Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 2.djvu/93

 shouts. These rejoicings were so often repeated, that at last his head became giddy; and his ephemeral majesty, introduced to a public house, swallowed without scarcely tasting it, a pound of bacon, which he mistook for Gruyère cheese. The meat was indigestible; and Dufailli, conducted back to his barrack, threw himself on his bed, when he soon begun to experience a most violent convulsion of the stomach, and in vain did he strive to repress the event that followed. The crisis over, he fell asleep, and was only awakened from his lethargic stupor by the growling of a dog and the noise of a cat, who were quarrelling in his room! O dignity of human nature, where wert thou! Such was the lesson of temperance which the Spartans gave their children, by making their slaves drunken, and then pointing out the effect of their excesses to them.

I have delayed an instant, to give the last and finishing touch to my fellow-countryman. He is no more. Peace be to his manes! Returned on board the brig, where Paulet had left me with the captain of the prize and five men of the crew of the 'Revanche,' scarcely had we closed the hatchways on our prisoners, than we begun coasting our way into Boulogne; but some reports of the cannon fired by the English before we had boarded, had summoned one of their frigates, which bore down upon us, crowding all sail; and was soon so near that several shots passed over us, and we were pursued as far as Calais, when the swell of the sea becoming very great, and a stormy wind blowing on shore, we thought she would sheer off for fear of getting amongst the breakers; but she was no longer under control, and driven towards land had to contend at once with all the violence of the elements. To run aground was her only chance of safety, but that was not attempted. In a moment the frigate was impelled beneath the cross fires of the Batteries de la Côte de Fer, of the jetty, and of Fort Rouge; and from every quarter there came a shower of bombs, chain-shot and grape.