Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/254

 the virtues of the defunct. I was soon convinced that Celestine had not betrayed me. When I left the ramparts behind me, which it had been of such paramount importance for me to pass, I almost wept for joy; but that I might not betray myself, I still kept up a strain of suitable lamentations.

On reaching the cemetery I advanced in my turn to the edge of the grave, and after having cast a handful of earth on the coffin, I separated from the company by taking a circuitous path. I walked on for many hours without losing sight of Toulon, and about five o'clock in the evening, just as I was entering a grove of firs, I saw a man armed with a gun. As he was well clad, and had a game-bag, my first thought was that he was a huntsman; but observing the butt of a pistol projecting from his girdle, I feared that I had met with one of those provençals, who at the sound of the cannon, always scour the country in search of the runaway galley-slaves. If my fears were just, flight was unavaling; and it was perhaps best to advance rather than retreat. This I did, and on approaching him sufficiently close to be on my guard in case he should show any hostilities, I asked the road to Aix.

"Do you want the high road or the bye-way?" said he with peculiar emphasis.

"Oh either, no matter which," I answered; hoping by my indifference to remove his suspicions.

"In that case, follow this path, it leads to the station of the gendarmes; and it you do not like travelling alone, you can avail yourself of the escort."

At the word 'gendarmes' I turned pale, and the stranger perceiving the effect his words had produced, added, "Come, come; I see you are not over anxious to travel on the highway. Well, if you are not in a very great hurry, I will conduct you to the village of Pourières, which is not two leagues from Aix."

He seemed so well acquainted with the localities, that I availed myself of his offer, and consented to