Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/60

 husband; but I was so much tired of the yoke of Chevalier, that I resumed with joy my uniform, which I had cast off with so much pleasure.

At Tournay, a veteran officer of the Bourbon regiment, then adjutant-general, attached me to his office as a deputy, and particularly in the serving out of clothing. Business soon demanded that a man of trust should be dispatched to Arras. I set out post, and arrived in the city at eleven o'clock at night. As I was charged with orders, the gates were opened to me, and by an impulse for which I cannot account, I was induced to run to my wife's abode. I knocked for a long time, and no one answered. A neighbour, at length, opened the door, and I ran up stairs with all speed to my wife's chamber. On approaching, I heard the clank of a falling sabre, then a window opened, and a man leaped out into the street. It is needless to say that they had recognised my voice. I went down stairs with great haste, and soon overtook my Lovelace, in whom I recognised an adjutant-major of the 17th horse chasseurs, quartered at Arras. He was half naked; I led him back to my conjugal domicile, when he finished his toilette, and we then separated, on agreeing to fight the next day.

This scene had roused the whole neighbourhood. The greater part of the people, assembled at their windows, had seen me seize on the guilty adjutant, who had been found guilty of the fact in their presence. I had no lack of witnesses to prove and obtain the divorce, and that was what I intended to do; but the family of my chaste wife, who were desirous of keeping a protector for her, exerted themselves to check my measures, or at least to paralyze them. The next day, before I could meet the adjutant-major, I was arrested by the police and by gendarmes, who spoke of placing me in the Baudets. Fortunately for me, I plucked up courage, as I saw that there was nothing discouraging in my situation: I demanded to be carried before Joseph Lebon, which could not be denied