Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/219

 a good fellow; and although he nabbed me once, never mind, I owe him no ill-will for it."

"I know that, my regular," said I; "besides, why should you be angry with me? is it my fault if you do a bit of moonlight?"

"Moonlight! Ah!" replied Court, with the accent of a man who felt himself all at once relieved of the weight of a mountain; "moonlight, oh, M. Jules, if it were so, you know very well I should make no secret of it with you; however, you are welcome to look about you, and see what is to be seen."

Whilst he was every moment becoming more tranquil as to the nature of my visit, I proceeded to turn over everything in the apartment, in which I found a pair of pistols ready loaded and primed; some knives; clothes, which appeared to have been recently washed; with several other articles, all of which I seized.

There now only remained to put the finishing stroke to my expedition, by arresting both husband and wife; for, to have allowed either of them to remain at large, would have ensured the destruction of my plan for entrapping Raoul, who would have learned from them sufficient to defeat my schemes. I therefore conducted them both to the station in the Place Cadet. Court, whom I had pinioned, relapsed all of a sudden into his original terror, and became gloomy and pensive. The precautions taken by me rendered him uneasy, and his wife appeared to participate in his terrible reflections. Their consternation was complete, when, upon our arrival at the guard-house, they heard me give orders that they should be kept apart and carefully watched. I directed that they should be plentifully supplied with food; but they were neither hungry nor thirsty.

Whenever Court was questioned on the subject, a mournful shake of the head was the only answer returned; and eighteen hours elapsed without his opening his lips. His eye was fixed and heavy, and his whole countenance rigid and immovable. This impassability convinced me but too well that he was guilty. Under