Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

oy he ee eee Se ee C- aS oS intrerched ourselves behind the trees, armed with the atones which are piled up to mend the roads, and with some weapons we had got hold of at the first moment Wf confusion, The soldiers hesitated for a moment, yut, well armed and well monnted, they soon made up their minds, and at the first charge two of our party fell deal, five more terribly wounded, and the others falling on their knees, cried for mercy. Surrender was now imperative; and Desfosseux, myself, and some others who had escaped, got into the carriage, when Hurtrel, who had kept at a very respectable distance from the affray, cams up to a poor wretch, who cer- tainly did not hurry himself very much, and thrust his sayar through him. Such baseness enraged us; the 1) isoners Who had not yet ascended the carriages took i) 3°0.293, and but for fhe aid of the dragoons Hurtrel woald have been knocked on the head. The soldiers bid us desist before we brought down destruction on ourselves; and the thing was so evident, that we were compelled to lay down our arms, that is, the stones. This circumstances, however, put a termination to the annoyances of Hurtrel, who never approached us but with fear and trembling. At Senlis we were placed in the temporary prison, one of the most horrible I ever tenanted. The jailer exercising the office of street-keeper, the prison was guarded by his wife; and what a creature was she! As we had made ourselves notorious, she thrust us into the most s®2ret dungeons, convincing herself by pre- v10.13 parsona! examination that we had nothing about us that could aid escape. We were, however, trying the walls, when we heard her roar ont, ** Rascals, Tam coming to yo1 with my bastinado; [ will teach you how to play music.” We took her at her word, and alld» sistel, The next day we reached Paris, and wera lodge 1 in the outer boulevards, and at four in the after- noon we got in sigat of Bicetre, On reaching the end of the avenue which looks 91 the road to Fontaineblea, the carriages ttirned to ths right and entered an iron gate, above which [I read m>- chanically this inscription —“ Hospice de la vieillesse,” (Hospi for the agel). In the Pora court many old men were walking, clothed in gray garments. They were paupers, and stared at us with that stupid curios- ity which results from a monotonous and purely animal existen°e; for it often happens that a person admitted into an hospital, having no longer his own subsistence to provide for, renounces the exercise of his narrow faculties, and ends by falling into a state of perfect | idiotey. On reaching the second court, in which was the chapel, I remarked that the majority of my com- anions hid their faces with their hands or poeket-hand- ferchiefs. It may be supposed that they experienced some feeling of shams. No; they were only thinking of allowing their faces to be seen as little as possible, so that if opportunity presented they might the more easily escape. “Here we are,” said Desfosseaux to me; “you see | that square bullding—that is the prison.’ We alighted at an n door, guarded inside by a sentry. Having entered the office, wa were only registered, our de- | scription being deferred until the next day. I per- | ceived, however, that the jailer looked at us, Desfos- seux and me, with a sort of curiosity, and I thence con- cluded that we had been recommended by the officer | Hurtrel, who had preceded us a quarter of an hoar | from the time of the business of the forest of Com- | igne. Having opened many low doors, guarded with | ron plates, and the Bird-cage Wicket, we were intro- duced to a large square yard, where about fifty prison- | ers were playing at fives, and shouting so loudly as — to sound all over the place. At our appearance the game ceased, and surrounding us, they examined with much surprise the irons which loaded us. Tt was, besides, to | enter Bicetre in the most favorable manner to bs decked with such caparisons, for they estimated the deserts of the prisoner, that is to say, his boldness an talent for escape, by the precautions taken to securs him. Desfosseux, who found himself among friends, | had no difficulty in introducing us as the most distin- | guished personages of the north; he did more, he par- ticularly expatiated on my merits, and I was accord- ingly surrounded and made much of by all the worthies | of n Be prison: Beaumont, Guillaume, Mauger, Jossat, | Maltaise, Corun, Blondy, Troaflat, and Richard, one of | the parties concerned in the murder of a Lyons courier, never left me. As soon as my fetters were taken off, they took me to a drinking shop, where for two hours I did justice to a thousand invitations, when a tall mav | with a police officer’s cap, who they told me was the room inspector, took us to a large sy called Le Fort | Mahon, when we were clothed in the prison garb, con- sisting of a frock half gray and half black. The inspec- tor told me I should be brigadier, that is, that T should preside at the giving out of the visions among my table companions, and I in consequence, a good bed, while others slept on camp couches, n four days I was known all the Sper tae but although they had the highest ; : ro- opinion my courage, Beaumont, wishing to try me, picked a quarrel with me; we fought, and as he was an expert boxer, I was completely conquered. I, how- aver, had my revenge in a room, where Beaumont, unable to display the resources of his art, had the worst of it. My first defeat, however, gave me a desire to be instructed in the mysteries of this art, and the celebrated Jean Coupel, the Saint George of boxing, | who was at the Bicetre with us, soon counted me among those of his pupils who were destined to do him | the most honor. The prison of the Bicetre is a neat quadrangular building, inclosing many other structures and many courts, which have éach a different name; there is the grand vour (great court) where the prisoners walk; the cour de cuisine (or kitchen court); the cour des chiens | (or dog’s court); the cour de correction (or court of | unishment); and the cour des fers (or iron court). In his last is anew building five stories high; each story contains forty cells, capable of holding four prisoners. | On the platform, which supplies the place of a roof, | was night and day a dog named Dragon, who passed in the prison for the most watchful and incorruptible of | its kind; but some prisoners Inanaged at a subsequent | riod to corrupt him through the medium of a roasted | leg of mutton, which he had the culpable weakness to accept; so true is it, that there are no Seductions more | made a written memorandum of the localities, in case | tent than those of gluttony, since they operate indif- erently on all onreaied beings. To ambitio gaming, and to gallantry, there are bounds fixed by nature; but gluttony knows nothing of age, and if the appetite sometimes op its inert power, we are ts with it by a good fit of indigestion. However, the hytrions escaped while Dragon was swallowing the | cfielptOn 3 defy the rigor o _ Vidoeq, The French Police Spy. - vented. If any man arrived from the country well clad, who, condemned for a first offense, was not as yet initiated into the eustoms and usages of prisons, ina twinkling he was stripped of his clothes, which were sold in his presence to the highest bidder. If he had jewels or money, they were alike confiscated to the profit of the society, and if he were too long in taking out his ear- rings, they snatehed them out without the sufferer daring to complain. He was previously warned, that if he spoke of it, they would hang him in the night to the | hars of his eell, and afterward say that he had com- mitted suicide. If a prisoner, out of precaution, when going to sleep, placed his clothes under his head, they waited until e was in his first sleep, and then they tied to his foot a stone, which they balanced at the side of his bed; at the least motion the stone fell, and, aroused by the noise, the sleeper jumped up, and before he | could discover what had occurred, his packet, hoisted | by a cord, went through the iron bars to the floor above. Ihave seen in the depth of winter, these poor devils, having been deprived of their property in this | cit ll ' SE oT RM which he had breathed on the platform, he was incon- solable for his fault, and perished piecemeal, a victim of remorse at his weakness in yielding to a moment of gluttony and error. ’ Near the erection I speak of is the old building, nearly arrangedin the same way, and under which were dun- geons of safety, in which were inclosed the trouble- some and condemned prisoners. It was in one of these dungeons that for forty-three years lived the accom- plice of Cartouche, who betrayed him to procure this commutation. To obtain a moment’s sunshine, he frequently counterfeited death so well that, when he had actually breathed his last sigh, two days passed before they took off his iron collar. A third part of the building, called La Force, comprised various rooms, in which the prisoners were placed who arrived from ao provinces, and were destined, like ourselves, to the chain, At this period, the prison of Bicetre, which is only strong from the strict guard kept up there, could con- tain twelve hundred prisoners; but they were piled on each other, and the conduct of the jailersin no way assuaged the inconvenience of the place; a sullen air, | arough tone, and brutal manners, were exercised to- ward the prisoners, and they were in no way to be softened, but through the medium of a bottle of wine, ora pecuniary bribe. Besides they never attempted to repress any excess or any crime, and provided that no one sought to escape, they might do whatever they pleased in the prison, without being restrained or pre- dvink to the health of the republic, had me apprehend- ed as a suspected person; and asI had no passport, and unfortunately resembled an individual pursued for stopping the dilligences, I was taken from prison te prison to be confronted with my pretended accom- plices, until on Sgro 3 Bicetre I was obliged to go te the infirmary, where I have been for two months. ‘*In this cruel situation, having heard mvntion of you by a relation of my master’s, who had property in your district, I beg to know if I cannot, through your aid, obtain the casket in question, and get a portion of th money which it contains, I cculd then supply my im- mediate necessities and pay my counsel, who dictates this, and assures me that by some presents [ could ex- tricate myself from this affair. ** Receive, sir, etc., “ (Signed) N-—.”’ Out of one hundred such letters, twenty were al- ways an swered: and astonishment will cease when we consider that they were only addressed to men known by their attachment to the old order of things, and that nothing reasons less than the spirit of party. It testified besides to the person addressed, that unlimi- ted confidence which never fails to produce its effect on self-love or interest. The person answered that he would xe to undertake to get the casket from its place of concealment. Another letter from the pre- tended valet-de-chamber, stating, that being entirely stripped, he had agreed with the keeper of the infirmary for a very small sum to sell the trunk, in which was, in the false bottom, the plan already alluded to. Then the money arrived, and they received sums sometimes amounting to twelve or fifteen hundred francs. Some individuals, thinking to give a profound proof of saga- came even fromthe remotest parts of the province to Bicetre, where they received the destined plan which was to conduct them to this mysterions forest, which, like the fantastic forests of the romances of chivalry, fled eternally before them. The Parisians themselves sometimes fell into the snare; and some persons may still remember the adventure of the clothseller of the Rue des Prouvaires, who was caught undermining an arch of the Pont Neuf, where he expected to find the diamonds of the Duchess de Bouillon. We may imagine that such maneuvers could not be effected but by the consent and with the participation of the keepers, since they received the correspondence of the treasure-seekers. But the pee thought, that independently of the direct benefit he thence drew from it, by the increase of the money spent by the prisoners in viands and spirits, they being thus occupied, would not think of escaping. On the same principle he toler- way, remain in the court in their shirts until some one | ated the making varieties of things in straw, wood, and threw them some rags to cover their nakedness. As long as they remained at Bicetre, by burying them- | selves, as we may say, in theif straw, they could | the weather; but at the depart- ure of the chain, when they had no other cover- ing than the frock and trowsers made of pack- ing-cloth, they often sunk exhausted and frozen before they reached the first resting-place. It is necessary, by facts of this nature, to explain the rapid go of men whom it was easy to excite to | honest feelings; but who, unable to escape the hight | of misery but by excess of wickedness, sought an al- | leviation of their lot inthe real or apparent ex ra- tion of all species of crime. In society,- we infamy; in the society of prisoners, there is no shame | but in not being sufficiently infamous. The condemned — are a distinct people; whoever is cast among hem must expect to be treated as an enemy as long as | he will not speak their language, and will not identify | himself with their way of thinking. The abuses I have mentioned are not the only ones: there are others even more terrible. If a prisoner were | marked out as a false brother or as a sneak, he was | itilessly knocked on the head, without any jailer in- erfering to prevent it. Matters came to such a pitch, that it was necessary to assign a particular division to those individuals, who, giving an account of their own : they ie could in any way compromise them. On the other hand, the impudence of the robbers, and the immoralities of their keepers, were carried to such an extent, that they of swindling ar : : repared openly in the prison tricks | t eft, which were to im “pat potented on quitting the walls of the prison. Iwill mentiononly | one of these plans, which will suffice to evince — : measure of credulity°of the dupes and the audacity of the plotters. These latter obtained the address of certain rich ——— livi in the province, which was easy, from the number of prisoners who were coustant- ly arriving. They then wrote letters to them, called, _ ting away from bone, and even false pieces of two sous, with which Paris was at one time inundated. There were also other crafts exercised; but these were done clandes tinely: they made privately false passports with the n, so well done as to pass currently; saws for cutting iron, and false hair, which were of great service in es- caping from the Bagne—the ey-slaves being partic ularly recognizable by their shorn heads. These vari- | ous articles were concealed in tin cases, which could be hid in the intestines. As for me, always a with the idea of escapi from the Bagne and reaching a sea-port whence I coul embark, I was night and day plotting the means of get- . cetre. Lat length imagined that by breaking through the quadrangle of Fort Mahon and reaching the water-courses made under it, we might, by means of a short mine, get into the court of the idiots I have before alluded to, whence there would be no difficulty in reaching the outside. This project was executed in ten days and as many nights. During the whole time the prisoners, of whom we had any distrust, were always accompanied by a trusty man; but we were obliged to wait until the moon should be on the wane. At length, on the 3d of October, 1797, at two o’clock in the morning, we descended the water-course, thirty-three in mumber, provided with dark-lan and we soon opened | doings, had made any mention of their comrades which | or something instead of it, to climb the walls; and pe the subterranean reached the court of the idiots. We wanted a ladder, last got hold of a long pole, and we were going to draw _ lots to decide who should first climb up, when a noise of chains suddenly broke the silence of night. A dog came out from a kennel placed in an e of the court; we stood motionless and held our breath, for it was an important moment. After having stretched himself out and yawned, as if he had only wanted to change place, the animal put one foot into his kennel as if about to return, and we then thought ourselves saved. Suddenly he turned his head to the place in | which we were huddled together, and fixed on us two in the slang language, “ letters of Jerusalem,” and which contained in substance what follows, It is useless to observe that the names of places and persons change according to circumstances, “Srr,—You will doubtlessly be astonished at receiv- ing a letter from a person unknown to you, who is about to ask a favor from you; but from the sad con- foreign pro to to return for it. dition in which Iam placed, | am lost if some honor- able person will not lend me succor; that is the reason of my addressing you, of whom I have heard so much that I cannot for a moment hesitate to confide all my affairs to you. kindness. As valet-de-chambre to the Marquis de — - * emigrated with my master, and that we nuiglt avoid suspicion we see pe eee mene I ye e luggage, consis of a casket contaiming france fa gold and odiamiondd of the late marchion. ess. We were on the point of joining the army at —., when we were marked out and pursued by a detach- ment of volunteers. The Marquis, seeing how closely we were pressed, desired me to throw the casket into a deep ditch near us, so that it might not implicate us in case we were apprehended. 1 relied on recovering it the following night; but the country people, aroused by the tocsin which the commandant of the detach- ment ordered to be rane ran to beat the wood in which we were concealed with so much vigor, that it was necessary to think only of escape. On reaching a vine, the Marquis received some advances from the prince of ——; but these resources soon fail- ing, he resolved on sending me back for the casket thrown intotheditch. Iwasthe more certain of findi it, as on the day after I had thrown it from me, we we should be for any length of time without being able I set out, and entering France, reach- ed the village of —— without accident, near the spot where we had been pursued. You must know the vil- lage perf as it is not three-quarters of a ue from Our residence. I prepared fo fulfill my on, when the landlord of the auberge where I had lodg- ; he was beaten and taken into the cour des | See a bitter Jacobin and collector of national property, ehiens, where, chained up and deprived of the free air remarking my embarrassment when he proposed | eyes which looked like burning coals. A low growling 'was then followed with barki which sounded over the Desfosseux wished to try and cut his | throat, but he was of a size to render the issue of a con- test doubtful. It appeared best to us to lie down in a large open space, which served as a walking ground for the idiots; but the dog still kept up the concert, and, his colleagues having joined him, the din became so ex- cessive that the inspector, Giroux, fancying something : epee was jassing anions his lodgers, and kno his customers, began round of Fort Mahon, and al- most fell backward at finding noone. At his cries the jailer, turnkeys, and guard, all assembled. They soon: discovered the road we had taken, and taking the same | to get into the court of the idiots, they loosened the dog, who ran straight at us. guards then entered the | pasos where we were, with fixed bayonets, as if about _to carry a redoubt. They put handcuffs on us, the usual prelude of any important matter to be done in a prison; and we then returned, not to Fort Mahon, but the Dungeon,