result?"

Corentin or Contenson would go into the matter and reply:

"Twenty, thirty, or forty thousand francs."

Then, as soon as the order was given to go ahead, all the means and the
men were left to the judgment of Corentin or the agent selected. And the
criminal police used to act in the same way to discover crimes with the
famous Vidocq.

Both branches of the police chose their men chiefly from among the ranks
of well-known agents, who have matriculated in the business, and are,
as it were, as soldiers of the secret army, so indispensable to a
government, in spite of the public orations of philanthropists or
narrow-minded moralists. But the absolute confidence placed in two men
of the temper of Peyrade and Corentin conveyed to them the right
of employing perfect strangers, under the risk, moreover, of being
responsible to the Minister in all serious cases. Peyrade's experience
and acumen were too valuable to Corentin, who, after the storm of 1820
had blown over, employed his old friend, constantly consulted him, and
contributed largely to his maintenance. Corentin managed to put about a
thousand francs a month into Peyrade's hands.

Peyrade, on his part, did Corentin good service. In 1816 Corentin, on
the strength of the discovery of the conspiracy in which the Bonapartist
Gaudissart was implicated, tried to get Peyrade reinstated in his place
in the police office; but some unknown influence was working against
Peyrade. This was the reason why.

In their anxiety to make themselves necessary, Peyrade, Corentin, and
Contenson, at the Duke of Otranto's instigation, had organized for
the benefit of Louis XVIII. a sort of opposition police in which very
capable agents were employed. Louis XVIII. died possessed of secrets
which will remain secrets from the best informed historians. The
struggle between the general police of the kingdom, and the King's
opposition police, led to many horrible disasters, of which a certain
number of executions sealed the secrets. This is neither the place
nor the occasion for entering into details on this subject, for these
"Scenes of Paris Life" are not "Scenes of Political Life." Enough has
been said to show what were the means of living of the man who at the
Cafe David was known as good old Canquoelle, and by what threads he was
tied to the terrible and mysterious powers of the police.

Between 1817 and 1822, Corentin, Contenson, Peyrade, and their
myrmidons, were often require