Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

* . acles ana clothing; knowi eobe it readily, and wit e —— rpetual clank of fetters conspires to fill the soul with orror. But this impression on the convict soon passes away, who feeling that here he has no cause to blush he the presence 0 is situation. jests and filthy buffoonery of his fellows, he affects to rticipate in them: he even exceeds them; and soon agi and gesture this conventional yo bet gets hold of his heart. rienced, at first, all the outpourings of his companions; they always addressed monseigneur, and asked his blessing in all their ob- seenities; at every moment they constrained him to profane his former character by blasphemous words and, by dint of reiterating these impieties, he contrived to shake off their attacks; at a subsequent period he became the public-house keeper at the ne, and was Thus, at Anvers, an ex-b of the riotous jokes always styled monseigneur, but he was no longer asked | for absolution, for he would have answered with the rossest blasphemies. . The inconveniences and abuses that existed at the any one, soon identifies himself with | ment tome, who relied on escaping in my way from the cabaret to the mayor’s house. owever, I had the difficulty to contend with, and surpass in some way or other. told the wooden-shoed functtonary, that hav- ing lost myself on leaving Morlaix for Brest, I had That he may not be the butt of the gross | ishop expe- | him as. wandered about, and asking him at the same time how far it was from this latter city, and expressing a desire to sleep there that evening. * You are five gua rom Brest,” said he, “‘and it is impossible to reach it this evening; if you will sleep here, I will give you a bed in my varn, and to-morrow you can start with the garde-champetre, who is going to peor of Brest when I was conducted thither, were ad- ( itional inducements to make ~ possible. In such a situation, the first thing is to assure oneself of the discretion of the comrade with whom we sojourn as brief as | may be coupled. Mine was a vine-cutter from Dijon, about thirty ears’ labor years old, condemned to twenty-four | for forcible burglary; already half an | who wishes to escape seldom solicits the company he carry back a fugitive convict whom we apprehended yesterday.” These last words renewed all my terrors, for by the tone in which they were uttered, Isaw that the mayor had not credited the whole of my story. I, however, accepted his obliging offer; but after supper, at the in- stant we reached the one foe gd my hands in my weer I cried out with the energy of a man in espair: ‘‘Oh, heavens! I have left at Morlaix my yocket-book, with my passport and eight double louis. must return this moment, yes, this very moment; but how shall I find my way? If the patrole, who knows the road, would go with me, we should be back in time in the morning to set out early with the galley- slave.’’ This prop routed all suspicions, for a man diot, misery and brutal treatment had completely stu- | would fain avoid; on the other hand, the garde-cham- gas him. Bowed beneath the stick, he seemed av to | petre, smelling a reward, had buttoned on his gaiters e just preserved the instinct of a monkey or a dog, | at the first word. We set out accordingly, and at break and thus answered the whistle of the galley-sergeants. of day reached Morlaix. He was of no use to me, and I was compelled to look | taken care to ply well with d not fear or shrink from the ready pretty well in for it, and I completed him with out for a mate who woul prospective beatings which are always liberally be- My companion, whom I had quor on the road, was al- some rum at the first pot-house we reached in the city. stowed on convicts suspected of favoring, or even con- | He staid there to wait for me at the table, or rather niving at ay escape of a@ prisoner. uignon, I fei sndthar’ and Shadi I recovered, I was with a poor devil sentenced to eight years’ labor for stealing chickens from a church, He had not entirely parted with his senses, and the first time we were alone together, said to me—“ Listen, comrade; I can see you do not mean to live long at the ublic expense—be frank with me and you will not fowe by it.” I told him that I intended to escape at the first opportunity. ‘‘ Well,” said he, “I advise you to bolt before the sts of sergeants are quite acquainted with your phiz; but have you any cash?’ I told him that I had, and he then informed me that he could pro- cure me other habiliments, but that I must buy a few utensils like one who meant to work out his time qui- etly. These utensils were two wooden bowls, a wine- keg, straps to support my fetters, and a small mattress stuffed with oakum. It was Thursday, the sixteenth day of my confinement at the Bagne, and on the Satur- day evening I obtained sailor’s clothes, which I imme- diately put on under my convict’s frock. On paying the seller of them, I saw that he had about his wrists round cicatrices of deep burns, and I learnt, that being condemned to the galleys for life in 1776, he had been put to the torture at robbery of which he was accused. On the promulga- tion of the code of 1791, his sentence was commuted to twenty-four years’ labor at the galleys. The next day, ry division went out, at the cannon’s signal, to work at the pump, which was always in mo- tion. At the wicket they examined, as usual, our man- this practice, I had pasted over my sailor’s garb a bladder painted flesh color. As Ip sely left my frock and s open, none of the pe ara thought of examining me more rag § and I got out unsuspected. Arrived at the basin, I retired with my comrade behind a pile of planks, and my fet- ters having beer cut the Yh evening, soon yield- ed. Having got rid of these, I soon threw off my gal- ley-frock and trowsers and putting on under my leath- ern cap a wig which I had broug having ven my comrade the trifling recom which I B gliding behind the piles of timber. CHAPTER IX. I passep through the wicket without difficulty, and found myself in Brest, a place entirely unknown to me; and the fear that my doubt as to what road I should take might oer suspicion, increased my un- | statements about le easiness. At turnings and twistings, I reached the only city, where was always stationed an old ¢ named Lachique, who detected a convict by a te of the more easy is, that whoever Bagne, drags habitually and involuntarily that leg to | you will remain a fortnigh nnes, without confessing the | ee t from Bicetre, and | if you will pay for breakfast, I will tell nse | worth kno + romised him, I disappeared, cautiously | made me anxious to know all; and after breakfast he , after a thousand ins and outs, | him even with his parents, ey guard, _ weakness ook, a | Besides, before A motion, or 2 turn; and what rendered his observations | mark tattooed on any time at the | know it well; it was an altar with a garland on it. If To get rid of Bour- | under the table, and he might have waited long indisposition, and he was yoked to | enough. I asked the first person I met to direct me to Annes, and on being told, I set out, as the Dutch proverb has it, “‘ with my feet shod by fear.’’ Two days passed without accident, but on the third, some leagues from Guemene, at the turning of the road, I met two gen- darmes, who were returning from duty. The unex- pected vision of yellow breeches and laced hats gave me uneasiness, and I made an effort to escape, when my two gentlemen desired me to halt, making at the Vidocq, The French Police Spy. as a desc.ici fiom the Cocarde, I was to be sent to Saint Malo, where she had left several men at the hos oo and then be tried before the maritime court. To il the truth I felt no alarm at this; certain that I should find means of escape on my journey, I set out at 1 h, bathed with my parents’ tears, and the richer by several louis, which I added to the stock al- ready concealed about me. Until we reached Quimper, where I was to be handed over to another guard, no opportunity presented of bidding adieu to the company of gendarmes who arded me, as well as many other individuals, rob- rs, Smugglers, or deserters. We were placed in the _ town jail, and on entering the chamber where I was to in Normandy; his father was a pass the night I saw at the foot of the bed a red frock, marked on the back GAL., initials but too well known to me. There, covered with a tattered quilt, slept a man, whom, by his green cap decked with the tin plate numbered, I recognized as a gailey-slave. Would he know, would he betray me’ I was ina spasm of fear, when the individual, awakened by the noise of bolts and bars, sat up in his bed, and I knew him to be a young fellow named Goupy, who went to Brest at the same time as myself. e was condemned to chains for life for a forcible burglary in the environs of Bernai ralley-sergeant at Brest, where, most eevge r, he did not come first purely for change of air. Not wishing to have him continually before his sight, he bad procured an order for his removal to the Bagne at Rochfort, and he was then on his road thither. I told him all my affairs, and he promised rope and kept his promise the more faithfully, as it wou d have profited him nothing to be- tray me. However, the guard did not stir immediately, and fifteen days elapsed after my arrival at Quimper with- out any mention of departure. This delay gave me the idea of Speratreni the wall and escaping; but having found the impossibility of success, t managed so as to obtain the confidence of the jailer, and got an opportunity of executing my project by inspiring him with an idea of false security. After having told him that Ihad heard the prisoners plotting something, I erg out to him the place in the prison where they ad been at work. He made most minute search, and ‘naturally enough found the hole I had made: and this same time avery significent gesture with their car-— bines. They came up to me, and having no credentials to show them, I invented ‘a reply on the spur of the moment, ‘‘My name is Duval, born at l’Orient, desert- er from the Cocarde frigate, now in the roadstead at St. Malo.” It is useless to say that I had learni all this ae eee my stay at the wee where we had dail accounts from all parts. “ at!’’ cried the chief, ‘*you must be Auguste—son of father Duval, who I did not deny this, for it would have been worse to have been detected as a fugitive convict. “ Parbleu!’’ added the brigadier, ‘‘I am sorry yon are caught, but that cannot now be helped; I must send you to]’Orient or to 8t. Malo.”” I begged him not to send me tothe former of these towns, not ca to be confronted with my new relations, in case they should desire to confirm the identity of my person. However, the uarter-master gave orders that I should be conducted thither, and the next day I reached l’Orient, when I was entered in the jailer’s book, at Pontainau, the na- val prison, near the new e, which was to be peo- pled by convicts brought hither from Brest. marine, [ again that I had left m see my parents. I found, among other sailors, a young man of l’Orient, accused of st ing a lieutenant. Having talked some time with him, he said to meone mo Being next day questioned by the commissary of the mov Vv eclared that I was Auguste Duval; and | suddenly of ship without * His mysterious air distur said to me, ‘‘ Trust to me, and then I can extricate you. I do not know who you are, but Iam sure you are not | had only gold, and changi young Duval, for he has been dead these two years at St. | picion. erre, at Martinique. (Istarted). Yes, he has been dead | uict, who acted as infirmary h but no one knows it, so well are our who would do ry coloatial poapite regulated. “Now I-can gi h colo ospitals ated. Now Ican give you suc his Paap’ f that you may pass for oO was very hye 9 To make quite sure, you can feign of intel Duval went to sea he had a left arm, as most sailors have; I t in the cell with me1 will 80 'to think o | more fortunate discovery procured for me all his kindness. I some- times found it overpowering, for the watch was kept regularly that all my schemes were routed. I began going to the hospital, where I ho to be the execution of my projects. To | kt myself a high fever it was only necessary to swal- Oo doctors ordered m w tobacco-juice for a couple of days, and then the removal. On getting to the house _Igot in exchange for my clothes a gray cap and cloak, and was then put along with the rest. lives at l’Orient, on the terrace near the Boule d'Or.” It was a part of my plan to remain for some time at the hospital, that I might know the ways in and out, but the illness caused by the tobacco-juice would only last for three or four days, and it was necessary to find some recipe which would bring on another complaint; for, knowing no one in the place it was impossible for / and in making the head swell | the doctors would certainl which the tetcer has been fastened. However, it was | mark you ina similar manner, so that all the world | necessary to pass this dreaded personage, who was | could not detect the im smoking very sedately, a his hawk-eye on all who went in and carne out, Ih mining to exercise all my effrontery, on getting up to Lachique, I put down a pitcher of buttermilk, which I had purchased plete, and filling my pipe, I asked him for a light. of, and after we had blown a few whiffs in each other’s faces, I left him and went on my way. I went straight forward for three-quarters of an hour, when I heard the cannon shots which were fired to announce the escape of a convict, so that the pee. i ming antry of the neighborhood may be informed that is 5 reward of he hundred fraics to be obtained by the lucky individual who may apprehend the fugitive. us the reason of our removal. I saw many persons armed with guns and nti ins scour about the country, and beat every bush, and even the smallest tufts of heath. saw several quit their work with a gun which they took out of a furrow. One of these latter passed me in a cross road which I had taken on hearing the ce- ort of the cannon, but they had no suspicion of me, or I was clad be? well, and my hat being off by rea- son of the heat, they saw my hair curled, which could not be the case with a convict. I continued striking into all the by-ways, and avoid- ing towns and detached houses. At twilight I met two women, whom I asked about the road, but they an- swered me ina dialect which I did not comprehend, e money, and m but on showing them som a; weigh i ce that I was h , they conduct lage toncabaret, Kept b the garde-champetre (Patrol), My he c ey nook, decorated ‘hom I saw iusig office. I was fora moment disturbed, but ‘Insignia of soon recovering myself, I said I wished to speak to the | soon after, said an old countryman with a mayor, ‘‘I am he,” table woolen cap aud wooden shoes, seated at a been warned, and deter- | may account to render my disguise the more com- | delay i | | Some laborers appeared than ay to take their arms out with them as a precaution, for I | perfect | ‘Indian ink and carmine. At the wounds closed, so that it was impossible to tell how | ture. ye he nk and o My friend or the interest he too in me by his de- sire to trick justice, a feeling that pervades the minds | of all a pleasurable vengeance, which they will- He | ingly purchase at the expense of a few weeks’ confine- all the courtesy he was capa- | ment. Here was such ano rtunity, and the means nder the windows of our were soon put in action. him with room was a sentinel, and we began by pelt pieces of bread; and as he threatened to te of us, we dared him to put his menaces into execution. On this, when he was relieved, the corporal, who was ment the jailer came to take us, without even telli But we soon found peerorra: for them to deceive it, mislead it, or | fellow, went to the office; and the next mo- out on entering a sort of hole in the sunken ditch, very | damp, but tolerably light. Scarcely were we shut in comrade commenced operations, in which he succeeded. It consisted only in pricking my arm with several needles tied together and dipped in e end of twelve days long they had been made. My companion also took advantage of this “leisure un additional details concerning the Duval , whom ete., which he had carried off from the sister’s urbed*’ to give me to them, and instructed even in the minutest habitual | trick of my Sosia. These instructions were of unspeakable advantage to me when, on the sixteenth day after our detention in the dungeon I was taken out to be confronted with my | han mmissary the mrade had so well described him that I could not though much encumbered with my father, whom the co of marine had sent for. co be mistaken on perceiving him. I t about his neck; he recognized me; his wife, cle recognized me; and I was so undoubtedly Auguste Duval that the himself was Gonvinded of it, But this was nat : tomy ot Side Ti bas | 7? ' . ea ane OF mpreer eo ve _where the Es on to goand talk among the doctors of the estab was then led k to prison, where | not being, r he left home when he said, tha a as the walls were notvery high. It lect, ees | by sea toil and sickness. | way he and his companions got out when they wanted _ we were compelled to sus n-hearted, and I me to get a supply of tobacco-juice. At Bicetre, I had been taught how to produce those wounds and sores, by means of which so many beggars excite public P's et those alms which cannot be worse bestowed. f allthese expedients, I adopted that which consisted e a bushel; first, because be mistaken; and then be- all traces of it could be re- the day following. My head became a& prodigious size, an at was the hment, who as it a prered, blessed with a su- rabundance of skill, knew not what to think of it. believe some of them spoke of elephantiasis, or of cause it gave no pain, an rning, ‘My boy, | dropsy in the brain. But, be that as it may, their bril- ou a secret | liant consultation ended in the prescription most com- me, and mon in hospitals, of putting me on the most strict imen. < With money, such orders did not fret me; but yet I that might awaken sus- owever, I determined to try a liberated con- elper; and this fellow, ing for money, soon procured for me what I d On my telling him that I was de- sirous of geting out into the town for a few hours, he tif I disguised myself, it would 33 be ier ie oe , he , the anything. We agreed that he should provide me with clothes, and that he should accompany me in my hocturnal excursion, which was to a visit to sup with some girls. But the only clothes he could procure for me inside the hospital were much too small, and > nd operations for a time, Just at this time, one of the sisters of charity passed by my bed, whom i had already watched in perfo very mundane duties ; not that sister Francoise was one of those dandified nuns who were ridiculed on the | stage, before the young nuns were transformed into i ers, and the white handkerchief was replaced by — the green apron. Sister Francoise was about thirty- four, a brunette, with a deep color, and her powerful charms created more than one unhappy passion, as the jailer well among the soldiers as the infirmary overseers. On seeing this seducing creature, who weighed perhaps ee fifteen stone, the idea to mie that I would borrow for a short time her cloister garb. I ~ pe of it jestingly to my overseer, but he took it as if meant seriously, and promised on the ensuing night to get a part of sister ncoise’s wardrobe. About two in the morning, I saw him come home with a parcel, containing a gown, handkerchief. gap ce while she was at matins. All my bedroom companions, nine in number, were soundly asleep, but I went out to put on my attire. What gave me the most trouble was the head dress. I had no idea of the mode of arrang- ing it, and yet the appearance of disorder in these gar- famil ments, always arranged with a scrupulous nicety, would he had known from childhood, and was in fact related | ty ‘ 4 have in