Chapter 206: Arthur’s French Counterpart (K6)
Chapter 204 Arthur’s French Counterpart (4K6)
One London, Wellington Private House, Apsley House.
The Duke of Wellington leaned back in a bright red velvet sofa chair and surveyed Arthur, who was before him in a full police officer’s tuxedo, black bowler hat, spotless white gloves, and a police officer’s knife hanging at his waist.
The gray-haired Duke of Wellington tapped his fingertips on the tabletop and spoke, “You seem to be in good spirits, young man.”
Arthur just smiled, “If you had called me here a few days ago, then I wouldn’t have this look on my face.”
Wellington sipped his tea, “Is that so? But yes, you were too close to Peel and I once upon a time. After the Pfhor came up, those who looked at you uncomfortably were inevitably going to clean you up. But looking at your appearance, this is a smooth transition through the crisis?”
“Sort of.”
Arthur also didn’t want to hide his relationship with the Whigs, after all, for people like Duke Wellington, it was completely guilty of specifically targeting small shrimps like him.
According to Arthur’s understanding of the world, beggars and millionaires would rarely be jealous of each other, beggars would only be jealous of beggars with higher incomes, and the same goes for millionaires.
Everyone likes to play with opponents of the same level, if you cross the level to fight monsters, it is either the desperate person’s compulsion, or it is a self-involved psychopath.
Arthur said, “This time when the Whigs came up, I was on the verge of being finished. But you should know that I am a graduate of the University of London. And the new Lord Chancellor, Lord Brougham, happens to be the Chairman of the Council of the University of London, and I’ve sat in on his lectures a few times before, and he’s quite impressed with me, so he went along with it and bailed me out this time.”
“Brougham?”
As soon as Wellington heard this name, he suddenly said, “I almost forgot about him, that eccentric lawyer, that foul temper of his you actually managed to get along with him, which is not easy. But your luck is also really good, the Whigs happened to come to power after the death of the late King George IV, if the late King hadn’t passed away, Brougham could not have gotten the position of Chancellor by saying anything. You know, the late king was always upset about Brougham helping Queen Caroline win her divorce case.”
Speaking here, Wellington’s words changed, “However, it is you who came over to see me today. Is Scotland Yard planning to leave all my security and defense during the London conference to you?”
Arthur sniffed and joked, “I hope you won’t be offended by this, the defense of Viscount Palmerston, the other British delegate to the London Conference, the Foreign Minister, is personally handled by Director Rowan. Having me in charge of you is probably a bit lower in rank.”
Hearing this, the Red Devil on the side couldn’t stop snickering, “Wow! Arthur, you little bastard. You’re planning to bring Rowan to his death, it’s not enough to lay mines for him on the Whig side, but then you turn around and trip him up on the Tory side.”
As expected, when Wellington heard this, he raised an eyebrow and said, “Heh! Rowan’s ability to see the wind in his favor is strong enough. But just let him be, anyway, I’m only attending the meeting as an advisor this time, and according to the legal procedures, Palmerston’s defense level is supposed to be a bit higher than mine.”
Arthur smiled and leaned down, “With your broad mindedness, you really don’t care about these minutiae, but even though you don’t care about it, as the person in charge of security, it is still necessary for me to carry out a detailed investigation into the terrain and environment inside and outside of the Apsley mansion to ensure that nothing will go wrong during the meeting.”
Hearing this, Wellington stood up and tapped his finger on the iron window of his house and joked as if mocking himself, “There’s really nothing to investigate, look at this window, it’s simply too strong to be sturdy. Didn’t the Times say that my whole body is made of iron? If you want to assassinate me, the Iron Duke, I’m afraid a few bullets won’t work.
However, if you want to investigate the intelligence, then investigate, I can understand your feelings, before fighting a war for the terrain, strength, deployment, weather know nothing, always make people feel heartless. By the way, this London meeting, when you are free, you can go and have a good chat with Mr. François Vidocq, who is in charge of the security of the French ambassador Talleyrand.
But in terms of police intelligence work, the French ‘Security Brigade’ under his jurisdiction can be called the best in Europe. If you can learn a thing or two from him, I’m sure it will help you improve your work.”
Security Brigade?
As soon as Arthur heard the name of this organization, he immediately understood what Duke Wellington meant.
In fact, when it came to the establishment of police organizations, France was far more advanced than England.
As early as 1667 when the French King Louis XIV ordered the establishment of the Paris police, but because the Paris police style of law enforcement is too violent, so in the early days it is almost difficult to distinguish between the French police and the army, and even at that time, the highest officer of the Paris police hangs the rank of police lieutenant general.
In the French Revolution, the Paris Police was reorganized into the Paris Police Directorate, and after Napoleon became the Emperor, it was reorganized into the Paris Police Department, and their law enforcement style and scope of duties gradually converged with the modern municipal police.
But although the Paris police are gradually becoming civilized, but their historical tradition is there, even if it is becoming civilized is only relative, in most cases, the Paris police are still practicing the gun is better than the mouth of the hard truth.
Because of their notoriety, even Arthur’s British counterparts in the Paris police have also been affected.
In the early days of Scotland Yard, the citizens of London almost equated them with terms such as repression, violence, and bloodshed, which was one of the major reasons why Scotland Yard’s frontline patrols were often attacked.
But no matter what, nowadays the world, like the United Kingdom, France, such as self-proclaimed as the world’s role model countries, want to use as little as possible violent means, and do their best to bridge the domestic conflicts, after all, who do not want to be staged on their own territory of a revolution.
And the Paris police force, in order to make itself look at least a little more civilized on the surface, can be said to be full of all sorts of crooked ideas.
More than ten years before Arthur proposed the establishment of the LPS to Sir Arthur Peel, the French, who were quite creative in this regard, had already taken the lead in the practice of domestic security intelligence work.
The Duke of Wellington mentioned François Vidocq is the founder and head of the intelligence department of the Paris Police Department, this old secret agent with excellent working ability and has made great achievements for the Paris Police Department has a rather proud resume.
Mr. Vidocq had to flee his home town at the age of 14 when he was killed in a fencing duel. After changing his face and coming to Paris alone, he falls in love early with a French actress, but this sibling love doesn’t end up too well and costs Mr. Vidocq a fortune.
At this time the French Revolution broke out, so Mr. Vidocq took advantage of the situation and mixed into the army, at first his performance is not bad, in the first half of the year in the battle performance is very heroic.
Soon, however, his showy, disobedient nature gets him into serious trouble, and he offers a duel to one of the officers, who has been fighting against him at every turn, but is refused.
The defiant Vidocq then attacked him with his sword drawn, and in a 1V15 battle, he managed to take out two officers and was gladly hanged after being overpowered.
Before the execution, always bold Mr. Vidocq of course will not sit still, he gave full play to his high force, leading the majority of prison inmates escape, all the way back to the old home humming and hawing.
His unlucky old dad was also shocked after learning of his son’s experiences over the years, he could only pat his son’s shoulders and instructed in a serious way: “You’re like this, sooner or later, you’ll have to die on the streets. Or hurry to get married, at least first to our old Wei family to leave a seed.”
Vidocq also honestly listened to his father’s advice, looking for a hometown girl to get married.
Happily, Vidocq married a few months, daughter-in-law gave birth to a big fat boy.
But Vidocq holding the child, but how to ponder how to feel wrong.
It’s not right. Don’t people carry their babies for ten months? Why did my son give birth in six months? Is it possible that he is gifted?
Unable to figure it out, Vidocq finally left his hometown on a rainy night and went back to Paris, where he was soon imprisoned again for fighting and assault.
And his repeated imprisonment finally enlightened him in jail, where he learned the high-end craft of making fake IDs from an old French pickpocket, and was repeatedly imprisoned for it. The Greater Paris Police Department, who couldn’t stand him, finally just put him in a naval prison, but they apparently underestimated Vidocq’s abilities, and it didn’t take long for Vidocq to bribe his way out of the guards’ hands to get a naval uniform, and then waltz out of the prison.
And when he was captured again, the Greater Paris Police Department raised his danger rating to the highest possible, so this time he was sent to Toulon Prison, one of the most heavily guarded and managed prisons in France.
But Vidocq escaped from Toulon Prison again and again and again, in the spirit of ‘if the mind doesn’t slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties’.
He and the Grand Paris Police Department just like this ‘you out of 3, I out of 4, you out of 5, I out of 6’ all the way to fight for ten years, with these experiences, Vidocq’s fame in France is getting bigger and bigger, a lot of friends in the French underworld are treating Vidocq as an idol to look at.
And at a banquet where the Parisian mob celebrated Mr. Vidocq’s Nth successful escape from prison, Vidocq just let out a sneer and fished out a piece of ID from his jacket pocket and slapped it on the table, “That’s right, I’m a cop.”
Soon after, the Paris Police Department publicly announced that the honorable Mr. Eugene François Vidocq had given up the dark side, and that he would become the highest administrator of the police and intelligence department of the Paris Police Department, and would be responsible for the leadership of the newly established Parisian plainclothes detective squad, Sreté.
This Sreté is the predecessor of the Paris Security Brigade, as the Duke of Wellington called it.
Absorbed a large number of former criminals in the Paris security brigade in Vidocq’s leadership is virtually unbeatable, he relied on his own in the Parisian underworld for many years in the network and understanding of the criminal mind, in just a few years of time, it will be the crime rate in Paris reduced by forty percent.
In order to praise Vidocq’s work, the overjoyed King Louis XVIII of France is directly amnesty Vidocq committed all the crimes in the past.
Of course, the reason why Vidocq can do so successful, but also not entirely rely on contacts and experience.
He also introduced many technological innovations and institutional reforms in police work, such as undercover police, ballistics, criminal record-keeping systems, plaster casts of offenders’ shoe prints, indelible ink, crime scene protection mechanisms and so on.
Because Vidocq was so successful, Scotland Yard studied his innovations when it was first established, and incorporated some of them into the Yard’s Police Executive Manual.
Arthur also once moved to meet this old-timer idea, but the activities of the Scotland Yard funds are really too tight, and the Tory party before the mud Buddha over the river itself is difficult to protect, Sir Peel even if he trusts him again, but also in the London political turmoil at the time of Arthur to go to Paris public travel.
But did not expect, Arthur do not go to find Vidocq, Vidocq but their own door.
But can let Vidocq this kind of perennial sitting in Paris security intelligence system of the capable person accompanied to come, can also see the French for the London meeting of the degree of importance.
But when Arthur thought of this, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.
He frowned slightly and muttered under his breath, “Although security is more professional when the police are allowed to do it, but sending Vidocq over, it couldn’t be that he wanted to fish Alexander back, right?”
Arthur suddenly had a chill in his heart, it would not be a small matter if he lost Dumas in the stall of the London conference.
Although Dumas was not considered to be a dignitary, but due to the previous news media’s great publicity, this fat man had turned into an important symbol of England’s defense of justice and righteousness.
Although this kind of face is actually not very meaningful, but it can profoundly affect the public opinion environment and political party support rate.
Although the majority of the British people do not have the right to vote, it does not mean that the Whigs and Tories dare to ignore their voices, and the imagination of the people is the power base of politicians.
For this kind of problem that can find the direct responsible person, the two parties even do not mind pushing someone out to thank for the crime.
If something really happened then, even if Lord Brougham wanted to protect him, I’m afraid he would have to weigh the pressure of public opinion.
When he thought of this, Arthur suddenly felt that he needed to meet with the famous Mr. Vidocq immediately.
Although he was afraid that it would be difficult to pry out the truth from his mouth, but even if he could learn some information sporadically, it would be very beneficial to the deployment of Scotland Yard’s actions during the meeting.
Arthur was thinking about these things when the Duke of Wellington, who was leaning back on the sofa chair holding a glass of red wine, suddenly spoke again.
“Arthur, would you mind doing me a small favor?”
Arthur came back to his senses and asked with a smile, “Is it a favor in a private capacity or a public one?”
The Duke of Wellington shook his red wine glass, “It doesn’t matter, both are fine. If you use one identity alone, I’m afraid you won’t be able to manage this. And since you were in charge of my security during the London conference, it should be reasonable for me to give you two orders, right?”
Arthur did not refute this, and after pondering over what the Duke of Wellington had said earlier, he suddenly smiled and said, “Are you expecting me to act like Mr. Vidocq?”
“No, I need you to do better than him.”
The Duke of Wellington got up and paced, “While I realize this may be a bit difficult for you, we have had some disagreements with both the French and the Russians over Belgian independence. There are things that are not very convenient to inquire about from my point of view, but if you inquire from below, you may get some surprises.
On the French side, you could start with Vidocq, and as for the Russians, I’ve heard from a couple of friends that there’s a new pianist lately at the Ormac Club named Arthur Hastings? That little gadget you brought in called a phonograph is also very satisfactory.
At the club dinner last week I heard Mrs. Cowper say that Mrs. Levine, the wife of the Russian ambassador, Count Levine, had also ordered one from you? I wonder if you sent her that phonograph?”
The Duke of Wellington had put it so far, how could Arthur not understand what he meant?
Arthur let out a slight breath, took off his hat and smiled bitterly, “Your Excellency, you really gave me a problem.”
Duke Wellington laughed out loud, he patted Arthur’s shoulder and said, “Young people, it’s all about exercising more. But you shouldn’t be too pressurized by this matter, although the Whigs and the Tories belong to different camps, we have always been on the same page when it comes to external events.
As long as you can get this done, the Whig side will be very happy. Of course, even if you can’t get it done, it’s really no big deal. With Bruham around anyway, you most likely won’t have any problems.”
Arthur sniffed and looked up at the pendulum clock in the corner, the hour hand was right on twelve o’clock, the clock chimed and Arthur bowed slightly with one hand pressed to his chest, “Your Excellency, lead the way.”
One more chapter, later.
(End of chapter)