:

This extraordinary affair greatly irritated the highest personages of the State against the Regent and his favourites it proved of no assistance to Law, whose fall was unavoidable. On his return from his country-seat the Duke de Saint-Simon hastened to write to the Duke d'Havré to express his regret at what had occurred, and to say how he himself had been deceived by the false promises of the Duke d'Orléans.

I quote here the Duke d'Havre's answer, because it not only expressed the sentiments of all the French nobility, but it corroborates what I have said concerning Charles Sanson's conduct:

'My dear Duke,—I accept with gratitude, and I understand quite well, the regret you are kind enough to express. I do not know whether the Marquis de Parabère or the Marquis de Créqy obtained of the executioner of Paris the charity which is attributed to him; but what I do know is that the death of Count de Horn is the result of a false policy, of the financial operations of the Government, and, perhaps, also of the policy of the Duke d'Orléans. You know my sentiments of consideration for you. CROY D'HAVRÉ.'

Was Count de Horn really innocent? We have no right to judge the merits of those it was our mission to put to death. Nevertheless I have taken the liberty to allude to the rumours which were current at the time of De Horn's arrest, and which made him out to be the victim of the Regent's personal animosity. Another version.

tended to establish his innocence, or, at least, so to diminish his responsibility in the Jew's murder, that, were the version correct, the sentence he suffered could only be regarded as a monstrous iniquity. It was said that M. de Horn and the Chevalier de Milhe had not made an appointment with the Jew with the intention of murdering and robbing him, but merely with the object of obtaining from him a large sum in shares of the Bank which the Count had really entrusted to him; that not only did the Jew deny the deposit, but that he went so far as to strike Antoine de Horn in the face. Upon this the young man, who was hot-blooded and passionate, seized a knife that lay on the table and wounded the Jew in the shoulder. It was De Milhe who finished him and took the pocket-book, of which the Count refused to have a share. If the affair occurred in this way, it must be acknowledged that the Regent, and the magistrates who served his hatred, had a heavy reckoning to answer for.

CHAPTER VIII.

CARTOUCHE.

ON October 15, 1721, Paris was in a fever of excitement. The whole population was crowding the streets; in shops, taverns, and even in drawing-rooms, people greeted each other with this phrase, which nevertheless met with much incredulity:

'Cartouche is captured.'

'Barbier's Journal' related the capture in the following terms:

'15th.-Great News in Paris!—I have spoken before of one Cartouche, a notorious robber who was sought for everywhere and was found nowhere. It was thought to be a fable. His existence is only too real. This morning at eleven o'clock he was taken; but never was a thief more honoured.

'Words attributed to him inspired fear in the Regent, so that secret orders were given for his apprehension; and the report was spread in Paris that he had left the capital, that he had died at Orleans, and even that he was a myth, so that he should not imagine that he was being looked for.

'He has been discovered through a robbery he com

mitted at an innkeeper's with three of his companions, and also at the instigation of a patrol soldier who sold him. Pekom, major of the guards, who knew that he was acquainted with Cartouche, took him to the Châtelet to be dealt with by justice, unless he gave information concerning Cartouche. The soldier consented and acted as a spy. M. le Blanc, Secretary of State for War, who conducted the whole affair, took with him forty picked soldiers and a number of policemen, who had orders to take Cartouche dead or alive; that is, to fire upon him if he tried to run away.

'Cartouche had gone to bed on that day at six o'clock, at a wine dealer's of La Courtille, and he was lying in bed, with six pistols on the table. The house was surrounded, and fortunately he was captured while still in bed; otherwise he might have killed some one.

'He was bound with ropes, and taken to M. le Blanc's, who did not see him, because he was ill; but M. le Blanc's brothers and the Marquis de Tresnel, his son-in-law, saw him in the court, among numerous officers and clerks who were there. He was then taken afoot to the Châtelet, so that the people might see him, and know of the capture.

'It is said that Cartouche was insolent, and gnashed his teeth, and that he said they should not hold him long. The people believe him to be something of a sorcerer; but as for me, I think that cannot prevent him from being broken on the wheel.

'He has been thus taken to the Châtelet, escorted by a large concourse of people. He has been put in a

cell, attached to a pillar, for fear he should attempt to break his head against the walls, and the door is guarded by four men. Never were such precautions taken before. He is to be questioned to-morrow.

'It is said that he answers readily, and that he maintains that he is not Cartouche; that his name is Jean Bourguignon, and that he comes from Bar-le-Duc.'

One may judge from the above document how Cartouche was feared by the population which, during ten years, he had robbed with a good fortune only equalled by his audacity.

I do not share an opinion expressed in another quarter, that the deeds of all the ruffians who at the time swarmed in the capital were combined in this legendary figure, nor that the people, ever greedy of extraordinary occurrences, used to attribute to Cartouche the crimes of the great criminals of the period, such as Balagny-le-Capucin, Dantragues, Louis Marcant, Rozyle-Craqueur, Charles Blanchard, Pierrot-le-Bossu, and, above all, Pélissier alias Boileau, a famous criminal who was hanged in 1722, and who had almost as many titles as Cartouche to the sad notoriety which belonged to the latter.

I will prove this by giving a nomenclature of the executions which form the subject of the following chapter. Never were robberies, burglaries, and attacks on the high road so numerous as from 1715 to 1725. It seemed as if one half of Paris were robbing the other half.

This fever of rapine and crime was only natural. The Regency was a period of social transformation.