Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/175



I through the wicket without difficulty, and found myself in Brest, a place entirely unknown to me; and the fear that my doubt as to what road I would take might induce suspicion, increased my uneasiness. At length, after a thousand ins and outs, turnings and twistings, I reached the only gate of the city, where was always stationed an old galley-guard, named Lachique, who detected a convict by a look, a motion, or turn; and what rendered his observations more easy is, that whoever passes any time at the Bagne, drags habitually and involuntarily that leg to which the fetter has been fastened. However, it was necessary to pass this dreaded personage, who was smoking very sedately, fixing his hawk's eye on all who went in and came out. I had been warned, and determining to exercise all my effrontery, on getting up to Lachique, I put down a pitcher of buttermilk, which I had purchased to render my disguise the more complete, and filling my pipe, I asked him for a light. He gave it readily, and with all the courtesy he was capable of, and after we had blown a few whiffs in each others' faces, I left him and went on my way.

I went straight forward for three quarters of an hour, when I heard the cannon shots which were fired to announce the escape of a convict, so that the peasantry of the neighbourhood may be informed that there is a reward of one hundred francs to be obtained by the lucky individual who may apprehend the fugitive. I saw many persons armed with guns and scythes scour about the country, and beat every bush, and even the smallest tufts of heath. Some labourers appeared to take their arms out with them as a precaution, for I