This man, endowed with "strength of character," died in 1805, and God only knows what the townspeople of Issoudun said about him then, and how many anecdotes they related of his horrible private life.

Jean-Jacques Rouget, whom his father, recognizing his stupidity, had latterly treated with severity, remained a bachelor for certain reasons, the explanation of which will form an important part of this history.

His celibacy was partly his father's fault, as we shall see later.
Meantime, it is well to inquire into the results of the secret vengeance the doctor took on a daughter whom he did not recognize as his own, but who, you must understand at once, was legitimately his.

Not a person in Issoudun had noticed one of those capricious facts that make the whole subject of generation a vast abyss in which science flounders.

Agathe bore a strong likeness to the mother of Doctor Rouget.