Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/123

 as this forgery could only be the work of one person, they determined on accusing me, thus punishing me for what I had said of them at my last examination; and I learnt besides that the prisoner who could have corroborated my statement, was dead. If anything could console me, it was that I had escaped in time from Desfosseux and Doyennette, who had been taken four days after our escape with their booty about them, in a mercer's shop in Ponte-a-MarcqPont-à-Marcq [sic]. I soon saw them, and as they were astonished at my abrupt departure, I told them that the arrival of a gendarme at the public-house where I was purchasing provisions, had compelled me to fly with speed. Again united, we formed new plans of escape, which the approach of our trials rendered of great importance to us.

One evening a convoy of prisoners arrived, four of whom, ironed, were placed with us. They were the brothers Duhesme, rich farmers of Bailleul, where they had enjoyed the best reputation, until an unexpected accident unfolded their real characters. These four persons, men of powerful strength, were at the head of a band of Chauffeurs, who had struck terror into the vicinity, without any person being able to identify them. The prattling of a little girl of one of the Duhesme's at last exposed the affair. This child, chatting at a neighbour's house, said that she had been very much frightened the night before. "And with what?" said the curious neighbour. "Oh, papa came home again with the black men," "The black men?" "Yes, the men who go out with papa every night and come home in the day time and count out money; my mother lights the candle, and my aunt Genevieve also, because my uncles are amongst the black men. I asked my mother one day what it was all about, and she said. Be discreet my child, your father has a black hen who finds him in money, but it is only at night, and that he should not scare it, he makes his face as black as her feathers. Be silent, for if you tell anybody what you have seen, the