Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/46

 day passed without some firing on both sides. At the termination of an engagement more serious than usual, we were driven back almost under the cannon of Givet; and in the retreat I received a ball in my leg, which compelled me to go again to the hospital, and afterwards to remain at the depôt; and I was there when the Germanic legion passed, principally composed of a party of deserters, fencing-masters, &c. One of the chief officers proposed that I should enter this corps, offering me the rank of quarter-master. "Once admitted," said he, "I will answer for you, you shall be safe from all pursuit." The certainty of not being asked for, joined to the remembrance of the disagreeables of my intimacy with Manon, decided me; I accepted the offer, and the next day was with the legion on the road to Flanders. No doubt, in continuing to serve in this corps, where promotion was very rapid, I should have been made an officer, but my wound opened afresh, with such bad symptoms, that I determined to ask for leave again, which on obtaining, I was six days afterwards once more at the gates of Arras.