thieves and pickpockets where they were carrying on their trade. I was on the look-out for cut-purses, friends or not of "La Charte;" but I defy any one to say that any one of my agents could be detected in uttering a seditious cry. There is no point of relation between a political spy and a police spy. Their attributes are totally distinct: the one only needs the courage to apprehend an honest man, who rarely makes any resistance. The courage of the other is wholly different, and rogues are not so tractable.
There was a report which for some time was very prevalent, namely, that recognized by a water-carrier in the midst of a group of students who would not attend to the lessons of M. the professor Recamier, I was nearly killed by them. I here declare that the statement was utterly unfounded. A spy was certainly pointed out, menaced, and even ill-treated. It was not I, and I confess I was not sorry for it; but had I been amongst the young men who were active in this fray, I should instantly have declared my name: they would soon have known that Vidocq never meddled with respectable young men, who did not carry on business in the "purse and watch line." Had I been amongst them, I would have conducted myself so as not to have drawn down any disagreeables on my head; and it would have been generally understood that my duty did not consist in exciting individuals already too much exasperated. The man who saved himself in a court, and thus escaped their vengeance, was Godin, a peace-officer. Besides, I repeat it, neither the seditious cries, nor the other evidences of opinion, were of consequence to me; and had any one pointed out to me the most seditious of the party, I should not have considered it any part of my duties to have noticed him. The political police is in regular troops, and has always volunteers on grand occasions, paid or unpaid, ready to second its designs. In 1795 the Septembrizers were let loose; they came from under-ground, and returned there again after the mas-
