children, who in
resenting any offence show no sense of proportion. The most trivial
reasons for disliking anyone awaken in him an irresistible desire
to kill the object of his aversion, and if any new blasphemy rises
to his lips, he feels constrained to repeat it."

A thief once said to my father: "It is in our very blood. It may be only
a pin, but I cannot help taking it, although I am quite ready to give it
back to its owner." The pickpocket Bor... confessed that at the age of
twelve he had begun to steal in the streets and at school, to the extent
of taking things from under his schoolfellows' pillows, and that it was
impossible for him to resist stealing, even when his pockets were full.
If he had not stolen some article before going to bed, he was unable to
sleep, and when midnight struck, he felt obliged to take the first thing
that came to his hand, destroying it frequently as soon as he had
appropriated it.

"To give up stealing," said Deham to Lauvergne, "would be like ceasing
to exist. Stealing is a passion that burns like love and when I feel the
blood seething in my brain and fingers, I think I should be capable of
robbing myself, if that were possible." When sentenced to the galleys,
he stole the bands from the masts, nails, and copper plates, and he
himself fixed the number of lashes he was to receive after each of these
exploits, which did not prevent his recommencing stealing directly
afterward (_Les Forcats_, p. 358).

Ponticelli once saw a thief, who was dying of consumption, steal an old
slipper from his neighbour and hide it under the bedclothes.

_Vindictiveness._ Closely allied to this impulsiveness and exaggerated
personal vanity, we find an extraordinary thirst for revenge. Lebuc
murdered a man who had stolen some matches from him. Baron R... caused
the death of a man, because he had failed to order a religious
procession to halt under the windows of his palace.

"To see expire the one you hate--
Such is the joy of the gods.
My sole desire is to hate and be avenged."

wrote Lacenaire.

After a slight dispute with Voit, whose hospitality he had enjoyed,
Renaud threw his friend down a well. He was arrested, and when Voit, who
had been rescued, pardoned him, he said, "I only regret not having
finished him, but when I come out of prison, I will do so." And he kept
his word.

The tattooing on the persons of criminals and their writings while in
prison are full o