Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/181

 conjoined as seldom to fail in their purpose. Rarely indeed did a criminal, interrogated by him, quit his closet without having confessed his crime, or given, unknown to himself, some clue by which to convict him. With M. Henry it was a sort of instinct which conducted him to the discovery of truth; it was not an acquired possession; and whoseover might have sought to assume his manner, to obtain me same results, would find himself continually perplexed and uncertain; for, cameleon-like, he changed with every circumstance, and varied with each character with whom he had to deal. Devoted to the duties of his post, he, in a manner, lived but for it, and was at all times accessible to the public business. It was not necessary under his management to wait till the hour of twelve before his offices were open to receive complaints, or, according to the present practice, to wait for hours in an antichamber ere an audience could be obtained. Industrious and persevering, no species of fatigue disheartened him; and to this undeviating course of life may be attributed the many infirmities with which he was afflicted, when, at the close of thirty-five years hard service, he retired from office. I have frequently seen him passing two or three nights in the week, and the greater part of his time, meditating upon the instructions he was about to give me, or to effect the prompt repression of crimes of every species. Illnesses (and he had many very severe ones) were scarcely permitted to interrupt his labours; it was only when carried into his study that he would listen to the directions of his physicians. In a word, he was a man, such as there are but very few, if indeed there exist any, like him; his very name was a terror to offenders, and when brought before him, audacious as they were, they trembled and became confused; they blundered in their answers, firmly believing that equivocation or denial was useless with one whom they firmly imagined had the power of reading their most inward thoughts.