Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/107

 On our separation, the quarter-master made me promise to meet him again, and the serjeant would not be contented unless I accompanied him home.

This serjeant was M. Bertrand, who lodged in the upper town, in the house of a superior officer. As soon as we were alone, he testified his gratitude with all the warmth of which he was capable; for after drinking, a coward who has been rescued from peril may evince some feeling. He made me offers of any kind of service, and as I would accept of none, he said, "You think, perhaps, that I have no influence; I should be but a paltry protector, certainly, comrade, if I had only the power of a subaltern; but that is because I do not wish to be otherwise. I have no ambition, and all the Olympiens are like me; they despise the miserable distinction which rank confers." I asked who the Olympiens were? "They are," he replied, "men who adore liberty, and seek equality: will you be an Olympien? For if so, say the word, and you shall be admitted instantly."

I thanked M. Bertrand, adding, that I did not see any necessity to enrol myself in a society to which the attention of the police would be drawn sooner or later. "You are right," he replied, and then with earnestness added, "do hot enter, for it will go badly with them." He then gave me details concerning the Olympiens, which I have already inserted in these Memoirs; and, as if impelled by the feeling of confidential communication which champagne so peculiarly excites, he told me, under the seal of secresy, the object of his mission to Boulogne.

After this first interview, I continued to see M. Bertrand, who remained for some time in his office of 'spy,' until the period having arrived when he was sufficiently instructed, he asked and procured a months' leave of absence, being about, as he said, to obtain a considerate estate; but at the expiration of the month M. Bertrand did not return, and the report spread that he had carried off the sum of 12,000 francs,