THE FATE OF ICIODORUM. 189 
The market had supplied boots for all, but the 
people perversely refused to take them. The 
shop-windows were full of boots, temptingly dis- 
played in rows of assorted sizes; nevertheless, 
every person in Issoire, except those engaged in 
boot-making, seemed bent on wearing his last 
year’s boots rather than to pay twenty francs for a 
new pair. The high price of leather and hides 
since the exclusion of the mountain cattle began 
to reduce the profits in boot-making, and so some 
of the factories threw a poorer article on the mar- 
ket, without, however, any corresponding reduction 
in price. And people found that it was cheaper 
to go to Clermont again for boots, notwithstanding 
the payment of the octroi. Accordingly, the old 
wagons were sent out once in a while, by people 
who had more cupidity than patriotism. And a 
little coterie of aristocrats who sneered at the 
mayor as a demagogue, and at the octroi as a 
“relic of the middle ages,” used to wear Clermont- 
made boots and to ape Clermont fashions. But 
all good citizens discouraged this, and the main- 
tenance of the ‘‘Issoire idea” became one of their 
articles of faith, next to those in the catechism. 
But Clermont-made boots often came in on the 
sly—no one knew how —to the dismay of the 
local dealers. The Common Council saw that this 
would not do, and that the single old soldier who 
guarded each of the city gates could not meet all 
the requirements of the octroi. So at each gate 
were placed a dozen gendarmes, in red woollen 
uniforms, with black caps fastened on by a leather 
band which went around the lower lip. And the 
