60 Memoirs and Confessions of [Jan. 
attempting to gain an honest livelihood by industrious pursuits, he was, 
on the other hand, exposed to the dangerous solicitations of thieves, by 
profession, with whom, from his long residence in prisons, he had become 
intimately acquainted ; and who, if he had plainly refused to assist their 
enterprises, would either have denounced him, or cut his throat. For 
several years he endured this painful existence. He joined a privateer 
crew, whom he properly enough calls corsaires. Some of his adventures 
here are singular, and the characters he falls in with of the most extraor- 
dinary kind. ‘Some of the scenes he paints are occasionally in so extra- 
vagantly ludicrous a style, that we cannot help suspecting that he, or 
the literary gentleman who was so good as to revise his manuscript, 
must have studied that prince of farceurs, Pigault le Brun, somewhat 
too closely. The character of M. Belle Rose, a gentleman employed in 
the recruiting service, might have figured in “ Mon Oncle Thomas.” The 
ideas of enlisting a dissolute clerk to be the notary to a marching regi- 
ment, and a discontented gardener’s apprentice as chief florist, with the 
care of cultivating the marine plants on board his French Majesty’s 
Ship, the Invincible, are not badly imagined, though somewhat coarse ; 
and the speech of M. Belle Rose, in which he explains the advantages 
which the colonies held out to aspiring spirits, would make Serjeant 
Kite blush. 
Tired of the constant difficulties which he encountered, in endeavour- 
ing to live honestly, by travelling about to country fairs with millinery, 
Vidocq at length went to Paris, to be out of the reach of pursuit, and 
free from the importunities of his former intimates. Here he was again 
baffled. St. Germain, a thorough paced and desperate robber, discovered 
him, drained him of his money, and made hima receiver of the produce 
of his thefts. At the same time he was denounced by Chevalier, whose 
sister he married at Arras. The police endeavoured to take him, and, 
although he escaped for a short time, he ultimately fell into their hands. 
He then made a communication to M. Henry, the principal director of 
the police of Paris, begging that he might be allowed to assist in the’ 
detection of criminals, and asking, as his only recompense, to be freed 
from the contaminating society of the persons by whom he was sur- 
rounded, and to serve out the term of his sentence in a solitary prison. 
M. Henry had been so often taken in by similar offers, that this was no 
easy matter to accomplish. Vidocq, however, convinced him, by some. 
information he furnished, that he might be made useful, and he was put 
on a sort of a probation. Still in the prison, he was employed to gain- 
the confidence of the criminals. That he did this successfully, his libera- 
tion, and the detection of many dangereus robbers, sufficiently attest. 
As to the manner in which it was effected, and the proof which it affords 
that the adage of “ honour among thieves,” is a mistake—these are mat- 
ters which are not to be very closely inquired into; the conduct of 
“ great men” must not be too rigorously examined. He appears, cer- 
tainly, to have possessed some very rare and valuable qualifications for 
the office he undertock. Great knowledge of the characters he had to 
deal with, their habits and pursuits, considerable personal strength, 
a fertile brain, indefatigable energy, and a physical insensibility, which, 
as it made him indifferent to pain and peril, almost amounted to courage. 
As it was not thought expedient openly to release him, Vidocq was 
permitted to escape from the guards who were conducting him to the 
prefecture de police, for an examination. As soon as he got free, he 
associated with the professed robbers of Paris, and obtained a great 
quantity of valuable information, which he communicated to the autho- 
rities. St. Germain now encountered him once more, proposed to him 
to join in a robbery and murder of two infirm old men, and until this 
