It is very rare that a fugitive galley-slave escapes with any intention of amendment; most frequently the aim is to gain the capital, and then put in practice the vicious lessons acquired at the Bagnes, which, like most of our prisons, are schools in which they perfect themselves in the art of appropriating to themselves the property of another. Nearly all celebrated robbers only become expert after passing some time at the galleys. Some have undergone five or six sentences before they become thorough scoundrels; such as the famous Victor Desbois, and his comrade Mongenet, called Le Tambour (Drummer), who during various visits to Paris comitted a vast many of those robberies on which people love to descant as proofs of boldness and address.
These two men, who for many years were sent away with every chain, and as frequently escaped, were once more back again in Paris; the police got information of it, and I received the order to search for them. All testified that they had acquaintances with other robbers no less formidable than themselves. A music mistress, whose son, called Noel with the Spectacles (Noel aux bèsicles) a celebrated robber, was suspected of harbouring these thieves. Madame Noel was a well-educated woman and an admirable musician; she was esteemed a most accomplished performer by the middle class of tradespeople, who employed her to give lessons to their daughters. She was well known in the Marais and the Quartier Saint-Denis, where the polish of her
