afael Maroto, the pacificator of
Spain, is an amiable character, for whom history has not been written in
vain.
Being arrived at this exalted position, there is no end of the feats
which Cartouche performed; and his band reached to such a pitch of
glory, that if there had been a hundred thousand, instead of a hundred
of them, who knows but that a new and popular dynasty might not have
been founded, and "Louis Dominic, premier Empereur des Francais," might
have performed innumerable glorious actions, and fixed himself in the
hearts of his people, just as other monarchs have done, a hundred years
after Cartouche's death.
A story similar to the above, and equally moral, is that of Cartouche,
who, in company with two other gentlemen, robbed the coche,
or packet-boat, from Melun, where they took a good quantity of
booty,--making the passengers lie down on the decks, and rifling them
at leisure. "This money will be but very little among three," whispered
Cartouche to his neighbor, as the three conquerors were making merry
over their gains; "if you were but to pull the trigger of your pistol
in the neighborhood of your comrade's ear, perhaps it might go off,
and then there would be but two of us to share." Strangely enough, as
Cartouche said, the pistol DID go off, and No. 3 perished. "Give him
another ball," said Cartouche; and another was fired into him. But
no sooner had Cartouche's comrade discharged both his pistols, than
Cartouche himself, seized with a furious indignation, drew his: "Learn,
monster," cried he, "not to be so greedy of gold, and perish, the victim
of thy disloyalty and avarice!" So Cartouche slew the second robber; and
there is no man in Europe who can say that the latter did not merit well
his punishment.
I could fill volumes, and not mere sheets of paper, with tales of the
triumphs of Cartouche and his band; how he robbed the Countess of O----,
going to Dijon, in her coach, and how the Countess fell in love with
him, and was faithful to him ever after; how, when the lieutenant of
police offered a reward of a hundred pistoles to any man who would bring
Cartouche before him, a noble Marquess, in a coach and six, drove up
to the hotel of the police; and the noble Marquess, desiring to see
Monsieur de la Reynie, on matters of the highest moment, alone, the
latter introduced him into his private cabinet; and how, when there, the
Marquess drew from his pocket a long, curiously shaped dagger: "Look at
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