Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume I

by Eugène François Vidocq

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

A Collection

OF THE

MOST INSTRUCTIVE AND AMUSING

LIVES

EVER PUBLISHED,

WRITTEN BY THE PARTIES THEMSELVES.

WITH BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS, AND COMPENDIOUS SEQUELS CARRYING ON THE NARRATIVE TO THE DEATH OF EACH WRITER.

VOLUME XXV.—VIDOCQ.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HUNT AND CLARKE,
YORK STREET. COVENT GARDEN.

 

LONDON:

C. AND W. REYNELL, PRINTERS, BROAD STREET, GOLDEN SQ.

 

Eugène-François Vidocq portrait

 

VIDOCQ.

 

London. Pub. by Whittaker & C^o Ave Maria Lane.

MEMOIRS

OF

VIDOCQ,

PRINCIPAL AGENT OF THE FRENCH POLICE

UNTIL 1827:

AND NOW PROPRIETOR OF

THE PAPER MANUFACTORY AT ST MANDÉ

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

“Le plus grand fléau est l’homme qui provoque. Quand il n’y a point de provocateurs ce sont les forts qui commettent les crimes, parceque ce ne sont que les forts qui les conçoivent. En police, il vaut mieux ne pas faire d’affaire que d’en créer.”

Mémoires, Vol. I.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

 

LONDON, 1828:
PRINTED FOR HUNT AND CLARKE,
YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

CONTENTS.

---

INTRODUCTION. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

v

PREFACE. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

xiii

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CHAPTER I.

Page.

My birth—Precocious disposition—I become a journeyman baker—The first theft—The false key—The accusing fowls—The stolen plate—Prison—Maternal clemency—My father's eyes opened—The finishing stroke—Departure from Arras—I seek a ship—The ship broker—The danger of idleness—The trumpet calls—M. Comus, first physician in the world—The preceptor of general Jaquot—The rope-dancers—I enter the company—Lessons of the Little Devil—The savage of the South Seas—Punch and the Theatre of Amusing Varieties—A scene of jealousy, or the serjeant in the eye—I go into the service of a quack doctor—Return to my father's house—Acquaintance with an actress—Another chace—My departure in a regiment—The rash companion—Desertion—The raw Picardy soldier and the assignats—I go over to the enemy—A flogging—I return to my old standard—A domestic robbery, and the housekeeper of an old worthy—Two duels a day—I am wounded—My father a public functionary—I join the war—Change of regiment—Residence at Arras ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

1

CHAPTER II.

 

Joseph Lebon—The orchestra of the guillotine, and the reading of the bulletin—The aristocrat parrot—Citizeness Lebon—Address to the Sans Culottes—The apple-woman—New amours—I am imprisoned—The jailor Beaupré—The verification of the broth—M. de Bethune—I get my liberty—The sister of my liberator—I am made an officer—The quarters of St Sylvestre Capelle—The revolutionary army—The retaking of a vessel—My betrothed—A disguise—The pretended pregnancy—I marry—I am content without being beaten—Another stay at the Baudets—My emancipation ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

24

CHAPTER III.

Residence at Brussels—Coffee-houses—The gastronomic gendarmes—A forger—The roving army—The baroness and the baker-boy—The disappointment—Arrival at Paris—A gay lady—Mystification ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

38

CHAPTER IV.

The gypsies—A Flemish fair—Return to Lille—Another acquaintance—The Bull's-eye—The sentence of punishment—St Peter's tower—The prisoners—A forgery ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

55

CHAPTER V.

Three escapess—The Chauffeurs—The suicide—The interrogatory—Vidocq accused of assassination—Sent back on a complaint—Fresh escape—Departure for Ostend—The smugglers—Vidocq retaken ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

68

CHAPTER VI.

The pewter keys—The quacks—Vidocq an hussar—He is retaken—The siege of the dungeon—Sentence—Condemnation ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

88

CHAPTER VII.

Departure from Douai—The prisoners revolt in the forest of Compeigne—Residence at the Bicêtre—Prison customs—The madhouse ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

113

CHAPTER VIII.

The departure of the chain—Captain Viez and his lieutenant Thierry—The complaint of the galley-slaves—The visit from Paris—Humanity of the galley-serjeants—They encourage plundering—The loaf converted into a portmanteau—Useless attempt to escape—The Bagne at Brest—The benedictions ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

126

CHAPTER IX.

Of the colonization of the convicts ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

137

CHAPTER X.

The pursuit after the galley slave—The village mayor—The voice of blood—The hospital—Sister Françoise—Faublas the second—The mother of robbers ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

150

CHAPTER XI.

The market-place at Cholet—Arrival at Paris—History of captain Villedieu ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

165

CHAPTER XII.

Journey to Arras—Father Lambert—Vidocq a schoolmaster—Departure for Holland—The "sellers of souls"—The mutiny—The corsair—Catastrophe ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

181

CHAPTER XIII.

I see Francine again—My re-establishment In the prison of Douai—Am I, or am I not, Duval?—The magistrates embarrassed—I confess that I am Vidocq—Another residence at Bicêtre—I find captain Labbre there—Departure for Toulon—Jossas, the famous robber—His interview with a great lady—A tempest on the Rhone—The marquis of St Armand—The executioner of the Bagne—The plunderers of the wardrobe—A family of Chauffeurs ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

193

CHAPTER XIV.

Father Mathieu—I enter on a new line of business—Ruin of my establishment—I am supposed to be paralyzed in my limbs—I am assistant major—Ecce Homo, or the psalm-seller—A disguise—Stop him! he is a fugitive convict—I am added to the double chain—The kindness of the commissary—I tell him a made-up tale—My best contrived escape—The lady of the town and the burial—I know not what—Critical situation—A band of robbers—I detect a thief—I get my dismissal—I promise secrecy ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

220