'"
Ring-droppers, and _Emporteurs_ ("gentlemen who lose themselves") are
next shown up: to the latter class belong the fellows who, under
pretence of inquiring their road, fall into conversation with you,
invite you to billiards, and cheat you.[2] Ring-droppers are very
troublesome in Paris, especially in the _Champs Elysees_, where
you may be teazed to buy a copper-framed eye-glass which they have
just "found."
_Riffaudeurs, or Chauffeurs_,
Were thieves assuming the garb of country dealers, or travelling
hawkers; and they sought to wring from their victims a confession of
where they had concealed their treasure, by applying fire to the soles
of their feet.
The Fourth Volume closes abruptly with a story of a gang of them, which
has all the horrors of rack and torture. In the Translator's sequel we
find the following:--
"Since the commencement of these Memoirs, M. Vidocq has given up his
paper manufactory at St. Mande, and has been subsequently confined in
Sainte Pelagie for debt. His embarrassments are stated to have arisen
from a passion for gambling, a propensity which, once indulged, takes
deep root in the human mind; and few indeed, lamentably few, are those
who can effectually eradicate the fatal passion.
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