Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/84

 court would not bear him out, and Masson in vain pleaded his innocence: he was sentenced to incarceration.

A short time afterwards I was assisting at the preparations for the departure of the chain of galley-slaves, when Masson, whom I had not seen since his apprehension, saw me through the grating.

"Ha!" said he to me, "Monsieur Jean Louis: and so it was you who got me into the stone jug. Oh! if I had known that you were Vidocq I would have made you pay for the oranges!"

"You are a well-wisher of mine, then; you who made me the proposal of accompanying you?"

"Very true, but you never told me that you were a nose."

"If I had told you so I should have betrayed my trust, and that would not have prevented you from doing the job; you would only have chosen another pal."

"But you are not the less a rascal; I, who was so kind to you! Now, I would rather remain here as long as my life continued in my body, than be free, as you are, and equally dishonoured."

"Every man to his taste."

"That is very fine! your taste—a nose, a spy—very fine, truly!"

"Why, it is as respectable a trade as thieving; besides, but for us what would the honest men do?"

At these words he burst into a loud fit of laughter.

"Honest men I honest men!" he repeated, "you really make me laugh when I am in no grinning mood. Honest men! what would become of them? do not trouble yourself, for it cannot concern you; when you are at the meadow (Bagne) again you will sing to a different tune."

"Oh! he will return there," said one of the prisoners who was listening to us.

"He," cried out Masson, "we do not want him; luck to the jolly boys! that's the thing."