PART VIII.
THE REVENGE.
Levasseur and his confederates sailed for the penal settlements on theill-fated convict-ship, the _Amphytrion_, the total wreck of which onthe coast of France, and consequent drowning of the crew and prisoners,excited so painful a sensation in England. A feeling of regret for theuntimely fate of Le Breton, whom I regarded rather as a weak dupe than apurposed rascal, passed over my mind as I read the announcement in thenewspapers; but newer events had almost jostled the incidents connectedwith his name from my remembrance, when a terrible adventure vividlyrecalled them, and taught me how fierce and untameable are the instinctsof hate and revenge in a certain class of minds.
A robbery of plate had been committed in Portman Square with aningenuity and boldness which left no doubt that it had been effected byclever and practised hands. The detective officers first employed havingfailed to discover the offenders, the threads of the imperfect andbroken clue were placed in my hands, to see if my somewhat renowneddexterity, or luck, as many of my brother officers preferred calling it,would enable me to piece them out to a satisfactory conclusion. By thedescription obtained of a man who had been seen lurking about the housea few days previous to the burglary, it had been concluded by mypredecessors in the investigation that one Martin, a fellow with half adozen _aliases_, and a well-known traveler on the road to the hulks,was concerned in the affair; and by their advice a reward of fiftypounds had been offered for his apprehension and conviction. Iprosecuted the inquiry with my usual energy and watchfulness, withoutalighting upon any new fact or intimation of importance. I could notdiscover that a single article of the missing property had been eitherpawned or offered for sale, and little doubt remained that the cruciblehad fatally diminished the chances of detection. The only hope was, thatan increased reward might induce one of the gang to betray hisconfederates; and as the property was of large value, this was done, andone hundred guineas was promised for the required information. I hadbeen to the printer's to order the placards announcing the increasedrecompense; and after indulging in a long gossip with the foreman of theestablishment, whom I knew well, was passing at about a quarter-past teno'clock through Ryder's Court, Newport Market, where a tall man met andpassed me swiftly, holding a handkerchief to his face. There was nothingremarkable in that, as the weather was bitterly cold and sleety; and Iwalked unheedingly on. I was just in the act of passing out of the courttowards Leicester Square, when swift steps sounded suddenly behind me. Iinstinctively turned; and as I did so, received a violent blow on theleft shoulder--intended, I doubted not, for the nape of my neck--fromthe tall individual who had passed me a minute previously. As he stillheld the handkerchief to his face, I did not catch even a momentaryglance at his features, and he ran off with surprising speed. The blow,sudden, jarring, and inflicted with a sharp instrument--by a strongknife or a dagger--caused a sensation of faintness; and before Irecovered from it all chance of successful pursuit was at an end. Thewound, which was not at all serious, I had dressed at a chemist's shopin the Haymarket; and as proclaiming the attack would do nothingtowards detecting the perpetrator of it, I said little about it to anyone, and managed to conceal it entirely from my wife, to whom it wouldhave suggested a thousand painful apprehensions whenever I happened tobe unexpectedly detained from home. The brief glimpse I had of thebalked assassin afforded no reasonable indication of his identity. To besure he ran at an amazing and unusual pace, but this was a qualificationpossessed by so many of the light-legged as well as light-fingeredgentry of my professional acquaintance, that it could not justify even arandom suspicion; and I determined to forget the unpleasant incident assoon as possible.
The third evening after this occurrence I was again passing alongLeicester Square at a somewhat late hour, but this time with all my eyesabout me. Snow, which the wind blew sharply in one's face, was fallingfast, and the cold was intense. Except myself, and a tallishsnow-wreathed figure--a woman apparently--not a living being was to beseen. This figure, which was standing still at the further side of thesquare, appeared to be awaiting me, and as I drew near it, threw backthe hood of a cloak, and to my great surprise disclosed the features ofa Madame Jaubert. This lady, some years before, had carried on, not veryfar from the spot where she now stood, a respectable millinery business.She was a widow with one child, a daughter of about seven years of age.Marie-Louise, as she was named, was one unfortunate day sent to CoventryStreet on an errand with some money in her hand, and never returned. Theinquiries set on foot proved utterly without effect: not the slightestintelligence of the fate of the child was obtained--and the grief anddistraction of the bereaved mother resulted in temporary insanity. Shewas confined in a lunatic asylum for seven or eight months, and whenpronounced convalescent, found herself homeless, and almost penniless,in the world. This sad story I had heard from one of the keepers of theasylum during her sojourn there. It was a subject she herself never, Iwas aware, touched upon; and she had no reason to suspect that I was inthe slightest degree informed of this melancholy passage in her life.She, why, I know not, changed her name from that of Duquesne to the oneshe now bore--Jaubert; and for the last two or three years had supporteda precarious existence by plausible begging-letters addressed to personsof credulous benevolence; for which offence she had frequently visitedthe police-courts at the instance of the secretary of the MendicitySociety, and it was there I had consequently made her acquaintance.
"Madame Jaubert!" I exclaimed with unfeigned surprise, "why, what onearth can you be waiting here for on such a night as this?"
"To see you!" was her curt reply.
"To see me! Depend upon it, then, you are knocking at the wrong door fornot the first time in your life. The very little faith I ever had inprofessional widows, with twelve small children, all down in themeasles, has long since vanished, and"----
"Nay," she interrupted--she spoke English, by the way, like anative--"I'm not such a fool as to be trying the whimpering dodge uponyou. It is a matter of business. You want to find Jem Martin?"
"Ay, truly; but what can _you_ know of him? Surely you are not _yet_fallen so low as to be the associate or accomplice of burglars?"
"Neither yet, nor likely to be so," replied the woman; "still I couldtell you where to place your hand on James Martin, if I were but sure ofthe reward."
"There can be no doubt about that," I answered.
"Then follow me, and before ten minutes are past you will have securedyour man."
I did so--cautiously, suspiciously; for my adventure three eveningsbefore had rendered me unusually circumspect and watchful. She led theway to the most crowded quarter of St. Giles's, and when she had reachedthe entrance of a dark blind alley, called Hine's Court, turned into it,and beckoned me to follow.
"Nay, nay, Madame Jaubert," I exclaimed, "that wont do. You mean fairly,I dare say; but I don't enter that respectable alley alone at this timeof night."
She stopped, silent and embarrassed. Presently she said with a sneer,"You are afraid, I suppose?"
"Yes I am."
"What is to be done then?" she added after a few moments' consideration."He is alone, I assure you."
"That is possible; still I do not enter that _cul-de-sac_ to-nightunaccompanied save by you."
"You suspect me of some evil design, Mr. Waters?" said the woman with anaccent of reproach. "I thought you might, and yet nothing can be furtherfrom the truth. My sole object is to obtain the reward, and escape fromthis life of misery and degradation to my own country, and if possiblebegin the world respectably again. Why should you doubt me?"
"How came you acquainted with this robber's haunts?"
"The explanation is easy, but this is not the time for it. Stay; can'tyou get assistance?"
"Easily--in less than ten minutes; and if you are here when I return,and your information proves correct, I will ask pardon for mysuspicions."
"Be it so," she said joyfully; "and be quick, for this weather isterrible."
Ten minutes had not passed when I retu
rned with half-a-dozen officers,and found Madame Jaubert still at her post. We followed her up thecourt, caught Martin sure enough asleep upon a wretched pallet of strawin one of the alley hovels, and walked him off, terribly scared andsurprised, to the nearest station-house, where he passed the remainderof the night.
The next day Martin proved an _alibi_ of the distinctest, mostundeniable kind. He had been an inmate of Clerkenwell prison for thelast three months, with the exception of just six days previous to ourcapture of him; and he was of course at once discharged. The reward waspayable only upon conviction of the offender, and the disappointment ofpoor Madame Jaubert was extreme. She wept bitterly at the thought ofbeing compelled to continue her present disreputable mode of life, whena thousand francs--a sum she believed Martin's capture would haveassured her--besides sufficient for her traveling expenses and decentoutfit, would, she said, purchase a partnership in a small butrespectable millinery shop in Paris. "Well," I remarked to her, "thereis no reason for despair. You have not only proved your sincerity andgood faith, but that you possess a knowledge--how acquired you bestknow--of the haunts and hiding-places of burglars. The reward, as youmay have seen by the new placards, has been doubled; and I have a strongopinion, from something that has reached me this morning, that if youcould light upon one Armstrong, _alias_ Rowden, it would be as certainlyyours as if already in your pocket."
"Armstrong--Rowden!" repeated the woman with anxious simplicity; "Inever heard either of these names. What sort of a person is he?"
I described him minutely; but Madame Jaubert appeared to entertainlittle or no hope of discovering his whereabout; and ultimately wentaway in a very disconsolate mood, after, however, arranging to meet methe next evening.
I met her as agreed. She could obtain, she said, no intelligence of anyreliable worth; and she pressed me for further particulars. WasArmstrong a drinking, a gaming, or a play-going man? I told her all Iknew of his habits, and a gleam of hope glanced across her face as oneor two indications were mentioned. I was to see her again on the morrow.It came; she was as far off as ever; and I advised her to waste nofurther time in the pursuit, but to at once endeavor to regain aposition of respectability by the exercise of industry in the trade orbusiness in which she was reputedly well-skilled. Madame Jaubert laughedscornfully; and a gleam, it seemed to me, of her never entirely subduedinsanity shot out from her deep-set, flashing eyes. It was finallysettled that I should meet her once more at the same place at abouteight o'clock the next evening.
I arrived somewhat late at the appointed rendezvous, and found MadameJaubert in a state of manifest excitement and impatience. She had, shewas pretty sure, discovered Armstrong, and knew that he was at thatmoment in a house in Greek Street, Soho.
"Greek Street, Soho! Is he alone?"
"Yes; with the exception of a woman who is minding the premises, and ofwhom he is an acquaintance under another name. You will be able tosecure him without the least risk or difficulty, but not an instant mustbe lost."
Madame Jaubert perceived my half-hesitation. "Surely" she exclaimed,"you are not afraid of one man! It's useless affecting to suspect _me_after what has occurred."
"True," I replied. "Lead on."
The house at which we stopped in Greek Street appeared to be an emptyone, from the printed bills in the windows announcing it to be let orsold. Madame Jaubert knocked in a peculiar manner at the door, which waspresently opened by a woman. "Is Mr. Brown still within?" Madame Jaubertasked in a low voice.
"Yes: what do you want with him?"
"I have brought a gentleman who will most likely be a purchaser of someof the goods he has to dispose of."
"Walk in, then, if you please," was the answer. We did so; and foundourselves, as the door closed, in pitch darkness. "This way," said thewoman; "you shall have a light in half a minute."
"Let me guide you," said Madame Jaubert, as I groped onwards by thewall, and at the same time seizing my right hand. Instantly as she didso, I heard a rustle just behind me--two quick and violent blowsdescended on the back of my head, there was a flash before my eyes, asuppressed shout of exultation rang in my ears, and I fell insensible tothe ground.
It was some time, on partially recovering my senses, before I couldrealize either what had occurred or the situation in which I foundmyself. Gradually, however, the incidents attending theartfully-prepared treachery of Madame Jaubert grew into distinctness,and I pretty well comprehended my present position. I was lying at thebottom of a cart, blindfold, gagged, handcuffed, and covered over bywhat, from their smell, seemed to be empty corn-sacks. The vehicle wasmoving at a pretty rapid rate, and judging from the roar and tumultwithout, through one of the busiest thoroughfares of London. It wasSaturday evening; and I thought, from the character of the noises, andthe tone of a clock just chiming ten, that we were in Tottenham CourtRoad. I endeavored to rise, but found, as I might have expected, that itwas impossible to do so; my captors having secured me to the floor ofthe cart by strong cords. There was nothing for it, therefore, butpatience and resignation; words easily pronounced, but difficult, undersuch circumstances, to realize in practice. My thoughts, doubtless inconsequence of the blows I had received, soon became hurried andincoherent. A tumultuous throng of images swept confusedly past, ofwhich the most constant and frequent were the faces of my wife andyoungest child, whom I had kissed in his sleep just previous to leavinghome. Madame Jaubert and James Martin were also there; and ever and anonthe menacing countenance of Levasseur stooped over me with a hideousexpression, and I felt as if clutched in the fiery grasp of a demon. Ihave no doubt that the voice which sounded in my ear at the moment I wasfelled to the ground must have suggested the idea of the Swiss--faintlyand imperfectly as I caught it. This tumult of brain only graduallysubsided as the discordant uproar of the streets--which no doubt addedto the excitement I was suffering under by suggesting the exasperatingnearness of abundant help which could not be appealed to--died graduallyaway into a silence only broken by the rumble of the cart-wheels, andthe subdued talk of the driver and his companions, of whom thereappeared to be two or three. At length the cart stopped, I heard a doorunlocked and thrown open, and a few moments afterwards I was draggedfrom under the corn-sacks, carried up three flights of stairs, anddropped brutally upon the floor till a light could be procured. Directlyone was brought, I was raised to my feet, placed upright against awooden partition, and staples having been driven into the paneling,securely fastened in that position, with cords passed through them, andround my armpits. This effected, an authoritative voice--the nowdistinct recognition of which thrilled me with dismay--ordered that Ishould be unblinded. It was done; and when my eyes became somewhataccustomed to the suddenly-dazzling light and glare, I saw Levasseur andthe clerk Dubarle standing directly in front of me, their faces kindledinto flame by fiendish triumph and delight. The report that they hadbeen drowned was then a mistake, and they had incurred the peril ofreturning to this country for the purpose of avenging themselves uponme; and how could it be doubted that an opportunity achieved at suchfearful risk, would be effectually, remorselessly used? A pang of mortalterror shot through me, and then I strove to awaken in my heart a sternendurance, and resolute contempt of death, with, I may now confess, veryindifferent success. The woman Jaubert was, I also saw, present; and aman, whom I afterwards ascertained to be Martin, was standing near thedoorway, with his back towards me. These two, at a brief intimation fromLevasseur, went down stairs; and then the fierce exultation of the twoescaped convicts--of Levasseur especially--broke forth with wolfish rageand ferocity. "Ha--ha--ha!" shouted the Swiss, at the same time strikingme over the face with his open hand, "you find, then, that others canplot as well as you can--dog, traitor, scoundrel that you are! 'Aurevoir--alors!' was it, eh? Well, here we are, and I wish you joy of themeeting. Ha--ha! How dismal the rascal looks, Dubarle!"--(Again thecoward struck me)--"He is hardly grateful to me, it seems, for havingkept my word. I always do, my fine fellow," he added with a savagechuckle; "and never neglect to pay my deb
ts of honor. Yoursespecially," he continued, drawing a pistol from his pocket, "shall beprompt payment, and with interest too, scelerat!" He held the muzzle ofthe pistol to within a yard of my forehead, and placed his finger on thetrigger. I instinctively closed my eyes, and tasted in that fearfulmoment the full bitterness of death; but my hour was not yet come.Instead of the flash and report which I expected would herald me intoeternity, a taunting laugh from Levasseur at the terror he excited rangthrough the room.
"Come--come," said Dubarle, over whose face a gleam of commiseration,almost of repentance, had once or twice passed; "you will alarm thatfellow down stairs with your noise. We must, you know, wait till he isgone; and he appears to be in no hurry. In the meantime let us have agame of piquet for the first shot at the traitor's carcase."
"Excellent--capital!" shouted Levasseur with savage glee. "A game ofpiquet; the stake your life, Waters! A glorious game! and mind you seefair-play. In the meantime here's your health, and better luck next timeif you should chance to live to see it." He swallowed a draught of winewhich Dubarle, after helping himself, had poured out for him; and thenapproaching me, with the silver cup he had drained in his hand, said,"Look at the crest! Do you recognize it--fool, idiot that you are?"
I did so readily enough: it was a portion of the plunder carried offfrom Portman Square.
"Come," again interposed Dubarle, "let us have our game."
The play began, and---- But I will dwell no longer upon this terriblepassage in my police experience. Frequently even now the incidents ofthat night revisit me in dreams, and I awake with a start and cry ofterror. In addition to the mental torture I endured, I was sufferingunder an agonizing thirst, caused by the fever of my blood, and thepressure of the absorbing gag, which still remained in my mouth. It waswonderful I did not lose my senses. At last the game was over; the Swisswon, and sprang to his feet with the roar of a wild beast.
At this moment Madame Jaubert entered the apartment somewhat hastily."This man below," she said, "is getting insolent. He has taken it intohis tipsy head that you mean to kill your prisoner, and he wont, hesays, be involved in a murder, which would be sure to be found out. Itold him he was talking absurdly; but he is still not satisfied, so youhad better go down and speak to him yourself."
I afterwards found, it may be as well to mention here, that MadameJaubert and Martin had been induced to assist in entrapping me, in orderthat I might be out of the way when a friend of Levasseur's, who hadbeen committed to Newgate on a serious charge, came to be tried, I beingthe chief witness against him; and they were both assured that I hadnothing more serious to apprehend than a few days' detention. Inaddition to a considerable money-present, Levasseur had, moreover,promised Madame Jaubert to pay her expenses to Paris, and assist inplacing her in business there.
Levasseur muttered a savage imprecation on hearing the woman's message,and then said, "Come with me, Dubarle; if we cannot convince the fellow,we can at least silence him! Marie Duquesne, you will remain here."
As soon as they were gone, the woman eyed me with a compassionateexpression, and approaching close to me, said in a low voice, "Do not bealarmed at their tricks and menaces. After Thursday you will be sure tobe released."
I shook my head, and as distinctly as I could made a gesture with myfettered arms towards the table on which the wine was standing. Sheunderstood me. "If," said she, "you will promise not to call out, I willrelieve you of the gag."
I eagerly nodded compliance. The gag was removed, and she held a cup ofwine to my fevered lips. It was a draught from the waters of paradise,and hope, energy, life, were renewed within me as I drank.
"You are deceived," I said in a guarded voice, the instant my burningthirst was satisfied. "They intend to murder me, and you will beinvolved as an accomplice."
"Nonsense," she replied. "They have been frightening you, that's all."
"I again repeat you are deceived. Release me from these fetters andcords, give me but a chance of at least selling my life as dearly as Ican, and the money you told me you stood in need of shall be yours."
"Hark!" she exclaimed. "They are coming!"
"Bring down a couple of bottles of wine," said Levasseur from the bottomof the stairs. Madame Jaubert obeyed the order, and in a few minutesreturned.
I renewed my supplications to be released, and was of course extremelyliberal of promises.
"It is vain talking," said the woman. "I do not believe they will harmyou; but even if it were as you say, it is too late now to retrace mysteps. You cannot escape. That fool below is already three-partsintoxicated: they are both armed, and would hesitate at nothing if theybut suspected treachery."
It was vain to urge her. She grew sullen and menacing and was insistingthat the gag should be replaced in my mouth, when a thought struck me.
"Levasseur called you Marie Duquesne just now; but surely your name isJaubert--is it not?"
"Do not trouble yourself about my name," she replied, "that is myaffair, not yours."
"Because if you _are_ the Marie Duquesne who once kept a shop inCranbourne Alley, and lost a child called Marie-Louise, I could tell yousomething."
A wild light broke from her dark eyes, and a suppressed scream from herlips. "I am that Marie Duquesne!" she said in a voice tremulous withemotion.
"Then I have to inform you that the child so long supposed to be lost Idiscovered nearly three weeks ago."
The woman fairly leapt towards me, clasped me fiercely by the arms, andpeering in my face with eyes on fire with insane excitement, hissed out,"You lie--you lie, you dog! You are striving to deceive me! She is inheaven: the angels told me so long since."
I do not know, by the way, whether the falsehood I was endeavoring topalm off upon the woman was strictly justifiable or not; but I am fainto believe that there are few moralists that would not, under thecircumstances, have acted pretty much as I did.
"If your child was lost when going on an errand to Coventry Street, andher name is Marie-Louise Duquesne, I tell you she is found. How should Iotherwise have become acquainted with these particulars?"
"True--true," she muttered: "how else should he know? Where is she?"added the woman in tones of agonized entreaty, as she sank down andclasped my knees. "Tell me--tell me, as you hope for life or mercy,where I may find my child?"
"Release me, give me a chance of escape, and to-morrow your child shallbe in your arms. Refuse, and the secret dies with me."
She sprang quickly to her feet, unclasped the handcuffs, snatched aknife from the table, and cut the cords which bound me with eager haste."Another draught of wine," she said still in the same hurried, almostinsane manner. "You have work to do! Now, whilst I secure the door, doyou rub and chafe your stiffened joints." The door was soon fastened,and then she assisted in restoring the circulation to mypartially-benumbed limbs. This was at last accomplished, and MarieDuquesne drew me towards a window, which she softly opened. "It isuseless," she whispered, "to attempt a struggle with the men below. Youmust descend by this," and she placed her hand upon a lead water-pipe,which reached from the roof to within a few feet of the ground.
"And you," I said; "how are you to escape?"
"I will tell you. Do you hasten on towards Hampstead, from which we aredistant in a northerly direction about a mile. There is a house at abouthalf the distance. Procure help, and return as quickly as possible. Thedoor-fastenings will resist some time, even should your flight bediscovered. You will not fail me?"
"Be assured I will not." The descent was a difficult and somewhatperilous one, but it was safely accomplished, and I set off at the topof my speed towards Hampstead.
I had gone perhaps a quarter of a mile, when the distant sound of ahorse's feet, coming at a slow trot towards me, caught my ear. I paused,to make sure I was not deceived, and as I did so, a wild scream from thedirection I had left, followed by another and another, broke upon thestillness of the night. The scoundrels had no doubt discovered myescape, and were about to wreak their vengeance upon the unfortunatecr
eature in their power. The trot of the horse which I had heard was,simultaneously with the breaking out of those wild outcries, increasedto a rapid gallop. "Hallo!" exclaimed the horseman as he came swiftlyup. "Do you know where these screams come from?" It was the horse-patrolwho thus providentially came up! I briefly stated that the life of awoman was at the mercy of two escaped convicts. "Then for God's sakejump up behind me!" exclaimed the patrol. "We shall be there in a coupleof minutes." I did so: the horse--a powerful animal, and not entirelyunused to carry double--started off, as if it comprehended the necessityfor speed, and in a very brief space of time we were at the door of thehouse from which I had so lately escaped. Marie Duquesne, with her bodyhalf out of the window, was still wildly screaming as we rushed into theroom below. There was no one there, and we swiftly ascended the stairs,at the top of which we could hear Levasseur and Dubarle thundering atthe door, which they had unexpectedly found fastened, and hurling astorm of imprecations at the woman within, the noise of which enabled usto approach them pretty nearly before we were heard or perceived. Martinsaw us first, and his sudden exclamation alarmed the others. Dubarle andMartin made a desperate rush to pass us, by which I was momently thrownon one side against the wall; and very fortunately, as the bulletlevelled at me from a pistol Levasseur held in his hand would probablyhave finished me. Martin escaped, which I was not very sorry for; butthe patrol pinned Dubarle safely, and I griped Levasseur with a strengthand ferocity against which he was powerless as an infant. Our victorywas complete; and two hours afterwards, the recaptured convicts weresafely lodged in a station-house.
I caused Madame Duquesne to be as gently undeceived the next morning aspossible, with respect to her child; but the reaction anddisappointment proved too much for her wavering intellect. She relapsedinto positive insanity, and was placed in Bedlam, where she remained twoyears. At the end of that period she was pronounced convalescent. Asufficient sum of money was raised by myself and others, not only tosend her to Paris, but to enable her to set up as a milliner in a smallbut respectable way. As lately as last May, when I saw her there she wasin health both of mind and body, and doing comfortably.
With the concurrence of the police authorities, very little was saidpublicly respecting my entrapment. It might perhaps have excited amonomania amongst liberated convicts--colored and exaggerated as everyincident would have been for the amusement of the public--to attemptsimilar exploits. I was also anxious to conceal the peril I hadencountered from my wife; and it was not till I had left the policeforce that she was informed of it. Levasseur and Dubarle were convictedof returning from transportation before the term for which they had beensentenced had expired, and were this time sent across the seas for life.The reporters of the morning papers, or rather the reporter for the"Times," "Herald," "Chronicle," "Post," and "Advertiser," gave preciselythe same account, even to the misspelling of Levasseur's name,dismissing the brief trial in the following paragraph, under the head of"Old Bailey Sessions:"--"Alphonse Dubarle (24), and Sebastian Levasson(49), were identified as unlawfully-returned convicts, and sentenced totransportation for life. The prisoners, it was understood, wereconnected with the late plate-robbery in Portman Square; but asconviction could not have increased their punishment, the indictment wasnot pressed."
Levasseur, I had almost forgotten to state, admitted that it was he whowounded me in Ryder's Court, Leicester Square.
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