There are certain legendary names which when spoken or remembered evoke
a second image and raise a double personality, Castor implies Pollux;
Ninos, Euryalus; Damon, Pythias. An inferior species of union connects
Saint Anthony with his pig, Roland with his mare, and the infinitely
more modern Gambon with his historic cow. He was “the village Hampden”
of the Empire. By withstanding the tyranny of Caesar’s tax-gatherer and
refusing to pay the imperial rates, he obtained a popularity upon which
he existed until the Commune gave him power. His history is brief.
About a year before the fall of the Second Empire, he declared that he
would pay no more taxes imposed by the Government. Thereupon, all his
realizable property, consisting of one cow, was seized by the
authorities and sold for the benefit of the State. This procured him
the commiseration of the entire party of _irréconciliables_. A
subscription was opened in the columns of the _Marseillaise_ to replace
the sequestrated animal, and “La vache à Gambon”—“Gambon’s cow”—became
a derisive party cry. Gambon had been a deputy in 1848, and when the
Commune came into power took a constant though not remarkable part in
its deliberations. He was appointed member of the Delegation of Justice
on the twentieth of April.