agents, and would represent themselves as charged with reconducting

these foreigners to the frontier.

Two-thirds of the journey were accomplished without any hindrance. At

Valenciennes an incident occurred.

The coup d'état having succeeded, zeal reigned paramount. No task was

any longer considered despicable. To denounce was to please; zeal is one

of the forms of servitude towards which people lean the most willingly.

The general became a common soldier, the prefect became a commissary of

police, the commissary of police became a police spy.

The commissary of police at Valenciennes himself superintended the

inspection of passports. For nothing in the world would he have deputed

this important office to a subordinate inspector. When they presented

him the passport of the so-called Leblanc, he looked the so-called

Leblanc full in the face, started, and exclaimed,--

You are General Changarnier!"

That is no affair of mine," said the General.

Upon this the two keepers of the General protested and exhibited their

papers, perfectly drawn up in due form.

Mr. Commissary, we are Government agents. Here are our proper

passports."

620

The History of a Crime