Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/149

 a simple formality. (Addressing his attendants). Gentlemen, are the egresses well guarded?"

After a very minute search of the inner room, the commissary returned to that in which I was. "And in this bed," said he, raising the tattered damask curtain, whilst at my feet I felt one of the corners of the mattress shake, which they let fall carelessly, "there is no Vidocq here. Come, he must have made himself invisible; we must give over our search." It may be imagined that I felt overjoyed at these words, which removed an enormous weight from my mind. At length all the alguazils retired, the brass-worker's wife attending them with much politeness, and I was left alone with the father and son, and a little child, who did not think that I was so near them. I heard them pitying me; but madame Fossé soon ran up the staircase, four steps at a time, until she was quite of breath, and I still was the theme of conversation.

SCENE THE THIRD.

THE HUSBAND, WIFE, AND SON.

Wife. "Oh my God! my God! how many people there are in the street. Ah! they say fine things about M. Vidocq; they talk much, and all sorts of things. However, there must be some of it true; never so much smoke without some fire. I knew very well that this monsieur Vidocq was a proud chap for a master-tailor. His arms were crossed much more frequently than his legs."

Husband. "There you go like all the rest with your suppositions; you are a slanderous woman now. Besides, it is no business of ours; and suppose that it did concern us, of what do they accuse him, what do they chatter about? I am not curious."

Wife. "What do they chatter about! Why the very thoughts on't make me tremble, when they say he is a man condemned to death for having killed a man.