Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/34

 to separate; prayers, supplications, nothing could bend me; I was immutable. I might have pardoned her, it is true, if only out of gratitude; but who would convince me that she who had befriended me would break off with my rival? And might I not have cause to fear, that, in a moment of tenderness, she would compromise my safety by some disclosure? We then divided our stock of goods, and my companion quitting me, I never heard of her after.

Disgusted with my residence at Rouen, through this adventure, I took to my old trade of travelling merchant; my journies comprised the circuit of Nantes, Saint Germain, and Versailles, where, in a short time, I formed an excellent connexion; my profits became sufficiently considerable to allow of my renting at Versailles, in the Rue de la Fontaine, a warehouse, with a small apartment, which my mother inhabited during my journies. My conduct was then free from any stigma; I was generally esteemed in the circle which I had formed; and again I hoped that I had overcome the fatality which so often cast me into the path of dishonour, whence all my efforts were now used to free myself; when, denounced by an early friend, who thus revenged himself for some disagreement we had once had together, I was arrested on my return from the fair of Nantes. Although I obstinately asserted that, I was not Vidocq, but Blondel, as my passport proved, I was sent to St Denis, whence I was to be sent to Douai. By the extraordinary care taken to prevent my escape, I perceived that I was recommended; and a glance which I threw over the book of the gendarmerie, revealed to me a precaution of a very particular nature. I was thus designated—

"SPECIAL SURVEILLANCE.

Thus, to keep the vigilance of my guards on the alert, I was described as a great criminal. I set out