Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/130

 then quite free; she pleased me; I liked her wit, understanding, kindly feeling, and ventured to tell her so; she saw soon, and without much trouble, my assiduity and regard; and we found that we could not exist without each other. Annette came to live with me, and as I resumed the trade of a travelling seller of fashionable commodities, she resolved to accompany me in my perambulations. The first journey we undertook together was excessively fortunate. I learnt, however, at the moment I was leaving Melun, from the landlord of the inn at which I had put up, that the commissary of police had testified some regret at not having examined my papers; but what was deferred was not ended, and that at my next visit, he meant to pay me a visit. The information surprised me, for I must consequently have been in some way an object of suspicion. To go on might lead to danger, and I therefore returned to Paris, resolving not to make any other journeys, unless I could render less unfavorable the chances which combined against me.

Having started very early, I reached the faubourg Saint Marceau in good time; and at my entrance, I heard the hawkers bawling out, "that two well-known persons are to be executed to-day at the Place de Grêve." I listened, and fancied I distinguished the name of Herbaux. Herbaux, the author of the forgery which caused all my misfortunes! I listened with more attention, but with an involuntary shudder; and this time the crier, to whom I had approached, repeated the sentence with these additions: "Here is the sentence of the criminal tribunal of the department of the Seine, which condemns to death the said Armand Saint Leger, an old sailor, born at Bayonne, and César Herbaux, a freed galley-slave, born at Lille, accused and convicted of murder," &c.

I could doubt no longer; the wretch who had heaped so much misery on my head was about to suffer at the scaffold. Shall I confess that I felt a sentiment of joy, and yet I trembled? Tormented again, and