Page 668 - les-miserables

faubourg to his comrade, ‘That big fellow yonder is the gov-
ernment.’
This infallible passage of the king at the same hour was,
therefore, the daily event of the Boulevard de l’Hopital.
The promenader in the yellow coat evidently did not be-
long in the quarter, and probably did not belong in Paris, for
he was ignorant as to this detail. When, at two o’clock, the
royal carriage, surrounded by a squadron of the body-guard
all covered with silver lace, debouched on the boulevard,
after having made the turn of the Salpetriere, he appeared
surprised and almost alarmed. There was no one but him-
self in this cross-lane. He drew up hastily behind the corner
of the wall of an enclosure, though this did not prevent M.
le Duc de Havre from spying him out.
M. le Duc de Havre, as captain of the guard on duty that
day, was seated in the carriage, opposite the king. He said
to his Majesty, ‘Yonder is an evil-looking man.’ Members
of the police, who were clearing the king’s route, took equal
note of him: one of them received an order to follow him.
But the man plunged into the deserted little streets of the
faubourg, and as twilight was beginning to fall, the agent
lost trace of him, as is stated in a report addressed that same
evening to M. le Comte d’Angles, Minister of State, Prefect
of Police.
When the man in the yellow coat had thrown the agent
off his track, he redoubled his pace, not without turning
round many a time to assure himself that he was not being
followed. At a quarter-past four, that is to say, when night
was fully come, he passed in front of the theatre of the Porte

668 Les Miserables