Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/125

 light of day. The unwholesome state of the dungeon made this very probable, and the gendarmes fell completely into the snare and carried their complaisance so far as to cover my eyes with a handkerchief, and then deposited me in a hackney-coach. On the road I took off the handkerchief and opening the door, with a dexterity never yet surpassed, and jumped out into the street, the gendarmes sought to follow, but impeded by their sabres and jack boots, they had scarcely got out of the carriage when I was at a considerable distance. I quitted the city instantly, and resolved on embarking, I reached Dunkirk with some money which my mother had transmitted to me. I there made friends with the supercargo of a Swedish brig, who promised to get me a berth on board.

Whilst waiting for orders to sail, my new friend proposed that I should accompany him to Saint Omer, where he was going to get a large quantity of biscuit. I did not fear recognition in my sailor's clothes, and agreed, as it was impossible to refuse a man to whom I was under such great obligations. I went with him, but my turbulent character would not allow me to remain quiet in a pot-house row, and I was arrested as a riotous fellow and taken to the watch-house. There they asked for my papers, of which I had none, and my answers inducing a belief that I might be an escaped prisoner, they sent me the next day to the central prison of Douai, without allowing me to bid adieu to the supercargo, who was doubtlessly much surprised at this occurrence. At Douai they put me once more in the prison of the Town Hall, where at first the jailor evinced much kindness towards me, which did not however last. At the termination of a quarrel with the turnkeys, in which I took too active a part, I was thrown into a dark cell under the tower. There were five of us, one of whom, a deserter sentenced to death, was talking of nothing but suicide, until I desired him not to think of that, but rather devise means of escape from this dismal hole, where the rats, which ran about like