refet has held the reins of this department--so
useful and so vilified--he has made it a rule that family matters are
never to be interfered in. He is right in principle and in morality; but
in practice he is wrong. In the forty-five years that I have served
in the police, it did, from 1799 till 1815, great services in family
concerns. Since 1820 a constitutional government and the press have
completely altered the conditions of existence. So my advice, indeed,
was not to intervene in such a case, and the Prefet did me the honor to
agree with my remarks. The Head of the detective branch has orders, in
my presence, to take no steps; so if you have had any one sent to you
by him, he will be reprimanded. It might cost him his place. 'The Police
will do this or that,' is easily said; the Police, the Police! But, my
dear sir, the Marshal and the Ministerial Council do not know what the
Police is. The Police alone knows the Police; but as for ours, only
Fouche, Monsieur Lenoir, and Monsieur de Sartines have had any notion of
it.--Everything is changed now; we are reduced and disarmed! I have seen
many private disasters develop, which I could have checked with five
grains of despotic power.--We shall be regretted by the very men who
have crippled us when they, like you, stand face to face with some moral
monstrosities, which ought to be swept away as we sweep away mud! In
public affairs the Police is expected to foresee everything, or when the
safety of the public is involved--but the family?--It is sacred! I would
do my utmost to discover and hinder a plot against the King's life, I
would see through the walls of a house; but as to laying a finger on a
household, or peeping into private interests--never, so long as I sit in
this office. I should be afraid."

"Of what?"

"Of the Press, Monsieur le Depute, of the left centre."

"What, then, can I do?" said Hulot, after a pause.

"Well, you are the Family," said the official. "That settles it; you can
do what you please. But as to helping you, as to using the Police as an
instrument of private feelings, and interests, how is it possible? There
lies, you see, the secret of the persecution, necessary, but pronounced
illegal, by the Bench, which was brought to bear against the predecessor
of our present chief detective. Bibi-Lupin undertook investigations
for the benefit of private persons. This might have led to great
social dangers. With the means at his command, the man would