Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/187

 I left the good persons who had so kindly welcomed me.

Having walked all day without flagging, I found myself at the close of the day in a village near the environs of Vannes, when I remembered I had been deceived by false or mistaken directions. I slept at this village, and the next day I went through Vannes at a very early hour. My intention was to get to Rennes; but on leaving Vannes I met a person who induced me to change my intention. On the same route was a woman walking slowly, followed by a young child, and carrying on her back a box of relics; which she showed in the villages, whilst singing doleful ditties, selling rings of St Hubert, or holy chaplets. This woman told me that she was going to Nantes by cross roads. I was desirous of avoiding the high road, and did not hesitate to follow my new guide. Besides, at Nantes I had resources which would be lacking to me at Rennes, as we shall see.

At the end of eight days' walk, we reached Nantes, when I left the woman and her relics at her lodgings in the suburbs. As for me, I enquired for the Île Feydeau. When at the Bicêtre I had learnt from a man named Grenier, called the Nantais, that there was in this quarter a kind of auberge, where robbers met without fear of disturbance. I knew that by using a well-known name I should be admitted without difficulty; but I only remembered the address very vaguely, and scarcely knew how and where to find out the place. I adopted an expedient which succeeded. I went into many houses and asked for M. Grenier; at the fourth where I sought for this name, the hostess, leaving two persons with whom she was conversing, took me into a small room and said to me, "Have you seen Grenier? Is he still sick (in prison)?"—"No," answered I, "he is well (free)." And perceiving that I was all right with the mother of robbers, I told her unhesitatingly who I was, and how I was