Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/37

 me more and more in the opinion, that we must not always trust to conscripts. The prison was soon filled with gendarmes, who drew up a statement of facts: they examined us, wishing to know all, and I declared that I had given the conscript three louis, which he denied; he was examined, and on their being found in his shoes, he was put in the black-hole.

As for us, we were threatened most menacingly; but as they could not punish us, they contented themselves with doubling the guard. There was now no method of escape, without one of those opportunities for which I watched incessantly, and which presented itself earlier than I expected. The next day was the day of our departure, and we had descended into the barrack-yard, which was in great confusion from the arrival of a fresh number of prisoners and a detachment of conscripts from Ardennes, who were going to the camp at Boulogne. The adjutants were squabbling with the gendarmes about room for forming three divisions, and making the muster-call. While each were counting their men, I glided cautiously in at the tail of a baggage-waggon just leaving the court, and thus passed through the city, motionless, and in as small a compass as possible, to elude detection. Once beyond the ramparts, I had only to steal away; and I seized the opportunity whilst the waggoner, thirsty, as these people always are, had gone into an ale-house to refresh himself; and whilst his horses awaited him on the road, I lightened his conveyance of a load, of which he was not aware. I slept in a field of maize, and when night arrived, directed my steps eastward.