I now began to moralize.
〈EFFECT OF A DRAFT ON CONTEMPLATION.〉
Blown upon by a hundred horse-power, I sympathised with Disraeli refrigerated by his friends. Turning from that painful contemplation, I was calmed by the freshness of the breeze. The action of the pumps, the coolness of the place and of the time, for it was evening, recalled to my recollection M....... M.....; so I hoped, for the sake of instruction, that he would in his own adamantine verses snatch if possible from oblivion the moral anatomy of that unsuccessful statesman. Yet, lest even the poet himself should be forgotten, I resolved to give each of them his last chance of celebrity preserved in the modest amber of my own simple prose.
Emerging from my reverie, I made the preconcerted signal; the iron door was opened, and we were again on our road to Leeds.
CHAPTER XVIII. PICKING LOCKS AND DECIPHERING.
Interview with Vidocq — Remarkable Power of altering his Height — A Bungler in picking Locks — Mr. Hobbs’s Lock and the Duke of Wellington — Strong belief that certain Ciphers are inscrutable — Davies Gilbert’s Cipher — The Author’s Cipher both deciphered — Classified Dictionaries of the English Language — Anagrams — Squaring Words — Bishop not easily squared — Lesser Dignitaries easier to work upon.
THESE two subjects are in truth much more nearly allied than might appear upon a superficial view of them. They are in fact closely connected with each other as small branches of the same vast subject of combinations.
Several years ago, the celebrated thief-taker, Vidocq, paid a short visit to London. I had an interview of some duration with this celebrity, who obligingly conveyed to me much information, which, though highly interesting, was not of a nature to become personally useful to me.
He possessed a very remarkable power, which he was so good as to exhibit to me. It consisted in altering his height to about an inch and a half less than his ordinary height. He threw over his shoulders a cloak, in which he walked round the room. It did not touch the floor in any part, and was, I should say, about an inch and a half above it. He then altered his height and took the same walk. The cloak then touched the floor and lay upon it in some part or other during the whole {234} walk. He then stood still and altered his height alternately, several times to about the same amount.
I inquired whether the altered height, if sustained for several hours, produced fatigue. He replied that it did not, and that he had often used it during a whole day without any additional fatigue. He remarked that he had found this gift very useful as a disguise. I asked whether any medical man had examined the question; but it did not appear that any satisfactory explanation had been arrived at.