Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/243

, (addressing General Beaufort.) "GeneraGeneral [sic], I ask your pardon; but the more I look at you, the more I feel assured that I have had the honour of knowing you. Allow me to inquire whether you did not command the gendarmes at Mons?"

. "Yes, friend, in 1793. We were with Dumouriez and the then duke of Orleans."

. "There it was then, general, that I had the honour to serve under you."

(extending his hand to me with enthusiasm.) "Ah, my noble comrade, come, to my arms. You must positively eat your dinner with me. Gentlemen, I beg to present to you one of my old soldiers; he is tolerably strong built, is he not? Ah, I had many fine fellows under me; but never mind. I say, M. Picard, I think my friend here could have arrested even your gigantic M. Poulailler."

Whilst the worthy general was pressing my hands in his, and reiterating his request that I should dine with him, a gendarme, who had been seeking me amongst the spectators, approached me, and, gently touching my shoulder, said, "M. Vidocq, the king's solicitor has been inquiring for you, and wishes to see you immediately." It was really ludicrous to see how every countenance changed at these words. "What! can it be Vidocq?" exclaimed my late audience, with lengthened faces. "Vidocq! Vidocq!" shouted out others, and immediately all was fighting, struggling, and confusion, to endeavour to force a passage for the eager looks of those who were not sufficiently near to gratify their eye-sight with a view of the so much coveted monster, for such they certainly expected to find me. Some even climbed on the shoulders of their neighbours, to satisfy themselves as to whether I really was a human creature or not; of this I had convincing proofs by the following flying remarks which reached my ears:—

"Bless me! light complexion! I fancied him quite dark. I heard he was ill-looking. I see nothing so