Vidocq

Vidocq, EUGÈNE FRANÇOIS, 'the detective,' was born a baker's son at Arras on 23d July 1775, and as a boy persistently robbed the till of his father's shop. He was sent to the house of correction, but signalised his release by decamping with £80. Of this a sharper relieved him at Ostend; and to keep himself in life he engaged himself to sweep the cages of a travelling menagerie. From this post he was advanced to that of tumbler and acrobat; and a further promotion was intended him to a supposed savage, eating raw flesh and drinking blood. As he chose to decline the appointment, his services were dispensed with, and he returned home. Entering the army, he attained the rank of corporal, and served with some credit in Belgium and elsewhere, till a wound disabled him. For some years he seems to have lived as a scoundrel at large, occupying himself in swindling and disreputable love-affairs. In 1796 he turned up in Paris, and being detected in forgery was sentenced to eight years as a galley-slave. Before his term of durance had expired he found means to escape, and became one of a band of highwaymen. They, on discovering that he was an escaped galley-slave, declined, it is said, any further acquaintance, whilst exacting from him a solemn oath not to betray them. Vidocq took the oath, and instantly delivered the whole gang into the hands of the authorities. Then repairing to Paris about 1808, he offered his services to the authorities there as a spy on the criminal classes. His advances were at first coolly received, but gradually he made his way; and in 1812 a 'Brigade de Sureté' was organised, with Vidocq as chief. Consisting at first of only four men, by degrees it was enlarged to twenty-eight; and its efficiency was something marvellous. Suspicions, however, grew rife that Vidocq was himself the originator of many of the burglaries he showed himself so clever in hunting out, and in 1825 he was superseded. He then started a paper-mill, and in 1832 a private detective office, which soon, however, was closed by the authorities. He died in Paris, May 1857. His Mémoires (1828), even if really by himself, are certainly untrustworthy.