Fiacre No. 2,525

From The Memoirs of M. Claude, Chief of Detective Police Under The Second Empire

Chance on many occasions is the detective officer’s best friend. This I will prove by my meeting with the driver of Fiacre No. 2,525.

It was in 1862. I was engaged on the track of a forger, who, by his wondrous ability in imitating bank-notes, had already caused an enormous deficit in the Treasury.

Information had been lodged against the unknown forger. They came from the Minister of Finance himself. The Department instructed me to take charge of the case.

In less than six months six hundred thousand francs worth of forged bank-notes were put in circulation in all parts of France. On one occasion so well were the genuine notes imitated, the bank actually took them in and cashed them. The deficit which this expert forger was creating promised to develop into an ever-increasing gap. In order to put a summary stop to this condition of things, I brought into requisition all the forces at my disposal.

I dispatched some of my most adroit agents into the country, and especially into the districts immediately surrounding Paris.

It was not long before I learned that, in the environs of the Department of the Seine, the proprietor of a villa named Gatebourse, who had hitherto led a simple and rather retired life, had suddenly astonished his neighbors by his opulent and fast living.

For the last six months Gatebourse was the scene of luxurious festivity. Its proprietor, named Giraud, who caused it to be called Giraud de Gatebourse, not content with astonishing the immediate neighborhood with his prodigality, repaired to Paris to continue with increased éclat his princely existence.

My agent, who discovered this personage, informed me that, even in this locality where he had so long resided, the source from whence this sudden influx of… Read More