Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/244

 work:" and in fact, his tricks were not so redoubtable; he confined himself to a species of robbery in which he excelled. His eldest sister, whom he had brought to Paris, aided him in all his enterprizes. Dressed as a washerwoman, with a pannier at her back and a basket on her arm, she went to all the houses where there was no porter, and, knocking at the doors, if she learnt that the occupants were from home, she returned and told Mulot. Then he, disguised as a journeyman locksmith, went, and with his bunch of picklocks in his hand, opened with the greatest ease the most complicated locks. Frequently, that suspicion might not be aroused, in case any one should pass, his sister, with her apron and a modest cap on, and with the disturbed appearance of a nurse who had lost her key, aided his operations. Mulot, as we may see, did not want foresight, but yet was one day surprised in the very act, and soon after condemned to imprisonment.