Taken for a Thief.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 35

Taken for a Thief.

M. Rochefort has, just returned from London, and gives, the Parisians a very pleasant account of how he was taken for a thief at Panton's Hotel. "I had," he writes, " left Boulogne to pass a few hours in the bosom of that Albion so famous for her perfidy. I took no T^lise, not even a night-shirt, as I intended to return the same evening. However, the sea passage was so trying, and the train reached London so late, that I couldn't think of making a second passage that night. I therefore went to Panton's Hotel in Panton street, where I i had stayed formerly, and whose owner I knew. I entered deliberately, without thinking of the effect my travel-stained false collar and shirt-cuffs would produce on the I people of the house. The landlord I had known had sold out several years before, and the waiters, on seeing a man so ill-brushed and luggageless enter the dining room, began to look at one another very mistrustfully. I asked for a room, and was told there was no room. I asked for a bit of roast beef, and was told there was nothing to eat in the house. I mentioned the name of the former landlord, but that did. me more harm than

goqd. They would agree to take me in and do for me only on condition of my paying beforehand. I at once submitted to those terms, and when the employes saw the contents of my purse they cast looks at each other which plainly said—' He has made a big haul in Paris, and escaped without changing his dress.' The dinner was a cruel one, though paid for beforehand ; and every time the waiter brought me a dish, for which I had to wait an unreasonable time, he gave me a look which said as plain as words could have spoken it— • Perhaps they will come and arrest him before the dessert, and that j will be so much gained.' I damaged my j ease utterly by asking for the Paris papers. Evidently it was to see whether the police were on my track. The butler, the porter, and the doorkeeper were standing behind me as if in expectation of an extradition order. A paragraph having made me laugh, they made signs to each other which plainly meant, ' He sees they have lost the scent, and he can't restrain his joy.' My meal ended, I asked one of the women of the hotel to go and buy me a couple of clean shirts, but she refused to become an accessory to my crime after the fact, by helping me to destroy my identity. However, she consented to lend me a brush I had my revenge. I wrote to an Irish member of Parliament a telegram signed with my own name, and informing him that I was in London. That produced the effect of a thunderbolt, members of Parliament being taken more seriously by the English than by us. When the M.P. came about 10 p.m. to take me to the House in his cab, the waiter, ashamed of the mistake he had made, hid his head in a saucepan. It was agreed that my friend and I should come back and have supper at 2 a.m., and the unhappy waiter came out of his saucepan to sketch for ua the richest possible vienu. ' That'll do,' said I ; • give us a good supper ; but you know I absolutely insist on paying it beforehand.' The waiter, humbled to the dust, pleaded extenuating circumstances, and said to the M.P., • I assure you, sir, vre never took your friend for a murderer. We merely thought he had robbed a bank, that's all."