Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/137

abominated. Who that has read this chapter, is not horrified at the vices it depicts, since they produce the last degree of brutalization?

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CHAPTER XXXIX.

I am fearful of my own renown—The approach of a grand fête—The classes of robbers—The rouletiers at the last gasp—A deluge of denunciations—I am nearly caught—The mattress, the false keys, and the crow-bar—The revengeful confession—The terrible Limodin—The mania for turning spy—The female thief who denounces herself—The good son—The unlucky fugitive—The twelfth-night king and queen—The treacherous kiss—The difficulty overcome—The washerwoman's basket—The stolen child—The umbrella which affords no shelter—The modern Sappho—Liberty is not the first of blessings—The inseparables—The heroism of friendship—Vice has its virtues.

When an individual of passable intellect bends all his faculties to one point, it out seldom occurs that he does not become expert in his profession. This is the whole secret of my great aptitude for detecting thieves. The moment I became a secret agent, I had but one thought, and all my efforts tended to reduce to inaction as speedily as possible the wretches, who, desirous of perverting the resources of labour, seek a subsistence in a series of outrages on the right of property, more or less criminal. I did not delude myself as to the sort of success of which I was ambitious, and I had not the folly to think that I could effectually extirpate robbery; but by carrying on a war à l'outrance against offenders, I hoped to render them less numerous. I may say, that the success of my first attempts surpassed the expectation of myself and M. Henry. In my own estimation, my reputation increased with too much rapidity; for reputation betrayed the mystery of my employ, and from the moment I was known, it was necessary either that I should renounce the service of the police, or else belong to it ostensibly. Thenceforward, my task became much more difficult, but obstacles