"After some further explanations, the Gentleman permitted the Officer to conduct him accordingly. Monsieur De Sartine received him, with great politeness; and after requesting him to be seated, to his great astonishment, he described his portmanteau; and told him the exact sum in bills and specie which he had brought with him to Paris, and where he was to lodge, his usual time of going to bed, and a number of other circumstances, which the Gentleman had conceived could only be known to himself.—Monsieur De Sartine having thus excited attention, put this extraordinary question to him—Sir, are you a man of courage?—The Gentleman, still more astonished at the singularity of such an interrogatory, demanded the reason why he put such a strange question, adding, at the same time, that no man ever doubted his courage. Monsieur De Sartine replied,—Sir, you are to be robbed and murdered this night!—If you are a man of courage, you must go to your hotel, and retire to rest at the usual hour: but be careful that you do not fall asleep; neither will it be proper for you to look under the bed, or into any of the closets which are in your bed-chamber; (which he accurately described);—you must place your portmanteau in its usual situation, near your bed, and discover no suspicion:—Leave what remains to me.—If, however, you do not feel your courage sufficient to bear you out, I will procure a person who shall personate you, and go to bed in your stead.
"The Gentleman being convinced, in the course of the conversation, that Monsieur de Sartine's intelligence was accurate in every particular, he refused to be personated, and formed an immediate resolution, literally, to follow the directions he had received: he accordingly went to bed at his usual hour, which was eleven o'clock.—At half past twelve (the time mentioned by Monsieur De Sartine), the door of the bed-chamber burst open, and three men entered with a dark lantern, daggers and pistols.—The Gentleman, who of course was awake, perceived one of them to be his own servant.—They rifled his portmanteau, undisturbed, and settled the plan of putting him to death.—The Gentleman, hearing all this, and not knowing by what means he was to be rescued, it may naturally be supposed, was under great perturbation of mind during such an awful interval of suspense; when, at the moment the villains were preparing to commit the horrid deed, four Police Officers, acting under Mons. De Sartine's orders, who were concealed under the bed, and in the closet, rushed out and seized the offenders with the property in their possession, and in the act of preparing to commit the murder.
"The consequence was, that the perpetration of the atrocious deed was prevented, and sufficient evidence obtained to convict the offenders.—Monsieur De Sartine's intelligence enabled him to prevent this horrid offence of robbery and murder; which, but for the accuracy of the System, would probably have been carried into execution."
Another Anecdote, was mentioned to the Author by the same Minister, relative to the Emperor Joseph the Second: "That Monarch, having, in the year 1787, formed and promulgated a new Code of Laws relative to criminal and civil offences;[166] and having also established what he conceived to be the best System of Police in Europe, he could scarcely ever forgive the French Nation, in consequence of the accuracy and intelligence of Mons. De Sartine having been found so much superior to his own; notwithstanding the immense pains he had bestowed upon that department of his Government.
"A very notorious offender, who was a subject of the Emperor, and who committed many atrocious acts of violence and depredation at Vienna, was traced to Paris by the Police established by His Majesty, who ordered his Ambassador at the Court of France to demand that this delinquent should be delivered up to Public Justice.
"Mons. De Sartine acknowledged to the Imperial Ambassador, that the person he inquired after had been in Paris;—that, if it would be any satisfaction, he could inform him where he had lodged, and the different gaming-tables, and other places of infamous resort, which he frequented while there;—but that he was now gone.—
"The Ambassador, after stating the accuracy and correct mode by which the Police of Vienna was conducted, insisted that this offender must still be in Paris; otherwise the Emperor would not have commanded him to make such an application.
"Monsieur de Sartine smiled at the incredulity of the Imperial Minister, and made a reply to the following effect:—
"Do me the honour, Sir, to inform the Emperor, your Master, that the person he looks for left Paris on the 10th day of the last month; and is now lodged in a back room looking into a garden in the third story of a house, number 93, in —— street, in his own Capital of Vienna; where his Majesty will, by sending to the spot, be sure to find him.—
"It was literally as the French Minister of Police had stated.—The Emperor, to his astonishment, found the delinquent in the house and apartment described; but he was greatly mortified at this proof of the accuracy of the French Police; which, in this instance, in point of intelligence even in Vienna, was discovered to be so much superior to his own."—