Rogues and Adventuresses

If Infamy has its immortals the name of Lacenaire can never die, and, as the most remarkable if not the greatest of French criminals was made the subject of a character study by Victor Hugo in “Les Miserables,” he must share in the immortality of the immortal Frenchman. Yet it is not easy to see why this scoundrel should have attracted the attention he did, or why for a period all France should have regarded him as of far greater importance than a revolution.