Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/149

 us to lie down in a large open space, which served as a walking ground for the ideots; but the dog still kept up the concert, and his colleagues having joined him the din became so excessive that the inspector Giroux, fancying something particular was passing amongst his lodgers, and knowing his customers, began his round by Fort-Mahon, and almost fell backwards at finding no one. At his cries the jailor, turnkeys, and guard, all assembled. They soon discovered the road we had taken, and taking the same to get into the court of the ideots, they loosened the dog, who ran straight at us. The guards then entered the place where we were with fixed bayonets, as if about to carry a redoubt. They put handcuffs on us, the usual prelude of any important matter to be done in a prison; and we then returned, not to Fort-Mahon, but to the dungeon without however experiencing any bad treatment.

This attempt, the boldest of which the prison had for a long time been the theatre, threw the keepers into so much confusion that it was two days before they perceived that one of the prisoners of Fort-Mahon was missing: it was Desfosseux. Knowing all his address I thought him at a distance, when, on the morning of the third day, I saw him enter my dungeon pale, exhausted, and bleeding. When the door was closed on him he told me all his adventure.

At the moment when the guard had seized us, he had squatted down in a sort of tub, probably used for baths, and hearing no noise, he had left his retreat: and the pole had aided him in climbing several walls: but yet he always got back to the ideot's court. Day was just breaking, and he heard footsteps going and coming in the buildings, for they are nowhere earlier than in hospitals. It was necessary to avoid the gaze of the turnkey, who would soon be in the courts: the wicket of a room was half open—he glided in, and was about with much precaution to roll himself in a large heap of straw; but what was his astonishment to see