Foucault’s Reports, 1780-83 – Full Text

POLICING HOMOSEXUALITY IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY PARIS

edited by Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan

for our students at

Barnard College

Colorado College

Fordham University

Oklahoma State University

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Yale University

They have taught us as much as we taught them.

Clickable Table of Contents

Macro-Introduction (coming soon)

Micro-Introduction: Police, Pederasts, and Public Order

As illustrated in the documentary collection we published twenty years ago, a variety of sources provide evidence about the conceptions, representations, experience, and regulation of same-sex relations in early modern France, from the Renaissance to the Revolution. In that volume, long out of print, we included samples from three series of eighteenth-century Parisian police records, along with theological, legal, medical, literary, philosophical, and polemical texts. In this volume we have translated and annotated the relevant documents from the papers of Pierre Louis Foucault, the commissaire responsible for surveillance of “pederasty” in the capital from 1780 to 1783. This volume gives modern readers more direct access to the history of same-sex relations in pre-Revolutionary Paris than they currently have for any other city and century. It allows them to explore empirical, methodological, and theoretical issues through engagement with an extensive and inclusive body of sources. To assist and challenge them in studying these remarkable documents, we have included a micro-introduction about the Parisian subculture as well as a macro-introduction about larger issues in the history of sexuality. These complementary introductions illustrate the difference in instinctive perspectives that has sustained and enriched our collaboration over several decades.

We have tried to provide an accurate and readable, though not slavishly literal, translation, so we have condensed some formulaic verbiage and eliminated some redundancies. We have left titles of nobility as well as M (Monsieur), Messire (for men in the world of law), Mlle (Mademoiselle), Mme (Madame, for married as well as mature women), and S (Sieur, more respectful than Monsieur), in French. We have standardized names spelled in different ways and translated nicknames with the adjective “female” or noun “woman” added for grammatically feminine forms in French. We have rendered “raccrocher,” used intransitively, as “to cruise” and, used transitively, as “to pick up,” for the sake of simplicity and not in order to make eighteenth-century pederasts sound like twentieth-century gay men.

We have located streets that have changed names or vanished by arrondissement and communes by province, within brackets.

We thank the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Colorado College for research support and express our enduring gratitude to our friend Eric Albrand for his extensive assistance onsite in Paris. He has patiently located and photographed hundreds of documents that will be incorporated into the comprehensive database of sodomites and pederasts in eighteenth-century Paris under construction at Colorado College, which will allow us to explore the Parisian subculture systematically rather than anecdotally.

Abbreviations

APP

Farge BBBBBB

H&M BBBBBB

Hardy BBBBBB

Hébert BBBBBBBBBB

M&R BBBBBBBBBB

Mercier

Merrick

MS BBBBBBBB

MSP BBBBBB

SPT BBBBBBB

Archives de la Préfecture de Police

Almanach royal

Arlette Farge, ed., Flagrants délits sur les Champs-Elysées: Les dossiers de police du gardien Federici (1777-91) (Paris: Mercure de France, 2008)

Pierre Thomas Nicolas Hurtaut and Pierre Magny, Dictionnaire historique de la ville de Paris et de ses environs, 4 vols. (Paris, 1779)

Siméon Prosper Hardy, Mes loisirs, ou Journal d’évenéments tels quils parviennent à ma connaissance (1753-1789), ed. Pascal Bastien, Sabine Juratic, and Daniel Roche, 7 vols. thusfar (Paris: Hermann, 2012-).

Jacques René Hébert, Almanach parisien en faveur des étrangers et des personnes curieuses, ed. Daniel Roche (Saint-Etienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne, 2001)

Journal de Paris

Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan, eds. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Louis Sébastien Mercier, Le Tableau de Paris, ed. Jean Claude Bonnot, 2 vols. (Paris: Mercure de France, 1994)

Jeffrey Merrick, Sodomy in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020)

Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de la république des lettres en France depuis 1762 jusqu’à nos jours, 36 vols. (London, 1780-89)

François Marie Mayeur de Saint-Paul, Le Chroniqueur désoeuvré, ou L’espion du boulevard du Temple (London, 1782)

Jeffrey Merrick, ed., Sodomites, Pederasts and Tribades in Eighteenth-Century France: A Documentary History (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2019)

Archives Nationales, series Y (Châtelet)

Micro-Introduction:

Police, Pederasts, and Public Order

Jeffrey Merrick

According to the last volume of an encyclopedia of jurisprudence published between 1782 and 1791, pederasty “is the same thing as sodomy,” and we would not enter into any discussion of this vice if the police had not involved themselves in preventing its spread in society. . . . There was formerly a unit of police in Paris specifically charged with the task of knowing and arresting pederasts, whose number is generally quite large in the capital.^[1]

From the perspective of 1791, the year in which the National Assembly decriminalized sodomy and other offenses defined in Scriptural terms, this kind of intrusive and repressive surveillance characterized the Ancien Régime, the former regime, the bad old days before the Revolution liberated the country from despotism and superstition.[2] But the police reports from the early 1780s in this volume do not chronicle zealous condemnation, ruthless persecution, and gruesome executions. They tell a less dramatic but more instructive tale about the pursuit of pleasure and limits of license during years when men who desired men as well as the police who pursued them operated in the gray zone between principles and practices. As you explore these records, you will encounter severity and leniency, colorful characters of all ranks, routine and unique cases, seductions and deceptions. You will also note evidence for and exceptions to most of the generalizations in the following paragraphs, which address patterns and networks in the sexual subculture as well as the assumptions and objectives of the police.

In modern usage “police” means the familiar uniformed law enforcement officers whose activities are routinely reported in newspaper columns and depicted in televised dramas. Under the Ancien Régime “police” meant order itself as well as the work of protecting and preserving order, which involved a large cast of characters. The judicial, administrative, and military personnel who played some role in policing the capital included the Parlement (royal regional appeals court), the Châtelet (royal municipal court), the royal lieutenant general of police, forty-eight district police commissaires, twenty police inspectors, informants and observers, the municipal government, the municipal watch, the newer and larger Paris guard, French Guards (army units stationed in the capital), and Swiss Guards in specific locations. The authorities had their work cut out for them. They worried about everything from foundlings left on doorsteps to bodies pulled from the river, from private conversations in taverns to public disturbances in markets. As the population of the city expanded through immigration, to as many as 750,000 inhabitants, so did the numbers of possible and probable troublemakers: apprentices, booksellers, charlatans, domestics, extortionists, foreigners, gamblers and so on through the rest of the alphabet, including pamphleteers, pickpockets, profligates, prostitutes, and pederasts.^[3]

French clergy and jurists identified orthodoxy and obedience as the foundations of public order. They did not recognize the personal liberties later enshrined in the Declaration of Rights of 1789. In principle, at least, French men and women were not free to pray or speak or love as they pleased. Violations of religious, moral, and sexual norms constituted punishable offenses. In practice, of course, police and judges did not enforce the strict laws, which prescribed capital punishment for sodomy, consistently and rigorously.^[4] Even so, commissaires and inspectors exercised surveillance over sexual misconduct throughout the eighteenth century and thereby produced extensive documentation of same-sex relations between men. The records reveal little about women attracted to and involved with women, who did not seek partners in public spaces as men did. The Archives of the Bastille from 1715 to 1765 and the papers of two commissaires in the 1780s contain information about thousands of men suspected, arrested, interrogated, or imprisoned by the authorities.^[5] The documents provide as much access as we will ever have to the minds of the police as well as the lives of the men they called sodomites, using Biblical terminology, in the first half of the century and pederasts, using classical terminology, in the last half of the century. We know the reports from the 1780s are incomplete, from internal evidence, but we know nothing more than what these and some other sources tell us, by no means everything we want to know.

We do not know when, let alone why, the lieutenant general assigned responsibility for surveillance of same-sex relations to commissaire (since 1774) Pierre Louis Foucault.[6] He reportedly “showed his friends a thick book in which the names of all the pederasts known to the police were inscribed. He claimed there were almost as many of them as of prostitutes in Paris, that is to say, around forty thousand.”^[7] The “thick book” has not survived, but Foucault’s extant papers amply document the ways in which the authorities located pederasts and collected evidence. Inspector (since 1778) Louis Henri Noël and his agents—including decoys Baude, Robineau, and Saint-André[8]—walked the quays that lined the Seine and the boulevards that encircled the capital, patrolled the Tuileries and Palais Royal gardens and other promenades, visited taverns, and recorded gossip. As he made his rounds, Noël recognized some men by name, nickname, appearance, or reputation and fingered others simply because of circumstances of place and time. Day or night, he conducted the men he arrested before Foucault, often under the escort of the Paris guard. The reports of arrests typically include the inspector’s summary, some questions and answers, and the commissaire’s summary and decision. He had some captives released, if they were not listed in the “thick book” and he did not possess sufficient evidence, after warning many of them to avoid suspect places at suspect times. He had more conducted “to their destination,” meaning prison (at first the Petit Châtelet and later La Force), especially if they had been apprehended before. Foucault released clergymen, noblemen, and other notables on the spot, out of deference, or had them conducted before the lieutenant general for judgment and rebuke “in chambers.”

In late July or early August 1780 Foucault and Noël initiated nocturnal “pederasty patrols” on the boulevards and in suspect locales such as the Champs-Elysées, where they collaborated with Ferdinand de Federici and the Swiss Guards under his command.^[9] The reports of these patrols, as many as four per month, resemble the reports of routine arrests in both content and outcomes. Some of the cases documented in both types of reports prompted formal interrogations or domestic searches. Formal interrogations revealed more than the summary questions and answers in the reports, but the commissaire and the prisoners played cat and mouse. A few men confessed, but more denied misconduct. Some claimed they did not know anyone, had not done anything, did not even know what Foucault meant. Domestic searches, always conducted in the presence of occupants, were intended more often to secure incriminating evidence about men already in custody than to locate and arrest specific individuals suspected of misconduct. The police did not systematically track down pederasts where they lived, but they occasionally surprised men at home in the company of other males.

Both types of reports often and interrogations almost always include the “first and last names, age, origins, status, and address” of men arrested by Noël, although some lied about themselves in some ways. All five of these information categories deserve careful study. Some of them involve larger issues about the nature and structure of same-sex relations. Beyond first and last names, many pederasts had, though most of them disavowed, nicknames derived from their place of birth, looks, or work. Many of these nicknames, translated into English, include the adjective “female” or noun “woman.” Some sodomites with such nicknames dressed and talked like women in certain taverns around mid-century, but we have no evidence of such assemblies and behavior in the 1780s.[10] A modest number of pederasts used rouge to make themselves look fashionable or available, but so did notables and prostitutes. Foucault’s papers do not provide much support for Randolph Trumbach’s argument about effeminacy as a distinctive characteristic of male homosexuality as it evolved in the eighteenth century.[11] The database under construction at Colorado College will allow us to analyze nicknames and gender, origins and addresses, as well as other variables, systematically rather than anecdotally. For now, you will see that native regions and Parisian neighborhoods played some role in connections within the subculture.

The other issues, age and status, require some discussion. From ancient Greece and Rome to early modern Europe, the conventional model of same-sex relations involved superior (in age and/or status) males in the active role and subordinate (in age and/or status) males in the passive role. Foucault’s papers tell us more about pederasts as persons than as partners. We cannot assume that all men arrested together (in some cases one escaped) or even all men residing together had sex with each other. Some such couples turned out to be friends who drank and cruised together or shared the rent and bed but not more. When we know men did have sex, we do not always know their ages or what they actually did together.[12] Noël, after all, caught few men in the act.[13] Other sources from other decades suggest that men engaged in masturbation much more frequently than penetration and, by the way, that they did not gender active and passive roles.[14] This volume includes not only cases that fit the conventional model but also cases that do not. Pederasts accosted and befriended men different from as well as similar to themselves in age and status. Many sought immediate satisfaction with strangers in public spaces, but others had ongoing relations, affectionate or not, monogamous or not.

Assuming that clerks did their work well, police records document what the commissaire decided to ask and what the prisoners decided to tell. We can only wish he had been more curious and they had been more talkative. In the records of arrests after entrapment in the first half of the eighteenth century, men revealed facts and fictions about themselves during conversations in public spaces, in order to entice others, including decoys, to have sex with them. In the records of arrests largely without entrapment from the early 1780s, men concealed as much as they could, in order to protect themselves and often other pederasts as well. When Foucault asked prisoners if they procured themselves to men (#3 and 4), “give way to this depravation” (#55), surrendered to “the passion for men” (#64), showed “obligingness to men” (#75), lent themselves to “this type of debauchery” (#100), committed “the crime of sodomy” (#113), “slept with men” (#141), or “had relations with men” (#230), he knew they would not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Asked “if he is familiar with the crime of sodomy, and if he has ever committed it,” one man replied, “he is not at all familiar with it through practice.” Asked “if he knows anyone who is tainted by the crime of sodomy,” he replied, “he does not spy on anyone’s conduct” (#117).

Some pederasts resisted during arrest, and more resisted after arrest by answering questions evasively or even defiantly. They vindicated themselves by explaining they had not met this suspect man and encountered that one only by chance, at a fair, tavern, or theater, or by insisting they did not know this suspect spot and visited that one only to urinate or defecate. They routinely could not remember details and, in any event, maintained they did no harm. None claimed sexual liberty in so many words, but several invoked the freedom to walk when and where they pleased, just like other folks.[15] When asked why he wasted his time in taverns, a clerk declared, “everyone takes his pleasure where he finds it” (#68).[16] Pederasts did not tell Foucault, and his papers do not tell us, much about their mentality. Their shorter and longer answers to his questions do not indicate, let alone demonstrate, they had a sense of identity that united those who desired men and distinguished, let alone divided, them from others who did not.[17] They enjoyed drinks, meals, parties, even orgies, in taverns and more private places, but they also shared urban spaces with the rest of the population. Parisians from all walks of life strolled in the Tulieries and Palais Royal, which belonged to the royal and Orléans families, so the police had no jurisdiction there. Pederasts frequented the same promenades but used them differently, as a sexual marketplace in which they exchanged signals and made small talk to meet others looking for “a good time.” A cook used midnight mass on Christmas Eve for a sexual rendezvous (#156)!

Foucault’s papers provide some information about the heads, hearts, and hands of pederasts, though not as much as we would like, and even less information about popular attitudes toward these men. A workman walked away from a haberdasher who pursued and caressed him in a billiard parlor and shouted for help only when the latter groped him, but he did not use pejorative language in his deposition (#62). A French Guard had the man who propositioned him arrested, after the latter paid for the wine they consumed in a tavern (#140). Other soldiers were more accommodating, most notably the Paris guard who supposedly traded sex for bread (#141). Bathers denounced two journeymen for “embracing and caressing each other” in a stoneyard along the river (#95), and neighbors complained about a shoemaker who recruited (#97) as well as a cook who molested (#229) “young folks.” At the same time, the records contain many more examples of pederasts who did not bother other Parisians, who, in turn, did not bother them. We know little or nothing, after all, about men who rejected sexual advances without reporting them.

Turning from pederasts and Parisians to Foucault, Noël, and their colleagues, the police knew that pederasty flourished in public spaces as well as private places and that they could not eradicate this type of contagious deviance through routine methods of intimidation or even exemplary executions. Their assumptions defined their objectives. They realized the capital had a resident population of men with an acquired and confirmed “taste” for men and therefore restricted themselves to “restricting its spread in society.” Many pederasts spent time in prison, but few of them seemed likely to change their ways. A lapidary suggested that “one could very well not be any longer what one had been previously,” but the commissaire concluded he was still “inclined to the same vice” (#87) and sentenced him accordingly. Foucault assumed that men desired women or men, not both, and therefore asked more than a few men about wives. Several attempted to exculpate themselves by declaring they had spouses and children, as if marriage and progeny, in and of themselves, precluded sexual interest in their own sex. Most of the married men, however, acknowledged that they did not live with their wives.

The police made it their business not to save pederasts from damnation but to save other males, especially “young folks,” from corruption. They supposed that predatory older males victimized innocent younger males, so they tried to prevent men whose tastes they could not change, by arresting and punishing them, from changing the tastes of others, by seducing and converting them. Their records document some cases involving children abused by adults but more cases invoving teenagers who knew what they were doing. Foucault released a fifteen-year-old journeyman the first time he was arrested (#85) but not the second time (#102). He suspected a group of five attractive “young folks” aged sixteen to twenty-one of “selling themselves to pederasts” (#77). The police model ignores the economic realities that led men, like women, of various ages to sell their sexual services. More than a few of the men arrested by Noël had no jobs or jobs that did not pay much, and some of them prowled the promenades out of necessity, not just inclination. Men known for pursuing, recruiting, debauching, and procuring “young folks,” mediated between men with sexual needs and men with financial needs. Some pederasts made money through robbery or extortion.

The police made assumptions about men who were “intimately connected,” such as the clerk and soldier who met in a tavern and were inseparable thereafter (#48), and about men who were “just” friends, such as the feather-dealer and clerk arrested when they left an orgy of “young folks.” As the former’s friend, the latter “is more than suspected of the same inclinations” (#130). In other words, the police were suspicious not only of men who knew each other too well but also of men who did not know each other at all, such as the officer and vinegar-maker who “saw each other for the first time today, picked each other up, and then drank together” (#157). They knew the rules of the game—“wishing someone good evening is a decent manner of picking him up” (#155)—as well as the sexual slang, e.g. “giton” for younger, passive partner.[18] When a candy-vendor told Foucault he understood that “he is arrested for the cuff, but we are mistaken” (#133), they both knew he meant he was not a man of the cuff, a pederast. Speaking of clothes, some men made their intentions more obvious by dressing “with all the distinctive marks of pederasty” (#150): frock-coat, wide cravat, rosettes on shoes, with hair tied back in a ribbon. This outfit provoked crowds to chase a few men through the streets, either because they considered it inappropriate for workingmen from their neighborhoods or because they read it in the same way Foucault did.[19]

The commissaire asked more than a few pederasts whom they knew or if they knew suspect persons he named to them and, in any event, how they knew the men they knew, as if they had no business making acquaintances outside familial, residential, and vocational structures. His papers allow us to map connections in the subculture. The button-maker Darnaudery, known for debauching and procuring “young folks,” first denied he knew anyone in Paris, after living there for five years, but then confessed he knew the men whose addresses he had in his pocket, including two soldiers from his native region and the goldsmith Lafosse (#51). Under interrogation, Darnaudery specified he had seen Lafosse only once, “by chance,” and insisted he did not know several other notorious pederasts, whose names are mentioned in multiple documents (#141). Lafosse, suspected and indeed stigmatized before he was arrested, implicated by the youngsters he molested, denied that he knew Darnaudery or even his own apprentices (#115), who were arrested for “infamous commerce” in the Palais Royal (#124). Noël reported that a jewelry vendor was “intimately connected” with Darnaudery (#59) and that another man socialized with Lafosse (#134), and both of these men knew other pederasts as well. You may construct networking diagrams by checking other conspicuous individuals, for example d’Etignard and Valoux, in the index. A few talkative prisoners gave the commissaire many names to check in or add to the “thick book,” but most were more likely to name any individuals they knew with titles or money, in hopes of persuading the police to release them.

The preceding paragraphs by no means exhaust the topics for research in Foucault’s papers. You could study clergymen (Defage and Léobardy) noblemen (Lunas and Saint-Clément), men from the world of law (Duhau and Tessier), workingmen (a dozen cobblers and shoemakers, two dozen hairdressers and wigmakers), foreigners (Buturlin and Echlin), students (note the comment about collèges in #138), servants (four dozen domestics, and note that Thibouville’s valet procured for him in #33),[20] soldiers (some men enlisted to avoid prison, and a few were expelled for sexual misconduct, as in #14), immigration, family, patronage, word of mouth (the warning in #30 and the gossip in #117), letters found in pockets (#95) or during searches (#233), denunciations (anonymous in #79 and signed in #229), living arrangements (boarding houses, roommates, and what about the hospitable S. Desroches mentioned in five documents?), and much more.

[1] Encyclopédie méthodique: Jurisprudence, 10 vols. (Paris, 1782-91), 10: 625, in M&R, 92.

[2] The legislators criminalized public indecency and corruption of minors, and the police continued to arrest pederasts on those grounds, so the Revolution actually decriminalized private consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex. Michael Sibalis, “The Regulation of Male Homosexuality in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France,” in Homosexuality in Modern France, ed. Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 80-101.

[3] On the police see Alan Williams, The Police of Paris, 1718-1789 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979); Vincent Milliot, Un Policier des Lumières, suivi des Mémoires de J. C. P. Lenoir (Paris: Champ Vallon, 2003), and “L’Admirable police:” Tenir Paris au siècle des Lumières (Paris: Champ Vallon, 2016). On the city see Jean Chagniot, Paris au XVIII^e siècle (Paris: Hachette, 1988); David Garrioch, The Making of Revolutionary Paris (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).

[4] The last capital punishments for sodomy without and with aggravating circumstances, in 1750 and 1783, were not at all representative of French jurisprudence. See Merrick, ch. 6.

[5] For more on these and other sources see Jeffrey Merrick, “New Sources and Questions for Research on Sexual Relations between Men in Eighteenth-Century France,” Gender & History 30.1 (2018): 9-29.

[6] Foucault died on 5 September 1783. His wife Marie Madeleine Geneviève Le Philippart and at least one child, Elisabeth Philippine, born in 1779, surived him. Charles Convers Desormeaux assumed responsibility for surveillance of same-sex relations. For examples from his papers, see M&R, 79-92; SPT, 112-17.

[7] MS, 23: 204-205 (13 October 1783). Several documents include references to the “register” (#28, 37, 59). Others mention men “on record” or not (#15, 61, 74, 153, 157, 159, 167).

[8] For more on decoys see #61, 72, 180; Merrick, ch. 5.

[9] The manuscripts are located in Archives Nationales, O¹1589, and the passages on pederasts are translated in SPT, 92-100. The notes in this volume include references to the published French texts, edited by Arlette Farge.

[10] See Merrick, ch. 2.

[11] Randolph Trumbach, Sex and the Gender Revolution, vol. 1: Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) and many articles.

[12] The most informative reports, involving youngsters, are also the most unusual ones (#53, 105, 109-11).

[13] #26, 54, 95, 98, 161.

[14] See Merrick, ch. 1.

[15] See Laurent Turcot, Le Promeneur à Paris au XVIII^e siècle (Paris: Gallimard, 2007).

[16] The documents contain many references to the tavern in question here, the Grand Salon (#46, 50, 54. 59, 71, 165, 167, 169, 170), and several to the Brilliant Moon (#113, 122, 127, 145).

[17] For much more on this complex issue, see Merrick, ch. 1.

[18] #6, 31, 45, 134, 141, 152, 154. On such terms see Claude Courouve, Vocabulaire de l’homosexualité masculine (Paris: Payot, 1985); M&R, xiii-xvi; Jean Luc Hennig, Espadons, mignons & autres monstres: Vocabulaire de l’homosexualité masculine sous l’ancien régime (Paris: Cherche Midi, 2014), SPT, xv-xviii.

[19] Crowds also ridiculed young men in extravagant outfits without any reference to sexuality. Hardy, 6: 553 (1 November 1780).

[20] For more on servants, see Merrick, ch. 3.

1780 (Y 13407)

1. Friday, 14 April 1780, Arrest of Leménager, Tricotel, and Leconte, suspected of the crime of pederasty

At 8:30 pm on 14 April 1780, at our residence[1] and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor^[2] and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in pursuance of orders he carries, he had arrested and conducted before us three men suspected of the crime of pederasty, who were going to get into a public carriage, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and proceeded at once to the interrogation of these men, as is seen in dossiers separate from this one.

By these interrogations, it is established that Jean Marie Leménager, called Bourbon, nineteen years old, acknowledged he is a pederast. With regard to Jean Antoine Tricotel and Jean André LeConte, connected with Leménager as acquaintances from the promenades and found with Leménager, there is reason to believe they are both pederasts. We therefore left these three men to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination [prison], in execution of orders, and he signed with us, commissaire.

2. Friday, 14 April 1780, Interrogation of Leménager, called Bourbon, pederast

9 pm on 14 April 1780

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, of a man arrested by S. Noël, police inspector, in pursuance of orders.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named Jean Marie Leménager, called Bourbon, nineteen years old, native of Paris, parish of Saint-Sulpice [6^th], does nothing at present, and lives in Paris at the wigmaker Mathieu’s house on rue de la Grande Truanderie.

Asked if he has his father and mother. Said he had lost his father and still has his mother, who lives at a house that used to belong to comte D[illegible] on quai des Miramionnes [de la Tournelle].

Asked if he knows Robineau and if he knows what he does. Said he met Robineau in the public promenades and believes he is a bed and bath vendor. It is Robineau who procured him to the comte de Buturlin^[3] and to that end persuaded him to go to Robineau’s place, an apartment in a wigmaker’s house on rue Saint-Denis near Saint-Sauveur.[4]

Asked why he took a sum of seventy-eight livres^[5] from Robineau. Said that very far from taking money from him, on the contrary, when Robineau was arrested and taken into custody, he sold his coat and some shirts to provide him assistance. Although Robineau entrusted the key to his room to him, he has nevertheless not misused it at all.

Asked if, as a cute boy, he has been presented in various houses and if he he has lived with someone. Said he has been presented to various persons who came to Robineau’s place and has lived more intimately with Laurent, clerk to a financier’s cashier, who has now left for Metz [Lorraine].

Asked if he knows Tricotel, called Cheese, Lacroix, called chevalier Delacroix, and Colas, soldier in the Paris Regiment, and if he knows what has become of them. Replied he knows them and cannot say positively if they procure themselves to men, since he has never attended parties with them. With regard to Tricotel, he is now under arrest with him. As for Colas, he believes he is with his regiment. With regard to Lacroix, he does not know what has become of him.

Asked if has seen Robineau since his release from prison. Said he has not seen him.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

3. Friday, 14 April 1780, Interrogation of Tricotel, suspected of pederasty

9:30 pm on 14 April 1780

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, of a man arrested by S. Noël, police inspector, in pursuance of orders.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named Jean Antoine Tricotel, twenty-three years old, native of Etain near Verdun [Lorraine], hairdresser, and lives in Paris on rue Pavée Saint-Sauveur [2^nd], between a locksmith and a perfumer.

Asked if he has his father and mother. Said he has his father and mother, and they live in Couillouf in Gascony [Guyenne].

Asked if he knows Ménager, Colas, and Lacroix. Said he knows Ménager indirectly, Colas more intimately, and does not know LaCroix at all.

Asked if he knows where Colas is. Said he left two weeks ago to rejoin the Paris regiment, in which he is a soldier.

Asked who his protectors in Paris are. Said his protectors are M. and Mme de Thiange,^[6] M. de Fouchy, secretary of the Academy of Sciences,[7] and the marquis de Gouvernet, previously marquis de La Tour du Pin.[8]

Asked if it is he, with Colas, who subjected an abbé and a chevalier de Saint-Louis^[9] to extortion on the sixteenth of last month. Said no.

Pointed out to him to him he is not telling the truth, since Colas and he had an argument about this subject the next day on the boulevard, across from the post of the French Guards.^[10] Said that is false, and he has never had an argument with Colas.

Asked if he knows what trade Leménager practices in the streets of Paris. Said he knows nothing about it, since he does not consort with him habitually.

Asked if he knows if Leménager procures himself to men. Said he knows nothing about it.

Asked if he himself procures himself to men. Said no.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

4. Friday, 14 April 1780, Interrogation of LeConte, suspected of pederasty

10 pm on 14 April 1780

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, of a man arrested by S. Noël, police inspector, in pursuance of orders addressed to him.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named Jean André LeConte, twenty years old, native of Grasse in Provence,[11] perfumer’s assistant [12] unemployed for four months, and lives in Paris at a house on rue Quincampoix in which S. Moreau, upholsterer, is the principal tenant.

Asked if he has his father and mother. Said his father and mother live in Grasse. He has two cousins named Mallet, painters, who live in Paris and lodge at a pork-butcher’s house on rue de Beaune.

Asked what he has lived on in Paris during the four months he has been unemployed. Said he lives on the profit he makes from selling powder and pommade in houses.

Asked if he knows Leménager, Tricotel, Colas, and Lacroix. Said he knows Leménager, knows Tricotel by sight but has never socialized with him, and knows an Adrien Colas. With regard to Lacroix, he does not know him.

Asked how he knows Leménager and how he made his acquaintance. Said he knew Leménager from his coming to buy powder from S. Ribaut, perfume vendor on rue Saint-Honoré, at whose house he lived. Since then they have met each other again in walking together.

Asked what Adrien Colas does and how he knows him. Said Colas is a hairdresser and resides with him. He met him through S. Desjardins, who lives off his property and lives at an upholsterer’s house, across from a baker, on rue du Four in faubourg Saint-Germain [6^th and 7^th].

Asked how he knows Desjardins. Said he knows him from seeing him come to buy powder from S. Ribaut, his master.

Asked if he knows if Leménager practices the trade of procuring himself to men. Said he does not know it.

Asked if if he himself lends himself to the same commerce with men. Said he had nothing to say because he does not know Colas.

Pointed out to him to him he is not telling us the truth, since Leménager acknowledged this crime and he himself acknowledged he took walks and renewed acquaintance with Leménager in the promenades. It cannot be possible that he is not informed of Leménager’s commerce and of the trade he practices and that he himself is not guilty of the same crime. Said that is not true, and he does not know Leménager’s trade at all.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

4a. Thursday, 20 April 1780, Search of Tricotel’s residence

[Tricotel accused the mother of Colas, who had a key to his room, of breaking open his cash-box.]

5. Wednesday, 4 October 1780, Arrest of Bourseau, pederast

At 3 pm on 4 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested and conducted before us Bourseau, journeyman cobbler, working at the corner of rue de la Ferronnerie. Bourseau has been conducted to Bicêtre^[13] before as a cruiser and still practices the same trade of cruising for pederasts. He is intimately connected with Chauffour. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named Jean Simon Bourseau, twenty-eight years old, native of Paris, journeyman cobbler, lives on rue des Ecrivains and works on rue de la Ferronnerie. After interrogating this man, who did not wish to reply at all, we had him searched. We found nothing on him, but this man is very well known as a debaucher of young folks. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

6. Friday, 6 October 1780, Arrest of Clarard, suspected of pederasty

At 4 pm on 6 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that a while ago he had encountered a man who was walking on the boulevards, whom he since learned is named Clarard, known as a giton^[14] of pederasts. To assure himself of it more, he followed this man, saw someone offer him six livres, and heard Clarard reply he could not be paid like a slut. Walking in the Palais Royal^[15] today, he saw Clarard gather with other young folks known to practice the trade of giton. He followed these men and, of the whole troop, caught up only with Clarard, in rue Neuve des Petits Champs. He arrested him, by virtue of orders he carries, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jean Claude Clarard, eighteen years old, native of Cendrieux [Guyenne], self-styled soldier in the Champagne Regiment, former soldier in the Bourbonnais and Médoc Regiments and lives at the sign of the Crowned Ox on rue de la Harpe.

We had Clarard searched and found five sealed letters on him, four of them addressed to Madrid, one to the marquis de Pressigny, another to the comte de Cambrasin, the third to the marques Caccaselica, the fourth to Don Antonio Avitasa, and the fifth to the comte de Villeblanche,[16] rue de Chabonnaire, number 44, in Paris, with the name Rochette on the back.

We also found on him various addresses of folks known for holding parties of men. We asked Clarard to tell us where these letters and the papers found on him came from. He replied they were all handed over to him by a young Spaniard he knows only from seeing him in the Palais Royal. Then we asked him to tell us for what purpose these papers had been handed over to him. He told us he knows nothing about it.

Given Clarard’s responses and the charges he has against him, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. He also took charge of a bundle of twenty-two papers found on Clarard, along with a small bottle found on Clarard, which seemed to us to contain watery rouge. With regard to the five sealed letters, they remained in our hands, to be handed over by us to the lieutenant general of police, for him to order what he deems appropriate. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire

7. Friday, 6 October 1780, Arrest of Buquet, called Rag, suspected of pederasty

At 8 pm on 6 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was in the Tuileries^[17] at 7 pm and found there Buquet, called Rag, associate of Mouchard, called Griffon, walking and seeking to hook up with someone. They both prostitute themselves and stage parties at their place. Buquet was already arrested four or five years ago and conducted to Bicêtre for the same reason and for the theft of a gold watch. He conducted this man before us, in execution of orders he carries, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named Jean François Buquet, known by the name of Rag, twenty-four years old, native of Paris, parish of Saint-Eustache [1^st], and lodges [in an unfurnished room] with his own furniture at a candlemaker’s house on rue Saint-Jacques, across from passage Saint-Benoît [5^th]. We had Rag searched and found nothing on him. We posed various questions to him. He replied they were most unfortunate, and he could not live on forty-five sols^[18] per day. He did not wish to say anything else.

Given the charges against Buquet, who is accused, among other things, of subjecting to extortion a chevalier de Saint-Louis who lives on rue de la Harpe, near rue Serpente, we left Buquet to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.[19] Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

8. Friday, 6 October 1780, Arrest of Varin, suspected of pederasty

At 10:30 pm on 6 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was in the Palais Royal garden at about 10 pm and recognized, walking around, Varin, the comte de Buturlin’s former cook, who has already been arrested and conducted to Bicêtre for pederasty. He frequents the public promenades daily and uses violence in cruising. To assure himself of it more, S. Noël had him watched. Varin approached Saint-André, one of his observers, told him his address, and felt his hand. He told Saint-André he was cold and kept his hand in his own to warm it up for him. Varin left the Palais Royal with Saint-André, and they were together, Varin still holding Saint-André’s hand, as far as rue de l’Arbre Sec, where S. Noël arrested him. He conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named Claude Baurin, forty years old, native of Calais [Picardy], in Paris on business, pork-butcher in Calais, where he lives, and lodges in Paris at the master wigmaker Martin’s house on rue Bethisy [1^st]. We pointed out to this man that he is not saying his name correctly, since it is a fact he is named Varin and not Baurin. He maintained that he had given us his true name. We had him searched and found on him a note signed comte de Thiange, in which an unnamed person requests a job as a cook. “Contact S. Varin, hosiery merchant, rue and faubourg Saint-Martin.” Also various notes and addresses, the latter indicating the residence of a known pederast.

Asked to tell us why he had taken Saint-André’s hand and if the facts stated in the report are true. Said he took Saint-André’s hand and they came as far as the rue de l’Arbre Sec together because he thought he was his neighbor. We left this man, recognized as Varin, pederast, to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. With regard to the seven papers found on Varin, we left them in the hands of S. Noël, who took charge of them to present them when and to whom it is appropriate. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

9. Saturday, 7 October 1780, Arrest of Lemouchard, called Griffon

At 12:30 am on 7 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that on his way to the house where Buquet, called Rag, lives, to urge the principal tenant or proprietor of the house not to allow anything that might be in Rag’s apartment to be removed from it, he encountered in rue Saint-Jacques and recognized Lemouchard, called Griffon, associate of Buquet, called Rag. He was one of the accomplices in the exortion committed upon the chevalier de Saint-Louis who lived on rue de la Harpe near rue Serpente, during the time when Buquet and Lemouchard resided together at the Burgundy boarding house on rue de la Parcheminerie. He arrested this man, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Pierre Lemouchard, known by the name of Griffon, twenty years old, native of Longwy [Lorraine], wigmaker’s assistant, and resides with Buquet on rue Saint-Jacques, opposite passage Saint-Benoît. He was on his way home when he was arrested.

Asked to tell us if he is guilty of the extortion of which he is accused. Did not wish to reply.

We had him searched and found seven papers on him, four of them receipts from the municipal pawnshop.[20]

Given the charges against Griffon and since he is known as a confirmed pederast, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. With regard to the seven papers found on Griffon, they remained in S. Noël’s hands, to present them when and to whom it is appropriate.

Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us.

10. Monday, 9 October 1780, Search of Buquet’s residence

[The police found five receipts from the municipal pawnshop, including one for a watch. Bouquet “begged us earnestly to give him his liberty” and claimed “he was more likely than anyone to know those who, along with him, surrender themselves to this infamous commerce,” whom he suggested he would name.]

11. Monday, 9 October 1780, Arrest of Herque, suspected of pederasty

At 1:30 pm on 9 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was in the Palais Royal this morning around 12:30 pm and recognized there Herque, former cafékeeper of la Victoire on rue des Vieux Augustins [1^st]. Herque used to hold orgies in this café[21] and since then cruises publicly. He had this man followed outside the palace, where he was arrested, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Jean François Herque, former cafékeeper of la Victoire on rue des Vieux Augustins and now clerk to S. Ligny, fashion merchant at the Magnificent on rue Saint-Honoré, where he lives. He added he had been invited to set himself up as a limonadier[22] in the café he had designated to us. To succeed in doing so and acquire the funds, S. Desroches, who lives on rue Neuve Saint-Eustache, loaned him some sums. He noticed that those who frequented his café caused disorders and addressed himself to our colleague M. Fontaine,[23] and, based on his advice, to the lieutenant general of police. After the seizure that was conducted at his place, he realized he could no longer operate his café. He abandoned it. Asked to do so, he refused to sign.

We had this man searched and found no papers on him. Given the charges against this man, the disorder he tolerated in his café, which was known to him, S. Noël’s specific note, Herque’s frequent walks in public places at all hours of day and night, and his frequent visits to S. Desroches, and since, by LeRoy d’Herval’s admission, Herque is a debaucher of young folks, for himself as well as others, we left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

12. Tuesday, 10 October 1780, Arrest of Fontaine, called Rototo, suspected of pederasty

At 7 pm on 10 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch on the boulevard and found near the Saint-Honoré gate[24] Fontaine, called Rototo, pederast known by these two different names, arrested under the arcades of the Pont Neuf around eighteen months ago for the same reason. Rototo lives on rue Basse du Rempart [2^nd], number 5, and holds orgies jointly with Huré, shoemaker’s assistant, and Chauffour, both of whom live at the barrier of Varenne,^[25] Joret, called the Blonde, who lives at the barrier of Sèvres,[26] and another man called the Lovely Female Gilder, currently detained in the Grand Châtelet^[27] for the theft of a silver place setting committed in Saint-Denis [Ile-de-France]. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Claude Potain, called Fontaine, cobbler set up in a stall at the door of S. de Caze, tax farmer,[28] on rue Basse du Rempart, number 5.

After posing various questions to Potain, specifically about his acquaintances, his detention, and other subjects mentioned in S. Noël’s report, he denied all the facts.

We had Potain searched and found no suspect papers on him but a wooden box in which there was a perfume pan containing musk. This man’s outfit seemed to us not that of a petit- maître [fop] but, on the contrary, that of cruisers or recruiters for pederasts. The information that S. Noël gave us led us to decide to leave him in his hands to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us.

13. Friday, 13 October 1780, Arrest of Bonnemerre, called Langevin, known as a pederast

At 2:30 pm on 13 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on observation in the Palais Royal and saw walking there a man known by the name of Langevin, who practices the trade of recruiting and picking up young folks. This man left the Palais Royal at 2:00. The deponent followed him, arrested him in rue Saint-Honoré, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named Pierre Bonnemerre, called Langevin, domestic in service at boarding houses, for a long time at the Brittany boarding house on rue Croix des Petits Champs, and lives in Paris at the The Three Charleses boarding house on rue Croix des Petits Champs.

Asked to tell us if he is married and has children. Said his wife and son live at the residence of S. de Courcelles, commissioner of war.^[29]

Langevin is notoriously known as the friend of Flamand, called the Flemish Woman, both debauchers of young folks. Moreover, his wife and son live at the residence of S. de Courcelles, to whom one and the other perhaps procure themselves. S. de Courcelles is known to include the two sexes in his pleasure parties. We left Langevin in the hands of S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, after we had him searched. The only thing suspect things found on him were three cards including his address. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

14. Friday, 13 October 1780, Arrest of Danzel, known as a pederast

At 5 pm on 13 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested Danzel, pederast known from having already been detained in Bicêtre for that reason, accomplice in the extortion of ten thousand livres from S. LeVasseur, who still continues the trade jointly with Monin. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Pierre Antoine Danzel de Malzeville, former soldier in the King’s Regiment, and lives with his mother on rue d’Arras.

Asked to tell us if it is true he was expelled from the King’s Regiment on account of pederasty, if he knows Monin, and if they are the perpetrators of the extortion that was committed upon S. Levasseur, and, finally, if he has been sent to Bicêtre on account of pederasty. Danzel acknowledged all these events and added that since they happened, he has become more prudent. Asked to do so, he did not wish to sign.

Danzel still continues his wicked commerce. Along with Monin, he threatened to subject S. Levasseur to further extortion. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

15. Wednesday, 18 October 1780, Arrest of Berger, known as a pederast

At 10:30 pm on 18 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had observed this morning in the Palais Royal, this evening until 8 in the Tuileries, and since that time in the Palais Royal until 9:30, Berger, Mme de Saint-Julien’s former cook, who lives in pederasty with Ferrière. He arrested Berger leaving the Palais Royal, in rue Saint-Honoré, with another man he had picked up there. He conducted both of them before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named François Berger, twenty-three years old, native of Mellossene in comté Venaissin,[30] self-styled cook of Mme de Saint-Julien, and lives at her house. We asked him to tell us for what reason he, having a position, is in the public promenades during hours when his service is necessary to his masters. Said it is to take a walk. Asked to tell us if he knows Ferrière. Said no and did not wish to sign.

We summoned the other arrested man, who said he is named Fidel Less, domestic for four years in the service of the baron de Zurlauben, lieutenant general in the king’s armies,[31] with whom he resides at the Brittany boarding house on rue Croix des Petits Champs.

In passing through the Palais Royal at about 8:30 or 9, he encountered the other arrested man, who wished him good evening, urged him to sit down on some chairs, and suggested to him that they go drink a bottle of wine. He does not know this man at all. They left together to go drink. He signed.

Berger is known as a recruiter and picked up Less in the Palais Royal. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. As for Less, there is reason to suspect him of pederasty, but he is not on record, and we had him released. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

16. Monday, 23 October 1780, Arrest of Mostchi, suspected of pederasty

At 8 am on 23 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested at the exit of the Palais Royal François Mostchi, known to be suspected of pederasty, who was already arrested and conducted before us in September. At that time we had him released and handed over to S. Colson, landlord, at whose house Mostchi lives. We forbid Mostchi then to frequent the public promenades anymore in the future. He is nevertheless on the boulevards, in the Tuileries and other promenades daily. He frequently has conversations with Sélestat, known pederast. He therefore arrested this man again, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named François Mostchi, more than sixteen years old, native of Soleure [Switzerland], and lives at the landlord Colson’s house on rue Mazarine.

Asked to tell us what reasons led him, despite our prohibition, to go to the public promenades in the evenings and mornings. Replied he does not have any particular reason.

Asked to tell us in addition who his acquaintances in Paris are. Replied he knows S. Forestier, banker on rue du Bourg l’Abbé,^[32] and S. Drouin, baron de Besenval’s secretary.^[33] Fourteen or fifteen days ago he was encountered by a man he did not know. This man was passing in a carriage on the boulevard and took him to a house on rue Montmartre. He was invited upstairs in this house, whose ground floor is occupied by a wine vendor. This man and his domestic closed the door of the room, but he did not do anything with them and went away at the end of half an hour. On various occasions in the evenings, either in the Tuileries or the Palais Royal, he has also encountered persons who spoke to him, with whom he chatted, and he does not know who they are.

This man seemed to us more knowledgeable about the reasons for his detention than he wished to say. It is certain he was picked up. It even seems sure to us he goes to the public promenades only for that reason and lends himself to crime. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissioner.

17. Wednesday, 25 October 1780, Arrest of Chauvot, called La Jeunesse

At 4 pm on 25 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested a man, a pederast known by the name of La Jeunesse, unemployed domestic. Given our absence, he left this man in custody at the Grand Châtelet prison, where the turnkey recognized him from having been detained in the prison for theft of silk stockings.[34] In addition, the same turnkey knows him by the name of Little Gossip. He withdrew this man from the prison, conducted him before us, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man before us. He told us he is named Pierre Chauvot, called sometimes La Jeunesse, sometimes Saint Peter, twenty-three to twenty-four years old, native of Ribaucourt near Joinville [Champagne], and lives in Paris at the Abbeville boarding house on rue Guénegaud. He is a former domestic, has served various masters, and is now unemployed.

Asked to tell us how long he has been in Paris and who the masters are he has served. Said he has been in Paris for around two years and contradicted himself in the narrative of various masters he has served, such that it was not possible for us to reconcile the dates.

Asked to tell us if it is true he has been detained in the Grand Châtelet prison, what the reasons for his detention are, and why he is known by the name of Gossip. Said he had an argument with one of his friends around six months ago. They went together to explain themselves to the commissaire on rue Neuve des Petits Champs[35] [1^st], who sent for the guard and had him sent to prison. He does not know why he was given the name Gossip.

Asked to tell us if it is true a watch was stolen from him in the last few days and he made a statement about it to S. Lescaze, police inspector.[36] Said he had a watch from Geneva [Switzerland]. When he left the Palais Royal, he was followed by Fontaine, whom he does not wish to see. This man pursued him, he lost his watch, and he regards him as the cause of this loss.

Asked to sign, did not wish to do so.

We had the man searched and found on him a silk watch cord trimmed with processed iron, with a key and seal attached to the trimmings of the cord.

Pointed out to him to him that if he lost the watch, he should have lost the cord as well. He replied it was a second cord he carried in his pocket.

La Jeunesse is known as a procurer to the comte de Buturlin and swindler, even suspected of being a participant in the theft of a watch from Blay, vendor of wood from old boats, who lives on rue Jeune Saint-Denis [1^st]. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

18. Thursday, 26 October 1780, Search of the residence of Chauvot, called La Jeunesse

[The police found suspect papers, a pair of stolen while silk stockings, and a watch-cord.]

19. Monday, 30 October 1780, Arrest of Moynat, suspected of pederasty

At [missing] am on 30 October 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries and under the escort of Jean Claude Lalout, corporal of the Paris guard^[37] posted at the New Market,[38] he had arrested Moynat, domestic, in rue du Jour. He recognized him as the accomplice of Danzel, both known as pederasts committing extortions. Moynat has already been taken to and detained in Bicêtre on account of pederasty and extortion. He signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Germain Moynat, forty years old, native of Melun [Ile-de-France], and lives at the residence of the marquis de Grammont,[39] whose domestic he is, on rue du Four Saint-Honoré [1^st]. He then told us he has a room in a surgeon’s house on rue du Jour.

Asked to tell us if he has been taken into custody and conducted to Bicêtre. Said he was indeed conducted to Bicêtre, and since the time when he was released from there, he has conducted himself with decency.

Asked to tell us what the reasons are for which he was detained in Bicêtre. Said in response only that he recommends himself to our humanity and that he is a decent man.

Asked to sign, replied this was pointless.

Inasmuch as Moynat cruises and continually commits exortion along the quai des Tuileries, called the Sofa [le Canapé] among folks of this type, and that, moreover, he is exiled from this city, and there is reason to believe that his letter of exile has not been revoked, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

We had Moynat searched and found on him three receipts from the municipal pawnshop, numbers 4739, 5508, and 7136, as well as a note for forty-two livres signed Mme de Perth and a certificate signed Adamson, which papers all remained in the keeping of S. Noël, who took charge of them to present them when and to whom it was appropriate.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought appropriate, and S. Noël signed with us.

20. Tuesday, 31 October 1780, Search of the residence of Moynat, suspected of pederasty

[The police found four squares of white paper with seals in one corner, used to fabricate certificates of domestic service. The principal tenant reported that the doorman reported that Moynat, “whom he did not trust,” had tried “to force a young man, tenant in the house, to go see him in his room. He made him all sorts of obliging offers.”]

21. Friday, 3 November 1780, Arrest of Aubert, called Little Aubert and the Female Trotter, pederast

At 1 pm on 3 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had had observed and had arrested on this day a man known by the name of Little Aubert or the Female Trotter, pederast known for cruising and committing extortion. This man has already been detained for this reason in the Grand Châtelet prison. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Claude François Nicolas Aubert, hairdresser for women, thirty-three years old, native of Paris, lives at Mme Ledoux’s house on rue Basse Porte Saint-Denis [2^nd], and works in a wigmaker’s shop on rue Sainte-Foy.

Asked to tell us where his names Little Aubert and the Female Trotter came from. Said he knows nothing about it.

Asked also to tell us if he has been taken into custody and detained in prison. Replied he never has been and added it could only be because he was seized by the master wigmakers, without wishing to explain if it is true or not that he was detained.

Aubert loiters in the public promenades, uses violence in cruising, and is known to Robineau. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

22. Friday, 3 November 1780, Arrest of Lescardel, pederast

At 5:30 pm on 3 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had had observed and had arrested Lescardel, surgeon, who used to live on rue Saint-Guillaume in faubourg Saint-Germain, from which [address] he disappeared because of the theft of a watch belonging to a canon of Paris committed by a young man he had procured to this canon. Lescardel lived and perhaps still lives with a prostitute who resided in 1779 at a grocer’s house on rue d’Orléans Saint-Honoré [1^st]. He procured men to her, and she, for her part, procured to him young folks he surrendered to various persons. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Louis Joseph César Lescardel, surgeon’s assistant, twenty-two years old, native of Arras [Artois], and lives on rue des Vieilles Etuves Saint-Martin [3^rd]. He used to live at the England boarding house on rue Saint-Honoré and on rue Guillaume in faubourg Saint-Germain and used to be a soldier in the corps of pioneers [advance infantry].

Asked to tell us what occasioned the accusation that was made against him for stealing a watch from a clergyman. Replied it is not he who stole it. Abbé Hazon, canon of Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre[40] came to his place, and a man who was there and came to have himself treated for a secret illness [venereal disease] stole S. Hazon’s watch from him. They took steps together to recover the watch and could never catch up with the man.

Asked to tell us who the woman is with whom he lived on rue d’Orléans Saint-Honoré. Said he does not remember it.

We had this man searched and found on him fourteen papers that might provide information about Lescardel’s conduct. We handed these papers over to M. Noël, who took charge of them to present them when and to whom it is appropriate. With regard to Lescardel, we left him likewise to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

23. Friday, 10 November 1780, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 10 November 1780, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol, to look after [what] might [concern] public order.

In the course of the patrol, we visited the southern boulevards[41] and various other quarters of this city, where we found nothing found contrary to good order. We continued the patrol until midnight. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

24. Sunday, 12 November 1780, Search of the residence of Lescardel, suspected of pederasty

[The police found nothing suspect. Asked about his acquaintances, Lescardel “replied he knows only young folks he cannot name to us and whores he treats for venereal disease.”]

25. Sunday, 12 November 1780, Arrest of d’Orléans and Lebeau

At 9 pm on 12 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he was on watch in the Porcherons [9^th]^[42] and saw three men enter a tavern, of whom two are known, one by the name of the duchesse d’Orléans and the other by that of the Milkmaid. The one known by the name of the duchesse d’Orléans is an associate of Courtois, called the Odd One, sent to Bicêtre in 1769 and 1773, currently a domestic in S. d’Hercourt’s service. The one known by the name of the Milkmaid, friend of the duchesse d’Orléans, is known to present himself in taverns on the pretext of selling lottery^[43] tickets there, although he has no right to do so, since he does not have the insignia. He conducted these men before us under the escort of Laurent Dubois, sergeant of the Paris guard posted in the Porcherons, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men. He told us he is named Guillaume Jean Sébastien d’Orléans, twenty-nine years old, native of Paris, self-styled painter, and lives with his own furnishings at the residence of Charlemagne, fruit vendor, on the Pont au Change.

Asked to tell us who his acquaintances in Paris are. Said he knows various young folks and has the protection of the duchesse de Duras.^[44] He has worked at his job for S. Poulain de Maisonville^[45] and does not know why he was arrested.

We had d’Orléans searched and found on him two notes, apparently written by the duchesse de Duras on 10 August 1778 and 10 January 1779.

We summoned one of the other arrested men, who told us he is named Charles François LeBeau, known by the name of the Milkmaid, thirty-eight years old, native of Paris, former pawnbroker, works the auctions, and lives at an upholsterer’s house on rue des Cordelières.

Asked to tell us if and how he knows d’Orléans. Said he does not know him. He knows the third arrested man well, from his bringing him various items to pawn belonging to Mlle Renaud, whose domestic he was. It is through his connection with the latter that he was found by chance today with d’Orléans.

Asked to tell us what the locations are where he has lodged in Paris. Said he remembers lodging, among other places, three to four years ago at S. Desroches’s house, where he occupied a room on the fifth floor. A lady who lived on the second floor made him feel it was not suitable for him to lodge in that house, and at the end of six or seven months he left it. We had LeBeau searched and found on him royal lotttery tickets for the last drawing worth twenty-one livres, twelve sols, which he told us belong to him, and the address of the surgeon Lescardel.

We summoned the third arrested man, who told us he is named Nicolas Devismes, thirty-two years old, native of Paris, sculptor, former domestic of Mlle Renaud, who lives on rue du Petit Marais [4th], and he now lodges at the Lisieux boarding house on rue des Fossés Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois [1^st].

Asked to tell us how he knows the two men arrested with him and how they encountered each other together. Said he knows LeBeau from taking him various sorts of items belonging to Mlle Renaud and has known d’Orléans for four months through his work as a sculptor. As he was going to take a walk today, he found the two men on quai de la Ferraille [Mégisserie], and they persuaded him to go to the Porcherons with them. We had this man was searched and found nothing suspect on him.

D’Orléans and LeBeau are known as pederasts and disreputable subjects and have ties only with defamed men detained in Bicêtre. We left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination. With regard to Devismes, he has no charges against him, but we certainly suspect him of also being disreputable subject. Pending conformation, we had him released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

26. Monday, 20 November 1780, Arrest of François Duclos, suspected of pederasty

At 8 pm on 20 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had had observed and had himself observed Duclos, unemployed domestic, who lives with[46] Biron, called the duchesse de Biron,^[47] who lives at a carpenter’s house on rue Poissonière opposite the storehouse of the Menus-Plaisirs.^[48] Around two months ago this man, jointly with Biron, subjected an unknown man to extortion on rue Basse Porte Saint-Denis. Duclos was later found in flagrante delicto in the Courtyard of Fountains in the Palais Royal,^[49] but S. Noël could not arrest him, given the location. Duclos walked in the Palais Royal today for more than two hours and was arrested at the exit across from the the guard-post at the barrier of Sergeants.^[50] S. Noël had him conducted before us under the escort of the guard from the guard-post, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named François Duclos, bourgeois, and lives with Mme Doqueu, his sister, on rue Notre-Dame des Victoires.

Asked to tell us who his acquaintances in Paris might be and specifically if he is intimately connected with Biron. Said he does not know him at all and knows no one.

Asked to tell us if some business befell him on rue Basse Porte Saint-Denis and in the Courtyard of Fountains in the Palais Royal. Said he does not know that street and never passes through the courtyard we named to him.

Pointed out to him to him he assumes a false title in calling himelf bourgeois de Paris, since he is an unemployed domestic. Asked to tell us how long he has been out of work, what he has done since he left his job, and with whom he lives. Replied that he left his job eight months ago, that since that time he does nothing, and that it is his sister who supports him. He did not sign.

Duclos is known as a pederast, as one of the perpetrators of the extortion committed on rue Basse Porte Saint-Denis, and, furthermore, as a disreputable subject. We had him searched and found nothing on him. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

27. Monday, 20 November 1780, Arrest of Roussel, called the Lovely Female Perfumer, suspected of pederasty

At 10 pm on 20 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had had arrested Beaucrière, called the Lovely Female Perfumer, known by these two names among pederasts. He found this man walking and cruising in the Palais Royal. At the exit of the palace he had him conducted before us, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jean Baptiste Roussel, twenty-three years old, native of Paris, parish of Saint-Merri [4^th], married for three years to Marie Victoire Savard, governess of the children of M. Marcilly, attorney in the Parlement.[51] He is a pursemaker and lives at a wine vendor’s house on rue Sainte-Avoie [3^rd], across from the hôtel de la Trimoille.

Asked to tell us what he was doing in the Palais Royal today, at an hour that one might consider unseemly. Said after stopping his work at 8:00, he wished to take a walk, found himself by chance in the Palais Royal, and stayed there to walk.

Asked to tell us who his acquaintances in Paris might be. Said he made S. Buquet’s acquaintance three years ago, and they lost track of each other. Around six months ago he went to his place to deliver to him a purse he had ordered. Buquet lived on rue de la Parcheminerie then.

Asked to tell us if Buquet had the nickname Rag and had as an associate Lemouchard, called Griffon. Said he knows both of them by these different names.

Pointed out to him the knowledge he has of the names and nicknames of these two men leads us to believe he is one of their associates, with all the more reason because he told someone in the last few days it was most unfortunate for them to have been arrested and to be in Bicêtre. Asked to tell us how he knew about their detention. Said that is not true and did not wish to sign.

Roussel, called the Lovely Female Perfumer, seemed to us a passive and a cruiser for pederasts, perpetrator of various extortions, jointly with Rag and Griffon. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

28. Tuesday, 21 November 1780, Arrest of Soyer, suspected of pederasty

At 3 pm on 21 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that today he had observed and had had observed Soyer, wigmaker’s assistant, pederast, known for cruising, even using violence, and procuring young folks to rich folks. He arrested this man on quai de l’Ecole [du Louvre], conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard-post on the Pont Neuf, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Emmanuel Soyer, twenty-six years old, native of Laon [Ile-de-France] and lives at the wine vendor Ternisier’s house on rue de la Huchette.

Asked to tell us if he is a wigmaker, used to live on rue Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, and if he knows Rag, Griffon, and Lescardel. Says he is a wigmaker’s assistant, used to live at Nanty’s house on rue Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, knows no one in Paris, and has been here for ten years.

We had him searched and found on him a letter addressed to a tailor on rue de la Savonnerie [4^th], signed Sellier, indicating that Sellier owes the tailor for a meal and room rent.

Asked to tell us who wrote and signed this letter. Said he wrote it, and it is he who signed it.

Pointed out to him to him that being named Soyer, he should not have signed Sellier. Replied that he did not know why he signed that way and that if we wish he was going to sign Soyer.

We left Soyer, known and recorded in the register as being a pederast, to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire

29. Thursday, 23 November 1780, Arrest of de La Rue, suspected of pederasty

At 11 am on 23 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested on rue des Prouvaires Antoine de La Rue and conducted him before us, for him to be interrogated about the acts imputed to him, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told is his name is Antoine Thomas de La Rue, around thirty years old, master hatter, and lives in Paris at the corner of rue Saint-André-des-Arts and rue des Fossés Saint-Germain-des-Prés [6^th].

Asked to tell us if he is the proprietor of the business that operates in the shop in the house where he lives. Said yes.

Asked if he knows Courville and how he knows him. Said this man, who said he is from his native region, came to his place some time ago to buy a hat. Since then he has brought him sales of several others to various individuals he does not know. He has never had any intimacy with him.

Asked why he was with Courville today on rue Coquillière. Said while he was going about his business, he encountered Courville. They said hello to each other and continued on their way together, until the moment when he himself was arrested. He does not know what suspicions we might have on his account.

Asked to sign, said he does not believe it necessary, it is probably a mistake, and he is reluctant to have his name appear in a report.

We gave de La Rue a record of his replies. Inasmuch as de La Rue seems of good faith to us, and it is quite possible for a gentleman to be accosted by a disreputable subject without being guilty, we had him released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

30. Thursday, 23 November 1780, Arrest of Courville, suspected of pederasty

At 11:30 am on 23 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch in the streets of this city and encountered Courville, chintz vendor, pederast who lives with Cabrol. This man is known for cruising daily in the public promenades and at Ranelagh.[52] He conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris gard posted at the New Market, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us told us he is named Noël Courville, forty-two years old, native of d’Argentan in Normandy,^[53] bed and bath vendor, and lives at the stationer Jolivet’s house on rue de Buci. He added that LeRoy d’Herval had informed him that he was suspected of what we know well. He presented a mémoire to the lieutenant general of police, who vindicated him.

Asked to tell us where he made LeRoy d’Herval’s acquaintance. Said he knew him from the public promenades, he had sold him clothes, and d’Herval still owes him.

Asked if he knows Cabrol and chevalier Echlin.^[54] Said he knows both of them. With regard to Cabrol, he is now a dragoon in the Belsunce regiment. As for chevalier Echlin, he goes to his place now and then because he, the deponent, lent him money, which S. Echlin still owes him.

Asked where he made the acquaintance of these two men and if Cabrol is still in Paris. Said he met them in the public promenades and Cabrol has rejoined his regiment and is no longer in this city.

Asked then to tell us what he goes to do frequently at Ranelagh. Said he was there all summer because he wanted lemonade and orgeat [almond syrup used in drinks]. He did not wish to sign.

Courville is known as a pederast, lives with Cabrol, and tried to deceive us in declaring that Cabrol has rejoined his regiment. On the contrary, Cabrol obtained leave for half the year when he enlisted and is now in Paris, lodges with Courville, and does nothing but commit extortion, jointly with the latter. We left Courville to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, after we had him searched and found nothing on him. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

31. Friday, 24 November 1780, Arrest of Cabrol, pederast

At 9 pm on 24 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for pederasty.

He told us he was on watch on the boulevards and encountered at Nicolet’s[55] Cabrol, now dragoon in the Belsunce Regiment, who enlisted only in hopes of escaping the punishment his type of life put him in the position of fearing. Cabrol is the giton of Courville, who lives on rue de Buci, and that, temporarily, of chevalier Echlin. He arrested Cabrol at the exit of Nicolet’s theater, conducted him before under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Michel Cabrol, twenty years old, native of Paris, parish of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois [1^st], dragoon in the Belsunce Regiment, and lives with his mother on rue de Paradis opposite hôtel Soubise.

Asked to tell us if he has been enlisted for a long time, why he has not rejoined [his regiment], and if he must rejoin it immediately. Said he enlisted recently, has not rejoined because he has a half year’s leave, and his intention is to rejoin.

Asked to tell us if he had enlisted in various other regiments. Said yes, but they were only conditional enlistments.

Asked also to tell us if he knows Courville and if he has lived at his place. Said he knew him, still knows him, has been to his place, and wrote mémoires for him. Courville does know how to read or write.

Asked finally to tell us if he knows chevalier Echlin, how he knows him, and if he consorts with him. Said he knows chevalier Echlin and met him at his personal valet’s mistress’s place. They ate together, sometimes at S. Echlin’s place, sometimes at the personal valet’s mistress’s place, but he had no intimate association with him at all.

Given that Cabrol has lived with Courville for some time, that the latter procures him to various pederasts and enjoys him himself, and that there is reason to believe that Cabrol, according to what he states, is a soldier in various regiments, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

32. Saturday, 25 November 1780, Search of the residence of Courville

[The police found two bills of exchange drawn on chevalier Echlin by Cabrol, payable to Courville, and “other papers, just as suspect in the same way.” Some neighbors “gave us the worst testimony about Courville, whom all those who inhabit the quarter suspect to be the cause of the ruin of two young men from the same quarter.”]

33. Monday, 27 November 1780, Arrest of Langlois, pederast

At 8 pm on 27 November 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested on rue Saint-Honoré and conducted before us, under the escort of the Paris guard posted at the barrier of Sergeants, Langlois, pederast, friend of Lajeunesse, marquis de Thibouville’s^[56] domestic, who cruises in the company of Langlois, who has been sent to Bicêtre three times and is now exiled from Paris. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jacques André Langlois, former personal valet, more than forty-two years old, and lives at the Beaujolais boarding house on rue des Poulies.

Asked how long he has been unemployed. Said it has been a long time.

Asked who his acquaintances in Paris are. Said he is connected with Lajeunesse, marquis de Thibouville’s personal valet.

Asked whom he has served. Said he served comte de Sade,[57] and we must know the latter is responsible for his having been in Bicêtre for a long time.

Asked how many times he has been sent to Bicêtre. Said he has been there three times.

Ask if he is not exiled from Paris. Said yes.

Asked why he does not observe the exile. Did not reply and did not wish to say if he knows or does not know how to sign.

We left Langlois in the hands of S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

34. Sunday, 10 December 1780, Arrest of Villers and Félix, suspected of pederasty

At 9 pm on 10 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he was in the Porcherons today to watch over good order and found two men together known by the names of Villers and Félix. Villers is a former domestic of a head clerk in the war office, from whose service he was dismissed, and used to live on rue Neuve Guillemain Faubourg Saint-Germain [6^th]. He practices the trade of procurer in Paris, cruises in the Champs-Elysées and on the Sofa, and has prostitutes who cruise for him on the boulevards. Félix was one of the comte de Buturlin’s procurers and lived with LeRoux, limonadier on rue de la Comédie-Française, former coachman of the marquis de Cany.[58] These two men visited various taverns in the Porcherons and were probably seeking folks in their clique. He therefore arrested them, conducted them before us under the escort of François Gerdet, sergeant of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and at once summoned Villers, who told us he is named François Jolas, called Villers, thirty-four years old, native of Villers-la-Montagne in Lorraine,^[59] former lackey in the service of S. de Chonin, head clerk in the war office, now domestic in the service of abbé de Bion, at whose residence he lives on rue du Sépulcre [6^th].

Asked to tell us what he went to do in the Porcherons. Said he went with his friend to drink a bottle of wine.

Asked to tell us if he has lived in faubourg Saint-Germain and on which street. Said when he was unemployed, he lived on rue Neuve Guillemain in faubourg Saint-Germain.

Asked to tell us if he goes frequently to the public promenades and who his acquaintances in Paris are. Said he goes to the public promenades when he has the time and knows no one.

He did not sign.

Then we summoned Félix, who told us he is named Pierre Félix, thirty-five years old, native of Brive-la-Gaillarde [Guyenne], cook in the service of abbé de Villeneuve, at whose residence he lives on rue du Sépulcre.

Asked to tell us how he knows Villers. Said he has known him for a very long time.

Asked to tell us if he knows someone on rue des Fossés Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Said he knows Leroux, limonadier, at whose house he used to live.

Asked to tell us how he made Leroux’s acquaintance. Said that they met at the marquis de Cany’s house, where they lived, and that he does not know how to write.

With this done, these two men are known as disreputable subjects and procureurs. More specifically, Villers is the one who, on the pretext of providing Clarard with recommendations in the city of Madrid, cheated him of twelve livres by giving him letters he had fabricated or had fabricated addressed to various persons supposedly in Madrid, which letters were found on Clarard at the time of his arrest. We left these two men to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

35. Monday, 11 December 1780, Arrest of Laurent Lemery, suspected of pederasty

At 6 pm on 11 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he had arrested on rue Froid-Manteau [5^th], leaving a billiard parlor, Lemery, disreputable subject, who frequents the billiard parlors and public promenades daily and cruises on his own account. He conducted this man before us under the escort of Etienne Girard, corporal of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and at once summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Laurent Lemery, sixteen years old, native of Besançon [Franche-Comté], domestic in the service of the chevalier de la Ronceray, at whose residence he lives on rue des Poulies, without being able to specify the house where he lodges.

Asked to tell us how long he has been in Paris. He said two years.

Asked to tell us what he has done in that time. Said he has served various masters and prostitutes as a groom[60] and even worked as an assistant in the billiard parlor he left this evening.

Asked to tell us who the people are he knows in Paris. Said he knows Rag and Griffon and various other young folks he found in the Palais Royal and on the boulevards. He served S. La Bretonnière, officer of the short robe,^[61] who wanted to have him arrested as the one who stole a watch from an abbé in faubourg Saint-Germain.

Asked to tell us how he knew about the theft and if he knows the name of the abbé. Said it is the abbé’s domestic who spoke to him about the theft, and he does not know the name of the master or the domestic or their address.

Asked to tell us how he knows the domestic and if he knows Lescardel. Said he made the domestic’s acquaintance in the billiard parlor where he was this evening and does not know Lescardel. He did not wish to sign.

This man seems to us very well informed about the theft that took place in Lescardel’s room. Perhaps Lemery even committed this theft, although he denied knowing Lescardel. Moreover, he is the friend of Rag and Griffon, now detained in Bicêtre. This led us to decide to leave him in S. Noël’s hands to take him to his destination. And of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

36. Wednesday, 13 December 1780, Arrest of Paillot, suspected of pederasty

At 7:30 pm on 13 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he was on watch on the boulevards and arrested two men. One of them was already arrested during a pederasty patrol, and we had him released. The other seems to be a child this man sought to debauch. He conducted these two individuals before us under the escort of Antoine Pestre, quartermaster of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested individuals. He told us he is named Pierre Louis Paillot, twenty years old, native of Paris, parish of Saint-Sulpice, domestic in the service of the victome de Montausier, and lives on rue de la Jussienne [2^nd].

Asked to tell us how long he has served his master. Said he has served him for two weeks and served various other masters before, specifically Mme Albot, in whose service he was when he was arrested on the boulevards and we let him go.

Asked to tell us how long he has known the other arrested individual. Said he has known him as long as he has been in the service of his master, who lives in the same building where the other arrested individual’s master lives.

Asked to tell us what he went to do in the billiard parlor where he was seen on the boulevard, with the other arrested individual. Said he was going to play [billiards] with him there.

We had Paillot removed and summoned the other arrested individual. He told us he is named Jean Vinerat, thirteen and a half years old, native of Clermont in Auvergne,^[62] lives with his father, doorman of a boarding house on rue de la Jussienne opposite the guard-post, and serves as a domestic S. de la Banissière, who lives there.

Asked to tell us if Paillot is in the vicomte de Montausier’s service, how he knows Paillot, and how he met him. Said the vicomte de Montausier lives in the same house as he does. Paillot deceived us when he told us he was S. de Montausier’s domestic. He is the groom of Joinville, prostitute. He has known Paillot for six days, since his master made this woman’s acquaintance at Nicolet’s theater. Since that time he follows his master to that theater with Joinville every day.

Asked to tell us if Paillot has ever proposed any party in a tavern or walk to him. Said it was only today that Paillot proposed to him to enter the billiard parlor to show him how to play and took care of the expenses.

Vinerat did not seem to us to be a disreputable subject at all. Given his youth and since we were deceived about him on other questions, we had him released.

Then we had Paillot return and observed to him that he had deceived us in telling us he is in the comte de Montausier’s[63] service, while he is in Joinville’s service. Said he has been in Vinerat’s master’s service since they made Joinville’s acquaintance, and it is they who pay him.

Asked to tell us if the comte de Montausier is one of Vinerat’s masters. Said they are his relatives.

Paillot frequents the boulevards daily and cruises for either men or women there. He seemed to us to have the intention of taking advantage of Vinerat’s youth and, in general, to be a disreputable subject. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

37. Thursday, 14 December 1780, Arrest of Placide, suspected of pederasty

At [missing] am on 14 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that by virtue of orders he carries, passing on quai de la Ferraille, he had recognized a man, a domestic in the service of S. Fournier, former banker, who lives on rue des Jeûneurs. He believes this man to be the one designated in the register by the name of La Jeunesse, domestic in S. Fournier’s service, known as a disreputable subject who cruises and commits extortion. He arrested this man, conducted him before us under the escort of Rossignol, sergeant of the watch, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Placide, twenty-six years old, native of Lyon [Lionnais], domestic in the service of S. Fournier, at whose residence on rue des Jeûneurs he has lived for more than three years.

Asked to tell us if he is the only domestic in S. Fournier’s service. Said for a month he has been the only one. His comrade left during that time.

Asked to tell us by what name he is known at his master’s and by what name his comrade was known. Said he is known by his family name, and the one who left a month ago was named La Jeunesse.

Asked to tell us if he knows which province La Jeunesse was from. Said he knows nothing about it.

By his manner of dressing, Placide seemed to us to be the same person listed in the register under the name of La Jeunesse, who commits extortion, but for fear of inflicting a penalty on an innocent and pending further information, we had him released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

38. Thursday, 14 December 1780, Arrest of Crugebert, suspected of pederasty

At 9 pm on 14 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he was on watch on boulevard du Temple and saw Crugebert, previously arrested along with Fery, now exiled on account of pederasty. He entered café Alexandre,[64] spoke to various men there, and wrote something. He then left the café, went as far as the Half-Moon,[65] and returned to the same café with other men, for whom he wrote something else. The deponent asked if he came to the café frequently and was told yes, and he failed only to spend much there, which led him to decide to arrest this man at the exit of the café and conduct him before us under the escort of Louis Mouton, quartermaster of the Paris guard. He signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jean Crugebert, nineteen years old, native of La Ferté-Milon [Ile-de-France], kitchen boy, and lives with his mother on rue Sainte-Foy.

Asked to tell us if he is the same person who was arrested with Fery and who lived at the time on rue des Vieux Augustins. Said yes.

Asked to tell us if he left [Paris] during that time to be a kitchen assistant in Le Raincy [Ile-de-France] and if since that time he has secured a position. Said yes, on the first point, and he has been unemployed for more than four months.

Asked to tell us what he lived on since that time, why he is on the boulevard and in the cafés daily, and what he wrote today at Alexander’s. Said since he has been unemployed, he has lived on what his mother gave him. He is frequently on the boulevards because he goes to see his cousins on rue Saint-Antoine and in the faubourg. He wrote nothing in the café Alexandre today, but he gave an inkstand to an unmarried young woman of his acquaintance, who lives on rue du Temple at a café near rue Meslay and gave her address to a musician at café Alexandre.

Crugebert has been followed for a long time. He cruises and has himself cruised. He is unemployed but spends a lot of money. The so-called unmarried young woman he was with is a prostitute who lives at a dive near rue Meslay. For these reasons, if Crugebert is not a pederast, he is at least a disreputable subject. These considerations led us to decide to leave him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

39. Friday, 15 December 1780, Arrest of Pujol, suspected of pederasty

At 11 am on 15 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested at the central market^[66] and brought [to our residence], under the escort of Charles Didelot, corporal of the Paris guard, Pujol, fruit vendor, who lives at the Saint-Denis gate,[67] previously at a baker’s house and currently at a wine vendor’s house. Pujol lives with Pierrot, called the Little Female Trotter, the latter arrested at Herque’s café in October 1779. Pujol was arrested one time at the edge of the water near quai des Orfèvres and another time on rue Saint-Denis, disguised as a woman. He was sent to prison several times for picking up and debauching young folks, jointly with Pierrot, to procure them the various men, specifically abbé de V[iennet].[68] He signed.

After this we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Pierre Pujol, thirty-six years old, native of Fontainebleau [Ile-de-France], fruit vendor, and lives at a wine vendor’s house at the Saint-Denis gate.

Asked to tell us if he knows Pierrot, if he has not been arrested on two different occasions, on quai des Orfèvres as well as on rue Saint-Denis, and conducted to the Châtelet, and what the reasons are for which he was put in prison. Said he does not know Pierrot. It is folks who have a grudge against him [who say so?]. He was sent to the Châtelet once, but it was for tearing a man’s vest while fighting. He does not know what we want of him and has the protection of the lieutenant general of police, whom he has the honor to supply. He will know very well why he was arrested.

Pointed out to him to him that if he does not know Pierrot by his family name, although they reside together, perhaps he knows him by that of the Little Female Trotter. Said he does not know what we mean.

S. Noël assured us that the charges against Pujol have been verified with the greatest exactitude. He daily picks up and procures young folks, jointly with Pierrot, and commits extortion. We left Pujol to him, and he took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

40. Friday, 15 December 1780, Arrest of Barbier, suspected of pederasty

At 5 pm on 15 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested Barbier, former domestic in Mlle Quincy’s service, from which he was dimissed and remained unemployed for a long time, and since domestic of Mlle Sainte-Claire, at whose residence he lives on rue Sainte-Apolline [3^rd]. Barbier, nicknamed the Stone, is known to cruise for men as well as women and specifically for Sainte-Claire. He has already been the subject of an investigation undertaken because of an extortion committed by him and still continues to commit extortion. He therefore conducted him before us, under the escort of Dominique Barthélemy Hulot, lance corporal of the Paris guard, and he signed.

Then we, royal councilor and commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Pierre Simon Pascal Barbier, called the Stone, forty years old, native of Paris, former coachman in Mille Quincy’s service and now domestic of Mle Sainte-Claire, at whose residence he lives on rue Saint-Apolline.

Asked to tell us if he does not frequent the public promenades daily. Said he goes there like everyone.

Asked to tell us if he is married, what his wife’s work is, and where she lives. Said he is married and believes his wife sells in the Saint-Jean cemetery.^[69] She left him a very long time ago, and he does not want to live with her.

Given the charges and Barbier’s way of life, and since from his remarks, he seemed to us to be a disreputable subject, we decided to leave him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

41. Sunday, 17 December 1780, Arrest of Vandeville, called the Queen’s Jewel Box, pederast

At 4 pm on 17 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested and had had conducted before us a man, streetlamp lighter at the Louvre, known among pederasts by the name of the Queen’s Jewel Box. This man practices no trade other than cruising on the quais and debauching young folks he might encounter to procure them and draw remuneration from it. He signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Charles Vandeville, streetlamp lighter, and lives at the residence of S. Bertrand, receiver of taxes, on rue du Pont Saint-Michel.

Asked to tell us if he used to live at a wigmaker’s house. Said yes.

Asked to tell us if this wigmaker lodges on rue du Bout du Monde [2^nd]. Said yes.

Asked if he knows a theft of a silver place setting took place in Saint-Denis. Said no.

Asked if he knows Rag and Griffon. Said he knows Buquet and Lemouchard and many other young folks, but he fears nothing.

Asked what he goes to do frequently in the Petit Châtelet prison.^[70] Said he goes there to see acquaintances who got themselves sent there.

Asked why he takes the nickname of the Queen’s Jewel Box. Said he takes no name other than his and does not know what we mean.

Asked to sign, said he does not know how to write.

Vandeville has been followed for a long time. He makes a sort of commerce of pederasty and is suspected of participation in the theft that was committed in Saint-Denis by other men detained in prison. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

42. Saturday, 23 December 1780, Arrest of Bory, called the Lovely Female Cardboardmaker

At 2:15 pm on 23 December 1780, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he had arrested a man wandering in the streets known interchangeably by the names Bory, Burly, Dufresne, and the Lovely Female Cardboardmaker. This man practices the trade of debauching Swiss Guards^[71] and young folks. He is known in his quarter as a disreputable subject after having a man arrested a few days ago on the pretext that he had stolen a pair of stockings from him, whereas these stockings were the price of this man’s obligingness[72] for him. This man was sent to prison by order of our colleague Messire Hugues.^[73] He signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Pierre Bory, native of the Lionnais,[74] and lives at the haberdasher Mercier’s house on rue Poissonnière near rue Beauregard.

Asked to tell us if he knows the man arrested a few days ago at his request. Said this man is the friend of an artisan he knows. He encountered him a while ago in the Porcherons, where they drank together. He came to his place at 7 am on the day he had him arrested and remained there until 10:00. In leaving he noticed that this man had taken some stockings from him. He followed him and had him arrested. He was taken to prison.

Asked why this man came to his place. Said he came there to see his friend, who is the deponent’s workman.

Asked if he still has this workman and what his name is. Said he does not know his name and has not had him as a workman for more than a month.

Asked to sign, said he does not know how to.

Bory, known by the name of the Lovely Female Cardboardmaker, practices no trade other than that of recruiter, cruising daily on the quays, and is associated with all the most notorious pederasts. He purchased a Swiss Guard’s leave as the price of his obligingess. When this man left him to live with a prostitute, he retained even [a certificate?] of the trade of glazier that belonged to the Swiss Guard.

We left to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination, and S. Noël signed with us.

43. Friday, 29 December 1780, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 29 December 1780 on 2, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector went with him on pederasty patrol to look afterwhat might concern public order.

In the course of the patrol, we visited the southern boulevards and various other quarters of this city, where we found nothing contrary to good order. We continued the patrol until midnight. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

[1] In 1780, on rue Saint-Antoine, near rue des Barres; 1781-82, on rue Saint-Antoine, near place Baudoyer; 1783, on rue Gît le Coeur.

[2] Honorary title attached to judicial offices such as commissaire and inspector.

[3] Petr Aleksandrovich, count Buturlin (1731-87), Russian ambassador to Spain, married (1759) Maria Romanova Vorontzova, and they had two children. He is mentioned as late as 26 November 1784, in Y 11724, and 31 January 1785, in Y 11725.

[4] Church at 183, rue Saint-Denis, demolished.

[5] 1 livre = 20 sous.

[6] Jean Pierre Damas d’Anlezy, comte de Thiange (1734-1800), married (1758) Michelle Perrette Le Veneur de Tillières, and they had no children.

[7] Jean Paul Grandjean de Fouchy (1707-88), perpetual secretary, 1744-76.

[8] Philippe Antoine Gabriel Victor Charles, marquis de La Tour du Pin and later Gouvernet (1723-94).

[9] Military order of Saint-Louis, established in 1693.

[10] Infantry regiment responsible for guarding the king and his palaces and for preserving order in Paris.

[11] Province in southeast France, with Marseille as capital.

[12] The French word “garçon” has several meanings: boy, bachelor, and assistant, but an assistant, especially in skilled trades and large shops, could be an apprentice or even journeyman.

[13] Carceral hospital in Kremlin-Bicêtre [Val-de-Marne], “the receptacle for all the foulest and vilest in society.” Mercier, 2: 244

[14] Name of a character in the Satiricon of Petronius, applied in the 18^th century to the younger and frequently venal male who played the passive role in homosexual relations.

[15] Parisian residence of the dukes of Orléans, the most celebrated and notorious center of diversion and corruption in the city [1^st]. The duc de Chartres, constructed (1781-84) the buildings surrounding the garden. He rented the upper floors as residences and the lower floors to businesses. “Whatever you might desire, you are sure to find it there.” Mercier, 2: 931.

[16] René Armand Le Vasseur, comte de Villeblanche (1749-1830).

[17] The gardens of the royal palace of the same name, demolished [1^st]. “This garden is without contradiction the most beautiful in the world,” with facilities for both sexes as of 1777. H&M, 3: 728; 4: 167; Mercier, 2: 174. For concerns about installation of facilities in the Champs-Elysées, see Farge, 96.

[18] 1 sol or sou = 12 deniers.

[19] He was arrested again, more than once, as late as 7 June 1784, in Y 11723.

[20] Mont-de-Piété, opened in 1778 at 16, rue des Blancs-Manteaux. “They have 40,000 watches there.” MS, 17: 325 (14 August 1781). Mercier, 1: 663, mentioned forty tuns full of gold watches.

[21] According to H&M, 2: 10-11, cafés served coffee, tea, chocolate, and other liquid refreshments to “decent people” who went there to relax after work and to talk, read newspapers, or play chess, checkers, or dominoes. There were cafés for foreigners, Jews, men of law, shopkeepers, merchants, artisans, and so forth, and these establishments did not admit immoral or unruly persons, soldiers, or servants.

[22] Limonadiers sold “all sorts of beverages and refreshments,” including beer, cider, fortified drinks, sweet liqueurs, ice cream, coffee, chocolate. H&M, 3: 409.

[23] Bernard Louis Philippe Fontaine, commissaire, 1758-91, rue Montmartre.

[24] 422, rue Saint-Honoré, demolished in 1733 and replaced by houses with facades “of very ordinary taste.” H&M, 4: 128.

[25] At the end of rue de Varenne, at the site of the gate in the demolished city wall.

[26] At the end of rue de Sèvres, at the site of the gate in the demolished city wall.

[27] On the Right Bank, between Pont Notre-Dame and Pont au Change, demolished.

[28] Anne Nicolas Robert de Caze (b. 1718).

[29] Louis Marie Marc Antoine Boutinon des Hayes, seigneur de Courcelles (1720-90). As General Commissary of the Swiss, he administered provisions for the Swiss troops in French service.

[30] Papal territory around Avignon.

[31] Béat Fidèle Antoine Jean Dominique de La Tour-Châtillon Zurlauben (1720-99).

[32] Augustin Forestier (1729-1817), treasurer and quartermaster of the Swiss Guards.

[33] Pierre Joseph Victor, baron de Besenval (1722-94), commander of the Swiss Guards.

[34] Thieves stole silk stockings worth 6000 livres from the hosier Guerrier’s shop on rue Saint-Benoît. Hardy, 6: 355-56 (18 February 1780).

[35] François Jean Sirebeau, commissaire, 1753-91.

[36] Since 1776, rue du Bac.

[37] Composed of 111 cavalrymen and 876 infantrymen, the guard [garde] largely supplanted the older and smaller watch [guet]. It manned guard-posts throughout the capital and patrolled the streets.

[38] The market and the guard-post were located toward the western (Pont Saint-Michel) and eastern (Petit Pont) ends of the quai du Marché-Neuf on Ile de la Cité.

[39] Ferdinand, marquis de Grammont (1709-97).

[40] Church on place du Carousel, demolished.

[41] The ring of boulevards on the Left Bank, from the Invalides to the Salpetrière. According to Mercier, 1: 144, tey were “less frequented” but “more salubrious” than the northern boulevards.

[42] It “is full of nothing but taverns, where the people consume lots of wine.” H&M, 4: 112.

[43] Established in 1776. “The administrators know very well that their profit is immense and inevitable.” Mercier, 1: 690.

[44] Louise Françoise Maclovie Céleste de Coëtquen (1724-1802) married Emmanuel Félicité de Dufort, duc de Duras.

[45] Michel Louis Poulain de Maisonville occupied a position in the administration of the postal service and went bankrupt in 1782.

[46] In passages involving two men, we have translated “demeurer” + “avec” as to reside with, at the same location, and “vivre” + “avec” as to live with, on unspecified but presumably more intimate terms.

[47] He shared the name Biron with Louis Antoine de Gontant Biron (1701-88), marshal as of 1775 and duke as of 1777, who married (1740) Françoise Pauline de La Rochefoucauld de Roye but died without children.

[48] Division of the ministry of the Royal Household responsible for performances and ceremonies at court. Its warehouse was located on rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière between rue Bergère and rue Richer.

[49] Situated behind the Opera, with egress onto rue des Bons Enfants.

[50] At the intersection with rue Croix des Petits Champs.

[51] Since 1755, rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie.

[52] Ballroom on the grounds of the château de La Muette, opened on 25 July 1774, enlarged in 1779 and covered in 1780, demolished [16^th].

[53] Province in northwest France, with Rouen as capital.

[54] Henry Echlin (1740-99), Irish baronet, married (1762) Emily La Roche but died without children. He spent years in Parisian prisons for his debts and thanked his homosocial compatriot Horace Walpole for the money that allowed him to secure his freedom. Echlin to Walpole, 28 February 1779, in The Correspondance of Horace Walpole, ed. W. S. Lewis, 48 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937-83), 41: 398-99. A newsmonger reported that Echlin was employed “by the officer responsible for the pederasty branch, among whom he took his place as a novice, then as an intermediary for others, and finally as an observer.” He employed a former soldier named Tumurel as his personal valet and took him to England. “Not to go into shameful details, it suffices to say that Echlin and Tumurel carried on in turn with what they could ensnare of the pederasts who are numerous in London.” [Guillaume Imbert de Boudeaux], La Chronique scandaleuse, ou Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la génération présente, 5 (1791): 168-70.

[55] Jean Baptiste Nicolet (1728-96) opened his Grands Danseurs theater at 58, boulevard du Temple in 1764. For gossip, see MSP, 62-68.

[56] Henri Lambert d’Herbigny, marquis de Thibouville (1710-84) married (1731) Louise Elisabeth de Rochechouart but died without children. He “was known in the republic of letters for giving the stage a tragedy entitled Thélamire in 1759 and for various fashionable works, but his larger reputation came from making pederasty fashionable in a way.” MS, 26: 68-69 (19 June 1784). For comments about his “unnatural” taste and “filthy” vice, see Charles Collé, Journal historique, ou Mémoires critiques et littéraires, 3 vols. (Paris, 1807), 2: 307 (November 1759), and Jean François Marmontel, Mémoires, ed. Maurice Tourneux, 3 vols. (Paris: Librairie des bibliophiles, 1891), 1: 164.

[57] Donatien Alphonse François, comte and then marquis de Sade (1740-1814).

[58] Anne Louis Roger de Bec-de-Lièvre, marquis de Cany (1739-89).

[59] Province in northeast France, with Nancy as capital.

[60] “Jacquet,” “jocquet,” or “jockey,” young servant who drove a carriage or accompanied his master on horseback. “To take their profligacy to the limit, women have taken jockeys,” thirteen or fourteen years old, and corrupted them. Mercier, 2: 919.

[61] Officers of the twelve brigades of the lieutenant of the short robe in the Châtelet, who made arrests and guarded prisons.

[62] Province in central France, with Clermont-Ferrand as capital.

[63] Anne Marie André de Crussol d’Uzès, comte and then marquis de Montausier (b. 1738).

[64] In this establishment “one finds only cruisers and bardaches. Infamies and horrors it is not necessary to name take place in this café. The character of those who frequent it makes it easy enough to guess which. The police have it under surveillance, but their vigilant eyes are deceived. It would be wisest and safest to have this receptacle of tribades and sodomists closed.” François Marie Mayeur de Saint-Paul, Le Chroniqueur désoeuvré, ou L’espion du boulevard du Temple (London, 1782), 47-48.

[65] Vestiges of the approximately semicircular adjacent to the Saint-Antoine gate.

[66] Les Halles, demolished [1^st].

[67] Triumphal arch erected in 1672 at the intersection of rue Saint-Denis with boulevard de Saint-Denis and boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle.

[68] Jean Baptiste Charles Pineau de Viennay, commendatory abbot of Tupernay, “the most zealous partisan of buggery.” Les Enfants de Sodome à l’Assemblée Nationale (Paris, 1790) 4. See SPT, 124-30.

[69] Site of a produce market, replaced by place Baudoyer.

[70] On the Left Bank, between the Petit-Pont and the Pont au Double, demolished in 1782. See Hardy, 7: 566 (9 August 1782), 616-17 (1 November 1782); Mercier, 1: 1305-306.

[71] The infantry regiment of mercenary Swiss Guards shared barracks and duties with the French Guards in Paris and Versailles.

[72] The word “complaisance,” here and elsewhere, does not explain who was obliged to whom for what but by no means excludes sexual compliance.

[73] Jean François Hugues, commissaire, 1757-88, rue Neuve Saint-Eustache.

[74] Province in east central France, with Lyon its capital.

1781 (Y 13408)

44. Tuesday, 2 January 1781, Arrest of Dumoulin, pederast

At 9:30 pm on 2 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch on rue Saint-Honoré, he encountered Dumoulin leaving the Palais Royal. Dumoulin is a pimp of men and women, former lackey in the comtesse Du Barry’s^[1] service, intimately connected with Boyer and Rouvoy. He cruises every day on the boulevards and in the Palais Royal, as the deponent has confirmed for himself. Dumoulin was arrested for pederasty two years ago and consequently forced to enlist in the army. S. Noël signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Nicolas Dumoulin, domestic in the service of M. de Fitz-James,^[2] previously in that of Mme Du Barry, and lives on place Louis XV,^[3] around thirty years old, native of Chassepierre near Sedan [Champagne].

Asked if it is true he usually wears a cockade [ornamental knot of ribbons worn in the hat as part of a domestic’s livery]. Said yes, and it is by M. de Fitz-James’s order.

Asked how long ago he came to Paris. Said sixteen or seventeen years ago, and he has served in various households.

Asked if he knows Boyer and Rouvoy. Said he made Boyer’s acquaintance around fourteen or fifteen years ago, and they have always seen each other since, but he does not know what has become of him in the last six weeks. Rouvoy was his comrade in Mme Du Barry’s service, where he made his acquaintance, and he has continued to see him.

Asked if he knows Beaupré and what she is. Said he knows she is a prostitute, and he goes to her place with Boyer and Rouvoy.

Asked if it is true he was arrested two years ago and why. Said he was not arrested at all and does not know what we mean.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since it is quite true he was arrested, and at the same time he left prison, he enlisted and joined his company. Said he was not imprisoned at all. Intending to serve the king, he got himself into the Volunteers of Artois. He went on campaign with them and left them six or eight months ago. He entered M. de Fitz-James’s service, has been ill for four months, and walks on the boulevards and in the Palais Royal to restore his health.

This man is not dressed in livery and has not replied in a way that proves he belongs to M. de Fitz-James’s household. Moreover, he is known as a notorious pederast, cruises daily, has parties held at Beaupré’s place, and debauches young folks and children. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

45. Thursday, 4 January 1781, Arrest of Antoine Baude, suspected of pederasty

At 11 am on 4 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested and conducted before us Antoine, pederast, known for cruising on the boulevards and debauching Swiss Guards from the Grange Batelière barracks.^[4] He is one of the perpetrators of an extortion of five louis^[5] committed in the coach-houses of Vaugirard [15^th]. He conducted this man before us under the escort of Charles Didelot, corporal of the Paris guard posted at the New Market, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Antoine Baude, twenty-seven years old, native of Amiens [Somme] in Picardy,^[6] cobbler in Paris, and lives at a vinegar-maker’s house on rue de l’Arbre Sec.

Asked to tell us if he knows someone who lives near the barrier of Varenne and the names of persons he might know there. Said two of his friends, named Chauffour and Huré, reside together there.

Asked to tell us if he knows Joret. Said he does not know him.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, and, to explain ourselves more clearly, asked if he knows Joret called the Blonde. Said he has heard the name mentioned.

Asked to tell us if he knows that Chauffour, Huré and Joret forced someone in the coach-houses of Vaugirard to give them five gold louis in order to extricate himself from their hands.

Said he has no knowledge of it.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since he himself was the fourth party in this act of violence. Said it is folks who have a grudge against him who make false statements.

Asked to name the persons he believes have a grudge against him. Refused to do so.

Baude is a recruiter of young folks and associate of Chauffour and others and procures gitons for various men. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

46. Friday, 12 January 1781, Arrest of Callet and Lambert, suspected of pederasty

At 1:30 am on 12 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and inspector of police responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he went to the place called the Grand Salon^[7] in the Porcherons [9^th] around midnight to arrest two men who were there together. One of them, named Callet, now resides on rue Froid-Manteau with a prostitute who procures for him and for whom he procures men. The other man is unknown to S. Noël but seems to be in Callet’s clique. He conducted these two men before us under the escort of Louis Mouton, quartermaster sergeant of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Gérard Lambert, nineteen years old, native of Avallon [Burgundy], wigmaker’s assistant with Desprès on rue Babile [1^st] at the New Market.^[8]

Asked to tell us why he went to the Grand Salon on a workday instead of working at his master’s. Said he went there with the intention of diverting himself and assumed he would find Callet, who was arrested with him, there.

Asked how he knows Callet. Said he has known him since Epiphany.^[9] It is Laverne, with whom he worked, who introduced him to Callet.

Asked if Laverne has been a personal valet and hairdresser and in whose service. Said he was a personal valet and hairdresser in the comte de Buturlin’s service. He is now unemployed and lives in the same house as the other arrested man.

We summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Nicolas Callet, twenty years old, native of Paris, and lives at the Providence boarding house on rue Froid-Manteau, unemployed wigmaker’s assistant.

Asked to tell us whom he lives with and how he survives. Said he has had the misfortune to know a prostitute and lives with her.

Asked how he knows Lambert. Said he made his acquaintance on Epiphany.

Asked if he knows Laverne. Said he knows him, and he lives in the same house he does.

Asked if he knows what he does and whom he served. Said he was the comte de Buturlin’s personal valet and hairdresser.

Asked if he knows chevalier Echlin. Said he has indeed heard his name but does not know him.

Callet cruises daily in the Tuileries for chevalier Echlin as well as the marquis de M[esmon]. He seems, with Laverne, to have debauched Lambert and is, moreover, the perpetrator of various extortions. Lambert may become in turn as disreputable a subject as those who debauched him. We left them both to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

47. Saturday, 13 January 1781, Arrest of LeMaseare

At 2:30 pm on 13 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that, under the escort of François Lalande, corporal of the Paris guard-post at Saint-Jacques-de-l’Hôpital,^[10] he had arrested Maseare, unemployed ironmonger’s assistant, who does nothing but prostitute himself. He lives with the jeweler Morin, who cruises daily and is known for receiving stolen goods. He signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told his name is Jean Baptiste LeMaseare, twenty-six years old, native of Paris, ironmonger’s assistant, and lives at the vinegar-maker Gautier’s house on rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Asked to tell us if he knows the jeweler Morin and where he lives. Said he knows him, and he lives on rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Asked if he lodges with Morin. Said yes, and it is up to him [where he lives].

Asked if he has already been arrested and conducted to prison. Said no.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since he was sent to the Châtelet eighteen months or two years ago. Said he did not assume we wished to discuss that with him. It is true he was sent to prison, but it was as a result of an argument.

Asked if the argument was about money he tried to demand from someone who did not want to give it to him. Said no.

Asked to tell us what he does every evening in the public promenades. Said he goes there to walk.

LeMaseare, pederast known to all of that stamp, commits extortion, prostitutes himself, and has been arrested before and sent to prison for this reason. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

48. Sunday, 14 January 1781, Arrest of Clin

At 9 pm on 14 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and inspector of police responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that while he was on watch on the boulevards, he saw Clin, pederast, go by. He followed him into various taverns and arrested him leaving the one across from rue de Provence. When a woman who was in that tavern noticed they were arresting Clin, she went to alert several French Guards, who turned up and withdrew only at the approach of Jean Baptiste Legrand, corporal of the Paris guard, who escorted him. S. Noël signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Jacques Clin, twenty-five years old, native of Paris, works at the central tobacco office,^[11] and lives at a cartwright’s house on cul-de-sac de L’Empereur [2^nd] off rue Saint-Denis.

Asked to tell us if he has been a jewelry setter. Said yes.

Asked to tell us if his mother is a dairy-woman. Said yes.

Asked to tell us if he knows S. Desroches. Said he does not know him.

Asked if he knows someone on rue Neuve Saint-Eustache [2^nd]. Said he knows the doorman of a house there but has never gone upstairs.

Asked what he means in saying he has not gone upstairs. Said he means he knows no one in the house but the doorman.

Asked who the French Guard he always walks with is and where he made his acquaintance. Said this French Guard is named Martin, of the Montejean company. He met him in La Courtille [19^th],^[12] while drinking at a table next to him. They spoke to each other there, and since that time they have been friends.

Asked to tell us if he has other acquaintances with whom he is intimately connected. Said no, he is always alone with Martin.

Asked if Martin was with his company today. Said yes, and he is one of those who was seen and who left at the approach of the guard.

Clin cruises every day in La Courtille and on the boulevards. He seems to have debauched Martin, whom he has perhaps diverted from his duty. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. S. Noël signed with us.

49. Monday, 15 January 1781, Arrest of S. Tessier

At 11 pm on 15 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested at the exit of the Palais Royal and conducted before us S. Tessier, self-styled barrister^[13] [lawyer who represented clients and argued cases in court], whom he watched for more than two hours in the Palais Royal, where he was cruising, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested S. Tessier, who did not wish to tell us his first name but told us only that his name is Messire Tessier, barrister in the Parlement, and lives in Paris on rue de la Harpe. He is surprised by the reasons that led us to arrest him and has cause to complain about it. He is a citizen, resides with his spouse, and is known to our colleague Messire Vanglenne.^[14] On this day, his spouse even dined with Messire Chambette, attorney [lawyer who represented clients but did not argue cases in court] in the Parlement.^[15]

Asked to tell us what he was doing in the Palais Royal at an hour that appears to be unseemly in a public promenade. Said he was crossing the Palais Royal to go to the house of the notary Messire Delaroche,^[16] whom he needed to speak to.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since he stayed in the Palais Royal for more than two hours and walked around with various men he encountered there, and specifically his friend d’Etignard. In leaving by the gate of the Courtyard of Fountains, he did not indicate he wished to go to S. Delaroche’s house. Said it is because it was too late.

S. Tessier has not explained himself as to whether he is a barrister of or in the Parlement.^[17] For fear of offending a company that deserves public respect in all regards, we had S. Tessier conducted to the residence of and before the lieutenant general of police. We went there and reported to the magistrate the outstanding charges against S. Tessier, the questions we put to him and his replies. After questioning S. Tessier himself, the lieutenant general of police ordered him released. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

50. Thursday, 18 January 1781, Pederasty patrol

About 6 pm on 18 January 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on patrol in various quarters of Paris, both inside and outside [the line of the demolished city walls]. At the Grand Salon in the Porcherons around 2:30 am on the 19^th, S. Noël arrested three men, who appeared before us one after the other. The first said he is named Ragondet, chief cook of the comte d’Ecquevilly,^[18] and lives at our colleague S. Joron’s^[19] house.

The second said he is named Antoine Fretin, Italian in nationality, former domestic in Paris, unemployed billiard parlor assistant, and lives in a furnished room^[20] at Roger’s place on rue du Bout du Monde.

And the third [said he is named] Martin Maréchal, thirty-four years old, native of Brussels, hairdresser in Paris, and lives at Dufour’s house on rue du Four Saint-Honoré.

After questioning the three men separately, the first seemed to us to be nothing but a libertine.

The second [is] a disreputable subject. We have not received any direct complaints about him, but in the house where he lives, they suspect him of schemes.

The third is the same man who was banished in the affair of Cabriolet the courier.^[21] He has been back in this city for five months and is suspected of living only from schemes and pederasty.

Inasmuch as there are no direct charges against these three men, to our knowledge, we had them released.

We continued the patrol in other parts of the city until 4:30 am on 19 January and found nothing contrary to good order and to ordinances and regulations. S. Noël signed with us.

51. Saturday, 20 January 1781, Arrest of Darnaudery, pederast

At 11 am on 21 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he had arrested on rue Saint-Honoré a man named Darnaudery, button-maker, who lives at the enclosure of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés,^[22] pederast known for picking up young folks daily in the public promenades. He conducted this man before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Baptiste Darnaudery, twenty-eight years old, native of Mont-de-Marsan in Gascony, and lives at the enclosure of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, near the Cardinal’s Courtyard,^[23] on the third floor of a house next to a chintz vendor’s shop.

Asked whom he knows in Paris and what his connections are. Said he does not know anyone and does not have any connections.

We had this man searched and found in his pockets, among other things, two letters addressed to him by the curé of Mont-de-Marsan, in which it appears this man’s mother reproaches him, as well as various addresses, including those of Lafosse, who lives on rue Saint-Christophe, Favre, who lives on rue Jeune Saint-Denis, Lafitte and Brunet, soldiers in the guards, Montejean company, rue Verte barracks,^[24] with a note on Brunet’s address written him on 7 January.

Asked to tell us if he knows Lafosse. Said no.

Asked why he has Lafosse’s address on him. Said he knows nothing about it.

Pointed out to him it does not seem natural that he has the address of someone he does not know. Replied Lafosse came to his place about work. He knows he lives on rue Saint-Christophe but has never been in his house.

Asked who the Favre he knows is, whose address he has and who spoke to him about a man and a friend. Said he was talking about buttons in a café on rue Saint-Honoré. This man gave him his address so he could bring him some.

Pointed out to him the man and the friend in question have nothing to do with these buttons. Said he does not know what we mean.

Asked if he has been to Favre’s place, and if he is nicknamed Gagardel. Said he has never been to his place and does not know he has any nickname.

Asked to tell us who Lafitte and Brunet are. Said they are two men from his native region who are in the guards.

Asked what he had to write Brunet about on the 7^th of this month. Said he did not know this was on the address and had nothing to write him about.

Darnaudery seems to us to be connected with Lafosse, goldsmith’s assistant, dismissed from several shops, and specifically from one on rue du Grand Hurleur [3^rd], across from the Golden Wagon,^[25] on account of theft. He tried to debauch the apprentices and always has at his place children he debauches and seduces with the help of money. Darnaudery himself is known for picking up young folks, debauching them and procuring them. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

52. Tuesday, 23 January 1781, Arrest of Cotelle

At 5 pm on 23 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested on rue Saint-Louis on Ile Notre-Dame [4^th], Cotelle, known pederast, whom he conducted before us under the escort of the guard-post on Ile Saint-Louis, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jean Baptiste Cotelle, twenty-three years old, native of Paris, and lives with his father on rue Saint-Denis.

We left this man to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed.

53. Thursday, 25 January 1781, Declaration of S. Pâris, painter, against a pederast who abused his brother with violence

At 10 am on 25 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Honoré Noël Pâris, painter, who lives on rue Saint-Antoine, parish of Saint-Paul [4^th], accompanied by S. Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us his brother Jean Marie Pâris, fifteen to sixteen years old, apprentice meat-roaster^[26] with S. Melun, meat-roaster on rue Saint-Honoré opposite the barrier of the Sergeants, came to his, the deponent’s, place in the first days of last December, around 6 am. Surprised to see him so early, he asked him the reason for it, to which he replied he was ill. In response to the questions he asked him about his illness and what had caused it, he told him that several days before he went to retrieve some dishes in a house where he had taken a fowl. In the apartment he found a man who caressed him a lot and suggested they amuse themselves together. After this man, who closed the door after him, met with a refusal on his part, he took him by the arm and threw him down. Having failed to attain his ends, he raised him up, handled him roughly again, succeeded in throwing him on a bed, and undid his breeches. Jean Marie’s strength was exhausted through the mistreatment he had received from this man, and he could not prevent him from enjoying his way with him. The piercing cries he made brought no one to his assistance. After this man satisfied his frenzy, he showed Jean Marie Pâris the door, gave him an écu,^[27] and told him if he needed money, he should come see him again.

Jean Marie Pâris added to the deponent that the day after this scene took place, he believed he could not avoid making a confession of the crime he had committed in spite of himself. He went to the Little Fathers^[28] and admitted to a confessor everything that had happened to him. This confessor advised him to have masses said, and he gave him for that purpose the écu he had received the day before from the man who forced him into crime. There are no sorts of steps Jean Marie Pâris has not taken to calm his mind.

Since that time, the deponent has devoted all his care to trying to bring his brother peace of mind. This young man, physically ill and convinced he is guilty of crime in the eyes of God, has reached such a degree of mental disorder that he has now lost his head and falls into horrible convulsions. The deponent showed us proof in three letters written to him by his father, to whose residence Jean Marie Pâris was obliged to withdraw. All he could let them know of this proof, during the moments when he returned to his senses, is that the man who abused him lived at the time in a wigmaker’s house on rue Saint-Honoré, near rue du Champ-Fleury [1^st]. The three letters, dated from Nanteuil, 29 December, 8 and 12 January, were retained and are attached.[29]

Of everything above S. Pâris, the deponent, made this declaration to us, to be used as thought proper, and he signed with us, commissaire.

54. Friday, 26 January 1781, Arrest of Sauvé and Chaulot, pederasts

At 4 am on 26 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested two men at the Grand Salon, pederasts found by him and the officer of the guard in flagrante delicto in the middle of the Grand Salon. He conducted these two men before us under the escort of François Lalande, corporal posted at Saint-Jacques-de-l’Hôpital, and he signed.

These two men said their names are Jean Sauvé, bailiff with a rod,^[30] who lives on rue Saint-Honoré opposite rue des Bourdonnais and working for S. Barbier

and Jean Baptiste Chaulot, baker’s assistant, who lives at S. Gilbert’s house on rue de la Mortellerie [4^th].

We left these two men to S. Noël to conduct them to their destination, in execution of orders he carries, and S. Noël signed with us.

55. Sunday, 28 January 1781, Interrogation of Cotelle, charged with pederasty

9 am on 28 January 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, of Cotelle the younger, detained in the Petit Châtelet prison, whose interrogation we conducted there in the concierge’s chamber as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean Baptiste Cotelle, twenty-three years old, native of Paris, studies drawing,^[31] and lives with his father on rue Saint-Denis in the parish of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs [3^rd].

Asked if he knows Tessier, self-styled barrister. Said he was in the Tuileries one day with Grandmaison, and they encountered Tessier, whom Grandmaison knew. Tessier invited the deponent to dinner the next day or the day after and gave him his address near the Luxembourg.^[32] He went there on the day indicated, accompanied by Grandmaison. After they arrived, Tessier took the pretext of sending Grandmaison to get some things. The deponent then found himself alone with Tessier, who suggested they amuse themselves together. Upon his refusal to do so, Tessier tried to force him. He struggled with Tessier, who did not accomplish what he wanted to do. After Grandmaison returned, they dined. The deponent noticed that Tessier took twelve livres from his pocket, which he did not wish to return. After dinner he left Tessier’s place with Grandmaison, and they went for a walk together. Some time later he met Tessier and asked him for his money. Tessier told him he would give it back only when he came to supper with him and gave him his address on rue de la Tisseranderie [4^th]. One evening he did go to supper with Tessier, whom he found alone at his place. They had supper with another young man who lived and worked at Tessier’s place. It was too late for him to return home, so he slept at Tessier’s place, with the young man mentioned above, and Tessier slept on the floor. A week later he sent someone to get his money from Tessier, who gave it to him when he threatened him with involving the police. Then he went a long time without seeing him. When he finally met him again, he was living on rue du Petit Lion [2^nd]. Then the deponent left Paris for the provinces. Upon his return he met Tessier again. He was living at the same house as S. Desroches on rue Neuve Saint-Eustache, where he went to see him. Tessier lodged there with two children he told him were his own. The older one might have been seven or eight years old. During the next carnival season^[33] he went to the Porcherons once with Tessier. He lost sight of him around two years ago.

Asked if he ever saw Tessier’s wife. Said he never saw her.

Asked who the Grandmaison he knew was. Said he was then a shopboy with S. Thibert, haberdasher on rue Saint-Denis. He believes he is now associated with his brothers, haberdashers on rue Comtesse d’Artois [1^st].

Asked who his other acquaintances are. Said he recently made the acquaintance of various young folks in the promenades whose names and addresses he does not know. Among them was a young man who introduced him to Guillet, clerk of Messire Mariette, attorney in the Châtelet,^[34] with whom he was connected for four or five months and whom he has not seen for around a year. At Tessier’s place he also made the acquaintance of Chevreuil, who was a surgeon, whose address he has never known. At Tessier’s he likewise made the acquaintance of Beaupré, unemployed, whom he took to supper several times at abbé Desay’s place with Dufresne, who lives at the marquis de Mesmon’s^[35] residence, whose acquaintance he made one evening at the Palais Royal. And finally, he also has an acquaintance Dubreuil, student at the Hôtel-Dieu,^[36] who lives at master surgeon Philippe’s house on quai Pelletier [de Gesvres].

Asked if he has ever noticed the depraved taste of all the men he has just named, and if he himself has not let himself give way to this depravation and in what place.

Said he has indeed noticed the taste of these men. As for himself, it has happened to him to surrender to it, and every time this has happened to him, it was at Tessier’s place with Grandmaison and Beaupré and other men who come there, whose names and addresses he does not know.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

56. Monday, 29 January 1781, Arrest of Picard, called the Female Liar

At 8 pm on 29 January 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that while he was on watch in the Palais Royal, he found there Picard, called the Female Liar, known pederast, who picked up young folks who passed by. He followed this man outside the Palais, arrested him on rue Saint-Honoré, and conducted him before us under the escort of Jean Allard, sergeant of the Paris guard-post at the Carousel.^[37] Picard is known for debauching ten to twelve-year-old children and procuring them as his business. S. Noël signed.

We summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Nicolas Picard, forty-five years old, native of the town of Ville-sur-Yron [Lorraine], domestic in the service of S. de Vaquerie,^[38] chevalier de Saint-Louis, at whose residence he lives on rue Montorgueil next to the passage du Saumon [2^nd] and previously domestic in the service of S. Ribard, intendant [household or business manager] of the marquis de Créquy.^[39] Just as we were going to proceed with Picard’s interrogation, his strength failed him, and his conduct and fears of the punishment that follows from it were revealed. We gave him the necessary assistance. When he recovered his senses, Picard was willing to answer any question only with negations. But he cannot deny he is the man known as the Female Liar among pederasts. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

57. Tuesday, 30 January 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 9 pm on 30 January 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him to various quarters of this city to conduct thorough inquiries about and searches [of the residences] of those abandoned to this type of debauchery.

[The police questioned one Lefevre in his room in a house on rue Saint-Honoré, in which Cannes, wigmaker, was the principal tenant. They concluded that Jean Marie Pâris was raped by “a man now known by the name of Valoux and previously those of Ferlock, Louis Corberon and Chasaille, swindler, bankrupt, object of several judicial orders and one of the prisoners who escaped from the For-l’Evêque prison^[40] about two years ago.]

58. Saturday, 3 February 1781, Arrest of S. d’Etignard

At 10 pm on 3 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Pierre Didier Cheirouze, royal councilor and police inspector,^[41] substituting for his colleague S. Louis Henri Noël.

He told us that in execution of orders addressed to S. Noël he carries, he had arrested S. d’Etignard at the England boarding house on rue Saint-Honoré and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Cheirouze a record of this appearance and summoned S. d’Etignard. He told us he is named Jean Antoine d’Etignard, former secretary of the late prince de Bauffremont,^[42] and lives on rue and passage des Petits Pères.

We left S. d’Etignard in the hands of S. Noël, who arrived for this purpose and took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

58a. Monday, 5 February 1781, Arrest of Boyer

At 3 am on 5 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that since the opening of the Grand Salon balls, Boyer and his mistress Beaupré are there continually. There is no day on which Boyer, a very violent man, does not make some scene there. Today he slapped a man violently and caused a brawl in the Grand Salon. Even when the guard arrested him, he had the impudence to call for help, which aroused several men. The deponent points out to us that Boyer was ressted on 11 October of last year on account of pederasty. Far from quitting this way of living, he continues it and receives continually at his place Salaton, hairdresser, former procureur of comte de Buturlin, now committing extortion. These are the reasons that led the deponent to seize this man and conduct him before us under the escort of Pierre François Agiard, corporal of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned this man, and he told us he is named Jocques Boyer, domestic in the service of marquise de Pennouelte, at whose residence he lives, at the Denmark boarding house on rue Jacob. He told us that he was arrested and taken prisoner on 11 October of last year and that upon his release, he intended to leave Paris but, having contracted debts, he remained there in order to honor them.

Boyer, a constantly disreputable subject, obligated to his creditors through honesty, cannot deceive us. He is, moreover, one of the pillars of the Grand Salon, a rebel rouser, and a libertine. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

59. Monday, 5 February 1781, Arrest of S. Nollet

At 5 am on 5 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch at the Grand Salon, he saw a man known by the name of the Big Tart enter. He suspects this man is a pederast and intimately connected with Lambert and Darnaudery, the latter exiled for pederasty. This man’s manner of conducting himself in the Grand Salon effectively confirmed his suspicions all the more. He believes this man’s real name is Nollet. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We summoned this man, who told us he is named Michel Nollet, jewelry vendor, and lives in Paris on rue Saint-Honoré near rue des Vielles Etuves [1^st].

Asked to tell us if he knows the Big Tart. Said no.

Asked if he knows Lambert and Lefevre. Said no.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since it is certain Nollet and the Big Tart are the same person. To prove it to him, he cannot deny that he, Nollet, is the son of a female porcelain vendor in the courtyard of the Tuileries near cul-de-sac Dauphin [1^st]. Said he is indeed the son of the person we are talking to him about, but he has never given himself the name of Big Tart and does not know Lambert and Darnaudery at all. We are morally sure of the accuracy of the charges against Nollet but have in the register of charges only the name of the Big Tart, which may have been given to him. We contented ourselves with urging him to live with more discretion and had him released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

60. Monday, 5 February 1781, Arrest of S. de Valoux, pederast

At 11:30 am on 5 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Jean François Hugues, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, substituting for our colleague Messire Foucault, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested on rue Croix des Petits Champs S. Valoux, with whom he found another man unknown to him. He conducted these two men before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men. He told us he is named Marie Gabriel Chevalier, comte de Garspern, forty-five years old, native of Guingamp [Brittany], diocese of Treillé,^[43] former naval officer, and has lodged for the last three days with S. de Valoux on rue d’Argenteuil.

We asked S. de Garspern various questions, and his replies did not seem suspect, so we had him released.

Then we summoned S. de Valoux, who told us he is named Jean Louis Jacques de Valoux, thirty-four and a half years old, native of Chaseuil in Champagne,^[44] diocese of Langres [Champagne], nobleman, and lives at the tobacconist and landlord Garrant’s house on rue d’Argenteuil. We had S. Valoux searched and found nothing in his pockets.

M. Valoux is known for transacting only nasty business in Paris, even for running a seraglio of men jointly with S. de Saint-Aumont. Moreover, he continually changes his name, which renders him very suspect. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

61. Tuesday, 6 February 1781, Arrest of Brisset, pederast

At 8 pm on 6 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch at the Saint-Germain fair,^[45] he found there Brisset, formerly one of his agents, whom he had discharged for misconduct. Since that time, he has been informed that Brisset, who still passes himself off as his agent, has tried to intimidate others and committed extortion. He even picks up young folks in public and procures them. The young man he has just arrested with Brisset was probably destined to be the victim of this infamous debauchery. He conducted these two men before us under the escort of Nicolas Marchand the elder, sergeant of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested and unknown man, who told us he is named Jean François LeBrun, twenty years old, native of Saint-Riquier in Picardy, wigmaker’s assistant, and lives at the wigmaker Viard’s house on rue des Ménétriers [3^rd].

Asked to tell us how he knows the other arrested man, how he met him, how long he has known him, and why they were together. Said he made his acquaintance at the residence of Mlle de Lefevre’s cook Lucille. He has known him only two days, and this is the second time he has seen him. They went to the fair to take a walk.

We had this man searched and found nothing suspect on him. We had him released.

We summoned Brisset, who told us he is named Germain Brisset du Germain, thirty-two years old, native of Paris, domestic in the service of S. Doriol, royal mayor of the town of Pont-à-Mousson [Lorraine], at whose residence he lives in the Jacobin cloister on rue Saint-Honoré.^[46] Pointed out to him he takes a false identity in claiming that of S. Doriol’s domestic, since he has been associated with various branches of the police since he entered S. Doriol’s service. Said S. Doriol regularly spends six months of the year away from Paris, and he does not go with him.

Asked to tell us if he has been one of S. Noël’s employees. Said yes, and he has also worked for Security.^[47]

Asked how he knows the young man he was with. Said he met him at the residence of Lucille, whose mistress [employer] he serves during his master’s absence.

Asked where she lives. Said she lives at a wigmaker’s house on rue Saint-André-des-Arts.

We had this man searched, and we found on him, among other things, the very detailed addresses of various known pederasts on record.

We left Brisset to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

62. Thursday, 8 February 1781, Arrest of Rassant, pederast

At 10 pm on 8 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Ybert d’Origny, royal councilor and police inspector,[48] substituting for his colleague S. Louis Henri Noël. He told us that while he was on watch in the place de Grève^[49] and in the billiard parlor^[50] across from the guard-post, he saw there a man who approached a young workman very closely. This man seemed to try to caress him, and the young man, very annoyed with this man, pushed him away. The man was even on the point of putting his hand into the workman’s breeches. S. d’Origny therefore arrested the former and induced the latter to accompany him before us, and S. d’Origny signed.

We gave S. d’Origny a record of this appearance and summoned the workman. He told us he is named Julien Guérin, roofer’s assistant, and lives at Pellet’s house on rue de la Coutellerie. He was in the billiard parlor where the other man was arrested. The latter approached him and caressed his thighs several times. Although he tried to distance himself, this man always followed him. Concealing himself with his muff in one hand, this man finally unbuttoned the deponent’s breeches with the other, without his noticing it, and inserted his hand, which made the deponent shout for help, and the other was arrested at once. He stated he does not know how to sign.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Charles Rassant, thirty-six years old, native of Montreuil in Normandy, and lives on rue de la Huchette, self-styled haberdasher, with authorization to display his wares in the place des Victoires.^[51]

Asked to tell us if he is the same man who was arrested last 29 December during an execution in the Grève.[52] Said we know it very well since it was before us that he was conducted.

Asked to tell us if it is true that some time before 29 December, he was arrested and conducted to prison by order of our colleague Messire Hugues. Said that is true, and it was for an argument.

Rassant was arrested on 29 December in the place de Grève for bothering, pestering, and even inserting his hand into the breeches of and trying to debauch Agnan Dionnet, wigmaker’s assistant, who lives at S. Gruet’s house on rue Saint-Anne. He was arrested again today for employing the same means to like ends with Guérin. We left Rassant to S. d’Origny, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

63. Friday, 9 February 1781, Search of d’Etignard’s residence

[The police found three letters addressed to Garnier, signed only with an L, five periods, and a flourish.]

64. Saturday, 10 February 1781, Interrogation of S. d’Etignard, pederast

10 am on 10 February 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of d’Etignard, whose interrogation we conducted in the concierge’s chamber in the For-l’Eveque prison as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean Antoine d’Etignard, thirty-one years old, native of Combeaufontaine in Franche-Comté,^[53] originally from the town of Vuillafans, secretary of the late prince de Bauffremont, and lives in Paris at the Louis the Great boarding house on rue and passage des Petits Pères.

Asked if he knows Lefevre. Said Lefevre came to find him around two weeks ago to ask his advice about a bill of exchange^[54] for which he was being actively pursued. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned a S. Valoux, whom he complained a good deal about. Knowing little about these sorts of matters, the deponent could not give him advice and sent him off to consult others he had named during the conversation.

Asked how he knew Lefevre. Said he knew him by sight in the French Guards and later at the England boarding house.

Asked in what circumstances he met him. Said he was at the Saint-Germain fair one day, in a spot where the French Guards were keeping the public in place. He heard Lefevre speak and recognized from his accent that he was from Franche-Comté, which gave him a reason to speak to him.

Asked by what chance Lefevre knew his address. Said he knows nothing about it. He probably inquired about it at the England boarding house.

Showed him three letters addressed to him and found in his room at the time of the search conducted at his place, all three signed only with an L, periods, and a flourish. Asked if he recognizes the writing in them. Said he recognizes the writing as being the same as that in other letters he has received without ever answering them. He even burned most of them without breaking the seals. These letters came to him from Larcenal, a prostitute who lives on rue Saint-Honoré. He has never seen the persons at whose residences rendezvous were made with him.

Asked if he attended the first performance of the play The Good Friend.^[55] Said he does not know the play and never attended a performance of it.

Asked if he attended a performance of the opera Perseus.^[56] Said he attended one performance of this opera, for which S. Dufour, private secretary of His Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia,^[57] gave him a ticket.

Asked where S. Dufour lives. Said he left for Potsdam [Brandenburg (Germany)] on 15 December.

Asked about the person in a German frock-coat he spoke to in the parterre of the Opera^[58] on the day of this performance. Said he spoke to no one other than a former musician of the Opera whose name he does not remember.

Pointed out to him it is quite true he spoke to others, and it was at the moment when the scenery represents a sea. He said to a young man who was next to him, “Nature is much more beautiful.” Said he does not believe he made that remark.

Asked what happened last 11 October between him and a French Guard in the paradise [upper balconies] of the Opera. Said since his return he has been to the Opera only twice and saw only Perseus and the Benevolent Lord.^[59] During the month of October he did not go to the Opera at all. At that time he was in no state to leave his place to put his affairs in order.

Asked why he took the name Garnier. Said it was in connection with his business and because of his debts.

Asked with whom he made a rendezvous last Saturday, on the Terrace of the Feuillants.^[60] Said he has never made any rendezvous in public places and did not make any for last Saturday. The proof is that he was not in the Tuileries at all that day.

Asked whom he sees most frequently. Said since he fell out with Mlle Sarau and, specifically since his return, he has seen only the marquis de Caraccioli,^[61] to whom he is indebted for the financial assistance the marquis secured for him during his misfortune. He also knows the comte de Valcroissant,^[62] who also rendered him services, the fuller S. Lambert on rue de Grenelle Saint-Honoré [1^st] and S. Jacquet, former royal attorney of Lons-le-Saulnier [Franche-Comté],^[63] who promised to put in a good word for him with S. Lenoir.^[64]

Asked if he has ever been to Lefevre’s place and if he knows his address. Said he has never been to Lefevre’s place and does not know where he lives.

Asked if he has ever had the weakness to surrender himself to the passion for men. Said he has never had a weakness of that nature in his life.

Asked if he knows a surgeon on place Saint-Michel. Said he does not know any.

Asked if he knows Ferlock and S. Saint-Aumont. Said he does not know them and has never seen them.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

65. Saturday, 10 February 1781, Interrogation of Valoux, pederast

11:30 am on 10 February 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Valoux, whose interrogation we conducted in the concierge’s chamber in the For-l’Eveque prison as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean Louis Jacques de Valoux, thirty-four years old, nobleman, native of Chaseuil in Champagne, and lives on rue d’Argenteuil in Butte Saint-Roch [1^st].

Asked if he knows S. Ferlock. Said no.

Pointed out to him we are informed Ferlock and de Valoux are the same person. Said there is very surely a mistake in that.

Asked if he has lived near the Pont aux Choux[65] [3^rd]. Said he lived in the environs of the boulevards near the city reservoir^[66] around two years ago.

Asked if he lodged with S. de Saint-Aumont when he lived there. Said yes.

Asked where he made S. de Saint-Aumont’s acquaintance. Said he has known him for a very long time and believes they saw each other for the first time in the garden of the Palais de Soubise.^[67]

Asked if he knows Lefevre and where he lives. Said he knows Lefevre, and he lives at a wigmaker’s house on rue Saint-Honoré.

Asked where he made Lefevre’s acquaintance. Said one of his friends brought him to the deponent’s place as a native of the same region.

Asked if he has lived at Lefevre’s place. Said he lodged there for several days and left as soon as he obtained the judgment that ordered execution of the decree.

Asked if he knows why Lefevre was arrested. Said it was because of a scandalous affair that happened to him in the Palais Royal.

Asked if it was an affair involving prostitutes. Said it was the opposite.

Asked if he knew Lefevre, the marshal de Brissac’s^[68] page, and if that Lefevre is the same as the one in question here. Said they are two different individuals. He knew Lefevre, S. de Brissac’s page, at the residence of the marshal and marquise d’Albert, and this Lefevre came to his place twice.

Asked if he knew a Lefevre on rue Saint-Honoré, in a furred coat, and if he still had it when he stopped seeing him. Said he still had a furred coat when he stopped seeing him. It is he himself, the deponent, who made a gift of it to him when they went to Marseille [Provence] together.

Asked if he saw Lefevre in the course of the month of last December. Said no.

Asked if he met abbé Gatigame at Lefevre’s. Said he saw him at Lefevre’s.

Asked where he made the comte de Garspern’s acquaintance. Said he made his acquaintance through someone who brought him to his place to introduce him, which could be useful to him, given the comte de Garspern’s connection with M. de Vergennes,^[69] to whom the deponent’s is related through marriage.

Asked where S. de Garspern lived when he made his acquaintance. Said S. de Garspern lived on rue Jeune Saint-Denis when he met him in October or September.

Asked if S. de Garspern came to live at his place. Said he came to live there while he was waiting for an apartment.

Asked if his papers are locked up in his apartment. Said everything is open.

Asked if he knew someone who lodges in S. Bonnedame’s house on rue Saint-Honoré. Said he knew a banker Duclos there and went to his place to receive money. He was there one day when the queen passed by,^[70] and he had lunch there.

Asked what S. de Saint-Aumont’s status is. Said S. de Saint-Aumont was in the military.

Asked if he knows what type of life S. de Saint-Aumont led in Paris. Said that at the beginning, when he met him and they resided together, he regarded him as a gentleman. He later learned horrid things happened in his room at night, for which reason they parted company.

Asked if he saw a young apprentice meat-roaster [Jean Marie Pâris] at Lefevre’s. Said he saw folks who brought him supplies but knows nothing more about it.

Asked if he has ever given Lefevre monetary or other assistance. Said at first he loaned him money, which he regards as lost, and gave him other assistance, in consideration of the trips they took together. During the whole time he lived at Lefevre’s place it is he, the deponent, who paid all the household expenses.

Asked if the people who came to see S. de Saint-Aumont were also his acquaintances. Said he did not know the twentieth part of them. S. de Saint-Aumont had a great multitude of society.

Asked if it was as a result of his solicitation that Lefevre left prison for his affair in the Palais Royal. Said he took some steps, and the magistrate deigned to yield.

Asked if he knows S. Lanos, employed in the Comptroller General’s office.^[71] Said yes, and he met him at the residence of his relative S. de Clugny, who was then Comptroller General.^[72]

Asked if he knows Darobert. Said he knows Darobert, and he has reason to believe it is to him alone he owes the name of Ferlock. Darobert gave him this name when he wanted to incuplate Lefevre, no doubt so as not to identify S. de Valoux, inasmuch as Darobert might have been contradicted by the person he wished to designate by the name of Ferlock.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

66. Saturday, 10 February 1781, Arrest of Moreau, pederast

At 6:45 pm on 10 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Anne Ybert d’Origny, royal councilor and police inspector, substituting for his colleague S. Noël. He told us that he while he was on watch, he had arrested on the Pont Neuf and conducted before us two men, one of whom was known to be Moreau. He conducted these two men before us under the escort of Jean Dunaux, corporal of the Paris guard-post on the Pont Neuf, and he signed.

We gave S. d’Origny a record of this appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men. He told us he is named Richard Faussé, twenty-two years old, native of Saint-Pierre-de-Camp in Normandy, domestic of S. Ponsard in the notary S. Bro’s house on rue du Petit Bourbon.^[73] We had this man searched and found nothing incriminating. Based on his interrogation, he did not seem at all suspect to us, and we had him released.

We summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Emmanuel Moreau, thirty-one years old, native of Versailles, domestic of Mme de Launay, at whose residence he lives in the convent on rue du Cherche Midi.^[74] Asked if he knows Tricotel and Bourbon. Said no.

Asked if he knows S. Gaudin, former distiller. Said he knows him. Asked if he knows about the theft of a silver goblet from S. Gaudin. Said no.

We had Moreau searched and found on him, among other things, a ticket for the royal lottery, for the drawing of February 1778, not filled out, and a torn piece of paper, on it three impressions of the cipher that is ordinarily affixed at the bottom of every lottery ticket. These impressions appeared to be counterfeits of the stamp.

Asked to tell us where he found this paper with the impressions on it and how it came into his hands. Said he picked it up in the baronne de Launay’s apartment.

Given the known charges against Moreau and, moreover, since he was found with apparently counterfeit impressions of the royal lottery stamp, and there is reason to suspect this stamp does not come from the central lottery office, we left Moreau in the hands of S. d’Origny, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. He also took charge of the blank lottery ticket and the piece of paper with the impressions on it, to produce them for use as evidence if the occasion arises. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. d’Origny signed with us.

67. Sunday, 11 February 1781, Arrest of Laurent, pederast

At 9:30 pm on 11 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Anne d’Origny, royal councilor and police inspector, substituting for his colleague S. Noël.

He told us he had arrested on rue de Provence and conducted before us two men, under the escort of Jacques Leloutre, sergeant of the Paris guard. He recognized one of them as Laurent, finisher of silk stockings, who lives on rue des Blancs Manteaux. Laurent daily picks up young folks in the public promenades, whom he procures to the wigmaker Guyot, who lives on rue Saint-Honoré near the Oratory,^[75] and advises others to subject old folks to extortion. He is a former domestic, dismissed from his position on suspicion of theft, and holds orgies at his place on holidays and Sundays. S. d’Origny signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Charles Poutrel, twenty-one years old, native of Caen [Normandy], domestic in the service of Mme de la Baume, at whose residence he lives on rue des Champs-Elysées.^[76]

Asked to tell us how he knows the other arrested man. Said he knows him from giving him his stockings to wash.

Asked how they became acquainted and where it happened. Said he does not remember it.

Asked where the other arrested man lives, if he has ever been to his place, and whom he saw there. Said he lives at the wigmaker’s house on rue des Blancs Manteaux, and he has been to his place. On holidays and Sundays he found wigmakers’ assistants there with whom he played checkers and the Fly [card game].

Today they encountered each other and went to various taverns in the Porcherons together to watch the dancing and find some of their friends.

We summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Christophe Laurent, thirty-five years old, native of Champlitte in Franche Comté, finisher of silk stockings, and lives at a wigmaker’s house on rue des Blancs Manteaux.

Asked if he knows S. Guyot on rue Saint-Honoré. Said he knows someone on rue Saint-Honoré and did not wish to name him, but it is not S. Guyot.

Asked if the man he knows on rue Saint-Honoré lives in the same house as an upholsterer. Said he knows nothing about it.

Asked if he knows Le Prince. Said no.

Asked who the people are he receives at his place on holidays and Sundays. Said he receives wigmakers’ assistants there who come to play games at his place, along with the other arrested man, whose stockings he washes.

Asked if he has ever been a domestic and if he knows Place. He did not reply at all to the first part of the question. As for service, said he knows Place who lives on rue du Plâtre Saint-Avoie [3^rd].

Since Poutrel is unknown to us, up until now, and does not have any charges against him, we had him released. With regard to Laurent, he is the known debaucher of the wigmaker Guyot, who lives at an upholsterer’s house on rue Saint-Honoré and, moreover, the friend of Beauregard, arrested on the boulevards on last 25 September and conducted to prison for picking up Jean Place, against whom there were no charges at the time, but who frequents Laurent frequently since. We left Laurent in the hands of S. Ybert, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

68. Monday, 12 February 1781, Arrest of Souchet, called S. Vallier, pederast

At 4 am on 12 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Anne Ybert d’Origny, royal councilor and police inspector, substituting for his colleague S. Noël.

He told us that while he was on watch at the Grand Salon, various indecent acts were committed between several men, including a man dressed as a woman and a woman dressed as a man, who was struck by one of them, which caused a commotion. More specifically, these men and others had formed a plot to wait at the exit of the Grand Salon for two of S. Noël’s employees and cane them. One of these men is S. Vallier, disguised as a woman, seed vendor’s son, who lives on rue au Maire. S. Vallier never leaves the Grand Salon on ball days and is known as a disreputable subject. One of the officers of the Paris guard, the commander of the guard at the Grand Salon, even suspects him of pederasty. S. d’Origny had these men arrested and conducted them before us under the escort of Pierre Tisserand, employee of the guard, and he signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Antoine Parret, twenty years old, native of Tulle [Limousin], roofer of the comte de Brassac,^[77] at whose residence he lives on rue de la Planche [7^th].

Hyacinthe Clément, nineteen and a half years old, native of Péage in Roussillon,^[78] journeyman jeweler, who lives at the wigmaker Gaston’s house on rue de la Juiverie [4^th]

Jean François Bertrand, twenty-one years old, native of Le Petit-Andely [Normandy], also jeweler, who lives at café de Richard on rue des Vieilles Etuves Saint-Martin

and Jean Vacourt, twenty-two years old, native of Bordeaux [Guienne].

After questioning these four men separately, we recognized clearly that they were part of a larger clique at the Grand Salon. Their attire made us suspect very much they are debauched young folks. Their acquaintances alone heightened our suspicions, but pending further confirmation, we had them released.

Then we summoned the arrested woman, who told us her name is Marie Louise Dumesnil, twenty-one years old, worker in women’s fashions, and lives at faubourg Saint-Jacques [5^th and 14^th].

Asked whom she was with at the Grand Salon. Said she was alone there and found Pierrot, with whom she had lived for three months. After they upbraided each other, he slapped her, and they fought.

Asked to tell us if she knows the other arrested men, especially the man dressed as a woman, and if it is true she told him he is a f[ucker or ucked] in the a[s]s. Said she knows him from the Grand Salon, and what she said to him was a joke.

We finally summoned the last arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Baptiste Souchet, alias S. Vallier, twenty-six years old, native of Paris, and lives with his father on rue au Maire.

Asked to tell us what his profession is. Said he does not have any and has done nothing for a long time. He was previously a notary’s under-clerk and an attorney’s clerk. He expects work any day now.

Pointed out to him it is not by frequenting the Grand Salon and Porcherons regularly that he will attract useful acquaintances. Said everyone takes his pleasure where he finds it.

Asked if he knows Buquet, called Rag, and LeMouchard, called Griffon. Said he knows many others.

We left Dumesnil, a known prostitute, in the hands of Tisserand, who took charge of her to conduct her, by police order, to the Saint-Martin prison.^[79] With regard to Souchet, alias S. Vallier, we left him to S. d’Origny, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

69. Thursday, 15 February 1781, Confrontation of de Valoux and d’Etignard with Pâris

At 8 am on 15 February 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, went to the Hôtel-Dieu of this city, where we found S. Ybert d’Origny, royal councilor and police inspector, substituting for his colleague S. Noël, in the guardroom.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had brought Messrs de Valoux and d’Etignard, detained in the For-l’Evêque prison, to this place to confront them with Jean Marie Pâris, to receive the latter’s statements regarding and by way of sequel to that made to us on 25 January of this year, and also to record, if the occasion arises, any recognition that Pâris might show of S. Valoux or d’Etignard as the perpetrator, accomplice, or abettor of the events discussed in that declaration.

Then an individual who seemed to us to be fifteen or sixteen years old, whom we were told is Jean Marie Pâris, was brought to the guardroom on a stretcher. After asking him various questions about his name, age, and rank, as well as the causes of the illness he is stricken with, it was impossible for us to obtain the least response from him. His mind seemed completely deranged. We had S. de Valoux and d’Etignard pass in turn before him, and in their presence we asked him if knows them, has ever seen them, where he saw them, and if he has anything to reproach them for. To all these various questions he responded that we were all his brothers, his brother Pâris was an innkeeper at Nanteuil-le-Haudouin [Picardy], on the road from Senlis [Picardy/Oise] via Dammartin [Ile-de-France], and he loves the good Lord who gives him the good Lord’s bread, but did not wish to say if he does or does not know S. Valoux or d’Etignard. We asked him various other questions, to which he made no other responses, except that he wishes to embrace his brothers, and they should unbind him. We are more than ever convinced of how much Jean Marie Pâris’s mind is deranged, and he did not explain the causes of this derangement to us. We had him returned to the Saint-Louis ward. With regard to S. de Valoux and d’Etignard, S. d’Origny took charge of them to return them to prison, and he signed with us.

69a. Friday, 16 February 1781, Arrest of Chauffour

At 8:30 am on 16 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that he had arrested on rue de la Verrerie Chauffour, upholsterer’s apprentice, pederast known for committing extortion in the coach-houses on the Vaugirard plain, whom he suspects of committing various thefts. He conducted this man before us and signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Olivier Chauffour, twenty-six years old, native of Paris, upholsterer’s assistant, and lives at a chandler’s house on rue de la Verrerie.

Asked to tell us if he he has not lived at a friend’s residence at the barrier on rue de Varenne. Said he did not live there but has a friend named Huré there.

Asked if he also has a friend a friend named Joret, called the Blonde. Said he knows him.

Asked if he was sent to prison twice and for what reasons. Said he was there twice for disputes.

Pointed out to him that he is not telling the truth [because] the causes of his detention were two thefts of linens he was suspected of committing. Said that is not so and did not sign.

Chauffour is one of the pederasts to be most feared for the extortions he and his friends commit. We suspect he is the author of or an accomplice in several thefts. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed.

70. Sunday, 18 February 1781, Arrest of Biron

At 8:30 pm on 18 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that he had arrested at the exit of the Great Victor^[80] in the Porcherons a man disguised as a woman whom he recognized as Biron, called Marshal de Biron’s Wife. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Charles Biron, twenty-seven years old, native of Doullens in Picardy, unlicensed second-hand dealer in the central market, and lives at a carpenter’s house on rue Poissonnière opposite the Menus-Plaisirs.

Asked if he knew and took in Duclos. Said he knew him, and they lodged together in the apartment where he lives.

Asked if he and Duclos had jointly subjected a man whom they robbed of everything to extortion on rue Basse Porte Saint-Denis. Said those who say so have a grudge against him.

Biron is a disreputable subject responsible for the debauchery of Duclos, for which the latter was arrested and exiled. We left Biron to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

71. Wednesday, 21 February 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 8 pm on 21 February 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited various quarters of this city. At the Grand Salon in the Porcherons at 2 am on the 22^nd, S. Noël, by virtue of orders he carries, arrested three men, two of them disguised as peasant rascals. He told us these men are Montauban, hairdresser, Louis, limonadier’s assistant, and Dufour, hairdresser.

We summoned one of these men, who told us he is named Pierre François Doundine, called Montauban, twenty two years old, domestic in the service of S. Dautour, inspector of royal buildings,^[81] who lives on place du Carousel.

Asked to tell us if he was a hairdresser and lived in the Courtyard of the Princes in the Tuileries.^[82] Said yes.

Asked who the people he was with at the Grand Salon are. Said he was with his master’s secretary and several young friends of his, among others Dufour, who wears a red coat and has the deponent’s hat.

Asked if he goes to the Tuileries often. Said he goes there sometimes.

Asked what he did with a watch he extorted from someone in the Tuileries. Said he does not know what we mean.

We summoned another of the arrested men, who told us he is named Gérard Thomas, domestic in the service of S. de Courcelles, commissaire of war, at whose residence he lives, at the Coq-Héron boarding house on the street of the same name. This man is twenty years old, native of Vaucouleurs in Champagne,

Asked if he was a limonadier’s assistant. Said he lived for several years at the limonadier S. Delache’s house at the corner of rue Barbette and rue Vieille du Temple.

Asked where where he met Montauban. Said he met him after he stopped selling spirits and learned to curl hair.

Asked if they see each other frequently. Said his master does not usually live in Paris, so he can see him only when he returns to this city.

We then summoned the third arrested man, who told us he is named Honoré François, twenty-two years old, native of Goussancourt, diocese of Noyon[83] [Ile-de-France], hairdresser for women, and lives at a baker’s house on rue des Quatre Vents.

Asked what his last name is. Replied his name is François.

Asked if his name is Dufour. Said no.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since one of the arrested men who is his friend told us he knows him by the name of Dufour. Said he has never borne that name.

Asked if he has lived on rue Montorgeuil. Said he has lived on rue Beaurepaire [2^nd/3^rd]

At that moment a woman appeared at the guard-post and asked to speak to Dufour. She was admitted and said the arrested man is her nephew. He lives with her on rue des Quatre Vents, and she can vouch for him for as long as he has lived there, but not for the time before. Then we had Dufour’s aunt withdraw.

We had Montauban called back, and asked, in Dufour’s presence, if this man is the one he knows as Dufour. Said yes.

Asked Dufour what his true last name is. Said he is named Honoré François Dufour.

Asked him why he concealed his name from us. Said he knows nothing about it.

Montauban is a known pederast, accused of stealing watches from those who fornicate with him, whose limbs he shakes to facilitate theft and avoid resistance. Dufour is another pederast, who commits extortion and debauches young folks.

We left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

At 3 am on the same day, in the same place, S. Noël arrested Belair, alias chevalier de Belair, who sometimes wears a Maltese cross^[84] to facilitate his swindles.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named François Mitifiau de Belair, bourgeois de Paris,^[85] twenty-six years old, native of Montaigut-en-Combraille [Picardy], and lives on rue d’Argenteuil.

Asked if he has lived with his mother on rue des Vieux Augustins and if it is only as of this rental period that he lives on rue d’Argenteuil. Said yes.

Asked if he has been the baron de Fénelon’s^[86] personal valet. Said yes.

Asked why he took the name of Lambert, now takes that of chevalier de Belair, and sometimes wears the Maltese cross.

Said he is a gentleman but does not wear any cross.

Belair is known to prostitute himself to the first comer, lives with his mother, who runs, in the same house, a brothel of women and orgies of men, in which Belair is the major actor. We therefore left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. We continued the patrol until 7 am, and S. Noël signed with us.

72. Sunday, 25 February 1781, Arrest of Feydeau, Perdu and Boutreux, pederasts

At 11 pm on 25 February 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he was informed some time ago that several pederasts had planned to form a league to attack the agents he employs. Today two of his agents were on watch at the Good Children tavern on rue de Clichy and were evidently recognized by some pederasts, who went to alert Feydeau and Perdu, who were then in the Image of Saint Peter tavern on the same street. Disguised as women, they came to the Good Children and attacked the agents, beat them and tore their clothes. A third man known by the name of René turned up and took Feydeau and Perdu to the tavern they had left before the brawl. The observers went to get the guard, who arrested Feydeau, Perdu and René. S. Noël conducted them before us under the escort of François Vauclin, corporal of the Paris guard-post at rue de Provence. Vauclin informed us that one of the men, Perdu, rebelled, refused to obey, and intended to rouse a crowd. S. Noël signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Abel Jean de Farey, unemployed domestic, twenty-nine years old, native of Paris, and lives on rue Saint-Honoré near Saint-Roch.^[87]

Asked if he is nicknamed Feydeau. Said yes.

Asked if he is also called Saint-Sever. Said he does not recognize that name.

Asked if he lodges with Perdu, where he met him, and how long ago. Said he has known Perdu for four months and made his acquaintance at the Image of Saint Peter on rue de Clichy. Since that time, they have lodged together.

Asked if he knows Saint-Louis. Said he knows many who bear that name.

Pointed out to him there is one he must know more intimately, since he slept with him and even stole shirts from him. Said he is not a thief.

Asked if he knows about the plot formed to manhandle S. Noël’s observers. Said no.

Asked whom he was with at the Image of Saint Peter. Said he was with Perdu and other people, and they were drinking.

Pointed out to him he is deceiving us in saying he did not know about the plot, since he quickly left the Image of Saint Peter to go fight at the Good Children. He returned to the Image of Saint Peter and sat back down at his table. In one way or the other he therefore intended to make trouble. Said no.

We summoned one of the other arrested men, who told us he is named Charles Eustache Perdu, native of Paris, twenty-eight years old, finisher of silk stockings, and lives on rue Saint-Honoré. He previously served Mme de PronLeRoy and S. Horneca, banker.^[88]

Asked if he knows Feydeau and where he lives. Said he has known him for four months, and they reside together.

Asked if they were drinking at the Image of Saint Peter and if, when they left there to go to the Good Children, they intended to come back there. Said they were drinking at the Image of Saint Peter and so fully intended to come back there that they left their companions and their bill in the first tavern.

Asked why he left the tavern where he was to go to another where he did not plan to stay. Said it was to take a walk.

Pointed out to him there is every reason to believe his intention was to make a scene in the Good Children with someone who was supposed to be there. Said no, he has gone to the Image of Saint Peter every day for ten years and is not known there as a troublemaker.

Asked if he hit someone in the Good Children. Said it was a joke.

Asked why he did not immediately obey the guard when they arrested him and even tried to grab one of the soldiers by the collar. Said he did not think he should be arrested.

We summoned the third arrested man, who told us he is named René Bautreux, native of Paris, twenty-eight years old, second-hand dealer, and lives on rue Mondétour at the central market.

Asked if he knows the other two arrested men and if he was with them. Said he knows them by sight from often finding himself with them at the Image of Saint Peter. He was not with them, but, going by chance from the Image of Saint Peter to the Good Children, he saw these two men arguing with someone. He separated them and brought them back to the Image of Saint Peter. He does not know what caused the argument and was surprised to find himself arrested for something that does not involve him.

Bautreux, called René among pederasts, does not have any current charges on his record that have come to our attention, so we had him released. As for Feydeau and Perdu, inasmuch as they are pederasts of record, accused of extortion and debauching young folks, we left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

73. Thursday, 1 March 1781, Arrest of Caussin, called Zémire

At 8 pm on 1 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us he had arrested on rue Saint-Denis a man known by the name of Zémire, who lives with Azor,^[89] who was speaking at the time with Bruneau, pederast, who holds orgies and debauches children, for which reasons multiple complaints have been made. Bruneau fled and could not be arrested. S. Noël therefore conducted only Zémire before us, under the escort of Didier, employee of the Paris guard-post at Saint-Jacques-de-l’Hôpital, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Louis Caussin, twenty-three years old, native of Fontaine-sur-Maye in Picardy, finisher of silk stockings, and lives at a meat-roaster’s house on rue de l’Echelle.

Asked if it is true he is nicknamed Zémire. Said he does not sign that name.

Pointed out to him we are not asking if he signs that name or not but if people call him by that name or he uses it. Said he has never signed it.

Asked if he knows Patrou. Said yes.

Asked if he knows Azor. Said he does not recognize the name.

Asked who the man he was talking to on rue Saint-Denis is. Said it is Bruneau, whom he has known for a long time.

Asked if he sees him frequently. Said he sees him when he has matters to discuss with him.

Caussin prostitutes himself, lives with Patrou, called Azor, and is intimately connected with Bruneau, who holds orgies [at a place] he has for that purpose on rue Saint-Denis. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

74. Friday, 2 March 1781, Arrest of Dangon

At 9 pm on 2 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch.

He told us that while he was on watch at the Saint-Germain fair, he found there and recognized Dangon, pederast, former wigmaker’s assistant, who later styled himself secretary of the Venetian ambassador.^[90] He used to wear a yellow uniform with a captain’s epaulettes and sword knot and is an associate of d’Etignard, Bertrand and Bourbon. He arrested this man across from the guard-post on rue de Buci, conducted him before us under the escort of Laurent Caillou, corporal of the Paris guard-post there, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Joseph Dangon, twenty-five years old, native of Venice, personal valet of the chevalier de Cavoye, at whose residence he lives on rue des Fossés Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Asked to tell us if he was previously a wigmaker’s assistant. Said yes, and one can be a wigmaker’s assistant without dishonoring oneself.

Asked why he previously claimed the title of the Venetian ambassador’s secretary. Said he never claimed that title but did say he hoped for a place in the secretariat.

Asked if he is the military. Said no.

Asked why he used to wear a yellow uniform, sword, cockade and epaulettes. Said he did not wear any uniform. He wore a colored dress-coat, but it was not a uniform.

Asked if he knows Bertrand and Bourbon. Said no.

Asked if he knows d’Etignard. Replied d’Etignard, d’Etignard! I do not know him. I am surprised by your questions. I will have myself claimed by my ambassador, and we will see.

Asked whom he was with in the carriage when he was arrested. Said he was with his mistress [wife of his master].

Dangon, known pederast, disreputable subject, out on the streets in Paris, has committed extortion and is a friend of men on record and now in Bicêtre for that crime. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

75. Wednesday, 7 March 1781, Interrogation of Belair

6 pm on 7 March 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Belair, alias chevalier de Belair, prisoner in the Petit Châtelet prison, whose interrogation we conducted there in the concierge’s chamber as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named François Mitifiau de Belair, twenty-six years old, native of Montaigut-en-Combraille, diocese of Clermont [Auvergne], bourgeois de Paris, and lives on rue d’Argenteuil in Butte Saint-Roch.

Asked how long ago he came to Paris for the first time. Said he arrived here at the age of eight.

Asked who brought him to Paris. Said it was his mother.

Asked if she was a widow when she brought him to Paris. Said his father was still alive. After his mother arrived in Paris, she made the acquaintance of Lambert, who was then personal valet to a Venetian ambassador who had the name of S. Etienne Tiepolo.^[91] Lambert died while living with his mother at a house that belonged then to the joiner S. Bernard on rue de Poulies. After Lambert’s death, his mother made the acquaintance of S. Rivière, officer of the watch,^[92] with whom she lived in a house he had rented in Belleville [19^th and 20^th]. During that time, the deponent was involved in a game of Fly at Vicolet’s place and was encountered by men who took him where one of them, named Flamand, lived on Pont Saint-Michel.[93] He slept there one night, and the following day S. [Louis] Henri [Noël], police inspector, arrested Flamand and other men, one of them named Saint-Louis, a lord’s postillion. He also arrested the deponent, who was conducted along with the others before our colleague S. Chénon.^[94] then to the For-l’Evêque and from there to prison at Bicêtre, where he remained for two or three weeks. After leaving prison he entered the wigmaker Chauvet’s service and remained with him about two months.

Asked where he went after leaving Chauvet’s service. Said he was then fifteen or sixteen years old and entered the service of S. Beaujon de Seilhan, paymaster of wages for the Chambre des comptes,^[95] where he remained for eight years. S. Beaujon arranged his marriage. Then he went with his wife to live at the wine vendor S. Bridau’s house on rue de Grenelle Faubourg Saint-Germain. Two days later he entered the service of comte Emmanuel de Lambertie,^[96] in which he spent three years. He was with S. de Lambertie, serving him at a supper, when S. de Lambertie offered him, the deponent, to the baron de Fénelon, who needed a personal valet. He did enter the service of the baron de Fénelon, with whom he spent three years. He left him six months ago.

Asked if he has ever claimed the status of chevalier de Belair. Said he has never claimed that status. It is true, though, that he spent some evenings with women who took the liberty of calling him marquis Peacock because he is always well dressed.

Asked if he has ever worn the uniform and cross of any military order. Said no, and he is very well aware of the consequences of doing so.

Asked if he knows someone in Vincennes [Ile-de-France]. Said no.

Asked if he knows a M. de Rougemont. Said he knows no one named Rougemont but a man who earned a great deal of money at Beribi [game of chance].

Asked if he has ever known someone on rue de la Femme sans Tête [4^th] on Ile Saint-Louis. Said he has never set foot on that street.

Asked if he has met one Herque. Said he has never met him, but since he came back, he has lived for much of the time at his mother’s place.

Asked what type of trade his mother is in. Said he cannot say right now.

Asked if he has ever noticed his mother has shameless parties held. Said no.

Asked if he has ever known one Dumoulin. Said he has known him as well as Rouvoy but not very well.

Asked if he knows Boyer. Said he has seen a lot of him because he lived with Mme Lambert. He is now detained in the Petit Châtelet prison.

Asked if he knows Perdu. Said he knows him only indirectly, and Perdu has only ever seen him at the residences of two women where he took merchandise.

Asked why he does not live with his spouse. Said it is because of jealousy, as she knows very well.

Asked if he has ever allowed himself to show obligingness to men. Said this has never happened to him in his life. He has indeed been asked if the baron de Fénelon made propositions to him, and he replied to these folks, truthfully, that the baron de Fénelon was not of that stamp, since he used to live with Little Violet, who was associated with the Opera.

Asked if he has met the marquis de Marigny.^[97] Said he went to his place one time to apply to be a personal valet. The marquis put him off until his return from his estate. He actually presented himself a second time. The marquis put him off to another day. And finally, the last time, the marquis told him he did not suit him, but if one of his friends had a presentable exterior, he should send him to him. He actually sent him four individuals. He does not know if they were suitable or not, but the marquis gave him a louis as a tip. It is true there here was a Lambert, a wigmaker’s son from Saint-Germain-en-Laye [Ile-de-France], who lived a year at S. de Marigny’s.

After his interrogation was read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

76. Friday, 9 March 1781, Arrest of Le Prince de Brune, pederast

At 12:30 pm on 9 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested on rue Saint-Denis and conducted before us, under the escort of the Paris guard, Lebrune, former pawnbroker, former procurer for S. Desroches and now for S. Pinto, at whose house, he presumes, Lebrune lives, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named François Le Prince de Brune, fifty years old, native of Paris, bourgeois, and lives on rue Neuve Saint-Eustache.

Asked which house he lives in. Said he lives at the residence of S. Lesueur, attorney in the Châtelet.^[98]

Asked if he lodged previously with S. Desroches. Said yes.

Asked if he still occupies S. Desroches’s apartment. Said S. Desroches ceded him his apartment, and he is responsible for his business in Paris.

Asked if he knows S. Pinto. Said yes.

We had this man searched and found on him, in an envelope addressed to him, a letter without a signature dated from Château Thierry [Picardy] on the 3rd of this month. This letter is wholly written in S. Desroches’s hand, as we recognized, and suggests an ongoing correspondence. We turned the letter and its envelope over to S. Noël, who took charge of them to produce them at the appropriate time and place.

With regard to de Brune, inasmuch as he continues the trade of cruising and debauching, we left him to S. Noël, who likewise took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us, commissaire.

77. Friday, 9 March 1781, Arrest of Chevalier, Rousseau, Dunuguois, Martin and Matorelle, suspected of pederasty

At 6 pm on 9 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in pursuance of orders addressed to us, directing us to go with him to the billiard parlors established on the Pont Neuf,^[99] where various disreputable subjects suspected of pederasty gather, he went there on watch. Having learned that the time when we were to go to the parlors today would not be the time when these men gather there, he decided to enter the parlors. In one of them he saw five of these men, who are, among others, those designated as the most disreputable subjects. He arrested these five and conducted them before us under the escort of Laurent Renaud, corporal of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned each of the arrested men, one after the other. The first told us he is named Jean Louis Robin Chevalier, sixteen and a half years old, native of Paris, son of S. Chevalier, disabled officer, at whose residence he lives, at the Tauchou boarding house on rue de la Calandre [4^th].

The second said he is named Louis Claude Rousseau, nineteen years old, former dragoon in the Queen’s Regiment, native of Paris, unemployed jewelry setter, and lives with his father, master wigmaker, on rue Gervais Laurent [4^th].

The third said he is named Pierre Sigismund Collé Dunuguois, seventeen years old, native of Paris, and lives with his aunt Mme Monnet Du Plat Buisson at our colleague S. Formel’s^[100] house on rue Saint-Severin.

The fourth said he is named Antoine Thomas Martin, eighteen years old, native of London, unemployed clockmaker, and lives with his mother at the wine vendor S. Doucet’s house on rue des Marais [6^th].

And the fifth said he is named Henri Pépin Matorelle, called Victor, twenty-one years old, native of Paris, domestic in the service of the architect S. d’Orléans,^[101] at whose residence he lives in the locksmith S. Cantoux’s house on rue de Verneuil.

After questioning these five separately, we noticed from their replies that they are all neglected by their families. They take refuge daily in the parlor, play billiards there and party together in the environs of Paris. Given their manner of dressing, their rather loose remarks, and the fact that they are all attractive, we suspect them of selling themselves to pederasts to get money. During the interrogations, Chevalier’s and Rousseau’s fathers, Dunuguois’s aunt and Martin’s mother came to our residence to claim their relatives. We pointed out to him to them how dangerous it is for them to neglect their children in this way. The result could be that these inexperienced young folks make bad acquaintances and dishonor their families. It is up to them to watch over the behavior of their children. They are even responsible for their misconduct. For this one time we are going to have these men released. We informed them that if they are found in suspect places in the future, and if they are arrested, they will be taken into custody, in execution of orders addressed to us. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

78. Friday, 9 March 1781, Arrest of Villeneuve and Dumouchot

At [missing] pm on 9 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us his observers had arrested at the exit of the Tuileries and conducted before us, under the escort of Jacques Duliot, sergeant of the Paris guard, Villeneuve, called Châteauroux, former employee of the Farms,^[102] found strolling in the Champs-Elysées and the Tuileries with a young man. Villeneuve is suspected of pederasty and of procuring young folks for M. de la R… the younger, tax farmer,^[103] and for various others. S. Noël signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Charles Joseph Villeneuve, twenty-eight years old, native of Versailles, employed by the Farms, and lives on rue Saint-Denis opposite rue Thévenot [2^nd].

Asked if he has the nickname Châteauroux. Said he has never used a nickname.

Asked if his parents are still alive in Paris or Versailles. Said he has neither father nor mother. When he was very young his father and mother left France and went to Russia, and they both died there. He was still quite young, and the baron de Breteuil, then the French ambassador,^[104] took pity on him. He took him in, had him educated, and brought him back with him. Having reached a more advanced age, he was placed with S. de la R… He later got a job in the central stagecoach office.^[105] Through the patronage of Her Royal Highness the duchesse de Chartres^[106] and the recommendation of the baron de Breteuil, he combined his first appointment with a job at the Farms. He is busy every day with these two jobs, and it is by chance he was found taking a walk today.

Asked who the young man arrested with him is and how he knows him. Said he is the brother-in-law of one of the heads of the stagecoach office and he made his acquaintance at the residence of the young man’s relatives.

We summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Esprit Dumouchot, nineteen years old, and lives in Paris at the corner of rue de la Lune and rue des Bonnes Nouvelles.

Asked to tell us what he does in Paris and how he knows the other arrested man. Said he has been in Paris for five or six months to seek a job. He met S. de Villeneuve at the residence of his brother-in-law, head of the central cargo office.^[107] They had promised Villeneuve to go visit someone together today. They did not find the person they needed to speak to, so they went to walk in the Champs-Elysées. It is the third or fourth time they have gone out together ro take a walk.

Villeneuve is clearly recorded as a pederast, procurer for other pederasts, but until there is more detailed information about this man, we had him released, along with Dumouchot. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

79. Sunday, 11 March 1781, Arrest of Louis called the Flemish Woman

At 7 pm on 11 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch in the Porcherons and recognized, arrested and conducted before us, under the escort of François Vauclin, corporal of the Paris guard-post on rue de Provence, Flamand, called the Flemish Woman, domestic in the service of S. Billecoq, employee of the Farms,^[108]and another man unknown to S. Noël. Flamand is known for debauching a young man, native of Toulouse [Languedoc], journeyman sculptor, whom he procures and makes money on. S. Noël signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Théodore Louis, called Flamand, twenty-seven years old, native of Sars in Cambrésis,^[109] former domestic in the service of S. Billecoq, employee of the Farms, currently unemployed, and lives at S. Delarue’s house on rue Neuve Saint-Eustache.

Asked to tell us if he is known by the name of the Flemish Woman.

Said it is vile folks who give him that name.

Asked if he responds when he is called by that name. Said they sometimes call him by that name.

Asked who the young man is he brought to lodge at S. Billecoq’s residence and if he is from Toulouse.

Said it is a young man whose acquaintance he made, who is indeed from Toulouse and is a journeyman sculptor in Paris. He persuaded his master to give him lodging at his place with the intention of saving him the expense of [renting] a furnished room.

Pointed out to him it is not believable he sought to do such a great service for someone he hardly knows. Said he likes to help people.

We summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Michel LeGrand, twenty years old, native of Torigni-sur-Vire in Normandy, domestic in the service of S. Billecoq, at whose residence he lives on rue Beaurepaire.

Asked to tell us how he knows Flamand.

Said he knows him because he was in S. Billecoq’s service, saw him at his master’s place, and met him in taverns, as he did today. He has no particular connection, of interest or friendship, with Flamand and does not even intend to see him again in the future.

With regard to LeGrand, we had him released. As for Flamand, we are convinced he debauched the man from Toulouse in question and procured him to make money from him. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. We note that about two months ago S. Billecoq presented himself before us and informed us he had received an anonymous letter that gave him reason to have suspicions about his domestic, who was Flamand at the time. The letter directed him to address himself to us to obtain information about this man. After the questions we asked S. Billecoq and his replies, we were sure the deeds attributed to Flamand are only too true. Although he was satisfied with Flamand’s service, S. Billecoq then assured us that the circumstances we detailed gave him doubts about this man, doubts that the circumstances he has knowledge made all to real. He assured us he would dismiss this domestic from his household, which he did. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

80. Thursday, 15 March 1781, Arrest of Paul, Coffin and Lange, pederasts^[110]

At 7 pm on 15 March 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of orders he carries, he was on watch in the Champs-Elysées, arrested there, and, under the escort of the Paris guard, conducted before us three men named Paul, Coffin, and Lange. Paul, the marquis de Thibouville’s personal valet, debauches for his master and associates with Goujou. Coffin and Lange live together and share the same bed. The former prostitutes himself. The latter debauched Coffin and is acquainted with Beaupré. Abbé de Sc…[111] administered the semblance of marriage, with all the customary ceremonies, to them. S. Noël signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Pierre Paul, thirty-nine years old, native of Tressaint in Picardy, personal valet of the marquis de Thibouville, at whose residence he lives on quai des Théatins [Voltaire].^[112]

Asked to tell us how long he has been in his master’s service. Said more than fifteen years.

Asked how he knows the other two arrested men, and what he was going to do with them. Said he has known the fathers and mothers of these men for a long time and, having no duties to fulfill for his master today, he was going to walk with them to Neuilly [Ile-de-France], to the residence of his brother, who is an innkeeper there.

Asked if he knows Goujou and where he lives. Said he knows him, does not see him anymore and does not know his address.

Paul is most certainly a detestable subject, but his detention can be postponed for now, and, pending further orders, we had him released.

We summoned another of the arrested men, who told us he is named Louis Marie Coffin, twenty-three years old, native of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, painter, and lives in Paris at a vinegar-maker’s house on rue des Saints-Pères.

Asked to tell us how he knows Paul and Lange. Said he knows Paul through business. With regard to Lange, he made his acquaintance around three years ago at the clockmaker Thomas’s residence on rue du Vertbois. He wanted to learn how to draw, and he showed him how. The deponent’s father bought and sold many paintings. Lange had resources, so the deponent’s father formed a partnership with him. They buy and sell paintings, porcelain and other objects. Since that time, they have resided together in the same room at the deponent’s father’s residence.

Asked if he knows Beaupré. Said he has never had any particular relationship with him.

Pointed out to him we are not asking if they have had a particular relationship but only if he knows him. Said while he was walking with Lange, they encountered Beaupré several times, specifically last summer, and they said hello to each other. He knows him only because Lange introduced them.

Asked if he knows abbé de Vienn[ay]. Said he knows him since his father keeps his shop across from the abbé’s house.^[113]

Asked if he has ever been in the abbé’s house. Said he has never had any particular relationship with him.

We summoned the last arrested man, who told us he is named Ange Pierre Malfilatre, called Lange, twenty-eight years old, native of Paris, master upholsterer, partner of S. Coffin the elder, and keeps shop with him on rue Taranne [6^th], and lives at Coffin’s house on rue des Saints-Pères.

Asked if he knows Beaupré. Said he knows him, but he has not seen or spoken to him in five years.

Asked if he knows abbé de S…. Said he knows him, and others had him shown to the abbé, but he has never been to his place.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since a scandalous scene took place between him and Beaupré in the abbé’s presence. Said he does not remember that.

Pointed out to him he likewise did not tell the truth in indicating he has not seen or spoken to Beaupré for five years, since last year, while walking with Coffin, they encountered Beaupré and spoke to him. Said he has no memory of it.

Asked how he knows Paul and where they were going together. Said he has known him for a long time. Yesterday morning he went to the marquis de Thibouv[ille]’s place to return some merchandise to him, and he went there this morning to get the money. They planned to go walking together to Paul’s brother’s residence in Neuilly. They were going there when they were arrested.

Asked how long he has been in partnership with Coffin the elder. Said about three years.

Asked if he was in the marquis d’Aubigny’s^[114] service and what he knows about a sum of seven thousand livres it is said he withdrew from d’Aubigny’s estate? Said he was in d’Aubigny’s service and was there at the time of his death. He has a pension from him but has no knowledge of the matter of seven thousand livres,

The last two men are continually together and live and sleep together. Coffin prostitutes himself continually and probably pleasures Lange. We left them both to S. Noël to conduct them to their destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

81. Wednesday, 11 April 1781, Pederasty patrol[115]

At 7 pm on 11 April 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol, in execution of orders we carry.

We were in the Champs-Elysées about 8 pm, and S. Noël arrested there

Georges Joseph Charlemagne de Beugny d’Hagerue, nobleman,[116] twenty-two years old, native of Arras

and Jean Gely de Chamblain, eighteen years old, native of Langres, dressed in a levite [long and full robe], rosettes on his shoes, white hat shaped like a nun’s shoe, wide cravat, with his hair tied back in a ribbon, with a pretty exterior. They both live at the residence of S. Ballé, attorney in the Châtelet,[117] whose clerks they are.

At 9:00, S. Noël arrested there

François Giguet, musician, who lives at Mme LeCointre’s house on rue des Prêcheurs

and Jean François Dupré, also musician, native of Brunswick [Saxony (Germany)], who lives at the residence of the tinsmith Dupré’s widow on rue Saint-Honoré.

At 10:00, Antoine Blot, self-styled royal floor-polisher at the palace of Compiègne [Picardy], who arrived in Paris today and says he is staying at the marquis de Laval’s[118] house.

D’Hagerue and Chamblain were arrested in response to popular outcry and pursued by the populace, who called them rebels, and. From his outfit the latter seemed to us to be a pederast, but unknown as such until now.

Giguet and Dupré were found in a group with another man who escaped. All three are suspected of seeking to make recruits.

Blot was found with another man who likewise escaped while Blot was resisting arrest. We were informed that Blot is known by the name of Daily Lady and is a friend of Antoine [Baude], notorious pederast, presumably the man who was with him and escaped.[119]

After questioning these men, we could have only slight suspicions about them, except for Chamblain. We have the gravest suspicions about him and ordered him to abandon the indecent outfit he is wearing, which he did not seem at all inclined to do. We therefore told him that if he is arrested in the future dressed in this way, we will have no choice but to have him conducted to prison. We had the men released.

Then we continued the patrol on the quays and in other quarters of Paris until midnight struck. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

82. Sunday, 22 April 1781, Pederasty patrol

About 7 pm on 22 April 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

We were in the Champs-Elysées about 8 pm, and S. Noël arrested there, beneath the trees, a man who in passing shook the hand of Robineau, one of his observers, and followed him. This man told us he is named the baron de Lunas[120] and lives at Mlle de Selignère’s house in faubourg Saint-Honoré [8^th]. The baron seemed to us to be dressed very much in the outfit [of pederasts] and, in addition, under the influence of wine. After assuring ourselves the name he gives is indeed his own, we had him released.

Then about 10 pm and beneath the same trees, Noël arrested

Pierre Nicolas Veron, called Germain, thirty-six years old, native of Paris, former master tinsmith, now unemployed cook. His wife is a governess of the children in the household of S. de Marguery, tax farmer, and he lives in the landlord S. Paguet’s house on rue de Savoie

and Jean Toussaint LeClerc, cobbler’s assistant, more than twenty years old, native of Evreux, who lives at the shoemaker S. Allemane’s house on rue Neuve Saint-Roch [1^st].

After interrogating these two men, we concluded they were doing nothing but crossing the Champs-Elysées without any particular intention whatever. I therefore had them released.

Then we continued the patrol in various other quarters of Paris, where we found nothing contrary to good order, until midnight struck. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

83. Monday, 23 April 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 23 April 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

We were in the Champs-Elysées about 8:30 pm, and he arrested there, under the escort of the Swiss Guard, a man dressed in a frock-coat, short waistcoat, wide cravat, with his hair tied back in a ribbon and rosettes on his shoes. This man found a Swiss soldier alone and suggested he take a walk with him. This man said he is the comte de Scépeaux,[121] gentleman in waiting to His Royal Highness the comte de Provence,[122] and lives at the comte de Latour d’Auvergne’s[123] house in faubourg Saint-Germain. We had him released.

At 10:00 S. Noël arrested, near a pile of chairs, Jean Françis Braazet, thirty-six years old, native of Moulevoy near Lyon who lives in the enclosure of the former barracks of the musketeers.[124]

This Braazet was found with another man who escaped. The arrested man had his breeches unbuttoned and claimed he was going to urinate.

At the same hour S. Noël arrested a man dressed completely [like a pederast] and giving signals. This man told us he is named Philippe Denis Tassart, twenty-four years old, native of Paris, and lives with his father on rue du Temple near the Triangle Fountain.[125] This man left the Tuileries and claimed he was on his way home through the Champs-Elysées. M. Noël recognized this man as an associate of Carton, called the Odd One[126] and the Lovely Female Saddler.

I left Braazet and Tessart to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

Then S. Federici, commander of the Swiss Guards, told us that last year his guard had arrested a child who begged continually on the promenade and even lent herself to entertaining men in the evenings. She was sent to the poorhouse at Saint-Denis.[127] This little girl returned to the promenade about two months ago and is still up to her same tricks. His soldiers have arrested her, and he invites us to decide this child’s fate. This child said she is named Nanette Valle,[128] twelve years old, native of Paris, and lives with her father, barrel-maker’s assistant, at the Saint-Denis gate, without being able to specify where. She acknowledged that she begs and for this reason has been arrested before and conducted to the poorhouse at Saint-Denis, from which she was released.

We handed Valle over to S. Noël, who took charge of her to take her back to the Petit Châtelet prison.

Then we continued the patrol in various other quarters, where we found nothing contrary to good order. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

84. Wednesday, 25 April 1781, Security and pederasty patrol

At 8 pm on 25 April 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Elie Eulalie Santerre[129] and Louis Henri Noël, royal councilors and police inspectors, went with them on security and pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city and, among other places, on the quai des Orfèvres.

At 1 am we were in a boarding house kept by Sadot on rue de la Mortellerie, and S. Santerre arrested as prostitutes and suspects

Catherine Potin, native of Paris, nineteen years old

Eulalie Renaud, eighteen years old, native of Brion near Joigny [Burgundy]

and Catherine Lambert, twenty-two years old, native of Paris.

In the same house and at the same hour S. Noël arrested Jean François Charpentier, twenty-two years old, native of Gironcourt in Champagne, self-styled domestic in the service of chevalier de Baudrau, captain-major in the Luxembourg legion,[130] now in Strasbourg.

Charpentier is wearing clothes, hair and shoes in the style of pederasts. He has rouge on his face and no fixed residence. I left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

With regard to the three women, we handed them over to the Paris guard to conduct them, by police order, to Saint-Martin prison and commit them there.

We continued the patrol until 2:00 struck and drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Santerre and S. Noël signed.

85. Tuesday, 8 May 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 8 pm on 8 May 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol, visiting the northern boulevards^[131] and adjacent places, along with various other quarters of this city. In the course of the patrol, and while we were on the boulevards, S. Noël arrested

Vuidor, former jewelry setter, who did not wish to tell us his first name or address

François Prudhomme, fifteen years old, native of Rethel [Champagne], journeyman turner, who lives on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine

and Jean Diancourt, called River, actor affiliated with the company of the Bois de Boulogne,[132] who lives with his mother on rue du Faubourg du Temple.

Vuidor, known pederast, wished to debauch Prudhomme, whom he encountered on the boulevards. He took him to La Courtille, where he got him drinking and got hold of his certificate [attestation of good conduct signed by a priest or master], which he only returned to him at the guard-post. I left Vuidor in S. Noël’s hands to conduct him to his destination.

With regard to the two other men, they are only suspected. After giving each of them a lecture in private, we had them released. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

86. Tuesday, 15 May 1781, Search of the residence of Desrosiers, suspected of pederasty

[The police decided that Desrosiers was not the man they wanted, “but his conduct seems quite suspect,” so they ordered him to leave Paris.]

87. Tuesday, 15 May 1781, Search of the residence of Vuidor, suspected of pederasty

[The police found nothing suspect].

We then asked Vuidor to tell us his first and last name and status and if he has been arrested and conducted to prison before, which he refused to tell us at the time of his arrest.

He replied that his name is Pierre Vuidor, called Boulogne, master lapidary, and has lived in this location since last Eastertide. His father is a bourgeois de Paris and lives on rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis or Saint-Martin. He showed us an order of His Majesty, dated 1778, signed Louis and below de Lamoignon,[133] containing a revocation of the order exiling him to a distance of thirty leagues [variable unit of distance] from Paris. This second order was given to him upon his release from Bicêtre.

Asked to tell us why he was exiled. Replied it was a result of chevalier Echlin’s vengeance. One could very well not be any longer what one had been previously.

Pointed out to him there is every reason to believe he is still inclined to the same vice, since he tried to debauch a child he took to La Courtille to drink, even got hold of his certificate, which he only returned to him at the guard-post where he was taken when he was arrested, and that in the presence of the guard before we arrived, all of which facts he denied.

Inasmuch as Vuidor is a disreputable subject, and we have been assured he is still in violation of an order of exile given to him after the revocation he showed us, we left him to S. Noël to return him to prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

88. Saturday, 19 May 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 19 May 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol. We were on rue Saint-Nicolas at about 9:30 pm, and S. Noël arrested there

Pierre Joseph Leduc, native of Cambrai [Flanders], twenty years old, sculptor and actor of the Company of Actors of the Bois de Boulogne, who lives at a house on rue Saint-Paul that contains a faïence [earthenware] store

and Pierre Henri, native of Paris, twenty years old, draftsman for the master mason S. Montigny, who lives with his father on rue Saint-Paul.

At 10:00 on the boulevards, Jean Baptiste Raimond, native of Montmartre [18^th], nineteen years old, employee of the Farms, who lives in the house of S. Prévôt, Captain of the Chain,[134] in faubourg Montmartre [9^th].

We questioned these three men. We believed we noticed they are inclined to libertinism. We enjoined them not to visit suspect places any more in the future, which they promised not to do, and we had them released.

Then we continued the patrol in various other places and quarters of this city until after midnight, without finding anything contrary to ordinances and regulations as well as good morals. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

89. Monday, 21 May 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 21 May 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the department of pederasts, went with him on pederasty patrol on the southern boulevards, where S. Noël arrested there Antoine Brune, François Bourdelet and Charles Segoult. We questioned all three and had them released.

Then we went to petite rue Saint-Nicolas and other suspect places, where we found nothing contrary to good morals. We continued the patrol until midnight struck. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

90. Thursday, 31 May 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 31 May 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the section of pederasts, went with him on pederasty patrol on the southern boulevards.[135]

We were on boulevard du Temple around 9:30, and S. Noël arrested there

Antoine Jacques, guard of the Court of Marshals,[136] who lives on rue de Taranne

Etienne Bernard, clerk of Messire Mussey, attorney in the parlement,[137] who lives on rue des Juifs [4^th]

Claude Cochardet, who lives at the residence of Messire Fossoyeux, attorney in the Châtelet,[138] on rue Quincampoix

Joseph Nicolas Desprès, frame-maker, eighteen years old, who lives on rue Saint-Denis at the corner of rue du Petit Lion

Jean Antoine Gourdon, twenty-two years old, wigmaker, who lives at the baker Chauffard’s house on rue Poissonnière at the corner of rue Beauregard

and Charles Legrand, self-styled bourgeois de Paris, more than fifty years old, who lives on rue de Bonne Nouvelle.

The first five men were arrested for behaving in a bawdy manner on the boulevards. After questioning them we had them released.

With regard to Legrand, he was also found on the boulevards but seeking to accost young folks. He was arrested before for this reason on 18 September 1780 and released. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight in various other places, where we found nothing contrary to good morals. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

91. Friday, 1 June 1781, Arrest of Selegny called la Keppel

At 2 pm on 1 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he has observed in the Tuileries as well as the Palais Royal a man known as a pederast by the names of the Woman from Rouen [Normandy] and Admiral Keppel.[139] This man just left the Palais Royal to go to the Tuileries. S. Noël arrested him at the Carousel, conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He who told us he is named Benjamin Selegny, more than twenty-two years old, native of Rouen, wigmaker, who lives at the Artois boarding house on rue Montmartre.[140]

Asked to tell us how long he has been in Paris. Said he has been here for two months.

Asked what his nicknames are. Said he does not have any.

Asked if he is called the Woman from Rouen or Admiral Keppel. Said no.

Asked who the young folks are he walks with in the Palais Royal and whom he was with again today.

Said they are acquaintances from the promenades, and he does not know them by name.

Asked what he lives on, since he does nothing and is not employed in a shop. Said he had some money, pawned his watch at the municipal pawnshop, and hopes to work immediately.

This man seems to be a libertine and very suspect of pederasty. I left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

92. Wednesday, 6 June 1781, Arrest of Fortin

At 9:30 pm on 6 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch on the boulevards, he saw two men in conference in one of the cafés. He recognized one of them as the Steady One, pimp of men and women, who lives with his mother, who keeps a brothel, on rue d’Orléans. He presumes the other is Baptiste, son of an herbalist on rue du Bout du Monde. He conducted these men before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Mathieu Fortin, called the Steady One, former soldier in the royal infantry Roussillon Regiment, and lives with his mother on rue d’Orléans Saint-Honoré.

Asked to tell us how he knows the other arrested man, if it is through relations with Versey and if he, the deponent, is the son of a woman who keeps a house of prostitution.

Said he knows the other arrested man through relations with his friend Versey. The deponent’s mother lost her fortune and lives as she can.

We summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named François Framière, day-student with the notary Messire Quatremère[141] and lives with his father, herbalist, on rue Montmartre at the corner of rue du Bout du Monde.

Fortin is known as a pederast and disreputable subject. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

As for Framière, although he is vehemently suspected of pederasty, we do not yet have the necessary information on his account, so we had him released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

93. Thursday, 7 June 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 7 June 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol on the boulevards and in various streets and quarters of Paris where these sorts of debauchees take refuge. In the course of this patrol we found nothing contrary to good order and good morals. We continued the patrol until midnight and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

94. Friday, 15 June 1781, Arrest of Lemaire called the Burgundian[142]

At 8 pm on 15 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for pederasty.

He told us that while he was on watch on the southern boulevards, he encountered there a man known by the name of the Burgundian, who is an intimate friend of Leroy and Coffin, about whom we have received various reports. He arrested this man and conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Théodore Lemaire, called the Burgundian, former domestic, now poultryman, twenty-seven years old, native of Beaune [Burgundy], and lives at the wine vendor S. Nagirot’s house on rue de la Roquette.

Asked if he knows Leroy and Coffin, how he knows them, and if he sees them often. Said he knows Leroy, and they are in fact business partners in reselling at the central market. With regard to Coffin, it is not he who knows him but rather Leroy, who provides lodging for him at his place and brought him back from Orléans [Orléannais], where he went, but he does not know the reason. Since Coffin’s return he rarely sees Leroy, inasmuch as Coffin is a disreputable subject.

Asked what he meant when he replied to someone who spoke to him that he was waiting for someone who does him favors. Said he was waiting for Leroy, and, as he is Leroy’s business partner and thereby makes money, he regards Leroy as his benefactor.

We had the man searched and found nothing incriminating on him.

The Burgundian has no business with Leroy and Coffin other than the sale of objects secured through the extortions they commit, objects that those who lose them do not dare to claim. The Burgundian is known as a pederast by the name of la d’Estrée.[143] I left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination and drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

95. Tuesday, 19 June 1781, Pederasty patrol,[144] Arrest of La Rue and Maillard

At 7 pm on 19 June 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

We were in the Champs-Elysées at 10 pm, and S. Noël arrested there beneath the trees, under the escort of the Swiss Guard,

Pierre Laizée, more than thirty-two years old, native of Paris, domestic in the service of Mme de Voyer,[145] at whose residence he lives on rue des Bons Enfants, found dressed in pederastical attire

Jacques Rougon, thirty years old, native of Villy near Falaise [Normandy], domestic in the service of the marquis de Montchauvel,[146] at whose residence he lives on rue Taibout in Chaussée d’Antin [9^th]

and Louis Auguste Cerau, thirty years old, native of Sens [Burgundy], personal valet in the service of Milord Kerry,[147] at whose residence he lives in the Spain boarding house on rue Guénegaud, found dressed like a debauchee.

After we questioned these three men, we found nothing on them that could substantiate the suspicions we had about them. I had them released, I enjoined them not to walk in such places at unseemly hours in the future and enjoined Laizée, in particular, not to wear chenille [type of fabric] as decent people do in the mornings but rather to wear his employer’s uniform.

At 11:00, S. Noël arrested, among the stones of Saint-Leu[148] on the bank of the river, Jean François La Rue, twenty-one years old, native of Lyon, journeyman joiner, who lives with his father, silk-winder, at the baker S. Pessain’s house on rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis.

This man was found lying on the stones with another man in his underclothes. The first man, the one arrested, had his breeches unbuttoned when he was noticed. The other one, seeing the Guards intended to arrest them, armed himself with stones, one of which was of a large size and, when thrown violently, almost wounded Jacobé, one of the Swiss Guard. Then this man jumped into the water and crossed the river, leaving his clothes on the bank.

We asked La Rue about the man who was with him on the stones. Said it is Cordier, journeyman joiner, who works for S. Gundard at La Villleneuve.

Asked if he knows his address and how he knows him. Said he does not know his address and made his acquaintance while bathing, on the bank of the river at the spot where they were arrested.

Asked what they were both doing lying on the stones. Said they were resting.

Asked why Cordier and he were embracing and caressing each other, as various bathers stated they had seen and told S. Noël. Said he does not know what we mean, and that is false.

We left La Rue to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. With regard to the clothes found at the edge of the water, belonging to Cordier, consisting of a frock-coat made of gray striped fabric, a knitted waistcoat made of singed wool, a pair of shoe buckles and a pair of garters, all of a jumble, a cheap knife and a pair of shoes, we left them all to S. Noël to hand them over to whom it is appropriate.

At the same hour he arrested in the Champs-Elysées, beneath the trees, Jacques Charles Maillard, twenty-six years old, native of Ecouen [Ile-de-France], unemployed kitchen boy, who lives at the tailor Thomas’s on rue Beaurepaire.

Asked where he has served. Said he was in service at the comte de Colbert’s residence,[149] which he left a year ago.

Asked where he has served since. Named various persons without saying much about any of them.

We had him searched and found on him two letters and the envelope of another one. One of these letters, addressed to S. Maillard in Paris, signed Maurice at S. Maurier’s house, dated the 18th of this month, mentions some favors done for Maillard.

Asked how this letter came into his hands. Said he found it in the street.

Asked if he knows Maurice. Said no.

Asked how the envelope and letter with S. Maillard’s address came into his hands. Said the envelope contained a letter someone addressed to him.

Pointed out to him it is not true he found the letter of 18 June. It is certainly addressed to him, since it is in the same handwriting as the superscription of the envelope he recognizes as containing a letter addressed to him. Said he does not know how to read.

The letter of 18 June and the one contained in the envelope are nothing other than a secret and mutual correspondence between Maillard and Maurice, called La Jeunesse, notorious pederast, who lives on rue Neuve Saint-Nicolas [10^th].

I therefore left Maillard to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. I gave him the letters and addresses for use as evidence. The patrol was continued until after midnight. I drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

96. Thursday, 21 June 1781, Arrest of Beaufils

At 12:30 am on 21 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch in the Palais Royal at about 9 pm yesterday, he saw la Sainte-Chapelle, pederast, swindler, and disreputable subject. He followed him until almost midnight around the garden, where this man was trying to pick up someone. At midnight he finally left the garden, and S. Noël followed him as far as the Carousel, where he arrested him. He conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this report and summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Jean François Beaufils, twenty-five years old, native of Paris, upholsterer’s assistant, and lives at the cartwright S. Huzard’s house on rue du Bac.

Asked to tell us what he was doing in the Palais Royal and why he stayed there so late. Said he worked at his job at S. de Serilly’s place, left there at 7 pm and came to the Palais Royal to take a walk. He does not believe he did any harm in staying there until midnight.

Asked if he knows la Sainte-Chapelle. Said no.

Asked if he has been arrested and imprisoned before. Said no.

Asked if he, himself, is called la Sainte-Chapelle. Said he does not know what we mean.

Pointed out to him it seems odd that an upholsterer’s assistant chooses for work clothes a vest, silk breeches of intersecting colors, a frock-coat that also has an intersecting pattern, round hat and the rest of the outfit very elegant. Said everyone dresses as he sees fit.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth when he maintains he has never been sent to prison. Said he was indeed arrested and sent to prison for two days.

Asked what the reason for his detention was. Said it was something so minor he does not recall it.

Beaufils is very well known as a notorious cruiser and was arrested while he was still cruising. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination and drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

97. Thursday, 21 June 1781, Arrest of Berthier and Toussaint

At 1 pm on 21 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us there have been complaints for a long time about the misconduct and pederasty of Berthier, called Fine Eyebrows,[150] known for recruiting young folks, even accused of various thefts. The police have searched in vain until today, when S. Noël encountered Berthier at the grain port[151] with Toussaint, soldier in the Mantes battalion and likewise a pederast. He arrested these two men and conducted them before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Pierre Berthier, twenty-eight years old, native of Paris, shoemaker for women, and lives on rue de la Mortellerie.

Asked if he has been taken into custody before and sent to Bicêtre. Said no.

Asked if he has a sister who has undergone various criminal proceedings on account of which she has been kept in prison for several years, under the sentence of pending further inquiry.[152] Said it is of no concern to anyone.

Asked if he recalls being accused of stealing buckles from a man he slept with on rue des Petits Champs. Said he does not know anyone on rue des Petits Champs.

We summoned the other arrested individual, who told us he is named François Toussaint, twenty-eight years old, native of Paris, stationer’s assistant, and lives with his father on the moats opposite the Arsenal.[153]

Asked if he is a solder in the Mantes battalion. Said yes.

Asked where he met Berthier, when and why. Did not wish to say anything.

Asked whom he works for and at what. Said he works in cardboard with the stationer S. Jamin.

Asked if he knows Berlix, cardboard-worker on rue Poissonnière. Said no.

Berthier is a disreputable subject, a known pederast who has been imprisoned several times for that reason, as we were informed before by the turnkey of the Petit Châtelet, who knows him. Toussaint is a no more respectable subject. We left them both to S. Noël to conduct them to their destination and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

98. Monday, 25 June 1781, Pederasty patrol, Arrest

At 7 pm on 25 June 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

We were on the southern boulevards around 9 pm, and S. Noël arrested there

Pierre Robert, called the Burgundian, thirty-four years old, native of Avalon, who lives on rue des Puits aux Piliers des Halles [1^st]

Antoine Martin, watchmaker, who lives with his mother on rue des Marais, arrested in the month of March in the billiard parlor on the Pont Neuf

Paul Bertrand, draftsman, sixteen years old, native of Paris, who lives with his stepfather S. Dancourt, second-hand dealer, on Pont Saint-Michel

and Claude Guillet, fifty years old, native of Epernay [Champagne], former domestic, who lives at Auger’s boarding house on rue Saint-Honoré.

At 11:00, on rue Basse, behind Nicolet’s theater, S. Noël arrested

Simon Michel François, twenty-two years old, journeyman joiner

and Louis Painguet, wigmaker, twenty-one years old. The last two live at the landlord Moinejolut’s house on rue des Blanc Manteaux.

At 11:30, on boulevard Saint-Antoine, S. Noël arrested

Jean Pierre Fleurot, thirty-one years old, native of Dole in Franche-Comté, who left his novitiate at the abbey of Clairvaux[154] last 18 March and since that time has lodged in a furnished room at the limonadier Canet’s house on rue Neuve Saint-Gilles [3^rd].

The Burgundian, pederast sent to prison, caught in flagrante delicto, cruises daily on the promenades and is suspected of theft. Fleurot was found with a paper of rouge and various uncomplimentary letters about him that we will pass on to the magistrate, and, finally, arrested in a suspect place and at a suspect hour for an ex-monk.

We left them to S. Noël to conduct them to their destination.

With regard to the other men named above, we had them released.

The patrol continued until after midnight. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

99. Tuesday, 26 June 1781, Arrest of Bruchet, called the Show-off of the Grain Port

At 10:30 pm on 26 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He said he has observed for a very long time the behavior of a man known by the name of the Show-off of the Grain Port, known as a pederast, who commits extortion and cruises along the ports. He arrested this man, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Antoine Bruchet, called the Show-off of the Grain Port, thirty-five years old, native of Valenciennes [Flanders] and lives at S. Desbois’s house on rue de la Vieille Place aux Veaux [4^th]. Bruchet cruises along the grain port, makes trouble, and is to be feared. We left him to S. Noël, who, in execution of orders he carries, took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

100. Wednesday, 27 June 1781, Interrogation of Fleurot, suspected of pederasty

8 am on 27 June 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, of S. Fleurot, detained in the Petit Châtelet prison and transferred to our residence for this purpose, whose interrogation we conducted as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean Pierre Fleurot, native of Dole, thirty-one years old, former novice at the abbey of Clairvaux, now in Paris, and lodges in a furnished room at S. Canet’s house on rue Neuve Saint-Gilles.

Asked how long he stayed at Clairvaux. Said he entered in the month of September last year and left on 18 March of this year.

Asked why he left the abbey. Said it is [because] a threatening plot was formed against him by his brethren, who sought to prejudice the master of novices against him. Seeing he could not live with his brethren, he asked for his clothes and withdrew, as the master of novices himself advised.

Asked if these are the only reasons that led him to leave the abbey. Said yes.

Asked what he meant in writing to someone that his departure was provoked by an unworthy subject whose desire he did not wish to yield to. Said this subject is a novice who had asked him for books he did not wish to loan him.

Asked what the books are he requested from S. Bougauld. Said they are books of love stories he had left at his place.

Pointed out to him his refusal to give the requested books to the novice did not merit his expressing himself on the subject as strongly as he did in the sentence whose import we just reminded him about. We have every reason to believe it concerns something other than some books. Asked to explain himself clearly in this regard. Said he has told the truth, and he did not have any objective other than giving his sentences more force, in order to make an impression on abbé Rouhier.[155]

Asked who introduced him to abbé Rouhier. Said his family is established in Dole, and he studied at the secondary school in Dole,[156] where he made the acquaintance of abbé Rouhier, who showed him all sorts of kindness and even gave him monetary assistance more than once. For seven or eight years he saw him very frequently, ate and took walks with him.

Asked if he was in the Capuchin order.[157] Said no.

Asked if he still has his father and mother. Said only his mother, who is in Dole and receives a royal pension that had been accorded to his father in recognition of the services he rendered in educating young folks of quality.

Asked where he got the rouge that was found on him when he was arrested. Said he had his hostess buy it in order to send it to a lady in his native province. He wanted to have a pot of it sent to her without her asking for it. What we found on him was to be sent as a sample.

Asked who introduced him to S. Levavasseur. Said he knew him in Dole, where S. Levasseur was the collector of the taille [major direct land tax]. He did many favors for the deponent’s family.

Asked why he did not leave Paris when S. Levavasseur gave him twenty-four livres to make the trip. Said he had informed S. Levavasseur his intention was to enter the Carthusians,[158] and he therefore had to remain in Paris for that purpose.

Asked what he was doing on the boulevards at 11 pm on the 25th of this month. Said he had supper at 10:00 and, as he lives near the boulevards, he went there to walk.

Asked for the name of the novice whom he refused to give the book to. Said he is named Forquignon and is still a novice at Clairvaux.

Pointed out to him that although he told us he used the sentence we mentioned before only to make more of an impression on abbé Rouhier, our suspicions nevertheless extend farther. Consequently asked to tell us if the novice’s desires he mentioned are, on the contrary, criminal desires and if he made him propositions tending to sodomy. Said no, he never made propositions of that type.

Asked if he himself has ever made such propositions to anyone at all and if he has ever lent himself to this type of debauchery. Said no.

Asked if he is still in orders. Said he has not even taken the first minor ones.[159]

After his interrogation was read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

101. Thursday, 28 June 1781, Arrest of Framière, called Baptiste, and Crosnier

At 8 pm on 28 June 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch on the southern boulevards and, in execution of orders he carries, arrested a man suspected of pederasty, unknown to him, and another called Baptiste, son of an herbalist, who lives on rue du Bout du Monde. He conducted these men before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named André Crosnier, twenty-five years old, native of Versailles, unemployed household officer, who lives usually at Versailles and currently in Paris, where he lodges in a furnished room at Marguillier’s house on rue de Bourbon Villeneuve [2^nd].

Then we summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Antoine François Framière, twenty-two years old, former employee of the tallow office[160] and also former soldier in the Boulonnais Regiment, and lives with his father, herbalist, on rue Montmartre at the corner of rue du Bout du Monde.

Crosnier is dressed like a pederast but not known for partying with debauchees of this type, so we had him released.

With regard to Framière, called Baptiste, he was arrested before on the 6th of this month with the Steady One, pederast, who was exiled for this reason. Framière was released with an injunction not to visit the public promenades at unseemly hours in the future. Since that time, he has been seen there several times in bad company. On 6 June he told us he is a day-student with the notary S. Quatremère. That is false, as we confirmed. He lives with his father but is a vagabond. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

[1] Jeanne Bécu, comtesse Du Barry (1743-93), mistress of Louis XV, 1768-74.

[2] Jacques Charles, duc de Fitz-James (1743-1805).

[3] Dedicated on 20 June 1763, later place de la Révolution and place de la Concorde [1^st].

[4] 13-15, rue de la Grange Batelière, one of five barracks constructed for the French Guards, 1772-80. Soldiers slept two per bed there.

[5] 1 gold louis = 24 livres.

[6] Province in north central France, with Amiens as capital.

[7] Large tavern built and run by the Hassenfratz family on rue Lamartine, demolished.

[8] Halle au blé, grain market, constructed 1763-67 and covered 1782-83, later Bourse du Commerce [1^st arr], “a truly patriotic monument.” Hébert, 67.

[9] Christian holiday celebrated on 6 January.

104 Church at the corner of rue Saint-Denis and rue Mauconseil, demolished.

[11] The royal monopoly on the sale of tobacco was established in 1674 and subsequently incorporated into the General Farms.

[12] “It consists of a large number of taverns, where the people go to amuse themselves on holidays and Sundays.” H&M 2: 605. According to Mercier, 1: 356, they devoted Sundays to drinking and libertinage there.

[13] The list in the Almanach royal includes a Tessier du Breuil and a Teissier, who joined the Order of Barristers in 1757 and 1759, respectively.

[14] Mathieu Vanglenne, commissaire, 1770-91, rue Neuve Saint-François.

[15] Benoît Claude Chambette, attorney in the Parlement since 1763, rue Basse des Ursins.

[16] Pierre Claude La Roche (1741-1814), notary, rue Neuve des Petits Champs.

[17] Barristers “in” the Parlement had law degrees and took the lawyer’s oath before the court. Barristers “of” the Parlement constituted the “order of barristers” and actually practiced law before the court.

[18] Armand François Hennequin (1747-1830), comte d’Ecquevilly.

[19] Louis Joron, commissaire, 1765-90, rue Vieille du Temple.

[20] “There is an infinity of furnished boarding houses in Paris.” Hébert, 146. “You can have an apartment with four rooms near the Luxembourg that will cost you six times more near the Palais Royal.”

[21] Jacques Grapotte (Cabriolet), Martin Maréchal (La Joye), and Joseph de Ligne, all in the service of the comte Duras, brawled with a Swiss Guard in an eatery in Neuilly on 2 June 1766. Maréchal left the country but ended up in the Petit-Châtelet before the end of the month and was later banished for three years. The documents about this affair are located in Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille 12275.

[22] The Benedictine abbey was destroyed by an explosion in 1794, but the church and the abbot’s palace remain [6^th].

[23] Located between rue Abbatiale, later passage de la Petite Boucherie, and rue Cardinale, nonextant [6^th].

[24] 28, rue de Penthièvre, one of five barracks constructed for the French Guards, 1772-80.

[25] Inn on rue Greneta, demolished.

[26] Apprenticeship of five years.

[27] 1 silver écu = 6 livres.

[28] Barefoot Augustinians of the monastery of Notre-Dame des Victoires. The monastery was demolished, but the church survives [2^nd].

[29] Included in the dossier.

[30] The Châtelet employed two categories of bailiffs distinguished by the titles of bailiffs with a rod and bailiffs on horse.

[31] “Several free drawing schools have been opened in Paris in the last few years.” Hébert, 134. They multiplied the number of “useless artisans of ruinous luxury.” Mercier, 2: 843.

[32] The palace of Marie de Médicis, wife of Henry IV, and its gardens, occupied at this time by Louis XVI’s brother, the comte de Provence [6^th].

[33] The two weeks preceding Ash Wednesday, 28 February 1781.

[34] Since 1777, rue Saint-Denis.

[35] Germain Hyacinthe Romance, marquis de Mesmon (1745-1831). “People talk about nothing but the adventure of the chevalier de Romance, now marquis de Mesmon, lieutenant in the French Guards, and a young royal guard, nineteen years old. Here is how each of them tells the story. The marquis: ‘I was on guard in the evening. It was hot. I removed my heavy uniform, put on a frock-coat and went to take the air on the terrace of the palace. I met a young man there arm-in-arm with a woman. I stared at her, and the gallant took it badly. We fought, and I received two slight wounds. The next day I recalled that it is forbidden to fight while on guard, on penalty of twenty years and a day in prison. I was sure good friends would inform the marshal of my adventure. I resigned to avoid the consequences.’ The guard: ‘I was strolling alone on the terrace. I met a man in a frock-coat there. He accosted me, offered me money and presents, and stuffed his hands into my breeches. I grabbed him by the collar and told him whom he was dealing with. He stated his name and status. We left the terrace, we fought, and I gave my bugger two big sword-thrusts.’ It is this last version that people put their faith in. What is certain is the officer of the guards had eighteen years of service, was among the first scheduled to receive the cross [of Saint-Louis] and was obliged to leave his company. He received an order not to appear at Versailles.” Correspondance secrète inédite sur Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, la cour et la ville, 1777 à 1792, ed. Mathurn François Adolphe de Lescure, 2 vols. (Paris: H. Plon, 1866), 1: 311-12 (11 September 1780). Louis XVI ordered Mesmon to leave Versailles (29 August 1780), allowed him to go where he pleased (23 October 1780), and then ordered him to retire to his estate in Champagne (4 November 1780). The marquis married (1787) Marie Josèphe Guillaine de Baynast, and they had one child. For his rejection by his family and his letters to his wife, see Pierre de Vaissière, Lettres d’aristocrates: La Révolution racontée par des correspondances privées, 1789-1794 (Paris: Perrin, 1907), 262-81.

[36] The oldest and largest Parisian hospital, on the Ile de la Cité on Left Bank, partly destroyed by fire on 30 December 1772. One fifth of patients died there because of deplorable conditions. Mercier, 1: 682.

[37] Between rue Saint-Nicaise and the courtyard of the Tuileries palace.

[38] Augustin Louis Georges, comte de La Vacquerie (b. 1743).

[39] Charles Marie, marquis de Créquy (1737-1801), marshal since 1780, married Marie Anne Félix Du Muy, and they had one child, Tancrède. After his infant died, the marquise moved to Switzerland. The marquis “was accused of debauching one of the queen’s haidouks,” guards dressed like Balkan rebels against the Turks, and Louis XVI exiled him from court. MS, 27: 51 (4 December 1784).

[40] On rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, demolished in 1783.

[41] Inspector since 1777, rue Bailleul.

[42] Louis, prince de Bauffremont (1712-69).

[43] In Brittany, suppressed in 1790.

[44] Province in northeast France, with Reims as capital.

[45] Near the church of Saint-Sulpice, from 1 February to Palm Sunday. JP reported its opening on 2 February 1781. Vendors sold “all sorts of merchandise,” and entertainers, incuding tumblers and jugglers, aroused “public curiosity.” Hébert, 143. “Crude charlatanry is on its throne there.” Mercier, 1: 538.

[46] The entrance to the Dominican convent, demolished, was located at the intersection of rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and rue du Marché Saint-Honoré.

[47] This unit investigated cases of theft, assault and battery, and murder.

[48] Inspector since 1780, Vieille rue du Temple.

[49] Square in front of the city hall, site of public executions, later place de l’Hôtel-de-ville [4^th]

[50] “These sorts of places” are frequented “only by rather ignoble folks.” Hébert, 121.

[51] Dedicated on 26 March 1686, with a statue of Louis XIV in the middle [2^nd].

[52] René Plé, 60, haberdasher, was executed for theft and poisoning. Hardy, 6: 591-92 (29 December 1780).

[53] Province in east central France, with Besançon as capital.

[54] Order directing a second party to pay a sum of money to a third party.

[55] Marc Antoine Le Grand, Le Bon ami: Comédie en un acte et en prose, représentée par les Comédiens François ordinaires du Roi, le dix-sept novembre 1780 (Paris, 1781). JP summarized the plot on 2 April 1781.

[56] Persée: Tragédie lyrique remise en trois actes, representée pour la première fois, par l’Académie Royale de Musique, le mardi 24 octobre 1780 (Paris, 1780). Libretto by Philippe

Quinault, reworked by Jean François Marmontel, and music by François André Danican Philidor.

[57] Frederick Henry Louis (1726-1802), brother of Frederick the Great, married (1752) Wilhelmina of Hesse-Kassel but died without children. He visited Paris in 1784 and 1788. The author of an account published after the first visit criticized misrepresentations of his tastes, motives, and favorites. Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Vie privée d’un prince célèbre (Veropolis, 1784), 17-20. The author of a scandalous exposé published after the second visit claimed the king had dismissed one Chauvier, former wigmaker’s assistant in Paris and intimate companion of his brother, and the prince had recalled him under the name of Dufour. Henri Gabriel Riquéti, comte de Mirabeau, Histoire secrète de la cour de Berlin (n.p., 1789), 204-205 (21 September 1786). Eva Ziebura addresses the Prince’s sexuality but not this story in Prinz Heinrich von Preussen (Berlin: Stapp Verlag, 1999).

[58] In the Palais Royal complex, inaugurated in 1770 and destroyed by fire in 1781. “The most brilliant and stylish spectacle in Paris.” Hébert, 158.

[59] Etienne Joseph Floquet, Le Seigneur bienfaisant: Opéra composé des actes du Pressoir, ou, Des fêtes de l'automne, de L'incendie et du Bal, représenté pour la première fois par l'Académie royale de musique, le jeudi 14 décembre 1780 (Paris, 1781). Libretto by Marc Antoine Jacques Rochon de Chabannes.

[60] Along rue Saint-Honoré, across from the convent of the Feuillants.

[61] Marquis Louis Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), unmarried man of letters.

[62] Charles François de Marmet, comte de Valcroissant.

[63] Jean Claude Jacquet, former royal attorney of the bailliage of Lons-le-Saulnier, capital of the department of the Jura, and at this time inspector of foreign books. He extorted money from the police for suppressing scandalous works about the queen and the court. He was arrested on 30 October 1781 and released on 9 July 1789. See [Guillaume Imbert de Boudeaux], Receueil de lettres secrètes, Année 1783, ed. Paule Adamy (Geneva: Droz, 1997), 84-89 (28 February 1783). The same source, 357-58 (8 August 1783), reported that he whipped prostitutes and stuck pins in their rear ends.

[64] Jean Charles Pierre Lenoir (1732-1807), lieutenant general of police, 1774-75 and 1776-85.

[65] Over the old city moat, constructed in 1674, demolished in 1760, named after the vegetable gardens in the area.

[66] 110, rue Amelot, built in 1737 and closed toward the end of Louis XV’s reign.

[67] “It is open to the public only in the summer.” Hébert, 148. The Palais de Soubise, later National Archives, is located in the Marais [3^rd].

[68] Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé, duc de Brissac (1698-1780), marshal as of 1768. For his funeral see Hardy 6: 585 (18 December 1780).

[69] Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (1717-87), minister of foreign affairs, 1774-87.

[70] Marie-Antoinette visited Paris frequently.

[71] 8, rue des Petits-Champs.

[72] Jean Etienne Bernard Clugny des Nuits (1729-76), Comptroller General, 1776.

[73] Jean Louis Bro (1734-1813), notary, rue du Petit Bourbon.

[74] Benedictine priory, 23-31, rue du Cherche Midi, demolished. The annual rent was 500-600 livres.

[75] Church constructed by the Congregation of the Oratory, 145, rue Saint-Honoré.

[76] At this time the area planted with trees extended from Place Louis XV to the rond-point, between the Cours de la Reine along the Seine and the gardens behind the homes along rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

[77] Anne Hilarion de Galard de Béarn, comte de Brassac (1715-88).

[78] Province in southwest France, with Perpignan as capital.

[79] At the corner of rue Saint-Martin and rue du Vertbois, closed in 1785, demolished.

[80] Tavern on rue de Vaugirard, demolished.

[81] Department within the ministry of the Royal Household responsible for royal residences.

[82] Between the courtyard of the Tuileries and the Pavilion of Flora, a wing of the Louvre.

[83] Suppressed in 1801.

[84] Insignia of the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, founded in 1048.

[85] In principle, all property owners who inhabited the city for a year and a day and paid taxes there were entitled to the appellation and privileges of “bourgeois de Paris.” In practice, however, this designation was generally applied to non-nobles who lived off their investments.

[86] Jean Louis Augustin de Salignac de LaMothe Fénelon, baron de Loubert (1755-1829), did not marry. In 1777 he lived with his brother, the marquis, on rue de Plâtre Saint-Avoie.

[87] Church at 286, rue Saint-Honoré.

[88] After the death of the Dutch banker Jean Jacques Horneca (1695-1778), Horneca, Fizeaux and Company became Fizeaux, Grand, and Company.

[89] Zémire et Azor, comic opera by André Grétry (1741-1813), based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, performed in Paris for the first time on 16 December 1771.

[90] Marco Zeno, Venetian ambassador to France, 1776-80, or Daniele Andrea Dolfin (1748-98), his successor, 1780-86.

[91] Ermolao Tiepolo (1725-64), ambassador extraordinary, made his entrance into Paris on 2 March 1763.

[92] Recreated in 1771, composed of 71 constables. “One can join and age in this unit without fear of wounds.” Mercier, 1: 166.

[93] The buildings on this bridge, between the Ile de la Cité and the Left Bank at place Saint-Michel, gave it “the most unpleasant and indecent appearance.” H&M, 4: 110.

[94] Pierre Chénon, commissaire, 1743-91, rue Baillette.

[95] Nicolas Beaujon (1718-99), financier. After the death of his wife Louise Elisabeth de Bontemps in 1769, he reportedly surrounded himself with “women who rock, tickle, scratch or whip him.” [Imbert de Boudeaux], Receueil de lettres secrètes, 37-38 (7 February 1783). The Chambre des comptes had jurisdiction over issues involving finances and the royal domain.

[96] Gilbert Emmanuel, comte de Lambertie (1755-1813), did not marry.

[97] Abel François Poisson de Vandières, marquis de Marigny (1727-81), brother of Louis XV’s mistress Mme de Pompadour, Director of Royal Buildings, 1751-73, married (1767) Marie Françoise Constance Julie Filleul. They had a daughter who died in childhood, and they separated in 1777. According to a scandalous and satirical attack on the court and courtiers, he masturbated before a statue of Ganymede. Charles Théveneau de Morande, Le Gazetier cuirassé, ou Anecdotes scandaleuses de la cour de France (n.p., 1771), 172-73.

[98] Since 1771, rue Neuve Saint-Eustache.

[99] There were no commercial or residential buildings on this bridge, just small shops atop the piers, closed in 1756.

[100] Louis François Formel, commissaire, 1761-81, rue Saint-Severin.

[101] Pierre d’Orléans (1740-85) won the Royal Academy of Architecture’s grand prize in 1767.

[102] The crown leased the collection of taxes and operation of monopolies to an association of wealthy financiers known as Farmers General or tax farmers.

[103] Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (1733-93), tax farmer, 1751-78, married (1758) Françoise Elisabeth de Jarente. Their son Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière (1758-1837), barrister, gastronome, eccentric, had “a certain aversion for women” and entertained male friends lavishly. MS, 22: 72 (7 February 1783).

[104] Louis Charles Auguste Le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil (1730-1807), French ambassador to Russia, 1760-9.

[105] Part of the General Farms.

[106] Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon (1753-1821) married (1769) Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans, duc de Chartres.

[107] Part of the General Farms.

[108] Claude Etienne Billecoq (1714-77).

[109] Region in northeast France, with Cambrai as capital.

[110] See Farge, 160.

[111] A man arrested several years later mentioned that Beaupré introduced him to an abbé Scées “for this debauchery.” Y 11724, 24 October 1784.

[112] At no. 27 Thibouville rented an apartment in the house of Charles Marie, marquis de Villette (1736-93), another known pederast. Their mutual friend Voltaire died in this house on 30 May 1778. Jeffrey Merrick, “The Marquis de Villette and Mademoiselle de Raucourt: Representations of Male and Female Sexual Deviance in Late Eighteenth-Century France,” in Homosexuality in Modern France, ed. Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 30-53.

[113] 35, rue de Taranne, a substantial property including spacious gardens, visible on any digitized map of Paris, listed for sale in JP, 31 January 1804. Viennay patronized Jean Pierre Blanchard (1750-1809), who exhibited a flying machine in the gardens. MS, 20: 232 (6 May 1782). The “bardaches of his society” supposedly performed a tragedy entitled La Punition de Sodome et Gomorrhe, ou Le châtiment des B[ougres] there. Petit Journal du Palais Royal, 1789, no. 3, 21.

[114] Archille Hardouin de Morell, marquis d’Aubigny d’Assy (1710-78).

[115] See Farge, 163.

[116] Georges Joseph Charlemagne Louis de Beugny d’Hagerue (1758-1839) married (1789) Anne Marie Robertine Le François du Buis de Fetel, and they had four children.

[117] Since 1755, rue Geoffroy Lasnier.

[118] Guy Marie Anne Louis de Montmorency (1767-86), marquis de Laval, married (1784) René Sophie de Voyer de Paulmy d’Argenson but died without children.

[119] See Farge, 171.

[120] Antoine Pierre Viel de Lunas (1760-1837) did not marry.

[121] Marie René Pierre Louis, comte de Scépeaux (1756-1845).

[122] Louis Stanislas Xavier (1755-1824), brother of Louis XVI, later Louis XVIII.

[123] Nicolas François Jules, comte de La Tour d’Auvergne (1720-90).

[124] 28, rue de Charenton.

[125] Named after a triangular block of buildings at the intersection of rue Vieille du Temple and rue de Poitou.

[126] “This man has already been in Bicêtre prison seven times on account of theft, extortion and pederasty.” Farge, 224.

[127] Former leather factory transformed into a workhouse for the deserving poor, 1768-92, later replaced by the Saint-Denis marketplace.

[128] See Farge, 147.

[129] Police inspector since 1774, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis.

[130] During the war of American independence, the French loaned the Dutch ships and troops, including the Luxembourg legion, for the defense of their possessions in India. Journal politique, ou Gazette des gazettes, May 1781, seconde quinzaine, 72.

[131] The northern boulevards, on the Right Bank, replaced the city walls demolished in the 17^th century and formed a semicircle between the Saint-Honoré and Saint-Antoine gates. Strolling on the boulevards was “very much in fashion.” Hébert, 166.

[132] Les Petits Comédiens du Bois de Boulogne, children’s theatrical company directed by Charles Alexandre Bernard (1724-1807), named after the forest on the western edge of Paris.

[133] Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blancmesnil (1683-1772), chancellor since 1750.

[134] Police officer who conducted chained prisoners to the galleys on the Mediterranean coast. The Chain left Paris on 25 May and 10 September. Mercier, 2: 880.

[135] The boulevard du Temple is located on the Right Bank, so either the clerk made a mistake or the patrol began on the Left Bank and ended on the Right Bank.

[136] Connétablie, with jurisdiction over military officers and, more generally, affairs of honor.

[137] Pierre Mussey, since 1777, rue Simon le Franc.

[138] Etienne François Fosseyeux de Rupereux, since 1775.

[139] Augustus Keppel (1725-86), commander of the English fleet in the Channel, 1778-79.

[140] Opposite Rue Saint-Pierre.

[141] Claude Quatremère, notary, 1767-1800, rue du Bouloi.

[142] From Burgundy, province in east central France, with Dijon as capital.

[143] Possible allusion to Gabrielle d’Estrées (1573-99), mistress of Henri IV, who reigned 1589-1610.

[144] See Farge, 176.

[145] Joséphine Marie Constance de Mailly d'Haucourt (1734-83) married (1745) Marc René de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d’Argenson.

[146] Pierre Le François, sieur de Montchauvel.

[147] Francis Thomas Fitzmaurice, earl of Kerry (1740-1818), married (1768) Anastasia Daly but died without children.

[148] Stones from the quarry of Saint-Leu, a commune in the suburbs of Paris, were unloaded at the port aux Pierres along the Cours de la Reine.

[149] Louis Henri François, comte de Colbert (1737-92).

[150] For what it is worth, the poet Claude Joseph Dorat endowed the handsome hero of his verse tale Combabus, published in many editions of his works, with fine eyebrows.

[151] Later port de l’Hôtel de Ville.

[152] Provisional sentence that postponed the definitive sentence to a later date, after further investigation.

[153] Powder factory and munitions depot along the port de Grammont, which vanished when the Ile Louvier was joined to the Right Bank. The surviving buildings include the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal [4^th].

[154] Cistercian monastery in Ville-sous-la-Ferté [Aube].

[155] Pierre Denis Rouhier, professor of rhetoric at the collège de Dole.

[156] Collège de l’Arc, now the archeological museum.

[157] Reformed Franciscan order created in the 1520s.

[158] The entrance of the Parisian monastery, demolished in the 1790s, was located at 64 boulevard Saint-Michel.

[159] Porter, lector, exorcist, acolyte.

[160] Louis XVI converted the sales tax on tallow in Paris to an excise tax collected at the customs barriers.

102. Wednesday, 4 July 1781, Pederasty patrol, Arrest

At 10 pm on 4 July 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city.

We were on boulevard Saint-Martin at 11:00, and S. Noël arrested there

Jean Riou, thirty-four years old, currency courrier at the financial exchange,^[1] who lives at S. de Neuville’s house on rue Basse du Rempart [1^st].

At 11:30 on Boulevard Poissonnière

Charles Louis Sallé, painter, who lives on rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis beyond the checkpoint^[2]

Jean Antoine Becourt, musician,^[3] who lives on rue au Maire opposite The Three Pigeons

Pierre Thurot, sculptor, who lives at Thomas’s house on rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis

François Vincent, hairdresser for women, who lives at Hélie’s house on rue de la Lune

and Guillaume Thiennet, student at the Royal Academy of Painting,^[4] who lives on rue Pavée Saint-Sauveur [2^nd].

At midnight on boulevard Montmartre, S. Noël arrested there

Jacques Courtois, called the Lovely Female Gardener, twenty-nine years old, native of Paris, who lives on rue de Reuilly,

and, opposite the mirror factory,^[5] François Prudhomme, fifteen years old, turner, native of Rethel, who lives at Langevin’s house on rue de Charenton opposite the brewery.

Courtois acknowledged he calls himself the Lovely Female Gardener,^[6] came from walking in the Champs-Elysées, was arrested and sent to prison in 1779, and has been pursued several times by the Swiss Guards. Prudhomme was arrested on 8 May with Vuidor and released because of his age. He acknowledged that he left his place at 9:00 today to go to the Champs-Elysées and was with Courtois.

We left them to S. Noël to conduct them to their destination. With regard to the other men, we had them released. We continued the patrol until 2 am. Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us.

103. Thursday, 5 July 1781, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Fournier

At 10 pm on 5 July 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on patrol in various places in this city.

We were on the boulevards, between rue Poissonnière and rue Montmartre, and S. Noël arrested there various men in the stoneyard, notably S. Force, Livonian^[7] merchant, who lives at the razor vendor’s house on boulevard Poissonnière. After we questioned these men, we had them released.

Later we were on the boulevard between the Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin gates,^[8] at 1:30 am on 6 July, and S. Noël arrested there a man there and conducted him to the guard-post at the Temple.^[9] He told us he is named Denis Fournier, forty-eight years old, native of Paris, and lives at the wine vendor Poitou’s house in La Chapelle Saint-Denis.^[10] We had Fournier searched and found a gold watch ornamented with yellow diamonds, two tokens resembling louis with the bust of His Majesty Louis XVI on one side, and various other objects that seemed suspect. Fournier, moreover, informed us that he just came from rue des Boucheries in Faubourg Saint-Germain, which led us to believe he is the man known by the name of Fournier, friend of Imbert, embroiderer, who lives on that street. All these reasons led me to leave Fournier in S. Noël’s hands to conduct him to his destination.

We continued the patrol until 2:30 am. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

104. Monday, 9 July 1781, Arrest of Lafosse, pederast

At 10 pm on 9 July 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, accompanied by S. Louis Henri Noël, in execution of the king’s orders addressed to us, went to a house located in Paris on rue de la Juiverie in which the principal tenant is the widow Lesueur. We went up to a room on the fifth floor, overlooking the street, occupied by Lafosse. We entered the room, and S. Noël, in execution of orders, arrested there Lafosse and a child dressed as a valet, who told us he is named Varin and is in the service of comte de Berthemont,^[11] at whose residence he lives on allée du Billiard off rue de Richelieu. His father is now in the city of Rouen, and his mother, cotton spinner, lives in the same house as S. de Berthemont. Pending the arrival of his mother, whom we sent for, S. Noël conducted this child to the Petit Châtelet, where he was detained in custody but not imprisoned. Then we proceeded with the search of the lockable chest of drawers and money-box in Lafosse’s room. In the course of the search we found various little booklets and papers and made a packet of them. After tying it up with linen ribbon, we affixed our seals and stamp to the joined ends of the ribbon. We turned the packet, with our seals intact, over to S. Noël, to present it when and to whom it is appropriate.

Then we asked Lafosse to tell us his name, status, origins and address. He told us he is named Joseph Lafosse, thirty-three years old, native of Mirecourt in Lorraine, goldsmith making buckles, and lives at this house. He lived before in a pork-butcher’s house on rue Saint-Christophe, on the fifth floor in the back. He worked before on rue du Petit Hurleur, across from the Golden Wagon. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed our record with us, commissaire.

105. Monday, 9 July 1781, Interrogation of Varin, debauched by Lafosse, pederast

11:15 pm on 9 July

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of the child Varin, presently detained in custody but not imprisoned in the Petit Châtelet, whose interrogation we conducted as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Pierre Varin, twelve years old, native of the parish of Saint-Vivien in Rouen,^[12] valet in the service of comte de Berthemont, at whose residence he lives on allée du Billiard off rue de Richelieu.

Asked what he came to do at the man’s where we found him. Said he did not come to do anything there.

Asked where he encountered the man and at what time. Said he came to his place at about 5 pm.

Asked if he went out this afternoon with the man in question. Said he went out with him to deliver some buttons. Not knowing Paris, he does not know what street the address is on, but the man told him it was at the Trinity.^[13] Then they were on rue Montmartre, where the man asked where the comte d’Artois’s stables are.^[14] No one pointed them out to him, so they came back to the man’s place, where we found him.

Asked what this man’s name is. Said he believes his name is Lafosse.

Asked how he made his acquaintance him. Said he met him in the Palais Royal, where Lafosse accosted him and led him into an alley where he undid his breeches, fondled his buttocks, set him on his knees and played with himself. On the same day he made a rendezvous with him at the Palais de Justice,^[15] where he waited for him on a bench. The deponent went there to find him, and Lafosse took him to have supper and sleep at his place. They slept together, and while they were in bed, he caressed him as in the alley. In Lafosse’s room there were three children and a wigmaker, all unemployed. The wigmaker is from Lafosse’s native region. Among these individuals was one named Laroche and another named Herring. He does not know the names of the other men. These individuals did dirty things [masturbated] in dishes and said they were discharging [ejaculating]. It was around a week ago he made Lafosse’s acquaintance, and since that time Lafosse has loaned him a shirt and a cotton bonnet. Today he gave him a two-sols coin.

After his deposition was read to him, he said it contains the truth and reaffirmed it. Asked to sign, he stated he does not know how to write.

At that moment appeared Marie Anne Anty, wife of Pierre Varin, weaver, who lives in Rouen. She is a domestic in the service of comte de Berthemont, at whose residence she lives on the aforesaid rue de Richelieu.

She said that, having been informed of her son Varin’s detention, she came to this prison to learn the reasons for his detention. She begs us to hand Varin over to her. She offers to take charge of him, to keep him hidden and not let him go out at all, and to present him whenever required. Asked to sign, she stated she does not know how to write.

We gave Mme Varin a record of his appearance. Given the child’s youth, Mme Varin’s willingness to make sure he does not go out at all, and her offers to present him whenever required, we handed him over to her. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and he signed. Asked to sign, Varin’s wife repeated she does not know how to write her name.

106. Tuesday, 10 July 1781, Search of abbé de Léobardy’s residence, Arrest of de Léobardy and Chabaut, pederasts

[The police confiscated “various papers.”]

Then we asked S. de Léobardy to tell us his first and last names, age, origins and status. He told us he is named François de Léobardy, thirty years old, native of Saint-Pardoux-Morterolles [Limousin], priest in the diocese of Limoges [Limousin], prior of Vaudreville, and lives at this place.

Then we summoned the man found in the apartment and asked him his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address.

He told us he is named Antoine Chabaut, twenty-one years old, native of La Sauvetat in Auvergne, lead-worker, and lives at the silk-dyer S. Joly’s house on the same rue de Vannerie.

Asked if he is the abbé de Léobardy’s errand boy. Said yes.

We gave records of these appearances and replies to both men. In order to have a ruling made about the subject of the orders, and not wanting to take any steps on our own, we handed the packet of papers, with our seals intact, over to S. Noël, who took charge of them, to present them when and to whom it is appropriate. He likewise took charge of abbé de Léobardy and Chabaut, to conduct them at once, with us, to the residence of the lieutenant general of police, in order to have the magistrate pass judgment as he sees fit. Of everything above we drew up this report, in the presence of abbé Léobardy and Chabaut, and S. Noël signed the report with us.

At 12:30 am on 11 July 1781, we, royal councilor and aforesaid commissaire, went to the residence of the lieutenant general of police. S. Noël conducted S. de Léobardy and Chabaut there. In the presence of the magistrate we gave him a report on the search we had just conducted and its outcome. Then the magistrate questioned S. de Léobardy and Chabaut separately several times. After they withdrew from his presence, the lieutenant general of police instructed us to have S. Noël take charge of S. de Léobardy and Chabaut again, to conduct them to the Petit Châtelet prison as pederasts. S. Noël did take charge of S. de Léobardy and Chabaut to conduct them to their destination, and he signed with us, commissaire.

107. Wednesday, 11 July 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 11 July 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on pederasty patrol on boulevard du Temple and rue Poissonnière. In the course of the patrol, we found nothing contrary to good morals.

Then we went on patrol in various quarters of this city, in which we likewise found nothing contrary to good morals. We continued the patrol until midnight struck. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

108. Friday, 13 July 1781, Arrest of Boirot, called the Breton, pederast

At 1 am on 13 July 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He said he just encountered and arrested on boulevard Poissonnière the Breton, known by the name of the Big Beard, who tried to debauch the six-year-old child of Fléau, who lives on cul-de-sac Matignon [1^st], and he signed.

We gave him a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Joseph Boirot, called the Breton, model at the Royal Academy [of Paiting and Sculpture], and lives at Vanet’s house on rue Froid-Manteau.

Asked if he knows Fléau and if he has amused himself with Fléau’s six-year-old son. Said that is women’s chatter, which he will make them regret.

Inasmuch as we verified for ourselves that Boiret brought the child in question to his room, locked himself in with him, completely undressed him, and, after stretching him out on his bed, caressed him while playing with himself, we left Boirot to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

109. Saturday, 14 July 1781, Interrogation of Dauthier, debauched by Lafosse, pederast

4 pm on 14 July 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Dauthier.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean Baptiste Dauthier, fourteen years old, and lives usually with his stepfather S. Bonnot on rue des Cannettes in Faubourg Saint-Germain, native of Paris.

Asked how he knows Lafosse. Said on his way to see his cousin S. Coffin, who lives on rue des Ménétriers, he encountered two men on rue Saint-Martin. He has since learned they are named, one, Lafosse, and the other, Lenormand, valet. These two men spoke to him, and Lafosse told him he was very nice, and, if he liked, he would take him to La Courtille and give him fine clothes and underclothes. He made a rendezvous with him at the wine vendor’s shop at the corner of rue des Ménétriers or else at the portal of Saint-Merri.^[16] They did not meet at the assigned rendezvous, but he found Lafosse in rue du Faubourg Saint-Germain, and he suggested they go walk together at the fair. They went there together to walk. Then they left, and, on rue des Cannettes, Lafosse had him enter an alley. Someone came down the steps, and Lafosse made a pretext of asking him about a name he made up. Lafosse was lying on the ground then and unbuttoned the deponent’s breeches, touched him, and amused himself. On that day he made a rendezvous with him on the steps of the Hôtel-Dieu. The deponent went there, but Lafosse did not because it was raining quite hard that day. Since that time he met Lafosse again on rue du Four. He took him to a wine vendor’s shop on rue du Colombier [6^th], where he touched him and gave him twelve sols. Since that time he ran into Lafosse again, and he took him to his place. Finally, Lafosse succeeded in finding him one last time, took him to his place, had him sleep there for two days, caressed him, suggested to him several times that he put his entrails into his body. He told him not to let anyone other than him put them in, given that if someone else had the pox [syphilis], it would give him an illness he would never be cured of. He even forbid him to go to the Tuileries, inasmuch as there are lots of vile men there. About two weeks ago he returned to Lafosse’s, where he spent four nights. Every time he was there, Lafosse forbid him to speak to his mother or his confessor about it, since, as he told him, there was no harm in it, and his confessor did likewise. He has seen the landlord Millot, who lives in the cloister of Saint-Benoît,^[17] come to see Lafosse. One day when he, the deponent, could not return to his mother’s residence and wanted to go sleep in a furnished room on rue des Fossés Monsieur le Prince [6^th], he found there Millot, who took him to sleep at his place, where he stayed for nine days. Millot had him sleep with him and did the same things to him that Lafosse did. He amused himself with his boarders in the same way and sent Blanchard and Dadin to Lafosse’s place. He added that Lafosse sucked his penis^[18] several times. He has seen various young folks at Lafosse’s place, among others Lenormand and a young jeweler as well as various other children.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contains the truth and reaffirmed them, and he signed.

110. Saturday, 14 July 1781, Interrogation of Froideveaux, debauched by Lafosse, pederast

5 pm on 14 July 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Froideveaux.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins, status, and address.

Said he is named Joseph Hubert Froideveaux, more than eleven years old, native of Paris, son of S. Froideveaux, verger of the parish of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie [3^rd],^[19] and lives with his stepfather Vincent in the cloister and parish of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.

Asked how he knows Lafosse. Said six years ago his mother, a widow, felt indisposed during the night. At the time she lived in a hosier’s house on rue Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. Lafosse lived in the back of the house. One night the deponent’s mother was ill, and Lafosse heard her cry out. He offered to seek help, which he did. He then suggested to the deponent’s mother that he take her three children to unburden her. They indeed went to his place every day and returned to their mother’s place to sleep. This lasted about a month. During this time Lafosse stretched out on the floor in his room, undid his breeches, undid the deponent’s breeches, fondled him, hugged him, and caressed him. About three weeks ago he was playing with his comrades in the cloister of Saint-Jacques, and Lafosse recognized him, tapped him on the shoulder, took him into an alley, undid his breeches, fondled him, and then made a rendezvous with him for two days later at 2 pm in the little passage de Sainte-Croix.^[20] He went there, and Lafosse came there. He had him climb up to the belfry of the church of Sainte-Croix, where he amused himself with the deponent by unbuttoning his breeches and fondling him. He told him to come see him in his room. He went there and brought one of his little comrades, named Personne, who lives on rue Saint-Martin, whom Lafosse had told him to bring. Lafosse amused himself with his comrade as he had done with him. From time to time Lafosse gave him six or eight sols in money.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth and reaffirmed them, and he signed.

111. Saturday, 14 July 1781, Interrogation of Jean René Froideveaux, debauched by Lafosse, pederast

6 pm on 14 July 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Jean René Froideveaux.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean René Froideveaux, around twelve and a half years old, choirboy at Saint-Pierre-des-Arcis,^[21] and lives with his stepfather Vincent in the cloister of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie.

Asked if he knows Lafosse. Said he met Lafosse, who lived in the same house as his mother, six years ago. This man persuaded his mother to let the deponent and his brother come to his place during the time she was indisposed. In fact, they were there for about a month. During that time Lafosse stretched out on the floor, undid their breeches, and felt them, without their being able to see what he was doing, inasmuch as he had them turn their backs. Since that time, he has seen Lafosse, who urged him to come see him, but the deponent did not wish to.

After his deposition and replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth and reaffirmed them, and he signed.

112. Monday, 16 July 1781, Arrest of Laurent, exiled on account of pederasty

At 1 pm on 16 July 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while passing through the place de Grève he encountered Laurent, former silk stockingwasher, exiled from this city for pederasty. Inasmuch as Laurent is not observing the sentence of exile and is in violation of the king’s orders, he arrested him, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Christophe Laurent, silk stocking washer, and lives on rue des Blancs-Manteaux at the corner of rue de l’Homme Armé [3^rd]. He said he was arrested a while ago, most unjustly, and then he was exiled from Paris. He went away for several weeks and presented various petitions to the magistrate to request the revocation of his letter of exile. He received no reply, and he believed it was a tacit consent for him to remain in Paris.

On the contrary, inasmuch as it did not please the magistrate to reply in any way to Laurent’s petitions, which signifies his intention that he leave this city, and inasmuch as he resides there and is consequently in violation of the king’s orders, we left Laurent to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this record, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

113. Thursday, 19 July 1781, Interrogation of Courtois, called the Lovely Female Gardener, pederast

9 am on 19 July

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Courtois, called the Lovely Female Gardener, whose interrogation we conducted in the concierge’s chamber in the Petit Châtelet prison as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jacques Courtois, twenty-nine years old, native of Paris, former gardener’s assistant, currently working in the mirror factory.

Asked why he bears the Lovely Female Gardener. Said they gave him that name in the tavern.

Asked where he was coming from on the day he was arrested. Said he was returning from Versailles, where he had been procuring himself for four days. He was in the park and encountered a man there, whose name he does not know, who took him to sleep at his place. This man said he was Madame’s^[22] hairdresser and did not make any propositions to him.

Asked if he has committed the crime of sodomy and who debauched him.

Said he has never committed the crime of sodomy, but he has let himself be touched by various men he does not know. He had the misfortune to go to taverns where he made bad acquaintances who led him into this error, especially in Vaugirard at the tavern with the sign of The Brilliant Moon,^[23] where these men gather: Catherine, Marchand, Trépied, Pierrot, Queneuil, Julie, and a shoemaker’s assistant, who cruise in the small woods in Vaugirard, and a S. Mallard, who has the air of a proper gentleman, whose status and address he does not know. He pays the tabs of the men named above, made various propositions to the deponent, and paid for his dinner twice.

Asked why he was arrested and imprisoned in 1779. Said it was because of a fight in the central market.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth and reaffirmed them. Asked to sign, stated he does not know how to write.

114. Thursday, 19 July 1781, Interrogation of abbé de Léobardy, suspected of pederasty

10 am on 19 July

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of abbé de Léobardy, whose interrogation we conducted in the concierge’s chamber in the Petit Châtelet prison.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named François de Léobardy, around thirty-one years old, native of Saint-Pardoux-Morterolles in Poitou,^[24] priest in the diocese of Limoges, prior of the priory of Vaudreville, and lives in Paris on rue de la Vannerie.

Asked how he knows Chabaut. Said he met him in the Hôtel-Dieu when Chabaut was ill. Several months ago he found Chabaut, who now lodges on his street, and employed him as his errand boy.

Asked if he has conducted himself scandalously since he has been in Paris. Said up until now his conduct has been quite blameless. He offers to prove it through the people he has spent time since his arrival in Paris. Anything to the contrary can only have come from Olivier, who has spread the most infamous charges against him since Pentecost.^[25] He detailed Olivier’s conduct more fully in a mémoire he had the honor to address to the lieutenant general of police.

Asked what he meant, when he was in chambers [for summary judgment] before the lieutenant general of police and told him he was ready to atone for the scandal. Said at the moment the incident happened to him, he was so disturbed he did not have his head about him. If he used that expression, it was without considering the interpretation one could give to it, inasmuch as he had never caused any scandal and had none to atone for.

After his deposition and replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

115. Thursday, 19 July 1781, Interrogation of Lafosse, pederast

11 am on 19 July

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Lafosse, whose interrogation we conducted in the concierge’s chamber in the Petit Châtelet prison as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Joseph Lafosse, around thirty-three years old, native of Mirecourt in Lorraine, goldsmith making buckles, and lives on rue de la Juiverie.

Asked how he knows Dauthier. Said he met him around two years ago at the Trinity. He asked to become his apprentice, but this child is a disreputable subject, so he expelled him from his place.

Asked if he used to live in S. Bezody’s house on rue Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. Said yes, he used to live there around three years ago and stayed there for about two and a half years.

Asked if he knows S. Millot, and if he came to his place. Said he knows S. Millot, who lives on rue Saint-Benoît, and they saw each other.

Asked how long he has known Millot and how he met him. Said he has known him for about six months and met him though Dauthier.

Asked if he knows Mme Vincent. Said yes, she lived in the same house he did, at S. Bezody’s. One day she felt ill while pregnant and had him come to her place to help her. After she gave birth, he took Mme Vincent’s two children from her first marriage to his place.

Asked where he met Varin. Said after the fire at the Opera^[26] he went to the Palais Royal out of curiosity with one of his apprentices, whose name he does not remember. They found Varin, whom he did not know, but the apprentice was acquainted with him from going to school with him. This child told him he wished to learn his trade. He followed his friend to the deponent’s place and left when he reached the door.

Asked if Varin came to sleep at his place another day. Said he never slept there.

Asked if it is true the first time he saw him at the Palais Royal, he took him into an alley, undid his breeches, and played with himself in front of him. Said that is false.

Asked if did the same thing with Dauthier in an alley off rue du Faubourg Saint-Germain. Said it is all false.

Asked if during the time when the Froideveaux brothers, Mme Vincent’s children, were at his place during their mother’s delivery, he amused himself with them. Said that is false.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since all the children named above accuse him of this infamy. Said one can make children say what one wants.

Asked if he knows Darnaudery. Said no.

Asked if he knows Herring and Laroche. Said he does not know them.

Asked when he last saw Mme Vincent’s children. Said he has not seen them in a long time.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since Joseph Hubert Froideveaux encountered him around three weeks ago, and he took him into an alley and made a rendezvous with him for two days later near Sainte-Croix-de-la-Cité. He went there and had him climb up to the church belfry. In the belfry, as in the alley, he unbuttoned his breeches and felt him. Said that is false.

After his deposition and replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth and reaffirmed them. Asked to sign, stated he does not know how to write.

116. Thursday, 19 July 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 19 July 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him to the Saint-Laurent fair,^[27] on the boulevards, and in various quarters.

On the boulevard du Temple at 11:00, S. Noël arrested Georges Bergeret, thirty-seven years old, native of Epinac in Burgundy, who lives in the second-hand dealer Retisse’s house on rue Beaurepaire. After interrogating Bergeret, we had him released.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight struck. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

117. Thursday, 26 July 1781, Interrogation of Pruneau, suspected of pederasty

4 pm on 26 July

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, of Pruneau, prisoner in the Petit Châtelet prison, whose interrogation we conducted in the concierge’s chamber as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origins and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Jean Nicolas Pruneau, twenty-six years old, native of Paris, and lives at the haberdasher S. Nezel’s house on rue Saint-Denis.

Asked if he has his father and mother are. Said only his father, who works in gauze fabric and lives at faubourg Saint-Denis [10^th] beyond the checkpoint.

Asked if he knows S. Cotelle. Said he knows S. Cotelle the father, hatter on rue Saint-Denis. The deponent’s tailor lives in his house. When he went to the tailor’s he had occasion to see S. Cotelle’s son there, but he did not socialize with him.

Asked if he remembers where he was on the 14th of this month. Said he went out on business in the course of the day but does not remember where he went.

Asked if he remembers the day when he went at the Saint-Laurent fair and if by chance it was the 14th of this month.

Said he went to the fair twice. One time he was accompanied by a sergeant of the Swiss Guards, fencing master in the company of Swiss Guards on rue Poissonnière,^[28] who is teaching him how to fence. The other time he went there and came back alone.

Asked if, on the day he went to the fair with the sergeant, they parted company. Said they did not part company.

Asked if, on the day he went there alone, he met someone of his acquaintance. Said he went to the fair at about noon, met no one of his acquaintance there, and returned to his place to dine about1:00.

Asked if he has met LeRoy d’Herval and how long ago he last saw him. Said he met LeRoy d’Herval when he had a position in the Domains,^[29] and he has seen him only once or twice since Easter [15 April 1781].

Asked if he knows Baison, dancer in the Comédie Italienne.^[30] Said he knows Bauson, dancer in the Comédie Italienne, indirectly. He seems to be fifteen or sixteen years old and is learning to fence along with him.

Asked if he has sometimes entered the Café d’Yon.^[31] Said he entered the café the two times he went to the fair. On the day he went there alone he ordered a carafe of lemonade. The other time he was there with the sergeant, and they drank beer. On these two occasions he did not see anyone of his acquaintance.

Asked where he met LeRoy d’Herval. Said he does not rightly remember the place and prefers to say nothing on this subject rather than hazarding a guess that might not be true.

Asked if he knows someone called La Jeunesse. Said no.

Asked if he knows a man who has himself called Fanfan.[32] Said he does not know him.

Asked who the man is who came up to him while he was conducted to our colleague S. Belle’s^[33] residence. Said it was S. Dupont, shop-boy to S. Chegradoun, master pharmacist, who lives on rue Saint-Denis, whose acquaintance he made with a neighbor two years ago.

Asked how he was connected with LeRoy d’Herval. Said LeRoy d’Herval’s father had a sizeable library, and he, the deponent, likes to read, so he went to his place sometimes to get books d’Herval loaned him.

Asked if he knows some actors in Audinot’s company.^[34] Said he knows one by sight, who has just taught S. Nezel’s son to dance and whose name he does not remember.

Asked if he has noticed LeRoy d’Herval behaves badly. Said during the two years or so he has known him, he has only been at his place briefly and is not in a position to judge his conduct.

Asked if by chance he knew the men who were pursued at the fair on the 14th of this month by the French Guards, who wanted to arrest them. Said he knows nothing at all about this matter and was not at the fair on that day.

Asked if he is familiar with the crime of sodomy, and if he has ever committed it. Said he is not at all familiar with it through practice.

Asked if he is afflicted with any illness. Said he is doing well.

Asked if he knows what has become of S. Cotelle the younger. Said the talk in the quarter is that his father had him locked up, and he does not know why.

Asked if he knows anyone who is tainted by the crime of sodomy. Said he does not spy on anyone’s conduct.

Asked if someone has a copy of the key to his room. Said he is the only one who has a key to his room.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed, and he signed.

118. Friday, 27 July 1781, Search of Pruneau’s residence

[The police confiscated suspect papers.]

119. Monday, 30 July 1781, Arrest of Defage, judged in chambers

At 1l pm on 30 July 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us Monsieur’s Swiss Guards at the Luxembourg palace handed over to him, at the palace gate, a man dressed as a clergyman, whom they had just arrested in the garden^[35] and suspected of pederasty. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Mathurin Duprey Defage, twenty-five years old, native of Périgueux [Acquitaine], priest in the diocese of Toulouse, and lives on rue d’Enfer in the Forest of Vincennes.

Asked to tell us why he was in the Luxembourg so late in clerical attire. Said he was with one of his friends, named Sellier or the Female Saddler. They came from walking in the Vaugirard plain and entered the Luxembourg to conclude the evening.

Asked how a clergyman can compromise himself with a wretch like Sellier and his friends Toussaint and Pierre. Said he has had the misfortune to spend time with them. He knows they are disreputable subjects and asks God’s pardon for it.

Given Defage’s status as a priest, we had him conducted by S. Noël to the residence of the lieutenant general of police. We went there and gave him a report about the reasons for Defage’s detention and his replies to our questions. His peculiar replies and his connections show that he is a pederast.

After listening to us and S. Defage, in response to the latter’s supplications, the lieutenant general of police ordered him released and ordered him to leave this city promptly. We had S. Defage released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us.

120. Thursday, 9 August 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 9 August 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city and its environs.

We were on rue Neuve Saint-Nicolas, and S. Noël arrested there

Robert Lemaître, thirty-six years old, native of Paris, who lives in the upholsterer S. Simon’s house on rue Saint-Martin across from the priory walls.^[36]

At 11:30, on rue des Fossés du Temple [11^th], among the stones

Jean Drouard, fifty-three years old, native of Paris, spangle cutter, who lives on rue Frépillon [3^rd]

and Charles Martin, master wigmaker, who lives on rue Saint-Martin.

After questioning these men, we had them released.

Then we continued the patrol until 1 am and did not find any infractions. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

121a. Monday, 13 August 1781, Return of abbé Léobardy’s papers

122. Thursday, 16 August 1781, Pederasty patrol and judgment in chambers^[37]

At 7 pm on 16 August 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city and its environs.

At 10:45 we were in the alleyways of the Champs-Elysées covered by trees, and S. Noël arrested there two men who were there together, who seemed suspect to him. He conducted them to the guard-post of the Swiss Guards, and we went there. One of the men told us he is the marquis de Saint-Clément, former musketeer in the first company,^[38] and lives with his mother at the Saint Victor boarding house on rue de Grenelle Saint-Germain.

The other told us he is named Bernadin Charles, eighteen years old, native of Pallud near Conflans in the Tarentaise [Dauphiné], unemployed, and lives at Mme Lepine’s house on rue des Saussaies.

After listening to these two men separately, we concluded they are pederasts. First because S. de Saint-Clément picked up this Charles in the same place on Sunday [12 August 1781] evening and took him on as a personal valet. Second because Charles frequents the Champs-Elysées in the evenings and the Brilliant Moon tavern in Vaugirard, where orgies take place, during the day.

Given the rank claimed by S. de Saint-Clément, we had him and Charles conducted by S. Noël to the residence of the lieutenant general of police. We went there and gave the magistrate a report about the reasons for our visit.

After listening to S. de Saint-Clément and Charles, the lieutenant general of police was convinced that our suspicions are well founded, but, until further confirmation, ordered the two men released, which was done at once.

Then we continued the patrol until 3 am. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

123. Friday, 17 August 1781, Search of the residence of Lafosse, pederast

[The police found nothing suspect.]

124. Saturday, 18 August 1781, Arrest of Durand and Cotelle, suspected of pederasty

At 11 pm on 18 August 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch in the Palais Royal garden, he noticed two men who sought to pick up someone and get themselves picked up. He followed them and, in rue Saint-Honoré, recognized them as Herring and Louis, both friends of Lafosse. He arrested them and conducted them before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Louis Durand, called Herring, twenty years old, native of Maintenon [Ile-de-France], goldsmith, and lives in Paris at the dressmaker Dely’s house on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques opposite Val de Grâce.^[39]

Asked if he knows Lafosse and if he has ever been to his place. Said he knows a goldsmith named Lafosse and lived at his place for two years as his apprentice.[40]

Asked what he was doing in the Palais Royal this evening. Said he came to take a walk after leaving his work on rue de Verneuil and was returning to his place when he was arrested.

Pointed out to him it does not seem likely, as he lives in faubourg Saint-Jacques, that he came from rue de Verneuil at 10 pm to take a walk in the Palais Royal only to return to his place, which is so far from it. It seems likely he had made a rendezvous with the other arrested man. Said he had no objective other than taking a walk and had not made a rendezvous with the other arrested man. He knows him because he was Lafossse’s apprentice, like himself. They have neither killed anyone nor stolen anything, and he is astonished to be arrested. He did not sign.

We summoned the other arrested man. He told us he is named Louis Nicolas Cotelle, fifteen years old, native of Paris, and lives on rue Contrescarpe [5th] at the corner of rue Neuve Saint-Etienne [5^th], in the Saint-Marceau quarter [5^th and 13^th].

Asked what he was doing in the Palais Royal and why he stayed there until after 10:30. Said after leaving work he was busy on rue Saint-Jacques and came to the Palais Royal to take a walk. He was going to return to his place when he was prevented from doing so.

Pointed out to him this walk in the Palais Royal seems quite suspect. He and Durand come here frequently only to conduct infamous commerce. Said no.

We had Durand brought back and asked him and Cotelle if they noticed, when they were at Lafosse’s, that he conducts infamous commerce, and young folks came to his place. Said young folks came to see Lafosse, but nothing happened that should not be done.

Pointed out to them they are deceiving us. They know about Lafosse’s indecencies. They must recall what they did one night in Lafosse’s room while he was sleeping with a child whose mother came to claim him the next morning. Asked if these facts are true. Did not wish to reply.

Inasmuch as Durand and Cotelle are known pederasts, we left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to the Petit Châtelet prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

125. Tuesday, 21 August 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 4 pm on 21 August 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on patrol in various quarters of this city.

We were on the Vaugirard plain around 5:30, escorted by S. Faucourt, brigadier of the Paris guard, and S. Noël arrested in the coach-houses on the plain

Thomas Lefevre, forty years old, native of Verton near Montreuil-sur-Mer [Picardy], unemployed domestic, who lives at the landlady Mme Lucet’s house on rue Saint-Jacques

Jacques Lacarpe, twenty-five years old, native of Bisson in Basse-Marche [Limousin], who works for the masons, lives ordinarily on rue du Bel-Air in Versailles and as of four days ago in lodgings in Gros Caillou [7^th] in Paris

François Dagnaux, twenty years old, native of Montluçon in Bourbonnais,^[41] digger, who lives on rue Neuve Guillemin

Silvain Caillou, twenty-seven years old, native of Berichon in the diocese of Bourges [Berry], who lives at the landlady Mme Carreau’s house on rue de la Mortellerie

and Marie Marguerite Acart, thirty-eight years old, wife of Jacques Nicolas, soldier in the Luxembourg legion, who lives at the currier S. Ledreux’s house at the Saint-Denis gate.

At 9 pm on the quai des Orfèvres, S. Noël arrested a man who said he is named Jacques Antoine, twenty-five years old, native of Paris. At one point he said he is a shoemaker. At another point he said a jeweler. He gave his residence as the floor-polisher Gournet’s house on rue Cocatrix [4^th].

We recognized Lefevre as a pederast who conducts his business in the coach-house where he was arrested. We found Lacarpe and Dagnaux together in the coach-house and tried to escape when we tried to arrest them. Lacarpe even armed himself with a knife in order to strike the man who sought to arrest him and was found to be equipped with a second knife.

We recognized Dagnaux as released from the Grand Châtelet three weeks ago, under the sentence of pending further information.

Caillou, based on his interrogation, seemed to us to be a suspect character.

The so-called Mme Fontaine, by her speech, seemed to us to be a prostitute, and Antoine publicly picked up one of S. Noël’s men on the quay.

We handed Dagnaux over to S. Santerre, also police inspector, and left Lefevre, Lacarpe, Caillou and Antoine to S. Noël, for all these men to be conducted to their destination.

Finally, we handed Mme Fontaine over to S. Quidor, also police inspector,^[42] to conduct her to Saint-Martin prison.

We continued the patrol until midnight struck. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

126. Thursday, 23 August 1781, Arrest of Jeannal, pederast

At 11 pm on 23 August 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch in the Palais Royal, he found there Jeannal, whose only occupation all evening, until 10:45, when he left the garden, was picking up men and getting himself picked up by men. Jeannal is a notorious debaucher, procures young folks, and commits extortions, for which he has had already been conducted to Bicêtre, where he spent six years. When he left the the Palais Royal, S. Noël arrested him, conducted before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Pierre Jeannal, thirty-eight years old, native of Fontainebleau [Ile-de-France], bed and bath vendor, now employed by the lieutenant general of police for the sweeping of Paris, and lives at the hatter’s house on rue Montmartre opposite rue des Vieux Augustins.

Asked if it is true he was detained in Bicêtre and for how long, what he came to do in the Palais Royal this evening, and why he stayed there so late. Said he was detained in Bicêtre for three years. He came to the Palais Royal this evening to walk there and never believed, when he left there at 10:45 it was an unseemly hour.

Asked for what reason he was detained in Bicêtre. Did not wish to explain himself.

Inasmuch as Jeannal is known as a confirmed pederast, we left him in the hands of S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

127. Monday, 27 August 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 27 August 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on patrol in various places in this city and its environs. At about 7 pm we were in the tavern in Vaugirard with the sign of The Brilliant Moon, and S. Noël arrested there

Pierre Antoine Maillefer, thirty-one and a half years old, gauze fabric worker, who lives on rue de l’Arbalète in faubourg Saint-Marceau [5^th and 13^th]

and Pierre Catherine, twenty-four years old, native of Paris, salad vendor, who lives in Vaugirard.

At 7:30 pm in the coach-houses on the [Vaugirard] plain, S. Noël arrested

Pierre Bizet, twenty-four years old, native of Rambouillet [Ile-de-France], self-styled hairdresser and cook of S. Benoît, private secretary to the duc de Penthièvre,^[43] at whose residence he lives

Jean Pierre Bertaut, sixteen years old, native of Paris, unemployed wigmaker, who lives in a furnished room in faubourg Saint-Honoré

Couteau, soldier in the regiment of French Guards, Château Roger company

and Pierre Miolan Fournier, twenty-five years old, native of Auxi-le-Château, near Abbeville [Picardy], shoemaker for women, who lives on rue du Four in faubourg Saint-Germain.

Maillefer, Catherine, and Fournier associate with the Little Female Saddler, Toussainte and other pederasts.

We found Bizet and Bertaut, the latter with a very pretty exterior, together coming from drinking in a tavern in Vaugirard. They had met in the Palais Royal garden. They do not know each other at all, and they seem to have picked each other up.

We found Couteau asleep in the coach-house with his breeches unbuttoned.

I handed Couteau over to S. Trouard, sergeant in the regiment of French Guards. With regard to the others, I left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

The patrol outside the city was conducted under the escort of S. Faucourt, brigadier of the Paris guard.

Then we continued within the city until after midnight. We found nothing contrary to public order. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

128. Thursday, 6 September 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 6 September 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city and on the northern boulevards.

In the course of the patrol, which lasted until midnight, we found nothing contrary to public order or good morals. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

129. Monday, 10 September 1781, Pederasty patrol^[44]

At 6 pm on 10 September 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city.

We were in the Champs-Elysées about 8:00, and S. Noël arrested there and conducted to the guard-post of the Swiss Guards Ducroc, journeyman saddler, known for a long time as a pederast bearing the nickname of the Big Female Saddler. S. Noël signed.

We also went to the guard-post of the Swiss Guards and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Louis Ducroc, twenty-eight years old, native of Paris, journeyman saddler, and lives on rue du Champ-Fleury near rue de Beauvais.

Given the charges on this man’s record, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination.

Then we continued the patrol within the city. We were on the quai de l’Ecole, and S. Noël arrested there and conducted to the guard-post on the Pont Neuf, under the escort of the Paris guard, two men he suspects of pederasty. We summoned the two arrested men, who told us that they are named

Louis LeRoy, twenty-nine years old, native of Daubin in Auvergne, near Aurillac, journeyman brazier, who lives with his uncle S. Auzolle, master brazier, on rue Aubry-le- Boucher

and Etienne Champenois, thirty-seven years old, building painter, native of Dainville-aux-Forges in Lorraine, who lives at the master joiner S. Fleury’s house on rue de Seine.

After questioning the two arrested men, we did not find them suspect and had them released.

We continued the patrol until midnight struck.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

130. Sunday, 16 September 1781, Arrest of Pouteau and Raimond, pederasts

On 16 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Michel Roche de la Porte, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris,^[45] substituting for our colleague S. Foucault, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was informed that an orgy of various young folks takes place in La Courtille, in a room rented for that purpose, and he went there on watch. He indeed saw various men he recognized as pederasts leaving the house where this room is located. They fled at the sight of him, and he was able to arrest only two of them. One of them is Pouteau, exiled for pederasty, and the other, named Raimond, was arrested for pederasty before and conducted before M. Foucault, who had him released. Since that time his misconduct has continued and prompted orders from the magistrate to arrest him again and have him enjoined once more to watch his conduct carefully, on pain of severe punishment, but now there is no longer any question about his behavior. S. Noël conducted the arrested men before us to have orders given by us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested men. One of them told us he is named Samuel Pouteau, twenty-two years old, native of Thiais near Choisy [Ile-de-France], feather-dealer, and lives with his mother on rue du Faubourg du Temple. He was exiled on 8 July 1780 and not recalled.

The second told us he is named Jean Raimond, nineteen years old, native of Paris, supernumerary in the office of the Domains in Brittany, and lives with his father on rue Blanche.

Inasmuch as Poutreau is in violation of the king’s orders, Raimond as his friend is more than suspected of the same inclinations and, in general, and both are very disreputable subjects, we left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

131. Tuesday, 18 September 1781, Arrest of Curtez, pederast

At 7 pm on 18 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch and was at the salon of paintings,^[46] he noticed the Swiss Guards were expelling a man and led him to the door. After following him, he recognized the expelled man as Curtez, called the Blonde of Big Sighs or Venus of the Lovely Buttocks.^[47] He followed this man, who escaped and entered the Palais Royal. He walked around there and encountered other men with whom he left the garden. When the three men passed the guard-post at the barrier of Sergeants, S. Noël arrested them and conducted them before us, under the escort of the Paris guard, to have orders given as thought proper, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Benoît Vicasse, native of Toulouse, former employee of the Queen’s porcelain factory,^[48] now bourgeois de Paris, and lives on rue de la Tissanderie opposite rue des Mauvais Garçons.

Asked how he knows the men who were arrested with him.

Told us one of them is an attorney in the présidial [regional appeals court] of Toulouse who arrived in Paris on business last night. He went to see him this afternoon on rue du Mail, where he is staying, and they went out together to go buy a hat on rue de l’Echelle. In passing through the Palais Royal garden, they encountered Curtez, who is the third man arrested. They greeted each other, and this man told them he had just left the salon. After he asked the deponent where they were going and the deponent told him, he persuaded them to go buy their hat on rue de Grenelle Saint-Honoré, where he was taking them when they were arrested.

He does not know Curtez very well, only by sight. They met at the theater in Toulouse, where they spoke to each other. During the three years the deponent has been in this city, he has encountered Curtez around seven or eight times. They spoke to each other as acquaintainces, but there was never any connection of friendship between them. It is quite true that he as well as various other people who knew Curtez in Toulouse have always been astonished by how much he spent there, since he was unemployed and at loose ends.

We summoned another arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Baptiste Caysal, attorney in the présidial of Toulouse. He arrived in Paris last night and is staying at the Three Lords boarding house on rue du Mail.

Asked if he knows the other two arrested men. Said he knows S. Vicasse as his countryman, and they were going together to buy a hat when the other arrested man, whom he does not know directly or indirectly, diverted them from the route they wished to take. He does not know why they were arrested. As for himself, he does not believe he could have done anything since his arrival in Paris that might displease the government. He will accept what we decide.

Then we summoned the third arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Baptiste Curtez, twenty-five years old, native of Chambéry,[49] unemployed for the past year, had to learn to dress hair out of necessity, and lives on passage du Saumon.

Asked if he used to live in Toulouse. Said he was in the service of a traveling Englishman. He stayed with him for a while in Toulouse, where he encountered S. Vicasse. No one ever knew he was in this Englishman’s service. Coming from a decent family, he always concealed the nature of his work in order to be able to live in society. Then he went to London with this Englishman and from there returned to France alone. He had some money and did not judge it suitable to take a job. For more than a year he has lived with a woman on passage du Saumon. It is wrongly that anyone attributes to him a conduct that is not his. The proof of it is that for more than six months he has had a discharge he cannot cure. He went out today at 5 pm only to come to the salon. While he was there a woman felt ill, which caused a disturbance. The Swiss Guards arrived, and he went away.

Asked if he has a personal nickname. Said he does not know why anyone wants to call him by one, when he does not conceal his name. We have proof of it, since the first time he was arrested, he gave us the same name he gave us today.

The corporal of the guard reported to us that in making his rounds this afternoon, the Swiss Guards of the Louvre told him that if he could go to the Palais Royal, it would be good for him to arrest a man they told him was there for now, whom they had just expelled from the salon as a scoundrel. From the way they described this man, he believes he and the arrested man are one and the same. All things considered, we left Curtez, who is unemployed and dressed like a pederast, to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet under the escort of the guard, since Curtez was refractory.

With regard to the other two, we had them released. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

132. Saturday, 22 September 1781, Arrest of Louis Compte, called Romont, suspected of pederasty

At 1:30 pm on 22 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch on the Pont Neuf, he saw a man known among pederasts by the name of comtesse de Jeannolle. This man, who lived previously at a vinegar-maker’s house on rue Pagevin [1^st], has been arrested before and sent to Bicêtre. He has no other means of existence and no money except for what his infamous commerce earns him. S. Noël therefore arrested him and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a report of this appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Louis Compte, called Romont, around twenty-one years old, native of Romont in Switzerland, merchant’s clerk, and lives at the locksmith S. Leclerc’s house on rue Etienne [4^th].

Asked how long he has lived at S. Leclerc’s house in his capacity as his clerk. Said he has lived there for five years. He encountered him in Lyon. No one can have the slightest reproach to make to him.

Asked if he lived in a room at a vinegar-maker’s house on rue Pagevin. Said he knows a vinegar-maker, without wishing to specify the street where he lives, but he never lived at his place.

Asked if he has ever been arrested and sent to Bicêtre. Did not wish to reply clearly on this score.

We are informed that this man, instead of being a merchant’s clerk, is nothing but a second-hand dealer who collects merchandise here and there to resell from door to door, has neither job nor rank nor fixed residence, and has been absent from Paris or at least from his acquaintances for two years. We have reason to presume he spent this time in Bicêtre. Moreover, he is known among pederasts by the name of Saint Peter’s Head, a name that was likely given to him because he has a completely bald forehead. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

133. Saturday, 22 September 1781, Arrest of Chartier, called Candybox, suspected of pederasty

At 4:30 pm on 22 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that while he was passing on rue de la Juiverie, conducting a pederast^[50] to the Petit Châtelet prison, he noticed, before the portal of Saint-Marie-Madeleine-en-la-Cité,^[51] a pederast known by the name of Candybox, associate of the Female Gilder and receiver of goods stolen by the latter, for which reason the Female Gilder was tried, whipped, and branded.^[52] He arrested the man called Candybox and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Claude Chartier, candy vendor, and lives the gilder S. Prudhomme’s house on rue aux Fèves [4^th]. Chartier is a native of Paris and thirty-one years old or thereabout.[53]

Asked to tell us if he has an acquaintance who is a gilder. Said a relative of his late wife works in that line.

Asked to tell us if this man is called the Female Gilder and if he has not undergone trial, whipping and branding. Said no one speaks ill of his relatives, and we can make inquiries about it with Laroux, exempt of the short robe.

Asked if he knows someone in the house of the shopkeeper Mme Lesueur on rue de la Juiverie. Said he knows, among others, Lafosse, who lives on the fourth floor. He understands he is arrested for the Cuff,^[54] but we are mistaken.

Under the pretext of selling candy, Chartier picks up children and procures them. He was given the sentence of pending further information as a result of the trial of the Female Gilder, who is his brother-in-law. He is, in general, a very disreputable subject, and we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

134. Monday, 24 September 1781, Arrest of S. Fresnière, pederast

At 5:30 pm on 24 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while crossing the grain port he observed and recognized Fresnière, accompanied by a man whom he has since learned is Duratois Dumesnil, attorney specializing in seigneurial rents dues and rents. Fresnière lives at an inlay vendor’s house on Pont Notre-Dame^[55] and holds orgies. He receives Lafosse, currently detained in Bicêtre, at his place and also goes to Lafosse’s place. He is also the friend of Herring and Louis, Lafosse’s apprentices and gitons. S. Noël arrested this man, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. We asked him for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said since we had him arrested, we must know him and did not wish to tell us his name. Pointed out to him we have never seen him and indeed want to make sure he is the person about whom we have orders. To vindicate himself or to assure us we are not mistaken, he must tell us who he is.

We consequently asked him if his name is Fresnière and if he lives on Pont Notre-Dame. Said he is named Fresnière and lives where we say.

Asked if he knows Lafosse. Said he knows him from having lived in his house.

Fresnière is a known pederast, and we left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

135. Tuesday, 25 September 1781, Arrest of Leroux, suspected of pederasty

At noon on 25 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch on the quai de la Féraille he saw LeRoux, called the Blond. This man has been arrested before in the company of another pederast, conducted before us, and released with an injunction to change his conduct. His comrade, more well-known than he is, was sent to prison. Leroux continues the same way of life, cruises and commits extortion. He is unemployed in Paris and lives only from this infamous commerce. S. Noël therefore arrested him, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jean Joseph Leroux, thirty-four years old, native of Saint-Quentin [Picardy] and lives at S. LeConte’s house in the Porcherons, opposite the Château du Coq.^[56]

Asked to tell us if he has been arrested before and conducted before us. Said yes, he was arrested, conducted before us, and released.

Asked to tell us if at that time we enjoined him to change his conduct, to seek to do something rather than buying and selling dogs as he did then, and if it is true that, far from it, he does nothing and lives only from prostitution. Said it is quite true he is now unemployed. When he has the chance, he buys and sells dogs. At present he is in no state to get himself into domestic service, since he is afflicted with an illness for which he has thusfar found only palliatives.

Asked what sort of illness. Said it is complicated.

The illness with which LeRoux is afflicted seems to us to have no other source than his infamous debauchery. Although he is convinced of the risk anyone of one sex or the other who comes near him runs, [he continues to have sex, and?] significant danger could result from it. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

136. Tuesday, 25 September 1781, Search of the residence of Fresnière, suspected of pederasty

[The police found a register of the Beaurepaire company of grenadiers in the guards, as well as a hat and jacket sleeves that belonged to the grenadier Laplanche.]

137. Thursday, 27 September 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 27 September 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in various quarters of this city.

We were in the courtyard of the Saint-Laurent fair about 8:00, and S. Noël arrested there and conducted to the guard-post of the French Guards a man who told us he is named Louis Jean d’Harme, seventeen years old, musician, and lives with his father, pastry-cook, at the king’s stables.^[57] This man was with disreputable subjects who escaped.

After ordering him not to visit the Saint-Laurent fair anymore, on pain of arrest, since his outfit and the friends he was with are very suspect, we had him released.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight struck, in the course of which we found nothing else contrary to good order and to decrees and regulations. Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us.

138. Friday, 28 September 1781, Arrest of abbé Ropsy, pederast

At 8 pm on 28 September 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he has made it his business for a long time to look for a pederast dressed in clerical attire known by the name of Ropsy. He was expelled from the parish of Saint-Jean, where he was schoolmaster of the charity school.^[58] He was arrested before and taken into custody for pederasty by order of commissaire Chenu,^[59] but despite that punishment, he has not changed his way of life. S. Noël finally encountered him today on the grain port, arrested him, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Henri Philippe de Ropsy, clergyman in the diocese of Paris, native of the same city, and lives at Mme Gressin’s house in the painter S. Bourgeois’s house^[60] on rue Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet [5^th].

Based on the information we collected personally concerning S. de Ropsy, he is known as a pederast and hypocrite who, under the assumed mask of religion, introduces himself into various households in order to request contributions for the poor in the name of various parish priests of Paris. He applies the contributions he secures to his own profit. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed.

139. Saturday, 29 September 1781, Pederasty patrol

Aboutt 6 pm on 29 September 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on patrol at the Saint-Laurent fair, on the northern boulevards and in various quarters of this city.

At 11:30 we were on the quai de la Vallée [des Grands Augustins], and S. Noël arrested there

Joachim Letellier, thirty years old, native of Pontoise [Ile-de-France], clerk of the royal lottery, who lives at Mme Martin’s house on rue de l’Arbre-sec, on the fifth floor

and Jean Bresque, twenty-two years old, native of Bayonne [Gascony], jeweler, who lives at the Mint boarding house on rue de Bethisy [1^st].

Letellier, known among pederasts by the name of la du Bocage,^[61] is a disreputable subject, notorious and decadent cruiser.

We recognized Bresque, who has rouge on his cheeks, for stealing a watch and a cane from the jeweler S. Rochez, for whom he worked around nine months ago. S. Rochez did not wish to make a formal complaint but verbally denounced him as a pederast.

We left the two men to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

We continued the patrol until midnight struck and drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

140. Wednesday, 3 October 1781, Declaration about and interrogation of Jean Swars, suspected of pederasty

At 10 pm on 3 October 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared Jacques LeLoutre, sergeant of the Paris guard-post at rue de Provence.

He reported and said that Maison, soldier in the regiment of guards, asked him to arrest a man who had made indecent propositions to him. He conducted this man before our colleague S. Alix,^[62] who referred him to us. S. LeLoutre signed.

Jean François Maison, soldier in the regiment of guards, Radepont company, from the Poland barracks,^[63] also appeared before us. He told us he left the residence of his cousin Froment, chanter, who lives in the community of Saint-Paul,^[64] about 7:30 pm, and took the boulevards. At the Saint-Martin gate he encountered a man who accosted him on the pretext that he had lost something. This man suggested they have a drink together, and he replied that he did not have any money. The man told him he would pay and took him to a tavern on rue Poissonnière, at the corner of rue Bergère, where they drank two mugs of wine, which the man who had accosted him paid for. When they left the tavern, the man made various propositions to him, put his hand on his breeches, and told him they would have a good deal of pleasure together. With the intention of having the man arrested, the deponent suggested they move away from that place. To tempt him even more, the man offered him twelve sols. The deponent wanted to have him arrested but did not see any guard nearby. The man suggested they go drink some ratafia [liqueur], and the deponent hoped to find a guard on the way. At that moment, in a street he is not familiar with, he found a scout of the Paris guard and had the man arrested. He went himself to look for the off-duty area in the guard-post on rue de Provence. He does not know this man directly or indirectly. S. Maison signed.

We gave LeLoutre and Maison records of these appearances and reports, summoned the arrested man, and proceeded with his interrogation as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last name, age, origin, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, he said he is named Jean Swars, more than thirty-two years old, native of Amsterdam, domestic in the service of S. Arnauld, clergyman in attendance on His Excellency the ambassador of Holland,^[65] at whose residence he lives on rue Saint-Pierre [3rd] at the Pont aux Choux.

Asked how he knows the French Guard who had him arrested. Said he thought he recognized him from having seen him a year or eighteen months ago with some guards from his native region when they were in a café.

Asked where he met him today. Said he met him on the boulevard between the Saint-Denis and the Saint-Martin gates. The soldier accosted him and suggested that if he had some money, he could buy him a mug of wine. He said he would gladly pay for it.

Asked where he was coming from when he encountered the soldier, where he was going and what time it was. Said he was coming from rue Saint-Pierre at the Pont aux Choux, was going to his brother-in-law’s residence on rue des Vieux Augustins, and it was about 7 or 7:30 then.

Asked where they went to have a drink. Said they went to a tavern at the corner of rue Bergère and rue Poissonnière.

Asked if he made some indecent propositions to the soldier. Said they talked about various things, but he did not make any propositions to him. The solder told him, “We will amuse ourselves,” but he did not know what he meant.

Asked if he offered the soldier twelve sols. Said he did not speak to him about twelve sols.

Asked if he put his hand on the soldier’s breeches. Said no.

After his interrogation was read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

We gave S. Swars a record of this interrogation, and inasmuch as this man, by his peculiar replies, has given us every reason to be convinced he lied to us in his interrogation, and nothing is more true than the statement made by Maison, we left Swars in the hands of S. Noël, police inspector, who arrived for this purpose and took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison, under the escort of LeLoutre. S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

141. Saturday, 6 October 1781, Interrogation of Darnaudery, pederast

4 pm on 6 October 1781

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, in execution of orders addressed to us, of Darnaudery, with his name, status, and address below.

Asked initially for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, he said he is named Jean Baptiste Darnaudery, twenty-eight years old, native of Mont-de-Marsan in Gascony, and lives at the enclosure of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in a house near the Cardinal’s Court in which the principal tenant is S. Manoy.

Asked if he had permission to return to Paris since his exile. Said he obtained it from the magistrate.

Asked if he presented a petition to obtain the revocation of his exile. Said he presented one to M. Amelot.^[66]

Asked if in this petition he alleged as a fact that the king’s button-maker had given the police five hundred louis to keep him, the deponent, away from Paris. Said he neither spoke to a living soul about it nor put it in his petition.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since he told S. de Richebourg, administrator of the postal service,^[67] about it. Said the statement is not true.

Asked who could have made this allegation. Said he knows nothing about it.

Asked if he made this remark in police inspector S. Noël’s office. Said he did in fact say the king’s button-maker S. Doulcet came to his place and told his workers, in the presence of witnesses, that he would give the police inspectors two hundred louis so that he, the deponent, would never return to Paris.

Asked if he knows someone was supposed to offer S. Noël a gift in order to obtain the revocation of the deponent’s letter of exile. Said he had no knowledge of the offer until after it was made and rejected.

Asked how long he has been in Paris. Said it has been five years as of April.

Asked where he came from when he arrived in Paris. Said he returned from Bordeaux, where he had been for four years.

Asked if he was forcibly obliged to leave that city. Said no.

Asked if he knows Courville. Said he knows him from having business dealings with him. He came to his place only three times. On the day when the deponent was arrested, Courville came to his place and told his workers, as well as the neighbors, that it was necessary to break open his desk in order to remove the papers and give him back twelve louis, in order to have S. Darnaudery released from prison. If he had a letter of exile, he would show him how to have it overturned, as he had had his own overturned. The workers did not want to go along with what Courville wanted.

Asked if he knows S. Lambert, shopkeeper in Bordeaux. Said he knew him in Bordeaux, and later S. Lambert came to Paris, came to find the deponent at the Fifteen Twenties,^[68] where he lived, and ordered watch and cane cords from him, which he had made by the button-maker Vertemillière in cour Saint-Martin [3^rd]. He took them to Lambert, who did not want to pay cash for them, so the deponent took them back. He had a good deal of difficulty in selling them because they were cords of a different type than those he sold.

Asked why Lambert complained that the deponent stole these same cords from him. Said that is not true, and he would very well prove it.

Asked if he has ever known a man who is a native of Gonesse [Ile-de-France]. Said he knew a native of that place who was a clerk of S. Colot, subdelegate of the intendancy.^[69] He made his acquaintance two years ago during the last days before Lent. He was walking in the streets of Paris with two of his female workers, who were disguised as men. This man accosted them and asked their permission to walk with them, so they walked together and spent part of the night going to different places. Since then he has helped him out with both money and clothing. He still has an IOU from this man, named Dupont, who has not paid it off, and he does not know what has become of him in the last two years.

Asked if knew this man by the name of the Will. Said he never knew him by that name.

Asked if he knows the widow Nollet and her son. Says he knows her because she sells various items of merchandise for him. Their acquaintance was occasioned, initially, by an argument she had with one of the deponent’s female neighbors, at the time when he lived in the enclosure of the Fifteen Twenties. This argument provoked a brawl between them. The widow Nollet was wounded, and he took her to his place to give her aid.

Asked if he has seen her since his return to Paris. Said he has seen her three or four times.

Asked what he meant when he was at the widow Nollet’s place and expressed himself in this way: “I had a blue-coat [soldier of the Paris guard] yesterday in the sentry-box on the Pont Neuf for a small loaf of bread worth a sol.” Said that is false and was made up without cause.

Asked if he knows a man called the Big Tart. Said no.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, since in knowing Nollet the younger he must know the Big Tart, since they are the same person. Said he does not know him by his nickname.

Asked if he knows Buquet, called Rag. Said he does not know him at all.

Asked if he knows Robineau, called the Female Trotter, bed and bath vendor. Said no.

Asked if he knows an abbé on rue Taranne [Viennay]. Said no.

Asked why and how he knows Lafosse. Said this man came to his place by chance, offered him sterling silver buttons and gave him his address, which we found on him when he was arrested in the month of January. He saw him only this one time, which was a Saturday evening.

Asked what made him decide to go to Rouen. Said he went in hope of finding work there. He took merchandise there to sell, which he could not [manage] to do.

Asked why he left Rouen to come to Paris. Said it was with the permission of the lieutenant general of police.

Asked who the attorney’s clerks are he knew in Rouen. Said he knew an attorney’s clerk named Lhomme who came to party with all the neighbors every evening.

Asked if he knows what has become of Lafitte, soldier in the guards. Said this man came from his native region. Since his return, he has learned from a lady also from that region that he had been killed.

Asked if he has seen Brunet, soldier in the guards, since his return. Said he has seen him only one time, when he came to his place with Lafitte.

Asked if there were any reasons that obliged him to leave his native region. Said no.

Asked if he has ever had relations or slept with men who served him as gitons. Said no.

Pointed out to him this is the most blatant lie, since we are almost ready to confront him with the men he had dealings with and to expose the truth, through witnesses, about his misconduct in Paris as well as Rouen. Said he reaffirms his previous reply.

After his interrogation was read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

142. Monday, 8 October 1781, Arrest of Bernard, suspected of pederasty

At 1 pm on 8 October 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch and crossed the Pont Neuf, he encountered a man he recognized as a pederast of long standing, by the name of the Little Female Wigmaker. He loiters on the quays continually, cruises, and procures. S. Noël arrested this man and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested men. He told us he is named Jacques François Bernard, thirty-seven years old, native of Paris, and lives on rue des Marais in Faubourg Saint-Germain.

Asked if he has lived in a glazier’s house on rue des Cordeliers. Said yes.

Asked if he has ever been arrested and sent to prison. Said he left the Petit Châtelet three or four days ago.

Asked what the reasons for his detention were. Said he was arrested on the quai de la Vallée one evening about 11:00 and conducted before commissaire Formel, who had him conducted to prison as a loiterer.

Bernard is a pederast of long standing, well known as such. His previous detention and the place where he was arrested reconfirm his infamous taste. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

143. Thursday, 11 October 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 11 October 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on patrol.

We were on the northern boulevards at 6:30, and S. Noël arrested there a man whom the populace pursued because of his indecent and characteristic costume. This man told us he is named Joseph Prainguet, seventeen years old, native of Metz, kitchen boy in the service of S. de Veimerange, commissaire of war and intendant of the army,^[70] and lives on rue Neuve des Mathurins [9^th].

If ever clothing in its entirety could make a man suspect of pederasty, Prainguet’s combines absolutely everything that could be suitable, and the populace has judged him accordingly. But out of consideration for his master and because he was claimed by another domestic from the household, we had him released and ordered him not to wear a frock-coat or cravat or hair tied back in a ribbon anymore, which make him conspicuous.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight struck, in various quarters of this city, in the course of which we found nothing contrary to good order. S. Noël signed with us.

144. Thursday, 11 October 1781, Arrest of Margantin

On 11 October 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, were on pederasty patrol, accompanied by S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. On rue Guénegaud, and, at the door of a house in which, we learned, Geoffrey, attorney in the parlement [since 1776], lives, S. Noël arrested, in execution of the king’s orders he carries and showed us, S. Louis Margantin,[71] self-styled second clerk of the attorney S. Turpin.^[72] He did not specify his employer’s address or the court in which he practices.

We left Margantin, without domicile in this city, to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, and S. Noël signed with us.

145. Monday, 15 October 1781, Arrest of Coré, called Honoré, suspected of pederasty

About noon on 15 October 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was passing on rue Saint-Honoré, he recognized, followed and arrested, at pointe Saint-Eustache,[73] Honoré, a well-known pederast, who lives at the market near the Saint-Jean cemetery. He is intimately connected with Chauffour, Joret, called the Blonde, and Godefroy. All four are not only pederasts but also robbers of linens and other items. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Nicolas Coré, called Honoré, wood gilder, and lives on place du Marché near the Saint-Jean cemetery.

Asked where he got the nickname Honoré. Said his father used it and he kept it.

Asked if he knows Chauffor and where he met him. Said he knows Chauffour, and their connection comes from his working for the latter’s mother.

Asked if he knows Joret, called the Blonde. Said no.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth, inasmuch as he socializes with Joret, and so does Chauffour. They are together daily in the Vaugirard coach-houses and drink at the Brilliant Moon tavern, a very suspect place. Said he does not go to the Vaugirard coach-houses. He has indeed drunk with Chauffour in Vaugirard, but he does not remember at which tavern and did not sign.

Coré, called Honoré, is dressed in a manner that makes him recognizable to everyone as a pederast. He has acknowledged he knows and is connected with Chauffour, pederast and thief. We left Coré, called Honoré, to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. S. Noël signed with us.

146. Monday, 15 October 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 5 pm on 15 October 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol in the plain, coach-houses, and taverns of Vaugirard. At 8 pm in the tavern with the sign of the Blue Sundial, S. Noël arrested there

Jacques Tramart, called the Little Woman from Picardy, laces vendor, who supposedly lives at the wine vendor S. Roussel’s house on rue au Maire

Henri Claude Laurent, thirty years old, who sells little devotional booklets, dresses like a pilgrim, and claims to live with his mother in the baker S. Millet’s house in the enclosure of the Temple

François Charles Roussel, called the One-Eyed Woman, shoemaker, who lives on rue Traversière, native of Paris, thirty-four years old

François Duguerin, saddler’s assistant, twenty years old, native of Saint-Paul in Artois, nicknamed Little Rosalie,^[74] who has no residence in Paris. He seems to have been debauched by the other three. He acknowledges all four spent last night in Roussel’s room, although they claim not to know each other in any way.

The first three seem to have debauched Duguerin, and they are known for procuring and extortion.

At 9:00 in another tavern S. Noël arrested Sebastien Mathieu Lécareux, twenty years old, native of Paris, sculptor, who lives at the limonadier Dubois’s house on rue Saint-Dominique. This man, known by the name of Little Zelmire,^[75] was found at a table in the tavern with other men about whom there is no information. But he is dressed from head to foot in the most obvious outfit and is known to be the friend of Bourse and Rototo, the latter arrested and sent to Bicêtre.

We left the five men to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to their destination.

We continued the patrol until 10 pm. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

147. Thursday, 18 October 1781, Search of the residence of S. Roussel, pederast

[The police found nothing suspect.]

148. Thursday, 18 October 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 18 October 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector responsible for the pederasty branch, went with him on patrol. We visited the northern boulevards and various other quarters and taverns in this city. In the course of the patrol, which lasted until midnight struck, we found nothing contrary to His Majesty’s orders, ordinances, decrees and regulations.

Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

149. Saturday, 20 October 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 20 October 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol. We were on the boulevard du Temple at 6:30, and S. Noël arrested there and conducted to the guard-post at the Temple Joseph Prainguet, seventeen years old, native of Metz, self-styled kitchen boy with S. de Veimerange, intendant of the army, who lives on rue Neuve des Mathurins in Chaussée d’Antin.

Prainguet was arrested on the boulevard on the 11^th of this month as a result of public clamor because of the indecent way he was dressed. We ordered him to abandon the frock-coat, cravat, and the shape of ribbon and hat he was wearing, which he promised to do. Despite this injunction Prainguet was arrested on the 15^th of the same month in the same outfit in the place de Grève, where he was jeered and pursued by the populace. We reiterated the same injunction to him and told him it was solely out of consideration for his master that we did not send him to prison. Notwithstanding this second prohibition, Prainguet was on the boulevard again on the 18^th of this month and today, dressed in the same way as on the 11^th of this month. This obstinacy in dressing in an indecent manner employed only by the most crapulous pederasts led us to leave him to S. Noël to be conducted to the Petit Châtelet.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight struck, in other places and various spots in this city, without finding anything contrary to good order or good morals. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us, commissaire.

150. Tuesday, 6 November 1781, Arrest of Calman, called River, pederast

At 9:30 pm on 6 November 1781, at our residence and before us, undersigned royal councilor, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that while he was on watch, he saw a man called River go by, pederast and disreputable subject, who subjects men as well as women to extortion, including one woman who lives near River. When she refused to give him money, he tried to stab her. S. Noël arrested this man and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Jacques Antoine Calman, called River, hairdresser, and lives at a landlady’s boarding house on rue Jeune Saint-Denis. Asked what he goes to do frequently in the Tuileries and Champs-Elysées. Said he goes to walk there.

Asked who the person is he knows on rue du Champ-Fleury. Said it is a woman he has lived with. Asked why he tried to stab her. Said that is not true. They did have an argument together, and he does not know how he ended up with this woman’s knife, with the blade closed, in his hand. Asked if he has ever been arrested and taken into custody. Said no and did not sign.

This man frequents the Tuileries daily and cruises there, and he is dressed with all the distinctive marks of pederasty. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison under the escort of the Paris guard. S. Noël signed with us.

151. Thursday, 8 November 1781, Arrest of Soenieu, called River, pederast

At noon on 8 November 1781, at our residence and before us, undersigned royal councilor, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that while he was at the new ballroom [Ranelegh] today, he encountered there and recognized a man named River, wigmaker’s assistant, who usually lives in Versailles and comes to Paris to cruise and take his recruits to the town of Versailles. He arrested this man, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jean Soenieu, called River, twenty-six years old, native of Sourdeval in Lower Normandy, hairdresser, and lives at the innkeeper Gaillard’s house on rue Champ-Fleury.

Asked if he usually lives in Versailles. Said his work takes him there sometimes. Asked who his acquaintances in Paris as well as Versailles are. Said he does not have any. Asked if he has been sent to prison before and what the reasons for it are. Said he was sent there for an argument and did not sign. This man is known as a very disreputable subject, and the only reason for his previous detention is pederasty. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison, and he signed with us.

152. Saturday, 10 November 1781, Arrest of Hue, called the Female Trotter, pederast

At 1:30 pm on 10 November 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, undersigned royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us he was in the vicinity of rue Montmartre and recognized there a man supposedly known among pederasts as the Female Trotter, the Female Turner [or Silkwinder] or Desrues.^[76] In the past this man enlisted in the Paris Regiment to follow a man, his giton, who had enlisted and died in it, after which the man called Desrues left the regiment. He is unemployed in Paris and practices the trade of procurer for pederasts. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who told us he is named Pierre Hue, forty-two years old, native of Tillières [Anjou], practices no trade in Paris, and lodges on rue Saint-Placide in Faubourg Saint-Germain.

Asked whose house he lives in on rue Saint-Placide. Said he does not know.

Asked if he served in the Paris Regiment. Said he enlisted in it with one of his friends.

Asked what became of this soldier, his friend. Said he died.

Asked why he has been arrested twice before and taken into custody. Said it was for making causing a racket.

Asked what he lives on in Paris. Said he lives on the proceeds of the errands he does and did not sign.

The only reason for this man’s two arrests was pederasty. He even spends the days on the Sofa and the evenings cruising publicly everywhere men are encountered. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison, and S. Noël signed with us.

153. Saturday, 17 November 1781, Pederasty patrol

About 7 pm on 17 November 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited various quarters of this city. We were at the New Market, in the shop of Cotelle, limonadier, known for running a dive, and S. Noël arrested there

Paul Bailly, twenty years old, native of Bayeux [Normandy], who lives at the landlord LeBouché’s house on cul-de-sac du Coq.

After questioning this man, we recognized him well as someone formerly on record, but in our uncertainty about his ongoing misconduct, we had him released.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight struck, without anything appearing to us contrary to good morals and public order. S. Noël signed with us.

154. Saturday, 1 December 1781, Arrest of Dufresnoy, suspected of pederasty

At 1:30 pm on 1 December 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us that while he was passing on boulevard Poissonnière, he found there a man dressed in the most suspect manner. This man is continually in the Tuileries and Palais Royal, where he cruises and, in addition, is known to be the giton of the well-known pederast Julie du Château. M. Noël arrested this man, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man. We saw him dressed in a very large brown frock-coat, round hat, wide cravat, with rosettes on his shoes and his hair cut short around his ears and tied back with a ribbon.

Asked for his names, origin, status, and address. Said he is named Louis François Léonard Dufresnoy, native of Amiens, nineteen years old, unemployed, and lives with his mother in the surgeon S. Vasselles’s house on rue Hyacinthe [4^th].

Asked why he uses the name Albert and how he knows Du Château. Said he does not use that name at all and does not know the person we have named.

Asked why he goes to the public promenades so frequently and at suspect hours. Said it is to walk, and everyone is free.

Asked why he is dressed in this way. Replied there is nothing unusual about his outfit, since all people of quality wear the same thing in the mornings.

Asked where he was going when he was arrested. Said he was going to dine with his sister, who is married to a foreign lord who lives in faubourg Montmartre. Asked for the title of this lord, if he is in the military, and in whose house he lives. Said he cannot give us this information.

This man is wearing the most infamous outfit denoting pederasty and, moreover, cannot provide satisfactory information about his status. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet, and S. Noël signed with us.

155. Tuesday, 4 December 1781, Arrest of Tournet and Baillaud, suspected of pederasty

At 9 pm on 4 December 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He said that while he was on watch in the Tuileries, he saw two men, one of whom approached the other and picked him up. After walking together these men left, holding each other’s hand, and he had them arrested in the Carousel. He conducted them before us, and he signed.

We summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Joseph Tournet, native of Hanover [Saxony (Germany)], and lives on his own revenues in Paris. He used to live at Boisin’s house in the Saint-Benoît cloister^[77] but has lived for several days at Mme Coalon’s house on rue des Noyers [6^th].

Asked to tell us how he knows the man arrested with him. Said he was in the Tuileries to take the air, and the man arrested with him approached him and wished him good evening. They walked together and left to go home. Pointed out to him his route was to take the Pont Royal and not rue Saint-Honoré. Said he was not paying attention, but he had no desire to do harm.

Then we summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Nicolas Bailleul, nineteen years old, native of Rouen, mattress-maker, and lives at Daumartin’s house on rue Copeau [5^th].

Asked to tell us if he has lived in a lodging house on rue de la Clef. Said yes.

Asked what he was doing in the Tuileries this evening. Said he came to walk after his work was done. He met the man arrested with him, and they left together and went home.

Asked if it is true he picked this man up. Said he wished him good evening when he went by, without any intention of picking up anyone. Asked if he knows wishing someone good evening is a decent manner of picking him up. Said he does not know.

Tournet is not yet known to us, but his nocturnal promenade makes us suspect him of pederasty. We had him released and enjoined him not to visit the Tuileries at unseemly hours anymore, and warned him that for his own good it would be preferable for him to return to his native region rather than living in Paris without a job or fixed residence and in a manner that renders his person and actions suspect.

With regard to Bailleul, he is absolutely known as a confirmed pederast. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet. S. Noël signed with us.

156. Tuesday, 25 December 1781, Arrest of Baurin, pederast

At 1:30 am on 25 December 1781, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector. He told us one of his agents was on watch yesterday in the Tuileries and encountered Baurin, pederast, recently released from Bicêtre with a letter of exile he is violating. This man suggested they amuse themselves together and go to the Champs-Elysées. They left the garden, and the agent wanted to lead him toward the guard-post. He did not know why, but Baurin did not want to go there. He did not assume, however, that Baurin suspected his intention of having him arrested, since he agreed to a rendezvous at midnight mass at the church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.[78] Baurin was indeed at the rendezvous. S. Noël went to the exit of the church, arrested him, conducted him before us, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man, who he told us he is named Claude Baurin, former cook, and lives at the Female Miller’s boarding house on rue Bethisy.

Asked why he is not observing the letter of exile to which he is subject. Said after he left Paris he fell ill several leagues from the city. He stayed there about a month and returned to Paris to conclude various business matters.

Pointed out to him if he was in Paris without permission, at least he should have lain low and not continued the infamous trade that has already led him to Bicêtre once and for which he is exiled. Said he is in Paris for business and he is not a thief. He did not know the man he spoke to in the Tuileries, who later helped to arrest him. What is more, he goes to the Tuileries only to take the air and not to do any harm.

Baurin is not only in violation of the king’s orders but even continues the commerce that earned him the punishment inflicted on him and the penalty of exile imposed on him. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison, and he signed with us.

157. Thursday, 27 December 1781, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 27 December 1781, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

We were in the Champs-Elysées about 7:30, and S. Noël arrested two men who were together there. When they noticed the patrol, they parted company and reconnected in a spot farher away, where they were arrested as suspects. One of these men told us he is named Michel Dupuis, native of Liancourt [Picardy], officer associated with the duc d’Estissac,^[79] at whose residence he lives. The other said he is named Antoine Beauvais, thirty-six years old, native of Rouvrel in Picardy, master vinegar-maker, and lives on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis.

After questioning these two men separately, their summary interrogation indicated they know each other, but they differed on the place, time and circumstances of their acquaintance. To confound them we summoned them together, and from this confrontation it emerged that they saw each other for the first time today, picked each other up, and then drank together. They both verified the truth of the status they claimed. Dupuis is known to be associated with the duc d’Etissac, and Beauvais is settled and married. They are not on record, so we had them released this first time.

At 10:00 in place Louis XV, S. Noël arrested two men arm in arm, who told us they are named Alexandre Grellon, thirty years old, native of Montrevel in Bresse [Franche-Comté], head cook to prince Ferdinand,^[80] at whose residence he lives, and Pierre Nicolas Morizot, twenty-four years old, native of Langres, hairdresser, who lives on rue de Grenelle Saint-Germain at the corner of rue du Bac.

We questioned these men separately. Grellon told us he knows Morizot only from seeing him at his brother’s place. He has never had any connection with him and cannot provide any information about his conduct. This evening they left Morizot’s brother’s place together.

With regard to Morizot, known by the name of Milord, his major occupation is cruising in the Tuileries, where he has been arrested before by the officer of the Prévôté de l’hôtel.^[81]

Morizot is a disreputable subject who seems to live only from extortion. We handed him over to S. Noël to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet. Then we continued the patrol until midnight struck, and S. Noël signed with us.

[1] Established in 1776 to discount bills of exchange and lower interest rates, located on rue Vivienne.

[2] Grille Saint-Denis, on the site of the gate in the city walls demolished in the 17^th century.

[3] This violinist at the Théâtre Beaujolais (1784-90) in the Palais Royal composed a “Carillon national” that provided the tune for the Revolutionary song “Ca ira.”

[4] Established in 1648, housed in the Louvre.

[5] 20, rue de Reuilly, where the worker was “subjected to chores to which a tyrant would not dare condemn him.” Mercier, 2: 725.

[6] Nickname of a mistress of Henri IV. Carle Van Loo (1705-65) painted Louis XV’s mistress Mme de Pompadour in this character in 1754 or 1755.

[7] Russian province, later Estonia and Latvia.

[8] Triumphal arch erected in 1674 at the intersection of rue Saint-Martin with the boulevard Saint-Denis and boulevard Saint-Martin.

[9] Medieval fortress of the Knights Templar in the Marais, demolished. Debtors took refuge there to avoid their creditors, and the royal family was imprisoned there during the Revolution.

[10] Commune annexed by Paris and Saint-Denis in 1860.

[11] Charles Edmé Tartereau de Berthemont (b. 1758) and his wife had two children.

[12] The church was located in the Saint-Marc quarter.

[13] Church at the corner of rue Saint-Denis and rue Greneta.

[14] The stables of Charles Philippe, comte d’Artois (1757-1836), Louis XVI’s brother, later Charles X, were located on rue du Faubourg du Roule.

[15] Seat of the parlement of Paris and other royal courts, on Ile de la Cité, partly burned on 10 January 1776 and rebuilt 1783-86.

[16] Church at 76, rue de la Verrerie.

[17] Church on rue Saint-Jacques at rue des Ecoles, demolished.

[18] Varin used the medical term “verge,” rather than any of the many slang words.

[19] The church was demolished in 1797, but the tower survives, in the square that bears its name [4^th].

[20] Church on Ile de la Cité, demolished.

[21] Church on Ile de la Cité, demolished.

[22] In the absence of a family name, Madame means the wife of Monsieur, the king’s brother, comte de Provence. Marie Joséphine Louise de Savoie (1753-1810), married him in 1771. The couple had no children. Gossip suggested that he was impotent and she preferred women.

[23] Tavern at the corner of rue de Vaugirard and rue Bargue, demolished.

[24] Province in western France, with Poitiers as capital.

[25] Christian holiday celebrated fifty days after Easter, 3 June 1781.

[26] 8 June 1781. See Hardy, 7: 186 (8 June 1781); JP, 10 June 1781; Mercier, 1: 298-300.

[27] On rue Saint-Laurent, from 28 June to Saint-Michael’s day. JP reported its opening on 30 June 1781.

[28] 82, rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, one of five barracks constructed for the French Guards, 1772-80.

[29] Administration of the royal domains.

[30] The company performed in the hôtel de Bourgogne on rue Mauconseil before the construction of the Salle Favart, 1781-83.

[31] Its proprietor Charles Yon separated from his wife in 1786. “The worst company” filled this café and others on boulevard du Temple. MSP, 47.

[32] Pet name for children, as in Alexandre Louis Bertrand Robineau de Baunoir (1746-1823), Fanfan et Colas, ou Les frères de lait, comédie en un acte et en prose, representée pour la première fois par les Comédiens Italiens Ordinaires du Roi le mardi 7 septembre 1784 (Paris, 1784).

[33] Alexis Belle, commissaire, 1754-86, rue des Billettes.

[34] Nicolas Médard Audinot (1732-1801) directed the Ambigu Comique theater on boulevard du Temple, 1769-84. For gossip, see MSP, 95-115.

[35] The garden “is hardly frequented, in the evenings, by any but people from the quarter.” H&M, 3: 310.

[36] The buildings on rue Saint-Martin, between rue Réamur and rue Vertbois, were transformed into the Conservatory and Museum of Arts and Trades during the Revolution.

[37] See Farge, 179.

[38] Louis Denis de Pillote, marquis de Saint-Clément, of the gray musketeers, as opposed to black musketeers of the second company, not married at the time of the publication of the lines about him reprinted in François Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye Des Bois and Jacques Badier, Dictionnaire de la noblesse, contenant les généalogies, l’histoire, et la chronologie des familles nobles de France, 3^rd ed., 19 vols. (Paris: 1863-76), 15: 875.

[39] Church and Benedictine convent, later military hospital [5^th].

[40] Apprenticeship of eight years.

[41] Province in central France, with Moulins as capital.

[42] Inspector since 1778, rue des Moineaux.

[43] Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre (1725-93).

[44] See Farge, 180.

[45] Commissaire, 1764-91, rue aux Ours.

[46] Mounted by the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the Louvre every other year, from Saint Louis’s day (25 August) until the end of September. The Salon of 1781 marked the debut of Jacques Louis David, who exhibited his Belisarius Begging for Alms and Equestrian Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki.

[47] Ancient statue of the goddess exposing her rear end. Gustave III of Sweden, who was not indifferent to men, commissioned a modern statue of this Venus by Johann Tobias Sergel to accompany his antique statue of Apollo.

[48] Located at 661, rue Thiroux, as of 1776.

[49] In the kingdom of Savoy at the time, in the département of Savoie since 1860.

[50] Louis Compte.

[51] Church on Ile de la Cité, demolished.

[52] V for “voleur,” thief.

[53] He was debauched by older males at the age of 16 in 1765. Bibiothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille 22555, dossier Richard, Dupré, Milon, Chartier and Bassigny, in SPT, 67-73; Merrick, 33-40.

[54] Gens de la manchette, men of the cuff, men attracted to and involved with other men. This terminology was used more frequently in the first half of the century.

[55] The houses on the bridge, between the Ile de la Cité and the Right Bank at quai de Gesvres, were demolished in 1787.

[56] 77-93, rue Saint-Lazare, demolished.

[57] Located between the Tuileries palace and the rue Saint-Honoré, demolished.

[58] These schools offered primary education for the children of the poor, with the objective of promoting religious, political and social order.

[59] Gilles Pierre Chenu, commissaire, 1747-91, rue Mazarine.

[60] François Bourgeois.

[61] Literally “grove,” but more likely an allusion to Anne Marie Figuet du Bocage (1710-1802), poet, playwright and salonnière.

[62] André Nicolas Marie Alix, commissaire, 1780-90, rue du Regnard Saint-Merry.

[63] 8, place Saint-Augustin, one of the barracks constructed for the French guards, 1772-80.

[64] The church, at 30-32, rue Saint-Paul, was demolished in 1799. Sisters of charity taught thirty to forty poor girls from the neighborhood how to sew in the community located in the parish buildings.

[65] Matthijs Estevenon de Berkenroode (1719-97), ambassador, 1749-92.

[66] Antoine Jean Amelot de Chaillou (1732-95), minister of the Royal Household, 1776-83.

[67] Jean Baptiste Alexandre Hubert d’Arboulin de Richebourg (1740-1819), intendant of the postal service.

[68] Quinze Vingts, hospital for the blind with three hundred beds, on rue Saint-Honoré at rue Saint-Nicaise, transferred to 28, rue de Charenton in 1779

[69] The royal intendants of justice, police and finances had subdelegates in the major cities in their provinces.

[70] Gabriel Claude Palteau de Veimerange (1739-94).

[71] Not to be confused with the Pierre Margantin in SPT, 152-53.

[72] Gérard Maurice Turpin, barrister in the royal councils, argued the case for the rehabilitation of the chevalier de La Barre (executed on 1 July 1766 for blasphemy and sacrilege) in 1768.

[73] At the intersection of rue Montmartre, rue Montorgueil, and rue Rambuteau, behind the church.

[74] This diminutive actress was just three and a half feet tall. MSP, 78-80.

[75] Zelmire, tragedy by Pierre Laurent Buirette de Belloy (1727-75), performed for the first time on 6 May 1762, a “progious” success. H&M 2: 311.

[76] Antoine François Desrues (1744-77), notorious poisoner executed in the place de Grève. Hardy, 6: 591 (29 December 1780). For his accomplices, see 300-301, 321-22, 338.

[77] Church, cloister, and street [4^th], demolished.

[78] Church at 2 place du Louvre.

[79] Louis, duc de Liancourt de La Rochefoucauld, duc d’Estissac (1695-1783).

[80] Auguste Ferdinand (1730-1813), brother of Frederick the Great.

[81] Tribunal with jurisdiction over royal properties, including the Luxembourg and Tuileries. Its extant records do not document arrests in the gardens from before 1784, but other sources include discussion of some of its cases. See for example Hardy, 6: 463 (6 July 1780), and

Archives Nationales, O¹ 421, ff. 333, 348, for correspondence concerning Louis Croubois, arrested in the Luxembourg, imprisoned, and released in July 1780, arrested again in November 1782 (#219).

1782 (Y 13409)

158. Tuesday, 1 January 1782, Arrest and imprisonment of Henry Baudry, pederast

At 9 pm on 1 January 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch this evening in the Tuileries garden and recognized there a pederast named the Female Seeker of Wit, inlay worker, who lives on rue Notre-Dame de Bonne Nouvelle. He was cruising with Colas, soldier in the Paris Regiment, who recognized the deponent and escaped. The arrested man left by the gate at the stables.[1] He conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Henry Baudry, twenty years old, native of Paris, inlay worker, and lives with his mother, silk stocking washer, on rue Notre-Dame de Bonne Nouvelle.

Asked if he was in the Tuileries this evening, what he was doing there, and with whom he was walking. Said that he was in the Tuileries at about 8 pm, that he was walking like everyone else, and that the man he was with is one of his friends, son of a fish vendor in the central market.

Asked if the man who was with him is Colas, soldier in the Paris Regiment. Said he does not know if it is Colas or Buquet, but he knows him in the way all young folks know each other.

Baudry has frequented the Tuileries in the evening, was found dressed like a pederast, and knows either Colas, whom we seek diligently, or Buquet, called Rag, previously sent to Bicêtre. He seems like a libertine to us. We therefore left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the Petit Châtelet prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

159. Wednesday, 2 January 1782, Arrest of Hubault, Houzel, and Roudenot, pederasts

At 10:30 pm on 2 January 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch in the Tuileries garden and noticed three men who accosted indiscriminately all the people who passed by. These men seemed suspect to him, so he followed them, arrested them at the exit of the promenade, conducted them from there before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested men. The first said he is named Louis Chrisostome Hubault, native of Trochain in Picardy, wine vendor, and lives on rue Saint-Barthélemy [4^th] in Paris, next to the King’s Exchange.

The second, Victor Daniel Houzel, soldier in the Auvergne Regiment.

And the third, Jean Baptiste Denis Roudenot, who lives with his father in Marly-le-Roi [Ile-de-France] and arrived from there today.

They told us they are all friends and were in the Tuileries doing their pranks and amusing themselves from 7 pm on.

These three men were attired in levites and dressed like pederasts, but they are not on record, although there is every reason to supect them.

We had Hubault and Roudenot released, pending further information. With regard to Houzel, inasmuch as the time is late and he is dressed like a bourgeois without permission, we left him to Pierre Sudaut, sergeant of the Paris guard, to conduct him to the first administrative officer of the watch to have him locked up for military discipline in the For-l’Evêque prison.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

160. Friday, 4 January 1782, Arrest of Lelouche and Lambert, pederasts

At 9:30 pm on 4 January 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch at the Comic Medley[2] and noticed Lelouche, known pederast, who was there with another man unknown to the deponent. At the exit of the theater he arrested these two men, whom he conducted before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned one of the arrested me, who told us he is named Antoine Lambert, personal valet in the service of comte d’Artagnan,[3] at whose residence he lives on rue de Sèvres, at the barrier.

Asked how he knows the arrested man. Said he does not know his name or address and knows him by sight at the Comic Medley, and it is by chance they left together.

This man is unknown to us, and we had him released.

Then we summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named François Lelouche, cook in the service of S. Guerrier de Bezance,[4] maître des requêtes,[5] at whose residence he lives on rue des Petits Augustins [6^th].

Asked if he knows the man arrested with him and how he knows him. Said he knows him by sight at the Medley but does not know who he is.

Lelouche is connected with a magistrate, and we confirmed it. We had him released without interrogating him so as not to let him know the reason why he was arrested, until he is dismissed by his master. He is specifically known and noted as a disreputable subject.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

161. Tuesday, 8 January 1782, Arrest and imprisonment of Lelerc and Cotelle, pederasts

At midnight on 8 January 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was asked to go to the house of S. Cotelle, master hatter, on rue Saint-Denis on account of pederasts who retreated there. When he was taken to the room of S. Cotelle’s son, he found him in bed with an unknown man. S. Cotelle, informed of his son’s misconduct, for which the latter has already been arrested and imprisoned, withdrew, and S. Noël arrested the men, inasmuch as they were caught in the act, conducted them before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned one of the arrested men. He said he is named Antoine Leclerc, twenty-two years old, native of Bulle in Franche-Comté, domestic without a job or residence.

Asked how he knows the other man. Said they saw each other at the theater and in the promenades and made a rendezvous this morning on rue du Bac, where they met and went to a tavern. They met again this afternoon, and this evening the other man brought him to sleep in his room, where they retreated about 7 pm.

Asked if anything happened between them. Said he does not know what we mean.

Then we summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Jean Baptiste Cotelle, twenty-three years old, native of Paris, lives with his father on rue Saint-Denis, and was arrested for pederasty on 23 January last year.

Asked if, in spite of the punishment he endured and his father’s kindness, he continues his infamous conduct, how he knows the arrested man, and with what design he had him in his room. Replied only with tears, without uttering a single word.

These two men seemed more than acquaintances to us, and we left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to the Grand Châtelet prison.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

162. Wednesday, 30 January 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 30 January 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went on pederasty patrol with him and visited the boulevards and other suspect places in this city. In the course of the patrol, we found nothing contrary to good order and police ordinances, decrees, and regulations.

We continued the patrol until midnight struck and drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed wth us.

163. Saturday, 2 February 1782, Arrest of Perard, pederast

At 10 pm on 2 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in passing through the Saint-Martin quarter [2^nd and 3^rd] he recognized Perard, called Montreuil, arrested on 25 June 1780, sent to Bicêtre, exiled, and enlisted for the colonies. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Louis Maximilien Perard, called Montreuil, without a residence.

Asked if he is the same man who was arrested, exiled, and enlisted. Said yes.

Asked why he came to Paris without permission. Said it is to seek work.

Perard is in violation of royal orders and perhaps a deserter. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison,[6] and he signed with us.

164. Sunday, 3 February 1782, Arrest of Daulet, pederast

At 7 pm on 3 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested a man in la Courtille known among pederasts by the name of the Puffed Woman, associate of Carton, thief, himself suspected of theft and accused of squeezing the genitals of men whom he sees or who see him. He conducted this man before us under the escort of the guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jacques Philippe Daulet, soldier in the Flanders Regiment.

Asked for his permission to be dressed like a bourgeois. Said he has none.

Asked if he is in Paris on leave. Said he has been here for a year with his regiment’s permission. Asked to present it. Said he does not have it on him.

Asked if it is to avoid recognition that he changed his name and took that of Puffed Woman. Said he does not bear that name.

Asked if he has acquaintances in Paris among young folks or others. Said he knows several of them.

Asked if he knows Buquet, Colas, Tricotel. Said he was in school with Buquet and, with regard to the others, he believes he has been with them.

Daulet is regularly in the Tuileries and Champs-Elysées, where he uses violence in cruising. As he also seems to be a deserter from the Flanders Regiment, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison, and he signed with us.

165. Monday, 4 February 1782, Arrest of Réveilla

At 6 am on 4 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that based on his manner of conducting himself in the Grand Salon and the word of a man he supects is Réveilla, son of a brazier, against whom complaints have been made to him, he decided to arrest him, conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named André Réveilla, thirty-one years old, native of Paris, master brazier, and lives on rue du Cordiers.

Asked why he allowed himself to make dirty and indecent remarks in public that make him suspected of being a libertine. Said he believed he was not doing any harm. It is true he repeated the offense although silence had been imposed on him, but he apologized for it.

Asked if he was alone or had friends with him. Said he was alone.

Réveilla is rather well dressed following the pederastical uniform but has only unverified charges against him at this time, so we had him released. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

166. Tuesday, 5 February 1782, Arrest of Jouvet, called the Female Knifegrinder, pederast

At 2 pm on 5 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he has received various complaints for a long time against a man named Antoine, called the Female Knifegrinder, native of Auvergne, knifegrinder, who works opposite the Palais Royal, debauches young folks, holds orgies, and is damaged by his debauchery. He arrested this man, conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Antoine Jouvet, sixty to seventy years old, native of Ajures, parish of Notre-Dame de Loury, diocese of Saint-Flour [Auvergne], knifegrinder, and lives on rue des Boucheries Saint-Honoré [2^nd].

Asked if he used to live within the walls of the Fifteen Twenties, why he left there, and if he was not expelled from there. Said he lived at the Fifteen Twenties for a very long time, left there because he wished to, and was not expelled from there.

Asked who the young folks are whom he lodges at his place. Said they are [folks from his native] region he lodges there out of humanity, who work at their trades during the day.

Asked if he still lodges some at his place. Said there are two he lodges.

Asked if he has anything to reproach himself for. Said God knows how innocent he is.

Given his oaths, imprecations, and lies in maintaining that he knows no pederasts, although he is much linked with them, we left this man to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison, and he signed with us.

167. Friday, 8 February 1782, Arrest of Ribotte and Lerouge, pederasts

At 4 am on 8 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested together in the Grand Salon Ribotte, hatter’s assistant, called the Pretty Female Hatter, who lives on rue de Richelieu, and Lerouge, called Big Cross-Eyed Manon, self-styled hairdresser for women, who lives on rue des Vieux Augustins. He conducted these men before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned one of the arrested men. He said he is named Claude Lerouge, twenty-five years old, native of Dijon [Burgundy] hairdresser, and lives at the hosier S. Moulier’s house, on rue des Vieux Augustins.

Asked who Ruelle is. Said that this man is a former friend with whom he made his tour de France,[7] that they lived together after their return to Paris, and that about four months ago they fell out and separated.

Asked if he knows a wigmaker on rue Montmartre. Said after he fell out with Ruelle, he made the acquaintance of Rebours, master wigmaker, who lives with his mother on rue Montmartre. He goes to his place frequently, and he is a good guy.

Asked if he has young foks at his place and in what circumstances he met them. Said he has two whom he is teaching to dress hair, and they have been at his place since Ruelle left him. He took them on to be useful to them.

Asked how he knows the other arrested man. Said it was by chance in leaving the Opera (where he goes often and has tickets from actresses) with Desrosiers to buy a hat in the shop of the man arrested with him. Since that time, they said hello to each other. This evening they found themselves together in the Grand Salon, where they had not made a rendezvous.

Asked who Desrosiers is. Said he is affiliated with the Opera.

Asked why, among the scapegraces of Paris, he is known by the name of Cross-Eyed Manon, Ruelle by that of Zephyr with Fine Eyes, and the man arrested with him by that of Pretty Female Hatter. Said that is false.

Asked why he sees and sees again at his place a multitude of young folks, most of them without jobs or funds and all of them, like himself, in showy attire. Said they are all his friends. With regard to their attire, they wear what they earn.

Then we summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Antoine Ribotte, thirty years old, native of Toulouse, hatter’s assistant, and lives at S. Aury’s house on rue de Richelieu.

Asked why he bears the name of Pretty Female Hatter. Said he does not bear that name, and we can make inquiries about it with his master, who answers for him.

Asked what he did all summer in the public promenades, especially in the Palais Royal, until 1 am. Said that is false.

Asked if he has not known Tricotel, called Cheese, and Ménager, called Bourbon. Said he has known various men because of his business.

Asked how he knows the arrested man. Said he must have told us.

These two men are well-known pederasts or debauchers on record. We left them to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to the hôtel de La Force prison, and he signed with us.

168. Friday, 8 February 1782, Arrest of Rimey, called Mitten, pederast

At 8 pm on 8 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested in the Porcherons and conducted before us, under the escort of the Paris guard, Hubert Rimey, called Mitten, bed and bath vendor, no less thief than pederast, associate of the most disreputable subjects. He has two lodgings, one in Paris at the Saint-Martin gate and the other in Passy [16^th], and was already arrested on account of pederasty on the quai des Orfèvres. He is an associate of Lastienn, with whom he committed various thefts, among others that of the watch of a man they picked up on the boulevards in January. S. Noël signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Hubert Marie Rimey, more than thirty-two years old, native of Paris, lives on rue Saint-Martin at the square around the gate, and has an apartment in Passy for the summer.

Asked why these two lodgings. Said he conducts his business in one during the winter and in the other during the summer.

Asked if he has some acquaintances in Paris and who they are. Said that he knows only his customers and, in addition, that those who had him arrested have a grudge against him. He asks to be charged and led to prison only with that stipulation.

Rimey is sufficiently known through his misdeeds and has been designated by pederasts already punished as an accomplice in their extortions. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison, and he siged with us.

169. Sunday, 10 February 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 10 pm on Sunday, 10 February 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went on pederasty patrol with him and visited taverns, dives, and bad spots in this city. At 4 am we were at the Grand Salon, at the Cadet barrier,[8] and S. Noël arrested there

Charles Antoine Mabille, more than thirty-four years old, native of Paris, former personal valet in the service of S. Raymond de Saint-Albin, royal censor,[9] unemployed since the latter’s death, who lives on rue Saint-Honoré at the gate of the fish market.

Mabille, pederast known for cruising in the Tuileries and Champs-Elysées, seems to be a disreputable subject and libertine.

We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison. Then we continued the patrol until 7 am on Monday, and drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed wth us.

170. Tuesday, 12 February 1782, Arrest of Couvrechel, pederast

At 4:30 am on 12 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch at the Grand Salon and arrested and conducted before us, under the escort of the Paris guard, a man dressed like a woman known by the name of Little Bergamot, former employee of the household of the duc de Chartres,[10] then dancer at the Opera Students,[11] and since domestic of an abbé, dismissed from all these positions, now unemployed, who lives only through prostitution with pederasts. He signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Antoine Marie Couvrechel, household assistant in the service since December of the baronne de Bréget,[12] at whose house he lives on rue du Vieux Colombier

We made sure, on the one hand that the arrested man is indeed the one designated in S. Noël’s report as a disreputable subject and, on the other, that Couvrechel is in Mme de Bréget’s service, out of consideration for that lady. Convinced that she will dismiss him as soon as the magistrate takes the trouble to inform her about her domestic’s misconduct and that no consideration will prevent the expulsion of Couvrechel from society, we had him released. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

171. Wednesday, 20 February 1782, Arrest of Dessaud, pederast

At 1 pm, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that he was on watch and, in passing along rue Saint-Honoré, encountered Dessoud, known pederast, who lives with Rollin, disreputable subject. Dessoud attends abbé Viennay’s parties and is his pimp. He arrested this man, conducted him before us under the escort of the Paris guard and signed.

We gave M. Noël a record of this appearance and summmoned the arrested man, who told us his name is Jean Etienne Dessoud, thirty years old, native of Paris, bourgeois and lives at M. Adrien’s residence on rue Mazarine.

Asked if he was employed in the Farms in Rouen and if he was dismissed from his job. Said he was employed in Rouen, and if he left his job, it was by his own choice.

Asked what he does now in Paris. Said he does not have a job. The only purpose of his stay in Paris is to be useful to his family, which is in need. He undertook a small trade, which did not succeed.

Asked if he knows Rollin, former cabinet maker. Said he is his father’s friend. They lodge together, and he helped him out.

Asked if he knows abbé Viennay and what he went to do at his home with a young man he took there in August. Said he does not know what we mean.

Dessoud is known to live with Rollin, known debaucher, and both of them cruise in the promenades. We left him to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the prison of La Force. And M. Noël signed with us.

172. Wednesday, 20 February 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on Wednesday, 20 February 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went on pederasty patrol with him and visited various quarters of this city. At 9:30 we were at the Saint-Germain fair, and S. Noël arrested there

Jean Mamel, twenty-four years old, native of Tremorin in Anjou,[13] saddler’s assistant, who lives at the master upholsterer S. Guenet’s house on rue des Fossés Saint-Germain. After hearing what this man said, we had him released.

Then we continued the patrol, which lated until 11 pm, and visited various quarters of this city and the dives. In the course of the patrol and in various visited locations we found nothing contrary to regulations and ordinances. We drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed with us.

173. Wednesday, 20 February 1782, Arrest of Miot, pederast, and search

At about midnight on 20 February 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him to a house at the corner of rue Saint-Denis and rue Guérin Boisseau, in which S. Dupré, master meat-roaster, is the principal tenant. We went up to the third floor of the house, and entered a room overlooking the street, occupied by S. Miot, self-styled merchant.

In execution of royal orders, which he presented to us, S. Noël arrested S. Miot, who told us he is named Jean Baptiste Miot, forty-two years old, native of Bordeaux, self-styled merchant, and lives at the place where we are.

Then, in execution of orders addressed to us, in the presence of S. Miot in his apartment, we proceded with the search for suspect objects. As a result of this search, we confiscated from Miot’s papers four notes, two from S. de LaLuzerne, another signed Bezont, and the last without a signature, which Miot stated was addressed to him by S. Pasquier, private secretary to Madame,[14] all dated in different months and only one from the year 1780.

We left these four notes to S. Noël for him to hand them over to the lieutenant general of police.

With regard to Miot, S. Noël likewise took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

174. Friday, 22 February 1782, Interrogation of Miot, suspected of pederasty

4 pm on 22 February 1782

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, of S. Miot, detained in the prison of La Force, who, after taking the oath to tell the truth, replied as follows.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named Jean Baptiste Miot, around forty-two years old, native of Bordeaux, merchant, and lives in Paris in the meat-roaster S. Dupré’s house on rue Guérin Boisseau.

Asked how many years he has been in Paris and what the business is that drew him here. Said he has been here for about eight years. He has a brother who lives in Querré [Anjou], where he is a judge, who told him to come to Paris to try to find a position that would allow him to live more comfortably.

Asked what reasons prevented him from following his wife to America when she left for there. Said his wife is American, and it is a country he detests.

Asked where he made the acquaintance of S. de LaLuzerne. Said that while taking a walk with his brother and sister-in-law, who is a lady from the Conant family in La Rochelle [Aunis], they encountered S. de LaLuzerne, who had known his sister in La Rochelle when he was stationed there. S. de LaLuzerne said he had lots of writing to do, and his sister suggested the deponent, who in fact did lots of writing for him. Even more recently he copied for him petitions that he charged him to submit to a magistrate who lives on rue Vivienne, which he delivered himself.

Asked who the people are he saw most intimately. Said he saw S. Pasquier, private secretary to Madame, who lives on rue de Richelieu, S. Delastre, who lives on rue Montmartre near Saint-Joseph,[15] S. Lhuillier, royal bootmaker, who lives on rue du Petit Lion, and S. Larnie, merchant on rue Montmartre.

Asked who provided his introduction to S. Pasquier.

Said his decision to leave Bordeaux was based in part on the letters of recommendation given to him to S. Pasquier, who, since his arrival in Paris, has been of great help to him, by his recommendations as well as financial assistance he has given him, which he has paid back, without owing him a cent but owing him only eternal gratitude.

Asked what business S. Pasquier charged him with.

Said S. Pasquier charged him with various letters of verification of accounts and copies of various family papers. Quite recently he copied for him the contract to purchase a house located on boulevard Montmartre he had acquired from S. Marquet de Peyre.[16]

Asked if he has left Paris since his arrival.

Said he has left several times to go to either Orléans or Tours [Touraine]. He left on 6 or 7 January to go to his brother’s in Querré in the coach of S. Langoiran from Tours and came back in the coach of a gentleman from Caen whose name his does not know, whom he believes, however, is Baudoin. He spent some days with his brother. His entire voyage lasted only thirteen or fourteen days.

Asked if he was alone. Said he was there with his daughter.

Pointed out to him to him it seems he is deceiving us because, in a private conversation we had with his daughter, she told us she traveled by post without knowing where or in what place she got off at an inn, where she remained while her father attended to his business. Asked to explain. Said the child was apparently distressed, and if we wish to speak to her in private and call her down, she will tell us it is true she was at the residence of her uncle, who was ill.

Presented to him a note without a signature but addressed to him, dated 3 January, which he told us is in S. Pasquier’s writing. Asked to tell us what S. Pasquier meant by this note. Said he recognizes the note and observed that S. Pasquier, always ready to help him out, feared that those who offered him a position in the fodder business, for which he offered 600 livres, wanted to dupe him. S. Pasquier wished to speak to S. Lilband, with whom he wished to negotiate. After writing to him, S. Lilband finally promised him he would come this time, after breaking his word several times. S. Pasquier wished to urge him to write to some of the clerks in the office[17] or to have the directors solicited, but the deponent feared this would cause Liebaud to lose the position he had or could have in another office. S. Pasquier came to his place to learn if the deponent had made any progress in getting the money he needed.

Asked if he he knew anyone who lived above him in the same house. Said that one Souque, goldsmith or jeweler, lived there before, that he never had any connection with him, that he noticed from time to time that folks who came to seek money at all hours of the night made noise.

Asked if he has known Saint-Hilaire. Said that after the departure of his brother and sister-in-law, he rented a room in his apartment on rue du Petit-Lion to one Manès Félix, who conducted a trade in various merchandise. Saint-Hilaire came to this man’s room by chance. On the pretext of inspecting the deponent’s work, Saint-Hilaire entered his apartment and urge him several times to come see him. He went there and found at his place La Chapelle, employee in the postal service. After some partying he withdrew. By dint of solicitations he returned to Saint-Hilaire’s place a second time and found all sorts of people, which led him to decide not to return again. When he was at Félix’s place, where he saw lots of young folks, he heard it said that Saint-Hilaire had been arrested and sent to Bicêtre at various times. Last summer he encountered Saint-Hilaire on the boulevard, and he urged him to come back and see him, which he did not wish to do. With regard to Manès Félix, this man behaved badly and made a ruckus in his room. He decided to evict him. He does not know what has become of him since.

Asked if he knows anyone living at the barracks of the French Guards on rue Verte. Said he knows no one there.

Asked if S. Pasquier did not make rendezvous at his place. Said no and that when he came there, he came there to have accounts of household expenses or others verified.

Asked if S. Pasquier came to his place on foot or by carriage. Said he came there sometimes on foot and other times by cabriolet.

Asked if he has not known d’Orléans and Buquet. Said no.

Asked if he has known S. Plet and Nollan Desroches. Said he has known only a S. Plet who died in Bordeaux and has not known S. Nollan Desroches at all.

Asked if he has known Tessier, lawyer. Said he has not known him at all and does not know who he is.

Pointed out to him to him it is quite astonishing that he knows no one at the barracks of the French Guards on rue Verte, since complaints have been made against him regarding soldiers from that barracks whom he took to his place on various occasions. Asked to tell us the truth in this regard. Said he does not know those folks.

Presented to him a letter dated 8 September, without a year, signed Bezon. Asked who it came from. Said it is from S. de Bezon, chevalier de Saint-Louis, relative of S. de LaLuzerne, who asked him for news about the latter, whom he was concerned about. He did not know where S. de Bezon lived. He came to his place only once or twice, four or five years ago.

Asked if had any awkward business that obliged him to leave the city of Bordeaux. Said no, and he could return there when he wished without fearing the least thing.

Asked if he had anything to reproach himself for, about morals, conduct, or other such matters. Said no, and on that score he has nothing to reproach himself for.

Asked if he has ever been arrested and put in prison. Said never in his life but this time.

Asked if S. Pasquier was at his place some times when there were people there. Said he might have been there with various people, but he did not identify himself there.

Asked if he has never known S. de S. and S. de N. or if someone who was at his place did not mention these names or take them. Said no.

Asked if he has never procured young folks. Said he does not even know what we are talking about.

Asked if when S. Pasquier was at his place he sought to remain anonymous. Said no.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

175. Saturday, 23 February 1782, Search of the residences of Rimey, pederast, in Paris and Passy

[The police found nothing suspect.]

176. Friday, 1 March 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Bouttemy

At 7 pm on 1 March 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol in various places where these types of debauchees gather.

At 8:30 we were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested, in the subsidence behind the Coliseum, a man who told us his name is Louis Bouttemy, twenty-four years old, native of Saint-Armou [Béarn], watchmaker working at home, living in the baker Rigou’s house on rue Mouffetard opposite the rue de l’Arbalète. He left his place at 6 this evening, was at his godmother’s home on rue Neuve Guillemain and, when he was arrested, was going to look for work at the home of female polisher on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, living in a baker’s house that he cannot specify since he has never been there.

We had this man searched and found on him twenty-four sols, a rag for wiping his shoes and a razor, with regard to which he did not give adequate explanations.

The place where the man was found, the razor found on him and his outfit seemed suspect to us. We left him to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight without finding any other contraventions. M. Noël signed with us.

177. Thursday, 7 March 1782, Arrest of Garnot, pederast

At 10 am on 7 March 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

Told us that in execution of orders he carries, he had arrested a man on the Pont Neuf, tailor’s assistant without work or residence, known among pederasts by the name of the Female Mender or the Desired Woman. He conducted this man before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Charles Garnot, twenty-two years old, native of Muretay in Saintonge,[18] and lives on rue des Prêtres Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

This Garnot is known to be unemployed and a pederast. We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison, and S. Noël signed with us.

178. Thursday, 7 March 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 7 March 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went on pederasty patrol with him and visited various places and dives where these disreputable subjects retreat.

In the course of the patrol, which lasted until after 11 pm, we found nothing contrary to good morals, decrees, and regulations. S. Noël signed with us.

179. Friday, 8 March 1782, Search of the residence of Picard, called Saint-Hilaire, pederast

[The police found no suspect papers, “but given certain specific facts documented in evidence in our hands, we left Saint-Hilaire in S. Noël’s custody to have him conducted to our residence to be interrogated there immediately.”]

At 10 am on 8 March, at our residence, commissaire named above, appeared S. Noël, who told us he had conducted before us Saint-Hilaire, in execution of our report above.

We summoned Saint-Hilaire and proceeded with his interrogation, as may be seen in a dossier separate from this one.

This interrogation did not seem to us to justify Saint-Hilaire’s detention, and we had him released.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

180. Friday, 8 March 1782, Interrogation of Saint-Hilaire, pederast

10 am on 8 March 1782

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, at our residence, of Saint-Hilaire, named as follows.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, said he is named Cyprien Jérôme Picart de Saint-Hilaire, thirty-six years old, native of Givet [Flanders], bourgeois de Paris, and lives there on rue Meslay in the parish of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs.

Asked at what time and in what circumstances he had occasion to know abbé de S. Said in 1760, on 4 or 5 January, he was conducted to the abbé’s place by Comtois, called the Nun, who was an associate of Forgeot, brother of the abbé’s current coachman. He has had occasion to see him several times. Around two years ago the deponent was informed that Carton intended to wrong the abbé, so he wrote him about it. The latter came to the deponent’s place and urged him to forestall Carton, who said he lived in Picardy, at the residence of so-called comte d’Hercourt, for whom he came frequently to Versailles to debauch young folks there. The abbé also urged him to undertake various trips, to Versailles, Saint-Germain, as well as Villers Cotterêts [Ile-de-France], to urge Carton to cease his demands of the abbé. One day the abbé charged the deponent to go to Villers-Cotterêts and handed him a sealed letter for Carton, which the abbé told him contained an agreement with Carton not to come to Paris and not to importune him any longer. After these trips were made, hearing nothing of the abbé, he decided, a year ago November or December, to go to the abbé’s place to ask him for payment of the expenses he had incurred for him. He found the abbé with his brother, and the latter mistreated the deponent verbally for his refusal to reveal his brother’s secret, but it was he, however, who handed the deponent two louis. After he withdrew and the deponent remained alone with the abbé, he told him the two louis he had just received could not reimburse him fully. In pushing him toward the stairs the abbé told him to stay calm. He would write to him in the country, and he would be pleased. The deponent spent eleven months in the country, without hearing any news from the abbé. When he returned to Paris, he wrote him two letters. When the second was handed to the abbé, he made this reply to the carrier: “Tell him he will be satisfied Saturday or Sunday because I am a bit hard up.” He did not hear anything about the abbé. After his promise, he thought he should remind him of it again. He received no reply other than what he told the errand boy, that S. Noël was charged with paying him. The deponent went to the residence of S. Noël, whom he asked him if he would be justified in pursuing the abbé through judicial procedures. S. Noël told him no. He decided to sign a guarantee not to importune the abbé further.

Pointed out to him to him that after the guarantee he admits he signed, it became pointless for him to write to the magistrate on the subject. Asked why he did so. Said it was not out of recrimination against the guarantee he signed. It was only to bring to light his conduct toward the abbé. If he used language in his letter that could offend anyone, it was from not knowing the implications of this language.

Asked what he meant by this language in his letter to the magistrate: “I left nothing to be desired, which makes me hope from your Highness for the justice I would myself be forced to request from the head of the church in Paris, if, with everyone else, I did not have the right to expect it from your Highness.” Asked if this language, furthermore, did not provide reason to believe he desired to write to the archbishop,[19] and if he had done so. Said the language recorded in his letter involves only faults in drafting, from little knowledge of the implications of language. He had no desire to write the archbishop. He did not write him about it and will never speak to him about it. That would amount to seeking to destroy himself in the eyes of this prelate, who knows his family.

Asked to tell us which is the one of S. Noël’s observers he referred to in saying, in his letter to the magistrate, “I would not even be surprised if S. Noël’s good faith has been abused in this circumstance by one of his men who deceives him daily.” Said he has reason to suspect Robineau. In preparation for giving us information in this regard, he asks that we have placed before our eyes all the lists he has made together with S. Lindor and verified with him, as well as the one he made and verified with S. Noël. In this examination he will be in a position to prove to us that the statements that might have been made since by Robineau may be false.

Asked if he knows someone in Villers-Cotterêts. Said he knows S. Richard, master earthenware maker, who is a perfectly honest man.

Asked why, in his letter written to the magistrate, he suggests suspicion that S. B… de N… has been placed in the category of those suspected of pederasty.

Said Miot told him that he did no business for S. Pasquier, but it was for S. B… de N…, who came to his place frequently. He was convinced himself of the contrary by a grenadier named Perrot in the guards of the Estrapade barracks.[20]

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

181. Friday, 8 March 1782, Search of the residence of Bouttemy, pederast

[The police found nothing suspect. The principal tenant told them that Bouttemy “goes out every day at 11 am and returns only very late at night. They have no direct complaint to make on his account, but they believe he is a liar.”]

182. Saturday, 9 March 1782, Arrest of Perigault, pederast

At 3 pm on 9 March 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested at the residence of Desvertud, who hosts gambling on the quai de la Mégisserie, Perigault, disreputable subject, whom he conducted before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Claude Perigault, thirty-two years old, native of Paris, former soldier in the royal Vaisseaux Regiment, whose residence is unknown.

Perigault had to run the gauntlet on account of theft and pederasty. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison, and S. Noël signed with us.

182a. Tuesday, 12 March 1782, Arrest of Lesec, called Dubreuil

At 8 pm on 12 March 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor amd commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared S. Louis Henry Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on watch at the Saint-Germain fair and encountered there, with other young folks who could not be arrested, the giton of S. Philippe, surgeon, whom he led before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. Asked to tell us his first and last names and status, he said he is named LeSec, called Dubreuil, twenty-two years old, native of Dampierre [Ile-de-France], surgery student, and lives at the residence of S. Philippe, surgeon, at the house of S. Collard, jeweler, on quai Pelletier.

The identity of the persons was well established for us by Lesec’s statement. We have received complaints against him and know about his misconduct and that of the man with whom he lives. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination. And S. Noël signed with us.

183. Friday, 29 March 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 5 pm on 29 March 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went on pederasty patrol with him, specifically in the Champs-Elysées and in the city, visiting various places and dives where these disreputable subjects retreat.

In the course of this patrol, which lasted until after 11 pm, we found nothing contrary to good morals, decrees, and regulations. S. Noël signed with us.

184. Friday, 5 April 1782, Arrest of Colas

At 5:30 pm on 5 April 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested Colas, pederast, in the Champs-Elysées. There is an order aginst him issued in April 1780 that was not executed because Colas rejoined the Paris Regiment in which he was a soldier at the time. Since his return to this city, Colas lives through pederasty and extortions he commits. He therefore conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. Asked to tell us his first and last names, age, origin, and status and if he has known Tricotel.

He said he is named Jean Baptiste Colas, native of Châtillon-sur-Seine [Burgundy], around twenty-two years old, soldier in the Paris Regiment, and lives with his mother on cul-de-sac de la Bouteille [1^st]. He has known Tricotel, but he is a disrepuitable subject.

After he left the Paris Regiment, Colas resumed living through extortion. We left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed with us.

185. Thursday, 11 April 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Desmares

At 6 pm on 11 April 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

About 7 pm we were in the Champs-Elysée, and M. Noël arrested there

Michel Berthelot, nineteen years old, native of Orléans, tailor, in Paris just a week, lodging at the notary M. Lefebvre’s home on rue de Condé[21]

François Desmares, twenty-five years old, native of Fécamp in Normandy, unemployed domestic, who served a term in the Limousin regiment, living at the hôtel d’Artois on rue du Cimetière-Saint-André.

Berthelot, dressed like a pederast but not known as such, was released.

Desmares, known for being a pederast and for still plying the same trade, cruising daily in the Tuileries, where he is known to go frequently, was left to M. Noël to conduct and commit him to the prison of La Force.

At 9 pm in the same location in the Champs-Elysées, M. Noël arrested

Léon Guillaume Mathe, thirty-two years old, native of Marseille, actor, principally in the Dijon company, lodging in Paris with Lefevre, vinegar maker, on rue du Petit-Lion. This man invoked the name of the marquis de Gouvernet a good deal and was released with the injunction to walk at a more seemly hour.

At 9:30 in the same place, M. Noël arrested

François Troyhot, postilion to M. de la Reynière, rue des Champs-Elysées, found by the Swiss Guards with another man who escaped. Troyhot had his breeches unbuttoned and said he was doing what he needed to do. This man was handed over to Loyeu, personal valet to M. de la Reynière, who was sent for this purpose.

and Etienne Badier, native of Boigny near La Ferté-Alais [Ile-de-France], domestic in the service of M. Couvert, at whose home he lives on rue de l’Echelle. This man did not seem suspect to us, and we released him.

Then we continued the patrol in other places until midnight without finding anything contrary to ordinances and regulations. M. Noël signed with us.

186. Friday, 19 April 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Picot

At 8 pm on 19 April 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

At 9:30 pm we were on the northern boulevards. On rue Saint-Nicolas, at the corner of rue Lancry, and S. Noël arrested Pierre François Picot, around fifty years old, native of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, unemployed, who lives at Lhurmenier’s lodging house on rue de l’Hirondelle.

Pierre is known under the name of Holy Savior and does not live with his wife, who lives on rue Tireboudin [2^nd]. He fences stolen goods and is a disreputable subject. We left him to to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison.

At 10 S. Noël arrested at the gate of the Temple Joachim Lebas, twenty-five years old, native of Sacey in Bouillon,[22] joiner’s assistant, who lives at S. Patin’s house on rue Pastourelle.

After we heard him, we had Lebas released.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 1 am, in various other spots and places in this city without finding anything contrary to ordinances and regulations. S. Noël signed with us.

187. Thursday, 25 April 1782, Arrest of Cluzel[23]

At [missing] am on 25 April 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that in execution of royal orders he carries he had arrested and conducted before us to be interrogated Joseph Pierre Cluzel, master goldsmith, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned Cluzel. We proceeded with his interrogation as is seen in a dossier separate from this one.

After the interrogation we had Cluzel released and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

188. Thursday, 25 April 1782, Interrogation of Cluzel

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, in execution of the orders addressed to us and undergone by M. Joseph Pierre Cluzel, master jeweler in Paris.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status and address. He said his name is Joseph Pierre Cluzel, twenty-six years old, native of Thiers in Auvergne, master jeweler and lives on the Pont au Change, in the parish of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.

Asked if he knows abbé Viennay. Said no. He knows him by name but not otherwise. He only went to his place with his father to see the fireworks set off when the king came to Paris [21 January 1782]. He was let in by the abbé’s workman Dugas, who was raised by the abbé and lived with him until he came to live at the deponent’s home. He does not know what caused him to leave the abbé. Dugas told him only that he was obliged to have his things removed because abbé Viennay owed some money, and he feared that his furniture might be seized and that he himself might be entangled in the matter. It is true that Dugas invited him to dinner and that he and his wife went to abbé Viennay’s for dinner. Having dined there he thought he should repay Dugas for the favor and invite the abbé. They came to his home for dinner, and Trompeau was there. After the dinner Trompeau shared with him the public’s suspicions regarding these two individuals. He stopped seeing them, except for business dealings with Dugas.

Asked whom he generally socializes with. Said he does not see anyone in particular and only ever walks with M. Chaurigout, master haberdasher on rue Greneta, who is from his native region, his aunt, named widow Bechon, Mlle Clingnoilles, on rue des Vieilles-Etuves-Saint-Martin [3^rd], and his father

Asked if he has ever spent the night away from home. Said about a month ago he attended the wedding of a Jew named Michael and slept at the home of the cane vendor Toteur on cour Saint-Martin. He encountered him at the wedding, where he spent just the afternoon with his father, who left without saying anything to him.

Asked if abbé Viennay wears clerical attire. Said every time he saw him he always had his hair pulled back.

Asked if he knows if the abbé has received the order of priesthood. Said he knows nothing about it but heard it said.

Asked if he ever allowed himself to touch men indecently. Said he affirms before God that he has never allowed himself or even thought about allowing himself to touch men in the slightest way and that it is quite contrary to his manner of thinking and his tastes.

Asked if he has ever been to the wine merchant’s establishment at the corner of rue Saintonge on the boulevards. Said he was walking on the boulevards last Sunday, and the rain compelled him to enter there. He was with M. Chaurigout and his father. Afterward he walked M. Chaurigout home and went with his father to dine at his aunt’s.

After his interrogation was read to him, he said his replies contain the truth, reaffirmed them and signed.

189. Thursday, 25 April 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Joubert and Torte

At 6 pm on 25 April 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

At 10 pm we were in the Champs-Elysées, and S. Noël arrested there

Jean Louis Joubert, twenty-seven years old, native of Nogent-le-Routrou [Maine], unemployed, who lives in Paris on rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie

Jean Charles Guibaut, eighteen years old, native of Valenton [Ile-de-France], kitchen boy, who lives at the residence of the marquise de Brunoy^[24] on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

Joseph Torte, twenty years old, native of Turin [Piedmont (Italy)], tailor’s assistant, who lives at the residence of an innkeeper on rue du Pélican whom he could not name

and Sulpice Simon Roussel, thirty years old, native of Rouen, cook in the service of the marquis de Sinéty,[25] at whose residence he lives on rue du Montparnasse.

We had Guibaut and Roussel released.

With regard to Joubert and Torte, they remained in the custody of S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct and commit them to the prison of La Force.

As for the reasons, with regard to the first, he was arrested in a suspect posture under the trees in the Champs-Elysées, he is dressed like a pederast, and he was found with an enlistment in the Belsunce [cavalry] Regiment, signed by him the same day, on his person. He told us he only signed it to put off someone he could not name and only enlisted because he expected Guibert would enlist with him. He refused to name the recruiter.

As for the second, his admission of taking nocturnal walks in the Tuileries and the Champs-Elysées, his attire, his exterior, and his vague responses all reveal a pederast.

Then we continued the patrol until midnight in the dives and interior of the city and found nothing suspect. S. Noël signed with us.

190. Saturday, 11 May 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 11 May 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards, Champs-Elysées, and various quarters of Paris. In the course of this patrol, which lasted until after midnight, we found nothing suspect or contrary to good morals and ordinances, decrees, and regulations. S. Noël signed with us.

191. Wednesday, 22 May 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 8 pm on 22 April 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards. At 10 pm we were in the Champs-Elysées. In an alley next to the Colosseum,[26] S. Noël arrested a man who told us he is named Louis Ricard, thirty-two years old, native of Limours [Ile-de-France], former office boy, now clerk in the royal lottery office, under the direction of S. Vielte, who lives on rue Neuve Saint-Roch.

The place where Ricard was arrested is very suspect in all ways, and so is his outfit. What is more, he picked up one of S. Noël’s observers and is known by the name of la Cachoise.[27]

We left him to S. Noël to conduct him to his destination.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 1 am. S. Noël signed with us.

192. Saturday, 25 May 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 25 May 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol. At 9:30 we were on boulevard du Temple, and S. Noël arrested there

Jean Baptiste Deleva, thirty-three years old, native of Lonnoie in Flanders, doorman of S. Lesieur, attorney in the Châtelet [since 1771], on rue Neuve Sainte-Eustache

and Laurent Gornet, eighteen years old, native of Mézières-sur-Seine [Ile-de-France], apprentice sculptor, who lives on rue Meslay.

These two men were found walking together. The older one accosted the younger one but did not have time to propose anything to him except for taking a walk with him, although he does not know him. We had them released and instructed Deleva to abstain from visiting the boulevards in the evening, inasmuch as he is the former doorman of S. Nollan Desroches and seems to us to keep up a correspondence with him.

Then we continued the patrol along the boulevards and quays without finding anything contrary to good order and public security. S. Noël signed with us.

193. Friday, 31 May 1782, Arrest of Gaudin and Hébert de Landrieu and search of Landrieux’s residence

At 6 am on 31 May 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he was on boulevard du Temple and encountered and arrested Landrieux, former dragoon, who says he is now in the guards of the comte d’Artois, and another man found with Landrieu. The latter is suspected of pederasty. He conducted these two men before us under the escort of the Paris guard, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and then summoned one of the arrested men, who told us he is named Charles Gaudin, twenty-four years old, native of Cluis [Berry], law student, who lives at the Carignan boarding house on rue des Vieux Etuves Saint-Honoré [1^st].

Asked to tell us how he knows the arrested man and how they met today. Said the man arrested with him is named Landrieu, and he made his acquaintance in the lodging house where he lives. Today, planning to go to the Opera, he entered a café on the boulevard and found Landrieu, who told him he was also going to the theater. They left the café, and, while waiting for the time to enter the Opera, they were walking when they were arrested. He knows Landrieu says he is in the Artois [Swiss] Guards, but he knows him only as a neighbor.

Then we summoned the other arrested man, who told us he is named Jacques Landrieu, thirty years old, native of Paris, former dragoon and now supernumerary in the Artois guards. He had a job but did not see action in Lauzun’s legion[28] He lives in the Carignan boarding house on rue des Vieilles Etuves Saint-Honoré in Paris.

Asked to tell us if he has family in Paris. Said he has no relatives in Paris and is a native of Mauritius.[29] He wishes to return there and is waiting only to obtain his certificate of service to do so.

Asked how he supports himself in Paris. Said he lives on a pension of 800 livres that is paid to him every month by S. de La Chapelle, chevalier de Saint-Louis and captain in the the Queen’s Dragoons Regiment. This pension comes to him from his native region.

Asked why, while he was in the Artois guards, he sought a job in Lauzun’s legion. Said he sought more active service. The enemies he had in the guards made it necessary for him to seek to leave the unit.

Asked if he is still a member of the Artois guards. Did not reply affirmatively. One can make inquiries about him to the duc de Luynes,[30] and he has the honor to be protected by the princesse de Lamballe.[31]

Asked if it is S. Roullé, former personal valet of the duc de Penthièvre who secured the good graces of the princess for him. Said he does not know S. Boullé at all.

After his interrogation was read to him, he said his answers contain the truth and did not sign.

Landrieux is known for having formerly lived with Boullé and Pajot, hatter, but, however, as he might have changed his conduct, and although it seems he was expelled from the Artois guards, we left Landrieux in the hands of S. Noël to conduct him to the residence of the lieutenant general, to whom we refer him.

We went at once to the lieutenant general’s residence and reported to him the reasons that led us to arrest Landrieux and the answers he gave to our questions.

The lieutenant general heard us and Landrieux and, in execution of royal orders, directed us to go immediately to Landrieux’s lodgings, make a careful search of them, and, if any suspect objects were found there, to to conduct Landrieux before him again.

We went with Landrieux, accompanied by S. Noël, to the Carignan boarding house on rue des Vielles Etuves, managed by S. Fleury, and went up to a room on the fifth floor, overlooking the street, occupied by Landrieux.

We made a careful search of all his possessions. In the course of tis search we found nothing that appeared suspect to us.

We noticed, however, that several letters received by Landrieux were addressed to him by the name of Hébert de Landrieux, officer.

We called on him to tell us why people call him Hébert. Said that is his name.

Asked why he told us previously he is named Jacques Landrieux and said nothing to us about the name Hébert.

Said it is because he especially likes the name Landrieux, which also belongs to him.

With the search completed, we had Hébert de Landrieux released and drew up this report of everything above, which S. Noël signed with us.

194. Friday, 31 May 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 9 pm on 31 May 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

We were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested there

At 9:30, Jean Baptiste Saunier, household officer of the comtesse de Coëtlogon,[32] at whose home he lives on rue Saint-Dominique, faubourg Saint-Germain.

Jean Henri Toulaud, twenty years old, glazier, native of Chaillot [16^th], where he lives.

At 10:00, François Sauvé, twenty-seven years old, native of Tours, living on rue des Moineaux [2nd], Butte et passage Saint-Roch, who sells vegetables on the outskirts of the Fifteen Twenties

Charles Augustin Lelong, twenty-four years old, native of Amiens, clerk to master Dupeuty, barrister in the royal councils [since 1779], who lives at master tailor Siot’s home on rue d’Angivillier [1^st].

Saunier, making his way, was accosted by Toulaud, with whom he was arrested. Released.

Toulard was arrested in flagrante delicto by the Swiss Guards on 30 April 1781 and conducted to the Châtelet. Today he was found cruising and was left to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

Sauvé is suspected of pederasty and accused of debauching a child a while ago, for which he was reproached on the open marketplace. His nocturnal stroll lends some credibility to this talk. Released with the injunction not to be in the Champs-Elysées at suspect hours anymore.

Lelong was found on his own, looking suspicious, but he is not known to us. We had him released after a reprimand.

Then we continued the patrol until quarter after midnight on the quays and in other suspect places, where nothing was found contrary to good order. M. Noël signed with us.

195. Monday, 3 June 1782, Arrest of Joseph Lafosse

At 6 pm on 3 June 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Jean Duchauffour, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris,[33] substituting for our colleague S. Foucault, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that by virtue of the royal orders he carries, he just arrested a man named Joseph Lafosse, accused of committing the crime of pederasty on various occasions. Lafosse has already been arrested for this crime and detained in the château of Bicêtre, which he left only with a letter of exile. In violation of this letter, he continues his infamous debaucheries in Paris. He has conducted Lafosse before our colleague S. Foucault and now, given his absence, before us in order to be interrogated. He signed.

Then we, commissaire named above, gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and report above. We then summoned before us Joseph Lafosse. After taking the oath to tell the truth, he said he is named Joseph Lafosse, thirty-five years old, native of Mirecourt in Lorraine, goldsmith by profession, in Paris since carnival Sunday [28 January 1782]. He came here from the town of Mirecourt, where he remained since last October, and lives at the shoemaker S. Lagarde’s house on rue de Bièvre.

Asked where he has worked since he has been in Paris. Replied he has worked and still works with Delaunay, goldsmith, who lives at tripe vendor Mme Crochette’s house on rue du Cimitière Saint-Nicolas [3^rd].[34]

Asked why he remains in Paris, in violation of the royal order that exiles him. Replied he has no royal order or exile.

Asked if he has been in Bicêtre and how long ago he was released from there. Replied that he has been there, spent two and a half months there, and left there at the end of the month of September.

We had Lafosse searched and found in his pockets an enlistment for the Berry Regiment signed by Louis Nicolas Guttelled, goldsmith by profession, sixteen years old, native of Paris, from the parish of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont [5^th], who lives with his mother in a shoemaker’s house on rue de Bièvre. We also found in his pockets two cards with Lafosse’s address on them.

Asked why he is carrying this enlistment and why he carries his address in written form, since he has no position. Replied that this enlistment was given to him in order to hand it over to Gutteteled and that the cards with his address on them were to give to a woman who mends his clothes.

After the questions and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and, asked to do so, said he does not know how to sign.

With this done, Lafosse remained in the hands of S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him, by virtue of royal orders, to the hôtel de La Force prison, accompanied by Julien Brateloup, corporal of the Paris guard from the post in place Maubert, asked for assistance. S. Noël likewise took charge of the enlistment and two cards mentioned above in order to present them at the appropriate time and place, and he signed.

196. Friday, 7 June 1782, Pederasty patrol

About 8 pm on 7 June 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

At 10:30 we were in the Champs-Elysés, and M. Noël arrested under the trees

Frédéric Christophe Cassolet, master chessboard maker, who lives at the Gold Crown on rue Guérin-Boisseau

André Laurent, tonsured cleric of the diocese of Le Mans [Maine], secretary of the marquise de Villette,[35] at whose home he lives on quai des Théatins.

At 11 in the same place, de la Pommeraye, clerk to M. Loliée attorney in the Chambre des Comptes [since 1758], who lives at the marble mason M. Fixon’s on rue Meslay.

After interrogating these men, we had them released.

Then we continued the patrol until 1 am, on the quays and in other locations, where nothing was found contrary to good order. M. Noël signed with us.

197. Monday, 17 June 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 9 pm on 17 June 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

At 11 pm we were on petite rue Saint-Nicolas, and S. Noël arrested there

Pierre Marie Bertrand, who lives at S. de Laronde’s house on rue du Faubourg Saint-Lazare [10^th]

Claude Boucher, who lives at the Desire boarding house in faubourg Saint-Denis

and Jean Gosse, who lives in faubourg Saint-Martin opposite the barracks, all three glaziers.

At 12:30 on rue des Marais, S. Noël arrested Jean Baptiste Chatelard, thirty-one years old, native of Paris, nail gilder, who lives at the smelter S. Guillet’s house on rue au Maire.

After hearing the first three men, we had them released.

With regard to Chatelard, known as a disreputable subject and pederast, we left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 2 am, in various other places and locations without finding anything contrary to regulations and ordinances. S. Noël signed with us.

198. Thursday, 20 June 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Desmezières and Auxerre

At 8 pm on 20 June 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

At 10:30 we were on the southern boulevard, and S. Noël arrested in a coach-house in the spot called hillock of Mount Parnassus [6^th]

André Marie Desmezières, called Saint-Louis, native of Arras, around forty-five years old, self-styled kitchen boy in the household of comtesse de Damas,[36] where he lives, on rue de Vaugirard. He has a room on rue de Poitou in the Marais

and Toussaint Israel Auxerre, bourgeois de Paris, of which he is a native, forty-two years old, who lives at Poignot’s boarding house in Gros Caillou.

We found these two men sleeping side by side in the coach-house without knowing each other, as they said.

The time at which they were found, the place, and their dress indicate two disreputable subjects.

I left these two men to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to the hôtel de La Force prison.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 1 am, in the course of which we found nothing reprehensible. S. Noël signed with us.

[1] One of the six gates noted by Hébert, 147. Royal stables at 195, rue Saint-Honoré.

[2] Variétés Amusantes, theater at 52, rue René Boulanger, opened in 1779, demolished in 1784. MSP, 123, complained that the name was inappropriate because it always presented the same fare.

[3] Paul Joseph de Montesquiou, called comte d’Artagnan (b. 1727).

[4] Pierre Faron Benoît Guerrier de Bézance (1737-93), magistrate in the Cour des Aides of Clermont-Ferrand, married (1765) Marie Louise Adélaïde Millochin, who ran off with his secretary.

[5] Magistrates of royal council who handled petitions “and a great part of the business this tribunal takes cognizance of.” Hébert, 152.

[6] 2-4, rue du Roi de Sicile, demolished.

[7] Journeymen spent several years traveling around France and perfecting their skills. Jacques Louis Ménétra recounted his adventures on the road in his Journal of My Life, ed. Daniel Roche, transl. Arthur Goldhamnner (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).

[8] La Croix Cadet barrier, at the intersection of rue des Martyrs and chemin de Clignancourt.

[9] Not listed in the 1782 AR, 486-90.

[10] Louis Philippe Joseph, duc de Chartres, later duc d’Orléans and Philippe-Egalité (1747-93).

[11] Elèves de l’Opéra theater on boulevard du Temple, opened in 1779, closed in 1780.

[12] Wife of Philippe Joseph, baron de Bréget.

[13] Province in northwest France, with Angers as capital.

[14] Pasquier de la Haye, rue de Richelieu.

[15] This cemetery, at 140-144, rue Montmartre, was closed in 1781.

[16] Pierre Isaac Marquet de la Peyre (1721-98), tax farmer, 1762-80, had two wives but no children.

[17] Bureau pour les affaires des vivres de terre et de marine, étapes, fourrages, lits d’hôpitaux et de garnison, in the 1782 Almanach royal, 138, including the list of directors.

[18] Province in west central France, with Saintes as capital.

[19] Antoine Eléonor Léon Leclerc de Juigné (1728-1811), archbishop as of 1781.

[20] On place de l’Estrapade, demolished.

[21] Jean Baptiste René Lefebvre, notary, 1778-88.

[22] Duchy on the northern French border, now in Belgium.

[23] The dossier includes a rare note from Lenoir, dated 23 April, directing Foucault to interrogate Cluzel, including this language: “I rely on your prudence as to the course it will be appropriate to make after hearing him.”

[24] On Armand Louis Joseph, marquis de Brunoy (1747-81) and his wife, Françoise Emilie de Pérusse d’Escars, see SPT, 137-39.

[25] André Esprit Louis, comte de Sinéty (1740-1811)?

[26] Entertainment complex at 44, rue du Colisée, constructed in 1769-71, demolished in 1780. It offered “dance, music, concerts, jousts on water, and fireworks.” Hébert, 57. “There was nothing fine and pleasant about it but its site.” Mercier, 1: 536.

[27] Perhaps la Cauchoise, woman from the Pays de Caux in Normandy.

[28] Organized in 1778, composed largely of mercenaries, involved in the siege of Yorktown, named after Armand Louis de Gontaut, duc de Lauzun (1747-93).

[29] Ile de France, island colony in the Indian Ocean.

[30] Louis Joseph Charles Amable d’Albert, duc de Luynes (1748-1807).

[31] Marie Thérèse Louise de Savoie (1749-92), wife of Louis Alexandre de Bourbon Penthièvre, prince de Lamballe.

[32] Charlotte Emilie de Ségur (1725-84).

[33] Commissaire, 1780-90, place du Marché neuf.

[34] The cemetery of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, 67-69, rue Beaubourg, was closed in 1791.

[35] Reine Philibert Rouph de Varicourt (1757-1822), adoptive daughter of Voltaire, married Villette at Fernay on 12 November 1777.

[36] Marie Rosseline d’Arcy married (1749) Claude Mathieu, comte de Damas.

199. Tuesday, 2 July 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Duhameau, Tison, and Badeliou

At 8 pm on 2 July 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

At 9:30 we were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested under the thickest trees

Jean Duhameau, twenty-seven years old, and Pierre Joseph Tison, eighteen years old. The first is a native of Montmartre, and the second is a native of Bouchain in Hainault [Flanders]. Both are shoemaker’s assistants and say they live at the shoemaker Allianent’s home on rue Saint-Honoré at the gate of the same name.

After 10, M. Noël arrested in the same place Jean Pierre Huardot, twenty-three years old, native of Torcy [Ile-de-France], hairdresser in the service of M. de Baudera, Portuguese, at whose home he lives in the hôtel de Londres on rue de Richelieu.

At 11:30 M. Noël arrested in the same place Frédéric Badeliou, twenty-seven years old, native of Wittenburg [Germany], self-styled wine merchant’s assistant, who left M. Dairot, wine merchant on rue Saint-Antoine at the corner of rue Saint-Nicolas, on 17 May and now has no fixed abode.

Huardot was released after an injunction not to be in the Champs-Elysées so late.

As for Duhameau and Tison, inasmuch as they were found sitting on chairs, hugging each other closely, singing songs and making indecent remarks, and they contradicted each other on certain points, we left them, as suspects, to M. Noël to conduct them to the prison of La Force.

As for Badeliou, inasmuch as he was walking for a long time at an unseemly hour in the most suspect location in the Champs-Elysées, has no fixed abode and is known as a pederast, we likewise left him to M. Noël to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

Then we continued the patrol on the quays until 1 am, and we found nothing contrary to good order. We drew up this report, and M. Noël signed with us.

200. Thursday, 4 July 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 4 July 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the Saint-Laurent fair, suspect alleys in the quarter, northern boulevards, and other suspect places. In the course of the patrol, we found nothing contrary to good order. We continued the patrol until midnight sounded and drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed with us.

201. Monday, 8 July 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 11 pm on 8 July 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the southern boulevards, the Garre,[1] and other locations in suspect places. In the course of the patrol, which lasted until 3 am, we found nothing contrary to good order. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

202. Wednesday, 10 July 1782, Arrest of Lafosse

At 8 pm on 10 July 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Jean Duchauffour, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, substituting for our colleague S. Foucault, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had been asked to go to the guard-post of the Swiss Guards in the Champs-Elysées, where S. Federici handed over to him and S. Noël arrested, in execution of orders he carries, Louis Lafosse, called Picard, mail carrier.[2] He conducted him before us for interrogation, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance. Then we proceeded to the interrogation of Lafosse, as it is seen in a dossier seprate from this one.

After the interrogation we left Lafosse in the hands of S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to his destination, and he signed this report with us.

203. Wednesday, 10 July 1782, Interrogation of Lafosse, pederast

10 July 1782, [missing] pm

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, of Picard, mail carrier, in execution of orders addressed to us, in which interrogation we proceeded as follows.

Asked initially for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. After taking the oath to tell the truth, he told us he is named Louis Lafosse, called Picard, fifty-three years old, native of Coquerel in Picardy, and lives at the innkeeper Mme Bertrand’s house on rue de Duras in faubourg Saint-Honoré.

Asked what he was doing in the Champs-Elysées when he was arrested several days ago by the Swiss Guards. Said he had supper in Little Poland [8^th] and met a man there, shoemaker’s assistant, whom he had known previously in faubourg Saint-Honoré. This man accosted him, and they had a drink together. He told him that he lived in Chaillot. In leaving the place where they had had supper, he walked the man back through the Champs-Elysées. They sat down there and fell asleep. The Swiss Guards found them and told them to leave. The shoemaker’s assistant escaped. When he got up, the Swiss Guards saw saw his breeches unbuttoned and reproached him for it. The deponent replied that he had had no intention of doing harm and that as his breeches were too tight, he had unbuttoned them. They led him before the Swiss officer, who sent him away. Nothing indecent happened between him and the man.

Asked where the letters he presented in the Swiss guard-post came from. Said they are letters that remain for him to deliver, nothing urgent.

Asked for the name and address of the shoemaker’s assistant he was with. Said he does not remember the name and told him only that he lived in Chaillot. He is a man about thirty-eight to forty years old.

After his interrogation and his replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

204. Thursday, 11 July 1782, Pederasty patrol

About 8 pm on 11 July 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

At 11 we were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested there

Charles Perier, fifty-two years old, native of Epernon [Ile-de-France], domestic of M. Dumoulin, attaché to prince Camille,[3] living on rue de Rochechouart

Jean Rousset, thirty-seven years old, native of Saint-Etienne in Forez,[4] kitchen assistant who lives at the marquis de Retz’s[5] home on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré

and Jean Couturier, thirty years old, native of Bourg de Migerue in Savoy, who lodges at Martin’s home on rue du Faubourg-Montmartre.

These three men were arrested walking on their own, but in the most suspect location. They are not on record and have no charges against them. We had them released.

Then we continued the patrol until 1 am and drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

205. Thursday, 18 July 1782, Pederasty patrol

About 8 pm on 18 July 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

At 9 pm we were in the Champs-Elysées, and Mr. Noël arrested together there:

François Perrée, domestic in the service of M. de Lugny, personal valet of the comte d’Artois, at whose home he lives on rue Mesnil near Maisons-sur-Seine [Ile-de-France].

and Louis François Brunet, twenty-nine years old, native of Bethune [Flanders], tailor’s assistant, who lives in Versailles. He arrived in Paris on Sunday with Fauvel, French Guard in the company stationed on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève [7-11, rue de Tournefort]. Since his arrival in Paris, he has lodged at one Vannier’s home on rue Mouffetard.

Perrée complained that he was sitting and that Brunet, without saying anything to him, sat down next to him and grasped his thighs. He got up immediately to get away from Brunet, who took a turn and came to rejoin him, still without speaking to him. This second time Brunet took his hands. He was going to call for the guard when they were arrested.

Brunet could not deny these facts or his very characteristic outfit. We left him to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

At 11, M. Noël arrested, under the darkest trees in the Champs-Elysées, a man dressed in a large blue levite who had been noticed in the same spot by the last patrol.

The man told us his name is Alexandre Fragnet, thirty-two years old, native of Aurillac in Auvergne, domestic in the service of M. de Retang, gendarme in the guard, at whose home he lives on rue Neuve-des-Bons-Enfants [1^st].

Fragnet, recognized as a pederast, nicknamed Comtois [from Franche-Comté] and Female Second-Hand Dealer, procurer, thief and disreputable subject, was left to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

Then we continued the patrol on the quays until midnight and drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

206. Friday, 26 July 1782, Arrest of Garnier, suspected of pederasty

At 11 pm on 26 July 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared Jean Tabuit, corporal of the Paris Guard at the guard-post at rue de Marigny.

He told us that while he was patrolling the Champs-Elysées, he heard noise and went toward it with his squad. They found a man coming out from under the trees. The Swiss Guard tried to arrest him, and he resisted. The man was arrested and conducted to the Swiss guard-post, where S. Federici charged them with the man and a note signed by him and addressed to us. They conducted this man before us and handed Federici’s note over to us.

We summoned the [arrested] man. He told us he is named Abraham Garnier, fifty years old, native of Baune [Anjou], master baker, and lives on rue Saint-Honoré at the gate.

Asked what he was doing in the Champs-Elysées at 9:45. Said he was walking.

Asked who the two men he was with were, who fled. Said he was not with anyone and did not see anyone flee.

Asked why, when the Swiss Guard tried to arrest him, he resisted. Said he took them for thieves, and proof of it exists, since he shouted “Stop, thief” at them, when the Paris guard arrived.

Asked if he believes it is decent to go walking in a public place without breeches, as he is. Said he did not cause trouble in any household, and, asked to do so, signed.

In light of the note signed by S. Federici, attached here, it is established that Garnier was found and arrested in the Champs-Elysées, ready to commit vile deeds with two other men, who fled. He is without breeches, and he resisted the royal Swiss Guards. We left him to S. Noël, police inspector, summoned by us, who took charge of him to conduct, by royal order, to the hôtel de La Force prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

207. Saturday, 27 July 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Couturier and Poymemes

At 10 pm on 27 July 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited various quarters of this city.

At 11 pm we were on boulevard de la Poissonnerie, and S. Noël arrested there

Julien Helie, thirty-five years old, native of La Chapelle Moche, assistant cashier to S. Corman, treasurer of the navy, who lives at a pork-butcher’s house on rue Montorgeuil.

At 11:15, in the same spot, S. Noël arrested

Jean Couturier, thirty years old, native of Bourg de Megesen in Savoy [Italy], errand-boy, who lodges at Martin’s place on rue du Faubourg Montmartre

and Médard Poymemes, twenty-nine years old, native of Dallon in Picardy, former lackey of the comtesse de Richmond, now lawn [type of fabric] vendor, who lives at the second-hand dealer Roti’s house on rue Beauregard.

After he was heard and instructed to avoid suspect places at unseemly times, we had Helie released. Couturier has already been arrested, in the Champs-Elysées on the eleventh of this month, and released, although he was quite violently suspected. Given his recidivism, we left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison.

Noël likewise took charge of Poymemes, to the same end. This man was found with another unknown to him, walking in the most suspect place on the boulevards. He is, moreover, quite suspect for unrelated reasons.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 2 am, and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

208. Wednesday, 14 August 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 14 August 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the boulevards, the plain and coach-houses of Vaugirard, and various places in this city. At 11 pm we were on the quai des [Grands] Augustins, and S. Noël arrested there as suspect

Grégoire Braca, twenty-five years old, native of La Rauthe Sasaillan [Provence], who lives at the wigmaker Factin’s house on rue de la Huchette. After questioning this man, we had him released.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until midnight struck, in the course of which of which we found nothing contrary to good order. S. Noël signed with us.

209. Saturday, 17 August 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 17 August 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol and visited the Champs-Elysées, quays and other locations in this city.

At 11:30 pm we were on the quai des Augustins, and M. Noël arrested there as suspect

Philippe Lhuillier, forty-four years old, native of Bauge in Beaujolais [Lionnais], self-styled messenger for wine merchants, who lives in the house of M. LaCave, tailor, on rue du Four-Saint-Honoré [1^st]. After questioning this man, we had him released.

We continued the patrol until midnight. Of everything above we drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

210. Thursday, 22 August 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 7 pm on 22 August 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol and visited various areas in this city.

At 11 pm we were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested there

Jean Milton, twenty years old, native of Passy in Savoy, who lodges with the barkeeper Jacard on rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin

and Joseph Moreau, nineteen years old, native of Conflans in Savoy, who lodges with

la Leclerc, innkeeper, on rue de l’Egout [7^th].

After questioning these men, we had them released.

Then we continued the patrol until 1 am, in the course of which we found nothing contrary to the ordinances. And M. Noël signed with us.

211. Thursday, 5 September 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 9 pm on 5 September 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol.

At 9:30 we were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested there

Jean Wrie, forty-five years old, native of Aousets, canton of Basel [Switzerland], domestic in the service of M. Ernest, captain in the Swiss Guards, at whose home he lives on rue d’Artois.

Wrie was found with his breeches unbuttoned, in the company of a man who escaped. He repeatedly offered the Swiss Guards who arrested him an écu of six livres to let him go.

At 10:30, M. Noël arrested in the same place

François Beau, thirty-six years old, native of Vieilley near Besançon, former domestic of the baron d’Orbec, major general,[6] whom he left in Lausanne [Switzerland] without a certificate of good conduct from him. The baron lives at the hôtel de Champ-Fleury on the street of the same name.

and Pierre Auguste Morlan, former soldier in the Royal Infantry Regiment, living on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré.

Beau, pederast known by the name of the Devout Female, friend of the Damsel of Malzéville [Lorraine], was found with several cards including his address on his person.

After Morlan was questioned, he was released.

As for Wrie and Beau, we left them to M. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to the prison of La Force.

Then we continued the patrol until 2 am and drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

212. Sunday, 8 September 1782, Arrest of Ruel, pederast

At 11 pm on 8 September 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared Jean Tabrin, corporal of the Paris guard stationed at Marigny.[7]

He showed us a paper dated today, 9 pm, signed Federici, which is the report of the reasons for which a man he conducted before us was arrested in the Champs-Elysées, which report remains attached to this one.

We summoned the arrested man. He said his name is Louis Antoine Charles Ruel, forty-one years old, native of Paris, bourgeois, who lives in the master mason Monier’s house on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin.

He told us that in passing through the Champs-Elysées and seeing a flare in the air, he asked a man if it was from the fireworks for the joust [at the Coliseum]. Having observed to this man there were no whores in the Champs-Elysées, this man told him one could secure one for an écu, and he offered this man an écu for a whore. When this man arrested him, he did not know what this meant. He called for the guard and was conducted to the post of the Swiss Guards. Asked to sign, he did so.

M. Ruel could not have mistaken the uniform of the Swiss Guards, and he admitted, in a way, making the proposal, of another stripe, to the one guard. We left him to M. Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, summoned for this purpose, who took charge of Ruel to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

Of the above we drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

Note from Federici to Foucault, 9 pm, 8 September 1782

I have the honor to send you a fine pederast who offered a solder in my guard three livres and who pointed out to him the little alley in question for the site of consummation. It was in the vicinity of this alley the Swiss Guards arrested him, but this man resisted, and the Swiss could not have managed without the Paris guard, who were there to lend them a hand. After he was arrested, he offered the Swiss money to let him go, which he rightly refused. Jacobay, soldier in my guard, firmly believes this man is the accomplice of the German who escaped last Thursday.^[8]

213. Tursday, 10 September 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 10 September 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the boulevards, the plain and coach-houses of Vaugirard, and the quays. In the course of this patrol, which lasted until midnight, we found nothing contrary to ordinances and public order. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

214. Saturday, 14 September 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 10 pm on 14 September 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the quai des Orfèvres and Pont Neuf. At 11 we were on quai de la Vallée, and S. Noël arrested there

Antoine François Duhau, thirty-four years old, native of Lyon, attorney in the parlement of Grenoble and secretary to S. de Vaucresson, avocat general of the Grand Conseil,[9] who lives at the Saint Cyprian boarding house on rue de Tournon.

Duhau picked up Robineau. After he was questioned and searched, without finding anything suspect, he was released, with an injunction to be more circumspect in the future.

At 11:45, on the same quay, S. Noël arrested along the quay

Marc Antoine Hervieux, thirty-three years old, native of Orbec [Normandy], domestic in the service of S. de Montferra, who lives on rue de Sèvres in faubourg Saint-Germain, and lodges at Gouy’s place on rue Saint-Denis

and Jean Rocheron, thirty-three years old, native of Thionville, smelter, who lives on rue Saint-Eloy.

We found these two men deep in conversation without knowing each other, as they admitted to us, and they tried to escape when we approached. We left them as suspects to S. Noël, who took charge of them to conduct them to the hôtel de La Force prison.

After midnight, on the same quay, S. Noël arrested Louis Cabarat, forty years old, native of Tours, unemployed, who lodges in the Vines boarding house on rue du Petit Lion in faubourg Saint-Germain.

Cabarat picked up Antoine [Baude], one of S. Noël’s observers, and made indecent propositions. After having him searched, without finding anything suspect, and making strong injunctions to him, and even threatening to report his conduct to the magistrate in order to have him expelled from Paris, we had him released.

We continued this patrol until 1 am and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

215. Saturday, 28 September 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of François Mignon

At 6 pm on 28 September 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol.

At 7:30 pm we were at the Saint-Laurent fair, and S. Noël arrested François Mignot, nineteen years old, native of Paris, glazier, who lives at a pork-putcher’s house in faubourg Saint-Denis. We left Mignot, pederast who frequents the Tuileries and loiters at the fair, and is known for it by the French Guards, to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 11 pm, on the boulevards and adjacent streets, without finding any suspect men. We drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed with us.

216. Tursday, 10 October 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 10 October 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards, the moats of the Bastille, the new streets in the Marais, and other suspect places in this city and its suburbs.

In the course of this patrol, which lasted until 11, we found nothing contrary to good order. We drew up this report of the patrol, to be used as thought proper, and S. Noël signed with us.

217. Tuesday, 12 November 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 12 November 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards and other places and quarters in this city.

At 9:30 pm we were on the boulevards, and S. Noël arrested Noël Liot, forty-two years old, native of Cahagnes in Lower Normandy, doorman to S. de Charentoniot, magistrate in the Cour des Aides,[10] at whose residence he lives on rue du Petit Musc, in the area of the boulevards newly laid out, near the Coal-Box.[11]

After questioning him we gave him an injunction not to visit such places at unseemly hours and had him released.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until 11:30 pm, without finding anything contrary to good order and to ordinances and regulations. We drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed with us.

218. Saturday, 16 November 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 5 pm on 16 November 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol and visited the Champs-Elysées, the boulevard de Richelieu, the quays and other locations in this city.

Around 10 we were on the quai des Augustins, and M. Noël arrested Jean Alexandre, twenty years old, native of Paris, living in the house of M. Pichaut, grocer, on rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève, for prowling.

After subjecting Alexander to questioning, we enjoined him not to chose this location anymore for nocturnal promenades and had him released.

We then continued the patrol in the adjacent streets until around midnight.

Of the above we drew up this report, which M. Noël signed with us.

219. Thursday, 21 November 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Croubois

At 6 pm on 21 November 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and on the northern boulevards.

At 9:30 we were on boulevard du Pont aux Choux, and S. Noël arrested on rue Basse

Augustin Bellier, scissors maker, who lives with his mother, concierge of the Arquebus in Arquebuse

and Louis Croubois, self-styled stockingmaker, who lives at S. Molière’s house on the square around the Saint-Antoine gate.[12]

After questioning Bellier, we realized that he was doing nothing but passing by and had him released.

Then we asked Croubois what he was doing along the parapet on boulevard du Pont aux Choux.

Said he was watching a girl in wooden shoes who went down into rue Basse. Asked where he came from. Said he came from the residence of S. Dethinville, his attorney, who lives on rue de Cléry or in Villeneuve [2^nd]. Asked if he was returning to his place and if he is married. Said he was returning to his place.

Asked why, when he noticed us near him, he went away toward the Saint-Antoine gate for about twenty paces and then backtracked to the boulevard by another another way. Said he came back to see if he would meet the girl he mentioned to us. Asked if he knows this girl. Said the flesh is weak. Pointed out to him to him there is reason to believe he was going to meet a man with a round hat, frock-coat, and white muff, whom we noticed near him, who passed by us in escaping. Said he did not see him. Asked if he was not arrested in the Luxembourg on 3 July 1780. Said no. Asked if he does not go to the Mousetrap, quai des Orfèvres,[13] and to quai des Augustins in the evenings. Said that he does not know the Mousetrap and that he passed, and passes often, on quai des Augustins in the evenings in returning from the residence of his mother, who lives on rue Saint-Maur. Asked to tell us if he knows how to write and sign his name. Said he does not know how to sign.

Croubois seemed very suspect to us, and we left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until almost midnight, in part of faubourg Saint-Antoine, Saint-Paul quarter, grain port, and adjacent places, without finding anything contrary to good order. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

220. Thursday, 28 November 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Christophe

At 6 pm on 28 November 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of M. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, accompanied him on pederasty patrol to visit various quarters of this city.

Around 6:30 we were in the Champs-Elysées, and M. Noël arrested

Antoine Marcel, forty-six years old, native of Saint-Arnoult in Picardy, domestic in the service of M. de Saint-Martin, physician to the duc de Chartres, who lives in the Palais Royal

and Guillaume Michel Christophe, seventeen years old, native of Chaillot, salad vendor, living on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré.

Both were found on the prowl. Marcel was released with an injunction not to be in public promenades at unseemly hours.

Christophe was cruising and letting himself be cruised and is known for prowling the Champs-Elysées. We left him to M. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the prison of La Force.

Then we continued the patrol until after midnight, in the course of which no other suspect men were found. M. Noël signed with us.

221. Thursday, 5 December 1782, Pederasty patrol, Arrest of Herzel

At 6 pm on 5 December 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol on the northern boulevards.

At 8 pm we were on boulevard du Pont aux Choux, and S. Noël arrested there

Michel Tonnere, forty-three, native of Vienna in Austria, mathematical instruments worker, who lives at S. Mollard’s house on the square around the Saint-Antoine gate.

At 8:30 pm, in the same place, S. Noël arrested Malo Duval, thirty-two years old, native of Saint-Malo [Brittany], domestic in the service of S. Goulet, notary,[14] at whose residence he lives on rue Saint-Antoine.

After questioning the two men at the guard-post and enjoining them not to visit such a place at unseemly hours, we had them released.

At 9:30 pm, on the terrace of the boulevard opposite the Comic Medley, S. Noël arrested Henry Juste Herzel, thirty-one years old, self-styled captain lieutenant in the Swiss Lochmann Regiment, reformed in 1764, and royal pensioner, who lives at widow Huvet’s rooms in a wigmaker’s house on rue de Braque.

Herzel made indecent propositions to Antoine [Baude], one of S. Noël’s observers. He has already been arrested twice during patrols, on petite rue Saint-Nicolas, and released. Given the recidivism, we left him to S. Noël to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison.

Then we continued the patrol, which lasted until almost midnight, in various quarters of Paris, without finding anything contrary to good order. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

222. Friday, 13 December 1782, Arrest of Degois and Desestre

At 8:30 pm on 13 December 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him to the guard-post at the Pont aux Choux on the northern boulevards. S. Noël told us there that he was on watch on the boulevard and noticed the man who is in the guard-post, who had just left another, and that these two men and the location seemed suspect to him. He was able to arrest only the man present here. He said he is named Nicolas Degois, called Joinville, thirty-eight years old, native of Bussières in Champagne, domestic in the service of Mlle Allard, in whose rooms he lives at the residence of S. Piedfort de Senlis, attorney in the Parlement [since 1755], on rue des Menestriers.

Asked where he was coming from and what he was doing on the boulevards. Said he was coming from his employer’s gardener’s place, had an urgent need, went up on the boulevard, and went away to do his job. Asked where the gardener lives. Said he lives on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

We enjoined Degois not to visit such spots so late and had him released,

While we were at the guard-post, S. Noël was on watch again and arrested a man on rue Daval who said he is named Jacques Philippe Desestre, thirty-eight years old, native of Paris, secretary to S. Brochet de Verigny, who lives on rue Vieille Notre-Dame [5^th] in faubourg Saint-Marcel.

Asked what he was doing at 9 pm on the boulevards. Said when he left the residence of S. de Verigny, who lives on rue de La Harpe, he felt a need and went up on the boulevard to satisfy it. Asked what he said to a man dressed in a gray jacket and wooden shoes. Said he asked him what time it was. He wished to see the work in progress, so he went down to rue Basse, and this man followed him. Pointed out to him to him that this conduct seems very suspect to us. Said there is nothing suspect about it.

S. Desestre’s conduct seems reprehensible to us, so we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him at once to the residence of and before the lieutenant general of police. We entered a carriage with S. Noël and S. Desestre. The latter offered to pay what would be appropriate to avoid presenting himself before the magistrate, to which we replied that we were owed nothing.

At the residence of the lieutenant general of police, we reported the reasons that led S. Noël to arrest S. Desestre and us to appear before him.

The lieutenant general of police heard our report and S. Desestre’s explanations. He said that when he saw the man in wooden shoes, he unfortunately remembered inclinations that are only too common in collèges.[15] It is quite true he spoke to the man, but he did no harm. The lieutenant general of police ordered this man released and enjoined him to be more circumspect in the future on pain of serious punishment.

Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

222a. Wednesday, 18 December 1782, Arrest and interrogation of Hussé, called La Boullaye

At [missing] pm on 18 October 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that he has been informed for a long time that La Boullaye and Bazile, both young folks without jobs, practice no trade other than cruising in the Tuileries garden and living from their libertinage. He has gone on watch at various times to assure himself of this profligacy and put an end to its causes. At around 6 pm today he found La Boullaye leaving the courtyard of the Tuileries, arrested him, and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. He told us he is named Jérémie Hussé, 15 years old, native of Cour l’Evêque [Champagne] in the diocese of Langres, unemployed, lodges at the England boarding house on rue Saint-Honoré.

Asked if he is a jockey. Said he was one, for Sauteuil, kept woman, who lives on rue des Bons Enfants. He left there three months ago, and since that time he does nothing.

Asked where he came from this evening, before he was arrested. Said he was in his room and felt ill in his head. He went out to go take the air in the Champs-Elysées. He then came back to the Tuileries and met there Sprite and Rag, to whom he spoke. He was returning to his place when he was arrested.

Asked who Sprite and Rag are. Said that Lutin is named Toussaint, is the son of a pork-butcher, and lives on rue du Fourneaux and that Rag is a young man of his acquaintance.

Asked if he knows Bazile. Said he is the godson of Messire Brazon, attorney, and lived formerly with S. Brazon but does not live there any longer and lodges currently on the sixth floor at a candlemaker’s house on rue Tirechappe [1^st].

Asked where he made all his acquaintances. Said he made them in the promenades.

Asked what he lives on, since he he has no job. Said he makes acquaintances.

Asked if he knows yet other friends of Rag who go to the Tuileries. Said he also knows Vichy [Vicheron], employee of the Lottery.

Asked why he is known by the name of la Boullaye. Said it is the name of a shopkeeper from Normandy who raised him, and he took this name.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth and, asked to do so, he signed.

Inasmuch as this man, like his acquaintances, seems to us to lend himself to pederasty, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

222b. Thursday, 19 December 1782, Arrest of Bazile

At [missing] pm on 19 December 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet de Paris, appeared Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us that Hussé noted Bazile’s address to him yesterday and that he decided to observe this man’s movements today. Around 6 pm this evening he saw Bazile leave his place with Toussaint, who parted from him before he could determine what became of him. With regard to Bazile, he arrested him on rue de L’Arbre Sec and conducted him before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of this appearance and report and summoned the arrested man. Asked to tell us his first and last names, age, native region, and status. Said he is named Louis Bazile, twenty years old, native of Chartres [Orléanais], hairdresser, and lives at a candlemaker’s house on rue Tirechappe.

Asked who his godfather is. Said it is Messire Brazon, attorney in the Parlement [since 1778], who lives on rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Asked if it has been a long time since he has seen Messire Brzaon and why he left his place. Said he left Messire Brazon’s place to enter a limonadier’s shop, which he left to learn hairdressing.

Asked who lodges him where he is. Said he lodges in the room of Messire Brazon’s former cook, who lent him this room.

Asked what he lives on. Said he he lives on his position.

Asked if he knows Rag, how he knows him, who introduced him, and if he has ever been to his place. Said Barlié, limonadier’s assistant, with whom he lived, introduced him to Buquet, called Rag. The latter persuaded him to go to his place on various occasions to write bills for him. He was there on different occasions and stopped going there after men made indecent propositions to him, to which he did not wish to respond.

Asked why he was in the Tuileries in the evenings with Rag. Said he went to walk with other young folks he knew and never to the barriers of the Invalides. He encountered Rag, who was also acquainted with these young folks, and spoke to him. He has not been to the Tuileries for three weeks. Asked to sign, he did not do so.

Since Bazile is at least suspected of pederasty, we left him to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to the hôtel de La Force prison. We drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

223. Friday, 20 December 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 5 pm on 20 December 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards and various quarters of this city.

At 6:00, we were in the Coal-Box, and S. Noël arrested there

Charles Nicolet, thirty years old, cartwright, native of Chambly [Ile-de-France], who lives at the master cartwright S. Girard’s house on rue du Bac.

At 7:00, in the same place, S. Noël arrested Jean Baptiste Chocart, forty years old, native of Nuys, personal valet of S. de Boynes, who lives at the hôtel de Boynes on rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin.

At 8:00, on boulevard du Pont aux Choux, S. Noël arrested

Jacques Ternisien, major-domo of S. de Villedeuil,[16] at whose residence he lives on place Royale

and Jean François Daridan, twenty-two years old, son of S. Daridan, wine vendor, in whose house he lives, on the corner of rue de Richelieu.

We released these three men, although very suspected of pederasty, after we gave them injunctions not to visit suspect places.

We continued the patrol until 11, and of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël, who signed with us.

224. Monday, 23 December 1782, Arrest of Buquet, called Rag

At [missing] pm on 23 December 1782, at our residence and before us, Pierre Jean Duchauffour, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, substituting for our colleague S. Foucault, appeared S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector.

He told us he had arrested today Buquet, called Rag, pederast who has already been in Bicêtre for that reason, continuing the same trade and debauching young folks. He conducted this man before us, and he signed.

We gave S. Noël a record of his appearance and summoned the arrested man. He said he is named Jean François Buquet, called Rag, more than twenty-six years old, and lives at the shoe store on rue Saint-Honoré.

Asked what he goes to do every evening in the Tuileries. Said he goes to walk like all young folks. Asked if he knows La Boullaye and Bazile. Said he sees them in the Tuileries. Bazile is the good friend of Ytin, who lives in the house of a pork-butcher on rue des Fourreurs [1^st], who resides with a self-styled Englishman wearing a wolfskin muff[17] and fawn-bellied frock-coat who goes frequently to the café at the corner of rue des Fourneaux [15^th].

Asked why, scorning the kindness of the magistrate, who granted his release from Bicêtre only on the condition of being more prudent in the future, he prostitutes himself again and goes to suspect places. Said when he has no money, he seeks to earn some. He asks please not to go to Bicêtre but to be enlisted for the most distant colonies. Asked who his associates in debauchery are. Said he knows, from partying not with them but with others, Foret, who lives at the limonadier’s house on rue Feydeau, Vichery, employee of the Indies Company,[18] whom he believes lives on rue Saint-Martin, Hérault, apprentice hatter, whom he believes lives on rue Montmartre, and Ytin, whom he mentioned above.

With regard to Griffon, previously detained in Bicêtre, with whom he has been seen since and who goes to his place, he believes he has recovered from his errors. Asked to sign, he did not do so.

We left Buquet to S. Noël, who took charge of him to conduct him to hôtel de La Force prison. Of everything above we drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

225. Saturday, 28 December 1782, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 28 December 1782, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards and various quarters of this city.

At 8:30 pm we were in the Coal-Box on the boulevards, and S. Noël arrested there, in the most remote spot,

Joseph La Pereusse, native of Suippes [Champagne], forty-two years old, self-styled surgeon, who lives on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, opposite the orphanage.[19]

He told us that in passing along the boulevard he had severe colic and withdrew into the most remote spot to satisfy a need. He saw a man who looked at him, was curious, and took two turns, but he spoke to no one and has a wife and children.

After letting him know he seemed suspect to us and enjoining him to chose other places to satisfy his needs, we had him released.

Then we continued the patrol until after 11 pm and drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed with us.

[1] Incompletely excavated semicircular basin for barges on the Left Bank, beyond the Salpetrière [13^th].

[2] In the Petite Poste, established in 1760, for delivery of mail within Paris.

[3] Camille Louis de Lorraine, prince de Marsan (1725-82), married but had no children.

[4] Province in central France, with Montbrison as its capital.

[5] Pierre Adam François, marquis de Retz de Bressolles de Pelamourgue (1757-1821).

[6] Jacques Guy Georges Henri de Chaumont, baron d’Orbec (1731-79), married and had two children, including Henri Victor Guy Jacques Georges Hervé de Chaumont Quitry, baron d’Orbec (1765-1848), who married and had one child. The list of major generals in the 1782 AR does not include any baron d’Orbec. The Chaumonts, father and son, attained the rank of colonel.

[7] Adjacent to the hôtel de Beauvau, 96 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré.

[8] Not mentioned in Federici’s reports.

[9] Court that adjudicated cases evoked by the crown from regular judicial procedures in the parlements.

[10] Court with jurisdiction over taxes and the royal domain.

[11] La Charbonnerie, area below the level of the boulevards near the intersection of rue Amelot, which followed the line of the old moat filled in 1777, and rue du Chemin Vert.

[12] Triumphal arch adjacent to the Bastille, erected in 1671 and demolished in 1778.

[13] The ramp down from the quay led to a watering spot on the Seine and archways that supported the buildings on one side of rue Saint-Louis.

[14] Charles Hyacinthe Goulet, notary, 1766-87.

[15] Hébert, 128, counted ten in Paris, in which students studied Latin, French, rhetoric, and philosophy over eight years.

[16] Pierre Charles Laurent de Villedeuil (1747-1828), maître des requêtes.

[17] Muffs sold for 12 to 300 livres, depending on the fur, in shops clustered on rue des Fourrures. Hébert, 153.

[18] Founded in 1664 for trade in the East Indies.

[19] Enfants Trouvés, 116-18, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, demolished. It received 8000 infants per year, and half of them died in the first two years. Mercier, 2: 148.

1783 (Y 13410)

226. Friday, 18 January 1783, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 18 January 1783, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards, Marais, grain port, and various quarters of this city. In the course of the patrol, we found nothing contrary to good morals or to ordinances, decrees, and regulations. We continued the patrol until midnight and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

227. Wednesday, 23 January 1783, Pederasty patrol

At 6 pm on 23 January 1783, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited the northern boulevards and various quarters of this city. In the course of the patrol, we found nothing suspect or contrary to good morals and decrees, regulations, and ordinances. We continued the patrol until 11 pm and drew up this report, which S. Noël signed with us.

228. Wednesday, 20 February 1783, Pederasty patrol

At 5 pm on 20 February 1783, we, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, at the request of S. Louis Henri Noël, royal councilor and police inspector, went with him on pederasty patrol and visited various quarters of this city.

At 8:15, we were at the Saint-Germain fair, and S. Noël arrested there a man known by the name of Bellecoeur, who told us he is named Charles Noël du Vernon, called Bellecoeur, former soldier in the carbineers, since then domestic of the comte de Laval and now in the service of the marquis de Dellié, at whose residence he lives on rue Portefoin, number 14.

At 9:30, at café d’Estaing on rue d’Orléans Saint-Honoré [1^st], S. Noël arrested

Henry Gallebois, fifteen years old, native of Paris, groom in the service of S. Dandey, syndic of Strasbourg, at whose residence he lives on rue Saint-Lazare

Jean Chrysostome Colin, sixteen years old, native of Paris, pupil of S. Girardin, notary,[1] who lives with his father, wigmaker, on rue aux Fers [1^st]

Louis Joseph Vicherin, fifteen and a half years old, employee of the royal lottery, who lives at his sister’s residence on rue Saint-Martin at the corner of rue des Vieilles Etuves.

With regard to Bellecoeur, who was known in Paris for giving himself over to pederasty but withdrew from this city and might have changed his conduct, we had him released and enjoined him not to visit suspect places anymore, especially the Saint-Germain fair during its duration.

As for Gallebois, Vichery, and Colin, given their young age and the fact that they have relatives in Paris, we had them released to their relatives. We had them summoned to that end and enjoined them to watch over their conduct.

We continued the patrol until midnight and drew up this report of it, which S. Noël signed with us.

229. Wednesday, 29 March 1783, Pederasts

At [missing] am on 29 March 1783, at our residence and before us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet of Paris, appeared S. Jean Gerin, limonadier, who lives on rue de la Verrerie in the parish of Saint-Merri.

He told us and stated he knows Percheron, cook at the Reims boarding house,^[2] to be a disreputable subject to be feared for the sake of young folks. This man boasted in his café that although he is married, he maintained a young man, does not care about all that others might say about it, and fears nothing. He believes he should make this statement to us for public security, and he signed.

M. Nicolas Briffault, master pastrymaker, who lives on rue de la Verrerie in the parish of Saint-Merri, also appeared.

He stated to us the whole quarter is gripped by the misconduct of Percheron, cook at the Reims boarding house. He learned from Clermont, former domestic in the service of the comtesse de La Motte,^[3] that Percheron repeatedly offered him shirts, money, and gifts and paid for his drinks to persuade him to yield to him. Clermont resisted his solicitations and did not want to accept anything, but it is certain Percheron is to be feared for the sake of the young. He signed.

Geneviève Caron, wife of S. Etienne Jacques Caron, master gilder, who lives on rue de la Verrerie in the parish of Saint-Merri.

She told us and stated that, having been told about Percheron’s misconduct and warned that he tried to lure her youngest son to his place, she inquired whether he had gone there. She learned he went there once and then forbid him to see Percheron anymore. Since then she does not believe her son has been to his place, but she is thoroughly convinced Percheron is a dangerous man. She signed.

Louis Tannette, fifteen years old, domestic in the service of the comtesse de La Motte, at whose residence he lives on rue de la Verrerie, also appeared.

He stated to us that during the time he has lived at the Reims boarding house with his comrade Clermont, he has seen Percheron make various proposals to Clermont, specifically to give him collars and shirts and to pay for his drinks, caress him, unbutton his breeches in his presence, place his hands on Clermont’s breeches, which made Clermont, who did not want to lend himself to what Percheron wanted from him, hit him repeatedly. He signed.

Jean Marie Caron, sixteen and a half years old, apprentice brazier, who lives at S. Audry’s house on rue de la Verrerie, also appeared.

He told us and stated that about a year ago, to get warm on Sundays and holidays, he often went to the doorman’s lodge at the Reims boarding house, where he saw Percheron. One day Percheron was delivering linens to the hotel rooms, and the deponent helped him. They were in one of the rooms, and Percheron threw him on a bed, undid his breeches, undid his own, handled him, and urged him to do the same to him. The deponent struggled, and fortunately a hotel servant showed up, and he got away. He believes it is this girl, who is no longer in the hotel, who informed his father and mother about what had happened to him. He signed.

We gave the deponents records of these statements and drew up this report, to be used as thought proper.

230. Wednesday, 3 April 1783, Interrogation of Percheron, pederast

11 am on 3 April 1783

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, in execution of the orders addressed to us, of Percheron, prisoner in the hôtel de La Force prison, as follows.

After taking Percheron’s oath to tell the truth, we asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. He said he is named Doin Augustin Percheron, thirty-nine years old, native of Morville-en-Beauce [Orléanais], cook in the service of S. Briffault, at whose residence he lives at the Reims boarding house on rue de la Verrerie.

Asked if he knows Flon and how. Said he met him in 1771 or 1772. He was a wine vendor’s assistant on rue de la Verrerie at the corner of rue des Mauvais Garçons. He lost sight of him for four or five years and encountered him again on rue des Coquilles [7^th].

Asked where he met Rouvoy. Said he made his acquaintance in Butte Saint-Roch and rarely saw him.

Asked who the Dupré is who wrote to him in 1779.[4] Said it is the same person as Flon, who told him it is his real name, the one he gave in the households where he served.

Asked if he has known Caron the younger. Said he knew him from seeing him at his employer’s place. He came to see the doorman at the Reims boarding house, and he saw him. He went up to the rooms with him one time.

Asked if Caron did something to him that warranted whipping. Said no, he did not try to give him anything, and he did not do anything with Caron.

Asked if he has known Badin. Said he knew him at the notary Jourdain’s^[5] residence. They found themselves together at Nicolet’s residence, where he believes he made his acquaintance. He has not seen him for about a year.

Asked if he has known d’Orléans. Said he met a d’Orléans who lived on rue Saint-Louis in the Marais long ago. He does not know what he did. He believes he met him as well at Nicolet’s residence.

Asked if he has met comte Larimont and what became of his domestic. Said he lives at the Reims boarding house and had a domestic named Hippolyte who enlisted and left him.

Asked if he has known Clermont. Said he is a domestic of Mme de La Motte, and they have had differences with each other but never fought. Clermont never hit him.

Asked why he suggested giving Clermont shirts, and money. Said he knows very well these claims were made by Clermont before him and the master of the boarding house, but they are false. He has never spoken to Mme de La Motte about it, and did not want to do anyone harm.

Asked why he said in the middle of a café that he maintains a young man and does not care what anyone might say about it. Said he sometimes goes to the limonadier Gerin’s to drink eau-de-vie [fruit brandy] and has never made any remarks.

Asked if he was associated with the hotel wigmaker’s assistant. Said he knew he worked in the hotel.

Asked if he knows the wigmaker Legrand on rue de la Tissanderie. Said he had his hair styled there. On Christmas Eve he met Lemajor and an assistant of Legrand’s at Christmas mass. They were in La Courtille once with Legrand’s assistant. They had a drink together, but he does not know who paid.

Asked if he knows a water carrier. Said he knows Jean, the hotel’s water carrier, and they have had a drink together a few times. Sometimes one paid and sometimes the other.

Asked if he has never had a room outside the houses where he lived. Said no.

Asked if he has never had relations with men. Said no.

Pointed out to him to him he lied to us when he just replied that he did not undo Caron’s breeches, since it is true that he laid him on a bed, undid his breeches, handled him, undid his own and urged him to do likewise, while handling him. Said he does not believe that could have happened to him.

Asked him what differences he had with Petit, Mme de Tourampré’s domestic. Said he made remarks about him to the doorman, and that was the crux of their differences.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, reaffirmed them, and he signed.

231. Sunday, 7 April 1783, Interrogation of Lormeret

10 am on 7 April 1783

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, in execution of orders addressed to us, undergone at the hôtel de La Force by Lormeau, prisoner there, whose interrogation we conducted as follows, after he took the oath to tell the truth.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named Jean Baptiste Clément Lormeret, sixteen and a half years old, native of Paris, son of S. Lormeret, former director of the tax on cards,^[6] who now lives at the quarries in Charenton [Ile-de-France]. For the last week he has lodged at an inn on rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Asked how he has conducted himself in the last few years. Said he lived in a rented room at the residence of his uncle S. Burette, boarding house manager, on rue de de La Jussienne. About eighteen months ago he left there and entered the Barefoot Carmelites[7] as a novice. He knew Gérard, novice, and brothers Armand and Placide, monks. In the evenings, around 6 pm, these men, specifically brother Armand, had prostitutes brought to the parlor and diverted themselves with them. The novice Gérard made propositions to him. They touched each other, even helped each other consummate the crime. He slept with brother Armand twice without pollution. With regard to brother Placide, he allowed himself once or twice to continue his touching until complete consummation on the deponent. Gérard left the monastery about three months ago, and he left a week ago. After he left he returned to the residence of his father, who told him he must enlist in the military since he had no other options. He came to Paris to enlist and addressed himself to Martin, recruiter, who had him sign the papers on Wednesday. That same day they were together at the residence of his father, who gave him a louis to buy himself some shirts. He came back with Martin to sleep at the regiment’s quarters. Yesterday Martin told him he is not tall enough, tore up his papers, had him crossed off the list at the military office, took his money, gave him a letter for his father and sent him away. Yesterday he was supposed to meet his father on the boulevards but did not find him there, so he went to the Champs-Elysées, where he encountered two young abbés. He diverted them both, but they did not give him anything. Another young man who was with them approached him, and they were talking when he was arrested. The other man escaped but left him his handkerchief.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, and he signed.

232. Saturday, 13 April 1783, Search of Gerard’s residence

[The police found a small pair of scissors, two keys, a case with three razors inside, and a letter dated 18 February, signed by Placide, Barefoot Carmelite, “which seemed to us addressed to Gerard.”]

233. Sunday, 14 April1783, Interrogation of brother Placide

14 April 1783, in the morning

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, in execution of orders addressed to us, and of brother Placide, monk in the monastery of the Barefoot Carmelites, whose interrogation we conducted as follows, after he took the oath to tell the truth.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named is Louis François Mouchard, known as brother Placide de Saint-Herménégilde,^[8] more than twenty-two years old, native of Paris, Barefoot Carmelite monk, and lives at the monastery on rue de Vaugirard.

Asked who the notary he knows in Paris is. Said he knows no notary or notary’s clerk.

Asked if he knows Lormont and what position he wanted to secure for him. Said he knows no one named Lormont. A young novice named Marcellin left a week ago. His father is named Gaudron and lives at the quarries near Charenton. Said he saw him on Sunday the sixth of this month. He came to show him a letter from a recruiter to his father, with the seal broken, in which he informed him that he was unsuitable for service. He urged him to take a job in domestic service and told him the prior or other monks could help him out. They parted as the last mass concluded.

Asked if he has seen him since. Said no.

Asked why Gaudron imagined he had a special intimacy with him. Said he had no connection with him other than confraternity.

Ask if he has known Gérard. Said he knew him as a novice in the monastery. They were loosely connected. He has not seen him since two weeks ago last Tuesday, which was 18 March.

Asked what reputation Gérard had in the monastery. Said he was dismissed after failing in some duties. He does not know what has become of him. Gaudron told him he enlisted.

Asked if he sometimes visited Gérard’s mother and if he wrote to him. Said he was there twice with one or another of his brethren. He has never been connected with him, but Gérard wrote to him once.

Asked who brother Eugène is. Said he is a member of the choir, like himself, and was no more connected with Gérard than he was.

Asked who a young man is, an acquaintance of brother Eugène, who returned to his native region. Said this young man had a position in Paris but lost it and returned to his native region.

Pointed out to him he is not telling the truth in claiming that he had no intimate connection with Gérard, since he called him “my friend” in writing. We showed him a letter to Gérard written by himself that displays the greatest intimacy. Replied it displays nothing but the interest he seemed to take in what concerned him, only out of charity.

Asked why, at the end of a song found among his papers, he is called the Charming Strapping Lass. Said it is a joke on the part of brother Armand, who gave it to him.

Asked if has any acquaintances who might have entered the prior’s room. Said no.

Asked if it is true Marcellin slept in his room on two different occasions. Said he never had any connection with that fellow.

Asked if it is true that he allowed himself to engage in touching with Marcellin. Said it is an infamy. The man who makes those statements to avenge himself because the deponent is one of the perpetrators of his exit from the monastery. There could be no suspicions about this crime except with regard to brother Cosme, dismissed from the house and now a soldier.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, and he signed.

234. Sunday, 14 April 1783, Interrogation of brother Armand

1:45 pm on 14 April 1783

Interrogation conducted by us, Pierre Louis Foucault, royal councilor and commissaire of the Châtelet, in execution of the orders addressed to us and of brother Armand, monk in the monastery of the Barefoot Carmelites, whose interrogation we conducted as follows, after he took the oath to tell the truth.

Asked for his first and last names, age, origins, status, and address. Said he is named Fidel Armand Martin Meunier, known as brother Armand de Saint-Martin, more than twenty-one years old, native of Paris, Barefoot Carmelite monk, and lives at the monastery on rue de Vaugirard.

Asked if he knew the novice Lormont. Said he did not know Lormont but thinks it is the same person as Gaudron, known by the monastic name of Marcellin.

Asked how Marcellin behaved in the monastery and if they were friends. Said he was lazy, committed various thefts, and broke doors open. His unfitness and misconduct were the reasons for his leaving the monastery.

Asked who Gérard was. Said he was a former novice who was dismissed as unsuitable for monastic life.

Asked if he associated with Gérard. Said he was going to play backgammon with him but never had ties with him. About three weeks ago he saw Gérard, who told him he was going to see Marcellin. He learned from Marcellin that he had enlisted. Since then another novice told him that Gérard had also enlisted and that Marcellin’s papers had been torn up.

Asked if he has ever been to Gérard’s mother’s place. Said he was there once with brother Placide when they were passed her door.

Asked if it is true Marcellin slept in his room several times. Said the night before Marcellin left, he came to the deponent’s room to ask for the passkey to the novitiate quarters, which he loaned him. When he came to return it, the deponent was in bed, and Marcellin sat down next to him for about half an hour, then went away. Nothing improper happened between them.

Pointed out to him to him that Marcellin, however, accuses him of commiting foolishness together. Said he is a little beggar who contrived that accusation.

Asked if he knows who might have robbed the prior. Said he has neither knowledge nor suspicions about anyone. Since Christmas he noticed various thefts committed by Marcellin. Some even involved broken locks, and he does know know if it was he who struck that blow. It might even be that he kept a passkey when he left the house.

Asked if he knows if brother Placide has prostitutes brought in. Said he knew nothing about it. Sometimes male and female relatives come to see him and the deponent as well.

Asked if he saw Marcellin on Sunday the sixth of this month. Said he did not see him.

Asked why, at the end of a song, he calls brother Placide the Charming Strapping Lass. Said it is childishness.

After his interrogation and replies were read to him, he said they contain the truth, and he signed.

[1] Théodore Girardin, notary, 1781-93.

[2] 83, rue de la Verrerie.

[3] Jeanne de Valois Saint-Rémy (1756-91), wife of Nicolas de La Motte and self-styled comtesse de La Motte, swindled Louis René Edouard, cardinal de Rohan by persuading him to buy the famous Diamond Necklace, supposedly for Marie-Antoinette, in 1785. The couple moved into the Reims boarding house in 1781.

[4] The dossier includes a note, dated 18 October 1779, in which Dupré asked Percheron for money and mentioned that Rouvoy had just left his master.

[5] Jean Louis Jourdain, notary, 1745-81, rue Sainte-Avoie.

[6] The crown taxed the sale of playing cards.

[7] 70, rue de Vaugirard.

[8] Visigothic ruler and martyr (6^th century).

Annotated Index of Men

The carton numbers for the references in brackets are Y 11723 (January-June 1784), 11724 (July-December 1784), 11725 (January-June 1785).

Inquisitive readers may locate information about some of these men in Gallica as well as the Archives Nationale salle des inventaires virtuelle and the Familles Parisiennes project website.

last name, first name, (nickname in French), age, occupation, document, outcome of arrest [notes]

P imprisoned

R released

Alexandre, Jean, 20, #218 R

Antoine, Jacques, 25, jeweler or shoemaker, #125 P

Aubert, Claude François Nicolas (le petit Aubert, la Trotteuse), 33, hairdresser, #21 P [mentioned, with the feminized nickname la petite Aubert, 23 April and 8 June 1784.]

Auxerre, Toussaint Israel, 42, bourgeois de Paris, #198 P

B… de N…, #180

Badeliou, Frédéric, 27, self-styled wine vendor’s assistant, #197 P

Badier, Etienne, domestic, #185 R

Badin, #230

Bailleul, Nicolas, 19, mattress-maker, #155 P

Bailly, Paul, 20, #153 R

Baison or Bauson, dancer, #127

Barbier, Pierre Simon Pascal (la Pierre), 40, married, domestic, #40 P

Barlié, limonadier’s assistant, #222b

Baude, Antoine, 27, cobbler, #45 P, 81, 214, 221

Baudry, Henry (la Chercheuse d’Esprit), 20, inlay worker, #158 P [arrested, 11 October 1783]

Baurin, Claude, 40, pork-butcher then former cook, #8 P, 156 P [arrested, 20 January 1779, 7 April 1784, and 7 April 1785, in SPT, 93, 120-23][1]

Bautreux, René, 28, second-hand dealer, #72 R

Bazile, Louis, 22, hairdresser, #222a, 222b P, 224 [mentioned, 11 September and 4 October 1784 (Hérault)]

Beau, François (la Dévote), 36, former domestic #211 P

Beaufils, Jean François (Sainte-Chapelle), 25, upholsterer’s assistant, #96 P

Beaupré, unemployed, #55, 80

Beauregard, #67

Beauvais, Antoine, 36, married, master vinegar-maker, #157 R

Becourt, Jean Antoine, musician, #102 R

Belair, François Mitifiau de (Lambert), 26, married, self-styled bourgeois de Paris, #71 P, 75

Berger, François, 23, self-styled cook, #15 P

Bergeret, Georges, 37, #116 R

Bellier, Augustin, scissors maker, #219 R

Berlix, cardboard-worker, #97

Bernard, Etienne, clerk, #90 R

Bernard, Jacques François (la Petite Perruquière), 27, #142 P

Bertaut, Jean Pierre, 16, unemployed wigmaker, #127 P

Berthelot, Michel, 19, tailor, #185 R

Berthier, Pierre (Beau Sourcil), 28, shoemaker, #97 P

Bertrand, #74

Bertrand, Etienne, clerk, #90 R

Bertrand, Jean François, 21, jeweler, #68 R

Bertrand, Paul, 16, draftsman, #98 R

Bertrand, Pierre Marie, glazier, #197 R

Beugny d’Hagereux, Georges Joseph Charlemagne de, 22, married, #81 R

Biron, Charles (la duchesse or maréchale de Biron), 27, unemployed domestic then second-hand dealer, #70 P, #113 P

Bizet, Pierre, 24, self-styled hairdresser and cook, #127 P

Blanchard, #109

Blot, Antoine, self-styled floor-polisher (la Dujour), #81 R [arrested, 21 June 1784]

Boirot, Joseph (le Breton, la Grande Barbe), model, #108 P

Bonnemerre, Pierre (Langevin), married, domestic, #13 P

Bory, Pierre (la Belle Cartonnière, Dufresne), #42 P

Boucher, Claude, glazier, #197 R

Boullé, valet, #193

Bourdelet, François, #89 R

Bourse, #146

Bourseau, Jean Simon, 28, journeyman cobbler, #5 P

Bouttemy, Louis, 24, clockmaker, #176 P, 181

Boyer, #44, 58a, 75

Braazet, Jean François, 36, #83 P

Braca, Grégoire, 25, #208 R

Bresque, Jean, 22, jeweler, #139 P

Brisset du Germain, Germain, 32, domestic, #61 P

Bruchet, Antoine (le Faraud du Port au Blé), 35, #99 P

Brune, Antoine, #89 R

Bruneau, #73

Brunet, French Guard, #51, 141

Brunet, Louis François Brunet, 29, tailor’s assistant, #205 P

Buquet, Jean François (Chiffon), 24, #7 P, 9, 10, 27, 28, 35, 41, 68, 141, 158, 164, 174, 222a, 222b, 224 P [He was arrested again on 7 June 1784. Y 11723.]

Buturlin, Pierre, comte de, married, #2, 8, 17, 34, 46, 58a [mentioned, 26 November 1784 and 31 January 1785]

Cabarat, Louis, 40, unemployed, #214 R

Cabrol, Michel, 20, soldier, #30, 31 P, 32

Caillou, Silvain, 27, #125 P

Callet, Jean Nicolas, 20, unemployed wigmaker’s assistant, #46 P

Calman, Jacques Antoine (Rivière), hairdresser, #150 P

Caron, #230

Carton (le Falot, la Belle Sellière), #83, 164, 180 [He entered Bicêtre on 23 July 1785 and was released on 30 June 1788. APP 339.]

Cassolet, Frédéric Christophe, master inlay worker, #196 R [arrested, 23 April 1784]

Catherine, Pierre, 24, salad vendor, #113, 119, 127 P [Arrested on 12 July 1784 (Catherine), this “confirmed pederast” entered Bicêtre on 22 May 1786 and was released on 9 June 1787, entered again on 4 May 1788 and was released on 25 July 1789. APP 339.]

Caussin, Louis (Zémire), 23, stocking worker, #73 P

Caysal, Jean Baptiste, attorney, #131 R

Cerau, Louis Auguste, 30, valet, #95 R

Chabaut, Antoine, 21, lead worker, #103 P, 114

Chamblain, Jean Gely de, 18, clerk, #81 R

Champenois, Etienne, 37, building painter, #129 R

Charles, Bernadin, 18, unemployed, #122 R

Charpentier, Jean François, 22, self-styled domestic, #84 P

Chartier, Claude (la Bonbonnière), 31, married, candy vendor, #133 P

Chatelard, Jean Baptiste, gilder, #197 P

Chauffour, Olivier, 26, upholsterer’s assistant, #5, 12, 45, 69a P, 145

Chaulot, Jean Baptiste, baker’s assistant, #54 P

Chauvot, Pierre (La Jeunesse, Saint-Pierre), 23 or 24, former domestic, #17 P, 18

Chevalier, Jean Louis Robin, 16½, #77 R

Chevreuil, surgeon, #55

Chocart, Jean Baptiste, 40, valet, #223 R

Christophe, Guillaume Michel, 17, salad vendor, #220 P

Clarard, Jean Claude, 18, self-styled soldier, #6 P, 34

Clément, Hyacinthe, 19, journeyman jeweler, #68 R

Clermont, domestic, #230

Clin, Jacques, 25, employee of the central tobacco office, #48 P [arrested, 9 June 1784.]

Cluzel, Joseph Pierre, 26, master jeweler, #187 R, 188

Cochardet, Claude, #90 R

Coffin, Louis Marie, 23, painter, #80 P, 94

Colas, Jean Baptiste, 22, soldier, #2, 3, 4, 4a, 158, 164, 184 P

Colin, Jean Chrysostome, 16, pupil, #228 R

Compte, Louis (comtesse de Jeannolle, Romont, la Tête de Saint-Pierre), 31, self-styled clerk, #132 P

Comtois (la Religieuse), #180

Cordier, journeyman joiner, #95

Coré, Nicolas (Honoré), gilder, #145 P

Cosme, brother, #233

Cotelle, Jean Baptiste, 23, student, #52 P, 55, 117, 161 P

Cotelle, Louis Nicolas, 15, #124 P

Courtois (le Falot), domestic, #25

Courtois, Jacques (la Belle Jardinière), 29, mirror worker, #102 P, 113 P [arrested, 20 August 1784]

Couteau, Lemoine, soldier, #84, returned to his regiment

Couturier, Jean, 30, errand boy, #204 R, 207 P

Couvrechel, Antoine Marie (la Petite Bergamotte), domestic, #170 R

Crosnier, André, 25, unemployed household officer, #101 R

Croubois, Louis, self-styled stocking worker, #219 P

Crugebert, Jean, 19, kitchen boy, #38 P

Curtez, Jean Baptiste (la Blonde aux Grands Soupirs, Vénus aux Belles Fesses), 25, unemployed, #131 P

Dadin, #109

Dagnaux, François, 20, digger, #125 P

Dangon, Joseph. 25, valet, #74 P

Danzel de Malzeville, Pierre Antoine, former soldier, #14 P, 211

Daridan, Jean François, 22, #223 R

Darnaudery, Jean Baptiste, 28, button-maker, #51 P, 59, 115, 141

Darobert, #65

Daulet, Jacques Philippe (la Bouffante), soldier, #164 P

Dauthier, Jean Baptiste, 14, #109, 115

Defage, Mathurin Duprey, 25, priest, #119 R

Degois, Nicolas (Joinville), 38, domestic, #222 R

Deleva, Jean Baptiste, 33, doorman, #192 R

Desay, abbé, #55

Desestre, Jacques Philippe, 38, secretary, #222 R [arrested, 25 April 1786]

Desmares, François, 25, unemployed domestic, #185 P

Desmezières, André Marie (Saint-Louis), 45, self-styled kitchen boy, #198 P

Desprès, Joseph Nicolas, 18, #90 R

Desroches, #11, 25, 48, 55, 76

Desroches, Nollan, #174, 192

Desrosiers, #86, 167

Dessaud, Jean Etienne, 30, bourgeois, #171 P [arrested, 12 January 1785]

Devismes, Nicolas, 32, sculptor, #25 R

Diancourt, Jean (Rivière), actor, #85 R

Doundine, Pierre François (Montauban), 22, domestic, #71 P

Drouard, Jean, 53, spangle cutter, #121 R

Duclos, banker, #65

Duclos, François, unemployed domestic, rue Poissonière, #26

Ducroc, Louis (la Grande Sellière), 28, journeyman saddler, #129 P

Dufour, secretary, #64

Dufour, Honoré François, 22, hairdresser, #71 P

Dufresne, #55

Dufresnoy, Louis François Léonard, 19, unemployed, #154 P

Dugas, workman, #188

Duguérin, François (la Petite Rosalie), 21, saddler’s assistant, #146 P

Duhameau, Jean, 27, shoemaker’s assistant, #197 P

Duhau, Antoine François, 34, attorney, #214 R

Dumesnil, Duratois, attorney, #134

Dumouchot, Esprit, 19, #78 R

Dumoulin, Nicolas, 30, domestic, #44 P, 75

Dunuguois, Pierre Sigismund Collé, 17, #76 R

Dupont (la Volonté), clerk, #141

Dupont, pharmacist’s assistant, #117

Dupré (Flon), wine vendor’s assistant, #230

Dupré, Jean François, musician, #81 R

Dupuis, Michel, officer, #157 R

Durand, Louis (Hareng), 20, apprentice goldsmith, #103, 115, 124 P, 134

Duval, Malo, 32, domestic, #221 R

Echlin, Henri, baron, #30, 31, 32, 46, 86

Etignard, Jean Antoine d’, aka Garnier, 31, secretary, #49, 58 P, 63, 64, 69, 74

Fanfan, #117 [mentioned, 20 December 1784]

Farey, Abel Jean de (Feydeau, Saint-Sever), 29, unemployed domestic, #72 P

Faussé, Richard, 22, domestic, #66 R

Favre (Gagardel), #51

Félix, Manès, #174

Félix, Pierre, 35, cook, #34 P

Female Gilder, #133

Fénelon, baron de, 21 February, #71, 75

Fery, #38

Fleurot, Jean Pierre, 31, former novice, 98 P, 100

Force, merchant, #103 R

Foret, #224

Fortin, Mathieu (l’Egal), former soldier, #92 P, #101

Fournier, Denis, 48, #103 P

Fournier, Pierre Miolan, 25, cobbler, #127 P

Forquignon, novice, #100

Fragnet, Alexandre (Comtois), 32, domestic, #205 P

Framière, Antoine François (Baptiste), 22, former employee of the tallow office, #92 R, 101 P [mentioned, 7 June 1784 (Canaple)]

François, Simon Michel, 22, journeyman joiner, #98 R

Fresnière, #134 P, 136

Fretin, Antoine, unemployed billiard parlor assistant, #50 R

Froideveaux, Jean René, 12½, #111

Froideveaux, Joseph Hubert, 11, #110, 115

Gallebois, Henry, 15, groom, #228 R

Garnier, Abraham, 50, master baker, #206 P

Garnot, Charles (la Désirée, la Ravaudeuse), 22, unemployed, #177 P

Garspern, Marie Gabriel Chevalier, comte de, 45, formal naval officer, #60 R, 65

Gatigame, abbé, #65

Gaudin, Charles, 24, student, #193

Gérard, novice, #231, 232, 233, 234

Giguet, François, musician, #81 R

Godefroy, #145

Gornet, Laurent, 18, apprentice sculptor, #192 R

Gosse, Jean, glazier, #197 R

Goujou, #80

Gourdon, Jean Antoine, 20, wigmaker, #90 R

Grandmaison, haberdasher’s assistant, #55

Grellon, Alexandre, 30, cook, #157

Guérin, Julien, #62 R

Guibaut, Jean Charles, 18, kitchen boy, #189 R

Guillet, clerk, #55

Guillet, Claude, 50, former domestic, #98 R

Guyot, wigmaker, #67

Harme, Louis Jean d’, 17, musician, #137 R

Hélie, Julien, 35, assistant cashier, #207 R

Henri, Pierre, 20, draftsman, #88 R

Hérault, apprentice hatter, #224 [arrested, 11 September and 4 October 1784 (Hérault)]

Hercourt, comte d’, #180

Herque, Jean François, cashier, #11, 39, 75 [mentioned, with the nickname Queen of Lions, 7 June 1784 (Canaple)]

Hervieux, Marc Antoine, 33, domestic #214 P

Herzel, Henry Juste, 31, self-styled captain lieutenant, #221 P

Hippolyte, domestic, #230

Houzel, Victor Daniel, soldier, #159 P

Huardot, Jean Pierre, 23, hairdresser, #197 R

Hubault, Louis Chrisostome, wine vendor, #159 R

Hue, Pierre (Desrues, la Tourneuse, la Trotteuse), 42, unemployed, #152 P

Huré, shoemaker’s assistant, #12, 45, 69a

Hussé, Jérémie, called La Boullaye, 15, former jockey, unemployed, #222a P, 222b, 224 [mentioned, 9 November 1784]

Imbert, embroiderer, #103

Jacques, Antoine, guard of the Court of Marshals, #90 R

Jeannal, Pierre, 38, bed and bath vendor then streetsweeper, #126 P

Jolas, François (Villers), 34, domestic, #34 P

Joret (la Blonde), #45, 69a, 145

Joubert, Jean Louis, 27, unemployed, #189 P

Jouvet, Antoine (la Remouleuse), 60-70, knifegrinder, #166 P

Julie du Château, #113, 154

Lacarpe, Jacques, 25, stoneworker, #125 P

Lacroix (chevalier Delacroix), #2, 3, 4

Lafitte, French Guard, #51, 141

Lafosse, Joseph (Picard), 33, goldsmith, #51, 104 P, 105, 109, 110, 111, 115, 123, 124, 133, 134, 141, 195, 202, 203

Lafosse, Louis, 53, mail carrier, #201 P, 202

Lainé, Noël (Courville), 42, bed and bath vendor, #29, 30 P, 31, 32, 141

Laizée, Pierre, 32, domestic, #95 R

La Jeunesse, #117

Lajeunesse, domestic, #33

Lambert, Antoine, valet, #160 R

Lambert, Gérard, 19, wigmaker’s assistant, #46 P, 59, 75

Landrieux, Jacques, 30, soldier, #193, R [mentioned, 19 September 1784]

Langlois, Jacques André, 42, former personal valet, #33 P

Lanou, employee of the Controller General’s office, #65

La Pereusse, Joseph, 42, married, self-styled surgeon, #225 R [arrested, 21 March 1786]

Laplanche, grenadier, #136

de la Pommeraye, clerk, #196 R

La Reynie, tax farmer, #78

Larimont, comte, #230

Laroche, apprentice goldsmith, #105, 115

La Rue, Antoine Thomas, 30, master hatter, #29 R

La Rue, Jean François, 21, journeyman joiner, #95 P

Lastienn, #168

Laurent, André, secretary, #196 R

Laurent, Christophe, 35, stocking worker, #67 P, 112 P [He tried to bribe the guards who arrested him in the Tuileries on 16 May 1787 and stabbed himself in the heart with a large knife after they reached the guard-post. Archives Nationales, O¹ 3705, ff. 284-85, 16 May 1787.]

Laurent, Henri Claude, 30, seller of religious books, #146 P

Laverne, unemployed valet, #46

Lebas, Joachim, 25, #186 R

Lebeau, Charles François (la Laitière), 38, auction worker, #25 P

Lebrun, Jean François, 20, wigmaker’s assistant, #61 R

Lécareux, Sébastien Mathieu (la Petite Zelmire), 20, sculptor, #146 P

Leclerc, Antoine, 22, unemployed domestic, #161 P

LeClerc, Jean Toussaint, 20, cobbler’s assistant, #83 R [arrested, 7 April 1785 and 30 January 1786]

Leconte, Jean André, 20, perfumer’s assistant, #1 P, 4

Leduc, Pierre Joseph, 20, sculptor, #88 R

Lefevre, #57, 59, 64, 65

Lefevre, Thomas, 40, unemployed domestic, #125 P

Legrand, wigmaker, #230

Legrand, Charles, 50, self-styled bourgeois de Paris, #90 P

LeGrand, Michel, 20, domestic, #79 R

Lelong, Charles Augustin, 24, clerk, #194 R

Lelouche, François, cook, #160 R

Lemaire, Théodore (le Bourguignon, Destrée), 27, poultryman, #94 P

Lemajor, #230

Lemaître, Robert, 36, #120 R

LeMaseare, Jean Baptiste, 26, ironmonger’s assistant, #47 P

Leménager, Jean Marie (Bourbon), 19, #1 P, 2, 3, 4, 66, 74, 167

Lemery, Jean Laurent, 16, domestic, #35 P

LeMouchard, Pierre (Griffon), 20, wigmaker’s assistant, #7, 9 P, 27, 28, 35, 41, 68, 224

Lenormand, valet, #109

Léobardy, François de, 30, priest, #106 P, 114, 121a

Le Prince de Brune, François, 50, bourgeois, #67, 76 P

Lerouge, Claude (la Grande Manon la Loucheuse), 25, self-styled hairdresser, #167 P

Leroux, Jean Joseph (le Blondin), 34, #135 P

LeRoy, #94

LeRoy, Louis, 29, journeyman brazier, #129 R

LeRoy d’Herval, #11, 30, 117

Lescardel, Louis Joseph César, 22, surgeon’s assistant, #22 P, 24, 25, 28, 35

Lesec, called Dubreuil, 22, student, #55, 182a R

Less, Fidel, domestic, #15 R

Letellier, Joachim (la du Bocage), 30, clerk, #139 P

Lhomme, clerk, #1417

Lhuillier, Philippe, 44, errand boy, #209 R

Lindor, #180

Liot, Noël, 42, doorman, #217 R

Lormeret, Jean Baptiste Charles, 16½, known as Marcellin, novice, #231, 233, 234

Louis, limonadier, #71

Louis, Théodore (Flamand, la Flamande), 27, unemployed, #79 P

Lunas, baron de, #82 R [mentioned, 31 October 1784 (Levasseur)]

Mabille, Charles Antoine, 34, former valet, #169 P

Maillard, Jacques Charles, 26, unemployed kitchen boy, #95 P

Maillefer, Pierre Antoine, 31, gauze worker, #127 P

Malfilatre, Ange Pierre (Lange), 28, master upholsterer, #80 P

Mallard, #113

Mamel, Jean, 24, saddler’s assistant, #172 R

Marcel, Antoine, 46, domestic, #220 R

Marchand, #113

Maréchal, Martin, 34, hairdresser, #50 R

Margantin, Louis, self-styled clerk, #144 P

Marigny, marquis de, married, #75

Martin, French Guard, #48

Martin, Antoine Thomas, 18, unemployed watchmaker, #76 R, 98 R

Martin, Charles, master wigmaker, #121 R

Mathe, Léon Guillaume, 32, actor, #185 R

Matorelle, Henri Pépin (Victor), 21, domestic, #77 R

Maurice (la Jeunesse), #95, 117

Mesmon, marquis de, married, #46, 55

Meunier, Fidel Armand Martin, known as brother Armand de Saint-Martin (la Charmante Luronne), monk, #231, 233, 234

Mignot, François, 19, glazier, #215 P

Milettou, 21, #210 R

Millot, landlord, #109, 115

Milton, John, 20, #210 R

Miot, Jean Baptiste, 42, married, self-styled merchant, #173, 174, 180

Moreau, Emmanuel, 31, domestic, #66 P [arrested, 19 September 1784]

Moreau, Joseph, 19, #210 R

Monin, #14

Morin, jeweler, #47

Morin, Joseph, 19, #210 R

Morizot, Pierre Nicolas (Milord), 24, hairdresser, #157 P [mentioned, 11 June 1784]

Morlan, Pierre Auguste, former soldier, #211 R

Mostchi, François, 16, #16 P

Mouchard, Louis François, 22, known as brother Placide, monk, #231, 232, 233, 234

Moynat, Germain, 40, domestic, #19 P, 20

N., #174

Nicolet, Charles, 30, cartwright, #223 R

Nollet, Michel (la Grande Cocotte), jewelry vendor, #59 R, 141 [arrested, 6 October 1784; mentioned, 7 June (Buquet), 7 June (Canaple), 26 July, and 29 September 1784]

Olivier, #113

d’Orléans, Guillaume Jean Sébastien (la duchesse d’Orléans), 29, self-styled painter, #25 P, 174, 230 [mentioned, 7 June 1784 (Canaple)]

Paillot, Pierre Louis, 20, domestic, #36 P

Painguet, Louis, 21, wigmaker, #98 R

Pajot, hatter, #193 [mentioned, 26 November 1784]

Parret, Antoine, 20, roofer, #68 R

Pasquier, secretary, #174, 180

Patrou (Azor), #73

Paul, Pierre, 39, valet, #80 R

Perard, Louis Maximilien (Montreuil), #163 P

Percheron, Doin Augustin, 39, married, cook, #229 P, 230

Perdu, Charles Eustache, 28, stocking worker, #72 P, 75

Perier, Charles, 52, domestic, #204 R [arrested, 12 July 1784 (patrol)]

Perigault, Claude, 32, former soldier, #182 P

Perrée, François, domestic, #205 R

Perrot, grenadier, #180

Philippe, master surgeon, #55, 182a

Picard, Nicolas (la Menteuse), 45, domestic, #55 P

Picard de Saint-Hilaire, Cyprien Jérôme, 36, bourgeois de Paris, #174, 179, 180

Picot, Pierre François (la Sainte Sauveur, not Sauveuse), 50, married unemployed, #186 P

Pierrot (la Petite Trotteuse), #39, 113

Pinto, #76

Place, Jean, #67

Placide, Jean (La Jeunesse), 26, domestic, #37

Plet, #174

Potain, Claude (la Fontaine, Rototo), cobbler, #12 P, 17, 146 [He was sent to Bicêre again from 18 March 1788, at the age of 36, until 16 October 1789. APP 339.]

Pouteau, Samuel, 22, feather-dealer, #130 P

Poutrel, Charles, 21, domestic, #67 R

Poymemes, Médard, 29, lawn vendor, #207 P

Prainguet, Joseph, 17, self-styled kitchen boy, #143 R, 149 P

Prudhomme, François, 15, journeyman turner, #85 R, #102 P

Pruneau, Jean Nicolas, 26, #117, 118

Pujol, Pierre, 36, fruitr vendor, #39 P

Queneuil, #113

Ragondet, cook, #50 R

Raimond, Jean Baptiste, 19, employee of the Farms, #88 R, #130 P

Rassant, Charles, 36, self-styled haberdasher, #62 P

Rebours, master wigmaker, #167

Réveilla, André, 31, master brazier, #165 P

Ribotte, Antoine (la Belle Chapellière), 30, hatter’s assistant, #167 P

Ricard, Louis, 32, clerk, #191 P

Rimey, Hubert Marie (la Mitaine), 32, bed and bath vendor, #168 P, 175

Riou, Jean 34, courrier, #102 R

Robert, Pierre (le Bourguignon), 34, #98 P

Robineau (la Trotteuse), bed and bath vendor, #2, 21, 82, 141, 180, 214

Rocheron, Jean, 33, smelter, #214 P

Rollin, former joiner, #171

Ropsy, Henri Philippe de, self-styled clergyman, #138 P

Roudenot, Jean Baptiste Denis, #159 R

Rougemont, #75

Rougon, Jacques, 30, #95 R

Rousseau, Louis Claude, 19, unemployed jewelry setter, #77 R

Roussel, François Charles (la Borgnesse), 34, shoemaker, #146 P, 147

Roussel, Jean Baptiste (la Belle Parfumière), 23, married, #27 P

Roussel, Sulpice Simon, 30, cook, #189 R

Rousset, Jean, 37, kitchen boy, #204 R

Rouvoy, domestic, #44, 75, 230

Ruel, Antoine Charles, 41, former joiner, #212 P

Ruelle (Zéphire aux Beaux Yeux), #167

S., #174

S, abbé de, #180

Sade, marquis de, married, #33

Saint-André, #8

Saint-Aumont, former military officer, #60, 64, 65

Saint-Clément, marquis de, #122 R

Saint-Louis, postilion, #72, 75

Salaton, hairdresser, #58a

Sallé, Charles Louis, painter, #102 R

Saunier, Jean Baptiste, household officer, #194 R

Sauvé, François, 27, vegetable seller, #194 R

Sauvé, Jean, bailiff, #54 P

Sc…, abbé de, #80 [Scées, mentioned, 24 October 1783]

Scépeaux, Marie René Pierre Louis comte de, #83 R

Segoult, Charles, #89 R

Selegny, Benjamin (Amiral Keppel, la Rouennaise), 22, unemployed wigmaker, #91 P

Sélestat, #16

Sellier (la Belle Sellière, la Petite Sellière, la Sellière), #83, 119, 127

Soenieu, Jean, called River, 26, hairdresser, #151 P

Souchet, Jean Baptiste (Vallier), 26, former clerk, #68 P

Soyer, Emmanuel, 26, wigmaker’s assistant, #28 P [arrested, 8 June 1784; mentioned, 29 March and 7 June 1784]

Swars, Jean, 32, domestic, #140 P

Tassart, Philippe Denis, 34, #83 P

Ternisien, Jacques, major-dodmo, #223 R

Tessier du Breuil, Antoine, self-styled barrister, #49 R, 55, 174

Thibouville, marquis de, married, #33, 80

Thiennet, Guillaume, student, #102 R

Thomas, clockmaker, #80

Thomas, Gérard, 20, domestic, #71, 80

Thurot, Pierre, sculptor, #102 R

Tison, Pierre Joseph, 18, shoemaker’s assistant, #197 P

Tonnere, Michel, 43, mathematical instruments worker, #221 R

Torte, Joseph, 20, tailor’s assistant, #189 P

Toulaud, Jean Henri, 20, glazier, #194 P

Tournet, Joseph, #155 R

Toussaint or Toussainte, #119, 127

Toussaint, son of a pork-butcher, #222a, 222b

Toussaint, François, 28, stationer’s assistant and soldier, #97 P

Tramart, Jacques (la Petite Picarde), laces vendor, #146 P

Trépied, #113

Tricotel, Jean Antoine (Fromage), 23, hairdresser, #1 P, 2, 3, 4, 4a, 164, 167, 184 [He was arrested and imprisoned on 27 July 1784 and ordered released on 6 October 1784. Archives Nationales, O¹ 424, ff. 316, 381.]

Troyhot, François, postilion, #185, R [arrested, at age 40, 25 May 1784.]

Vacourt, Jean, 22, #68 R

Valoux, Jean Louis Jacques de (Chasaille, Ferlock, Louis Corberon), 34½, nobleman, #57, 60 P, 64, 65, 69

Vandeville, Charles, streetlamp lighter, #41 P

Varin, Pierre, 12, servant, #104, 105, 115

Vernon, Charles Noël du (Bellecoeur), domestic, #228 R

Veron, Pierre Nicolas (Germain), 36, married, unemployed cook, #82 R

Versey, #92

Vicasse, Benoît, bourgeois de Paris, #131 R

Vicherin, Louis Joseph, 15½, employee of the royal lottery, #222b, 228 R

Vichery, employee of the Company of the Indes, #224 [arrested, 4 October 1784; mentioned, 11 September (Hérault), 24 October (Valler), and 9 November 1784]

Viennay, abbé, #39, 80, 141, 171, 188 [arrested, 13 November 1784; mentioned, 25 April 1784][2]

Villeneuve, Charles Joseph (Châteauroux), 28, employee of the Farms, #78 R

Vincent, François, hairdresser, #102 R

Vinerat, Jean, 13½, groom, #36 R

Vuidor, Pierre (Boulogne), master lapidary, #85 P, 87, 102

Wrie, Jean, 45, domestic, #211 P

Ytin, #224

[1] See SPT, 120-24.

[2] See SPT, 124-30.

Foucault’s Reports, 1780-83 – Full Text

Clickable Table of Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Macro-Introduction (coming soon)

Micro-Introduction: Police, Pederasts, and Public Order

Documents, 1780

Documents, January-June 1781

Documents, July-December 1781

Documents, January-June 1782

Documents July-December 1782

Documents, 1783

Annotated Index of Men