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Praise for The Châtelet Apprentice
‘Reading this book is akin to time travel: it is an exhilarating portrait of the hubbub and sexual licence of Paris during an eighteenth-century carnival … The period detail is marvellously evocative, Le Floch is brave and engaging, and even though the story takes place almost 250 years ago, it is curiously reassuring that in many ways, Paris, and human nature, have not changed at all.’ Economist
‘Parot succeeds brilliantly in his reconstruction of pre-revolutionary Paris, in splendid period detail’ Times
‘A solid and detailed evocation of pre-revolutionary France – the poverty and squalor, side by side with the wealth and splendour, are brought lovingly to life. And the plot has all the twists, turns and surprises the genre demands.’ Independent on Sunday
‘A terrific debut. … Working without modern investigative techniques in a police force reliant on torture, Le Floch confronts the ethical dilemmas of the period in a novel that brilliantly evokes the casual brutality of life in eighteenth-century France.’ Sunday Times
THE
CHÂTELET APPRENTICE
JEAN-FRANÇOIS PAROT
Translated from the French by Michael Glencross
For Madeleine and Edouard
This work is published with support from the French Ministry of Culture/Centre national du Livre
CONTENTS
Dedication
Plan of Nicolas Le Floch’s Paris
Dramatis Personae
The Châtelet Apprentice
PROLOGUE
I THE TWO JOURNEYS
II GUÉRANDE
III DISAPPEARANCES
IV DISCOVERIES
V THANATOS
VI EROS
VII SOUND AND FURY
VIII BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS
IX WOMEN
X TWISTS AND TURNS
XI FAR NIENTE
XII THE OLD SOLDIER
XIII IN AT THE KILL
XIV DARKNESS
XV HUNTER AND QUARRY
EPILOGUE
Notes
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright
NICOLAS LE FLOCH : an investigator appointed by the Lieutenant General of Police in Paris
CANON FRANÇOIS LE FLOCH : Nicolas Le Floch’s guardian
JOSÉPHINE PELVEN (known as FINE) : Canon Le Floch’s housekeeper
MARQUIS LOUIS DE RANREUIL : Nicolas Le Floch’s godfather
ISABELLE DE RANREUIL : the marquis’s daughter
MONSIEUR DE SARTINE : Lieutenant General of Police in Paris
MONSIEUR DE LA BORDE : First Groom of the King’s Bedchamber
GUILLAUME LARDIN : a police commissioner
PIERRE BOURDEAU : a police inspector
LOUISE LARDIN : Commissioner Lardin’s second wife
MARIE LARDIN : Commissioner Lardin’s daughter by his first marriage
CATHERINE GAUSS : a former canteen-keeper, the Lardins’ cook
HENRI DESCART : a doctor of medicine
GUILLAUME SEMACGUS : a navy surgeon
SAINT-LOUIS : a former black slave, Semacgus’s servant
AWA : Saint-Louis’s companion and Semacgus’s cook
PIERRE PIGNEAU : a seminarist
AIMÉ DE NOBLECOURT : a former procurator
PÈRE GRÉGOIRE : the apothecary of the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites
LA PAULET : a brothel-keeper
LA SATIN : a prostitute
BRICART : a former soldier
RAPACE : a former butcher
OLD ÉMILIE : a former prostitute, a soup seller
MASTER VACHON : a tailor
COMMISSIONER CAMUSOT : the head of the Gaming Division
MAUVAL : Commissioner Camusot’s henchman
OLD MARIE : an usher at the Châtelet
TIREPOT : a police informer
CHARLES HENRI SANSON : the hangman
RABOUINE : a police spy
Prudens futuri temporis exitum
Caliginosa nocte premit Deus…
‘Knowing the future,
God conceals the outcome in darkest night …’
HORACE
On the night of Friday 2 February 1761, a horse-drawn vehicle was laboriously making its way along the highway that leads from La Courtille to La Villette. The day had been gloomy, and at nightfall, sullen skies had unleashed a fierce storm. If anyone had been keeping a watch on this road they would have noticed the cart pulled by a scrawny horse. On the seat, two men stared into the darkness, the black flaps of their capes partly visible in the gleam of a shabby lantern. The horse kept slipping on the wet ground and stopping every twenty or so yards. Two barrels thudded against each other, jolted about by the ruts in the road.
The last houses in the faubourgs disappeared, and with them the few remaining lights. The rain ceased and the moon could be glimpsed between two clouds, casting a bluish light over a countryside enveloped in a shapeless, drifting mist. Hillsides covered with brambles now rose up on either side of the track. For some time the horse had been tossing its head and tugging nervously at the reins. A persistent smell hung in the cold night air, its lingering sweetness soon giving way to an appalling stench. The two shadowy figures had pulled their cloaks down over their faces. The horse stopped, let out a strangled whinnying and flared its nostrils, seeking to identify the foul smell. Even when lashed with a whip, it refused