Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/194

 one. I immediately took off my coat, and in less than twenty-five minutes Madame Sablin was delivered: it was a boy, a fine boy, to which she gave birth. I swaddled the infant, after having made this toilet of his first ingress or first egress, for I believe that in this instance the two expressions are synonymous; and when the ceremony was over, on looking at my work, I had the satisfaction to find that both mother and child were doing "as well as could be expected".

Then I had to fulfilfulfill [sic] a form, the entry of the little newcome on the register of the civil magistrates; we were all anxious: I offered to be subscribing witness; and when I had signed, Madame Sablin said to me,

"Ah! Monsieur Jules, since you are here, there is another service you could render us."

"What?"

"I dare scarcely name it."

"Speak, if it be in my power."

"We have no godfather; would you be kind enough to stand for the boy?"

"Certainly, as well as another; where is the godmother?"

Madame Sablin begged us to call in one of her neighbours; and as soon as all was in readiness, we went to church, accompanied by Sablin, whose escape I had rendered impossible. The honors of this sponsorship did not cost me less than fifty francs, and yet there was no christening feast.

In spite of the vexation which Sablin necessarily experienced, he was so deeply penetrated by my proceedings, that he could not forbear testifying his gratitude.

After a good breakfast, which was brought to us in the chamber of the lying-in lady, I conducted her husband to Paris, where he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Being master turnkey at La Force, where he underwent his sentence, Sablin found in this employment, not only a means of living well, but also that of saving, at the expense of the prisoners and the