Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/176

 saw several quit their work with a gun which they took out of a furrow. One of these latter passed near me in a cross-road which I had taken on hearing the report of the cannon, but they had no suspicion of me, for I was clad very well, and my hat being off by reason of the heat, they saw my hair curled, which could not be the case with a convict.

I continued striking into all the bye-ways, and avoiding towns and detached houses. At twilight I met two women whom I asked about the road, but they answered me in a dialect which I did not comprehend, but on showing them some money, and making signs that I was hungry, they conducted me to a small village to a cabaret, kept by the garde-champêtre (patrole), whom I saw in the chimney nook, decorated with his insignia of office. I was for a moment disturbed, but soon recovering myself, I said I wished to speak to the mayor. "I am he," said an old countryman with a woollen cap and wooden shoes, seated at a small table and eating an oaten cake. This was a fresh disappointment to me, who relied on escaping in my way from the cabaret to the mayor's house. However, I had the difficulty to contend with, and surpass in some way or other. I told the wooden-shoed functionary, that having lost myself on leaving Morlaix for Brest, I had wandered about, and asking him at the same time how far it was from this latter city, and expressing a desire to sleep there that evening.—"You are five leagues from Brest," said he, "and it is impossible to reach it this evening; if you will sleep here, I will give you a bed in my barn, and tomorrow you can start with the garde-champêtre, who is going to carry back a fugitive convict whom we apprehended yesterday." These last words renewed all my terrors, for by the tone in which they were uttered, I saw that the mayor had not credited the whole of my story. I, however, accepted his obliging offer; but after supper, at the instant we reached the barn, putting my hands