Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/34

Rh me a slight correction, which he renewed the next and following days. A month had not elapsed before I was in a wretched condition; my clothes, spotted with grease and torn by the monkeys, were in rags; I was devoured by vermin; hard diet had made me so thin that no one would have recognised me; and then it was that there arose in all imaginable bitterness the regrets for my paternal home, where good food, soft bed, and excellent clothing were mine, and when I had no monkeys to make clean and feed.

I was in this mood, when one morning Comus told me that after due consideration he was convinced that I should make an admirable tumbler. He then placed me under the tuition of sieur Balmate, called the "little devil," with orders to train me. My master just escaped breaking my loins at the first bend which he compelled me to make. I took two or three lessons daily. In less than three weeks, I was able to execute with much skill the monkey's leap, the drunkard's leap, the coward's leap, &c. My teacher, delighted at my progress, took pains to forward me; a hundred times I thought that in developing my powers, he would dislocate my limbs. At length we reached the difficulties of the art, which became more and more complicated. At my first attempt at the grand fling I nearly split myself in two; and in the chair-leap I broke my nose. Bruised, maimed and tired of so perilous a business, I determined on telling Comus that I had no desire to become a vaulter. "Oh you do not like it," said he; and without objecting to my refusal gave me a sound thumping. I then left Balmate entirely and returned to my lamps.

Comus had given me up, and it was now for Garnier to give me a turn. One day, after having beaten me more than usual (for he shared that pleasing office with Comus) Garnier, measuring me from head to foot, and viewing with a marked delight the dilapidation of my doublet, through which my flesh was visible, said to me, "I like you; you have reached the point that