Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/262

 The captures I made in 1813 were not so numerous as in 1817, but quite sufficient to increase their alarm. In 1814 and 1815, a gang of Parisian robbers freed from the English prison ships, returned to the capital, where they were not slow in resuming their former avocations: they had none of them ever seen me, nor had I seen them; and flattering themselves with the hope of eluding my vigilance, they commenced their campaign with surprising activity and audacity. In one single night there were in the faubourg St Germain, ten robberies by forcible entry; during more than six weeks nothing was talked of but such hardy exploits as these. M. Henry, despairing of any mode of repressing this system of robbery, was constantly on the watch; and I could discover nothing. At length, after many ambuscades and much vigilance, an experienced thief whom I apprehended, gave me some information; and in less than two months I placed in the grasp of justice a band of twenty-two thieves, one of twenty-eight, a third of eighteen, and some others of twelve, ten, or eight; not to say anything of the single ones, and the many "fences" (receivers), who were all forwarded to increase the population of the bagnes. It was at this period that I was authorised to augment my brigade with four new agents, chosen from amongst those thieves who had the advantage of knowing the new importation of robbers before their departure.

Three of these veterans, named Goreau, Florentin, and Coco-Lacour, who had been long confined at Bicêtre, earnestly prayed to be employed; they said they were entirely reformed, and swore they would henceforward live honestly by the produce of their labours, that is, upon the salary allotted to the police officers. They had been steeped in crime from infancy; and I thought that if their determinations of reformation were sincere, none could render me more important services than themselves, and I thereupon applied for their pardon; and although I was told of the chance of