Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/253

 you cannot know much of me." "Bah, bah," I replied, "fifty francs are always worth earning, and if I swear to you that if one of these fellows fall into my clutches." "You are a wretch!" she said, making a gesture of indignation. "I am only a poor girl, but Celestine would never eat the bread earned by means so despicable." At these words, pronounced with an accent of truth which left no doubt on my mind of her sincerity, I did not hesitate to confide my secret to her. As soon as I had informed her that I was a convict, I cannot express how much she appeared interested in my fate. "Mon Dieu!" said she, "they are so much to be pitied; I would save them all, and have already saved many;" then, after pausing for an instant, as if to consider. "Let me manage it," she then added, "I have a lover who has a green card, I will borrow it from him and you shall use it, and, once out of the city, you can deposit it under a stone which I will point out to you, and, in the interim, as we are not in security here, I will take you to my apartment." On reaching this, she told me that she must leave me for a moment. "I must tell my lover," said she, "and will speedily return." Women are sometimes most admirable actresses, and, in spite of her kind protestations I feared some treachery. Perhaps Celestine was going to denounce me; she had not reached the street, when I ran down the staircase; "Well, well." cried the girl, "do not fear. If you mistrust me, come along with me." I thought it most prudent to watch her, and we walked away together, whither I knew not. Scarcely had we gone ten yards, when we met a funeral procession. "Follow the burial," said my protectress, "and you will escape;" and before I had time to thank her, she disappeared. The followers were numerous, and I mixed amongst the crowd of assistants, and that I might not be thought a stranger at the ceremony, I entered into a conversation with an old sailor, from whose communications I soon learnt how to utter a few well-timed remarks on