Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

ed —. — -— - Ce ee ee GSM keh Mit Ag RET cae 8 great quantity of the plundered property, Thiebault de- | some misfortune had befallen him. She then went to the elared, in the most formal manner, that this event was ov the result of any political measure, and had all been incurred by the defective vigilance of the lice, and by the mismanagement which pervaded every devartment of the administration. At the beginning, the Moniteur had heated the imagina- tions of the most wary, by apeaking of forty armed rob- bers, who had been surprised in the wardrobe,. The truth is, that no one was.surprised; and when they first discov- ered the loss of ‘* the regent,’’ the dauphin’s coral, and a vast many other jewels, valued at seventeen millions of francs, for four successive nignta, Deschamps, Bern Salles, and a Portuguese Jew, named Dacosta, had. in their turns entered the apartments, without, any, other arms than the tools requisite to extract the jewels set in the plate, which they disdained to carry off; and thus they removed with the greatest precautioa the magnificent ra- bies which formed the eyes of the ivory fishes. Deschamps, to whom belongs the honor of the inven- police, they contrived to get hold of Fraumont and Des- champs; and the confession of the locksmith, which cor- responded with the accounts of the robbery, and who was apprehended soon after, would have had an unpropitious termination for them, had not the authorities refused to give this man the liberty they had promised to reward him with; and the police agent, Cordat, who had, been the go- between, unwilling that his promises should be broken, aided his escape on the way from La Force to the Palace. This circumstance removing the only witness who could be brought forward, Deschamps and Franmont were set at liberty. Condemned afterwards to eighteen years’ imprisonment for other robberies, Franmont set out for the Bagne at Rochefort; but he was not yet out of courage, and b means of money, pongaced by his plunder, he had bribe several persons who were to follow the chain to aid his escape, in case he should attempt it, or even to carry him | off by force, ifneed should be. The. use he proposed to tion, first got into the gallery by tae a window, by | make of his liberty was to assassinate M. Delalande, high I means of a lamp-post, at the angle of the Rue Royale an the place of Louis XV. Bernard Salles and Dacosta, who kept watch, were at first his only comrades; but on the third night, Bendit Naid, Philipponeau, Paumettes, I'rau- mont, Gay, Monton, lieutenant of the National Guard and Durand, called “le Turc,”' a jeweler in the Rue Saint Sauveur, were added to the gang, as well as many first-rate **cracksmen,’’ who had been, in a friendly way, invited to come and participate in the spoil, The rendezvous was ata billiard-room in the Rue de Rohan; and, besides, they made so little mystery of the robbery, that, the morning after the first booty, Paumettes, dining with some girls at a cook-shop in the Rue d’Argenteuil, threw on the table to them a handful of rose and small brilliant dia- monds. The police, however, got no information, To detect the principal authors it was necessary that Durand, arrested for forging assignats, should confess to obtain his own pardon, and, on his information, ‘*the regent” was discovered and seized at Tours, sewn up in the head- dress of a woman named Lebiéne, who, unable to reach England in consequence of the war, was about to seli it at. Bordeaux to a Jew, known to.Dacosta,. They had at- tempted to get rid of it in Paris, but the value of the gem, estimated at twelve millions of francs, would have awak- ened dangerous suspicions; they had. also aa of cutting the stone, lest the lapidary should betray em. Before having been sentenced, for the robbery of the wardrobe, Deschamps had been. implicated in a capital affair, whence he was extricated, although so guilty, as he boasted to us, by giving details not to be doubted. He had been concerned in the double murder of the jeweler Deslong and his servant maid, committed with his accom- plice, the broker Fraumont. Deslong had an extensive business, and besides private poreliages, he also bartered diamonds and pearls; and as e was known to be an honest man, he often had valuable ms intrusted to him, either to sell or unset. He also uented auctions, where Fraumont first knew him, who was constantly at sales to buy the ropes, altar cloths, and other pillaged church ornaments (1793), which he burnt to get the metal from the gold lace. From the custom of meeting together so mit oe no in business, a sort of ac- quaintance spraug up between the two men, which soon ea closer intimacy. Deslong had no concealment with Fraumont, and consulted him in all his undertakings, informed him of the worth of all the deposits intrasted to him, and even confided to him the secret of a hiding-place in which he kept his most valuable articles. Informed of all these particulars, and having free access at all times to Deslong’s house, Fraumont conceived the project of robbing him whilst he and his wife were at the eatre, which they frequented. He wauted an accom- plice to keep watch; and besides, it would have been dan- gerous to Fraumont, whom eres hony knew, to be séen on the premises om the day of the robbery. He first se- lected a locksmith, a fugitive convict, who made the false keys necessary for entering Deslong’s house; but this man being pursued by the police, was forced to leave Paris, and he then substituted Deschamps, On the day fixed for the perpetration of the gest f Deslonug and his wife having gone to the Theatre de la os que, Fraumont concealed himself at a vintner’s to waich forthe return of the servant maid, who usually took advantage of the absence of her master and mistress to go, and see her lover. Deschamps went up to the apartment, and opened the door sails with one of his false keys. What was his as hment to see in the hall the maid servant whom he thought absent (her sister, who was much like her, having in fact left the house a few minutes before!). At the sight of fae ge whose plat ie made his. countenance even more frig ttul, the girl let fall her work and shrieked. Deschamps sprang upon her, threw her down, seized her throat, and gave her five blows with a clasp knife, which he had about him, in the right-hand pocket of his trousers. The unhappy crea- ture fell bathed in blood, and whilst the death rattle was yet sounding in her throat, the rufflan ran ed every corner of the room: but whether this un ted event disturbed him, or that he heard some noise on the atair- case, he only carried off some pieces of plate which came to hand, and returned to his accomplice at the vintner’s, and told him the adventure. He (Franmont) was much grieved, not at the murder of the servant, but at the little ormation and clumsiness of Desc 8, whom he re- proached with not having discovered the seeret closet which he had so. plainly pointed out;,, and what put the cope-store on his discontent was, that he foresaw that after such a catastrophe Deslong would be more careful of his property, and it. would be impossible eyer again to get such an oppor , In fact, Desiong did change bis lodging after this even which inspired him with the most excessive fr a the few persons whose visits he allowed were received with the greatest precaution. Although Fraumont did not pre- ven up the president of the tribunal which had condemned him, and commissary of the police of the Section de l’Unité, who had brought such overwhelming charges against him, All was ripe for the execution of this plot, when &a Common woman, who had learned the details from the lips of one of the accomplices, made a spontaneous confession, and measures. were accotdingly en, The escort was in- formed of it; and when the chain left Bic6étre, Fraumont was put in extra chains, which were not removed until his arrival at. Rochefort, where he was an object of special vigilance; and I was told that he died at the Bagne. As for Deschamps, who escaped from Toulon soon after, he -was apprehended at the end of three years, as concerned in a robbery committed at Antenil, sentenced to death by the criminal tribunal of the Seine, and executed at Paris, In cell, No. 3, L was only separated from Deschamps by a burglar named Louis Mulot, son of that Cornu who so long affrighted the peome of Normandy, where his crimes are still unforgotten, pleguibed as a horse-dealer, he frequented the fairs, wayshed the merchants who had large sums about) them, and taking the cross roads, laid in wait for and assassinated them. Married, for the third time, toa young and pretty woman of Bernai, he had at first carefully concealed. from her his infernal trade; but he was not slow in discovering that she was entirely worthy of him, and. thenceforward she accompanied him in all his expeditions, Frequenting all the fairs as a peripatetic mercer, she easily introduced herself to the rich graziers of the valley of Auge, and more than one met his death at the appointed ya of gallantrendezvous. Often suspected, pay ronght forw alibis, always successful, and for which they were indebted to the fleetness of the excellent horses with which they were.always provided. In..1794, the Cornu family comsisted of the father mother, three sons, two ni gape and their lovers, all o whom ‘had been habituated to crime from their earliest childhood, either in keeping watch or setting fire to barns &c.. The youngest, Florentine, haying at first testified some repugnance, they had cured her delicacy by com- pelling her to carry in her apron, for two leagues, the head of a farmer of the environs of Argentin! Ata later period, entirely devoid of any tender scruples, she had, as ber lover, the assassin Capelle, executed in 1802. When the family formed itself into. a band of Chauffeurs to infest the country (Caen and Falaise) it was she who put to torture the wretched farmers, by patting a lighted candle under their armpits, or placing blazing en my their toea (whence the name of Chanffeurs or urners). Hotly pursued by the police of Caen, and particularly thatof, Rouen, who by apprehended two of the hp gee of the family at Brionne, Cornu resolved on retiring for some time to the vicinity of Paris, trusting thus to elude inguilry, talled with his family in a lone house, on the road to Sevres, he did not fear to take his walks in the Champs-Elysées, where he met nearly all the robbers of his acquaintance. “ Well, father Cornu,” said they to him one day, ‘ what are you about now?’’—“Oh, always administering. the last consolation (assassination), my sons—the last consolation,”"—‘‘That {8 droll, father Cornu; but discovery may ensue.”—‘*Oh! no fear where no witnesses. If I had done for ali the corn-threshers (farmers) whom { have only singed, I should have nothing to funk about now.” In one of his excursions, Cornn met an old comrade, who prop to him to break into a villa, situated in the wood of Ville d’Avray. The robbery was committed and the booty shared, but Cornu found that he had been duped. .On reaching the middle of the wood, he let fall his snaff-box whilst offering it to his companion, who mors Hi to pick it up, and at that very instant Cornu blew out hia br with a pistol-shot, plundered him, and re- gained his own house, where he told the tale to his family with bursts of laughter, Apprehended near Vernon, at the moment he was break- ing {nto afarm, Cornu was conducted to Rouen, tried be- fore the OC Court. and sentenced to death. Soon after this, his wife, who was still at liberty came ever day to bring him food and console him. “Listen,” sai she to. him, one morning, when he appeared more de- jected than usual, “listen, Joseph: they say that death affrights you,—don’t play the noodle at all events, when they lead you to the old. The lads of the game will laugh at you,” “ Yes,”’ said EOD, i all that is very fine, if one’s scra 5 uae in ADE EK but may enh rage on 4 Oe aie the ooh Kleter mad) On e other, e traps (yendarnies) bel d, it is not quite so pleasant to be turned into feod for flies,” “ Joseph, Joseph, do not talk in this way; I am only a a Sah db od ey th w , aD ¢ with you, 0 e you again, by. The word of Marguerite, I would ly “ Ate you in earnest?’ asked Cornu. “* Yes, quite in sent himself, yet he had no suspicion of him. . How could | earnest,” weita Maryuerite. ‘* But what are you getting , he suspect a man who, if he pe the up for at are you g to do?” . would not have failed to haveransacked the closet, of | © Nothing,” replied Cornu; and then ge Be he rare which he knew the secret? Meeting him at the end of a| who was in the pas “Roch,” said him, “pen few days on the Place Venddme, he pressed him strongly for the jailor, I want to see the public accuser. to coine and see him, and me more intimate with “* What!"’ said his wife, “ the N peiast accuser! Are you than ever, Fraumont then began plotting again, but, de- going to split (confess)y Ah, Joseph, consider what a spairing of breaking open the new place of security, which, mi tion you will leave for our children! besides, was carefully gnarded, he determined on chang- ornu was silent until the magistrate arrived, and he his plan. to Deschamps’ house, under pretence aining for a large lot of diamonds, Deslong was aé- gassinated and robbed of seventeen thousand francs, in gold and assignats, with which he had provided himself by advice of Fraumont, who dealt him the first ays | » Pwo days elapsed, and madame Deslong, not seeing her Ausband return, who never made 80 lo absence with- ng an eut vious intimation, and knowing that he had con- ddersble property about him, no longer doubted bat that ' of then denounced his wife; and this unhappy woman, sen- tenced to death by his confessions, was executed at the same time with him. Munlot, who told me all this, never repeated the narrative without laughing till he’ cried. However, hé thought the eeiene no subject for joking; and for a long time avoided all crimes that could send him to rejoin his father, mother, of his brothers , and his sister Florentine, all executed at Ronen. When he spoke them, and the end thay made, he frequently said, ae tee Ge cement eee eo — ee ee ee eee ee ee ee ——— + ee “This Is the fruite of playing with fire; they shall never catch me at such work;” and, in fact, his tricks were not ao redoubtable: he confined himself to a species of rob- bery in which he excelled. His eldest sister, whom he had brought to Paris, aided him in all his enterprises. Dressed as a washerwoman, with a panier at her back and a bas ket on her arm, she went to all the houses where there was no porter, and, knocking at the doors, if she learnt that the occupants were from home, she returned and ‘olc Mulot,. Then he, disgnised as a journeyman locksmith, went with his bunch of picklocks, and opened the mst complicated locks. tptsk rapeue his sister, to avoid \-''s picion, with her apron and a modest cap on, and wit) the disturbed appearance of a nurse who ost her key, aided his operations. Mulot, though he did not want fore- sight, was yet one day surprised in the very act, and soon after condemned to imprisonment. CHAPTER XIII. L NEVER was 60 wretched as after my entry at the Bayne at Toulon. Cast at twenty-four years of age amongst the most abandoned wretches, and necessarily in contact with them, although I would have preferred a hundred times to be reduced to living in the midst of People infected with the plagne—compeliled only to see and hear degradea beings, whose minds were rhe pave bent on devising evil schemes, I feared the dire contagion of such vicious society. When, day and night, in my presence, they openly practiced the most vile and demoralized actions, I was not so confident in the strength of my own charac: ter as not to fear that I might become but too much famil- iarized with such atrocious and dangerous conversation, In fact, I had resisted many rts fe temptations; but want, misery, and the thirst of liberty, will often invo! untarily tempt us toa step towards crime. I had neve: been in any situation where it was more positively incur: bent on me to attempt an escape; and henceforward al, my ideas and thoughts were turned to the compassing o! this measure. Various Si suggested themselves, but that was not sufficient; for to pnt any of them into execu tion I must await a favorable opportunity, and until then patience was the only remedy for my woes. Fastened to the same bench with robbers by profession, who had already eacaped several times, I was, as well as they, an object of special surveillance, which it was difficult te divert, In their cambrons (watch-boxes) at a short dis- tance from us, the argousins were always on the look-out, and observed our least motions. Father Mathieu, their chief, had the eyes of alynx, and such a knowledge of the men he had to deal with; that he could tell at the slightest ‘lance if they were scheming to deceive him, This old Fox was nearly sixty years of age; but having a vigorous proof against the attacks of time, he was still hale and hearty. He was one of those equare figures which never wear out. I have him now i: ‘my mind’s eye,” with his little tail, his gray and pow dered locks, and his face in wrinkles so congruous wit, the business of his calling. He never spoke without mentioning his cudgel; it was a never-ending theme of eo rwaind ye recital to talk of the many bastinadoes he had nflicted personally, or ordered to be done. Always at war with the convicts, he knew every one of their tricks. His mistrust was so excessive, that he often accused the:n of plotting when they were not at all thinking of it. |: may be supposed that it was no easy matter to make sop for this Cerberus. I tried, however, tO procure his favor, an attempt in which no one had as yet succeeded; bat f soon found that I had not essuyed in vain; for | perceptibly gained on his — will. Father Mathieu sometimes talked to me; a sign, a8 the experienced told me, that I had made some way with him. I thought | might ask something from him on the strength of this, and I asked him to allow me to make children’s toys with the pieces of wood brought in by the working convicts. He granted all I asked; provided I was steady; and the constitution, which seemed next day I began my work. My companions cut out rough] Mand I finished the a Father Ma'hieu ap- proved of my productions; and when he saw that I had assistance in my work, he could not forbear testifying his approbation, which he had not expressed for a long time previously. ‘“ Well, well,” said he, “how I like people to amuse themselves: it would be well if you all did tte same; it would pass time away; and with the profits, you might urchase some small comfo ts.” A few days after. ward, the bench was a perfect workshop, where ourteen men, equally anxious to drive away the ennui and earn » little money, worked aha with much industry. We had all some goods ready, which were sold by the assistants of the convicts who gave ts the materia’s. Fora monty our trade was very brisk, and every day we had abundan returns, not a sous of which was reserved. Fathei Mathien had authorized us to appoint a8 our treasurer » convict named Pantaragat, who sold provisions in the room in which we were, Unfortunately there are goede which cannot be multiplied without the necessary balance between produce and consumption being destroyed. Toulon was replete with toys of hg description, and we must henceforward sit with folded arms. No longer knowing what to do, I sts acomplaintin my legs, that I might be sent to the hospital) The doctor to whom I was recommended by father Mathieu, whose protégé I had become, actually believed that 1° was unable to walk, When one would attempt to escape, it is possible to manage better than to contrive to excite sucl. an opinion. Doctor Ferrant did not for an instant sue- t me of an intent to deceive him;