not this last have
furnished us with the matter of a grisly winter's tale?
At Christmas-time in 1456, readers of Villon will remember
that he was engaged on the SMALL TESTAMENT. About the same
period, CIRCA FESTUM NATIVITATIS DOMINI, he took part in a
memorable supper at the Mule Tavern, in front of the Church
of St.
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