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"By the deuce," said Boulatruelle, "I'll find him again. I'll discover the parish of that parishioner. This prowler of Patron-Minette has a reason, and I'll know it. People can't have secrets in my forest if I don't have a finger in the pie." He took his pick-axe which was very sharply pointed. "There now," he grumbled, "is something that will search the earth and a man."
Patron-Minette, such was the name which was bestowed in the subterranean circulation on the association of these four men. In the fantastic, ancient, popular parlance, which is vanishing day by day, Patron-Minette signifies the morning, the same as entre chien et loup between dog and wolf signifies the evening.
These two persons were strangers to him; one was a bearded man in a blouse, and the other a long-haired individual in rags. The bearded man had on a fez, the other's head was bare, and the snow had lodged in his hair. By thrusting his head over the wall, Marius could hear their remarks. The hairy one jogged the other man's elbow and said: " With the assistance of Patron-Minette, it can't fail."
He went on, muttering between his teeth, and not addressing Marius so much as his cravat: "Patron-Minette must have had a hand in this." This word struck Marius. "Patron-Minette," said he, "I did hear that word pronounced, in fact." And he repeated to the inspector the dialogue between the long-haired man and the bearded man in the snow behind the wall of the Rue du Petit-Banquier.
Lacenaire made this response, enigmatical so far as the magistrate was concerned, but clear to the police: "Perhaps it was Patron-Minette." A piece can sometimes be divined on the enunciation of the personages; in the same manner a band can almost be judged from the list of ruffians composing it.
This appellation, Patron-Minette, was probably derived from the hour at which their work ended, the dawn being the vanishing moment for phantoms and for the separation of ruffians. These four men were known under this title. When the President of the Assizes visited Lacenaire in his prison, and questioned him concerning a misdeed which Lacenaire denied, "Who did it?" demanded the President.
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