Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/133

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108
MEMOIRS OF VIDOCQ.

another prisoner, that he had been to sup with them at the cabaret of Dordreck, and that Coquelle and Prévôt had not returned till midnight; that he declared to the judge at Douai, that the seal found at the foot of the bed did not come from him; that he had not served in the battalion of which the seal bore the name, and did not know whether this battalion had been incorporated into one of those in which he had served; that if he made any resistance at the visit to his dungeon, it was in consequence of the piece of file which he had, fearing that it might create a suspicion that he would use it to loosen his fitters.

"That the said Boitel had stated that he had been sentenced to St Peter's Tower in consequence of a sentence to six years' imprisonment; that he well remembered that one day Herbaux and Vidocq had asked him how much he would give to be set at liberty; that he promised them twelve louis, and gave them seven, promising the remainder when he was at home; that he went out of prison with his two brothers and Brice Coquelle; that he had been with them to the Dordreck, to drink some wine, until ten o'clock in the evening: that he well knew that he had got out of prison through a false order, forged by Vidocq and Herbaux, but that he did not know, by whom it had been brought.

"That the said Grouard had declared, in presence of the undersigned, that he knew of the liberation of the said Boitel, by virtue of a superior order; that after his going away he had seen the said order; that he had suspected it to be a forgery, and thought he recognized the writing of Herbaux; and that as for himself, he did not at all assist, either in the sending away Boitel or in the fabrication of the forgery.

"That the said Herbaux declared to the undersigned, that being with Vidocq and the other prisoners, they were conversing about Boitel; that the said Vidocq defied him to draw up an order by which the liberation of Boitel could be effected; that he ac-