56 Memoirs and Confessions of [Jan. 
was no occasion for me to concern myself. But it took a turn which threw 
blame on my carelessness ; for scarcely had forty-eight hours elapsed after the 
finishing of the memorial, when two brothers of Boitel arrived express, and 
came to dine with him at the jailor’s table. At the end of the repast, an order 
arrived, which being opened by the jailor, he cried, ‘Good news, by my faith! 
it is an order for the liberation of Boitel.’ At these words they all arose in 
confusion, embraced him, examined the order, and congratulated him; and 
Boitel, who had sent away his clothes, &c. the previous evening, immediately left 
the prison, without bidding adieu to any of the prisoners. 
« Next day, about ten o'clock in the morning, the inspector of the prisons 
came to visit us ; and, on the jailor’s shewing him the order for Boitel’s libera- 
tion, he cast his eye over it, saidit was a forgery, and that he should not allow 
the prisoner to depart until he had referred to the authorities. The jailor then 
said that Boitel had left on the previous evening. The inspector testified his 
astonishment that he should have been deceived by an order signed by persons 
whose names were unknown to him, and at last placed him under a guard. 
He then took the order away with him, and soon made himself certain that, 
independently of the forgery of the signatures, there were omissions and errors 
in form which must have struck any person at all familiar with such papers.” 
By the treachery of his companions, Vidocq is accused of having 
forged this order, with which he has, in fact, hadnothing to do. He then 
determines to escape, and effects his design in the dress of a superior 
officer, which has been brought to him’ by a woman with whom he had 
lived. After remaifiing concealed some time, he is retaken. One of the 
stratagems by which he eluded the pursuit that was made after him is 
amusing :— a 
“ Jacquard learnt one day that I was going to dine in Rue Notre-Dame. 
He immediately went with four assistants, whom he left on the ground-floor, ~ 
and ascended the staircase to the room where I was about to sit down to 
table with two females. A recruiting serjeant, who was to have made the 
fourth, had not yet arrived. I recognised Jacquard, who never having seen 
me, had not the same advantage ; and besides, my disguise would have bid 
defiance to any description of my person. Without being at all uneasy, I 
approached, and with the most natural tone I begged him to pass into a 
closet, the glass door of which looked on the banquet-room. ‘ It is Vidocq 
whom you are looking for,’ said I ; ‘ if you will wait for ten minutes you will 
see him. There is his cover, he cannot be long. When he enters, I will 
make you a sign; but if you are alone, I doubt if you can seize him, as he is 
armed, and resolved to defend himself.’-—* I have my gens @’ armes on the stair- 
case, answered he, ‘ and if he escapes ‘ Take care how you place them 
then,’ said I, with affected haste. ‘If Vidocq should see them he would 
mistrust some plot, and then farewell to the bird.—*‘ But where shall I place 
them ?’—‘ Oh, why. in this cleset—mind, no noise--that would spoil all; and 
I have more desire than yourself that he should not suspect anything. My — 
commissary was now shut up in four walls with his agents. The door, 
which was very strong, closed with a double lock. Then, certain of time for — 
escape, I cried to my prisoners, ‘ You are looking for Vidocq—well, it is he 
who has caged you; farewell.’ And away I went like a dart, leaving the 
party shouting for help, and making desperate efforts to escape from the 
unlucky closet.” 
After his recapture he escaped repeatedly, but was always so unfor- — 
tunate as to fall again into the hands of his enemies. The facility of his 
evasions proves either that English prisoners are the clumsiest persons 
in the world, or that English prisons are the most secure of all places. 
His exploits are, however, always managed with great ingenuity and 
daring. Being at length taken to Douai, he was brought to trial—con- 
