Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/127

 Entrenched behind the materials, we answered that the first who entered should be knocked on the head with bricks and irons. So much determination alarmed the authorities, and they left us for a few hours to calm ourselves. At noon, a municipal officer appeared at the wicket, which as well as the hole had been sedulously guarded, and offered us an amnesty, which we accepted, but scarcely had we removed our chevaux-de-frise, when they attacked us with the butt end of muskets, flat side of sabres, and bunches of keys, even the jailor's mastiff joined the party: he jumped at me and bit me most severely all over. They then led us into the court yard, where a body of fifteen men held us, lying on our faces, whilst they rivetted our fetters. This job done, they cast me into a dungeon yet more horrible than that I had left, and it was not till the next day that the surgeon Dutilleul, (now keeper at the hospital of St Maudé) came to dress the bites and bruises which covered me.

I had scarcely recovered from this when the day of trial came, which my repeated escapes and those of Grouard, who fled just as I was retaken, had deferred for eight months. The trial began, and I saw that I was lost; my companions accused me with an animosity, explained by my retarded confessions, which were useless to myself, and had not at all injured them. Boitel declared that I had asked him how much I would give to get out of prison. Herbaux confessed that he had forged the order, but not added the signatures, and said besides that I had persuaded him to forge it, and then taken it from him without his thinking it of the least importance. The jury thought that nothing indicated that I had materially aided the crime; all the charge against me was confined to allegations without proof, that I had furnished the seal. However, Boitel, who remembered having begged for the forged order; Stofflet, who had brought it to the jailor; Grouard, who had at least assisted at the whole operation, were acquitted; whilst Herbaux and I were condemned to