As soon as he had properly studied the ground, the others
were to go over in force from Paris - picklocks and all - and
away with my uncle's strongbox! This throws a comical
sidelight on his own accusation against his relatives, that
they had "forgotten natural duty" and disowned him because he
was poor. A poor relation is a distasteful circumstance at
the best, but a poor relation who plans deliberate robberies
against those of his blood, and trudges hundreds of weary
leagues to put them into execution, is surely a little on the
wrong side of toleration. The uncle at Angers may have been
monstrously undutiful; but the nephew from Paris was upsides
with him.
On the 23d April, that venerable and discreet person, Master
Pierre Marchand, Curate and Prior of Paray-le-Monial, in the
diocese of Chartres, arrived in Paris and put up at the sign
of the Three Chandeliers, in the Rue de la Huchette. Next
day, or the day after, as he was breakfasting at the sign of
the Armchair, he fell into talk with two customers, one of
whom was a priest and the other our friend Tabary. The
idiotic Tabary became mighty confidential as to his past
life. Pierre Marchand, who was an acquaintance of Guillaume
Coiffier's and had sympathised with him over his loss,
pricked up his ears at the mention of picklocks, and led on
the transcriber of improper romances from one thing to
another, until they were fast friends.
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