Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/132

 Boitel, Eugène Stofflet, Brice Coquelle, André Bordereau, and Jean François Grouard, are charged with being the authors and contrivers of the said forgery, and having thereby effected the escape of the said Sebastien Boitel, from the house of confinement where he had been confined, by virtue of a sentence of condemnation to imprisonment.

"That the said Brice Coquelle is, besides, charged with having, by means of thus false order, allowed to escape from the said house of confinement the said Sebastien Boitel, committed to his custody, as jailor of the said prison; that the said Brice Coquelle was convicted before the jury at Lille, of having set at liberty the said Sebastien Boitel, the third Frimaire last, by virtue of the forged order.

"That this paper was conveyed to him by Stofflet, who carried it to him, and who was recognised before the judge as having been the bearer of it; that the said Stofflet had been at the prison five or six times in the space of ten days, and always enquired for Herbaux, with whom he remained for two or three hours; that Herbaux and Boitel were together in the same prison, and that the said Stofflet spoke equally to one as to the other; that the pretended order was addressed to him, and that he could not suspect the forgery, not knowing the signature; that the said Stofflet confessed that he was suspected of having carried a letter to St Peter's Tower, but that it was a forgery; that he had been many times at the house of confinement to speak to the said Herbaux, but had never taken any letters to him, and that Brice Coquelle had asserted falsely in saying that he had recognized him before the judge, as having brought him the forged order, by virtue of which he had set Sebastien Boitel at liberty.

"That François Vidocq had declared that he only knew Boitel in prison; that he knew he had left by virtue of an order brought to Coquelle, who was drinking with the brothers of Coquelle and Prevôt,