Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

ee Te Pe. an f a " they promaies themselves as rapi ~~ ae ee syvon ten games, which, at four crowns a game, will make your share ten louis—here they are.’’ I told him that he was mistaken, and that I had not interested my- self in his play; he made no answer, but put the ten louis in my hand. “Take it,” said the young man who had initiated me into these mysteries, and who was sitting next to me, “take it and follow me.” I obeyed me- chanically, and when we reached the street, my Men- tor added, “They have discovered that you watch baroneéss, who was about fifty. sars. At Paris I should have felt somew Vidoed, The French ‘Police Spy. is wey — —- +o ner, that if her hours suited me, a place at her table | the truth-was not very obstinate. I agreed to evyery- would always be prepared for me, It was impossible to | thing, and then returned to the baroness. resist such pressing politeness, and Il was profuse in my , de B—— fell at her feet; and the scene was so well thanks, and I took my seat at her board the same day | played, and, though it may be scarcely believed, I en- with three other guests, vho were ladies, older than the | tered so completely into the spirit of my part, that Ieven Thev were all charmed | for a moment su ; with the prepossessing manners of the captain of hus- | times ha pens to impostors, The baroness was charmed hat awkward | at the ‘at in such society, but I did very well at Brussels for a | inspired me. The general was rejoiced at my success, The Count rised myself—which I am told some- hes-and sentiment with which my situation the games, and fear lest you should blow the concern; | young man whose premature introduction to the world | as was every other person. Several expressions escaped and as there are no means of intimidating you, because | they know that you have a strong arm and a mis- chievous hand, they have resolved on giving you a slice of the cake, so you have a good means of existence before you, the two coffee-houses will be milch-cows to you, whence you may draw your four or six crowns a ¢ ay.” In spite of the accommodating propensity of | my conscience, I was desirous of replying and making | some observations—‘* You are a child,’’ said my honor- | able friend; ‘* we do not talk of robbery here—it is for- tune only; and believe me, matters pass in the drawing- | room as they do at the tavern—there they bubble, that is the word; and the merchant, who in the mornin while at his desk would think it a crime to rob you o an hour's interest, would very quietly cheat you at the | gaming-table in the evening.” How could I answer such unanswerable arguments? I had nothing to reply rut to keep the money, which I did. These small dividends, joined to a remittance of a hundred crowns from my mother, enabled me to dash a little, and to show my gratitude to Emily, whose de- | votion to me I was not insensible of. Matters were in | : this agreeable train when I was one evening arrested | occasions would at least occupy his attention for some at the Theater du Parc, by several police-officers, and minutes. My stratagem only half succeeded; the lieu- desired to produce my papers. This would have been a | tenant-colonel, who was of the party, wie! = that the dangerous exhibition and I said that I had none. They general was so much pressed, kindly offered himself as conducted me to the Madelonettes: and the next morn- | a substitute, and accordingly seated himself at the ing, at my examination, I found that I was unknown, | piano, and sung some little ditties with sufficient taste and they had mistaken me for another person. I said | to procure him universal approbation, while I all the that my name was Rousseau, born at Lille, and added, time wished him at the devil, that I had come to Brussels on pleasure, and had not' At last this interminable evening concluded, and thought it expedient to provide myself with papers. I | each person withdrew, I raging with anger and een then asked to Sir Sonianened to Lille, at my own expense, | revenge against the rival who I imagined was about to by two gendarmes, which was granted, and for a few | carry off from me, I will not say the love, but the kind crowns my escort agreed that poor Emily should ac- attentions of the baroness. Full of this idea, I went to company me. my general at his rising, who was much surprised to Having left Brussels, I was so far safe; but it was see me so early. “Do you know,” said he, without still more important that I should not reach Lille, | giving me time to break in upon his conversation, ‘‘ do where I should be certainly recognized as a deserter. you know, my friend, that the baroness is—"’ ‘“* Who Escape must be made at all risks, and this was Emily’s spoke of the baroness?”’ interrupted I, abruptly: “ it is opinion when I communicated my intention to her, and | no matter what she is or what she is not.”’ “So much we executed our preconcerted plan on reachin Tour- | the worse,” he replied; “‘if you are not speaking of her, nay. I told the gendarmes that before they left me at I have nothing to understand.” . And, continuing thus Lille the next day, where I should be at once set at | to puzzle me for some time, he ended by telling me liberty, I wished to treat them with a good supper. Al- | that his conversation with the baroness was concerning ready taken with my liberality and mirth, they accepted me only, and that he had so far pushed my interest, the invitation with much willingness, and in the even- that he believed that she was quite disposed to—to ing while they were sleeping on the table, stupefied marry me. with rum and beer, thinking me in the same con ition,| I at first thought that my poor comrade’s head was I descended by the sheets from the second-floor win- | turned, That one of the richest women of rank in the dow. Emily followed, and we struck into the cross- | United Provinces would marry an adventurer, of whose roads, where they would not think of pursuing us. We family, fortune, and ancestors she knew nothing, was thus reached the suburbs of Notre-Dame at Lille, when | an idea that would have staggered the most credulous. I dressed myself in the cloak of the horse-chasseurs. Ought I, moreover, to engage in a deceit which must taking the precaution to put a black patch on my left | be discovered, sooner or later, and must ruin me? . Be- eye, which made it impossible to recognize me. But I sides, was I not really and actually married at Arras? d not jud e it prudent to remain long in a city so near | These objections, and many others, which the remorse my birth- ay and we started for Ghent. There, by a | I must experience at deceiving the excellent woman rather romantic incident, Emily found her father, who had treated me so kindly, excited in my mind, did which determined her to return to her family. It is not for an instant stop my comrade, who thus an- true that she would not consent to part from me, but sweredthiem: _ with an express stipulation that I should rejoin her as, ‘All you say is very fine, and I am quite of your soon as matters which I said called me to Brussels, | opinion; and to follow my natural bias for virtuous behavior, I only want £10,000 a year. But I see no My Brussels was to begin — to levy / reason for being scrupulous in your case. What does rates on the Cafe Ture and the Cafe de Monnaie. | the baroness want? A husband, and a husband to her But to present myself at this city, I wanted papers liking. Are you not that husband? Are you not which should prove that I was really Rousseau, born determined to pay her every attention, and to treat at Lille, as I said at my examination before I} her as a person who is necessary to - eS 5 mae of made my escape. A captain of Belgian carabineers in| whom you have had no cause to complain? You talk the French service, named Labbre, undertook for fif- | of the inequality of your fortumes—the baroness thinks teen louis to supply me with the necessary credentials. | not of that. You only want, to complete the matter, At the end of three weeks he brought me a copy of my one single Ss title of rank, which I will give you— register of birth, a Passport, and a certificate of half- | yes, I will give it to you! Wh : do you stare so? Listen pay in the name of Rousseau, all done better than I | and do not interrupt me, You must be acquainted ever saw them executed by any other forger. Thus with some young nobleman of your own age and coun- protected, I went to Brussels; the commandant of the | try; you are he, and your parents have emigrated, and place, an old comrade of Labbre’s, undertook to make | are now at Hamburgh. ou entered France to en- all right. deavor to recover a third of the value of One pete ade Quieted in this particular, I hastened to the Cafe property, and to carry off the plate and a thousand Ture. The first persons whom I saw in the room were | double-louis concealed beneath the flooring of . the the pretended officers with whom I had traveled. They drawing-room at the breaking out of the revolution; received me with acclamation; and judging from the | the presence of some strangers, the haste of departure, recital of my adventures that my situation was not which an arrest issued against your father would not over splendid, proposed that I should take the rank of allow you to delay, has prevented you from getting this sub-lieutenant of horse chasseurs, doubtless because | treasure, Arrived in this country, disguised as a journey- they saw the cloak I wore. So advantageous a pro- man tanner, you were denounced by the very person motion was not to be refused; and it was then con-| whohad pledged himself to aid your enterprise; ont- ferred on me: and when I said Rousseau was omy an | lawed by the sentence of the Republican authorities, assumed name, the worthy lieutenant-colonel told me | you were nearly losing your head on the scaffold, when to take any one which I preferred. It was impossible |I fell in with you, half dead from inquietude and to be more obliging, I resolved on keeping the name | necessity. An old friend of the family, I procured for of ander gin on which they gave me, not a brevet, but you the brevet of an officer of hussars, under the name a line of route traveling with his horse, and being entitled to lodgings joining your noble parents at Hamburgh. The baroness and rations. . already knows all this; yes, I thus found myself incorporated with the rovin ' . army (armee roulante) composed of officers without | fact, beeause I did not know. what a brevet, and without troops, and who, furnished with | might choose to assume. Phat is a@ con false certificates and false lines of march, imposed the left for yourself to communicate. more easily on the commissaries-at-war, as there was‘ Thus the affair is quite settled, and you_are a pera less method at this period in the military arrangements. | tléman, nothing can be said against that. Say nothing it is certain that, durin the Netherlands, we got all our allowances without t least demur. Yet o8ed of less than two thousand fixe fishes fn water. What is still more curious, is, that} that may be entirely marred at a moment. as circumstances have already met with some very i me such thought. her. At first I was not over desirous of introducing m associates to the society of this lady, who saw much might guess our little speculations. But the baroness insist lating that the general should only meet a small party, as he was desirous of keeping up a sort of incognito. He came; and the baroness, wi him for so lon rather piqued. that it would be a good plan to ask the general to sin us something, and accompany himself on the piano. knew that he could not make out a note, but I relied that the usual b pti am reen which guests make on such business at e venturers, who lived | listen tome. So far, our business has gone on well, — e would allow! an advancement was the more profitable, | as increase of rank i) oy increase of allowances. 1 may cut off our supplies passed in this manner to be oe arg of hussars; one of ‘Toulon. You understand me, 1 my comrades became chief o most astonished me was, the lieutenant-colonel, to the ra is ae if the be ye ig to a promotion o dumenit to be up the deception, yet the very audacity | understand each other; your wife has a hundred of such a ste bade defiance to suspicion. thousand florins a-year; there are three of us, and you of brigadier-general. urned to Brussels, we showed our billets, and I) shall give us each a pens on of a thousand crowns, wal sent to a rich widow, the Slentitiogs d’I—. Twas ‘payable in advance, and [ sial expect besides a pre ved in the manner in which all Frenchmen were nium of thirty thousand france for having a od—that is, with open count of a baker's son.” at! Iwas arms. very chamber was my Sle ai , and my hostess, delighted at my re- general lifully stated oll the difficulties of my served conduct, assured mie in the most gracious mon- all, except your name, | which for appearances’ sake, I did not tel! her; but in | shut herself upin herroom. i never saw her again. silation you | Enlightened b ence which I | whic /ment of the moment, she saw all the dangers from which she had esca f ife; you were divorced at | think that: she esca ‘ de of a wie, } Sit aw wllcwaeeos wit rout the Aer indor thé naine of Vidocg; and you are married | whose hands might) have } | : ' | re ee | e roving army was not then com-! at Brussels under the name of Count B——. Now, | the other hand, | ‘mi avy find others still less civil, who | when I arose, the may mmaeter pe ee and sead us tothe fleet at | ing fifteen thousand francs in gold, which the baroness ow. The best that) had left for me, before her depariure,at one o clock in a battalion; but what | can happen to you will be to take up your knapsack | the nageatigs x seee 3 was glad to hear of, as her pres- romotior of Auffray, our and accouterments in your old regiment, or else be ence would It | shot for a deserter; but. by marrying, you acquire the | he rank and the no-| means of a splendid life, and will be enabled to assist | : re have come to this point, let us | eal? sagt teod The Aaa onary Athy ey tions of this adventure may a | “it n ied: his har in which the mance. If I have entered into minute d tet eo ty but this ha heoin ffect, but wit th gituction, overcame ci my opposition, which, tosay of putting tog ervey aa} ad necessarily injured his education. The baroness | nie which savored a: little of the canteen, but the gen- at made some such reflections, for she paid | eral had told the baroness that political events had ittle attention as gave me much food for | caused my education to be strangely neglected, and this explanation was satisfactory to her. Subse- As I was sometimes absent to dine with the general, | quently, Marshal Suchet was no less easily satisfied, whose invitations I told her it was impossible to refuse, | when Co she desired me to present him and my other friends to | Albufera,”’ excused himself by the plea, that laving nard, addressing him as “ M. le duqgue d’- emigrated when very young, he could consequentl have but a very imperfect knowledge of the Frenc -cempany, and might have guests at her house who | language. We sat down to table and dined in high spirits. After on it, and IT consented, at the same time stipu- | the dessert the ‘baroness whispered me thus: “1 know, my dear sir, that your fortune isin the hands of the Jacobins, and your parents at Hamburgh may be received him with | in some difficulty; oblige me by remitting to them a marked attention, seated him near her and talked to | bill for three thousan a time in an undertone that I was | send you to-morrow morning.” I was about to express o disturb this tete-a-tete, 1 imagined | my thanks, when she rose from the table and went | into the drawing-room. florins, which my banker will I took the opportunity of tell- ing the general what had just occurred, “Well, simpleton,” said he, “do you think you are telling me any news’ Wasit not I who hinted to the baronéss that your parents must be in want of money? Weare at this moment your parents—our funds are low; and to run any risk in procuring more, would be to hazard too foolishly the success of this adventure: I will un- dertake to- negotiate the bill. At the same time I sug- rere to the baroness that a supply of cash was needed for you to make some figure before your marriage, and it is understood that from now until the consummation ofthe marriage you shall have five hundred florins a month.” Ifound the next day this sum on my dress- ing-table, where also was placed a handsome dressing- case and some trinkets. Yet the register of my birth, as Count de B——, whose name I had assumed, and which the genera! wished to —* thinking that the other credentials might be orged, did net arrive; but the baroness, whose blind- ness must appear inconceivable to those who are notin a a situation to kaow to what extent credulity can go, and the audacity of some rogues, consented to marry me ander the name of Rousseau. I had all the necessary papers to justify my claim to that. Nothing was Wanting but my father’s consent; that was easil procured through theinstrumentality of Labbre, whom we had under our thumb; but although the baronéss had consented to marrying me under ‘a name which she knew was not my own, yet she felt some repug- nance at being as it were an aceomplice in a falseh forgwhich the only excuse was, that it saved my head from the block. While we were planning means for avoid- ing this, we learnt the number of the armee roulante had become so considerable, that the eyes of govern- ment were opened, and that the most severe orders had been issued to check the abuse. We divested our- selves of uniforms, believing that we should have nothing to fear, but the ~ ies were so active that the general was compelled to set out suddenly for Namur, where he thought he should be less liable to detection. I explained his abrupt departure to the baroness, by attributing it to the general’s having been in fear of a reprimand for having procured me a cém- mission under an assumed name. This circumstance made her very uneasy for me, and I could only calm her fears by setting out for Breda, to which place she would accompany me. I am not very well calculated to play the sentimental, and it would compromise the tact and finesse, for which I have some credit, if I made a parade and fuss, but I may be believed when I say so much attachment affected me. The whispers of remorse, to which we cannot be always deaf at nineteen, were heard; I saw the abyss into which I was leading an admirable woman who had been so generous toward me;I pictured her as driving from her with horror the deserter, the vaga- bond, the bigamist, the forger; and this idea deter- inined me to tell herall. Away from those who had drawn me into this imposture, and who had just been arrested at Namur, I decided on fhe measures I would adopt; and one ibs 4 after supper, I determined on breaking the ice. Without detailing my adventures, I told the baroness, that circumstances which I could not explain compelled me to appear at Brussels under the two names by which she knew me, but that neither was the real one. LIadded, that events forced me to quit the Netherlands without the power of ec ee a union which would have insured my happin bu that Ishould forever preserve the recollection of the kindness which she had so generously evinced for me. I spoke long, and with an emotion which increased my utterance and warmth of manner—and | am now astonished at the facility of my own eloquence when J think of it—but I feared to hear the reply of the for a sub-lieuténant of the bth chasseurs, of Rousseau, until an opportunity should offer of re- _baroness. Motionlegs, pale, and with a glazed eye, she at me heard me without interruption; then ro ran to witha glance of horror,'she rose abruptly an y confession, and by