Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/122

 me that they did not enlist; and the lieutenant, to whom I afterwards applied, gave me the same reply, but touched by the embarrassment of my situation, he agreed to keep me to clean the extra horses which he was going to procure at Paris. A cap of a police officer and an old cloak which was given to me, enabled me to clear the barrier unquestioned, and I went to the military school with the detachment, which I afterwards accompanied to the depôt, at Guise. On arriving in this city I was presented to the colonel, who, although suspecting me to be a deserter, engaged me under the name of Lannoy, which I assumed without being able to justify by any credentials. Concealed by my new uniform, and mingling with the rank of a numerous regiment, I thought myself secure, and begun to think of making my way as a soldier, when an unfortunate accident again befel me.

On entering the barrack one morning I met a gendarme who had left Douai for Guise. He had so frequently seen me, that he knew me at first sight and called to me. We were in the midst of the street, and thoughts of escape were useless, I therefore went up to him and boldly feigned to be glad to see him. He replied to me, but with an air that seemed to augur me no good. Whilst thus together, a hussar of my squadron, seeing me with the gendarme, approached, and said to me, "Well, Lannoy, what are you doing with the round hats?" "Lannoy," said the gendarme with astonishment. Yes, it is a nom de guerre." "Oh, we will see about that," said he, seizing my collar. I was compelled to follow him to prison, and my identity being confirmed, in opposition to my statements at the regiment, I was by a cursed chance again sent to Douai.

This sentence completely overpowered me, and the intelligence that reached me at Douai was not calculated to set me at rest. I heard that Grouard, Herbaux, Stofflet, and Boitel, had decided by lot, that one of them should confess the execution of the forgery, but