But the attempt being thus defeated,
day was fast approaching, and Bruxellois saw his dismayed comrades
looking at each other with doubt, when the idea occurred to him that to
avoid discovery they would knock out his brains. With his right hand he
drew out his clasp knife with a sharp point, which he always had about
him, and cutting off his wrist at the joint, fled with his comrades
without being stopped by the excessive pain of his horrid wound.
This remarkable deed, which has been attributed to a thousand
different spots, really occurred in the vicinity of Lille, and is well
authenticated in the northern districts, where many persons yet remember
to have seen the hero of this tale, who was thence called Manchot,
(or one-armed,) executed.
[Vidocq at length escapes, quits Lille, and flies to Ostend, where he
joins a crew of smugglers.]
It was with real repugnance that I went to the house of a man named
Peters, to whom I was directed, as one deeply engaged in the pursuit,
and able to introduce me to it. A sea-gull nailed on his door with
extended wings, like the owls and weasels that we see on barns, guided
me. I found the worthy in a sort of cellar, which by the ropes, sails,
oars, hammocks, and barrels which filled it, might have been taken
for a naval depot. From the midst of a thick atmosphere of smoke which
surrounded him, he viewed me at first with a contempt which had not
a good appearance, and my conjectures were soon realized, for I had
scarcely offered my services than he fell upon me with a shower of
blows.
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