A workman was crossing the Pont au Change, some gendarmes mobiles stopped him; they smelt his hands.
"Napoleon the Little"
Victor Hugo
We meet with the same simile in the testimony of another witness:- "'At the end of my street, and I know that the same thing was observed in the neighbouring ones as well, we saw the gendarmes mobiles with their muskets, and themselves in the position of hunters waiting for the game to rise, that is to say, with their muskets at their shoulders, in order that they might take aim and fire more quickly.
"Napoleon the Little"
Victor Hugo
Meanwhile, hear my explanation: when I promised Alain any interest I can command for the grade of officer in a regiment of mobiles, I knew not that he had formed, or was likely to form, ties or duties to keep him at home.
"The Parisians, Book 11."
Edward Bulwer-Lytton