Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France — page 186: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- Pickwick Abroad. 143 committed many daring excesses in the vicinity of Boulogne, St. Cloud, Versailles, and St. Germain; that the day previous to the one on which he was thus fortunately arrested, he had robbed an old lady —a resident of Boulogne aforesaid—of the sum of three hundred and seventy-nine francs, seventeen centimes; that the robbery was effected in or near the identical spot where the Gendarmes had succeeded in capturing him as he emerged from his place of concealment; and that numbers were ready to come forward and identify the wig he wore with the one which usually disguised the robber who had so long haunted the neighbourhood of the places above mentioned.”’ As Mr. Pickwick did not of course comprehend one syllable of this serious indictment, he contented himself by staring vacantly at the magistrate, and by making a few signs to intimate that he was a fo- reioner; whereupon the Gendarmes whispered to each other, ‘‘ that they never saw a more sanctified-looking old rascal in the whole course of their lives,” and at the same time coincided ina kind and satisfactory opinion to the effect that the guillotine was marked on his countenance. It, however, struck the Commissary that the terrible malefactor in question was really unacquainted with the French language; and as the official interpreter—from whom Mr. Pickwick subsequently ga- thered the substance of the proces-verbal above stated, as well as the nature of the policemen’s remarks—was in attendance, our venerable hero was forthwith put in possession of the merits of the case, and the history of the charges brought against him. No sooner was Mr. Pickwick thus made aware of the real state of the matter as it stood, than his first impulse was to dash the unfor- tunate wig into the faces of the Gendarmes who had arrested him, and his second to burst into a long and eloquent string of invectives against those mistaken functionaries. The Commissary himself, judging from Mr. Pickwick’s sincerity of manner, began to apprehend that the real thief was still at large, and that an innocent gentleman was arraigned in his stead. But if any thing more conclusive than his own explana- tion—which, unhappily, none save the interpreter for some time un- derstood—were wanting to establish Mr. Pickwick’s innocence, the testimony of the old lady, who had been robbed, and who now pre- sented herself at the office for the especial purpose of acting as witness in the case, was definitive. The Commissary accordingly dismissed the accused with a hundred apologies for the inconvenience he had suf- fered: and the Gendarmes condescended to announce to each other that he was not, after all, so ‘‘ very roguish-looking a fellow.”’ The case was thus promptly disposed of; and Mr. Pickwick accompanied the interpreter to the principal hotel in the town, where an excellent supper was provided at the expense of the former gentleman, and done justice to by both. It was about half-past nine o’clock, when Mr. Pickwick paid the bill, and intimated to the interpreter his intention to return to Paris, as his friends were most probably uneasy on account of his prolonged absence. ‘The Frenchman assured Mr. Pickwick that there were no public vehicles to the metropolis at so late an hour in the evening; and having an eyeto his own interest, the wily interpreter, after a long discourse upon the restlessness of horses, and the danger of trusting to strange animals in an unfrequented road, persuaded his docile com- COMMICLOO© cS (CO)