Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

58 OF A FRENCH GENTLEMAN. which marked his countenance. He moreover recognised amongst the convicts several of his ancient associates, and soon made ac- quaintance with others ; for it is not in the criminal gaols that the ceremony of introduction, observed by the world without, is very prevalent. Still his soul was not so deeply tainted as that of many of his comrades : there was no species of swindling, chicanery, nor dishonesty that Belle-Rose was not capable of ; but he would have shrunk from spilling blood with the same horror as would a purely virtuous man. He affected no false sanctity ; he merely said, in his own peculiar style of jocularity, ‘‘ That so long as there were widows to be duped, minors to be fleeced, and tradesmen to give credit, he did not see the use of cutting a man’s throat to procure a purse; and that for his part he never had a very high opinion of the cunning of the individual, who preferred scouring the hich- ways at night, to living on his wits within the walls of Paris.” Where all are bad, and where it is nevertheless necessary to make choice of an associate, both for the purpose of concocting plans to further an escape, and to avoid an appearance of selfishness and constraint, we must choose the best. Therefore, even if elrcum- stances had not particularly linked the present interests of Belle- Rose and De Rosann together, it is more than probable that our hero would have selected Pierre as his intimate companion and chum. Neither Belle-Rose, De Rosann, nor Champignon had been branded at Paris, as was customary with criminals found guilty of enormous erimes; and they were the only three, out of the fifty or sixty convicts that accompanied them from Biceétre, who had escaped this mark of eternal degradation. As for poor Champignon, he soon became the butt of his com- panions; but he bore all their jokes with the greatest good humonr, never suspecting that he was singled out as the sole object of their practical jocularities. At night-time he amused himself with a thousand wild schemes, which he communicated to the others in the morning ; and they with serious faces applauded his plans. Amongst these numerous devices, was one fur the formation of a joint-stock company, or société en commandite, in order to make known to the world his coteleties d la quadrille, for which he in- tended to take out a patent, and to establish a restaurant, where they could be served up in every principal town of France. The capital was fixed at six hundred thousand francs ;* and the insti- tution was to be called ‘ Société pour exploitation des cotelettes a la quadrille, sous la Raison Sociale de Champignon et Cie.” The convicts declared this to be a most promising undertaking ; and begged he would allow them to have the refusal of the first shares. The gas- tronomer thanked them with tears in his eyes, forgetting that scarcely one of his promised supporters was blessed with a sou, and began racking his brains for suitable language in which “ to dress up a prospectus.” Shortly after the arrival of the prisoners at the bagne, the Com- missary or Governor definitively divided them into couples, and every couple was attached together by along chain fastened to * Twenty-four thousand pounds, sterling. EGOmicbdooks Cor