Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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Vidocq, the French Police Spy. 16 I tell you that I do not wish to face these gentry.’ I gave him his glass of brandy, and we started again. As he did not appear disposed for sleep, I asked him carelessly his reason for preserving so strong an incognito, and concerning the business which led me to Courtrai, of which I knew no details. He then told me, that Lemaire was accused of belonging toa band of Chauffeurs, and added, that he had not told Josephine, for fear of in- creasing her affliction. We drew near Courtrai, and about four hundred paces from the town my companion called to the postilion to stop for an instant; he then put on a wig, concealed in the crown of his hat; stuck a large laster on his left eye, took from under his waistcoat a race of pistols, primed them, returned them to the belt alot his vest, opened the door, jumped out and disap- penred, ** All these manceuvres, which were perfect mysteries to me, only served to create great uneasiness, ould it be that Lemaire’s arrest was only a pretext? Was he laying asnareforme? Did he wish me to play some partin an intrigue of any kind? Icould not explain it to myself, nor think it was 80. I was stdll very uncertain what to do and was pacing the chamber, with long strides at the Hotel du Damier, where my mysterious companion had advised me to alight, when the door suddenly opened and I saw Jo- sephine. At her appearance all suspicions vanished. Her abrupt entrance, her hurried journey made without me und some hours after, whilst she might easily have had part of my chaise and my protection, ought rather per- naps to have excited them. But I was in love, and when Josephine told me that she could not endure an absence I thought her argument and explanation admirable an ananswerable. It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and Josephine dressed herself, and going out, did not return till ten o’clock. She was accompanied by a man dressed like a peasant of Liege, but whose manner and expression of countenance did not agree with his costume. ‘*Some refreshments were brought in, and the servants shen leaving us, Josephine immediately throwing herself on my neck, begged me to save her husband, repeating, that it only depended on me todothis. I promised all she asked,-and then the pretended peasant, who had till this time been ie Sg silent, spoke in very good lan- e, and unfolded to me what I was required to do. maire, he said, reached Courtrai, with several travelers, whom he did not know, and had only met on the road, when they were surrounded by a body of gendarmes who summoned them to surrender. The strangers stoo on the defensive,.and pistol shots were exchanged, and Lemaire, who, with his clerk, had remained neuter on the 4eld of battle, had been seized without making any effort to escape, feeling a consciousness of innocence, and that ae had nothing to fear. But very serious charges had been produced against him; he was unable to give a very precixe account of his business in the district, because, said the assumed countryman, he was then smuggling; be- sides, they had found in a bush, two pair of pistols, which it was asserted had been thrown there by himself and clerk, at the moment they were apprehended; and, finally, a woman swore that she had seen them the week before on the road to Ghent with the identical travelers, whom he said he had not met before the morning of the engage- went with the gendarmes. ‘“«* Under these circumstances,’ added my peasant inter- iocutor, ‘we muat find means of ae AE ‘**Ist. That Lemaire has only left Lille three days, and that he had then been there for the entire month previously, ‘ond, That he never carries pistols. ‘**3rd. That before starting he received sixty louis from some person.’ ‘ This confidence ought to have opened my eyes as to the nature of the steps hg We of me; but intoxicated with Josephine’s caresses, | drove away all thoughts, and compelled myself not to think of what might be the re- sults. We all three sat out the same night for Lille, and on arriving I ran about all day making the necessary ar- rangements, and by evening all my witnesses wee ready. Their depositions had no sooner reached Courtrai, than Lemaire and his Clerk were set at liberty. We may imag- ine their joy; and it was in fact so excessive, that I could not help thinking that the case must have been critical indeed, if their liberation could occasion such transports. The day after his arrival, dining with Lemaire, {| found in my napkin a rouleau of a hundred louis. I was weak enous to accept them, and from that hour my ruin was decreed, * Playing high, treating my comrades, and having hab- its of luxury, 1 s@on spent this sum. Lemaire daily made me fresh offers of service, by which I profited to Raley veveral sums of him, amounting to two thonsand francs, without bein, ay, the richer or more moderate. Fifteen hundred francs borrowed of a Jew, on a post obit for a thousand crow ns, ~ud twenty-five louis which the quarter- master advanced me, disappeared with the same alacrity. At last I spent cven a sum of five hundred francs which my lieutenant bad ed me to keep for him until the arrival of his ho ealer, to whom he owed this sum. This I lost on one evening at the Café de la Montagne, with @ man named Carré, who had already ruined half the cegiment, The night that followed was a fearful one; agitated by the shame of having abused the confidence of the lieuter- ant, by squandering what was his little all, enraged at being duped, and tormented with the desire of still play- ing on, I was twenty times tempted to blow my brains out. When the trumpets sounded the turn out I had not closed my eyes: it was my we k, and I went out to go through the examination of the atables; the first person | met was the lieutenant, who to'd me that the horse- dealer had arrived, and he would send his servant for the five hundred francs. My agitation was so great that L answered I knew what, and the obscurity of the stable alone prevented him from obseryin; my con- fusion. There was not a moment to lose, if I wo not forfeit my good name with my superiors and brother offi- ers. at In this horrid situation I did not even think of apply- ing to Lemaire, so much I already imagined had I abused his friendship: but I.had no other resource, and, at length, I resoived on writing him a note, stating the em- barrassment in which I was placed. He came to me in- etantly, and laying on the table two gold snuff-boxes, three watches, and twelve engraved spoons, he told me that he had no ready money at the moment, but that I ould easily procure yr: taking these valuables to the pawnbrokers, and he left them at my disposal. After overwhelming him with thanks, 1 sent the whole to be iedged by my servant, who brought me twelve hundred rancs for them. I fi the lieutenant, and then, = by ey punky nar ew tothe hvig de abe ray itr when Carré, after much persuasion indu e seven hundred france rey , and the remaining panscd from wy puree to his | “ Aghast at this stroke of fortune, I wandered for some time about the streets of Lille, whilst a thousand mad ideas flashed through my brain. It was in this mood that limperceptibly drew near to Lemaire’s house, which I entered te gars they were sitting down to dinner, and Josephine, struc by my extreme paleness, question- ed me with interest concerning my airs and my health. I was in one of those dejected moods When the conscious- ness of his weakness makes the most reserved more communicative. I confessed all my extravagances, add- ing, that within two months I must pay more than four thousand francs, of which I had not a single sous. “At these words Lemaire looked fixedly at me, with a aze I can never forget all my life, be it long or short. Captain,’ said he, ‘I will not forsake you in your diffi- culties, but one confidence deserves another; nothing should be kept from a man who has saved you from—— and with a horrid smile he passed his hand across his throat. Itrembled and looked at Josephine. She was perfectly calm! It was a horrible moment! Withont seeming to notice my perturbation Lemaire continued his fearful confidence. Llearnt that he was one of Sallam- bier’s band, and that, when the gendarmes had appre- hended him near Courtrai, they were returning from a PREY of plunder in a country house in the vicinity of hent, he servants had defended themselves, and three had been killed, and two wretched women were hung up inacellar. The valuables I had pawned were the proceeds of the robbery which had followed these atrocities! After having explained to me how he had becn apprehended near Courtrai, whilst making off, Le- maire added, that, henceforward it was only for me to re- pete my losses and better my fortune by accompanying iim in two or three expeditions, ‘*T was annihilated! Up to this period the conduct of Lemaire, the circumstances of his arrest, the nature of the service which I had rendered him, appeared to me very suspicious; but I carefully drove from my thoughts all that could convert my suspicions into reality. As if tormented by a frightful nightmare, I waited till I should awake, and my w ing was more horrible still. ‘* Well, said Josephine, with an inquiring tone, ‘ you do not answer—Ah! I see, we have lost your friendship: and I shall die!’ She burst into tears: my head was ina whirl: forgetful of Lemaire’s presence, I threw myself on my knees like a madman, crying out, ‘I quit you? no, never! never!’ Tears choked my utterance, and I saw a tear in Josephine’s eyes, but she instantly resumed her firmness. For Lemaire, he offered us orange-flower water with as much calmness as a cavalier presents an ice to his partner at a ball. ‘*T was thus enlisted in this band, the terror of the de- partments of the north, La Lys and |’Escaut. In less than fifteen days I was introduced to Sallambier, in whom I recognized the peasant of Liege; to Duhamel, when aie Calandrin, and the principal Chauffeurs. The first busi ness in which I took a share was in the environs of Douai. Duhamel’s mistress, who accompanied us, intro- duced us to the house, in which she had been waiting- maid. The dogs having been poisioned by a wo08! cutter employed on the premises, we only waited until the family should be asleep to commence our operations. No locks could resist Calandrin, and we reached the drawing- room with the utmost silence. The family, consisting of the father, mother, great aunt, two young persons, and a relation on a visit, were laying at Buillotte. We only heard the words, * Pass, I hold; I play Charlemagne,’ &c.; when Sallambier, opening the door quickly, appeared followed by ten men with blackened faces, and pistols and daggers in their hands. At this sight the cards fell from Fhe hands of all; the females shrieked for mercy, until, with a motion of his hand, Sallambier compelled silence, whilst one of our band, jumping like a monkey on the mantle-piece, cut the ropes of the bells. The women fainted, but were not heeded. The master of the house alone retained some presence of mind, After having opened his mouth at least a Tha without utterin a word, he at length contrived ask what we wanted’? ‘Money,’ said Sallambier, whose voice seemed to me entirely changed; and taking the candle from the card- table, he e s to the master of the house to follow him into the next room, where he knew that the money and jewels were deposited. It was precisely Don Juan preceding the statute of the Commandant. “We remained in the dark, motionless at our poste only hearing the stifled sobs of the females, the chink of money, and these words, *‘ More, more,’ which Sallambier repeated from time to time in a sepulchral tone. At the end of twenty minutes he returned with a red hand. kerchief, tied together e the corners, and filled with piepes of money; the jewela were in his pockets. To neg- ectnothing, they took from the old aunt and the mother, their ear-rings, as well as the watch of the relation who had so well chosen the time to make his visit, We set out at last, after having carefully locked up the whole party, without the servants, Who had been for some time in bed, being at all disturbed or aware of the attack on the chateau. “T had a share also in several other enterprises, more bazardous than that Lnow mention. We were resisted, or else the proprietors had concealed their money, and to make them produce it they were put to most dreadful tortures. At first they confined themselves to burning the soles of their feet with red-hot shovels; but adopting more expeditious measures, they began to tear out the nails of those who were obstinate, or blow them as large as balloons with bellows. Some of these unfortunates. having really no money as was supposed, died in the midst of these tortures. See, my friend, on what a career] had entered; I, an officer well born, for whom twelve years of active service, some exploits of bravery, and the testi- mony of my comrades, had created a universal esteem which I had ceased to deserve for a very long time, and which I was about to lose forever.” Here Villedieu paused, and dropped his head upon his breast, like one overwhelmed by recollections. I left him undisturbed for a moment, but the names he men- tioned were too well known to me not to excite the most lively curiosity in my mind to hear the whole of his re- cital, A few glasses of champagne restored his energy, and he thus continued: ‘But crimes mul so alarmingly, that the gendarmes not being sufficiently powerful to check them, columns of the military were a from the various garrisons, One was placed under my command. You may suppose that this measure had an gos contrary effect to that in- tended; for, warned iF me, the ont urs avoided the laces that 1 was to watch with y ivision. Thus-mat- fers went on worse than ever, € authorities were at a loss what pints to adopt, when they learned that the majority of the Chauffeurs resided at and the order was given for redoubling the superinte (surveil- lance) at the gates. We found means, however, to render all these useless. Sallambier precured at a ee mR ‘ ‘owe ee : a b broker’s of the town, who clothed a regiment, fifteen ani- forms of the 13th Chasseurs, and disguised with them that number of Chauffeurs, who, with me at their head, went ont at twilight, as if going on a detatchment ofa secret enterprise. “Althongh this stratagem completely answered, I thought I perceived myself to be the object of particular surveillance. A report spread abont that there were men in the vicinity of Lille disguised as horse chasseurs. The colonel appeared to mistrust me, and one of my brother officers was appointed alternately to direct the moving columns before entrusted to my charge alone. Instead o giving me the watch-word, as to the other officers of the eae, I was not informed of it until the moment of eparture. At length I was so directly accused, that I was under the necessity of inquiring of the colonei, who, without any disguise, told me that I was reported to have communication with the Chauffeurs. I defended myself as well as I could, and thus matters remained, only that I left the service of the moving columns, which began to be Corey that the Chauffeurs scarcely durst show them- selves, ‘Sallambier, unwilling to remain long in maction, re- doubled his audacity in proportion as obstacles multiplied about us. In one night he committed three robberies in the same district. But the proprietors of the firet of the houses attacked, having divested themselves of their gags and bonds, gave the alarm. The tocsin was sounded for two leagues round, and the Chauffeurs only owed their safety to the fleetness of their horses. The two brothers Sallambier were hotly followed, and it was only on a proaching Bruges that they distanced their pursuers. In a large village where they were, they hired a chaise,and two horses, to go, as they said, some leagues, and return in the evening. ‘A coachman drove them, whom, on getting on the water's edve, the elder Sallambier struck from behind with his knife, and knocked him from his seat. The two brothers then threw him into the sea, hoping that the waves would retain the corpse. Masters of the convey- ance, they went on their journey, when, towards the close of the day, they met a countryman who bade them good evening. As they did not answer, the man approached, saying, ‘Ah! Vandeck, do you not know me? It is I— J oe Sallambier then told him that he had hired the carriuge for three days without a conductor. The tone of this answer, the condition of the horses, covered with sweat, and which their master wonld never have let with- out a driver, all made the interrogator elegy es ct With- out prolonging the conversation, he ran to the adjacent village and gave the alarm; seven or eight men on horse- back pur-ued. the ait. which they soon perceived traveling slowly along. ey increased their speed and overtook it. It was erty. Rather seeps yak they drove it into an auberge where they intended to pass the night; but scarcely were they seated, when a great noise was heard, occasioned by a crowd conveying before the magistrate two travelers accused of the murder of a man whom some fishermen had found with his throat cut on the sea-sbore. All ran out, and Joseph recognized the in- dividuals*whom he had seen in the carriage, and which they had quitted because the horses could go no farther. They (the two Sallambiers) appeared greatly disconcerted when confronted with Joseph. Their identity was soon settled. Under a suspicion that they might belong to some band of Chauffeurs, they were transferred to Lille, where they were recognized on Beit the Petit Hotel. ‘There the elder Sallambier, pressed by the agents of his companions, and pointed out when and where they ht be taken. In consequence of this information forty- persons of both sexes were apprehended. Among them were Lemaire and his wife. At the same time an order of arrest was issued against me; but informed by a quarter-master_of PS ggg whom I had served, I escapéd and teached Paris, where have been these ten days. When I met you I was looking for the house of an old sweetheart, where I intended to conceal myself, or obtain some means of escape to a forelgn country, but I am now easy, since I met with ocq.” police, denounced all CHAPTER Xi. THe confidence of Villedieu flattered me very much; but yet I thought my rencontre with him might lead me into danger. I therefore told him a false tale when he in- quired about my mode of life and domicile! For the same reason I took care not to be at the rendezvous which he had appointed for the next day; for it would have been attended with much risk to myself and no ad- vantage to him. On leaving him, at eleven o'clock in the evening: I took the precaution o rye on detours before I entered my auberge, for fear of being dogged b any police agents. My master, who had gone to . aroused me early in the morning to tell me to set out with him for Nogent le Rotrou, whence we were to proceed to his own farms, situated in the environs of this city. In four days we arrived at the termination of our journey, and although received in the family as a hard- working and faithful servant, I still persisted in the inten- tion I had formed for some time of returning to my own country, whence I received neither information nor money. On returning to with some cattle, I told my master of my determination, and he let me fo with much reluctance. On quitting him I entered a-café in the Place du Chatelet, to procure a porter to fetch my luggage, and there taking up a newspaper, the first intelligence that met my eyes was an account of Villedieu’s capture. He had not allowed himself to be taken before he had prostrated two of the agents of poue, who had orders to pprehend him, and was himself severely wounded, On ing executed, two. months afterwards, at Bruges, the last of ee m= all his accompli he contemplated their headleas and blee