Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/79

 about, to dig trenches, to strap up artillery geer, and, worse than that, to carry on my back the infernal knapsack, that eternal calf's skin which has killed more conscripts than the guns of Marengo. The calf's skin gave me a knock-down blow. I could not resist its attack. I offered myself to the depôt, and was admitted. I had only to undergo the inspection of the general. He was that martinet Sarrazin. He came to me. 'I will wager that he is still weak-chested: are you not?' 'Consumption in the second degree,' replied the major. 'Is it so? I thought it. I said so. They are all narrow-shouldered, hollow-chested, lanky limbed, thick visaged. Show your legs. Why there are four campaigns in them yet,' continued the general, striking me on the calf. 'And now what would you? Your dismissal? You shan't have it. Besides,' he added, 'death only comes to him who pauses: go your way.' I wished to speak. 'Begone,' repeated the general, 'and be silent.'

"The inspection concluded; I went and threw myself on my camp-bed, and whilst I reclined on my four-feet-long mattrass, reflecting on the harshness of the general, it occurred to me that I might find him more tractable if I were recommended by one of his brother officers. My father had been intimate with general Legrand, who was then at the camp at Ambleteuse, and I thought I might find a protector in him. I saw him, and he welcomed me as the son of an old friend, gave me a letter to Sarrazin, and sent one of his aide-de-camps to attend me. The recommendation was pressing, and I made sure of success. We arrived at the camp, and making for the general's abode, a soldier pointed it out to us, and we found ourselves at the gate of a dilapidated barrack, which bore no marks of being a general's residence; no sentinel, no inscription, no centry-box. I knocked with my sabre-hilt, and a voice cried 'Enter,' with the accent and tone of displeasure. A packthread, which I pulled, drew up a wooden latch, and the first object that met our eyes on penetrating this asylum, was a woollen covering, under