MEMOIRS OF ATETERATT DETECTIVE. iir columns rushed in silence to- tbe cWe' emy's batteries. The guns were v8j t nnre noint blank on our divisions, and imi tw ith -rape and canister. Scarcely had swep led when the commander of our second ffe.Str!vn received a mortal wound, the captain Tx «imDany was struck in two places, and >f mTc0. gui/aut and the color-bearer of the MK'feTldead at the same moment, together tfth hundreds of the rank and file pistinct over all the roar of cannon and mus- ketry ' could hear the calm voices of our offi- ¦ they ordered us to " close up the ranks." Another moment of suspense and carnage, a the drummer of a regiment in front had his S,t arm taken off by a cannon-shot in my • it He continued to beat the charge with il. left till he fell fainting from loss of blood. um him at the Invalides in Paris, in 1828. Ve continued to press forward against the TVlish guns, which all the time poured down rteîr torrents of grape upon our decimated ranks No sooner had we succeeded in gaining te t0p of the plateau, than we were fallen iinon by a division of dragoons, who attacked us with yells and cries of fury. The leading regi- ments, not having had time to form square, were unable to offer resistance to the attack, and were driven back in confusion. A carnage now began, every man fighting on his own account and separated hopelessly from his comrades. Only the saber and bayonet could be used, the crowded mass preventing the use of fire-arms. The position was no lon- ger tenable for isolated squads fighting against cavalry, and I soon found myself disarmed and a prisoner. The next moment I heard the com- mand, " Trot." French lancers and cuirassiers had been sent to our support. The English dragoons wheeled to repel the attack, and Iwas left alone. I profited by the opportunity to hide myself in a corn-field close at hand. The French cavalry charged the dragoons with such resolution that the latter were compelled to quit the field with heavy loss. I now attempted to rejoin my corps by crossing the battle-field in the rear; and, while doing this, I came upon the body of a British officer of dragoons, whose bead had been split in twain by a saber-cut. A superb gold chain hung from his fob, and, not- withstanding the precipitancy of my flight, I stopped to take possession of it, and' with it a beautiful gold watch, still going. As the En- glish had appropriated my arms and knapsack, I felt no scruples in thus enforcing the principle of "lex talionis." A littlo further on, I came upon a bag marked, " Labigne, Sub-Lieut., 53d;" and, finding it full of clean linen, of wliich I felt the value, having only the clothes stood up in, I appropriated this also. Not tar from here I encountered the Colonel of my regiment, with one or two officers, running about hke mad, and shouting, ' ' This way, 28th, tins way!" I was about to join him, when my attention was drawn by cries of distress at my , ,',7 turninS in the direction, I found, retched upon the ground, a young soldier of we 105th .of the line, whose leg had been okenby a bullet, and who was suffering tor- tures from lus unbandaged wound. tau» a(M" he cried, "do not leave me here be trampled to death by cavalry. For God's ¦»e, help me !" Jy* ont nfcl» t ?m there 1 marched for gani^mobofl i,-found assembled a disor- moj of soldiers of all arms, like myself, come thither in the hope of rejoining their corps, and of marching once more against the enemy! I was suffering from an extreme need of sleep ¦ tor during the fourteen hours since I left the battle-field I had not had a moment's rest. However, swallowing a little food, I pushed on at once for Avesnes, which I reached at 9 p. u. ihe gates were closed and the drawbridge raised; I was forced to lodge for the night in the open field. But at eighteen, after a trudge of ninety miles and forty-eight hours with almost no sleep, one is not over-fastidious. Besides were there not hundreds In the same predicament to keep me company? I slept soundly till 5 a.m. when the gates were opened. An adjutant sent by the com- manding officer came out to inform us that the garrison was overcrow-ded and we could not enter. He added that the army was reorganiz- ing at Laon, .and we should find there every facility for rejoining our respective corps. Among the soldiers who reached Avesnes at the same time with myself, I found three of my own regiment: Millet, sergeant of grenadiers his left arm taken off by a round shot; Vernon also a sergeant ; and Forestier, a corporal, both also wounded in the left arm. We set off together for Laon, on reaching which place my three friends went into the hospital. As for myself I rejoined such of my comrades as I could find, and for some time we drilled, marched, and rested under the command of our Colonel, who had escaped injury. At the opening of the campaign, our regiment had numbered fourteen hundred men ; scarcely two hundred came together at Laon. In this cam- paign of four days, the Emperor had delivered the two great battles of Fleurus and Waterloo. On the 28d of June, Marshal Soult reviewed the troops at Laon. On the same day I sold to a dealer, for one hundred and twenty francs, the watch I had taken from the body of the British officer, and wliich was worth not less than five hundred francs. However, I was satisfied; and unquestionably the purchaser was equally contented with his bargain. From Laon we marched for Soissons; but before crossing the latter city to camp outside the gate, we were formed in squares while our Colonel read to the regiment the abdication of Napoleon. It came upon us like a thunderbolt. In vain did the Colonel strive to reanimate our enthusiasm by shouting " Vive Napoleon II. !" The regiment, or what was left of it, responded with " Vive Napoleon II. !" But it would not do. Dismay sat on every face, and not one of us whose aspect did not say far louder than words: " What will become of us without our beloved Emperor?" Three days later we left Soissons for Com- piegne, but the English had arrived there before us. Our infantry threw itself hastily into the woods alongside the road, and the artillery halted on the causeway to reply to the enemy's fire. After an hour's skirmishing, the recall was sounded, and forming into columns by divisions, we marched for Villero-Coterets, and thence for Senlis where we arrived at ten o'clock in the evening. There, too, the enemy had got the start of us, and here commenced a dreadful march across the open country for upward of thirty hours. Exhaustion, heat, and hunger combined to break down the men ; sleep overpowered them. We slept marching; we would gladly have fought sleeping. At two in the morning we halted, and after a brief rest, started again across plowed fields, arriving at nine o'clock the following evening at Bondy, where we passed the night. Of the forty-nine hours we had been on the march we had rested two. At 5 a.m. we moved again, to camp at the Barrière de Montreuil. Eight days later we crossed the Loire, en route to Bergerac, and here remained till we were disbanded on thc 29th of September, 1815. The men of each corps were sent to their respective departments, to form what was called the " departmental legion." Three of us belonged to Pas-de-Calais; Ville- mand, musician, Pènot, private, and myself. We made the journey together, and having sur- rendered our arms at Tours, headed at once for Paris. To reach the city we had to cross the Bois do Boulogne, and here we found several British regiments bivouacked. These, seeing us without arms, pursued us with jeers and laughter till we got beyond their reach, no officer interfering to check their cruel insolence. We continued our journey together as far as Arras, where I was enrolled in the Legion of Pas-de-Calais, and promoted to a sergeantcy. In August, 1816, we left Arras to take post at i Saint Omer; thence we were transferred, De- cember 24th, to Paris, which we reached on the 3d of January, 1817. | On the 24th of December of the same year I ; married the daughter of a prosperous poulterer .named Demsot. My honeymoon was of the shortest; for five days after my marriage the j regiment quitted Paris for Rennes in Brittany j where we arrived on the 11th of January, 1818 Here we remained .about three months, when , we were transferred to Havre; where/on the charge. m' 818' * °btained my ènal dis' I Behold me once more in Paris! But to ; live_ m 1 ans requires either an office, a pro- ; lession, or a private income. Unluckily I had i neither nor had I any idea what I was good , tor. However, I resolved to learn a trade, and became an .apprentice in the factory of a M I lliomas, paper-maker, No. 10 Eue d'Aligre" where 1 ground colors from morning to night' carried bundles all over the city, and got home tô my wife never before six in the evening Still I should have soon become reconciled to my lot but for the incessant ill-usage of my master- and disgusted with the business I at length abandoned it forever. Not long after this, I was passing through the Rue Saint-Sébastien, and came upon a crowd of people collected before a house. On inquiring the cause, I was told that in one of the rooms in the third story, the tenant had found a thief in the act of stealing his property ; and that on his attempting to seize him the lat- ter had drawn a knife. The tenant, therefore, had turned the key on his mutinous visitor and i had gone in search of the police. "It will be useless, I warrant you," said my ! informant. " Tho thief will have vanished up the chimney long before the police get here." I "Then, why wait for them?" exclaimed I. I " The rascal should be arrested at once." And darting into the house, I dragged the porter up stairs, three steps at a time, to point out the room, and kicked open the door. The nest . was empty—the bird had flown. Running to ; the fire-place I could see my man's boots as he was struggling to reach the top of the chimney. I seized a mattress off the bed, and grasping a double handful of straw, threw it into the fire- place and touched it with a match. The next moment I heard a hoarse voice from above crying, "Stop! Mercy! I surrender! I am dead! Let me down!" And down its owner came, much faster than he went up. As soon as his legs presented themselves, I seized them with a grip of iron, and gave them a jerk which brought the thief down with a run on the fiat : of his back. I disarmed him of his knife, and i with the aid of the porter held him till the police came and relieved me. He was sentenced not long afterward to seven years' hard labor. This exploit suggested to me the notion of making a business of the capture of criminals; so, making application to the police department for the office of inspector, the lowest round of the ladder, I received the appointment a short time after the assassination of the Duc de Berry. CHAPTER II. MY ENTRANCE INTO THE POLICE POBCE OF PARIS. On the 25th of April, 1820, the day on wliich I reported for duty at headquarters, I was placed under the orders of a M. Dabasse, one of the twenty four officers of the peace detailed to keep Paris in order. The personnel of the De- partment of Police, prior to the assassination of the Duc de Berry, about which I ma}' hereafter have some words to say, was made up as fol- lows : M. Angles, Minister of State, and Prefect of Police. M. Fortie, Secretaiy-General. M. Poudras, Inspector-General. M. Delaporte, Assistant Inspector-General. Also, twenty-four " officiers de paix," and one hundred and four inspectors; and in addition to these, five clerks or stationary inspectors, two of them detailed from the office of the In- spector-General, and whose names were Man- toux and Bailly. The salaries of these two last were twelve hundred francs a year. Mantoux died a few years ago, leaving to his heirs a fort- une of eight hundred thousand francs. Bailly may be still living, but has accumulated little or no property. The murder of the Duc dc Berry on the 13th of February, 1820, led to an extensive reorganiza-