What prisoners call a “postilion” is a pallet of bread artistically moulded, which is sent “into Ireland,” that is to say, over the roofs of a prison, from one courtyard to another. Etymology: over England; from one land to another; “into Ireland.” This little pellet falls in the yard. The man who picks it up opens it and finds in it a note addressed to some prisoner in that yard. If it is a prisoner who finds the treasure, he forwards the note to its destination; if it is a keeper, or one of the prisoners secretly sold who are called “sheep” in prisons and “foxes” in the galleys, the note is taken to the office and handed over to the police.

On this occasion, the postilion reached its address, although the person to whom it was addressed was, at that moment, in solitary confinement. This person was no other than Babet, one of the four heads of Patron Minette.

The postilion contained a roll of paper on which only these two lines were written:⁠—

“Babet. There is an affair in the Rue Plumet. A gate on a garden.”