Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/188

 situated. Without replying, she took my arm, and opening a door let into the pannel, made me enter a low room where eight men and women were playing at cards and drinking brandy, &c. "Here," said my guide, presenting me to the goodly party, much astonished at the appearance of a nun, "here is a sister come to convert you all." At the same time I tore off my handkerchief, and three of the party, whom I had met at the Bagne, recognized me; they were Berry, Bidaut Mauger, and the young Goupy, whom I had met at Quimper; the others were fugitives from the Bagne of RochfortRochefort [sic]. They were much amused at my disguise ; and when supper had made us all very jolly, one of the females put on my nun's habits, and her gestures and attitudes, contrasted so strangely with this costume, that we all laughed till we cried, until the moment when we went to bed.

On waking, I found on my bed new clothes, linen, and in fact everything necessary for my toilet. Whence did they come? But this was of no consequence. The little money which I had not expended at the hospital of Quimper, where I paid dearly for everything, had been used on my journey; and without clothes, resources, or acquaintances, I was compelled to wait until I could write to my mother; and in the mean time accepted all that was offered me. But one circumstance of a particular nature abridged my stay at the Île Feydeau. At the end of a week, my companions seeing me perfectly recovered from my fatigues, told me one evening that they intended on the next day to break into a house on the Place Graslin, and relied on my going with them; I was even to have the post of honour, that of working inside with Maguer.

But I did not intend to do this, and thought how I could make use of the circumstance to get away and go to Paris, where, near my family, my resources would not fail me; but it never entered into my calculations to enrol myself in a band of thieves; for although I