Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/91

 danger. But on arresting Boitel in the country, and bringing him to Lille, and putting him in solitary confinement, he named as the aiders and abettors in his escape, Grouard, Herbaux, Stofflet, and Vidocq. On this confession, we were questioned at the tower, and I persisted in my first declaration, although I could have extricated myself in a moment, by disclosing all that Boitel's bedfellow had told me; but I was so fully convinced that it was impossible to substantiate any charge against me, that I was thunderstruck when, at the expiration of my three months, I was prevented from quitting the prison by an entry stating me as arraigned as an "accomplice in the forgery of authentic and public documents."

I began to think that this affair might turn out badly for me; but any others tatementstatement [sic] without proof would be more dangerous to me than silence, which it was now too late to think of breaking. All these reflections affected me so much, that I had a severe illness, during which time Francine attended me most carefully. I was scarcely convalescent, when, unable to support the state of incertitude in which I found my affairs, I resolved on escaping, and to escape by the door, although that may appear a difficult step. Some particular observations made me choose this method in preference to any other. The wicket-keeper at St Peter's Tower was a galley-slave from the Bagne (place of confinement) at Brest, sentenced for life. After the revision of the penal laws and the code of