Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/281

 sacrifice which I make, at the risk of being taxed with immodesty, for a confession, the motives of which have been dissembled or perverted: it marks the limit between what fought to preserve and what to destroy. After my enlistment amongst the pirates at Boulogne, it will be perceived easily that it is I who hold the pen. This prose is such as M. Baron Pasquier was pleased to approve, for which he had even a predilection which he did not conceal. I ought to remember the eulogiums he passed on the abridged reports which I addressed to him: be that as it may, I have repaired the injury as far as was in my power, and in spite of the increase of labour which has fallen to my lot in the direction of a large working establishment which I have formed, resolved my Memoirs shall be really "the police stripped and exposed to the public," I have not hesitated to undertake, in addition, the narration of all that relates to the police. The necessity of such a labour must cause some delays, but it will justify them at the same time, and the public will not be the losers. Formerly, Vidocq, under sentence of justice, could only speak reservedly; now it is Vidocq, the free citizen, who freely narrates "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."