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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17067-8.txt b/17067-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ac630b --- /dev/null +++ b/17067-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8421 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The House of the Combrays, by G. le Notre, +Translated by Mrs. Joseph B. Gilder + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The House of the Combrays + + +Author: G. le Notre + + + +Release Date: November 15, 2005 [eBook #17067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Paul Ereaut, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Transcribers note: A number of spelling errors and inconsistencies + of names have been corrected. + + + + + +THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS + +by + +G. LE NOTRE + +Translated from the French by Mrs. Joseph B. Gilder + + + + + + + +New York +Dodd, Mead & Company +1902 +Copyright, 1902, by Dodd, Mead & Company +First Edition Published October, 1902 + + + + +Contents + + PREFACE + I. THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE + II. THE CAPTURE OF GEORGES CADOUDAL + III. THE COMBRAYS + IV. THE ADVENTURES OF D'ACHÉ + V. THE AFFAIR OF QUESNAY + VI. THE YELLOW HORSE + VII. MADAME ACQUET +VIII. PAYING THE PENALTY + IX. THE FATE OF D'ACHÉ + X. THE CHOUANS SET FREE + + + + +PREFACE + +AN OLD TOWER + + +One evening in the winter of 1868 or 1869, my father-in-law, Moisson, +with whom I was chatting after dinner, took up a book that was lying on +the table, open at the page where I had stopped reading, and said: + +"Ah! you are reading Mme. de la Chanterie?" + +"Yes," I replied. "A fine book; do you know it?" + +"Of course! I even know the heroine." + +"Mme. de la Chanterie!" + +"---- By her real name Mme. de Combray. I lived three months in her +house." + +"Rue Chanoinesse?" + +"No, not in the Rue Chanoinesse, where she did not live, any more than +she was the saintly woman of Balzac's novel;--but at her Château of +Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon!" + +"Gracious, Moisson, tell me about it;" and without further solicitation, +Moisson told me the following story: + +"My mother was a Brécourt, whose ancestor was a bastard of Gaston +d'Orleans, and she was on this account a royalist, and very proud of her +nobility. The Brécourts, who were fighting people, had never become +rich, and the Revolution ruined them completely. During the Terror my +mother married Moisson, my father, a painter and engraver, a plebeian +but also an ardent royalist, participating in all the plots for the +deliverance of the royal family. This explains the mésalliance. She +hoped, besides, that the monarchy, of whose reestablishment she had no +doubt, would recognise my father's services by ennobling him and +reviving the name of Brécourt, which was now represented only in the +female line. She always called herself Moisson de Brécourt, and bore me +a grudge for using only my father's name. + +"In 1804, when I was eight years old, we were living on the island of +Saint-Louis, and I remember very well the excitement in the quarter, and +above all in our house, caused by the arrest of Georges Cadoudal. I can +see my mother anxiously sending our faithful servant for news; my father +came home less and less often; and at last, one night, he woke me up +suddenly, kissed me, kissed my mother hastily, and I can still hear the +noise of the street door closing behind him. We never saw him again!" + +"Arrested?" + +"No, we should have known that, but probably killed in flight, or dead +of fatigue and want, or drowned in crossing some river--like many other +fugitives, whose names I used to know. He was to have sent us news as +soon as he was in safety. After a month's waiting, my mother's despair +became alarming. She seemed mad, committed the most compromising acts, +spoke aloud and with so little reserve about Bonaparte, that each time +the bell rang, our servant and I expected to see the police. + +"A very different kind of visitor appeared one fine morning. He was, he +said, the business man of Mme. de Combray, a worthy woman who lived in +her Château of Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon. She was a fervent +royalist, and had heard through common friends of my father's +disappearance, and compassionating our misfortune placed a house near +her own at the disposal of my mother, who would there find the safety +and peace that she needed, after her cruel sorrows. As my mother +hesitated, Mme. de Combray's messenger urged the benefit to my health, +the exercise and the good air indispensable at my age, and finally she +consented. Having obtained all necessary information, my mother, the +servant and I took the boat two days after, at Saint-Germain, and +arrived by sunset the same evening at Roule, near Aubevoye. A gardener +was waiting with a cart for us and our luggage. A few moments later we +entered the court of the château. + +"Mme. de Combray received us in a large room overlooking the Seine. She +had one of her sons with her, and two intimate friends, who welcomed my +mother with the consideration due to the widow of one who had served the +good cause. Supper was served; I was drooping with sleep, and the only +remembrance I have of this meal is the voice of my mother, passionate +and excitable as ever. Next morning, after breakfast, the gardener +appeared with his cart, to take us to the house we were to occupy; the +road was so steep and rough that my mother preferred to go on foot, +leading her horse by the bridle. We were in a thick wood, climbing all +the time, and surprised at having to go so far and so high to reach the +habitation that had been offered to us near the château. We came to a +clearing in the wood, and the gardener cried, 'Here we are!' and pointed +to our dwelling. 'Oh!' cried my mother, 'it is a donjon!' It was an old +round tower, surmounted by a platform and with no opening but the door +and some loop-holes that served as windows. + +"The situation itself was not displeasing. A plateau cleared in the +woods, surrounded by large trees with a vista towards the Seine, and a +fine view extending some distance. The gardener had a little hut near +by, and there was a small kitchen-garden for our use. In fact one would +have been easily satisfied with this solitude, after the misfortunes of +the Isle Saint-Louis, if the tower had been less forbidding. To enter it +one had to cross a little moat, over which were thrown two planks, which +served as a bridge. By means of a cord and pulley this could be drawn up +from the inside, against the entrance door, thus making it doubly +secure. 'And this is the drawbridge!' said my mother, mockingly. + +"The ground floor consisted of a circular chamber, with a table, chairs, +a sideboard, etc. Opposite the door, in an embrasure of the wall, about +two yards in thickness, a barred window lighted this room, which was to +serve as sitting-room, kitchen and dining-room at the same time; but +lighted it so imperfectly that to see plainly even in the daytime one +had to leave the door open. On one side was the fireplace, and on the +other the wooden staircase that led to the upper floors; under the +staircase was a trap-door firmly closed by a large lock. + +"'It is the cellar,' said the gardener, 'but it is dangerous, as it is +full of rubbish. I have a place where you can keep your drink.' 'And our +food?' said the servant. + +"The gardener explained that he often went down to the château in his +cart and that the cook would have every facility for doing her marketing +at Aubevoye. As for my mother, Mme. de Combray, thinking that the +journey up and down hill would be too much for her, would send a donkey +which would do for her to ride when we went to the château in the +afternoon or evening. On the first floor were two rooms separated by a +partition; one for my mother and me, the other for the servant, both +lighted only by loop-holes. It was cold and sinister. + +"'This is a prison!' cried my mother. + +"The gardener remarked that we should only sleep there; and seeing my +mother about to go up to the next floor, he stopped her, indicating the +dilapidated condition of the stairs. 'This floor is abandoned,' he said; +'the platform above is in a very bad state, and the staircase +impracticable and dangerous. Mme. de Combray begs that you will never go +above the first landing, for fear of an accident.' After which he went +to get our luggage. + +"My mother then gave way to her feelings. It was a mockery to lodge us +in this rat-hole. She talked of going straight back to Paris; but our +servant was so happy at having no longer to fear the police; I had found +so much pleasure gathering flowers in the wood and running after +butterflies; my mother herself enjoyed the great calm and silence so +much that the decision was put off till the next day. And the next day +we renounced all idea of going. + +"Our life for the next two months was untroubled. We were at the longest +days of the year. Once a week we were invited to supper at the château, +and we came home through the woods at night in perfect security. +Sometimes in the afternoon my mother went to visit Mme. de Combray, and +always found her playing at cards or tric-trac with friends staying at +the château or passing through, but oftenest with a stout man, her +lawyer. No existence could be more commonplace or peaceful. Although +they talked politics freely (but with more restraint than my mother), +she told me later that she never for one moment suspected that she was +in a nest of conspirators. Once or twice only Mme. de Combray, touched +by the sincerity and ardour of her loyalty, seemed to be on the point of +confiding in her. She even forgot herself so far as to say:--'Oh! if you +were not so hot-headed, one would tell you certain things!'--but as if +already regretting that she had said so much, she stopped abruptly. + +"One night, when my mother could not sleep, her attention was attracted +by a dull noise down-stairs, as if some one were shutting a trap-door +clumsily. She lay awake all night uneasily, listening, but in vain. Next +morning we found the room down-stairs in its usual condition; but my +mother would not admit that she had been dreaming, and the same day +spoke to Mme. de Combray, who joked her about it, and sent her to the +gardener. The latter said he had made the noise. Passing the tower he +had imagined that the door was not firmly closed, and had pushed against +it to make sure. The incident did not occur again; but several days +later there was a new, and this time more serious, alarm. + +"I had noticed on top of the tower a blackbird's nest, which could +easily be reached from the platform, but, faithful to orders, I had +never gone up there. This time, however, the temptation was too strong. +I watched until my mother and the servant were in our little garden, and +then climbed nimbly up to take the nest. On the landing of the second +floor, curious to get a peep at the uninhabited rooms, I pushed open the +door, and saw distinctly behind the glass door in the partition that +separated the two rooms, a green curtain drawn quickly. In a great +fright I rushed down-stairs head over heels, and ran into the garden, +calling my mother and shouting, 'There is some one up-stairs in the +room!' She did not believe it and scolded me. As I insisted she followed +me up-stairs with the servant. From the landing my mother cried, 'Is any +one there?' Silence. She pushed open the glass door. No one to be +seen--only a folding-bed, unmade. She touched it; it was warm! Some one +had been there, asleep,--dressed, no doubt. Where was he? On the +platform? We went up. No one was there! He had no doubt escaped when I +ran to the garden! + +"We went down again quickly and our servant called the gardener. He had +disappeared. We saddled the donkey, and my mother went hurry-scurry to +the château. She found the lawyer at the eternal tric-trac with Mme. de +Combray, who frowned at the first word, not even interrupting her game. + +"'More dreams! The room is unoccupied! No one sleeps there!' + +"'But the curtain!' + +"'Well, what of the curtain? Your child made a draught by opening the +door, and the curtain swung.' + +"'But the bed, still warm!' + +"'The gardener has some cats that must have been lying there, and ran +away when the door was opened, and that's all about it!' + +"'And yet--' + +"'Well, have you found this ghost?' + +"'No.' + +"'Well then?' And she shook her dice rather roughly without paying any +more attention to my mother, who after exchanging a curt good-night with +the Marquise, returned to the tower, so little convinced of the presence +of the cats that she took two screw-rings from one of our boxes, fixed +them on to the trap-door, closed them with a padlock, took the key and +said, 'Now we will see if any one comes in that way.' And for greater +security she decided to lift the drawbridge after supper. We all three +took hold of the rope that moved with difficulty on the rusty pulley. It +was hard; we made three attempts. At last it moved, the bridge shook, +lifted, came right up. It was done! And that evening, beside my bed, my +mother said: + +"'We will not grow old in her Bastille!' + +"Which was true, for eight days later we were awakened in the middle of +the night by a terrible hubbub on the ground floor. From our landing we +heard several voices, swearing and raging under the trap-door which they +were trying to raise, to which the padlock offered but feeble +resistance, for a strong push broke it off and the door opened with a +great noise. My mother and the servant rushed to the bureau, pushed and +dragged it to the door, whilst some men came out of the cellar, walked +to the door, grumbling, opened it, saw the drawbridge up, unfastened the +rope and let it fall down with a loud bang, and then the voices grew +fainter till they disappeared in the wood. But go to sleep after all +that! We stayed there waiting for the dawn, and though all danger was +over, not daring to speak aloud! + +"At last the day broke. We moved the bureau, and my mother, brave as +ever, went down first, carrying a candle. The yawning trap-door exposed +the black hole of a cellar, the entrance door was wide open and the +bridge down. We called the gardener, who did not answer, and whose hut +was empty. My mother did not wait till afternoon this time, but jumped +on her donkey and went down to the château. + +"Mme. de Combray was dressing. She expected my mother and knew her +object in coming so well that without waiting for her to tell her story, +she flew out like most people, who, having no good reason to give, +resort to angry words, and cried as soon as she entered the room: + +"'You are mad; mad enough to be shut up! You take my house for a resort +of bandits and counterfeiters! I am sorry enough that I ever brought you +here!' + +"'And I that I ever came!' + +"'Very well, then--go!' + +"'I am going to-morrow. I came to tell you so.' + +"'A safe return to you!' On which Mme. de Combray turned her back, and +my mother retraced her steps to the tower in a state of exasperation, +fully determined to take the boat for Paris without further delay. + +"Early next morning we made ready. The gardener was at the door with his +cart, coming and going for our luggage, while the servant put the soup +on the table. My mother took only two or three spoonfuls and I did the +same, as I hate soup. The servant alone emptied her plate! We went down +to Roule where the gardener had scarcely left us when the servant was +seized with frightful vomiting. My mother and I were also slightly +nauseated, but the poor girl retained nothing, happily for her, for we +returned to Paris convinced that the gardener, being left alone for a +moment, had thrown some poison into the soup." + +"And did nothing happen afterwards?" + +"Nothing." + +"And you heard nothing more from Tournebut?" + +"Nothing, until 1808, when we learned that the mail had been attacked +and robbed near Falaise by a band of armed men commanded by Mme. de +Combray's daughter, Mme. Acquet de Férolles, disguised as a hussar! +Then, that Mme. Acquet had been arrested as well as her lover (Le +Chevalier), her husband, her mother, her lawyer and servants and those +of Mme. de Combray at Tournebut; and finally that Mme. de Combray had +been condemned to imprisonment and the pillory, Mme. Acquet, her lover, +the lawyer (Lefebre) and several others, to death." + +"And the husband?" + +"Released; he was a spy." + +"Was your mother called as a witness?" + +"No, happily, they knew nothing about us. Besides, what would she have +said?" + +"Nothing, except that the people who frightened you so much, must surely +have belonged to the band; that they had forced the trap-door, after a +nocturnal expedition, on which they had been pursued as far as a +subterranean entrance, which without doubt led to the cellar." + +After we had chatted a while on this subject Moisson wished me +good-night, and I took up Balzac's chef d'oeuvre and resumed my +reading. But I only read a few lines; my imagination was wandering +elsewhere. It was a long distance from Balzac's idealism to the realism +of Moisson, which awakened in me memories of the stories and melodramas +of Ducray-Duminil, of Guilbert de Pixérecourt--"Alexis, ou la Maisonette +dans les Bois," "Victor, ou l'Enfant de la Forêt,"--and many others of +the same date and style so much discredited nowadays. And I thought that +what caused the discredit now, accounted for their vogue formerly; that +they had a substratum of truth under a mass of absurdity; that these +stories of brigands in their traditional haunts, forests, caverns and +subterranean passages, charmed by their likelihood the readers of those +times to whom an attack on a coach by highwaymen with blackened faces +was as natural an occurrence as a railway accident is to us, and that in +what seems pure extravaganza to us they only saw a scarcely exaggerated +picture of things that were continually happening under their eyes. In +the reports published by M. Félix Rocquain we can learn the state of +France during the Directory and the early years of the Commune. The +roads, abandoned since 1792, were worn into such deep ruts, that to +avoid them the waggoners made long circuits in ploughed land, and the +post-chaises would slip and sink into the muddy bogs from which it was +impossible to drag them except with oxen. At every step through the +country one came to a deserted hamlet, a roofless house, a burned farm, +a château in ruins. Under the indifferent eyes of a police that cared +only for politics, and of gendarmes recruited in such a fashion that a +criminal often recognised an old comrade in the one who arrested him, +bands of vagabonds and scamps of all kinds had been formed; deserters, +refractories, fugitives from the pretended revolutionary army, and +terrorists without employment, "the scum," said François de Nantes, "of +the Revolution and the war; 'lanterneurs' of '91, 'guillotineurs' of +'93, 'sabreurs' of the year III, 'assommeurs' of the year IV, +'fusilleurs' of the year V." All this canaille lived only by rapine and +murder, camped in the forests, ruins and deserted quarries like that at +Gueudreville, an underground passage one hundred feet long by thirty +broad, the headquarters of the band of Orgères, a thoroughly organised +company of bandits--chiefs, subchiefs, storekeepers, spies, couriers, +barbers, surgeons, dressmakers, cooks, preceptors for the "gosses," and +curé! + +And this brigandage was rampant everywhere. There was so little safety +in the Midi from Marseilles to Toulon and Toulouse that one could not +travel without an escort. In the Var, the Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse, +from Digne and Draguignan, to Avignon and Aix, one had to pay ransom. A +placard placed along the roads informed the traveller that unless he +paid a hundred francs in advance, he risked being killed. The receipt +given to the driver served as a passport. Theft by violence was so much +the custom that certain villages in the Lower Alps were openly known as +the abode of those who had no other occupation. On the banks of the +Rhône travellers were charitably warned not to put up at certain +solitary inns for fear of not reappearing therefrom. On the Italian +frontier they were the "barbets"; in the North the "garroteurs"; in the +Ardèche the "bande noire"; in the Centre the "Chiffoniers"; in Artois, +Picardie, the Somme, Seine-Inférieure, the Chartrain country, the +Orléanais, Loire-Inférieure, Orne, Sarthe, Mayenne, Ille-et-Vilaine, +etc., and Ile-de-France to the very gates of Paris, but above all in +Calvados, Finistère and La Manche where royalism served as their flag, +the "chauffeurs" and the bands of "Grands Gars" and "Coupe et Tranche," +which under pretence of being Chouans attacked farms or isolated +dwellings, and inspired such terror that if one of them were arrested +neither witness nor jury could be found to condemn him. Politics +evidently had nothing to do with these exploits; it was a private war. +And the Chouans professed to wage it only against the government. So +long as they limited themselves to fighting the gendarmes or national +guards in bands of five or six hundred, to invading defenceless places +in order to cut down the trees of liberty, burn the municipal papers, +and pillage the coffers of the receivers and school-teachers--(the State +funds having the right to return to their legitimate owner, the King), +they could be distinguished from professional malefactors. But when they +stopped coaches, extorted ransom from travellers and shot constitutional +priests and purchasers of the national property, the distinction became +too subtle. There was no longer any room for it in the year VIII and IX +when, vigorous measures having almost cleared the country of the bands +of "chauffeurs" and other bandits who infested it, the greater number of +those who had escaped being shot or guillotined joined what remained of +the royalist army, last refuge of brigandage. + +In such a time Moisson's adventure was not at all extraordinary. We can +only accuse it of being too simple. It was the mildest scene of a huge +melodrama in which he and his mother had played the part of supers. But +slight as was the episode, it had all the attraction of the unknown for +me. Of Tournebut and its owners I knew nothing. Who, in reality, was +this Mme. de Combray, sanctified by Balzac? A fanatic, or an +intriguer?--And her daughter Mme. Acquet? A heroine or a lunatic?--and +the lover? A hero or an adventurer?--And the husband, the lawyer and the +friends of the house? Mme. Acquet more than all piqued my curiosity. The +daughter of a good house disguised as a hussar to stop the mail like +Choppart! This was not at all commonplace! Was she young and pretty? +Moisson knew nothing about it; he had never seen her or her lover or +husband, Mme. de Combray having quarrelled with all of them. + +I was most anxious to learn more, but to do that it would be necessary +to consult the report of the trial in the record office at Rouen. I +never had time. I mentioned it to M. Gustave Bord, to Frédéric Masson +and M. de la Sicotière, and thought no more about it even after the +interesting article published in the _Temps_, by M. Ernest Daudet, until +walking one day with Lenôtre in the little that is left of old Paris of +the Cité, the house in the Rue Chanoinesse, where Balzac lodged Mme. de +la Chanterie, reminded me of Moisson, whose adventure I narrated to +Lenôtre, at that time finishing his "Conspiration de la Rouërie." That +was sufficient to give him the idea of studying the records of the +affair of 1807, which no one had consulted before him. A short time +after he told me that the tower of Tournebut was still in existence, and +that he was anxious for us to visit it, the son-in-law of the owner of +the Château of Aubevoye, M. Constantin, having kindly offered to conduct +us. + +On a fine autumn morning the train left us at the station that served +the little village of Aubevoye, whose name has twice been heard in the +Courts of Justice, once in the trial of Mme. de Combray and once in that +of Mme. de Jeufosse. Those who have no taste for these sorts of +excursions cannot understand their charm. Whether it be a little +historical question to be solved, an unknown or badly authenticated fact +to be elucidated, this document hunt with its deceptions and surprises +is the most amusing kind of chase, especially in company with a delver +like Lenôtre, endowed with an admirable _flair_ that always puts him on +the right track. There was, moreover, a particular attraction in this +old forgotten tower, in which we alone were interested, and in examining +into Moisson's story! + +Of the château that had been built by the Marechal de Marillac, and +considerably enlarged by Mme. de Combray, nothing, unhappily, remains +but the out-buildings, a terrace overlooking the Seine, the court of +honour turned into a lawn, an avenue of old limes and the ancient fence. +A new building replaced the old one fifty years ago. The little château, +"Gros-Mesnil," near the large one has recently been restored. + +But the general effect is the same as in 1804. Seeing the great woods +that hug the outer wall so closely, one realises how well they lent +themselves to the mysterious comings and goings, to the secret councils, +to the rôle destined for it by Mme. de Combray, preparing the finest +room for the arrival of the King or the Comte d'Artois, and in both the +great and little château, arranging hiding-places, one of which alone +could accommodate forty armed men. + +The tower is still there, far from the château, at the summit of a +wooded hill in the centre of a clearing, which commands the river +valley. It is a squat, massive construction, of forbidding aspect, such +as Moisson described, with thick walls, and windows so narrow that they +look more like loopholes. It seems as if it might originally have been +one of the guard-houses or watch-towers erected on the heights from +Nantes to Paris, like the tower of Montjoye whose ditch is recognisable +in the Forest of Marly, or those of Montaigu and Hennemont, whose ruins +were still visible in the last century. Some of these towers were +converted into mills or pigeon-houses. Ours, whose upper story and +pointed roof had been demolished and replaced by a platform at an +uncertain date, was flanked by a wooden mill, burnt before the +Revolution, for it is not to be found in Cassini's chart which shows +all in the region. The tower and its approaches are still known as the +"burnt mill." + +There remains no trace of the excavation which was in front of the +entrance in 1804, and which must have been the last vestige of an old +moat. The threshold crossed, we are in the circular chamber; at the end +facing the door is the window, the bars of which have been taken down; +on the left a modern chimneypiece replaces the old one, and on the right +is the staircase, in good condition. The trap-door has disappeared from +under it, the cellar being abandoned as useless. On the first floor as +on the second, where the partitions have been removed, there are still +traces of them, with fragments of wall-paper. The very little daylight +that filters through the windows justifies Mme. Moisson's exclamation, +"It is a prison!" The platform, from which the view is very fine, has +been renewed, like the staircase. But from top to bottom all corresponds +with Moisson's description. + +All that remained now was to find out how one could get into the cellar +from outside. We had two excellent guides; our kind host, M. Constantin, +and M. l'Abbé Drouin, the curé of Aubevoye, who knew all the local +traditions. They mentioned the "Grotto of the Hermit!" O +Ducray-Duminil!--Thou again! + +The grotto is an old quarry in the side of the hill towards the Seine, +below the tower and having no apparent communication with it, but so +situated that an underground passage of a few yards would unite them. +The grotto being now almost filled up, the entrance to this passage has +disappeared. Looking at it, so innocent in appearance now under the +brush and brambles, I seemed to see some Chouan by star-light, eye and +ear alert, throw himself into it like a rabbit into its hole, and creep +through to the tower, to sleep fully dressed on the pallet on the second +floor. Evidently this tower, planned as were all Mme. de Combray's +abodes, was one of the many refuges arranged by the Chouans from the +coast of Normandy to Paris and known only to themselves. + +But why was Mme. Moisson accommodated there without being taken into her +hostess's confidence? If Mme. de Combray wished to avert suspicion by +having two women and a child there, she might have told them so; and if +she thought Mme. Moisson too excitable to hear such a confession, she +should not have exposed her to nocturnal mysteries that could only tend +to increase her excitement! When Phélippeaux was questioned, during the +trial of Georges Cadoudal, about Moisson's father, who had disappeared, +he replied that he lived in the street and island of Saint-Louis near +the new bridge; that he was an engraver and manager of a button factory; +that Mme. Moisson had a servant named R. Petit-Jean, married to a +municipal guard. Was it through fear of this woman's writing +indiscreetly to her husband that Mme. de Combray remained silent? But in +any case, why the tower? + +However this may be, the exactness of Moisson's reminiscences was +proved. But the trap-door had not been forced, as he believed, by +Chouans fleeing after some nocturnal expedition. This point was already +decided by the first documents that Lenôtre had collected for this +present work. There was no expedition of the sort in the neighbourhood +of Tournebut during the summer of 1804. They would not have risked +attracting attention to the château where was hidden the only man whom +the Chouans of Normandy judged capable of succeeding Georges, and whom +they called "Le Grand Alexandre"--the Vicomte Robert d'Aché. Hunted +through Paris like all the royalists denounced by Querelle, he had +managed to escape the searchers, to go out in one of his habitual +disguises when the gates were reopened, to get to Normandy by the left +bank of the Seine and take refuge with his old friend at Tournebut, +where he lived for fourteen months under the name of Deslorières, his +presence there never being suspected by the police. + +He was certainly, as well as Bonnoeil, Mme. de Combray's eldest son, +one of the three guests with whom Moisson took supper on the evening of +his arrival. The one who was always playing cards or tric-trac with the +Marquise, and whom she called her lawyer, might well have been d'Aché +himself. As to the stealthy visitors at the tower, given the presence of +d'Aché at Tournebut, it is highly probable that they were only passing +by there to confer with him, taking his orders secretly in the woods +without even appearing at the château, and then disappearing as +mysteriously as they had come. + +For d'Aché in his retreat still plotted and made an effort to resume, +with the English minister, the intrigue that had just failed so +miserably, Moreau having withdrawn at the last minute. The royalist +party was less intimidated than exasperated at the deaths of the Duke +d'Enghien, Georges and Pichegru, and did not consider itself beaten even +by the proclamation of the Empire, which had not excited in the +provinces--above all in the country--the enthusiasm announced in the +official reports. + +In reality it had been accepted by the majority of the population as a +government of expediency, which would provisionally secure threatened +interests, but whose duration was anything but certain. It was too +evident that the Empire was Napoleon, as the Consulate had been +Bonaparte--that everything rested on the head of one man. If an infernal +machine removed him, royalty would have a good opportunity. His life was +not the only stake; his luck itself was very hazardous. Founded on +victory, the Empire was condemned to be always victorious. War could +undo what war had done. And this uneasiness is manifest in contemporary +memoirs and correspondence. More of the courtiers of the new régime than +one imagines were as sceptical as Mme. Mère, economising her revenues +and saying to her mocking daughters, "You will perhaps be very glad of +them, some day!" In view of a possible catastrophe many of these kept +open a door for retreat towards the Bourbons, and vaguely encouraged +hopes of assistance that could only be depended on in case of their +success, but which the royalists believed in as positive and immediate. +As to the disaster which might bring it about, they hoped for its early +coming, and promised it to the impatient Chouans--the disembarkation of +an Anglo-Russian army--the rising of the West--the entrance of Louis +XVIII into his good town of Paris--and the return of the Corsican to his +island! Predictions that were not so wild after all. Ten years later it +was an accomplished fact in almost all its details. And what are ten +years in politics? Frotté, Georges, Pichegru, d'Aché, would only have +had to fold their arms. They would have seen the Empire crumble by its +own weight. + +We made these reflections on returning to the château while looking at +the terrace in the setting sun, at the peaceful winding of the Seine and +the lovely autumn landscape that Mme. de Combray and d'Aché had so often +looked at, at the same place and hour, little foreseeing the sad fate +the future had in store for them. + +The misfortunes of the unhappy woman--the deplorable affair of Quesnay +where the coach with state funds was attacked by Mme. Acquet's men, for +the profit of the royalist exchequer and of Le Chevalier; the +assassination of d'Aché, sold to the imperial police by La Vaubadon, his +mistress, and the cowardly Doulcet de Pontécoulant, who does not boast +of it in his "Mémoires,"--have been the themes of several tales, +romances and novels, wherein fancy plays too great a part, and whose +misinformed authors, Hippolyte Bonnelier, Comtesse de Mirabeau, +Chennevières, etc., have taken great advantage of the liberty used in +works of imagination. There is only one reproach to be made--that they +did not have the genius of Balzac. But we may criticise more severely +the so-called historical writings about Mme. de Combray, her family and +residences, and the Château of Tournebut which M. Homberg shows us +flanked by four feudal towers, and which MM. Le Prévost and Bourdon say +was demolished in 1807. + +Mme. d'Abrantès, with her usual veracity, describes the luxurious +furniture and huge lamps in the "labyrinths of Tournebut, of which one +must, as it were, have a plan, so as not to lose one's way." She shows +us Le Chevalier, crucifix in hand, haranguing the assailants in the wood +of Quesnay (although he was in Paris that day to prove an alibi), and +gravely adds, "I know some one who was in the coach and who alone +survived, the seven other travellers having been massacred and their +bodies left on the road." Now there was neither coach nor travellers, +and no one was killed! + +M. de la Sicotière's mistakes are still stranger. At the time that he +was preparing his great work on "Frotté and the Norman Insurrections," +he learned from M. Gustave Bord that I had some special facts concerning +Mme. de Combray, and wrote to ask me about them. I sent him a résumé of +Moisson's story, and asked him to verify its correctness. And on that he +went finely astray. + +Mme. de Combray had two residences besides her house at Rouen; one at +Aubevoye, where she had lived for a long while, the other thirty leagues +away, at Donnay, in the department of Orne, where she no longer went, as +her son-in-law had settled himself there. Two towers have the same name +of Tournebut; the one at Aubevoye is ours; the other, some distance from +Donnay, did not belong to Mme. de Combray. + +Convinced solely by the assertions of MM. Le Prévost and Bourdon that in +1804 the Château of Aubevoye and its tower no longer existed, and that +Mme. de Combray occupied Donnay at that date, M. de la Sicotière +naturally mistook one Tournebut for the other, did not understand a +single word of Moisson's story, which he treated as a chimera, and in +his book acknowledges my communications in this disdainful note: + + "Confusion has arisen in many minds between the two Tournebuts, so + different, however, and at such a distance from each other, and has + given birth to many strange and romantic legends; inaccessible + retreats arranged for outlaws and bandits in the old tower, + nocturnal apparitions, innocent victims paying with their lives the + misfortune of having surprised the secrets of these terrible + guests...." + +It is pleasant to see M. de la Sicotière point out the confusion he +alone experienced. But there is better to come! Here is a writer who +gives us in two large volumes the history of Norman Chouannerie. There +is little else spoken of in his book than disguises, false names, false +papers, ambushes, kidnappings, attacks on coaches, subterranean +passages, prisons, escapes, child spies and female captains! He states +himself that the affair of the Forest of Quesnay was "tragic, strange +and mysterious!" And at the same time he condemns as "strange" and +"romantic" the simplest of all these adventures--that of Moisson! He +scoffs at his hiding-places in the roofs of the old château, and it is +precisely in the roofs of the old château that the police found the +famous refuge which could hold forty men with ease. He calls the +retreats arranged for the outlaws and bandits "legendary," at the same +time that he gives two pages to the enumeration of the holes, vaults, +wells, pits, grottoes and caverns in which these same bandits and +outlaws found safety! So that M. de la Sicotière seems to be laughing at +himself! + +I should reproach myself if I did not mention, as a curiosity, +the biography of M. and Mme. de Combray, united in one person in +the "Dictionaire Historique" (!!!) of Larousse. It is unique of +its kind. Names, places and facts are all wrong. And the crowning +absurdity is that, borne out by these fancies, fragments are given +of the supposed Mémoires that Félicie (!) de Combray wrote after the +Restoration--forgetting that she was guillotined under the Empire! + +With M. Ernest Daudet we return to history. No one had seriously studied +the crime of Quesnay before him. Some years ago he gave the correct +story of it in _Le Temps_ and we could not complain of its being only +what he meant it to be--a faithful and rapid résumé. Besides, M. Daudet +had only at his disposal the portfolios 8,170, 8,171, and 8,172 of the +Series F7 of the National Archives, and the reports sent to Réal by +Savoye-Rollin and Licquet, this cunning detective beside whom Balzac's +Corentin seems a mere schoolboy. Consequently the family drama escapes +M. Daudet, who, for that matter, did not have to concern himself with +it. It would not have been possible to do better than he did with the +documents within his reach. + +Lenôtre has pushed his researches further. He has not limited himself to +studying, bit by bit, the voluminous report of the trial of 1808, which +fills a whole cupboard; to comparing and opposing the testimony of the +witnesses one against the other, examining the reports and enquiries, +disentangling the real names from the false, truth from error--in a +word, investigating the whole affair, a formidable task of which he only +gives us the substance here. Aided by his wonderful instinct and the +persistency of the investigator, he has managed to obtain access to +family papers, some of which were buried in old trunks relegated to the +attics, and in these papers has found precious documents which clear up +the depths of this affair of Quesnay where the mad passion of one poor +woman plays the greatest part. + +And let no one imagine that he is going to read a romance in these +pages. It is an _historical_ study in the severest meaning of the word. +Lenôtre mentions no fact that he cannot prove. He risks no hypothesis +without giving it as such, and admits no fancy in the slightest detail. +If he describes one of Mme. Acquet's toilettes, it is because it is +given in some interrogation. I have seen him so scrupulous on this +point, as to suppress all picturesqueness that could be put down to his +imagination. In no _cause celèbre_ has justice shown more exactitude in +exposing the facts. In short, here will be found all the qualities that +ensured the success of his "Conspiration de la Rouërie," the chivalrous +beginning of the Chouannerie that he now shows us in its decline, +reduced to highway robbery! + +As for me, if I have lingered too long by this old tower, it is because +it suggested this book; and we owe some gratitude to these mute +witnesses of a past which they keep in our remembrance. + +Victorien Sardou. + + + + +The House of the Combrays + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE + + +Late at night on January the 25th, 1804, the First Consul, who, as it +often happened, had arisen in order to work till daylight, was looking +over the latest police reports that had been placed on his desk. + +His death was talked of everywhere. It had already been announced +positively in London, Germany and Holland. "To assassinate Bonaparte" +was a sort of game, in which the English were specially active. From +their shores, well-equipped and plentifully supplied with money, sailed +many who were desirous of gaining the great stake,--obdurate Chouans and +fanatical royalists who regarded as an act of piety the crime that would +rid France of the usurper. What gave most cause for alarm in these +reports, usually unworthy of much attention, was the fact that all of +them were agreed on one point--Georges Cadoudal had disappeared. Since +this man, formidable by reason of his courage and tenacity of purpose, +had declared war without mercy on the First Consul, the police had +never lost sight of him. It was known that he was staying in England, +and he was under surveillance there; but if it was true that he had +escaped this espionage, the danger was imminent, and the predicted +"earthquake" at hand. + +Bonaparte, more irritated than uneasy at these tales, wished to remove +all doubt about the matter. He mistrusted Fouché, whose devotion he had +reason to suspect, and who besides had not at this time--officially at +least--the superintendence of the police; and he had attached to himself +a dangerous spy, the Belgian Réal. It was on this man that Bonaparte, on +certain occasions, preferred to rely. Réal was a typical detective. The +friend of Danton, he had in former days, organised the great popular +manifestations that were to intimidate the Convention. He had penetrated +the terrible depths of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the Committee of +Public Safety. He knew and understood how to make use of what remained +of the old committees of sections, of "septembriseurs" without +occupation, lacqueys, perfumers, dentists, dancing masters without +pupils, all the refuse of the revolution, the women of the Palais-Royal: +such was the army he commanded, having as his lieutenants Desmarets, an +unfrocked priest, and Veyrat, formerly a Genevese convict, who had been +branded and whipped by the public executioner. Réal and these two +subalterns were the principal actors in the drama that we are about to +relate. + +On this night Bonaparte sent in haste for Réal. In his usual manner, by +brief questions he soon learned the number of royalists confined in the +tower of the Temple or at Bicêtre, their names, and on what suspicions +they had been arrested. Quickly satisfied on all these points he ordered +that before daylight four of the most deeply implicated of the prisoners +should be taken before a military commission; if they revealed nothing +they were to be shot in twenty-four hours. Aroused at five o'clock in +the morning, Desmarets was told to prepare the list, and the first two +names indicated were those of Picot and Lebourgeois. Picot was one of +Frotté's old officers, and during the wars of the Chouannerie had been +commander-in-chief of the Auge division. He had earned the surname of +"Egorge-Bleus" and was a Chevalier of St. Louis. Lebourgeois, keeper of +a coffee-house at Rouen, had been accused about the year 1800 of taking +part in an attack on a stage-coach, was acquitted, and like his friend +Picot, had emigrated to England. Both of these men had been denounced by +a professional instigator as having "been heard to say" that they had +come to attempt the life of the First Consul. They had been arrested at +Pont-Audemer as soon as they returned to France, and had now been +imprisoned in the Temple for nearly a year. + +To these two victims Desmarets added another Chouan, Piogé, nicknamed +"Without Pity" or "Strike-to-Death," and Desol de Grisolles, an old +companion of Georges and "a very dangerous royalist." And then, to show +his zeal, he added a fifth name to the list, that of Querelle, +ex-surgeon of marine, arrested four months previously, under slight +suspicion, but described in the report as a poor-spirited creature of +whom "something might be expected." + +"This one," said Bonaparte on reading the name of Querelle, and the +accompanying note, "is more of an intriguer than a fanatic; he will +speak." + +The same day the five, accused of enticing away soldiers and +corresponding with the enemies of the Republic, were led before a +military commission over which General Duplessis presided; Desol and +Piogé were acquitted, returned to the hands of the government and +immediately reincarcerated. Picot, Lebourgeois and Querelle, condemned +to death, were transferred to the Abbaye there to await their execution +on the following day. + +"There must be no delay, you understand," said Bonaparte, "I will not +have it." + +But nevertheless it was necessary to give a little time for the courage +of the prisoners to fail, and for the police to aid in bringing this +about. + +There was nothing to be expected of Picot or Lebourgeois; they knew +nothing of the conspiracy and were resigned to their fate; but their +deaths could be used to intimidate Querelle who was less firm, and the +authorities did not fail to make the most of the opportunity. He was +allowed to be present during all the preparations; he witnessed the +arrival of the soldiers who were to shoot his companions; he saw them +depart and was immediately told that it was "now his turn." Then to +prolong his agony he was left alone in the gloomy chamber where +Maillard's tribunal had formerly sat. This tragic room was lighted by a +small, strongly-barred window looking out on the square. From this +window the doomed man saw the soldiers who were to take him to the plain +of Grenelle drawn up in the narrow square and perceived the crowd +indulging in rude jokes while they waited for him to come out. One of +the soldiers had dismounted and tied his horse to the bars of the +window; while within the prison the noise of quick footsteps was heard, +doors opening and shutting heavily, all indicating the last +preparations.... + +Querelle remained silent for a long time, crouched up in a corner. +Suddenly, as if fear had driven him mad, he began to call desperately, +crying that he did not want to die, that he would tell all he knew, +imploring his gaolers to fly to the First Consul and obtain his pardon, +at the same time calling with sobs upon General Murat, Governor of +Paris, swearing that he would make a complete avowal if only he would +command the soldiers to return to their quarters. Although Murat could +see nothing in these ravings but a pretext for gaining a few hours of +life, he felt it his duty to refer the matter to the First Consul, who +sent word of it to Réal. All this had taken some time and meanwhile the +unfortunate Querelle, seeing the soldiers still under his window and the +impatient crowd clamouring for his appearance, was in the last paroxysm +of despair. When Réal opened the door he saw, cowering on the flags and +shaking with fear, a little man with a pockmarked face, black hair, a +thin and pointed nose and grey eyes continually contracted by a nervous +affection. + +"You have announced your intention of making some revelations," said +Réal; "I have come to hear them." + +But the miserable creature could scarcely articulate. Réal was obliged +to reassure him, to have him carried into another room, and to hold out +hopes of mercy if his confessions were sufficiently important. At last, +still trembling, and in broken words, with great effort the prisoner +confessed that he had been in Paris for six months, having come from +London with Georges Cadoudal and six of his most faithful officers; they +had been joined there by a great many more from Bretagne or England; +there were now more than one hundred of them hidden in Paris, waiting +for an opportunity to carry off Bonaparte, or to assassinate him. He +added more details as he grew calmer. A boat from the English navy had +landed them at Biville near Dieppe; there a man from Eu or Tréport had +met them and conducted them a little way from the shore to a farm of +which Querelle did not know the name. They left again in the night, and +in this way, from farm to farm, they journeyed to Paris where they did +not meet until Georges called them together; they received their pay in +a manner agreed upon. His own share was deposited under a stone in the +Champs Elysées every week, and he fetched it from there. A "gentleman" +had come to meet them at the last stage of their journey, near the +village of Saint-Leu-Taverny, to prepare for their entry into Paris and +help them to pass the barrier. + +One point stood out boldly in all these revelations: Georges was in +Paris! Réal, whose account we have followed, left Querelle and hastened +to the Tuileries. The First Consul was in the hands of Constant, his +valet, when the detective was announced. Noticing his pallor, Bonaparte +supposed he had just come from the execution of the three condemned men. + +"It is over, isn't it?" he said. + +"No, General," replied Réal. + +And seeing his hesitation the Consul continued: "You may speak before +Constant." + +"Well then,--Georges and his band are in Paris." + +On hearing the name of the only man he feared Bonaparte turned round +quickly, made the sign of the cross, and taking Réal by the sleeve led +him into the adjoining room. + +So the First Consul's police, so numerous, so careful, and so active, +the police who according to the _Moniteur_ "had eyes everywhere," had +been at fault for six months! A hundred reports were daily piled up on +Réal's table, and not one of them had mentioned the goings and comings +of Georges, who travelled with his Chouans from Dieppe to Paris, +supported a little army, and planned his operations with as much liberty +as if he were in London. These revelations were so alarming that they +preferred not to believe them. Querelle must have invented this absurd +story as a last resource for prolonging his life. To set at rest all +doubt on this subject he must be convinced of the imposture. If it was +true that he had accompanied the "brigands" from the sea to Paris, he +could, on travelling over the route, show their different +halting-places. If he could do this his life was to be spared. + +From the 27th January, when he made his first declarations, Querelle was +visited every night by Réal or Desmarets who questioned him minutely. +The unfortunate creature had sustained such a shock, that, even while +maintaining his avowals, he would be seized with fits of madness, and +beating his breast, would fall on his knees and call on those whom fear +of death had caused him to denounce, imploring their pardon. When he +learned what was expected of him he appeared to be overwhelmed, not at +the number of victims he was going to betray, but because he was aghast +at the idea of leading the detectives over a road that he had traversed +only at night, and that he feared he might not remember. The expedition +set out on February 3d. Réal had taken the precaution to have an escort +of gendarmes for the prisoner whom Georges and his followers might try +to rescue. The detachment was commanded by a zealous and intelligent +officer, Lieutenant Manginot, assisted by a giant called Pasque, an +astute man celebrated for the sureness of his attack. They left Paris at +dawn by the Saint-Denis gate and took the road to l'Isle-Adam. + +The first day's search was without result. Querelle thought he +remembered that a house in the village of Taverny had sheltered the +Chouans the night before their entry into Paris; but at the time he had +not paid any attention to localities, and in spite of his efforts, he +could be positive of nothing. The next day they took the Pontoise road +from Pierrelaye to Franconville,--with no more success. They returned +towards Taverny by Ermont, le Plessis-Bouchard and the Château de +Boissy. Querelle, who knew that his life was at stake, showed a feverish +eagerness which was not shared by Pasque nor Manginot, who were now +fully persuaded that the prisoner had only wanted to gain time, or some +chance of escape. They thought of abandoning the search and returning to +Paris, but Querelle begged so vehemently for twenty-four hours' reprieve +that Manginot weakened. The third day, therefore, they explored the +environs of Taverny and the borders of the forest as far as Bessancourt. +Querelle now led them by chance, thinking he recognised a group of +trees, a turn of the road, even imagining he had found a farm "by the +particular manner in which the dog barked." + +At last, worn out, the little band were returning to Paris when, on +passing through the village of Saint-Leu, Querelle gave a triumphant +cry! He had just recognised the long-looked for house, and he gave so +exact a description of it and its inhabitants that Pasque did not +hesitate to interrogate the proprietor, a vine-dresser named Denis +Lamotte. He laid great stress on the fact that he had a son in the +service of an officer of the Consul's guard; his other son, Vincent +Lamotte, lived with him. The worthy man appeared very much surprised at +the invasion of his house, but his peasant cunning could not long +withstand the professional cleverness of the detective, and after a few +minutes he gave up. + +He admitted that at the beginning of July last he had received a person +calling himself Houvel, or Saint-Vincent, who under pretence of buying +some wine, had proposed to him to lodge seven or eight persons for a +night. Lamotte had accepted. On the evening of the 30th August Houvel +had reappeared and told him that the men would arrive that night. He +went to fetch them in the neighbourhood of l'Isle-Adam, and his son +Vincent accompanied him to serve as guide to the travellers, whom he met +on the borders of the wood of La Muette. They numbered seven, one of +whom, very stout and covered with sweat, stopped in the wood to change +his shirt. They all appeared to be very tired, and only two of them were +on horseback. They arrived at Lamotte's house at Saint-Leu about two +o'clock in the morning; the horses were stabled and the men stretched +themselves out on the straw in one of the rooms of the house. Lamotte +noticed that each of them carried two pistols. They slept long and had +dinner about twelve o'clock. Two individuals, who had driven from Paris +and left their cabriolets, one at the "White Cross" the other at the +"Crown," talked with the travellers who, about seven o'clock, resumed +their journey to the capital. Each of the "individuals" took one in his +cab; two went on horseback and the others awaited the phaeton which ran +between Taverny and Paris. + +This account tallied so well with Querelle's declarations that there +was no longer any room for doubt. The band of seven was composed of +Georges and his staff; the "stout man" was Georges himself, and Querelle +gave the names of the others, all skilful and formidable Chouans. +Lamotte, on his part, did not hesitate to name the one who had conducted +the "brigands" to the wood of La Muette. He was called Nicolas +Massignon, a farmer of Jouy-le-Comte. Pasque set out with his gendarmes, +and Massignon admitted that he had brought the travellers from across +the Oise to the Avenue de Nesles, his brother, Jean-Baptiste Massignon, +a farmer of Saint-Lubin, having conducted them thither. Pasque +immediately took the road to Saint-Lubin and marched all night. At four +o'clock in the morning he arrived at the house of Jean-Baptiste, who, +surprised in jumping out of bed, remembered that he had put up some men +that his brother-in-law, Quentin-Rigaud, a cultivator at Auteuil, had +brought there. Pasque now held four links of the chain, and Manginot +started for the country to follow the track of the conspirators to the +sea. Savary had preceded him in order to surprise a new disembarkation +announced by Querelle. Arrived at the coast he perceived, at some +distance, an English brig tacking, but in spite of all their precautions +to prevent her taking alarm, the vessel did not come in. They saw her +depart on a signal given on shore by a young man on horseback, whom +Savary's gendarmes pursued as far as the forest of Eu, where he +disappeared. + +In twelve days, always accompanied by Querelle, Manginot had ended his +quest, and put into the hands of Réal such a mass of depositions that it +was possible, as we shall show, to reconstruct the voyage of Georges and +his companions to Paris from the sea. + +On the night of August 23, 1803, the English cutter "Vincejo," commanded +by Captain Wright, had landed the conspirators at the foot of the cliffs +of Biville, a steep wall of rocks and clay three hundred and twenty feet +high. From time immemorial, in the place called the hollow of Parfonval +there had existed an "estamperche," a long cord fixed to some piles, +which was used by the country people for descending to the beach. It was +necessary to pull oneself up this long rope by the arms, a most painful +proceeding for a man as corpulent as Georges. At last the seven Chouans +were gathered at the top of the cliff, and under the guidance of Troche, +son of the former procureur of the commune of Eu, and one of the most +faithful adherents of the party, they arrived at the farm of La Poterie, +near the hamlet of Heudelimont, about two leagues from the coast. Whilst +the farmer, Detrimont, was serving them drinks, a mysterious personage, +who called himself M. Beaumont, came to consult with them. He was a tall +man, with the figure of a Hercules, a swarthy complexion, a high +forehead and black eyebrows and hair. He disappeared in the early +morning. + +Georges and his companions spent the whole of the 24th at La Poterie. +They left the farm in the night and marched five leagues to Preuseville, +where a M. Loisel sheltered them. The route was cleverly planned not to +leave the vast forest of Eu, which provided shaded roads, and in case of +alarm, almost impenetrable hiding-places. On the night of the 26th they +again covered five leagues, through the forest of Eu, arriving at Aumale +at two o'clock in the morning, and lodging with a man called Monnier, +who occupied the ancient convent of the Dominican Nuns. "The stout man" +rode a black horse which Monnier, for want of a stable, hid in a +corridor in the house, the halter tied to the key of the door. As for +the men, they threw themselves pell-mell on some straw, and did not go +out during the day. M. Beaumont had reappeared at Aumale. He arrived on +horseback and, after passing an hour with the conspirators, had left in +the direction of Quincampoix. They had seen him again with Boniface +Colliaux, called Boni, at their next stage, Feuquières, four leagues +off, which they reached on the night of the 27th. They passed the 28th +with Leclerc, five leagues further on, at the farm of Monceaux which +belonged to the Count d'Hardivilliers, situated in the commune of +Saint-Omer-en-Chaussée. From there, avoiding Beauvais, the son of +Leclerc had guided them to the house of Quentin-Rigaud at Auteuil, and +on the 29th he had taken them to Massignon, the farmer of Saint-Lubin, +who in turn had passed them on, the next day, to his brother Nicolas, +charged, as we have seen, to help them cross the Oise and direct them to +the wood of La Muette, where Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of +Saint-Leu, had come to fetch them. + +Such was the result of Manginot's enquiries. He had reconstructed +Georges' itinerary with most remarkable perspicacity and this was the +more important as the chain of stations from the sea to Paris +necessitated long and careful organisation, and as the conspirators used +the route frequently. Thus, two men mentioned in the disembarkation of +August 23d had returned to Biville in mid-September. On October 2d +Georges and three of his officers, coming from Paris, had again +presented themselves before Lamotte, who had conducted them to the wood +of La Muette, where Massignon was waiting for them. It was proved that +their journeys had been made with perfect regularity; the same guides, +the same night marches, the same hiding-places by day. The house of +Boniface Colliaux at Feuquières, that of Monnier at Aumale, and the farm +of La Poterie seemed to be the principal meeting-places. Another passage +took place in the second fortnight of November, and another in December, +corresponding to a new disembarkation. In January, 1804, Georges made +the journey for the fourth time, to await at Biville the English +corvette bringing Pichegru, the Marquis de Rivière and four other +conspirators. A fisherman called Étienne Horné gave some valuable +details of this arrival. He had noticed particularly the man who +appeared to be the leader--"a fat man, with a full, rather hard face, +round-shouldered, and with a slight trouble in his arms." + +"These gentlemen," he added, "usually arrived at night, and left about +midnight; they were satisfied with our humble fare, and always kept +together in a corner, talking." + +When the tide was full Horné went down to the beach to watch for the +sloop. The password was "Jacques," to which the men in the boat replied +"Thomas." + +Manginot, as may well be imagined, arrested all who in any way had +assisted the conspirators, and hurried them off to Paris. The tower of +the Temple became crowded with peasants, with women in Normandy caps, +and fishermen of Dieppe, dumbfounded at finding themselves in the famous +place where the monarchy had suffered its last torments. But these were +only the small fry of the conspiracy, and the First Consul, who liked to +pose as the victim exposed to the blows of an entire party, could not +with decency take these inoffensive peasants before a high court of +justice. While waiting for chance or more treachery to reveal the refuge +of Georges Cadoudal, the discovery of the organisers of the plot was +most important, and this seemed well-nigh impossible, although Manginot +had reason to think that the centre of the conspiracy was near Aumale or +Feuquières. + +His attention had been attracted by a deposition mentioning the black +horse that Georges had ridden from Preuseville to Aumale--the one that +the school-master Monnier had hidden in a corridor of his house. With +this slight clue he started for the country. There he learned that a +workman called Saint-Aubin, who lived in the hamlet of Coppegueule, had +been ordered to take the horse to an address on a letter which Monnier +had given him. This man, when called upon to appear, remembered that he +had led the horse "to a fine house in the environs of Gournay." When he +arrived there a servant had taken the animal to the stables, and a lady +had come out and asked for the letter, but he denied all knowledge of +the lady's name or the situation of the house. + +Manginot resolved to search the country in company with Saint-Aubin, but +he was either stupid or pretended to be so, and refused to give any +assistance. He led the gendarmes six leagues, as far as Aumale, and +said, at first, that he recognised the Château de Mercatet-sur-Villers, +but on looking carefully at the avenues and the arrangement of the +buildings, he declared he had never been there. The same thing happened +at Beaulevrier and at Mothois; but on approaching Gournay his memory +returned, and he led Manginot to a house in the hamlet of Saint-Clair +which he asserted was the one to which Monnier had sent him. On entering +the courtyard he recognised the servant to whom he had given the horse +six months before, a groom named Joseph Planchon. Manginot instantly +arrested the man, and then began his search. + +The house belonged to an ex-officer of marine, François Robert d'Aché, +who rarely occupied it, being an ardent sportsman and preferring his +estates near Neufchâtel-en-Bray, where there was more game. Saint-Clair +was occupied by Mme. d'Aché, an invalid who rarely left her room, and +her two daughters, Louise and Alexandrine, as well as d'Aché's mother, a +bedridden octogenarian, and a young man named Caqueray, who was also +called the Chevalier de Lorme, who farmed the lands of M. and Mme. +d'Aché, whose property had recently been separated by law. Caqueray +looked upon himself as one of the family, and Louise, the eldest girl, +was betrothed to him. + +Nothing could have been less suspicious than the members of this +patriarchal household, who seemed to know nothing of politics, and whose +tranquil lives were apparently unaffected by revolutions. The absence of +the head of so united a family was the only astonishing thing about it. +But Mme. d'Aché and her daughters explained that he was bored at +Saint-Clair and usually lived in Rouen, that he hunted a great deal, and +spent his time between his relatives who lived near Gaillon and friends +at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. They could not say where he was at present, +having had no news of him for two months. + +But on questioning the servants Manginot learned some facts that changed +the aspect of affairs. Lambert, the gardener, had recently been shot at +Evreux, convicted of having taken part with a band of Chouans in an +attack on the stage-coach, Caqueray's brother had just been executed for +the same cause at Rouen. Constant Prévot, a farm hand, accused of having +killed a gendarme, had been acquitted, but died soon after his return to +Saint-Clair. Manginot had unearthed a nest of Chouans, and only when he +learned that the description of d'Aché was singularly like that of the +mysterious Beaumont who had been seen with Georges at La Poterie, Aumale +and Feuquières, did he understand the importance of his discovery. +After a rapid and minute inquiry, he took it upon himself to arrest +every one at Saint-Clair, and sent an express to Réal, informing him of +the affair, and asking for further instructions. + +It had been the custom for several years, when a person was denounced to +the police as an enemy of the government, or a simple malcontent, to +have his name put up in Desmarets' office, and to add to it, in +proportion to the denunciations, every bit of information that could +help to make a complete portrait of the individual. That of d'Aché was +consulted. There were found annotations of this sort: "By reason of his +audacity he is one of the most important of the royalists," "Last +December he took a passport at Rouen for Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he +was called by business," "His host at Saint-Germain, Brandin de +Saint-Laurent, declares that he did not sleep there regularly, sometimes +two, sometimes three days at a time." At last a letter was intercepted +addressed to Mme. d'Aché, containing this phrase, which they recognised +as Georges' style: "Tell M. Durand that things are taking a good +turn,... his presence is necessary.... He will have news of me at the +Hôtel de Bordeaux, rue de Grenelle, Saint-Honoré, where he will ask for +Houvel." Now Houvel was the unknown man who, first of all, had gone to +the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu to persuade him to aid the "brigands." +Thus d'Aché's route was traced from Biville to Paris and the conclusion +drawn that, knowing all the country about Bray, where he owned estates, +he had been chosen to arrange the itinerary of the conspirators and to +organise their journeys. He had accompanied them from La Poterie to +Feuquières, sometimes going before them, sometimes staying with them in +the farms where he had found for them places of refuge. + +In default of Georges, then, d'Aché was the next best person to seize, +and the First Consul appreciated this fact so keenly that he organised +two brigades of picked soldiers and fifty dragoons. But they only served +to escort poor sick Mme. d'Aché, her daughter Louise and their friend +Caqueray, who were immediately locked up--the last named in the Tower of +the Temple, and the two women in the Madelonnettes. The infirm old +grandmother remained at Saint-Clair, while Alexandrine wished to follow +her mother and sister, and was left quite at liberty. But d'Aché could +not be found. Manginot's army had searched the whole country, from +Beauvais to Tréport, without success; they had sought him at +Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he was said to be hidden, at +Saint-Denis-de-Monts, at Saint-Romain, at Rouen. The prefects of Eure +and Seine-Inférieure were ordered to set all their police on his track. +The result of this campaign was pitiable, and they only succeeded in +arresting d'Aché's younger brother, an inoffensive fellow of feeble +mind, appropriately named "Placide," who was nicknamed "Tourlour," on +account of his lack of wit and his rotundity. His greatest fear was of +being mistaken for his brother, which frequently happened. As the elder +d'Aché could never be caught, Placide, who loved tranquillity and +hardly ever went away from home, was invariably taken in his stead. It +happened again this time, and Manginot seized him, thinking he had done +a fine thing. But the first interview undeceived him. However, he sent +word of his capture to Réal, who, in his zeal to execute the First +Consul's orders, took upon himself to determine that Placide d'Aché was +as dangerous a royalist "brigand" as his brother. He ordered the +prisoner to be brought under a strong escort to Paris, determining to +interrogate him himself. But as soon as he had seen "Tourlour," and had +asked him a few questions, including one as to his behaviour during the +Terror, and received for answer, "I hid myself with mamma," Réal +understood that such a man could not be brought before a tribunal as a +rival to Bonaparte. He kept him, however, in prison, so that the name of +d'Aché could appear on the gaol-book of the Temple. + +In the meantime, on the 9th of March 1804, at the hour when Placide +d'Aché was being interrogated, an event occurred, which transformed the +drama and hastened its tragic dénouement. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTURE OF GEORGES CADOUDAL + + +Georges had arrived in Paris on September 1, 1803, in a yellow cabriolet +driven by the Marquis d'Hozier dressed as a coachman. D'Hozier, who was +formerly page to the King and had for several months been established as +a livery-stable keeper in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, conducted Georges +to the Hôtel de Bordeaux, kept by the widow Dathy, in the Rue de +Grenelle-Saint-Honoré. + +The task of finding hiding-places in Paris for the conspirators, had +been given to Houvel, called Saint-Vincent, whom we have already seen at +Saint-Leu. Houvel's real name was Raoul Gaillard. A perfect type of the +incorrigible Chouan, he was a fine-looking man of thirty, +fresh-complexioned, with white teeth and a ready smile, and dressed in +the prevailing fashion. He was a close companion of d'Aché, and it was +even said that they had the same mistress at Rouen. The speciality of +Raoul and his brother Armand was attacking coaches which carried +government money. Their takings served to pay recruits to the royalist +cause. For the past six months Raoul Gaillard had been in Paris looking +for safe lodging-places. He was assisted in this delicate task by +Bouvet de Lozier, another of d'Aché's intimate friends, who like him, +had served in the navy before the Revolution. + +Georges went first to Raoul Gaillard at the Hôtel de Bordeaux, but he +left in the evening and slept with Denaud at the "Cloche d'Or," at the +corner of the Rue du Bac, and the Rue de Varenne. He was joined there by +his faithful servant Louis Picot, who had arrived in Paris the same day. +The "Cloche d'Or" was a sort of headquarters for the conspirators; they +filled the house, and Denaud was entirely at their service. He was +devoted to the cause, and not at all timid. He had placed Georges' cab +in the stable of Senator François de Neufchâteau, whose house was next +door. + +Six weeks before, Bouvet de Lozier had taken, through Mme. Costard de +Saint-Léger, his mistress, an isolated house at Chaillot near the Seine. +He had put there as concierge, a man named Daniel and his wife, both of +whom he knew to be devoted to him. A porch with fourteen steps led to +the front hall of the house. This served as dining-room. It was lighted +by four windows and paved with squares of black and white marble; a +walnut table with eight covers, cane-seated chairs, the door-panels +representing the games of children, and striped India muslin curtains +completed the decoration of this room. The next room had also four +windows, and contained an ottoman and six chairs covered with blue and +white Utrecht velvet, two armchairs of brocaded silk, and two mahogany +tables with marble tops. Then came the bedroom with a four-post bed, +consoles and mirrors. On the first floor was an apartment of three +rooms, and in an adjoining building, a large hall which could be used as +an assembly-room. The whole was surrounded by a large garden, closed on +the side towards the river-bank by strong double gates. + +If we have lingered over this description, it is because it seems to say +so much. Who would have imagined that this elegant little house had been +rented by Georges to shelter himself and his companions? These men, +whose disinterestedness and tenacity we cannot but admire, who for ten +years had fought with heroic fortitude for the royal cause, enduring the +hardest privations, braving tempests, sleeping on straw and marching at +night; these men whose bodies were hardened by exposure and fatigue, +retained a purity of mind and sincerity really touching. They never +ceased to believe that "the Prince" for whom they fought would one day +come and share their danger. It had been so often announced and so often +put off that a little mistrust might have been forgiven them, but they +had faith, and that inspired them with a thought which seemed quite +simple to them but which was really sublime. While they were lodging in +holes, living on a pittance parsimoniously taken from the party's funds, +they kept a comfortable and secure retreat ready, where "their +prince"--who was never to come--could wait at his ease, until at the +price of their lives, they had assured the success of his cause. If the +history of our bloody feuds has always an epic quality, it is because it +abounds in examples of blind devotion, so impossible nowadays that they +seem to us improbable exaggerations. + +After six days at the "Cloche d'Or," Georges took possession of the +house at Chaillot, but he did not stay there long, for about the 25th of +September he was at 21 Rue Carême-Prenant in the Faubourg du Temple. +Hozier had rented an entresol there, and had employed a man called +Spain, who had an aptitude for this sort of work, to make a secret place +in it. Spain, under pretence of indispensable repairs, had shut himself +up with his tools in the apartment, and had made a cleverly-concealed +trap-door, by means of which, in case of alarm, the tenants could +descend to the ground floor and go out by an unoccupied shop whose door +opened under the porch of the house. Spain took a sort of pride in his +strange talent; he was very proud of a hiding-place he had made in the +lodging of a friend, the tailor Michelot, in the Rue de Bussy, which +Michelot himself did not suspect. The tailor was obliged to be absent +often, and four of the conspirators had successively lodged there. When +he was away his lodgers "limbered up" in this apartment, but as soon as +they heard his step on the stairs, they reentered their cell, and the +worthy Michelot, who vaguely surmised that there was some mystery about +his house, only solved the enigma when he was cited to appear before the +tribunal as an accomplice in the royalist plot of which he had never +even heard the name. + +Georges started for his first journey to Biville from the Rue +Carême-Prenant. On January 23d he returned finally to Paris, bringing +with him Pichegru, Jules de Polignac and the Marquis de Rivière, whom he +had gone to the farm of La Poterie to receive. He lodged Pichegru with +an employé of the finance department, named Verdet, who had given the +Chouans the second floor of his house in the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite. +They stayed there three days. On the 27th, Georges took the general to +the house at Chaillot "where they only slept a few nights." At the very +moment that they went there Querelle signed his first declarations +before Réal. + +It is not necessary to follow the movements of Pichegru, nor to relate +his interviews with Moreau. The organisation of the plot is what +interests us, by reason of the part taken in it by d'Aché. No one has +ever explained what might have resulted politically from the combination +of Moreau's embittered ambition, the insouciance of Pichegru, and the +fanatical ardour of Georges. Of this ill-assorted trio the latter alone +had decided on action, although he was handicapped by the obstinacy of +the princes in refusing to come to the fore until the throne was +reestablished. He told the truth when he affirmed before the judges, +later on, that he had only come to France to attempt a restoration, the +means for which were never decided on, for they had not agreed on the +manner in which they should act towards Bonaparte. A strange plan had at +first been suggested. The Comte d'Artois, at the head of a band of +royalists equal in number to the Consul's escort, was to meet him on the +road to Malmaison, and provoke him to single combat, but the presence +of the Prince was necessary for this revival of the Combat of Thirty, +and as he refused to appear, this project of rather antiquated chivalry +had to be abandoned. Their next idea was to kidnap Bonaparte. Some +determined men--as all of Georges' companions were--undertook to get +into the park at Malmaison at night, seize Bonaparte and throw him into +a carriage which thirty Chouans, dressed as dragoons, would escort as +far as the coast. They actually began to put this theatrical "coup" into +execution. Mention is made of it in the Memoirs of the valet Constant, +and certain details of the investigation confirm these assertions. Raoul +Gaillard, who still lived at the Hôtel de Bordeaux, and entertained his +friends Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu and Massignon, +farmer of Saint-Lubin there, had discovered that Massignon leased some +land from Macheret, the First Consul's coachman, and had determined at +all hazards to make this man's acquaintance. He even had the audacity to +show himself at the Château of Saint-Cloud in the hope of meeting him. +Besides this, Genty, a tailor in the Palais-Royal, had delivered four +chasseur uniforms, ordered by Raoul Gaillard, and Debausseaux, a tailor +at Aumale, during one of their journeys had measured some of Monnier's +guests for cloaks and breeches of green cloth, which only needed metal +buttons to be transformed into dragoon uniforms. + +Querelle's denunciations put a stop to all these preparations. Nothing +remained but to run to earth again. A great many of the conspirators +succeeded in doing this, but all were not so fortunate. The first one +seized by Réal's men was Louis Picot, Georges' servant. He was a coarse, +rough man, entirely devoted to his master, under whose orders he had +served in the Veudée. He was taken to the Prefecture and promised +immediate liberty in exchange for one word that would put the police on +the track of Georges. He was offered 1,500 louis d'or, which they took +care to count out before him, and on his refusal to betray his master, +Réal had him put to the torture. Bertrand, the concierge of the depôt, +undertook the task. The unfortunate Picot's fingers were crushed by +means of an old gun and a screw-driver, his feet were burned in the +presence of the officers of the guard. He revealed nothing. "He has +borne everything with criminal resignation," the judge-inquisitor, +Thuriot, wrote to Réal; "he is a fanatic, hardened by crime. I have now +left him to solitude and suffering; I will begin again to-morrow; he +knows where Georges is hidden and must be made to reveal it." + +The next day the torture was continued, and this time agony wrung the +address of the Chaillot house from Picot. They hastened there--only to +find it empty. But the day had not been wasted, for the police, on an +anonymous accusation, had seized Bouvet de Lozier as he was entering the +house of his mistress, Mme. de Saint-Léger, in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. He +was interrogated and denied everything. Thrown into the Temple, he +hanged himself in the night, by tying his necktie to the bars of his +cell. A gaoler hearing his death-rattle, opened the door and took him +down; but Bouvet, three-quarters dead, as soon as they had brought him +to, was seized with convulsive tremblings, and in his delirium he spoke. + +This attempted suicide, to tell the truth, was only half believed in, +and many people, having heard of the things that were done in the Temple +and the Prefecture, believed that Bouvet had been assisted in his +strangling, just as they had put Picot's feet to the fire. What gave +colour to these suspicions was the fact that Bouvet's hands "were +horribly swollen" when he appeared before Réal the next day, and also +the strange form of the declaration which he was reputed to have +dictated at midnight, just as he was restored to life. "A man who comes +from the gates of the tomb, still covered with the shadows of death, +demands vengeance on those who, by their perfidy," etc. Many were agreed +in thinking that that was not the style of a suicide, with the +death-rattle still in his throat, but that Réal's agents must have lent +their eloquence to this half-dead creature. + +However it may have been, the government now knew enough to order the +most rigorous measures to be taken against the "last royalists." Bouvet +had, like Picot, only been able to mention the house at Chaillot, and +the lodging in the Rue Carême-Prenant, and Georges' retreat was still +undiscovered. The revelations that fear or torture had drawn from his +associates only served to make the figure of this extraordinary man loom +greater, by showing the power of his ascendancy over his companions, and +the mystery that surrounded all his actions. A legend grew around his +name, and the communications published by _Le Moniteur_, contributed not +a little towards making him a sort of fantastic personage, whom one +expected to see arise suddenly, and by one grand theatrical stroke put +an end to the Revolution. + +Paris lived in a fever of excitement during the first days of March, +1804, anxiously following this duel to the death, between the First +Consul and this phantom-man who, shut up in the town and constantly seen +about, still remained uncaught. The barriers were closed as in the +darkest days of the Terror. Patrols, detectives and gendarmes held all +the streets; the soldiers of the garrison had departed, with loaded +arms, to the boulevards outside the walls. White placards announced that +"Those who concealed the brigands would be classed with the brigands +themselves"; the penalty of death attached to any one who should shelter +one of them, even for twenty-four hours, without denouncing him to the +police. The description of Georges and his accomplices was inserted in +all the papers, distributed in leaflets, and posted on the walls. Their +last domicile was mentioned, as well as anything that could help to +identify them. The clerks at the barriers were ordered to search +barrels, washerwomen's carts, baskets, and, as the cemeteries were +outside the walls, to look carefully into all the hearses that carried +the dead to them. + + * * * * * + +On leaving Chaillot, Georges had returned to Verdet, in the Rue du +Puits-de-l'Hermite. As he did not go out and his friends dared not come +to see him, Mme. Verdet had instituted herself commissioner for the +conspiracy. + +One evening she did not return. Armed with a letter for Bouvet de +Lozier, she had arrived at the Rue Saint-Sauveur just as they were +taking him to the Temple, and had been arrested with him. Thus the +circle was narrowing around Georges. He was obliged to leave the Rue du +Puits-de-l'Hermite in haste, for fear that torture would wring the +secret of his asylum from Mme. Verdet. But where could he go? The house +at Chaillot, the Hôtel of the Cloche d'Or, the Rue Carême-Prenant were +now known to the police. Charles d'Hozier, on being consulted, showed +him a retreat that he had kept for himself, which had been arranged for +him by Mlle. Hisay, a poor deformed girl, who served the conspirators +with tireless zeal, taking all sorts of disguises and vying in address +and activity with Réal's men. She had rented from a fruitseller named +Lemoine, a little shop with a room above it, intending "to use it for +some of her acquaintances." + +It was there that she conducted Georges on the night of February 17. The +next day two of his officers, Burban and Joyaut, joined him there, and +all three lived at the woman Lemoine's for twenty days. They occupied +the room above, leaving the shop untenanted save by Mlle. Hisay and a +little girl of Lemoine's, who kept watch there. At night both of them +went up to the room, and slept there, separated by a curtain from the +beds occupied by Georges and his accomplices. The fruiterer and her +daughter were entirely ignorant of the standing of their guests, Mlle. +Hisay having introduced them as three shop-keepers who were +unfortunately obliged to hide from their creditors. + +This incognito occasioned some rather amusing incidents. One day Mme. +Lemoine, on returning from market where the neighbours had been +discussing the plot that was agitating all Paris, said to her tenants, +"Goodness me! You don't know about it? Why, they say that that miserable +Georges would like to destroy us all; if I knew where he was, I'd soon +have him caught." + +Another time the little girl brought news that Georges had left Paris +disguised as an aide-de-camp of the First Consul. Some days later, when +Georges asked her what the latest news was, she answered, "They say the +rascal has escaped in a coffin." + +"I should like to go out the same way," hinted Burban. + +However, the police had lost track of the conspirator. It was generally +supposed that he had passed the fortifications, when on the 8th of +March, Petit, who had known Léridant, one of the Chouans, for a long +time, saw him talking with a woman on the Boulevard Saint-Antoine. He +followed him, and a little further off, saw him go up to a man who +struck him as bearing a great likeness to Joyaut, whose description had +been posted on all the walls. + +It was indeed Joyaut, who had left Mme. Lemoine's for the purpose of +looking for a lodging for Georges where he would be less at the mercy +of chance than in the fruitseller's attic. Léridant told him that the +house of a perfumer named Caron, in the Rue Four-Saint-Germain, was the +safest retreat in Paris. For some years Caron, a militant royalist, had +sheltered distressed Chouans, in the face of the police. He had hidden +Hyde de Neuville for several weeks; his house was well provided with +secret places, and for extreme cases he had made a place in his +sign-post overhanging the street, where a man could lie _perdu_ at ease, +while the house was being searched. Léridant had obtained Caron's +consent, and it was agreed that Léridant should come in a cab at seven +o'clock the next evening to take Georges from Sainte-Geneviève to the +Rue du Four. + +When he had seen the termination of the interview of which his +detective's instinct showed him the importance, Petit, who had remained +at a distance, followed Joyaut, and did not lose sight of him till he +arrived at the Place Maubert. Suspecting that Georges was in the +neighbourhood he posted policemen at the Place du Panthéon, and at the +narrow streets leading to it; then he returned to watch Léridant, who +lodged with a young man called Goujon, in the cul-de-sac of the +Corderie, behind the old Jacobins Club. The next day, March 9th, Petit +learned through his spies that Goujon had hired out a cab, No. 53, for +the entire day. He hastened to the Prefecture and informed his +colleague, Destavigny, who, with a party of inspectors took up his +position on the Place Maubert. If, as Petit supposed, Georges was hidden +near there, if the cab was intended for him, it would be obliged to +cross the place where the principal streets of the quarter converged. +The order was given to let it pass if it contained only one person, but +to follow it with most extreme care. + +The night had arrived, and nothing had happened to confirm the +hypotheses of Petit, when, a little before seven o'clock, a cab appeared +on the Place, coming from the Rue Galande. Only one man was on it, +holding the reins. The spies in different costumes, who hung about the +fountain, recognised him as Léridant. The cab was numbered 53, and had +only the lantern at the left alight. It went slowly up the steep Rue de +la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève; the police, hugging the walls, followed it +far off. Petit, the Inspector Caniolle, and the officer of the peace, +Destavigny, kept nearer to it, expecting to see it stop before one of +the houses in the street, when they would only have to take Georges on +the threshold. But to their great disappointment the cab turned to the +right, into the narrow Rue des Amandiers, and stopped at a porte cocherè +near the old Collège des Grassins. As the lantern shed a very brilliant +light, the three detectives concealed themselves in the lanes near by. +They saw Léridant descend from the cab. He went through a door, came +out, went in again and stayed for a quarter of an hour. Then he turned +his horse round, and got up on the seat again. + +The cab turned again into the Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève, and +went slowly down it; it went across the Place Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, +following the houses. Caniolle walked behind it, Petit and Destavigny +followed at a distance. Just as the carriage arrived at the corner of +the Rue des Sept-Voies, four individuals came out from the shadow. One +of them seized the apron, and helping himself up by the step, flung +himself into the cab, which had not stopped, and went off at full +speed.... + +The police had recognised Georges, disguised as a market-porter. +Caniolle, who was nearest, rushed forward; the three men who had +remained on the spot, and who were no other than Joyaut, Burban and +Raoul Gaillard, tried to stop him. Caniolle threw them off, and chased +the cab which had disappeared in the Rue Saint-Etienne-des-Grès. He +caught up to it, just as it was entering the Passage des Jacobins. +Seizing the springs, he was carried along with it. The two officers of +the peace, less agile, followed crying, "Stop! Stop!" + +Georges, seated on the right of Léridant, who held the reins, had turned +to the back of the carriage and tried to follow the fortunes of the +pursuit through the glass. The moment that he had jumped into the +carriage, he had seen the detectives, and said to Léridant: "Whip him, +whip him hard!" + +"To go where?" asked the other. + +"I do not know, but we must fly!" + +And the horse, tingling with blows, galloped off. + +At the end of the Passage des Jacobins, which at a sharp angle ended in +the Rue de la Harpe, Léridant was obliged to slow up in order to turn on +the Place Saint-Michel, and not miss the entrance to the Rue des +Fossés-Monsieur-le-Prince. He turned towards the Rue du Four, hoping, +thanks to the steepness of the Rue des Fossés, to distance the +detectives and arrive at Caron's before they caught up with the +carriage. + +From where he was Georges could not, through the little window, see +Caniolle crouched behind the hood. But he saw others running with all +their might. Destavigny and Petit had indeed continued the pursuit, and +their cries brought out all the spies posted in the quarter. Just as +Léridant wildly dashed into the Rue des Fossés, a whole pack of +policemen rushed upon him. + +At the approach of this whirlwind the frightened passers-by shrank into +the shelter of the doorways. Their minds were so haunted by one idea +that at the sight of this cab flying past in the dark with the noise of +whips, shouts, oaths, and the resonant clang of the horse's hoofs on the +pavement, a single cry broke forth, "Georges! Georges! it is Georges!" +Anxious faces appeared at the windows, and from every door people came +out, who began to run without knowing it, drawn along as by a +waterspout. Did Georges see in this a last hope of safety? Did he +believe he could escape in the crowd? However that may be, at the top of +the Rue Voltaire he jumped out into the street. Caniolle, at the same +moment, left the back of the cab--which Petit, and another policeman +called Buffet, had at last succeeded in outrunning,--threw himself on +the reins, and allowing himself to be dragged along, mastered the horse, +which stopped, exhausted. Buffet took one step towards Georges, who +stretched him dead with a pistol shot; with a second ball the Chouan rid +himself, for a moment at least, of Caniolle. He still thought, probably, +that he could hide himself in the crowd; and perhaps he would have +succeeded, for Destavigny, who had run up, "saw him before him, standing +with all the tranquillity of a man who has nothing to fear, and three or +four people near him appeared not to be thinking more about Georges than +anything else." He was going to turn the corner of the Rue de +l'Observance when Caniolle, who was only wounded, struck him with his +club. In an instant Georges was surrounded, thrown down, searched and +bound. The next morning more than forty individuals, among them several +women, made themselves known to the judge as being each "the principal +author" of the arrest of the "brigand" chief. + +By way of the Carrefour de la Comédie, the Rues des Fossés Saint-Germain +and Dauphine, Georges, tied with cords, was taken to the Prefecture. A +growing mob escorted him, more out of curiosity than anger, and one can +imagine the excitement at police headquarters when they heard far off on +the Quai des Orfèvres, the increasing tumult announcing the event, and +when suddenly, from the corps de garde in the salons of the Prefect +Dubois the news came, "Georges is taken!" + +A minute later the vanquished outlaw was pushed into the office of +Dubois, who was still at dinner. In spite of his bonds he still showed +so much pride and coolness that the all-powerful functionary was almost +afraid of him. Desmaret, who was present, could not himself escape this +feeling. + +"Georges, whom I saw for the first time," he said, "had always been to +me a sort of Old Man of the Mountain, sending his assassins far and +near, against the powers. I found, on the contrary, an open face, bright +eyes, fresh complexion, and a look firm but gentle, as was also his +voice. Although stout, his movements and manner were easy; his head +quite round, with short curly hair, no whiskers, and nothing to indicate +the chief of a mortal conspiracy, who had long dominated the _landes_ of +Brittany. I was present when Comte Dubois, the prefect of police, +questioned him. His ease amidst all the hubbub, his answers, firm, +frank, cautious and couched in well-chosen language, contrasted greatly +with my ideas about him. + +"Indeed his first replies showed a disconcerting calm. One may be +quoted. When Dubois, not knowing where to begin, rather foolishly +reproached him with the death of Buffet, 'the father of a family,' +Georges smilingly gave him this advice:--'Next time, then, have me +arrested by bachelors.'" + +His courageous pride did not fail him either in the interrogations he +had to submit to, or before the court of justice. His replies to the +President are superb in disdain and abnegation. He assumed all +responsibility for the plot, and denied knowledge of any of his friends. +He carried his generosity so far as to behave with courteous dignity +even to those who had betrayed him; he even tried to excuse the +indifference of the princes whose selfish inertia had been his ruin. He +remained great until he reached the scaffold; eleven faithful Chouans +died with him, among the number being Louis Picot, Joyaut and Burban, +whose names have appeared in this story. + +Thus ended the conspiracy. Bonaparte came out of it emperor. Fouché, +minister of police, and his assistants were not going to be useless, for +if in the eyes of the public, Georges' death seemed the climax, it was +in reality but one incident in a desperate struggle. The depths sounded +by the investigation had revealed the existence of an incurable evil. +The whole west of France was cankered with Chouannerie. From Rouen to +Nantes, from Cherbourg to Poitiers, thousands of peasants, bourgeois and +country gentlemen remained faithful to the old order, and if they were +not all willing to take up arms in its cause, they could at least do +much to upset the equilibrium of the new government. And could not +another try to do what Georges Cadoudal had attempted? If some one with +more influence over the princes than he possessed should persuade one of +them to cross the Channel, what would the glory of the parvenu count +for, balanced against the ancient prestige of the name of Bourbon, +magnified and as it were sanctified by the tragedies of the Revolution? +This fear haunted Bonaparte; the knowledge that in France these +Bourbons, exiled, without soldiers or money, were still more the masters +then he, exasperated him. He felt that he was in their home, and their +nonchalance, contrasted with his incessant agitation, indicated both +insolence and disdain. + +The police, as a matter of fact, had unearthed only a few of the +conspirators. Many who, like Raoul Gaillard, had played an important +part in the plot, had succeeded in escaping all pursuit; they were +evidently the cleverest, therefore the most dangerous, and among them +might be found a man ambitious of succeeding Cadoudal. The capture to +which Fouché and Réal attached the most importance was that of d'Aché, +whose presence at Biville and Saint-Leu had been proved. For three +months, in Paris even, wherever the police had worked, they had struck +the trail of this same d'Aché, who appeared to have presided over the +whole organisation of the plot. Thus, he had been seen at Verdet's in +the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite, while Georges was there; he had met Raoul +Gaillard several times; in making an inventory of the papers of a young +lady called Margeot, with whom Pichegru had dined, two rather +enigmatical notes had been found, in which d'Aché's name appeared. + +Mme. d'Aché and her eldest daughter had been since February in the +Madelonnettes prison; the second girl, Alexandrine, had been left at +liberty in the hope that in Paris, where she was a stranger, she would +be guilty of some imprudence that would deliver her father to the +police. She had taken lodgings in the Rue Traversière-Saint-Honoré, at +the Hôtel des Treize-Cantons, and Réal had immediately set two spies +upon her, but their reports were monotonously melancholy. "Very well +behaved, very quiet--she lives, and is daily with the master and +mistress of the hotel, people of mature age. She sees no one, and is +spoken of in the highest terms." From this side, also, all hope of +catching d'Aché had to be abandoned. + +Another way was thought of, and on March 22d the order to open all the +gates was given. Fouché foresaw that in their anxiety to leave Paris all +of Georges' accomplices who had not been caught would hasten to return +to Normandy, and thanks to the watchfulness exercised, a clean sweep +might be made of them. The cleverly conceived idea had some result. On +the 25th a peasant called Jacques Pluquet of Meriel, near l'Isle-Adam, +when working in his field on the border of the wood of La Muette, saw +four men in hats pulled down over cotton caps, and with strong knotted +clubs, coming towards him. They asked him if they could cross the Oise +at Meriel. Pluquet replied that it was easy to do so, "but there were +gendarmes to examine all who passed." At that they hesitated. They +described themselves as conscript deserters coming from Valenciennes who +wished to get back to their homes. Pluquet's account is so picturesque +as to be worth quoting: + +"I asked them where they belonged; they replied in Alençon. I remarked +that they would have trouble in getting there without being arrested. +One of them said: 'That is true, for after what had just happened in +Paris, everywhere is guarded.' Then, allowing the three others to go on +ahead, he said to me, 'But if they arrest us, what will they do to us?' +I replied: 'They will take you back to your corps, from brigade to +brigade.' On that he said, 'If they catch us, they will make us do ten +thousand leagues.' And he left me to regain his comrades, the youngest +of whom might have been twenty-two years old and seemed very sad and +tired." + +The next morning some people at Auvers found a little log cabin in a +wood in which the four men had spent the night. They were seen on the +following days, wandering in the forest of l'Isle-Adam. At last, on +April 1st they went to the ferryman of Meriel, Eloi Cousin, who was +sheltering two gendarmes. While they were begging the ferryman to take +them in his boat, the gendarmes appeared, and the men fled. A pistol +shot struck one of them, and a second, who stopped to assist his +comrade, was also taken. The two others escaped to the woods. + +The wounded man was put in a boat and taken to the hospital at Pontoise, +where he died the next day. Réal, who was immediately informed of it, +immediately sent Querelle, whom he was carefully keeping in prison to +use in case of need, and he at once recognised the corpse to be that of +Raoul Gaillard, called Houvel, or Saint-Vincent, the friend of d'Aché, +the principal advance-agent of Georges. The other prisoner was his +brother Armand, who was immediately taken to Paris and thrown into the +Temple. + +The commune of Meriel had deserved well of the country, and the First +Consul showed his satisfaction in a dazzling manner. He expressed a +desire to make the acquaintance of this population so devoted to his +person, and on the 8th of April, the sous-prefet of Pontoise presented +himself at the Tuileries at the head of all the men of the village. +Bonaparte congratulated them personally, and as a more substantial proof +of his gratitude, distributed among them a sum of 11,000 francs, found +in Raoul Gaillard's belt. + +This was certainly a glorious event for the peasants of Meriel, but it +had an unexpected result. When they returned the next day they learned +that a stranger, "well dressed, well armed and mounted on a fine horse," +profiting by their absence, had gone to the village, and, "after many +questions addressed to the women and children, had gone to the place +where Raoul Gaillard was wounded, trying to find out if they had not +found a case, to which he seemed to attach great importance." This +incident reminded them that, in the boat that took him to Pontoise, +Raoul Gaillard, then dying, had anxiously asked if a razor-case had been +found among his things. On receiving a negative reply, "he had appeared +to be very much put out, and was heard to murmur that the fortune of the +man who would discover this case was made." + +The visits of this stranger--since seen, "in the country, on the heights +and near the woods,"--his threats of vengeance, and this mysterious +case, provided matter for a report that perplexed Réal. Was this not +d'Aché? A great hunt was organised in the forest of Carnelle, but it +brought no result. Four days later they explored the forest of +Montmorency, where some signs of the "brigands'" occupation were seen, +but of d'Aché no trace at all, and in spite of the fierceness that +Réal's men, incited by the promise of large rewards, brought to this +chase of the Chouans, after weeks and months of research, of enquiries, +tricks, false trails followed, and traps uselessly laid, it had to be +admitted that the police had lost the scent, and that Georges' clever +accomplice had long since disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE COMBRAYS + + +At the period of our story there existed in the department of the Eure, +on the left bank of the Seine, beyond Gaillon, a large old manor-house, +backed by the hill that extended as far as Andelys; it was called the +Château de Tournebut. Although its peaked roofs could be seen from the +river above a thicket of low trees, Tournebut was off the main route of +travel, whether by land or water, from Rouen to Paris. Some fairly large +woods separated it from the highroad which runs from Gaillon to +Saint-Cyr-de-Vaudreuil, while the barges usually touched at the hamlet +of Roule, where hacks were hired to take passengers and goods to the +ferry of Muids, thereby saving them the long détour made by the Seine. +Tournebut was thus isolated between these two much-travelled roads. Its +principal façade, facing east, towards the river, consisted of two heavy +turrets, one against the other, built of brick and stone in the style of +Louis XIII, with great slate roofs and high dormer windows. After these +came a lower and more modern building, ending with the chapel. In front +of the château was an old square bastion forming a terrace, whose mossy +walls were bathed by the waters of a large stagnant marsh. The west +front which was plainer, was separated by only a few feet of level +ground from the abrupt, wooded hill by which Tournebut was sheltered. A +wall with several doors opening on the woods enclosed the château, the +farm and the lower part of the park, and a wide morass, stretching from +the foot of the terrace to the Seine, rendered access impossible from +that side. + +By the marriage of Geneviève de Bois-l'Evêque, Lady of Tournebut, this +mansion had passed to the family of Marillac, early in the seventeenth +century. The Marshal Louis de Marillac--uncle of Mme. Legras, +collaborator of St. Vincent de Paul--had owned it from 1613 to 1631, and +tradition asserted that during his struggle against Cardinal Richelieu +he had established there a plant for counterfeiting money. To him was +due the construction of the brick wing which remained unfinished, his +condemnation to death for peculation having put a stop to the +embellishments he had intended to make. + +There are very few châteaux left in France like this romantic manor of a +dead and gone past, whose stones have endured all the crises of our +history, and to which each century has added a tower, or a legend. +Tournebut, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was a perfect +type of these old dwellings, where there were so many great halls and so +few living rooms, and whose high slate roofs covered intricacies of +framework forming lofts vast as cathedrals. It was said that its thick +walls were pierced by secret passages and contained hiding-places that +Louis de Marillac had formerly used. + +In 1804 Tournebut was inhabited by the Marquise de Combray, born +Geneviève de Brunelles, daughter of a President of the Cour des Comptes +of Normandy. Her husband, Jean-Louis-Armand-Emmanuel Hélie de Combray, +had died in 1784, leaving her with two sons and two daughters, and a +great deal of property in the environs of Falaise, in the parishes of +Donnay, Combray, Bonnoeil and other places. Madame de Combray had +inherited Tournebut from her mother, Madeleine Hubert, herself a +daughter of a councillor in the Parliament of Normandy. Besides the +château and the farm, which were surrounded by a park well-wooded with +old trees, the domain included the woods that covered the hillside, at +the extremity of which was an old tower, formerly a wind-mill, built +over deep quarries, and called the "Tower of the Burned Mill," or "The +Hermitage." It figures in the ancient plans of the country under the +latter name, which it owes to the memory of an old hermit who lived in +the quarries for many years and died there towards the close of the +reign of Louis XV, leaving a great local reputation for holiness. + +Mme. de Combray was of a "haughty and imperious nature; her soul was +strong and full of energy; she knew how to brave danger and public +opinion; the boldest projects did not frighten her, and her ambition was +unbounded." Such is the picture that one of her most irreconcilable +enemies has drawn of her, and we shall see that the principal traits +were faithfully described. But to complete the resemblance one must +first of all plead an extenuating circumstance: Madame de Combray was a +fanatical royalist. Even that, however, would not make her story +intelligible, if one did not make allowance for the Calvary that the +faithful royalists travelled through so many years, each station of +which was marked by disillusions and failures. Since the war on the +nobles had begun in 1789, all their efforts at resistance, disdainful at +first, stubborn later on, blundering always, had been pitifully +abortive. Their rebuffs could no longer be counted, and there was some +justification in that for the scornful hatred on the part of the new +order towards a caste which for so many centuries had believed +themselves to be possessed of all the talents. Many of them, it is true, +had resigned themselves to defeat, but the _Intransigeants_ continued to +struggle obstinately; and to say truth, this tenacious attachment to the +ghost of monarchy was not without grandeur. + +From the very beginning of the Revolution the Marquise de Combray had +numbered herself among the unchangeable royalists. Her husband, a +timorous and quiet man, who employed in reading the hours that he did +not consecrate to sleep, had long since abandoned to her the direction +of the household and the management of his fortune. Widowhood had but +strengthened the authority of the Marquise, who reigned over a little +world of small farmers, peasants and servants, more timid, perhaps, than +devoted. + +She exacted complete obedience from her children. The eldest son, called +the Chevalier de Bonnoeil, after a property near the Château of +Donnay, in the environs of Falaise, supported the maternal yoke +patiently; he was an officer in the Royal Dragoons at the time of the +Revolution. His younger brother, Timoléon de Combray, was of a less +docile nature. On leaving the military school, as his father was just +dead he solicited from M. de Vergennes a mission in an uncivilised +country and set sail for Morocco. Timoléon was a liberal-minded man, of +high intellectual culture, and a philosophical scepticism that fitted +ill with the Marquise's authoritative temper; although a devoted and +respectful man, it was to get away from his mother's tutelage that he +expatriated himself. "Our diversity of opinion," he said later on, "has +kept me from spending two consecutive months with her in seventeen +years." From Morocco he went to Algiers and thence to Tunis and Egypt. +He was about to penetrate to Tartary when he heard of the outbreak of +the Revolution; and immediately started for France where he arrived at +the beginning of 1791. + +Of Mme. de Combray's two daughters the eldest had married, in 1787, at +the age of twenty-two, Jacques-Philippe-Henri d'Houël; the youngest +Caroline-Madeleine-Louise-Geneviève, was born in 1773, and consequently +was only eleven years old when her father died. This child is the +heroine of the drama we are about to relate. + +In August, 1791, Mme. de Combray inscribed herself and her two sons on +the list of the hostages of Louis XVI which the journalist Durosay had +conceived. It was a courageous act, for it was easy to foresee that the +six hundred and eleven names on "this golden book of fidelity," would +soon all be suspected. While hope remained for the monarchy the two +brothers struggled bravely. Timoléon stayed near the King till August +10, and only went to England after he had taken part in the defence of +the Tuileries; Bonnoeil had emigrated the preceding year, and served +in the army of the Princes. Mme. de Combray, left alone with her two +daughters--the husband of the elder had also emigrated,--left Tournebut +in 1793, and settled in Rouen, where, although she owned much real +estate in the town, she rented in the Rue de Valasse, Faubourg +Bouvreuil, "an isolated, unnumbered house, with an entrance towards the +country." She gave her desire to finish the education of her younger +daughter who was entering her twentieth year as a reason for her +retreat. + +Caroline de Combray was very small,--"as large as a dog sitting," they +said,--but charming; her complexion was delicately pure, her black hair +of extraordinary length and abundance. She was loving and sensible, very +romantic, full of frankness and vivacity; the great attraction of her +small person was the result of a piquant combination of energy and +gentleness. She had been brought up in the convent of the Nouvelles +Catholiques de Caen, where she stayed six years, receiving lessons from +"masters of all sorts of accomplishments, and of different languages." +She was a musician and played the harp, and as soon as they were settled +in Rouen her mother engaged Boiëldieu as her accompanist, "to whom she +long paid six silver francs per lesson," a sum that seemed fabulous in +that period of paper-money, and territorial mandates. + +Madame de Combray, besides, was much straightened. As both her sons had +emigrated, all the property that they inherited from their father was +sequestrated. Of the income of 50,000 francs possessed by the family +before the Revolution, scarcely fifty remained at her disposal, and she +had been obliged to borrow to sustain the heavy expenses of her house in +Rouen. + +Besides her two daughters and the servants, she housed half a dozen nuns +and two or three Chartreux, among them a recusant friar called +Lemercier, who soon gained great influence in the household. By reason +of his refractoriness Père Lemercier was doomed, if discovered, to +death, or at least to deportation, and it will be understood that he +sympathised but feebly with the Revolution that consigned him, against +his will, to martyrdom. He called down the vengeance of heaven on the +miscreants, and not daring to show himself, with unquenchable ardour +preached the holy crusade to the women who surrounded him. + +Mme. de Combray's royalist enthusiasm did not need this inspiration; a +wise man would have counselled resignation, or at least patience, but +unhappily, she was surrounded only by those whose fanaticism encouraged +and excused her own. Enthusiastic frenzy had become the habitual state +of these people, whose overheated imaginations were nourished on +legendary tales, and foolish hopes of imminent reprisals. They welcomed +with unfailing credulity the wildest prophecies, announcing terrible +impending massacres, to which the miraculous return of the Bourbon +lilies would put an end, and as illusions of this kind are strengthened +by their own deceptions, the house in the Rue de Valasse soon heard +mysterious voices, and became the scene "of celestial apparitions," +which, on the invitation of Père Lemercier predicted the approaching +destruction of the blues and the restoration of the monarchy. + +On a certain day in the summer of 1795, a stranger presented himself to +Père Lemercier, armed with a password, and a very warm recommendation +from a refractory priest, who was in hiding at Caen. He was a Chouan +chief, bearing the name and title of General Lebret; of medium stature, +with red hair and beard, and cold steel-coloured eyes. Introduced to +Mme. de Combray by Lemercier, he admitted that his real name was Louis +Acquet d'Hauteporte, Chevalier de Férolles. He had come to Rouen, he +said, to transmit the orders of the Princes to Mallet de Créçy, who +commanded for the King in Upper Normandy. + +We can judge of the welcome the Chevalier received. Mme. de Combray, her +daughters, the nuns and the Chartreux friars used all their ingenuity to +satisfy the slightest wish of this man, who modestly called himself "the +agent general of His Majesty." They arranged a hiding-place for him in +the safest part of the house, and Père Lemercier blessed it. Acquet +stayed there part of the day, and in the evening joined in the usual +pursuits of the household, and related the story of his adventures by +way of entertainment. + +According to him, he possessed large estates in the environs of the +Sables-d'Olonne, of which place he was a native. An officer in the +regiment of Brie infantry before the Revolution, being at Lille in 1791 +he had taken advantage of his nearness to the frontier to incite his +regiment to insurrection and emigrate to Belgium. He had then put +himself at the disposal of the Princes, and had enlisted men for the +royal army in Veudée, Poitou and Normandy, helping priests to emigrate, +and saving whole villages from the fury of the blues. He named Charette, +Frotté and Puisaye as his most intimate friends, and these names +recalled the chivalrous times of the wars in the west in which he had +taken a glorious part. Sometimes he disappeared for several days, and on +his return from these mysterious absences, would let it be known that he +had just accomplished some great deed, or brought a dangerous mission to +a successful termination. In this way the Chevalier Acquet de Férolles +had become the idol of the little group of naïve royalists among whom he +had found refuge. He had bravely served _the cause_; he plumed himself +on having merited the surname of "_toutou_ of the Princes," and in Mme. +de Combray's dazzled eyes this was equal to any number of references. + +Acquet was in reality an adventurer. If we were to take account here of +all the evil deeds he is credited with, we should be suspected of +wantonly blackening the character of this melodramatic figure. A few +facts gathered by the Combrays will serve to describe him. As an officer +at Lille he was about to be imprisoned as the result of an odious +accusation, but deserted and escaped to Belgium, not daring to join the +army of the émigrés. He stopped at Mons, then went to the west of +France, and became a Chouan, but politics had nothing to do with this +act. He associated himself with some bravos of his stripe, and plundered +travellers, and levied contributions on the purchasers of national +property. In the Eure, where he usually pursued his operations, he +assassinated with his own hand two defenceless gamekeepers whom his +little band had encountered. + +He delighted in taking the funds of the country school-teachers, and to +give a colour of royalism to the deed, he would nightly tear down the +trees of liberty in the villages in which he operated. Tired at last of +"an occupation where there was nothing but blows to receive, and his +head to lose," he went to seek his fortune in Rouen; and before he +presented himself to Mme. de Combray, had without doubt made enquiries. +He knew he would find a rich heiress, whose two brothers, emigrated, +would probably never return, and from the first he set to work to +flatter the royalist hobby of the mother, and the romantic imagination +of the young girl. Père Lemercier was himself conquered; Acquet, to +catch him, pretended the greatest piety and most scrupulous devotion. + +A note of Bonnoeil's informs us of the way this tragic intrigue +ended. "Acquet employed every means of seduction to attain his end. The +young girl, fearing to remain long unmarried because of the unhappy +times, listened to him, in spite of the many reasons for waiting and for +refusing the proposals of a man whose name, country and fortune were +unknown to them. The mother's advice was unfortunately not heeded, and +she found herself obliged to consent to the marriage, the laws of that +period giving the daughters full liberty, and authorising them to shake +off the salutary parental yoke." + +The dates of certain papers complete the discreet periphrases of +Bonnoeil. The truth is that Acquet "declared his passion" to Mlle. de +Combray and as she, a little doubtful though well-disposed to allow +herself to be loved, still hesitated, the Chevalier signed a sort of +mystic engagement dated January 1, 1796, where, "in sight of the Holy +Church and at the pleasure of God," he pledged himself to marry her on +demand. She carefully locked up this precious paper, and a little less +than ten months later, the 17th October, the municipal agent of +Aubevoye, in which is situated the Château of Tournebut, inscribed the +birth of a daughter, born to the citizeness Louise-Charlotte de Combray, +"wife of the citizen Louis Acquet." Here, then, is the reason that the +Marquise "found herself obliged to consent to the marriage," which did +not take place until the following year, mention of it not being made in +the registry of Rouen until the date 17th June, 1797. + +Acquet had thus attained his wish; he had seduced Mlle. de Combray to +make the marriage inevitable, and this accomplished, under pretext of +preventing their sale, he caused the estates of the Combrays situated at +Donnay near Falaise, and sequestrated by the emigration of Bonnoeil, +to be conveyed to him. Scarcely was this done when he began to pillage +the property, turning everything into money, cutting down woods, and +sparing neither thickets nor hedges. "The domain of Donnay became a sort +of desert in his hands." Stopped in his depredations by a complaint of +his two brothers-in-law he tried to attack the will of the Marquis de +Combray, pretending that his wife, a minor at the time of her father's +death, had been injured in the division of property. This was to declare +open war on the family he had entered, and to compel his wife to espouse +his cause he beat her unmercifully. A second daughter was born of this +unhappy union, and even the children did not escape the brutality of +their father. A note on this subject, written by Mme. Acquet, is of +heart-breaking eloquence: + +"M. Acquet beat the children cruelly every day; he ill-treated me also +unceasingly: he often chastised them with sticks, which he always used +when he made the children read; they were continually black and blue +with the blows they received. He gave me such a severe blow one day that +blood gushed from my nose and mouth, and I was unconscious for some +moments.... He went to get his pistols to blow out my brains, which he +would certainly have done if people had not been present.... He was +always armed with a dagger." + +In January, 1804, Mme. Acquet resolved to escape from this hell. +Profiting by her husband's absence in La Veudée she wrote to him that +she refused to live with him longer, and hastened to Falaise to ask a +shelter from her brother Timoléon, who had lately returned to France. +Timoléon, in order to prevent a scandal, persuaded his sister to return +to her husband's house. She took this wise advice, but refused to see M. +Acquet, who, returning in haste and finding her barricaded in the +château, called the justice of the peace of the canton of Harcourt, +aided by his clerk and two gendarmes, to witness that his wife refused +to receive him. Having, one fine morning, "found her desk forced and all +her papers taken," she returned to Falaise, obtained a judgment +authorising her to live with her brother, and lodged a petition for +separation. + +Things were at this point when the trial of Georges Cadoudal was in +progress. Acquet, exasperated at the resistance to his projects, swore +that he would have signal vengeance on his wife and all the Combrays. +They were, unhappily, to give his hatred too good an opportunity of +showing itself. + +After passing three years in Rouen, Mme. de Combray returned to +Tournebut in the spring of 1796, with her royalist passions and +illusions as strong as ever. She had declared war on the Revolution, and +believed that victory was assured at no distant period. It is a not +uncommon effect of political passion to blind its subjects to the point +of believing that their desires and hopes are imminent realities. Mme. +de Combray anticipated the return of the King so impatiently that one of +her reasons for returning to the château was to prepare apartments for +the Princes and their suite in case the debarkation should take place on +the coast of Normandy. Once before, in 1792, Gaillon had been designated +as a stopping-place for Louis XVI in case he should again make the +attempt that had been frustrated at Varennes. The Château de Gaillon was +no longer habitable in 1796, but Tournebut, in the opinion of the +Marquise, offered the same advantages, being about midway between the +coast and Paris. Its isolation also permitted the reception of passing +guests without awakening suspicion, while the vast secret rooms where +sixty to eighty persons could hide at one time, were well suited for +holding secret councils. To make things still safer, Mme. de Combray now +acquired a large house, situated about two hundred yards from the walls +of Tournebut, and called "Gros-Mesnil" or "Le Petit Château." It was a +two-story building with a high slate roof; the court in front was +surrounded by huts and offices; a high wall enclosed the property on all +sides, and a pathway led from it to one of the doors in the wall +surrounding Tournebut. + +As soon as she was in possession of the Petit Château, Mme. de Combray +had some large secret places constructed in it. For this work she +employed a man called Soyer who combined the functions of intendant, +maître d'hôtel and valet-de-chambre at Tournebut. Soyer was born at +Combray, one of the Marquise's estates in Lower Normandy, and entered +her service in 1791, at the age of sixteen, in the capacity of scullion. +He had gone with his mistress to Rouen during the Terror, and since the +return to Tournebut she had given the administration of the estate into +his hands. In this way he had authority over the domestics at the +château, who numbered six, and among whom the chambermaid Querey and the +gardener Châtel deserve special mention. Each year, about Easter, Mme. +de Combray went to Rouen, where under pretext of purchases to make and +rents to collect, she remained a month. Only Soyer and Mlle. Querey +accompanied her. Besides her patrimonial house in the Rue Saint-Amand, +she had retained the quiet house in the Faubourg Bouvreuil which still +served as a refuge for the exiles sought by the police of the Directory, +and as a depôt for the refractories who were sure of finding supplies +there and means of rejoining the royalist army. Tournebut itself, +admirably situated between Upper and Lower Normandy, became the refuge +for all the partisans whom a particularly bold stroke had brought to the +attention of the authorities on either bank of the river, totally +separated at this time by the slowness and infrequency of communication, +and also by the centralisation of the police which prevented direct +intercourse between the different departmental authorities. It was in +this way that Mme. de Combray, having become from 1796 to 1804, the +chief of the party with the advantage of being known as such only to +the party itself, sheltered the most compromised of the chiefs of Norman +Chouannerie, those strange heroes whose mad bravery has brought them a +legendary fame, and whose names are scarcely to be found, doubtfully +spelled, in the accounts of historians. + +Among those who sojourned at Tournebut was Charles de Margadel, one of +Frotté's officers, who had organised a royalist police even in Paris. +Thence he had escaped to deal some blows in the Eure under the orders of +Hingant de Saint-Maur, another habitué of Tournebut who was preparing +there his astonishing expedition of Pacy-sur-Eure. Besides Margadel and +Hingant, Mme. de Combray had oftenest sheltered Armand Gaillard, and his +brother Raoul, whose death we have related. Deville, called "Tamerlan"; +the brothers Tellier; Le Bienvenu du Buc, one of the officers of +Hingant; also another, hidden under the name of Collin, called +"Cupidon"; a German bravo named Flierlé, called "Le Marchand," whom we +shall meet again, were also her guests, without counting +"Sauve-la-Graisse," "Sans-Quartier," "Blondel," "Perce-Pataud"--actors +in the drama, without name or history, who were always sure of finding +in the "cachettes" of the great château or the Tour de l'Ermitage, +refuge and help. + +These were compromising tenants, and it is quite easy to imagine what +amusements at Tournebut served to fill the leisure of these men so long +unaccustomed to regular occupation, and to whom strife and danger had +become absolute necessaries. Some statistics, rather hard to prove, will +furnish hints on this point. In September, 1800, the two coaches from +Caen to Paris were stopped between Evreux and Pacy, at a place called +Riquiqui, by two hundred armed brigands, and 48,000 livres belonging to +the State taken. Again, in 1800, the coach from Rouen to Pont-Audemer +was attacked by twenty Chouans and a part of the funds carried off. In +1801 a coach was robbed near Evreux; some days later the mail from Caen +to Paris was plundered by six brigands. On the highroad on the right +bank of the Seine attacks on coaches were frequent near Saint-Gervais, +d'Authevernes, and the old mill of Mouflaines. It was only a good deal +later, when the château of Tournebut was known as an avowed retreat of +the Chouans, that it occurred to the authorities that "by its position +at an equal distance from the two roads to Paris by Vernon and by +Magny-en-Vexin, where the mail had so often been stopped," it might well +have served as a centre of operations, and as the authors of these +outrages remained undiscovered, they credited them all to Mme. de +Combray's inspiration, and this accusation without proof is none too +bold. The theft of state funds was a bagatelle to people whom ten years +of implacable warfare had rendered blasé about all brigandage. Moreover, +it was easily conceivable that the snare laid by Bonaparte for Frotté, +who was so popular in Normandy, the summary execution of the General and +his six officers, the assassination of the Duc d'Enghien, the death of +Georges Cadoudal (almost a god to the Chouans) and of his brave +companions, following so many imprisonments without trial, acts of +police treachery, traps and denunciations paid for and rewarded, had +exasperated the vanquished royalists, and envenomed their hatred to the +point of believing any expedient justifiable. Such was the state of mind +of Mme. de Combray in the middle of 1804, at which date we have stopped +the recital of the marital misfortunes of Mme. Acquet de Férolles, and +it justified Bonald's saying: "Foolish deeds done by clever men, +extravagances uttered by men of intellect, crimes committed by honest +people--such is the story of the revolution." + + * * * * * + +D'Aché had taken refuge at Tournebut. He had left Paris as soon as the +gates were opened, and whether he had escaped surveillance more cleverly +than the brothers Gaillard, whether he had been able to get immediately +to Saint-Germain where he had a refuge, and from there, without risking +the passage of a ferry or a bridge, without stopping at any inn, had +succeeded in covering in one day the fifteen leagues that separated him +from Gaillon, he arrived without mishap at Tournebut where Mme. de +Combray immediately shut the door of one of the hiding-places upon him. + +Tournebut was familiar ground to d'Aché. He was related to Mme. de +Combray, and before the Revolution, when he was on furlough, he had made +long visits there while "grandmère Brunelle" was still alive. He had +been back since then and had spent there part of the autumn of 1803. +There had been a grand reunion at the château then, to celebrate the +marriage of M. du Hasey, proprietor of a château near Gaillon. Du Hasey +was aide-de-camp to Guérin de Bruslard, the famous Chouan whom Frotté +had designated as his successor to the command of the royal army, and +who had only had to disband it. This reunion, which is often mentioned +in the reports, by the nature and quality of the guests, was more +important than an ordinary wedding-feast. + +D'Aché learned at Tournebut of the proclamation of the Empire and the +death of Georges. He looked upon it as a death-blow to the royalist +hopes; where-ever one might turn there was no resource--no chiefs, no +money, no men. If many royalists remained in the Orne and the Manche, it +was impossible to group them or pay them. The government gained strength +and authority daily; at the slightest movement France felt the iron +grasp in which she was held tightened around her, and such was the +prestige of the extraordinary hero who personified the whole régime, +that even those he had vanquished did not disguise their admiration. The +King of Spain--a Bourbon--sent him the insignia of the Golden Fleece. +The world was fascinated and history shows no example of material and +moral power comparable to that of Napoleon when the Holy Father crossed +the mountains to recognise and hail him as the instrument of Providence, +and anoint him Cæsar in the name of God. + +It was, however, just at this time that d'Aché, an exile, concealed in +the Château of Tournebut, without a companion, without a penny, without +a counsellor or ally other than the aged woman who gave him refuge, +conceived the astonishing idea of struggling against the man before whom +all Europe bowed the knee. Looked at in this light it seems madness, but +undoubtedly d'Aché's royalist illusions blinded him to the conditions of +the duel he was to engage in. But these illusions were common to many +people for whom Bonaparte, at the height of his power, was never +anything but an audacious criminal whose factitious greatness was at the +mercy of a well-directed and fortunate blow. + +Fouché's police had not given up hopes of finding the fugitive. They +looked for him in Paris, Rouen, Saint-Denis-du-Bosguérard, near +Bourgthéroulde, where his mother possessed a small estate; they watched +closest at Saint-Clair whither his wife and daughters had returned after +the execution of Georges. The doors of the Madelonnettes prison had been +opened for them and they had been informed that they must remove +themselves forty leagues from Paris and the coast; but the poor woman, +almost without resources, had not paid attention to this injunction, and +they were allowed to remain at Saint-Clair in the hope that d'Aché would +tire of his wandering life, and allow himself to be taken at home. As to +Placide, as soon as he found himself out of the Temple, and had +conducted his sister-in-law and nieces home, he returned to Rouen, where +he arrived in mid-July. Scarcely had he been one night in his lodging in +the Rue Saint-Patrice, when he received a letter--how, or from where he +could not say--announcing that his brother had gone away so as not to +compromise his family again, and that he would not return to France +until general peace was proclaimed, hoping then to obtain permission +from the government to end his days in the bosom of his family. + +D'Aché, however, was living in Tournebut without much mystery. The only +precaution he took was to avoid leaving the property, and he had taken +the name of "Deslorières," one of the pseudonyms of Georges Cadoudal, +"as if he wanted to name himself as his successor." Little by little the +servants became accustomed to the presence of this guest of whom Mme. de +Combray took such good care "because he had had differences with the +government," as she said. Under pretext of repairs undertaken in the +church of Aubevoye, the curé of the parish was invited to celebrate mass +every Sunday in the chapel of the château, and d'Aché could thus be +present at the celebration without showing himself in the village. + +Doubtless the days passed slowly for this man accustomed to an active +life; he and his old friend dreamt of the return of the King, and +Bonnoeil, who spent part of the year at Tournebut, read to them a +funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, a virulent pamphlet that the +royalists passed from hand to hand, and of which he had taken a copy. +How many times must d'Aché have paced the magnificent avenue of limes, +which still exists as the only vestige of the old park. There is a +moss-grown stone table on which one loves to fancy this strange man +leaning his elbow while he thought of his "rival," and planned the +future according to his royalist illusions as the other in his Olympia, +the Tuileries, planned it according to his ambitious caprices. + +This existence lasted fifteen months. From the time of his arrival at +the end of March, 1804, until the day he left, it does not seem that +d'Aché received any visitors, except Mme. Levasseur of Rouen, who, if +police reports are to be believed, was simultaneously his mistress and +Raoul Gaillard's. The truth is that she was a devoted friend of the +royalists--to whom she had rendered great service, and through her +d'Aché was kept informed of what happened in Lower Normandy during his +seclusion at Tournebut. Since the general pacification, tranquillity +was, in appearance at least, established; Chouannerie seemed to be +forgotten. But conscription was not much to the taste of the rural +classes, and the rigour with which it was applied alienated the +population. The number of refractories and deserters augmented at each +requisition; protected by the sympathy of the peasants they easily +escaped all search; the country people considered them victims rather +than rebels, and gave them assistance when they could do so without +being seen. There were here all the elements of a new insurrection; to +which would be added, if they succeeded in uniting and equipping all +these malcontents, the survivors of Frotté's bands, exasperated by the +rigours of the new régime, and the ill-treatment of the gendarmes. + +The descent of a French prince on the Norman coast would in d'Aché's +opinion, group all these malcontents. Thoroughly persuaded that to +persuade one of them to cross the channel it would suffice to tell M. le +Comte d'Artois or one of his sons that his presence was desired by the +faithful population in the West, he thought of going himself to England +with the invitation. Perhaps they would be able to persuade the King to +put himself at the head of the movement, and be the first to land on +French soil. This was d'Aché's secret conviction, and in the ardour of +his credulous enthusiasm he was certain that on the announcement, +Napoleon's Empire would crumble of itself, without the necessity of a +single blow. + +Such was the eternal subject of conversation between Mme. de Combray and +her guest, varied by interminable parties of cards of tric-trac. In +their feverish idleness, isolated from the rest of the world, ignorant +of new ideas and new manners, they shut themselves up with their +illusions, which took on the colour of reality. And while the exile +studied the part of the coast where, followed by an army of volunteers +with white plumes, he would go to receive his Majesty, the old Marquise +put the last touches to the apartments long ago prepared for the +reception of the King and his suite on their way to Paris. And in order +to perpetuate the remembrance of this visit, which would be the most +glorious page in the history of Tournebut, she had caused the old part +of the château, left unfinished by Marillac, to be restored and +ornamented. + +In July, 1805, after more than a year passed in this solitude, d'Aché +judged that the moment to act had arrived. The Emperor was going to +take the field against a new coalition, and the campaign might be +unfavourable to him. It only needed a defeat to shake to its foundations +the new Empire whose prestige a victorious army alone maintained. It was +important to profit by this chance should it arrive. And in order to be +within reach of the English cruiser d'Aché had to be near Cotentin; he +had many devoted friends in this region and was sure of finding a safe +retreat. Mme. de Combray, taking advantage of the fair of Saint-Clair +which was held every year in mid-July, near the Château of Donnay, could +conduct her guest beyond Falaise without exciting suspicion. They +determined to start then, and about July 15, 1805, the Marquise left +Tournebut with her son Bonnoeil, in a cabriolet that d'Aché drove, +disguised as a postillion. + +In this equipage, the man without any resource but his courage, and his +royalist faith, whose dream was to change the course of the world's +events, started on his campaign; and one is obliged to think, in face of +this heroic simplicity, of Cervantes' hero, quitting his house one fine +morning, and armed with an old shield and lance, encased in antiquated +armour and animated by a sublime but foolish faith, going forth to +succour the oppressed, and declare war on Giants. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ADVENTURES OF D'ACHÉ + + +The demesne of Donnay, situated about three leagues from Falaise on the +road to Harcourt, was one of the estates which Acquet de Férolles had +usurped, under pretext of saving them from the Public Treasury and of +taking over the management of the property of his brother-in-law, +Bonnoeil, who was an émigré. Now, the latter had for some time +returned to the enjoyment of his civil rights, but Acquet had not +restored his possessions. This terrible man, acting in the name of his +wife, who was a claimant of the inheritance of the late M. de Combray, +had instituted a series of lawsuits against his brother-in-law. He +proved to be such a clever tactician, that though Mme. Acquet had for +some time been suing for a separation, he managed to live on the Combray +estates; fortifying his position by means of a store of quotations +drawn, as occasion demanded, from the Common Law of Normandy, the +Revolutionary Laws and the Code Napoleon. To deal with these questions +in detail would be wearisome and useless. Suffice it to say that at the +period at which we have arrived, all that Mme. Acquet had to depend upon +was a pension of 2,000 francs which the court had granted to her on +August 1, 1804, for her maintenance pending a definite decision. She +lived alone at the Hôtel de Combray in the Rue du Trepot at Falaise, a +very large house composed of two main buildings, one of which was vacant +owing to the absence of Timoléon who had settled in Paris. Mme. de +Combray had undertaken to assist with her granddaughters' education, and +they had been sent off to a school kept by a Mme. du Saussay at Rouen. + +Foreseeing that this state of things could not last forever, Acquet, +despite Bonnoeil's oft-repeated protests, continued to devastate +Donnay, so as to get all he could out of it, cutting down the forests, +chopping the elms into faggots, and felling the ancient beeches. The +very castle whose façade but lately reached to the end of the stately +avenue, suffered from his devastations. It was now nothing but a ruin +with swing-doors and a leaking roof. Here Acquet had reserved a garret +for himself, abandoning the rest of the house to the ravages of time and +the weather. Shut up in this ruin like a wild beast in his lair, he +would not permit the slightest infringement of what he called his +rights. Mme. de Combray wished to spend the harvest season of 1803 at +the château, where the happiest years of her life had been passed, and +where all her children had grown up, but Acquet made the bailiff turn +her out, and the Marquise took refuge in the village parsonage, which +had been sold at the time of the Revolution as national property, and +for which she had supplied half the money, when the Commune bought it +back, to restore it to its original purpose. Since no priest had yet +been appointed she was able to take up her residence there, to the +indignation of her son-in-law, who considered this intrusion as a piece +of bravado. + +Two years later Mme. de Combray had still no other shelter at Donnay, +and it was to this parsonage that she brought d'Aché. They arrived there +on the evening of July 17th. A long stay in this conspicuous house, +which was always exposed to the hateful espionage of Acquet, was out of +the question for the exile. He nevertheless spent a fortnight there, +without trying to hide himself, even going so far as to hunt, and +receive several visits, among others one from Mme. Acquet, who came from +Falaise to see her mother, and thus met d'Aché for the first time. At +the beginning of August he quitted Donnay, and Mme. de Combray +accompanied him as far as the country château of a neighbour, M. +Descroisy, where he passed one night. At break of day he set out on +horseback in the direction of Bayeux, Mme. de Combray alone knowing +where he went. + +In this neighbourhood d'Aché had the choice of several places of refuge. +He was closely connected by ties of friendship with the family of +Duquesnay de Monfiquet who lived at Mandeville near Trévières. M. de +Monfiquet, a thoroughly loyal but quite unimportant nobleman, having +emigrated at the outbreak of the Revolution, his estate at Mandeville +had been sequestrated and his château pillaged and half demolished. Mme. +de Monfiquet, a clever and energetic woman, being left with six +daughters unprovided for, took refuge with the d'Aché's at Gournay, +where she spent the whole period of the Terror. Madame d'Aché even kept +Henriette, one of the little girls who was ill-favoured and hunchbacked +but remarkably clever, with her for five years. + +Monsieur de Monfiquet, returning from abroad in the year VII, and having +somewhat reorganised his little estate at Mandeville, lived there in +poverty with his family in the hope that brighter days would dawn for +them with the return of the monarchy. On all these grounds d'Aché was +sure of finding not only a safe retreat but congenial society. The few +persons who were acquainted with what passed at Mandeville were +convinced that Mlle. Henriette possessed a great influence over the +exile, and that she had been his mistress for a long time. According to +general opinion he made her his confidant and she helped him like a +devoted admirer. In fact she arranged several other hiding-places for +him in the neighbourhood of Trévières in case of need;--one at the mill +at Dungy, another with M. de Cantelou at Lingèvres, and a third at a +tanner's named La Pérandeère at Bayeux. And to escort him in his flights +she secured a man of unparalleled audacity who had been a brigand in the +district for ten years, and who had to avenge the death of his two +brothers, who had fallen into an ambush and been shot at Bayeux in 1796. +People called him David the Intrepid. Having been ten times condemned to +death and certain of being shot as soon as he was caught, David had no +settled abode. On stormy nights he would embark in a boat which he +steered himself, and, sure of not being overtaken, he would reach +England where he used to act as an agent for the emigrants. They say +that he was not without influence with the entourage of the Comte +d'Artois. When he stayed in France he lodged with an old lady former +housekeeper to a Councillor of the Parliament of Normandy, who lived +alone in an old house in Bayeux and to whom he had been recommended by +Mlle. Henriette de Monfiquet. David did not take up much room. When he +arrived he set in motion a contrivance of his own by which two steps of +the principal staircase were raised, and slipping into the cavity thus +made, he quickly replaced everything. All the gendarmes in Calvados +could have gone up and down this staircase without suspecting that a man +was hidden in the house, where, however, he was never looked for. + +These were the persons and means made use of by d'Aché in his new +theatre of operations: a poor hunchbacked girl was his council, and his +army was composed of David the Intrepid. He was, moreover, penniless. At +the beginning of the autumn Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis by +Lanoë, a keeper who had been in her service, and who now occupied a +small farm at Glatigny, near to Bretteville-sur-Dives. Lanoë belonged to +that rapacious type of peasant whom even a small sum of money never +fails to attract. Already he had on two occasions acted as guide to the +Baron de Commarque and to Frotté when Mme. de Combray offered them +shelter at Donnay. For this he had been summoned before a military +commission and spent nearly two years in prison, but this had no +effect. For three francs he would walk ten leagues and if he complained +sufficiently of the dangers to which these missions exposed him the sum +was doubled and he would go away satisfied. In the middle of August he +went to Mandeville to fetch d'Aché to Donnay, where he spent ten days +and again passed three weeks at the end of September. He was to have +gone there again in December, but at the moment when he was preparing to +start Bonnoeil suddenly appeared at Mandeville, having come to warn +him not to venture there as Mme. de Combray had been accused of a crime +and was on the point of being arrested. + + * * * * * + +It was not without vexation that Acquet saw his mother-in-law settling +herself at his very door. Keenly on the lookout for any means of +annoying the Marquise, he was struck by the idea that if an incumbent +were appointed to the vacant curé of Donnay, he would have to live at +the parsonage, half of which belonged to the Commune, and that their +being obliged to live in the same house would be a great inconvenience +to Mme. de Combray. This prospect charmed Acquet, and as he had several +friends in high positions, among them the Baron Darthenay his neighbour +at Meslay, who had lately been elected deputy for Calvados, he had small +difficulty in getting a priest appointed. A few days afterwards a curé, +the Abbé Clérisse, arrived at Donnay, fully determined to carry out the +duties of his ministry faithfully, and very far from foreseeing the +tragic fate in store for him. + +Mme. de Combray had made herself quite comfortable at the parsonage, +which she considered in a manner her own property since she had +furnished half the money for its purchase. She now saw herself compelled +to surrender a portion of it, which from the very first embittered her +against the new arrival. Acquet, for his part, fêted his protégé, and +welcoming him cordially put him on his guard against the machinations of +the Marquise, whom he represented as an inveterate enemy of the +conciliatory government to which France owed the Concordat. The Abbé +Clérisse, who, from the construction of the house was obliged to use the +rooms in common with Mme. de Combray, was not long in noticing the +mysterious behaviour of the occupants. There were conferences conducted +in whispers, visitors who arrived at night and left at dawn, secret +comings and goings, in short, all the strange doings of a houseful of +conspirators, so that the good curé one day took Lanoë aside and +recommended him to be prudent, "predicting that he would get himself +into serious difficulties if he did not quit the service of the Marquise +as soon as possible." Mme. de Combray, in her exasperation, called the +Abbé "Concordataire," an epithet which, from her, was equivalent to +renegade. She had the imprudence to add that the reign of the "usurper +would not last forever, and that the princes would soon return at the +head of an English army and restore everything." In her wrath she left +the parsonage, making a great commotion, and went to beg shelter from +her farmer Hébert, who lived in a cottage used as a public house, called +La Bijude, where the road from Harcourt met that from Cesny. Acquet was +triumphant. The astonished Abbé remained passive; and as ill luck would +have it, fell ill and died a few days afterwards. A report was +circulated, emanating from the château, that he had died of grief caused +by Mme. de Combray. Then people began to talk in whispers about a +certain basket of white wine with which she had presented the poor +priest. A week later all those who sided with Acquet were convinced that +the Marquise had poisoned the Abbé Clérisse, "after having been +imprudent enough to take him into her confidence." Feeling ran high in +the village. Acquet affected consternation. The authorities, no doubt +informed by him, began making investigations when a nephew of the +Marquise, M. de Saint Léonard, Mayor of Falaise, who was on very good +terms with the Court, came down to hush up the affair and impose silence +on the mischief-makers. + +This first bout between Acquet de Férolles and the family de Combray +resulted in d'Aché's being forbidden the house of his old friend. +Feeling herself in the clutches of an enemy who was always on the watch, +she did not dare to expose to denunciation a man on whose head the fate +of the monarchy rested. D'Aché did not come to La Bijude the whole +winter. Mme. de Combray lived there alone with her son Bonnoeil and +the farmer Hébert. She had the house done up and repainted, but it +distressed her to be so meanly lodged, and she regretted the lofty +halls and the quiet of Tournebut. At the beginning of Lent, 1806, she +sent Lanoë for the last time to Mandeville to arrange with d'Aché some +means of correspondence, and with Bonnoeil she again started for +Gaillon, determined never again to set foot on her estates in Lower +Normandy as long as her son-in-law reigned there, and thoroughly +convinced that the fast approaching return of the King would avenge all +the humiliations she had lately endured. She had, moreover, quarrelled +with her daughter, who had only come to Donnay twice during her mother's +stay, and had there displayed only a very moderate appreciation of +d'Aché's plans, and had seemed entirely uninterested in the annoyance +caused to the Marquise, and her exodus to La Bijude. + +If Mme. Acquet de Férolles was really lacking in interest, it was +because a great event had occurred in her own life. + +Acquet knew that his wife's suit for a separation must inevitably be +granted. The ill-treatment she had had to endure was only too +well-known, and every one in Falaise took her part. If Acquet lost the +case, it would mean the end of the easy life he was leading at Donnay, +and he not only wished to gain time but secretly hoped that his wife +would commit some indiscretion that would regain for him if not the +sympathies of the public, at least her loss of the suit which if won, +would ruin him. In order to carry out his Machiavellian schemes, he +pretended that he wished to come to an understanding with the Combray +family, and he despatched one of his friends to Mme. Acquet to open +negotiations. This friend, named Le Chevalier, was a handsome young man +of twenty-five, with dark hair, a pale complexion and white teeth. He +had languishing eyes, a sympathetic voice and a graceful figure, +inexhaustible good-humour, despite his melancholy appearance, and +unbounded audacity. As he was the owner of a farm in the Commune of +Saint Arnould in the neighbourhood of Exmes, he was called Le Chevalier +de Saint-Arnould, which gave him the position of a nobleman. He was +moreover related to the nobility. + +Less has been written about Le Chevalier than about most of those who +were concerned in the troubles in the west. Nevertheless, his adventures +deserve more than the few lines, often incorrect, devoted to him by some +chroniclers of the revolt of the Chouans. He was a remarkable +personality, very romantic, somewhat of an enigma, and one who by a +touch of gallantry and scepticism was distinguished from his savage and +heroic companions. + +Born with a generous temperament and deeply in love with glory, as he +said, he was the son of a councillor, hammer-keeper to the corporation +of the woods and forests of Vire. A stay of several years in Paris where +he took lessons from different masters as much in science as in the arts +and foreign languages, had completed his education. He returned to Saint +Arnould in 1799, uncertain as to the choice of a career, when a chance +meeting with Picot, chief of the Auge division, whose death was +described at the beginning of this story, decided his vocation, and Le +Chevalier became a royalist officer, less from conviction than from +generous feelings which inclined him towards the cause of the vanquished +and oppressed. A pistol shot broke his left arm two or three days after +he was enrolled, and he was scarcely cured of this wound when he again +took the field and was implicated in the stopping of a coach. Three of +his friends were imprisoned, and when he himself was arrested, he +succeeded in proving that on the very day of the attack, in the +neighbourhood of Evreux, he was on a visit to a senator in Paris who had +great friends among the authorities, and the magistrates were compelled +to yield before this indisputable alibi. Le Chevalier, nevertheless, +appeared before the tribunal which was trying the cases of his +companions, and pleaded their cause with the eloquence inspired by the +purest and bravest friendship, and when he heard them condemned to +death, he begged in a burst of feeling which amazed everybody, to be +allowed to share their fate. It was considered a sufficient punishment +to send him to prison at Caen, whence he was liberated a few months +later, though he had to remain in the town under police surveillance. It +was then that the wild romance of his life began. + +He possessed an ample fortune. His chivalrous behaviour in the affair at +Evreux had gained for him, among the Chouans such renown that without +knowing him otherwise than from hearsay, Mme. de Combray travelled +across Normandy, as did many other royalist ladies in order to visit the +hero in prison and offer him her services. He had admirers who fawned +on him, flatterers who praised him to the skies, and how could this +rather hot-headed youth of twenty resist such adulation at that strange +epoch when even the wisest lost their balance? At least his folly was +generous. + +Scarcely out of prison he was seized with pity for the misery of the +pardoned Chouans, veritable pariahs, who lived by all sorts of +contrivances or were dependent on charity, and he made their care his +special charge. He was always followed by a dozen of these parasites, a +ragged troop of whom filled the Café Hervieux, where he held his court +and which moreover was frequented by teachers of English, mathematics +and fencing, whom he had in his pay, and from whom he took lessons when +not playing faro. + +Le Chevalier had a warm heart, and a purse that was never closed. He was +a façile speaker whose eloquence was of a forensic type. His friendships +were passionate. While in prison he received news of the death of one of +his friends, Gilbert, who had been guillotined at Evreux, and when some +one congratulated him on his approaching release he replied: "Ah, my +dear comrade! do you think this is a time to congratulate me? Do you +know so little of my heart and are you so ignorant of the love I bore +Gilbert? The happiness of my life is destroyed forever. Nothing can fill +the void in my heart.... I have lived, ah! far too long. O divine duties +of friendship and honour, how my heart burns to fulfil you! O eternity +or annihilation, how sweet will you seem to me whence once I have +fulfilled them!" Such was Le Chevalier's style and this affection +contrasted singularly with the world in which he lived. His comparative +wealth, his generosity, and an air of mystery about his life, gave him a +certain advantage over the most popular leaders. People knew that he was +dreaming of gigantic projects, and his partisans considered him cut out +for the accomplishment of great things. + +In reality Le Chevalier squandered his patrimony recklessly. +The treasury of the party--presided over by an old officer of +Frotté's, Bureau de Placène, who pompously styled himself the +Treasurer-General--was empty, and orders came from "high places," +without any one exactly knowing whence they emanated, for the faithful +to refill them by pillaging the coffers of the state. The police had +little by little relaxed their supervision of Le Chevalier's conduct, +and he took advantage of this to go away for short periods. It was +remarked that each of his absences generally coincided with the stopping +of a coach--a frequent occurrence in Normandy at this time, and one that +was considered as justifiable by the royalists. Seldom did they feel any +qualms about these exploits. The driver, and often his escort, were +accomplices of the Chouans. A few shots were fired from muskets or +pistols to keep up the pretence of a fight. Some of the men opened the +chests while others kept watch. The money belonging to the government +was divided to the last sou, while that belonging to private individuals +was carefully returned to the strong box. A few hours later the band +returned to Caen and the noisy meetings at the Café Hervieux were not +even interrupted. + +What renders the figure of Le Chevalier especially attractive, despite +these mad pranks, which no one of his day considered dishonourable, is +the deep private grief which saddened his adventurous life. In 1801, +when he was twenty-one years of age, and during his detention at Caen, +he had married Lucile Thiboust, a girl somewhat older than himself, +whose father had been overseer of an estate. He was obliged to break out +of prison to spend a few rare hours with the wife whom he dearly loved, +all the more so since his passion was oftenest obliged to expend itself +in ardent letters not devoid of literary merit. In prison he learned of +the birth of a son born of this union, and a week later, of the death of +his adored wife. His grief was terrible, but he was seized with a +passionate love for his child, and it is said that from that day forth +he cared for no one else. He had lived so fast that at the age of +twenty-three he was tired of life; his only anxiety was for the future +of his son, whom he had confided to the care of a good woman named Marie +Hamon. He traced out a line of conduct for this babe in swaddling +clothes: "Let him flee corruption, seduction and all shameful and +violent passions; let him be a friend as they were in ancient Greece, a +lover as in ancient Gaul." + +In short his exploits, his captivity, his sorrows, his eloquence, his +courage, his noble bearing, made Le Chevalier a hero of romance, and +this was the man whom Acquet de Férolles deemed it wise to despatch to +his wife. Doubtless he had made his acquaintance through the medium of +some of his Chouan comrades. He received him at Donnay, and in order to +attach him to himself lent him large sums of money, which Le Chevalier +immediately distributed among the crowd of parasites that never left +him. Acquet told him of the separation with which his wife threatened +him, begging him to use all his eloquence to bring about an amicable +settlement. + +The poor woman would never have known this peacemaker but for her +husband, and we are ignorant of the manner in which he acquitted himself +of his mission. She had yielded as much from inexperience as from +compulsion, to a man who for five years had made her life a martyrdom. +She lived at Falaise in an isolation that accorded ill with her yearning +for love and her impressionable nature. The person who now came suddenly +into her life corresponded so well with her idea of a hero--he was so +handsome, so brave, so generous, he spoke with such gentleness and +politeness that Mme. Acquet, to whom these qualities were startling +novelties, loved him from the first day with an "ungovernable passion." +She associated herself with his life with an ardour that excluded every +other sentiment, and she so wished to stand well with him that, casting +aside all prudence, she adopted his adventurous mode of living, mixing +with the outcasts who formed the entourage of her lover, and with them +frequenting the inns and cafés of Caen. He succeeded in avoiding the +surveillance of the police, and secretly undertook journeys to Paris +where he said he had friends in the Emperor's immediate circle. He +travelled by those roads in Normandy which were known to all the old +Chouans, talking to them of the good times when they made war on the +Blues, and not hesitating to say that, whenever he wished, he had only +to make a sign and an army would spring up around him. He maintained, +moreover, a small troop of determined men who carried his messages and +formed his staff. + +There is not the slightest doubt that their chief resource lay in +carrying off the money of the State which was sent from place to place +in public conveyances, and it was this booty that enriched the coffers +of the party, the treasurer, Placène, having long since grown +indifferent to the source of his supplies. The agreement of certain +dates is singularly convincing. Thus, at the beginning of December, +1805, d'Aché was at Mandeville with the Monfiquets, in a state of such +penury that, as we have seen, Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis d'or +by Lanoë; nevertheless, he was thinking of going to England to fetch +back the princes. He would require a considerable sum to prepare for his +journey, and to guard against all the contingencies of this somewhat +audacious attempt. Mme. Acquet was informed of the situation by her +mother whom she came to visit at Donnay, and on the 22d December, 1805, +the coach from Rouen to Paris was attacked on the slope of Authevernes, +at a distance of only three leagues from the Château of Tournebut. The +travellers noticed that one of the brigands, dressed in a military +costume, and whom his comrades called The Dragon, was so much thinner +and more active than the rest, that he might well have been taken "for a +woman dressed as a man." A fresh attack was made at the same place by +the same band on the 15th February, 1806; and as before the band +disappeared so rapidly, once the blow was struck, that it seemed they +must have taken refuge in one of the neighbouring houses. Suspicion fell +on the Château de Mussegros, situated about three leagues from +Authevernes; but nobody then thought of Tournebut, the owners of which +had been absent for seven months. It was only in March that Mme. de +Combray returned there, and it was in April that d'Aché, having laid in +a good stock of money, decided to cross the channel and convey to the +princes the good wishes of their faithful provinces in the west. + +D'Aché had not wasted his time during his stay at Mandeville. It was a +difficult enterprise in existing circumstances to arrange his crossings +with any chance of success. The embarkation was easy enough, and David +the Intrepid had undertaken to see to it; but it was especially +important to secure a safe return, and a secret landing on the French +coast, lined as it was by patrols, watched day and night by custom-house +officers, and guarded by sentinels at every point where a boat could +approach the shore, offered almost insuperable difficulties. D'Aché +selected a little creek at the foot of the rocks of Saint Honorine, +scarcely two leagues from Trévières and David, who knew all the coast +guards in the district, bribed one of them to become an accomplice. + +It was on a stormy night at the end of April, 1806, that d'Aché put to +sea in a boat seventeen feet long, which was steered by David the +Intrepid. After tossing about for fifty hours, they landed in England. +David immediately stood out to sea again, while d'Aché took the road to +London. + +One can easily imagine what the feelings of these royalist fanatics must +have been when they approached the princes to whom they had devoted so +many years of their lives, hunted over France and pursued like +malefactors; how they must have anticipated the welcome in London that +their devotion merited. They were prepared to be treated like sons by +the King, as friends by the princes, as leaders by the emigrants, who +were only waiting to return till France was reconquered for them. The +deception was cruel. The emigrant world, so easy to dupe on account of +its misfortunes, and immeasurable vanity, had fallen a victim to so many +false Chouans--spies in disguise and barefaced swindlers, who each +brought plans for the restoration, and after obtaining money made off +and were never seen again--that distrust at last had taken the place of +the unsuspecting confidence of former days. Every Frenchman who arrived +in London was considered an adventurer, and as far as we can gather from +this closed page of history,--for those, who tried the experiment of a +visit to the exiled princes, have respectfully kept silence on the +subject of their discomfiture--it appears that terrible mortifications +were in store for the militant royalists who approached the emigrant +leaders. D'Aché did not escape disillusionment, and though he did not +disclose the incidents of his stay in London, we know that at first he +was thrown into prison, and that for two months he could not succeed in +obtaining an interview with the Comte d'Artois, much less with the +exiled King. + +M. de la Chapelle, the most influential man at the little court at +Hartwell, sent for him and questioned him about his plans, but was +opposed to his being received by the princes, though he put him in +communication with King George's ministers, every person who brought +news of any plot against Napoleon's government being sure of a welcome +and a hearing from the latter. + +After three weeks of conferences the expedition which was to support a +general rising of the peasants in the West, was postponed till the +spring of 1807. A feigned attack on Port-en-Bessin would allow of their +surprising the islands of Tahitou and Saint-Marcouf as well as Port-Bail +on the western slope of the Cotentin. The destruction of the roads, +which protect the lower part of the peninsula, would insure the success +of the undertaking by cutting off Cherbourg which, attacked from behind, +would easily be carried, resistance being impossible. The invading army, +concentrating under the forts of the town, in which they would have a +safe retreat, would descend by Carenton on Saint-Lô and Caen to meet the +army of peasants and malcontents whose cooperation d'Aché guaranteed. +He undertook to collect twenty thousand men; the English government +offered the same number of Russian and Swedish soldiers, and to provide +for their transportation to the coast of France. Pending this, d'Aché +was given unlimited credit on the banker Nourry at Caen. + +His stay in London lasted nearly three months. Towards the end of July +an English frigate took him to the fleet where Admiral Saumarez received +him with great deference, and equipped a brig with fourteen cannon to +convey him to the shore. When, at night, they were within a gunshot of +the coast of Saint-Honorine, d'Aché himself made the signals agreed +upon, which were quickly answered by the coast guard on shore. An hour +afterwards David the Intrepid's boat hailed the English brig, and before +daybreak d'Aché was back at Mandeville, sharing with his hosts the joy +he felt at the success of his voyage. They began to make plans +immediately. It was decided on the spot that the Château de Monfiquet +should shelter the King during the first few days after he landed. Eight +months were to elapse before the beginning of the campaign, and as money +was not lacking this time was sufficient for d'Aché to prepare for +operations. + +We may as well mention at once that the English Cabinet, while playing +on the fanaticism of d'Aché, as they had formerly done on that of +Georges Cadoudal and so many others, had not the slightest intention of +keeping their promises. Their hatred of Napoleon suggested to them the +infamous idea of exciting the naïve royalists of France by raising +hopes they never meant to satisfy. They abandoned them once they saw +their dupes so deeply implicated that there was no drawing back, caring +little if they helped them to the scaffold, desirous only of maintaining +agitations in France and of driving them into such desperate straits +that some assassin might arise from among them who would rid the world +of Bonaparte. Here lies, doubtless, one of the reasons why the exiled +princes so obstinately refused to encourage their partisans' attempts. +Did they know of the snares laid for these unhappy creatures? Did they +not dare to put them on their guard for fear of offending the English +government? Was this the rent they paid for Hartwell? The history of the +intrigues which played around the claimant to the throne is full of +mystery. Those who were mixed up in them, such as Fauche-Bonel or Hyde +de Neuville were ruined, and it required the daylight of the Restoration +to open the eyes of the persons most interested to the fact that certain +professions of devotion had been treacherous. + +As far as d'Aché was concerned it seems fairly certain that he did not +receive any promise from the princes, and was not even admitted to their +presence; the English ministers alone encouraged him to embark on this +extraordinary adventure, in which they were fully determined to let him +ruin himself. Therefore the "unlimited" credit opened at the banker +Nourry's was only a bait: while making the conspirators think they would +never want for money, the credit was limited beforehand to 30,000 +francs, a piece of duplicity which enraged even the detectives who, +later on, discovered it. + +It is not easy to follow d'Aché in the mysterious work upon which he +entered: the precautions he took to escape the police have caused him to +be lost to posterity as well. Some slight landmarks barely permit our +following his trail during the few years which form the climax of his +wonderful career. + +We find him first of all during the autumn of 1806, at La Bijude, where +Mme. de Combray, who had remained at Tournebut had charged Bonnoeil +and Mme. Acquet to go and receive him. There was some question of +providing him with a messenger familiar with the haunts of the Chouans +and the dangers connected with the task. To fulfil this duty Mme. Acquet +proposed a German named Flierlé whom Le Chevalier recommended. Flierlé +had distinguished himself in the revolt of the Chouans; a renowned +fighter, he had been mixed up in every plot. He was in Paris at the time +of the eighteenth Fructidor; he turned up there again at the moment when +Saint-Réjant was preparing his infernal machine; he again spent three +months there at the time of Georges' conspiracy. For the last two years, +whilst waiting for a fresh engagement, he had lived on a small pension +from the royal treasury, and when funds were low, he made one of his +more fortunate companions in old days put him up; and thus he roamed +from Caen to Falaise, from Mortain to Bayeux or Saint-Lô, even going +into Mayenne in his wanderings. Although he would never have +acknowledged it, we may say that he was one of the men usually employed +in attacking public vehicles: in fact, he was an adept at it and went by +the name of the "Teisch." + +Summoned to La Bijude he presented himself there one morning towards the +end of October. D'Aché arrived there the same evening while they were at +dinner. They talked rather vaguely of the great project, but much of +their old Chouan comrades. In spite of his decided German accent Flierlé +was inexhaustible on this theme. He and d'Aché slept in the same room, +and this intimacy lasted two whole days, at the end of which it was +decided that Flierlé should be employed as a messenger at a salary of +fifty crowns a month. That same night, Lanoë conducted d'Aché two +leagues from La Bijude and left him on the road to Arjentan. + +Here is a new landmark: on November 26th, Veyrat, the inspector of +police, hastily informed Desmarets that d'Aché, whom they had been +seeking for two years, had arrived the night before in Paris, getting +out of the coach from Rennes in the company of a man named Durand. The +latter, leaving his trunk at the office, spent the night at a house in +the Rue Montmartre, whence he departed the next morning for Boulogne. As +for d'Aché, wrote Veyrat, he had neither box nor parcel, and disappeared +as soon as he got out of the carriage. Search was made in all the +furnished lodgings and hotels in the neighbourhood, but without result. +Desmarets set all his best men to work, but in vain: d'Aché was not to +be found. + +He was at Tournebut, where he spent a month. It is probable that a +pressing need of money was the cause of this journey to Paris and his +visit to Mme. de Combray. By this time d'Aché had exhausted his credit +at the banker Nourry's. Believing that this source would never be +exhausted, he had drawn on it largely. His disappointment was therefore +cruel when he heard that his account was definitely closed. He found +himself again without money, and by a coincidence which must be +mentioned, the diligence from Paris to Rouen was robbed, during his stay +at Tournebut, in November, 1806, at the Mill of Monflaines, about a +hundred yards from Authevernes, where the preceding attacks had taken +place. The booty was not large this time, and when d'Aché again took the +road to Mandeville his resources consisted of six hundred francs. + +He was obliged to spend the winter in torturing idleness; there is no +indication of his movements till February, 1807. The time fixed for the +great events was drawing near, and it was important to make them known. +He decided on the plan of a manifesto which was to be widely circulated +through the whole province, and would not allow any one to assist in +drawing it up. This proclamation, written in the name of the princes, +stipulated a general amnesty, the retention of those in authority, a +reduction of taxation, and the abolition of conscription. Lanoë, +summoned to Mandeville, received ten louis and the manuscript of the +manifesto, with the order to get it printed as secretly as possible. The +crafty Norman promised, slipped the paper into the lining of his coat, +and after a fruitless--and probably very feeble--attempt on a printer's +apprentice at Falaise, returned it to Flierlé, with many admonitions to +be prudent, but only refunded five louis. Flierlé first applied to a +bookseller in the Froide Rue at Caen. The latter, as soon as he found +out what it contained, refused his assistance. + +An incident now occurred, the importance of which it is difficult to +discover, but which seems to have been great, to judge from the mystery +in which it is shrouded. Whether he had received some urgent +communication from England, or whether, in his state of destitution, he +had thought of claiming the help of his friends at Tournebut, d'Aché +despatched Flierlé to Mme. de Combray, and gave him two letters, +advising him to use the greatest discretion. Flierlé set out on +horseback from Caen in the morning of March 13th. At dawn next day he +arrived at Rouen, and immediately repaired to the house of a Mme. +Lambert, a milliner in the Rue de l'Hôpital, to whom one of the letters +was addressed. "I gave it to her," he said, "on her staircase, without +speaking to her, as I had been told to do, and set out that very morning +for Tournebut, where I arrived between two and three o'clock. I gave +Mme. de Combray the other letter, which she threw in the fire after +having read it." + +Flierlé slept at the château. Next day Bonnoeil conducted him to +Louviers, and there intrusted a packet of letters to him addressed to +d'Aché. Both directed their steps to Rouen, and the German fetched from +the Rue de l'Hôpital, the milliner's reply, which she gave him herself +without saying a word. + +He immediately continued his journey, and by March 20th was back at +Mandeville, and placed the precious mail in d'Aché's hands. The latter +had scarcely read it before he sent David word to get his boat ready, +and without losing a moment, the letters which had arrived from Rouen +were taken out to sea to the English fleet, to be forwarded to London. + +We are still ignorant of the contents of these mysterious despatches, +and inquiry on this point is reduced to supposition. Some pretended that +d'Aché sent the manifesto to Mme. de Combray, and that it was +clandestinely printed in the cellars at Tournebut; others maintain that +towards March 15th Bonnoeil returned from Paris, bringing with him the +correspondence of the secret royalist committee which was to be sent to +the English Cabinet via Mandeville. D'Aché certainly attached immense +importance to this expedition, which ought, according to him, to make +the princes decide on the immediate despatch of funds, and to hasten the +preparation for the attack on the island of Tahitou. But days passed and +no reply came. In the agony of uncertainty he decided to approach Le +Chevalier, whom he only knew by reputation as being a shrewd and +resolute man. The meeting took place at Trévières towards the middle of +April, 1807. Le Chevalier brought one of his aides-de-camp with him, but +d'Aché came alone. + +The names of these two men are so little known, they occupy such a very +humble place in history, that we can hardly imagine, now that we know +how pitifully their dreams miscarried, how without being ridiculous they +could fancy that any result whatever could come of their meeting. The +surroundings made them consider themselves important: d'Aché was--or +thought he was--the mouthpiece of the exiled King; as for Le Chevalier, +whether from vainglory or credulity he boasted of an immense popularity +with the Chouans, and spoke mysteriously of the royalist committee +which, working in Paris, had succeeded, he said, in rallying to the +cause men of considerable importance in the entourage of the Emperor +himself. + +Since he had been Mme. Acquet's adored lover, Le Chevalier's visits to +the Café Hervieux had become rarer; his parasites had dispersed, and +although he still kept up his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur at Caen, he +spent the greater part of his time either at Falaise or at La Bijude, +where his devoted mistress alternately lived. The police of Count +Caffarelli, Prefect of Calvados, had ceased keeping an eye on him, and +he even received a passport for Paris, whither he went frequently. He +always returned more confident than before, and in the little group +amongst whom he lived at Falaise--consisting of his cousin, Dusaussay, +two Chouan comrades, Beaupaire and Desmontis; a doctor in the Frotté +army, Révérend; and the Notary of the Combray family, Maître Febre--he +was never tired of talking in confidence about the secret Royalist +Committee, and the near approach of the Restoration. The revolution +which was to bring it about, was to be a very peaceful one, according to +him. Bonaparte, taken prisoner by two of his generals, each at the head +of 40,000 men, was to be handed over to the English and replaced by "a +regency, the members of which were to be chosen from among the senators +who could be trusted." The Comte d'Artois was then to be recalled--or +his son, the Duc de Berry--to take possession of the kingdom as +Lieutenant-General. + +Did Le Chevalier believe in this Utopia? It has been said that in +propagating it "he only sought to intoxicate the people and excite them +to acts of pillage, the profits of which would come to him without any +of the danger." This accusation fits in badly with the chivalrous +loyalty of his character. It seems more probable that on one of his +journeys to Paris he fell into the trap set by the spy Perlet who, paid +by the princes to be their chief intelligence agent, sold their +correspondence to Fouché and handed over to the police the royalists who +brought the letters. This Perlet had invented, as a bait for his trap, a +committee of powerful persons who, he boasted, he had won over to the +royal cause, and doubtless Le Chevalier was one of his only too numerous +victims. Whatever it was, Le Chevalier took a pride in his high +commissions, and went to meet d'Aché as an equal, if not a rival. + +At the beginning, the conference was more than cold. These two men, so +different in appearance and character, both aspired to play a great part +and were instinctively jealous of each other. Their own personal +feelings divided them. One was the lover of Mme. Acquet de Férolles, the +other was the friend of Mme. de Combray, and the latter blamed her +daughter for her misconduct, and had forbidden her ever to come back to +Tournebut. Le Chevalier, after the usual civilities, refused to continue +the conversation till he was informed of the exact nature of the powers +conferred by the King on his interlocutor, and the authority with which +he was invested. Now, d'Aché had never had any written authority, and +arrogantly intrenched himself behind the confidence which the princes +had shown in him from the very first days of the revolution. He stated +that he was expecting a regular commission from them. Whereupon Le +Chevalier, seizing the advantage, called him an "agent of the English," +and placing his pistols on the table "invited him to blow out his brains +immediately." They both grew calmer, however, and explained their plans. +Le Chevalier knew most of the Norman Chouans, either from having fought +by their side, or from having made their acquaintance in the various +prisons in Caen or Evreux, wherein he had been confined. He therefore +undertook the enrollment and management of the army, the command of +which he would assign to two men who were devoted to him. The name of +one is not published; they say he was an ex-chief of Staff to Charette. +The other was famous through the whole revolt of the Chouans under the +pseudonym of General Antonio; his real name was Allain, and he had been +working with Le Chevalier since the year IX. The latter was sure also +of the cooperation of his friend M. de Grimont, manager of the stud at +Argentan, who would furnish the prince's army with the necessary +cavalry; besides which he offered to go to Paris for the "great event," +and took upon himself with the assistance of certain accomplices "to +secure the imperial treasury." D'Aché, for his part, was to go to +England to fetch the King, and was to preside over the disembarkation +and lead the Russo-Swedish army through insurgent Normandy to the gates +of the capital. + +Their work thus assigned, the two men parted allies, but not friends. +D'Aché was offended at Le Chevalier's pretensions; the latter returning +to Mme. Acquet, did not disguise the fact that, in his opinion, d'Aché +was nothing but a common intriguer and an agent of England. + +There still remained the question of money which, for the moment, took +precedence of all others. They had agreed that it was necessary to +pillage the coffers of the state whilst waiting the arrival of subsidies +from England, but neither d'Aché nor Le Chevalier expressed himself +openly; each wished to leave the responsibility of the theft to the +other. Later, they both obstinately rejected it, Le Chevalier affirming +that d'Aché had ordered the stopping of public conveyances in the King's +name, while d'Aché disowned Le Chevalier, accusing him of having brought +the cause into disrepute by employing such means. The dispute is of +little interest. The money was lacking, and not only were the royal +coffers empty, but what was of more immediate importance, Le Chevalier +and his friends were without resources. In consequence of leading a wild +life and sacrificing himself for his party, he had spent his entire +fortune, and was overwhelmed with debts. The lawyer Vanièr, who was +entrusted with the management of his business affairs, lost his head at +the avalanche of bills, protests and notes of hand which poured into his +office, and which it was impossible to meet. The lawyer Lefebre, a fat +and sensual free-liver, was equally low in funds, and laid on the +government the blame of the confusion into which his affairs had fallen, +though it had been entirely his own fault. As for Le Chevalier himself, +he attributed his ruin, not without justice, to his disinterestedness +and devotion to the royal cause, which was his excuse for the past and +the future. Mme. Acquet, who loved him blindly, had given her last louis +to provide for his costly liberality. Touching letters from her are +extant, proving how attached she was to him: + + "I am herewith sending you a letter from Mme. Blins" (a creditor). + "My only regret is that I have not the sum. It would have given me + great pleasure to pay it for you, and then you would never have + known.... I love you with all my heart. I am entirely yours, and + there is nothing I would not do for you.... Love me as I love you. + I embrace you tenderly." + +"There is nothing I would not do for you,"--and the poor woman was +wretched in the knowledge that the hero whom she idolised was hampered +for want of small sums of money. She could not ward off the trouble, +since her demand for a separation had recently been refused. Acquet was +triumphant. She was reduced to living on a modest pension of 2,000 +francs, and not able to sell what she had inherited from her father. One +evening, when she and Lanoë were alone in the Hôtel de Combray, in the +Rue du Tripot at Falaise, one part of which was rented to the collector +of taxes, she heard through the wall the chinking of the money, which +they were packing into bags. On hearing it she fell into a sort of +delirium, thinking that here was the wherewithal to satisfy her lover's +fancies.... + +"Lanoë," she said suddenly, "I must have some money; I only want 10,000 +francs." + +The terrified Lanoë gave her no answer then, but a few days later, when +he was driving her back in her cabriolet to Falaise from La Bijude, she +returned to the charge, and gave him a piece of yellow wax wrapped up in +cotton telling him to go and take an impression of the tax collector's +lock as soon as they arrived at the Rue du Tripot. Lanoë excused +himself, saying that the house belonged to M. Timoléon, and that +disagreeable consequences might arise. But she insisted. "I must have +the impression," she said. "I do not tell you why I want it, but I will +have it." Lanoë, to get out of a task he did not like, went away and +secretly took an impression of the lock of the hayloft. A key was made +by this pattern, and when night came the Marquise de Combray's daughter +stole down--holding her breath and walking noiselessly--to the tax +collector's office, and vainly tried to open the door. + + * * * * * + +About the same time Le Chevalier, who had just returned from a journey +to Paris, heard from the lawyer Vanièr, who was quite as much in debt as +his client, that the pecuniary situation was desperate. "I dread," wrote +Vanièr, "the accomplishment of the psalm: Unde veniet auxilium nobis +quia perimus." To which Le Chevalier replied, as he invariably did: "In +six weeks, or perhaps less, the King will be again on his throne. +Brighter days will dawn, and we shall have good posts. Now is the time +to show our zeal, for those who have done nothing will, as is fair, have +nothing to expect." He added that the hour was propitious, "since +Bonaparte was in the middle of Germany with his whole army." + +He loved to talk this way, as it made him appear, as it were, Napoleon's +rival, raising him to the place he held in his own imagination. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE AFFAIR OF QUESNAY + + +The lawyer, Lefebre, of high stature, with broad shoulders and florid +complexion, loved to dine well, and spent his time between billiards, +"Calvados" and perorations in the cafés. For taking this part in the +conspiracy he expected a fat sinecure on the return of the Bourbons, in +recompense for his devotion. + +Early in April, 1807, Lefebre and Le Chevalier were dining together at +the Hôtel du Point-de-France at Argentan. They had found Beaurepaire, +Desmontis and the Cousin Dusaussay there; they went to the café and +stayed there several hours. Allain, called General Antonio, whom Le +Chevalier had chosen as his chief lieutenant, appeared and was presented +to the others. Allain was over forty; he had a long nose, light eyes, a +face pitted with smallpox, and a heavy black beard; the manner of a calm +and steady bourgeois. Le Chevalier took a playing card, tore half of it +off, wrote a line on it and gave it to Allain, saying, "This will admit +you." They talked awhile in the embrasure of a window, and the lawyer +caught these words: "Once in the church, you will go out by the door on +the left, and there find a lane; it is there...." + +When Allain had gone Le Chevalier informed his friends of the affair on +hand. At the approach of each term, funds were passed between the +principal towns of the department; from Alençon, Saint-Lô and Evreux +money was sent to Caen, but these shipments took place at irregular +dates, and were generally accompanied by an escort of gendarmes. As the +carriage which took the funds to Alençon usually changed horses at +Argentan, it was sufficient to know the time of its arrival in that town +to deduce therefrom the hour of its appearance elsewhere. Now Le +Chevalier had secured the cooperation of a hostler named Gauthier, +called "Boismâle," who was bribed to let Dusaussay know when the +carriage started. Dusaussay lived at Argentan, and by starting +immediately on horseback, he could easily arrive at the place where the +conspirators were posted several hours before the carriage. Allain had +just gone to find Boismâle. + +When he returned to the café, he gave the result of his efforts. The +hostler had decided to help Le Chevalier, but the affair would probably +not take place for six weeks or two months, which was longer than +necessary to collect the little troop needed for the expedition. The +rôles were assigned: Allain was to recruit men; the lawyer would procure +guns wherewith to arm them; and besides this he allowed Allain to use a +house in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent de Falaise, which he was +commissioned to sell. Here could be established "a depôt for arms and +provisions," for one difficulty was to lodge and feed the recruits +during the period of waiting. Le Chevalier answered for the assistance +of Mme. Acquet de Férolles, whom he easily persuaded to hide the men for +a few days at least; he also offered as a meeting-place his house in the +Rue de Saint-Sauveur at Caen. + +The chief outlines of the affair being thus arranged, they parted, and +the next day Allain took the road, having with him as usual, a complete +surveyor's outfit, and a sort of diploma as "engineer" which served as a +reference, and justified his continual moves. He was, moreover, a +typical Chouan, determined and ready for anything, as able to command a +troop as to track gendarmes; bold and cunning, he knew all the +malcontents in the country, and could insure their obedience. The +recruiting of this troop, armed, housed and provided for during two +months, roaming the country, hiding in the woods, leading in the +environs of Caen and Falaise the existence of Mohicans, without causing +astonishment to a single gendarme, and, satisfied with having enough to +eat and to drink, never thinking of asking what was required of them, is +beyond belief. And it was in the most brilliant year of the imperial +régime, at the apogee of the much boasted administration, which in +reality was so hollow. The Chouans had sown such disorganisation in the +West, that the authorities of all grades found themselves powerless to +struggle against this ever-recurring epidemic. Count Caffarelli, préfet +of Calvados, in his desire to retain his office, treated the +refractories with an indolence bordering on complicity, and continued to +send Fouché the most optimistic reports of the excellent temper of his +fellow-citizens and their inviolable attachment to the imperial +constitution. + +It was the middle of April, 1807. Allain passed through Caen, where he +joined Flierlé, and both of them hiding by day and marching at night, +gained the borders of Brittany. Allain knew where to find men; +twenty-five leagues from Caen, in the department of La Manche, some way +from any highroad, is situated the village of La Mancellière, whose men +were all refractories. General Antonio, who was very popular among the +malcontents, was shown the house of a woman named Harel whose husband +had joined the sixty-third brigade in the year VIII and deserted six +months after, "overcome by the desire to see his wife and children." His +story resembled many others; conscription was repugnant to these +peasants of ancient France, who could not resign themselves to losing +sight of their clock tower; they were brave enough and ready to fight, +but to them, the immediate enemy was the gendarmes, the "Bleus," whom +they saw in their villages carrying off the best men, and they felt no +animosity against the Prussians and Austrians who only picked a quarrel +with Bonaparte. + +As he came with an offer of work to be well paid for, Allain was well +received by Mme. Harel, who with her children was reduced to extreme +poverty. It was a question, he said, "of a surveying operation +authorised by the government." Harel came out of hiding in the evening, +and eagerly accepted his old chief's proposition, and as the latter +needed some strong pole-carriers, Harel presented two friends to the +"General" under the names of "Grand-Charles" and "Coeur-le-Roi." +Allain completed his party by the enrollment of three others, Le +Héricey, called "La Sagesse"; Lebrée, called "Fleur d'Épine"; and Le +Lorault, called "La Jeunesse." They drank a cup of cider together, and +left the same evening, Allain and Flierlé leading them. + +In six stages they arrived at Caen, and Allain took them to Le +Chevalier's house in the Rue Saint Sauveur. They had to stay there three +weeks. They were put in the loft on some hay, and Chalange, Le +Chevalier's servant, who took them their food, always found them +sleeping or playing cards. In order not to awaken the suspicions of the +usual tradespeople, Lerouge, called "Bornet," formerly a baker, +undertook to make the bread for the house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. One +day he brought in his bread cart four guns procured by Lefebre; Harel +cleaned them, took them to pieces, and hid them in a bundle of straw. +Then the guns were put on a horse which Lerouge led out at night from +the cellar which opened on the Rue Quimcampoix at the back of the house. +The men followed, and under Allain's guidance crossed the town; when +they reached the extremity of the Faubourg de Vaucelles they stopped and +distributed the arms. Lerouge went back to town with the horse, and the +little troop disappeared on the highroad. + +At about five leagues from Caen, after having passed Langannerie, where +a brigade of gendarmerie was stationed, the Falaise road traverses a +small but dense thicket called the wood of Quesnay. The men stopped +there, and passed a whole day hidden among the trees. The following +night Allain led them a three hours' march to a large abandoned house, +whose doors were open, and installed them in the loft on some hay. This +was the Château of Donnay. + +Le Chevalier had not deceived himself. Mme. Acquet had received his +suggestion with enthusiasm; the thought that she would be useful to her +hero, that she would share his danger, blinded her to all other +considerations. She had offered Allain and his companions the +hospitality of Bijude, without any fear of compromising her lover, who +made long sojourns there, and she decided on the audacious plan of +lodging them with her husband, who, inhabiting a wing of the Château of +Donnay, abandoned the main body of the château, which could be entered +from the back without being seen. Perhaps she hoped to throw a suspicion +of complicity on Acquet if the retreat should be discovered. As to Le +Chevalier, learning that d'Aché had just left Mandeville and gone to +England "after having announced his speedy return with the prince, with +munitions, money, etc.," he left for Paris, having certain arrangements, +he said, to make with the "Comité secret." Before quitting La Bijude, he +enjoined his mistress, in case the coup should be made in his absence, +to remit the money seized to Dusaussay, who would bring it to him in +Paris where the committee awaited it. She gave him a curl of her fine +black hair to have a medallion made of it, and made him promise "that he +would not forget to bring her some good eau-de-cologne." They then +embraced each other, and he left. It was May 17, 1807, and this was the +last time she saw him. + +She did not remain idle, but herself prepared the food of the seven men +lodged in the château. Bundles of hay and straw served them for beds; +they were advised not to go out, even for the most pressing needs and +they stayed there ten days. Every evening Mme. Acquet appeared in this +malodorous den, holding her parasol in her gloved hands, dressed in a +light muslin, and a straw hat. She was usually accompanied by her +servant Rosalie Dupont, a big strong girl, and Joseph Buquet a shoemaker +at Donnay both carrying large earthen plates containing baked veal and +potatoes. It was the hour of kindliness and good cheer; the châtelaine +did not disdain to preside at the repast, coming and going among the +unkempt men, asking if these "good fellows" needed anything and were +satisfied with their fare. She was the most impatient of all; whether +she took the political illusions of those who had drawn her into the +affair seriously, and was anxious to expose herself for "the good +cause"; whether her fatal passion for La Chevalier had completely +blinded her, she took her share in the attack that was being prepared, +which it seemed to her, would put an end to all her misfortunes. She had +already committed an act of foolish boldness in receiving and keeping +Allain's recruits in a house occupied by her husband, and in daring to +visit them there herself; she was thus compromising herself, as if she +enjoyed it, under the eyes of her most implacable enemy, and no doubt +Acquet, informed by his well-trained spies, of all that happened, +refrained from intervention for fear of interrupting an adventure in +which his wife must lose herself irremediably. + +Mme. Acquet also behaved as if she was certain of the complicity of the +whole country; she arranged the slightest details of the expedition with +astonishing quickness of mind. With her own hands she made large wallets +of coarse cloth, to carry provisions for the party, and contain the +money taken from the chests. She hastened to Falaise to ask Lefebre to +receive Allain and Flierlé while awaiting the hour of action. Lefebre +who had already fixed his price and exacted a promise of twelve thousand +francs from the funds, would only, however, half commit himself. He +nevertheless agreed to lodge Allain and Flierlé in the vacant building +in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent. Reassured on this point Mme. Acquet +returned to Donnay; during the night of 28th May, the men left the +château without their arms and were conducted to a barn, where they were +left all day alone with a small cask of cider which they soon emptied. +Mme. Acquet was meanwhile preparing another retreat for them. A short +way from the Church of Donnay there was an isolated house belonging to +the brothers Buquet, who were devoted to the Combrays; Joseph, the +shoemaker, had in the absence of Le Chevalier, been known as Mme. +Acquet's lover in the village, and if in the absence of any definite +testimony, it is possible to save this poor woman's memory from this +new accusation, we must still recognise the fact that she exercised an +extraordinary influence over this man. He submitted to her blindly "by +the rights she had granted him," said a report addressed to the Emperor. +Whatever the reason, she had only to say the word for Joseph Buquet to +give her his house, and the six men took possession next day. The +Buquets' mother undertook to feed them for four days; they left her at +dusk on the 2d June; Joseph showed them the road and even led them a +short way. + +The poor fellows dragged along till morning, losing themselves often and +not daring to ask the way or to follow beaten tracks. They met Allain at +dawn, one mile from Falaise, on the edge of a wood near the hamlet of +Jalousie; he took them across Aubigny to an isolated inn at the end of +the village. + +Lefebre had presented Allain to the innkeeper the night before, asking +if he would receive "six honest deserters whom the gendarmes tormented," +for a few days, and the man had replied that he would lodge them with +pleasure. + +As soon as they arrived at the inn Allain and his men, dropping with +fatigue, asked for breakfast and went at once to the room prepared for +them. It was half past four in the morning; they lay down on the straw +and did not move all day except for meals. The night and all next day +passed in the same manner. On Thursday June 4th they put some bread, +bacon and jugs of cider in their wallets and left about nine in the +evening. On Friday Allain appeared at the inn of Aubigny alone; he +ordered the servant to take some food to the place where the Caen and +Harcourt roads met. Two men were waiting there, who took the food and +went off in haste. Allain went to bed about two in the morning; about +midday on Saturday as he was sitting down to table a carriage stopped at +the inn door; Lefebre and Mme. Acquet got out. They brought seven guns +which were carried up to the loft. They talked; Mme. Acquet took some +lemons from a little basket, and cut them into a bowl filled with white +wine and brandy, and she and Lefebre drank while consulting together. +The heat was intolerable and all three were overcome. Mme. Acquet had to +be helped to her carriage and Lefebre undertook to conduct her to +Falaise. Allain, left alone at Aubigny, ordered supper "for six or seven +persons." He was attending to its preparation when a horseman appeared +and asked to speak with him. It was Dusaussay who brought news. He had +come straight from Argentan where he had seen the coach, laden with +chests of silver, enter the yard of the inn of Point-de-France; he +described the waggon, the harness and the driver, then remounted and +rode rapidly away. Just then the entire band reappeared, led by Flierlé. +Arms were distributed, and the men stood round the table eating hastily. +They filled their wallets with bread and cold meat and left at night. +Allain and Flierlé accompanied them and returned to the inn after two +hours' absence. They did not sleep; they were heard pacing heavily up +and down the loft until daylight. On Sunday, June 7, Allain paid the +reckoning, bought a short axe and an old gun from the innkeeper, making +eight guns in all at the disposal of the band. At seven in the morning +he left with Flierlé, and three leagues from there, arrived at the wood +of Quesnay where his men had passed the night. + +The waggon destined for the transportation of the funds had been loaded +on the 5th at Alençon, in the yard of the house of M. Decrès, +receiver-general of the Orne, with five heavy chests containing 33,489 +francs, 92 centimes. On the 6th, the carrier, Jean Gousset, employed by +the manager of stage coaches at Alençon, had harnessed three horses to +it, and escorted by two gendarmes had taken the road to Argentan, where +he arrived at five in the evening. He stopped at Point-de-France, where +he had to take a sixth chest containing 33,000 francs, which was +delivered in the evening by the agents of M. Larroc, receiver of +finances. The carriage, carefully covered, remained in the inn yard +during the night. Gousset, who had been drinking, went to and fro +"talking to every one of his charge"; he even called a traveller, M. +Lapeyrière, and winking at the chest that was being hoisted on the +waggon, said: "If we each had ten times as much our fortunes would be +made." He harnessed up at four o'clock on Sunday, the 7th. He had been +given a fourth horse, and three gendarmes accompanied him. They made the +five leagues between Argentan and Falaise rather slowly, arriving about +half past ten. Gousset stopped with Bertaine at the "Cheval Noir," +where the gendarmes left him; he dined there, and as it was very hot, +rested till three in the afternoon, during which time the waggon stayed +in front of the inn unguarded. It was noticed that the horses were +harnessed three hours before starting, and the conclusion was drawn that +Gousset did not want to arrive before night at Langannerie, where he +would sleep. In fact, he took his time. At a quarter past three he +started, without escort, as all the men of the brigade of Falaise were +employed in the recruiting that took place that day. As he left the +village he chanced to meet Vinchon, gendarme of the brigade of +Langannerie, who was returning home on foot with his nephew, a young boy +of seventeen, named Antoine Morin. They engaged in conversation with the +carrier, who walked on the left of the waggon, and went with him. These +chance companions were in no hurry, and Gousset did not appear to be in +any haste to arrive. At the last houses of the suburbs he offered some +cider; after some hundred yards the gendarme returned the compliment and +they stopped at the "Sauvage." A league further, another stop was made +at the "Vieille Cave." Gousset then proposed a game of skittles, which +the gendarme and Morin accepted. It was nearly seven in the evening when +they passed Potigny. The evening was magnificent and the sun still high +on the horizon; as they knew they would not see another inn until the +next stage was reached, they made a fourth stop there. At last Gousset +and his companions started again; they could now reach Langannerie in +an hour, where they would stop for the night. + + * * * * * + +The evening before, Mme. Acquet de Férolles, returning to Falaise with +Lefebre, had gone to bed more sick with fatigue than drink; however, she +had returned to Donnay at dawn in the fear that her absence might awaken +suspicion. This Sunday, the 7th June, was indeed the Fête-Dieu, and she +must decorate the wayside altars as she did each year. + +Lanoë, who had arrived the evening before from his farm at Glatigny, +worked all the morning hanging up draperies, and covering the walls with +green branches. Mme. Acquet directed the arrangements for the procession +with feverish excitement, filling baskets with rose leaves, grouping +children, placing garlands. Doubtless her thoughts flew from this +flowery fête to the wood yonder, where at this minute the men whom she +had incited waited under the trees, gun in hand. Perhaps she felt a +perverse pleasure in the contrast between the hymns sung among the +hedges and the criminal anxiety that wrung her. Did she not confess +later that in the confusion of her mind she had not feared to call on +God for the success of "her enterprise"? + +When, about five o'clock, the procession was at an end, Mme. Acquet went +through the rose-strewn streets to find her confidante, Rosalie Dupont. +Such was her impatience that she soon left this girl, irresistibly drawn +to the road where her own fate and that of her lover were being +decided. Lanoë, who was returning to Glatigny in the evening, was +surprised to meet the châtelaine of La Bijude in a little wood near +Clair-Tizon. She was scarcely a league from the place where the men were +hidden. From her secluded spot she could, with beating heart, motionless +and mute with anguish, hear the noise of shooting, which rung out clear +in the silence of the summer evening. It was exactly a quarter to eight. + + * * * * * + +The waggon had, indeed, left Potigny at seven o'clock. A little way from +the village, the road, which had been quite straight for six leagues, +descended a low hill at the foot of which is the wood of Quesnay, a low +thicket of hazel, topped by a few oaks. Allain had posted his men along +the road under the branches; on the edge of the wood towards Falaise +stood Flierlé, Le Héricey, and Fleur d'Épine. Allain himself was with +Harel and Coeur-le-Roi, at the end nearest Langannerie. Grand-Charles +and Le Lorault were placed in the middle of the wood at equal distances +from these two groups. + +The eight men had waited since midday for the appearance of the +treasure. They began to lose patience and spoke of returning to Aubigny +for supper when they heard the rumbling of the waggon descending the +hill. It came down rapidly, Gousset not having troubled to put on the +brake. They could hear him shouting to the horses. Walking on the left +of the waggon he drove them by means of a long rope; his little dog +trotted beside him. Vinchon and Morin were, for the moment, left behind +by the increased speed of the waggon. The men at the first and second +posts allowed it to pass without appearing; it was now between the two +thickets through which the road ran; in a few minutes it attained the +edge of the wood near Langannerie, when suddenly, Gousset saw a man in a +long greatcoat and top-boots in the middle of the road, with his gun +pointed at him; it was Allain. + +"Halt, you rascal!" he cried to the carrier. + +Two of his companions, attired only in drawers and shirt, with a +coloured handkerchief knotted round the head, came out of the wood, +shouldered arms and took aim. With a tremendous effort, Gousset, seized +with terror, turned the whole team to the left, and with oaths and blows +flung it on to a country road which crossed the main road obliquely a +little way from the end of the wood. But in an instant the three men +were upon him; they threw him down and held a gun to his head while two +others came out of the wood and seized the horses' heads. The struggle +was short; they tore off Gousset's cravat and bound his eyes with it, he +was searched and his knife taken, then cuffed, pushed into the wood and +promised a ball if he moved. + +But Vinchon and Morin, who were behind, had seen the waggon disappear in +the wood. Morin, not caring to join in the scuffle, hurried across the +fields, turned the edge of the wood, and ran towards Langannerie to +inform the gendarmes. Vinchon, on the contrary, drew his sabre and +advanced towards the road, but he had only taken a few steps when he +received a triple discharge from the first post. He fell, with a ball in +his shoulder, and rolled in the ditch, his blood flowing. The men then +hastened to the waggon; they cut the cords of the tarpaulin with +Gousset's knife, uncovered the chests and attacked them with hatchets. +Whilst two of the brigands unharnessed the horses, the others flung the +money, handfuls of gold and crowns, pell-mell into their sacks. The +first one, bursting with silver, was so heavy that it took three men to +hoist it on to the back of a horse; Gousset himself, in spite of his +bandaged eyes, was invited to lend a hand and obeyed gropingly. They +were smashing the second chest when the cry, "To arms!" interrupted +them. Allain rallied his men, and lined them up along the road. + +Morin, on arriving at Langannerie had only found the corporal and one +other gendarme there; they mounted immediately and galloped to the wood +of Quesnay. It was almost night when they reached the edge of the wood. +A volley of shots greeted them; the corporal was hit in the leg, and his +horse fell mortally wounded; his companion, who was deaf, did not know +which way to turn. Seeing his chief fall, he thought it best to retreat; +and ran to the hamlet of Quesnay to get help. The noise of the firing +had already alarmed the neighbourhood; the tocsin sounded at Potigny, +Ouilly-le-Tesson and Sousmont; peasants flocked to each end of the wood, +but they were unarmed and dared not advance. Allain had posted five of +his men as advance-guard who fired in the thicket at their own +discretion, and kept the most determined of the enemy at bay. Behind +this curtain of shooters the noise could be heard of axes breaking open +chests, planks torn apart and oaths of the brigands in haste to complete +their pillage. This extraordinary scene lasted nearly an hour. At last, +at a call, the firing ceased, the robbers plunged into the thicket, and +the steps of the heavily-laden horse, urged on by the men, were heard +disappearing on the crossroad. + +They took the road to Ussy, with their booty and the carrier Gousset, +still with his eyes bandaged and led by Grand-Charles. They travelled +fast, at night--to avoid pursuit. Less than half a league from Quesnay +the road they followed passed the hamlet of Aisy, on the outskirts of +Sousmont, whose mayor had a château there. He was called M. Dupont +d'Aisy, and had this very evening entertained Captain Pinteville, +commander of the gendarmerie of the district. The party had been broken +up by the distant noise of shooting. M. Dupont at once sent his servants +to give the alarm at Sousmont; in less than an hour he had mustered +thirty villagers and putting himself at their head with Captain +Pinteville he marched towards Quesnay. They had not gone a hundred paces +when they encountered Allain's men, and the fight began. The brigands +kept up a well-sustained fire, which produced no other effect than to +disperse the peasants. Dupont d'Aisy and Captain Pinteville himself +considered it dangerous to continue the struggle against such +determined adversaries; they retired their men, and resolutely turning +their backs to the enemy retreated towards Quesnay. + +When they arrived in the wood a crowd was already there; from the +neighbouring villages where the tocsin still sounded, people came, drawn +entirely by curiosity. They laughed at the fine trick played on the +government, they thought the affair well managed, and did not hesitate +to applaud its success. They surrounded the waggon, half-sunk in the +ruts in the road, and searched the little wood for traces of the combat. + +The arrival of the mayor and Captain Pinteville restored things to order +somewhat. They had brought lanterns, and in the presence of the +gendarmes who had now arrived in numbers, the peasants collected the +remains of the chests, and replaced in them the coppers that the robbers +had scornfully thrown in the grass. They found the carrier's leather +portfolio containing the two bills of lading, in the thicket, and +learned therefrom that the government had lost a little over 60,000 +francs, and in face of this respectable sum, their respect for the men +who had done the deed increased. In the densest part of the wood they +found a sort of hut made of branches, and containing bones, empty +bottles and glasses, and the legend immediately grew that the brigands +had lived there "for weeks," waiting for a profitable occasion. Those +who had taken part in the fight from a distance described "these +gentlemen," who numbered twelve, they said; three wore grey overcoats +and top-boots; another witness had been struck "by the exceeding +smallness of two of the brigands." + +At last, the money collected and put in the chests, they harnessed two +horses to the waggon and took it to the mayor's. He was now unsparing of +attention; he did not leave the waggon which was put in his yard, and +locked up the broken chests and money which amounted to 5,404 francs. +And when M. le Comte Caffarelli, préfet of Calvados arrived at dawn, he +was received by Dupont-d'Aisy, and after having heard all the witnesses +and received all information possible, he sent the minister of police +one of the optimistic reports that he prepared with so much assurance. +In this one he informed his Excellency that "after making examination +the shipment had been found intact, except the chests containing the +government money." M. Caffarelli knew to perfection the delicate art of +administrative correspondence and with a great deal of cool water, could +slip in the gilded pill of disagreeable truth. + +This model functionary spent the day at Aisy waiting for news; the +peasants and gendarmes scoured the country with precaution, for, since +the night, the legend had grown and it was told, not without fear, how +M. Dupont d'Aisy had courageously given battle to an army of brigands. +About midday the searchers returned leading the four horses which they +had found tied to a hedge near the village of Placy, and poor Gousset +who was found calmly seated in the shade of a tree near a wheat-field. +He said that the band had left him there very early in the morning after +having made him march all night with bandaged eyes. At the end of an +hour and a half, hearing nothing, he had ventured to unfasten the +bandage, and not knowing the country, had waited till some one came to +seek him. He could give no information respecting the robbers, except +that they marched very fast and gave him terrible blows. M. Caffarelli +commiserated the poor man heartily, charged him to take the waggon and +smashed chests back to Caen, then, after having warmly congratulated M. +Dupont d'Aisy on his fine conduct, he returned home. + +After the scuffle at Aisy, Allain and his companions had marched in +haste to Donnay, but missed their way. Crossing the village of +Saint-Germain-le-Vasson, they seized a young miller who was taking the +air on his doorstep, and who consented to guide them, though very much +afraid of this band of armed men with heavily-laden wallets. He led them +as far as Acqueville and Allain sent him away with ten crowns. It was +nearly midnight when they reached Donnay; they passed behind the château +where Joseph Buquet was waiting for them and led them to his house. He +and his brother made the eight men enter, enjoined silence, helped them +to empty their sacks into a hole that had been made at the end of the +garden, then gave them a drink. After an hour's rest Allain gave the +signal for departure. He was in haste to get his men out of the +department of Calvados, and shelter them from the first pursuit of +Caffarelli's police. At daybreak they crossed the Orne by the bridge of +La Landelle, threw their guns into a wheat-field and separated after +receiving each 200 francs. + +This day, the 8th June, passed in the most perfect calm for the +inhabitants of Donnay. Mme. Acquet did not leave La Bijude. In the +afternoon a tanner of Placy, called Brazard, passed the house and called +to Hébert whom he saw in the garden. He told him that when he got up +that morning he had found four horses tied to his hedge. The gendarmes +from Langannerie had come and claimed them saying "they belonged to the +Falaise-Caen coach which had been attacked in the night by Chouans." +Hébert was much astonished; Mme. Acquet did not believe it; but the +report spread and by evening the news was known to the whole village. + +Acquet had remained invisible for a month; his instinct of hatred and +some information slyly obtained, warned him that his wife was working +her own ruin, and he would do nothing to stop her good work. Some days +before, Aumont, his gardener, had remarked one morning that the dew was +brushed off the grass of the lawn, and showed footsteps leading to the +cellar of the château, but Acquet did not seem to attach any importance +to these facts. + +He learned from his servant of the robbery of the coach. The next day, +Redet, the butcher of Meslay, said that ten days previously, when he was +passing the ruins of the Abbey of Val "his mare shied, frightened at the +sight of seven or eight men, who came out from behind a hedge;" they +asked him the way to Rouen. Redet, without answering, made off, and as +he told every one of this encounter, Hébert the liegeman of Mme. de +Combray, had instantly begged him not to spread it about. If Acquet had +retained any doubt, this would have satisfied him. He hurried to Meslay +to consult with his friend Darthenay, and the next day, he wrote to the +commandant of gendarmerie inviting him to search the Château of Donnay. + +The visit took place on Friday, 12th June, and was conducted by Captain +Pinteville. Acquet offered to guide him, and the search brought some +singular discoveries. Certain doors of this great house, long abandoned, +were found with strong locks recently put on; others were nailed up and +had to be broken in. "In a dark, retired loft that it was difficult to +enter" (Acquet conducted the gendarmes) "a pile of hay still retained +the impress of six men who had slept on it"; some fresh bones, scraps of +bread and meat, and the dirt bore witness that the band had lived there; +some sheets of paper belonging to a memoir printed by Hely de +Bonnoeil, brother of Mme. Acquet were rolled into cartridges and +hidden in a corner under the tiles. They also found the sacks that the +Buquets had hidden there after the theft; in the floor of the cellar a +hole, "two and a half feet square, and of the same depth had been dug to +hold the money;" they had taken the precaution to tear up the flooring +above so that the depôt could be watched from there. The idea of hiding +the treasure here had been abandoned, as we know, in favour of Buquets'; +but the discovery was important and Pinteville drew up a report of it. + +But things went no further. What suspicion could attach to the owners +of Donnay? The brigands, it is true, had made use of their house, but +there were no grounds for an accusation of complicity in that. Neither +Pinteville nor Caffarelli, who transmitted the report to the minister, +thought of pushing their enquiries any further. + +Fouché knew no more about it, but he thought that the affair was being +feebly conducted. It seemed evident that the attempt at Quesnay would +swell the already long list of thefts of public funds, by those who +would forever remain unpunished. Réal, instinctively scenting d'Aché in +the business, remembered Captain Manginot who at the time of Georges +Cadoudal's plot, had succeeded in tracing the stages of the conspirators +between Biville and Paris, and to whom they owed the discovery of the +rôle played by d'Aché in the conspiracy. + +Manginot then received an order to proceed to Calvados immediately. On +the 23d June he arrived at Caffarelli's bearing this letter of +introduction: "The skill, the zeal and good fortune of this officer in +these cases, is well known; they were proved in a similar affair, and I +ask you to welcome him as he deserves to be welcomed." The préfet was +quite willing; he knew too well the habits of the Chouans, and their +cleverness in disappearing to have any personal illusions as to the +final result of the adventure, but he said nothing and on the contrary +showed the greatest confidence in the dexterity of a man who stood so +well at court. + +Manginot began with a fresh search at Donnay; and, as his reputation +obliged him to be successful, and as he was not unwilling to astonish +the authorities of Calvados by the quickness of his perceptions, he +caused Acquet de Férolles to be arrested. It was he who had first warned +the gendarmes of the sojourn of the brigands at Donnay, and this seemed +exceedingly suspicious; the same day he gave the order to take Hébert. +Several people in the village insinuated that Acquet and Hébert were +irreconcilable enemies and that Manginot was on the wrong track; but the +detective's head was now swelled with importance and he would not draw +back. Following his extravagant deductions he decided that the +complicity of Gousset, convicted of drinking and playing skittles the +whole way, was undoubted, and the poor man was arrested in his village +where he had returned to his wife and children to recover from his +excitement. At last Manginot, evidently animated by his blunders, took +it into his head that Dupont d'Aisy himself might well have kept +Pinteville at dinner and excited the peasants in order to secure the +retreat of the brigands, and issued a warrant against him to the +stupefaction of Caffarelli who thus saw imprisoned all those whose +conduct he had praised, and whom he had given as examples of devotion. +Thus, in a region where he had only to touch, so to say, to catch a +criminal, Captain Manginot was unlucky enough to incarcerate only the +innocent, and to complete the irony, these innocent prisoners made such +a poor face before the court of enquiry that his suspicions were +justified. Acquet was very anxious to denounce his wife, but he would +not speak without certainty and the magistrate before whom he appeared +at Falaise notes that in the course of interrogations "he contradicted +himself; his replies were far from satisfactory, though he arranged them +with the greatest care and reflected long before speaking." At the first +insinuation he made against Mme. de Combray and her daughter, the judge +indignantly silenced him, and sent him well-guarded to Caen where he was +put in close custody. As to Hébert, not wishing to compromise the ladies +of La Bijude to whom he was completely devoted, he scarcely replied to +the questions put to him; all, even to Dupont d'Aisy lent themselves to +the suspicions of Manginot. Sixty guns were found at the mayor's house, +which seemed an excessive number, even for the great sportsman he prided +himself on being, and here again all indications tended to convince +Manginot that he was on the right track. + +Mme. Acquet, meanwhile feigned the greatest security. Seeing things +straying from the right way, she might indeed imagine that she was +removed from all danger, and she had besides, other anxieties. The +Chevalier had been waiting in Paris since the 7th of June for the money +he so urgently needed, and as nothing appeared in spite of his +reiterated demands, he decided to come and fetch it himself; he did not +dare, however, to appear near Falaise, so arranged a meeting at Laigle +with Lefebre, earnestly entreating him to bring him all the money he +possibly could. But the Buquets, with whom the 60,000 francs had been +left on the 7th June, obstinately refused to give it up in spite of Mme. +Acquet's entreaties; they had removed the money from their garden and +hidden it in various places which they jealously kept secret. However, +through her influence over Joseph, Mme. Acquet succeeded in obtaining +3,300 francs which she gave the lawyer to take to Le Chevalier, but +Lefebre, as soon as he got hold of the money, declared that he had been +promised 12,000 francs for his assistance, and that he would keep this +on account. He went to meet Le Chevalier at Laigle however, and to calm +his impatience told him that Dusaussay was going to start for Paris +immediately with 60,000 francs which he would give him intact. Mme. +Acquet was desperate; prudence forbade her trying to overcome the +Buquets' obstinacy, and they, in order to keep the money, asserted that +it belonged to the royal exchequer, and they were responsible for it; so +the unhappy woman found that she had committed a crime that the +obstinacy of these rapacious peasants rendered useless. She was ready to +abandon all in order to rejoin Le Chevalier, ready even to expatriate +herself with him, when they heard that Mme. de Combray, hearing rumours +of what had happened in Lower Normandy, had decided to come to Falaise, +to plead the cause of her farmer, Hébert. She had left Tournebut on the +13th July and taken the Caen coach to Evreux. + +Mme. Acquet had gone to Langannerie to meet her mother, and when Mme. de +Combray descended from the coach the young woman threw herself into her +arms. As the Marquise seemed rather surprised at this display of feeling +to which she had become unaccustomed, her daughter said in a low voice, +sobbing: + +"Save me, mama, save me!" + +Mother and daughter resumed the affectionate confidence of former days. +While the horses were being changed and the postillions were taking a +drink in the inn, they seated themselves beneath a tree near the road. +Mme. Acquet made a full confession. She told how her love for Le +Chevalier had led her to join in the affair of June 7th, to keep Allain +and his men, and to hide the stolen money with the Buquets. If it should +be found there she was lost, and it was important to get it from the +Buquets and send it to the leaders of the party for whom it was +intended. She did not dare to mention Le Chevalier this time, but she +argued that for fear of her husband's spies she could neither take the +money to her own house, nor change it at any bankers in Caen and +Falaise; the whole country knew she was reduced to the last expedients. + +Mme. de Combray feared no such dangers, and considered that "no one +would be astonished to see 50,000 or 60,000 francs at her disposal." But +she approved less of some other points in the affair, not that she was +astonished to find her daughter compromised in such an adventure, for +how many similar ones had she not helped to prepare in her Château of +Tournebut? Had she not inoculated her daughter with her political +fanaticism in representing men like Hingant de Saint-Maur, Raoul +Gaillard and Saint-Réjant as martyrs? And by what right could she be +severe, when she herself, daughter of the President of the Cour des +Comptes of Normandy, had been ready to join in a theft which, "the +sanctity of the cause," rendered praiseworthy in her eyes? The Marquise +de Combray, without knowing it, was a Jacobite reversed; she accepted +brigandage as the terrorists formerly accepted the guillotine; the +hoped-for end justified the means. + +And so she did not pour out reproaches; she grew angry at the mention of +Le Chevalier whom she hated, but Mme. Acquet calmed her with the +assurance that her lover had acted under the express orders of d'Aché +and that everything had been arranged between the two men. As long as +her hero was concerned in the affair, Mme. de Combray was happy to take +a hand. That evening she reached Falaise, and leaving her daughter in +the Rue du Tripot, she asked hospitality from one of her relations, Mme. +de Tréprel. Next morning she sent for Lefebre. Mme. Acquet, before +introducing him, coached him thus, "Say as little as possible about Le +Chevalier, and insist that d'Aché arranged everything." On this ground +Lefebre found Mme. de Combray most conciliating, and he had neither to +employ prayers nor entreaties, to obtain her promise to get the 60,000 +francs from the Buquets; "she consented without any difficulty or +adverse opinion; she seemed very zealous and pleased at the turn things +had taken, and offered herself to take the money to Caen, and lodge it +with Nourry, d'Aché's banker." Mme. Acquet here observed that she was +not at liberty to dispose of the funds thus. She had only taken part in +the affair from love, and cared little for the royalist exchequer; she +only cared that her devotion should profit the man she adored, and if +the money was sent to d'Aché, all her trouble would be useless. She +tried to insist, saying that Dusaussay would take the money to the +royalist treasurer in Paris, that Le Chevalier was waiting for it in +order to go to Poitou where his presence was indispensable. But Mme. de +Combray was inflexible on this point; the entire sum should be delivered +to d'Aché's banker, or she would withdraw her assistance. Mme. Acquet +was obliged to yield with a heavy heart, and they began at once to +consider the best means of transporting it. The Marquise sent Jouanne, +the son of the old cook at Glatigny, to tell Lanoë that she wished to +see him at once. Jouanne made the six leagues between Falaise and +Glatigny at one stretch, and returned without taking breath, with Lanoë, +who put him up behind him on his horse. They had scarcely arrived when +Mme. de Combray ordered Lanoë to get a carriage at Donnay and prepare +for a journey of several days. Lanoë objected a little, said it was +harvest time, and that he had important work to finish, but all that +mattered little to the Marquise, who was firm and expected to be obeyed. +Mme. Acquet also insisted saying, "You know that mama only feels safe +when you drive her and that you are always well paid for it." This +decided Lanoë who started for Bijude where he slept that night. Mme. de +Combray did not spare her servants, and distance was not such an +obstacle to those people, accustomed to marching and riding, as it is +nowadays. This fact will help to explain some of the incidents that are +to follow. + +On Thursday, July 16th, Lanoë returned to Falaise with a little cart +that a peasant of Donnay had lent him, to which he had harnessed his +horse and another lent him by Desjardins, one of Mme. de Combray's +farmers. The two women got in and started for La Bijude, Lefebre +accompanying them to the suburbs. He arranged a meeting with them at +Caen two days later, and gave them a little plan he had drawn which +would enable them to avoid the more frequented highroad. + +Mme. de Combray and her daughter slept that night at La Bijude. The next +day was spent in arguing with the Buquets who did not dare to resist the +Marquise's commands, and at night they delivered, against their will, +two sacks containing 9,000 francs in crowns which she caused to be +placed in the cart, which was housed in the barn. It was impossible to +take more the first time, and Mme. Acquet rejoiced, hoping that the rest +of the sum would remain at her disposal. The Marquise had judged it +prudent to send Lanoë away to the fair at Saint-Clair which was held in +the open country about a league away, and they only saw him again at the +time fixed for their departure on Saturday. He has left an account of +the journey, which though evidently written in a bad temper, is rather +picturesque. + +"I returned from the fair," he says, "towards one o'clock in the +afternoon, and while I was harnessing the horses I saw a valise and +night bag in the carriage. Colin, the servant at La Bijude, threw two +bundles of straw in the carriage for the ladies to sit on, and Mme. de +Combray gave me a portmanteau, a package which seemed to contain linen, +and an umbrella to put in the carriage. On the road I made the horses +trot, but Mme. Acquet told me not to go so fast because they didn't want +to arrive at Caen before evening, seeing that they had stolen money in +the carriage. I looked at her, but said nothing, but I said to myself: +'This is another of her tricks; if I had known this before we started I +would have left them behind; she used deceit to compromise me, not being +able to do so openly.' When I reproached her for it some days later she +said: 'I suspected that if I had told you of it, you would not have +gone.' During the journey the ladies talked together, but the noise of +the carriage prevented me from hearing what they said. However, I heard +Mme. Acquet say that this money would serve to pay some debts or to give +to the unfortunate. I also heard her say that Le Chevalier had great +wit, and Mme. de Combray replied that M. d'Aché's wit was keener; that +Le Chevalier had perhaps a longer tongue...." + +The itinerary arranged by Lefebre, left the main road at +Saint-Andre-de-Fontenay near the hamlet of Basse-Allemagne; night was +falling when Lanoë's carriage crossed the Orne at the ferry of Athis. +From there they went to Bretteville-sur-Odon in order to enter the town +as if they had come from Vire or Bayeux. The notary had arrived during +the day at Caen, and after having left his horse at the inn at +Vaucelles, he crossed the town on foot and went to meet "the treasure" +on the Vire road. Just as eight was striking he reached the first houses +in Bretteville and was going to turn back, astonished at not meeting the +cart when Mme. Acquet called to him from a window. He entered; Mme. de +Combray and her daughter had stopped there while Lanoë was having one of +the wheels mended. They took some refreshment, rested the horses and set +out again at ten o'clock. Lefebre got in with them and when they arrived +at Granville he got down and paid the duty on the two bundles of straw +that were in the waggon, and then entered the town without further +delay. + +By the notary's advice they had decided to take the money to Gélin's +inn, in the Rue Pavée. Gélin was the son-in-law of Lerouge, called +Bornet, whom Le Chevalier sometimes employed, but the waggon was too +large to get into the courtyard of the inn; some troops had been passing +that day and the house was filled with soldiers. They could not stay +there, but had to leave the money there, and while Gélin watched, the +Marquise, uneasy at finding herself in such a place, unable to leave the +yard because the waggon stopped the door, had to assist in unloading it. +Two men were very busy about the waggon, one of them held a dark +lantern; Lefebre, Lerouge and even Mme. Acquet pulled the sacks from the +straw and threw them into the house by a window on the ground floor. +Mme. de Combray seemed to feel her decadence for the first time; she +found herself mixed up in one of those expeditions that she had until +then represented as chivalrous feats of arms, and these by-ways of +brigandage filled her with horror. + +"But they are a band of rascals," she said to Lanoë, and she insisted on +his taking her away; she was obliged to pass through the inn filled with +men drinking. At last, outside, without turning round she went to the +Hôtel des Trois Marchands, opposite Notre-Dame, where she usually +stayed. + +Mme. Acquet had no such qualms; she supped with the men, and in the +night had a mysterious interview with Allain behind the walls of +Notre-Dame. Where Mme. Acquet slept that night is not known; she only +appeared at the Hôtel des Trois Marchands four days later, where she met +Mme. de Combray who had just returned from Bayeux. In her need of +comfort the Marquise had tried to see d'Aché and find out if it were +true that Allain had acted according to his orders, but d'Aché had +assured his old friend that he disapproved of such vile deeds, and that +"he was still worthy of her esteem." She had returned to Caen much +grieved at having allowed herself to be deceived by her daughter and the +lawyer; she told them nothing of her visit to Bayeux, except that she +had not seen d'Aché and that he was still in England; then, quite put +out, she returned to Falaise in the coach, not wanting to travel with +her daughter. Mme. Acquet, the same day,--Thursday the 23d July--took a +carriage that ran from Caen to Harcourt and got down at Forge-à-Cambro +where Lanoë, who had returned to Donnay on Monday, was waiting, with his +waggon. + +As soon as she was seated Lanoë informed her that the gendarmes had gone +to Donnay and searched the Buquets' house, but left without arresting +any one; "a man in a long black coat was conducting them." Mme. Acquet +asked several questions, then told Lanoë to whip up the horses and +remained silent until they reached La Bijude; he observed her with the +corner of his eye, and saw that she was very pale. When they arrived at +the village she went immediately to the Buquets and remained a quarter +of an hour closeted with Joseph. No doubt she was making a supreme +effort to get some money from him; she reappeared with heightened colour +and very excited. "Quick, to Falaise," she said. But Lanoë told her he +had something to do at home, and that his horse could not be always on +the go. But she worried him until he consented to take her. + +While the horse was being fed Mme. Acquet went to La Bijude and threw +herself on the bed, fully dressed. The day had been very heavy and +towards evening lightning flashed brightly. About two in the morning +Lanoë knocked on the window and Mme. Acquet appeared, ready to start. +She got up behind him, and they took the road by the forest of +Saint-Clair and Bonnoeil, and when they were going through the wood +the storm burst with extraordinary violence, huge gusts bent the trees, +breaking the branches, the rain fell in torrents, changing the road to +a river; the horse still advanced however, but towards day, when +approaching the village of Noron, Mme. Acquet suddenly felt such violent +indisposition that she fell to the ground in a faint. Lanoë laid her on +the side of the road in the mud. When she came to herself she begged him +to leave her there, and hasten to Falaise and bring back Lefebre; she +seemed to be haunted by the thought of the man in the black overcoat who +had guided the gendarmes at Donnay. Lanoë, in a great fright, obeyed, +but Lefebre could not come before afternoon; at Noron they found Mme. +Acquet in an inn to which she had dragged herself. The poor woman was in +a fever, and almost raving she told Lefebre that she had no money to +give him; that the gendarmes had been to Donnay; that the man who showed +them the way was probably one of Allain's companions, but that she +feared nothing and was going there to bring back the money. + +Lefebre tried to calm her, but when he left after half an hour's talk, +she tried Lanoë, begging him to take her back to Donnay; he resisted +strongly, not wanting to hear any more of the affair, but at last he +softened at her despair, but swore that now he had had enough of it, and +would leave her at La Bijude. She agreed to all, climbed on the horse, +and taking Lanoë round the waist as before, her dripping garments +clinging to her shivering form, she started again for Donnay. When +passing Villeneuve, a farm belonging to her brother Bonnoeil she saw a +group of women gesticulating excitedly; the farmer Truffault came up +and in response to her anxious enquiries, replied: + +"A misfortune has taken place; the gendarmes have been to the Buquets, +and taken the father, mother and eldest son. Joseph, who hid himself, is +alone and very unhappy." + +The farmer added that he had just sent his boy to Falaise to inform Mme. +de Combray of the event. Mme. Acquet got off her horse, drew Truffault +aside and questioned him in a low voice. When she returned to Lanoë she +was as white as a wax candle. "I am lost," she said, "Joseph Buquet will +denounce me." + +Then, with a steady look, speaking to herself: "I could also, in my turn +denounce Allain, seeing that he is an outlaw, but where should I say I +had met him?" She seemed most uneasy, not knowing what to do. Then she +hinted that she must go back to Falaise. But Lanoë was inflexible, he +swore he would go no further, and that she could apply to the farmer if +she wanted to. And giving his horse the rein he went off at a trot, +leaving her surrounded by the peasants, who silently gazed in wondering +consternation at the daughter of "their lady" covered with mud, +wild-eyed, her arms swinging and her whole appearance so hopeless and +forlorn as to awaken pity in the hardest heart. + +The same evening the lawyer Lefebre, learned on reaching home, that Mme. +de Combray had sent her gardener to ask him to come to her immediately +in the Rue du Tripot. But worn out, he threw himself on his bed and +slept soundly till some one knocked at his door about one in the +morning. It was the gardener again, who was so insistent that Lefebre +decided to go with him in spite of fatigue. He found the Marquise wild +with anxiety. Truffault's boy had told her of the arrest of the Buquets, +and she had not gone to bed, expecting to see the gendarmes appear; her +only idea was to fly to Tournebut and hide herself there with her +daughter; she begged the lawyer to accompany them, and while excitedly +talking, tied a woollen shawl round her head. Lefebre, who was calmer, +told her that he had left Mme. Acquet at Noron in a state of exhaustion, +that they must wait until she was in a condition to travel before +starting, and that it would be impossible to obtain a carriage at this +time of night. But Mme. de Combray would listen to nothing; she gave her +gardener three crowns to go to Noron and tell Mme. Acquet that she must +start immediately for Tournebut by Saint-Sylvain and Lisieux; then +traversing the deserted streets with Lefebre, who stopped at his house +to get the three thousand francs, from the robbery of June 7th, she +reached the Val d'Ante and took the road to Caen. + +It was very dark; the storm had ceased but the rain still fell heavily. +The old Marquise continued her journey over the flooded roads, defying +fatigue and only stopping occasionally to make sure she was not +followed. Lefebre, now afraid also, hastened his steps beside her, +bending beneath the weight of his portmanteau filled with crowns. +Neither spoke. The endless road was the same one taken by the waggon +containing the Alençon money on the day of the robbery, and the +remembrance of this rendered their wild night march still more tragic. + +It was scarcely dawn when the fugitives crossed the wood of Quesnay; at +Langannerie they left the highroad and crossed by Bretteville-le-Rabet. +It was now broad daylight, barns were opening, and people looked +astonished at this strange couple who seemed to have been walking all +night; the Marquise especially puzzled them, with her hair clinging to +her cheeks, her skirts soaked and her slippers covered with mud. But no +one dared question them. + +At six in the morning Mme. de Combray and her companion arrived at +Saint-Sylvain, five good leagues from Falaise. If Mme. Acquet had +succeeded in leaving Noron they ought to meet her there. Lefebre +enquired at the inn, but no one had been there. They waited for two +hours which the lawyer employed in seeking a waggon to go on to Lisieux. +A peasant agreed to take them for fifteen francs paid in advance, and +about eight o'clock, as Mme. Acquet had not arrived they decided to +start. They stopped at Croissanville a little further on, and while +breakfasting, Lefebre wrote to Lanoë telling him to find Mme. Acquet at +once and tell her to hasten to her mother at Tournebut. + +The rest of the journey was uneventful. They reached Lisieux at +supper-time and slept there. The next day Mme. de Combray took two +places under an assumed name, in the coach for Evreux, where they +arrived in the evening. The fugitives had a refuge in the Rue de +l'Union with an old Chouan named Vergne, who had been in orders before +the Revolution, but had become a doctor since the pacification. Next day +Mme. de Combray and Lefebre made five leagues from Evreux to Louviers; +they got out before entering the town as the Marquise wished to avoid +the Hôtel du Mouton where she was known. They went by side streets to +the bridge of the Eure where they hired a carriage which took them by +nightfall to the hamlet of Val-Tesson. They were now only a league from +Tournebut which they could reach by going through the woods. But would +they not find gendarmes there? Mme. de Combray's flight might have +aroused suspicion at Falaise, Caen and Bayeux, and brought police +supervision to her house. It was nine in the evening when, after an +hour's walk, she reached the Hermitage. She thought it prudent to send +Lefebre on ahead, and accompanied him to the gate where she left him to +venture in alone. All appeared tranquil in the château, the lawyer went +into the kitchen where he found a scullery maid who called Soyer, the +confidential man, and Mme. de Combray only felt safe when she saw the +latter himself come to open a door into the garden; she then slipped, +without being seen, into her own room. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE YELLOW HORSE + + +The man in the "black overcoat" who had conducted the gendarmes on their +visit to Donnay, was no other than "Grand-Charles," one of Allain's +followers. He had been arrested at Le Chalange on July 14th, and had +consented without hesitation, to show the spot in the Buquets' garden +where the money had been hidden. He recognised the position of the house +and garden, the room in which Allain and his companions had been +received on the night of the robbery, and even the glass which Mme. +Buquet had filled for him. At the bottom of the garden traces of the +excavation that had contained the money were found; the loft contained +linen, and other effects of Mme. Acquet; her miniature was hanging on +the wall of Joseph's room. Joseph alone had fled; his father, mother, +and brother were taken to prison in Caen the same evening. + +"Grand-Charles," who did not want to be the only one compromised, showed +the greatest zeal in searching for his accomplices. As Querelle had done +before, he led Manginot and his thirty gendarmes over all the country, +until they reached the village of Mancellière, which passed as the most +famous resort of malcontents in a circuit of twenty leagues. As in the +happiest days of the Chouan revolt, there were bloody combats between +the gendarmes and the deserters. After one of these engagements +Pierre-François Harel,--who had passed most of his time since the +Quesnay robbery in a barrel sunk in the earth at the bottom of a +garden--was arrested in the house of a M. Lebougre, where he had gone to +get some brandy and salt to dress a wound. But Manginot made a more +important capture in Flierlé, who was living peacefully at +Amayé-sur-Orne, with one of his old captains, Rouault des Vaux. Flierlé +told his story as soon as he was interrogated; he knew that "high +personages" were in the plot, and thought they would think twice before +pushing things to an issue. + +If Manginot was thus acting with an energy worthy of praise, he received +none from Caffarelli, who was distressed at the turn affairs had taken, +and wished that the affair of Quesnay might be reduced to the +proportions of a simple incident. He interrogated the prisoners with the +reserve and precaution of a man who was interfering in what did not +concern him, and if he learned from Flierlé much that he would rather +not have known about the persistent organisation of the Chouans in +Calvados, he could get no information concerning the deed that had led +to his arrest. + +The German did not conceal his fear of assassination if he should speak, +Allain having promised, on June 8th, at the bridge of Landelle, "poison, +or pistol shot to the first who should reveal anything, and the +assistance of two hundred determined men to save those who showed +discretion, from the vengeance of Bonaparte." + +Things were different in Paris. The police were working hard, and Fouché +was daily informed of the slightest details bearing on the events that +were taking place in Lower Normandy. For several weeks detectives had +been watching a young man who arrived in Paris the second fortnight of +May; he was often seen in the Palais-Royal, and called himself openly +"General of the Chouans," and assumed great importance. The next report +gave his name as Le Chevalier, from Caen, and more information was +demanded of Caffarelli. The Prefect of Calvados replied that the +description tallied with that of a man who had often been denounced to +him as an incorrigible royalist; he was easy to recognise as he had lost +the use of his left arm: + +The police received orders not to lose sight of this person. He lived at +the Hôtel de Beauvais, Rue des Vieux-Augustins, a house that had been +known since the Revolution as the resort of royalists passing through +Paris. Le Chevalier went out a great deal; he dined in town nearly every +night, with people of good position. He was followed for a fortnight; +then the order for his arrest was given, and on July 15th he was taken, +handcuffed, to the prefecture of police and accused of participation in +the robbery at Quesnay. + +Le Chevalier was not the man to be caught napping. His looks, his manner +and his eloquence had got him out of so many scrapes, that he doubted +not they would once more save his life. The letter he wrote to Réal on +the day of his arrest is so characteristic of him--at once familiar and +haughty--that it would be a pity not to quote it: + + "Arrested on a suspicion of brigandage, of which it is as important + to justify myself as painful to have to do it, but full of + confidence in my honour, which is unimpeachable, and in the + well-known justice of your character, I beg you to grant me a few + minutes' audience, during which--being well disposed to answer your + questions, and even to forestall them--I flatter myself that I can + convince you that the condition of my affairs and, above all, my + whole conduct in life, raise me above any suspicion of brigandage + whatever. I hope also, Monsieur, that this conversation, the favour + of which your justice will accord me, will convince you that I am + not mad enough to engage in political brigandage, or to engage in a + struggle with the government to which the proudest sovereigns have + yielded.... + + "A. Le Chevalier." + +And to prove that he had taken no part in the robbery of June 7th, he +added to his letter twenty affirmations of honourable and well-known +persons who had either seen or dined with him in Paris each day of the +month from the 1st to the 20th. Among these were the names of his +compatriot, the poet Chênedollé, and Dr. Dupuytren whom he had consulted +on the advisability of amputating the fingers of his left hand, long +useless. He had even taken care to be seen at the Te Deum sung in +Notre-Dame for the taking of Dantzig. His precautions had been well +taken, and once again his aplomb was about to save him, when Réal, much +embarrassed by this soft spoken prisoner, thought of sending him to +Caen, in the hope that confronting him with Flierlé, Grand-Charles and +the Buquets might have some result. Caffarelli was convinced that Le +Chevalier was the leader in the plot, yet they had searched carefully in +his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur; without finding anything but some +private papers. Flierlé had recognised him as the man to whom he acted +as secretary and courier, yet Le Chevalier had contemptuously replied +that "the German was not the sort to be his servant, and that their only +connection was that of benefactor and recipient." It was out of the +question that any tribunal could be found to condemn a man who on the +day of the crime had been sixty leagues from the place where it was +committed. As to convicting him as a royalist who approved of the theft +of public funds--they might as well do the same with all Normandy. +Besides, to Caffarelli, who had no allusions as to the sentiments of the +district, and who was always in fear of a new Chouan explosion, the +presence of Le Chevalier in prison at Caen was a perpetual nightmare. +Allain might suddenly appear with an army, and make an attempt to carry +off his chief similar to that which, under the Directory, saved the +lives of the Vicomte de Chambray and Chevalier Destouches, to the +amusement and delight of the whole province. And this is why the prudent +prefect, not caring to encumber himself with such a compromising +prisoner, in four days, obtained Réal's permission to send him back to +Paris, where he was confined in the Temple. Ah! What a fine letter he +wrote to the Chief of Police, as soon as he arrived there, and how he +posed as the unlucky rival of Napoleon! + +This profession of faith is too long to be given entirely, but it throws +such light on the character of the writer, and on the illusions which +the royalists obstinately fostered during the most brilliant period of +the imperial régime, that a few extracts are indispensable. + + "You wished to know the truth concerning the declarations of + Flierlé on my account, and on the projects that he divulged. I will + tell you of them. Denial suits well a criminal who fears the eye of + justice, but it is foreign to a character that fears nothing and to + whom the first success of his enterprises lies in the esteem of his + enemies. + + * * * * * + + "Your Excellency will kindly see in me neither a man trembling at + death, nor a mind seduced by the hope of reward. I ask nothing to + tell what I think, for in telling it I satisfy myself. I planned an + insurrection against Napoleon's government, I desired his ruin, if + I have not been able to effect it, it is because I have always been + badly seconded and often betrayed. + + "What were my means of entertaining at least the hope of success? + Not wishing to appear absolutely mad in your eyes, I am going to + make them known; but not wishing to betray the confidence of those + who would have served me, I shall withhold the details. + + * * * * * + + "I was born generous, and a lover of glory. After the amnesty of + the year VIII I was the richest among my comrades: my money, well + dispensed, procured me followers. For several years I watched for a + favourable moment to revolt. The last campaign in Austria offered + this occasion. Every one in the West believed in the defection of + the French armies; I did not believe in it, but was going to profit + by the general opinion. Victory came too quickly, and I had hardly + time to plan anything. + + "After having established connections in several departments, I + left for Paris. There, all concurred in fortifying my hopes. Many + republicans shared my wishes; I negotiated with them for a reunion + of parties, to make action more certain and reaction less strong. + The movement must take place in the capital, a provisional + government must be established,--all France would have passed + through a new régime before the Emperor returned. + + "But it did not take me long to discover that the republicans had + not all the means they boasted.... I returned to the royalists in + the capital; they were disunited and without plans. I had only a + few men in Paris; I abandoned my designs there, and returned to the + provinces. There I could collect two or three thousand men, and as + soon as I had done that I should have sent to ask the Bourbon + princes to put themselves at the head of my troops.... + + "But at the opening of the second campaign my plans were postponed. + However, the measures I had been obliged to take could not remain + secret. Some refractory conscripts, some deserters, appeared armed, + at different places; they had to be maintained, and without an + order _ad hoc_, but by virtue of general instructions, one of my + officers possessed himself of the public funds for the purpose.... + The guilty ones are ... myself, for whom I ask nothing, not from + pride, for the haughtiest spirit need not feel humiliated at + receiving grace from one who has granted it to kings, but from + honour. Your Excellency will no doubt wish to know the motive that + urged me to conceive and nourish such projects. The motive is this: + I have seen the unhappiness of the amnestied, and my own + misfortune; people proscribed in the state, classed as serfs, + excluded not only from all employment, but also tyrannised by those + who formerly only lacked the courage to join their cause.... + + "Whatever fate is reserved for me, I beg you to consider that I + have not ceased to be a Frenchman, that I may have succumbed to + noble madness, but have not sought cowardly success; and I hope + that, in view of this, your Excellency will grant me the only + favour I ask for myself--that my trial, if I am to have one, may be + military, as well as its execution.... + + "A. Le Chevalier." + +One can imagine the stupefaction, on reading this missive of Fouché, of +Réal, Desmarets, Veyrat, and of all those on whom it rested to make his +people appear to the Master as enthusiastic and contented, or at least +silent and submissive. They felt that the letter was not all bragging; +they saw in it Georges' plan amplified; the same threat of a descent of +Bourbons on the coast, the same assurance of overturning, by a blow at +Bonaparte, the immense edifice he had erected. In fact, the belief that +the Empire, to which all Europe now seemed subjugated, was at the mercy +of a battle won or lost, was so firmly established in the mind of the +population, that even a man like Fouché, for example, who thoroughly +understood the undercurrents of opinion, could never believe in the +solidity of the régime that he worked for. Were not the germs of the +whole story of the Restoration in Le Chevalier's profession of faith? +Were they not found again, five years later, in the astonishing +conception of Malet? Were things very different in 1814? The Emperor +vanquished, the defection of the generals, the descent of the princes, +the intervention of a provisional government, the reestablishment of the +monarchy, such were, in reality the events that followed; they were what +Georges had foreseen, what d'Aché had anticipated, what Le Chevalier had +divined with such clear-sightedness. Though they seemed miraculous to +many people they were simply the logical result of continued effort, the +success of a conspiracy in which the actors had frequently been changed, +but which had suffered no cessation from the coup d'état of Brumaire +until the abdication at Fontainebleau. The chiefs of the imperial +police, then, found themselves confronted by a new "affaire Georges." +From Flierlé's partial revelations and the little that had been learned +from the Buquets, they inferred that d'Aché was at the head of it, and +recommended all the authorities to search well, but quietly. In spite of +these exhortations, Caffarelli seemed to lose all interest in the plot, +which he had finally analysed as "vast but mad," and unworthy of any +further attention on his part. + +The prefect of the Seine-Inférieure, Savoye-Rollin, had manifested a +zeal and ardour each time that Réal addressed him on the subject of the +affair of Quesnay, in singular contrast with the indifference shown by +his colleague of Calvados. Savoye-Rollin belonged to an old +parliamentary family. Being advocate-general to the parliament of +Grenoble before 1790, he had adopted the more moderate ideas of the +Revolution, and had been made a member of the tribunate on the +eighteenth Brumaire in 1806, at the age of fifty-two, he replaced +Beugnot in the prefecture of Rouen. He was a most worthy functionary, a +distinguished worker, and possessor of a fine fortune. + +Réal left it to Savoye-Rollin to find d'Aché, who, they remembered, had +lived at the farm of Saint-Clair near Gournay, before Georges' +disembarkation, and who possessed some property in the vicinity of +Neufchâtel. The police of Rouen was neither better organised nor more +numerous than that of Caen, but its chief was a singular personage whose +activity made up for the qualities lacking in his men. He was a little, +restless, shrewd, clever man, full of imagination and wit, frank with +every one and fearing, as he himself said, "neither woman, God nor +devil." He was named Licquet, and in 1807 was fifty-three years old. At +the time of the Revolution he had been keeper of the rivers and forests +of Caudebec, which position he had resigned in 1790 for a post in the +municipal administration at Rouen. In the year IV he was chief of the +Bureau of Public Instruction, but in reality he alone did all the work +of the mayoralty, and also some of that of the Department, and did it so +well that he found himself, in 1802, in the post of secretary-in-chief +of the municipality. In this capacity he gave and inspected all +passports. For five years past no one had been able to travel in the +Seine-Inférieure without going through his office. As he had a good +memory and his business interested him, he had a very clear recollection +of all whom he had scrutinised and passed. He remembered very well +having signed the passport that took d'Aché from Gournay to +Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1803, and retained a good idea of the robust +man, tall, with a high forehead and black hair. He remembered, moreover, +that d'Aché's "toe-nails were so grown into his flesh that he walked on +them." + +Since this meeting with d'Aché, Licquet's appointments had increased +considerably; while retaining his place as secretary-general, he had +obtained the directorship of police, and fulfilled his functions with so +much energy, authority and cunning that no one dreamt of criticising his +encroachments. He was, besides, much feared for his bitter tongue, but +he pleased the prefect, who liked his wit and appreciated his +cleverness. From the beginning Licquet was fascinated by the idea of +discovering the elusive conspirator and thus demonstrating his +adroitness to the police of Paris; and his satisfaction was profound, +when, on the 17th of August, 1807, three days after having arranged a +plan of campaign and issued instructions to his subordinates, he was +informed that M. d'Aché was confined in the Conciergerie of the Palais +de Justice. He rushed to the Palais and ordered the prisoner to be +brought before him. It was "Tourlour," d'Aché's inoffensive brother +Placide, arrested at Saint Denis-du-Bosguérard, where he had gone to +visit his old mother. Licquet's disappointment was cruel, for he had +nothing to expect from Tourlour; but to hide his chagrin he questioned +him about his brother (whom Placide declared he had not seen for four +years) and how he passed his time, which was spent, said Tourlour, when +he was not in the Rue Saint-Patrice, between Saint-Denis-du-Bosguérard +and Mme. de Combray's château near Gaillon. Placide declared that he +only desired to live in peace, and to care for his aged and infirm +mother. This was the second time Licquet's attention had been attracted +by the name of Mme. de Combray. He had already read it, incidentally, in +the report of Flierlé's examination, and with the instinct of a +detective, for whom a single word will often unravel a whole plot, he +had a sudden intuition that in it lay the key to the entire affair. +Tourlour's imprudent admission, which was to bring terrible catastrophes +on Mme. de Combray's head, gave Licquet a thread that was to lead him +through the maze that Caffarelli had refused to enter. + +Nearly a month earlier, Mme. de Combray had expressly forbidden Soyer to +talk about her return with Lefebre. She had shut herself up in her room +with Catherine Querey, her chambermaid; the lawyer had shared +Bonnoeil's room. Next day, Tuesday, July 28th, the Marquise had shown +Lefebre the apartments prepared for the King and the hiding-places in +the great château; Bonnoeil showed him copies of d'Aché's manifesto, +and the Duc d'Enghien's funeral oration, which they read, with deep +respect, after dinner. Towards evening Soyer announced the postmaster +of Gaillon, a friend who had often rendered valuable services to the +people at Tournebut. He had just heard that the commandant had received +orders from Paris to search the château, and would do so immediately. +Mme. de Combray was not at all disturbed; she had long been prepared for +this, and ordered Soyer to take some provisions to the little château, +where she repaired that night with Lefebre. There were two comfortable +hiding-places there whose mechanism she explained to the lawyer. One of +them was large enough to contain two mattresses side by side; she showed +Lefebre in, slipped after him, and shut the panels upon them both. +Bonnoeil remained alone at Tournebut. The quiet life he had led for +the last two years removed him from any suspicion, and he prepared to +receive the gendarmes who appeared at dawn on Friday. The commandant +showed his order, and Bonnoeil, confident of the issue, and completely +cool, opened all the doors and gave up the keys. The soldiers rummaged +the château from top to bottom. Nothing could have been more innocent +than the appearance of this great mansion, most of whose apartments +seemed to have been long unoccupied, and Bonnoeil stated that his +mother had gone a fortnight ago to Lower Normandy, where she went every +year about this time to collect her rents and visit her property near +Falaise. When the servants were interrogated they were all unanimous in +declaring that with the exception of Soyer and Mlle. Querey, they had +seen the Marquise start for Falaise, and did not know of her return. +The commandant returned to Gaillon with his men, little suspecting that +the woman he was looking for was calmly playing cards with one of her +accomplices a few steps away, while they were searching her house. + +She lived with her guest for eight days in this house with the false +bottom, so to speak, never appearing outside, wandering through the +unfurnished rooms during the day, and returning to her hiding-place at +night. + +They did not return to Tournebut till August 4th. The same day Soyer +received a letter from Mme. Acquet, on the envelope of which she had +written, "For Mama." It was an answer to the letter sent to +Croissanville by Lefebre. Mme. Acquet said that her mother's departure +did her a great wrong, but that all danger was over and Lefebre could +return to Falaise without fear. As for herself, she had found refuge +with a reliable person; the Abbé Moraud, vicar of Guibray, would take +charge of her correspondence. Of the proposal which had been made her to +take refuge at Tournebut, not a word. Evidently Mme. Acquet preferred +the retreat she had chosen for herself--where, she did not say. Mme. de +Combray, either hurt at this unjustifiable defiance, or afraid that she +would prove herself an accomplice in the theft if she did not separate +herself entirely from Mme. Acquet, made her maid reply that it was "too +late for her to come now, that she was very ill and could receive no +one." And thus the feeling that divided these two women was clearly +defined. + +Lefebre undertook to give the letter to Abbé Moraud; he was in a great +hurry to return to Falaise, where he felt much safer than at Tournebut. +He left the same day, after having chosen a yellow horse from the +stables of the château. He put on top-boots and an overcoat belonging to +Bonnoeil, and left by a little door in the wall of the park. Soyer led +him as far as the Moulin des Quatre-Vents on the highroad. Lefebre took +the Neubourg road so as to avoid Evreux and Louviers. Two days after, he +breakfasted at Glatigny with Lanoë, leaving there his boots, overcoat, +and the yellow horse, and started gaily for Falaise, where he arrived in +the evening. He saw Mme. Acquet on the 7th, and found her completely at +her ease. + +When Lanoë had abandoned her at the farm of Villeneuve, twelve days +before, Mme. Acquet had entreated so pitifully that a woman who was +there had gone to fetch Collin, one of the servants at La Bijude; Mme. +de Combray's daughter had returned with him to Falaise, on one of the +farmer's horses. She dared not go to the house in the Rue du Tripot, and +therefore stopped with an honest woman named Chauvel, who did the +washing for the Combray family. She was drawn there by the fact that the +son, Victor Chauvel, was one of the gendarmes who had been at Donnay the +night before, and she wanted to find out from him if the Buquets had +denounced her. + +She went to the Chauvels' under pretence of getting Captain Manginot's +address. The gendarme was at supper. He was a man of thirty-six, an old +hussar, and a good fellow, but although married and the father of three +children, known as a "gadder, and fond of the sex." "When women are +around, Chauvel forgets everything," his comrades used to say. He now +saw Mme. Acquet for the first time, and to her questions replied that +her name had indeed been mentioned, and that Manginot, who was at the +"Grand-Ture," was looking for her. The young woman began to cry. She +implored Mme. Chauvel to keep her, promised to pay her, and appealed to +her pity, so that the washerwoman was touched. She had an attic in the +third story, some bedding was thrown on the floor, and from that place +Mme. Acquet wrote to tell her mother that she had found a safe retreat. + +It was very safe indeed, and one can understand that she did not feel +the need of telling too precisely the conditions of the hospitality she +was given. Is it necessary to insist on the sort of relations +established from the moment of her arrival at the Chauvels, between the +poor woman whose fear of capture killed every other feeling and the +soldier on whom her fate depended? Chauvel had only to say one word to +insure her arrest; she yielded to him, he held his tongue and the +existence which then began for them both was so miserable and so tragic +that it excites more pity than disgust. Mme. Acquet had only one +thought--to escape the scaffold; Chauvel had only one wish--to keep this +unexpected mistress, more dear because he sacrificed for her his career, +his honour and perhaps his life. At first things went calmly enough. No +warrant had been issued for the fugitive, and in the evening she used to +go out disguised with Chauvel. Soon she grew bolder and walked in broad +daylight in the streets of Falaise. On the 15th of August Lefebre had +Lanoë to breakfast and invited her also; they talked freely, and Mme. +Acquet made no secret of the fact that she was living with the Chauvels +and that the son kept her informed of all orders received from Caen or +Paris. Lefebre led the conversation round to the "treasure," for the +money hidden at the Buquets had excited much cupidity. Bureau de +Placène, as "banker" to the Chouans, had advanced the claims of the +royal exchequer; Allain and Lerouge the baker--who showed entire +disinterestedness--had gone to Donnay, and with great trouble got 1,200 +francs from the Buquets; five times Lerouge had gone in a little cart, +by appointment, to the forest of Harcourt, where he waited under a large +tree near the crossroad till Buquet brought him some money. In this way +Placène received 12,000 francs in crowns, "so coated with mud that his +wife was obliged to wash them." But Joseph's relations, who had been +arrested when he fled, swore that he alone knew where the rest of the +money was buried, and no one could get any more of it. + +While at breakfast with the lawyer and Lanoë Mme. Acquet begged the +latter to undertake a search. She believed the money was buried in the +field of buckwheat between the Buquets' house and the walls of the +château, and wanted Lanoë to dig there, but he refused. She seemed to +have lost her head completely. She planned to throw herself at the +Emperor's feet imploring his pardon; she talked of recovering the stolen +money, returning it to the government, adding to it her "dot," and +leaving France forever. When she returned in the evening greatly +excited, she told the washerwoman of her plans; she dwelt on the idea +for three days, and thought she had only to restore the stolen money to +guarantee herself against punishment. + +Chauvel was on duty. When he returned on the 19th he brought some news. +Caffarelli was to arrive in Falaise the next day, to interrogate Mme. +Acquet. The night passed in tears and agony. The poor woman attempted +suicide, and Chauvel seized the poison she was about to swallow. An +obscure point is reached here. Even if Caffarelli's ease and +indifference are admitted, it is hard to believe that he was an active +accomplice in the plot; but on the other hand, it is surprising that +Mme. Acquet did not fly as soon as she heard of his intended visit, and +that she consented to appear before him as if she were sure of finding +help and protection. The interview took place in the house of the mayor, +M. de Saint-Léonard, a relative of Mme. de Combray's, and resembled a +family council rather than an examination. Caffarelli was more paternal +than his rôle of judge warranted, and it was long believed in the family +that Mme. de Combray's remote relationship with the Empress Josephine's +family, which they had been careful not to boast of before, was drawn +upon to soften the susceptible prefect. Whatever the reason, Mme. +Acquet left the mayor's completely reassured, told Mme. Chauvel that she +was going away, and took many messages from the good woman to Mme. de +Combray, with whom she said she was going to spend several days at +Tournebut. On the 22d she made a bundle of her belongings, and taking +the arm of the gendarme, left the washerwoman's house disguised as a +peasant. + +Life at Tournebut resumed its usual course after Lefebre's departure. +Mme. de Combray, satisfied that her daughter was safe, and that the +prefect of Calvados even if he suspected her, would never venture to +cause her arrest, went fearlessly among her neighbours. She was not +aware that the enquiry had passed from Caffarelli's hands into those of +the prefect of Rouen, and was now managed by a man whose malignity and +stubbornness would not be easily discouraged. + +Licquet had taken a fortnight to study the affair. His only clues were +Flierlé's ambiguous replies and the Buquets' cautious confessions, but +during the years that he had eagerly devoted to detective work as an +amateur, he had laid up a good store of suspicions. The failure of the +gendarmes at Tournebut had convinced him that this old manor-house, so +peaceful of aspect, hid terrible secrets, and that its occupants had +arranged within it inaccessible retreats. Then he changed his tactics. +Mme. de Combray and Bonnoeil had gone in perfect confidence to spend +the afternoon at Gaillon; when they returned to Tournebut in the evening +they were suddenly stopped by a detachment of gendarmes posted across +the road. They were obliged to give their names; the officer showed a +warrant, and they all returned to the château, which was occupied by +soldiers. The Marquise protested indignantly against the invasion of her +house, but was forced to be present at a search that was begun +immediately and lasted all the evening. Towards midnight she and her son +were put into a carriage with two gendarmes and taken under escort to +Rouen, where, at dawn, they were thrown into the Conciergerie of the +Palais de Justice. + +Licquet was only half satisfied with the result of the expedition; he +had hoped to take d'Aché, whom he believed to be hidden at Tournebut; +the police had arrested Mme. Levasseur and Jean-Baptiste Caqueray, +lately married to Louise d'Aché; but of the conspirator himself there +was no trace. For three years this extraordinary man had eluded the +police. Was it to be believed that he had lived all this time, buried in +some oubliette at Tournebut, and could one expect that Mme. de Combray +would reveal the secret of his retreat? + +As soon as she arrived at the Conciergerie, Licquet, without showing +himself, had gone to "study" his prisoner. Like an old, caged lioness, +this woman of sixty-seven behaved with surprising energy; she showed no +evidence of depression or shame; she did as she liked in the prison, +complained of the food, grumbled all day, and raged at the gaolers. +There was no reason to hope that she would belie her character, nor to +count on an emotion she did not feel to obtain any information from +her. The prefect had her brought in a carriage to his house on August +23d, and interrogated her for two days. With the experience and +astuteness of an old offender, the Marquise assumed complete frankness; +but she only confessed to things she could not deny with success. +Licquet asked several questions; she did not reply until she had caused +them to be repeated several times, under pretence that she did not +understand them. She struggled desperately, arguing, quibbling, fighting +foot by foot. If she admitted knowing d'Aché and having frequently +offered him hospitality, she positively denied all knowledge of his +actual residence. In short, when Savoye-Rollin and Licquet sent her back +to the Conciergerie, they felt that they had had the worst of it and +gained nothing. Bonnoeil, when his turn came told them nothing but +what they already knew, and Placide d'Aché flew into a rage and denied +everything. + +The prefect and his acolyte were feeling somewhat abashed at their +failure, when the concierge who had taken Mme. de Combray back to the +Palais asked to speak to them. He told them that in the carriage the +Marquise had offered him a large sum if he would take some letters to +one of the prisoners. Accustomed to these requests he had said neither +yes nor no, but had told "the Combray woman" that he would see her at +night, when going the rounds, and he had come to get the prefect's +orders concerning this correspondence. Licquet urged that the concierge +be authorised to receive the letters. He hoped by intercepting them to +learn much from the confidences and advice the Marquise would give her +fellow-prisoners. The idea was at first very repugnant to Savoye-Rollin, +but the Marquise's proposal seemed to establish her guilt so thoroughly, +that he did not feel obliged to be delicate and consented, not without +throwing on his secretary-general (one of Licquet's titles) the +responsibility for the proceeding. Having obtained this concession +Licquet took hold of the enquiry, and found it a good field for the +employment of his particular talents. No duel was ever more pitiless; +never did a detective show more ingenuity and duplicity. From "love of +the art," from sheer delight in it, Licquet worked himself up against +his prisoners with a passion that would be inexplicable, did not his +letters reveal the intense joy the struggle gave him. He felt no hatred +towards his victims, but only a ferocious satisfaction in seeing them +fall into the traps he prepared and in unveiling the mysteries of a plot +whose political significance seemed entirely indifferent to him. + +With the keenest anticipation he awaited the time when Mme. de Combray's +letters to Bonnoeil and "Tourlour" should be handed to him. He had to +be patient till next day, and this first letter told nothing; the +Marquise gave her accomplices a sketch of her examination, and did it so +artfully that Licquet suspected her of having known that the letter was +to pass through his hands. The same day the concierge gave him another +letter as insignificant as the first, which, however, ended with this +sentence, whose perusal puzzled Licquet: "Do you not know that +Tourlour's brother has burnt the muslin fichu?" + +"Tourlour's brother"--that was d'Aché. Had he recently returned to +Tournebut? Was he still there? Another letter, given to the gaoler by +Bonnoeil, answered these questions affirmatively. It was addressed to +a man of business named Legrand in the Rue Cauchoise, and ran thus: "I +implore you to start at once for Tournebut without telling any one of +the object of your journey; go to Grosmenil (the little château), see +the woman Bachelet, and burn everything she may have that seems +suspicious; you will do us a great service. Return this letter to me. +Tell Soyer that if any one asks if M. d'Aché has returned, it is two +years since he was seen at Tournebut." + +That same evening the order for Soyer's arrest was sent to Gaillon, and +twelve hours later he also was in the Conciergerie at Rouen. This did +not prevent Bonnoeil's writing to him the next day, Licquet, as may be +imagined, not having informed the prisoners of his arrest. + +"I beg you, my dear Soyer, to look in the two or three desks in my +mother's room, and see if you cannot find anything that could compromise +her, above all any of M. Delorières' (d'Aché's) writing. Destroy it all. +If you are asked how long it is since M. Delorières was at Tournebut, +say he has not been there for nearly two years. Tell this to Collin, to +Catin, and to the yard girl...." + +Licquet carefully copied these letters and then sent them to their +destination, hoping that the answers would give him some light. In his +frequent visits to the prisoners he dared not venture on the slightest +allusion to the confidences they exchanged, for fear that they might +suspect the fidelity of their messenger, and refuse his help. Thus, many +points remained obscure to the detective. The next letter from +Bonnoeil to Soyer contained this sentence: "Put the small curtains on +the window of the place where I told you to bury the nail...." We can +imagine Licquet with his head in his hands trying to solve this enigma. +The muslin fichu, the little curtains, the nail--was this a cipher +decided on in advance between the prisoners? And all these precautions +seemed to be taken for the mysterious d'Aché whose safety seemed to be +their sole desire. A word from Mme. de Combray to Bonnoeil leaves no +doubt as to the conspirator's recent sojourn at Tournebut: "I wish Mme. +K.... to go to my house and see with So ... if Delor ... has not left +some paper in the oil-cloth of the little room near the room where the +cooks slept. Let him look everywhere and burn everything." This time the +information seemed so sure that Licquet started for Tournebut, which had +been occupied by gendarmes for a fortnight; he took Soyer to guide him, +and the commissary of police, Legendre, to make a report of the search. + +They arrived at Tournebut on the morning of September 5th. Licquet, who +was much exhilarated by this hunt for conspirators, must have felt a +singular emotion on approaching the mysterious mansion, object of all +his thoughts. He took it all in at a glance, he was struck by the +isolation of the château, away from the road below the woods; he found +that it could be entered at twenty different places, without one's being +seen. He sent away the servants, posted a gendarme at each door, and +conducted by Soyer, entered the apartments. + +First he went to the brick wing built by de Marillac, where was a vast +chamber occupied by Bonnoeil and leading to the great hall, +astoundingly high and solemn in spite of its dilapidation, with a brick +floor, a ceiling with great beams, and immense windows looking over the +terrace towards the Seine. By a double door with monumental ironwork, +set in a wall as thick as a bastille, Mme. de Combray's apartments were +reached, the first room wainscoted, then a boudoir, next a small room +hidden by a staircase, and communicating with a lot of other small, low +rooms. A long passage, lighted by three windows opening on the terrace, +led, leaving the Marquise's bedchamber on the right, to the most ancient +part of the château the front of which had been recently restored. +Having crossed the landing of the steps leading to the garden, one +reached the salon; then the dining-room, where there was a stone +staircase leading to the first floor. On this were a long passage and +three chambers looking out on the valley of the Seine, and a lot of +small rooms that were not used. All the rest was lofts, where the +framework of the roofs crossed. When a door was opened, frightened bats +flapped their wings with a great noise in the darkness of this forest +of enormous, worm-eaten beams. In fact, everything looked very simple; +there was no sign whatever of a hiding-place. The furniture was opened, +the walls sounded, and the panels examined without finding any hollow +place. It was now Soyer's turn to appear. Whether he feared for himself, +or whether Licquet had made him understand that denial was useless, Mme. +de Combray's confidential man consented to guide the detectives. He took +a bunch of keys and followed by Licquet and Legendre, went up to a +little room under the roof of a narrow building next to Marillac's wing. +This room had only one window, on the north, with a bit of green stuff +for a curtain; its only furniture was a miserable wooden bed drawn into +the middle of the room. Licquet and the commissary examined the +partitions and had them sounded. Soyer allowed them to rummage in all +the corners, then, when they had given up all idea of finding anything +themselves, he went up to the bed, put his hand under the mattress and +removed a nail. They immediately heard the fall of a weight behind the +wall, which opened, disclosing a chamber large enough to hold fifteen +persons. In it were a wooden bench, a large chafing-dish, silver +candlesticks, a trunk full of papers and letters, two packets of hair of +different colours, and some treatises on games. They seized among other +things, the funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, copied by Placide, and +the passport d'Aché had obtained at Rouen in 1803, which was signed by +Licquet. When they had put everything in a bag and closed the +partition, when they had sufficiently admired the mechanism which left +no crack or opening visible, Soyer, still followed by two policemen, +went over the whole château, climbed to the loft, and stopped at last in +a little room at the end of the building. It was full of soiled linen +hung on ropes; a thick beam was fixed almost level with the ground, the +whole length of the wall embellished with shelves supported by brackets. +Soyer thrust his hand into a small, worm-eaten hole in the beam, and +drawing out a piece of iron, fitted it on a nail that seemed to be +driven into one of the brackets. Instantly the shelves folded up, a door +opened in the wall, and they entered a room large enough to hold fifty +people with ease. A window--impossible to discover from the +outside--opened on the roof of the chapel, and gave light and air to +this apartment; it contained only a large wardrobe, in which were an +earthen dish and an altar stone. + +And so this old manor-house, with its venerable and homelike air, was +arranged as a resort for brigands, and an arsenal and retreat for a +little army of conspirators. For Soyer also revealed the secrets of the +_oubliettes_ of the little château, whose unfurnished rooms could +shelter a considerable garrison; they only found there three trunks full +of silver, marked with so many different arms that Licquet believed it +must have come from the many thefts perpetrated during the last fifteen +years in the neighbourhood. On examination it proved to be nothing of +the sort, but that all these different pieces of silver bore the arms +of branches of the families of Brunelle and Combray; but even though he +was obliged to withdraw his first supposition, Licquet was firm in +attributing to the owners of Tournebut all the misdeeds that had been +committed in the region since the Directory. These perfect +hiding-places, this château on the banks of the river, in the woods +between two roads, like the rocky nests in which the robber-chiefs of +the middle ages fortified themselves, explained so well the attacks on +the coaches, the bands of brigands who disappeared suddenly, and +remained undiscoverable, that the detective gave free rein to his +imagination. He persuaded himself that d'Aché was there, buried in some +hollow wall of which even Soyer had not the secret, and as the only +hope, in this event, was to starve him out, Licquet sent all of Mme. de +Combray's servants away, and left a handful of soldiers in the château, +the keys of which, as well as the administration of the property, he +left in the hands of the mayor of Aubevoye. + +His first thought on returning to Rouen was for his prisoners. They had +continued to correspond during his absence, and copies of all their +letters were faithfully delivered to him; but they seemed to have told +each other all they had that was interesting to tell, and the +correspondence threatened to become monotonous. The imagination of the +detective found a way of reawakening the interest. One evening, when +every one was asleep in the prison, Licquet gave the gaoler orders to +open several doors hastily, to push bolts, and walk about noisily in the +corridors, and when, next day, Mme. de Combray enquired the cause of +all this hubbub, she was easily induced to believe that Lefebre had been +arrested at Falaise and imprisoned during the night. An hour later the +concierge, with a great show of secrecy, gave the Marquise a note +written by Licquet, in which "Lefebre" informed her of his arrest, and +said that he had disguised his writing as an act of prudence. The +stratagem was entirely successful. Mme. de Combray answered, and her +letter was immediately given to Licquet, who, awaiting some definite +information, was astonished to find himself confronted with a fresh +mystery. "Let me know," said the Marquise, "how the horse went back; +that no one saw it anywhere." + +What horse? What answer should he give? If Lefebre had been really in +prison, it would have been possible to give a sensible reply, but +without his help how could Licquet avoid awakening her suspicions as to +the personality of her correspondent? In the rôle of the lawyer he wrote +a few lines, avoiding any mention of the horse, and asking how the +examinations went off. To this the Marquise replied: "The prefect and a +bad fellow examined us. But you do not tell me if the horse has been +sent back, and by whom. If they asked me, what should I say?" + +The "bad fellow" was Licquet himself, and he knew it; but this time he +must answer. Hoping that chance would favour him, he adopted an +expedient to gain time. He let Mme. de Combray hear that Lefebre had +fainted during an examination, and was not in a condition to write. But +she did not slacken her correspondence, and wrote several letters daily +to the lawyer, which greatly increased Licquet's perplexity: + +"Tell me what has become of my yellow horse. The police are still at +Tournebut; now if they hear about the horse--you can guess the rest. Be +smart enough to say that you sold it at the fair at Rouen. Little +Licquet is sharp and clever, but he often lies. My only worry is the +horse; they will soon have the clue. My hand trembles; can you read +this? If I hear anything about the horse I will let you know at once, +but just now I know nothing. Don't worry about the saddle and bridle. +They were sent to Deslorières, who told me he had received them." + +This yellow horse assumed gigantic proportions in Licquet's imagination; +it haunted him day and night, and galloped through all his nightmares. A +fresh search at Tournebut proved that the stables contained only a small +donkey and four horses, instead of the usual five, and the peasants said +that the missing beast was "reddish, inclining to yellow." As the +detective sent Réal all of Mme. de Combray's letters in his daily +budget, they were just as much agitated in Paris over this mysterious +animal, whose discovery was, as the Marquise said, the clue to the whole +affair. Whom had this horse drawn or carried? One of the Bourbon +princes, perhaps? D'Aché? Mme. Acquet, whom they were vainly seeking +throughout Normandy? Licquet was obliged to confess to his chiefs that +he did not know to what occurrence the story of the horse referred. He +felt that the weight attached by Mme. de Combray to its return, +increased the importance of knowing what it had been used for. "This is +the main point," he said; "the horse, the saddle and bridle must be +found." + +In the absence of Lefebre, who could have solved the enigma, and whom +Caffarelli had not decided to arrest, there remained one way of +discovering Mme. de Combray's secret--an odious way, it is true, but one +that Licquet, in his bewilderment, did not hesitate to employ. This was +to put a spy with her, who would make her speak. There was in the +Conciergerie at Rouen a woman named Delaitre, who had been there for six +years. This woman was employed in the infirmary; she had good enough +manners, expressed herself well, and was about the same age as Mme. +Acquet. It was easy to believe that, in return for some remission of her +sentence, she would act as Licquet's spy. They spoke of her to the +Marquise, taking care to represent her as a royalist, persecuted for her +opinions. The Marquise expressed a wish to see her; Delaitre played her +part to perfection, saying that she had been educated with Mme. Acquet +at the convent of the Nouvelles Catholique, and that she felt honoured +in sharing the prison of the mother of her old school friend. In short, +that evening she was in a position to betray the Marquise's confidence +to Licquet. She had learned that Mme. Acquet had assisted at many of the +attacks on coaches, dressed as a man. Mme. de Combray dreaded nothing +more than to have her daughter fall into the hands of the police. "If +she is taken," she said, "she will accuse me." The Marquise was resigned +to her fate; she knew she was destined for the scaffold; "after all, the +King and the Queen had perished on the guillotine, and she would die +there also." However, she was anxious to know if she could be saved by +paying a large sum; but not a word was said about the yellow horse. + +The next day she again wrote of the fear she felt for her daughter; she +would have liked to warn her to disguise herself and go as a servant ten +or twelve leagues from Falaise. "If she is arrested she will speak, and +then I am lost," she continued; so that Licquet came to the conclusion +that the reason the Marquise did not want the yellow horse to be found +was that it would lead to the discovery of her daughter. Mme. Acquet had +so successfully disappeared during the last two weeks that Réal was +convinced she had escaped to England. Nothing could be done without +d'Aché or Mme. Acquet. The failure of the pursuit, showing the organised +strength of the royalist party and the powerlessness of the government, +would justify Caffarelli's indolent neutrality. On the other hand, +Licquet knew that failure spelled ruin for him. He had made the affair +his business; his prefect, Savoye-Rollin, was very half-hearted about +it, and quite ready to stop all proceedings at the slightest hitch. Réal +was even preparing to sacrifice his subordinate if need be, and to the +amiable letters at first received from the ministry of police, +succeeded curt orders that implied disfavour. "It is indispensable to +find Mme. Acquet's retreat." "You must arrest d'Aché without delay, and +above all find the yellow horse." + +As if the Marquise were enjoying the confusion into which the mention of +this phantom beast threw her persecutor, she continued to scribble on +scraps of paper which the concierge was told to take to the lawyer, who +never received them. + +"There is one great difficulty; the yellow horse is wanted. I shall send +a safe and intelligent man to the place where it is, to tell the people +to have it killed twelve leagues away and skinned at once. Send me in +writing the road he must take, and the people to whom he must apply, so +as to be able to do it without asking anything. He is strong and able to +do fifteen leagues a day. Send me an answer." + +Mme. de Combray had applied to the woman Delaitre for this "safe and +intelligent man," and the latter had, at Licquet's instance, offered the +services of her husband, an honest royalist, who in reality did not +exist, but was to be personated by a man whom Licquet had ready to send +in search of the horse as soon as its whereabouts should be determined. +Lefebre refused to answer this question for the same reason that he had +refused to answer others, and the detective was obliged to confess his +perplexity to Réal. "There is no longer any trouble in intercepting the +prisoner's letters; the difficulty of sending replies increases each +day. You must give me absolution, Monsieur, for all the sins that this +affair has caused me to commit; for the rest, all is fair in love and +war, and surely we are at war with these people." To which Réal replied: +"I cannot believe that the horse only served for Mme. Acquet's flight; +they would not advise the strange precaution of taking it twelve leagues +away, killing, and skinning it on the spot. These anxieties show the +existence of some grave offence, for which the horse was employed, and +which its discovery will disclose. You must find out the history of this +animal; how long Mme. de Combray has had it, and who owned it before." +In vain Licquet protested that he had exhausted his supply of inventions +and ruses; the invariable reply was, "Find the yellow horse!" + +He cursed his own zeal; but an unexpected event renewed his confidence +and energy. Lefebre, who was arrested early in September, had just been +thrown into the Conciergerie at Rouen. This new card, if well played, +would set everything right. It was easy to induce Mme. de Combray to +write another letter insisting once more on knowing "the exact address +of the horse," and the lawyer at last answered unsuspectingly, "With +Lanoë at Glatigny, near Bretteville-sur-Dives." + +With Lanoë! Why had Licquet never guessed it! This name, indeed, so +often mentioned in the declarations of the prisoners, had made no +impression on him. Mme. Acquet was hidden there without doubt, and he +triumphantly sent off an express to Réal announcing the good news, and +sent two sharp men to Glatigny at the same time. They left Rouen on +September 15th, and time lagged for Licquet while awaiting their return. +Three days, five days, ten days passed without any news of them. In his +impatience he spent his time worrying Lefebre. A continuous +correspondence was established between him and Mme. de Combray; but in +his letters, as in his examination, he showed great mistrust, and +Licquet even began to fear that the prudent lawyer would not have told +where the yellow horse was, if he had not been sure that the hunt for it +would be fruitless. And so the detective, who had played his last card, +was in an agony during the two weeks' absence of his men. At last they +returned, discomfited and weary, leading the foundered yellow horse, and +accompanied by a sort of colossus, "somewhat resembling a grenadier," +who was no other than Lanoë's wife. + +The story told by Licquet's emissaries was as short as it was delusive. +On arriving at Bretteville-sur-Dives they had gone to the farm of +Glatigny, but had not found Lanoë, whom Caffarelli had arrested a +fortnight before. His wife had received them, and after their first +enquiry had led them to the famous horse's stable, enchanted at being +relieved of the famished beast who consumed all her fodder. The men had +gone as far as Caen, and obtained the prefect's authorisation to speak +to Lanoë. The latter remembered that Lefebre had left the horse with him +at the end of July, on returning from Tournebut, but he denied all +knowledge of Mme. Acquet's retreat. If he was to be believed, she was "a +prisoner of her family," and would never be found, as the whole country +round Falaise was "sold" to the mayor, M. de Saint-Léonard, who had +declared himself his cousin's protector. + +Lanoë's wife was sent back to Glatigny, but the horse was kept at +Rouen--apparently in the hope that this dumb witness would bring some +revelation. Licquet even cut off some of its hairs and sent them, +carefully wrapped up, to Mme. de Combray, implying that they came from +the faithful Delaitre, to whom the Marquise had confided the task of +disposing of the compromising animal. The same evening the Marquise, +completely reassured, wrote the following note to the lawyer: + +"You see that my commissioner was speedy. I have had certain proof. He +went to Lanoë's wife, found the horse, got on it, went five or six +leagues, killed it, and brought away the skin. He brought me some of its +coat, and I send you half, so that you may see the truth for yourself, +and so have no fear. I am going to write to Soyer to say that he sold +the horse at Guibray for 350 livres." + +In her joy at being delivered from her nightmare, she wrote the same day +to Colas, her groom, who was also in the Conciergerie: "Do not worry: do +you need money? I will send you twelve francs. The cursed horse! They +have sent me some of its skin, which I send for recognition. Burn this." +And to her chambermaid, Catherine Querey: "The horse is killed. My agent +skinned and burnt it. If you are asked about the missing horse, say that +it was sold. My miserable daughter gives me a great deal of pain." + +Thus ends the story of the yellow horse. It finished its mysterious +odyssey in the stables of Savoye-Rollin, where Licquet often visited it, +as if he could thus learn its secret. For a doubt remained, and Réal's +suggestion haunted him: "If the horse had only served for Mme. Acquet's +flight, they would not advise the strange precaution of taking it twelve +leagues away, killing, and skinning it on the spot." Even now a great +deal of mystery hangs about it. The horse had not been used by Mme. +Acquet, because we know that since the robbery of June 7th, she had not +left the neighbourhood of Falaise. Lefebre had ridden it from Tournebut; +but was that a fact to be so carefully concealed? Why did the Marquise +in her confidential letters insist on this point? "Say that the lawyer +returned to his house on foot," is a sentence that we find in each of +her letters. Since no mystery was made of the journey, why was its means +of accomplishment important? + +There was something unexplained, and Licquet was not satisfied. His +tricks had brought no result. D'Aché was not found; Mme. Acquet had +disappeared; her description had in vain been sent to all the brigades. +Manginot, in despair of finding her, had renounced the search, and +Savoye-Rollin himself was "determined to suspend all action." Such was +the situation during the last days of September. It seemed most probable +that the affair of Quesnay and the great plot of which it was an +off-shoot, were going to join many others of the same kind, whose +originators Fouché's police had despaired of finding, when an unexpected +event reawakened Licquet's fervour and suggested to him a new +machination. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MADAME ACQUET + + +Seclusion, isolation and trouble had in no way softened the Marquise de +Combray's harsh nature. From the very first day, this woman, accustomed +to living in a château, had accommodated herself to the life of a +prisoner without abating anything of her haughty and despotic character. +Her very illusions remained intact. She imagined that from her cell she +still directed her confederates and agents, whom she considered one and +all as servants, never suspecting that the permission to write letters, +of which she made such bad use, was only a trap set for her ingenuous +vanity. In less than a month she had written more than a hundred letters +to her fellow-prisoners, which all passed through Licquet's hands. To +one she dictated the answers he was to give, to another she counselled +silence,--setting herself up to be an absolute judge of what they ought +to say or to hold back, being quite unable to imagine that any of these +unhappy people might prefer life to the pleasure of obeying her. She +would have treated as a liar any one, be he who he might, who affirmed +that all her accomplices had deserted her, that Soyer had hastened to +disclose the secret hiding-places at Tournebut, that Mlle. Querey had +told all about what she had seen, that Lanoë pestered Caffarelli with +his incessant revelations, and that Lefebre, whom nothing but prudence +kept silent, was very near telling all he knew to save his own head. + +The Marquise was ignorant of all these defections. Licquet had created +such an artificial atmosphere around her that she lived under the +delusion that she was as important as before. Convinced that nobody was +her equal in finesse and authority, she considered the detective +sufficiently clever to deal with a person of humble position, but +believed that as soon as she cared to trouble herself to bring it about, +he would become entirely devoted to her. And Licquet, with his almost +genial skilfulness, so easily fathomed the Marquise's proud soul--was +such a perfect actor in the way he stood before her, spoke to her, and +looked at her with an air of submissive admiration,--that it was no +wonder she thought he was ready to serve her; and as she was not the +sort of woman to use any discretion with a man of his class, she +immediately despatched the turnkey to offer him the sum of 12,000 +francs, half down, if he would consent to promote her interests. Licquet +appeared very grateful, very much honoured, accepted the money, which he +put in the coffers of the prefecture, and the very same day read a +letter in which Mme. de Combray informed her accomplices of the great +news: "We have the little secretary under our thumb." + +Ah! what great talks Licquet and the prisoner had, now they had become +friends. From the very first conversation he satisfied himself that she +did not know Mme. Acquet's hiding-place; but the lawyer Lefebre, who +had at last ceased to be dumb, had not concealed the fact that it might +be learned through a laundress at Falaise named Mme. Chauvel, and +Licquet immediately informed Mme. de Combray of this fact and +represented to her, in a friendly manner, the danger in which her +daughter's arrest would involve her, and insinuated that the only hope +of security lay in the escape to England of Mme. Acquet, "on whose head +the government had set a price." + +The idea pleased the Marquise; but who would undertake to discover the +fugitive and arrange for her embarcation? Whom dared she trust, in her +desperate situation? Licquet seemed the very one; he, however, excused +himself, saying that a faithful man, carrying a letter from Mme. de +Combray, would do as well, and the Marquise never doubted that her +daughter would blindly follow her advice--supported by a sufficient sum +of money to live abroad while awaiting better days. It remained to find +the faithful man. The Marquise only knew of one, who, quite recently, at +her request, had consented to go and look for the yellow horse, which he +had killed and skinned, and who, she said, had acquitted himself so +cleverly of his mission. She was never tired of praising this worthy +fellow, who only existed, as every one knew, in her own imagination; she +admitted that she did not know him personally, but had corresponded with +him through the medium of the woman Delaitre, who had been placed near +her; but she knew that he was the woman's husband, captain of a boat at +Saint Valery-en-Caux, and, in addition, a relation of poor Raoul +Gaillard, whom the Marquise remembered even in her own troubles. + +Licquet listened quite seriously while his victim detailed the history +of this fictitious person whom he himself had invented; he assured her +that the choice was a wise one, for he had known Delaitre for a long +time as a man whose loyalty was beyond all doubt. As there could be no +question of introducing him into the prison, Licquet kindly undertook to +acquaint him with the service expected of him, and to give him the three +letters which Mme. de Combray was to write immediately. The first, which +was very confidential, was addressed to the good Delaitre himself; the +second was to be handed, at the moment of going on board, to Maugé, a +lawyer at Valery, who was to provide the necessary money for the +fugitive's existence in England; the third accredited Delaitre to Mme. +Acquet. The Marquise ordered her daughter to follow the honest Captain, +whom she represented as a tried friend; she begged her, in her own +interest and that of all their friends, to leave the country without +losing a day; and she concluded by saying that in the event of her +obeying immediately, she would provide generously for all her wants; +then she signed and handed the three letters to Licquet, overwhelming +him with protestations of gratitude. + +All the detective had to do was to procure a false Delaitre, since the +real did not exist. They selected an intelligent man, of suitable +bearing, and making out a detailed passport, despatched him to Falaise, +armed with the Marquise's letters, to have an interview with the +laundress. Five days later he returned to Rouen. The Chauvels, on seeing +Mme. de Combray's letters, quite unsuspectingly gave the messenger a +warm welcome. The gendarme, however, did not approve of the idea of +crossing to England. Mme. Acquet, he said, was very well hidden in Caen, +and nobody suspected where she was. What was the use of exposing her to +the risk of embarking at a well watched port. But as Delaitre insisted, +saying that he had a commission from Mme. de Combray which he must carry +out, Chauvel, whose duty kept him at Falaise, arranged to meet the +Captain at Caen on the 2d of October. He wished to present him himself +to Mme. Acquet, and to help his mistress in this matter on which her +future depended. Thus it was that on the 1st of October, Licquet, now +sure of success, put the false Captain Delaitre in the coach leaving for +Caen, having given him as assistants, a nephew of the same name and a +servant, both carefully chosen from amongst the wiliest of his +assistants. The next day the three spies got out at the Hôtel du Pare in +the Faubourg de Vaucelles at Caen, which Chauvel had fixed as the +meeting-place, and whither he had promised to bring Mme. Acquet. + +Six weeks previously, when quitting Falaise on the 23d August, after the +examination to which Caffarelli had subjected her, Mme. Acquet, still +ignorant of her mother's arrest, had proposed going to Tournebut, in +order to hide there for some time before starting for Paris, where she +hoped to find Le Chevalier. She had with her her third daughter, +Céline, a child of six years, whom she counted on getting rid of by +placing her at the school kept at Rouen by the ladies Dusaussay, where +the two elder girls already were. They were accompanied by Chauvel's +sister, a woman named Normand. + +She went first to Caen where she was to take the diligence, and lodged +with Bessin at the Coupe d'Or in the Rue Saint-Pierre. Chauvel came +there the following day to say good-bye to his friend and they dined +together. While they were at table, a man, whom the gendarme did not +know, entered the room and said a few words to Mme. Acquet, who went +into the adjoining room with him. It was Lemarchand, the innkeeper at +Louvigny, Allain's host and friend. Chauvel grew anxious at this private +conversation, and seeing the time of the diligence was approaching, +opened the door and warned Mme. Acquet that she must get ready to start. +To his great surprise, she replied that she was no longer going, as +important interests detained her in Caen. She begged him to escort the +woman Normand and the little girl to the coach, and gave him the address +of a lawyer in Rouen with whom the child could be left. The gendarme +obeyed, and when he went back to the Coupe d'Or an hour later, his +mistress had left. He returned sadly to Falaise. + +Lemarchand, who had been informed of Mme. Acquet's journey, came to tell +her, from Allain, that "a lodging had been found for her where she would +be secure, and that, if she did not wish to go, she had only to come to +the Promenade Saint-Julien at nightfall, and some one would meet her and +escort her to her new hiding-place." It may well be that a threat of +denouncing her, if she left the country, was added to this obliging +offer. At any rate she was made to defer her journey. Towards ten +o'clock at night, according to Lemarchand's advice, she reached the +Promenade Saint-Julien alone, walked up and down under the trees for +some time, and seeing two men seated on a bench, she went and sat down +beside them. At first they eyed each other without saying a word; at +last, one of the strangers asked her if she were not waiting for some +one. Upon her answering in the affirmative they conferred for a moment, +and then gave their names. They were the lawyer Vannier and Bureau de +Placène, two intimate friends of Le Chevalier's. Mme. Acquet, in her +turn, mentioned her name, and Vannier offering her his arm, escorted her +to his house in the Rue Saint-Martin. + +They held a council next day at breakfast. Lemarchand, Vannier, and +Bureau de Placène appeared very anxious to keep Mme. Acquet. She was, +they said, sure of not being punished as long as she did not quit the +department of Calvados. Neither the prefect nor the magistrates would +trouble to enquire into the affair, and all the gentry of Lower Normandy +had declared for the family of Combray, which was, moreover, connected +with all the nobility in the district. Such were the ostensible reasons +which the three confederates put forth, their real reason was only a +question of money. They imagined that Mme. Acquet had the free disposal +of the treasure buried at the Buquets, which amounted to more than +40,000 francs. Finding her ready to rejoin Le Chevalier, and persuaded +that she would carry the remainder of this stolen money to her lover, +they thought it well to stop her and the money, to which they believed +they had a right--Lemarchand as Allain's friend and creditor, Placène in +his capacity of cashier to the Chouans. The lawyer Vannier, as +liquidator of Le Chevalier's debts, had offered to keep Mme. Acquet +prisoner until they had succeeded in extorting the whole sum from her. + +The life led by the unhappy woman at Vannier's, where she was a prey to +this trio of scoundrels, was a purgatory of humiliations and misery. +When the lawyer understood that not only did his prisoner not possess a +single sou, but that she could not dispose of the Buquets' treasure, he +flew into a violent passion and plainly threatened to give her up to the +police; he even reproached her "for what she eat," swearing that somehow +or other "he would make her pay board, for he certainly was not going to +feed her free of cost." The unhappy woman, who had spent her last louis +in paying for the seat in the Rouen diligence, which she had not +occupied, wrote to Lefebre early in September, begging him to send her a +little money. He had received a large share of the plunder and might at +least have shown himself generous; but he replied coolly that he could +do nothing for her; and that she had better apply to Joseph Buquet. + +This was exactly what they wished her to do. Vannier himself brutally +advised her to try going to Donnay, even at the risk of being arrested, +in order to bring back some money from there; and Lemarchand, rather +than lose sight of her, resolved to accompany her. + +Mme. Acquet, worn out and reduced to a state of subjection, consented to +everything that was demanded of her. Dressed as a beggar, she took the +road to Donnay where formerly she had ruled as sovereign mistress; she +saw again the long avenues at the end of which the façade of the +château, imposing still despite its decay, commanded a view of the three +terraces of the park; she walked along by the walls to reach the +Buquets' cottage where Joseph, who was hiding in the neighbouring woods, +occasionally returned to watch over his treasure. She surprised him +there on this particular day, and implored him to come to her assistance +but the peasant was inflexible; she obtained, however, the sum of one +hundred and fifty francs, which he counted out to her in twelve-sou +pieces and copper money. On the evening of her return to Caen Mme. +Acquet faithfully made over the money to Vannier, reserving only fifteen +francs for her trouble; moreover, she was obliged to submit to her +host's obscene allusions as to the means she had employed to extort this +ridiculous sum from Buquet. She bore everything unmoved; her +indifference resembled stupefaction; she no longer appeared conscious of +the horrors of her situation or the dangers to which she was exposed. +Her happiest days were spent in walks round the town with Chauvel with +whom she arranged meetings and who used to come from Falaise to pass a +few hours with her; they went to a neighbouring village, dined there, +and returned to the town at dusk. + +Allain, too, showed some interest in her. He was hiding in the +neighbourhood of Caen, and sometimes came in the evening to confer with +Vannier in company with Bureau de Placène and a lawyer named Robert +Langelley with whom her host had business dealings. They were all +equally needed, and spent their time in planning means to make Joseph +Buquet disgorge. Allain proposed only one plan, and it was adopted. Mme. +Acquet was to go to Donnay again and try to soften the peasant; if he +refused to show where the money was hidden, Allain was to spring on him +and strangle him. + +They set out from Caen one morning, about the 25th of September. Mme. +Acquet had arranged to meet Joseph at the house of a farmer named +Halbout, which was situated at some distance from the village of Donnay. +He came at the appointed hour; but as he was approaching carefully, +fearing an ambuscade, he caught sight of Allain hiding behind a hedge, +and taking fright made off as fast as his legs could carry him. + +They had to go back to Caen empty-handed and face the anger of Vannier, +who accused his lodger of complicity with the Buquets to make their +attempts miscarry. A fresh council was held, and this time Chauvel was +admitted; he too, had a plan. This was that he and Mallet, one of his +comrades, should go to Donnay in uniform; Langelley was to play the +part of commissary of police. "They were to arrest Buquet on the part of +the government; if he consented to say where the money was, he was to be +given his liberty, and the address of a safe hiding-place; in case of +his refusing, the police were to kill him, and they would then be free +to draw up a report of contumacy." + +The Marquise de Combray's daughter was present at these conferences, +meek and resigned, her heart heavy at the thought that this wretched +money would become the prey of these men who had had none of the trouble +and who would have all the profit. Every day she sank deeper and deeper +into this quagmire; the plots that were hatched there, the things she +heard--for they showed no reserve before her--were horrible. As she +represented 40,000 francs to these ruffians, she had to endure not only +their brutal gallantries, but also their confidences. "Mme. Placène one +day suggested the enforced disappearance of the baker Lerouge," says +Bornet, as he was "very religious and a very good man," she was afraid +that if he were arrested, "he would not consent to lie, and would ruin +them all." Langelley specially feared the garrulity of Flierlé and +Lanoë, in prison at Caen, and he was trying to get them poisoned. He had +already made an arrangement "with the chemist and the prison doctor, +whom he had under his thumb," and he also knew a man who "for a small +sum, would create a disturbance in the town, allow himself to be +arrested and condemned to a few months' imprisonment, and would thus +find a way of getting rid of these individuals." They also spoke of +Acquet, who was still in jail at Caen. In everybody's opinion Mme. +Vannier was his mistress, and went to see him every day in his cell. He +was supposed to be a government spy, and Placène pretended that Vannier +received money from him to keep him informed of Mme. Acquet's doings. +Langelley, for his part, said that Placène was a rogue and that if "he +had already got his share of the plunder, he received at least as much +again from the police." + +The poor woman who formed the pivot of these intrigues was not spared by +her unworthy accomplices. Having in mind Joseph Buquet and Chauvel, they +all suspected one another of having been her lovers. Vannier had thus +made her pay for her hospitality; Langelley and the gendarme Mallet +himself, had exacted the same price--accusations it was as impossible as +it was useless to refute. She herself well knew her own abasement, and +at times disgust seized her. On the evening of September 27th, she did +not return to Vannier's; escaping from this hell, she craved shelter +from a lacemaker named Adélaïde Monderard, who lodged in the Rue du Han, +and who was Langelley's mistress. The girl consented to take her in and +gave her up one of the two rooms which formed her lodgings, and which +were reached by a very dark staircase. It was a poor room under the +roof, lighted by two small casements, the furniture being of the +shabbiest. Chauvel came to see her there the following day, and there it +was that she learnt of the expected arrival of Captain Delaitre, sent +by Mme. de Combray to save her, and secure her the means of going to +England. Mme. Acquet manifested neither regret nor joy. She was +astonished that her mother should think of her; but it seems that she +did not attach great importance to this incident, which was to decide +her fate. A single idea possessed her: how to find a retreat which would +allow of her escaping from Vannier's hateful guardianship; and +Langelley, who was very surprised at finding her at the lacemaker's, +seeing her perplexity offered to escort her to a country house, about a +league from the town, where his father lived. She set out with him that +very evening; at the same hour the false Captain Delaitre left Rouen, +and the ruse so cleverly planned by Licquet, put an end to Mme. Acquet's +lamentable adventures. + +Arriving at the Hôtel du Pare on October 2d, "Captain" Delaitre went to +the window of his room and saw a man hurrying down the street with a +very small woman on his arm, very poorly dressed. From his walk he +recognised Chauvel dressed as a bourgeois; the woman was Mme. Acquet. +The two men bowed, and Chauvel leaving his companion, went up to the +Captain's room. "There were compliments, handshakes, the utmost +confidence, as is usual between a soldier and a sailor." Chauvel +explained that he had walked from Falaise that afternoon, and that in +order to get off, he had pretended to his chiefs that private business +took him to Bayonne. The false Delaitre immediately handed him Mme. de +Combray's two letters which Chauvel read absently. + +"Let us go down," he said; "the lady is near and awaits us." + +They met her a few steps farther down the road in company with +Langelley, whom Chauvel introduced to Delaitre. The latter immediately +offered his arm to Mme. Acquet: Chauvel, Langelley and the "nephew +Delaitre" followed at some distance. They passed the bridge and walked +along by the river under the trees of the great promenade, talking all +the time. It was now quite dark. + +Captain Delaitre "after having given Mme. Acquet her mother's +compliments, informed her of the latter's intentions concerning her +going to England or the isles." But the young woman flatly rejected the +proposal; she was, she said, "quite safe with her friend's father, +within reach of all her relations, and she would never consent to leave +Caen, where she had numerous and devoted protectors." The Captain +objected that this determination was all the more to be regretted since +"the powerful personage who was interesting himself in the fate of his +own people, demanded that she should have quitted France, before he +began to seek Mme. de Combray's release." To which Mme. Acquet replied +that she should never alter her decision. + +The discussion lasted about half an hour. The Captain having mentioned a +letter of Mme. de Combray's of which he was the bearer, Mme. Acquet +turned to Langelley and asked him to escort her to an inn, where she +might read it. They crossed the bridge following Langelley up the Rue de +Vaucelles, and stopped at an inn situated about a hundred yards above +the Hôtel du Pare. Mme. Acquet and her companions entered the narrow +passage and went up-stairs to a room on the first floor, where they +seated themselves at a table, and Langelley ordered wine and biscuits. +The young woman took the Marquise's letter from the Captain's hands; all +those around her were silent and watched attentively. They noticed that +"she changed colour at every line and sighed." + +"When do you start?" she asked Delaitre, wiping her eyes. + +"Very early to-morrow," he replied. + +She heaved another great sigh and began to read again. She became very +nervous, and seemed about to faint. When she had finished the letter, +she questioned Delaitre anew. + +"You know for certain, sir, what this letter contains?" + +"Yes, Madame; your mother read it to me." + +She was silent for "more than two minutes"; then she said as if she were +making a great effort: + +"One must obey one's mother's orders. Well, Monsieur, I will go with +you. Will you not wait till to-morrow evening?" + +Captain Delaitre at first demurred at the idea of deferring his journey; +but at last their departure was fixed for the following day, October 3d, +at nightfall. A heated discussion ensued. Langelley noticed that +Vannier, Allain, Placène and the others did not approve of Mme. +Acquet's decision. They were all certain that she ran not the slightest +risk by remaining in Caen, inasmuch as there would never be a judge to +prosecute nor a tribunal to condemn her. Delaitre replied that it was +precisely to guard against the indulgence of the Calvados authorities, +that an imperial decree had laid the affair before the special court at +Rouen; but the lawyer who could not see his last chance of laying hands +on the Buquets' treasure disappear without feeling some annoyance, +replied that nothing must be decided without the advice of their +friends. The young woman ended the discussion by declaring that she was +going "because it was her mother's wish." + +"Are you sure," asked Chauvel, "that that really is your mother's +writing?" + +She answered yes, and the gendarme said that in his opinion she was +right to obey. + +They then settled the details of the departure. Langelley offered to +conduct the travellers to the borders of the department of Calvados, +which Delaitre knew very slightly. Mme. Acquet was to take no luggage. +Her clothes were to be forwarded to her, care of the Captain, at the +Rouen office. The conversation took a "tone of the sincerest friendship +and the greatest confidence." When the hour for separating came, Mme. +Acquet pressed the Captain's hand several times, saying, "Till +to-morrow, then, Monsieur." And as she went down the stairs Chauvel +remained behind with Delaitre, to make sure that the latter had brought +money to pay the small debts which the fugitive had incurred with the +tradesmen. + +Towards eleven on the following morning Chauvel presented himself at the +inn alone. He went up at once to Delaitre's room who asked him to lunch +and sent his nephew out to get oysters. Chauvel had come to beg Delaitre +to put off his journey another day, as Mme. Acquet could not start +before Sunday, the 4th. While they were at lunch Chauvel became quite +confidential. He could not see his friend go away without regret; he +alone, he said, had served her from pure devotion. He told how, in order +to put off his comrades, who had been charged by Manginot to draw up a +description of the fugitive, he had intentionally made it out +incorrectly, describing her "as being very stout and having fair hair." +He talked of d'Aché whom he considered a brigand and "the sole cause of +all the misfortunes which had happened to Mme. de Combray and her +family." Finally he inquired if the Captain would consent to take Buquet +and Allain to England as they were in fact two of the principal actors +in the affair, and the Captain consented very willingly. It was agreed +that as soon as he had landed Mme. Acquet in England, he should return +to Saint-Valery which was his port. All Allain and Buquet had to do, was +to go to Privost, the innkeeper, opposite the post at Cany on Wednesday, +the 14th, and he would meet them and take them on board. + +During luncheon Delaitre, who was obviously a messenger of Providence, +counted out 400 francs in gold on the table, and gave them to Chauvel +to pay his mistress's debts. + +Vannier had claimed six louis for the hospitality he had shown her, +alleging that "this sort of lodger ought to pay more than the others on +account of the risk;" he further demanded that the cost of twenty +masses, which Mme. Acquet had had said, should be refunded to him. +Chauvel spent part of the Sunday with Delaitre; the meeting was fixed +for seven in the evening. The Captain was to wait at the door of his inn +and follow Mme. Acquet when he saw her pass with the gendarme. She only +appeared at ten at night, and they walked separately as far as +Vaucelles. Langelley kept them waiting, but he arrived at last on a +borrowed horse; the Captain had got a post-horse; as for the nephew, +Delaitre, and the servant, they had gone back the evening before to +Rouen. + +The time had come to say good-bye. Mme. Acquet embraced Chauvel who +parted from her "in the tenderest manner, enjoining Delaitre to take the +greatest care of the precious object confided to him." Langelley, armed +with a club for a riding whip, placed himself at the head of the +cavalcade, Delaitre warmly wrapping Mme. Acquet in his cloak, took her +up behind him, and with renewed good wishes, warm handshakes, and sad +"au revoirs" the horsemen set off at a trot on the road to Dives. +Chauvel saw them disappear in the mist, but he waited at the deserted +crossroads as long as he could hear the clatter of their horses' hoofs +on the road. + +They arrived at Dives about three in the morning. The young woman, who +had seemed very lively, protested that she was not tired, and refused to +get off. Therefore Langelley alone entered the post-house, woke up the +guide he had engaged the day before, and they continued their journey. +The day was breaking when they arrived at Annebault; the three travelers +halted at an inn where they spent the whole day; the lawyer and Mme. +Acquet settled their little accounts. They slept a little, they talked a +great deal, and spent a long time over dinner. At six in the evening +they mounted their horses again and took the road to Pont-l'Evêque. +Langelley escorted the fugitives as far as the forest of Touques: before +leaving Mme. Acquet, he asked her for a lock of her hair; he then +embraced her several times. + +It was nearly midnight when the young woman found herself alone with +Delaitre. The horse advanced with difficulty along the forest roads. +Clinging to the Captain with both arms, Mme. Acquet no longer talked; +her excitement of yesterday had given place to a kind of stupor, so that +Delaitre, who in the darkness could not see that her great dark eyes +were open, thought that she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. At three +in the morning they at length arrived at the suburbs of Pont-Audemer; +the Captain stopped at the post-house and asked for a room; in the +register which was presented to him he wrote: "Monsieur Delaitre and +wife." + +They were breakfasting towards noon when a non-commissioned marine +officer, accompanied by an escort of two men, entered the room. He went +straight up to Delaitre, asked his name, and observing his agitation, +called upon him to show his papers. These he took possession of after a +brief examination, and then ordered the soldiers to put Delaitre under +arrest. + +The officer, an amiable and talkative little man, continually excused +himself to Mme. Acquet for the annoyance he was causing her. Captain +Delaitre, he said, had left his ship without any authority, and it had +been pointed out, moreover, that he had willingly engaged in smuggling +while pretending to be trading along the coast. He did not commit the +indiscretion of inquiring the lady's name, nor what reason she had for +scouring the country in company of a ship's captain; but he carefully +gave her to understand that she must be detained until they got to +Rouen, whither Delaitre would be escorted to receive a reprimand from +the commandant of the port. Mme. Acquet was convinced that it was +nothing but a misunderstanding which would be cleared up at Rouen, and +troubled very little about the incident; and as she was worn out with +fatigue, she expressed a wish to spend that night and the following day +at Pont-Audemer. The little officer consented with alacrity, and whilst +appearing only to keep an eye on Delaitre, he never for an instant lost +sight of the young woman, whose attitudes, gestures and appearance he +scrutinised with malicious eyes. It was Licquet, as we have already +guessed, who in his haste to know the result of the false Delaitre's +adventures, had dressed himself up in a borrowed uniform and come to +receive his new victim. He was full of forethought for her; he took her +in a carriage from Pont-Audemer to Bourg-Achard, where he allowed her to +rest. On the morning of the seventh they left Bourg-Achard and arrived +at Rouen before midday. The kindly officer was so persuasive that Mme. +Acquet offered no resistance nor recriminations when she was taken to +the Conciergerie, where she was entered under the name of Rosalie +Bourdon, doubtless the one under which she had travelled. She appeared +quite indifferent to all that went on around her. On entering this +prison, where she knew her mother was, she showed absolutely no emotion. +She remained in this state of resigned lassitude for two days. Licquet, +who came to see her several times, endeavoured to keep her under the +impression that her imprisonment had no other cause than Delaitre's +infringement of the maritime regulations; he even took the precaution of +pretending not to know her name. + +Meanwhile, he laid his plans for attack. At first his joy, at capturing +the much desired prey had been so keen that he could not withstand the +pleasure of writing the news straight to Réal whom he asked to keep it +secret for a fortnight. On reflexion he realised how difficult it would +be to obtain confessions from a woman who had been so hideously +deceived, and he felt that the traps, into which the naïve Mme. de +Combray had fallen would be of no avail in her daughter's case. He had +better ones: on his person he carried the letter which Mme. de Combray +had written to her dear Delaitre, which he had taken from the Captain in +Mme. Acquet's very presence. In this letter, the Marquise had spoken of +her daughter as "the vilest of creatures, lamenting that for her own +safety she was obliged to come to the assistance of such a monster; she +especially complained of the amount of money it was costing her." + +On the 9th of October, Licquet came into Mme. Acquet's cell, began to +converse familiarly with her, told her that he knew her name and showed +her Mme. de Combray's letter. On reading it Mme. Acquet flew into a +violent passion. Licquet comforted her, gave her to understand that he +was her only friend, that her mother hated her and had only helped her +in the hope of saving her own life; that the lawyer Lefebre had sold +himself to the police on giving the Chauvels' address at Falaise, in +proof of which he showed her the note written by the lawyer's own hand. +He even went so far as to allude to certain infidelities on the part of +Le Chevalier, and to the mistresses he must have had in Paris, till at +last the unhappy woman burst into tears of indignation and grief. + +"Enough," she said; "it is my turn now; you must receive my declaration +immediately, and take it at once to the prefect. I will confess +everything. My life is a burden to me." + +She immediately told the long story of d'Aché's plans, his journeys to +England, the organisation of the plot, the attempt to print the Prince's +manifesto, and also how he had beguiled Le Chevalier and had succeeded +in drawing him into it, by promises of high rank and great honours. She +said, too, that d'Aché whom she accused of having caused all the +unhappiness of her life, had recommended robbing the public treasury; +that the attacks on the coaches had been carried out by his orders, +which had been "to stop them all." She accused her mother of helping to +transport the booty to Caen; herself she accused of having sheltered the +brigands. The only ones she excused were Joseph Buquet, who had only +carried out her instructions, and Le Chevalier whom she represented as +beguiled by d'Aché's misleading promises. Her "frantic passion" was +apparent in every word she uttered: she even told Licquet that "if she +could save Le Chevalier's life at the cost of her own she would not +hesitate." + +When she had finished her long declaration, she fell into a state of +deep depression. On entering the prison next day, Licquet found her +engaged in cutting off her magnificent hair, which, she said sadly, she +wished to save from the executioner. She observed that since she was +miserably destined to die, Chauvel, who called himself her friend, had +done very wrong in preventing her from taking poison: all would have +been over by now. But she hoped that grief would kill her before they +had time to condemn her. + +As she said these words she turned her beautiful piercing eyes to a dark +corner of her cell. Licquet, following her gaze, saw a very prominent +nail sticking in the wall at a height of about six feet. Without letting +her see his anxiety, he tried to direct the prisoner's attention to +other objects, and succeeded in working her up to a state of "wild +gaiety." + +That very day the nail was taken out, but there still remained the +bolts of the door and the bed-posts, to which, being of such low +stature, she could hang herself; a woman from Bicêtre was therefore set +to watch her. + +It would be impossible to follow Licquet through all the phases of the +inquiry. This diabolical man seems to have possessed the gift of +ubiquity. He was in the prison where he worked upon the prisoners; at +the prefecture directing the examinations; at Caen, making inquiries +under the very nose of Caffarelli, who believed that the affair had long +since been buried; at Falaise, where he was collecting testimony; at +Honfleur, at Pont-Audemer, at Paris. He drew up innumerable reports, and +sent them to the prefect or to Réal, with whom he corresponded directly, +and when he was asked what reward he was ambitious of obtaining for his +devoted service to the State, he replied philosophically: "I do not work +for my own glory, but only for that of the police generally, and of our +dear Councillor, whom I love with all my heart. As for me, poor devil, I +am destined to remain obscure, which, I must say, pleases me, since I +recognise the inconvenience of having a reputation." + + * * * * * + +One of the most picturesque events of his enquiry was another journey +taken towards the end of October by the false Captain Delaitre and his +false nephew in search of Allain and Buquet, whom they had not found on +the day mentioned at the inn at Cany. At Caen Delaitre saw again the +lawyer Langelley, the Placènes and Monderard's daughter, and they +entertained him. He gave them very good news of Mme. Acquet, who, he +said, was comfortably settled at a place on the English coast; but +although he had a very important letter for Allain, which Mme. de +Combray wished him to take to England without delay, the wily Chouan did +not show himself. His daughter, who had set up as a dressmaker at Caen +and was in communication with Mme. Placène, undertook, however, to +forward the letter to him. The Captain announced his intention of +following the girl in the hope of discovering her father's retreat, but +Langelley and the others assured him that it would be a waste of time. +The young girl alone knew where the outlaw was hidden and "each time she +went to take him news, she disguised herself, entered a house, disguised +herself afresh before leaving, went into another house, changed her +costume yet again, and so on. It was impossible to be sure when she came +out of each house that it was the same person who had gone in, and to +know in which her father was." Two days later the girl reappeared. She +said that her father had gone to his own home near Cherbourg, where "he +had property." He wanted to sell his furniture and lease his land before +going to England. This was the other side of the terrible "General +Antonio." He was a good father and a small landed proprietor. Delaitre +realised that this was a defeat, and that Allain was not easily to be +beguiled. He did not persist, but packed up his traps and returned to +Rouen. + +This check was all the more painful to Licquet, since he had hoped that +by attracting Allain, d'Aché would also be ensnared. Without the latter, +who was evidently the head of the conspiracy, only the inferiors could +be arraigned, and the part of the principal criminal would have to be +passed over in silence, in consequence of which the affair would sink to +the proportions of common highway robbery. Stimulated by these motives, +and still more so by his amour-propre, Licquet set out for Caen. His joy +in action was so keen that it pervades all his reports. He describes +himself as taking the coach with Delaitre, his nephew and "two or three +active henchmen." He is so sure of success that he discounts it in +advance: "I do not know," he writes to Réal, "whether I am flattering +myself too much, but I am tempted to hope that the author will be called +for at the end of the play." + +It is to be regretted that we have no details of this expedition. In +what costume did Licquet appear at Caen? What personality did he assume? +How did he carry out his manoeuvres between Mme. Acquet's friends, his +confederate Delaitre and the Prefect Caffarelli, without arousing any +one's suspicion or wounding their susceptibilities? It is impossible to +disentangle this affair; he was an adept at troubling water that he +might safely fish in it, and seemed jealous to such a degree of the +means he employed, that he would not divulge the secret to any one. With +an instinctive love of mystification, he kept up during his journey an +official correspondence with his prefect and a private one with Réal. +He told one what he would not confess to the other; he wrote to +Savoye-Rollin that he was in a hurry to return to Rouen, while by the +same post he asked Réal to get him recalled to Paris during the next +twenty-four hours. "If you adopt this idea, Monsieur, you must be kind +enough to select a pretext which will not wound or even scratch any +one's amour-propre." The "any one" mentioned here is Savoye-Rollin. What +secret had Licquet discovered, that he did not dare to confide, except +orally, and then only to the Imperial Chief of Police? We believe that +we are not wrong in premising that scarcely had he arrived at Caen when +he laid hands on a witness so important, and at the same time so +difficult to manipulate, that he was himself frightened at this +unexpected _coup de théâtre_. + +Whilst ferreting about in the prisons to which he had obtained access +that he might talk to Lanoë and the Buquets, he met Acquet de Férolles, +who had been forgotten there for three months. Whether Mme. de Placène +was, as Vannier suspected, employed by the police and knew Licquet's +real personality, or whether the latter found another intermediary, it +is certain that he obtained Acquet de Férolles' confidence from the +beginning, and that he got the credit of having him set at liberty. It +was after this interview that Licquet asked Réal to recall him to Paris +for twenty-four hours. His journey took place in the early days of +November, and on the 12th, on an order from Réal Acquet was rearrested +and taken in a post-chaise from Donnay to Paris, escorted by a sergeant +of police. On the 16th he was entered in the Temple gaol-book, and Réal, +who hastened to interrogate him, showed him great consideration, and +promised that his detention should not be long. A note, which is still +to be found among the papers connected with this affair, seems to +indicate that this incarceration was not of a nature to cause great +alarm to the Lord of Donnay: "M. Acquet has been taken to Paris that he +may not interfere with the proceedings against his wife.... It is known +that he is unacquainted with his wife's offence, but M. Réal believes it +necessary to keep him at a distance." That was not the tone in which the +police of that period usually spoke of their ordinary prisoners, and it +seems advisable to call attention to the fact. Let us add that the +royalists detained in the Temple were not taken in by it. M. de Revoire, +an old habitué of the prison, who spent the whole of the Imperial period +in captivity told the Combray family after the Restoration, that all the +prisoners considered Acquet "as a spy, an informer, the whole time he +was in the Temple." After a week's imprisonment and three weeks' +surveillance in Paris, he was set at liberty and returned to Donnay. + +From the comparison of these facts and dates, is one not led to infer +that Licquet had persuaded Acquet without much difficulty we may be +sure, to become his wife's accuser? But the desire not to compromise +himself, and still more the dread of reprisals, shut the mouth of the +unworthy husband at Caen, eager though he was to speak in Paris, +provided that no one should suspect the part he was playing; hence this +sham imprisonment in the Temple--evidently Licquet's idea--which gave +him time to make revelations to Réal. + +Whatever it may have been, this incident interrupted Licquet's journey +to Caen. He continued it towards the middle of November, quitting Rouen +on the 18th, still accompanied by Delaitre and others of his cleverest +men. This time he represented himself as an inspector of taxes, which +gave him the right of entering houses and visiting even the cellars. His +aim was to unearth Allain, Buquet and especially d'Aché, but none of +them appeared. We cannot deal with this third journey in detail, as +Licquet has kept the threads of the play secret, but from +half-confidences made to Réal, we may infer that he bought the +concurrence of Langelley and Chauvel on formal promises of immunity from +punishment; they consented to serve the detective and betray Allain, and +they were on the point of delivering him up when "fear of the Gendarme +Mallet caused everything to fail." Licquet fell back with his troop, +taking with him Chauvel, Mallet and Langelley, who were soon to be +followed by Lanoë, Vannier, Placène and all the Buquets, save Joseph, +who had not been seen again. But before starting on his return journey +to Rouen, Licquet wished to pay his respects to Count Caffarelli, the +Prefect of Calvados, in whose territory he had just been hunting. The +latter did not conceal his displeasure, and thought it strange that his +own gendarmes should be ordered to proceed with criminal cases and to +make arrests of which they neglected even to inform him. Licquet states +that after "looking black at him, Caffarelli laughed till he cried" over +the stories of the false Captain Delaitre and the false inspector of +taxes. It is probable that the story was well told; but the Prefect of +Calvados was none the less annoyed at the unceremonious procedure, as he +testified a little later with some blustering. Licquet, moreover, was +not deceived: on his return from Caen, he wrote: "Behold, I have +quarrelled with the Prefect of Calvados." + +However, he cared very little about it. It had been tacitly decreed that +the robbery at Quesnay should be judged by a special court at Rouen. +Licquet became the organiser and stage-manager of the proceedings. At +the end of 1807 he had under lock and key thirty-eight prisoners whom he +questioned incessantly, and kept in a state of uncertainty as to whether +he meant to confront them with each other. But he declared himself +dissatisfied. D'Aché's absence spoiled his joy. He quite understood that +without the latter, his triumph would be incomplete, his work would +remain unfinished, and it was doubtless due to this torturing obsession +that he owed the idea, as cruel as it was ingenious, of a new drama of +which the old Marquise de Combray was again the victim. + +On a certain day of November, 1807, she heard from her cell an unusual +tumult in the passages of the prison. Doors burst open and people called +to each other. There were cries of joy, whispers, exclamations of +astonishment or vexation, then long silences, which left the prisoner +perplexed. The next day when Licquet came to visit her she noticed that +his face wore a troubled expression. He was very laconic, mentioned +grave events which were preparing, and disappeared like a busy man. To +prisoners everything is a reason for hope, and that night Mme. de +Combray gave free course to her illusions. The following day she +received through the woman Delaitre, a short letter from the honest +"Captain"--the man who had saved Mme. Acquet, killed the yellow horse, +and whom she called her guardian angel. The guardian angel wrote only a +few words: "Bonaparte is overthrown; the King is about to land in +France; the prisons are opening everywhere. Write a letter at once to M. +d'Aché which he can hand to his Majesty. I will undertake to forward it +to him." + +It is a truly touching fact that the old Marquise, whose energy no +fatigue, no moral torture could abate, fainted from happiness on +learning of her King's return. + +The event realised all her hopes. For so many years she had been +expecting it from one moment to another, without ever growing +discouraged, that a dénouement for which she had been prepared so long, +seemed quite natural to her, and she immediately made her arrangements +for the new life that was about to commence. She first of all wrote a +line of thanks to the "good Delaitre," promising her protection and +assuring him that he should be rewarded for his devotion. She then +wrote to d'Aché a letter overflowing with joy. + + "I have reached the pinnacle of my happiness, my dear Vicomte," she + wrote, "which is that of all France. I rejoice in your glory. M. + Delaitre has rendered me the greatest services, and during the past + two months has been constantly journeying in my behalf. His wife, + my companion in misfortune, has turned towards me his interest in + the unhappy, and he has sent me a message informing me of the great + events which are to put an end to all our troubles, advising me to + write a letter to the King and send it to you to present to him. + This is a bright idea, and compensates for the fact that my son is + not lucky enough to be in his proper place, as we desired and + planned. Your dear brother in chains is only supported by the + thought of your glory. I do not know how to speak to a king so + great by reason of his courage and virtue. I have allowed my heart + to speak, and I count upon you to obtain the favour of a visit from + him at Tournebut. The prisons are open everywhere.... I have borne + my imprisonment courageously for three years, but fell ill on + hearing the great news. You will let me know in time if I am to + have the happiness of entertaining the King. It is very bold of me + to ask if such a favour is possible in a house which I believe to + be devastated by commissioners who have exhausted on it their rage + at not finding you there. Render, I beg of you, to M. Delaitre all + that I owe him. You will know him as a relation of our poor Raoul. + He is inspired with the same sentiments and begs you to let him + serve you, not wishing to remain idle in such a good cause and at + such a great moment. This letter bears the marks of our + imprisonment. Accept, my dear Vicomte, my sentiments of attachment + and veneration. + + "I have the honour to be, + + "Your very humble servant, + + "De Combray. + + "I shall go to your mother's to await the King's passing, if I + obtain my liberty before his arrival, and I shall have to go to + Tournebut in order to have everything repaired and made ready if I + am to enjoy this favour. You will write, and wait impatiently." + +The most heartrending of the letters despatched by the duped old +royalist in her joy, is the one destined for the King himself. Proud of +his stratagem, Licquet forwarded it to the police authorities, who +retained it. It is written in a thick, masculine hand on large +paper--studied, almost solemn at the beginning, then, with the +outpouring of her thoughts, ending in an almost illegible scribble. One +feels that the poor woman wanted to say everything, to empty her heart, +to free herself of eighteen years of mortification, mourning and +suppressed indignation. The following is the text of the letter, almost +complete: + + "_To His Majesty Louis XVIII._ + + "Sire:--From my prison, where at the age of sixty-six, I + as well as my son, have been thrust for the last four months, we + have the happiness of offering you our respects and congratulations + on your happy accession to your throne. All our wishes are + fulfilled, sire.... + + "The few resources still at our command were devoted to supporting + your faithful servants of every class, and in saving them from + execution. I have to regret the loss of the Chevalier de + Margadelle, Raoulle, Tamerlan and the young Tellier, all of whom + were carried away by their zeal for your Majesty's cause and fell + victims to it at Paris and Versailles. I had hired a house, which I + gave up to them with all the hiding-places necessary for their + safety. My son had the good fortune to be under the orders of + Messieurs de Frotté and Ingant de St. Maur. + + "I am sending my letter to M. le Vicomte d'Aché, in order that he + may present it to your Majesty and solicit a favour very dear to my + heart--that you will condescend to stay at my house on your way to + Paris. Sire, you will find my house open, and, they say, surrounded + with barricades, consequences of the ill-usage it has received + during their different investigations, another of which has + recently occurred in the hope of finding M. le Vicomte d'Aché and + my daughter, as well as repeated sojourns made by order of the + prefect, and an interrogation by his secretary, after having been + subjected to an examination lasting eleven hours in this so-called + Court of Justice, in order that I might inform them of my + correspondence with M. de Aché as well as of a letter I received + from him on the 17th of last March. The worst threats have been + used such as being confronted with Le Chevalier, and my being sent + to Paris to be guillotined, but nothing terrified me, I did not + tell them anything about my relations with him or where he was + living. I had just left him ten days previously. My reply to this + persecution was that M. de Aché was in London, and I concluded by + assuring them that I did not fear death, that I would fervently + perform my last act of contrition, and that my head would fall + without my disclosing this interesting mystery. + + "My liberty was promised me six weeks ago, but at the price of a + large sum of money, which is, I believe, to be divided between the + prefect and his secretary Niquet (_sic_). Half the sum is safely + under lock and key in the latter's bureau. I have been a long time + trying to collect the sum demanded, as I received little assistance + from those who called themselves my friends. My very property was + refused me with arrogant threats, for it was believed that I was to + be put to the sword. The only end I hoped to attain by my + sacrifices was to save my daughter, upon whose head a price of + 6,000 francs had been set at Caen. The family Delaitre, without any + other interest in me than that which misfortune inspires have + displayed indefatigable zeal in my cause, exposing their lives to + great danger in order to remove her from Caen, where the + authorities left no stone unturned. + + "Three of my servants have been cast into prison, a fourth, named + François Hébert, commendable for thirty-seven years' faithful + service, defended our interests, and for his honesty's sake has + been in chains since the month of July. What must he not have + suffered during the last eleven years at the hands of the + authorities, the tax receivers at Harcourt, Falaise and Caen, and + of many others who wished his ruin because at our advice he + purposely took the farm on our estate, that he might there save + your persecuted followers. He is well known to M. de Frotté whose + esteem he enjoyed, and whom he received with twenty-four of his + faithful friends, knowing they would be safe in his house. All this + anxiety has greatly impaired his health and that of his wife, who + was pregnant at the time, and consequently their son, aged eleven, + is in very delicate health. The Dartenet (_sic_) family have caused + many of our misfortunes by daily denunciations, which they renewed + with all their might in January, 1806. It was only by a special + providence that we, as well as M. le Vicomte d'Aché, escaped + imprisonment. My son hastened to warn him not to return to our + cottage, which was part of my dowry, and offended the Dartenets, + who wanted this tavern that they might turn it into a special inn + for their castle, which is the fruit of their iniquity. + + "My son and I both crave your Majesty's protection and that of the + princes of the blood. + + "I respectfully remain, + + "Your Majesty's very humble and obedient servant, + + "De Combray." + +It was, as we see, a general confession. What must have been the +Marquise's grief and rage on learning that she had been deceived? At +what moment did Licquet cease to play a double part with her? With what +invectives must she not have overwhelmed him when he ceased? How did +Mme. de Combray learn that her noblest illusions had been worked upon to +make her give up her daughter and betray all her friends? These are +things Licquet never explained, either because he was not proud of the +dubious methods he employed, or, more probably, because he did not care +what his victims thought of them. Besides, his mind was occupied with +other things. Mme. de Combray had hinted to Delaitre that d'Aché usually +stayed in the neighbourhood of Bayeux, without stating more precisely +where, as she was certain he would easily be found beside the newly +landed King. Licquet, therefore, went in search of him, and his men +scoured the neighbourhood. Placène, for his part, annoyed at finding +that Allain did not keep his word and made no attempt to deliver his +imprisoned comrades, gave some hints. In order to communicate with +Allain and d'Aché, one was, according to him, obliged to apply to an +innkeeper at Saint-Exupère. This man was in correspondence with a fellow +named Richard, who acted as courier to the two outlaws. "Between Bayeux +and Saint-Lô is the coal mine of Litré, and the vast forest of Serisy is +almost contiguous to it. This mine employed five or six hundred workmen, +and as Richard was employed there one was inclined to think that the +subterranean passages might serve as a refuge to Allain and d'Aché, +whether they were there in the capacity of miners, or were hidden in +some hut or disused ditch." + +The information was too vague to be utilised, and Licquet thought it +wiser to direct his batteries on another point. He had under his thumb +one victim whom as yet he had not tortured, and from whom he hoped much: +this was Mme. Acquet. "She is," he wrote, "a second edition of her +mother for hypocrisy, but surpasses her in maliciousness and +ill-nature.... Her children seem to interest her but little; she never +mentions them to any one, and her heart is closed to all natural +sentiments." + +But I believe that it was to excuse himself in his chief's eyes that +Licquet painted such a black picture of the prisoner. His own heart was +closed to all compassion, and we find in this man the inexorable +impassibility of a Laffemas or a Fouquier Tinville, with a refined irony +in addition which only added to the cruelty. The moral torture to which +he subjected Mme. Acquet is the product of an inquisitor's mind. "At +present," he remarked, "as the subject is somewhat exhausted, I shall +turn my attention to setting our prisoners against one another. The +little encounter may give us some useful facts." + +The little encounter broke the prisoner's heart, and deprived her of the +only consoling thought so many misfortunes had left her. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PAYING THE PENALTY + + +"Le Chevalier is the adored one." + +It was thus that Licquet summarised his first conversation with Mme. +Acquet. He had been certain for some time that her unbridled passion for +her hero held such a place in her heart that it had stifled all other +feeling. For his sake she had harboured Allain's men; for him she had so +often gone to brave the scornful reception of Joseph Buquet; and for him +she had so long endured the odious life in Vannier's house. Licquet +decided that so violent a passion, "well handled," might throw some new +light on affairs. This incomparable comedian should have been seen +playing his cruel game. In what manner did he listen to the love-sick +confidences of his prisoner? In what sadly sympathetic tones did he +reply to the glowing pictures she drew of her lover? For she spoke of +little else, and Licquet listened silently until the moment when, in a +burst of feeling, he took both her hands, and as if grieved at seeing +her duped, exclaiming with hypocritical regard: "My poor child! Is it +not better to tell you everything?" made her believe that Le Chevalier +had denounced her. She refused at first to believe it. Why should her +lover have done such an infamous thing? But Licquet gave reasons. Le +Chevalier, while in the Temple had learned, from Vannier or others, of +her relations with Chauvel, and in revenge had set the police on the +track of his faithless friend. And so the man for whom she had +sacrificed her life no longer loved her! Licquet, in order to torture +her, overwhelmed the unhappy woman with the intentionally clumsy +consolation that only accentuates grief. She wept much, and had but one +thing to say. + +"I should like to save him in spite of his ingratitude." + +This was not at all what the detective wished. He had hoped she would, +in her turn, accuse the man who had betrayed her; but he could gain +nothing on this point. She felt no desire for revenge. The letters she +wrote to Le Chevalier (Licquet encouraged correspondence between +prisoners) are full of the sadness of a broken but still loving heart. + +"It is not when a friend is unfortunate that one should reproach him, +and I am far from doing so to you, in spite of your conduct as regards +me. You know I did everything for you,--I am not reproaching you for +it,--and after all, you have denounced me! I forgive you with all my +heart, if that can do you any good, but I know your reason for being so +unjust to me; you thought I had abandoned you, but I swear to you I had +not." + +There was not much information in that for Licquet, and in the hope of +learning something, he excited Mme. Acquet strongly against d'Aché. +According to him d'Aché was the one who first "sold them all"; it was +he who caused Le Chevalier to be arrested, to rid himself of a +troublesome rival after having compromised him; it was to d'Aché alone +that the prisoners owed all their misfortunes. And Licquet found a +painful echo of his insinuations in all Mme. Acquet's letters to her +lover; but he found nothing more. "You know that Delorriere d'Aché is a +knave, a scoundrel; that he is the cause of all your trouble; that he +alone made you act; you did not think of it yourself, and he advised you +badly. He alone deserves the hatred of the government. He is abhorred +and execrated as he deserves to be, and there is no one who would not be +glad to give him up or kill him on the spot. He alone is the cause of +your trouble. Recollect this; do not forget it." + +It is not necessary to say that these letters never reached Le +Chevalier, who was secretly confined in the tower of the Temple until +Fouché decided his fate. He was rather an embarrassing prisoner; as he +could not be directly accused of the robbery of Quesnay in which he had +not taken part, and as they feared to draw him into an affair to which +his superb gift of speech, his importance as a Chouan gentleman, his +adventurous past and his eloquent professions of faith might give a +political significance similar to that of Georges Cadoudal's trial, +there remained only the choice of setting him at liberty or trying him +simply as a royalist agent. Now, in 1808 they did not wish to mention +royalists. It was understood that they were an extinct race, and orders +were given to no longer speak of them to the public, which must long +since have forgotten that in very ancient days the Bourbons had reigned +in France. + +Thus, Réal did not know what was to become of Le Chevalier when Licquet +conceived the idea of giving him a rôle in his comedy. We have not yet +obtained all the threads of this new intrigue. Whether Licquet destroyed +certain over-explicit papers, or whether he preferred in so delicate a +matter to act without too much writing, there remain such gaps in the +story that we have not been able to establish the correlation of the +facts we are about to reveal. It is certain that the idea of exploiting +Mme. Acquet's passion and promising her the freedom of her lover in +exchange for a general confession, was originated by Licquet. He +declares it plainly in a letter addressed to Réal. By this means they +obtained complete avowals from her. On December 12th she gave a detailed +account of her adventurous life from the time of her departure from +Falaise until her arrest; a few days later she gave some details of the +conspiracy of which d'Aché was the chief, to which we shall have to +return. What must be noted at present is this remarkable coincidence: on +the 12th she spoke, after receiving Licquet's formal promise to ensure +Le Chevalier's escape, and on the 14th he actually escaped from the +Temple. Had Licquet been to Paris between these two dates? It seems +probable; for he speaks in a letter of a "pretended absence" which might +well have been real. + +The manner of Le Chevalier's escape is strange enough to be described. +By reason of his excited condition, "which threw him into continual +transports, and which had seemed to the concierge of the prison to be +the delirium of fever," he had been lodged, not in the tower itself, but +in a dependence, one of whose walls formed the outer wall of the prison, +and overlooked the exterior courts. He had been ill for several days, +and being subject to profuse sweats had asked to have his sheets changed +frequently, and so was given several pairs at a time. On December 13th, +at eight in the morning, the keeper especially attached to his person +(Savard) had gone in to arrange the little dressing-room next to Le +Chevalier's chamber. Returning at one o'clock to serve dinner, he found +the prisoner reading; at six in the evening another keeper (Carabeuf), +bringing in a light, saw him stretched on his bed. The next day on going +into his room in the morning, they found that he had fled. + +Le Chevalier had made in the wall of his dressing-room, which was two +yards thick, a hole large enough to slip through. They saw that he had +done it with no other tool than a fork; two bits of log, cut like +wedges, had served to dislodge and pull out the stones. The operation +had been so cleverly managed, all the rubbish having been carefully +taken from within, that no trace of demolition appeared on the outside. +The prisoner (Vandricourt) who was immediately below had not noticed any +unwonted noise, although he did not go to bed till eleven o'clock. Le +Chevalier, whose cell was sixteen feet above the level of the court, had +also been obliged to construct a rope to descend by; he had plaited it +with long strips cut from a pair of nankeen breeches and the cover of +his mattress. Having got into the courtyard during the night by this +means, he had to wait till the early morning when bread was brought in +for the prisoners. The concierge of the Temple was in the habit of going +back to bed after having admitted the baker, and the gate remained open +for "a quarter of an hour and longer, while bread was being delivered at +the wickets." + +People certainly escaped from the Temple as much as from any other +prison. The history of the old tower records many instances of men +rescued by their friends in the face of gaolers and guard, but +confederates were necessary for the success of these escapes. Given the +topography of the Temple in 1807, it would seem impossible for one man +alone, with no outside assistance, to have pierced a wall six feet thick +in a few hours, and to have crossed the old garden of the grand prior, +where in order to reach the street he would either have had to climb the +other wall of the enclosure, or to pass the palace and courts to get to +the door--that of the Rue du Temple--which, as stated in the official +report, remained open every morning for twenty minutes during the +baker's visit. The impossibility of success leads us to think that if Le +Chevalier triumphed over so many obstacles, it was because some one made +it easy for him to do so. + +Réal put a man on his track who for ten years had been the closest +confidant of the secrets of the police, and had conducted their most +delicate affairs. This was Inspector Pasque. With Commissary Beffara, +he set off on the search. Licquet, one of the first to be informed of +Le Chevalier's escape, immediately showed Mme. Acquet the letter +announcing it, taking care to represent it, confidentially, as his own +work. He received in return a copious confession from his grateful +prisoner. This time she emptied all the corners of her memory, returning +to facts already revealed, adding details, telling of all d'Aché's +comings and goings, his frequent journeys to England, and of the manner +in which David l'Intrépide crossed the channel. Licquet tried more than +all to awaken her memories of Le Chevalier's relations with Parisian +society. She knew that several official personages were in the "plot," +but unfortunately could not recollect their names, "although she had +heard them mentioned, notably by Lefebre, with whom Le Chevalier +corresponded on this subject." However, as the detective persisted she +pronounced these words, which Licquet eagerly noted: + +"One of these personages is in the Senate; M. Lefebre knows him. Another +was in office during the Terror, and can be recognised by the following +indications: he frequently sees Mme. Ménard, sister of the widow, Mme. +Flahaut, who has married M. de ----, now ambassador to Holland, it is +believed. This lady lives sometimes at Falaise and sometimes in Paris, +where she is at present. This individual is small, dark and slightly +humped; he has great intellect, and possesses the talent for intrigue in +a high degree. The other personages are rich. The declarant cannot state +their number. Le Chevalier informed her that affairs were going well in +Paris, that they were awaiting news of the Prince's arrival to declare +for him." + +Licquet compelled Mme. Acquet to repeat these important declarations +before the prefect, and on the 23d of December, she signed them in +Savoye-Rollin's office. The same evening Licquet tried to put names to +all these anonymous persons. With the prisoner by his side and the +imperial almanac in his hand, he went over the list of senators, great +dignitaries and notabilities of the army and the administration, but +without success. "The names that were pronounced before her," he wrote +to Réal, "are effaced from her memory; perhaps Lefebre will tell us who +they are." + +The lawyer, in fact, since he saw things becoming blacker, had been very +loquacious with Licquet. He cried with fear when in the prefect's +presence, and promised to tell all he knew, begging them to have pity on +"the unfortunate father of a family." He spoke so plainly, this time, +that Licquet himself was astounded. The lawyer had it indeed from Le +Chevalier, that the day the Duc de Berry landed in France, the Emperor +would be arrested by two officers "who were always near his person, and +who each of them would count on an army of forty thousand men!" And when +Lefebre was brought before the prefect to repeat this accusation, and +gave the general's names, Savoye-Rollin was so petrified with +astonishment that he dared not insert them in the official report of the +inquiry; furthermore, he refused to write them with his own hand, and +compelled the lawyer himself to put on paper this blasphemy before +which official pens recoiled. + +"Lefebre insists," wrote Savoye-Rollin to Réal, "that Le Chevalier would +never tell him the names of all the conspirators. Lefebre has, however, +given two names, one of which is so important and seems so improbable, +that I cannot even admit a suspicion of it. Out of respect for the +august alliance which he has contracted, I have not put his name in the +report of the inquiry; it is added to my letter, in a declaration +written and signed by the prisoner." And in his letter there is a note +containing these lines over Lefebre's signature: "I declare to Monsieur +le Prefect de la Seine Inférieur that the two generals whom I did not +name in my interrogation to-day and who were pointed out to me by M. le +Chevalier, are the Generals Bernadotte and Masséna." + +Bernadotte and Masséna! At the ministry of police they pretended to +laugh heartily at this foolish notion; but perhaps some who knew the +"true inwardness" of certain old rivalries--Fouché above all--thought it +less absurd and impossible than they admitted it to be. This fiend of a +man, with his way of searching to the bottom of his prisoners' +consciences, was just the one to find out that in France Bonaparte was +the sole partisan of the Empire. In any case these were not ideas to be +circulated freely, and from that day Réal promised himself that if +Pasque and Beffara succeeded in finding Le Chevalier, he should never +divulge them before any tribunal. + +The two agents had established a system of surveillance on all the +roads of Normandy, but without much hope: Le Chevalier, who had escaped +so many spies and got out of so many snares during the past eight years, +was considered to bear, as it were, a charmed life. He was taken, +however, and as his escape had seemed to be the result of the +detective's schemes, so in the manner in which he again fell into the +hands of Réal's agents was Licquet's handiwork again recognised. The +latter, indeed, was the only one who knew enough to make the capture +possible. In his long conversation with Mme. Acquet, he had learned that +in leaving Caen in the preceding May, Le Chevalier had confided his +five-year-old son to his servant Marie Humon, with orders to take him to +his friend the Sieur Guilbot at Evreux. At the beginning of August the +child had been taken to Paris and placed with Mme. Thiboust, Le +Chevalier's sister-in-law. + +In what way was the son used to capture the father? We have never been +able thoroughly to clear up this mystery. The accounts that have been +given of this great detective feat are evidently fantastic, and remain +inexplicable without the intervention of a comrade betraying Le +Chevalier after having given him unequivocal proofs of devotion. Thus, +it has been said that Réal, "having recourse to extraordinary means," +could have caused the arrest of "the sister-in-law and daughter of the +fugitive, and their incarceration in the prisons of Caen with filthy and +disreputable women." Le Chevalier, informed of their incarceration--by +whom?--would have offered himself in place of the two women, and the +police would have accepted the bargain. + +Told in this manner, the story does not at all agree with the documents +we have been able to collect. Le Chevalier had no daughter, and no trace +is to be found of the transference of Mme. Thiboust to Caen. The other +version is no more admissible. Scarcely out of the Temple, we are +assured, the outlaw would not have been able to resist the desire to see +his son, and would have sent to beg Mme. Thiboust--by whom again?--to +bring him to the Passage des Panoramas. Naturally the police would +follow the woman and child, and Le Chevalier be taken in their arms. It +is difficult to imagine so sharp a man setting such a childish trap for +himself, even if his adventurous life had not accustomed him for a long +time to live apart from his family. + +The truth is certainly far otherwise. It is necessary, first of all, to +know who let Le Chevalier out of prison. Mme. de Noël, one of his +relations, said later, that "they had offered employment to the prisoner +if he would denounce his accomplice," which offer he haughtily refused. +As his presence was embarrassing, his gaolers were ordered "to let him +go out on parole in the hope that he would not come back," and could +then be condemned for escaping. Le Chevalier profited by the favour, but +returned at the appointed time. This toleration was not at all +surprising in this strange prison, the theatre of so many adventures +that will always remain mysteries. Desmarets tells how the concierge +Boniface allowed an important prisoner, Sir Sidney Smith, to leave the +Temple, "to walk, take baths, dine in town, and even go out hunting;" +the commodore never failed to return to sleep in his cell, and "took +back his parole in reentering." + +It was necessary then, for some one to undertake to get Le Chevalier out +of the Temple, as he would not break his parole when he was outside; and +this explains the simulated escape. What cannot be established, +unfortunately, is the part taken by Fouché and Réal. Were they the +instigators or the dupes? Did they esteem it better to feign ignorance, +or was it in reality the act of subalterns working unknown to their +chiefs? In any case, no one for a moment believed in the wall two yards +thick bored through in one night by the aid of a fork, any more than in +the rope-ladder made from a pair of nankeen breeches. Réal, in revenge, +dismissed the concierge of the prison, put the gaoler Savard in irons, +and exacted a report on "all the circumstances that could throw any +light on the acquaintances the prisoner must have had in the prison to +facilitate his escape." + +It seems very probable that Licquet, either directly or through an agent +like Perlet, in whom Le Chevalier had the greatest confidence, had had a +hand in this escape. As soon as the prisoner was free, as soon as Mme. +Acquet had given up all her secrets as the price of her lover's liberty, +it only remained to secure him again, and the means employed to gain +this end must have been somewhat discreditable, for in the reports sent +to the Emperor, who was daily informed of the progress of the affair, +things were manifestly misrepresented. The following facts cannot be +questioned: Le Chevalier had found in Paris "an impenetrable retreat +where he could boldly defy all the efforts of the police;" Fouché, +guessing at the feelings of the fugitive, issued a warrant against Mme. +Thiboust. By whom was Le Chevalier informed in his hiding-place of his +sister-in-law's arrest? It is here, evidently, that a third person +intervened. However that may be, the outlaw wrote to Fouché "offering to +show himself as soon as the woman who acted as a mother to his son +should be set at liberty." Fouché had Mme. Thiboust brought before him, +and gave her a safe conduct of eight days for Le Chevalier, with +positive and reiterated assurance that he would give him a passport for +England as soon as he should deliver himself up. + +Mme. Thiboust returned home to the Rue des Martyrs, where Le Chevalier +came to see her; it was the evening of the 5th of January, 1808. He +covered his little son with kisses and put him in bed: the child always +remembered the caresses he received that evening. Mme. Thiboust, who did +not put much faith in Fouché's promises, begged her brother-in-law to +flee. "No, no," he replied; and later on she reported his answer thus: +"The minister has kept his promise in setting you at liberty and I must +keep mine--honour demands it; to hesitate would be weak, and to fail +would be a crime." On the morning of the 6th, persuaded--or pretending +to be--that Fouché was going to assist his crossing to England, he +embraced his child and sister-in-law. + +"Come," he said, "it is Twelfth-Night, and it is a fine day; have a mass +said for us, and get breakfast ready. I shall be back in two hours." + +Two hours later Inspector Pasque restored him to the Temple, and saw +that he was put "hands and feet in irons, in the most rigorous +seclusion, under the surveillance of a police agent who was not to leave +him day or night." + +The same evening Fouché sent the Emperor a report which contained no +mention of the chivalrous conduct of Le Chevalier; it said that "the +police had seized this brigand at the house of a woman with whom he had +relations, and that they had succeeded in throwing themselves upon him +before he could use his weapons." On the morning of the 9th, Commandant +Durand, of the staff, presented himself at the Temple, and had the irons +removed from the prisoner, who appeared at noon before a military +commission in a hall in the staff office, 7 Quoi Voltaire. This +expeditious magistracy was so sparing of its paper and ink that it took +no notes. It played, in the social organisation, the rôle of a trap into +which were thrust such people as were found embarrassing. Some were +condemned whose fate is only known because their names have been found +scribbled on a torn paper that served as an envelope for police reports. + +Le Chevalier was condemned to death; he left the office of the staff at +four o'clock and was thrown into the Abbaye to await execution. While +the preparations were being made he wrote the following letter to Mme. +Thiboust who had been three days without news, and it reached the poor +woman the next day. + + "_Saturday_, 9 January, 1808. + + "I am going to die, my sister, and I bequeath you my son. I do not + doubt that you will show him all a mother's tenderness and care. I + beg you also to have all the firmness and vigilance that I should + have had in forming his character and heart. + + "Unfortunately, in leaving you the child that is so dear to me, I + cannot also leave you a fortune equal to that which I inherited + from my parents. I reproach myself, more than for any other fault + in my life, for having diminished the inheritance they transmitted + to me. Bring him up according to his actual fortune, and make him + an artisan, if you must, rather than commit him to the care of + strangers. + + "One of my greatest regrets in quitting this life, is leaving it + without having shown my gratitude to you and your daughter. + + "Good-bye; I shall live, I hope, in your remembrance, and you will + keep me alive in that of my son. + + "Le Chevalier." + +Night had come--a cold misty winter night--when the cab that was to take +the prisoner to his execution arrived at the door of the Abbaye. It was +a long way from Saint-Germain-des-Près to the barriers by way of the Rue +du Four and Rue de Grenelle, the Avenue de l'École Militaire, and the +tortuous way that is now the Rue Dupleix. The damp fog made the night +seem darker; few persons were about, and the scene must have been +peculiarly gloomy and forbidding. The cab stopped in the angle formed +by the barrier of Grenelle, and on the bare ground the condemned man +stood with his back to the wall of the enclosure. It was the custom at +night executions to place a lighted lantern on the breast of the victim +as a target for the men. + +It was all over at six o'clock. While the troop was returning to town +the grave-diggers took the corpse which had fallen beneath the wall and +carried it to the cemetery of Vaugirard; a neighbouring gardener and an +old man of eighty, whom curiosity had led to the corpse of this unknown +Chouan, served as witnesses to the death certificate. + +The death of Le Chevalier put an end to the prosecution of the affair of +Quesnay. He was one of those prisoners of whom the grand judge said +"that they could not be set at liberty, but that the good of the State +required that they should not appear before the judges"; and they feared +that by pushing the investigations farther they might bring on some +great political trial that would agitate the whole west of France, +always ready for an insurrection, and shown in the reports to be +organised for a new Chouan outburst. It is certain that d'Aché's capture +would have embarrassed Fouché seriously, and in default of causing him +to disappear like Le Chevalier, he would much have preferred to see him +escape the pursuit of his agents. The absence of these two leaders in +the plot would enable him to represent the robbery of June 7th, as a +simple act of brigandage which had no political significance whatever. + +They therefore imposed silence on the gabblings of Lefebre, who had +become a prey to such incontinence of denunciations that he only stopped +them to lament his fate and curse those who had drawn him into the +adventure; they moderated Licquet's zeal, and the prefect confided to +him the drawing up of the general report of the affair, a task of which +he acquitted himself so well that his voluminous work seemed to Fouché +"sufficiently luminous and circumstantial to be submitted as it was to +his Majesty." + +Then they began, but in no haste, to concern themselves with the trial +of the other prisoners. It was necessary, according to custom, to +interrogate and confront the forty-seven persons imprisoned; of this +number the prosecution only held thirty-two, of whom twenty-three were +present. These were Flierlé, Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Épine and Le +Héricey who by Allain's orders had attacked the waggon; the Marquise de +Combray, her daughter and Lefebre, instigators of the crime; Gousset the +carrier; Alexandre Buquet, Placène, Vannier, Langelley, who had received +the money; Chauvel and Lanoë as accomplices, and the innkeepers of +Louvigny, d'Aubigny and elsewhere who had entertained the brigands. +Those absent were d'Aché, Allain, Le Lorault called "La Jeunesse," +Joseph Buquet, the Dupont girl, and the friends of Le Chevalier or +Lefebre who were compromised by the latter's revelations--Courmaceul, +Révérend, Dusaussay, etc., Grenthe, called "Coeur-le-Roi," had died in +the conciergerie during the enquiry. Mme. de Combray's gardener, +Châtel, had committed suicide a few days after his arrest. As to Placide +d'Aché and Bonnoeil, it was decided not to bring them to trial but to +take them later before a military commission. Everything was removed +that could give the trial political significance. + +Mme. de Combray, who was at last enlightened as to the kind of interest +taken in her by Licquet, and awakened from the illusions that the +detective had so cleverly nourished, had been able to communicate +directly with her family. Her son Timoléon had never approved of her +political actions and since the Revolution had stayed away from +Tournebut; but as soon as he heard of their arrest he hurried to Rouen +to be near his mother and brother in prison. The letters he exchanged +with Bonnoeil, as soon as it was permitted, show a strong sense of the +situation on the part of both, irreproachable honesty and profound +friendship. This family, whom it suited Licquet to represent as +consisting of spiteful, dissolute or misguided people, appears in a very +different light in this correspondence. The two brothers were full of +respect for their mother, and tenderly attached to their sister: +unfortunate and guilty as she was, they never reproached her, nor made +any allusion to facts well-known and forgiven. They were all leagued +against the common enemy, Acquet, whom they considered the cause of all +their suffering. This man had returned from the Temple strengthened by +the cowardly service he had rendered, and entered Donnay in triumph; he +did not try to conceal his joy at all the catastrophes that had +overtaken the Combrays, and treated them as vanquished enemies. The +family held a council. The advice of Bonnoeil and Timoléon, as well as +of the Marquise, was to sacrifice everything to save Mme. Acquet. They +knew that her husband's denunciations made her the chief culprit, and +that the accusation would rest almost entirely on her. They determined +to appeal to Chauveau-Lagarde, whom the perilous honour of defending +Marie-Antoinette before the Revolutionary tribunal had rendered +illustrious. The great advocate undertook the defence of Mme. Acquet and +sent a young secretary named Ducolombier, who usually lived with him, to +Rouen to study the case--"an intriguer calling himself doctor," wrote +Licquet scornfully. Ducolombier stayed in Rouen and set himself to +examine the condition of the Combrays' fortune. Mme. de Combray had +consented some years back to the sale of a part of her property, and +Timoléon, in the hope of averting financial disaster and being of use to +his mother by diminishing her responsibility, had succeeded in having a +trustee appointed for her. + +The matter was brought to Rouen and it was there that, "for the safety +of the State," the trial took place that excited all Normandy in +advance. Curiosity was greatly aroused by the crime committed by "ladies +of the château," and surprising revelations were expected, the +examination having lasted more than a year and having brought together +an army of witnesses from around Falaise and Tournebut. Mme. de +Combray's house in the Rue des Carmélites had become the headquarters +of the defence. Mlle. Querey had come out of prison after several weeks' +detention, and was there looking after the little Acquets, who had been +kept at the pension Du Saussay in ignorance of what was going on around +them: the three children still suffered from the ill-treatment they had +received in infancy. Timoléon also lived in the Rue des Carmélites when +the interests of his family did not require his presence in Falaise or +Paris. There, also, lived Ducolombier, who had organised a sort of +central office in the house where the lawyers of the other prisoners +could come and consult. Mme. de Combray had chosen Maître Gady de la +Vigne of Rouen to defend her; Maître Denise had charge of Flierlé's +case, and Maître le Bouvier was to speak for Lefebre and Placène. + +Chauveau-Lagarde arrived in Rouen on December 1, 1808. He had scarcely +done so when he received a long epistle from Acquet de Férolles, in +which the unworthy husband tried to dissuade him from undertaking the +defence of his wife, and to ruin the little testimony for the defence +that Ducolombier had collected. It seems that this scoundrelly +proceeding immediately enlightened the eminent advocate as to the +preliminaries of the drama, for from this day he proved for the Combray +family not only a brilliant advocate, but a friend whose devotion never +diminished. + +The trial opened on December 15th in the great hall of the Palais. A +crowd, chiefly peasants, collected as soon as the doors were opened in +the part reserved for the public. A platform had been raised for the +twenty-three prisoners, among whom all eyes searched for Mme. Acquet, +very pale, indifferent or resigned, and Mme. de Combray, very much +animated and with difficulty induced by her counsel to keep silent. +Besides the president, Carel, the court was composed of seven judges, of +whom three were military; the imperial and special Procurer-General, +Chopais-Marivaux, occupied the bench. + +From the beginning it was evident that orders had been given to suppress +everything that could give political colour to the affair. As neither +d'Aché, Le Chevalier, Allain nor Bonnoeil was present, nor any of the +men who could claim the honour of being treated as conspirators and not +as brigands, the judges only had the small fry of the plot before them, +and the imperial commissary took care to name the chiefs only with great +discretion. He did it by means of epithets, and in a melodramatic tone +that caused the worthy people who jostled each other in the hall to +shiver with terror. + +Never had the gilded panels, which since the time of Louis XII had +formed the ceiling of the great hall of the Palais, heard such +astonishing eloquence; for three hours the Procurer Chopais-Marivaux +piled up his heavy sentences, pretentious to the point of +unintelligibility. When, after having recounted the facts, the +magistrate came to the flight of Mme. Acquet and her sojourn with the +Vanniers and Langelley, and it was necessary without divulging Licquet's +proceedings to tell of her arrest, he became altogether +incomprehensible. He must have thought himself lucky in not having +before him, on the prisoners' bench, a man bold enough to show up the +odious subterfuges that had been used in order to entrap the +conspirators and obtain their confessions; there is no doubt that such a +revelation would have gained for the two guilty women, if not the +leniency of the judges, the sympathy at least of the public, who all +over the province were awaiting with anxious curiosity the slightest +details of the trial. The gazettes had been ordered to ignore it; the +_Journal de Rouen_ only spoke of it once to state that, as it lacked +space to reproduce the whole trial, it preferred to abstain altogether; +and but for a few of Licquet's notes, nothing would be known of the +character of the proceedings. + +The interrogation of the accused and the examination of the witnesses +occupied seven sittings. On Thursday, December 22d, the Procurer-General +delivered his charge. The prosecution tried above all to show up the +antagonism existing between Mme. de Combray and M. Acquet de Férolles. +The latter's denunciations had borne fruit; the Marquise was represented +as having tried "to get rid of her son-in-law by poisoning his drink." +And the old story of the bottles of wine sent to Abbé Clarisse and of +his inopportune death were revived; all the unpleasant rumours that had +formerly circulated around Donnay were amplified, made grosser, and +elevated to the position of accomplished facts. It was decided that +poison "was a weapon familiar to the Marquise of Combray," and as, +after having replied satisfactorily to all the first questions asked +her, she remained mute on this point, a murmur of disapprobation ran +round the audience, to the great joy of Licquet. "The prisoner," he +notes, "whose sex and age at first rendered her interesting, has lost +to-day every vestige of popularity." + +We know nothing of Mme. Acquet's examination, and but little of +Chauveau-Lagarde's pleading; a leaf that escaped from his portfolio and +was picked up by Mme. de Combray gives a few particulars. This paper has +some pencilled notes, and two or three questions written to Mme. Acquet +on the prisoners' bench, to which she scrawled a few words in reply. We +find there a sketch of the theme which the advocate developed, doubtless +to palliate his client's misconduct. + +"Mme. Acquet is reproached with her liaisons with Le Chevalier; she can +answer--or one can answer for her--that she suffered ill-treatment of +all kinds for four years from a man who was her husband only from +interest, so much so that he tried to get rid of her.... Fearful at one +time of being poisoned, at another of having her brains dashed out,... +her suit for separation had brought her in touch with Le Chevalier, whom +she had not known until her husband let him loose on her in order to +bring about an understanding...." + +During the fifteen sittings of the court a restless crowd filled the +hall, the courts of the Palais, and the narrow streets leading to it. At +eight o'clock in the morning of December 30th, the president, Carel, +declared the trial closed, and the court retired to "form its opinions." +Not till three o'clock did the bell announce the return of the +magistrates. The verdict was immediately pronounced. Capital punishment +was the portion of Mme. Acquet, Flierlé, Lefebre, Harel, Grand-Charles, +Fleur d'Épine, Le Héricey, Gautier-Boismale, Lemarchand and Alexandre +Buquet. The Marquise de Combray was condemned to twenty-two years' +imprisonment in irons, and so were Lerouge, called Bornet, Vannier and +Bureau-Placène. The others were acquitted, but had to be detained "for +the decision of his Excellency, the minister-of-police." The Marquise +was, besides, to restore to the treasury the total sum of money taken. +Whilst the verdict was being read, the people crowded against the +barriers till they could no longer move, eagerly scanning the +countenances of the two women. The old Marquise, much agitated, +declaimed in a loud voice against the Procurer-General: "Ah! the +monster! The scoundrel! How he has treated us!" + +Mme. Acquet, pale and impassive, seemed oblivious of what was going on +around her. When she heard sentence of death pronounced against her, she +turned towards her defender, and Chauveau-Lagarde, rising, asked for a +reprieve for his client. Although she had been in prison for fourteen +months, she was, he said, "in an interesting condition." There was a +murmur of astonishment in the hall, and while, during the excitement +caused by this declaration, the court deliberated on the reprieve, one +of the condemned, Le Héricey, leapt over the bar, fell with all his +weight on the first rows of spectators, and by kicks and blows, aided by +the general bewilderment, made a path for himself through the crowd, and +amid shouts and shoves had already reached the door when a gendarme +nabbed him in passing and threw him back into the hall, where, trampled +on and overcome with blows, he was pushed behind the bar and taken away +with the other condemned prisoners. The reprieve asked for Mme. Acquet +was pronounced in the midst of the tumult, the crush at the door of the +great hall being so great that many were injured. + +The verdict, which soon became known all over the town, was in general +ill received. If the masses showed a dull satisfaction in the punishment +of the Combray ladies, saying "that neither rank nor riches had counted, +and that, guilty like the others, they were treated like the others," +the bourgeois population of Rouen, still very indulgent to the +royalists, disapproved of the condemnation of the two women, who had +only been convicted of a crime by which neither of them had profited. +The reprieve granted to Mme. Acquet, "whose declaration had deceived no +one," seemed a good omen, indicating a commutation of her sentence. The +nine "brigands" condemned to death received no pity. Lefebre was not +known in Rouen, and his attitude during the trial had aroused no +sympathy; the others were but vulgar actors in the drama, and only +interested the populace hungry for a spectacle on the scaffold. The +executions would take place immediately, the judgments pronounced by the +special court being without appeal, like those of the former +revolutionary tribunals. + +The nine condemned men were taken to the conciergerie. It was night when +their "toilet" was begun. The high-executioner, Charles-André Ferey, of +an old Norman family of executioners, had called on his cousins Joanne +and Desmarets to help him, and while the scaffold was being hastily +erected on the Place du Vieux-Marché, they made preparations in the +prison. In the anguish of this last hour on earth Flierlé's courage +weakened. He sent a gaoler to the imperial procurer to ask "if a +reprieve would be granted to any one who would make important +revelations." On receiving a negative reply the German seemed to resign +himself to his fate. "Since that is the case," he said, "I will carry my +secret to the tomb with me." + +The doors of the conciergerie did not open until seven in the evening. +By the light of torches the faces of the condemned were seen in the +cart, moving above the crowds thronging the narrow streets. The usual +route from the prison to the scaffold was by the Rue du Gros-Horloge, +and this funeral march by torchlight and execution at midnight in +December must have been a terrifying event. The crowd, kept at a +distance, probably saw nothing but the glimmering light of the torches +in the misty air, and the shadowy forms moving on the platform. +According to the _Journal de Rouen_ of the next day, Flierlé mounted +first, then Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Épine and Le Héricey who took +part with him in the attack on June 7th. Lefebre "passed" sixth. The +knife struck poor Gautier-Boismale badly, as well as Alexandre Buquet, +who died last. The agony of these two unfortunates was horrible, +prolonged as it was by the repairs necessary for the guillotine to +continue its work. The bloody scene did not end till half-past eight in +the morning. + +The next day, December 31st, the exhibition on the scaffold of Mme. de +Combray, Placène, Vannier, and Lerouge, all condemned to twenty-two +years' imprisonment, was to take place. But when they went to the old +Marquise's cell she was found in such a state of exasperation, fearful +crises of rage being succeeded by deep dejection, that they had to give +up the idea of removing her. The three men alone were therefore tied to +the post, where they remained for six hours. As soon as they returned to +the conciergerie they were sent in irons to the House of Detention at +the general hospital, whence they were to go to the convict prison. + +The Marquise had not twenty-two years to live. The thought of ending her +days in horrible Bicêtre with thieves, beggars and prostitutes; the +humiliation of having been defeated, deceived and made ridiculous in the +eyes of all Normandy; and perhaps more than all, the sudden +comprehension that it had all been a game, that the Revolution would +triumph in the end, that she, a great and powerful lady--noble, rich, a +royalist--was treated the same as vulgar criminals, was so cruel a blow, +that it was the general impression that she would succumb to it. It is +impossible nowadays to realise what an effect these revelations must +have produced on a mind obstinately set against all democratic +realities. For nearly a month the Marquise remained in a state of +stupefaction; from the day of her condemnation till January 15th it was +impossible to get her to take any kind of nourishment. She knew that +they were watching for the moment when she would be strong enough to +stand the pillory, and perhaps she had resolved to die of hunger. There +had been some thought--and this compassionate idea seems to have +originated with Licquet--of sparing the aged woman this supreme agony, +but the Procurer-General showed such bitter zeal in the execution of the +sentence, that the prefect received orders from Réal to proceed. He +writes on January 29th: "I am informed of her condition daily. She now +takes light nourishment, but is still extremely feeble; we could not +just now expose this woman to the pillory without public scandal." + +What was most feared was the indignation of the public at sight of the +torture uselessly inflicted on an old woman who had already been +sufficiently punished. The prefect's words, "without scandal," showed +how popular feeling in Rouen had revolted at the verdict. More than one +story got afloat. As the details of the trial were very imperfectly +known, no journal having published the proceedings, it was said that the +Marquise's only crime was her refusal to denounce her daughter, and +widespread pity was felt for this unhappy woman who was considered a +martyr to maternal love and royalist faith. Perhaps some of this +universal homage was felt even in the prison, for towards the middle of +February the Marquise seemed calmer and morally strengthened. The +authorities profited by this to order her punishment to proceed. It was +February the 17th, and as one of her "attacks" was feared, they +prudently took her by surprise. She was told that Dr. Ducolombier, +coming from Chauveau-Lagarde, asked to see her at the wicket. She went +down without suspicion and was astonished to find in place of the man +she expected, two others whom she had never seen. One was the +executioner Ferey, who seized her hands and tied her. The doors opened, +and seeing the gendarmes, the cart and the crowd, she understood, and +bowed her head in resignation. + +On the Place du Vieux-Marché the scaffold was raised, and a post to +which the text of the verdict was affixed. The prisoner was taken up to +the platform; she seemed quite broken, thin, yet very imposing, with her +still black hair, and her air of "lady of the manor." She was dressed in +violet silk, and as she persisted in keeping her head down, her face was +hidden by the frills of her bonnet. To spare her no humiliation Ferey +pinned them up; he then made her sit on a stool and tied her to the +post, which forced her to hold up her head. + +What she saw at the foot of the scaffold brought tears of pride to her +eyes. In the first row of the crowd that quietly and respectfully filled +the place, ladies in sombre dresses were grouped as close as possible to +the scaffold, as if to take a voluntary part in the punishment of the +old Chouanne; and during the six hours that the exhibition lasted the +ladies of highest rank and most distinguished birth in the town came by +turns to keep her company in her agony; some of them even spread flowers +at the foot of the scaffold, thus transforming the disgrace into an +apotheosis. + +The heart of the Marquise, which had not softened through seventeen +months of torture and anxiety, melted at last before this silent homage; +tears were seen rolling down her thin cheeks, and the crowd was touched +to see the highest ladies in the town sitting round this old unhappy +woman, and saluting her with solemn courtesies. + +At nightfall Mme. de Combray was taken back to the conciergerie; later +in the evening she was sent to Bicêtre, and several days afterwards +Chopais-Marivaux, thinking he had served the Master well, begged as the +reward of his zeal for the cross of the Legion of Honour. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FATE OF D'ACHÉ + + +D'Aché, however, had not renounced his plans; the arrest of Le +Chevalier, Mme. de Combray and Mme. Acquet was not enough to discourage +him. It was, after all, only one stake lost, and he was the sort to +continue the game. It is not even certain that he took the precaution, +when Licquet was searching for him all over Normandy, to leave the +Château of Montfiquet at Mandeville, where he had lived since his +journey to England in the beginning of 1807. Ten months after the +robbery of Quesnay he was known to be in the department of the Eure; +Licquet, who had just terminated his enquiry, posted to Louviers, +d'Aché, he found, had been there three days previously. From where had +he come? From Tournebut, where, in spite of the search made, he could +have lived concealed for six months in some well-equipped hiding-place? +Unlikely as this seems, Licquet was inclined to believe it, so much was +his own cunning disconcerted by the audacious cleverness of his rival. +The letter in which he reports to Réal his investigation in the Eure, is +stamped with deep discouragement; he did not conceal the fact that the +pursuit of d'Aché was a task as deceptive as it was useless. Perhaps he +also thought that Le Chevalier's case was a precedent to be followed; +d'Aché would have been a very undesirable prisoner to bring before a +tribunal, and to get rid of him without scandal would be the best thing +for the State. Licquet felt that an excess of zeal, bringing on a +spectacular arrest such as that of Georges Cadoudal, would be +ill-received in high quarters, and he therefore showed some nonchalance +in his search for the conspirator. + +D'Aché, meanwhile, showed little concern on learning of the capture of +his accomplices. Lost in his illusions he took no care for his own +safety, and remained at Mandeville, organising imaginary legions on +paper, arranging the stages of the King's journey to Paris, and +discussing with the Montfiquets certain points of etiquette regarding +the Prince's stay at their château on the day following his arrival in +France. One day, however, when they were at table--it was in the spring +of 1808--a stranger arrived at the Château de Mandeville, and asked for +M. Alexandre (the name taken by d'Aché, it will be remembered, at +Bayeux). D'Aché saw the man himself, and thinking his manner suspicious, +and his questions indiscreet, he treated him as a spy and showed him the +door, but not before the intruder had launched several threats at him. + +This occurrence alarmed M. de Montfiquet, and he persuaded his guest to +leave Mandeville for a time. During the following night they both +started on foot for Rubercy, where M. Gilbert de Mondejen, a great +friend and confidant of d'Aché's, was living in hiding from the police +in the house of a Demoiselle Genneville. This old lady, who was an +ardent royalist, welcomed the fugitives warmly; they were scarcely +seated at breakfast, however, when a servant gave the alarm. "Here come +the soldiers!" she cried. + +D'Aché and Mondejen rushed from the room and bounded across the porch +into the courtyard just as the gendarmes burst in at the gate. They +would have been caught if a horse had not slipped on the wet pavement +and caused some confusion, during which they shut themselves into a +barn, escaped by a door at the back, and jumping over hedges and ditches +gained a little wood on the further side of the Tortoue brook. + +But d'Aché had been seen, and from that day he was obliged to resume his +wandering existence, living in the woods by day and tramping by night. +He was entirely without resources, for he had no money, but was certain +of finding a refuge, in case of need, in this region where malcontents +abounded and all doors opened to them. In this way he reached the forest +of Serisy, a part of which had formerly belonged to the Montfiquets; it +was here that the abandoned mines were situated that had been mentioned +to Licquet as Allain's place of refuge. Though obliged to abandon the +Château de Mandeville, where, as well as at Rubercy, the gendarmes had +made a search, d'Aché did not lack shelter around Bayeux. A Madame +Chivré, who lived on the outskirts of the town, had for fifteen years +been the providence of the most desperate Chouans, and d'Aché was sure +of a welcome from her; but he stayed only a few days. + +Mme. Amfrye also assisted him. This woman who never went out except to +church, and was seen every morning with eyes downcast, walking to +Saint-Patrice with her servant carrying her prayer book, was one of the +fiercest royalists of the region. She looked after the emigrants' funds +and took charge of their correspondence. Once a week a priest rang her +door-bell; it was the Abbé Nicholas, curé of Vierville, a little fishing +village. The Abbé, whose charity was proverbial, and accounted for his +visits to Mme. Amfrye, was in reality a second David l'Intrépide; mass +said and his beads told, he got into a boat and went alone to the +islands of Saint-Marcouf, where an exchange of letters was made with the +English emissaries, the good priest bringing his packet back to Bayeux +under his soutane. + +D'Aché could also hide with Mademoiselle Dumesnil, or Mlle. Duquesnay de +Montfiquet, to both of whom he had been presented by Mme. de Vaubadon, +an ardent royalist who had rendered signal service to the party during +the worst days of the Terror. She was mentioned among the Normans who +had shown most intelligent and devoted zeal for the cause. + +Born de Mesnildot, niece of Tourville, she had married shortly before +the Revolution M. le Tellier de Vaubadon, son of a member of the Rouen +Parliament, a handsome man, amiable, loyal, elegant, and most charmingly +sociable. She was medium-sized, not very pretty, but attractive, with a +very white skin, tawny hair, and graceful carriage. Two sons were born +of this union, and on the outbreak of the Revolution M. de Vaubadon +emigrated. After several months of retreat in the Château of Vaubadon, +the young woman tired of her grass-widowhood, which seemed as if it +would be eternal, and returned to Bayeux where she had numerous +relations. The Terror was over; life was reawakening, and the gloomy +town gave itself up to it gladly. "Never were balls, suppers, and +concerts more numerous, animated and brilliant in Bayeux than at this +period." Mme. de Vaubadon's success was marked. When some of her papers +were seized in the year IX the following note from an adorer was found: +"All the men who have had the misfortune to see you have been mortally +wounded. I therefore implore you not to stay long in this town, not to +leave your apartment but at dusk, and veiled. We hope to cure our +invalids by cold baths and refreshing drinks; but be gracious enough not +to make incurables." + +So that her children should not be deprived of their father's fortune, +which the nation could sequestrate as the property of an _émigré_, Mme. +de Vaubadon, like many other royalists, had sued for a divorce. All +those who had had recourse to this extremity had asked for an annulment +of the decree as soon as their husbands could return to France, and had +resumed conjugal relations. But Mme. de Vaubadon did not consider her +divorce a mere formality; she intended to remain free, and even brought +suit against her husband for the settlement of her property. This act, +which was severely criticised by the aristocracy of Bayeux, alienated +many of her friends and placed her somewhat on the outskirts of +society. From that time lovers were attributed to her, and it is certain +that her conduct became more light. She scarcely concealed her liaison +with Guérin de Bruslart, the leader of the Norman Chouans, the successor +of Frotté, and a true type of the romantic brigand, who managed to live +for ten years in Normandy and even in Paris, without falling into one of +the thousand traps set for him by Fouché. Bruslart arrived at his +mistress's house at night, his belt bristling with pistols and poniards, +and "always ready for a desperate hand-to-hand fight." + +Together with this swaggerer Mme. de Vaubadon received a certain +Ollendon, a Chouan of doubtful reputation, who was said to have gone +over to the police through need of money. Mme. de Vaubadon, since her +divorce, had herself been in a precarious position. She had dissipated +her own fortune, which had already been greatly lessened by the +Revolution. She was now reduced to expedients, and seeing closed to her +the doors of many of the houses in Bayeux to which her presence had +formerly given tone, she went to Caen and settled in the Rue Guilbert +nearly opposite the Rue Coupée. + +Whether it was that Ollendon had decided to profit by her relations with +the Chouans, or that Fouché had learned that she was in need and would +not refuse good pay for her services, Mme. de Vaubadon was induced to +enter into communication with the police. The man whom in 1793 Charlotte +Corday had immortally branded with a word, Senator Doulcet de +Pontécoulant, undertook to gain this recruit for the imperial +government. + +If certain traditions are to be trusted, Pontécoulant, who was supposed +to be one of Acquet de Férolles' protectors, had insinuated to Mme. de +Vaubadon that "her intrigues with the royalists had long been known in +high places, and an order for her arrest and that of d'Aché, who was +said to be her lover, was about to be issued." "You understand," he +added, "that the Emperor is as merciful as he is powerful, that he has a +horror of punishment and only wants to conciliate, but that he must +crush, at all costs, the aid given to England by the agitation on the +coasts. Redeem your past. You know d'Aché's retreat: get him to leave +France; his return will be prevented, but the certainty of his +embarkation is wanted, and you will be furnished with agents who will be +able to testify to it." + +In this way Mme. de Vaubadon would be led to the idea of revealing +d'Aché's retreat, believing that it was only a question of getting him +over to England; but facts give slight support to this sugared version +of the affair. After the particularly odious drama that we are about to +relate, all who had taken part in it tried to prove for themselves a +moral alibi, and to throw on subordinates the horror of a crime that had +been long and carefully prepared. Fouché, whom few memories disturbed, +was haunted by this one, and attributed to himself a rôle as chivalrous +as unexpected. According to him, d'Aché, in extremity, had tried a bold +stroke. This man, who, since Georges' death, had so fortunately escaped +all the spies of France, had of his own will suddenly presented himself +before the Minister of Police, to convert him to royalist doctrines! +Fouché had shown a loyalty that equalled his visitor's boldness. "I do +not wish," he said, "to take advantage of your boldness and have you +arrested _hic et nunc_; I give you three days to get out of France; +during this time I will ignore you completely; on the fourth day I will +set my men on you, and if you are taken you must bear the consequences." + +This is honourable, but without doubt false. Besides the improbability +of this conspirator offering himself without reason to the man who had +hunted him so long, it is difficult to imagine that such a meeting could +have taken place without any mention of it being made in the +correspondence in the case. None of the letters exchanged between the +Minister of Police and the prefects makes any allusion to this visit; it +seems to accord so little with the character of either that it must be +relegated to the ranks of the legends with which Fouché sought to hide +his perfidies. It is certain that a snare was laid for d'Aché, that Mme. +de Vaubadon was the direct instrument, that Pontécoulant acted as +intermediary between the minister and the woman; but the inventor of the +stratagem is unknown. A simple recital of the facts will show that all +three of those named are worthy to have combined in it. + +Public rumour asserts that Mme. de Vaubadon had been d'Aché's mistress, +but she did not now know where he was hidden. In the latter part of +August, 1809, she went to Bayeux to find out from her friend Mlle. +Duquesnay de Montfiquet if d'Aché was in the neighbourhood, and if so, +with whom. Mlle. de Montfiquet, knowing Mme. de Vaubadon to be one of +the outlaw's most intimate friends, told her that he had been living in +the town for a long time, and that she went to see him every week. The +matter ended there, and after paying some visits, Mme. de Vaubadon +returned by coach the same evening to Caen. + +It became known later that she had a long interview with Pontécoulant +the next day, during which it was agreed that she should deliver up +d'Aché, in return for which Fouché would pay her debts and give her a +pension. But she attached a strange condition to the bargain; she +refused "to act with the authorities, and only undertook to keep her +promise if they put at her disposal, while leaving her completely +independent, a non-commissioned officer of gendarmerie, whom she was to +choose herself, and who would blindly obey her orders, without having to +report to his chiefs." Perhaps the unfortunate woman hoped to retain +d'Aché's life in her keeping, and save him by some subterfuge, but she +had to deal with Pontécoulant, Réal and Fouché, three experienced +players whom it was difficult to deceive. They accepted her conditions, +only desiring to get hold of d'Aché, and determined to do away with him +as soon as they should know where to catch him. + +On Thursday, September 5th, Mme. de Vaubadon reappeared in Bayeux, and +went to Mlle. Duquesnay de Montfiquet to tell her of the imminent danger +d'Aché was in, and to beg her to ensure his safety by putting her in +communication with him. We now follow the story of a friend of Mme. de +Vaubadon's family who tried to prove her innocent, if not of treachery, +at least of the crime that was the result of it. Mlle. de Montfiquet had +great confidence in her friend's loyalty, but not in her discretion, and +obstinately refused to take Mme. de Vaubadon to d'Aché. The former, +fearing that action would be taken without her, returned to the charge, +but encountered a firm determination to be silent that rendered her +insistence fruitless. In despair at the possibility of having aroused +suspicions that might lead to the disappearance of d'Aché, she resolved +not to leave the place. + +"I do not wish to be seen in Bayeux," she said to her friend, "I am +going to sleep here." + +"But I have only one bed." + +"I will share it with you." + +During the night, as the two women's thoughts kept them from sleeping, +Mme. de Vaubadon changed her tactics. + +"You have no means of saving him," she hinted, "whilst all my plans are +laid. I have at my disposal a boat that for eight or nine hundred francs +will take him to England; I have some one to take him to the coast, and +two sailors to man the boat. If you will not tell me his retreat, at +least make a rendezvous where my guide can meet him. If you refuse he +may be arrested to-morrow, tried, and shot, and the responsibility for +his death will fall on you." + +Mlle. de Montfiquet gave up; she promised to persuade d'Aché to go to +England. It was now Friday, September 6th. It was settled that at ten +o'clock in the evening of the following day she herself should take him +to the village of Saint-Vigor-le-Grand, at the gates of Bayeux. She +would advance alone to meet the guide sent by Mme. de Vaubadon; the men +would say "Samson," to which Mlle. de Montfiquet would answer "Félix," +and only after the exchange of these words would she call d'Aché, hidden +at a distance. + +Mme. de Vaubadon returned to Caen, arriving at home before midday. Most +of the frequenters of her salon at this period were aspirants for her +favours, and among whom was a young man of excellent family, M. Alfred +de Formigny, very much in love, and consequently very jealous of +Ollendon, who was then supposed to be the favoured lover. In the evening +of this day, M. de Formigny went to Mme. de Vaubadon's. He was told that +she was not at home, but as he saw a light on the ground floor, and +thought he could distinguish the silhouette of a man against the +curtains, he watched the house and ascertained that its mistress was +having an animated conversation with a visitor whose back only could be +seen, and whom he believed to be his rival. Wishing to make sure of it, +and determined to have an explanation, he stood sentinel before the door +of the house. "Soon a man wrapped in a cloak came out, who, seeing that +he was watched, pulled the folds of it up to his eyes. M. de Formigny, +certain that it was Ollendon, threw himself on the man, and forced off +the cloak." But he felt very sheepish when he found himself face to face +with Foison, quartermaster of gendarmerie, who, not less annoyed, +growled out a few oaths, and hastily made off. The same evening M. de +Formigny told his adventure to some of his friends, but his indiscretion +had no consequences, it seemed, Mme. de Vaubadon's reputation being so +much impaired that a new scandal passed unnoticed. + +Meanwhile Mlle. de Montfiquet had kept her promise. As soon as her +friend left her, she went to Mlle. Dumesnil's, where d'Aché had lived +for the last six weeks, and told him of Mme. de Vaubadon's proposition. +The offer was so tempting, it seemed so truly inspired by the most +zealous and thoughtful affection, and came from so trusted a friend, +that he did not hesitate to accept. It appears, however, that he was not +in much danger in Bayeux, and took little pains to conceal himself, for +on Saturday morning he piously took the sacrament at the church of +Saint-Patrice, then returned to Mlle. Dumesnil's and arranged some +papers. As soon as it was quite dark that evening Mlle. de Montfiquet +came to fetch him, and found him ready to start. He was dressed in a +hunting jacket of blue cloth, trousers of ribbed green velvet and a +waistcoat of yellow piqué. He put two loaded English pistols in the +pockets of his jacket and carried a sword-cane. Mlle. de Montfiquet gave +him a little book of "Pensées Chrétiennes," in which she had written +her name; then, accompanied by her servant, she led him across the +suburbs to Saint-Vigor-le-Grand. She found Mme. de Vaubadon's guide at +the rendezvous before the church door; it was Foison, whom she +recognised. The passwords exchanged, d'Aché came forward, kissed Mlle. +de Montfiquet's hand, bade her adieu, and started with the gendarme. The +anxious old lady followed him several steps at a distance, and saw +standing at the end of the wall of the old priory of Saint-Vigor, two +men in citizen's dress, who joined the travellers. All four took the +cross road that led by the farm of Caugy to Villiers-le-Sec. They +wished, by crossing the Seule at Reviers, to get to the coast at +Luc-sur-Mer, seven leagues from Bayeux, where the embarkation was to +take place. + + * * * * * + +When d'Aché and his companions left Bayeux, Luc-sur-Mer was in a state +of excitement. The next day, Sunday, lots were to be drawn for the +National Guard, and the young people of the village, knowing that this +fête was only "conscription in disguise," had threatened to prevent the +ceremony, to surround the Mairie and burn the registers and the +recruiting papers. What contributed to the general uneasiness was the +fact that four men who were known to be gendarmes in disguise had been +hovering about, chiefly on the beach; they had had the audacity to +arrest two gunners, coast-guards in uniform and on duty, and demand +their papers. A serious brawl had ensued. At night the same men +"suddenly thrust a dark lantern in the face of every one they met." + +M. Boullée, the Mayor of Luc, lived at the hamlet of +Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrande, some distance from the town, and in much +alarm at the disturbances watched with his servants through part of the +night of the 7th-8th. At one o'clock in the morning, while he was with +them in a room on the ground floor, a shot was heard outside and a ball +struck the window frame. They rushed to the door, and in the darkness +saw a man running away; the cartouche was still burning in the +courtyard. M. Boullée immediately sent to the coast-guards to inform +them of the fact, and to ask for a reinforcement of two men who did not +arrive till near four o'clock. Having passed the night patrolling at +some distance from La Délivrande, they had not heard the shot that had +alarmed the mayor, but towards half-past three had heard firing and a +loud "Help, help!" in the direction of the junction of the road from +Bayeux with that leading to the sea. + +It was now dawn and M. Boullée, reassured by the presence of the two +gunners, resolved to go out and explore the neighbourhood. On the road +to Luc, about five hundred yards from his house, a peasant hailed him, +and showed him, behind a hayrick almost on the edge of the road, the +body of a man. The face had received so many blows as to be almost +unrecognisable; the left eye was coming out of the socket; the hair was +black, but very grey on the temples, and the beard thin and short. The +man lay on his back, with a loaded pistol on each side, about two feet +from the body; the blade and sheath of a sword-cane had rolled a little +way off, and near them was the broken butt-end of a double-barrelled +gun. On raising the corpse to search the pockets, the hands were found +to be strongly tied behind the back. No papers were found that could +give any clue to his identity, but only a watch, thirty francs in +silver, and a little book on the first page of which was written the +name "Duquesnay de Montfiquet." + +The growing daylight now made an investigation possible. Traces of blood +were found on the road to Luc from the place where the body lay, to its +junction with the road to Bayeux, a distance of about two hundred yards. +It was evident that the murder had been committed at the spot where the +two roads met, and that the assassins had carried the corpse to the +fields and behind the hayrick to retard discovery of the crime. The +disguised gendarmes whose presence had so disturbed the townsfolk had +disappeared. A horse struck by a ball was lying in a ditch. It was +raised, and though losing a great deal of blood, walked as far as the +village of Mathieu, on the road to Caen, where it was stabled. + +These facts having been ascertained, M. Boullée's servants and the +peasants whom curiosity had attracted to the spot, escorted the dead +body, which had been put on a wheelbarrow, to La Délivrande. It was laid +in a barn near the celebrated chapel of pilgrimages, and there the +autopsy took place at five in the afternoon. It was found that "death +was due to a wound made by the blade of the sword-cane; the weapon, +furiously turned in the body, had lacerated the intestines." Three balls +had, besides, struck the victim, and five buckshot had hit him full in +the face and broken several teeth; of two balls fired close to the body, +one had pierced the chest above the left breast, and the other had +broken the left thigh, and one of the murderers had struck the face so +violently that his gun had broken against the skull. + +The mayor had been occupied with the drawing of lots all day, and only +found time to write and inform the prefect of the murder when the +doctors had completed their task. He was in great perplexity, for the +villagers unanimously accused the gendarmes of the mysterious crime. It +was said that at dawn that morning the quartermaster Foison and four of +his men had gone into an inn at Mathieu, one of them carrying a gun with +the butt-end broken. While breakfasting, these "gentlemen," not seeing a +child lying in a closed bed, had taken from a tin box some "yellow +coins" which they divided, and the inference drawn was that the +gendarmes had plundered a traveller whom they knew to be well-supplied, +and sure of impunity since they could always plead a case of rebellion, +had got rid of him by murder. This was the sense of the letter sent to +Caffarelli by the Mayor of Luc on the evening of the 8th. The next +morning Foison appeared at La Délivrande to draw up the report. When +Boullée asked him a few questions about the murder, he answered in so +arrogant and menacing a tone as to make any enquiry impossible. Putting +on a bold face, he admitted that he had been present at the scene of the +crime. He said that while he was patrolling the road to Luc with four of +his men, two individuals appeared whom he asked for their papers. One of +them immediately fled, and the other discharged his pistols; the +gendarmes seized him, and in spite of his desperate resistance succeeded +in bringing him down. He stayed dead on the ground, "having been struck +several times during the struggle." + +"But his pistols were still loaded," said some one. + +Foison made no reply. + +"But his hands were tied," said the mayor. + +Foison tried to deny it. + +"Here are the bands," said Boullée, drawing from his pocket the ribbon +taken from the dead man's hands. And as Captain Mancel, who presided at +the interview, remarked that those were indeed the bands used by +gendarmes, Foison left the room with more threats, swearing that he owed +an account to no one. + +The news of the crime had spread with surprising rapidity, and +indignation was great wherever it was heard. In writing to Réal, +Caffarelli echoed public feeling: + +"How did it happen that four gendarmes were unable to seize a man who +had struggled for a long time? How came it that he was, in a way, +mutilated? Why, after having killed this man, did they leave him there, +without troubling to comply with any of the necessary formalities? Ask +these questions, M. le Comte; the public is asking them and finds no +answer. What is the reply, if, moreover, as is said, the person was +seized, his hands tightly tied behind his back, and then shot? What are +the terrible consequences to be expected from these facts if they are +true? How will the gendarmes be able to fulfil their duties without fear +of being treated as assassins or wild beasts?" + +It must be mentioned that as soon as the crime was committed, Foison had +gone to Caen and given Pontécoulant the papers found on d'Aché, which +contained information as to the political and military situation on the +coast of Normandy, and on the possibility of a disembarkation. +Pontécoulant had immediately posted off, and on the morning of the 11th +told Fouché verbally of the manner in which Foison and Mme. de Vaubadon +had acquitted themselves of their mission. It remained to be seen how +the public would take things, and Caffarelli's letter presaged no good; +what would it be when it became known that the gendarme assassins had +acted with the authorisation of the government? Happily, a confusion +arose that retarded the discovery of the truth. In the hope of +determining the dead man's identity, the Mayor of Luc had exposed the +body to view, and many had come to see it, including some people from +Caen. Four of these had unanimously recognised the corpse as that of a +clock-maker of Paris, named Morin-Cochu, well known at the fairs of +Lower Normandy. Fouché allowed the public to follow this false trail, +and it was wonderful to see his lieutenants, Desmarets, Veyrat, Réal +himself, looking for Morin-Cochu all over Paris as if they were +ignorant of the personality of their victim. And when Morin-Cochu was +found alive and well in his shop in the Rue Saint-Denis, which he had +not left for four years, they began just as zealously to look for his +agent Festau, who might well be the murdered man. + +Caffarelli, however, was not to be caught in this clumsy trap. He knew +how matters stood now, and showed his indignation. He wrote very +courageously to Réal: "You will doubtless ask me, M. le Comte, why I +have not tried to show up the truth? My answer is simple: it is publicly +rumoured that the expedition of the gendarmes was ordered by M. the +Senator Comte de P----, to whom were given the papers found on the +murdered man, and who has gone to Paris, no doubt to transmit them to +his Excellency the Minister of Police. Ought I not to respect the secret +of the authorities?" + +And all that had occurred in his department for the two last years that +it had not been considered advisable to tell him of, all the +irregularities that in his desire for peace he had thought he should +shut his eyes to, all the affronts that he had patiently endured, came +back to his mind. He felt his heart swell with disgust at cowardly acts, +dishonourable tools, and odious snares, and nobly explained his +feelings: + +"Certainly I am not jealous of executing severe measures and I should +like never to have any of that kind to enforce. But I owe it to myself +as well as to the dignity of my office not to remain prefect in name +only, and if any motives whatever can destroy confidence in me to this +point on important matters I must simply be told of it and I shall know +how to resign without murmuring. It is not permissible to treat a man +whose honesty and zeal cannot be mistaken, in the manner in which I have +been treated for some time. I cannot conceal from you, M. le Comte, that +I am keenly wounded at the measures that have been taken towards me. It +has been thought better to put faith in people of tarnished and +despicable reputation, the terror of families, than in a man who has +only sought the good of the country he represented, and known no other +ambition than that of acting wisely." + +And this letter, so astonishing from the pen of an imperial prefect, was +a sort of revenge for all the poor people for whom the police had laid +such odious traps; it would remind Fouché of all the Licquets and +Foisons who in the exercise of justice found matter for repugnant +comedies. It was surprising that Licquet had had no hand in the affair +of La Délivrande. Had he breathed it to Réal? It is possible, though +there is no indication of his interference, albeit his manner is +recognised in the scenario of the snare to which d'Aché fell a victim, +and in the fact that he appeared at the end, coming from Rouen with his +secretary Dupont, and the husband of the woman Levasseur who was said to +have been d'Aché's mistress. + +On the morning of September 23d, a meeting took place at seven o'clock +at the Mayor of Luc's house. The doctors who had held the autopsy were +there, Captain Mancel and Foison, who was in great agitation, although +he tried to hide it, at having to assist at the exhumation of his +victim. They started for the cemetery, and the grave-digger did his +work. After fifteen minutes the shovel struck the board that covered +d'Aché's body, and soon after the corpse was seen. The beard had grown +thick and strong. Foison gazed at it. It was indeed the man with whom he +had travelled a whole night, chatting amiably while each step brought +him nearer to the assassins who were waiting for him. Licquet moved +about with complete self-control, talking of the time when he had known +the man who lay there, his face swollen but severe, his nose thin as an +eagle's beak, his lips tightened. Suddenly the detective remembered a +sign that he had formerly noted, and ordered the dead man's boots to be +removed. All present could then see that d'Aché's "toe-nails were so +grown over into his flesh that he walked on them." Foison also saw, and +wishing to brave this corpse, more terrifying for him than for any one +else, he stooped and opened the dead lips with the end of his cane. A +wave of fetid air struck the assassin full in the face, and he fell +backward with a cry of fear. + +This incident terminated the enquiry; the body was returned to the +earth, and those who had been present at the exhumation started for La +Délivrande. Foison walked alone behind the others; no one spoke to him, +and when they arrived at the mayor's, where all had been invited to +dine, he remained on the threshold which he dared not cross, knowing +that for the rest of his life he would never again enter the house of an +honest man. + +The same evening at Caen, where everything was known, although Fouché +was still looking for Morin-Cochu, the vengeance of the corpse +annihilating Foison was the topic of all conversations. There was a +certain gaiety in the town, that was proud of its prefect's attitude. +When the curtain went up at the theatre, while all the young "swells" +were in the orchestra talking of the event that was agitating "society," +they saw a blonde woman with a red scarf on her shoulders in one of the +boxes. The first one that saw her could not believe his eyes: it was +Mme. de Vaubadon! The name was at first whispered, then a murmur went +round that at last broke into an uproar. The whole theatre rose +trembling, and with raised fists cried: "Down with the murderess! She is +the woman with the red shawl; it is stained with d'Aché's blood. Death +to her!" + +The unhappy woman tried to put on a bold face, and remained calm; it is +supposed that Pontécoulant was in the theatre, and perhaps she hoped +that he, at least, would champion her. But when she understood that in +that crowd, among whom many perhaps had loved her, no one now would +defend her, she rose and left her box, while some of the most excited +hustled into the corridor to hoot her in passing. She at last escaped +and got to her house in the Rue Guilbert, and the next day she left Caen +forever. + +Less culpable certainly, and now pitied by all to whom d'Aché's death +recalled the affair of Quesnay, Mme. Acquet was spending her last days +in the conciergerie at Rouen. After the petition for a reprieve on +account of her pregnancy, and the visit of two doctors, who said they +could not admit the truth of her plea, Ducolombier used all his efforts +to obtain grace from the Emperor. As soon as the sentence was pronounced +he had hurried to Paris in quest of means of approaching his Majesty. +His relative, Mme. de Saint-Léonard, wife of the Mayor of Falaise, +joined him there, and got her relatives in official circles to interest +themselves. But the Emperor was then living in a state of continual +agitation; Laeken, Mayence and Cassel were as familiar stopping-places +as Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau, and even if a few minutes' audience +could be obtained, what hope was there of fixing his attention on the +life of an insignificant woman? Chauveau-Lagarde advised the +intervention of Mme. Acquet's three girls, the eldest now twelve, and +the youngest not eight years old. Mourning garments were hastily bought +for them, and they were sent to Paris on January 24th, with a Mlle. +Bodinot. Every day they pursued the Emperor's carriage through the town, +as he went to visit the manufactories. Timoléon, Mme. de Saint-Léonard, +and Mlle. de Séran took turns with the children; they went to Malmaison, +to Versailles, to Meudon. At last, on March 2d, at Sèvres, one of the +children succeeded in getting to the door of the imperial carriage, and +put a petition into the hands of an officer, but it probably never +reached the Emperor, for this step that had cost so much money and +trouble remained ineffectual. + +There are among Mme. de Combray's papers more than ten drafts of +petitions addressed to the Emperor's brothers, to Josephine, and even to +foreign princes. But each of them had much to ask for himself, and all +were afraid to importune the master. The latter was now in Germany, +cutting his way to Vienna, and poor Mme. Acquet would have had slight +place in his thoughts in spite of the illusions of her friends, had he +ever even heard her name. In April the little Acquets returned to Mme. +Dusaussay in Rouen. She wrote to Timoléon: + +"I am not surprised that you were not satisfied with the children; until +now they have only been restrained by fear, and the circumstances of the +journey to Paris brought them petting and kindness of which they have +taken too much advantage. If worse trouble comes to Mme. Acquet, we will +do our best to keep them in ignorance of it, and it is to be hoped the +same can be done for your mother." + +And so all hope of grace seemed lost for the poor woman, and it would +have been very easy to forget her in prison, for who could be specially +interested in her death? Neither Fouché, Réal, the prefect nor even +Licquet, who, once the verdict was given, seemed to have lost all +animosity towards his victims. Only the imperial procurer, +Chapais-Marivaux, seemed determined on the execution of the sentence. He +had already caused two consultations to be held on the subject of Mme. +Acquet's health. The specialists could not or would not decide upon it, +and this gave some hope to Mme. de Combray, who from her cell in Bicêtre +still presided over all efforts made for her daughter, and continued to +hold a firm hand over her family. + +As the Emperor had now entered Vienna in triumph, the Marquise thought +it a good time to implore once more the conqueror's pity. She sent for +her son Timoléon on June 1st. She had decided to send her two eldest +grandchildren to Vienna with their aunt Mme. d'Houël and the faithful +Ducolombier, who offered to undertake the long journey. Chauveau-Lagarde +drew up a petition for the children to give to Napoleon, and they left +Rouen about July 10th, arriving in Vienna the fortnight following the +battle of Wagram. Ducolombier at once sought a means of seeing the +Emperor. Hurried by the Marquise, who allowed no discussion of the +methods that seemed good to her, he had started without recommendations, +letters of introduction or promises of an audience, and had to wait for +chance to give him a moment's interview with Napoleon. He established +himself with Mme. d'Houël and the children at Schoebrünn, where the +imperial quarters were, and by dint of solicitations obtained the +privilege of going into the court of the château with other supplicants. + +The Emperor was away; he had wished to revisit the scene of his +brilliant victory, and during the whole day Ducolombier and his +companions waited his return on the porch of the château. Towards +evening the gate opened, the guard took up arms, drums beat and the +Emperor appeared on horseback in the immense courtyard, preceded by his +guides and his mameluke, and followed by a numerous staff. The hearts of +the poor little Acquets must have beaten fast when they saw this master +of the world from whom they were going to beg their mother's life. In a +moment the Emperor was upon them; Ducolombier pushed them; they fell on +their knees. + +Seeing these mourning figures, Napoleon thought he had before him the +widow and orphans of some officer killed during the campaign. He raised +the children kindly. + +"Sire! Give us back our mother!" they sobbed. + +The Emperor, much surprised, took the petition from Mme. d'Houël's hands +and read it through. There were a few moments of painful silence; he +raised his eyes to the little girls, asked Ducolombier a few brief +questions, then suddenly starting on, + +"I cannot," he said drily. + +And he disappeared among the groups humbly bowing in the hall. Some one +who witnessed the scene relates that the Emperor was very much moved +when reading the petition. "He changed colour several times, tears were +in his eyes and his voice trembled." The Duke of Rovigo asserted that +pardon would be granted; the Emperor's heart had already pronounced it, +but he was very angry with the minister of police, who after having made +a great fuss over this affair and got all the credit, left him supreme +arbiter without having given him any information concerning it. + +"If the case is a worthy one," said Napoleon, "why did he not send me +word of it? and if it is not, why did he give passports to a family whom +I am obliged to send away in despair?" + +The poor children had indeed to return to France, knowing that they +took, as it were, her death sentence to their mother. Each relay that +brought them nearer to her was a step towards the scaffold; nothing +could now save the poor woman, and she waited in resignation. Never, +since Le Chevalier's death, had she lost the impassive manner that had +astonished the spectators in court. Whether solitude had altered her +ardent nature, or whether she looked on death as the only possible end +to her adventurous existence, she seemed indifferent as to her fate, and +thought no longer of the future. Licquet had long abandoned her; he had +been "her last friend." Of all the survivors of the affair of Quesnay +she was the only one left in the conciergerie, the others having gone to +serve their terms in Bicêtre or other fortresses. + +Whilst it had seemed possible that Mme. Acquet's friends might obtain +the Emperor's interest in her case, she had received great care and +attention, but since the return of her daughters from Vienna things had +changed. She had become once more "the woman Acquet," and the interest +that had been taken in her gave place to brutal indifference. On August +23d (and this date probably accords with the return of the children and +their aunt) Chapais-Marivaux, in haste to end the affair, sent three +health-officers to examine her, but these good people, knowing the +consequence of their diagnosis, declared that "the symptoms made it +impossible for them to pronounce an opinion on the state of the +prisoner." + +Chapais-Marivaux took a month to find doctors who would not allow pity +to interfere with their professional duty, and on October 6th the +prefect wrote to Réal: "M. le Procureur-Général has just had the woman +Acquet examined by four surgeons, three of whom had not seen her before. +They have certified that she is not pregnant, and so she is to be +executed to-day." + +We know nothing of the way in which she prepared for death, nor of the +feeling which the news of her imminent execution must have occasioned in +the prison; but when she was handed over to the executioner for the +final arrangements, Mme. Acquet wrote two or three letters to beg that +her children might never fall into her husband's hands. Her toilet was +then made; her beautiful black hair, which she had cut off on coming to +the conciergerie two years previously, fell now under the executioner's +scissors; she put on a sort of jacket of white flannel, and her hands +were tied behind her back. She was now ready; it was half past four in +the afternoon, the doors opened, and a squad of gendarmes surrounded the +cart. + +The cortège went by the "Gros-Horloge" to the "Vieux-Marché." Some one +who saw Mme. Acquet pass, seated in the cart beside the executioner +Ferey, says that "her white dress and short black hair blowing in her +face made the paleness of her skin conspicuous; she was neither downcast +nor bold; the sentence was cried aloud beside the cart." + +She died calmly, as she had lived for months. At five o'clock she +appeared on the platform, very white and very tranquil; unresisting, she +let them tie her; without fear or cry she lay on the board which swung +and carried her under the knife. Her head fell without anything +happening to retard the execution, and the authorities congratulated +themselves on the fact in the report sent to Réal that evening: "The +thing caused no greater sensation than that ordinarily produced by +similar events; the rather large crowd did not give the slightest +trouble." + +And those who had stayed to watch the scaffold disappeared before the +gendarmes escorting the men who had come to take away the body. A few +followed it to the cemetery of Saint-Maur where the criminals were +usually buried. The basket was emptied into a ditch that had been dug +not far from a young tree to which some unknown hand had attached a +black ribbon, to mark the spot which neither cross nor tombstone might +adorn. The rain and wind soon destroyed this last sign; and nothing now +remains to show the corner of earth in the deserted and abandoned +cemetery in which still lies the body of the woman whose rank in other +times would have merited the traditional epitaph: "A very high, noble +and powerful lady." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CHOUANS SET FREE + + +A letter in a woman's handwriting, addressed to Timoléon de Combray, +Hôtel de la Loi, Rue de Richelieu, its black seal hastily broken, +contains these words: "Alas, my dear cousin, you still continued to hope +when all hope was over.... I cannot leave your mother and I am anxious +about M. de Bonnoeil's condition." + +This is all that we can glean of the manner in which Mme. Acquet's +mother and brothers learned of her execution on October 6th. Mme. de +Combray at least displayed a good deal of energy, if not great calmness. +After the winter began, the letters she wrote Timoléon regained their +natural tone. The great sorrow seems to have been forgotten; they all +were leagued together against Acquet, who still reigned triumphant at +Donnay, and threatened to absorb the fortune of the whole family. The +trial had cost an enormous sum. Besides the money stolen in the woods at +Quesnay, which the Marquise had to refund, she had been obliged to spend +money freely in order to "corrupt Licquet," for Chauveau-Lagarde's fee, +for her advocate Maître Gady de la Vigne, and for Ducolombier's journeys +to Paris and Vienna with the little girls,--the whole outlay amounting +to nearly 125,000 francs; and as the farms at Tournebut were +tenantless, while Acquet retained all the estates in lower Normandy and +would not allow them anything, the Marquise and her sons found their +income reduced to almost nothing. There remained not a single crown of +the 25,000 francs deposited in August, 1807, with Legrand. All had been +spent on "necessaries for the prisoners, or in their interests." + +Acquet was intractable. When the time for settling up came, he refused +insolently to pay his share of the lawsuit or for his children's +education. "Mme. de Combray, in order to carry out her own frenzied +plots," he stated, "had foolishly used her daughter's money in paying +her accomplices, and now she came and complained that Mme. Acquet lacked +bread and that she supported her, besides paying for the children's +schooling.... Mme. Acquet left her husband's house on the advice of her +mother who wished to make an accomplice of her. They took away the +children, their father did not even know the place of their retreat, and +the very persons who had abducted them came and asked him for the cost +of their maintenance." + +This was his plea; to which the Combrays replied: "The fee of Mme. +Acquet's lawyer, the expenses of the journey to Vienna and of the little +girls' stay in Paris that they might beg for their mother's pardon, +devolved, if not on the prisoner's husband, at least on her young +children as her heirs; and in any case Acquet ought to pay the bill." +But the latter, who was placed in a very strong position by the +services he had rendered Réal and by the protection of Pontécoulant, +with whom he had associated himself, replied that Chauveau-Lagarde, +while pretending to plead for Mme. Acquet, had in reality only defended +Mme. de Combray: "All Rouen who heard the counsel's speech bears witness +that the daughter was sacrificed to save the mother.... The real object +of their solicitude had been the Marquise. Certainly they took very +little interest in their sister, and the moment her eyes were closed in +death, were base enough to ask for her funeral expenses in court, and +hastened to denounce her children to the Minister of Public Affairs in +order that they might be forced to pay for the sentence pronounced +against their mother." + +The case thus stated, the discussion could only become a scandal. +Bonnoeil disclosed the fact that his brother-in-law, on being asked by +a third person what influences he could bring to bear in order to obtain +Mme. Acquet's pardon, had replied that "such steps offered little chance +of success, and that from the moment the unhappy woman was condemned, +the best way to save her from dying on the scaffold, would be to poison +her in prison." A fresh suit was begun. The correspondence which passed +between the exasperated Combrays and their brother-in-law, who succeeded +in maintaining his self-control, must have made all reconciliation +impossible. A letter in Bonnoeil's handwriting is sufficient to +illustrate the style: + + "Is it charitable for an old French chevalier, a defender of the + Faith and of the Throne, to increase the sorrows on which his two + brothers-in-law are feeding in the silence of oblivion? Does he + hope in his exasperation that he will be able to force them into a + repetition of the story of the crimes committed by Desrues, + Cartouche, Pugatscheff, Shinderhannes, and other impostors, + thieves, garrotters and ruffians, who have rendered themselves + famous by their murders, poisonings, cruelties and cowardly + actions? They promise that, once their case is decided, they will + not again trouble Sieur Acquet de Férolles." + +The invectives were, to say the least, ill-timed. The Combrays had gone +to law in order to force this man, whom they compared to the most +celebrated assassins, to undertake the education of their sister's three +children. These orphans, for whose schooling at the Misses Dusaussay's +no one was ready to pay, were pitied by all who knew of their situation. +Some pious ladies mentioned it to the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, who +kindly offered to subscribe towards the cost of their education. The +Combrays proudly refused, for which Acquet naturally blamed them. "They +think their nieces would be dishonoured by accepting a favour," he +wrote. + +Mme. de Combray might perhaps have yielded, if any one had made her +understand that her granddaughters were the only stake she had left. In +fact, since Mme. Acquet's death, no stone had been left unturned to +obtain the old Marquise's pardon. Ducolombier even went to Navarre to +entreat the help of the Empress Joséphine, whose credit did not stand +very high. We can understand that after the official notification of the +imperial divorce, and as soon as the great event became known, the +Combrays, renouncing their relationship (which was of the very +slightest) with the Tascher de la Pageries, began immediately to count +in advance on the clemency of the future Empress, be she who she might. +When it was certain that an Archduchess was to succeed General +Beauharnais's widow on the throne of France, Ducolombier set out for +Vienna in the hope of outstripping the innumerable host of those who +went there as petitioners. It does not appear that he got farther than +Carlsruhe, and his journey was absolutely fruitless; but it soon became +known that the imperial couple intended making a triumphal progress +through the north of France, ending at Havre or Rouen, and it was then +decided that the little Acquets should appear again. + +At three o'clock in the afternoon of May 30th, the Emperor and Empress +arrived at Rouen. Ducolombier, walking in front of the three little +girls, who were escorted by Mlle. Querey, tried to force a passage for +them through the streets leading to the imperial residence, but could +not get into the house, and was obliged to content himself with handing +the petition, drawn up by Chauveau-Legarde, to the King of Westphalia. +He hoped the next day to be able to place the children on the Emperor's +route as he was on his way to visit some spinning mills; but as soon as +he was in the street with the orphans, he learnt that Napoleon had +inspected the factories at half past three in the morning, and that his +departure was fixed for ten o'clock. Branzon, a revenue collector and +friend of Licquet's procured the little Acquets a card from the prefect, +by showing which they were allowed to wait at the door of the Emperor's +residence. We quote the very words of the letter written the same day by +Ducolombier to Bonnoeil and the old Marquise: + + "Mlle. Querey and the three little girls were permitted to wait at + the door of the prefecture where, as you must know, they allow no + one. As soon as their Majesties' carriage came out, little Caroline + cried out to the Empress. The Emperor lowered the window to take + the petition, and handed it to the Empress, as it was meant for + her. The Empress bent forward in order to see them...." + +This time their confidence was unbounded. The old Marquise was already +congratulated on her approaching liberation; but days passed and nothing +more was heard of it. They waited patiently for a year, their hopes +growing fainter each day, and when it became only too evident that the +petition had had no effect, Timoléon ventured to remind the Empress of +it, and drew up in his own name a fresh request for his mother's pardon, +with no better result than before. A supreme and useless effort was made +on the 30th of August, 1813, when Marie Louise was Empress-Queen-Regent. +At this time Bonnoeil had at length been let out of prison, where he +had been unjustly detained since August, 1807. He had not appeared +before the court, and consequently was not condemned, but was detained +as a "precautionary measure." As his health was much impaired by his +stay at the conciergerie, the prefect took it upon himself to have him +removed, and placed him at Rouen under the supervision of the police. + +For there he could at least keep himself informed of what was going on. +If the newspapers gave but little news, he could still collect the +rumours of the town. Doubtless he was the first to advise his mother to +submit to her fate; and from this very moment the Marquise displayed an +astonishing serenity, as if she in fact foresaw the fall of him whom she +considered her personal enemy. She had accustomed herself very quickly +to life in the prison to which she had been transferred in 1813. The +rules were not very strict for those inmates who had a little money to +spend; she received visitors, sent to Tournebut for her backgammon-board +and her book of rules, and calmly awaited the long-hoped-for +thunderbolt. + +It fell at length, and the old Chouan must have flushed with triumph +when she heard that Bonaparte was crushed. What a sudden change! In less +than a day, the prisoner became again the venerable Marquise de Combray, +a victim to her devotion to the royal cause, a heroine, a martyr, a +saint; while at the other end of Normandy, Acquet de Férolles, who had +at last decided to take in his three children, felt the ground tremble +under his feet, and hurriedly made his preparations for flight. In their +eagerness to make themselves acceptable to the Combrays, people "who +would not have raised a finger to help them when they were overwhelmed +with misfortune," now revealed to them things that had hitherto been +hidden from them; and thus the Marquise and her sons learned how Senator +Pontécoulant, out of hatred for Caffarelli, "whom he wished to ruin," +had undertaken, "with the aid of Acquet de Férolles," to hand over +d'Aché to assassins. Proscribed royalists emerged on all sides from the +holes where they had been burrowing for the last fifteen years. There +was a spirit of retaliation in the air. Every one was making up his +account and writing out the bill. In this home of the Chouannerie, where +hatred ran rife and there were so many bitter desires for revenge, a +terrible reaction set in. The short notes, which the Marquise exchanged +with her sons and servants during the last few days of her captivity, +expressed neither joy at the Princes' return nor happiness at her own +restoration to liberty. They might be summed up in these words: "It is +our turn now," and the germ of the dark history of the Restoration and +the revolutions which followed it is contained in the outpourings of +this embittered heart, which nothing save vengeance could henceforth +satisfy. + +On Sunday, May 1st, 1814, at the hour when Louis XVIII was to enter +Saint Ouen, the doors of the prison were opened for the Marquise de +Combray, who slept the following night at her house in the Rue des +Carmélites. The next day at 1.30 p.m. she set out for Tournebut +with Mlle. Querey; her bailiff, Leclerc, came as far as Rouen to fetch +her in his trap. All the public conveyances were overcrowded; on the +roads leading to Paris there was an uninterrupted stream of vehicles of +all sorts, of cavaliers and of foot passengers, all hurrying to see the +King's return to his capital. Bonnoeil, who was at last delivered from +police supervision, had to set out on foot for Tournebut; he walked the +distance during the night, and arrived in the morning to find his mother +already installed there and making an inspection of the despoiled old +château which she had never thought to see again. The astonishing +reversions of fate make one think of the success which the opera "La +Dame Blanche" had some years later. This charming work sang their own +history to these nobles who were still smarting, and recalled to them +their ruined past. The abandoned "Château d'Avenel," the "poor Dame +Marguerite" spinning in the deserted halls and dreaming of her masters, +the mysterious being who watched over the destinies of the noble family, +and the amusing revival of those last vestiges of feudal times, the +bailiff, the bell in the turret, the gallant paladin, the knight's +banner--all these things saddened our grandmothers by arousing the +melancholy spectre of the good old times. + +At the beginning of August, 1814, Guérin-Bruslart, who had become M. le +Chevalier de Bruslard, Field Marshal in the King's army, attracted his +Majesty's attention to the survivors of the affair of Quesnay. He took +Le Chevalier's son, aged twelve years, to the Tuileries, and the King +accorded him a pension and a scholarship at one of the royal colleges. +The very same day Louis XVIII signed a royal pardon, which the Court of +Rouen ratified a few days later, by which Mme. de Combray's sentence was +annulled. On September 5th the Marquise saw her wildest dream realised +and was presented to the King--a fact which was mentioned in the +_Moniteur_ of the following day. + +This signal favour rallied many to the Combrays. Denunciations of Acquet +and his friends were heard on all sides. The letters written at this +period from Bonnoeil to his brother testify to the astonishment they +felt at these revelations. They made a fresh discovery every day. "M. +Bruslard told me the other day that La Vaubadon wished to have him +arrested, but that he took care not to fall into the trap she had set +for him." "With regard to Licquet, he knew d'Aché well and had made up +to him before the affair with Georges, believing at that time that there +would be a change of government." "It is quite certain that it was +Senator Pontécoulant who had d'Aché killed; Frotté's death was partly +due to him." "With regard to Acquet, M. de Rivoire told Placène that he +had been seen in the temple about six years ago, and that every one +there considered him a spy and an informer...." + +Thus, little by little Mme. de Combray arrived at the conclusion that +all her misfortunes had been caused by her enemies' hatred. In 1815 a +biographer published a life of the Marquise, which was preceded by a +dedication to herself which she had evidently dictated, and which placed +her high up in the list of royalist martyrs. + +This halo pleased her immensely. She was present at the fêtes given at +the Rouen prefecture, where she walked triumphantly--still holding +herself very erect and wearing lilies in her hair--through the very +halls into which she had once been dragged handcuffed by Savoye-Rollin's +gaolers. At dinners where she was an honoured guest she would recount, +with astonishing calmness, her impressions of the pillory and the +prisons. She sent a confidential agent to Donnay "to obtain news of the +Sieur Acquet," who was not at all satisfied and by no means at ease, as +we can well imagine. It was said that he had sent for his sister to come +and take care of his three children, the eldest of whom was nearly +twenty years of age. Acquet pretended to be ill in order to defer his +departure from Donnay. He finally quitted Normandy early in the autumn +of 1814, taking with him his three daughters, "whom he counted on +marrying off in his own home." "He is without house or home," wrote Mme. +de Combray, "and possesses nothing but the shame by which he is +covered." Acquet de Férolles settled at Saint-Hilaire-de-Tulmont, where +he died on April 6th, 1815. + +With the Hundred Days came another sudden change. At the first rumour of +Bonaparte's landing, Mme. de Combray set out for the coast and crossed +to England. If the alarm was intense, it lasted but a short time. In +July, 1815, the Marquise returned to Tournebut, which she busied herself +with repairing. She found scope for her energy in directing the workmen, +in superintending to the smallest detail the administration of her +estate, and in looking after her household with the particularity of +former times. Although Louis XVIII's Jacobinism seems to have been the +first thing that disillusioned the old royalist, she was none the less +the Lady of Tournebut, and within the limits of her estate she could +still believe that she had returned to the days before 1789. She still +had her seat at church, and her name was to be found in 1819 inscribed +on the bell at Aubevoye of which she was patroness. + +Mme. de Combray never again quitted Tournebut, where she lived with her +son Bonnoeil, waited upon by Catherine Querey, who had been faithful +to her in her misfortunes. Except for this faithful girl, the Marquise +had made a clean sweep of all her old servants. None of them are to be +found among the persons who surrounded her during the Restoration. These +were a maid, Henriette Lerebour, a niece of Mlle. Querey; a cook, a +coachman and a footman. During the years that followed, there was an +incessant coming and going of workmen at Tournebut. In 1823 the château +and its surrounding walls were still undergoing repairs. In the middle +of October of the same year, Mme. de Combray, who was worn out, took to +her bed. On the morning of Thursday, the 23d, it was reported that she +was very ill, and two village women were engaged to nurse her. At eight +o'clock in the evening the tolling of the bells announced that the +Marquise was no more. + +Her age was eighty-one years and nine months. When the judge called on +Friday, at Bonnoeil's special request, to affix seals to her effects, +he asked to be taken first into the chamber of death, where he saw the +Marquise lying in her painted wooden bed, hung with chintz curtains. The +funeral took place at the church of Aubevoye, the poor of the village +forming an escort to the coffin which the men carried on their +shoulders. After the service it was laid in a grave dug under a large +dark tree at the entrance to the cemetery. The tomb, which is carefully +kept, bears to this day a quite legible inscription setting forth in +clumsy Latin the Marquise de Combray's extraordinary history. + +The liquidation of her debts, which followed on her decease and the +division of her property, brought Acquet de Férolles' daughters to +Tournebut, all three of whom were well married. In making an inventory +of the furniture in the château, they found amongst things forgotten in +the attic the harp on which their mother had played when as a young girl +she had lived at Tournebut, and a saddle which the "dragoon" may have +used on her nocturnal rides towards the hill of Authevernes in pursuit +of coaches. + +Mme. de Combray's sons kept Tournebut, and Bonnoeil continued to live +there. There are many people in Aubevoye who remember him. He was a tall +old man, with almost the figure of an athlete, though quite bowed and +bent. His eyebrows were grizzled and bushy, his eyes large and very +dark, his complexion sunburned. He was somewhat gloomy, and seemed to +care for nothing but to talk with a very faded and wrinkled old woman in +a tall goffered cap, who was an object of veneration to everybody. This +was Mlle. Querey. All were aware she had been Mme. de Combray's +confidante and knew all the Marquise's secrets: and she was often seen +talking at great length to Bonnoeil about the past. + +Bonnoeil died at Tournebut in 1846, at the age of eighty-four, and the +manor of Marillac did not long outlast him. Put up for sale in 1856, it +was demolished in the following year and replaced by a large and +splendid villa. While the walls of the old château were being +demolished, the peasants of Aubevoye, who had so often listened to the +legends concerning it, displayed great curiosity as to the mysteries +which the demolition would disclose. Nothing was discovered but a partly +filled up subterranean passage, which seemed to run towards the small +château. The secret of the other hiding-places had long been known. A +careful examination of the old dwelling produced only one surprise. A +portmanteau containing 3,000 francs in crowns and double-louis was found +in a dark attic. Mme. de Combray's grandchildren knew so little of the +drama of their house, that no one thought of connecting this find with +the affairs of Quesnay, of which they had scarcely ever heard. It seems +probable that this portmanteau belonged to the lawyer Lefebre and was +hidden by him, unknown to the Marquise, in the hope of being able to +recover it later on. + +A very few words will suffice to tell the fate of the other actors in +this drama. Licquet was unfortunate; but first of all he asked for the +cross of the Legion of Honour. "I have served the government for twenty +years," he wrote to Réal. "I bristle with titles. I am the father of a +family and am looked up to by the authorities. My only ambition is +honour, and I am bold enough to ask for a sign. Will you be kind enough +to obtain it for me?" Did Réal not dare to stand sponsor for such a +candidate? Did they think that the cross, given hitherto so +parsimoniously to civilians, was not meant for the police? Licquet was +obliged to wait in patience. In the hope of increasing his claims to the +honour he coveted, he went in quest of new achievements, and had the +good fortune to discover a second attack on a coach, far less +picturesque, as a matter of fact, than the one to which he owed his +fame, but which he undertook to work up like a master, and did it so +well, by dint of disguises, forged letters, surprised confidences, the +invention of imaginary persons, and other melodramatic tricks, that he +succeeded in producing at the Criminal Court at Evreux seven prisoners +against whom the evidence was so well concocted that five at least were +in danger of losing their heads. But when the imperial Procurator +arrived at the place, instead of accepting the work as completed, he +carefully examined the papers referring to the inquiry. Disgusted at the +means used to drag confessions from the accused, and indignant that his +name should have been associated with so repulsive a comedy, he asked +for explanations. Licquet attempted to brazen it out, but was scornfully +told to hold his peace. Wounded to the quick, he began a campaign of +recriminations, raillery and invective against the magistrates of Eure, +which was only ended by the unanimous acquittal of the seven innocent +persons whom he had delivered over to justice, and whose release the +Procurator himself generously demanded. + +The blow fell all the heavier on Licquet as he was at the time deeply +compromised in the frauds of his friend Branzon, a collector at Rouen, +whose malversations had caused the ruin of Savoye-Rollin. The prefect's +innocence was firmly established, but Branzon, who had already been +imprisoned as a Chouan in the Temple, and whose history must have been a +very varied one, was condemned to twelve years' imprisonment in chains. + +This also was a blow to Licquet. Realising, during the early days of the +Restoration, that the game he had played had brought him more enemies +than friends, he thought it wise to leave Rouen, and like so many others +lose himself among the police in Paris. Doubtless he was not idle while +he was there, and if the fire of 1871 had not destroyed the archives of +the prefecture, it would have been interesting to search for traces of +him. We seem to recognise his methods in the strangely dubious affair of +the false dauphin, Mathurin Bruneau. This obscure intrigue was connected +with Rouen; his friend Branzon, who was detained at Bicêtre, was the +manager of it. A certain Joseph Paulin figured in it--a strange person, +who boasted of having received the son of Louis XVI at the door of the +temple and, for this reason, was a partisan of two dauphins. Joseph +Paulin was, in my opinion, a very cunning detective, who was, moreover, +charged with the surveillance of the believers, sincere or otherwise, +in the survival of Louis XVII. In order the better to gain their +confidence, he pretended to have had a hand in the young King's flight. +With the exception of a few plausible allegations, the accounts he gave +of his wonderful adventures do not bear investigation. What makes us +think that he was Licquet's pupil, or that at least he had some +connection with the police of Rouen, is that in 1817, at the time of the +Bruneau intrigue, we find him marrying the woman, Delaitre, aged +forty-six, and living on an allowance from the parish and a sum left him +"by a person who had died at Bicêtre." The woman Delaitre seemed to be +identical with the spy whom Licquet had so cleverly utilised. + +Joseph Paulin died in 1842; his wife survived him twenty years, dying at +last in the Rue Croix de Fer at the age of ninety-one. Up to the time of +her death she received a small pension from the town. As to Licquet, he +lived to one hundred--but without any decoration--in his lodging in the +Rue Saint-Lé. The old man's walks in the streets which were so familiar +to him, must have been rich in memories. The "Gros-Horloge" under which +the tumbrils had passed; the "Vieux-Marché," where so many heads had +fallen which the executioner owed to him; le Faubourg Bouvreuil, where +the graves of his victims grew green; Bicêtre, the old conciergerie, the +palace itself, which he could see from his windows,--all these objects +must have called up to his mind painful recollections. The certificate +of his death, which bears the date February 7, 1855, simply describes +him as an ex-advocate. + +Querelle, whose denunciation ruined Georges Cadoudal, was set at liberty +at the end of a year. Besides his life, Desmarets had promised him the +sum of 80,000 francs to pay his debts with, but as they were in no hurry +to hand him the money, his creditors lost patience and had him shut up +in Sainte-Pelagie. Desmarets at last decided to pay up, and Querelle was +sent to Piémont, where he lived on a small pension from the government. +In 1814 we find those of Georges' accomplices who had escaped the +scaffold--among whom were Hozier and Amand Gaillard,--scattered among +the prisons of the kingdom, in the fortresses of Ham, Joux, and +Bouillon. Others who had been sent under surveillance forty leagues from +Paris and the seacoast, reappeared, ruined by ten years of enforced +idleness, threats and annoyances. Vannier the lawyer died in prison at +Brest; Bureau de Placène, who was let out of prison at the Restoration, +assisted Bruslard in the distribution of the rewards granted by the King +to those who had helped on the good cause. Allain, who had been +condemned to death for contumacy by the decree of Rouen, gave himself up +in 1815. He was immediately set free, and a pension granted him. Seeing +which, Joseph Buquet, who was in the same predicament, presented +himself, and being acquitted immediately, returned to Donnay, dug up the +43,000 francs remaining over from the sum stolen in 1807, and lived +"rich and despised." As to the girl Dupont, who had been Mme. Acquet's +confidante, she was kept in prison till 1814. Being released on the +King's return she immediately took refuge in a convent where she spent +the rest of her life. + +Mme. de Vaubadon, who lived disguised under the name of Tourville, which +had been her mother's, died in misery in a dirty lodging-house at +Belleville on January 23, 1848; her body was borne on the following day +to the parish cemetery, where the old register proves that no one bought +a corner of ground for her where she could rest in peace. M. de Vaubadon +had died eight years previously, having pardoned her some years before. + +Certain of the inhabitants of Saint-Lô still remember the tall old man, +always gloomy and with a pale complexion, who seemed to have only one +idea, and who, to the last day of his life, loved and defended the woman +to whom he had given his name. As for Foison, the murderer, he was made +a lieutenant and received the cross of the Legion of Honour. Caffarelli, +to whose lot it fell to present it to him, excused himself on a plea of +necessary absence. M. Lance, the Secretary-General for the prefecture, +who was obliged to take his place, could not, as he bestowed the +decoration, refrain "from letting him observe the disgust he felt for +his person, and the shame he experienced at seeing the star of the brave +thus profaned." M. Lance was dismissed at the instance of Foison, who, +soon afterwards, was made an officer, and despatched to the army in +Spain, whither his reputation had preceded him. Tradition assures us +that an avenger had reserved for him a death similar to d'Aché's, and +that he was found on the road one morning pierced with bullets. Nothing +is farther from the truth. Foison became a captain and lived till 1843. + +D'Aché's family, which returned to Gournay after Georges Cadoudal's +execution, was disturbed afresh at Mme. de Combray's arrest. As we have +said before, Licquet had had Jean Baptiste de Caqueray (who had married +Louise d'Aché in 1806) brought handcuffed into Rouen, but had scarcely +examined him. "Caqueray," he wrote, "is quite innocent; he quarrelled +with his father-in-law;" and he dismissed him with this remark: "If only +he had known the prey he was allowing to escape!" Up to 1814 Caqueray +did not again attract the attention of the police. At the Restoration he +was made a captain of gendarmes. His wife Louise d'Aché was in 1815 +appointed lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Bourbon, by whom she had in +part been brought up, being on her mother's side the niece of the gentle +Vicomte de Roquefeuille, who had previously "consoled the Duchess so +tenderly for the desertion of her inconstant husband." Louise d'Aché +died in 1817, and her sister Alexandrine, who was unmarried, was in her +turn summoned to the Princess, and took the title of Comtesse d'Aché. In +spite of the Princes' favour, Caqueray remained a captain of gendarmes +till he left the service in 1830. It was only then made known that in +1804, at the time of Querelle's disclosures and of the journey +undertaken by Savary to Biville, to surprise a fourth landing of +conspirators, it was he, Jean-Baptiste de Caqueray, who, warned by a +messenger from Georges that "all were compromised," started from Gournay +on horseback, reached the farm of La Poterie in twelve hours, crossed +three lines of gendarmes, and signalled to the English brig which was +tacking along the coast, to stand out to sea. Caqueray immediately +remounted his horse, endured the fire of an ambuscade, flung himself +into the forest of Eu, and succeeded in reaching Gournay before his +absence had been noticed, and just in time to receive a visit from +Captain Manginot, who, as we have already related, sent him to the +Temple with Mme. d'Aché and Louise. + +Caqueray died in 1834, leaving several children quite unprovided for. +They were, however, adopted by their grandmother, d'Aché's widow, who +survived her daughters and son-in-law. She was small and had never been +pretty, but had very distinguished and imposing manners. She is said to +have made the following answer to a great judge who, at the time of her +arrest, asked her where her husband was: "You doubtless do not know, +Monsieur, whom you are addressing." From that time they ceased +questioning her. She lived on till 1836. She was never heard to +complain, though she and her family had lived in great poverty and known +constant anxiety. She had lost her money, and her husband had died at +the hand of a treacherous assassin. All her children had gone before +her, and in spite of all her misfortunes, and old though she was, she +still strove to bring up her grandchildren "to love their lawful King," +for whose sake she had now nothing left to sacrifice. + +Perhaps in the course of that tragic night when the defeated Napoleon +found himself alone in deserted Fontainebleau, the great Emperor's mind +may have reverted jealously to those stubborn royalists whom neither +their Princes' apathy nor the certainty of never being rewarded could +daunt. At that very moment the generals whom he had loaded with titles +and wealth were hastening to meet the Bourbons. He had not one friend +left among the hundred million people he had governed in the day of his +power. His mameluke had quitted him, his valet had fled. And if he +thought of Georges guillotined in the Place de la Grève, of Le Chevalier +who fell at the wall at Grenelle, of d'Aché stabbed on the road, he must +also have thought of the speech ascribed to Cromwell: "Who would do the +like for me?" + +And perhaps of all his pangs this was the cruellest and most vengeful. +His cause must, in its turn, be sanctified by misfortune to gain its +fanatics and its martyrs. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS*** + + +******* This file should be named 17067-8.txt or 17067-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/6/17067 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Gilder</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The House of the Combrays</p> +<p>Author: G. le Notre</p> +<p>Release Date: November 15, 2005 [eBook #17067]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Paul Ereaut,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #ccccff;"> + <tr> + <td valign="top" width="30%"> + Transcriber's note: + </td> + <td> + A number of spelling errors and inconsistencies + of names have been corrected. + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="400" height="605" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus2.png" width="400" height="670" alt="Title page" title="Title page" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>The House of the Combrays</h1> + +<h2><i>By</i> G. LE NOTRE</h2> + +<h3>Translated from the French by</h3> + +<h2>Mrs. JOSEPH B. GILDER</h2> + + +<h5>New York<br /> +Dodd, Mead, & Company<br /> +1902</h5> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>Contents</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="contents"> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#PREFACE"><b>PREFACE</b></a></td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>vii</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>I</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE</td><td align='right'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>II</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE CAPTURE OF GEORGES CADOUDAL</td><td align='right'>21</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>III</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE COMBRAYS</td><td align='right'>44</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>IV</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE ADVENTURES OF D'ACHÉ</td><td align='right'>68</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>V</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE AFFAIR OF QUESNAY</td><td align='right'>101</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>VI</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE YELLOW HORSE</td><td align='right'>140</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>VII</b></a></td><td align='left'>MADAME ACQUET</td><td align='right'>178</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>VIII</b></a></td><td align='left'>PAYING THE PENALTY</td><td align='right'>216</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>IX</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE FATE OF D'ACHÉ</td><td align='right'>246</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>X</b></a></td><td align='left'>THE CHOUANS SET FREE</td><td align='right'>275</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + +<h3>AN OLD TOWER</h3> + + +<p>One evening in the winter of 1868 or 1869, my father-in-law, Moisson, +with whom I was chatting after dinner, took up a book that was lying on +the table, open at the page where I had stopped reading, and said:</p> + +<p>"Ah! you are reading Mme. de la Chanterie?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied. "A fine book; do you know it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course! I even know the heroine."</p> + +<p>"Mme. de la Chanterie!"</p> + +<p>"—— By her real name Mme. de Combray. I lived three months in her +house."</p> + +<p>"Rue Chanoinesse?"</p> + +<p>"No, not in the Rue Chanoinesse, where she did not live, any more than +she was the saintly woman of Balzac's novel;—but at her Château of +Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon!"</p> + +<p>"Gracious, Moisson, tell me about it;" and without further solicitation, +Moisson told me the following story:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My mother was a Brécourt, whose ancestor was a bastard of Gaston +d'Orleans, and she was on this account a royalist, and very proud of her +nobility. The Brécourts, who were fighting people, had never become +rich, and the Revolution ruined them completely. During the Terror my +mother married Moisson, my father, a painter and engraver, a plebeian +but also an ardent royalist, participating in all the plots for the +deliverance of the royal family. This explains the mésalliance. She +hoped, besides, that the monarchy, of whose reestablishment she had no +doubt, would recognise my father's services by ennobling him and +reviving the name of Brécourt, which was now represented only in the +female line. She always called herself Moisson de Brécourt, and bore me +a grudge for using only my father's name.</p> + +<p>"In 1804, when I was eight years old, we were living on the island of +Saint-Louis, and I remember very well the excitement in the quarter, and +above all in our house, caused by the arrest of Georges Cadoudal. I can +see my mother anxiously sending our faithful servant for news; my father +came home less and less often; and at last, one night, he woke me up +suddenly, kissed me, kissed my mother hastily, and I can still hear the +noise of the street door closing behind him. We never saw him again!"</p> + +<p>"Arrested?"</p> + +<p>"No, we should have known that, but probably killed in flight, or dead +of fatigue and want, or drowned in crossin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>g some river—like many other +fugitives, whose names I used to know. He was to have sent us news as +soon as he was in safety. After a month's waiting, my mother's despair +became alarming. She seemed mad, committed the most compromising acts, +spoke aloud and with so little reserve about Bonaparte, that each time +the bell rang, our servant and I expected to see the police.</p> + +<p>"A very different kind of visitor appeared one fine morning. He was, he +said, the business man of Mme. de Combray, a worthy woman who lived in +her Château of Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon. She was a fervent +royalist, and had heard through common friends of my father's +disappearance, and compassionating our misfortune placed a house near +her own at the disposal of my mother, who would there find the safety +and peace that she needed, after her cruel sorrows. As my mother +hesitated, Mme. de Combray's messenger urged the benefit to my health, +the exercise and the good air indispensable at my age, and finally she +consented. Having obtained all necessary information, my mother, the +servant and I took the boat two days after, at Saint-Germain, and +arrived by sunset the same evening at Roule, near Aubevoye. A gardener +was waiting with a cart for us and our luggage. A few moments later we +entered the court of the château.</p> + +<p>"Mme. de Combray received us in a large room overlooking the Seine. She +had one of her sons with her, and two intimate friends, who welcomed my +mother with the consideration due to the widow of o<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>ne who had served the +good cause. Supper was served; I was drooping with sleep, and the only +remembrance I have of this meal is the voice of my mother, passionate +and excitable as ever. Next morning, after breakfast, the gardener +appeared with his cart, to take us to the house we were to occupy; the +road was so steep and rough that my mother preferred to go on foot, +leading her horse by the bridle. We were in a thick wood, climbing all +the time, and surprised at having to go so far and so high to reach the +habitation that had been offered to us near the château. We came to a +clearing in the wood, and the gardener cried, 'Here we are!' and pointed +to our dwelling. 'Oh!' cried my mother, 'it is a donjon!' It was an old +round tower, surmounted by a platform and with no opening but the door +and some loop-holes that served as windows.</p> + +<p>"The situation itself was not displeasing. A plateau cleared in the +woods, surrounded by large trees with a vista towards the Seine, and a +fine view extending some distance. The gardener had a little hut near +by, and there was a small kitchen-garden for our use. In fact one would +have been easily satisfied with this solitude, after the misfortunes of +the Isle Saint-Louis, if the tower had been less forbidding. To enter it +one had to cross a little moat, over which were thrown two planks, which +served as a bridge. By means of a cord and pulley this could be drawn up +from the inside, against the entrance door, thus making it doubly +secure. 'And this is the drawbridge!' said my mother, mockingly.</p> + +<p>"The ground f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>loor consisted of a circular chamber, with a table, chairs, +a sideboard, etc. Opposite the door, in an embrasure of the wall, about +two yards in thickness, a barred window lighted this room, which was to +serve as sitting-room, kitchen and dining-room at the same time; but +lighted it so imperfectly that to see plainly even in the daytime one +had to leave the door open. On one side was the fireplace, and on the +other the wooden staircase that led to the upper floors; under the +staircase was a trap-door firmly closed by a large lock.</p> + +<p>"'It is the cellar,' said the gardener, 'but it is dangerous, as it is +full of rubbish. I have a place where you can keep your drink.' 'And our +food?' said the servant.</p> + +<p>"The gardener explained that he often went down to the château in his +cart and that the cook would have every facility for doing her marketing +at Aubevoye. As for my mother, Mme. de Combray, thinking that the +journey up and down hill would be too much for her, would send a donkey +which would do for her to ride when we went to the château in the +afternoon or evening. On the first floor were two rooms separated by a +partition; one for my mother and me, the other for the servant, both +lighted only by loop-holes. It was cold and sinister.</p> + +<p>"'This is a prison!' cried my mother.</p> + +<p>"The gardener remarked that we should only sleep there; and seeing my +mother about to go up to the next floor, he stopped her, indicating the +dilapidated condition of the stairs. 'This floor is abandoned,' he said; +'the platf<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>orm above is in a very bad state, and the staircase +impracticable and dangerous. Mme. de Combray begs that you will never go +above the first landing, for fear of an accident.' After which he went +to get our luggage.</p> + +<p>"My mother then gave way to her feelings. It was a mockery to lodge us +in this rat-hole. She talked of going straight back to Paris; but our +servant was so happy at having no longer to fear the police; I had found +so much pleasure gathering flowers in the wood and running after +butterflies; my mother herself enjoyed the great calm and silence so +much that the decision was put off till the next day. And the next day +we renounced all idea of going.</p> + +<p>"Our life for the next two months was untroubled. We were at the longest +days of the year. Once a week we were invited to supper at the château, +and we came home through the woods at night in perfect security. +Sometimes in the afternoon my mother went to visit Mme. de Combray, and +always found her playing at cards or tric-trac with friends staying at +the château or passing through, but oftenest with a stout man, her +lawyer. No existence could be more commonplace or peaceful. Although +they talked politics freely (but with more restraint than my mother), +she told me later that she never for one moment suspected that she was +in a nest of conspirators. Once or twice only Mme. de Combray, touched +by the sincerity and ardour of her loyalty, seemed to be on the point of +confiding in her. She even forgot herself so far as to say:—'Oh! if you +were not so hot-headed, one would tell you certain things!'—but as if +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span>already regretting that she had said so much, she stopped abruptly.</p> + +<p>"One night, when my mother could not sleep, her attention was attracted +by a dull noise down-stairs, as if some one were shutting a trap-door +clumsily. She lay awake all night uneasily, listening, but in vain. Next +morning we found the room down-stairs in its usual condition; but my +mother would not admit that she had been dreaming, and the same day +spoke to Mme. de Combray, who joked her about it, and sent her to the +gardener. The latter said he had made the noise. Passing the tower he +had imagined that the door was not firmly closed, and had pushed against +it to make sure. The incident did not occur again; but several days +later there was a new, and this time more serious, alarm.</p> + +<p>"I had noticed on top of the tower a blackbird's nest, which could +easily be reached from the platform, but, faithful to orders, I had +never gone up there. This time, however, the temptation was too strong. +I watched until my mother and the servant were in our little garden, and +then climbed nimbly up to take the nest. On the landing of the second +floor, curious to get a peep at the uninhabited rooms, I pushed open the +door, and saw distinctly behind the glass door in the partition that +separated the two rooms, a green curtain drawn quickly. In a great +fright I rushed down-stairs head over heels, and ran into the garden, +calling my mother and shouting, 'There is some one up-stairs in the +room!' She did not believe it and scolded me. As I insisted she followed +me up-stairs with the servant. From the landing my mother cried, 'Is any +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>one there?' Silence. +She pushed open the glass door. No one to be seen—only a folding-bed, +unmade. She touched it; it was warm! Some one had been there, +asleep,—dressed, no doubt. Where was he? On the platform? We went up. +No one was there! He had no doubt escaped when I ran to the garden!</p> + +<p>"We went down again quickly and our servant called the gardener. He had +disappeared. We saddled the donkey, and my mother went hurry-scurry to +the château. She found the lawyer at the eternal tric-trac with Mme. de +Combray, who frowned at the first word, not even interrupting her game.</p> + +<p>"'More dreams! The room is unoccupied! No one sleeps there!'</p> + +<p>"'But the curtain!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, what of the curtain? Your child made a draught by opening the +door, and the curtain swung.'</p> + +<p>"'But the bed, still warm!'</p> + +<p>"'The gardener has some cats that must have been lying there, and ran +away when the door was opened, and that's all about it!'</p> + +<p>"'And yet—'</p> + +<p>"'Well, have you found this ghost?'</p> + +<p>"'No.'</p> + +<p>"'Well then?' And she shook her dice rather roughly without paying any +more attention to my mother, who after exchanging a curt good-night with +the Marquis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span>e, returned to the tower, so little convinced of the presence +of the cats that she took two screw-rings from one of our boxes, fixed +them on to the trap-door, closed them with a padlock, took the key and +said, 'Now we will see if any one comes in that way.' And for greater +security she decided to lift the drawbridge after supper. We all three +took hold of the rope that moved with difficulty on the rusty pulley. It +was hard; we made three attempts. At last it moved, the bridge shook, +lifted, came right up. It was done! And that evening, beside my bed, my +mother said:</p> + +<p>"'We will not grow old in her Bastille!'</p> + +<p>"Which was true, for eight days later we were awakened in the middle of +the night by a terrible hubbub on the ground floor. From our landing we +heard several voices, swearing and raging under the trap-door which they +were trying to raise, to which the padlock offered but feeble +resistance, for a strong push broke it off and the door opened with a +great noise. My mother and the servant rushed to the bureau, pushed and +dragged it to the door, whilst some men came out of the cellar, walked +to the door, grumbling, opened it, saw the drawbridge up, unfastened the +rope and let it fall down with a loud bang, and then the voices grew +fainter till they disappeared in the wood. But go to sleep after all +that! We stayed there waiting for the dawn, and though all danger was +over, not daring to speak aloud!</p> + +<p>"At last the day broke. We moved the bureau, and my mother, brave as +ever, went down first, carrying a can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span>dle. The yawning trap-door exposed +the black hole of a cellar, the entrance door was wide open and the +bridge down. We called the gardener, who did not answer, and whose hut +was empty. My mother did not wait till afternoon this time, but jumped +on her donkey and went down to the château.</p> + +<p>"Mme. de Combray was dressing. She expected my mother and knew her +object in coming so well that without waiting for her to tell her story, +she flew out like most people, who, having no good reason to give, +resort to angry words, and cried as soon as she entered the room:</p> + +<p>"'You are mad; mad enough to be shut up! You take my house for a resort +of bandits and counterfeiters! I am sorry enough that I ever brought you +here!'</p> + +<p>"'And I that I ever came!'</p> + +<p>"'Very well, then—go!'</p> + +<p>"'I am going to-morrow. I came to tell you so.'</p> + +<p>"'A safe return to you!' On which Mme. de Combray turned her back, and +my mother retraced her steps to the tower in a state of exasperation, +fully determined to take the boat for Paris without further delay.</p> + +<p>"Early next morning we made ready. The gardener was at the door with his +cart, coming and going for our luggage, while the servant put the soup +on the table. My mother took only two or three spoonfuls and I did the +same, as I hate soup. The servant alone emptied her plate! We went down +to Roule where the gardener had scarcely left us when the servant was +se<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span>ized with frightful vomiting. My mother and I were also slightly +nauseated, but the poor girl retained nothing, happily for her, for we +returned to Paris convinced that the gardener, being left alone for a +moment, had thrown some poison into the soup."</p> + +<p>"And did nothing happen afterwards?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"And you heard nothing more from Tournebut?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, until 1808, when we learned that the mail had been attacked +and robbed near Falaise by a band of armed men commanded by Mme. de +Combray's daughter, Mme. Acquet de Férolles, disguised as a hussar! +Then, that Mme. Acquet had been arrested as well as her lover (Le +Chevalier), her husband, her mother, her lawyer and servants and those +of Mme. de Combray at Tournebut; and finally that Mme. de Combray had +been condemned to imprisonment and the pillory, Mme. Acquet, her lover, +the lawyer (Lefebre) and several others, to death."</p> + +<p>"And the husband?"</p> + +<p>"Released; he was a spy."</p> + +<p>"Was your mother called as a witness?"</p> + +<p>"No, happily, they knew nothing about us. Besides, what would she have +said?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, except that the people who frightened you so much, must surely +have belonged to the band; that they had forced the trap-door, after a +nocturnal expedition, on which they had been pursued as far as a +subterranean entrance, which without doubt led to the cellar."</p> + +<p>After we had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span>chatted a while on this subject Moisson wished me +good-night, and I took up Balzac's chef d'œuvre and resumed my +reading. But I only read a few lines; my imagination was wandering +elsewhere. It was a long distance from Balzac's idealism to the realism +of Moisson, which awakened in me memories of the stories and melodramas +of Ducray-Duminil, of Guilbert de Pixérecourt—"Alexis, ou la Maisonette +dans les Bois," "Victor, ou l'Enfant de la Forêt,"—and many others of +the same date and style so much discredited nowadays. And I thought that +what caused the discredit now, accounted for their vogue formerly; that +they had a substratum of truth under a mass of absurdity; that these +stories of brigands in their traditional haunts, forests, caverns and +subterranean passages, charmed by their likelihood the readers of those +times to whom an attack on a coach by highwaymen with blackened faces +was as natural an occurrence as a railway accident is to us, and that in +what seems pure extravaganza to us they only saw a scarcely exaggerated +picture of things that were continually happening under their eyes. In +the reports published by M. Félix Rocquain we can learn the state of +France during the Directory and the early years of the Commune. The +roads, abandoned since 1792, were worn into such deep ruts, that to +avoid them the waggoners made long circuits in ploughed land, and the +post-chaises would slip and sink into the muddy bogs from which it was +impossible to drag them except with oxen. At every step through the +country one came to a deserted hamlet, a roofless house, a burned farm, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span>a château in ruins. Under the indifferent eyes of a police that cared +only for politics, and of gendarmes recruited in such a fashion that a +criminal often recognised an old comrade in the one who arrested him, +bands of vagabonds and scamps of all kinds had been formed; deserters, +refractories, fugitives from the pretended revolutionary army, and +terrorists without employment, "the scum," said François de Nantes, "of +the Revolution and the war; 'lanterneurs' of '91, 'guillotineurs' of +'93, 'sabreurs' of the year III, 'assommeurs' of the year IV, +'fusilleurs' of the year V." All this canaille lived only by rapine and +murder, camped in the forests, ruins and deserted quarries like that at +Gueudreville, an underground passage one hundred feet long by thirty +broad, the headquarters of the band of Orgères, a thoroughly organised +company of bandits—chiefs, subchiefs, storekeepers, spies, couriers, +barbers, surgeons, dressmakers, cooks, preceptors for the "gosses," and +curé!</p> + +<p>And this brigandage was rampant everywhere. There was so little safety +in the Midi from Marseilles to Toulon and Toulouse that one could not +travel without an escort. In the Var, the Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse, +from Digne and Draguignan, to Avignon and Aix, one had to pay ransom. A +placard placed along the roads informed the traveller that unless he +paid a hundred francs in advance, he risked being killed. The receipt +given to the driver served as a passport. Theft by violence was so much +the custom that certain villages in the Lower Alps were openly known as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span>the abode of those who had no other occupation. On the banks of the +Rhône travellers were charitably warned not to put up at certain +solitary inns for fear of not reappearing therefrom. On the Italian +frontier they were the "barbets"; in the North the "garroteurs"; in the +Ardèche the "bande noire"; in the Centre the "Chiffoniers"; in Artois, +Picardie, the Somme, Seine-Inférieure, the Chartrain country, the +Orléanais, Loire-Inférieure, Orne, Sarthe, Mayenne, Ille-et-Vilaine, +etc., and Ile-de-France to the very gates of Paris, but above all in +Calvados, Finistère and La Manche where royalism served as their flag, +the "chauffeurs" and the bands of "Grands Gars" and "Coupe et Tranche," +which under pretence of being Chouans attacked farms or isolated +dwellings, and inspired such terror that if one of them were arrested +neither witness nor jury could be found to condemn him. Politics +evidently had nothing to do with these exploits; it was a private war. +And the Chouans professed to wage it only against the government. So +long as they limited themselves to fighting the gendarmes or national +guards in bands of five or six hundred, to invading defenceless places +in order to cut down the trees of liberty, burn the municipal papers, +and pillage the coffers of the receivers and school-teachers—(the State +funds having the right to return to their legitimate owner, the King), +they could be distinguished from professional malefactors. But when they +stopped coaches, extorted ransom from travellers and shot constitutional +priests and purchasers of the national propert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span>y, the distinction became +too subtle. There was no longer any room for it in the year VIII and IX +when, vigorous measures having almost cleared the country of the bands +of "chauffeurs" and other bandits who infested it, the greater number of +those who had escaped being shot or guillotined joined what remained of +the royalist army, last refuge of brigandage.</p> + +<p>In such a time Moisson's adventure was not at all extraordinary. We can +only accuse it of being too simple. It was the mildest scene of a huge +melodrama in which he and his mother had played the part of supers. But +slight as was the episode, it had all the attraction of the unknown for +me. Of Tournebut and its owners I knew nothing. Who, in reality, was +this Mme. de Combray, sanctified by Balzac? A fanatic, or an +intriguer?—And her daughter Mme. Acquet? A heroine or a lunatic?—and +the lover? A hero or an adventurer?—And the husband, the lawyer and the +friends of the house? Mme. Acquet more than all piqued my curiosity. The +daughter of a good house disguised as a hussar to stop the mail like +Choppart! This was not at all commonplace! Was she young and pretty? +Moisson knew nothing about it; he had never seen her or her lover or +husband, Mme. de Combray having quarrelled with all of them.</p> + +<p>I was most anxious to learn more, but to do that it would be necessary +to consult the report of the trial in the record office at Rouen. I +never had time. I mentioned it to M. Gustave Bord, to Frédéric Masson +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span>and M. de la Sicotière, and thought no more about it even after the +interesting article published in the <i>Temps</i>, by M. Ernest Daudet, until +walking one day with Lenôtre in the little that is left of old Paris of +the Cité, the house in the Rue Chanoinesse, where Balzac lodged Mme. de +la Chanterie, reminded me of Moisson, whose adventure I narrated to +Lenôtre, at that time finishing his "Conspiration de la Rouërie." That +was sufficient to give him the idea of studying the records of the +affair of 1807, which no one had consulted before him. A short time +after he told me that the tower of Tournebut was still in existence, and +that he was anxious for us to visit it, the son-in-law of the owner of +the Château of Aubevoye, M. Constantin, having kindly offered to conduct +us.</p> + +<p>On a fine autumn morning the train left us at the station that served +the little village of Aubevoye, whose name has twice been heard in the +Courts of Justice, once in the trial of Mme. de Combray and once in that +of Mme. de Jeufosse. Those who have no taste for these sorts of +excursions cannot understand their charm. Whether it be a little +historical question to be solved, an unknown or badly authenticated fact +to be elucidated, this document hunt with its deceptions and surprises +is the most amusing kind of chase, especially in company with a delver +like Lenôtre, endowed with an admirable <i>flair</i> that always puts him on +the right track. There was, moreover, a particular attraction in this +old forgotten tower, in which we alone were interested, and in examining +into Moisson's story!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span></p> +<p>Of the château that had been built by the Marechal de Marillac, and +considerably enlarged by Mme. de Combray, nothing, unhappily, remains +but the out-buildings, a terrace overlooking the Seine, the court of +honour turned into a lawn, an avenue of old limes and the ancient fence. +A new building replaced the old one fifty years ago. The little château, +"Gros-Mesnil," near the large one has recently been restored.</p> + +<p>But the general effect is the same as in 1804. Seeing the great woods +that hug the outer wall so closely, one realises how well they lent +themselves to the mysterious comings and goings, to the secret councils, +to the rôle destined for it by Mme. de Combray, preparing the finest +room for the arrival of the King or the Comte d'Artois, and in both the +great and little château, arranging hiding-places, one of which alone +could accommodate forty armed men.</p> + +<p>The tower is still there, far from the château, at the summit of a +wooded hill in the centre of a clearing, which commands the river +valley. It is a squat, massive construction, of forbidding aspect, such +as Moisson described, with thick walls, and windows so narrow that they +look more like loopholes. It seems as if it might originally have been +one of the guard-houses or watch-towers erected on the heights from +Nantes to Paris, like the tower of Montjoye whose ditch is recognisable +in the Forest of Marly, or those of Montaigu and Hennemont, whose ruins +were still visible in the last century. Some of these towers were +converted into mills or pigeon-houses. Ours, whose upper story and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span>pointed roof had been demolished and replaced by a platform at an +uncertain date, was flanked by a wooden mill, burnt before the +Revolution, for it is not to be found in Cassini's chart which shows +all in the region. The tower and its approaches are still known as the +"burnt mill."</p> + +<p>There remains no trace of the excavation which was in front of the +entrance in 1804, and which must have been the last vestige of an old +moat. The threshold crossed, we are in the circular chamber; at the end +facing the door is the window, the bars of which have been taken down; +on the left a modern chimneypiece replaces the old one, and on the right +is the staircase, in good condition. The trap-door has disappeared from +under it, the cellar being abandoned as useless. On the first floor as +on the second, where the partitions have been removed, there are still +traces of them, with fragments of wall-paper. The very little daylight +that filters through the windows justifies Mme. Moisson's exclamation, +"It is a prison!" The platform, from which the view is very fine, has +been renewed, like the staircase. But from top to bottom all corresponds +with Moisson's description.</p> + +<p>All that remained now was to find out how one could get into the cellar +from outside. We had two excellent guides; our kind host, M. Constantin, +and M. l'Abbé Drouin, the curé of Aubevoye, who knew all the local +traditions. They mentioned the "Grotto of the Hermit!" O +Ducray-Duminil!—Thou again!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</a></span></p> +<p>The grotto is an old quarry in the side of the hill towards the Seine, +below the tower and having no apparent communication with it, but so +situated that an underground passage of a few yards would unite them. +The grotto being now almost filled up, the entrance to this passage has +disappeared. Looking at it, so innocent in appearance now under the +brush and brambles, I seemed to see some Chouan by star-light, eye and +ear alert, throw himself into it like a rabbit into its hole, and creep +through to the tower, to sleep fully dressed on the pallet on the second +floor. Evidently this tower, planned as were all Mme. de Combray's +abodes, was one of the many refuges arranged by the Chouans from the +coast of Normandy to Paris and known only to themselves.</p> + +<p>But why was Mme. Moisson accommodated there without being taken into her +hostess's confidence? If Mme. de Combray wished to avert suspicion by +having two women and a child there, she might have told them so; and if +she thought Mme. Moisson too excitable to hear such a confession, she +should not have exposed her to nocturnal mysteries that could only tend +to increase her excitement! When Phélippeaux was questioned, during the +trial of Georges Cadoudal, about Moisson's father, who had disappeared, +he replied that he lived in the street and island of Saint-Louis near +the new bridge; that he was an engraver and manager of a button factory; +that Mme. Moisson had a servant named R. Petit-Jean, married to a +municipal guard. Was it through fear of this woman's writing +indiscreetly to her husband that Mme. de Combray remained silent? But in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[Pg xxvi]</a></span>any case, why the tower?</p> + +<p>However this may be, the exactness of Moisson's reminiscences was +proved. But the trap-door had not been forced, as he believed, by +Chouans fleeing after some nocturnal expedition. This point was already +decided by the first documents that Lenôtre had collected for this +present work. There was no expedition of the sort in the neighbourhood +of Tournebut during the summer of 1804. They would not have risked +attracting attention to the château where was hidden the only man whom +the Chouans of Normandy judged capable of succeeding Georges, and whom +they called "Le Grand Alexandre"—the Vicomte Robert d'Aché. Hunted +through Paris like all the royalists denounced by Querelle, he had +managed to escape the searchers, to go out in one of his habitual +disguises when the gates were reopened, to get to Normandy by the left +bank of the Seine and take refuge with his old friend at Tournebut, +where he lived for fourteen months under the name of Deslorières, his +presence there never being suspected by the police.</p> + +<p>He was certainly, as well as Bonnœil, Mme. de Combray's eldest son, +one of the three guests with whom Moisson took supper on the evening of +his arrival. The one who was always playing cards or tric-trac with the +Marquise, and whom she called her lawyer, might well have been d'Aché +himself. As to the stealthy visitors at the tower, given the presence of +d'Aché at Tou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[Pg xxvii]</a></span>rnebut, it is highly probable that they were only passing +by there to confer with him, taking his orders secretly in the woods +without even appearing at the château, and then disappearing as +mysteriously as they had come.</p> + +<p>For d'Aché in his retreat still plotted and made an effort to resume, +with the English minister, the intrigue that had just failed so +miserably, Moreau having withdrawn at the last minute. The royalist +party was less intimidated than exasperated at the deaths of the Duke +d'Enghien, Georges and Pichegru, and did not consider itself beaten even +by the proclamation of the Empire, which had not excited in the +provinces—above all in the country—the enthusiasm announced in the +official reports.</p> + +<p>In reality it had been accepted by the majority of the population as a +government of expediency, which would provisionally secure threatened +interests, but whose duration was anything but certain. It was too +evident that the Empire was Napoleon, as the Consulate had been +Bonaparte—that everything rested on the head of one man. If an infernal +machine removed him, royalty would have a good opportunity. His life was +not the only stake; his luck itself was very hazardous. Founded on +victory, the Empire was condemned to be always victorious. War could +undo what war had done. And this uneasiness is manifest in contemporary +memoirs and correspondence. More of the courtiers of the new régime than +one imagines were as sceptical as Mme. Mère, economising her revenues +and saying to her mocking daughters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[Pg xxviii]</a></span> "You will perhaps be very glad of +them, some day!" In view of a possible catastrophe many of these kept +open a door for retreat towards the Bourbons, and vaguely encouraged +hopes of assistance that could only be depended on in case of their +success, but which the royalists believed in as positive and immediate. +As to the disaster which might bring it about, they hoped for its early +coming, and promised it to the impatient Chouans—the disembarkation of +an Anglo-Russian army—the rising of the West—the entrance of Louis +XVIII into his good town of Paris—and the return of the Corsican to his +island! Predictions that were not so wild after all. Ten years later it +was an accomplished fact in almost all its details. And what are ten +years in politics? Frotté, Georges, Pichegru, d'Aché, would only have +had to fold their arms. They would have seen the Empire crumble by its +own weight.</p> + +<p>We made these reflections on returning to the château while looking at +the terrace in the setting sun, at the peaceful winding of the Seine and +the lovely autumn landscape that Mme. de Combray and d'Aché had so often +looked at, at the same place and hour, little foreseeing the sad fate +the future had in store for them.</p> + +<p>The misfortunes of the unhappy woman—the deplorable affair of Quesnay +where the coach with state funds was attacked by Mme. Acquet's men, for +the profit of the royalist exchequer and of Le Chevalier; the +assassination of d'Aché, sold to the imperial police by La Vaubadon, his +mistress, and the cowardly Doulcet de Pontéco<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[Pg xxix]</a></span>ulant, who does not boast +of it in his "Mémoires,"—have been the themes of several tales, +romances and novels, wherein fancy plays too great a part, and whose +misinformed authors, Hippolyte Bonnelier, Comtesse de Mirabeau, +Chennevières, etc., have taken great advantage of the liberty used in +works of imagination. There is only one reproach to be made—that they +did not have the genius of Balzac. But we may criticise more severely +the so-called historical writings about Mme. de Combray, her family and +residences, and the Château of Tournebut which M. Homberg shows us +flanked by four feudal towers, and which MM. Le Prévost and Bourdon say +was demolished in 1807.</p> + +<p>Mme. d'Abrantès, with her usual veracity, describes the luxurious +furniture and huge lamps in the "labyrinths of Tournebut, of which one +must, as it were, have a plan, so as not to lose one's way." She shows +us Le Chevalier, crucifix in hand, haranguing the assailants in the wood +of Quesnay (although he was in Paris that day to prove an alibi), and +gravely adds, "I know some one who was in the coach and who alone +survived, the seven other travellers having been massacred and their +bodies left on the road." Now there was neither coach nor travellers, +and no one was killed!</p> + +<p>M. de la Sicotière's mistakes are still stranger. At the time that he +was preparing his great work on "Frotté and the Norman Insurrections," +he learned from M. Gustave Bord that I had some special facts concerning +Mme. de Combray, and wrote to ask me about them. I sent him a résumé of +Moisson's story, and asked him to verify its correctness. And on that he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxx" id="Page_xxx">[Pg xxx]</a></span>went finely astray.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray had two residences besides her house at Rouen; one at +Aubevoye, where she had lived for a long while, the other thirty leagues +away, at Donnay, in the department of Orne, where she no longer went, as +her son-in-law had settled himself there. Two towers have the same name +of Tournebut; the one at Aubevoye is ours; the other, some distance from +Donnay, did not belong to Mme. de Combray.</p> + +<p>Convinced solely by the assertions of MM. Le Prévost and Bourdon that in +1804 the Château of Aubevoye and its tower no longer existed, and that +Mme. de Combray occupied Donnay at that date, M. de la Sicotière +naturally mistook one Tournebut for the other, did not understand a +single word of Moisson's story, which he treated as a chimera, and in +his book acknowledges my communications in this disdainful note:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Confusion has arisen in many minds between the two Tournebuts, so +different, however, and at such a distance from each other, and has +given birth to many strange and romantic legends; inaccessible +retreats arranged for outlaws and bandits in the old tower, +nocturnal apparitions, innocent victims paying with their lives the +misfortune of having surprised the secrets of these terrible +guests...."</p></div> + +<p>It is pleasant to see M. de la Sicotière p<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxxi" id="Page_xxxi">[Pg xxxi]</a></span>oint out the confusion he +alone experienced. But there is better to come! Here is a writer who +gives us in two large volumes the history of Norman Chouannerie. There +is little else spoken of in his book than disguises, false names, false +papers, ambushes, kidnappings, attacks on coaches, subterranean +passages, prisons, escapes, child spies and female captains! He states +himself that the affair of the Forest of Quesnay was "tragic, strange +and mysterious!" And at the same time he condemns as "strange" and +"romantic" the simplest of all these adventures—that of Moisson! He +scoffs at his hiding-places in the roofs of the old château, and it is +precisely in the roofs of the old château that the police found the +famous refuge which could hold forty men with ease. He calls the +retreats arranged for the outlaws and bandits "legendary," at the same +time that he gives two pages to the enumeration of the holes, vaults, +wells, pits, grottoes and caverns in which these same bandits and +outlaws found safety! So that M. de la Sicotière seems to be laughing at +himself!</p> + +<p>I should reproach myself if I did not mention, as a curiosity, the +biography of M. and Mme. de Combray, united in one person in the +"Dictionaire Historique" (!!!) of Larousse. It is unique of its kind. +Names, places and facts are all wrong. And the crowning absurdity is +that, borne out by these fancies, fragments are given of the supposed +Mémoires that Félicie (!) de Combray wrote after the +Restoration—forgetting that she was guillotined under the Empire!</p> + +<p>With M. Ernest Daudet we return to history. No one had seriously studied +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxxii" id="Page_xxxii">[Pg xxxii]</a></span>the crime of Quesnay before him. Some years ago he gave the correct +story of it in <i>Le Temps</i> and we could not complain of its being only +what he meant it to be—a faithful and rapid résumé. Besides, M. Daudet +had only at his disposal the portfolios 8,170, 8,171, and 8,172 of the +Series F7 of the National Archives, and the reports sent to Réal by +Savoye-Rollin and Licquet, this cunning detective beside whom Balzac's +Corentin seems a mere schoolboy. Consequently the family drama escapes +M. Daudet, who, for that matter, did not have to concern himself with +it. It would not have been possible to do better than he did with the +documents within his reach.</p> + +<p>Lenôtre has pushed his researches further. He has not limited himself to +studying, bit by bit, the voluminous report of the trial of 1808, which +fills a whole cupboard; to comparing and opposing the testimony of the +witnesses one against the other, examining the reports and enquiries, +disentangling the real names from the false, truth from error—in a +word, investigating the whole affair, a formidable task of which he only +gives us the substance here. Aided by his wonderful instinct and the +persistency of the investigator, he has managed to obtain access to +family papers, some of which were buried in old trunks relegated to the +attics, and in these papers has found precious documents which clear up +the depths of this affair of Quesnay where the mad passion of one poor +woman plays the greatest part.</p> + +<p>And let no one imagine that he is going to read a romance in these +pages. It is an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxxiii" id="Page_xxxiii">[Pg xxxiii]</a></span><i>historical</i> study in the severest meaning of the word. +Lenôtre mentions no fact that he cannot prove. He risks no hypothesis +without giving it as such, and admits no fancy in the slightest detail. +If he describes one of Mme. Acquet's toilettes, it is because it is +given in some interrogation. I have seen him so scrupulous on this +point, as to suppress all picturesqueness that could be put down to his +imagination. In no <i>cause celèbre</i> has justice shown more exactitude in +exposing the facts. In short, here will be found all the qualities that +ensured the success of his "Conspiration de la Rouërie," the chivalrous +beginning of the Chouannerie that he now shows us in its decline, +reduced to highway robbery!</p> + +<p>As for me, if I have lingered too long by this old tower, it is because +it suggested this book; and we owe some gratitude to these mute +witnesses of a past which they keep in our remembrance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Victorien Sardou.</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="The_House_of_the_Combrays" id="The_House_of_the_Combrays"></a>The House of the Combrays</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE</h3> + + +<p>Late at night on January the 25th, 1804, the First Consul, who, as it +often happened, had arisen in order to work till daylight, was looking +over the latest police reports that had been placed on his desk.</p> + +<p>His death was talked of everywhere. It had already been announced +positively in London, Germany and Holland. "To assassinate Bonaparte" +was a sort of game, in which the English were specially active. From +their shores, well-equipped and plentifully supplied with money, sailed +many who were desirous of gaining the great stake,—obdurate Chouans and +fanatical royalists who regarded as an act of piety the crime that would +rid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>France of the usurper. What gave most cause for alarm in these +reports, usually unworthy of much attention, was the fact that all of +them were agreed on one point—Georges Cadoudal had disappeared. Since +this man, formidable by reason of his courage and tenacity of purpose, +had declared war without mercy on the First Consul, the police had +never lost sight of him. It was known that he was staying in England, +and he was under surveillance there; but if it was true that he had +escaped this espionage, the danger was imminent, and the predicted +"earthquake" at hand.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, more irritated than uneasy at these tales, wished to remove +all doubt about the matter. He mistrusted Fouché, whose devotion he had +reason to suspect, and who besides had not at this time—officially at +least—the superintendence of the police; and he had attached to himself +a dangerous spy, the Belgian Réal. It was on this man that Bonaparte, on +certain occasions, preferred to rely. Réal was a typical detective. The +friend of Danton, he had in former days, organised the great popular +manifestations that were to intimidate the Convention. He had penetrated +the terrible depths of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the Committee of +Public Safety. He knew and understood how to make use of what remained +of the old committees of sections, of "septembriseurs" without +occupation, lacqueys, perfumers, dentists, dancing masters without +pupils, all the refuse of the revolution, the women of the Palais-Royal: +such was the army he commanded, having as his lieutenants Desmarets, an +unfrocked priest, and Veyrat, formerly a Genevese convict, who had been +branded and whipped by the public executioner. R<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>éal and these two +subalterns were the principal actors in the drama that we are about to +relate.</p> + +<p>On this night Bonaparte sent in haste for Réal. In his usual manner, by +brief questions he soon learned the number of royalists confined in the +tower of the Temple or at Bicêtre, their names, and on what suspicions +they had been arrested. Quickly satisfied on all these points he ordered +that before daylight four of the most deeply implicated of the prisoners +should be taken before a military commission; if they revealed nothing +they were to be shot in twenty-four hours. Aroused at five o'clock in +the morning, Desmarets was told to prepare the list, and the first two +names indicated were those of Picot and Lebourgeois. Picot was one of +Frotté's old officers, and during the wars of the Chouannerie had been +commander-in-chief of the Auge division. He had earned the surname of +"Egorge-Bleus" and was a Chevalier of St. Louis. Lebourgeois, keeper of +a coffee-house at Rouen, had been accused about the year 1800 of taking +part in an attack on a stage-coach, was acquitted, and like his friend +Picot, had emigrated to England. Both of these men had been denounced by +a professional instigator as having "been heard to say" that they had +come to attempt the life of the First Consul. They had been arrested at +Pont-Audemer as soon as they returned to France, and had now been +imprisoned in the Temple for nearly a year.</p> + +<p>To these two v<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>ictims Desmarets added another Chouan, Piogé, nicknamed +"Without Pity" or "Strike-to-Death," and Desol de Grisolles, an old +companion of Georges and "a very dangerous royalist." And then, to show +his zeal, he added a fifth name to the list, that of Querelle, +ex-surgeon of marine, arrested four months previously, under slight +suspicion, but described in the report as a poor-spirited creature of +whom "something might be expected."</p> + +<p>"This one," said Bonaparte on reading the name of Querelle, and the +accompanying note, "is more of an intriguer than a fanatic; he will +speak."</p> + +<p>The same day the five, accused of enticing away soldiers and +corresponding with the enemies of the Republic, were led before a +military commission over which General Duplessis presided; Desol and +Piogé were acquitted, returned to the hands of the government and +immediately reincarcerated. Picot, Lebourgeois and Querelle, condemned +to death, were transferred to the Abbaye there to await their execution +on the following day.</p> + +<p>"There must be no delay, you understand," said Bonaparte, "I will not +have it."</p> + +<p>But nevertheless it was necessary to give a little time for the courage +of the prisoners to fail, and for the police to aid in bringing this +about.</p> + +<p>There was nothing to be expected of Picot or Lebourgeois; they knew +nothing of the conspiracy and were resigned to their fate; but their +deaths could be used to intimidate Querelle who was less firm, and the +authorities did not fail <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>to make the most of the opportunity. He was +allowed to be present during all the preparations; he witnessed the +arrival of the soldiers who were to shoot his companions; he saw them +depart and was immediately told that it was "now his turn." Then to +prolong his agony he was left alone in the gloomy chamber where +Maillard's tribunal had formerly sat. This tragic room was lighted by a +small, strongly-barred window looking out on the square. From this +window the doomed man saw the soldiers who were to take him to the plain +of Grenelle drawn up in the narrow square and perceived the crowd +indulging in rude jokes while they waited for him to come out. One of +the soldiers had dismounted and tied his horse to the bars of the +window; while within the prison the noise of quick footsteps was heard, +doors opening and shutting heavily, all indicating the last +preparations....</p> + +<p>Querelle remained silent for a long time, crouched up in a corner. +Suddenly, as if fear had driven him mad, he began to call desperately, +crying that he did not want to die, that he would tell all he knew, +imploring his gaolers to fly to the First Consul and obtain his pardon, +at the same time calling with sobs upon General Murat, Governor of +Paris, swearing that he would make a complete avowal if only he would +command the soldiers to return to their quarters. Although Murat could +see nothing in these ravings but a pretext for gaining a few hours of +life, he felt it his duty to refer the matter to the First Consul, who +sent word of it to Réal. All this had taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> some time and meanwhile the +unfortunate Querelle, seeing the soldiers still under his window and the +impatient crowd clamouring for his appearance, was in the last paroxysm +of despair. When Réal opened the door he saw, cowering on the flags and +shaking with fear, a little man with a pockmarked face, black hair, a +thin and pointed nose and grey eyes continually contracted by a nervous +affection.</p> + +<p>"You have announced your intention of making some revelations," said +Réal; "I have come to hear them."</p> + +<p>But the miserable creature could scarcely articulate. Réal was obliged +to reassure him, to have him carried into another room, and to hold out +hopes of mercy if his confessions were sufficiently important. At last, +still trembling, and in broken words, with great effort the prisoner +confessed that he had been in Paris for six months, having come from +London with Georges Cadoudal and six of his most faithful officers; they +had been joined there by a great many more from Bretagne or England; +there were now more than one hundred of them hidden in Paris, waiting +for an opportunity to carry off Bonaparte, or to assassinate him. He +added more details as he grew calmer. A boat from the English navy had +landed them at Biville near Dieppe; there a man from Eu or Tréport had +met them and conducted them a little way from the shore to a farm of +which Querelle did not know the name. They left again in the night, and +in this way, from farm to farm, they journeyed to Paris where they did +not meet un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>til Georges called them together; they received their pay in +a manner agreed upon. His own share was deposited under a stone in the +Champs Elysées every week, and he fetched it from there. A "gentleman" +had come to meet them at the last stage of their journey, near the +village of Saint-Leu-Taverny, to prepare for their entry into Paris and +help them to pass the barrier.</p> + +<p>One point stood out boldly in all these revelations: Georges was in +Paris! Réal, whose account we have followed, left Querelle and hastened +to the Tuileries. The First Consul was in the hands of Constant, his +valet, when the detective was announced. Noticing his pallor, Bonaparte +supposed he had just come from the execution of the three condemned men.</p> + +<p>"It is over, isn't it?" he said.</p> + +<p>"No, General," replied Réal.</p> + +<p>And seeing his hesitation the Consul continued: "You may speak before +Constant."</p> + +<p>"Well then,—Georges and his band are in Paris."</p> + +<p>On hearing the name of the only man he feared Bonaparte turned round +quickly, made the sign of the cross, and taking Réal by the sleeve led +him into the adjoining room.</p> + +<p>So the First Consul's police, so numerous, so careful, and so active, +the police who according to the <i>Moniteur</i> "had eyes everywhere," had +been at fault for six months! A hundred reports were daily piled up on +Réal's table, and not one of them had mentioned the goings and comings +of Georges, who travelled with his Chouans from Dieppe to Paris, +supported a little army, and plan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>ned his operations with as much liberty +as if he were in London. These revelations were so alarming that they +preferred not to believe them. Querelle must have invented this absurd +story as a last resource for prolonging his life. To set at rest all +doubt on this subject he must be convinced of the imposture. If it was +true that he had accompanied the "brigands" from the sea to Paris, he +could, on travelling over the route, show their different +halting-places. If he could do this his life was to be spared.</p> + +<p>From the 27th January, when he made his first declarations, Querelle was +visited every night by Réal or Desmarets who questioned him minutely. +The unfortunate creature had sustained such a shock, that, even while +maintaining his avowals, he would be seized with fits of madness, and +beating his breast, would fall on his knees and call on those whom fear +of death had caused him to denounce, imploring their pardon. When he +learned what was expected of him he appeared to be overwhelmed, not at +the number of victims he was going to betray, but because he was aghast +at the idea of leading the detectives over a road that he had traversed +only at night, and that he feared he might not remember. The expedition +set out on February 3d. Réal had taken the precaution to have an escort +of gendarmes for the prisoner whom Georges and his followers might try +to rescue. The detachment was commanded by a zealous and intelligent +officer, Lieutenant Manginot, assisted by a giant called Pasque, an +astute man celebrated for the sureness of his attack. They left Paris at +dawn by the Saint-Denis gate and took the road to l'Isle-Adam.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<p>The first day's search was without result. Querelle thought he +remembered that a house in the village of Taverny had sheltered the +Chouans the night before their entry into Paris; but at the time he had +not paid any attention to localities, and in spite of his efforts, he +could be positive of nothing. The next day they took the Pontoise road +from Pierrelaye to Franconville,—with no more success. They returned +towards Taverny by Ermont, le Plessis-Bouchard and the Château de +Boissy. Querelle, who knew that his life was at stake, showed a feverish +eagerness which was not shared by Pasque nor Manginot, who were now +fully persuaded that the prisoner had only wanted to gain time, or some +chance of escape. They thought of abandoning the search and returning to +Paris, but Querelle begged so vehemently for twenty-four hours' reprieve +that Manginot weakened. The third day, therefore, they explored the +environs of Taverny and the borders of the forest as far as Bessancourt. +Querelle now led them by chance, thinking he recognised a group of +trees, a turn of the road, even imagining he had found a farm "by the +particular manner in which the dog barked."</p> + +<p>At last, worn out, the little band were returning to Paris when, on +passing through the village of Saint-Leu, Querelle gave a triumphant +cry! He had just recognised the long-looked for house, and he gave so +exact a description of it and its inhabitants that Pasque did not +hesitate to interrogate the proprietor, a vine-dresser named Denis +Lamotte. He la<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>id great stress on the fact that he had a son in the +service of an officer of the Consul's guard; his other son, Vincent +Lamotte, lived with him. The worthy man appeared very much surprised at +the invasion of his house, but his peasant cunning could not long +withstand the professional cleverness of the detective, and after a few +minutes he gave up.</p> + +<p>He admitted that at the beginning of July last he had received a person +calling himself Houvel, or Saint-Vincent, who under pretence of buying +some wine, had proposed to him to lodge seven or eight persons for a +night. Lamotte had accepted. On the evening of the 30th August Houvel +had reappeared and told him that the men would arrive that night. He +went to fetch them in the neighbourhood of l'Isle-Adam, and his son +Vincent accompanied him to serve as guide to the travellers, whom he met +on the borders of the wood of La Muette. They numbered seven, one of +whom, very stout and covered with sweat, stopped in the wood to change +his shirt. They all appeared to be very tired, and only two of them were +on horseback. They arrived at Lamotte's house at Saint-Leu about two +o'clock in the morning; the horses were stabled and the men stretched +themselves out on the straw in one of the rooms of the house. Lamotte +noticed that each of them carried two pistols. They slept long and had +dinner about twelve o'clock. Two individuals, who had driven from Paris +and left their cabriolets, one at the "White Cross" the other at the +"Crown," talked with the travellers who, about seven o'clock, resumed +their journey to the capital. Each of the "individ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>uals" took one in his +cab; two went on horseback and the others awaited the phaeton which ran +between Taverny and Paris.</p> + +<p>This account tallied so well with Querelle's declarations that there +was no longer any room for doubt. The band of seven was composed of +Georges and his staff; the "stout man" was Georges himself, and Querelle +gave the names of the others, all skilful and formidable Chouans. +Lamotte, on his part, did not hesitate to name the one who had conducted +the "brigands" to the wood of La Muette. He was called Nicolas +Massignon, a farmer of Jouy-le-Comte. Pasque set out with his gendarmes, +and Massignon admitted that he had brought the travellers from across +the Oise to the Avenue de Nesles, his brother, Jean-Baptiste Massignon, +a farmer of Saint-Lubin, having conducted them thither. Pasque +immediately took the road to Saint-Lubin and marched all night. At four +o'clock in the morning he arrived at the house of Jean-Baptiste, who, +surprised in jumping out of bed, remembered that he had put up some men +that his brother-in-law, Quentin-Rigaud, a cultivator at Auteuil, had +brought there. Pasque now held four links of the chain, and Manginot +started for the country to follow the track of the conspirators to the +sea. Savary had preceded him in order to surprise a new disembarkation +announced by Querelle. Arrived at the coast he perceived, at some +distance, an English brig tacking, but in spite of all their precautions +to prevent her taking alarm, the vessel did not come in. They saw her +depart on a signal given on shore by a young man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> on horseback, whom +Savary's gendarmes pursued as far as the forest of Eu, where he +disappeared.</p> + +<p>In twelve days, always accompanied by Querelle, Manginot had ended his +quest, and put into the hands of Réal such a mass of depositions that it +was possible, as we shall show, to reconstruct the voyage of Georges and +his companions to Paris from the sea.</p> + +<p>On the night of August 23, 1803, the English cutter "Vincejo," commanded +by Captain Wright, had landed the conspirators at the foot of the cliffs +of Biville, a steep wall of rocks and clay three hundred and twenty feet +high. From time immemorial, in the place called the hollow of Parfonval +there had existed an "estamperche," a long cord fixed to some piles, +which was used by the country people for descending to the beach. It was +necessary to pull oneself up this long rope by the arms, a most painful +proceeding for a man as corpulent as Georges. At last the seven Chouans +were gathered at the top of the cliff, and under the guidance of Troche, +son of the former procureur of the commune of Eu, and one of the most +faithful adherents of the party, they arrived at the farm of La Poterie, +near the hamlet of Heudelimont, about two leagues from the coast. Whilst +the farmer, Detrimont, was serving them drinks, a mysterious personage, +who called himself M. Beaumont, came to consult with them. He was a tall +man, with the figure of a Hercules, a swarthy complexion, a high +forehead and black eyebrows and hair. He disappeared in the early +morning.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Georges and his companions spent the whole of the 24th at La Poterie. +They left the farm in the night and marched five leagues to Preuseville, +where a M. Loisel sheltered them. The route was cleverly planned not to +leave the vast forest of Eu, which provided shaded roads, and in case of +alarm, almost impenetrable hiding-places. On the night of the 26th they +again covered five leagues, through the forest of Eu, arriving at Aumale +at two o'clock in the morning, and lodging with a man called Monnier, +who occupied the ancient convent of the Dominican Nuns. "The stout man" +rode a black horse which Monnier, for want of a stable, hid in a +corridor in the house, the halter tied to the key of the door. As for +the men, they threw themselves pell-mell on some straw, and did not go +out during the day. M. Beaumont had reappeared at Aumale. He arrived on +horseback and, after passing an hour with the conspirators, had left in +the direction of Quincampoix. They had seen him again with Boniface +Colliaux, called Boni, at their next stage, Feuquières, four leagues +off, which they reached on the night of the 27th. They passed the 28th +with Leclerc, five leagues further on, at the farm of Monceaux which +belonged to the Count d'Hardivilliers, situated in the commune of +Saint-Omer-en-Chaussée. From there, avoiding Beauvais, the son of +Leclerc had guided them to the house of Quentin-Rigaud at Auteuil, and +on the 29th he had taken them to Massignon, the farmer of Saint-Lubin, +who in turn had passed them on, the next day, to his brother Nicolas, +charged, as we have seen, to help them cross the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> Oise and direct them to +the wood of La Muette, where Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of +Saint-Leu, had come to fetch them.</p> + +<p>Such was the result of Manginot's enquiries. He had reconstructed +Georges' itinerary with most remarkable perspicacity and this was the +more important as the chain of stations from the sea to Paris +necessitated long and careful organisation, and as the conspirators used +the route frequently. Thus, two men mentioned in the disembarkation of +August 23d had returned to Biville in mid-September. On October 2d +Georges and three of his officers, coming from Paris, had again +presented themselves before Lamotte, who had conducted them to the wood +of La Muette, where Massignon was waiting for them. It was proved that +their journeys had been made with perfect regularity; the same guides, +the same night marches, the same hiding-places by day. The house of +Boniface Colliaux at Feuquières, that of Monnier at Aumale, and the farm +of La Poterie seemed to be the principal meeting-places. Another passage +took place in the second fortnight of November, and another in December, +corresponding to a new disembarkation. In January, 1804, Georges made +the journey for the fourth time, to await at Biville the English +corvette bringing Pichegru, the Marquis de Rivière and four other +conspirators. A fisherman called Étienne Horné gave some valuable +details of this arrival. He had noticed particularly the man who +appeared to be the leader—"a fat man, with a full, rather hard face, +round-shouldered, and with a slight trouble in his arms."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>"These gentlemen," he added, "usually arrived at night, and left about +midnight; they were satisfied with our humble fare, and always kept +together in a corner, talking."</p> + +<p>When the tide was full Horné went down to the beach to watch for the +sloop. The password was "Jacques," to which the men in the boat replied +"Thomas."</p> + +<p>Manginot, as may well be imagined, arrested all who in any way had +assisted the conspirators, and hurried them off to Paris. The tower of +the Temple became crowded with peasants, with women in Normandy caps, +and fishermen of Dieppe, dumbfounded at finding themselves in the famous +place where the monarchy had suffered its last torments. But these were +only the small fry of the conspiracy, and the First Consul, who liked to +pose as the victim exposed to the blows of an entire party, could not +with decency take these inoffensive peasants before a high court of +justice. While waiting for chance or more treachery to reveal the refuge +of Georges Cadoudal, the discovery of the organisers of the plot was +most important, and this seemed well-nigh impossible, although Manginot +had reason to think that the centre of the conspiracy was near Aumale or +Feuquières.</p> + +<p>His attention had been attracted by a deposition mentioning the black +horse that Georges had ridden from Preuseville to Aumale—the one that +the school-master Monnier had hidden in a corridor of his house. With +this sli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>ght clue he started for the country. There he learned that a +workman called Saint-Aubin, who lived in the hamlet of Coppegueule, had +been ordered to take the horse to an address on a letter which Monnier +had given him. This man, when called upon to appear, remembered that he +had led the horse "to a fine house in the environs of Gournay." When he +arrived there a servant had taken the animal to the stables, and a lady +had come out and asked for the letter, but he denied all knowledge of +the lady's name or the situation of the house.</p> + +<p>Manginot resolved to search the country in company with Saint-Aubin, but +he was either stupid or pretended to be so, and refused to give any +assistance. He led the gendarmes six leagues, as far as Aumale, and +said, at first, that he recognised the Château de Mercatet-sur-Villers, +but on looking carefully at the avenues and the arrangement of the +buildings, he declared he had never been there. The same thing happened +at Beaulevrier and at Mothois; but on approaching Gournay his memory +returned, and he led Manginot to a house in the hamlet of Saint-Clair +which he asserted was the one to which Monnier had sent him. On entering +the courtyard he recognised the servant to whom he had given the horse +six months before, a groom named Joseph Planchon. Manginot instantly +arrested the man, and then began his search.</p> + +<p>The house belonged to an ex-officer of marine, François Robert d'Aché, +who rarely occupied it, being an ardent sportsman and preferring his +estates near Neufchâtel-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>en-Bray, where there was more game. Saint-Clair +was occupied by Mme. d'Aché, an invalid who rarely left her room, and +her two daughters, Louise and Alexandrine, as well as d'Aché's mother, a +bedridden octogenarian, and a young man named Caqueray, who was also +called the Chevalier de Lorme, who farmed the lands of M. and Mme. +d'Aché, whose property had recently been separated by law. Caqueray +looked upon himself as one of the family, and Louise, the eldest girl, +was betrothed to him.</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been less suspicious than the members of this +patriarchal household, who seemed to know nothing of politics, and whose +tranquil lives were apparently unaffected by revolutions. The absence of +the head of so united a family was the only astonishing thing about it. +But Mme. d'Aché and her daughters explained that he was bored at +Saint-Clair and usually lived in Rouen, that he hunted a great deal, and +spent his time between his relatives who lived near Gaillon and friends +at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. They could not say where he was at present, +having had no news of him for two months.</p> + +<p>But on questioning the servants Manginot learned some facts that changed +the aspect of affairs. Lambert, the gardener, had recently been shot at +Evreux, convicted of having taken part with a band of Chouans in an +attack on the stage-coach, Caqueray's brother had just been executed for +the same cause at Rouen. Constant Prévot, a farm hand, accused of having +killed a gendarme, had been acquitted, but died soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> after his return to +Saint-Clair. Manginot had unearthed a nest of Chouans, and only when he +learned that the description of d'Aché was singularly like that of the +mysterious Beaumont who had been seen with Georges at La Poterie, Aumale +and Feuquières, did he understand the importance of his discovery. +After a rapid and minute inquiry, he took it upon himself to arrest +every one at Saint-Clair, and sent an express to Réal, informing him of +the affair, and asking for further instructions.</p> + +<p>It had been the custom for several years, when a person was denounced to +the police as an enemy of the government, or a simple malcontent, to +have his name put up in Desmarets' office, and to add to it, in +proportion to the denunciations, every bit of information that could +help to make a complete portrait of the individual. That of d'Aché was +consulted. There were found annotations of this sort: "By reason of his +audacity he is one of the most important of the royalists," "Last +December he took a passport at Rouen for Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he +was called by business," "His host at Saint-Germain, Brandin de +Saint-Laurent, declares that he did not sleep there regularly, sometimes +two, sometimes three days at a time." At last a letter was intercepted +addressed to Mme. d'Aché, containing this phrase, which they recognised +as Georges' style: "Tell M. Durand that things are taking a good turn,... +his presence is necessary.... He will have news of me at the Hôtel +de Bordeaux, rue de Grenelle, Saint-Honoré, where he will ask for +Houvel." Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Houvel was the unknown man who, first of all, had gone to +the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu to persuade him to aid the "brigands." +Thus d'Aché's route was traced from Biville to Paris and the conclusion +drawn that, knowing all the country about Bray, where he owned estates, +he had been chosen to arrange the itinerary of the conspirators and to +organise their journeys. He had accompanied them from La Poterie to +Feuquières, sometimes going before them, sometimes staying with them in +the farms where he had found for them places of refuge.</p> + +<p>In default of Georges, then, d'Aché was the next best person to seize, +and the First Consul appreciated this fact so keenly that he organised +two brigades of picked soldiers and fifty dragoons. But they only served +to escort poor sick Mme. d'Aché, her daughter Louise and their friend +Caqueray, who were immediately locked up—the last named in the Tower of +the Temple, and the two women in the Madelonnettes. The infirm old +grandmother remained at Saint-Clair, while Alexandrine wished to follow +her mother and sister, and was left quite at liberty. But d'Aché could +not be found. Manginot's army had searched the whole country, from +Beauvais to Tréport, without success; they had sought him at +Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he was said to be hidden, at +Saint-Denis-de-Monts, at Saint-Romain, at Rouen. The prefects of Eure +and Seine-Inférieure were ordered to set all their police on his track. +The result of this campaign was pitiable, and they only succeeded in +arresting d'Aché's younger brother, an inoffensive fellow of f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>eeble +mind, appropriately named "Placide," who was nicknamed "Tourlour," on +account of his lack of wit and his rotundity. His greatest fear was of +being mistaken for his brother, which frequently happened. As the elder +d'Aché could never be caught, Placide, who loved tranquillity and +hardly ever went away from home, was invariably taken in his stead. It +happened again this time, and Manginot seized him, thinking he had done +a fine thing. But the first interview undeceived him. However, he sent +word of his capture to Réal, who, in his zeal to execute the First +Consul's orders, took upon himself to determine that Placide d'Aché was +as dangerous a royalist "brigand" as his brother. He ordered the +prisoner to be brought under a strong escort to Paris, determining to +interrogate him himself. But as soon as he had seen "Tourlour," and had +asked him a few questions, including one as to his behaviour during the +Terror, and received for answer, "I hid myself with mamma," Réal +understood that such a man could not be brought before a tribunal as a +rival to Bonaparte. He kept him, however, in prison, so that the name of +d'Aché could appear on the gaol-book of the Temple.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, on the 9th of March 1804, at the hour when Placide +d'Aché was being interrogated, an event occurred, which transformed the +drama and hastened its tragic dénouement.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE CAPTURE OF GEORGES CADOUDAL</h3> + + +<p>Georges had arrived in Paris on September 1, 1803, in a yellow cabriolet +driven by the Marquis d'Hozier dressed as a coachman. D'Hozier, who was +formerly page to the King and had for several months been established as +a livery-stable keeper in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, conducted Georges +to the Hôtel de Bordeaux, kept by the widow Dathy, in the Rue de +Grenelle-Saint-Honoré.</p> + +<p>The task of finding hiding-places in Paris for the conspirators, had +been given to Houvel, called Saint-Vincent, whom we have already seen at +Saint-Leu. Houvel's real name was Raoul Gaillard. A perfect type of the +incorrigible Chouan, he was a fine-looking man of thirty, +fresh-complexioned, with white teeth and a ready smile, and dressed in +the prevailing fashion. He was a close companion of d'Aché, and it was +even said that they had the same mistress at Rouen. The speciality of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>Raoul and his brother Armand was attacking coaches which carried +government money. Their takings served to pay recruits to the royalist +cause. For the past six months Raoul Gaillard had been in Paris looking +for safe lodging-places. He was assisted in this delicate task by +Bouvet de Lozier, another of d'Aché's intimate friends, who like him, +had served in the navy before the Revolution.</p> + +<p>Georges went first to Raoul Gaillard at the Hôtel de Bordeaux, but he +left in the evening and slept with Denaud at the "Cloche d'Or," at the +corner of the Rue du Bac, and the Rue de Varenne. He was joined there by +his faithful servant Louis Picot, who had arrived in Paris the same day. +The "Cloche d'Or" was a sort of headquarters for the conspirators; they +filled the house, and Denaud was entirely at their service. He was +devoted to the cause, and not at all timid. He had placed Georges' cab +in the stable of Senator François de Neufchâteau, whose house was next +door.</p> + +<p>Six weeks before, Bouvet de Lozier had taken, through Mme. Costard de +Saint-Léger, his mistress, an isolated house at Chaillot near the Seine. +He had put there as concierge, a man named Daniel and his wife, both of +whom he knew to be devoted to him. A porch with fourteen steps led to +the front hall of the house. This served as dining-room. It was lighted +by four windows and paved with squares of black and white marble; a +walnut table with eight covers, cane-seated chairs, the door-panels +representing the games of children,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> and striped India muslin curtains +completed the decoration of this room. The next room had also four +windows, and contained an ottoman and six chairs covered with blue and +white Utrecht velvet, two armchairs of brocaded silk, and two mahogany +tables with marble tops. Then came the bedroom with a four-post bed, +consoles and mirrors. On the first floor was an apartment of three +rooms, and in an adjoining building, a large hall which could be used as +an assembly-room. The whole was surrounded by a large garden, closed on +the side towards the river-bank by strong double gates.</p> + +<p>If we have lingered over this description, it is because it seems to say +so much. Who would have imagined that this elegant little house had been +rented by Georges to shelter himself and his companions? These men, +whose disinterestedness and tenacity we cannot but admire, who for ten +years had fought with heroic fortitude for the royal cause, enduring the +hardest privations, braving tempests, sleeping on straw and marching at +night; these men whose bodies were hardened by exposure and fatigue, +retained a purity of mind and sincerity really touching. They never +ceased to believe that "the Prince" for whom they fought would one day +come and share their danger. It had been so often announced and so often +put off that a little mistrust might have been forgiven them, but they +had faith, and that inspired them with a thought which seemed quite +simple to them but which was really sublime. While they were lodging in +holes, living on a pittance parsimoniously taken from the party's funds, +they kept a comfortable and s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>ecure retreat ready, where "their +prince"—who was never to come—could wait at his ease, until at the +price of their lives, they had assured the success of his cause. If the +history of our bloody feuds has always an epic quality, it is because it +abounds in examples of blind devotion, so impossible nowadays that they +seem to us improbable exaggerations.</p> + +<p>After six days at the "Cloche d'Or," Georges took possession of the +house at Chaillot, but he did not stay there long, for about the 25th of +September he was at 21 Rue Carême-Prenant in the Faubourg du Temple. +Hozier had rented an entresol there, and had employed a man called +Spain, who had an aptitude for this sort of work, to make a secret place +in it. Spain, under pretence of indispensable repairs, had shut himself +up with his tools in the apartment, and had made a cleverly-concealed +trap-door, by means of which, in case of alarm, the tenants could +descend to the ground floor and go out by an unoccupied shop whose door +opened under the porch of the house. Spain took a sort of pride in his +strange talent; he was very proud of a hiding-place he had made in the +lodging of a friend, the tailor Michelot, in the Rue de Bussy, which +Michelot himself did not suspect. The tailor was obliged to be absent +often, and four of the conspirators had successively lodged there. When +he was away his lodgers "limbered up" in this apartment, but as soon as +they heard his step on the stairs, they reentered their cell, and the +worthy Michelot, who vaguely surmised that there was some mystery about +his house, only solved the enigma when he was cited to appear before the +tribunal as an accomplice in the roy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>alist plot of which he had never +even heard the name.</p> + +<p>Georges started for his first journey to Biville from the Rue +Carême-Prenant. On January 23d he returned finally to Paris, bringing +with him Pichegru, Jules de Polignac and the Marquis de Rivière, whom he +had gone to the farm of La Poterie to receive. He lodged Pichegru with +an employé of the finance department, named Verdet, who had given the +Chouans the second floor of his house in the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite. +They stayed there three days. On the 27th, Georges took the general to +the house at Chaillot "where they only slept a few nights." At the very +moment that they went there Querelle signed his first declarations +before Réal.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to follow the movements of Pichegru, nor to relate +his interviews with Moreau. The organisation of the plot is what +interests us, by reason of the part taken in it by d'Aché. No one has +ever explained what might have resulted politically from the combination +of Moreau's embittered ambition, the insouciance of Pichegru, and the +fanatical ardour of Georges. Of this ill-assorted trio the latter alone +had decided on action, although he was handicapped by the obstinacy of +the princes in refusing to come to the fore until the throne was +reestablished. He told the truth when he affirmed before the judges, +later on, that he had only come to France to attempt a restoration, the +means for which were never decided on,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> for they had not agreed on the +manner in which they should act towards Bonaparte. A strange plan had at +first been suggested. The Comte d'Artois, at the head of a band of +royalists equal in number to the Consul's escort, was to meet him on the +road to Malmaison, and provoke him to single combat, but the presence +of the Prince was necessary for this revival of the Combat of Thirty, +and as he refused to appear, this project of rather antiquated chivalry +had to be abandoned. Their next idea was to kidnap Bonaparte. Some +determined men—as all of Georges' companions were—undertook to get +into the park at Malmaison at night, seize Bonaparte and throw him into +a carriage which thirty Chouans, dressed as dragoons, would escort as +far as the coast. They actually began to put this theatrical "coup" into +execution. Mention is made of it in the Memoirs of the valet Constant, +and certain details of the investigation confirm these assertions. Raoul +Gaillard, who still lived at the Hôtel de Bordeaux, and entertained his +friends Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu and Massignon, +farmer of Saint-Lubin there, had discovered that Massignon leased some +land from Macheret, the First Consul's coachman, and had determined at +all hazards to make this man's acquaintance. He even had the audacity to +show himself at the Château of Saint-Cloud in the hope of meeting him. +Besides this, Genty, a tailor in the Palais-Royal, had delivered four +chasseur uniforms, ordered by Raoul Gaillard, and Debausseaux, a tailor +at Aumale, during one of their journeys had measured some of Monnier's +guests for cloaks and breeches of green cloth, which only needed metal +buttons to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> be transformed into dragoon uniforms.</p> + +<p>Querelle's denunciations put a stop to all these preparations. Nothing +remained but to run to earth again. A great many of the conspirators +succeeded in doing this, but all were not so fortunate. The first one +seized by Réal's men was Louis Picot, Georges' servant. He was a coarse, +rough man, entirely devoted to his master, under whose orders he had +served in the Veudée. He was taken to the Prefecture and promised +immediate liberty in exchange for one word that would put the police on +the track of Georges. He was offered 1,500 louis d'or, which they took +care to count out before him, and on his refusal to betray his master, +Réal had him put to the torture. Bertrand, the concierge of the depôt, +undertook the task. The unfortunate Picot's fingers were crushed by +means of an old gun and a screw-driver, his feet were burned in the +presence of the officers of the guard. He revealed nothing. "He has +borne everything with criminal resignation," the judge-inquisitor, +Thuriot, wrote to Réal; "he is a fanatic, hardened by crime. I have now +left him to solitude and suffering; I will begin again to-morrow; he +knows where Georges is hidden and must be made to reveal it."</p> + +<p>The next day the torture was continued, and this time agony wrung the +address of the Chaillot house from Picot. They hastened there—only to +find it empty. But the day had not been wasted, for the police, on an +anonymou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>s accusation, had seized Bouvet de Lozier as he was entering the +house of his mistress, Mme. de Saint-Léger, in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. He +was interrogated and denied everything. Thrown into the Temple, he +hanged himself in the night, by tying his necktie to the bars of his +cell. A gaoler hearing his death-rattle, opened the door and took him +down; but Bouvet, three-quarters dead, as soon as they had brought him +to, was seized with convulsive tremblings, and in his delirium he spoke.</p> + +<p>This attempted suicide, to tell the truth, was only half believed in, +and many people, having heard of the things that were done in the Temple +and the Prefecture, believed that Bouvet had been assisted in his +strangling, just as they had put Picot's feet to the fire. What gave +colour to these suspicions was the fact that Bouvet's hands "were +horribly swollen" when he appeared before Réal the next day, and also +the strange form of the declaration which he was reputed to have +dictated at midnight, just as he was restored to life. "A man who comes +from the gates of the tomb, still covered with the shadows of death, +demands vengeance on those who, by their perfidy," etc. Many were agreed +in thinking that that was not the style of a suicide, with the +death-rattle still in his throat, but that Réal's agents must have lent +their eloquence to this half-dead creature.</p> + +<p>However it may have been, the government now knew enough to order the +most rigorous measures to be taken against the "last royalists." Bouvet +had, like Picot, only been able to mention the house at Chaillot, and +the lod<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>ging in the Rue Carême-Prenant, and Georges' retreat was still +undiscovered. The revelations that fear or torture had drawn from his +associates only served to make the figure of this extraordinary man loom +greater, by showing the power of his ascendancy over his companions, and +the mystery that surrounded all his actions. A legend grew around his +name, and the communications published by <i>Le Moniteur</i>, contributed not +a little towards making him a sort of fantastic personage, whom one +expected to see arise suddenly, and by one grand theatrical stroke put +an end to the Revolution.</p> + +<p>Paris lived in a fever of excitement during the first days of March, +1804, anxiously following this duel to the death, between the First +Consul and this phantom-man who, shut up in the town and constantly seen +about, still remained uncaught. The barriers were closed as in the +darkest days of the Terror. Patrols, detectives and gendarmes held all +the streets; the soldiers of the garrison had departed, with loaded +arms, to the boulevards outside the walls. White placards announced that +"Those who concealed the brigands would be classed with the brigands +themselves"; the penalty of death attached to any one who should shelter +one of them, even for twenty-four hours, without denouncing him to the +police. The description of Georges and his accomplices was inserted in +all the papers, distributed in leaflets, and posted on the walls. Their +last domicile was mentioned, as well as anything that could help to +identify them. The clerks at the barriers were ordered to search +barrels, washerwomen's carts, baskets, and, as the cemeteries were +outside the walls, to look carefully into all the hearses that carried +the dead to them.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>On leaving Chaillot, Georges had returned to Verdet, in the Rue du +Puits-de-l'Hermite. As he did not go out and his friends dared not come +to see him, Mme. Verdet had instituted herself commissioner for the +conspiracy.</p> + +<p>One evening she did not return. Armed with a letter for Bouvet de +Lozier, she had arrived at the Rue Saint-Sauveur just as they were +taking him to the Temple, and had been arrested with him. Thus the +circle was narrowing around Georges. He was obliged to leave the Rue du +Puits-de-l'Hermite in haste, for fear that torture would wring the +secret of his asylum from Mme. Verdet. But where could he go? The house +at Chaillot, the Hôtel of the Cloche d'Or, the Rue Carême-Prenant were +now known to the police. Charles d'Hozier, on being consulted, showed +him a retreat that he had kept for himself, which had been arranged for +him by Mlle. Hisay, a poor deformed girl, who served the conspirators +with tireless zeal, taking all sorts of disguises and vying in address +and activity with Réal's men. She had rented from a fruitseller named +Lemoine, a little shop with a room above it, intending "to use it for +some of her acquaintances."</p> + +<p>It was there that she conducted Georges on the night of February 17. The +next day two of his officers, Burban and Joyaut, joined him there, and +all three lived at the woman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>Lemoine's for twenty days. They occupied +the room above, leaving the shop untenanted save by Mlle. Hisay and a +little girl of Lemoine's, who kept watch there. At night both of them +went up to the room, and slept there, separated by a curtain from the +beds occupied by Georges and his accomplices. The fruiterer and her +daughter were entirely ignorant of the standing of their guests, Mlle. +Hisay having introduced them as three shop-keepers who were +unfortunately obliged to hide from their creditors.</p> + +<p>This incognito occasioned some rather amusing incidents. One day Mme. +Lemoine, on returning from market where the neighbours had been +discussing the plot that was agitating all Paris, said to her tenants, +"Goodness me! You don't know about it? Why, they say that that miserable +Georges would like to destroy us all; if I knew where he was, I'd soon +have him caught."</p> + +<p>Another time the little girl brought news that Georges had left Paris +disguised as an aide-de-camp of the First Consul. Some days later, when +Georges asked her what the latest news was, she answered, "They say the +rascal has escaped in a coffin."</p> + +<p>"I should like to go out the same way," hinted Burban.</p> + +<p>However, the police had lost track of the conspirator. It was generally +supposed that he had passed the fortifications, when on the 8th of +March, Petit, who had known Léridant, one of the Chouans, for a long +time, saw him talking with a woman on the Boulevard Saint-Antoine. He +followed him, and a little further off, saw him go up to a man who +struck him as bearing a gr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>eat likeness to Joyaut, whose description had +been posted on all the walls.</p> + +<p>It was indeed Joyaut, who had left Mme. Lemoine's for the purpose of +looking for a lodging for Georges where he would be less at the mercy +of chance than in the fruitseller's attic. Léridant told him that the +house of a perfumer named Caron, in the Rue Four-Saint-Germain, was the +safest retreat in Paris. For some years Caron, a militant royalist, had +sheltered distressed Chouans, in the face of the police. He had hidden +Hyde de Neuville for several weeks; his house was well provided with +secret places, and for extreme cases he had made a place in his +sign-post overhanging the street, where a man could lie <i>perdu</i> at ease, +while the house was being searched. Léridant had obtained Caron's +consent, and it was agreed that Léridant should come in a cab at seven +o'clock the next evening to take Georges from Sainte-Geneviève to the +Rue du Four.</p> + +<p>When he had seen the termination of the interview of which his +detective's instinct showed him the importance, Petit, who had remained +at a distance, followed Joyaut, and did not lose sight of him till he +arrived at the Place Maubert. Suspecting that Georges was in the +neighbourhood he posted policemen at the Place du Panthéon, and at the +narrow streets leading to it; then he returned to watch Léridant, who +lodged with a young man called Goujon, in the cul-de-sac of the +Corderie, behind the old Jacobins Club. The next day, March 9th, Petit +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>learned through his spies that Goujon had hired out a cab, No. 53, for +the entire day. He hastened to the Prefecture and informed his +colleague, Destavigny, who, with a party of inspectors took up his +position on the Place Maubert. If, as Petit supposed, Georges was hidden +near there, if the cab was intended for him, it would be obliged to +cross the place where the principal streets of the quarter converged. +The order was given to let it pass if it contained only one person, but +to follow it with most extreme care.</p> + +<p>The night had arrived, and nothing had happened to confirm the +hypotheses of Petit, when, a little before seven o'clock, a cab appeared +on the Place, coming from the Rue Galande. Only one man was on it, +holding the reins. The spies in different costumes, who hung about the +fountain, recognised him as Léridant. The cab was numbered 53, and had +only the lantern at the left alight. It went slowly up the steep Rue de +la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève; the police, hugging the walls, followed it +far off. Petit, the Inspector Caniolle, and the officer of the peace, +Destavigny, kept nearer to it, expecting to see it stop before one of +the houses in the street, when they would only have to take Georges on +the threshold. But to their great disappointment the cab turned to the +right, into the narrow Rue des Amandiers, and stopped at a porte cocherè +near the old Collège des Grassins. As the lantern shed a very brilliant +light, the three detectives concealed themselves in the lanes near by. +They saw Léridant descend from the cab. He went through a door, came +out, went in again and stayed for a quarter of an hour. Then he turned +his horse roun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>d, and got up on the seat again.</p> + +<p>The cab turned again into the Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève, and +went slowly down it; it went across the Place Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, +following the houses. Caniolle walked behind it, Petit and Destavigny +followed at a distance. Just as the carriage arrived at the corner of +the Rue des Sept-Voies, four individuals came out from the shadow. One +of them seized the apron, and helping himself up by the step, flung +himself into the cab, which had not stopped, and went off at full +speed....</p> + +<p>The police had recognised Georges, disguised as a market-porter. +Caniolle, who was nearest, rushed forward; the three men who had +remained on the spot, and who were no other than Joyaut, Burban and +Raoul Gaillard, tried to stop him. Caniolle threw them off, and chased +the cab which had disappeared in the Rue Saint-Etienne-des-Grès. He +caught up to it, just as it was entering the Passage des Jacobins. +Seizing the springs, he was carried along with it. The two officers of +the peace, less agile, followed crying, "Stop! Stop!"</p> + +<p>Georges, seated on the right of Léridant, who held the reins, had turned +to the back of the carriage and tried to follow the fortunes of the +pursuit through the glass. The moment that he had jumped into the +carriage, he had seen the detectives, and said to Léridant: "Whip him, +whip him hard!"</p> + +<p>"To go where?" asked the other.</p> + +<p>"I do not know, but we must fly!"</p> + +<p>And the horse, tingling with blows, galloped off.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +</p> +<p>At the end of the Passage des Jacobins, which at a sharp angle ended in +the Rue de la Harpe, Léridant was obliged to slow up in order to turn on +the Place Saint-Michel, and not miss the entrance to the Rue des +Fossés-Monsieur-le-Prince. He turned towards the Rue du Four, hoping, +thanks to the steepness of the Rue des Fossés, to distance the +detectives and arrive at Caron's before they caught up with the +carriage.</p> + +<p>From where he was Georges could not, through the little window, see +Caniolle crouched behind the hood. But he saw others running with all +their might. Destavigny and Petit had indeed continued the pursuit, and +their cries brought out all the spies posted in the quarter. Just as +Léridant wildly dashed into the Rue des Fossés, a whole pack of +policemen rushed upon him.</p> + +<p>At the approach of this whirlwind the frightened passers-by shrank into +the shelter of the doorways. Their minds were so haunted by one idea +that at the sight of this cab flying past in the dark with the noise of +whips, shouts, oaths, and the resonant clang of the horse's hoofs on the +pavement, a single cry broke forth, "Georges! Georges! it is Georges!" +Anxious faces appeared at the windows, and from every door people came +out, who began to run without knowing it, drawn along as by a +waterspout. Did Georges see in this a last hope of safety? Did he +believe he could escape in the crowd? However that may be, at the top of +the Ru<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>e Voltaire he jumped out into the street. Caniolle, at the same +moment, left the back of the cab—which Petit, and another policeman +called Buffet, had at last succeeded in outrunning,—threw himself on +the reins, and allowing himself to be dragged along, mastered the horse, +which stopped, exhausted. Buffet took one step towards Georges, who +stretched him dead with a pistol shot; with a second ball the Chouan rid +himself, for a moment at least, of Caniolle. He still thought, probably, +that he could hide himself in the crowd; and perhaps he would have +succeeded, for Destavigny, who had run up, "saw him before him, standing +with all the tranquillity of a man who has nothing to fear, and three or +four people near him appeared not to be thinking more about Georges than +anything else." He was going to turn the corner of the Rue de +l'Observance when Caniolle, who was only wounded, struck him with his +club. In an instant Georges was surrounded, thrown down, searched and +bound. The next morning more than forty individuals, among them several +women, made themselves known to the judge as being each "the principal +author" of the arrest of the "brigand" chief.</p> + +<p>By way of the Carrefour de la Comédie, the Rues des Fossés Saint-Germain +and Dauphine, Georges, tied with cords, was taken to the Prefecture. A +growing mob escorted him, more out of curiosity than anger, and one can +imagine the excitement at police headquarters when they heard far off on +the Quai des Orfèvres, the increasing tumult announcing the event, and +when suddenly, from the corps de garde in the salons of the Prefect +Dubois the news ca<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>me, "Georges is taken!"</p> + +<p>A minute later the vanquished outlaw was pushed into the office of +Dubois, who was still at dinner. In spite of his bonds he still showed +so much pride and coolness that the all-powerful functionary was almost +afraid of him. Desmaret, who was present, could not himself escape this +feeling.</p> + +<p>"Georges, whom I saw for the first time," he said, "had always been to +me a sort of Old Man of the Mountain, sending his assassins far and +near, against the powers. I found, on the contrary, an open face, bright +eyes, fresh complexion, and a look firm but gentle, as was also his +voice. Although stout, his movements and manner were easy; his head +quite round, with short curly hair, no whiskers, and nothing to indicate +the chief of a mortal conspiracy, who had long dominated the <i>landes</i> of +Brittany. I was present when Comte Dubois, the prefect of police, +questioned him. His ease amidst all the hubbub, his answers, firm, +frank, cautious and couched in well-chosen language, contrasted greatly +with my ideas about him.</p> + +<p>"Indeed his first replies showed a disconcerting calm. One may be +quoted. When Dubois, not knowing where to begin, rather foolishly +reproached him with the death of Buffet, 'the father of a family,' +Georges smilingly gave him this advice:—'Next time, then, have me +arrested by bachelors.'"</p> + +<p>His courageous pride did not fail him either in the interrogations he +had to submit to, or bef<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>ore the court of justice. His replies to the +President are superb in disdain and abnegation. He assumed all +responsibility for the plot, and denied knowledge of any of his friends. +He carried his generosity so far as to behave with courteous dignity +even to those who had betrayed him; he even tried to excuse the +indifference of the princes whose selfish inertia had been his ruin. He +remained great until he reached the scaffold; eleven faithful Chouans +died with him, among the number being Louis Picot, Joyaut and Burban, +whose names have appeared in this story.</p> + +<p>Thus ended the conspiracy. Bonaparte came out of it emperor. Fouché, +minister of police, and his assistants were not going to be useless, for +if in the eyes of the public, Georges' death seemed the climax, it was +in reality but one incident in a desperate struggle. The depths sounded +by the investigation had revealed the existence of an incurable evil. +The whole west of France was cankered with Chouannerie. From Rouen to +Nantes, from Cherbourg to Poitiers, thousands of peasants, bourgeois and +country gentlemen remained faithful to the old order, and if they were +not all willing to take up arms in its cause, they could at least do +much to upset the equilibrium of the new government. And could not +another try to do what Georges Cadoudal had attempted? If some one with +more influence over the princes than he possessed should persuade one of +them to cross the Channel, what would the glory of the parvenu count +for, balanced against the ancient prestige of the name of Bourbon, +magnified and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> as it were sanctified by the tragedies of the Revolution? +This fear haunted Bonaparte; the knowledge that in France these +Bourbons, exiled, without soldiers or money, were still more the masters +then he, exasperated him. He felt that he was in their home, and their +nonchalance, contrasted with his incessant agitation, indicated both +insolence and disdain.</p> + +<p>The police, as a matter of fact, had unearthed only a few of the +conspirators. Many who, like Raoul Gaillard, had played an important +part in the plot, had succeeded in escaping all pursuit; they were +evidently the cleverest, therefore the most dangerous, and among them +might be found a man ambitious of succeeding Cadoudal. The capture to +which Fouché and Réal attached the most importance was that of d'Aché, +whose presence at Biville and Saint-Leu had been proved. For three +months, in Paris even, wherever the police had worked, they had struck +the trail of this same d'Aché, who appeared to have presided over the +whole organisation of the plot. Thus, he had been seen at Verdet's in +the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite, while Georges was there; he had met Raoul +Gaillard several times; in making an inventory of the papers of a young +lady called Margeot, with whom Pichegru had dined, two rather +enigmatical notes had been found, in which d'Aché's name appeared.</p> + +<p>Mme. d'Aché and her eldest daughter had been since February in the +Madelonnettes prison; the second girl, Alexandrine, had been left at +liberty in the hope that in Paris, where she w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>as a stranger, she would +be guilty of some imprudence that would deliver her father to the +police. She had taken lodgings in the Rue Traversière-Saint-Honoré, at +the Hôtel des Treize-Cantons, and Réal had immediately set two spies +upon her, but their reports were monotonously melancholy. "Very well +behaved, very quiet—she lives, and is daily with the master and +mistress of the hotel, people of mature age. She sees no one, and is +spoken of in the highest terms." From this side, also, all hope of +catching d'Aché had to be abandoned.</p> + +<p>Another way was thought of, and on March 22d the order to open all the +gates was given. Fouché foresaw that in their anxiety to leave Paris all +of Georges' accomplices who had not been caught would hasten to return +to Normandy, and thanks to the watchfulness exercised, a clean sweep +might be made of them. The cleverly conceived idea had some result. On +the 25th a peasant called Jacques Pluquet of Meriel, near l'Isle-Adam, +when working in his field on the border of the wood of La Muette, saw +four men in hats pulled down over cotton caps, and with strong knotted +clubs, coming towards him. They asked him if they could cross the Oise +at Meriel. Pluquet replied that it was easy to do so, "but there were +gendarmes to examine all who passed." At that they hesitated. They +described themselves as conscript deserters coming from Valenciennes who +wished to get back to their homes. Pluquet's account is so picturesque +as to be worth quoting:</p> + +<p>"I asked them wher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>e they belonged; they replied in Alençon. I remarked +that they would have trouble in getting there without being arrested. +One of them said: 'That is true, for after what had just happened in +Paris, everywhere is guarded.' Then, allowing the three others to go on +ahead, he said to me, 'But if they arrest us, what will they do to us?' +I replied: 'They will take you back to your corps, from brigade to +brigade.' On that he said, 'If they catch us, they will make us do ten +thousand leagues.' And he left me to regain his comrades, the youngest +of whom might have been twenty-two years old and seemed very sad and +tired."</p> + +<p>The next morning some people at Auvers found a little log cabin in a +wood in which the four men had spent the night. They were seen on the +following days, wandering in the forest of l'Isle-Adam. At last, on +April 1st they went to the ferryman of Meriel, Eloi Cousin, who was +sheltering two gendarmes. While they were begging the ferryman to take +them in his boat, the gendarmes appeared, and the men fled. A pistol +shot struck one of them, and a second, who stopped to assist his +comrade, was also taken. The two others escaped to the woods.</p> + +<p>The wounded man was put in a boat and taken to the hospital at Pontoise, +where he died the next day. Réal, who was immediately informed of it, +immediately sent Querelle, whom he was carefully keeping in prison to +use in case of need, and he at once recognised the corpse to be that of +Raoul Gaillard, called Houvel, or Saint-Vincent, the friend of d'Aché, +the principal advance-agent of Georges. The other prisoner was his +brother Armand, who was immediately taken to Paris and thrown into the +Temple.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +</p> +<p>The commune of Meriel had deserved well of the country, and the First +Consul showed his satisfaction in a dazzling manner. He expressed a +desire to make the acquaintance of this population so devoted to his +person, and on the 8th of April, the sous-prefet of Pontoise presented +himself at the Tuileries at the head of all the men of the village. +Bonaparte congratulated them personally, and as a more substantial proof +of his gratitude, distributed among them a sum of 11,000 francs, found +in Raoul Gaillard's belt.</p> + +<p>This was certainly a glorious event for the peasants of Meriel, but it +had an unexpected result. When they returned the next day they learned +that a stranger, "well dressed, well armed and mounted on a fine horse," +profiting by their absence, had gone to the village, and, "after many +questions addressed to the women and children, had gone to the place +where Raoul Gaillard was wounded, trying to find out if they had not +found a case, to which he seemed to attach great importance." This +incident reminded them that, in the boat that took him to Pontoise, +Raoul Gaillard, then dying, had anxiously asked if a razor-case had been +found among his things. On receiving a negative reply, "he had appeared +to be very much put out, and was heard to murmur that the fortune of the +man who would discover this case was made."</p> + +<p>The visits of this stranger—since seen, "in the country, on the heights +and near the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>woods,"—his threats of vengeance, and this mysterious +case, provided matter for a report that perplexed Réal. Was this not +d'Aché? A great hunt was organised in the forest of Carnelle, but it +brought no result. Four days later they explored the forest of +Montmorency, where some signs of the "brigands'" occupation were seen, +but of d'Aché no trace at all, and in spite of the fierceness that +Réal's men, incited by the promise of large rewards, brought to this +chase of the Chouans, after weeks and months of research, of enquiries, +tricks, false trails followed, and traps uselessly laid, it had to be +admitted that the police had lost the scent, and that Georges' clever +accomplice had long since disappeared.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE COMBRAYS</h3> + + +<p>At the period of our story there existed in the department of the Eure, +on the left bank of the Seine, beyond Gaillon, a large old manor-house, +backed by the hill that extended as far as Andelys; it was called the +Château de Tournebut. Although its peaked roofs could be seen from the +river above a thicket of low trees, Tournebut was off the main route of +travel, whether by land or water, from Rouen to Paris. Some fairly large +woods separated it from the highroad which runs from Gaillon to +Saint-Cyr-de-Vaudreuil, while the barges usually touched at the hamlet +of Roule, where hacks were hired to take passengers and goods to the +ferry of Muids, thereby saving them the long détour made by the Seine. +Tournebut was thus isolated between these two much-travelled roads. Its +principal façade, facing east, towards the river, consisted of two heavy +turrets, one against the other, built of brick and stone in the style of +Louis XIII, with great sl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>ate roofs and high dormer windows. After these +came a lower and more modern building, ending with the chapel. In front +of the château was an old square bastion forming a terrace, whose mossy +walls were bathed by the waters of a large stagnant marsh. The west +front which was plainer, was separated by only a few feet of level +ground from the abrupt, wooded hill by which Tournebut was sheltered. A +wall with several doors opening on the woods enclosed the château, the +farm and the lower part of the park, and a wide morass, stretching from +the foot of the terrace to the Seine, rendered access impossible from +that side.</p> + +<p>By the marriage of Geneviève de Bois-l'Evêque, Lady of Tournebut, this +mansion had passed to the family of Marillac, early in the seventeenth +century. The Marshal Louis de Marillac—uncle of Mme. Legras, +collaborator of St. Vincent de Paul—had owned it from 1613 to 1631, and +tradition asserted that during his struggle against Cardinal Richelieu +he had established there a plant for counterfeiting money. To him was +due the construction of the brick wing which remained unfinished, his +condemnation to death for peculation having put a stop to the +embellishments he had intended to make.</p> + +<p>There are very few châteaux left in France like this romantic manor of a +dead and gone past, whose stones have endured all the crises of our +history, and to which each century has added a tower, or a legend. +Tournebut, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was a perfect +type of these old dwellings, where there were so many great halls and so +few living rooms, and whose high slate roofs covered intricacies of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>framework forming lofts vast as cathedrals. It was said that its thick +walls were pierced by secret passages and contained hiding-places that +Louis de Marillac had formerly used.</p> + +<p>In 1804 Tournebut was inhabited by the Marquise de Combray, born +Geneviève de Brunelles, daughter of a President of the Cour des Comptes +of Normandy. Her husband, Jean-Louis-Armand-Emmanuel Hélie de Combray, +had died in 1784, leaving her with two sons and two daughters, and a +great deal of property in the environs of Falaise, in the parishes of +Donnay, Combray, Bonnœil and other places. Madame de Combray had +inherited Tournebut from her mother, Madeleine Hubert, herself a +daughter of a councillor in the Parliament of Normandy. Besides the +château and the farm, which were surrounded by a park well-wooded with +old trees, the domain included the woods that covered the hillside, at +the extremity of which was an old tower, formerly a wind-mill, built +over deep quarries, and called the "Tower of the Burned Mill," or "The +Hermitage." It figures in the ancient plans of the country under the +latter name, which it owes to the memory of an old hermit who lived in +the quarries for many years and died there towards the close of the +reign of Louis XV, leaving a great local reputation for holiness.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray was of a "haughty and imperious nature; her soul was +strong and full of energy; she knew how to brave danger and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> public +opinion; the boldest projects did not frighten her, and her ambition was +unbounded." Such is the picture that one of her most irreconcilable +enemies has drawn of her, and we shall see that the principal traits +were faithfully described. But to complete the resemblance one must +first of all plead an extenuating circumstance: Madame de Combray was a +fanatical royalist. Even that, however, would not make her story +intelligible, if one did not make allowance for the Calvary that the +faithful royalists travelled through so many years, each station of +which was marked by disillusions and failures. Since the war on the +nobles had begun in 1789, all their efforts at resistance, disdainful at +first, stubborn later on, blundering always, had been pitifully +abortive. Their rebuffs could no longer be counted, and there was some +justification in that for the scornful hatred on the part of the new +order towards a caste which for so many centuries had believed +themselves to be possessed of all the talents. Many of them, it is true, +had resigned themselves to defeat, but the <i>Intransigeants</i> continued to +struggle obstinately; and to say truth, this tenacious attachment to the +ghost of monarchy was not without grandeur.</p> + +<p>From the very beginning of the Revolution the Marquise de Combray had +numbered herself among the unchangeable royalists. Her husband, a +timorous and quiet man, who employed in reading the hours that he did +not consecrate to sleep, had long since abandoned to her the direction +of the household and the management of his fortune. Widowhood had but +strengthened the authority of the Marquise, who reigned over a little +world of small farmers, peasants <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>and servants, more timid, perhaps, than +devoted.</p> + +<p>She exacted complete obedience from her children. The eldest son, called +the Chevalier de Bonnœil, after a property near the Château of +Donnay, in the environs of Falaise, supported the maternal yoke +patiently; he was an officer in the Royal Dragoons at the time of the +Revolution. His younger brother, Timoléon de Combray, was of a less +docile nature. On leaving the military school, as his father was just +dead he solicited from M. de Vergennes a mission in an uncivilised +country and set sail for Morocco. Timoléon was a liberal-minded man, of +high intellectual culture, and a philosophical scepticism that fitted +ill with the Marquise's authoritative temper; although a devoted and +respectful man, it was to get away from his mother's tutelage that he +expatriated himself. "Our diversity of opinion," he said later on, "has +kept me from spending two consecutive months with her in seventeen +years." From Morocco he went to Algiers and thence to Tunis and Egypt. +He was about to penetrate to Tartary when he heard of the outbreak of +the Revolution; and immediately started for France where he arrived at +the beginning of 1791.</p> + +<p>Of Mme. de Combray's two daughters the eldest had married, in 1787, at +the age of twenty-two, Jacques-Philippe-Henri d'Houël; the youngest +Caroline-Madeleine-Louise-Geneviève, was born in 1773, and consequently +was only eleven years old when her father died. This child is the +her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>oine of the drama we are about to relate.</p> + +<p>In August, 1791, Mme. de Combray inscribed herself and her two sons on +the list of the hostages of Louis XVI which the journalist Durosay had +conceived. It was a courageous act, for it was easy to foresee that the +six hundred and eleven names on "this golden book of fidelity," would +soon all be suspected. While hope remained for the monarchy the two +brothers struggled bravely. Timoléon stayed near the King till August +10, and only went to England after he had taken part in the defence of +the Tuileries; Bonnœil had emigrated the preceding year, and served +in the army of the Princes. Mme. de Combray, left alone with her two +daughters—the husband of the elder had also emigrated,—left Tournebut +in 1793, and settled in Rouen, where, although she owned much real +estate in the town, she rented in the Rue de Valasse, Faubourg +Bouvreuil, "an isolated, unnumbered house, with an entrance towards the +country." She gave her desire to finish the education of her younger +daughter who was entering her twentieth year as a reason for her +retreat.</p> + +<p>Caroline de Combray was very small,—"as large as a dog sitting," they +said,—but charming; her complexion was delicately pure, her black hair +of extraordinary length and abundance. She was loving and sensible, very +romantic, full of frankness and vivacity; the great attraction of her +small person was the result of a piquant combination of energy and +gentleness. She had been bro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>ught up in the convent of the Nouvelles +Catholiques de Caen, where she stayed six years, receiving lessons from +"masters of all sorts of accomplishments, and of different languages." +She was a musician and played the harp, and as soon as they were settled +in Rouen her mother engaged Boiëldieu as her accompanist, "to whom she +long paid six silver francs per lesson," a sum that seemed fabulous in +that period of paper-money, and territorial mandates.</p> + +<p>Madame de Combray, besides, was much straightened. As both her sons had +emigrated, all the property that they inherited from their father was +sequestrated. Of the income of 50,000 francs possessed by the family +before the Revolution, scarcely fifty remained at her disposal, and she +had been obliged to borrow to sustain the heavy expenses of her house in +Rouen.</p> + +<p>Besides her two daughters and the servants, she housed half a dozen nuns +and two or three Chartreux, among them a recusant friar called +Lemercier, who soon gained great influence in the household. By reason +of his refractoriness Père Lemercier was doomed, if discovered, to +death, or at least to deportation, and it will be understood that he +sympathised but feebly with the Revolution that consigned him, against +his will, to martyrdom. He called down the vengeance of heaven on the +miscreants, and not daring to show himself, with unquenchable ardour +preached the holy crusade to the women who surrounded him.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> royalist enthusiasm did not need this inspiration; a +wise man would have counselled resignation, or at least patience, but +unhappily, she was surrounded only by those whose fanaticism encouraged +and excused her own. Enthusiastic frenzy had become the habitual state +of these people, whose overheated imaginations were nourished on +legendary tales, and foolish hopes of imminent reprisals. They welcomed +with unfailing credulity the wildest prophecies, announcing terrible +impending massacres, to which the miraculous return of the Bourbon +lilies would put an end, and as illusions of this kind are strengthened +by their own deceptions, the house in the Rue de Valasse soon heard +mysterious voices, and became the scene "of celestial apparitions," +which, on the invitation of Père Lemercier predicted the approaching +destruction of the blues and the restoration of the monarchy.</p> + +<p>On a certain day in the summer of 1795, a stranger presented himself to +Père Lemercier, armed with a password, and a very warm recommendation +from a refractory priest, who was in hiding at Caen. He was a Chouan +chief, bearing the name and title of General Lebret; of medium stature, +with red hair and beard, and cold steel-coloured eyes. Introduced to +Mme. de Combray by Lemercier, he admitted that his real name was Louis +Acquet d'Hauteporte, Chevalier de Férolles. He had come to Rouen, he +said, to transmit the orders of the Princes to Mallet de Créçy, who +commanded for the King in Upper Normandy.</p> + +<p>We can judge of the welcome the Chevalier received. Mme. de C<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>ombray, her +daughters, the nuns and the Chartreux friars used all their ingenuity to +satisfy the slightest wish of this man, who modestly called himself "the +agent general of His Majesty." They arranged a hiding-place for him in +the safest part of the house, and Père Lemercier blessed it. Acquet +stayed there part of the day, and in the evening joined in the usual +pursuits of the household, and related the story of his adventures by +way of entertainment.</p> + +<p>According to him, he possessed large estates in the environs of the +Sables-d'Olonne, of which place he was a native. An officer in the +regiment of Brie infantry before the Revolution, being at Lille in 1791 +he had taken advantage of his nearness to the frontier to incite his +regiment to insurrection and emigrate to Belgium. He had then put +himself at the disposal of the Princes, and had enlisted men for the +royal army in Veudée, Poitou and Normandy, helping priests to emigrate, +and saving whole villages from the fury of the blues. He named Charette, +Frotté and Puisaye as his most intimate friends, and these names +recalled the chivalrous times of the wars in the west in which he had +taken a glorious part. Sometimes he disappeared for several days, and on +his return from these mysterious absences, would let it be known that he +had just accomplished some great deed, or brought a dangerous mission to +a successful termination. In this way the Chevalier Acquet de Férolles +had become the idol of the little group of naïve royalists among whom he +had found refuge. He had bravely served <i>the cause</i>; he plumed himself +on having merited the surname<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> of "<i>toutou</i> of the Princes," and in Mme. +de Combray's dazzled eyes this was equal to any number of references.</p> + +<p>Acquet was in reality an adventurer. If we were to take account here of +all the evil deeds he is credited with, we should be suspected of +wantonly blackening the character of this melodramatic figure. A few +facts gathered by the Combrays will serve to describe him. As an officer +at Lille he was about to be imprisoned as the result of an odious +accusation, but deserted and escaped to Belgium, not daring to join the +army of the émigrés. He stopped at Mons, then went to the west of +France, and became a Chouan, but politics had nothing to do with this +act. He associated himself with some bravos of his stripe, and plundered +travellers, and levied contributions on the purchasers of national +property. In the Eure, where he usually pursued his operations, he +assassinated with his own hand two defenceless gamekeepers whom his +little band had encountered.</p> + +<p>He delighted in taking the funds of the country school-teachers, and to +give a colour of royalism to the deed, he would nightly tear down the +trees of liberty in the villages in which he operated. Tired at last of +"an occupation where there was nothing but blows to receive, and his +head to lose," he went to seek his fortune in Rouen; and before he +presented himself to Mme. de Combray, had without doubt made enquiries. +He knew he would find a rich heiress, whose two brothers, emigrated, +would probably never return, and from the first he set to work to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>flatter the royalist hobby of the mother, and the romantic imagination +of the young girl. Père Lemercier was himself conquered; Acquet, to +catch him, pretended the greatest piety and most scrupulous devotion.</p> + +<p>A note of Bonnœil's informs us of the way this tragic intrigue +ended. "Acquet employed every means of seduction to attain his end. The +young girl, fearing to remain long unmarried because of the unhappy +times, listened to him, in spite of the many reasons for waiting and for +refusing the proposals of a man whose name, country and fortune were +unknown to them. The mother's advice was unfortunately not heeded, and +she found herself obliged to consent to the marriage, the laws of that +period giving the daughters full liberty, and authorising them to shake +off the salutary parental yoke."</p> + +<p>The dates of certain papers complete the discreet periphrases of +Bonnœil. The truth is that Acquet "declared his passion" to Mlle. de +Combray and as she, a little doubtful though well-disposed to allow +herself to be loved, still hesitated, the Chevalier signed a sort of +mystic engagement dated January 1, 1796, where, "in sight of the Holy +Church and at the pleasure of God," he pledged himself to marry her on +demand. She carefully locked up this precious paper, and a little less +than ten months later, the 17th October, the municipal agent of +Aubevoye, in which is situated the Château of Tournebut, inscribed the +birth of a daughter, born to the citizeness Louise-Charlotte de Combray, +"wife of the citizen Louis Acquet." Here, then, is the reason that the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>Marquise "found herself obliged to consent to the marriage," which did +not take place until the following year, mention of it not being made in +the registry of Rouen until the date 17th June, 1797.</p> + +<p>Acquet had thus attained his wish; he had seduced Mlle. de Combray to +make the marriage inevitable, and this accomplished, under pretext of +preventing their sale, he caused the estates of the Combrays situated at +Donnay near Falaise, and sequestrated by the emigration of Bonnœil, +to be conveyed to him. Scarcely was this done when he began to pillage +the property, turning everything into money, cutting down woods, and +sparing neither thickets nor hedges. "The domain of Donnay became a sort +of desert in his hands." Stopped in his depredations by a complaint of +his two brothers-in-law he tried to attack the will of the Marquis de +Combray, pretending that his wife, a minor at the time of her father's +death, had been injured in the division of property. This was to declare +open war on the family he had entered, and to compel his wife to espouse +his cause he beat her unmercifully. A second daughter was born of this +unhappy union, and even the children did not escape the brutality of +their father. A note on this subject, written by Mme. Acquet, is of +heart-breaking eloquence:</p> + +<p>"M. Acquet beat the children cruelly every day; he ill-treated me also +unceasingly: he often chastised them with sticks, which he always used +when he made the chil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>dren read; they were continually black and blue +with the blows they received. He gave me such a severe blow one day that +blood gushed from my nose and mouth, and I was unconscious for some +moments.... He went to get his pistols to blow out my brains, which he +would certainly have done if people had not been present.... He was +always armed with a dagger."</p> + +<p>In January, 1804, Mme. Acquet resolved to escape from this hell. +Profiting by her husband's absence in La Veudée she wrote to him that +she refused to live with him longer, and hastened to Falaise to ask a +shelter from her brother Timoléon, who had lately returned to France. +Timoléon, in order to prevent a scandal, persuaded his sister to return +to her husband's house. She took this wise advice, but refused to see M. +Acquet, who, returning in haste and finding her barricaded in the +château, called the justice of the peace of the canton of Harcourt, +aided by his clerk and two gendarmes, to witness that his wife refused +to receive him. Having, one fine morning, "found her desk forced and all +her papers taken," she returned to Falaise, obtained a judgment +authorising her to live with her brother, and lodged a petition for +separation.</p> + +<p>Things were at this point when the trial of Georges Cadoudal was in +progress. Acquet, exasperated at the resistance to his projects, swore +that he would have signal vengeance on his wife and all the Combrays. +They were, unhappily, to give his hatred too good an opportunity of +showing itself.</p> + +<p>After passing three years in Rouen, Mme.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> de Combray returned to +Tournebut in the spring of 1796, with her royalist passions and +illusions as strong as ever. She had declared war on the Revolution, and +believed that victory was assured at no distant period. It is a not +uncommon effect of political passion to blind its subjects to the point +of believing that their desires and hopes are imminent realities. Mme. +de Combray anticipated the return of the King so impatiently that one of +her reasons for returning to the château was to prepare apartments for +the Princes and their suite in case the debarkation should take place on +the coast of Normandy. Once before, in 1792, Gaillon had been designated +as a stopping-place for Louis XVI in case he should again make the +attempt that had been frustrated at Varennes. The Château de Gaillon was +no longer habitable in 1796, but Tournebut, in the opinion of the +Marquise, offered the same advantages, being about midway between the +coast and Paris. Its isolation also permitted the reception of passing +guests without awakening suspicion, while the vast secret rooms where +sixty to eighty persons could hide at one time, were well suited for +holding secret councils. To make things still safer, Mme. de Combray now +acquired a large house, situated about two hundred yards from the walls +of Tournebut, and called "Gros-Mesnil" or "Le Petit Château." It was a +two-story building with a high slate roof; the court in front was +surrounded by huts and offices; a high wall enclosed the property on all +sides, and a pathway led from it to one of the doors in the wall +surrounding Tournebut.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<p>As soon as she was in possession of the Petit Château, Mme. de Combray +had some large secret places constructed in it. For this work she +employed a man called Soyer who combined the functions of intendant, +maître d'hôtel and valet-de-chambre at Tournebut. Soyer was born at +Combray, one of the Marquise's estates in Lower Normandy, and entered +her service in 1791, at the age of sixteen, in the capacity of scullion. +He had gone with his mistress to Rouen during the Terror, and since the +return to Tournebut she had given the administration of the estate into +his hands. In this way he had authority over the domestics at the +château, who numbered six, and among whom the chambermaid Querey and the +gardener Châtel deserve special mention. Each year, about Easter, Mme. +de Combray went to Rouen, where under pretext of purchases to make and +rents to collect, she remained a month. Only Soyer and Mlle. Querey +accompanied her. Besides her patrimonial house in the Rue Saint-Amand, +she had retained the quiet house in the Faubourg Bouvreuil which still +served as a refuge for the exiles sought by the police of the Directory, +and as a depôt for the refractories who were sure of finding supplies +there and means of rejoining the royalist army. Tournebut itself, +admirably situated between Upper and Lower Normandy, became the refuge +for all the partisans whom a particularly bold stroke had brought to the +attention of the authorities on either bank of the river, totally +separated at this time by the slowness and infrequency of com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>munication, +and also by the centralisation of the police which prevented direct +intercourse between the different departmental authorities. It was in +this way that Mme. de Combray, having become from 1796 to 1804, the +chief of the party with the advantage of being known as such only to +the party itself, sheltered the most compromised of the chiefs of Norman +Chouannerie, those strange heroes whose mad bravery has brought them a +legendary fame, and whose names are scarcely to be found, doubtfully +spelled, in the accounts of historians.</p> + +<p>Among those who sojourned at Tournebut was Charles de Margadel, one of +Frotté's officers, who had organised a royalist police even in Paris. +Thence he had escaped to deal some blows in the Eure under the orders of +Hingant de Saint-Maur, another habitué of Tournebut who was preparing +there his astonishing expedition of Pacy-sur-Eure. Besides Margadel and +Hingant, Mme. de Combray had oftenest sheltered Armand Gaillard, and his +brother Raoul, whose death we have related. Deville, called "Tamerlan"; +the brothers Tellier; Le Bienvenu du Buc, one of the officers of +Hingant; also another, hidden under the name of Collin, called +"Cupidon"; a German bravo named Flierlé, called "Le Marchand," whom we +shall meet again, were also her guests, without counting +"Sauve-la-Graisse," "Sans-Quartier," "Blondel," "Perce-Pataud"—actors +in the drama, without name or history, who were always sure of finding +in the "cachettes" of the great château or the Tour de l'Ermitage, +refuge and help.</p> + +<p>These were compro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>mising tenants, and it is quite easy to imagine what +amusements at Tournebut served to fill the leisure of these men so long +unaccustomed to regular occupation, and to whom strife and danger had +become absolute necessaries. Some statistics, rather hard to prove, will +furnish hints on this point. In September, 1800, the two coaches from +Caen to Paris were stopped between Evreux and Pacy, at a place called +Riquiqui, by two hundred armed brigands, and 48,000 livres belonging to +the State taken. Again, in 1800, the coach from Rouen to Pont-Audemer +was attacked by twenty Chouans and a part of the funds carried off. In +1801 a coach was robbed near Evreux; some days later the mail from Caen +to Paris was plundered by six brigands. On the highroad on the right +bank of the Seine attacks on coaches were frequent near Saint-Gervais, +d'Authevernes, and the old mill of Mouflaines. It was only a good deal +later, when the château of Tournebut was known as an avowed retreat of +the Chouans, that it occurred to the authorities that "by its position +at an equal distance from the two roads to Paris by Vernon and by +Magny-en-Vexin, where the mail had so often been stopped," it might well +have served as a centre of operations, and as the authors of these +outrages remained undiscovered, they credited them all to Mme. de +Combray's inspiration, and this accusation without proof is none too +bold. The theft of state funds was a bagatelle to people whom ten years +of implacable warfare had rendered blasé about all brigandage. Moreover, +it was easily conceivable that t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>he snare laid by Bonaparte for Frotté, +who was so popular in Normandy, the summary execution of the General and +his six officers, the assassination of the Duc d'Enghien, the death of +Georges Cadoudal (almost a god to the Chouans) and of his brave +companions, following so many imprisonments without trial, acts of +police treachery, traps and denunciations paid for and rewarded, had +exasperated the vanquished royalists, and envenomed their hatred to the +point of believing any expedient justifiable. Such was the state of mind +of Mme. de Combray in the middle of 1804, at which date we have stopped +the recital of the marital misfortunes of Mme. Acquet de Férolles, and +it justified Bonald's saying: "Foolish deeds done by clever men, +extravagances uttered by men of intellect, crimes committed by honest +people—such is the story of the revolution."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>D'Aché had taken refuge at Tournebut. He had left Paris as soon as the +gates were opened, and whether he had escaped surveillance more cleverly +than the brothers Gaillard, whether he had been able to get immediately +to Saint-Germain where he had a refuge, and from there, without risking +the passage of a ferry or a bridge, without stopping at any inn, had +succeeded in covering in one day the fifteen leagues that separated him +from Gaillon, he arrived without mishap at Tournebut where Mme. de +Combray immediately shut the door of one of the hiding-places upon him.</p> + +<p>Tournebut <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>was familiar ground to d'Aché. He was related to Mme. de +Combray, and before the Revolution, when he was on furlough, he had made +long visits there while "grandmère Brunelle" was still alive. He had +been back since then and had spent there part of the autumn of 1803. +There had been a grand reunion at the château then, to celebrate the +marriage of M. du Hasey, proprietor of a château near Gaillon. Du Hasey +was aide-de-camp to Guérin de Bruslard, the famous Chouan whom Frotté +had designated as his successor to the command of the royal army, and +who had only had to disband it. This reunion, which is often mentioned +in the reports, by the nature and quality of the guests, was more +important than an ordinary wedding-feast.</p> + +<p>D'Aché learned at Tournebut of the proclamation of the Empire and the +death of Georges. He looked upon it as a death-blow to the royalist +hopes; where-ever one might turn there was no resource—no chiefs, no +money, no men. If many royalists remained in the Orne and the Manche, it +was impossible to group them or pay them. The government gained strength +and authority daily; at the slightest movement France felt the iron +grasp in which she was held tightened around her, and such was the +prestige of the extraordinary hero who personified the whole régime, +that even those he had vanquished did not disguise their admiration. The +King of Spain—a Bourbon—sent him the insignia of the Golden Fleece. +The world was fascinated and history shows no example of material and +moral power comparable to that of Napoleon when the Holy Father crossed +the mountains to recognise and hai<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>l him as the instrument of Providence, +and anoint him Cæsar in the name of God.</p> + +<p>It was, however, just at this time that d'Aché, an exile, concealed in +the Château of Tournebut, without a companion, without a penny, without +a counsellor or ally other than the aged woman who gave him refuge, +conceived the astonishing idea of struggling against the man before whom +all Europe bowed the knee. Looked at in this light it seems madness, but +undoubtedly d'Aché's royalist illusions blinded him to the conditions of +the duel he was to engage in. But these illusions were common to many +people for whom Bonaparte, at the height of his power, was never +anything but an audacious criminal whose factitious greatness was at the +mercy of a well-directed and fortunate blow.</p> + +<p>Fouché's police had not given up hopes of finding the fugitive. They +looked for him in Paris, Rouen, Saint-Denis-du-Bosguérard, near +Bourgthéroulde, where his mother possessed a small estate; they watched +closest at Saint-Clair whither his wife and daughters had returned after +the execution of Georges. The doors of the Madelonnettes prison had been +opened for them and they had been informed that they must remove +themselves forty leagues from Paris and the coast; but the poor woman, +almost without resources, had not paid attention to this injunction, and +they were allowed to remain at Saint-Clair in the hope that d'Aché would +tire of his wandering life, and allow himself to be taken <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>at home. As to +Placide, as soon as he found himself out of the Temple, and had +conducted his sister-in-law and nieces home, he returned to Rouen, where +he arrived in mid-July. Scarcely had he been one night in his lodging in +the Rue Saint-Patrice, when he received a letter—how, or from where he +could not say—announcing that his brother had gone away so as not to +compromise his family again, and that he would not return to France +until general peace was proclaimed, hoping then to obtain permission +from the government to end his days in the bosom of his family.</p> + +<p>D'Aché, however, was living in Tournebut without much mystery. The only +precaution he took was to avoid leaving the property, and he had taken +the name of "Deslorières," one of the pseudonyms of Georges Cadoudal, +"as if he wanted to name himself as his successor." Little by little the +servants became accustomed to the presence of this guest of whom Mme. de +Combray took such good care "because he had had differences with the +government," as she said. Under pretext of repairs undertaken in the +church of Aubevoye, the curé of the parish was invited to celebrate mass +every Sunday in the chapel of the château, and d'Aché could thus be +present at the celebration without showing himself in the village.</p> + +<p>Doubtless the days passed slowly for this man accustomed to an active +life; he and his old friend dreamt of the return of the King, and +Bonnœil, who spent part of the year at Tournebut, read to them a +funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, a virulent pamphlet that the +royalists passed f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>rom hand to hand, and of which he had taken a copy. +How many times must d'Aché have paced the magnificent avenue of limes, +which still exists as the only vestige of the old park. There is a +moss-grown stone table on which one loves to fancy this strange man +leaning his elbow while he thought of his "rival," and planned the +future according to his royalist illusions as the other in his Olympia, +the Tuileries, planned it according to his ambitious caprices.</p> + +<p>This existence lasted fifteen months. From the time of his arrival at +the end of March, 1804, until the day he left, it does not seem that +d'Aché received any visitors, except Mme. Levasseur of Rouen, who, if +police reports are to be believed, was simultaneously his mistress and +Raoul Gaillard's. The truth is that she was a devoted friend of the +royalists—to whom she had rendered great service, and through her +d'Aché was kept informed of what happened in Lower Normandy during his +seclusion at Tournebut. Since the general pacification, tranquillity +was, in appearance at least, established; Chouannerie seemed to be +forgotten. But conscription was not much to the taste of the rural +classes, and the rigour with which it was applied alienated the +population. The number of refractories and deserters augmented at each +requisition; protected by the sympathy of the peasants they easily +escaped all search; the country people considered them victims rather +than rebels, and gave them assistance when they could do so without +being seen. There were here all the elements of a new insurrection; to +which would be added, if they succeeded in uniting and equipping all +these malcontents, the survi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>vors of Frotté's bands, exasperated by the +rigours of the new régime, and the ill-treatment of the gendarmes.</p> + +<p>The descent of a French prince on the Norman coast would in d'Aché's +opinion, group all these malcontents. Thoroughly persuaded that to +persuade one of them to cross the channel it would suffice to tell M. le +Comte d'Artois or one of his sons that his presence was desired by the +faithful population in the West, he thought of going himself to England +with the invitation. Perhaps they would be able to persuade the King to +put himself at the head of the movement, and be the first to land on +French soil. This was d'Aché's secret conviction, and in the ardour of +his credulous enthusiasm he was certain that on the announcement, +Napoleon's Empire would crumble of itself, without the necessity of a +single blow.</p> + +<p>Such was the eternal subject of conversation between Mme. de Combray and +her guest, varied by interminable parties of cards of tric-trac. In +their feverish idleness, isolated from the rest of the world, ignorant +of new ideas and new manners, they shut themselves up with their +illusions, which took on the colour of reality. And while the exile +studied the part of the coast where, followed by an army of volunteers +with white plumes, he would go to receive his Majesty, the old Marquise +put the last touches to the apartments long ago prepared for the +reception of the King and his suite on their way to Paris. And in order +to perpetuate the remembrance of this visit, which would be the most +glorious page in the history of Tournebut, she had caused the old part +of the château, left unfinished by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Marillac, to be restored and +ornamented.</p> + +<p>In July, 1805, after more than a year passed in this solitude, d'Aché +judged that the moment to act had arrived. The Emperor was going to +take the field against a new coalition, and the campaign might be +unfavourable to him. It only needed a defeat to shake to its foundations +the new Empire whose prestige a victorious army alone maintained. It was +important to profit by this chance should it arrive. And in order to be +within reach of the English cruiser d'Aché had to be near Cotentin; he +had many devoted friends in this region and was sure of finding a safe +retreat. Mme. de Combray, taking advantage of the fair of Saint-Clair +which was held every year in mid-July, near the Château of Donnay, could +conduct her guest beyond Falaise without exciting suspicion. They +determined to start then, and about July 15, 1805, the Marquise left +Tournebut with her son Bonnœil, in a cabriolet that d'Aché drove, +disguised as a postillion.</p> + +<p>In this equipage, the man without any resource but his courage, and his +royalist faith, whose dream was to change the course of the world's +events, started on his campaign; and one is obliged to think, in face of +this heroic simplicity, of Cervantes' hero, quitting his house one fine +morning, and armed with an old shield and lance, encased in antiquated +armour and animated by a sublime but foolish faith, going forth to +succour the oppressed, and declare war on Giants.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE ADVENTURES OF D'ACHÉ</h3> + + +<p>The demesne of Donnay, situated about three leagues from Falaise on the +road to Harcourt, was one of the estates which Acquet de Férolles had +usurped, under pretext of saving them from the Public Treasury and of +taking over the management of the property of his brother-in-law, +Bonnœil, who was an émigré. Now, the latter had for some time +returned to the enjoyment of his civil rights, but Acquet had not +restored his possessions. This terrible man, acting in the name of his +wife, who was a claimant of the inheritance of the late M. de Combray, +had instituted a series of lawsuits against his brother-in-law. He +proved to be such a clever tactician, that though Mme. Acquet had for +some time been suing for a separation, he managed to live on the Combray +estates; fortifying his position by means of a store of quotations +drawn, as occasion demanded, from the Common Law of Normandy, the +Revolutionary Laws and the Cod<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>e Napoleon. To deal with these questions +in detail would be wearisome and useless. Suffice it to say that at the +period at which we have arrived, all that Mme. Acquet had to depend upon +was a pension of 2,000 francs which the court had granted to her on +August 1, 1804, for her maintenance pending a definite decision. She +lived alone at the Hôtel de Combray in the Rue du Trepot at Falaise, a +very large house composed of two main buildings, one of which was vacant +owing to the absence of Timoléon who had settled in Paris. Mme. de +Combray had undertaken to assist with her granddaughters' education, and +they had been sent off to a school kept by a Mme. du Saussay at Rouen.</p> + +<p>Foreseeing that this state of things could not last forever, Acquet, +despite Bonnœil's oft-repeated protests, continued to devastate +Donnay, so as to get all he could out of it, cutting down the forests, +chopping the elms into faggots, and felling the ancient beeches. The +very castle whose façade but lately reached to the end of the stately +avenue, suffered from his devastations. It was now nothing but a ruin +with swing-doors and a leaking roof. Here Acquet had reserved a garret +for himself, abandoning the rest of the house to the ravages of time and +the weather. Shut up in this ruin like a wild beast in his lair, he +would not permit the slightest infringement of what he called his +rights. Mme. de Combray wished to spend the harvest season of 1803 at +the château, where the happiest years of her life had been passed, and +where all her children had grown up, but Acquet made the bailiff turn +her out, and the Marquise to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>ok refuge in the village parsonage, which +had been sold at the time of the Revolution as national property, and +for which she had supplied half the money, when the Commune bought it +back, to restore it to its original purpose. Since no priest had yet +been appointed she was able to take up her residence there, to the +indignation of her son-in-law, who considered this intrusion as a piece +of bravado.</p> + +<p>Two years later Mme. de Combray had still no other shelter at Donnay, +and it was to this parsonage that she brought d'Aché. They arrived there +on the evening of July 17th. A long stay in this conspicuous house, +which was always exposed to the hateful espionage of Acquet, was out of +the question for the exile. He nevertheless spent a fortnight there, +without trying to hide himself, even going so far as to hunt, and +receive several visits, among others one from Mme. Acquet, who came from +Falaise to see her mother, and thus met d'Aché for the first time. At +the beginning of August he quitted Donnay, and Mme. de Combray +accompanied him as far as the country château of a neighbour, M. +Descroisy, where he passed one night. At break of day he set out on +horseback in the direction of Bayeux, Mme. de Combray alone knowing +where he went.</p> + +<p>In this neighbourhood d'Aché had the choice of several places of refuge. +He was closely connected by ties of friendship with the family of +Duquesnay de Monfiquet who lived at Mandeville near Trévières. M. de +Monfiquet, a thoroughly lo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>yal but quite unimportant nobleman, having +emigrated at the outbreak of the Revolution, his estate at Mandeville +had been sequestrated and his château pillaged and half demolished. Mme. +de Monfiquet, a clever and energetic woman, being left with six +daughters unprovided for, took refuge with the d'Aché's at Gournay, +where she spent the whole period of the Terror. Madame d'Aché even kept +Henriette, one of the little girls who was ill-favoured and hunchbacked +but remarkably clever, with her for five years.</p> + +<p>Monsieur de Monfiquet, returning from abroad in the year VII, and having +somewhat reorganised his little estate at Mandeville, lived there in +poverty with his family in the hope that brighter days would dawn for +them with the return of the monarchy. On all these grounds d'Aché was +sure of finding not only a safe retreat but congenial society. The few +persons who were acquainted with what passed at Mandeville were +convinced that Mlle. Henriette possessed a great influence over the +exile, and that she had been his mistress for a long time. According to +general opinion he made her his confidant and she helped him like a +devoted admirer. In fact she arranged several other hiding-places for +him in the neighbourhood of Trévières in case of need;—one at the mill +at Dungy, another with M. de Cantelou at Lingèvres, and a third at a +tanner's named La Pérandeère at Bayeux. And to escort him in his flights +she secured a man of unparalleled audacity who had been a brigand in the +district for ten years, and who had to avenge the death of his t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>wo +brothers, who had fallen into an ambush and been shot at Bayeux in 1796. +People called him David the Intrepid. Having been ten times condemned to +death and certain of being shot as soon as he was caught, David had no +settled abode. On stormy nights he would embark in a boat which he +steered himself, and, sure of not being overtaken, he would reach +England where he used to act as an agent for the emigrants. They say +that he was not without influence with the entourage of the Comte +d'Artois. When he stayed in France he lodged with an old lady former +housekeeper to a Councillor of the Parliament of Normandy, who lived +alone in an old house in Bayeux and to whom he had been recommended by +Mlle. Henriette de Monfiquet. David did not take up much room. When he +arrived he set in motion a contrivance of his own by which two steps of +the principal staircase were raised, and slipping into the cavity thus +made, he quickly replaced everything. All the gendarmes in Calvados +could have gone up and down this staircase without suspecting that a man +was hidden in the house, where, however, he was never looked for.</p> + +<p>These were the persons and means made use of by d'Aché in his new +theatre of operations: a poor hunchbacked girl was his council, and his +army was composed of David the Intrepid. He was, moreover, penniless. At +the beginning of the autumn Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis by +Lanoë, a keeper who had been in her service, and who now occupied a +small farm at Glatigny, near to Bretteville-sur-Dives. Lanoë belonged to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>that rapacious type of peasant whom even a small sum of money never +fails to attract. Already he had on two occasions acted as guide to the +Baron de Commarque and to Frotté when Mme. de Combray offered them +shelter at Donnay. For this he had been summoned before a military +commission and spent nearly two years in prison, but this had no +effect. For three francs he would walk ten leagues and if he complained +sufficiently of the dangers to which these missions exposed him the sum +was doubled and he would go away satisfied. In the middle of August he +went to Mandeville to fetch d'Aché to Donnay, where he spent ten days +and again passed three weeks at the end of September. He was to have +gone there again in December, but at the moment when he was preparing to +start Bonnœil suddenly appeared at Mandeville, having come to warn +him not to venture there as Mme. de Combray had been accused of a crime +and was on the point of being arrested.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was not without vexation that Acquet saw his mother-in-law settling +herself at his very door. Keenly on the lookout for any means of +annoying the Marquise, he was struck by the idea that if an incumbent +were appointed to the vacant curé of Donnay, he would have to live at +the parsonage, half of which belonged to the Commune, and that their +being obliged to live in the same house would be a great inconvenience +to Mme. de Combray. This prospect charmed Acquet, and as he had several +friends in high positio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>ns, among them the Baron Darthenay his neighbour +at Meslay, who had lately been elected deputy for Calvados, he had small +difficulty in getting a priest appointed. A few days afterwards a curé, +the Abbé Clérisse, arrived at Donnay, fully determined to carry out the +duties of his ministry faithfully, and very far from foreseeing the +tragic fate in store for him.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray had made herself quite comfortable at the parsonage, +which she considered in a manner her own property since she had +furnished half the money for its purchase. She now saw herself compelled +to surrender a portion of it, which from the very first embittered her +against the new arrival. Acquet, for his part, fêted his protégé, and +welcoming him cordially put him on his guard against the machinations of +the Marquise, whom he represented as an inveterate enemy of the +conciliatory government to which France owed the Concordat. The Abbé +Clérisse, who, from the construction of the house was obliged to use the +rooms in common with Mme. de Combray, was not long in noticing the +mysterious behaviour of the occupants. There were conferences conducted +in whispers, visitors who arrived at night and left at dawn, secret +comings and goings, in short, all the strange doings of a houseful of +conspirators, so that the good curé one day took Lanoë aside and +recommended him to be prudent, "predicting that he would get himself +into serious difficulties if he did not quit the service of the Marquise +as soon as possible." Mme. de Combray, in her exasperation, called the +Abbé "Concordataire," an epithet <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>which, from her, was equivalent to +renegade. She had the imprudence to add that the reign of the "usurper +would not last forever, and that the princes would soon return at the +head of an English army and restore everything." In her wrath she left +the parsonage, making a great commotion, and went to beg shelter from +her farmer Hébert, who lived in a cottage used as a public house, called +La Bijude, where the road from Harcourt met that from Cesny. Acquet was +triumphant. The astonished Abbé remained passive; and as ill luck would +have it, fell ill and died a few days afterwards. A report was +circulated, emanating from the château, that he had died of grief caused +by Mme. de Combray. Then people began to talk in whispers about a +certain basket of white wine with which she had presented the poor +priest. A week later all those who sided with Acquet were convinced that +the Marquise had poisoned the Abbé Clérisse, "after having been +imprudent enough to take him into her confidence." Feeling ran high in +the village. Acquet affected consternation. The authorities, no doubt +informed by him, began making investigations when a nephew of the +Marquise, M. de Saint Léonard, Mayor of Falaise, who was on very good +terms with the Court, came down to hush up the affair and impose silence +on the mischief-makers.</p> + +<p>This first bout between Acquet de Férolles and the family de Combray +resulted in d'Aché's being forbidden the house of his old friend. +Feeling herself in the clutches of an enemy who was always on the watch, +she did not dare to expo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>se to denunciation a man on whose head the fate +of the monarchy rested. D'Aché did not come to La Bijude the whole +winter. Mme. de Combray lived there alone with her son Bonnœil and +the farmer Hébert. She had the house done up and repainted, but it +distressed her to be so meanly lodged, and she regretted the lofty +halls and the quiet of Tournebut. At the beginning of Lent, 1806, she +sent Lanoë for the last time to Mandeville to arrange with d'Aché some +means of correspondence, and with Bonnœil she again started for +Gaillon, determined never again to set foot on her estates in Lower +Normandy as long as her son-in-law reigned there, and thoroughly +convinced that the fast approaching return of the King would avenge all +the humiliations she had lately endured. She had, moreover, quarrelled +with her daughter, who had only come to Donnay twice during her mother's +stay, and had there displayed only a very moderate appreciation of +d'Aché's plans, and had seemed entirely uninterested in the annoyance +caused to the Marquise, and her exodus to La Bijude.</p> + +<p>If Mme. Acquet de Férolles was really lacking in interest, it was +because a great event had occurred in her own life.</p> + +<p>Acquet knew that his wife's suit for a separation must inevitably be +granted. The ill-treatment she had had to endure was only too +well-known, and every one in Falaise took her part. If Acquet lost the +case, it would mean the end of the easy life he was leading at Donnay, +and he not only wished to gain time but secretly hoped that his w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>ife +would commit some indiscretion that would regain for him if not the +sympathies of the public, at least her loss of the suit which if won, +would ruin him. In order to carry out his Machiavellian schemes, he +pretended that he wished to come to an understanding with the Combray +family, and he despatched one of his friends to Mme. Acquet to open +negotiations. This friend, named Le Chevalier, was a handsome young man +of twenty-five, with dark hair, a pale complexion and white teeth. He +had languishing eyes, a sympathetic voice and a graceful figure, +inexhaustible good-humour, despite his melancholy appearance, and +unbounded audacity. As he was the owner of a farm in the Commune of +Saint Arnould in the neighbourhood of Exmes, he was called Le Chevalier +de Saint-Arnould, which gave him the position of a nobleman. He was +moreover related to the nobility.</p> + +<p>Less has been written about Le Chevalier than about most of those who +were concerned in the troubles in the west. Nevertheless, his adventures +deserve more than the few lines, often incorrect, devoted to him by some +chroniclers of the revolt of the Chouans. He was a remarkable +personality, very romantic, somewhat of an enigma, and one who by a +touch of gallantry and scepticism was distinguished from his savage and +heroic companions.</p> + +<p>Born with a generous temperament and deeply in love with glory, as he +said, he was the son of a councillor, hammer-keeper to the corporation +of the woods and forests of Vire. A stay of several years in Paris where +he took lessons f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>rom different masters as much in science as in the arts +and foreign languages, had completed his education. He returned to Saint +Arnould in 1799, uncertain as to the choice of a career, when a chance +meeting with Picot, chief of the Auge division, whose death was +described at the beginning of this story, decided his vocation, and Le +Chevalier became a royalist officer, less from conviction than from +generous feelings which inclined him towards the cause of the vanquished +and oppressed. A pistol shot broke his left arm two or three days after +he was enrolled, and he was scarcely cured of this wound when he again +took the field and was implicated in the stopping of a coach. Three of +his friends were imprisoned, and when he himself was arrested, he +succeeded in proving that on the very day of the attack, in the +neighbourhood of Evreux, he was on a visit to a senator in Paris who had +great friends among the authorities, and the magistrates were compelled +to yield before this indisputable alibi. Le Chevalier, nevertheless, +appeared before the tribunal which was trying the cases of his +companions, and pleaded their cause with the eloquence inspired by the +purest and bravest friendship, and when he heard them condemned to +death, he begged in a burst of feeling which amazed everybody, to be +allowed to share their fate. It was considered a sufficient punishment +to send him to prison at Caen, whence he was liberated a few months +later, though he had to remain in the town under police surveillance. It +was then that the wild romance of his life began.</p> + +<p>He possessed an amp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>le fortune. His chivalrous behaviour in the affair at +Evreux had gained for him, among the Chouans such renown that without +knowing him otherwise than from hearsay, Mme. de Combray travelled +across Normandy, as did many other royalist ladies in order to visit the +hero in prison and offer him her services. He had admirers who fawned +on him, flatterers who praised him to the skies, and how could this +rather hot-headed youth of twenty resist such adulation at that strange +epoch when even the wisest lost their balance? At least his folly was +generous.</p> + +<p>Scarcely out of prison he was seized with pity for the misery of the +pardoned Chouans, veritable pariahs, who lived by all sorts of +contrivances or were dependent on charity, and he made their care his +special charge. He was always followed by a dozen of these parasites, a +ragged troop of whom filled the Café Hervieux, where he held his court +and which moreover was frequented by teachers of English, mathematics +and fencing, whom he had in his pay, and from whom he took lessons when +not playing faro.</p> + +<p>Le Chevalier had a warm heart, and a purse that was never closed. He was +a façile speaker whose eloquence was of a forensic type. His friendships +were passionate. While in prison he received news of the death of one of +his friends, Gilbert, who had been guillotined at Evreux, and when some +one congratulated him on his approaching release he replied: "Ah, my +dear comrade! do you think this is a time to congratulate me? Do you +know so little of my heart and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>re you so ignorant of the love I bore +Gilbert? The happiness of my life is destroyed forever. Nothing can fill +the void in my heart.... I have lived, ah! far too long. O divine duties +of friendship and honour, how my heart burns to fulfil you! O eternity +or annihilation, how sweet will you seem to me whence once I have +fulfilled them!" Such was Le Chevalier's style and this affection +contrasted singularly with the world in which he lived. His comparative +wealth, his generosity, and an air of mystery about his life, gave him a +certain advantage over the most popular leaders. People knew that he was +dreaming of gigantic projects, and his partisans considered him cut out +for the accomplishment of great things.</p> + +<p>In reality Le Chevalier squandered his patrimony recklessly. The +treasury of the party—presided over by an old officer of Frotté's, +Bureau de Placène, who pompously styled himself the +Treasurer-General—was empty, and orders came from "high places," +without any one exactly knowing whence they emanated, for the faithful +to refill them by pillaging the coffers of the state. The police had +little by little relaxed their supervision of Le Chevalier's conduct, +and he took advantage of this to go away for short periods. It was +remarked that each of his absences generally coincided with the stopping +of a coach—a frequent occurrence in Normandy at this time, and one that +was considered as justifiable by the royalists. Seldom did they feel any +qualms about these exploits. The driver, and often his escort, were +accomplices of the Chouans. A few shots were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> fired from muskets or +pistols to keep up the pretence of a fight. Some of the men opened the +chests while others kept watch. The money belonging to the government +was divided to the last sou, while that belonging to private individuals +was carefully returned to the strong box. A few hours later the band +returned to Caen and the noisy meetings at the Café Hervieux were not +even interrupted.</p> + +<p>What renders the figure of Le Chevalier especially attractive, despite +these mad pranks, which no one of his day considered dishonourable, is +the deep private grief which saddened his adventurous life. In 1801, +when he was twenty-one years of age, and during his detention at Caen, +he had married Lucile Thiboust, a girl somewhat older than himself, +whose father had been overseer of an estate. He was obliged to break out +of prison to spend a few rare hours with the wife whom he dearly loved, +all the more so since his passion was oftenest obliged to expend itself +in ardent letters not devoid of literary merit. In prison he learned of +the birth of a son born of this union, and a week later, of the death of +his adored wife. His grief was terrible, but he was seized with a +passionate love for his child, and it is said that from that day forth +he cared for no one else. He had lived so fast that at the age of +twenty-three he was tired of life; his only anxiety was for the future +of his son, whom he had confided to the care of a good woman named Marie +Hamon. He traced out a line of conduct for this babe in swaddling +clothes: "Let him flee corruption, seduction and all shameful and +violent passions; let him be a friend as they were in ancient Greece, a +lover as in ancie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>nt Gaul."</p> + +<p>In short his exploits, his captivity, his sorrows, his eloquence, his +courage, his noble bearing, made Le Chevalier a hero of romance, and +this was the man whom Acquet de Férolles deemed it wise to despatch to +his wife. Doubtless he had made his acquaintance through the medium of +some of his Chouan comrades. He received him at Donnay, and in order to +attach him to himself lent him large sums of money, which Le Chevalier +immediately distributed among the crowd of parasites that never left +him. Acquet told him of the separation with which his wife threatened +him, begging him to use all his eloquence to bring about an amicable +settlement.</p> + +<p>The poor woman would never have known this peacemaker but for her +husband, and we are ignorant of the manner in which he acquitted himself +of his mission. She had yielded as much from inexperience as from +compulsion, to a man who for five years had made her life a martyrdom. +She lived at Falaise in an isolation that accorded ill with her yearning +for love and her impressionable nature. The person who now came suddenly +into her life corresponded so well with her idea of a hero—he was so +handsome, so brave, so generous, he spoke with such gentleness and +politeness that Mme. Acquet, to whom these qualities were startling +novelties, loved him from the first day with an "ungovernable passion." +She associated herself with his life with an ardour that excluded every +other sentiment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> and she so wished to stand well with him that, casting +aside all prudence, she adopted his adventurous mode of living, mixing +with the outcasts who formed the entourage of her lover, and with them +frequenting the inns and cafés of Caen. He succeeded in avoiding the +surveillance of the police, and secretly undertook journeys to Paris +where he said he had friends in the Emperor's immediate circle. He +travelled by those roads in Normandy which were known to all the old +Chouans, talking to them of the good times when they made war on the +Blues, and not hesitating to say that, whenever he wished, he had only +to make a sign and an army would spring up around him. He maintained, +moreover, a small troop of determined men who carried his messages and +formed his staff.</p> + +<p>There is not the slightest doubt that their chief resource lay in +carrying off the money of the State which was sent from place to place +in public conveyances, and it was this booty that enriched the coffers +of the party, the treasurer, Placène, having long since grown +indifferent to the source of his supplies. The agreement of certain +dates is singularly convincing. Thus, at the beginning of December, +1805, d'Aché was at Mandeville with the Monfiquets, in a state of such +penury that, as we have seen, Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis d'or +by Lanoë; nevertheless, he was thinking of going to England to fetch +back the princes. He would require a considerable sum to prepare for his +journey, and to guard against all the contingencies of this somewhat +audacious attempt. Mme. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Acquet was informed of the situation by her +mother whom she came to visit at Donnay, and on the 22d December, 1805, +the coach from Rouen to Paris was attacked on the slope of Authevernes, +at a distance of only three leagues from the Château of Tournebut. The +travellers noticed that one of the brigands, dressed in a military +costume, and whom his comrades called The Dragon, was so much thinner +and more active than the rest, that he might well have been taken "for a +woman dressed as a man." A fresh attack was made at the same place by +the same band on the 15th February, 1806; and as before the band +disappeared so rapidly, once the blow was struck, that it seemed they +must have taken refuge in one of the neighbouring houses. Suspicion fell +on the Château de Mussegros, situated about three leagues from +Authevernes; but nobody then thought of Tournebut, the owners of which +had been absent for seven months. It was only in March that Mme. de +Combray returned there, and it was in April that d'Aché, having laid in +a good stock of money, decided to cross the channel and convey to the +princes the good wishes of their faithful provinces in the west.</p> + +<p>D'Aché had not wasted his time during his stay at Mandeville. It was a +difficult enterprise in existing circumstances to arrange his crossings +with any chance of success. The embarkation was easy enough, and David +the Intrepid had undertaken to see to it; but it was especially +important to secure a safe return, and a secret landing on the French +coast, lined as it was by patrols, watch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>ed day and night by custom-house +officers, and guarded by sentinels at every point where a boat could +approach the shore, offered almost insuperable difficulties. D'Aché +selected a little creek at the foot of the rocks of Saint Honorine, +scarcely two leagues from Trévières and David, who knew all the coast +guards in the district, bribed one of them to become an accomplice.</p> + +<p>It was on a stormy night at the end of April, 1806, that d'Aché put to +sea in a boat seventeen feet long, which was steered by David the +Intrepid. After tossing about for fifty hours, they landed in England. +David immediately stood out to sea again, while d'Aché took the road to +London.</p> + +<p>One can easily imagine what the feelings of these royalist fanatics must +have been when they approached the princes to whom they had devoted so +many years of their lives, hunted over France and pursued like +malefactors; how they must have anticipated the welcome in London that +their devotion merited. They were prepared to be treated like sons by +the King, as friends by the princes, as leaders by the emigrants, who +were only waiting to return till France was reconquered for them. The +deception was cruel. The emigrant world, so easy to dupe on account of +its misfortunes, and immeasurable vanity, had fallen a victim to so many +false Chouans—spies in disguise and barefaced swindlers, who each +brought plans for the restoration, and after obtaining money made off +and were never seen again—that distrust at last had taken the place of +the unsuspecting confidence of forme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>r days. Every Frenchman who arrived +in London was considered an adventurer, and as far as we can gather from +this closed page of history,—for those, who tried the experiment of a +visit to the exiled princes, have respectfully kept silence on the +subject of their discomfiture—it appears that terrible mortifications +were in store for the militant royalists who approached the emigrant +leaders. D'Aché did not escape disillusionment, and though he did not +disclose the incidents of his stay in London, we know that at first he +was thrown into prison, and that for two months he could not succeed in +obtaining an interview with the Comte d'Artois, much less with the +exiled King.</p> + +<p>M. de la Chapelle, the most influential man at the little court at +Hartwell, sent for him and questioned him about his plans, but was +opposed to his being received by the princes, though he put him in +communication with King George's ministers, every person who brought +news of any plot against Napoleon's government being sure of a welcome +and a hearing from the latter.</p> + +<p>After three weeks of conferences the expedition which was to support a +general rising of the peasants in the West, was postponed till the +spring of 1807. A feigned attack on Port-en-Bessin would allow of their +surprising the islands of Tahitou and Saint-Marcouf as well as Port-Bail +on the western slope of the Cotentin. The destruction of the roads, +which protect the lower part of the peninsula, would insure the success +of the undertaking by cutting off Cherbourg which, attacke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>d from behind, +would easily be carried, resistance being impossible. The invading army, +concentrating under the forts of the town, in which they would have a +safe retreat, would descend by Carenton on Saint-Lô and Caen to meet the +army of peasants and malcontents whose cooperation d'Aché guaranteed. +He undertook to collect twenty thousand men; the English government +offered the same number of Russian and Swedish soldiers, and to provide +for their transportation to the coast of France. Pending this, d'Aché +was given unlimited credit on the banker Nourry at Caen.</p> + +<p>His stay in London lasted nearly three months. Towards the end of July +an English frigate took him to the fleet where Admiral Saumarez received +him with great deference, and equipped a brig with fourteen cannon to +convey him to the shore. When, at night, they were within a gunshot of +the coast of Saint-Honorine, d'Aché himself made the signals agreed +upon, which were quickly answered by the coast guard on shore. An hour +afterwards David the Intrepid's boat hailed the English brig, and before +daybreak d'Aché was back at Mandeville, sharing with his hosts the joy +he felt at the success of his voyage. They began to make plans +immediately. It was decided on the spot that the Château de Monfiquet +should shelter the King during the first few days after he landed. Eight +months were to elapse before the beginning of the campaign, and as money +was not lacking this time was sufficient for d'Aché to prepare for +operations.</p> + +<p>We may as well ment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>ion at once that the English Cabinet, while playing +on the fanaticism of d'Aché, as they had formerly done on that of +Georges Cadoudal and so many others, had not the slightest intention of +keeping their promises. Their hatred of Napoleon suggested to them the +infamous idea of exciting the naïve royalists of France by raising +hopes they never meant to satisfy. They abandoned them once they saw +their dupes so deeply implicated that there was no drawing back, caring +little if they helped them to the scaffold, desirous only of maintaining +agitations in France and of driving them into such desperate straits +that some assassin might arise from among them who would rid the world +of Bonaparte. Here lies, doubtless, one of the reasons why the exiled +princes so obstinately refused to encourage their partisans' attempts. +Did they know of the snares laid for these unhappy creatures? Did they +not dare to put them on their guard for fear of offending the English +government? Was this the rent they paid for Hartwell? The history of the +intrigues which played around the claimant to the throne is full of +mystery. Those who were mixed up in them, such as Fauche-Bonel or Hyde +de Neuville were ruined, and it required the daylight of the Restoration +to open the eyes of the persons most interested to the fact that certain +professions of devotion had been treacherous.</p> + +<p>As far as d'Aché was concerned it seems fairly certain that he did not +receive any promise from the princes, and was not even admitted to their +presence; the English <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>ministers alone encouraged him to embark on this +extraordinary adventure, in which they were fully determined to let him +ruin himself. Therefore the "unlimited" credit opened at the banker +Nourry's was only a bait: while making the conspirators think they would +never want for money, the credit was limited beforehand to 30,000 +francs, a piece of duplicity which enraged even the detectives who, +later on, discovered it.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to follow d'Aché in the mysterious work upon which he +entered: the precautions he took to escape the police have caused him to +be lost to posterity as well. Some slight landmarks barely permit our +following his trail during the few years which form the climax of his +wonderful career.</p> + +<p>We find him first of all during the autumn of 1806, at La Bijude, where +Mme. de Combray, who had remained at Tournebut had charged Bonnœil +and Mme. Acquet to go and receive him. There was some question of +providing him with a messenger familiar with the haunts of the Chouans +and the dangers connected with the task. To fulfil this duty Mme. Acquet +proposed a German named Flierlé whom Le Chevalier recommended. Flierlé +had distinguished himself in the revolt of the Chouans; a renowned +fighter, he had been mixed up in every plot. He was in Paris at the time +of the eighteenth Fructidor; he turned up there again at the moment when +Saint-Réjant was preparing his infernal machine; he again spent three +months there at the time of Georges' conspiracy. For the last two years, +whilst waiting for a fresh engag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>ement, he had lived on a small pension +from the royal treasury, and when funds were low, he made one of his +more fortunate companions in old days put him up; and thus he roamed +from Caen to Falaise, from Mortain to Bayeux or Saint-Lô, even going +into Mayenne in his wanderings. Although he would never have +acknowledged it, we may say that he was one of the men usually employed +in attacking public vehicles: in fact, he was an adept at it and went by +the name of the "Teisch."</p> + +<p>Summoned to La Bijude he presented himself there one morning towards the +end of October. D'Aché arrived there the same evening while they were at +dinner. They talked rather vaguely of the great project, but much of +their old Chouan comrades. In spite of his decided German accent Flierlé +was inexhaustible on this theme. He and d'Aché slept in the same room, +and this intimacy lasted two whole days, at the end of which it was +decided that Flierlé should be employed as a messenger at a salary of +fifty crowns a month. That same night, Lanoë conducted d'Aché two +leagues from La Bijude and left him on the road to Arjentan.</p> + +<p>Here is a new landmark: on November 26th, Veyrat, the inspector of +police, hastily informed Desmarets that d'Aché, whom they had been +seeking for two years, had arrived the night before in Paris, getting +out of the coach from Rennes in the company of a man named Durand. The +latter, leaving his trunk at the office, spent the night at a house in +the Rue Montmartre, whence he departed the next morning for Boulogne. As +for d'Aché, wrote Veyrat, he had neither box nor parcel, and disappeared +as soon as he got out of the carriage. Search was made in all the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>furnished lodgings and hotels in the neighbourhood, but without result. +Desmarets set all his best men to work, but in vain: d'Aché was not to +be found.</p> + +<p>He was at Tournebut, where he spent a month. It is probable that a +pressing need of money was the cause of this journey to Paris and his +visit to Mme. de Combray. By this time d'Aché had exhausted his credit +at the banker Nourry's. Believing that this source would never be +exhausted, he had drawn on it largely. His disappointment was therefore +cruel when he heard that his account was definitely closed. He found +himself again without money, and by a coincidence which must be +mentioned, the diligence from Paris to Rouen was robbed, during his stay +at Tournebut, in November, 1806, at the Mill of Monflaines, about a +hundred yards from Authevernes, where the preceding attacks had taken +place. The booty was not large this time, and when d'Aché again took the +road to Mandeville his resources consisted of six hundred francs.</p> + +<p>He was obliged to spend the winter in torturing idleness; there is no +indication of his movements till February, 1807. The time fixed for the +great events was drawing near, and it was important to make them known. +He decided on the plan of a manifesto which was to be widely circulated +through the whole province, and would not allow any one to assist in +drawing it up. This proclamation, written in the name of the princes, +stipula<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>ted a general amnesty, the retention of those in authority, a +reduction of taxation, and the abolition of conscription. Lanoë, +summoned to Mandeville, received ten louis and the manuscript of the +manifesto, with the order to get it printed as secretly as possible. The +crafty Norman promised, slipped the paper into the lining of his coat, +and after a fruitless—and probably very feeble—attempt on a printer's +apprentice at Falaise, returned it to Flierlé, with many admonitions to +be prudent, but only refunded five louis. Flierlé first applied to a +bookseller in the Froide Rue at Caen. The latter, as soon as he found +out what it contained, refused his assistance.</p> + +<p>An incident now occurred, the importance of which it is difficult to +discover, but which seems to have been great, to judge from the mystery +in which it is shrouded. Whether he had received some urgent +communication from England, or whether, in his state of destitution, he +had thought of claiming the help of his friends at Tournebut, d'Aché +despatched Flierlé to Mme. de Combray, and gave him two letters, +advising him to use the greatest discretion. Flierlé set out on +horseback from Caen in the morning of March 13th. At dawn next day he +arrived at Rouen, and immediately repaired to the house of a Mme. +Lambert, a milliner in the Rue de l'Hôpital, to whom one of the letters +was addressed. "I gave it to her," he said, "on her staircase, without +speaking to her, as I had been told to do, and set out that very morning +for Tournebut, where I arrived between two and three o'clock. I gave +Mme. de Combray the other letter, which she threw in the fire after +having read i<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>t."</p> + +<p>Flierlé slept at the château. Next day Bonnœil conducted him to +Louviers, and there intrusted a packet of letters to him addressed to +d'Aché. Both directed their steps to Rouen, and the German fetched from +the Rue de l'Hôpital, the milliner's reply, which she gave him herself +without saying a word.</p> + +<p>He immediately continued his journey, and by March 20th was back at +Mandeville, and placed the precious mail in d'Aché's hands. The latter +had scarcely read it before he sent David word to get his boat ready, +and without losing a moment, the letters which had arrived from Rouen +were taken out to sea to the English fleet, to be forwarded to London.</p> + +<p>We are still ignorant of the contents of these mysterious despatches, +and inquiry on this point is reduced to supposition. Some pretended that +d'Aché sent the manifesto to Mme. de Combray, and that it was +clandestinely printed in the cellars at Tournebut; others maintain that +towards March 15th Bonnœil returned from Paris, bringing with him the +correspondence of the secret royalist committee which was to be sent to +the English Cabinet via Mandeville. D'Aché certainly attached immense +importance to this expedition, which ought, according to him, to make +the princes decide on the immediate despatch of funds, and to hasten the +preparation for the attack on the island of Tahitou. But days passed and +no reply came. In the agony of uncertainty he decided to approach Le +Chevalier, whom he only knew by reputation as being a shrewd and +resolute man. The meeting took place at Trévière<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>s towards the middle of +April, 1807. Le Chevalier brought one of his aides-de-camp with him, but +d'Aché came alone.</p> + +<p>The names of these two men are so little known, they occupy such a very +humble place in history, that we can hardly imagine, now that we know +how pitifully their dreams miscarried, how without being ridiculous they +could fancy that any result whatever could come of their meeting. The +surroundings made them consider themselves important: d'Aché was—or +thought he was—the mouthpiece of the exiled King; as for Le Chevalier, +whether from vainglory or credulity he boasted of an immense popularity +with the Chouans, and spoke mysteriously of the royalist committee +which, working in Paris, had succeeded, he said, in rallying to the +cause men of considerable importance in the entourage of the Emperor +himself.</p> + +<p>Since he had been Mme. Acquet's adored lover, Le Chevalier's visits to +the Café Hervieux had become rarer; his parasites had dispersed, and +although he still kept up his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur at Caen, he +spent the greater part of his time either at Falaise or at La Bijude, +where his devoted mistress alternately lived. The police of Count +Caffarelli, Prefect of Calvados, had ceased keeping an eye on him, and +he even received a passport for Paris, whither he went frequently. He +always returned more confident than before, and in the little group +amongst whom he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> lived at Falaise—consisting of his cousin, Dusaussay, +two Chouan comrades, Beaupaire and Desmontis; a doctor in the Frotté +army, Révérend; and the Notary of the Combray family, Maître Febre—he +was never tired of talking in confidence about the secret Royalist +Committee, and the near approach of the Restoration. The revolution +which was to bring it about, was to be a very peaceful one, according to +him. Bonaparte, taken prisoner by two of his generals, each at the head +of 40,000 men, was to be handed over to the English and replaced by "a +regency, the members of which were to be chosen from among the senators +who could be trusted." The Comte d'Artois was then to be recalled—or +his son, the Duc de Berry—to take possession of the kingdom as +Lieutenant-General.</p> + +<p>Did Le Chevalier believe in this Utopia? It has been said that in +propagating it "he only sought to intoxicate the people and excite them +to acts of pillage, the profits of which would come to him without any +of the danger." This accusation fits in badly with the chivalrous +loyalty of his character. It seems more probable that on one of his +journeys to Paris he fell into the trap set by the spy Perlet who, paid +by the princes to be their chief intelligence agent, sold their +correspondence to Fouché and handed over to the police the royalists who +brought the letters. This Perlet had invented, as a bait for his trap, a +committee of powerful persons who, he boasted, he had won over to the +royal cause, and doubtless Le Chevalier was one of his only too numerous +victims. Whatever it was, Le Chevalier took a pride in his high +comm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>issions, and went to meet d'Aché as an equal, if not a rival.</p> + +<p>At the beginning, the conference was more than cold. These two men, so +different in appearance and character, both aspired to play a great part +and were instinctively jealous of each other. Their own personal +feelings divided them. One was the lover of Mme. Acquet de Férolles, the +other was the friend of Mme. de Combray, and the latter blamed her +daughter for her misconduct, and had forbidden her ever to come back to +Tournebut. Le Chevalier, after the usual civilities, refused to continue +the conversation till he was informed of the exact nature of the powers +conferred by the King on his interlocutor, and the authority with which +he was invested. Now, d'Aché had never had any written authority, and +arrogantly intrenched himself behind the confidence which the princes +had shown in him from the very first days of the revolution. He stated +that he was expecting a regular commission from them. Whereupon Le +Chevalier, seizing the advantage, called him an "agent of the English," +and placing his pistols on the table "invited him to blow out his brains +immediately." They both grew calmer, however, and explained their plans. +Le Chevalier knew most of the Norman Chouans, either from having fought +by their side, or from having made their acquaintance in the various +prisons in Caen or Evreux, wherein he had been confined. He therefore +undertook the enrollment and management of the army, the command of +which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> would assign to two men who were devoted to him. The name of +one is not published; they say he was an ex-chief of Staff to Charette. +The other was famous through the whole revolt of the Chouans under the +pseudonym of General Antonio; his real name was Allain, and he had been +working with Le Chevalier since the year IX. The latter was sure also +of the cooperation of his friend M. de Grimont, manager of the stud at +Argentan, who would furnish the prince's army with the necessary +cavalry; besides which he offered to go to Paris for the "great event," +and took upon himself with the assistance of certain accomplices "to +secure the imperial treasury." D'Aché, for his part, was to go to +England to fetch the King, and was to preside over the disembarkation +and lead the Russo-Swedish army through insurgent Normandy to the gates +of the capital.</p> + +<p>Their work thus assigned, the two men parted allies, but not friends. +D'Aché was offended at Le Chevalier's pretensions; the latter returning +to Mme. Acquet, did not disguise the fact that, in his opinion, d'Aché +was nothing but a common intriguer and an agent of England.</p> + +<p>There still remained the question of money which, for the moment, took +precedence of all others. They had agreed that it was necessary to +pillage the coffers of the state whilst waiting the arrival of subsidies +from England, but neither d'Aché nor Le Chevalier expressed himself +openly; each wished to leave the responsibility of the theft to the +other. Later, they both obstinately reje<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>cted it, Le Chevalier affirming +that d'Aché had ordered the stopping of public conveyances in the King's +name, while d'Aché disowned Le Chevalier, accusing him of having brought +the cause into disrepute by employing such means. The dispute is of +little interest. The money was lacking, and not only were the royal +coffers empty, but what was of more immediate importance, Le Chevalier +and his friends were without resources. In consequence of leading a wild +life and sacrificing himself for his party, he had spent his entire +fortune, and was overwhelmed with debts. The lawyer Vanièr, who was +entrusted with the management of his business affairs, lost his head at +the avalanche of bills, protests and notes of hand which poured into his +office, and which it was impossible to meet. The lawyer Lefebre, a fat +and sensual free-liver, was equally low in funds, and laid on the +government the blame of the confusion into which his affairs had fallen, +though it had been entirely his own fault. As for Le Chevalier himself, +he attributed his ruin, not without justice, to his disinterestedness +and devotion to the royal cause, which was his excuse for the past and +the future. Mme. Acquet, who loved him blindly, had given her last louis +to provide for his costly liberality. Touching letters from her are +extant, proving how attached she was to him:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am herewith sending you a letter from Mme. Blins" (a creditor). +"My only regret is that I have not the sum. It would have given me +great pleasure to pay it for you, and then you would never have +known.... I love you with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>all my heart. I am entirely yours, and +there is nothing I would not do for you.... Love me as I love you. +I embrace you tenderly."</p></div> + +<p>"There is nothing I would not do for you,"—and the poor woman was +wretched in the knowledge that the hero whom she idolised was hampered +for want of small sums of money. She could not ward off the trouble, +since her demand for a separation had recently been refused. Acquet was +triumphant. She was reduced to living on a modest pension of 2,000 +francs, and not able to sell what she had inherited from her father. One +evening, when she and Lanoë were alone in the Hôtel de Combray, in the +Rue du Tripot at Falaise, one part of which was rented to the collector +of taxes, she heard through the wall the chinking of the money, which +they were packing into bags. On hearing it she fell into a sort of +delirium, thinking that here was the wherewithal to satisfy her lover's +fancies....</p> + +<p>"Lanoë," she said suddenly, "I must have some money; I only want 10,000 +francs."</p> + +<p>The terrified Lanoë gave her no answer then, but a few days later, when +he was driving her back in her cabriolet to Falaise from La Bijude, she +returned to the charge, and gave him a piece of yellow wax wrapped up in +cotton telling him to go and take an impression of the tax collector's +lock as soon as they arrived at the Rue du Tripot. Lanoë<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> excused +himself, saying that the house belonged to M. Timoléon, and that +disagreeable consequences might arise. But she insisted. "I must have +the impression," she said. "I do not tell you why I want it, but I will +have it." Lanoë, to get out of a task he did not like, went away and +secretly took an impression of the lock of the hayloft. A key was made +by this pattern, and when night came the Marquise de Combray's daughter +stole down—holding her breath and walking noiselessly—to the tax +collector's office, and vainly tried to open the door.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>About the same time Le Chevalier, who had just returned from a journey +to Paris, heard from the lawyer Vanièr, who was quite as much in debt as +his client, that the pecuniary situation was desperate. "I dread," wrote +Vanièr, "the accomplishment of the psalm: Unde veniet auxilium nobis +quia perimus." To which Le Chevalier replied, as he invariably did: "In +six weeks, or perhaps less, the King will be again on his throne. +Brighter days will dawn, and we shall have good posts. Now is the time +to show our zeal, for those who have done nothing will, as is fair, have +nothing to expect." He added that the hour was propitious, "since +Bonaparte was in the middle of Germany with his whole army."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>He loved to talk this way, as it made him appear, as it were, Napoleon's +rival, raising him to the place he held in his own imagination.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE AFFAIR OF QUESNAY</h3> + + +<p>The lawyer, Lefebre, of high stature, with broad shoulders and florid +complexion, loved to dine well, and spent his time between billiards, +"Calvados" and perorations in the cafés. For taking this part in the +conspiracy he expected a fat sinecure on the return of the Bourbons, in +recompense for his devotion.</p> + +<p>Early in April, 1807, Lefebre and Le Chevalier were dining together at +the Hôtel du Point-de-France at Argentan. They had found Beaurepaire, +Desmontis and the Cousin Dusaussay there; they went to the café and +stayed there several hours. Allain, called General Antonio, whom Le +Chevalier had chosen as his chief lieutenant, appeared and was presented +to the others. Allain was over forty; he had a long nose, light eyes, a +face pitted with smallpox, and a heavy black beard; the manner of a calm +and steady bourgeois. Le Chevalier took a playi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>ng card, tore half of it +off, wrote a line on it and gave it to Allain, saying, "This will admit +you." They talked awhile in the embrasure of a window, and the lawyer +caught these words: "Once in the church, you will go out by the door on +the left, and there find a lane; it is there...."</p> + +<p>When Allain had gone Le Chevalier informed his friends of the affair on +hand. At the approach of each term, funds were passed between the +principal towns of the department; from Alençon, Saint-Lô and Evreux +money was sent to Caen, but these shipments took place at irregular +dates, and were generally accompanied by an escort of gendarmes. As the +carriage which took the funds to Alençon usually changed horses at +Argentan, it was sufficient to know the time of its arrival in that town +to deduce therefrom the hour of its appearance elsewhere. Now Le +Chevalier had secured the cooperation of a hostler named Gauthier, +called "Boismâle," who was bribed to let Dusaussay know when the +carriage started. Dusaussay lived at Argentan, and by starting +immediately on horseback, he could easily arrive at the place where the +conspirators were posted several hours before the carriage. Allain had +just gone to find Boismâle.</p> + +<p>When he returned to the café, he gave the result of his efforts. The +hostler had decided to help Le Chevalier, but the affair would probably +not take place for six weeks or two months, which was longer than +necessary to collect the little troop neede<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>d for the expedition. The +rôles were assigned: Allain was to recruit men; the lawyer would procure +guns wherewith to arm them; and besides this he allowed Allain to use a +house in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent de Falaise, which he was +commissioned to sell. Here could be established "a depôt for arms and +provisions," for one difficulty was to lodge and feed the recruits +during the period of waiting. Le Chevalier answered for the assistance +of Mme. Acquet de Férolles, whom he easily persuaded to hide the men for +a few days at least; he also offered as a meeting-place his house in the +Rue de Saint-Sauveur at Caen.</p> + +<p>The chief outlines of the affair being thus arranged, they parted, and +the next day Allain took the road, having with him as usual, a complete +surveyor's outfit, and a sort of diploma as "engineer" which served as a +reference, and justified his continual moves. He was, moreover, a +typical Chouan, determined and ready for anything, as able to command a +troop as to track gendarmes; bold and cunning, he knew all the +malcontents in the country, and could insure their obedience. The +recruiting of this troop, armed, housed and provided for during two +months, roaming the country, hiding in the woods, leading in the +environs of Caen and Falaise the existence of Mohicans, without causing +astonishment to a single gendarme, and, satisfied with having enough to +eat and to drink, never thinking of asking what was required of them, is +beyond belief. And it was in the most brilliant year of the imperial +régime, at the apogee of the much boasted administration, which in +reality was so h<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>ollow. The Chouans had sown such disorganisation in the +West, that the authorities of all grades found themselves powerless to +struggle against this ever-recurring epidemic. Count Caffarelli, préfet +of Calvados, in his desire to retain his office, treated the +refractories with an indolence bordering on complicity, and continued to +send Fouché the most optimistic reports of the excellent temper of his +fellow-citizens and their inviolable attachment to the imperial +constitution.</p> + +<p>It was the middle of April, 1807. Allain passed through Caen, where he +joined Flierlé, and both of them hiding by day and marching at night, +gained the borders of Brittany. Allain knew where to find men; +twenty-five leagues from Caen, in the department of La Manche, some way +from any highroad, is situated the village of La Mancellière, whose men +were all refractories. General Antonio, who was very popular among the +malcontents, was shown the house of a woman named Harel whose husband +had joined the sixty-third brigade in the year VIII and deserted six +months after, "overcome by the desire to see his wife and children." His +story resembled many others; conscription was repugnant to these +peasants of ancient France, who could not resign themselves to losing +sight of their clock tower; they were brave enough and ready to fight, +but to them, the immediate enemy was the gendarmes, the "Bleus," whom +they saw in their villages carrying off the best men, and they felt no +animosity against the Prussians and Austrians who only picked a quarrel +with Bonaparte.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> +<p>As he came with an offer of work to be well paid for, Allain was well +received by Mme. Harel, who with her children was reduced to extreme +poverty. It was a question, he said, "of a surveying operation +authorised by the government." Harel came out of hiding in the evening, +and eagerly accepted his old chief's proposition, and as the latter +needed some strong pole-carriers, Harel presented two friends to the +"General" under the names of "Grand-Charles" and "Cœur-le-Roi." +Allain completed his party by the enrollment of three others, Le +Héricey, called "La Sagesse"; Lebrée, called "Fleur d'Épine"; and Le +Lorault, called "La Jeunesse." They drank a cup of cider together, and +left the same evening, Allain and Flierlé leading them.</p> + +<p>In six stages they arrived at Caen, and Allain took them to Le +Chevalier's house in the Rue Saint Sauveur. They had to stay there three +weeks. They were put in the loft on some hay, and Chalange, Le +Chevalier's servant, who took them their food, always found them +sleeping or playing cards. In order not to awaken the suspicions of the +usual tradespeople, Lerouge, called "Bornet," formerly a baker, +undertook to make the bread for the house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. One +day he brought in his bread cart four guns procured by Lefebre; Harel +cleaned them, took them to pieces, and hid them in a bundle of straw. +Then the guns were put on a horse which Lerouge led out at night from +the cellar which opened on the Rue Quimcampoix at the back of the house. +The men followed, and under Allain's guidance crossed the town; when +they reach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>ed the extremity of the Faubourg de Vaucelles they stopped and +distributed the arms. Lerouge went back to town with the horse, and the +little troop disappeared on the highroad.</p> + +<p>At about five leagues from Caen, after having passed Langannerie, where +a brigade of gendarmerie was stationed, the Falaise road traverses a +small but dense thicket called the wood of Quesnay. The men stopped +there, and passed a whole day hidden among the trees. The following +night Allain led them a three hours' march to a large abandoned house, +whose doors were open, and installed them in the loft on some hay. This +was the Château of Donnay.</p> + +<p>Le Chevalier had not deceived himself. Mme. Acquet had received his +suggestion with enthusiasm; the thought that she would be useful to her +hero, that she would share his danger, blinded her to all other +considerations. She had offered Allain and his companions the +hospitality of Bijude, without any fear of compromising her lover, who +made long sojourns there, and she decided on the audacious plan of +lodging them with her husband, who, inhabiting a wing of the Château of +Donnay, abandoned the main body of the château, which could be entered +from the back without being seen. Perhaps she hoped to throw a suspicion +of complicity on Acquet if the retreat should be discovered. As to Le +Chevalier, learning that d'Aché had just left Mandeville and gone to +England "after having announced his speedy return with the prince, with +munitions, money, etc.," h<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>e left for Paris, having certain arrangements, +he said, to make with the "Comité secret." Before quitting La Bijude, he +enjoined his mistress, in case the coup should be made in his absence, +to remit the money seized to Dusaussay, who would bring it to him in +Paris where the committee awaited it. She gave him a curl of her fine +black hair to have a medallion made of it, and made him promise "that he +would not forget to bring her some good eau-de-cologne." They then +embraced each other, and he left. It was May 17, 1807, and this was the +last time she saw him.</p> + +<p>She did not remain idle, but herself prepared the food of the seven men +lodged in the château. Bundles of hay and straw served them for beds; +they were advised not to go out, even for the most pressing needs and +they stayed there ten days. Every evening Mme. Acquet appeared in this +malodorous den, holding her parasol in her gloved hands, dressed in a +light muslin, and a straw hat. She was usually accompanied by her +servant Rosalie Dupont, a big strong girl, and Joseph Buquet a shoemaker +at Donnay both carrying large earthen plates containing baked veal and +potatoes. It was the hour of kindliness and good cheer; the châtelaine +did not disdain to preside at the repast, coming and going among the +unkempt men, asking if these "good fellows" needed anything and were +satisfied with their fare. She was the most impatient of all; whether +she took the political illusions of those who had drawn her into the +affair seriously, and was anxious to expose herself for "the good +cause"; whether her fatal passion <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>for La Chevalier had completely +blinded her, she took her share in the attack that was being prepared, +which it seemed to her, would put an end to all her misfortunes. She had +already committed an act of foolish boldness in receiving and keeping +Allain's recruits in a house occupied by her husband, and in daring to +visit them there herself; she was thus compromising herself, as if she +enjoyed it, under the eyes of her most implacable enemy, and no doubt +Acquet, informed by his well-trained spies, of all that happened, +refrained from intervention for fear of interrupting an adventure in +which his wife must lose herself irremediably.</p> + +<p>Mme. Acquet also behaved as if she was certain of the complicity of the +whole country; she arranged the slightest details of the expedition with +astonishing quickness of mind. With her own hands she made large wallets +of coarse cloth, to carry provisions for the party, and contain the +money taken from the chests. She hastened to Falaise to ask Lefebre to +receive Allain and Flierlé while awaiting the hour of action. Lefebre +who had already fixed his price and exacted a promise of twelve thousand +francs from the funds, would only, however, half commit himself. He +nevertheless agreed to lodge Allain and Flierlé in the vacant building +in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent. Reassured on this point Mme. Acquet +returned to Donnay; during the night of 28th May, the men left the +château without their arms and were conducted to a barn, where they were +left all day alone with a small cask of cide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>r which they soon emptied. +Mme. Acquet was meanwhile preparing another retreat for them. A short +way from the Church of Donnay there was an isolated house belonging to +the brothers Buquet, who were devoted to the Combrays; Joseph, the +shoemaker, had in the absence of Le Chevalier, been known as Mme. +Acquet's lover in the village, and if in the absence of any definite +testimony, it is possible to save this poor woman's memory from this +new accusation, we must still recognise the fact that she exercised an +extraordinary influence over this man. He submitted to her blindly "by +the rights she had granted him," said a report addressed to the Emperor. +Whatever the reason, she had only to say the word for Joseph Buquet to +give her his house, and the six men took possession next day. The +Buquets' mother undertook to feed them for four days; they left her at +dusk on the 2d June; Joseph showed them the road and even led them a +short way.</p> + +<p>The poor fellows dragged along till morning, losing themselves often and +not daring to ask the way or to follow beaten tracks. They met Allain at +dawn, one mile from Falaise, on the edge of a wood near the hamlet of +Jalousie; he took them across Aubigny to an isolated inn at the end of +the village.</p> + +<p>Lefebre had presented Allain to the innkeeper the night before, asking +if he would receive "six honest deserters whom the gendarmes tormented," +for a few days, and the man had replied that he would lodge them with +pleasure.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<p>As soon as they arrived at the inn Allain and his men, dropping with +fatigue, asked for breakfast and went at once to the room prepared for +them. It was half past four in the morning; they lay down on the straw +and did not move all day except for meals. The night and all next day +passed in the same manner. On Thursday June 4th they put some bread, +bacon and jugs of cider in their wallets and left about nine in the +evening. On Friday Allain appeared at the inn of Aubigny alone; he +ordered the servant to take some food to the place where the Caen and +Harcourt roads met. Two men were waiting there, who took the food and +went off in haste. Allain went to bed about two in the morning; about +midday on Saturday as he was sitting down to table a carriage stopped at +the inn door; Lefebre and Mme. Acquet got out. They brought seven guns +which were carried up to the loft. They talked; Mme. Acquet took some +lemons from a little basket, and cut them into a bowl filled with white +wine and brandy, and she and Lefebre drank while consulting together. +The heat was intolerable and all three were overcome. Mme. Acquet had to +be helped to her carriage and Lefebre undertook to conduct her to +Falaise. Allain, left alone at Aubigny, ordered supper "for six or seven +persons." He was attending to its preparation when a horseman appeared +and asked to speak with him. It was Dusaussay who brought news. He had +come straight from Argentan where he had seen the coach, laden with +chests of silver, enter the yard of the inn of Point-de-France; he +desc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>ribed the waggon, the harness and the driver, then remounted and +rode rapidly away. Just then the entire band reappeared, led by Flierlé. +Arms were distributed, and the men stood round the table eating hastily. +They filled their wallets with bread and cold meat and left at night. +Allain and Flierlé accompanied them and returned to the inn after two +hours' absence. They did not sleep; they were heard pacing heavily up +and down the loft until daylight. On Sunday, June 7, Allain paid the +reckoning, bought a short axe and an old gun from the innkeeper, making +eight guns in all at the disposal of the band. At seven in the morning +he left with Flierlé, and three leagues from there, arrived at the wood +of Quesnay where his men had passed the night.</p> + +<p>The waggon destined for the transportation of the funds had been loaded +on the 5th at Alençon, in the yard of the house of M. Decrès, +receiver-general of the Orne, with five heavy chests containing 33,489 +francs, 92 centimes. On the 6th, the carrier, Jean Gousset, employed by +the manager of stage coaches at Alençon, had harnessed three horses to +it, and escorted by two gendarmes had taken the road to Argentan, where +he arrived at five in the evening. He stopped at Point-de-France, where +he had to take a sixth chest containing 33,000 francs, which was +delivered in the evening by the agents of M. Larroc, receiver of +finances. The carriage, carefully covered, remained in the inn yard +during the night. Gousset, who had been drinking, went to and fro +"talking to every one of his charge"; he even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> called a traveller, M. +Lapeyrière, and winking at the chest that was being hoisted on the +waggon, said: "If we each had ten times as much our fortunes would be +made." He harnessed up at four o'clock on Sunday, the 7th. He had been +given a fourth horse, and three gendarmes accompanied him. They made the +five leagues between Argentan and Falaise rather slowly, arriving about +half past ten. Gousset stopped with Bertaine at the "Cheval Noir," +where the gendarmes left him; he dined there, and as it was very hot, +rested till three in the afternoon, during which time the waggon stayed +in front of the inn unguarded. It was noticed that the horses were +harnessed three hours before starting, and the conclusion was drawn that +Gousset did not want to arrive before night at Langannerie, where he +would sleep. In fact, he took his time. At a quarter past three he +started, without escort, as all the men of the brigade of Falaise were +employed in the recruiting that took place that day. As he left the +village he chanced to meet Vinchon, gendarme of the brigade of +Langannerie, who was returning home on foot with his nephew, a young boy +of seventeen, named Antoine Morin. They engaged in conversation with the +carrier, who walked on the left of the waggon, and went with him. These +chance companions were in no hurry, and Gousset did not appear to be in +any haste to arrive. At the last houses of the suburbs he offered some +cider; after some hundred yards the gendarme returned the compliment and +they stopped at the "Sauvage." A league further, anothe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>r stop was made +at the "Vieille Cave." Gousset then proposed a game of skittles, which +the gendarme and Morin accepted. It was nearly seven in the evening when +they passed Potigny. The evening was magnificent and the sun still high +on the horizon; as they knew they would not see another inn until the +next stage was reached, they made a fourth stop there. At last Gousset +and his companions started again; they could now reach Langannerie in +an hour, where they would stop for the night.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The evening before, Mme. Acquet de Férolles, returning to Falaise with +Lefebre, had gone to bed more sick with fatigue than drink; however, she +had returned to Donnay at dawn in the fear that her absence might awaken +suspicion. This Sunday, the 7th June, was indeed the Fête-Dieu, and she +must decorate the wayside altars as she did each year.</p> + +<p>Lanoë, who had arrived the evening before from his farm at Glatigny, +worked all the morning hanging up draperies, and covering the walls with +green branches. Mme. Acquet directed the arrangements for the procession +with feverish excitement, filling baskets with rose leaves, grouping +children, placing garlands. Doubtless her thoughts flew from this +flowery fête to the wood yonder, where at this minute the men whom she +had incited waited under the trees, gun in hand. Perhaps she felt a +perverse pleasure in the contrast between the hymns sung among the +hedges and the criminal anxiety that wrung her. Did she not confess +later that in the confusion of her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>mind she had not feared to call on +God for the success of "her enterprise"?</p> + +<p>When, about five o'clock, the procession was at an end, Mme. Acquet went +through the rose-strewn streets to find her confidante, Rosalie Dupont. +Such was her impatience that she soon left this girl, irresistibly drawn +to the road where her own fate and that of her lover were being +decided. Lanoë, who was returning to Glatigny in the evening, was +surprised to meet the châtelaine of La Bijude in a little wood near +Clair-Tizon. She was scarcely a league from the place where the men were +hidden. From her secluded spot she could, with beating heart, motionless +and mute with anguish, hear the noise of shooting, which rung out clear +in the silence of the summer evening. It was exactly a quarter to eight.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The waggon had, indeed, left Potigny at seven o'clock. A little way from +the village, the road, which had been quite straight for six leagues, +descended a low hill at the foot of which is the wood of Quesnay, a low +thicket of hazel, topped by a few oaks. Allain had posted his men along +the road under the branches; on the edge of the wood towards Falaise +stood Flierlé, Le Héricey, and Fleur d'Épine. Allain himself was with +Harel and Cœur-le-Roi, at the end nearest Langannerie. Grand-Charles +and Le Lorault were placed in the middle of the wood at equal distances +from these two groups.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> +<p>The eight men had waited since midday for the appearance of the +treasure. They began to lose patience and spoke of returning to Aubigny +for supper when they heard the rumbling of the waggon descending the +hill. It came down rapidly, Gousset not having troubled to put on the +brake. They could hear him shouting to the horses. Walking on the left +of the waggon he drove them by means of a long rope; his little dog +trotted beside him. Vinchon and Morin were, for the moment, left behind +by the increased speed of the waggon. The men at the first and second +posts allowed it to pass without appearing; it was now between the two +thickets through which the road ran; in a few minutes it attained the +edge of the wood near Langannerie, when suddenly, Gousset saw a man in a +long greatcoat and top-boots in the middle of the road, with his gun +pointed at him; it was Allain.</p> + +<p>"Halt, you rascal!" he cried to the carrier.</p> + +<p>Two of his companions, attired only in drawers and shirt, with a +coloured handkerchief knotted round the head, came out of the wood, +shouldered arms and took aim. With a tremendous effort, Gousset, seized +with terror, turned the whole team to the left, and with oaths and blows +flung it on to a country road which crossed the main road obliquely a +little way from the end of the wood. But in an instant the three men +were upon him; they threw him down and held a gun to his head while two +others came out of the wood and seized the horses' heads. The struggle +was short; they tore off Gousset's cravat and bound his eyes with it, he +was searched and his knife taken, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> cuffed, pushed into the wood and +promised a ball if he moved.</p> + +<p>But Vinchon and Morin, who were behind, had seen the waggon disappear in +the wood. Morin, not caring to join in the scuffle, hurried across the +fields, turned the edge of the wood, and ran towards Langannerie to +inform the gendarmes. Vinchon, on the contrary, drew his sabre and +advanced towards the road, but he had only taken a few steps when he +received a triple discharge from the first post. He fell, with a ball in +his shoulder, and rolled in the ditch, his blood flowing. The men then +hastened to the waggon; they cut the cords of the tarpaulin with +Gousset's knife, uncovered the chests and attacked them with hatchets. +Whilst two of the brigands unharnessed the horses, the others flung the +money, handfuls of gold and crowns, pell-mell into their sacks. The +first one, bursting with silver, was so heavy that it took three men to +hoist it on to the back of a horse; Gousset himself, in spite of his +bandaged eyes, was invited to lend a hand and obeyed gropingly. They +were smashing the second chest when the cry, "To arms!" interrupted +them. Allain rallied his men, and lined them up along the road.</p> + +<p>Morin, on arriving at Langannerie had only found the corporal and one +other gendarme there; they mounted immediately and galloped to the wood +of Quesnay. It was almost night when they reached the edge of the wood. +A volley of shots greeted them; the corporal wa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>s hit in the leg, and his +horse fell mortally wounded; his companion, who was deaf, did not know +which way to turn. Seeing his chief fall, he thought it best to retreat; +and ran to the hamlet of Quesnay to get help. The noise of the firing +had already alarmed the neighbourhood; the tocsin sounded at Potigny, +Ouilly-le-Tesson and Sousmont; peasants flocked to each end of the wood, +but they were unarmed and dared not advance. Allain had posted five of +his men as advance-guard who fired in the thicket at their own +discretion, and kept the most determined of the enemy at bay. Behind +this curtain of shooters the noise could be heard of axes breaking open +chests, planks torn apart and oaths of the brigands in haste to complete +their pillage. This extraordinary scene lasted nearly an hour. At last, +at a call, the firing ceased, the robbers plunged into the thicket, and +the steps of the heavily-laden horse, urged on by the men, were heard +disappearing on the crossroad.</p> + +<p>They took the road to Ussy, with their booty and the carrier Gousset, +still with his eyes bandaged and led by Grand-Charles. They travelled +fast, at night—to avoid pursuit. Less than half a league from Quesnay +the road they followed passed the hamlet of Aisy, on the outskirts of +Sousmont, whose mayor had a château there. He was called M. Dupont +d'Aisy, and had this very evening entertained Captain Pinteville, +commander of the gendarmerie of the district. The party had been broken +up by the distant noise of shooting. M. Dupont at once sent his servants +to give the alarm at Sousmont; in less than an hour he ha<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>d mustered +thirty villagers and putting himself at their head with Captain +Pinteville he marched towards Quesnay. They had not gone a hundred paces +when they encountered Allain's men, and the fight began. The brigands +kept up a well-sustained fire, which produced no other effect than to +disperse the peasants. Dupont d'Aisy and Captain Pinteville himself +considered it dangerous to continue the struggle against such +determined adversaries; they retired their men, and resolutely turning +their backs to the enemy retreated towards Quesnay.</p> + +<p>When they arrived in the wood a crowd was already there; from the +neighbouring villages where the tocsin still sounded, people came, drawn +entirely by curiosity. They laughed at the fine trick played on the +government, they thought the affair well managed, and did not hesitate +to applaud its success. They surrounded the waggon, half-sunk in the +ruts in the road, and searched the little wood for traces of the combat.</p> + +<p>The arrival of the mayor and Captain Pinteville restored things to order +somewhat. They had brought lanterns, and in the presence of the +gendarmes who had now arrived in numbers, the peasants collected the +remains of the chests, and replaced in them the coppers that the robbers +had scornfully thrown in the grass. They found the carrier's leather +portfolio containing the two bills of lading, in the thicket, and +learned therefrom that the government had lost a little over 60,000 +francs, and in face of this respectable sum, their respect for the men +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>who had done the deed increased. In the densest part of the wood they +found a sort of hut made of branches, and containing bones, empty +bottles and glasses, and the legend immediately grew that the brigands +had lived there "for weeks," waiting for a profitable occasion. Those +who had taken part in the fight from a distance described "these +gentlemen," who numbered twelve, they said; three wore grey overcoats +and top-boots; another witness had been struck "by the exceeding +smallness of two of the brigands."</p> + +<p>At last, the money collected and put in the chests, they harnessed two +horses to the waggon and took it to the mayor's. He was now unsparing of +attention; he did not leave the waggon which was put in his yard, and +locked up the broken chests and money which amounted to 5,404 francs. +And when M. le Comte Caffarelli, préfet of Calvados arrived at dawn, he +was received by Dupont-d'Aisy, and after having heard all the witnesses +and received all information possible, he sent the minister of police +one of the optimistic reports that he prepared with so much assurance. +In this one he informed his Excellency that "after making examination +the shipment had been found intact, except the chests containing the +government money." M. Caffarelli knew to perfection the delicate art of +administrative correspondence and with a great deal of cool water, could +slip in the gilded pill of disagreeable truth.</p> + +<p>This model functionary spent the day at Aisy waiting for news; the +peasants and gendarmes scoured the country with precaution, for, since +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>the night, the legend had grown and it was told, not without fear, how +M. Dupont d'Aisy had courageously given battle to an army of brigands. +About midday the searchers returned leading the four horses which they +had found tied to a hedge near the village of Placy, and poor Gousset +who was found calmly seated in the shade of a tree near a wheat-field. +He said that the band had left him there very early in the morning after +having made him march all night with bandaged eyes. At the end of an +hour and a half, hearing nothing, he had ventured to unfasten the +bandage, and not knowing the country, had waited till some one came to +seek him. He could give no information respecting the robbers, except +that they marched very fast and gave him terrible blows. M. Caffarelli +commiserated the poor man heartily, charged him to take the waggon and +smashed chests back to Caen, then, after having warmly congratulated M. +Dupont d'Aisy on his fine conduct, he returned home.</p> + +<p>After the scuffle at Aisy, Allain and his companions had marched in +haste to Donnay, but missed their way. Crossing the village of +Saint-Germain-le-Vasson, they seized a young miller who was taking the +air on his doorstep, and who consented to guide them, though very much +afraid of this band of armed men with heavily-laden wallets. He led them +as far as Acqueville and Allain sent him away with ten crowns. It was +nearly midnight when they reached Donnay; they passed behind the château +where Joseph Buquet was waiting for them and led them to his house. He +and his brother made the eight men en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>ter, enjoined silence, helped them +to empty their sacks into a hole that had been made at the end of the +garden, then gave them a drink. After an hour's rest Allain gave the +signal for departure. He was in haste to get his men out of the +department of Calvados, and shelter them from the first pursuit of +Caffarelli's police. At daybreak they crossed the Orne by the bridge of +La Landelle, threw their guns into a wheat-field and separated after +receiving each 200 francs.</p> + +<p>This day, the 8th June, passed in the most perfect calm for the +inhabitants of Donnay. Mme. Acquet did not leave La Bijude. In the +afternoon a tanner of Placy, called Brazard, passed the house and called +to Hébert whom he saw in the garden. He told him that when he got up +that morning he had found four horses tied to his hedge. The gendarmes +from Langannerie had come and claimed them saying "they belonged to the +Falaise-Caen coach which had been attacked in the night by Chouans." +Hébert was much astonished; Mme. Acquet did not believe it; but the +report spread and by evening the news was known to the whole village.</p> + +<p>Acquet had remained invisible for a month; his instinct of hatred and +some information slyly obtained, warned him that his wife was working +her own ruin, and he would do nothing to stop her good work. Some days +before, Aumont, his gardener, had remarked one morning that the dew was +brushed off the grass of the lawn, and showed footsteps leading to the +cellar of the château, but Acquet did not seem to attach any importance +to these facts.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>He learned from his servant of the robbery of the coach. The next day, +Redet, the butcher of Meslay, said that ten days previously, when he was +passing the ruins of the Abbey of Val "his mare shied, frightened at the +sight of seven or eight men, who came out from behind a hedge;" they +asked him the way to Rouen. Redet, without answering, made off, and as +he told every one of this encounter, Hébert the liegeman of Mme. de +Combray, had instantly begged him not to spread it about. If Acquet had +retained any doubt, this would have satisfied him. He hurried to Meslay +to consult with his friend Darthenay, and the next day, he wrote to the +commandant of gendarmerie inviting him to search the Château of Donnay.</p> + +<p>The visit took place on Friday, 12th June, and was conducted by Captain +Pinteville. Acquet offered to guide him, and the search brought some +singular discoveries. Certain doors of this great house, long abandoned, +were found with strong locks recently put on; others were nailed up and +had to be broken in. "In a dark, retired loft that it was difficult to +enter" (Acquet conducted the gendarmes) "a pile of hay still retained +the impress of six men who had slept on it"; some fresh bones, scraps of +bread and meat, and the dirt bore witness that the band had lived there; +some sheets of paper belonging to a memoir printed by Hely de +Bonnœil, brother of Mme. Acquet were rolled into cartridges and +hidden in a corner under the tiles. They also found the sacks that the +Buquets had hidden there after the theft; in the floor of the cellar a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>hole, "two and a half feet square, and of the same depth had been dug to +hold the money;" they had taken the precaution to tear up the flooring +above so that the depôt could be watched from there. The idea of hiding +the treasure here had been abandoned, as we know, in favour of Buquets'; +but the discovery was important and Pinteville drew up a report of it.</p> + +<p>But things went no further. What suspicion could attach to the owners +of Donnay? The brigands, it is true, had made use of their house, but +there were no grounds for an accusation of complicity in that. Neither +Pinteville nor Caffarelli, who transmitted the report to the minister, +thought of pushing their enquiries any further.</p> + +<p>Fouché knew no more about it, but he thought that the affair was being +feebly conducted. It seemed evident that the attempt at Quesnay would +swell the already long list of thefts of public funds, by those who +would forever remain unpunished. Réal, instinctively scenting d'Aché in +the business, remembered Captain Manginot who at the time of Georges +Cadoudal's plot, had succeeded in tracing the stages of the conspirators +between Biville and Paris, and to whom they owed the discovery of the +rôle played by d'Aché in the conspiracy.</p> + +<p>Manginot then received an order to proceed to Calvados immediately. On +the 23d June he arrived at Caffarelli's bearing this letter of +introduction: "The skill, the zeal and good fortune of this officer in +these cases, is well known; they were proved in a similar affair, and I +ask you to welcome him as he deserves to be welcomed." The préfet was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>quite willing; he knew too well the habits of the Chouans, and their +cleverness in disappearing to have any personal illusions as to the +final result of the adventure, but he said nothing and on the contrary +showed the greatest confidence in the dexterity of a man who stood so +well at court.</p> + +<p>Manginot began with a fresh search at Donnay; and, as his reputation +obliged him to be successful, and as he was not unwilling to astonish +the authorities of Calvados by the quickness of his perceptions, he +caused Acquet de Férolles to be arrested. It was he who had first warned +the gendarmes of the sojourn of the brigands at Donnay, and this seemed +exceedingly suspicious; the same day he gave the order to take Hébert. +Several people in the village insinuated that Acquet and Hébert were +irreconcilable enemies and that Manginot was on the wrong track; but the +detective's head was now swelled with importance and he would not draw +back. Following his extravagant deductions he decided that the +complicity of Gousset, convicted of drinking and playing skittles the +whole way, was undoubted, and the poor man was arrested in his village +where he had returned to his wife and children to recover from his +excitement. At last Manginot, evidently animated by his blunders, took +it into his head that Dupont d'Aisy himself might well have kept +Pinteville at dinner and excited the peasants in order to secure the +retreat of the brigands, and issued a warrant agains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>t him to the +stupefaction of Caffarelli who thus saw imprisoned all those whose +conduct he had praised, and whom he had given as examples of devotion. +Thus, in a region where he had only to touch, so to say, to catch a +criminal, Captain Manginot was unlucky enough to incarcerate only the +innocent, and to complete the irony, these innocent prisoners made such +a poor face before the court of enquiry that his suspicions were +justified. Acquet was very anxious to denounce his wife, but he would +not speak without certainty and the magistrate before whom he appeared +at Falaise notes that in the course of interrogations "he contradicted +himself; his replies were far from satisfactory, though he arranged them +with the greatest care and reflected long before speaking." At the first +insinuation he made against Mme. de Combray and her daughter, the judge +indignantly silenced him, and sent him well-guarded to Caen where he was +put in close custody. As to Hébert, not wishing to compromise the ladies +of La Bijude to whom he was completely devoted, he scarcely replied to +the questions put to him; all, even to Dupont d'Aisy lent themselves to +the suspicions of Manginot. Sixty guns were found at the mayor's house, +which seemed an excessive number, even for the great sportsman he prided +himself on being, and here again all indications tended to convince +Manginot that he was on the right track.</p> + +<p>Mme. Acquet, meanwhile feigned the greatest security. Seeing things +straying from the right way, she might indeed imagine that she was +removed from all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> danger, and she had besides, other anxieties. The +Chevalier had been waiting in Paris since the 7th of June for the money +he so urgently needed, and as nothing appeared in spite of his +reiterated demands, he decided to come and fetch it himself; he did not +dare, however, to appear near Falaise, so arranged a meeting at Laigle +with Lefebre, earnestly entreating him to bring him all the money he +possibly could. But the Buquets, with whom the 60,000 francs had been +left on the 7th June, obstinately refused to give it up in spite of Mme. +Acquet's entreaties; they had removed the money from their garden and +hidden it in various places which they jealously kept secret. However, +through her influence over Joseph, Mme. Acquet succeeded in obtaining +3,300 francs which she gave the lawyer to take to Le Chevalier, but +Lefebre, as soon as he got hold of the money, declared that he had been +promised 12,000 francs for his assistance, and that he would keep this +on account. He went to meet Le Chevalier at Laigle however, and to calm +his impatience told him that Dusaussay was going to start for Paris +immediately with 60,000 francs which he would give him intact. Mme. +Acquet was desperate; prudence forbade her trying to overcome the +Buquets' obstinacy, and they, in order to keep the money, asserted that +it belonged to the royal exchequer, and they were responsible for it; so +the unhappy woman found that she had committed a crime that the +obstinacy of these rapacious peasants rendered useless. She was ready to +abandon all in order to rejoin Le Chevalier, ready even to expatriate +herself with him, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>when they heard that Mme. de Combray, hearing rumours +of what had happened in Lower Normandy, had decided to come to Falaise, +to plead the cause of her farmer, Hébert. She had left Tournebut on the +13th July and taken the Caen coach to Evreux.</p> + +<p>Mme. Acquet had gone to Langannerie to meet her mother, and when Mme. de +Combray descended from the coach the young woman threw herself into her +arms. As the Marquise seemed rather surprised at this display of feeling +to which she had become unaccustomed, her daughter said in a low voice, +sobbing:</p> + +<p>"Save me, mama, save me!"</p> + +<p>Mother and daughter resumed the affectionate confidence of former days. +While the horses were being changed and the postillions were taking a +drink in the inn, they seated themselves beneath a tree near the road. +Mme. Acquet made a full confession. She told how her love for Le +Chevalier had led her to join in the affair of June 7th, to keep Allain +and his men, and to hide the stolen money with the Buquets. If it should +be found there she was lost, and it was important to get it from the +Buquets and send it to the leaders of the party for whom it was +intended. She did not dare to mention Le Chevalier this time, but she +argued that for fear of her husband's spies she could neither take the +money to her own house, nor change it at any bankers in Caen and +Falaise; the whole country knew she was reduced to the last expedients.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray feared no such dange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>rs, and considered that "no one +would be astonished to see 50,000 or 60,000 francs at her disposal." But +she approved less of some other points in the affair, not that she was +astonished to find her daughter compromised in such an adventure, for +how many similar ones had she not helped to prepare in her Château of +Tournebut? Had she not inoculated her daughter with her political +fanaticism in representing men like Hingant de Saint-Maur, Raoul +Gaillard and Saint-Réjant as martyrs? And by what right could she be +severe, when she herself, daughter of the President of the Cour des +Comptes of Normandy, had been ready to join in a theft which, "the +sanctity of the cause," rendered praiseworthy in her eyes? The Marquise +de Combray, without knowing it, was a Jacobite reversed; she accepted +brigandage as the terrorists formerly accepted the guillotine; the +hoped-for end justified the means.</p> + +<p>And so she did not pour out reproaches; she grew angry at the mention of +Le Chevalier whom she hated, but Mme. Acquet calmed her with the +assurance that her lover had acted under the express orders of d'Aché +and that everything had been arranged between the two men. As long as +her hero was concerned in the affair, Mme. de Combray was happy to take +a hand. That evening she reached Falaise, and leaving her daughter in +the Rue du Tripot, she asked hospitality from one of her relations, Mme. +de Tréprel. Next morning she sent for Lefebre. Mme. Acquet, before +introducing him, coached him thus, "Say as little as possible about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>Le +Chevalier, and insist that d'Aché arranged everything." On this ground +Lefebre found Mme. de Combray most conciliating, and he had neither to +employ prayers nor entreaties, to obtain her promise to get the 60,000 +francs from the Buquets; "she consented without any difficulty or +adverse opinion; she seemed very zealous and pleased at the turn things +had taken, and offered herself to take the money to Caen, and lodge it +with Nourry, d'Aché's banker." Mme. Acquet here observed that she was +not at liberty to dispose of the funds thus. She had only taken part in +the affair from love, and cared little for the royalist exchequer; she +only cared that her devotion should profit the man she adored, and if +the money was sent to d'Aché, all her trouble would be useless. She +tried to insist, saying that Dusaussay would take the money to the +royalist treasurer in Paris, that Le Chevalier was waiting for it in +order to go to Poitou where his presence was indispensable. But Mme. de +Combray was inflexible on this point; the entire sum should be delivered +to d'Aché's banker, or she would withdraw her assistance. Mme. Acquet +was obliged to yield with a heavy heart, and they began at once to +consider the best means of transporting it. The Marquise sent Jouanne, +the son of the old cook at Glatigny, to tell Lanoë that she wished to +see him at once. Jouanne made the six leagues between Falaise and +Glatigny at one stretch, and returned without taking breath, with Lanoë, +who put him up behind him on his horse. They had scarcely arrived when +Mme. de Combray ordered Lanoë to get a carriage at Donnay and prepare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +for a journey of several days. Lanoë objected a little, said it was +harvest time, and that he had important work to finish, but all that +mattered little to the Marquise, who was firm and expected to be obeyed. +Mme. Acquet also insisted saying, "You know that mama only feels safe +when you drive her and that you are always well paid for it." This +decided Lanoë who started for Bijude where he slept that night. Mme. de +Combray did not spare her servants, and distance was not such an +obstacle to those people, accustomed to marching and riding, as it is +nowadays. This fact will help to explain some of the incidents that are +to follow.</p> + +<p>On Thursday, July 16th, Lanoë returned to Falaise with a little cart +that a peasant of Donnay had lent him, to which he had harnessed his +horse and another lent him by Desjardins, one of Mme. de Combray's +farmers. The two women got in and started for La Bijude, Lefebre +accompanying them to the suburbs. He arranged a meeting with them at +Caen two days later, and gave them a little plan he had drawn which +would enable them to avoid the more frequented highroad.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray and her daughter slept that night at La Bijude. The next +day was spent in arguing with the Buquets who did not dare to resist the +Marquise's commands, and at night they delivered, against their will, +two sacks containing 9,000 francs in crowns which she caused to be +placed in the cart, which was housed in the barn. It was impossible to +take more the first time, and Mme. Acquet rejoiced, hoping that the rest +of the sum would remain at her disposal. The Marquise had judged it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>prudent to send Lanoë away to the fair at Saint-Clair which was held in +the open country about a league away, and they only saw him again at the +time fixed for their departure on Saturday. He has left an account of +the journey, which though evidently written in a bad temper, is rather +picturesque.</p> + +<p>"I returned from the fair," he says, "towards one o'clock in the +afternoon, and while I was harnessing the horses I saw a valise and +night bag in the carriage. Colin, the servant at La Bijude, threw two +bundles of straw in the carriage for the ladies to sit on, and Mme. de +Combray gave me a portmanteau, a package which seemed to contain linen, +and an umbrella to put in the carriage. On the road I made the horses +trot, but Mme. Acquet told me not to go so fast because they didn't want +to arrive at Caen before evening, seeing that they had stolen money in +the carriage. I looked at her, but said nothing, but I said to myself: +'This is another of her tricks; if I had known this before we started I +would have left them behind; she used deceit to compromise me, not being +able to do so openly.' When I reproached her for it some days later she +said: 'I suspected that if I had told you of it, you would not have +gone.' During the journey the ladies talked together, but the noise of +the carriage prevented me from hearing what they said. However, I heard +Mme. Acquet say that this money would serve to pay some debts or to give +to the unfortunate. I also heard her say that Le Chevalier had great +wit, and Mme. de Combray replied that M. d'Aché's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>wit was keener; that +Le Chevalier had perhaps a longer tongue...."</p> + +<p>The itinerary arranged by Lefebre, left the main road at +Saint-Andre-de-Fontenay near the hamlet of Basse-Allemagne; night was +falling when Lanoë's carriage crossed the Orne at the ferry of Athis. +From there they went to Bretteville-sur-Odon in order to enter the town +as if they had come from Vire or Bayeux. The notary had arrived during +the day at Caen, and after having left his horse at the inn at +Vaucelles, he crossed the town on foot and went to meet "the treasure" +on the Vire road. Just as eight was striking he reached the first houses +in Bretteville and was going to turn back, astonished at not meeting the +cart when Mme. Acquet called to him from a window. He entered; Mme. de +Combray and her daughter had stopped there while Lanoë was having one of +the wheels mended. They took some refreshment, rested the horses and set +out again at ten o'clock. Lefebre got in with them and when they arrived +at Granville he got down and paid the duty on the two bundles of straw +that were in the waggon, and then entered the town without further +delay.</p> + +<p>By the notary's advice they had decided to take the money to Gélin's +inn, in the Rue Pavée. Gélin was the son-in-law of Lerouge, called +Bornet, whom Le Chevalier sometimes employed, but the waggon was too +large to get into the courtyard of the inn; some troops had been passing +that day and the house was filled with soldiers. They could no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>t stay +there, but had to leave the money there, and while Gélin watched, the +Marquise, uneasy at finding herself in such a place, unable to leave the +yard because the waggon stopped the door, had to assist in unloading it. +Two men were very busy about the waggon, one of them held a dark +lantern; Lefebre, Lerouge and even Mme. Acquet pulled the sacks from the +straw and threw them into the house by a window on the ground floor. +Mme. de Combray seemed to feel her decadence for the first time; she +found herself mixed up in one of those expeditions that she had until +then represented as chivalrous feats of arms, and these by-ways of +brigandage filled her with horror.</p> + +<p>"But they are a band of rascals," she said to Lanoë, and she insisted on +his taking her away; she was obliged to pass through the inn filled with +men drinking. At last, outside, without turning round she went to the +Hôtel des Trois Marchands, opposite Notre-Dame, where she usually +stayed.</p> + +<p>Mme. Acquet had no such qualms; she supped with the men, and in the +night had a mysterious interview with Allain behind the walls of +Notre-Dame. Where Mme. Acquet slept that night is not known; she only +appeared at the Hôtel des Trois Marchands four days later, where she met +Mme. de Combray who had just returned from Bayeux. In her need of +comfort the Marquise had tried to see d'Aché and find out if it were +true that Allain had acted according to his orders, but d'Aché had +assured his old friend that he disapproved of such vile deeds, and that +"he was still worthy of her esteem." She had ret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>urned to Caen much +grieved at having allowed herself to be deceived by her daughter and the +lawyer; she told them nothing of her visit to Bayeux, except that she +had not seen d'Aché and that he was still in England; then, quite put +out, she returned to Falaise in the coach, not wanting to travel with +her daughter. Mme. Acquet, the same day,—Thursday the 23d July—took a +carriage that ran from Caen to Harcourt and got down at Forge-à-Cambro +where Lanoë, who had returned to Donnay on Monday, was waiting, with his +waggon.</p> + +<p>As soon as she was seated Lanoë informed her that the gendarmes had gone +to Donnay and searched the Buquets' house, but left without arresting +any one; "a man in a long black coat was conducting them." Mme. Acquet +asked several questions, then told Lanoë to whip up the horses and +remained silent until they reached La Bijude; he observed her with the +corner of his eye, and saw that she was very pale. When they arrived at +the village she went immediately to the Buquets and remained a quarter +of an hour closeted with Joseph. No doubt she was making a supreme +effort to get some money from him; she reappeared with heightened colour +and very excited. "Quick, to Falaise," she said. But Lanoë told her he +had something to do at home, and that his horse could not be always on +the go. But she worried him until he consented to take her.</p> + +<p>While the horse was being fed Mme. Acquet went to La Bijude and threw +herself on the bed, fully dressed. The day had been very heavy and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +towards evening lightning flashed brightly. About two in the morning +Lanoë knocked on the window and Mme. Acquet appeared, ready to start. +She got up behind him, and they took the road by the forest of +Saint-Clair and Bonnœil, and when they were going through the wood +the storm burst with extraordinary violence, huge gusts bent the trees, +breaking the branches, the rain fell in torrents, changing the road to +a river; the horse still advanced however, but towards day, when +approaching the village of Noron, Mme. Acquet suddenly felt such violent +indisposition that she fell to the ground in a faint. Lanoë laid her on +the side of the road in the mud. When she came to herself she begged him +to leave her there, and hasten to Falaise and bring back Lefebre; she +seemed to be haunted by the thought of the man in the black overcoat who +had guided the gendarmes at Donnay. Lanoë, in a great fright, obeyed, +but Lefebre could not come before afternoon; at Noron they found Mme. +Acquet in an inn to which she had dragged herself. The poor woman was in +a fever, and almost raving she told Lefebre that she had no money to +give him; that the gendarmes had been to Donnay; that the man who showed +them the way was probably one of Allain's companions, but that she +feared nothing and was going there to bring back the money.</p> + +<p>Lefebre tried to calm her, but when he left after half an hour's talk, +she tried Lanoë, begging him to take her back to Donnay; he resisted +strongly, not wanting to hear any more of the affair, but at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>last he +softened at her despair, but swore that now he had had enough of it, and +would leave her at La Bijude. She agreed to all, climbed on the horse, +and taking Lanoë round the waist as before, her dripping garments +clinging to her shivering form, she started again for Donnay. When +passing Villeneuve, a farm belonging to her brother Bonnœil she saw a +group of women gesticulating excitedly; the farmer Truffault came up +and in response to her anxious enquiries, replied:</p> + +<p>"A misfortune has taken place; the gendarmes have been to the Buquets, +and taken the father, mother and eldest son. Joseph, who hid himself, is +alone and very unhappy."</p> + +<p>The farmer added that he had just sent his boy to Falaise to inform Mme. +de Combray of the event. Mme. Acquet got off her horse, drew Truffault +aside and questioned him in a low voice. When she returned to Lanoë she +was as white as a wax candle. "I am lost," she said, "Joseph Buquet will +denounce me."</p> + +<p>Then, with a steady look, speaking to herself: "I could also, in my turn +denounce Allain, seeing that he is an outlaw, but where should I say I +had met him?" She seemed most uneasy, not knowing what to do. Then she +hinted that she must go back to Falaise. But Lanoë was inflexible, he +swore he would go no further, and that she could apply to the farmer if +she wanted to. And giving his horse the rein he went off at a trot, +leaving her surrounded by the peasants, who silently gazed in wondering +consternation at the daughter of "their lady" co<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>vered with mud, +wild-eyed, her arms swinging and her whole appearance so hopeless and +forlorn as to awaken pity in the hardest heart.</p> + +<p>The same evening the lawyer Lefebre, learned on reaching home, that Mme. +de Combray had sent her gardener to ask him to come to her immediately +in the Rue du Tripot. But worn out, he threw himself on his bed and +slept soundly till some one knocked at his door about one in the +morning. It was the gardener again, who was so insistent that Lefebre +decided to go with him in spite of fatigue. He found the Marquise wild +with anxiety. Truffault's boy had told her of the arrest of the Buquets, +and she had not gone to bed, expecting to see the gendarmes appear; her +only idea was to fly to Tournebut and hide herself there with her +daughter; she begged the lawyer to accompany them, and while excitedly +talking, tied a woollen shawl round her head. Lefebre, who was calmer, +told her that he had left Mme. Acquet at Noron in a state of exhaustion, +that they must wait until she was in a condition to travel before +starting, and that it would be impossible to obtain a carriage at this +time of night. But Mme. de Combray would listen to nothing; she gave her +gardener three crowns to go to Noron and tell Mme. Acquet that she must +start immediately for Tournebut by Saint-Sylvain and Lisieux; then +traversing the deserted streets with Lefebre, who stopped at his house +to get the three thousand francs, from the robbery of June 7th, she +reached the Val d'Ante and took the road to Caen.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> +<p>It was very dark; the storm had ceased but the rain still fell heavily. +The old Marquise continued her journey over the flooded roads, defying +fatigue and only stopping occasionally to make sure she was not +followed. Lefebre, now afraid also, hastened his steps beside her, +bending beneath the weight of his portmanteau filled with crowns. +Neither spoke. The endless road was the same one taken by the waggon +containing the Alençon money on the day of the robbery, and the +remembrance of this rendered their wild night march still more tragic.</p> + +<p>It was scarcely dawn when the fugitives crossed the wood of Quesnay; at +Langannerie they left the highroad and crossed by Bretteville-le-Rabet. +It was now broad daylight, barns were opening, and people looked +astonished at this strange couple who seemed to have been walking all +night; the Marquise especially puzzled them, with her hair clinging to +her cheeks, her skirts soaked and her slippers covered with mud. But no +one dared question them.</p> + +<p>At six in the morning Mme. de Combray and her companion arrived at +Saint-Sylvain, five good leagues from Falaise. If Mme. Acquet had +succeeded in leaving Noron they ought to meet her there. Lefebre +enquired at the inn, but no one had been there. They waited for two +hours which the lawyer employed in seeking a waggon to go on to Lisieux. +A peasant agreed to take them for fifteen francs paid in advance, and +about eight o'clock, as Mme. Acquet had not arrived they decided to +start. They stopped at Croissanville a little further on, and while +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>breakfasting, Lefebre wrote to Lanoë telling him to find Mme. Acquet at +once and tell her to hasten to her mother at Tournebut.</p> + +<p>The rest of the journey was uneventful. They reached Lisieux at +supper-time and slept there. The next day Mme. de Combray took two +places under an assumed name, in the coach for Evreux, where they +arrived in the evening. The fugitives had a refuge in the Rue de +l'Union with an old Chouan named Vergne, who had been in orders before +the Revolution, but had become a doctor since the pacification. Next day +Mme. de Combray and Lefebre made five leagues from Evreux to Louviers; +they got out before entering the town as the Marquise wished to avoid +the Hôtel du Mouton where she was known. They went by side streets to +the bridge of the Eure where they hired a carriage which took them by +nightfall to the hamlet of Val-Tesson. They were now only a league from +Tournebut which they could reach by going through the woods. But would +they not find gendarmes there? Mme. de Combray's flight might have +aroused suspicion at Falaise, Caen and Bayeux, and brought police +supervision to her house. It was nine in the evening when, after an +hour's walk, she reached the Hermitage. She thought it prudent to send +Lefebre on ahead, and accompanied him to the gate where she left him to +venture in alone. All appeared tranquil in the château, the lawyer went +into the kitchen where he found a scullery maid who called Soyer, the +confidential man, and Mme. de Combray only felt safe when she saw the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>latter himself come to open a door into the garden; she then slipped, +without being seen, into her own room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE YELLOW HORSE</h3> + + +<p>The man in the "black overcoat" who had conducted the gendarmes on their +visit to Donnay, was no other than "Grand-Charles," one of Allain's +followers. He had been arrested at Le Chalange on July 14th, and had +consented without hesitation, to show the spot in the Buquets' garden +where the money had been hidden. He recognised the position of the house +and garden, the room in which Allain and his companions had been +received on the night of the robbery, and even the glass which Mme. +Buquet had filled for him. At the bottom of the garden traces of the +excavation that had contained the money were found; the loft contained +linen, and other effects of Mme. Acquet; her miniature was hanging on +the wall of Joseph's room. Joseph alone had fled; his father, mother, +and brother were taken to prison in Caen the same ev<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>ening.</p> + +<p>"Grand-Charles," who did not want to be the only one compromised, showed +the greatest zeal in searching for his accomplices. As Querelle had done +before, he led Manginot and his thirty gendarmes over all the country, +until they reached the village of Mancellière, which passed as the most +famous resort of malcontents in a circuit of twenty leagues. As in the +happiest days of the Chouan revolt, there were bloody combats between +the gendarmes and the deserters. After one of these engagements +Pierre-François Harel,—who had passed most of his time since the +Quesnay robbery in a barrel sunk in the earth at the bottom of a +garden—was arrested in the house of a M. Lebougre, where he had gone to +get some brandy and salt to dress a wound. But Manginot made a more +important capture in Flierlé, who was living peacefully at +Amayé-sur-Orne, with one of his old captains, Rouault des Vaux. Flierlé +told his story as soon as he was interrogated; he knew that "high +personages" were in the plot, and thought they would think twice before +pushing things to an issue.</p> + +<p>If Manginot was thus acting with an energy worthy of praise, he received +none from Caffarelli, who was distressed at the turn affairs had taken, +and wished that the affair of Quesnay might be reduced to the +proportions of a simple incident. He interrogated the prisoners with the +reserve and precaution of a man who was interfering in what did not +concern him, and if he learned from Flierlé much that he would rather +not have known about the persistent organisation of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>Chouans in +Calvados, he could get no information concerning the deed that had led +to his arrest.</p> + +<p>The German did not conceal his fear of assassination if he should speak, +Allain having promised, on June 8th, at the bridge of Landelle, "poison, +or pistol shot to the first who should reveal anything, and the +assistance of two hundred determined men to save those who showed +discretion, from the vengeance of Bonaparte."</p> + +<p>Things were different in Paris. The police were working hard, and Fouché +was daily informed of the slightest details bearing on the events that +were taking place in Lower Normandy. For several weeks detectives had +been watching a young man who arrived in Paris the second fortnight of +May; he was often seen in the Palais-Royal, and called himself openly +"General of the Chouans," and assumed great importance. The next report +gave his name as Le Chevalier, from Caen, and more information was +demanded of Caffarelli. The Prefect of Calvados replied that the +description tallied with that of a man who had often been denounced to +him as an incorrigible royalist; he was easy to recognise as he had lost +the use of his left arm:</p> + +<p>The police received orders not to lose sight of this person. He lived at +the Hôtel de Beauvais, Rue des Vieux-Augustins, a house that had been +known since the Revolution as the resort of royalists passing through +Paris. Le Chevalier went out a great deal; he dined in town nearly every +night, with people of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>good position. He was followed for a fortnight; +then the order for his arrest was given, and on July 15th he was taken, +handcuffed, to the prefecture of police and accused of participation in +the robbery at Quesnay.</p> + +<p>Le Chevalier was not the man to be caught napping. His looks, his manner +and his eloquence had got him out of so many scrapes, that he doubted +not they would once more save his life. The letter he wrote to Réal on +the day of his arrest is so characteristic of him—at once familiar and +haughty—that it would be a pity not to quote it:<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Arrested on a suspicion of brigandage, of which it is as important +to justify myself as painful to have to do it, but full of +confidence in my honour, which is unimpeachable, and in the +well-known justice of your character, I beg you to grant me a few +minutes' audience, during which—being well disposed to answer your +questions, and even to forestall them—I flatter myself that I can +convince you that the condition of my affairs and, above all, my +whole conduct in life, raise me above any suspicion of brigandage +whatever. I hope also, Monsieur, that this conversation, the favour +of which your justice will accord me, will convince you that I am +not mad enough to engage in political brigandage, or to engage in a +struggle with the government to which the proudest sovereigns have +yielded....</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">"A. Le Chevalier.</span>"<br /><br /></p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> +<p>And to prove that he had taken no part in the robbery of June 7th, he +added to his letter twenty affirmations of honourable and well-known +persons who had either seen or dined with him in Paris each day of the +month from the 1st to the 20th. Among these were the names of his +compatriot, the poet Chênedollé, and Dr. Dupuytren whom he had consulted +on the advisability of amputating the fingers of his left hand, long +useless. He had even taken care to be seen at the Te Deum sung in +Notre-Dame for the taking of Dantzig. His precautions had been well +taken, and once again his aplomb was about to save him, when Réal, much +embarrassed by this soft spoken prisoner, thought of sending him to +Caen, in the hope that confronting him with Flierlé, Grand-Charles and +the Buquets might have some result. Caffarelli was convinced that Le +Chevalier was the leader in the plot, yet they had searched carefully in +his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur; without finding anything but some +private papers. Flierlé had recognised him as the man to whom he acted +as secretary and courier, yet Le Chevalier had contemptuously replied +that "the German was not the sort to be his servant, and that their only +connection was that of benefactor and recipient." It was out of the +question that any tribunal could be found to condemn a man who on the +day of the crime had been sixty leagues from the place where it was +committed. As to convicting him as a royalist who approved of the theft +of public funds—they might as well do the sa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>me with all Normandy. +Besides, to Caffarelli, who had no allusions as to the sentiments of the +district, and who was always in fear of a new Chouan explosion, the +presence of Le Chevalier in prison at Caen was a perpetual nightmare. +Allain might suddenly appear with an army, and make an attempt to carry +off his chief similar to that which, under the Directory, saved the +lives of the Vicomte de Chambray and Chevalier Destouches, to the +amusement and delight of the whole province. And this is why the prudent +prefect, not caring to encumber himself with such a compromising +prisoner, in four days, obtained Réal's permission to send him back to +Paris, where he was confined in the Temple. Ah! What a fine letter he +wrote to the Chief of Police, as soon as he arrived there, and how he +posed as the unlucky rival of Napoleon!</p> + +<p>This profession of faith is too long to be given entirely, but it throws +such light on the character of the writer, and on the illusions which +the royalists obstinately fostered during the most brilliant period of +the imperial régime, that a few extracts are indispensable.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"You wished to know the truth concerning the declarations of +Flierlé on my account, and on the projects that he divulged. I will +tell you of them. Denial suits well a criminal who fears the eye of +justice, but it is foreign to a character that fears nothing and to +whom the first success of his enterprises lies in the esteem of his +enemies.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Your Excellency will kindly see in me neither a man trembling at +death, nor a mind seduced by the hope of reward. I ask nothing to +tell what I think, for in telling it I satisfy myself. I planned an +insurrection against Napoleon's government, I desired his ruin, if +I have not been able to effect it, it is because I have always been +badly seconded and often betrayed.</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +<p>"What were my means of entertaining at least the hope of success? +Not wishing to appear absolutely mad in your eyes, I am going to +make them known; but not wishing to betray the confidence of those +who would have served me, I shall withhold the details.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"I was born generous, and a lover of glory. After the amnesty of +the year VIII I was the richest among my comrades: my money, well +dispensed, procured me followers. For several years I watched for a +favourable moment to revolt. The last campaign in Austria offered +this occasion. Every one in the West believed in the defection of +the French armies; I did not believe in it, but was going to profit +by the general opinion. Victory came too quickly, and I had hardly +time to plan anything.</p> + +<p>"After having established connections in several departments, I +left for Paris. There, all concurred in fortifying my hopes. Many +republicans shared my wishes; I negotiated with them for a reunion +of parties, to make action more certain and reaction less strong. +The movement must take place in the capital, a provisional +government must be established,—all France would have passed +through a new régime before the Emperor returned.</p> + +<p>"But it did not take me long to discover that the republicans had +not all the means they boasted.... I returned to the royalists in +the capital; they were disunited and without plans. I had only a +few men in Paris; I abandoned my designs there, and returned to the +provinces. There I could collect two or three thousand men, and as +soon as I had done that I should have sent to ask the Bourbon +princes to put themselves at the head <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>of my troops....</p> + +<p>"But at the opening of the second campaign my plans were postponed. +However, the measures I had been obliged to take could not remain +secret. Some refractory conscripts, some deserters, appeared armed, +at different places; they had to be maintained, and without an +order <i>ad hoc</i>, but by virtue of general instructions, one of my +officers possessed himself of the public funds for the purpose.... +The guilty ones are ... myself, for whom I ask nothing, not from +pride, for the haughtiest spirit need not feel humiliated at +receiving grace from one who has granted it to kings, but from +honour. Your Excellency will no doubt wish to know the motive that +urged me to conceive and nourish such projects. The motive is this: +I have seen the unhappiness of the amnestied, and my own +misfortune; people proscribed in the state, classed as serfs, +excluded not only from all employment, but also tyrannised by those +who formerly only lacked the courage to join their cause....</p> + +<p>"Whatever fate is reserved for me, I beg you to consider that I +have not ceased to be a Frenchman, that I may have succumbed to +noble madness, but have not sought cowardly success; and I hope +that, in view of this, your Excellency will grant me the only +favour I ask for myself—that my trial, if I am to have one, may be +military, as well as its execution....</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">"A. Le Chevalier</span>."<br /> +<br /></p></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<p>One can imagine the stupefaction, on reading this missive of Fouché, of +Réal, Desmarets, Veyrat, and of all those on whom it rested to make his +people appear to the Master as enthusiastic and contented, or at least +silent and submissive. They felt that the letter was not all bragging; +they saw in it Georges' plan amplified; the same threat of a descent of +Bourbons on the coast, the same assurance of overturning, by a blow at +Bonaparte, the immense edifice he had erected. In fact, the belief that +the Empire, to which all Europe now seemed subjugated, was at the mercy +of a battle won or lost, was so firmly established in the mind of the +population, that even a man like Fouché, for example, who thoroughly +understood the undercurrents of opinion, could never believe in the +solidity of the régime that he worked for. Were not the germs of the +whole story of the Restoration in Le Chevalier's profession of faith? +Were they not found again, five years later, in the astonishing +conception of Malet? Were things very different in 1814? The Emperor +vanquished, the defection of the generals, the descent of the princes, +the intervention of a provisional government, the reestablishment of the +monarchy, such were, in reality the events that followed; they were what +Georges had foreseen, what d'Aché had anticipated, what Le Chevalier had +divined with such clear-sightedness. Though they seemed miraculous to +many people they were simply the logical result of continued effort, the +success of a conspiracy in which the actors had frequently been changed, +but which had suffe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>red no cessation from the coup d'état of Brumaire +until the abdication at Fontainebleau. The chiefs of the imperial +police, then, found themselves confronted by a new "affaire Georges." +From Flierlé's partial revelations and the little that had been learned +from the Buquets, they inferred that d'Aché was at the head of it, and +recommended all the authorities to search well, but quietly. In spite of +these exhortations, Caffarelli seemed to lose all interest in the plot, +which he had finally analysed as "vast but mad," and unworthy of any +further attention on his part.</p> + +<p>The prefect of the Seine-Inférieure, Savoye-Rollin, had manifested a +zeal and ardour each time that Réal addressed him on the subject of the +affair of Quesnay, in singular contrast with the indifference shown by +his colleague of Calvados. Savoye-Rollin belonged to an old +parliamentary family. Being advocate-general to the parliament of +Grenoble before 1790, he had adopted the more moderate ideas of the +Revolution, and had been made a member of the tribunate on the +eighteenth Brumaire in 1806, at the age of fifty-two, he replaced +Beugnot in the prefecture of Rouen. He was a most worthy functionary, a +distinguished worker, and possessor of a fine fortune.</p> + +<p>Réal left it to Savoye-Rollin to find d'Aché, who, they remembered, had +lived at the farm of Saint-Clair near Gournay, before Georges' +disembarkation, and who possessed some property in the vicinity of +Neufchâtel. The police of Rouen was neith<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>er better organised nor more +numerous than that of Caen, but its chief was a singular personage whose +activity made up for the qualities lacking in his men. He was a little, +restless, shrewd, clever man, full of imagination and wit, frank with +every one and fearing, as he himself said, "neither woman, God nor +devil." He was named Licquet, and in 1807 was fifty-three years old. At +the time of the Revolution he had been keeper of the rivers and forests +of Caudebec, which position he had resigned in 1790 for a post in the +municipal administration at Rouen. In the year IV he was chief of the +Bureau of Public Instruction, but in reality he alone did all the work +of the mayoralty, and also some of that of the Department, and did it so +well that he found himself, in 1802, in the post of secretary-in-chief +of the municipality. In this capacity he gave and inspected all +passports. For five years past no one had been able to travel in the +Seine-Inférieure without going through his office. As he had a good +memory and his business interested him, he had a very clear recollection +of all whom he had scrutinised and passed. He remembered very well +having signed the passport that took d'Aché from Gournay to +Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1803, and retained a good idea of the robust +man, tall, with a high forehead and black hair. He remembered, moreover, +that d'Aché's "toe-nails were so grown into his flesh that he walked on +them."</p> + +<p>Since this meeting with d'Aché, Licquet's appointments had increased +considerably; while retaining his place as secretary-general, he had +obtained the directorship o<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>f police, and fulfilled his functions with so +much energy, authority and cunning that no one dreamt of criticising his +encroachments. He was, besides, much feared for his bitter tongue, but +he pleased the prefect, who liked his wit and appreciated his +cleverness. From the beginning Licquet was fascinated by the idea of +discovering the elusive conspirator and thus demonstrating his +adroitness to the police of Paris; and his satisfaction was profound, +when, on the 17th of August, 1807, three days after having arranged a +plan of campaign and issued instructions to his subordinates, he was +informed that M. d'Aché was confined in the Conciergerie of the Palais +de Justice. He rushed to the Palais and ordered the prisoner to be +brought before him. It was "Tourlour," d'Aché's inoffensive brother +Placide, arrested at Saint Denis-du-Bosguérard, where he had gone to +visit his old mother. Licquet's disappointment was cruel, for he had +nothing to expect from Tourlour; but to hide his chagrin he questioned +him about his brother (whom Placide declared he had not seen for four +years) and how he passed his time, which was spent, said Tourlour, when +he was not in the Rue Saint-Patrice, between Saint-Denis-du-Bosguérard +and Mme. de Combray's château near Gaillon. Placide declared that he +only desired to live in peace, and to care for his aged and infirm +mother. This was the second time Licquet's attention had been attracted +by the name of Mme. de Combray. He had already read it, incidentally, in +the report of Flierlé's examination, and with the instinct of a +detective, for whom a single word will often unravel a whole plot, he +had a sud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>den intuition that in it lay the key to the entire affair. +Tourlour's imprudent admission, which was to bring terrible catastrophes +on Mme. de Combray's head, gave Licquet a thread that was to lead him +through the maze that Caffarelli had refused to enter.</p> + +<p>Nearly a month earlier, Mme. de Combray had expressly forbidden Soyer to +talk about her return with Lefebre. She had shut herself up in her room +with Catherine Querey, her chambermaid; the lawyer had shared +Bonnœil's room. Next day, Tuesday, July 28th, the Marquise had shown +Lefebre the apartments prepared for the King and the hiding-places in +the great château; Bonnœil showed him copies of d'Aché's manifesto, +and the Duc d'Enghien's funeral oration, which they read, with deep +respect, after dinner. Towards evening Soyer announced the postmaster +of Gaillon, a friend who had often rendered valuable services to the +people at Tournebut. He had just heard that the commandant had received +orders from Paris to search the château, and would do so immediately. +Mme. de Combray was not at all disturbed; she had long been prepared for +this, and ordered Soyer to take some provisions to the little château, +where she repaired that night with Lefebre. There were two comfortable +hiding-places there whose mechanism she explained to the lawyer. One of +them was large enough to contain two mattresses side by side; she showed +Lefebre in, slipped after him, and shut the panels upon them both. +Bonnœil remained alone at Tournebu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>t. The quiet life he had led for +the last two years removed him from any suspicion, and he prepared to +receive the gendarmes who appeared at dawn on Friday. The commandant +showed his order, and Bonnœil, confident of the issue, and completely +cool, opened all the doors and gave up the keys. The soldiers rummaged +the château from top to bottom. Nothing could have been more innocent +than the appearance of this great mansion, most of whose apartments +seemed to have been long unoccupied, and Bonnœil stated that his +mother had gone a fortnight ago to Lower Normandy, where she went every +year about this time to collect her rents and visit her property near +Falaise. When the servants were interrogated they were all unanimous in +declaring that with the exception of Soyer and Mlle. Querey, they had +seen the Marquise start for Falaise, and did not know of her return. +The commandant returned to Gaillon with his men, little suspecting that +the woman he was looking for was calmly playing cards with one of her +accomplices a few steps away, while they were searching her house.</p> + +<p>She lived with her guest for eight days in this house with the false +bottom, so to speak, never appearing outside, wandering through the +unfurnished rooms during the day, and returning to her hiding-place at +night.</p> + +<p>They did not return to Tournebut till August 4th. The same day Soyer +received a letter from Mme. Acquet, on the envelope of which she had +written, "For Mama." It was an answer to the letter sent to +Croissanville by Lefebre. Mme. Acquet said that her mother's departure +did her a great wrong, but that all danger was over and Lefebre could +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>return to Falaise without fear. As for herself, she had found refuge +with a reliable person; the Abbé Moraud, vicar of Guibray, would take +charge of her correspondence. Of the proposal which had been made her to +take refuge at Tournebut, not a word. Evidently Mme. Acquet preferred +the retreat she had chosen for herself—where, she did not say. Mme. de +Combray, either hurt at this unjustifiable defiance, or afraid that she +would prove herself an accomplice in the theft if she did not separate +herself entirely from Mme. Acquet, made her maid reply that it was "too +late for her to come now, that she was very ill and could receive no +one." And thus the feeling that divided these two women was clearly +defined.</p> + +<p>Lefebre undertook to give the letter to Abbé Moraud; he was in a great +hurry to return to Falaise, where he felt much safer than at Tournebut. +He left the same day, after having chosen a yellow horse from the +stables of the château. He put on top-boots and an overcoat belonging to +Bonnœil, and left by a little door in the wall of the park. Soyer led +him as far as the Moulin des Quatre-Vents on the highroad. Lefebre took +the Neubourg road so as to avoid Evreux and Louviers. Two days after, he +breakfasted at Glatigny with Lanoë, leaving there his boots, overcoat, +and the yellow horse, and started gaily for Falaise, where he arrived in +the evening. He saw Mme. Acquet on the 7th, and found her completely at +her ease.</p> + +<p>When Lanoë had abandoned h<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>er at the farm of Villeneuve, twelve days +before, Mme. Acquet had entreated so pitifully that a woman who was +there had gone to fetch Collin, one of the servants at La Bijude; Mme. +de Combray's daughter had returned with him to Falaise, on one of the +farmer's horses. She dared not go to the house in the Rue du Tripot, and +therefore stopped with an honest woman named Chauvel, who did the +washing for the Combray family. She was drawn there by the fact that the +son, Victor Chauvel, was one of the gendarmes who had been at Donnay the +night before, and she wanted to find out from him if the Buquets had +denounced her.</p> + +<p>She went to the Chauvels' under pretence of getting Captain Manginot's +address. The gendarme was at supper. He was a man of thirty-six, an old +hussar, and a good fellow, but although married and the father of three +children, known as a "gadder, and fond of the sex." "When women are +around, Chauvel forgets everything," his comrades used to say. He now +saw Mme. Acquet for the first time, and to her questions replied that +her name had indeed been mentioned, and that Manginot, who was at the +"Grand-Ture," was looking for her. The young woman began to cry. She +implored Mme. Chauvel to keep her, promised to pay her, and appealed to +her pity, so that the washerwoman was touched. She had an attic in the +third story, some bedding was thrown on the floor, and from that place +Mme. Acquet wrote to tell her mother that she had found a safe retreat.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> +<p>It was very safe indeed, and one can understand that she did not feel +the need of telling too precisely the conditions of the hospitality she +was given. Is it necessary to insist on the sort of relations +established from the moment of her arrival at the Chauvels, between the +poor woman whose fear of capture killed every other feeling and the +soldier on whom her fate depended? Chauvel had only to say one word to +insure her arrest; she yielded to him, he held his tongue and the +existence which then began for them both was so miserable and so tragic +that it excites more pity than disgust. Mme. Acquet had only one +thought—to escape the scaffold; Chauvel had only one wish—to keep this +unexpected mistress, more dear because he sacrificed for her his career, +his honour and perhaps his life. At first things went calmly enough. No +warrant had been issued for the fugitive, and in the evening she used to +go out disguised with Chauvel. Soon she grew bolder and walked in broad +daylight in the streets of Falaise. On the 15th of August Lefebre had +Lanoë to breakfast and invited her also; they talked freely, and Mme. +Acquet made no secret of the fact that she was living with the Chauvels +and that the son kept her informed of all orders received from Caen or +Paris. Lefebre led the conversation round to the "treasure," for the +money hidden at the Buquets had excited much cupidity. Bureau de +Placène, as "banker" to the Chouans, had advanced the claims of the +royal exchequer; Allain and Lerouge the baker—who showed entire +disinterestedness—had gone to Donnay, and with great trouble got 1,200 +francs from the Buquet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>s; five times Lerouge had gone in a little cart, +by appointment, to the forest of Harcourt, where he waited under a large +tree near the crossroad till Buquet brought him some money. In this way +Placène received 12,000 francs in crowns, "so coated with mud that his +wife was obliged to wash them." But Joseph's relations, who had been +arrested when he fled, swore that he alone knew where the rest of the +money was buried, and no one could get any more of it.</p> + +<p>While at breakfast with the lawyer and Lanoë Mme. Acquet begged the +latter to undertake a search. She believed the money was buried in the +field of buckwheat between the Buquets' house and the walls of the +château, and wanted Lanoë to dig there, but he refused. She seemed to +have lost her head completely. She planned to throw herself at the +Emperor's feet imploring his pardon; she talked of recovering the stolen +money, returning it to the government, adding to it her "dot," and +leaving France forever. When she returned in the evening greatly +excited, she told the washerwoman of her plans; she dwelt on the idea +for three days, and thought she had only to restore the stolen money to +guarantee herself against punishment.</p> + +<p>Chauvel was on duty. When he returned on the 19th he brought some news. +Caffarelli was to arrive in Falaise the next day, to interrogate Mme. +Acquet. The night passed in tears and agony. The poor woman attempted +suicide, and Chauvel seized the poison she was about to swall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>ow. An +obscure point is reached here. Even if Caffarelli's ease and +indifference are admitted, it is hard to believe that he was an active +accomplice in the plot; but on the other hand, it is surprising that +Mme. Acquet did not fly as soon as she heard of his intended visit, and +that she consented to appear before him as if she were sure of finding +help and protection. The interview took place in the house of the mayor, +M. de Saint-Léonard, a relative of Mme. de Combray's, and resembled a +family council rather than an examination. Caffarelli was more paternal +than his rôle of judge warranted, and it was long believed in the family +that Mme. de Combray's remote relationship with the Empress Josephine's +family, which they had been careful not to boast of before, was drawn +upon to soften the susceptible prefect. Whatever the reason, Mme. +Acquet left the mayor's completely reassured, told Mme. Chauvel that she +was going away, and took many messages from the good woman to Mme. de +Combray, with whom she said she was going to spend several days at +Tournebut. On the 22d she made a bundle of her belongings, and taking +the arm of the gendarme, left the washerwoman's house disguised as a +peasant.</p> + +<p>Life at Tournebut resumed its usual course after Lefebre's departure. +Mme. de Combray, satisfied that her daughter was safe, and that the +prefect of Calvados even if he suspected her, would never venture to +cause her arrest, went fearlessly among her neighbours. She was not +aware that the enquiry had passed from Caffarelli's hands into those of +the prefect of Rouen, and w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>as now managed by a man whose malignity and +stubbornness would not be easily discouraged.</p> + +<p>Licquet had taken a fortnight to study the affair. His only clues were +Flierlé's ambiguous replies and the Buquets' cautious confessions, but +during the years that he had eagerly devoted to detective work as an +amateur, he had laid up a good store of suspicions. The failure of the +gendarmes at Tournebut had convinced him that this old manor-house, so +peaceful of aspect, hid terrible secrets, and that its occupants had +arranged within it inaccessible retreats. Then he changed his tactics. +Mme. de Combray and Bonnœil had gone in perfect confidence to spend +the afternoon at Gaillon; when they returned to Tournebut in the evening +they were suddenly stopped by a detachment of gendarmes posted across +the road. They were obliged to give their names; the officer showed a +warrant, and they all returned to the château, which was occupied by +soldiers. The Marquise protested indignantly against the invasion of her +house, but was forced to be present at a search that was begun +immediately and lasted all the evening. Towards midnight she and her son +were put into a carriage with two gendarmes and taken under escort to +Rouen, where, at dawn, they were thrown into the Conciergerie of the +Palais de Justice.</p> + +<p>Licquet was only half satisfied with the result of the expedition; he +had hoped to take d'Aché, whom he believed to be hidden at Tournebut; +the police had arrested Mme. Levasseur and Jean-Baptiste Caqueray, +lately married to Louise d'Aché; but of the con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>spirator himself there +was no trace. For three years this extraordinary man had eluded the +police. Was it to be believed that he had lived all this time, buried in +some oubliette at Tournebut, and could one expect that Mme. de Combray +would reveal the secret of his retreat?</p> + +<p>As soon as she arrived at the Conciergerie, Licquet, without showing +himself, had gone to "study" his prisoner. Like an old, caged lioness, +this woman of sixty-seven behaved with surprising energy; she showed no +evidence of depression or shame; she did as she liked in the prison, +complained of the food, grumbled all day, and raged at the gaolers. +There was no reason to hope that she would belie her character, nor to +count on an emotion she did not feel to obtain any information from +her. The prefect had her brought in a carriage to his house on August +23d, and interrogated her for two days. With the experience and +astuteness of an old offender, the Marquise assumed complete frankness; +but she only confessed to things she could not deny with success. +Licquet asked several questions; she did not reply until she had caused +them to be repeated several times, under pretence that she did not +understand them. She struggled desperately, arguing, quibbling, fighting +foot by foot. If she admitted knowing d'Aché and having frequently +offered him hospitality, she positively denied all knowledge of his +actual residence. In short, when Savoye-Rollin and Licquet sent her back +to the Conciergerie, they felt that they had had the worst of it and +gained nothing. Bonnœil, when his turn came told the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>m nothing but +what they already knew, and Placide d'Aché flew into a rage and denied +everything.</p> + +<p>The prefect and his acolyte were feeling somewhat abashed at their +failure, when the concierge who had taken Mme. de Combray back to the +Palais asked to speak to them. He told them that in the carriage the +Marquise had offered him a large sum if he would take some letters to +one of the prisoners. Accustomed to these requests he had said neither +yes nor no, but had told "the Combray woman" that he would see her at +night, when going the rounds, and he had come to get the prefect's +orders concerning this correspondence. Licquet urged that the concierge +be authorised to receive the letters. He hoped by intercepting them to +learn much from the confidences and advice the Marquise would give her +fellow-prisoners. The idea was at first very repugnant to Savoye-Rollin, +but the Marquise's proposal seemed to establish her guilt so thoroughly, +that he did not feel obliged to be delicate and consented, not without +throwing on his secretary-general (one of Licquet's titles) the +responsibility for the proceeding. Having obtained this concession +Licquet took hold of the enquiry, and found it a good field for the +employment of his particular talents. No duel was ever more pitiless; +never did a detective show more ingenuity and duplicity. From "love of +the art," from sheer delight in it, Licquet worked himself up against +his prisoners with a passion that would be inexplicable, did not his +letters reveal t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>he intense joy the struggle gave him. He felt no hatred +towards his victims, but only a ferocious satisfaction in seeing them +fall into the traps he prepared and in unveiling the mysteries of a plot +whose political significance seemed entirely indifferent to him.</p> + +<p>With the keenest anticipation he awaited the time when Mme. de Combray's +letters to Bonnœil and "Tourlour" should be handed to him. He had to +be patient till next day, and this first letter told nothing; the +Marquise gave her accomplices a sketch of her examination, and did it so +artfully that Licquet suspected her of having known that the letter was +to pass through his hands. The same day the concierge gave him another +letter as insignificant as the first, which, however, ended with this +sentence, whose perusal puzzled Licquet: "Do you not know that +Tourlour's brother has burnt the muslin fichu?"</p> + +<p>"Tourlour's brother"—that was d'Aché. Had he recently returned to +Tournebut? Was he still there? Another letter, given to the gaoler by +Bonnœil, answered these questions affirmatively. It was addressed to +a man of business named Legrand in the Rue Cauchoise, and ran thus: "I +implore you to start at once for Tournebut without telling any one of +the object of your journey; go to Grosmenil (the little château), see +the woman Bachelet, and burn everything she may have that seems +suspicious; you will do us a great service. Return this letter to me. +Tell Soyer that if any one asks if M. d'Aché has returned, it is two +years since he was seen at Tournebut."</p> + +<p>That same evening the order for Soyer's arrest was se<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>nt to Gaillon, and +twelve hours later he also was in the Conciergerie at Rouen. This did +not prevent Bonnœil's writing to him the next day, Licquet, as may be +imagined, not having informed the prisoners of his arrest.</p> + +<p>"I beg you, my dear Soyer, to look in the two or three desks in my +mother's room, and see if you cannot find anything that could compromise +her, above all any of M. Delorières' (d'Aché's) writing. Destroy it all. +If you are asked how long it is since M. Delorières was at Tournebut, +say he has not been there for nearly two years. Tell this to Collin, to +Catin, and to the yard girl...."</p> + +<p>Licquet carefully copied these letters and then sent them to their +destination, hoping that the answers would give him some light. In his +frequent visits to the prisoners he dared not venture on the slightest +allusion to the confidences they exchanged, for fear that they might +suspect the fidelity of their messenger, and refuse his help. Thus, many +points remained obscure to the detective. The next letter from +Bonnœil to Soyer contained this sentence: "Put the small curtains on +the window of the place where I told you to bury the nail...." We can +imagine Licquet with his head in his hands trying to solve this enigma. +The muslin fichu, the little curtains, the nail—was this a cipher +decided on in advance between the prisoners? And all these precautions +seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> be taken for the mysterious d'Aché whose safety seemed to be +their sole desire. A word from Mme. de Combray to Bonnœil leaves no +doubt as to the conspirator's recent sojourn at Tournebut: "I wish Mme. +K.... to go to my house and see with So ... if Delor ... has not left +some paper in the oil-cloth of the little room near the room where the +cooks slept. Let him look everywhere and burn everything." This time the +information seemed so sure that Licquet started for Tournebut, which had +been occupied by gendarmes for a fortnight; he took Soyer to guide him, +and the commissary of police, Legendre, to make a report of the search.</p> + +<p>They arrived at Tournebut on the morning of September 5th. Licquet, who +was much exhilarated by this hunt for conspirators, must have felt a +singular emotion on approaching the mysterious mansion, object of all +his thoughts. He took it all in at a glance, he was struck by the +isolation of the château, away from the road below the woods; he found +that it could be entered at twenty different places, without one's being +seen. He sent away the servants, posted a gendarme at each door, and +conducted by Soyer, entered the apartments.</p> + +<p>First he went to the brick wing built by de Marillac, where was a vast +chamber occupied by Bonnœil and leading to the great hall, +astoundingly high and solemn in spite of its dilapidation, with a brick +floor, a ceiling with great beams, and immense windows looking over the +terrace towards the Seine. By a double door with monumental ironwork, +set in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> wall as thick as a bastille, Mme. de Combray's apartments were +reached, the first room wainscoted, then a boudoir, next a small room +hidden by a staircase, and communicating with a lot of other small, low +rooms. A long passage, lighted by three windows opening on the terrace, +led, leaving the Marquise's bedchamber on the right, to the most ancient +part of the château the front of which had been recently restored. +Having crossed the landing of the steps leading to the garden, one +reached the salon; then the dining-room, where there was a stone +staircase leading to the first floor. On this were a long passage and +three chambers looking out on the valley of the Seine, and a lot of +small rooms that were not used. All the rest was lofts, where the +framework of the roofs crossed. When a door was opened, frightened bats +flapped their wings with a great noise in the darkness of this forest +of enormous, worm-eaten beams. In fact, everything looked very simple; +there was no sign whatever of a hiding-place. The furniture was opened, +the walls sounded, and the panels examined without finding any hollow +place. It was now Soyer's turn to appear. Whether he feared for himself, +or whether Licquet had made him understand that denial was useless, Mme. +de Combray's confidential man consented to guide the detectives. He took +a bunch of keys and followed by Licquet and Legendre, went up to a +little room under the roof of a narrow building next to Marillac's wing. +This room had only one window, on the north, with a bit of green stuff +for a curtain; its only fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>niture was a miserable wooden bed drawn into +the middle of the room. Licquet and the commissary examined the +partitions and had them sounded. Soyer allowed them to rummage in all +the corners, then, when they had given up all idea of finding anything +themselves, he went up to the bed, put his hand under the mattress and +removed a nail. They immediately heard the fall of a weight behind the +wall, which opened, disclosing a chamber large enough to hold fifteen +persons. In it were a wooden bench, a large chafing-dish, silver +candlesticks, a trunk full of papers and letters, two packets of hair of +different colours, and some treatises on games. They seized among other +things, the funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, copied by Placide, and +the passport d'Aché had obtained at Rouen in 1803, which was signed by +Licquet. When they had put everything in a bag and closed the +partition, when they had sufficiently admired the mechanism which left +no crack or opening visible, Soyer, still followed by two policemen, +went over the whole château, climbed to the loft, and stopped at last in +a little room at the end of the building. It was full of soiled linen +hung on ropes; a thick beam was fixed almost level with the ground, the +whole length of the wall embellished with shelves supported by brackets. +Soyer thrust his hand into a small, worm-eaten hole in the beam, and +drawing out a piece of iron, fitted it on a nail that seemed to be +driven into one of the brackets. Instantly the shelves folded up, a door +opened in the wall, and they entered a room large enough to hold fifty +people with ease. A window—impossible to discover from the +outside—opened on the roof of the chapel, and gave light and air to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>this apartment; it contained only a large wardrobe, in which were an +earthen dish and an altar stone.</p> + +<p>And so this old manor-house, with its venerable and homelike air, was +arranged as a resort for brigands, and an arsenal and retreat for a +little army of conspirators. For Soyer also revealed the secrets of the +<i>oubliettes</i> of the little château, whose unfurnished rooms could +shelter a considerable garrison; they only found there three trunks full +of silver, marked with so many different arms that Licquet believed it +must have come from the many thefts perpetrated during the last fifteen +years in the neighbourhood. On examination it proved to be nothing of +the sort, but that all these different pieces of silver bore the arms +of branches of the families of Brunelle and Combray; but even though he +was obliged to withdraw his first supposition, Licquet was firm in +attributing to the owners of Tournebut all the misdeeds that had been +committed in the region since the Directory. These perfect +hiding-places, this château on the banks of the river, in the woods +between two roads, like the rocky nests in which the robber-chiefs of +the middle ages fortified themselves, explained so well the attacks on +the coaches, the bands of brigands who disappeared suddenly, and +remained undiscoverable, that the detective gave free rein to his +imagination. He persuaded himself that d'Aché was there, buried in some +hollow wall of which even Soyer had not the secret, and as the only +hope, in this event, was to starve him out, Licquet sent all of Mme. de +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>Combray's servants away, and left a handful of soldiers in the château, +the keys of which, as well as the administration of the property, he +left in the hands of the mayor of Aubevoye.</p> + +<p>His first thought on returning to Rouen was for his prisoners. They had +continued to correspond during his absence, and copies of all their +letters were faithfully delivered to him; but they seemed to have told +each other all they had that was interesting to tell, and the +correspondence threatened to become monotonous. The imagination of the +detective found a way of reawakening the interest. One evening, when +every one was asleep in the prison, Licquet gave the gaoler orders to +open several doors hastily, to push bolts, and walk about noisily in the +corridors, and when, next day, Mme. de Combray enquired the cause of +all this hubbub, she was easily induced to believe that Lefebre had been +arrested at Falaise and imprisoned during the night. An hour later the +concierge, with a great show of secrecy, gave the Marquise a note +written by Licquet, in which "Lefebre" informed her of his arrest, and +said that he had disguised his writing as an act of prudence. The +stratagem was entirely successful. Mme. de Combray answered, and her +letter was immediately given to Licquet, who, awaiting some definite +information, was astonished to find himself confronted with a fresh +mystery. "Let me know," said the Marquise, "how the horse went back; +that no one saw it anywhere."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> +<p>What horse? What answer should he give? If Lefebre had been really in +prison, it would have been possible to give a sensible reply, but +without his help how could Licquet avoid awakening her suspicions as to +the personality of her correspondent? In the rôle of the lawyer he wrote +a few lines, avoiding any mention of the horse, and asking how the +examinations went off. To this the Marquise replied: "The prefect and a +bad fellow examined us. But you do not tell me if the horse has been +sent back, and by whom. If they asked me, what should I say?"</p> + +<p>The "bad fellow" was Licquet himself, and he knew it; but this time he +must answer. Hoping that chance would favour him, he adopted an +expedient to gain time. He let Mme. de Combray hear that Lefebre had +fainted during an examination, and was not in a condition to write. But +she did not slacken her correspondence, and wrote several letters daily +to the lawyer, which greatly increased Licquet's perplexity:</p> + +<p>"Tell me what has become of my yellow horse. The police are still at +Tournebut; now if they hear about the horse—you can guess the rest. Be +smart enough to say that you sold it at the fair at Rouen. Little +Licquet is sharp and clever, but he often lies. My only worry is the +horse; they will soon have the clue. My hand trembles; can you read +this? If I hear anything about the horse I will let you know at once, +but just now I know nothing. Don't worry about the saddle and bridle. +They were sent to Deslorières, who told me he h<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>ad received them."</p> + +<p>This yellow horse assumed gigantic proportions in Licquet's imagination; +it haunted him day and night, and galloped through all his nightmares. A +fresh search at Tournebut proved that the stables contained only a small +donkey and four horses, instead of the usual five, and the peasants said +that the missing beast was "reddish, inclining to yellow." As the +detective sent Réal all of Mme. de Combray's letters in his daily +budget, they were just as much agitated in Paris over this mysterious +animal, whose discovery was, as the Marquise said, the clue to the whole +affair. Whom had this horse drawn or carried? One of the Bourbon +princes, perhaps? D'Aché? Mme. Acquet, whom they were vainly seeking +throughout Normandy? Licquet was obliged to confess to his chiefs that +he did not know to what occurrence the story of the horse referred. He +felt that the weight attached by Mme. de Combray to its return, +increased the importance of knowing what it had been used for. "This is +the main point," he said; "the horse, the saddle and bridle must be +found."</p> + +<p>In the absence of Lefebre, who could have solved the enigma, and whom +Caffarelli had not decided to arrest, there remained one way of +discovering Mme. de Combray's secret—an odious way, it is true, but one +that Licquet, in his bewilderment, did not hesitate to employ. This was +to put a spy with her, who would make her speak. There was in the +Conciergerie at Rouen a woman nam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>ed Delaitre, who had been there for six +years. This woman was employed in the infirmary; she had good enough +manners, expressed herself well, and was about the same age as Mme. +Acquet. It was easy to believe that, in return for some remission of her +sentence, she would act as Licquet's spy. They spoke of her to the +Marquise, taking care to represent her as a royalist, persecuted for her +opinions. The Marquise expressed a wish to see her; Delaitre played her +part to perfection, saying that she had been educated with Mme. Acquet +at the convent of the Nouvelles Catholique, and that she felt honoured +in sharing the prison of the mother of her old school friend. In short, +that evening she was in a position to betray the Marquise's confidence +to Licquet. She had learned that Mme. Acquet had assisted at many of the +attacks on coaches, dressed as a man. Mme. de Combray dreaded nothing +more than to have her daughter fall into the hands of the police. "If +she is taken," she said, "she will accuse me." The Marquise was resigned +to her fate; she knew she was destined for the scaffold; "after all, the +King and the Queen had perished on the guillotine, and she would die +there also." However, she was anxious to know if she could be saved by +paying a large sum; but not a word was said about the yellow horse.</p> + +<p>The next day she again wrote of the fear she felt for her daughter; she +would have liked to warn her to disguise herself and go as a servant ten +or twelve leagues from Falaise. "If she is arrested she will speak, and +then I am lost," sh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>e continued; so that Licquet came to the conclusion +that the reason the Marquise did not want the yellow horse to be found +was that it would lead to the discovery of her daughter. Mme. Acquet had +so successfully disappeared during the last two weeks that Réal was +convinced she had escaped to England. Nothing could be done without +d'Aché or Mme. Acquet. The failure of the pursuit, showing the organised +strength of the royalist party and the powerlessness of the government, +would justify Caffarelli's indolent neutrality. On the other hand, +Licquet knew that failure spelled ruin for him. He had made the affair +his business; his prefect, Savoye-Rollin, was very half-hearted about +it, and quite ready to stop all proceedings at the slightest hitch. Réal +was even preparing to sacrifice his subordinate if need be, and to the +amiable letters at first received from the ministry of police, +succeeded curt orders that implied disfavour. "It is indispensable to +find Mme. Acquet's retreat." "You must arrest d'Aché without delay, and +above all find the yellow horse."</p> + +<p>As if the Marquise were enjoying the confusion into which the mention of +this phantom beast threw her persecutor, she continued to scribble on +scraps of paper which the concierge was told to take to the lawyer, who +never received them.</p> + +<p>"There is one great difficulty; the yellow horse is wanted. I shall send +a safe and intelligent man to the place where it is, to tell the people +to have it killed twelve leagues away and skinned at once. Send me in +writing the road he must take, and the people to whom he must apply, so +as to be able to do it wit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>hout asking anything. He is strong and able to +do fifteen leagues a day. Send me an answer."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray had applied to the woman Delaitre for this "safe and +intelligent man," and the latter had, at Licquet's instance, offered the +services of her husband, an honest royalist, who in reality did not +exist, but was to be personated by a man whom Licquet had ready to send +in search of the horse as soon as its whereabouts should be determined. +Lefebre refused to answer this question for the same reason that he had +refused to answer others, and the detective was obliged to confess his +perplexity to Réal. "There is no longer any trouble in intercepting the +prisoner's letters; the difficulty of sending replies increases each +day. You must give me absolution, Monsieur, for all the sins that this +affair has caused me to commit; for the rest, all is fair in love and +war, and surely we are at war with these people." To which Réal replied: +"I cannot believe that the horse only served for Mme. Acquet's flight; +they would not advise the strange precaution of taking it twelve leagues +away, killing, and skinning it on the spot. These anxieties show the +existence of some grave offence, for which the horse was employed, and +which its discovery will disclose. You must find out the history of this +animal; how long Mme. de Combray has had it, and who owned it before." +In vain Licquet protested that he had exhausted his supply of inventions +and ruses; the invariable reply was, "Find the yellow horse!"</p> + +<p>He cursed his o<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>wn zeal; but an unexpected event renewed his confidence +and energy. Lefebre, who was arrested early in September, had just been +thrown into the Conciergerie at Rouen. This new card, if well played, +would set everything right. It was easy to induce Mme. de Combray to +write another letter insisting once more on knowing "the exact address +of the horse," and the lawyer at last answered unsuspectingly, "With +Lanoë at Glatigny, near Bretteville-sur-Dives."</p> + +<p>With Lanoë! Why had Licquet never guessed it! This name, indeed, so +often mentioned in the declarations of the prisoners, had made no +impression on him. Mme. Acquet was hidden there without doubt, and he +triumphantly sent off an express to Réal announcing the good news, and +sent two sharp men to Glatigny at the same time. They left Rouen on +September 15th, and time lagged for Licquet while awaiting their return. +Three days, five days, ten days passed without any news of them. In his +impatience he spent his time worrying Lefebre. A continuous +correspondence was established between him and Mme. de Combray; but in +his letters, as in his examination, he showed great mistrust, and +Licquet even began to fear that the prudent lawyer would not have told +where the yellow horse was, if he had not been sure that the hunt for it +would be fruitless. And so the detective, who had played his last card, +was in an agony during the two weeks' absence of his men. At last they +returned, discomfited and weary, leading the foundered yellow horse, and +accompanied by a sort of colossus, "somewhat resembling a grenadier," +who was no other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> than Lanoë's wife.</p> + +<p>The story told by Licquet's emissaries was as short as it was delusive. +On arriving at Bretteville-sur-Dives they had gone to the farm of +Glatigny, but had not found Lanoë, whom Caffarelli had arrested a +fortnight before. His wife had received them, and after their first +enquiry had led them to the famous horse's stable, enchanted at being +relieved of the famished beast who consumed all her fodder. The men had +gone as far as Caen, and obtained the prefect's authorisation to speak +to Lanoë. The latter remembered that Lefebre had left the horse with him +at the end of July, on returning from Tournebut, but he denied all +knowledge of Mme. Acquet's retreat. If he was to be believed, she was "a +prisoner of her family," and would never be found, as the whole country +round Falaise was "sold" to the mayor, M. de Saint-Léonard, who had +declared himself his cousin's protector.</p> + +<p>Lanoë's wife was sent back to Glatigny, but the horse was kept at +Rouen—apparently in the hope that this dumb witness would bring some +revelation. Licquet even cut off some of its hairs and sent them, +carefully wrapped up, to Mme. de Combray, implying that they came from +the faithful Delaitre, to whom the Marquise had confided the task of +disposing of the compromising animal. The same evening the Marquise, +completely reassured, wrote the following note to the lawyer:</p> + +<p>"You see that my commissioner was speedy. I have had certain proof. He +went to Lanoë<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>'s wife, found the horse, got on it, went five or six +leagues, killed it, and brought away the skin. He brought me some of its +coat, and I send you half, so that you may see the truth for yourself, +and so have no fear. I am going to write to Soyer to say that he sold +the horse at Guibray for 350 livres."</p> + +<p>In her joy at being delivered from her nightmare, she wrote the same day +to Colas, her groom, who was also in the Conciergerie: "Do not worry: do +you need money? I will send you twelve francs. The cursed horse! They +have sent me some of its skin, which I send for recognition. Burn this." +And to her chambermaid, Catherine Querey: "The horse is killed. My agent +skinned and burnt it. If you are asked about the missing horse, say that +it was sold. My miserable daughter gives me a great deal of pain."</p> + +<p>Thus ends the story of the yellow horse. It finished its mysterious +odyssey in the stables of Savoye-Rollin, where Licquet often visited it, +as if he could thus learn its secret. For a doubt remained, and Réal's +suggestion haunted him: "If the horse had only served for Mme. Acquet's +flight, they would not advise the strange precaution of taking it twelve +leagues away, killing, and skinning it on the spot." Even now a great +deal of mystery hangs about it. The horse had not been used by Mme. +Acquet, because we know that since the robbery of June 7th, she had not +left the neighbourhood of Falaise. Lefebre had ridden it from Tournebut; +but was that a fact to be so carefully concealed? Why did the Marquise +in her confidentia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>l letters insist on this point? "Say that the lawyer +returned to his house on foot," is a sentence that we find in each of +her letters. Since no mystery was made of the journey, why was its means +of accomplishment important?</p> + +<p>There was something unexplained, and Licquet was not satisfied. His +tricks had brought no result. D'Aché was not found; Mme. Acquet had +disappeared; her description had in vain been sent to all the brigades. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>Manginot, in despair of finding her, had renounced the search, and +Savoye-Rollin himself was "determined to suspend all action." Such was +the situation during the last days of September. It seemed most probable +that the affair of Quesnay and the great plot of which it was an +off-shoot, were going to join many others of the same kind, whose +originators Fouché's police had despaired of finding, when an unexpected +event reawakened Licquet's fervour and suggested to him a new +machination.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>MADAME ACQUET</h3> + + +<p>Seclusion, isolation and trouble had in no way softened the Marquise de +Combray's harsh nature. From the very first day, this woman, accustomed +to living in a château, had accommodated herself to the life of a +prisoner without abating anything of her haughty and despotic character. +Her very illusions remained intact. She imagined that from her cell she +still directed her c<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>onfederates and agents, whom she considered one and +all as servants, never suspecting that the permission to write letters, +of which she made such bad use, was only a trap set for her ingenuous +vanity. In less than a month she had written more than a hundred letters +to her fellow-prisoners, which all passed through Licquet's hands. To +one she dictated the answers he was to give, to another she counselled +silence,—setting herself up to be an absolute judge of what they ought +to say or to hold back, being quite unable to imagine that any of these +unhappy people might prefer life to the pleasure of obeying her. She +would have treated as a liar any one, be he who he might, who affirmed +that all her accomplices had deserted her, that Soyer had hastened to +disclose the secret hiding-places at Tournebut, that Mlle. Querey had +told all about what she had seen, that Lanoë pestered Caffarelli with +his incessant revelations, and that Lefebre, whom nothing but prudence +kept silent, was very near telling all he knew to save his own head.</p> + +<p>The Marquise was ignorant of all these defections. Licquet had created +such an artificial atmosphere around her that she lived under the +delusion that she was as important as before. Convinced that nobody was +her equal in finesse and authority, she considered the detective +sufficiently clever to deal with a person of humble position, but +believed that as soon as she cared to trouble herself to bring it about, +he would become entirely devoted to her. And Licquet, with his almost +genial skilfulness, so easily fathomed the Marquise's proud soul—was +such a perfect actor in the way he stood before her, spoke to her, and +looked a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>t her with an air of submissive admiration,—that it was no +wonder she thought he was ready to serve her; and as she was not the +sort of woman to use any discretion with a man of his class, she +immediately despatched the turnkey to offer him the sum of 12,000 +francs, half down, if he would consent to promote her interests. Licquet +appeared very grateful, very much honoured, accepted the money, which he +put in the coffers of the prefecture, and the very same day read a +letter in which Mme. de Combray informed her accomplices of the great +news: "We have the little secretary under our thumb."</p> + +<p>Ah! what great talks Licquet and the prisoner had, now they had become +friends. From the very first conversation he satisfied himself that she +did not know Mme. Acquet's hiding-place; but the lawyer Lefebre, who +had at last ceased to be dumb, had not concealed the fact that it might +be learned through a laundress at Falaise named Mme. Chauvel, and +Licquet immediately informed Mme. de Combray of this fact and +represented to her, in a friendly manner, the danger in which her +daughter's arrest would involve her, and insinuated that the only hope +of security lay in the escape to England of Mme. Acquet, "on whose head +the government had set a price."</p> + +<p>The idea pleased the Marquise; but who would undertake to discover the +fugitive and arrange for her embarcation? Whom dared she trust, in her +desperate situation? Licquet seemed the very one; he, however, excused +himsel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>f, saying that a faithful man, carrying a letter from Mme. de +Combray, would do as well, and the Marquise never doubted that her +daughter would blindly follow her advice—supported by a sufficient sum +of money to live abroad while awaiting better days. It remained to find +the faithful man. The Marquise only knew of one, who, quite recently, at +her request, had consented to go and look for the yellow horse, which he +had killed and skinned, and who, she said, had acquitted himself so +cleverly of his mission. She was never tired of praising this worthy +fellow, who only existed, as every one knew, in her own imagination; she +admitted that she did not know him personally, but had corresponded with +him through the medium of the woman Delaitre, who had been placed near +her; but she knew that he was the woman's husband, captain of a boat at +Saint Valery-en-Caux, and, in addition, a relation of poor Raoul +Gaillard, whom the Marquise remembered even in her own troubles.</p> + +<p>Licquet listened quite seriously while his victim detailed the history +of this fictitious person whom he himself had invented; he assured her +that the choice was a wise one, for he had known Delaitre for a long +time as a man whose loyalty was beyond all doubt. As there could be no +question of introducing him into the prison, Licquet kindly undertook to +acquaint him with the service expected of him, and to give him the three +letters which Mme. de Combray was to write immediately. The first, which +was very confidential, was addressed to the good Delaitre himself; the +second was to be handed, at the moment of going on board, to Maugé, a +lawyer at Valery, who was to provide the necessary money for the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>fugitive's existence in England; the third accredited Delaitre to Mme. +Acquet. The Marquise ordered her daughter to follow the honest Captain, +whom she represented as a tried friend; she begged her, in her own +interest and that of all their friends, to leave the country without +losing a day; and she concluded by saying that in the event of her +obeying immediately, she would provide generously for all her wants; +then she signed and handed the three letters to Licquet, overwhelming +him with protestations of gratitude.</p> + +<p>All the detective had to do was to procure a false Delaitre, since the +real did not exist. They selected an intelligent man, of suitable +bearing, and making out a detailed passport, despatched him to Falaise, +armed with the Marquise's letters, to have an interview with the +laundress. Five days later he returned to Rouen. The Chauvels, on seeing +Mme. de Combray's letters, quite unsuspectingly gave the messenger a +warm welcome. The gendarme, however, did not approve of the idea of +crossing to England. Mme. Acquet, he said, was very well hidden in Caen, +and nobody suspected where she was. What was the use of exposing her to +the risk of embarking at a well watched port. But as Delaitre insisted, +saying that he had a commission from Mme. de Combray which he must carry +out, Chauvel, whose duty kept him at Falaise, arranged to meet the +Captain at Caen on the 2d of October. He wished to present him himself +to Mme. Acquet, and to help his mistress in this matter on which her +future depended. Thus it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> that on the 1st of October, Licquet, now +sure of success, put the false Captain Delaitre in the coach leaving for +Caen, having given him as assistants, a nephew of the same name and a +servant, both carefully chosen from amongst the wiliest of his +assistants. The next day the three spies got out at the Hôtel du Pare in +the Faubourg de Vaucelles at Caen, which Chauvel had fixed as the +meeting-place, and whither he had promised to bring Mme. Acquet.</p> + +<p>Six weeks previously, when quitting Falaise on the 23d August, after the +examination to which Caffarelli had subjected her, Mme. Acquet, still +ignorant of her mother's arrest, had proposed going to Tournebut, in +order to hide there for some time before starting for Paris, where she +hoped to find Le Chevalier. She had with her her third daughter, +Céline, a child of six years, whom she counted on getting rid of by +placing her at the school kept at Rouen by the ladies Dusaussay, where +the two elder girls already were. They were accompanied by Chauvel's +sister, a woman named Normand.</p> + +<p>She went first to Caen where she was to take the diligence, and lodged +with Bessin at the Coupe d'Or in the Rue Saint-Pierre. Chauvel came +there the following day to say good-bye to his friend and they dined +together. While they were at table, a man, whom the gendarme did not +know, entered the room and said a few words to Mme. Acquet, who went +into the adjoining room with him. It was Lemarchand, the innkeeper at +Louvigny, Allain's host and friend. Chauvel grew anxious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> at this private +conversation, and seeing the time of the diligence was approaching, +opened the door and warned Mme. Acquet that she must get ready to start. +To his great surprise, she replied that she was no longer going, as +important interests detained her in Caen. She begged him to escort the +woman Normand and the little girl to the coach, and gave him the address +of a lawyer in Rouen with whom the child could be left. The gendarme +obeyed, and when he went back to the Coupe d'Or an hour later, his +mistress had left. He returned sadly to Falaise.</p> + +<p>Lemarchand, who had been informed of Mme. Acquet's journey, came to tell +her, from Allain, that "a lodging had been found for her where she would +be secure, and that, if she did not wish to go, she had only to come to +the Promenade Saint-Julien at nightfall, and some one would meet her and +escort her to her new hiding-place." It may well be that a threat of +denouncing her, if she left the country, was added to this obliging +offer. At any rate she was made to defer her journey. Towards ten +o'clock at night, according to Lemarchand's advice, she reached the +Promenade Saint-Julien alone, walked up and down under the trees for +some time, and seeing two men seated on a bench, she went and sat down +beside them. At first they eyed each other without saying a word; at +last, one of the strangers asked her if she were not waiting for some +one. Upon her answering in the affirmative they conferred for a moment, +and then gave their names. They were the lawyer Vannier and Bureau de +Placène, two intimate friends of Le Ch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>evalier's. Mme. Acquet, in her +turn, mentioned her name, and Vannier offering her his arm, escorted her +to his house in the Rue Saint-Martin.</p> + +<p>They held a council next day at breakfast. Lemarchand, Vannier, and +Bureau de Placène appeared very anxious to keep Mme. Acquet. She was, +they said, sure of not being punished as long as she did not quit the +department of Calvados. Neither the prefect nor the magistrates would +trouble to enquire into the affair, and all the gentry of Lower Normandy +had declared for the family of Combray, which was, moreover, connected +with all the nobility in the district. Such were the ostensible reasons +which the three confederates put forth, their real reason was only a +question of money. They imagined that Mme. Acquet had the free disposal +of the treasure buried at the Buquets, which amounted to more than +40,000 francs. Finding her ready to rejoin Le Chevalier, and persuaded +that she would carry the remainder of this stolen money to her lover, +they thought it well to stop her and the money, to which they believed +they had a right—Lemarchand as Allain's friend and creditor, Placène in +his capacity of cashier to the Chouans. The lawyer Vannier, as +liquidator of Le Chevalier's debts, had offered to keep Mme. Acquet +prisoner until they had succeeded in extorting the whole sum from her.</p> + +<p>The life led by the unhappy woman at Vannier's, where she was a prey to +this trio of scoundrels, was a purgatory of humiliations and misery. +When the lawyer understood that not only did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>his prisoner not possess a +single sou, but that she could not dispose of the Buquets' treasure, he +flew into a violent passion and plainly threatened to give her up to the +police; he even reproached her "for what she eat," swearing that somehow +or other "he would make her pay board, for he certainly was not going to +feed her free of cost." The unhappy woman, who had spent her last louis +in paying for the seat in the Rouen diligence, which she had not +occupied, wrote to Lefebre early in September, begging him to send her a +little money. He had received a large share of the plunder and might at +least have shown himself generous; but he replied coolly that he could +do nothing for her; and that she had better apply to Joseph Buquet.</p> + +<p>This was exactly what they wished her to do. Vannier himself brutally +advised her to try going to Donnay, even at the risk of being arrested, +in order to bring back some money from there; and Lemarchand, rather +than lose sight of her, resolved to accompany her.</p> + +<p>Mme. Acquet, worn out and reduced to a state of subjection, consented to +everything that was demanded of her. Dressed as a beggar, she took the +road to Donnay where formerly she had ruled as sovereign mistress; she +saw again the long avenues at the end of which the façade of the +château, imposing still despite its decay, commanded a view of the three +terraces of the park; she walked along by the walls to reach the +Buquets' cottage where Joseph, who was hiding in the neighbouring <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>woods, +occasionally returned to watch over his treasure. She surprised him +there on this particular day, and implored him to come to her assistance +but the peasant was inflexible; she obtained, however, the sum of one +hundred and fifty francs, which he counted out to her in twelve-sou +pieces and copper money. On the evening of her return to Caen Mme. +Acquet faithfully made over the money to Vannier, reserving only fifteen +francs for her trouble; moreover, she was obliged to submit to her +host's obscene allusions as to the means she had employed to extort this +ridiculous sum from Buquet. She bore everything unmoved; her +indifference resembled stupefaction; she no longer appeared conscious of +the horrors of her situation or the dangers to which she was exposed. +Her happiest days were spent in walks round the town with Chauvel with +whom she arranged meetings and who used to come from Falaise to pass a +few hours with her; they went to a neighbouring village, dined there, +and returned to the town at dusk.</p> + +<p>Allain, too, showed some interest in her. He was hiding in the +neighbourhood of Caen, and sometimes came in the evening to confer with +Vannier in company with Bureau de Placène and a lawyer named Robert +Langelley with whom her host had business dealings. They were all +equally needed, and spent their time in planning means to make Joseph +Buquet disgorge. Allain proposed only one plan, and it was adopted. Mme. +Acquet was to go to Donnay again and try to soften the peasant; if he +refused to show where the money was hidden, Allain was to spring on him +and strangle him.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> +<p>They set out from Caen one morning, about the 25th of September. Mme. +Acquet had arranged to meet Joseph at the house of a farmer named +Halbout, which was situated at some distance from the village of Donnay. +He came at the appointed hour; but as he was approaching carefully, +fearing an ambuscade, he caught sight of Allain hiding behind a hedge, +and taking fright made off as fast as his legs could carry him.</p> + +<p>They had to go back to Caen empty-handed and face the anger of Vannier, +who accused his lodger of complicity with the Buquets to make their +attempts miscarry. A fresh council was held, and this time Chauvel was +admitted; he too, had a plan. This was that he and Mallet, one of his +comrades, should go to Donnay in uniform; Langelley was to play the +part of commissary of police. "They were to arrest Buquet on the part of +the government; if he consented to say where the money was, he was to be +given his liberty, and the address of a safe hiding-place; in case of +his refusing, the police were to kill him, and they would then be free +to draw up a report of contumacy."</p> + +<p>The Marquise de Combray's daughter was present at these conferences, +meek and resigned, her heart heavy at the thought that this wretched +money would become the prey of these men who had had none of the trouble +and who would have all the profit. Every day she sank deeper and deeper +into this quagmire; the plots that were hatched <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>there, the things she +heard—for they showed no reserve before her—were horrible. As she +represented 40,000 francs to these ruffians, she had to endure not only +their brutal gallantries, but also their confidences. "Mme. Placène one +day suggested the enforced disappearance of the baker Lerouge," says +Bornet, as he was "very religious and a very good man," she was afraid +that if he were arrested, "he would not consent to lie, and would ruin +them all." Langelley specially feared the garrulity of Flierlé and +Lanoë, in prison at Caen, and he was trying to get them poisoned. He had +already made an arrangement "with the chemist and the prison doctor, +whom he had under his thumb," and he also knew a man who "for a small +sum, would create a disturbance in the town, allow himself to be +arrested and condemned to a few months' imprisonment, and would thus +find a way of getting rid of these individuals." They also spoke of +Acquet, who was still in jail at Caen. In everybody's opinion Mme. +Vannier was his mistress, and went to see him every day in his cell. He +was supposed to be a government spy, and Placène pretended that Vannier +received money from him to keep him informed of Mme. Acquet's doings. +Langelley, for his part, said that Placène was a rogue and that if "he +had already got his share of the plunder, he received at least as much +again from the police."</p> + +<p>The poor woman who formed the pivot of these intrigues was not spared by +her unworthy accomplices. Having in mind Joseph Buquet and Chauvel, they +all suspected one another of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>having been her lovers. Vannier had thus +made her pay for her hospitality; Langelley and the gendarme Mallet +himself, had exacted the same price—accusations it was as impossible as +it was useless to refute. She herself well knew her own abasement, and +at times disgust seized her. On the evening of September 27th, she did +not return to Vannier's; escaping from this hell, she craved shelter +from a lacemaker named Adélaïde Monderard, who lodged in the Rue du Han, +and who was Langelley's mistress. The girl consented to take her in and +gave her up one of the two rooms which formed her lodgings, and which +were reached by a very dark staircase. It was a poor room under the +roof, lighted by two small casements, the furniture being of the +shabbiest. Chauvel came to see her there the following day, and there it +was that she learnt of the expected arrival of Captain Delaitre, sent +by Mme. de Combray to save her, and secure her the means of going to +England. Mme. Acquet manifested neither regret nor joy. She was +astonished that her mother should think of her; but it seems that she +did not attach great importance to this incident, which was to decide +her fate. A single idea possessed her: how to find a retreat which would +allow of her escaping from Vannier's hateful guardianship; and +Langelley, who was very surprised at finding her at the lacemaker's, +seeing her perplexity offered to escort her to a country house, about a +league from the town, where his father lived. She set out with him that +very evening; at the same hour the false Captain Delaitre left Rouen, +and the ruse so cleverly planned by Licquet, put an end to Mme.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> Acquet's +lamentable adventures.</p> + +<p>Arriving at the Hôtel du Pare on October 2d, "Captain" Delaitre went to +the window of his room and saw a man hurrying down the street with a +very small woman on his arm, very poorly dressed. From his walk he +recognised Chauvel dressed as a bourgeois; the woman was Mme. Acquet. +The two men bowed, and Chauvel leaving his companion, went up to the +Captain's room. "There were compliments, handshakes, the utmost +confidence, as is usual between a soldier and a sailor." Chauvel +explained that he had walked from Falaise that afternoon, and that in +order to get off, he had pretended to his chiefs that private business +took him to Bayonne. The false Delaitre immediately handed him Mme. de +Combray's two letters which Chauvel read absently.</p> + +<p>"Let us go down," he said; "the lady is near and awaits us."</p> + +<p>They met her a few steps farther down the road in company with +Langelley, whom Chauvel introduced to Delaitre. The latter immediately +offered his arm to Mme. Acquet: Chauvel, Langelley and the "nephew +Delaitre" followed at some distance. They passed the bridge and walked +along by the river under the trees of the great promenade, talking all +the time. It was now quite dark.</p> + +<p>Captain Delaitre "after having given Mme. Acquet her mother's +compliments, informed her of the latter's intentions concerning her +going to England or the isles." But the young woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> flatly rejected the +proposal; she was, she said, "quite safe with her friend's father, +within reach of all her relations, and she would never consent to leave +Caen, where she had numerous and devoted protectors." The Captain +objected that this determination was all the more to be regretted since +"the powerful personage who was interesting himself in the fate of his +own people, demanded that she should have quitted France, before he +began to seek Mme. de Combray's release." To which Mme. Acquet replied +that she should never alter her decision.</p> + +<p>The discussion lasted about half an hour. The Captain having mentioned a +letter of Mme. de Combray's of which he was the bearer, Mme. Acquet +turned to Langelley and asked him to escort her to an inn, where she +might read it. They crossed the bridge following Langelley up the Rue de +Vaucelles, and stopped at an inn situated about a hundred yards above +the Hôtel du Pare. Mme. Acquet and her companions entered the narrow +passage and went up-stairs to a room on the first floor, where they +seated themselves at a table, and Langelley ordered wine and biscuits. +The young woman took the Marquise's letter from the Captain's hands; all +those around her were silent and watched attentively. They noticed that +"she changed colour at every line and sighed."</p> + +<p>"When do you start?" she asked Delaitre, wiping her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Very early to-morrow," he replied.</p> + +<p>She heaved another great sigh and began to read again. She became very +nervous, and seemed about to faint. When she had finished the letter, +she questioned Delaitre anew.</p> + +<p>"You know for certain, sir, what this letter contains?"</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +<p>"Yes, Madame; your mother read it to me."</p> + +<p>She was silent for "more than two minutes"; then she said as if she were +making a great effort:</p> + +<p>"One must obey one's mother's orders. Well, Monsieur, I will go with +you. Will you not wait till to-morrow evening?"</p> + +<p>Captain Delaitre at first demurred at the idea of deferring his journey; +but at last their departure was fixed for the following day, October 3d, +at nightfall. A heated discussion ensued. Langelley noticed that +Vannier, Allain, Placène and the others did not approve of Mme. +Acquet's decision. They were all certain that she ran not the slightest +risk by remaining in Caen, inasmuch as there would never be a judge to +prosecute nor a tribunal to condemn her. Delaitre replied that it was +precisely to guard against the indulgence of the Calvados authorities, +that an imperial decree had laid the affair before the special court at +Rouen; but the lawyer who could not see his last chance of laying hands +on the Buquets' treasure disappear without feeling some annoyance, +replied that nothing must be decided without the advice of their +friends. The young woman ended the discussion by declaring that she was +going "because it was her mother's wish."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure," asked Chauvel, "that that really is your mother's +writing?"</p> + +<p>She answered yes, and t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>he gendarme said that in his opinion she was +right to obey.</p> + +<p>They then settled the details of the departure. Langelley offered to +conduct the travellers to the borders of the department of Calvados, +which Delaitre knew very slightly. Mme. Acquet was to take no luggage. +Her clothes were to be forwarded to her, care of the Captain, at the +Rouen office. The conversation took a "tone of the sincerest friendship +and the greatest confidence." When the hour for separating came, Mme. +Acquet pressed the Captain's hand several times, saying, "Till +to-morrow, then, Monsieur." And as she went down the stairs Chauvel +remained behind with Delaitre, to make sure that the latter had brought +money to pay the small debts which the fugitive had incurred with the +tradesmen.</p> + +<p>Towards eleven on the following morning Chauvel presented himself at the +inn alone. He went up at once to Delaitre's room who asked him to lunch +and sent his nephew out to get oysters. Chauvel had come to beg Delaitre +to put off his journey another day, as Mme. Acquet could not start +before Sunday, the 4th. While they were at lunch Chauvel became quite +confidential. He could not see his friend go away without regret; he +alone, he said, had served her from pure devotion. He told how, in order +to put off his comrades, who had been charged by Manginot to draw up a +description of the fugitive, he had intentionally made it out +incorrectly, describing he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>r "as being very stout and having fair hair." +He talked of d'Aché whom he considered a brigand and "the sole cause of +all the misfortunes which had happened to Mme. de Combray and her +family." Finally he inquired if the Captain would consent to take Buquet +and Allain to England as they were in fact two of the principal actors +in the affair, and the Captain consented very willingly. It was agreed +that as soon as he had landed Mme. Acquet in England, he should return +to Saint-Valery which was his port. All Allain and Buquet had to do, was +to go to Privost, the innkeeper, opposite the post at Cany on Wednesday, +the 14th, and he would meet them and take them on board.</p> + +<p>During luncheon Delaitre, who was obviously a messenger of Providence, +counted out 400 francs in gold on the table, and gave them to Chauvel +to pay his mistress's debts.</p> + +<p>Vannier had claimed six louis for the hospitality he had shown her, +alleging that "this sort of lodger ought to pay more than the others on +account of the risk;" he further demanded that the cost of twenty +masses, which Mme. Acquet had had said, should be refunded to him. +Chauvel spent part of the Sunday with Delaitre; the meeting was fixed +for seven in the evening. The Captain was to wait at the door of his inn +and follow Mme. Acquet when he saw her pass with the gendarme. She only +appeared at ten at night, and they walked separately as far as +Vaucelles. Langelley kept them waiting, but he arrived at last on a +borrowed horse; the Captain had got a post-horse; as for the nephew, +Delaitre, and the servant, they had gone back the evening before to +Rouen.</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +<p>The time had come to say good-bye. Mme. Acquet embraced Chauvel who +parted from her "in the tenderest manner, enjoining Delaitre to take the +greatest care of the precious object confided to him." Langelley, armed +with a club for a riding whip, placed himself at the head of the +cavalcade, Delaitre warmly wrapping Mme. Acquet in his cloak, took her +up behind him, and with renewed good wishes, warm handshakes, and sad +"au revoirs" the horsemen set off at a trot on the road to Dives. +Chauvel saw them disappear in the mist, but he waited at the deserted +crossroads as long as he could hear the clatter of their horses' hoofs +on the road.</p> + +<p>They arrived at Dives about three in the morning. The young woman, who +had seemed very lively, protested that she was not tired, and refused to +get off. Therefore Langelley alone entered the post-house, woke up the +guide he had engaged the day before, and they continued their journey. +The day was breaking when they arrived at Annebault; the three travelers +halted at an inn where they spent the whole day; the lawyer and Mme. +Acquet settled their little accounts. They slept a little, they talked a +great deal, and spent a long time over dinner. At six in the evening +they mounted their horses again and took the road to Pont-l'Evêque. +Langelley escorted the fugitives as far as the forest of Touques: before +leaving Mme. Acquet, he asked her for a lock of her hair; he then +embraced her several times.</p> + +<p>It was nearly midnight when the young woman found herself alone with +Delaitre.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> The horse advanced with difficulty along the forest roads. +Clinging to the Captain with both arms, Mme. Acquet no longer talked; +her excitement of yesterday had given place to a kind of stupor, so that +Delaitre, who in the darkness could not see that her great dark eyes +were open, thought that she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. At three +in the morning they at length arrived at the suburbs of Pont-Audemer; +the Captain stopped at the post-house and asked for a room; in the +register which was presented to him he wrote: "Monsieur Delaitre and +wife."</p> + +<p>They were breakfasting towards noon when a non-commissioned marine +officer, accompanied by an escort of two men, entered the room. He went +straight up to Delaitre, asked his name, and observing his agitation, +called upon him to show his papers. These he took possession of after a +brief examination, and then ordered the soldiers to put Delaitre under +arrest.</p> + +<p>The officer, an amiable and talkative little man, continually excused +himself to Mme. Acquet for the annoyance he was causing her. Captain +Delaitre, he said, had left his ship without any authority, and it had +been pointed out, moreover, that he had willingly engaged in smuggling +while pretending to be trading along the coast. He did not commit the +indiscretion of inquiring the lady's name, nor what reason she had for +scouring the country in company of a ship's captain; but he carefully +gave her to understand that she must be detained until they got to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +Rouen, whither Delaitre would be escorted to receive a reprimand from +the commandant of the port. Mme. Acquet was convinced that it was +nothing but a misunderstanding which would be cleared up at Rouen, and +troubled very little about the incident; and as she was worn out with +fatigue, she expressed a wish to spend that night and the following day +at Pont-Audemer. The little officer consented with alacrity, and whilst +appearing only to keep an eye on Delaitre, he never for an instant lost +sight of the young woman, whose attitudes, gestures and appearance he +scrutinised with malicious eyes. It was Licquet, as we have already +guessed, who in his haste to know the result of the false Delaitre's +adventures, had dressed himself up in a borrowed uniform and come to +receive his new victim. He was full of forethought for her; he took her +in a carriage from Pont-Audemer to Bourg-Achard, where he allowed her to +rest. On the morning of the seventh they left Bourg-Achard and arrived +at Rouen before midday. The kindly officer was so persuasive that Mme. +Acquet offered no resistance nor recriminations when she was taken to +the Conciergerie, where she was entered under the name of Rosalie +Bourdon, doubtless the one under which she had travelled. She appeared +quite indifferent to all that went on around her. On entering this +prison, where she knew her mother was, she showed absolutely no emotion. +She remained in this state of resigned lassitude for two days. Licquet, +who came to see her several times, endeavoured to keep her under the +impression that her imprisonment had no other cause than Delaitre's +infringement of the maritime reg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>ulations; he even took the precaution of +pretending not to know her name.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, he laid his plans for attack. At first his joy, at capturing +the much desired prey had been so keen that he could not withstand the +pleasure of writing the news straight to Réal whom he asked to keep it +secret for a fortnight. On reflexion he realised how difficult it would +be to obtain confessions from a woman who had been so hideously +deceived, and he felt that the traps, into which the naïve Mme. de +Combray had fallen would be of no avail in her daughter's case. He had +better ones: on his person he carried the letter which Mme. de Combray +had written to her dear Delaitre, which he had taken from the Captain in +Mme. Acquet's very presence. In this letter, the Marquise had spoken of +her daughter as "the vilest of creatures, lamenting that for her own +safety she was obliged to come to the assistance of such a monster; she +especially complained of the amount of money it was costing her."</p> + +<p>On the 9th of October, Licquet came into Mme. Acquet's cell, began to +converse familiarly with her, told her that he knew her name and showed +her Mme. de Combray's letter. On reading it Mme. Acquet flew into a +violent passion. Licquet comforted her, gave her to understand that he +was her only friend, that her mother hated her and had only helped her +in the hope of saving her own life; that the lawyer Lefebre had sold +himself to the police on giving the Chauvels' address at Falaise, in +proof of which he showed her the note written by the lawyer's own hand. +He even went so far as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>to allude to certain infidelities on the part of +Le Chevalier, and to the mistresses he must have had in Paris, till at +last the unhappy woman burst into tears of indignation and grief.</p> + +<p>"Enough," she said; "it is my turn now; you must receive my declaration +immediately, and take it at once to the prefect. I will confess +everything. My life is a burden to me."</p> + +<p>She immediately told the long story of d'Aché's plans, his journeys to +England, the organisation of the plot, the attempt to print the Prince's +manifesto, and also how he had beguiled Le Chevalier and had succeeded +in drawing him into it, by promises of high rank and great honours. She +said, too, that d'Aché whom she accused of having caused all the +unhappiness of her life, had recommended robbing the public treasury; +that the attacks on the coaches had been carried out by his orders, +which had been "to stop them all." She accused her mother of helping to +transport the booty to Caen; herself she accused of having sheltered the +brigands. The only ones she excused were Joseph Buquet, who had only +carried out her instructions, and Le Chevalier whom she represented as +beguiled by d'Aché's misleading promises. Her "frantic passion" was +apparent in every word she uttered: she even told Licquet that "if she +could save Le Chevalier's life at the cost of her own she would not +hesitate."</p> + +<p>When she had finished her long declaration, she fell into a state of +deep depression. On entering the prison next day, Licquet found her +engaged in cutting off her magnificent hair, which, she said sadly, she +wished to save from the executioner. She observed that since she was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>miserably destined to die, Chauvel, who called himself her friend, had +done very wrong in preventing her from taking poison: all would have +been over by now. But she hoped that grief would kill her before they +had time to condemn her.</p> + +<p>As she said these words she turned her beautiful piercing eyes to a dark +corner of her cell. Licquet, following her gaze, saw a very prominent +nail sticking in the wall at a height of about six feet. Without letting +her see his anxiety, he tried to direct the prisoner's attention to +other objects, and succeeded in working her up to a state of "wild +gaiety."</p> + +<p>That very day the nail was taken out, but there still remained the +bolts of the door and the bed-posts, to which, being of such low +stature, she could hang herself; a woman from Bicêtre was therefore set +to watch her.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to follow Licquet through all the phases of the +inquiry. This diabolical man seems to have possessed the gift of +ubiquity. He was in the prison where he worked upon the prisoners; at +the prefecture directing the examinations; at Caen, making inquiries +under the very nose of Caffarelli, who believed that the affair had long +since been buried; at Falaise, where he was collecting testimony; at +Honfleur, at Pont-Audemer, at Paris. He drew up innumerable reports, and +sent them to the prefect or to Réal, with whom he corresponded directly, +and when he was asked what reward he was ambitious of obtaining for his +devoted service to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> State, he replied philosophically: "I do not work +for my own glory, but only for that of the police generally, and of our +dear Councillor, whom I love with all my heart. As for me, poor devil, I +am destined to remain obscure, which, I must say, pleases me, since I +recognise the inconvenience of having a reputation."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One of the most picturesque events of his enquiry was another journey +taken towards the end of October by the false Captain Delaitre and his +false nephew in search of Allain and Buquet, whom they had not found on +the day mentioned at the inn at Cany. At Caen Delaitre saw again the +lawyer Langelley, the Placènes and Monderard's daughter, and they +entertained him. He gave them very good news of Mme. Acquet, who, he +said, was comfortably settled at a place on the English coast; but +although he had a very important letter for Allain, which Mme. de +Combray wished him to take to England without delay, the wily Chouan did +not show himself. His daughter, who had set up as a dressmaker at Caen +and was in communication with Mme. Placène, undertook, however, to +forward the letter to him. The Captain announced his intention of +following the girl in the hope of discovering her father's retreat, but +Langelley and the others assured him that it would be a waste of time. +The young girl alone knew where the outlaw was hidden and "each time she +went to take him news, she disguised herself, entered a house, disguised +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>herself afresh before leaving, went into another house, changed her +costume yet again, and so on. It was impossible to be sure when she came +out of each house that it was the same person who had gone in, and to +know in which her father was." Two days later the girl reappeared. She +said that her father had gone to his own home near Cherbourg, where "he +had property." He wanted to sell his furniture and lease his land before +going to England. This was the other side of the terrible "General +Antonio." He was a good father and a small landed proprietor. Delaitre +realised that this was a defeat, and that Allain was not easily to be +beguiled. He did not persist, but packed up his traps and returned to +Rouen.</p> + +<p>This check was all the more painful to Licquet, since he had hoped that +by attracting Allain, d'Aché would also be ensnared. Without the latter, +who was evidently the head of the conspiracy, only the inferiors could +be arraigned, and the part of the principal criminal would have to be +passed over in silence, in consequence of which the affair would sink to +the proportions of common highway robbery. Stimulated by these motives, +and still more so by his amour-propre, Licquet set out for Caen. His joy +in action was so keen that it pervades all his reports. He describes +himself as taking the coach with Delaitre, his nephew and "two or three +active henchmen." He is so sure of success that he discounts it in +advance: "I do not know," he writes to Réal, "whether I am flattering +myself too much, but I am tempted to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> hope that the author will be called +for at the end of the play."</p> + +<p>It is to be regretted that we have no details of this expedition. In +what costume did Licquet appear at Caen? What personality did he assume? +How did he carry out his manœuvres between Mme. Acquet's friends, his +confederate Delaitre and the Prefect Caffarelli, without arousing any +one's suspicion or wounding their susceptibilities? It is impossible to +disentangle this affair; he was an adept at troubling water that he +might safely fish in it, and seemed jealous to such a degree of the +means he employed, that he would not divulge the secret to any one. With +an instinctive love of mystification, he kept up during his journey an +official correspondence with his prefect and a private one with Réal. +He told one what he would not confess to the other; he wrote to +Savoye-Rollin that he was in a hurry to return to Rouen, while by the +same post he asked Réal to get him recalled to Paris during the next +twenty-four hours. "If you adopt this idea, Monsieur, you must be kind +enough to select a pretext which will not wound or even scratch any +one's amour-propre." The "any one" mentioned here is Savoye-Rollin. What +secret had Licquet discovered, that he did not dare to confide, except +orally, and then only to the Imperial Chief of Police? We believe that +we are not wrong in premising that scarcely had he arrived at Caen when +he laid hands on a witness so important, and at the same time so +difficult to manipulate, that he was himself frightened at this +unexpected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> <i>coup de théâtre</i>.</p> + +<p>Whilst ferreting about in the prisons to which he had obtained access +that he might talk to Lanoë and the Buquets, he met Acquet de Férolles, +who had been forgotten there for three months. Whether Mme. de Placène +was, as Vannier suspected, employed by the police and knew Licquet's +real personality, or whether the latter found another intermediary, it +is certain that he obtained Acquet de Férolles' confidence from the +beginning, and that he got the credit of having him set at liberty. It +was after this interview that Licquet asked Réal to recall him to Paris +for twenty-four hours. His journey took place in the early days of +November, and on the 12th, on an order from Réal Acquet was rearrested +and taken in a post-chaise from Donnay to Paris, escorted by a sergeant +of police. On the 16th he was entered in the Temple gaol-book, and Réal, +who hastened to interrogate him, showed him great consideration, and +promised that his detention should not be long. A note, which is still +to be found among the papers connected with this affair, seems to +indicate that this incarceration was not of a nature to cause great +alarm to the Lord of Donnay: "M. Acquet has been taken to Paris that he +may not interfere with the proceedings against his wife.... It is known +that he is unacquainted with his wife's offence, but M. Réal believes it +necessary to keep him at a distance." That was not the tone in which the +police of that period usually spoke of their ordinary prisoners, and it +seems advisable to c<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>all attention to the fact. Let us add that the +royalists detained in the Temple were not taken in by it. M. de Revoire, +an old habitué of the prison, who spent the whole of the Imperial period +in captivity told the Combray family after the Restoration, that all the +prisoners considered Acquet "as a spy, an informer, the whole time he +was in the Temple." After a week's imprisonment and three weeks' +surveillance in Paris, he was set at liberty and returned to Donnay.</p> + +<p>From the comparison of these facts and dates, is one not led to infer +that Licquet had persuaded Acquet without much difficulty we may be +sure, to become his wife's accuser? But the desire not to compromise +himself, and still more the dread of reprisals, shut the mouth of the +unworthy husband at Caen, eager though he was to speak in Paris, +provided that no one should suspect the part he was playing; hence this +sham imprisonment in the Temple—evidently Licquet's idea—which gave +him time to make revelations to Réal.</p> + +<p>Whatever it may have been, this incident interrupted Licquet's journey +to Caen. He continued it towards the middle of November, quitting Rouen +on the 18th, still accompanied by Delaitre and others of his cleverest +men. This time he represented himself as an inspector of taxes, which +gave him the right of entering houses and visiting even the cellars. His +aim was to unearth Allain, Buquet and especially d'Aché, but none of +them appeared. We cannot deal with this third journey in detail, as +Licq<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>uet has kept the threads of the play secret, but from +half-confidences made to Réal, we may infer that he bought the +concurrence of Langelley and Chauvel on formal promises of immunity from +punishment; they consented to serve the detective and betray Allain, and +they were on the point of delivering him up when "fear of the Gendarme +Mallet caused everything to fail." Licquet fell back with his troop, +taking with him Chauvel, Mallet and Langelley, who were soon to be +followed by Lanoë, Vannier, Placène and all the Buquets, save Joseph, +who had not been seen again. But before starting on his return journey +to Rouen, Licquet wished to pay his respects to Count Caffarelli, the +Prefect of Calvados, in whose territory he had just been hunting. The +latter did not conceal his displeasure, and thought it strange that his +own gendarmes should be ordered to proceed with criminal cases and to +make arrests of which they neglected even to inform him. Licquet states +that after "looking black at him, Caffarelli laughed till he cried" over +the stories of the false Captain Delaitre and the false inspector of +taxes. It is probable that the story was well told; but the Prefect of +Calvados was none the less annoyed at the unceremonious procedure, as he +testified a little later with some blustering. Licquet, moreover, was +not deceived: on his return from Caen, he wrote: "Behold, I have +quarrelled with the Prefect of Calvados."</p> + +<p>However, he cared very little about it. It had been tacitly decreed that +the robbery at Quesnay should be judged by a special court at Rouen. +Licquet <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>became the organiser and stage-manager of the proceedings. At +the end of 1807 he had under lock and key thirty-eight prisoners whom he +questioned incessantly, and kept in a state of uncertainty as to whether +he meant to confront them with each other. But he declared himself +dissatisfied. D'Aché's absence spoiled his joy. He quite understood that +without the latter, his triumph would be incomplete, his work would +remain unfinished, and it was doubtless due to this torturing obsession +that he owed the idea, as cruel as it was ingenious, of a new drama of +which the old Marquise de Combray was again the victim.</p> + +<p>On a certain day of November, 1807, she heard from her cell an unusual +tumult in the passages of the prison. Doors burst open and people called +to each other. There were cries of joy, whispers, exclamations of +astonishment or vexation, then long silences, which left the prisoner +perplexed. The next day when Licquet came to visit her she noticed that +his face wore a troubled expression. He was very laconic, mentioned +grave events which were preparing, and disappeared like a busy man. To +prisoners everything is a reason for hope, and that night Mme. de +Combray gave free course to her illusions. The following day she +received through the woman Delaitre, a short letter from the honest +"Captain"—the man who had saved Mme. Acquet, killed the yellow horse, +and whom she called her guardian angel. The guardian angel wrote only a +few words: "Bonaparte is overthrown; the King is about to land in +France; the prisons are opening everywhere. Write a letter at once to M. +d'Aché which he can hand to his Majesty. I will undertake to forward it +to him."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> + +<p>It is a truly touching fact that the old Marquise, whose energy no +fatigue, no moral torture could abate, fainted from happiness on +learning of her King's return.</p> + +<p>The event realised all her hopes. For so many years she had been +expecting it from one moment to another, without ever growing +discouraged, that a dénouement for which she had been prepared so long, +seemed quite natural to her, and she immediately made her arrangements +for the new life that was about to commence. She first of all wrote a +line of thanks to the "good Delaitre," promising her protection and +assuring him that he should be rewarded for his devotion. She then +wrote to d'Aché a letter overflowing with joy.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have reached the pinnacle of my happiness, my dear Vicomte," she +wrote, "which is that of all France. I rejoice in your glory. M. +Delaitre has rendered me the greatest services, and during the past +two months has been constantly journeying in my behalf. His wife, +my companion in misfortune, has turned towards me his interest in +the unhappy, and he has sent me a message informing me of the great +events which are to put an end to all our troubles, advising me to +write a letter to the King and send it to you to present to him. +This is a bright idea, and compensates for the fact that my son is +not lucky enough to be in his proper place, as we desired and +planned. Your dear brother in chains is only supported by the +thought of your glory. I do not know how to speak to a king so +great by reason of his courage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> and virtue. I have allowed my heart +to speak, and I count upon you to obtain the favour of a visit from +him at Tournebut. The prisons are open everywhere.... I have borne +my imprisonment courageously for three years, but fell ill on +hearing the great news. You will let me know in time if I am to +have the happiness of entertaining the King. It is very bold of me +to ask if such a favour is possible in a house which I believe to +be devastated by commissioners who have exhausted on it their rage +at not finding you there. Render, I beg of you, to M. Delaitre all +that I owe him. You will know him as a relation of our poor Raoul. +He is inspired with the same sentiments and begs you to let him +serve you, not wishing to remain idle in such a good cause and at +such a great moment. This letter bears the marks of our +imprisonment. Accept, my dear Vicomte, my sentiments of attachment +and veneration.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><span style="margin-right: 5em;">I have the honour to be,</span><br /> +</p> + +<p style="text-align: right">"Your very humble servant,<br /> +</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">"De Combray"</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"I shall go to your mother's to await the King's passing, if I +obtain my liberty before his arrival, and I shall have to go to +Tournebut in order to have everything repaired and made ready if I +am to enjoy this favour. You will write, and wait impatiently."<br /><br /></p></div> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +<p>The most heartrending of the letters despatched by the duped old +royalist in her joy, is the one destined for the King himself. Proud of +his stratagem, Licquet forwarded it to the police authorities, who +retained it. It is written in a thick, masculine hand on large +paper—studied, almost solemn at the beginning, then, with the +outpouring of her thoughts, ending in an almost illegible scribble. One +feels that the poor woman wanted to say everything, to empty her heart, +to free herself of eighteen years of mortification, mourning and +suppressed indignation. The following is the text of the letter, almost +complete:<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>To His Majesty Louis XVIII.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sire</span>:—From my prison, where at the age of sixty-six, I +as well as my son, have been thrust for the last four months, we +have the happiness of offering you our respects and congratulations +on your happy accession to your throne. All our wishes are +fulfilled, sire....</p> + +<p>"The few resources still at our command were devoted to supporting +your faithful servants of every class, and in saving them from +execution. I have to regret the loss of the Chevalier de +Margadelle, Raoulle, Tamerlan and the young Tellier, all of whom +were carried away by their zeal for your Majesty's cause and fell +victims to it at Paris and Versailles. I had hired a house, which I +gave up to them with all the hiding-places necessary for their +safety. My son had the good fortune to be under the orders of +Messieurs de Frotté and Ingant de St. Maur.</p> + +<p>"I am sending my letter to M. le Vicomte d'Aché, in order that he +may present it to you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>r Majesty and solicit a favour very dear to my +heart—that you will condescend to stay at my house on your way to +Paris. Sire, you will find my house open, and, they say, surrounded +with barricades, consequences of the ill-usage it has received +during their different investigations, another of which has +recently occurred in the hope of finding M. le Vicomte d'Aché and +my daughter, as well as repeated sojourns made by order of the +prefect, and an interrogation by his secretary, after having been +subjected to an examination lasting eleven hours in this so-called +Court of Justice, in order that I might inform them of my +correspondence with M. de Aché as well as of a letter I received +from him on the 17th of last March. The worst threats have been +used such as being confronted with Le Chevalier, and my being sent +to Paris to be guillotined, but nothing terrified me, I did not +tell them anything about my relations with him or where he was +living. I had just left him ten days previously. My reply to this +persecution was that M. de Aché was in London, and I concluded by +assuring them that I did not fear death, that I would fervently +perform my last act of contrition, and that my head would fall +without my disclosing this interesting mystery.</p> + +<p>"My liberty was promised me six weeks ago, but at the price of a +large sum of money, which is, I believe, to be divided between the +prefect and his secretary Niquet (<i>sic</i>). Half the sum is safely +under lock and key in the latter's bureau. I have been a long time +trying to collect the sum demanded, as I received little assistance +from those who called themselves my friends. My very property was +refused me with arrogant threats, for it was believed that I was to +be put to the sword. The only end I hoped to attain by my +sacrifices was to save my daughter, upon whose head a price of +6,000 francs had been set at Caen. The family Delaitre, without any +other interest in me than t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>hat which misfortune inspires have +displayed indefatigable zeal in my cause, exposing their lives to +great danger in order to remove her from Caen, where the +authorities left no stone unturned.</p> + +<p>"Three of my servants have been cast into prison, a fourth, named +François Hébert, commendable for thirty-seven years' faithful +service, defended our interests, and for his honesty's sake has +been in chains since the month of July. What must he not have +suffered during the last eleven years at the hands of the +authorities, the tax receivers at Harcourt, Falaise and Caen, and +of many others who wished his ruin because at our advice he +purposely took the farm on our estate, that he might there save +your persecuted followers. He is well known to M. de Frotté whose +esteem he enjoyed, and whom he received with twenty-four of his +faithful friends, knowing they would be safe in his house. All this +anxiety has greatly impaired his health and that of his wife, who +was pregnant at the time, and consequently their son, aged eleven, +is in very delicate health. The Dartenet (<i>sic</i>) family have caused +many of our misfortunes by daily denunciations, which they renewed +with all their might in January, 1806. It was only by a special +providence that we, as well as M. le Vicomte d'Aché, escaped +imprisonment. My son hastened to warn him not to return to our +cottage, which was part of my dowry, and offended the Dartenets, +who wanted this tavern that they might turn it into a special inn +for their castle, which is the fruit of their iniquity.</p> + +<p>"My son and I both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> crave your Majesty's protection and that of the +princes of the blood.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><span style="margin-right: 15em;">"I respectfully remain,</span></p> + +<p style="text-align: right">"Your Majesty's very humble and obedient servant,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">De Combray</span>."<br /> +<br /></p> + +</div> + + +<p>It was, as we see, a general confession. What must have been the +Marquise's grief and rage on learning that she had been deceived? At +what moment did Licquet cease to play a double part with her? With what +invectives must she not have overwhelmed him when he ceased? How did +Mme. de Combray learn that her noblest illusions had been worked upon to +make her give up her daughter and betray all her friends? These are +things Licquet never explained, either because he was not proud of the +dubious methods he employed, or, more probably, because he did not care +what his victims thought of them. Besides, his mind was occupied with +other things. Mme. de Combray had hinte<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>d to Delaitre that d'Aché usually +stayed in the neighbourhood of Bayeux, without stating more precisely +where, as she was certain he would easily be found beside the newly +landed King. Licquet, therefore, went in search of him, and his men +scoured the neighbourhood. Placène, for his part, annoyed at finding +that Allain did not keep his word and made no attempt to deliver his +imprisoned comrades, gave some hints. In order to communicate with +Allain and d'Aché, one was, according to him, obliged to apply to an +innkeeper at Saint-Exupère. This man was in correspondence with a fellow +named Richard, who acted as courier to the two outlaws. "Between Bayeux +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>and Saint-Lô is the coal mine of Litré, and the vast forest of Serisy is +almost contiguous to it. This mine employed five or six hundred workmen, +and as Richard was employed there one was inclined to think that the +subterranean passages might serve as a refuge to Allain and d'Aché, +whether they were there in the capacity of miners, or were hidden in +some hut or disused ditch."</p> + +<p>The information was too vague to be utilised, and Licquet thought it +wiser to direct his batteries on another point. He had under his thumb +one victim whom as yet he had not tortured, and from whom he hoped much: +this was Mme. Acquet. "She is," he wrote, "a second edition of her +mother for hypocrisy, but surpasses her in maliciousness and +ill-nature.... Her children seem to interest her but little; she never +mentions them to any one, and her heart is closed to all natural +sentiments."</p> + +<p>But I believe that it was to excuse himself in his chief's eyes that +Licquet painted such a black picture of the prisoner. His own heart was +closed to all compassion, and we find in this man the inexorable +impassibility of a Laffemas or a Fouquier Tinville, with a refined irony +in addition which only added to the cruelty. The moral torture to which +he subjected Mme. Acquet is the product of an inquisitor's mind. "At +present," he remarked, "as the subject is somewhat exhausted, I shall +turn my attention to setting our prisoners against o<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>ne another. The +little encounter may give us some useful facts."</p> + +<p>The little encounter broke the prisoner's heart, and deprived her of the +only consoling thought so many misfortunes had left her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>PAYING THE PENALTY</h3> + + +<p>"Le Chevalier is the adored one."</p> + +<p>It was thus that Licquet summarised his first conversation with Mme. +Acquet. He had been certain for some time that her unbridled passion for +her hero held such a place in her heart that it had stifled all other +feeling. For his sake she had harboured Allain's men; for him she had so +often gone to brave the scornful reception of Joseph Buquet; and for him +she had so long endured the odious life in Vannier's house. Licquet +decided that so violent a passion, "well handled," might throw some new +light on affairs. This incomparable comedian should have been seen +playing his cruel game. In what manner did he listen to the love-sick +confidences of his prisoner? In what sadly sympathetic tones did he +reply to the glowing pictures she drew of her lover? For she spoke of +little else, and Licquet listened silently until the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> moment when, in a +burst of feeling, he took both her hands, and as if grieved at seeing +her duped, exclaiming with hypocritical regard: "My poor child! Is it +not better to tell you everything?" made her believe that Le Chevalier +had denounced her. She refused at first to believe it. Why should her +lover have done such an infamous thing? But Licquet gave reasons. Le +Chevalier, while in the Temple had learned, from Vannier or others, of +her relations with Chauvel, and in revenge had set the police on the +track of his faithless friend. And so the man for whom she had +sacrificed her life no longer loved her! Licquet, in order to torture +her, overwhelmed the unhappy woman with the intentionally clumsy +consolation that only accentuates grief. She wept much, and had but one +thing to say.</p> + +<p>"I should like to save him in spite of his ingratitude."</p> + +<p>This was not at all what the detective wished. He had hoped she would, +in her turn, accuse the man who had betrayed her; but he could gain +nothing on this point. She felt no desire for revenge. The letters she +wrote to Le Chevalier (Licquet encouraged correspondence between +prisoners) are full of the sadness of a broken but still loving heart.</p> + +<p>"It is not when a friend is unfortunate that one should reproach him, +and I am far from doing so to you, in spite of your conduct as regards +me. You know I did everything for you,—I am not reproaching you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> for +it,—and after all, you have denounced me! I forgive you with all my +heart, if that can do you any good, but I know your reason for being so +unjust to me; you thought I had abandoned you, but I swear to you I had +not."</p> + +<p>There was not much information in that for Licquet, and in the hope of +learning something, he excited Mme. Acquet strongly against d'Aché. +According to him d'Aché was the one who first "sold them all"; it was +he who caused Le Chevalier to be arrested, to rid himself of a +troublesome rival after having compromised him; it was to d'Aché alone +that the prisoners owed all their misfortunes. And Licquet found a +painful echo of his insinuations in all Mme. Acquet's letters to her +lover; but he found nothing more. "You know that Delorriere d'Aché is a +knave, a scoundrel; that he is the cause of all your trouble; that he +alone made you act; you did not think of it yourself, and he advised you +badly. He alone deserves the hatred of the government. He is abhorred +and execrated as he deserves to be, and there is no one who would not be +glad to give him up or kill him on the spot. He alone is the cause of +your trouble. Recollect this; do not forget it."</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to say that these letters never reached Le +Chevalier, who was secretly confined in the tower of the Temple until +Fouché decided his fate. He was rather an embarrassing prisoner; as he +could not be directly accused of the robbery of Quesnay in which he had +not taken part, and as they feared to draw him into an affair to which +his superb gift of speech<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>, his importance as a Chouan gentleman, his +adventurous past and his eloquent professions of faith might give a +political significance similar to that of Georges Cadoudal's trial, +there remained only the choice of setting him at liberty or trying him +simply as a royalist agent. Now, in 1808 they did not wish to mention +royalists. It was understood that they were an extinct race, and orders +were given to no longer speak of them to the public, which must long +since have forgotten that in very ancient days the Bourbons had reigned +in France.</p> + +<p>Thus, Réal did not know what was to become of Le Chevalier when Licquet +conceived the idea of giving him a rôle in his comedy. We have not yet +obtained all the threads of this new intrigue. Whether Licquet destroyed +certain over-explicit papers, or whether he preferred in so delicate a +matter to act without too much writing, there remain such gaps in the +story that we have not been able to establish the correlation of the +facts we are about to reveal. It is certain that the idea of exploiting +Mme. Acquet's passion and promising her the freedom of her lover in +exchange for a general confession, was originated by Licquet. He +declares it plainly in a letter addressed to Réal. By this means they +obtained complete avowals from her. On December 12th she gave a detailed +account of her adventurous life from the time of her departure from +Falaise until her arrest; a few days later she gave some details of the +conspiracy of which d'Aché was the chief, to which we shall have to +return. What must be noted at presen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>t is this remarkable coincidence: on +the 12th she spoke, after receiving Licquet's formal promise to ensure +Le Chevalier's escape, and on the 14th he actually escaped from the +Temple. Had Licquet been to Paris between these two dates? It seems +probable; for he speaks in a letter of a "pretended absence" which might +well have been real.</p> + +<p>The manner of Le Chevalier's escape is strange enough to be described. +By reason of his excited condition, "which threw him into continual +transports, and which had seemed to the concierge of the prison to be +the delirium of fever," he had been lodged, not in the tower itself, but +in a dependence, one of whose walls formed the outer wall of the prison, +and overlooked the exterior courts. He had been ill for several days, +and being subject to profuse sweats had asked to have his sheets changed +frequently, and so was given several pairs at a time. On December 13th, +at eight in the morning, the keeper especially attached to his person +(Savard) had gone in to arrange the little dressing-room next to Le +Chevalier's chamber. Returning at one o'clock to serve dinner, he found +the prisoner reading; at six in the evening another keeper (Carabeuf), +bringing in a light, saw him stretched on his bed. The next day on going +into his room in the morning, they found that he had fled.</p> + +<p>Le Chevalier had made in the wall of his dressing-room, which was two +yards thick, a hole large enough to slip through. They saw that he had +done it with no other tool than a fork; two bits of log, cut like +wedges, had served to dislodge and pull out the stones. The operation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>had been so cleverly managed, all the rubbish having been carefully +taken from within, that no trace of demolition appeared on the outside. +The prisoner (Vandricourt) who was immediately below had not noticed any +unwonted noise, although he did not go to bed till eleven o'clock. Le +Chevalier, whose cell was sixteen feet above the level of the court, had +also been obliged to construct a rope to descend by; he had plaited it +with long strips cut from a pair of nankeen breeches and the cover of +his mattress. Having got into the courtyard during the night by this +means, he had to wait till the early morning when bread was brought in +for the prisoners. The concierge of the Temple was in the habit of going +back to bed after having admitted the baker, and the gate remained open +for "a quarter of an hour and longer, while bread was being delivered at +the wickets."</p> + +<p>People certainly escaped from the Temple as much as from any other +prison. The history of the old tower records many instances of men +rescued by their friends in the face of gaolers and guard, but +confederates were necessary for the success of these escapes. Given the +topography of the Temple in 1807, it would seem impossible for one man +alone, with no outside assistance, to have pierced a wall six feet thick +in a few hours, and to have crossed the old garden of the grand prior, +where in order to reach the street he would either have had to climb the +other wall of the enclosure, or to pass the palace and courts to get to +the door—that of the Rue du <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>Temple—which, as stated in the official +report, remained open every morning for twenty minutes during the +baker's visit. The impossibility of success leads us to think that if Le +Chevalier triumphed over so many obstacles, it was because some one made +it easy for him to do so.</p> + +<p>Réal put a man on his track who for ten years had been the closest +confidant of the secrets of the police, and had conducted their most +delicate affairs. This was Inspector Pasque. With Commissary Beffara, +he set off on the search. Licquet, one of the first to be informed of +Le Chevalier's escape, immediately showed Mme. Acquet the letter +announcing it, taking care to represent it, confidentially, as his own +work. He received in return a copious confession from his grateful +prisoner. This time she emptied all the corners of her memory, returning +to facts already revealed, adding details, telling of all d'Aché's +comings and goings, his frequent journeys to England, and of the manner +in which David l'Intrépide crossed the channel. Licquet tried more than +all to awaken her memories of Le Chevalier's relations with Parisian +society. She knew that several official personages were in the "plot," +but unfortunately could not recollect their names, "although she had +heard them mentioned, notably by Lefebre, with whom Le Chevalier +corresponded on this subject." However, as the detective persisted she +pronounced these words, which Licquet eagerly noted:</p> + +<p>"One of these personages is in the Senate; M. Lefebre knows him. Another +was in office during the Terror, and can be recognised by the following +indications: he frequently sees <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>Mme. Ménard, sister of the widow, Mme. +Flahaut, who has married M. de ——, now ambassador to Holland, it is +believed. This lady lives sometimes at Falaise and sometimes in Paris, +where she is at present. This individual is small, dark and slightly +humped; he has great intellect, and possesses the talent for intrigue in +a high degree. The other personages are rich. The declarant cannot state +their number. Le Chevalier informed her that affairs were going well in +Paris, that they were awaiting news of the Prince's arrival to declare +for him."</p> + +<p>Licquet compelled Mme. Acquet to repeat these important declarations +before the prefect, and on the 23d of December, she signed them in +Savoye-Rollin's office. The same evening Licquet tried to put names to +all these anonymous persons. With the prisoner by his side and the +imperial almanac in his hand, he went over the list of senators, great +dignitaries and notabilities of the army and the administration, but +without success. "The names that were pronounced before her," he wrote +to Réal, "are effaced from her memory; perhaps Lefebre will tell us who +they are."</p> + +<p>The lawyer, in fact, since he saw things becoming blacker, had been very +loquacious with Licquet. He cried with fear when in the prefect's +presence, and promised to tell all he knew, begging them to have pity on +"the unfortunate father of a family." He spoke so plainly, this time, +that Licquet himself was astounded. The lawyer had it indeed from Le +Chevalier, that the day the Duc de Berry landed in France, the Emperor +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>would be arrested by two officers "who were always near his person, and +who each of them would count on an army of forty thousand men!" And when +Lefebre was brought before the prefect to repeat this accusation, and +gave the general's names, Savoye-Rollin was so petrified with +astonishment that he dared not insert them in the official report of the +inquiry; furthermore, he refused to write them with his own hand, and +compelled the lawyer himself to put on paper this blasphemy before +which official pens recoiled.</p> + +<p>"Lefebre insists," wrote Savoye-Rollin to Réal, "that Le Chevalier would +never tell him the names of all the conspirators. Lefebre has, however, +given two names, one of which is so important and seems so improbable, +that I cannot even admit a suspicion of it. Out of respect for the +august alliance which he has contracted, I have not put his name in the +report of the inquiry; it is added to my letter, in a declaration +written and signed by the prisoner." And in his letter there is a note +containing these lines over Lefebre's signature: "I declare to Monsieur +le Prefect de la Seine Inférieur that the two generals whom I did not +name in my interrogation to-day and who were pointed out to me by M. le +Chevalier, are the Generals Bernadotte and Masséna."</p> + +<p>Bernadotte and Masséna! At the ministry of police they pretended to +laugh heartily at this foolish notion; but perhaps some who knew the +"true inwardness" of certain old rivalries—Fou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>ché above all—thought it +less absurd and impossible than they admitted it to be. This fiend of a +man, with his way of searching to the bottom of his prisoners' +consciences, was just the one to find out that in France Bonaparte was +the sole partisan of the Empire. In any case these were not ideas to be +circulated freely, and from that day Réal promised himself that if +Pasque and Beffara succeeded in finding Le Chevalier, he should never +divulge them before any tribunal.</p> + +<p>The two agents had established a system of surveillance on all the +roads of Normandy, but without much hope: Le Chevalier, who had escaped +so many spies and got out of so many snares during the past eight years, +was considered to bear, as it were, a charmed life. He was taken, +however, and as his escape had seemed to be the result of the +detective's schemes, so in the manner in which he again fell into the +hands of Réal's agents was Licquet's handiwork again recognised. The +latter, indeed, was the only one who knew enough to make the capture +possible. In his long conversation with Mme. Acquet, he had learned that +in leaving Caen in the preceding May, Le Chevalier had confided his +five-year-old son to his servant Marie Humon, with orders to take him to +his friend the Sieur Guilbot at Evreux. At the beginning of August the +child had been taken to Paris and placed with Mme. Thiboust, Le +Chevalier's sister-in-law.</p> + +<p>In what way was the son used to capture the father? We have never been +able thoroughly to clear up this my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>stery. The accounts that have been +given of this great detective feat are evidently fantastic, and remain +inexplicable without the intervention of a comrade betraying Le +Chevalier after having given him unequivocal proofs of devotion. Thus, +it has been said that Réal, "having recourse to extraordinary means," +could have caused the arrest of "the sister-in-law and daughter of the +fugitive, and their incarceration in the prisons of Caen with filthy and +disreputable women." Le Chevalier, informed of their incarceration—by +whom?—would have offered himself in place of the two women, and the +police would have accepted the bargain.</p> + +<p>Told in this manner, the story does not at all agree with the documents +we have been able to collect. Le Chevalier had no daughter, and no trace +is to be found of the transference of Mme. Thiboust to Caen. The other +version is no more admissible. Scarcely out of the Temple, we are +assured, the outlaw would not have been able to resist the desire to see +his son, and would have sent to beg Mme. Thiboust—by whom again?—to +bring him to the Passage des Panoramas. Naturally the police would +follow the woman and child, and Le Chevalier be taken in their arms. It +is difficult to imagine so sharp a man setting such a childish trap for +himself, even if his adventurous life had not accustomed him for a long +time to live apart from his family.</p> + +<p>The truth is certainly far otherwise. It is necessary, first of all, to +know who let Le Chevalier out of prison. Mme. de Noël, one of his +relations, said later, that "they had offered employ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>ment to the prisoner +if he would denounce his accomplice," which offer he haughtily refused. +As his presence was embarrassing, his gaolers were ordered "to let him +go out on parole in the hope that he would not come back," and could +then be condemned for escaping. Le Chevalier profited by the favour, but +returned at the appointed time. This toleration was not at all +surprising in this strange prison, the theatre of so many adventures +that will always remain mysteries. Desmarets tells how the concierge +Boniface allowed an important prisoner, Sir Sidney Smith, to leave the +Temple, "to walk, take baths, dine in town, and even go out hunting;" +the commodore never failed to return to sleep in his cell, and "took +back his parole in reentering."</p> + +<p>It was necessary then, for some one to undertake to get Le Chevalier out +of the Temple, as he would not break his parole when he was outside; and +this explains the simulated escape. What cannot be established, +unfortunately, is the part taken by Fouché and Réal. Were they the +instigators or the dupes? Did they esteem it better to feign ignorance, +or was it in reality the act of subalterns working unknown to their +chiefs? In any case, no one for a moment believed in the wall two yards +thick bored through in one night by the aid of a fork, any more than in +the rope-ladder made from a pair of nankeen breeches. Réal, in revenge, +dismissed the concierge of the prison, put the gaoler Savard in irons, +and exacted a report on "all the circumstances that could throw any +light on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> acquaintances the prisoner must have had in the prison to +facilitate his escape."</p> + +<p>It seems very probable that Licquet, either directly or through an agent +like Perlet, in whom Le Chevalier had the greatest confidence, had had a +hand in this escape. As soon as the prisoner was free, as soon as Mme. +Acquet had given up all her secrets as the price of her lover's liberty, +it only remained to secure him again, and the means employed to gain +this end must have been somewhat discreditable, for in the reports sent +to the Emperor, who was daily informed of the progress of the affair, +things were manifestly misrepresented. The following facts cannot be +questioned: Le Chevalier had found in Paris "an impenetrable retreat +where he could boldly defy all the efforts of the police;" Fouché, +guessing at the feelings of the fugitive, issued a warrant against Mme. +Thiboust. By whom was Le Chevalier informed in his hiding-place of his +sister-in-law's arrest? It is here, evidently, that a third person +intervened. However that may be, the outlaw wrote to Fouché "offering to +show himself as soon as the woman who acted as a mother to his son +should be set at liberty." Fouché had Mme. Thiboust brought before him, +and gave her a safe conduct of eight days for Le Chevalier, with +positive and reiterated assurance that he would give him a passport for +England as soon as he should deliver himself up.</p> + +<p>Mme. Thiboust returned home to the Rue des Martyrs, where Le Chevalier +came to see her; it was the evening of the 5th of January, 1808. He +covered his little son with kisses and put him in bed: the child always +remembered the caresses he received that evening. Mme. Thiboust, who did +not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>put much faith in Fouché's promises, begged her brother-in-law to +flee. "No, no," he replied; and later on she reported his answer thus: +"The minister has kept his promise in setting you at liberty and I must +keep mine—honour demands it; to hesitate would be weak, and to fail +would be a crime." On the morning of the 6th, persuaded—or pretending +to be—that Fouché was going to assist his crossing to England, he +embraced his child and sister-in-law.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "it is Twelfth-Night, and it is a fine day; have a mass +said for us, and get breakfast ready. I shall be back in two hours."</p> + +<p>Two hours later Inspector Pasque restored him to the Temple, and saw +that he was put "hands and feet in irons, in the most rigorous +seclusion, under the surveillance of a police agent who was not to leave +him day or night."</p> + +<p>The same evening Fouché sent the Emperor a report which contained no +mention of the chivalrous conduct of Le Chevalier; it said that "the +police had seized this brigand at the house of a woman with whom he had +relations, and that they had succeeded in throwing themselves upon him +before he could use his weapons." On the morning of the 9th, Commandant +Durand, of the staff, presented himself at the Temple, and had the irons +removed from the prisoner, who appeared at noon before a military +commission in a hall in the staff office, 7 Quoi Voltaire. This +expeditious magistracy was so sparing of its paper and ink that it took +no notes. It played, in the social organisation, the rôle of a trap into +which were thrust such people as were found embarrassing. Some were +condemned whose fate is only known because their names have been found +scribbled on a torn paper that served as an envelope for police reports.</p> + +<p>Le Chevalier was condemned to death; he left the office of the staff at +four o'clock and was thrown into the Abbaye to await execution. While +the preparations were being made he wrote the following letter to Mme. +Thiboust who had been thr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>ee days without news, and it reached the poor +woman the next day.<br /></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 30em;">"<i>Saturday</i>, 9 January, 1808.</span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am going to die, my sister, and I bequeath you my son. I do not +doubt that you will show him all a mother's tenderness and care. I +beg you also to have all the firmness and vigilance that I should +have had in forming his character and heart.</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately, in leaving you the child that is so dear to me, I +cannot also leave you a fortune equal to that which I inherited +from my parents. I reproach myself, more than for any other fault +in my life, for having diminished the inheritance they transmitted +to me. Bring him up according to his actual fortune, and make him +an artisan, if you must, rather than commit him to the care of +strangers.</p> + +<p>"One of my greatest regrets in quitting this life, is leaving it +without having shown my gratitude to you and your daughter.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye; I shall live, I hope, in your remembrance, and you will +keep me alive in that of my son.</p></div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 30em;">"<span class="smcap">Le Chevalier</span>."</span><br /> +<br /></p> + +<p>Night had come—a cold misty winter night—when the cab that was to take +the prisoner to his execution arrived at the door of the Abbaye. It was +a long way from Saint-Germain-des-Près to the barriers by way of the Rue +du Four and Rue de Grenelle, the Avenue de l'École Militaire, and the +tortuous way that is now the Rue Dupleix. The damp fog made the night +seem darker; few persons were about, and the scene must have been +peculiarly gloomy and forbidding. The cab stopped in the angle formed +by the barrier of Grenelle, and on the bare ground the condemned man +stood with his back to the wall of the enclosure. It was the custom at +night executions to place a lighted lantern on the breast of the victim +as a target for the men.</p> + +<p>It was all over at six o'clock. While the troop was returning to town +the grave-diggers took the corpse which had fallen beneath the wall and +carried it to the cemetery of Vaugirard; a neighbouring gardener and an +old man of eighty, whom curiosity had led to the corpse of this unknown +Chouan, served as witnesses to the death certificate.</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +<p>The death of Le Chevalier put an end to the prosecution of the affair of +Quesnay. He was one of those prisoners of whom the grand judge said +"that they could not be set at liberty, but that the good of the State +required that they should not appear before the judges"; and they feared +that by pushing the investigations farther they might bring on some +great political trial that would agitate the whole west of France, +always ready for an insurrection, and shown in the reports to be +organised for a new Chouan outburst. It is certain that d'Aché's capture +would have embarrassed Fouché seriously, and in default of causing him +to disappear like Le Chevalier, he would much have preferred to see him +escape the pursuit of his agents. The absence of these two leaders in +the plot would enable him to represent the robbery of June 7th, as a +simple act of brigandage which had no political significance whatever.</p> + +<p>They therefore imposed silence on the gabblings of Lefebre, who had +become a prey to such incontinence of denunciations that he only stopped +them to lament his fate and curse those who had drawn him into the +adventure; they moderated Licquet's zeal, and the prefect confided to +him the drawing up of the general report of the affair, a task of which +he acquitted himself so well that his voluminous work seemed to Fouché +"sufficiently luminous and circumstantial to be submitted as it was to +his Majesty."</p> + +<p>Then they began, but in no haste, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>to concern themselves with the trial +of the other prisoners. It was necessary, according to custom, to +interrogate and confront the forty-seven persons imprisoned; of this +number the prosecution only held thirty-two, of whom twenty-three were +present. These were Flierlé, Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Épine and Le +Héricey who by Allain's orders had attacked the waggon; the Marquise de +Combray, her daughter and Lefebre, instigators of the crime; Gousset the +carrier; Alexandre Buquet, Placène, Vannier, Langelley, who had received +the money; Chauvel and Lanoë as accomplices, and the innkeepers of +Louvigny, d'Aubigny and elsewhere who had entertained the brigands. +Those absent were d'Aché, Allain, Le Lorault called "La Jeunesse," +Joseph Buquet, the Dupont girl, and the friends of Le Chevalier or +Lefebre who were compromised by the latter's revelations—Courmaceul, +Révérend, Dusaussay, etc., Grenthe, called "Cœur-le-Roi," had died in +the conciergerie during the enquiry. Mme. de Combray's gardener, +Châtel, had committed suicide a few days after his arrest. As to Placide +d'Aché and Bonnœil, it was decided not to bring them to trial but to +take them later before a military commission. Everything was removed +that could give the trial political significance.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray, who was at last enlightened as to the kind of interest +taken in her by Licquet, and awakened from the illusions that the +detective had so cleverly nourished, had been able to communicate +directly with her family. Her son Timoléon had never approved of her +political actions and since the Revol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>ution had stayed away from +Tournebut; but as soon as he heard of their arrest he hurried to Rouen +to be near his mother and brother in prison. The letters he exchanged +with Bonnœil, as soon as it was permitted, show a strong sense of the +situation on the part of both, irreproachable honesty and profound +friendship. This family, whom it suited Licquet to represent as +consisting of spiteful, dissolute or misguided people, appears in a very +different light in this correspondence. The two brothers were full of +respect for their mother, and tenderly attached to their sister: +unfortunate and guilty as she was, they never reproached her, nor made +any allusion to facts well-known and forgiven. They were all leagued +against the common enemy, Acquet, whom they considered the cause of all +their suffering. This man had returned from the Temple strengthened by +the cowardly service he had rendered, and entered Donnay in triumph; he +did not try to conceal his joy at all the catastrophes that had +overtaken the Combrays, and treated them as vanquished enemies. The +family held a council. The advice of Bonnœil and Timoléon, as well as +of the Marquise, was to sacrifice everything to save Mme. Acquet. They +knew that her husband's denunciations made her the chief culprit, and +that the accusation would rest almost entirely on her. They determined +to appeal to Chauveau-Lagarde, whom the perilous honour of defending +Marie-Antoinette before the Revolutionary tribunal had rendered +illustrious. The great advocate undertook the defence of Mme. Acquet and +sent a young secretary named Ducolombier, who usually lived with him, to +Rouen to study the case—"an intriguer calling himself doctor," wrote +Licquet s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>cornfully. Ducolombier stayed in Rouen and set himself to +examine the condition of the Combrays' fortune. Mme. de Combray had +consented some years back to the sale of a part of her property, and +Timoléon, in the hope of averting financial disaster and being of use to +his mother by diminishing her responsibility, had succeeded in having a +trustee appointed for her.</p> + +<p>The matter was brought to Rouen and it was there that, "for the safety +of the State," the trial took place that excited all Normandy in +advance. Curiosity was greatly aroused by the crime committed by "ladies +of the château," and surprising revelations were expected, the +examination having lasted more than a year and having brought together +an army of witnesses from around Falaise and Tournebut. Mme. de +Combray's house in the Rue des Carmélites had become the headquarters +of the defence. Mlle. Querey had come out of prison after several weeks' +detention, and was there looking after the little Acquets, who had been +kept at the pension Du Saussay in ignorance of what was going on around +them: the three children still suffered from the ill-treatment they had +received in infancy. Timoléon also lived in the Rue des Carmélites when +the interests of his family did not require his presence in Falaise or +Paris. There, also, lived Ducolombier, who had organised a sort of +central office in the house where the lawyers of the other prisoners +could come and consult. Mme. de Combray had chosen Maître Gady de la +Vigne of Rouen to defend her; Maître Denise had charge of Flierlé's +case, and Maître le Bouvier was to speak for Lefebre and Placène.</p> + +<p>Ch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>auveau-Lagarde arrived in Rouen on December 1, 1808. He had scarcely +done so when he received a long epistle from Acquet de Férolles, in +which the unworthy husband tried to dissuade him from undertaking the +defence of his wife, and to ruin the little testimony for the defence +that Ducolombier had collected. It seems that this scoundrelly +proceeding immediately enlightened the eminent advocate as to the +preliminaries of the drama, for from this day he proved for the Combray +family not only a brilliant advocate, but a friend whose devotion never +diminished.</p> + +<p>The trial opened on December 15th in the great hall of the Palais. A +crowd, chiefly peasants, collected as soon as the doors were opened in +the part reserved for the public. A platform had been raised for the +twenty-three prisoners, among whom all eyes searched for Mme. Acquet, +very pale, indifferent or resigned, and Mme. de Combray, very much +animated and with difficulty induced by her counsel to keep silent. +Besides the president, Carel, the court was composed of seven judges, of +whom three were military; the imperial and special Procurer-General, +Chopais-Marivaux, occupied the bench.</p> + +<p>From the beginning it was evident that orders had been given to suppress +everything that could give political colour to the affair. As neither +d'Aché, Le Chevalier, Allain nor Bonnœil was present, nor any of the +men who could claim the honour of being treated a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>s conspirators and not +as brigands, the judges only had the small fry of the plot before them, +and the imperial commissary took care to name the chiefs only with great +discretion. He did it by means of epithets, and in a melodramatic tone +that caused the worthy people who jostled each other in the hall to +shiver with terror.</p> + +<p>Never had the gilded panels, which since the time of Louis XII had +formed the ceiling of the great hall of the Palais, heard such +astonishing eloquence; for three hours the Procurer Chopais-Marivaux +piled up his heavy sentences, pretentious to the point of +unintelligibility. When, after having recounted the facts, the +magistrate came to the flight of Mme. Acquet and her sojourn with the +Vanniers and Langelley, and it was necessary without divulging Licquet's +proceedings to tell of her arrest, he became altogether +incomprehensible. He must have thought himself lucky in not having +before him, on the prisoners' bench, a man bold enough to show up the +odious subterfuges that had been used in order to entrap the +conspirators and obtain their confessions; there is no doubt that such a +revelation would have gained for the two guilty women, if not the +leniency of the judges, the sympathy at least of the public, who all +over the province were awaiting with anxious curiosity the slightest +details of the trial. The gazettes had been ordered to ignore it; the +<i>Journal de Rouen</i> only spoke of it once to state that, as it lacked +space to reproduce the whole trial, it preferred to abstain altogether; +and but for a few of Licquet's notes, nothing would be known of the +character of the proc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>eedings.</p> + +<p>The interrogation of the accused and the examination of the witnesses +occupied seven sittings. On Thursday, December 22d, the Procurer-General +delivered his charge. The prosecution tried above all to show up the +antagonism existing between Mme. de Combray and M. Acquet de Férolles. +The latter's denunciations had borne fruit; the Marquise was represented +as having tried "to get rid of her son-in-law by poisoning his drink." +And the old story of the bottles of wine sent to Abbé Clarisse and of +his inopportune death were revived; all the unpleasant rumours that had +formerly circulated around Donnay were amplified, made grosser, and +elevated to the position of accomplished facts. It was decided that +poison "was a weapon familiar to the Marquise of Combray," and as, +after having replied satisfactorily to all the first questions asked +her, she remained mute on this point, a murmur of disapprobation ran +round the audience, to the great joy of Licquet. "The prisoner," he +notes, "whose sex and age at first rendered her interesting, has lost +to-day every vestige of popularity."</p> + +<p>We know nothing of Mme. Acquet's examination, and but little of +Chauveau-Lagarde's pleading; a leaf that escaped from his portfolio and +was picked up by Mme. de Combray gives a few particulars. This paper has +some pencilled notes, and two or three questions written to Mme. Acquet +on the prisoners' bench, to which she scrawled a few words in reply. We +find there a sketch o<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>f the theme which the advocate developed, doubtless +to palliate his client's misconduct.</p> + +<p>"Mme. Acquet is reproached with her liaisons with Le Chevalier; she can +answer—or one can answer for her—that she suffered ill-treatment of +all kinds for four years from a man who was her husband only from +interest, so much so that he tried to get rid of her.... Fearful at one +time of being poisoned, at another of having her brains dashed out,... +her suit for separation had brought her in touch with Le Chevalier, whom +she had not known until her husband let him loose on her in order to +bring about an understanding...."</p> + +<p>During the fifteen sittings of the court a restless crowd filled the +hall, the courts of the Palais, and the narrow streets leading to it. At +eight o'clock in the morning of December 30th, the president, Carel, +declared the trial closed, and the court retired to "form its opinions." +Not till three o'clock did the bell announce the return of the +magistrates. The verdict was immediately pronounced. Capital punishment +was the portion of Mme. Acquet, Flierlé, Lefebre, Harel, Grand-Charles, +Fleur d'Épine, Le Héricey, Gautier-Boismale, Lemarchand and Alexandre +Buquet. The Marquise de Combray was condemned to twenty-two years' +imprisonment in irons, and so were Lerouge, called Bornet, Vannier and +Bureau-Placène. The others were acquitted, but had to be detained "for +the decision of his Excellency, the minister-of-police." The Marquise +was, bes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>ides, to restore to the treasury the total sum of money taken. +Whilst the verdict was being read, the people crowded against the +barriers till they could no longer move, eagerly scanning the +countenances of the two women. The old Marquise, much agitated, +declaimed in a loud voice against the Procurer-General: "Ah! the +monster! The scoundrel! How he has treated us!"</p> + +<p>Mme. Acquet, pale and impassive, seemed oblivious of what was going on +around her. When she heard sentence of death pronounced against her, she +turned towards her defender, and Chauveau-Lagarde, rising, asked for a +reprieve for his client. Although she had been in prison for fourteen +months, she was, he said, "in an interesting condition." There was a +murmur of astonishment in the hall, and while, during the excitement +caused by this declaration, the court deliberated on the reprieve, one +of the condemned, Le Héricey, leapt over the bar, fell with all his +weight on the first rows of spectators, and by kicks and blows, aided by +the general bewilderment, made a path for himself through the crowd, and +amid shouts and shoves had already reached the door when a gendarme +nabbed him in passing and threw him back into the hall, where, trampled +on and overcome with blows, he was pushed behind the bar and taken away +with the other condemned prisoners. The reprieve asked for Mme. Acquet +was pronounced in the midst of the tumult, the crush at the door of the +great hall being so great that many were injured.</p> + +<p>The verdict, which soon became known all over the town, was in general +ill received. If <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>the masses showed a dull satisfaction in the punishment +of the Combray ladies, saying "that neither rank nor riches had counted, +and that, guilty like the others, they were treated like the others," +the bourgeois population of Rouen, still very indulgent to the +royalists, disapproved of the condemnation of the two women, who had +only been convicted of a crime by which neither of them had profited. +The reprieve granted to Mme. Acquet, "whose declaration had deceived no +one," seemed a good omen, indicating a commutation of her sentence. The +nine "brigands" condemned to death received no pity. Lefebre was not +known in Rouen, and his attitude during the trial had aroused no +sympathy; the others were but vulgar actors in the drama, and only +interested the populace hungry for a spectacle on the scaffold. The +executions would take place immediately, the judgments pronounced by the +special court being without appeal, like those of the former +revolutionary tribunals.</p> + +<p>The nine condemned men were taken to the conciergerie. It was night when +their "toilet" was begun. The high-executioner, Charles-André Ferey, of +an old Norman family of executioners, had called on his cousins Joanne +and Desmarets to help him, and while the scaffold was being hastily +erected on the Place du Vieux-Marché, they made preparations in the +prison. In the anguish of this last hour on earth Flierlé's courage +weakened. He sent a gaoler to the imperial procurer to ask "if a +reprieve would be granted to any one who would make important +revelations." On receiving a negative reply the German seemed to resign +himself to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> fate. "Since that is the case," he said, "I will carry my +secret to the tomb with me."</p> + +<p>The doors of the conciergerie did not open until seven in the evening. +By the light of torches the faces of the condemned were seen in the +cart, moving above the crowds thronging the narrow streets. The usual +route from the prison to the scaffold was by the Rue du Gros-Horloge, +and this funeral march by torchlight and execution at midnight in +December must have been a terrifying event. The crowd, kept at a +distance, probably saw nothing but the glimmering light of the torches +in the misty air, and the shadowy forms moving on the platform. +According to the <i>Journal de Rouen</i> of the next day, Flierlé mounted +first, then Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Épine and Le Héricey who took +part with him in the attack on June 7th. Lefebre "passed" sixth. The +knife struck poor Gautier-Boismale badly, as well as Alexandre Buquet, +who died last. The agony of these two unfortunates was horrible, +prolonged as it was by the repairs necessary for the guillotine to +continue its work. The bloody scene did not end till half-past eight in +the morning.</p> + +<p>The next day, December 31st, the exhibition on the scaffold of Mme. de +Combray, Placène, Vannier, and Lerouge, all condemned to twenty-two +years' imprisonment, was to take place. But when they went to the old +Marquise's cell she was found in such a state of exasperatio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>n, fearful +crises of rage being succeeded by deep dejection, that they had to give +up the idea of removing her. The three men alone were therefore tied to +the post, where they remained for six hours. As soon as they returned to +the conciergerie they were sent in irons to the House of Detention at +the general hospital, whence they were to go to the convict prison.</p> + +<p>The Marquise had not twenty-two years to live. The thought of ending her +days in horrible Bicêtre with thieves, beggars and prostitutes; the +humiliation of having been defeated, deceived and made ridiculous in the +eyes of all Normandy; and perhaps more than all, the sudden +comprehension that it had all been a game, that the Revolution would +triumph in the end, that she, a great and powerful lady—noble, rich, a +royalist—was treated the same as vulgar criminals, was so cruel a blow, +that it was the general impression that she would succumb to it. It is +impossible nowadays to realise what an effect these revelations must +have produced on a mind obstinately set against all democratic +realities. For nearly a month the Marquise remained in a state of +stupefaction; from the day of her condemnation till January 15th it was +impossible to get her to take any kind of nourishment. She knew that +they were watching for the moment when she would be strong enough to +stand the pillory, and perhaps she had resolved to die of hunger. There +had been some thought—and this compassionate idea seems to have +originated with Licquet—of sparing the aged woman this supreme agony, +but the Procurer-General showed such bitter zeal in the execution of the +sentence, that the prefect received orders from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>Réal to proceed. He +writes on January 29th: "I am informed of her condition daily. She now +takes light nourishment, but is still extremely feeble; we could not +just now expose this woman to the pillory without public scandal."</p> + +<p>What was most feared was the indignation of the public at sight of the +torture uselessly inflicted on an old woman who had already been +sufficiently punished. The prefect's words, "without scandal," showed +how popular feeling in Rouen had revolted at the verdict. More than one +story got afloat. As the details of the trial were very imperfectly +known, no journal having published the proceedings, it was said that the +Marquise's only crime was her refusal to denounce her daughter, and +widespread pity was felt for this unhappy woman who was considered a +martyr to maternal love and royalist faith. Perhaps some of this +universal homage was felt even in the prison, for towards the middle of +February the Marquise seemed calmer and morally strengthened. The +authorities profited by this to order her punishment to proceed. It was +February the 17th, and as one of her "attacks" was feared, they +prudently took her by surprise. She was told that Dr. Ducolombier, +coming from Chauveau-Lagarde, asked to see her at the wicket. She went +down without suspicion and was astonished to find in place of the man +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>she expected, two others whom she had never seen. One was the +executioner Ferey, who seized her hands and tied her. The doors opened, +and seeing the gendarmes, the cart and the crowd, she understood, and +bowed her head in resignation.</p> + +<p>On the Place du Vieux-Marché the scaffold was raised, and a post to +which the text of the verdict was affixed. The prisoner was taken up to +the platform; she seemed quite broken, thin, yet very imposing, with her +still black hair, and her air of "lady of the manor." She was dressed in +violet silk, and as she persisted in keeping her head down, her face was +hidden by the frills of her bonnet. To spare her no humiliation Ferey +pinned them up; he then made her sit on a stool and tied her to the +post, which forced her to hold up her head.</p> + +<p>What she saw at the foot of the scaffold brought tears of pride to her +eyes. In the first row of the crowd that quietly and respectfully filled +the place, ladies in sombre dresses were grouped as close as possible to +the scaffold, as if to take a voluntary part in the punishment of the +old Chouanne; and during the six hours that the exhibition lasted the +ladies of highest rank and most distinguished birth in the town came by +turns to keep her company in her agony; some of them even spread flowers +at the foot of the scaffold, thus transforming the disgrace into an +apotheosis.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> + +<p>The heart of the Marquise, which had not softened through seventeen +months of torture and anxiety, melted at last before this silent homage; +tears were seen rolling down her thin cheeks, and the crowd was touched +to see the highest ladies in the town sitting round this old unhappy +woman, and saluting her with solemn courtesies.</p> + +<p>At nightfall Mme. de Combray was taken back to the conciergerie; later +in the evening she was sent to Bicêtre, and several days afterwards +Chopais-Marivaux, thinking he had served the Master well, begged as the +reward of his zeal for the cross of the Legion of Honour.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE FATE OF D'ACHÉ</h3> + + +<p>D'Aché, however, had not renounced his plans; the arrest of Le +Chevalier, Mme. de Combray and Mme. Acquet was not enough to discourage +him. It was, after all, only one stake lost, and he was the sort to +continue the game. It is not even certain that he took the precaution, +when Licquet was searching for him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> all over Normandy, to leave the +Château of Montfiquet at Mandeville, where he had lived since his +journey to England in the beginning of 1807. Ten months after the +robbery of Quesnay he was known to be in the department of the Eure; +Licquet, who had just terminated his enquiry, posted to Louviers, +d'Aché, he found, had been there three days previously. From where had +he come? From Tournebut, where, in spite of the search made, he could +have lived concealed for six months in some well-equipped hiding-place? +Unlikely as this seems, Licquet was inclined to believe it, so much was +his own cunning disconcerted by the audacious cleverness of his rival. +The letter in which he reports to Réal his investigation in the Eure, is +stamped with deep discouragement; he did not conceal the fact that the +pursuit of d'Aché was a task as deceptive as it was useless. Perhaps he +also thought that Le Chevalier's case was a precedent to be followed; +d'Aché would have been a very undesirable prisoner to bring before a +tribunal, and to get rid of him without scandal would be the best thing +for the State. Licquet felt that an excess of zeal, bringing on a +spectacular arrest such as that of Georges Cadoudal, would be +ill-received in high quarters, and he therefore showed some nonchalance +in his search for the conspirator.</p> + +<p>D'Aché, meanwhile, showed little concern on learning of the capture of +his accomplices. Lost in his illusions he took no care for his own +safety, and remained at Mandeville, organising imaginary legions on +paper, arranging the stages of the King's journey to Paris, and +discussing with the Montfiquets certain points of etiquette regarding +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>the Prince's stay at their château on the day following his arrival in +France. One day, however, when they were at table—it was in the spring +of 1808—a stranger arrived at the Château de Mandeville, and asked for +M. Alexandre (the name taken by d'Aché, it will be remembered, at +Bayeux). D'Aché saw the man himself, and thinking his manner suspicious, +and his questions indiscreet, he treated him as a spy and showed him the +door, but not before the intruder had launched several threats at him.</p> + +<p>This occurrence alarmed M. de Montfiquet, and he persuaded his guest to +leave Mandeville for a time. During the following night they both +started on foot for Rubercy, where M. Gilbert de Mondejen, a great +friend and confidant of d'Aché's, was living in hiding from the police +in the house of a Demoiselle Genneville. This old lady, who was an +ardent royalist, welcomed the fugitives warmly; they were scarcely +seated at breakfast, however, when a servant gave the alarm. "Here come +the soldiers!" she cried.</p> + +<p>D'Aché and Mondejen rushed from the room and bounded across the porch +into the courtyard just as the gendarmes burst in at the gate. They +would have been caught if a horse had not slipped on the wet pavement +and caused some confusion, during which they shut themselves into a +barn, escaped by a door at the back, and jumping over hedges and ditches +gained a little wood on the further side of the Tortoue brook.</p> + +<p>But d'Aché had been seen, and from that day he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> was obliged to resume his +wandering existence, living in the woods by day and tramping by night. +He was entirely without resources, for he had no money, but was certain +of finding a refuge, in case of need, in this region where malcontents +abounded and all doors opened to them. In this way he reached the forest +of Serisy, a part of which had formerly belonged to the Montfiquets; it +was here that the abandoned mines were situated that had been mentioned +to Licquet as Allain's place of refuge. Though obliged to abandon the +Château de Mandeville, where, as well as at Rubercy, the gendarmes had +made a search, d'Aché did not lack shelter around Bayeux. A Madame +Chivré, who lived on the outskirts of the town, had for fifteen years +been the providence of the most desperate Chouans, and d'Aché was sure +of a welcome from her; but he stayed only a few days.</p> + +<p>Mme. Amfrye also assisted him. This woman who never went out except to +church, and was seen every morning with eyes downcast, walking to +Saint-Patrice with her servant carrying her prayer book, was one of the +fiercest royalists of the region. She looked after the emigrants' funds +and took charge of their correspondence. Once a week a priest rang her +door-bell; it was the Abbé Nicholas, curé of Vierville, a little fishing +village. The Abbé, whose charity was proverbial, and accounted for his +visits to Mme. Amfrye, was in reality a second David l'Intrépide; mass +said and his beads told, he got into a boat and went alone to the +islands of Saint-Marcouf, where an exchange of letters was made with the +English emissaries, the good priest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> bringing his packet back to Bayeux +under his soutane.</p> + +<p>D'Aché could also hide with Mademoiselle Dumesnil, or Mlle. Duquesnay de +Montfiquet, to both of whom he had been presented by Mme. de Vaubadon, +an ardent royalist who had rendered signal service to the party during +the worst days of the Terror. She was mentioned among the Normans who +had shown most intelligent and devoted zeal for the cause.</p> + +<p>Born de Mesnildot, niece of Tourville, she had married shortly before +the Revolution M. le Tellier de Vaubadon, son of a member of the Rouen +Parliament, a handsome man, amiable, loyal, elegant, and most charmingly +sociable. She was medium-sized, not very pretty, but attractive, with a +very white skin, tawny hair, and graceful carriage. Two sons were born +of this union, and on the outbreak of the Revolution M. de Vaubadon +emigrated. After several months of retreat in the Château of Vaubadon, +the young woman tired of her grass-widowhood, which seemed as if it +would be eternal, and returned to Bayeux where she had numerous +relations. The Terror was over; life was reawakening, and the gloomy +town gave itself up to it gladly. "Never were balls, suppers, and +concerts more numerous, animated and brilliant in Bayeux than at this +period." Mme. de Vaubadon's success was marked. When some of her papers +were seized in the year IX the following note from an adorer was found: +"All the men who have had the misfortune to see you have been mortally +wounded. I therefore implore you not to stay long in this town, not to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>leave your apartment but at dusk, and veiled. We hope to cure our +invalids by cold baths and refreshing drinks; but be gracious enough not +to make incurables."</p> + +<p>So that her children should not be deprived of their father's fortune, +which the nation could sequestrate as the property of an <i>émigré</i>, Mme. +de Vaubadon, like many other royalists, had sued for a divorce. All +those who had had recourse to this extremity had asked for an annulment +of the decree as soon as their husbands could return to France, and had +resumed conjugal relations. But Mme. de Vaubadon did not consider her +divorce a mere formality; she intended to remain free, and even brought +suit against her husband for the settlement of her property. This act, +which was severely criticised by the aristocracy of Bayeux, alienated +many of her friends and placed her somewhat on the outskirts of +society. From that time lovers were attributed to her, and it is certain +that her conduct became more light. She scarcely concealed her liaison +with Guérin de Bruslart, the leader of the Norman Chouans, the successor +of Frotté, and a true type of the romantic brigand, who managed to live +for ten years in Normandy and even in Paris, without falling into one of +the thousand traps set for him by Fouché. Bruslart arrived at his +mistress's house at night, his belt bristling with pistols and poniards, +and "always ready for a desperate hand-to-hand fight."</p> + +<p>Together with this swaggerer Mme. de Vaubadon received a certain +Ollendon, a Chouan of doubtful reputation, who was said to have gone +over to the police through ne<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>ed of money. Mme. de Vaubadon, since her +divorce, had herself been in a precarious position. She had dissipated +her own fortune, which had already been greatly lessened by the +Revolution. She was now reduced to expedients, and seeing closed to her +the doors of many of the houses in Bayeux to which her presence had +formerly given tone, she went to Caen and settled in the Rue Guilbert +nearly opposite the Rue Coupée.</p> + +<p>Whether it was that Ollendon had decided to profit by her relations with +the Chouans, or that Fouché had learned that she was in need and would +not refuse good pay for her services, Mme. de Vaubadon was induced to +enter into communication with the police. The man whom in 1793 Charlotte +Corday had immortally branded with a word, Senator Doulcet de +Pontécoulant, undertook to gain this recruit for the imperial +government.</p> + +<p>If certain traditions are to be trusted, Pontécoulant, who was supposed +to be one of Acquet de Férolles' protectors, had insinuated to Mme. de +Vaubadon that "her intrigues with the royalists had long been known in +high places, and an order for her arrest and that of d'Aché, who was +said to be her lover, was about to be issued." "You understand," he +added, "that the Emperor is as merciful as he is powerful, that he has a +horror of punishment and only wants to conciliate, but that he must +crush, at all costs, the aid given to England by the agitation on the +coasts. Redeem your past.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> You know d'Aché's retreat: get him to leave +France; his return will be prevented, but the certainty of his +embarkation is wanted, and you will be furnished with agents who will be +able to testify to it."</p> + +<p>In this way Mme. de Vaubadon would be led to the idea of revealing +d'Aché's retreat, believing that it was only a question of getting him +over to England; but facts give slight support to this sugared version +of the affair. After the particularly odious drama that we are about to +relate, all who had taken part in it tried to prove for themselves a +moral alibi, and to throw on subordinates the horror of a crime that had +been long and carefully prepared. Fouché, whom few memories disturbed, +was haunted by this one, and attributed to himself a rôle as chivalrous +as unexpected. According to him, d'Aché, in extremity, had tried a bold +stroke. This man, who, since Georges' death, had so fortunately escaped +all the spies of France, had of his own will suddenly presented himself +before the Minister of Police, to convert him to royalist doctrines! +Fouché had shown a loyalty that equalled his visitor's boldness. "I do +not wish," he said, "to take advantage of your boldness and have you +arrested <i>hic et nunc</i>; I give you three days to get out of France; +during this time I will ignore you completely; on the fourth day I will +set my men on you, and if you are taken you must bear the consequences."</p> + +<p>This is honourable, but without doubt false. Besides the improbability +of this conspirator offering himself without <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>reason to the man who had +hunted him so long, it is difficult to imagine that such a meeting could +have taken place without any mention of it being made in the +correspondence in the case. None of the letters exchanged between the +Minister of Police and the prefects makes any allusion to this visit; it +seems to accord so little with the character of either that it must be +relegated to the ranks of the legends with which Fouché sought to hide +his perfidies. It is certain that a snare was laid for d'Aché, that Mme. +de Vaubadon was the direct instrument, that Pontécoulant acted as +intermediary between the minister and the woman; but the inventor of the +stratagem is unknown. A simple recital of the facts will show that all +three of those named are worthy to have combined in it.</p> + +<p>Public rumour asserts that Mme. de Vaubadon had been d'Aché's mistress, +but she did not now know where he was hidden. In the latter part of +August, 1809, she went to Bayeux to find out from her friend Mlle. +Duquesnay de Montfiquet if d'Aché was in the neighbourhood, and if so, +with whom. Mlle. de Montfiquet, knowing Mme. de Vaubadon to be one of +the outlaw's most intimate friends, told her that he had been living in +the town for a long time, and that she went to see him every week. The +matter ended there, and after paying some visits, Mme. de Vaubadon +returned by coach the same evening to Caen.</p> + +<p>It became known later that she had a long interview with Pontécoulant +the next day, during which it was agreed that she should deliver up +d'Aché, in return for which Fouché would pay her debts and give her a +pension. But she attached a strange condition to the bargain; she +refused "to act with the authorities, and only undertook to keep her +promise if they put at her disposal, while leaving her completely +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>independent, a non-commissioned officer of gendarmerie, whom she was to +choose herself, and who would blindly obey her orders, without having to +report to his chiefs." Perhaps the unfortunate woman hoped to retain +d'Aché's life in her keeping, and save him by some subterfuge, but she +had to deal with Pontécoulant, Réal and Fouché, three experienced +players whom it was difficult to deceive. They accepted her conditions, +only desiring to get hold of d'Aché, and determined to do away with him +as soon as they should know where to catch him.</p> + +<p>On Thursday, September 5th, Mme. de Vaubadon reappeared in Bayeux, and +went to Mlle. Duquesnay de Montfiquet to tell her of the imminent danger +d'Aché was in, and to beg her to ensure his safety by putting her in +communication with him. We now follow the story of a friend of Mme. de +Vaubadon's family who tried to prove her innocent, if not of treachery, +at least of the crime that was the result of it. Mlle. de Montfiquet had +great confidence in her friend's loyalty, but not in her discretion, and +obstinately refused to take Mme. de Vaubadon to d'Aché. The former, +fearing that action would be taken without her, returned to the charge, +but encountered a firm determination to be silent that rendered her +insistence fruitless. In despair at the possibility of having aroused +suspicions that might lead to the disappearance of d'Aché, she resolved +not to leave the place.</p> + +<p>"I do not wish to be seen in Bayeux," she said to her friend, "I am +going to sleep here."</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +<p>"But I have only one bed."</p> + +<p>"I will share it with you."</p> + +<p>During the night, as the two women's thoughts kept them from sleeping, +Mme. de Vaubadon changed her tactics.</p> + +<p>"You have no means of saving him," she hinted, "whilst all my plans are +laid. I have at my disposal a boat that for eight or nine hundred francs +will take him to England; I have some one to take him to the coast, and +two sailors to man the boat. If you will not tell me his retreat, at +least make a rendezvous where my guide can meet him. If you refuse he +may be arrested to-morrow, tried, and shot, and the responsibility for +his death will fall on you."</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Montfiquet gave up; she promised to persuade d'Aché to go to +England. It was now Friday, September 6th. It was settled that at ten +o'clock in the evening of the following day she herself should take him +to the village of Saint-Vigor-le-Grand, at the gates of Bayeux. She +would advance alone to meet the guide sent by Mme. de Vaubadon; the men +would say "Samson," to which Mlle. de Montfiquet would answer "Félix," +and only after the exchange of these words would she call d'Aché, hidden +at a distance.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> + +<p>Mme. de Vaubadon returned to Caen, arriving at home before midday. Most +of the frequenters of her salon at this period were aspirants for her +favours, and among whom was a young man of excellent family, M. Alfred +de Formigny, very much in love, and consequently very jealous of +Ollendon, who was then supposed to be the favoured lover. In the evening +of this day, M. de Formigny went to Mme. de Vaubadon's. He was told that +she was not at home, but as he saw a light on the ground floor, and +thought he could distinguish the silhouette of a man against the +curtains, he watched the house and ascertained that its mistress was +having an animated conversation with a visitor whose back only could be +seen, and whom he believed to be his rival. Wishing to make sure of it, +and determined to have an explanation, he stood sentinel before the door +of the house. "Soon a man wrapped in a cloak came out, who, seeing that +he was watched, pulled the folds of it up to his eyes. M. de Formigny, +certain that it was Ollendon, threw himself on the man, and forced off +the cloak." But he felt very sheepish when he found himself face to face +with Foison, quartermaster of gendarmerie, who, not less annoyed, +growled out a few oaths, and hastily made off. The same evening M. de +Formigny told his adventure to some of his friends, but his indiscretion +had no consequences, it seemed, Mme. de Vaubadon's reputation being so +much impaired that a new scandal passed unnoticed.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mlle. de Montfiquet had kept her promise. As soon as her +friend left her, she went to Mlle. Dumesnil's, where d'Aché had lived +for the la<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>st six weeks, and told him of Mme. de Vaubadon's proposition. +The offer was so tempting, it seemed so truly inspired by the most +zealous and thoughtful affection, and came from so trusted a friend, +that he did not hesitate to accept. It appears, however, that he was not +in much danger in Bayeux, and took little pains to conceal himself, for +on Saturday morning he piously took the sacrament at the church of +Saint-Patrice, then returned to Mlle. Dumesnil's and arranged some +papers. As soon as it was quite dark that evening Mlle. de Montfiquet +came to fetch him, and found him ready to start. He was dressed in a +hunting jacket of blue cloth, trousers of ribbed green velvet and a +waistcoat of yellow piqué. He put two loaded English pistols in the +pockets of his jacket and carried a sword-cane. Mlle. de Montfiquet gave +him a little book of "Pensées Chrétiennes," in which she had written +her name; then, accompanied by her servant, she led him across the +suburbs to Saint-Vigor-le-Grand. She found Mme. de Vaubadon's guide at +the rendezvous before the church door; it was Foison, whom she +recognised. The passwords exchanged, d'Aché came forward, kissed Mlle. +de Montfiquet's hand, bade her adieu, and started with the gendarme. The +anxious old lady followed him several steps at a distance, and saw +standing at the end of the wall of the old priory of Saint-Vigor, two +men in citizen's dress, who joined the travellers. All four took the +cross road that led by the farm of Caugy to Villiers-le-Sec. They +wished, by crossing the Seule at Reviers, to get to the coast at +Luc-sur-Mer, seven leagues from Bayeux, where the embarkation was to +take pla<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>ce.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When d'Aché and his companions left Bayeux, Luc-sur-Mer was in a state +of excitement. The next day, Sunday, lots were to be drawn for the +National Guard, and the young people of the village, knowing that this +fête was only "conscription in disguise," had threatened to prevent the +ceremony, to surround the Mairie and burn the registers and the +recruiting papers. What contributed to the general uneasiness was the +fact that four men who were known to be gendarmes in disguise had been +hovering about, chiefly on the beach; they had had the audacity to +arrest two gunners, coast-guards in uniform and on duty, and demand +their papers. A serious brawl had ensued. At night the same men +"suddenly thrust a dark lantern in the face of every one they met."</p> + +<p>M. Boullée, the Mayor of Luc, lived at the hamlet of +Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrande, some distance from the town, and in much +alarm at the disturbances watched with his servants through part of the +night of the 7th-8th. At one o'clock in the morning, while he was with +them in a room on the ground floor, a shot was heard outside and a ball +struck the window frame. They rushed to the door, and in the darkness +saw a man running away; the cartouche was still burning in the +courtyard. M. Boullée immediately sent to the coast-guards to inform +them of the fact, and to ask for a reinforcement of two men who did not +arrive t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>ill near four o'clock. Having passed the night patrolling at +some distance from La Délivrande, they had not heard the shot that had +alarmed the mayor, but towards half-past three had heard firing and a +loud "Help, help!" in the direction of the junction of the road from +Bayeux with that leading to the sea.</p> + +<p>It was now dawn and M. Boullée, reassured by the presence of the two +gunners, resolved to go out and explore the neighbourhood. On the road +to Luc, about five hundred yards from his house, a peasant hailed him, +and showed him, behind a hayrick almost on the edge of the road, the +body of a man. The face had received so many blows as to be almost +unrecognisable; the left eye was coming out of the socket; the hair was +black, but very grey on the temples, and the beard thin and short. The +man lay on his back, with a loaded pistol on each side, about two feet +from the body; the blade and sheath of a sword-cane had rolled a little +way off, and near them was the broken butt-end of a double-barrelled +gun. On raising the corpse to search the pockets, the hands were found +to be strongly tied behind the back. No papers were found that could +give any clue to his identity, but only a watch, thirty francs in +silver, and a little book on the first page of which was written the +name "Duquesnay de Montfiquet."</p> + +<p>The growing daylight now made an investigation possible. Traces of blood +were found on the road to Luc from the place where the body lay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> to its +junction with the road to Bayeux, a distance of about two hundred yards. +It was evident that the murder had been committed at the spot where the +two roads met, and that the assassins had carried the corpse to the +fields and behind the hayrick to retard discovery of the crime. The +disguised gendarmes whose presence had so disturbed the townsfolk had +disappeared. A horse struck by a ball was lying in a ditch. It was +raised, and though losing a great deal of blood, walked as far as the +village of Mathieu, on the road to Caen, where it was stabled.</p> + +<p>These facts having been ascertained, M. Boullée's servants and the +peasants whom curiosity had attracted to the spot, escorted the dead +body, which had been put on a wheelbarrow, to La Délivrande. It was laid +in a barn near the celebrated chapel of pilgrimages, and there the +autopsy took place at five in the afternoon. It was found that "death +was due to a wound made by the blade of the sword-cane; the weapon, +furiously turned in the body, had lacerated the intestines." Three balls +had, besides, struck the victim, and five buckshot had hit him full in +the face and broken several teeth; of two balls fired close to the body, +one had pierced the chest above the left breast, and the other had +broken the left thigh, and one of the murderers had struck the face so +violently that his gun had broken against the skull.</p> + +<p>The mayor had been occupied with the drawing of lots all day, and only +found time to write and inform the prefect of the murder when the +doctors had completed their task. He was in great perplexity, for the +villagers unanimously accused the gendarmes of the mysterious crime. It +was said that at dawn that morning the quartermaster Foison and four of +his men had gone into an inn at Mathieu, one of them carrying a gun with +the butt-end broken. While breakfasting, these "gentlemen," not seeing a +child lying in a closed bed, had taken from a tin box some "yellow +coins" which they divided, and the inference drawn was that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> the +gendarmes had plundered a traveller whom they knew to be well-supplied, +and sure of impunity since they could always plead a case of rebellion, +had got rid of him by murder. This was the sense of the letter sent to +Caffarelli by the Mayor of Luc on the evening of the 8th. The next +morning Foison appeared at La Délivrande to draw up the report. When +Boullée asked him a few questions about the murder, he answered in so +arrogant and menacing a tone as to make any enquiry impossible. Putting +on a bold face, he admitted that he had been present at the scene of the +crime. He said that while he was patrolling the road to Luc with four of +his men, two individuals appeared whom he asked for their papers. One of +them immediately fled, and the other discharged his pistols; the +gendarmes seized him, and in spite of his desperate resistance succeeded +in bringing him down. He stayed dead on the ground, "having been struck +several times during the struggle."</p> + +<p>"But his pistols were still loaded," said some one.</p> + +<p>Foison made no reply.</p> + +<p>"But his hands were tied," said the mayor.</p> + +<p>Foison tried to deny it.</p> + +<p>"Here are the bands," said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>Boullée, drawing from his pocket the ribbon +taken from the dead man's hands. And as Captain Mancel, who presided at +the interview, remarked that those were indeed the bands used by +gendarmes, Foison left the room with more threats, swearing that he owed +an account to no one.</p> + +<p>The news of the crime had spread with surprising rapidity, and +indignation was great wherever it was heard. In writing to Réal, +Caffarelli echoed public feeling:</p> + +<p>"How did it happen that four gendarmes were unable to seize a man who +had struggled for a long time? How came it that he was, in a way, +mutilated? Why, after having killed this man, did they leave him there, +without troubling to comply with any of the necessary formalities? Ask +these questions, M. le Comte; the public is asking them and finds no +answer. What is the reply, if, moreover, as is said, the person was +seized, his hands tightly tied behind his back, and then shot? What are +the terrible consequences to be expected from these facts if they are +true? How will the gendarmes be able to fulfil their duties without fear +of being treated as assassins or wild beasts?"</p> + +<p>It must be mentioned that as soon as the crime was committed, Foison had +gone to Caen and given Pontécoulant the papers found on d'Aché, which +contained information as to the political and military situation on the +coast of Normandy, and on the possibility of a disembarkation. +Pontécoulant had immediately posted off, and on the morning of the 11th +told Fouché verbally of the manner in which Foison and Mme. de Vaubadon +had acquitted themselves of their mission. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>remained to be seen how +the public would take things, and Caffarelli's letter presaged no good; +what would it be when it became known that the gendarme assassins had +acted with the authorisation of the government? Happily, a confusion +arose that retarded the discovery of the truth. In the hope of +determining the dead man's identity, the Mayor of Luc had exposed the +body to view, and many had come to see it, including some people from +Caen. Four of these had unanimously recognised the corpse as that of a +clock-maker of Paris, named Morin-Cochu, well known at the fairs of +Lower Normandy. Fouché allowed the public to follow this false trail, +and it was wonderful to see his lieutenants, Desmarets, Veyrat, Réal +himself, looking for Morin-Cochu all over Paris as if they were +ignorant of the personality of their victim. And when Morin-Cochu was +found alive and well in his shop in the Rue Saint-Denis, which he had +not left for four years, they began just as zealously to look for his +agent Festau, who might well be the murdered man.</p> + +<p>Caffarelli, however, was not to be caught in this clumsy trap. He knew +how matters stood now, and showed his indignation. He wrote very +courageously to Réal: "You will doubtless ask me, M. le Comte, why I +have not tried to show up the truth? My answer is simple: it is publicly +rumoured that the expedition of the gendarmes was ordered by M. the +Senator Comte de P——, to whom were given the papers found on the +murdered man, and who has gone to Paris, no doubt to transmit them to +his Excellency the Minister of Police. Ought I not to respect the secret +of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>authorities?"</p> + +<p>And all that had occurred in his department for the two last years that +it had not been considered advisable to tell him of, all the +irregularities that in his desire for peace he had thought he should +shut his eyes to, all the affronts that he had patiently endured, came +back to his mind. He felt his heart swell with disgust at cowardly acts, +dishonourable tools, and odious snares, and nobly explained his +feelings:</p> + +<p>"Certainly I am not jealous of executing severe measures and I should +like never to have any of that kind to enforce. But I owe it to myself +as well as to the dignity of my office not to remain prefect in name +only, and if any motives whatever can destroy confidence in me to this +point on important matters I must simply be told of it and I shall know +how to resign without murmuring. It is not permissible to treat a man +whose honesty and zeal cannot be mistaken, in the manner in which I have +been treated for some time. I cannot conceal from you, M. le Comte, that +I am keenly wounded at the measures that have been taken towards me. It +has been thought better to put faith in people of tarnished and +despicable reputation, the terror of families, than in a man who has +only sought the good of the country he represented, and known no other +ambition than that of acting wisely."</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +<p>And this letter, so astonishing from the pen of an imperial prefect, was +a sort of revenge for all the poor people for whom the police had laid +such odious traps; it would remind Fouché of all the Licquets and +Foisons who in the exercise of justice found matter for repugnant +comedies. It was surprising that Licquet had had no hand in the affair +of La Délivrande. Had he breathed it to Réal? It is possible, though +there is no indication of his interference, albeit his manner is +recognised in the scenario of the snare to which d'Aché fell a victim, +and in the fact that he appeared at the end, coming from Rouen with his +secretary Dupont, and the husband of the woman Levasseur who was said to +have been d'Aché's mistress.</p> + +<p>On the morning of September 23d, a meeting took place at seven o'clock +at the Mayor of Luc's house. The doctors who had held the autopsy were +there, Captain Mancel and Foison, who was in great agitation, although +he tried to hide it, at having to assist at the exhumation of his +victim. They started for the cemetery, and the grave-digger did his +work. After fifteen minutes the shovel struck the board that covered +d'Aché's body, and soon after the corpse was seen. The beard had grown +thick and strong. Foison gazed at it. It was indeed the man with whom he +had travelled a whole night, chatting amiably while each step brought +him nearer to the assassins who were waiting for him. Licquet moved +about with complete self-control, talking of the time when he had known +the man who lay there, his face swollen but severe, his nose thin as an +eagle's beak, his lips tightened. Suddenly the detective remembered a +sign that he had formerly noted, and ordered the dead man's boots to be +removed. All present could then see that d'Aché's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>"toe-nails were so +grown over into his flesh that he walked on them." Foison also saw, and +wishing to brave this corpse, more terrifying for him than for any one +else, he stooped and opened the dead lips with the end of his cane. A +wave of fetid air struck the assassin full in the face, and he fell +backward with a cry of fear.</p> + +<p>This incident terminated the enquiry; the body was returned to the +earth, and those who had been present at the exhumation started for La +Délivrande. Foison walked alone behind the others; no one spoke to him, +and when they arrived at the mayor's, where all had been invited to +dine, he remained on the threshold which he dared not cross, knowing +that for the rest of his life he would never again enter the house of an +honest man.</p> + +<p>The same evening at Caen, where everything was known, although Fouché +was still looking for Morin-Cochu, the vengeance of the corpse +annihilating Foison was the topic of all conversations. There was a +certain gaiety in the town, that was proud of its prefect's attitude. +When the curtain went up at the theatre, while all the young "swells" +were in the orchestra talking of the event that was agitating "society," +they saw a blonde woman with a red scarf on her shoulders in one of the +boxes. The first one that saw her could not believe his eyes: it was +Mme. de Vaubadon! The name was at first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>whispered, then a murmur went +round that at last broke into an uproar. The whole theatre rose +trembling, and with raised fists cried: "Down with the murderess! She is +the woman with the red shawl; it is stained with d'Aché's blood. Death +to her!"</p> + +<p>The unhappy woman tried to put on a bold face, and remained calm; it is +supposed that Pontécoulant was in the theatre, and perhaps she hoped +that he, at least, would champion her. But when she understood that in +that crowd, among whom many perhaps had loved her, no one now would +defend her, she rose and left her box, while some of the most excited +hustled into the corridor to hoot her in passing. She at last escaped +and got to her house in the Rue Guilbert, and the next day she left Caen +forever.</p> + +<p>Less culpable certainly, and now pitied by all to whom d'Aché's death +recalled the affair of Quesnay, Mme. Acquet was spending her last days +in the conciergerie at Rouen. After the petition for a reprieve on +account of her pregnancy, and the visit of two doctors, who said they +could not admit the truth of her plea, Ducolombier used all his efforts +to obtain grace from the Emperor. As soon as the sentence was pronounced +he had hurried to Paris in quest of means of approaching his Majesty. +His relative, Mme. de Saint-Léonard, wife of the Mayor of Falaise, +joined him there, and got her relatives in official circles to interest +themselves. But the Emperor was then living in a state of continual +agitation; Laeken, Mayence and Cassel were as familiar stopping-places +as Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau, and e<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>ven if a few minutes' audience +could be obtained, what hope was there of fixing his attention on the +life of an insignificant woman? Chauveau-Lagarde advised the +intervention of Mme. Acquet's three girls, the eldest now twelve, and +the youngest not eight years old. Mourning garments were hastily bought +for them, and they were sent to Paris on January 24th, with a Mlle. +Bodinot. Every day they pursued the Emperor's carriage through the town, +as he went to visit the manufactories. Timoléon, Mme. de Saint-Léonard, +and Mlle. de Séran took turns with the children; they went to Malmaison, +to Versailles, to Meudon. At last, on March 2d, at Sèvres, one of the +children succeeded in getting to the door of the imperial carriage, and +put a petition into the hands of an officer, but it probably never +reached the Emperor, for this step that had cost so much money and +trouble remained ineffectual.</p> + +<p>There are among Mme. de Combray's papers more than ten drafts of +petitions addressed to the Emperor's brothers, to Josephine, and even to +foreign princes. But each of them had much to ask for himself, and all +were afraid to importune the master. The latter was now in Germany, +cutting his way to Vienna, and poor Mme. Acquet would have had slight +place in his thoughts in spite of the illusions of her friends, had he +ever even heard her name. In April the little Acquets returned to Mme. +Dusaussay in Rouen. She wrote to Timoléon:</p> + +<p>"I am not surprised that you were not satisfied w<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>ith the children; until +now they have only been restrained by fear, and the circumstances of the +journey to Paris brought them petting and kindness of which they have +taken too much advantage. If worse trouble comes to Mme. Acquet, we will +do our best to keep them in ignorance of it, and it is to be hoped the +same can be done for your mother."</p> + +<p>And so all hope of grace seemed lost for the poor woman, and it would +have been very easy to forget her in prison, for who could be specially +interested in her death? Neither Fouché, Réal, the prefect nor even +Licquet, who, once the verdict was given, seemed to have lost all +animosity towards his victims. Only the imperial procurer, +Chapais-Marivaux, seemed determined on the execution of the sentence. He +had already caused two consultations to be held on the subject of Mme. +Acquet's health. The specialists could not or would not decide upon it, +and this gave some hope to Mme. de Combray, who from her cell in Bicêtre +still presided over all efforts made for her daughter, and continued to +hold a firm hand over her family.</p> + +<p>As the Emperor had now entered Vienna in triumph, the Marquise thought +it a good time to implore once more the conqueror's pity. She sent for +her son Timoléon on June 1st. She had decided to send her two eldest +grandchildren to Vienna with their aunt Mme. d'Houël and the faithful +Ducolombier, who offered to undertake the long journey. Chauveau-Lagarde +drew up a petition for the children to give to Napoleon, and they left +Rouen about July 10th, arriving in Vienna the fortnight following the +battle of Wagram. Ducolombier at once sought a means of seeing the +Emperor. Hurried by the Marquise, who allowed no discussion of the +methods that seemed good to her, he had started without recommendations, +letters of introduction or promises of an audience, and had to wait for +chance to give him a moment's interview with N<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>apoleon. He established +himself with Mme. d'Houël and the children at Schœbrünn, where the +imperial quarters were, and by dint of solicitations obtained the +privilege of going into the court of the château with other supplicants.</p> + +<p>The Emperor was away; he had wished to revisit the scene of his +brilliant victory, and during the whole day Ducolombier and his +companions waited his return on the porch of the château. Towards +evening the gate opened, the guard took up arms, drums beat and the +Emperor appeared on horseback in the immense courtyard, preceded by his +guides and his mameluke, and followed by a numerous staff. The hearts of +the poor little Acquets must have beaten fast when they saw this master +of the world from whom they were going to beg their mother's life. In a +moment the Emperor was upon them; Ducolombier pushed them; they fell on +their knees.</p> + +<p>Seeing these mourning figures, Napoleon thought he had before him the +widow and orphans of some officer killed during the campaign. He raised +the children kindly.</p> + +<p>"Sire! Give us back our mother!" they sobbed.</p> + +<p>The Emperor, much surprised, took the petition from Mme. d'Houël's hands +and read it through. There were a few moments of painful silence; he +raised his eyes to the little girls, asked Ducolombier a few brief +questions, then suddenly starting on,</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> + +<p>"I cannot," he said drily.</p> + +<p>And he disappeared among the groups humbly bowing in the hall. Some one +who witnessed the scene relates that the Emperor was very much moved +when reading the petition. "He changed colour several times, tears were +in his eyes and his voice trembled." The Duke of Rovigo asserted that +pardon would be granted; the Emperor's heart had already pronounced it, +but he was very angry with the minister of police, who after having made +a great fuss over this affair and got all the credit, left him supreme +arbiter without having given him any information concerning it.</p> + +<p>"If the case is a worthy one," said Napoleon, "why did he not send me +word of it? and if it is not, why did he give passports to a family whom +I am obliged to send away in despair?"</p> + +<p>The poor children had indeed to return to France, knowing that they +took, as it were, her death sentence to their mother. Each relay that +brought them nearer to her was a step towards the scaffold; nothing +could now save the poor woman, and she waited in resignation. Never, +since Le Chevalier's death, had she lost the impassive manner that had +astonished the spectators in court. Whether solitude had altered her +ardent nature, or whether she looked on death as the only possible end +to her adventurous existence, she seemed indifferent as to her fate, and +thought no longer of the future. Licquet had long abandoned her; he had +been "her last friend." Of all the survivors of the affair of Quesnay +she was the only one left in the conciergerie, the others having gone to +serve their terms in Bicêtre or other fortresses.</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +<p>Whilst it had seemed possible that Mme. Acquet's friends might obtain +the Emperor's interest in her case, she had received great care and +attention, but since the return of her daughters from Vienna things had +changed. She had become once more "the woman Acquet," and the interest +that had been taken in her gave place to brutal indifference. On August +23d (and this date probably accords with the return of the children and +their aunt) Chapais-Marivaux, in haste to end the affair, sent three +health-officers to examine her, but these good people, knowing the +consequence of their diagnosis, declared that "the symptoms made it +impossible for them to pronounce an opinion on the state of the +prisoner."</p> + +<p>Chapais-Marivaux took a month to find doctors who would not allow pity +to interfere with their professional duty, and on October 6th the +prefect wrote to Réal: "M. le Procureur-Général has just had the woman +Acquet examined by four surgeons, three of whom had not seen her before. +They have certified that she is not pregnant, and so she is to be +executed to-day."</p> + +<p>We know nothing of the way in which she prepared for death, nor of the +feeling which the news of her imminent execution must have occasioned in +the prison; but when she was handed over to the executioner for the +final arrangements, Mme. Acquet wrote two or three letters to beg that +her children might never fall into her husband's hands. Her toilet was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>then made; her beautiful black hair, which she had cut off on coming to +the conciergerie two years previously, fell now under the executioner's +scissors; she put on a sort of jacket of white flannel, and her hands +were tied behind her back. She was now ready; it was half past four in +the afternoon, the doors opened, and a squad of gendarmes surrounded the +cart.</p> + +<p>The cortège went by the "Gros-Horloge" to the "Vieux-Marché." Some one +who saw Mme. Acquet pass, seated in the cart beside the executioner +Ferey, says that "her white dress and short black hair blowing in her +face made the paleness of her skin conspicuous; she was neither downcast +nor bold; the sentence was cried aloud beside the cart."</p> + +<p>She died calmly, as she had lived for months. At five o'clock she +appeared on the platform, very white and very tranquil; unresisting, she +let them tie her; without fear or cry she lay on the board which swung +and carried her under the knife. Her head fell without anything +happening to retard the execution, and the authorities congratulated +themselves on the fact in the report sent to Réal that evening: "The +thing caused no greater sensation than that ordinarily produced by +similar events; the rather large crowd did not give the slightest +trouble."</p> + +<p>And those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>who had stayed to watch the scaffold disappeared before the +gendarmes escorting the men who had come to take away the body. A few +followed it to the cemetery of Saint-Maur where the criminals were +usually buried. The basket was emptied into a ditch that had been dug +not far from a young tree to which some unknown hand had attached a +black ribbon, to mark the spot which neither cross nor tombstone might +adorn. The rain and wind soon destroyed this last sign; and nothing now +remains to show the corner of earth in the deserted and abandoned +cemetery in which still lies the body of the woman whose rank in other +times would have merited the traditional epitaph: "A very high, noble +and powerful lady."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE CHOUANS SET FREE</h3> + + +<p>A letter in a woman's handwriting, addressed to Timoléon de Combray, +Hôtel de la Loi, Rue de Richelieu, its black seal hastily broken, +contains these words: "Alas, my dear cousin, you still continued to hope +when all hope was over.... I cannot leave your mother and I am anxious +about M. de Bonnœil's condition."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> + +<p>This is all that we can glean of the manner in which Mme. Acquet's +mother and brothers learned of her execution on October 6th. Mme. de +Combray at least displayed a good deal of energy, if not great calmness. +After the winter began, the letters she wrote Timoléon regained their +natural tone. The great sorrow seems to have been forgotten; they all +were leagued together against Acquet, who still reigned triumphant at +Donnay, and threatened to absorb the fortune of the whole family. The +trial had cost an enormous sum. Besides the money stolen in the woods at +Quesnay, which the Marquise had to refund, she had been obliged to spend +money freely in order to "corrupt Licquet," for Chauveau-Lagarde's fee, +for her advocate Maître Gady de la Vigne, and for Ducolombier's journeys +to Paris and Vienna with the little girls,—the whole outlay amounting +to nearly 125,000 francs; and as the farms at Tournebut were +tenantless, while Acquet retained all the estates in lower Normandy and +would not allow them anything, the Marquise and her sons found their +income reduced to almost nothing. There remained not a single crown of +the 25,000 francs deposited in August, 1807, with Legrand. All had been +spent on "necessaries for the prisoners, or in their interests."</p> + +<p>Acquet was intractable. When the time for settling up came, he refused +insolently to pay his share of the lawsuit or for his children's +education. "Mme. de Combray, in order to carry out her own frenzied +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>plots," he stated, "had foolishly used her daughter's money in paying +her accomplices, and now she came and complained that Mme. Acquet lacked +bread and that she supported her, besides paying for the children's +schooling.... Mme. Acquet left her husband's house on the advice of her +mother who wished to make an accomplice of her. They took away the +children, their father did not even know the place of their retreat, and +the very persons who had abducted them came and asked him for the cost +of their maintenance."</p> + +<p>This was his plea; to which the Combrays replied: "The fee of Mme. +Acquet's lawyer, the expenses of the journey to Vienna and of the little +girls' stay in Paris that they might beg for their mother's pardon, +devolved, if not on the prisoner's husband, at least on her young +children as her heirs; and in any case Acquet ought to pay the bill." +But the latter, who was placed in a very strong position by the +services he had rendered Réal and by the protection of Pontécoulant, +with whom he had associated himself, replied that Chauveau-Lagarde, +while pretending to plead for Mme. Acquet, had in reality only defended +Mme. de Combray: "All Rouen who heard the counsel's speech bears witness +that the daughter was sacrificed to save the mother.... The real object +of their solicitude had been the Marquise. Certainly they took very +little interest in their sister, and the moment her eyes were closed in +death, were base enough to ask for her funeral expenses in court, and +hastened to denounce her children to the Minister of Public Affairs in +order that they might be forced to pay for the sentence pronounced +against their mother."</p> + +<p>The case thus stated, the discussion could only become a scandal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>. +Bonnœil disclosed the fact that his brother-in-law, on being asked by +a third person what influences he could bring to bear in order to obtain +Mme. Acquet's pardon, had replied that "such steps offered little chance +of success, and that from the moment the unhappy woman was condemned, +the best way to save her from dying on the scaffold, would be to poison +her in prison." A fresh suit was begun. The correspondence which passed +between the exasperated Combrays and their brother-in-law, who succeeded +in maintaining his self-control, must have made all reconciliation +impossible. A letter in Bonnœil's handwriting is sufficient to +illustrate the style:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Is it charitable for an old French chevalier, a defender of the +Faith and of the Throne, to increase the sorrows on which his two +brothers-in-law are feeding in the silence of oblivion? Does he +hope in his exasperation that he will be able to force them into a +repetition of the story of the crimes committed by Desrues, +Cartouche, Pugatscheff, Shinderhannes, and other impostors, +thieves, garrotters and ruffians, who have rendered themselves +famous by their murders, poisonings, cruelties and cowardly +actions? They promise that, once their case is decided, they will +not again trouble Sieur Acquet de Férolles."</p></div> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +<p>The invectives were, to say the least, ill-timed. The Combrays had gone +to law in order to force this man, whom they compared to the most +celebrated assassins, to undertake the education of their sister's three +children. These orphans, for whose schooling at the Misses Dusaussay's +no one was ready to pay, were pitied by all who knew of their situation. +Some pious ladies mentioned it to the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, who +kindly offered to subscribe towards the cost of their education. The +Combrays proudly refused, for which Acquet naturally blamed them. "They +think their nieces would be dishonoured by accepting a favour," he +wrote.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray might perhaps have yielded, if any one had made her +understand that her granddaughters were the only stake she had left. In +fact, since Mme. Acquet's death, no stone had been left unturned to +obtain the old Marquise's pardon. Ducolombier even went to Navarre to +entreat the help of the Empress Joséphine, whose credit did not stand +very high. We can understand that after the official notification of the +imperial divorce, and as soon as the great event became known, the +Combrays, renouncing their relationship (which was of the very +slightest) with the Tascher de la Pageries, began immediately to count +in advance on the clemency of the future Empress, be she who she might. +When it was certain that an Archduchess was to succeed General +Beauharnais's widow on the throne of France, Ducolombier set out for +Vienna in the hope of outstripping the innu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>merable host of those who +went there as petitioners. It does not appear that he got farther than +Carlsruhe, and his journey was absolutely fruitless; but it soon became +known that the imperial couple intended making a triumphal progress +through the north of France, ending at Havre or Rouen, and it was then +decided that the little Acquets should appear again.</p> + +<p>At three o'clock in the afternoon of May 30th, the Emperor and Empress +arrived at Rouen. Ducolombier, walking in front of the three little +girls, who were escorted by Mlle. Querey, tried to force a passage for +them through the streets leading to the imperial residence, but could +not get into the house, and was obliged to content himself with handing +the petition, drawn up by Chauveau-Legarde, to the King of Westphalia. +He hoped the next day to be able to place the children on the Emperor's +route as he was on his way to visit some spinning mills; but as soon as +he was in the street with the orphans, he learnt that Napoleon had +inspected the factories at half past three in the morning, and that his +departure was fixed for ten o'clock. Branzon, a revenue collector and +friend of Licquet's procured the little Acquets a card from the prefect, +by showing which they were allowed to wait at the door of the Emperor's +residence. We quote the very words of the letter written the same day by +Ducolombier to Bonnœil and the old Marquise:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mlle. Querey and the three little girls were permitted to wait at +the door of the prefecture where, as you mus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>t know, they allow no +one. As soon as their Majesties' carriage came out, little Caroline +cried out to the Empress. The Emperor lowered the window to take +the petition, and handed it to the Empress, as it was meant for +her. The Empress bent forward in order to see them...."</p></div> + +<p>This time their confidence was unbounded. The old Marquise was already +congratulated on her approaching liberation; but days passed and nothing +more was heard of it. They waited patiently for a year, their hopes +growing fainter each day, and when it became only too evident that the +petition had had no effect, Timoléon ventured to remind the Empress of +it, and drew up in his own name a fresh request for his mother's pardon, +with no better result than before. A supreme and useless effort was made +on the 30th of August, 1813, when Marie Louise was Empress-Queen-Regent. +At this time Bonnœil had at length been let out of prison, where he +had been unjustly detained since August, 1807. He had not appeared +before the court, and consequently was not condemned, but was detained +as a "precautionary measure." As his health was much impaired by his +stay at the conciergerie, the prefect took it upon himself to have him +removed, and placed him at Rouen under the supervision of the police.</p> + +<p>For there he could at least keep himself informed of what was going on. +If the newspapers gave but little news, he could still collect the +rumours of the town. Doubtless he was the first to advise his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>mother to +submit to her fate; and from this very moment the Marquise displayed an +astonishing serenity, as if she in fact foresaw the fall of him whom she +considered her personal enemy. She had accustomed herself very quickly +to life in the prison to which she had been transferred in 1813. The +rules were not very strict for those inmates who had a little money to +spend; she received visitors, sent to Tournebut for her backgammon-board +and her book of rules, and calmly awaited the long-hoped-for +thunderbolt.</p> + +<p>It fell at length, and the old Chouan must have flushed with triumph +when she heard that Bonaparte was crushed. What a sudden change! In less +than a day, the prisoner became again the venerable Marquise de Combray, +a victim to her devotion to the royal cause, a heroine, a martyr, a +saint; while at the other end of Normandy, Acquet de Férolles, who had +at last decided to take in his three children, felt the ground tremble +under his feet, and hurriedly made his preparations for flight. In their +eagerness to make themselves acceptable to the Combrays, people "who +would not have raised a finger to help them when they were overwhelmed +with misfortune," now revealed to them things that had hitherto been +hidden from them; and thus the Marquise and her sons learned how Senator +Pontécoulant, out of hatred for Caffarelli, "whom he wished to ruin," +had undertaken, "with the aid of Acquet de Férolles," to hand over +d'Aché to assassins. Proscribed royalists emerged on all sides from the +holes where they had been burrowing for the last fifteen ye<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>ars. There +was a spirit of retaliation in the air. Every one was making up his +account and writing out the bill. In this home of the Chouannerie, where +hatred ran rife and there were so many bitter desires for revenge, a +terrible reaction set in. The short notes, which the Marquise exchanged +with her sons and servants during the last few days of her captivity, +expressed neither joy at the Princes' return nor happiness at her own +restoration to liberty. They might be summed up in these words: "It is +our turn now," and the germ of the dark history of the Restoration and +the revolutions which followed it is contained in the outpourings of +this embittered heart, which nothing save vengeance could henceforth +satisfy.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, May 1st, 1814, at the hour when Louis XVIII was to enter +Saint Ouen, the doors of the prison were opened for the Marquise de +Combray, who slept the following night at her house in the Rue des +Carmélites. The next day at 1.30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> she set out for Tournebut +with Mlle. Querey; her bailiff, Leclerc, came as far as Rouen to fetch +her in his trap. All the public conveyances were overcrowded; on the +roads leading to Paris there was an uninterrupted stream of vehicles of +all sorts, of cavaliers and of foot passengers, all hurrying to see the +King's return to his capital. Bonnœil, who was at last delivered from +police supervision, had to set out on foot for Tournebut; he walked the +distance during the night, and arrived in the morning to find his mother +already installed there and making an inspection of the despoiled old +château which she had never thought to see again. The astonishing +reversions of fate make one think of the success <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>which the opera "La +Dame Blanche" had some years later. This charming work sang their own +history to these nobles who were still smarting, and recalled to them +their ruined past. The abandoned "Château d'Avenel," the "poor Dame +Marguerite" spinning in the deserted halls and dreaming of her masters, +the mysterious being who watched over the destinies of the noble family, +and the amusing revival of those last vestiges of feudal times, the +bailiff, the bell in the turret, the gallant paladin, the knight's +banner—all these things saddened our grandmothers by arousing the +melancholy spectre of the good old times.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of August, 1814, Guérin-Bruslart, who had become M. le +Chevalier de Bruslard, Field Marshal in the King's army, attracted his +Majesty's attention to the survivors of the affair of Quesnay. He took +Le Chevalier's son, aged twelve years, to the Tuileries, and the King +accorded him a pension and a scholarship at one of the royal colleges. +The very same day Louis XVIII signed a royal pardon, which the Court of +Rouen ratified a few days later, by which Mme. de Combray's sentence was +annulled. On September 5th the Marquise saw her wildest dream realised +and was presented to the King—a fact which was mentioned in the +<i>Moniteur</i> of the following day.</p> + +<p>This signal favour rallied many to the Combrays. Denunciations of Acquet +and his friends were heard on all sides. The letters written at this +period from Bonnœil to his bro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>ther testify to the astonishment they +felt at these revelations. They made a fresh discovery every day. "M. +Bruslard told me the other day that La Vaubadon wished to have him +arrested, but that he took care not to fall into the trap she had set +for him." "With regard to Licquet, he knew d'Aché well and had made up +to him before the affair with Georges, believing at that time that there +would be a change of government." "It is quite certain that it was +Senator Pontécoulant who had d'Aché killed; Frotté's death was partly +due to him." "With regard to Acquet, M. de Rivoire told Placène that he +had been seen in the temple about six years ago, and that every one +there considered him a spy and an informer...."</p> + +<p>Thus, little by little Mme. de Combray arrived at the conclusion that +all her misfortunes had been caused by her enemies' hatred. In 1815 a +biographer published a life of the Marquise, which was preceded by a +dedication to herself which she had evidently dictated, and which placed +her high up in the list of royalist martyrs.</p> + +<p>This halo pleased her immensely. She was present at the fêtes given at +the Rouen prefecture, where she walked triumphantly—still holding +herself very erect and wearing lilies in her hair—through the very +halls into which she had once been dragged handcuffed by Savoye-Rollin's +gaolers. At dinners where she was an honoured guest she would recount, +with astonishing calmness, her impressions of the pillory and the +prisons. She sent a confidential agent to Donnay "to obtain news of the +Sieur Acq<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>uet," who was not at all satisfied and by no means at ease, as +we can well imagine. It was said that he had sent for his sister to come +and take care of his three children, the eldest of whom was nearly +twenty years of age. Acquet pretended to be ill in order to defer his +departure from Donnay. He finally quitted Normandy early in the autumn +of 1814, taking with him his three daughters, "whom he counted on +marrying off in his own home." "He is without house or home," wrote Mme. +de Combray, "and possesses nothing but the shame by which he is +covered." Acquet de Férolles settled at Saint-Hilaire-de-Tulmont, where +he died on April 6th, 1815.</p> + +<p>With the Hundred Days came another sudden change. At the first rumour of +Bonaparte's landing, Mme. de Combray set out for the coast and crossed +to England. If the alarm was intense, it lasted but a short time. In +July, 1815, the Marquise returned to Tournebut, which she busied herself +with repairing. She found scope for her energy in directing the workmen, +in superintending to the smallest detail the administration of her +estate, and in looking after her household with the particularity of +former times. Although Louis XVIII's Jacobinism seems to have been the +first thing that disillusioned the old royalist, she was none the less +the Lady of Tournebut, and within the limits of her estate she could +still believe that she had returned to the days before 1789. She still +had her seat at church, and her name was to be found in 1819 inscribed +on the bell at Aubevoye of which she was patroness.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>Mme. de Combray never again quitted Tournebut, where she lived with her +son Bonnœil, waited upon by Catherine Querey, who had been faithful +to her in her misfortunes. Except for this faithful girl, the Marquise +had made a clean sweep of all her old servants. None of them are to be +found among the persons who surrounded her during the Restoration. These +were a maid, Henriette Lerebour, a niece of Mlle. Querey; a cook, a +coachman and a footman. During the years that followed, there was an +incessant coming and going of workmen at Tournebut. In 1823 the château +and its surrounding walls were still undergoing repairs. In the middle +of October of the same year, Mme. de Combray, who was worn out, took to +her bed. On the morning of Thursday, the 23d, it was reported that she +was very ill, and two village women were engaged to nurse her. At eight +o'clock in the evening the tolling of the bells announced that the +Marquise was no more.</p> + +<p>Her age was eighty-one years and nine months. When the judge called on +Friday, at Bonnœil's special request, to affix seals to her effects, +he asked to be taken first into the chamber of death, where he saw the +Marquise lying in her painted wooden bed, hung with chintz curtains. The +funeral took place at the church of Aubevoye, the poor of the village +forming an escort to the coffin which the men carried on their +shoulders. After the service it was laid in a grave dug under a large +dark tree at the entrance to the cemetery. The tomb, which is carefully +kept, bears to this day a quite legible inscription setting forth in +clumsy Latin the Marquise de Combray's extraordinary history.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> +<p>The liquidation of her debts, which followed on her decease and the +division of her property, brought Acquet de Férolles' daughters to +Tournebut, all three of whom were well married. In making an inventory +of the furniture in the château, they found amongst things forgotten in +the attic the harp on which their mother had played when as a young girl +she had lived at Tournebut, and a saddle which the "dragoon" may have +used on her nocturnal rides towards the hill of Authevernes in pursuit +of coaches.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Combray's sons kept Tournebut, and Bonnœil continued to live +there. There are many people in Aubevoye who remember him. He was a tall +old man, with almost the figure of an athlete, though quite bowed and +bent. His eyebrows were grizzled and bushy, his eyes large and very +dark, his complexion sunburned. He was somewhat gloomy, and seemed to +care for nothing but to talk with a very faded and wrinkled old woman in +a tall goffered cap, who was an object of veneration to everybody. This +was Mlle. Querey. All were aware she had been Mme. de Combray's +confidante and knew all the Marquise's secrets: and she was often seen +talking at great length to Bonnœil about the past.</p> + +<p>Bonnœil died at Tournebut in 1846, at the age of eighty-four, and the +manor of Marillac did not long outlast him. Put up for sale in 1856, it +was demoli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>shed in the following year and replaced by a large and +splendid villa. While the walls of the old château were being +demolished, the peasants of Aubevoye, who had so often listened to the +legends concerning it, displayed great curiosity as to the mysteries +which the demolition would disclose. Nothing was discovered but a partly +filled up subterranean passage, which seemed to run towards the small +château. The secret of the other hiding-places had long been known. A +careful examination of the old dwelling produced only one surprise. A +portmanteau containing 3,000 francs in crowns and double-louis was found +in a dark attic. Mme. de Combray's grandchildren knew so little of the +drama of their house, that no one thought of connecting this find with +the affairs of Quesnay, of which they had scarcely ever heard. It seems +probable that this portmanteau belonged to the lawyer Lefebre and was +hidden by him, unknown to the Marquise, in the hope of being able to +recover it later on.</p> + +<p>A very few words will suffice to tell the fate of the other actors in +this drama. Licquet was unfortunate; but first of all he asked for the +cross of the Legion of Honour. "I have served the government for twenty +years," he wrote to Réal. "I bristle with titles. I am the father of a +family and am looked up to by the authorities. My only ambition is +honour, and I am bold enough to ask for a sign. Will you be kind enough +to obtain it for me?" Did Réal not dare to stand sponsor for such a +candidate? Did they think that the cross, given hitherto so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>parsimoniously to civilians, was not meant for the police? Licquet was +obliged to wait in patience. In the hope of increasing his claims to the +honour he coveted, he went in quest of new achievements, and had the +good fortune to discover a second attack on a coach, far less +picturesque, as a matter of fact, than the one to which he owed his +fame, but which he undertook to work up like a master, and did it so +well, by dint of disguises, forged letters, surprised confidences, the +invention of imaginary persons, and other melodramatic tricks, that he +succeeded in producing at the Criminal Court at Evreux seven prisoners +against whom the evidence was so well concocted that five at least were +in danger of losing their heads. But when the imperial Procurator +arrived at the place, instead of accepting the work as completed, he +carefully examined the papers referring to the inquiry. Disgusted at the +means used to drag confessions from the accused, and indignant that his +name should have been associated with so repulsive a comedy, he asked +for explanations. Licquet attempted to brazen it out, but was scornfully +told to hold his peace. Wounded to the quick, he began a campaign of +recriminations, raillery and invective against the magistrates of Eure, +which was only ended by the unanimous acquittal of the seven innocent +persons whom he had delivered over to justice, and whose release the +Procurator himself generously demanded.</p> + +<p>The blow fell all the heavier on Licquet as he was at the time deeply +compromised in the f<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>rauds of his friend Branzon, a collector at Rouen, +whose malversations had caused the ruin of Savoye-Rollin. The prefect's +innocence was firmly established, but Branzon, who had already been +imprisoned as a Chouan in the Temple, and whose history must have been a +very varied one, was condemned to twelve years' imprisonment in chains.</p> + +<p>This also was a blow to Licquet. Realising, during the early days of the +Restoration, that the game he had played had brought him more enemies +than friends, he thought it wise to leave Rouen, and like so many others +lose himself among the police in Paris. Doubtless he was not idle while +he was there, and if the fire of 1871 had not destroyed the archives of +the prefecture, it would have been interesting to search for traces of +him. We seem to recognise his methods in the strangely dubious affair of +the false dauphin, Mathurin Bruneau. This obscure intrigue was connected +with Rouen; his friend Branzon, who was detained at Bicêtre, was the +manager of it. A certain Joseph Paulin figured in it—a strange person, +who boasted of having received the son of Louis XVI at the door of the +temple and, for this reason, was a partisan of two dauphins. Joseph +Paulin was, in my opinion, a very cunning detective, who was, moreover, +charged with the surveillance of the believers, sincere or otherwise, +in the survival of Louis XVII. In order the better to gain their +confidence, he pretended to have had a hand in the young King's flight. +With the exception of a few plausible allegations, the accounts he gave +of his wonderful adventures do not bear investigation. What makes us +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>think that he was Licquet's pupil, or that at least he had some +connection with the police of Rouen, is that in 1817, at the time of the +Bruneau intrigue, we find him marrying the woman, Delaitre, aged +forty-six, and living on an allowance from the parish and a sum left him +"by a person who had died at Bicêtre." The woman Delaitre seemed to be +identical with the spy whom Licquet had so cleverly utilised.</p> + +<p>Joseph Paulin died in 1842; his wife survived him twenty years, dying at +last in the Rue Croix de Fer at the age of ninety-one. Up to the time of +her death she received a small pension from the town. As to Licquet, he +lived to one hundred—but without any decoration—in his lodging in the +Rue Saint-Lé. The old man's walks in the streets which were so familiar +to him, must have been rich in memories. The "Gros-Horloge" under which +the tumbrils had passed; the "Vieux-Marché," where so many heads had +fallen which the executioner owed to him; le Faubourg Bouvreuil, where +the graves of his victims grew green; Bicêtre, the old conciergerie, the +palace itself, which he could see from his windows,—all these objects +must have called up to his mind painful recollections. The certificate +of his death, which bears the date February 7, 1855, simply describes +him as an ex-advocate.</p> + +<p>Querelle, whose denunciation ruined Georges Cadoudal, was set at liberty +at the end of a year. Besides his life, Desmarets had promised him the +sum of 80,000 francs to pay his debts with, but as they were in no hurry +to ha<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>nd him the money, his creditors lost patience and had him shut up +in Sainte-Pelagie. Desmarets at last decided to pay up, and Querelle was +sent to Piémont, where he lived on a small pension from the government. +In 1814 we find those of Georges' accomplices who had escaped the +scaffold—among whom were Hozier and Amand Gaillard,—scattered among +the prisons of the kingdom, in the fortresses of Ham, Joux, and +Bouillon. Others who had been sent under surveillance forty leagues from +Paris and the seacoast, reappeared, ruined by ten years of enforced +idleness, threats and annoyances. Vannier the lawyer died in prison at +Brest; Bureau de Placène, who was let out of prison at the Restoration, +assisted Bruslard in the distribution of the rewards granted by the King +to those who had helped on the good cause. Allain, who had been +condemned to death for contumacy by the decree of Rouen, gave himself up +in 1815. He was immediately set free, and a pension granted him. Seeing +which, Joseph Buquet, who was in the same predicament, presented +himself, and being acquitted immediately, returned to Donnay, dug up the +43,000 francs remaining over from the sum stolen in 1807, and lived +"rich and despised." As to the girl Dupont, who had been Mme. Acquet's +confidante, she was kept in prison till 1814. Being released on the +King's return she immediately took refuge in a convent where she spent +the rest of her life.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Vaubadon, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> lived disguised under the name of Tourville, which +had been her mother's, died in misery in a dirty lodging-house at +Belleville on January 23, 1848; her body was borne on the following day +to the parish cemetery, where the old register proves that no one bought +a corner of ground for her where she could rest in peace. M. de Vaubadon +had died eight years previously, having pardoned her some years before.</p> + +<p>Certain of the inhabitants of Saint-Lô still remember the tall old man, +always gloomy and with a pale complexion, who seemed to have only one +idea, and who, to the last day of his life, loved and defended the woman +to whom he had given his name. As for Foison, the murderer, he was made +a lieutenant and received the cross of the Legion of Honour. Caffarelli, +to whose lot it fell to present it to him, excused himself on a plea of +necessary absence. M. Lance, the Secretary-General for the prefecture, +who was obliged to take his place, could not, as he bestowed the +decoration, refrain "from letting him observe the disgust he felt for +his person, and the shame he experienced at seeing the star of the brave +thus profaned." M. Lance was dismissed at the instance of Foison, who, +soon afterwards, was made an officer, and despatched to the army in +Spain, whither his reputation had preceded him. Tradition assures us +that an avenger had reserved for him a death similar to d'Aché's, and +that he was found on the road one morning pierced with bullets. Nothing +is farther from the truth. Foison became a captain and lived till 1843.</p> + +<p>D'Aché's family, which return<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>ed to Gournay after Georges Cadoudal's +execution, was disturbed afresh at Mme. de Combray's arrest. As we have +said before, Licquet had had Jean Baptiste de Caqueray (who had married +Louise d'Aché in 1806) brought handcuffed into Rouen, but had scarcely +examined him. "Caqueray," he wrote, "is quite innocent; he quarrelled +with his father-in-law;" and he dismissed him with this remark: "If only +he had known the prey he was allowing to escape!" Up to 1814 Caqueray +did not again attract the attention of the police. At the Restoration he +was made a captain of gendarmes. His wife Louise d'Aché was in 1815 +appointed lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Bourbon, by whom she had in +part been brought up, being on her mother's side the niece of the gentle +Vicomte de Roquefeuille, who had previously "consoled the Duchess so +tenderly for the desertion of her inconstant husband." Louise d'Aché +died in 1817, and her sister Alexandrine, who was unmarried, was in her +turn summoned to the Princess, and took the title of Comtesse d'Aché. In +spite of the Princes' favour, Caqueray remained a captain of gendarmes +till he left the service in 1830. It was only then made known that in +1804, at the time of Querelle's disclosures and of the journey +undertaken by Savary to Biville, to surprise a fourth landing of +conspirators, it was he, Jean-Baptiste de Caqueray, who, warned by a +messenger from Georges that "all were compromised," started from Gournay +on horseback, reached the farm of La Poterie in twelve hours, crossed +three lines of gendarmes, and signalled to the English brig which was +tacking along the coast, to stand out to sea. Caqueray immediately +remounted his horse, endured the fire of an ambuscade, flung himself +into the forest of Eu, and succeeded in reaching Gournay before his +absence had been noticed, and just in time to receive a visit from +Captain Manginot, who, as we have already related, sent him to the +Temple with Mme. d'Aché and Louise.</p> + +<p>Caqueray died in 1834, leaving several children quite unprovided for. +They were, however, adopted by their grandmother, d'Aché's widow, who +survived her daughters and son-in-law. She was small and had never been +pretty, but had very distinguished and imposing manners. She is said to +have made the following answer to a great judge who, at the time of her +arrest, asked her where her husband was: "You doubtless do not know, +Monsieur, whom you are addressing." From that time they ceased +questioning her. She lived on till 1836. She was never heard to +complain, though she and her family had lived in great poverty and known +constant anxiety. She had lost her money, and her husband had died at +the hand of a treacherous assassin. All her children had gone before +her, and in spite of all her misfortunes, and old though she was, she +still strove to bring up her grandchildren "to love their lawful King," +for whose sake she had now nothing left to sacrifice.</p> + +<p>Perhaps in the course of that tragic night when the defeated Napoleon +found himself alone in deserted Fontainebleau, the great Emperor's mind +may have reverted jealously to those stubborn royalists whom neither +their Princes' apathy nor the certainty of never being rewarded could +daunt. At that very moment the generals whom he had loaded with titles +and wealth were hastening to meet the Bourbons. He had not one friend +left among the hundred million people he had governed in the day of his +power. His mameluke had quitted him, his valet had fled. And if he +thought of Georges guillotined in the Place de la Grève, of Le Chevalier +who fell at the wall at Grenelle, of d'Aché stabbed on the road, he must +also have thought of the speech ascribed to Cromwell: "Who would do the +like for me?"</p> + +<p>And perhaps of all his pangs this was the cruellest and most vengeful. +His cause must, in its turn, be sanctified by misfortune to gain its +fanatics and its martyrs.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 17067-h.txt or 17067-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/6/17067">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/6/17067</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/17067-h/images/illus1.jpg b/17067-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f48a9a --- /dev/null +++ b/17067-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/17067-h/images/illus2.png b/17067-h/images/illus2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fdee55 --- /dev/null +++ b/17067-h/images/illus2.png diff --git a/17067.txt b/17067.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76fad55 --- /dev/null +++ b/17067.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8421 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The House of the Combrays, by G. le Notre, +Translated by Mrs. Joseph B. Gilder + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The House of the Combrays + + +Author: G. le Notre + + + +Release Date: November 15, 2005 [eBook #17067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Paul Ereaut, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Transcribers note: A number of spelling errors and inconsistencies + of names have been corrected. + + + + + +THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS + +by + +G. LE NOTRE + +Translated from the French by Mrs. Joseph B. Gilder + + + + + + + +New York +Dodd, Mead & Company +1902 +Copyright, 1902, by Dodd, Mead & Company +First Edition Published October, 1902 + + + + +Contents + + PREFACE + I. THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE + II. THE CAPTURE OF GEORGES CADOUDAL + III. THE COMBRAYS + IV. THE ADVENTURES OF D'ACHE + V. THE AFFAIR OF QUESNAY + VI. THE YELLOW HORSE + VII. MADAME ACQUET +VIII. PAYING THE PENALTY + IX. THE FATE OF D'ACHE + X. THE CHOUANS SET FREE + + + + +PREFACE + +AN OLD TOWER + + +One evening in the winter of 1868 or 1869, my father-in-law, Moisson, +with whom I was chatting after dinner, took up a book that was lying on +the table, open at the page where I had stopped reading, and said: + +"Ah! you are reading Mme. de la Chanterie?" + +"Yes," I replied. "A fine book; do you know it?" + +"Of course! I even know the heroine." + +"Mme. de la Chanterie!" + +"---- By her real name Mme. de Combray. I lived three months in her +house." + +"Rue Chanoinesse?" + +"No, not in the Rue Chanoinesse, where she did not live, any more than +she was the saintly woman of Balzac's novel;--but at her Chateau of +Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon!" + +"Gracious, Moisson, tell me about it;" and without further solicitation, +Moisson told me the following story: + +"My mother was a Brecourt, whose ancestor was a bastard of Gaston +d'Orleans, and she was on this account a royalist, and very proud of her +nobility. The Brecourts, who were fighting people, had never become +rich, and the Revolution ruined them completely. During the Terror my +mother married Moisson, my father, a painter and engraver, a plebeian +but also an ardent royalist, participating in all the plots for the +deliverance of the royal family. This explains the mesalliance. She +hoped, besides, that the monarchy, of whose reestablishment she had no +doubt, would recognise my father's services by ennobling him and +reviving the name of Brecourt, which was now represented only in the +female line. She always called herself Moisson de Brecourt, and bore me +a grudge for using only my father's name. + +"In 1804, when I was eight years old, we were living on the island of +Saint-Louis, and I remember very well the excitement in the quarter, and +above all in our house, caused by the arrest of Georges Cadoudal. I can +see my mother anxiously sending our faithful servant for news; my father +came home less and less often; and at last, one night, he woke me up +suddenly, kissed me, kissed my mother hastily, and I can still hear the +noise of the street door closing behind him. We never saw him again!" + +"Arrested?" + +"No, we should have known that, but probably killed in flight, or dead +of fatigue and want, or drowned in crossing some river--like many other +fugitives, whose names I used to know. He was to have sent us news as +soon as he was in safety. After a month's waiting, my mother's despair +became alarming. She seemed mad, committed the most compromising acts, +spoke aloud and with so little reserve about Bonaparte, that each time +the bell rang, our servant and I expected to see the police. + +"A very different kind of visitor appeared one fine morning. He was, he +said, the business man of Mme. de Combray, a worthy woman who lived in +her Chateau of Tournebut d'Aubevoye near Gaillon. She was a fervent +royalist, and had heard through common friends of my father's +disappearance, and compassionating our misfortune placed a house near +her own at the disposal of my mother, who would there find the safety +and peace that she needed, after her cruel sorrows. As my mother +hesitated, Mme. de Combray's messenger urged the benefit to my health, +the exercise and the good air indispensable at my age, and finally she +consented. Having obtained all necessary information, my mother, the +servant and I took the boat two days after, at Saint-Germain, and +arrived by sunset the same evening at Roule, near Aubevoye. A gardener +was waiting with a cart for us and our luggage. A few moments later we +entered the court of the chateau. + +"Mme. de Combray received us in a large room overlooking the Seine. She +had one of her sons with her, and two intimate friends, who welcomed my +mother with the consideration due to the widow of one who had served the +good cause. Supper was served; I was drooping with sleep, and the only +remembrance I have of this meal is the voice of my mother, passionate +and excitable as ever. Next morning, after breakfast, the gardener +appeared with his cart, to take us to the house we were to occupy; the +road was so steep and rough that my mother preferred to go on foot, +leading her horse by the bridle. We were in a thick wood, climbing all +the time, and surprised at having to go so far and so high to reach the +habitation that had been offered to us near the chateau. We came to a +clearing in the wood, and the gardener cried, 'Here we are!' and pointed +to our dwelling. 'Oh!' cried my mother, 'it is a donjon!' It was an old +round tower, surmounted by a platform and with no opening but the door +and some loop-holes that served as windows. + +"The situation itself was not displeasing. A plateau cleared in the +woods, surrounded by large trees with a vista towards the Seine, and a +fine view extending some distance. The gardener had a little hut near +by, and there was a small kitchen-garden for our use. In fact one would +have been easily satisfied with this solitude, after the misfortunes of +the Isle Saint-Louis, if the tower had been less forbidding. To enter it +one had to cross a little moat, over which were thrown two planks, which +served as a bridge. By means of a cord and pulley this could be drawn up +from the inside, against the entrance door, thus making it doubly +secure. 'And this is the drawbridge!' said my mother, mockingly. + +"The ground floor consisted of a circular chamber, with a table, chairs, +a sideboard, etc. Opposite the door, in an embrasure of the wall, about +two yards in thickness, a barred window lighted this room, which was to +serve as sitting-room, kitchen and dining-room at the same time; but +lighted it so imperfectly that to see plainly even in the daytime one +had to leave the door open. On one side was the fireplace, and on the +other the wooden staircase that led to the upper floors; under the +staircase was a trap-door firmly closed by a large lock. + +"'It is the cellar,' said the gardener, 'but it is dangerous, as it is +full of rubbish. I have a place where you can keep your drink.' 'And our +food?' said the servant. + +"The gardener explained that he often went down to the chateau in his +cart and that the cook would have every facility for doing her marketing +at Aubevoye. As for my mother, Mme. de Combray, thinking that the +journey up and down hill would be too much for her, would send a donkey +which would do for her to ride when we went to the chateau in the +afternoon or evening. On the first floor were two rooms separated by a +partition; one for my mother and me, the other for the servant, both +lighted only by loop-holes. It was cold and sinister. + +"'This is a prison!' cried my mother. + +"The gardener remarked that we should only sleep there; and seeing my +mother about to go up to the next floor, he stopped her, indicating the +dilapidated condition of the stairs. 'This floor is abandoned,' he said; +'the platform above is in a very bad state, and the staircase +impracticable and dangerous. Mme. de Combray begs that you will never go +above the first landing, for fear of an accident.' After which he went +to get our luggage. + +"My mother then gave way to her feelings. It was a mockery to lodge us +in this rat-hole. She talked of going straight back to Paris; but our +servant was so happy at having no longer to fear the police; I had found +so much pleasure gathering flowers in the wood and running after +butterflies; my mother herself enjoyed the great calm and silence so +much that the decision was put off till the next day. And the next day +we renounced all idea of going. + +"Our life for the next two months was untroubled. We were at the longest +days of the year. Once a week we were invited to supper at the chateau, +and we came home through the woods at night in perfect security. +Sometimes in the afternoon my mother went to visit Mme. de Combray, and +always found her playing at cards or tric-trac with friends staying at +the chateau or passing through, but oftenest with a stout man, her +lawyer. No existence could be more commonplace or peaceful. Although +they talked politics freely (but with more restraint than my mother), +she told me later that she never for one moment suspected that she was +in a nest of conspirators. Once or twice only Mme. de Combray, touched +by the sincerity and ardour of her loyalty, seemed to be on the point of +confiding in her. She even forgot herself so far as to say:--'Oh! if you +were not so hot-headed, one would tell you certain things!'--but as if +already regretting that she had said so much, she stopped abruptly. + +"One night, when my mother could not sleep, her attention was attracted +by a dull noise down-stairs, as if some one were shutting a trap-door +clumsily. She lay awake all night uneasily, listening, but in vain. Next +morning we found the room down-stairs in its usual condition; but my +mother would not admit that she had been dreaming, and the same day +spoke to Mme. de Combray, who joked her about it, and sent her to the +gardener. The latter said he had made the noise. Passing the tower he +had imagined that the door was not firmly closed, and had pushed against +it to make sure. The incident did not occur again; but several days +later there was a new, and this time more serious, alarm. + +"I had noticed on top of the tower a blackbird's nest, which could +easily be reached from the platform, but, faithful to orders, I had +never gone up there. This time, however, the temptation was too strong. +I watched until my mother and the servant were in our little garden, and +then climbed nimbly up to take the nest. On the landing of the second +floor, curious to get a peep at the uninhabited rooms, I pushed open the +door, and saw distinctly behind the glass door in the partition that +separated the two rooms, a green curtain drawn quickly. In a great +fright I rushed down-stairs head over heels, and ran into the garden, +calling my mother and shouting, 'There is some one up-stairs in the +room!' She did not believe it and scolded me. As I insisted she followed +me up-stairs with the servant. From the landing my mother cried, 'Is any +one there?' Silence. She pushed open the glass door. No one to be +seen--only a folding-bed, unmade. She touched it; it was warm! Some one +had been there, asleep,--dressed, no doubt. Where was he? On the +platform? We went up. No one was there! He had no doubt escaped when I +ran to the garden! + +"We went down again quickly and our servant called the gardener. He had +disappeared. We saddled the donkey, and my mother went hurry-scurry to +the chateau. She found the lawyer at the eternal tric-trac with Mme. de +Combray, who frowned at the first word, not even interrupting her game. + +"'More dreams! The room is unoccupied! No one sleeps there!' + +"'But the curtain!' + +"'Well, what of the curtain? Your child made a draught by opening the +door, and the curtain swung.' + +"'But the bed, still warm!' + +"'The gardener has some cats that must have been lying there, and ran +away when the door was opened, and that's all about it!' + +"'And yet--' + +"'Well, have you found this ghost?' + +"'No.' + +"'Well then?' And she shook her dice rather roughly without paying any +more attention to my mother, who after exchanging a curt good-night with +the Marquise, returned to the tower, so little convinced of the presence +of the cats that she took two screw-rings from one of our boxes, fixed +them on to the trap-door, closed them with a padlock, took the key and +said, 'Now we will see if any one comes in that way.' And for greater +security she decided to lift the drawbridge after supper. We all three +took hold of the rope that moved with difficulty on the rusty pulley. It +was hard; we made three attempts. At last it moved, the bridge shook, +lifted, came right up. It was done! And that evening, beside my bed, my +mother said: + +"'We will not grow old in her Bastille!' + +"Which was true, for eight days later we were awakened in the middle of +the night by a terrible hubbub on the ground floor. From our landing we +heard several voices, swearing and raging under the trap-door which they +were trying to raise, to which the padlock offered but feeble +resistance, for a strong push broke it off and the door opened with a +great noise. My mother and the servant rushed to the bureau, pushed and +dragged it to the door, whilst some men came out of the cellar, walked +to the door, grumbling, opened it, saw the drawbridge up, unfastened the +rope and let it fall down with a loud bang, and then the voices grew +fainter till they disappeared in the wood. But go to sleep after all +that! We stayed there waiting for the dawn, and though all danger was +over, not daring to speak aloud! + +"At last the day broke. We moved the bureau, and my mother, brave as +ever, went down first, carrying a candle. The yawning trap-door exposed +the black hole of a cellar, the entrance door was wide open and the +bridge down. We called the gardener, who did not answer, and whose hut +was empty. My mother did not wait till afternoon this time, but jumped +on her donkey and went down to the chateau. + +"Mme. de Combray was dressing. She expected my mother and knew her +object in coming so well that without waiting for her to tell her story, +she flew out like most people, who, having no good reason to give, +resort to angry words, and cried as soon as she entered the room: + +"'You are mad; mad enough to be shut up! You take my house for a resort +of bandits and counterfeiters! I am sorry enough that I ever brought you +here!' + +"'And I that I ever came!' + +"'Very well, then--go!' + +"'I am going to-morrow. I came to tell you so.' + +"'A safe return to you!' On which Mme. de Combray turned her back, and +my mother retraced her steps to the tower in a state of exasperation, +fully determined to take the boat for Paris without further delay. + +"Early next morning we made ready. The gardener was at the door with his +cart, coming and going for our luggage, while the servant put the soup +on the table. My mother took only two or three spoonfuls and I did the +same, as I hate soup. The servant alone emptied her plate! We went down +to Roule where the gardener had scarcely left us when the servant was +seized with frightful vomiting. My mother and I were also slightly +nauseated, but the poor girl retained nothing, happily for her, for we +returned to Paris convinced that the gardener, being left alone for a +moment, had thrown some poison into the soup." + +"And did nothing happen afterwards?" + +"Nothing." + +"And you heard nothing more from Tournebut?" + +"Nothing, until 1808, when we learned that the mail had been attacked +and robbed near Falaise by a band of armed men commanded by Mme. de +Combray's daughter, Mme. Acquet de Ferolles, disguised as a hussar! +Then, that Mme. Acquet had been arrested as well as her lover (Le +Chevalier), her husband, her mother, her lawyer and servants and those +of Mme. de Combray at Tournebut; and finally that Mme. de Combray had +been condemned to imprisonment and the pillory, Mme. Acquet, her lover, +the lawyer (Lefebre) and several others, to death." + +"And the husband?" + +"Released; he was a spy." + +"Was your mother called as a witness?" + +"No, happily, they knew nothing about us. Besides, what would she have +said?" + +"Nothing, except that the people who frightened you so much, must surely +have belonged to the band; that they had forced the trap-door, after a +nocturnal expedition, on which they had been pursued as far as a +subterranean entrance, which without doubt led to the cellar." + +After we had chatted a while on this subject Moisson wished me +good-night, and I took up Balzac's chef d'oeuvre and resumed my +reading. But I only read a few lines; my imagination was wandering +elsewhere. It was a long distance from Balzac's idealism to the realism +of Moisson, which awakened in me memories of the stories and melodramas +of Ducray-Duminil, of Guilbert de Pixerecourt--"Alexis, ou la Maisonette +dans les Bois," "Victor, ou l'Enfant de la Foret,"--and many others of +the same date and style so much discredited nowadays. And I thought that +what caused the discredit now, accounted for their vogue formerly; that +they had a substratum of truth under a mass of absurdity; that these +stories of brigands in their traditional haunts, forests, caverns and +subterranean passages, charmed by their likelihood the readers of those +times to whom an attack on a coach by highwaymen with blackened faces +was as natural an occurrence as a railway accident is to us, and that in +what seems pure extravaganza to us they only saw a scarcely exaggerated +picture of things that were continually happening under their eyes. In +the reports published by M. Felix Rocquain we can learn the state of +France during the Directory and the early years of the Commune. The +roads, abandoned since 1792, were worn into such deep ruts, that to +avoid them the waggoners made long circuits in ploughed land, and the +post-chaises would slip and sink into the muddy bogs from which it was +impossible to drag them except with oxen. At every step through the +country one came to a deserted hamlet, a roofless house, a burned farm, +a chateau in ruins. Under the indifferent eyes of a police that cared +only for politics, and of gendarmes recruited in such a fashion that a +criminal often recognised an old comrade in the one who arrested him, +bands of vagabonds and scamps of all kinds had been formed; deserters, +refractories, fugitives from the pretended revolutionary army, and +terrorists without employment, "the scum," said Francois de Nantes, "of +the Revolution and the war; 'lanterneurs' of '91, 'guillotineurs' of +'93, 'sabreurs' of the year III, 'assommeurs' of the year IV, +'fusilleurs' of the year V." All this canaille lived only by rapine and +murder, camped in the forests, ruins and deserted quarries like that at +Gueudreville, an underground passage one hundred feet long by thirty +broad, the headquarters of the band of Orgeres, a thoroughly organised +company of bandits--chiefs, subchiefs, storekeepers, spies, couriers, +barbers, surgeons, dressmakers, cooks, preceptors for the "gosses," and +cure! + +And this brigandage was rampant everywhere. There was so little safety +in the Midi from Marseilles to Toulon and Toulouse that one could not +travel without an escort. In the Var, the Bouches-du-Rhone, Vaucluse, +from Digne and Draguignan, to Avignon and Aix, one had to pay ransom. A +placard placed along the roads informed the traveller that unless he +paid a hundred francs in advance, he risked being killed. The receipt +given to the driver served as a passport. Theft by violence was so much +the custom that certain villages in the Lower Alps were openly known as +the abode of those who had no other occupation. On the banks of the +Rhone travellers were charitably warned not to put up at certain +solitary inns for fear of not reappearing therefrom. On the Italian +frontier they were the "barbets"; in the North the "garroteurs"; in the +Ardeche the "bande noire"; in the Centre the "Chiffoniers"; in Artois, +Picardie, the Somme, Seine-Inferieure, the Chartrain country, the +Orleanais, Loire-Inferieure, Orne, Sarthe, Mayenne, Ille-et-Vilaine, +etc., and Ile-de-France to the very gates of Paris, but above all in +Calvados, Finistere and La Manche where royalism served as their flag, +the "chauffeurs" and the bands of "Grands Gars" and "Coupe et Tranche," +which under pretence of being Chouans attacked farms or isolated +dwellings, and inspired such terror that if one of them were arrested +neither witness nor jury could be found to condemn him. Politics +evidently had nothing to do with these exploits; it was a private war. +And the Chouans professed to wage it only against the government. So +long as they limited themselves to fighting the gendarmes or national +guards in bands of five or six hundred, to invading defenceless places +in order to cut down the trees of liberty, burn the municipal papers, +and pillage the coffers of the receivers and school-teachers--(the State +funds having the right to return to their legitimate owner, the King), +they could be distinguished from professional malefactors. But when they +stopped coaches, extorted ransom from travellers and shot constitutional +priests and purchasers of the national property, the distinction became +too subtle. There was no longer any room for it in the year VIII and IX +when, vigorous measures having almost cleared the country of the bands +of "chauffeurs" and other bandits who infested it, the greater number of +those who had escaped being shot or guillotined joined what remained of +the royalist army, last refuge of brigandage. + +In such a time Moisson's adventure was not at all extraordinary. We can +only accuse it of being too simple. It was the mildest scene of a huge +melodrama in which he and his mother had played the part of supers. But +slight as was the episode, it had all the attraction of the unknown for +me. Of Tournebut and its owners I knew nothing. Who, in reality, was +this Mme. de Combray, sanctified by Balzac? A fanatic, or an +intriguer?--And her daughter Mme. Acquet? A heroine or a lunatic?--and +the lover? A hero or an adventurer?--And the husband, the lawyer and the +friends of the house? Mme. Acquet more than all piqued my curiosity. The +daughter of a good house disguised as a hussar to stop the mail like +Choppart! This was not at all commonplace! Was she young and pretty? +Moisson knew nothing about it; he had never seen her or her lover or +husband, Mme. de Combray having quarrelled with all of them. + +I was most anxious to learn more, but to do that it would be necessary +to consult the report of the trial in the record office at Rouen. I +never had time. I mentioned it to M. Gustave Bord, to Frederic Masson +and M. de la Sicotiere, and thought no more about it even after the +interesting article published in the _Temps_, by M. Ernest Daudet, until +walking one day with Lenotre in the little that is left of old Paris of +the Cite, the house in the Rue Chanoinesse, where Balzac lodged Mme. de +la Chanterie, reminded me of Moisson, whose adventure I narrated to +Lenotre, at that time finishing his "Conspiration de la Rouerie." That +was sufficient to give him the idea of studying the records of the +affair of 1807, which no one had consulted before him. A short time +after he told me that the tower of Tournebut was still in existence, and +that he was anxious for us to visit it, the son-in-law of the owner of +the Chateau of Aubevoye, M. Constantin, having kindly offered to conduct +us. + +On a fine autumn morning the train left us at the station that served +the little village of Aubevoye, whose name has twice been heard in the +Courts of Justice, once in the trial of Mme. de Combray and once in that +of Mme. de Jeufosse. Those who have no taste for these sorts of +excursions cannot understand their charm. Whether it be a little +historical question to be solved, an unknown or badly authenticated fact +to be elucidated, this document hunt with its deceptions and surprises +is the most amusing kind of chase, especially in company with a delver +like Lenotre, endowed with an admirable _flair_ that always puts him on +the right track. There was, moreover, a particular attraction in this +old forgotten tower, in which we alone were interested, and in examining +into Moisson's story! + +Of the chateau that had been built by the Marechal de Marillac, and +considerably enlarged by Mme. de Combray, nothing, unhappily, remains +but the out-buildings, a terrace overlooking the Seine, the court of +honour turned into a lawn, an avenue of old limes and the ancient fence. +A new building replaced the old one fifty years ago. The little chateau, +"Gros-Mesnil," near the large one has recently been restored. + +But the general effect is the same as in 1804. Seeing the great woods +that hug the outer wall so closely, one realises how well they lent +themselves to the mysterious comings and goings, to the secret councils, +to the role destined for it by Mme. de Combray, preparing the finest +room for the arrival of the King or the Comte d'Artois, and in both the +great and little chateau, arranging hiding-places, one of which alone +could accommodate forty armed men. + +The tower is still there, far from the chateau, at the summit of a +wooded hill in the centre of a clearing, which commands the river +valley. It is a squat, massive construction, of forbidding aspect, such +as Moisson described, with thick walls, and windows so narrow that they +look more like loopholes. It seems as if it might originally have been +one of the guard-houses or watch-towers erected on the heights from +Nantes to Paris, like the tower of Montjoye whose ditch is recognisable +in the Forest of Marly, or those of Montaigu and Hennemont, whose ruins +were still visible in the last century. Some of these towers were +converted into mills or pigeon-houses. Ours, whose upper story and +pointed roof had been demolished and replaced by a platform at an +uncertain date, was flanked by a wooden mill, burnt before the +Revolution, for it is not to be found in Cassini's chart which shows +all in the region. The tower and its approaches are still known as the +"burnt mill." + +There remains no trace of the excavation which was in front of the +entrance in 1804, and which must have been the last vestige of an old +moat. The threshold crossed, we are in the circular chamber; at the end +facing the door is the window, the bars of which have been taken down; +on the left a modern chimneypiece replaces the old one, and on the right +is the staircase, in good condition. The trap-door has disappeared from +under it, the cellar being abandoned as useless. On the first floor as +on the second, where the partitions have been removed, there are still +traces of them, with fragments of wall-paper. The very little daylight +that filters through the windows justifies Mme. Moisson's exclamation, +"It is a prison!" The platform, from which the view is very fine, has +been renewed, like the staircase. But from top to bottom all corresponds +with Moisson's description. + +All that remained now was to find out how one could get into the cellar +from outside. We had two excellent guides; our kind host, M. Constantin, +and M. l'Abbe Drouin, the cure of Aubevoye, who knew all the local +traditions. They mentioned the "Grotto of the Hermit!" O +Ducray-Duminil!--Thou again! + +The grotto is an old quarry in the side of the hill towards the Seine, +below the tower and having no apparent communication with it, but so +situated that an underground passage of a few yards would unite them. +The grotto being now almost filled up, the entrance to this passage has +disappeared. Looking at it, so innocent in appearance now under the +brush and brambles, I seemed to see some Chouan by star-light, eye and +ear alert, throw himself into it like a rabbit into its hole, and creep +through to the tower, to sleep fully dressed on the pallet on the second +floor. Evidently this tower, planned as were all Mme. de Combray's +abodes, was one of the many refuges arranged by the Chouans from the +coast of Normandy to Paris and known only to themselves. + +But why was Mme. Moisson accommodated there without being taken into her +hostess's confidence? If Mme. de Combray wished to avert suspicion by +having two women and a child there, she might have told them so; and if +she thought Mme. Moisson too excitable to hear such a confession, she +should not have exposed her to nocturnal mysteries that could only tend +to increase her excitement! When Phelippeaux was questioned, during the +trial of Georges Cadoudal, about Moisson's father, who had disappeared, +he replied that he lived in the street and island of Saint-Louis near +the new bridge; that he was an engraver and manager of a button factory; +that Mme. Moisson had a servant named R. Petit-Jean, married to a +municipal guard. Was it through fear of this woman's writing +indiscreetly to her husband that Mme. de Combray remained silent? But in +any case, why the tower? + +However this may be, the exactness of Moisson's reminiscences was +proved. But the trap-door had not been forced, as he believed, by +Chouans fleeing after some nocturnal expedition. This point was already +decided by the first documents that Lenotre had collected for this +present work. There was no expedition of the sort in the neighbourhood +of Tournebut during the summer of 1804. They would not have risked +attracting attention to the chateau where was hidden the only man whom +the Chouans of Normandy judged capable of succeeding Georges, and whom +they called "Le Grand Alexandre"--the Vicomte Robert d'Ache. Hunted +through Paris like all the royalists denounced by Querelle, he had +managed to escape the searchers, to go out in one of his habitual +disguises when the gates were reopened, to get to Normandy by the left +bank of the Seine and take refuge with his old friend at Tournebut, +where he lived for fourteen months under the name of Deslorieres, his +presence there never being suspected by the police. + +He was certainly, as well as Bonnoeil, Mme. de Combray's eldest son, +one of the three guests with whom Moisson took supper on the evening of +his arrival. The one who was always playing cards or tric-trac with the +Marquise, and whom she called her lawyer, might well have been d'Ache +himself. As to the stealthy visitors at the tower, given the presence of +d'Ache at Tournebut, it is highly probable that they were only passing +by there to confer with him, taking his orders secretly in the woods +without even appearing at the chateau, and then disappearing as +mysteriously as they had come. + +For d'Ache in his retreat still plotted and made an effort to resume, +with the English minister, the intrigue that had just failed so +miserably, Moreau having withdrawn at the last minute. The royalist +party was less intimidated than exasperated at the deaths of the Duke +d'Enghien, Georges and Pichegru, and did not consider itself beaten even +by the proclamation of the Empire, which had not excited in the +provinces--above all in the country--the enthusiasm announced in the +official reports. + +In reality it had been accepted by the majority of the population as a +government of expediency, which would provisionally secure threatened +interests, but whose duration was anything but certain. It was too +evident that the Empire was Napoleon, as the Consulate had been +Bonaparte--that everything rested on the head of one man. If an infernal +machine removed him, royalty would have a good opportunity. His life was +not the only stake; his luck itself was very hazardous. Founded on +victory, the Empire was condemned to be always victorious. War could +undo what war had done. And this uneasiness is manifest in contemporary +memoirs and correspondence. More of the courtiers of the new regime than +one imagines were as sceptical as Mme. Mere, economising her revenues +and saying to her mocking daughters, "You will perhaps be very glad of +them, some day!" In view of a possible catastrophe many of these kept +open a door for retreat towards the Bourbons, and vaguely encouraged +hopes of assistance that could only be depended on in case of their +success, but which the royalists believed in as positive and immediate. +As to the disaster which might bring it about, they hoped for its early +coming, and promised it to the impatient Chouans--the disembarkation of +an Anglo-Russian army--the rising of the West--the entrance of Louis +XVIII into his good town of Paris--and the return of the Corsican to his +island! Predictions that were not so wild after all. Ten years later it +was an accomplished fact in almost all its details. And what are ten +years in politics? Frotte, Georges, Pichegru, d'Ache, would only have +had to fold their arms. They would have seen the Empire crumble by its +own weight. + +We made these reflections on returning to the chateau while looking at +the terrace in the setting sun, at the peaceful winding of the Seine and +the lovely autumn landscape that Mme. de Combray and d'Ache had so often +looked at, at the same place and hour, little foreseeing the sad fate +the future had in store for them. + +The misfortunes of the unhappy woman--the deplorable affair of Quesnay +where the coach with state funds was attacked by Mme. Acquet's men, for +the profit of the royalist exchequer and of Le Chevalier; the +assassination of d'Ache, sold to the imperial police by La Vaubadon, his +mistress, and the cowardly Doulcet de Pontecoulant, who does not boast +of it in his "Memoires,"--have been the themes of several tales, +romances and novels, wherein fancy plays too great a part, and whose +misinformed authors, Hippolyte Bonnelier, Comtesse de Mirabeau, +Chennevieres, etc., have taken great advantage of the liberty used in +works of imagination. There is only one reproach to be made--that they +did not have the genius of Balzac. But we may criticise more severely +the so-called historical writings about Mme. de Combray, her family and +residences, and the Chateau of Tournebut which M. Homberg shows us +flanked by four feudal towers, and which MM. Le Prevost and Bourdon say +was demolished in 1807. + +Mme. d'Abrantes, with her usual veracity, describes the luxurious +furniture and huge lamps in the "labyrinths of Tournebut, of which one +must, as it were, have a plan, so as not to lose one's way." She shows +us Le Chevalier, crucifix in hand, haranguing the assailants in the wood +of Quesnay (although he was in Paris that day to prove an alibi), and +gravely adds, "I know some one who was in the coach and who alone +survived, the seven other travellers having been massacred and their +bodies left on the road." Now there was neither coach nor travellers, +and no one was killed! + +M. de la Sicotiere's mistakes are still stranger. At the time that he +was preparing his great work on "Frotte and the Norman Insurrections," +he learned from M. Gustave Bord that I had some special facts concerning +Mme. de Combray, and wrote to ask me about them. I sent him a resume of +Moisson's story, and asked him to verify its correctness. And on that he +went finely astray. + +Mme. de Combray had two residences besides her house at Rouen; one at +Aubevoye, where she had lived for a long while, the other thirty leagues +away, at Donnay, in the department of Orne, where she no longer went, as +her son-in-law had settled himself there. Two towers have the same name +of Tournebut; the one at Aubevoye is ours; the other, some distance from +Donnay, did not belong to Mme. de Combray. + +Convinced solely by the assertions of MM. Le Prevost and Bourdon that in +1804 the Chateau of Aubevoye and its tower no longer existed, and that +Mme. de Combray occupied Donnay at that date, M. de la Sicotiere +naturally mistook one Tournebut for the other, did not understand a +single word of Moisson's story, which he treated as a chimera, and in +his book acknowledges my communications in this disdainful note: + + "Confusion has arisen in many minds between the two Tournebuts, so + different, however, and at such a distance from each other, and has + given birth to many strange and romantic legends; inaccessible + retreats arranged for outlaws and bandits in the old tower, + nocturnal apparitions, innocent victims paying with their lives the + misfortune of having surprised the secrets of these terrible + guests...." + +It is pleasant to see M. de la Sicotiere point out the confusion he +alone experienced. But there is better to come! Here is a writer who +gives us in two large volumes the history of Norman Chouannerie. There +is little else spoken of in his book than disguises, false names, false +papers, ambushes, kidnappings, attacks on coaches, subterranean +passages, prisons, escapes, child spies and female captains! He states +himself that the affair of the Forest of Quesnay was "tragic, strange +and mysterious!" And at the same time he condemns as "strange" and +"romantic" the simplest of all these adventures--that of Moisson! He +scoffs at his hiding-places in the roofs of the old chateau, and it is +precisely in the roofs of the old chateau that the police found the +famous refuge which could hold forty men with ease. He calls the +retreats arranged for the outlaws and bandits "legendary," at the same +time that he gives two pages to the enumeration of the holes, vaults, +wells, pits, grottoes and caverns in which these same bandits and +outlaws found safety! So that M. de la Sicotiere seems to be laughing at +himself! + +I should reproach myself if I did not mention, as a curiosity, +the biography of M. and Mme. de Combray, united in one person in +the "Dictionaire Historique" (!!!) of Larousse. It is unique of +its kind. Names, places and facts are all wrong. And the crowning +absurdity is that, borne out by these fancies, fragments are given +of the supposed Memoires that Felicie (!) de Combray wrote after the +Restoration--forgetting that she was guillotined under the Empire! + +With M. Ernest Daudet we return to history. No one had seriously studied +the crime of Quesnay before him. Some years ago he gave the correct +story of it in _Le Temps_ and we could not complain of its being only +what he meant it to be--a faithful and rapid resume. Besides, M. Daudet +had only at his disposal the portfolios 8,170, 8,171, and 8,172 of the +Series F7 of the National Archives, and the reports sent to Real by +Savoye-Rollin and Licquet, this cunning detective beside whom Balzac's +Corentin seems a mere schoolboy. Consequently the family drama escapes +M. Daudet, who, for that matter, did not have to concern himself with +it. It would not have been possible to do better than he did with the +documents within his reach. + +Lenotre has pushed his researches further. He has not limited himself to +studying, bit by bit, the voluminous report of the trial of 1808, which +fills a whole cupboard; to comparing and opposing the testimony of the +witnesses one against the other, examining the reports and enquiries, +disentangling the real names from the false, truth from error--in a +word, investigating the whole affair, a formidable task of which he only +gives us the substance here. Aided by his wonderful instinct and the +persistency of the investigator, he has managed to obtain access to +family papers, some of which were buried in old trunks relegated to the +attics, and in these papers has found precious documents which clear up +the depths of this affair of Quesnay where the mad passion of one poor +woman plays the greatest part. + +And let no one imagine that he is going to read a romance in these +pages. It is an _historical_ study in the severest meaning of the word. +Lenotre mentions no fact that he cannot prove. He risks no hypothesis +without giving it as such, and admits no fancy in the slightest detail. +If he describes one of Mme. Acquet's toilettes, it is because it is +given in some interrogation. I have seen him so scrupulous on this +point, as to suppress all picturesqueness that could be put down to his +imagination. In no _cause celebre_ has justice shown more exactitude in +exposing the facts. In short, here will be found all the qualities that +ensured the success of his "Conspiration de la Rouerie," the chivalrous +beginning of the Chouannerie that he now shows us in its decline, +reduced to highway robbery! + +As for me, if I have lingered too long by this old tower, it is because +it suggested this book; and we owe some gratitude to these mute +witnesses of a past which they keep in our remembrance. + +Victorien Sardou. + + + + +The House of the Combrays + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE + + +Late at night on January the 25th, 1804, the First Consul, who, as it +often happened, had arisen in order to work till daylight, was looking +over the latest police reports that had been placed on his desk. + +His death was talked of everywhere. It had already been announced +positively in London, Germany and Holland. "To assassinate Bonaparte" +was a sort of game, in which the English were specially active. From +their shores, well-equipped and plentifully supplied with money, sailed +many who were desirous of gaining the great stake,--obdurate Chouans and +fanatical royalists who regarded as an act of piety the crime that would +rid France of the usurper. What gave most cause for alarm in these +reports, usually unworthy of much attention, was the fact that all of +them were agreed on one point--Georges Cadoudal had disappeared. Since +this man, formidable by reason of his courage and tenacity of purpose, +had declared war without mercy on the First Consul, the police had +never lost sight of him. It was known that he was staying in England, +and he was under surveillance there; but if it was true that he had +escaped this espionage, the danger was imminent, and the predicted +"earthquake" at hand. + +Bonaparte, more irritated than uneasy at these tales, wished to remove +all doubt about the matter. He mistrusted Fouche, whose devotion he had +reason to suspect, and who besides had not at this time--officially at +least--the superintendence of the police; and he had attached to himself +a dangerous spy, the Belgian Real. It was on this man that Bonaparte, on +certain occasions, preferred to rely. Real was a typical detective. The +friend of Danton, he had in former days, organised the great popular +manifestations that were to intimidate the Convention. He had penetrated +the terrible depths of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the Committee of +Public Safety. He knew and understood how to make use of what remained +of the old committees of sections, of "septembriseurs" without +occupation, lacqueys, perfumers, dentists, dancing masters without +pupils, all the refuse of the revolution, the women of the Palais-Royal: +such was the army he commanded, having as his lieutenants Desmarets, an +unfrocked priest, and Veyrat, formerly a Genevese convict, who had been +branded and whipped by the public executioner. Real and these two +subalterns were the principal actors in the drama that we are about to +relate. + +On this night Bonaparte sent in haste for Real. In his usual manner, by +brief questions he soon learned the number of royalists confined in the +tower of the Temple or at Bicetre, their names, and on what suspicions +they had been arrested. Quickly satisfied on all these points he ordered +that before daylight four of the most deeply implicated of the prisoners +should be taken before a military commission; if they revealed nothing +they were to be shot in twenty-four hours. Aroused at five o'clock in +the morning, Desmarets was told to prepare the list, and the first two +names indicated were those of Picot and Lebourgeois. Picot was one of +Frotte's old officers, and during the wars of the Chouannerie had been +commander-in-chief of the Auge division. He had earned the surname of +"Egorge-Bleus" and was a Chevalier of St. Louis. Lebourgeois, keeper of +a coffee-house at Rouen, had been accused about the year 1800 of taking +part in an attack on a stage-coach, was acquitted, and like his friend +Picot, had emigrated to England. Both of these men had been denounced by +a professional instigator as having "been heard to say" that they had +come to attempt the life of the First Consul. They had been arrested at +Pont-Audemer as soon as they returned to France, and had now been +imprisoned in the Temple for nearly a year. + +To these two victims Desmarets added another Chouan, Pioge, nicknamed +"Without Pity" or "Strike-to-Death," and Desol de Grisolles, an old +companion of Georges and "a very dangerous royalist." And then, to show +his zeal, he added a fifth name to the list, that of Querelle, +ex-surgeon of marine, arrested four months previously, under slight +suspicion, but described in the report as a poor-spirited creature of +whom "something might be expected." + +"This one," said Bonaparte on reading the name of Querelle, and the +accompanying note, "is more of an intriguer than a fanatic; he will +speak." + +The same day the five, accused of enticing away soldiers and +corresponding with the enemies of the Republic, were led before a +military commission over which General Duplessis presided; Desol and +Pioge were acquitted, returned to the hands of the government and +immediately reincarcerated. Picot, Lebourgeois and Querelle, condemned +to death, were transferred to the Abbaye there to await their execution +on the following day. + +"There must be no delay, you understand," said Bonaparte, "I will not +have it." + +But nevertheless it was necessary to give a little time for the courage +of the prisoners to fail, and for the police to aid in bringing this +about. + +There was nothing to be expected of Picot or Lebourgeois; they knew +nothing of the conspiracy and were resigned to their fate; but their +deaths could be used to intimidate Querelle who was less firm, and the +authorities did not fail to make the most of the opportunity. He was +allowed to be present during all the preparations; he witnessed the +arrival of the soldiers who were to shoot his companions; he saw them +depart and was immediately told that it was "now his turn." Then to +prolong his agony he was left alone in the gloomy chamber where +Maillard's tribunal had formerly sat. This tragic room was lighted by a +small, strongly-barred window looking out on the square. From this +window the doomed man saw the soldiers who were to take him to the plain +of Grenelle drawn up in the narrow square and perceived the crowd +indulging in rude jokes while they waited for him to come out. One of +the soldiers had dismounted and tied his horse to the bars of the +window; while within the prison the noise of quick footsteps was heard, +doors opening and shutting heavily, all indicating the last +preparations.... + +Querelle remained silent for a long time, crouched up in a corner. +Suddenly, as if fear had driven him mad, he began to call desperately, +crying that he did not want to die, that he would tell all he knew, +imploring his gaolers to fly to the First Consul and obtain his pardon, +at the same time calling with sobs upon General Murat, Governor of +Paris, swearing that he would make a complete avowal if only he would +command the soldiers to return to their quarters. Although Murat could +see nothing in these ravings but a pretext for gaining a few hours of +life, he felt it his duty to refer the matter to the First Consul, who +sent word of it to Real. All this had taken some time and meanwhile the +unfortunate Querelle, seeing the soldiers still under his window and the +impatient crowd clamouring for his appearance, was in the last paroxysm +of despair. When Real opened the door he saw, cowering on the flags and +shaking with fear, a little man with a pockmarked face, black hair, a +thin and pointed nose and grey eyes continually contracted by a nervous +affection. + +"You have announced your intention of making some revelations," said +Real; "I have come to hear them." + +But the miserable creature could scarcely articulate. Real was obliged +to reassure him, to have him carried into another room, and to hold out +hopes of mercy if his confessions were sufficiently important. At last, +still trembling, and in broken words, with great effort the prisoner +confessed that he had been in Paris for six months, having come from +London with Georges Cadoudal and six of his most faithful officers; they +had been joined there by a great many more from Bretagne or England; +there were now more than one hundred of them hidden in Paris, waiting +for an opportunity to carry off Bonaparte, or to assassinate him. He +added more details as he grew calmer. A boat from the English navy had +landed them at Biville near Dieppe; there a man from Eu or Treport had +met them and conducted them a little way from the shore to a farm of +which Querelle did not know the name. They left again in the night, and +in this way, from farm to farm, they journeyed to Paris where they did +not meet until Georges called them together; they received their pay in +a manner agreed upon. His own share was deposited under a stone in the +Champs Elysees every week, and he fetched it from there. A "gentleman" +had come to meet them at the last stage of their journey, near the +village of Saint-Leu-Taverny, to prepare for their entry into Paris and +help them to pass the barrier. + +One point stood out boldly in all these revelations: Georges was in +Paris! Real, whose account we have followed, left Querelle and hastened +to the Tuileries. The First Consul was in the hands of Constant, his +valet, when the detective was announced. Noticing his pallor, Bonaparte +supposed he had just come from the execution of the three condemned men. + +"It is over, isn't it?" he said. + +"No, General," replied Real. + +And seeing his hesitation the Consul continued: "You may speak before +Constant." + +"Well then,--Georges and his band are in Paris." + +On hearing the name of the only man he feared Bonaparte turned round +quickly, made the sign of the cross, and taking Real by the sleeve led +him into the adjoining room. + +So the First Consul's police, so numerous, so careful, and so active, +the police who according to the _Moniteur_ "had eyes everywhere," had +been at fault for six months! A hundred reports were daily piled up on +Real's table, and not one of them had mentioned the goings and comings +of Georges, who travelled with his Chouans from Dieppe to Paris, +supported a little army, and planned his operations with as much liberty +as if he were in London. These revelations were so alarming that they +preferred not to believe them. Querelle must have invented this absurd +story as a last resource for prolonging his life. To set at rest all +doubt on this subject he must be convinced of the imposture. If it was +true that he had accompanied the "brigands" from the sea to Paris, he +could, on travelling over the route, show their different +halting-places. If he could do this his life was to be spared. + +From the 27th January, when he made his first declarations, Querelle was +visited every night by Real or Desmarets who questioned him minutely. +The unfortunate creature had sustained such a shock, that, even while +maintaining his avowals, he would be seized with fits of madness, and +beating his breast, would fall on his knees and call on those whom fear +of death had caused him to denounce, imploring their pardon. When he +learned what was expected of him he appeared to be overwhelmed, not at +the number of victims he was going to betray, but because he was aghast +at the idea of leading the detectives over a road that he had traversed +only at night, and that he feared he might not remember. The expedition +set out on February 3d. Real had taken the precaution to have an escort +of gendarmes for the prisoner whom Georges and his followers might try +to rescue. The detachment was commanded by a zealous and intelligent +officer, Lieutenant Manginot, assisted by a giant called Pasque, an +astute man celebrated for the sureness of his attack. They left Paris at +dawn by the Saint-Denis gate and took the road to l'Isle-Adam. + +The first day's search was without result. Querelle thought he +remembered that a house in the village of Taverny had sheltered the +Chouans the night before their entry into Paris; but at the time he had +not paid any attention to localities, and in spite of his efforts, he +could be positive of nothing. The next day they took the Pontoise road +from Pierrelaye to Franconville,--with no more success. They returned +towards Taverny by Ermont, le Plessis-Bouchard and the Chateau de +Boissy. Querelle, who knew that his life was at stake, showed a feverish +eagerness which was not shared by Pasque nor Manginot, who were now +fully persuaded that the prisoner had only wanted to gain time, or some +chance of escape. They thought of abandoning the search and returning to +Paris, but Querelle begged so vehemently for twenty-four hours' reprieve +that Manginot weakened. The third day, therefore, they explored the +environs of Taverny and the borders of the forest as far as Bessancourt. +Querelle now led them by chance, thinking he recognised a group of +trees, a turn of the road, even imagining he had found a farm "by the +particular manner in which the dog barked." + +At last, worn out, the little band were returning to Paris when, on +passing through the village of Saint-Leu, Querelle gave a triumphant +cry! He had just recognised the long-looked for house, and he gave so +exact a description of it and its inhabitants that Pasque did not +hesitate to interrogate the proprietor, a vine-dresser named Denis +Lamotte. He laid great stress on the fact that he had a son in the +service of an officer of the Consul's guard; his other son, Vincent +Lamotte, lived with him. The worthy man appeared very much surprised at +the invasion of his house, but his peasant cunning could not long +withstand the professional cleverness of the detective, and after a few +minutes he gave up. + +He admitted that at the beginning of July last he had received a person +calling himself Houvel, or Saint-Vincent, who under pretence of buying +some wine, had proposed to him to lodge seven or eight persons for a +night. Lamotte had accepted. On the evening of the 30th August Houvel +had reappeared and told him that the men would arrive that night. He +went to fetch them in the neighbourhood of l'Isle-Adam, and his son +Vincent accompanied him to serve as guide to the travellers, whom he met +on the borders of the wood of La Muette. They numbered seven, one of +whom, very stout and covered with sweat, stopped in the wood to change +his shirt. They all appeared to be very tired, and only two of them were +on horseback. They arrived at Lamotte's house at Saint-Leu about two +o'clock in the morning; the horses were stabled and the men stretched +themselves out on the straw in one of the rooms of the house. Lamotte +noticed that each of them carried two pistols. They slept long and had +dinner about twelve o'clock. Two individuals, who had driven from Paris +and left their cabriolets, one at the "White Cross" the other at the +"Crown," talked with the travellers who, about seven o'clock, resumed +their journey to the capital. Each of the "individuals" took one in his +cab; two went on horseback and the others awaited the phaeton which ran +between Taverny and Paris. + +This account tallied so well with Querelle's declarations that there +was no longer any room for doubt. The band of seven was composed of +Georges and his staff; the "stout man" was Georges himself, and Querelle +gave the names of the others, all skilful and formidable Chouans. +Lamotte, on his part, did not hesitate to name the one who had conducted +the "brigands" to the wood of La Muette. He was called Nicolas +Massignon, a farmer of Jouy-le-Comte. Pasque set out with his gendarmes, +and Massignon admitted that he had brought the travellers from across +the Oise to the Avenue de Nesles, his brother, Jean-Baptiste Massignon, +a farmer of Saint-Lubin, having conducted them thither. Pasque +immediately took the road to Saint-Lubin and marched all night. At four +o'clock in the morning he arrived at the house of Jean-Baptiste, who, +surprised in jumping out of bed, remembered that he had put up some men +that his brother-in-law, Quentin-Rigaud, a cultivator at Auteuil, had +brought there. Pasque now held four links of the chain, and Manginot +started for the country to follow the track of the conspirators to the +sea. Savary had preceded him in order to surprise a new disembarkation +announced by Querelle. Arrived at the coast he perceived, at some +distance, an English brig tacking, but in spite of all their precautions +to prevent her taking alarm, the vessel did not come in. They saw her +depart on a signal given on shore by a young man on horseback, whom +Savary's gendarmes pursued as far as the forest of Eu, where he +disappeared. + +In twelve days, always accompanied by Querelle, Manginot had ended his +quest, and put into the hands of Real such a mass of depositions that it +was possible, as we shall show, to reconstruct the voyage of Georges and +his companions to Paris from the sea. + +On the night of August 23, 1803, the English cutter "Vincejo," commanded +by Captain Wright, had landed the conspirators at the foot of the cliffs +of Biville, a steep wall of rocks and clay three hundred and twenty feet +high. From time immemorial, in the place called the hollow of Parfonval +there had existed an "estamperche," a long cord fixed to some piles, +which was used by the country people for descending to the beach. It was +necessary to pull oneself up this long rope by the arms, a most painful +proceeding for a man as corpulent as Georges. At last the seven Chouans +were gathered at the top of the cliff, and under the guidance of Troche, +son of the former procureur of the commune of Eu, and one of the most +faithful adherents of the party, they arrived at the farm of La Poterie, +near the hamlet of Heudelimont, about two leagues from the coast. Whilst +the farmer, Detrimont, was serving them drinks, a mysterious personage, +who called himself M. Beaumont, came to consult with them. He was a tall +man, with the figure of a Hercules, a swarthy complexion, a high +forehead and black eyebrows and hair. He disappeared in the early +morning. + +Georges and his companions spent the whole of the 24th at La Poterie. +They left the farm in the night and marched five leagues to Preuseville, +where a M. Loisel sheltered them. The route was cleverly planned not to +leave the vast forest of Eu, which provided shaded roads, and in case of +alarm, almost impenetrable hiding-places. On the night of the 26th they +again covered five leagues, through the forest of Eu, arriving at Aumale +at two o'clock in the morning, and lodging with a man called Monnier, +who occupied the ancient convent of the Dominican Nuns. "The stout man" +rode a black horse which Monnier, for want of a stable, hid in a +corridor in the house, the halter tied to the key of the door. As for +the men, they threw themselves pell-mell on some straw, and did not go +out during the day. M. Beaumont had reappeared at Aumale. He arrived on +horseback and, after passing an hour with the conspirators, had left in +the direction of Quincampoix. They had seen him again with Boniface +Colliaux, called Boni, at their next stage, Feuquieres, four leagues +off, which they reached on the night of the 27th. They passed the 28th +with Leclerc, five leagues further on, at the farm of Monceaux which +belonged to the Count d'Hardivilliers, situated in the commune of +Saint-Omer-en-Chaussee. From there, avoiding Beauvais, the son of +Leclerc had guided them to the house of Quentin-Rigaud at Auteuil, and +on the 29th he had taken them to Massignon, the farmer of Saint-Lubin, +who in turn had passed them on, the next day, to his brother Nicolas, +charged, as we have seen, to help them cross the Oise and direct them to +the wood of La Muette, where Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of +Saint-Leu, had come to fetch them. + +Such was the result of Manginot's enquiries. He had reconstructed +Georges' itinerary with most remarkable perspicacity and this was the +more important as the chain of stations from the sea to Paris +necessitated long and careful organisation, and as the conspirators used +the route frequently. Thus, two men mentioned in the disembarkation of +August 23d had returned to Biville in mid-September. On October 2d +Georges and three of his officers, coming from Paris, had again +presented themselves before Lamotte, who had conducted them to the wood +of La Muette, where Massignon was waiting for them. It was proved that +their journeys had been made with perfect regularity; the same guides, +the same night marches, the same hiding-places by day. The house of +Boniface Colliaux at Feuquieres, that of Monnier at Aumale, and the farm +of La Poterie seemed to be the principal meeting-places. Another passage +took place in the second fortnight of November, and another in December, +corresponding to a new disembarkation. In January, 1804, Georges made +the journey for the fourth time, to await at Biville the English +corvette bringing Pichegru, the Marquis de Riviere and four other +conspirators. A fisherman called Etienne Horne gave some valuable +details of this arrival. He had noticed particularly the man who +appeared to be the leader--"a fat man, with a full, rather hard face, +round-shouldered, and with a slight trouble in his arms." + +"These gentlemen," he added, "usually arrived at night, and left about +midnight; they were satisfied with our humble fare, and always kept +together in a corner, talking." + +When the tide was full Horne went down to the beach to watch for the +sloop. The password was "Jacques," to which the men in the boat replied +"Thomas." + +Manginot, as may well be imagined, arrested all who in any way had +assisted the conspirators, and hurried them off to Paris. The tower of +the Temple became crowded with peasants, with women in Normandy caps, +and fishermen of Dieppe, dumbfounded at finding themselves in the famous +place where the monarchy had suffered its last torments. But these were +only the small fry of the conspiracy, and the First Consul, who liked to +pose as the victim exposed to the blows of an entire party, could not +with decency take these inoffensive peasants before a high court of +justice. While waiting for chance or more treachery to reveal the refuge +of Georges Cadoudal, the discovery of the organisers of the plot was +most important, and this seemed well-nigh impossible, although Manginot +had reason to think that the centre of the conspiracy was near Aumale or +Feuquieres. + +His attention had been attracted by a deposition mentioning the black +horse that Georges had ridden from Preuseville to Aumale--the one that +the school-master Monnier had hidden in a corridor of his house. With +this slight clue he started for the country. There he learned that a +workman called Saint-Aubin, who lived in the hamlet of Coppegueule, had +been ordered to take the horse to an address on a letter which Monnier +had given him. This man, when called upon to appear, remembered that he +had led the horse "to a fine house in the environs of Gournay." When he +arrived there a servant had taken the animal to the stables, and a lady +had come out and asked for the letter, but he denied all knowledge of +the lady's name or the situation of the house. + +Manginot resolved to search the country in company with Saint-Aubin, but +he was either stupid or pretended to be so, and refused to give any +assistance. He led the gendarmes six leagues, as far as Aumale, and +said, at first, that he recognised the Chateau de Mercatet-sur-Villers, +but on looking carefully at the avenues and the arrangement of the +buildings, he declared he had never been there. The same thing happened +at Beaulevrier and at Mothois; but on approaching Gournay his memory +returned, and he led Manginot to a house in the hamlet of Saint-Clair +which he asserted was the one to which Monnier had sent him. On entering +the courtyard he recognised the servant to whom he had given the horse +six months before, a groom named Joseph Planchon. Manginot instantly +arrested the man, and then began his search. + +The house belonged to an ex-officer of marine, Francois Robert d'Ache, +who rarely occupied it, being an ardent sportsman and preferring his +estates near Neufchatel-en-Bray, where there was more game. Saint-Clair +was occupied by Mme. d'Ache, an invalid who rarely left her room, and +her two daughters, Louise and Alexandrine, as well as d'Ache's mother, a +bedridden octogenarian, and a young man named Caqueray, who was also +called the Chevalier de Lorme, who farmed the lands of M. and Mme. +d'Ache, whose property had recently been separated by law. Caqueray +looked upon himself as one of the family, and Louise, the eldest girl, +was betrothed to him. + +Nothing could have been less suspicious than the members of this +patriarchal household, who seemed to know nothing of politics, and whose +tranquil lives were apparently unaffected by revolutions. The absence of +the head of so united a family was the only astonishing thing about it. +But Mme. d'Ache and her daughters explained that he was bored at +Saint-Clair and usually lived in Rouen, that he hunted a great deal, and +spent his time between his relatives who lived near Gaillon and friends +at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. They could not say where he was at present, +having had no news of him for two months. + +But on questioning the servants Manginot learned some facts that changed +the aspect of affairs. Lambert, the gardener, had recently been shot at +Evreux, convicted of having taken part with a band of Chouans in an +attack on the stage-coach, Caqueray's brother had just been executed for +the same cause at Rouen. Constant Prevot, a farm hand, accused of having +killed a gendarme, had been acquitted, but died soon after his return to +Saint-Clair. Manginot had unearthed a nest of Chouans, and only when he +learned that the description of d'Ache was singularly like that of the +mysterious Beaumont who had been seen with Georges at La Poterie, Aumale +and Feuquieres, did he understand the importance of his discovery. +After a rapid and minute inquiry, he took it upon himself to arrest +every one at Saint-Clair, and sent an express to Real, informing him of +the affair, and asking for further instructions. + +It had been the custom for several years, when a person was denounced to +the police as an enemy of the government, or a simple malcontent, to +have his name put up in Desmarets' office, and to add to it, in +proportion to the denunciations, every bit of information that could +help to make a complete portrait of the individual. That of d'Ache was +consulted. There were found annotations of this sort: "By reason of his +audacity he is one of the most important of the royalists," "Last +December he took a passport at Rouen for Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he +was called by business," "His host at Saint-Germain, Brandin de +Saint-Laurent, declares that he did not sleep there regularly, sometimes +two, sometimes three days at a time." At last a letter was intercepted +addressed to Mme. d'Ache, containing this phrase, which they recognised +as Georges' style: "Tell M. Durand that things are taking a good +turn,... his presence is necessary.... He will have news of me at the +Hotel de Bordeaux, rue de Grenelle, Saint-Honore, where he will ask for +Houvel." Now Houvel was the unknown man who, first of all, had gone to +the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu to persuade him to aid the "brigands." +Thus d'Ache's route was traced from Biville to Paris and the conclusion +drawn that, knowing all the country about Bray, where he owned estates, +he had been chosen to arrange the itinerary of the conspirators and to +organise their journeys. He had accompanied them from La Poterie to +Feuquieres, sometimes going before them, sometimes staying with them in +the farms where he had found for them places of refuge. + +In default of Georges, then, d'Ache was the next best person to seize, +and the First Consul appreciated this fact so keenly that he organised +two brigades of picked soldiers and fifty dragoons. But they only served +to escort poor sick Mme. d'Ache, her daughter Louise and their friend +Caqueray, who were immediately locked up--the last named in the Tower of +the Temple, and the two women in the Madelonnettes. The infirm old +grandmother remained at Saint-Clair, while Alexandrine wished to follow +her mother and sister, and was left quite at liberty. But d'Ache could +not be found. Manginot's army had searched the whole country, from +Beauvais to Treport, without success; they had sought him at +Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he was said to be hidden, at +Saint-Denis-de-Monts, at Saint-Romain, at Rouen. The prefects of Eure +and Seine-Inferieure were ordered to set all their police on his track. +The result of this campaign was pitiable, and they only succeeded in +arresting d'Ache's younger brother, an inoffensive fellow of feeble +mind, appropriately named "Placide," who was nicknamed "Tourlour," on +account of his lack of wit and his rotundity. His greatest fear was of +being mistaken for his brother, which frequently happened. As the elder +d'Ache could never be caught, Placide, who loved tranquillity and +hardly ever went away from home, was invariably taken in his stead. It +happened again this time, and Manginot seized him, thinking he had done +a fine thing. But the first interview undeceived him. However, he sent +word of his capture to Real, who, in his zeal to execute the First +Consul's orders, took upon himself to determine that Placide d'Ache was +as dangerous a royalist "brigand" as his brother. He ordered the +prisoner to be brought under a strong escort to Paris, determining to +interrogate him himself. But as soon as he had seen "Tourlour," and had +asked him a few questions, including one as to his behaviour during the +Terror, and received for answer, "I hid myself with mamma," Real +understood that such a man could not be brought before a tribunal as a +rival to Bonaparte. He kept him, however, in prison, so that the name of +d'Ache could appear on the gaol-book of the Temple. + +In the meantime, on the 9th of March 1804, at the hour when Placide +d'Ache was being interrogated, an event occurred, which transformed the +drama and hastened its tragic denouement. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTURE OF GEORGES CADOUDAL + + +Georges had arrived in Paris on September 1, 1803, in a yellow cabriolet +driven by the Marquis d'Hozier dressed as a coachman. D'Hozier, who was +formerly page to the King and had for several months been established as +a livery-stable keeper in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, conducted Georges +to the Hotel de Bordeaux, kept by the widow Dathy, in the Rue de +Grenelle-Saint-Honore. + +The task of finding hiding-places in Paris for the conspirators, had +been given to Houvel, called Saint-Vincent, whom we have already seen at +Saint-Leu. Houvel's real name was Raoul Gaillard. A perfect type of the +incorrigible Chouan, he was a fine-looking man of thirty, +fresh-complexioned, with white teeth and a ready smile, and dressed in +the prevailing fashion. He was a close companion of d'Ache, and it was +even said that they had the same mistress at Rouen. The speciality of +Raoul and his brother Armand was attacking coaches which carried +government money. Their takings served to pay recruits to the royalist +cause. For the past six months Raoul Gaillard had been in Paris looking +for safe lodging-places. He was assisted in this delicate task by +Bouvet de Lozier, another of d'Ache's intimate friends, who like him, +had served in the navy before the Revolution. + +Georges went first to Raoul Gaillard at the Hotel de Bordeaux, but he +left in the evening and slept with Denaud at the "Cloche d'Or," at the +corner of the Rue du Bac, and the Rue de Varenne. He was joined there by +his faithful servant Louis Picot, who had arrived in Paris the same day. +The "Cloche d'Or" was a sort of headquarters for the conspirators; they +filled the house, and Denaud was entirely at their service. He was +devoted to the cause, and not at all timid. He had placed Georges' cab +in the stable of Senator Francois de Neufchateau, whose house was next +door. + +Six weeks before, Bouvet de Lozier had taken, through Mme. Costard de +Saint-Leger, his mistress, an isolated house at Chaillot near the Seine. +He had put there as concierge, a man named Daniel and his wife, both of +whom he knew to be devoted to him. A porch with fourteen steps led to +the front hall of the house. This served as dining-room. It was lighted +by four windows and paved with squares of black and white marble; a +walnut table with eight covers, cane-seated chairs, the door-panels +representing the games of children, and striped India muslin curtains +completed the decoration of this room. The next room had also four +windows, and contained an ottoman and six chairs covered with blue and +white Utrecht velvet, two armchairs of brocaded silk, and two mahogany +tables with marble tops. Then came the bedroom with a four-post bed, +consoles and mirrors. On the first floor was an apartment of three +rooms, and in an adjoining building, a large hall which could be used as +an assembly-room. The whole was surrounded by a large garden, closed on +the side towards the river-bank by strong double gates. + +If we have lingered over this description, it is because it seems to say +so much. Who would have imagined that this elegant little house had been +rented by Georges to shelter himself and his companions? These men, +whose disinterestedness and tenacity we cannot but admire, who for ten +years had fought with heroic fortitude for the royal cause, enduring the +hardest privations, braving tempests, sleeping on straw and marching at +night; these men whose bodies were hardened by exposure and fatigue, +retained a purity of mind and sincerity really touching. They never +ceased to believe that "the Prince" for whom they fought would one day +come and share their danger. It had been so often announced and so often +put off that a little mistrust might have been forgiven them, but they +had faith, and that inspired them with a thought which seemed quite +simple to them but which was really sublime. While they were lodging in +holes, living on a pittance parsimoniously taken from the party's funds, +they kept a comfortable and secure retreat ready, where "their +prince"--who was never to come--could wait at his ease, until at the +price of their lives, they had assured the success of his cause. If the +history of our bloody feuds has always an epic quality, it is because it +abounds in examples of blind devotion, so impossible nowadays that they +seem to us improbable exaggerations. + +After six days at the "Cloche d'Or," Georges took possession of the +house at Chaillot, but he did not stay there long, for about the 25th of +September he was at 21 Rue Careme-Prenant in the Faubourg du Temple. +Hozier had rented an entresol there, and had employed a man called +Spain, who had an aptitude for this sort of work, to make a secret place +in it. Spain, under pretence of indispensable repairs, had shut himself +up with his tools in the apartment, and had made a cleverly-concealed +trap-door, by means of which, in case of alarm, the tenants could +descend to the ground floor and go out by an unoccupied shop whose door +opened under the porch of the house. Spain took a sort of pride in his +strange talent; he was very proud of a hiding-place he had made in the +lodging of a friend, the tailor Michelot, in the Rue de Bussy, which +Michelot himself did not suspect. The tailor was obliged to be absent +often, and four of the conspirators had successively lodged there. When +he was away his lodgers "limbered up" in this apartment, but as soon as +they heard his step on the stairs, they reentered their cell, and the +worthy Michelot, who vaguely surmised that there was some mystery about +his house, only solved the enigma when he was cited to appear before the +tribunal as an accomplice in the royalist plot of which he had never +even heard the name. + +Georges started for his first journey to Biville from the Rue +Careme-Prenant. On January 23d he returned finally to Paris, bringing +with him Pichegru, Jules de Polignac and the Marquis de Riviere, whom he +had gone to the farm of La Poterie to receive. He lodged Pichegru with +an employe of the finance department, named Verdet, who had given the +Chouans the second floor of his house in the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite. +They stayed there three days. On the 27th, Georges took the general to +the house at Chaillot "where they only slept a few nights." At the very +moment that they went there Querelle signed his first declarations +before Real. + +It is not necessary to follow the movements of Pichegru, nor to relate +his interviews with Moreau. The organisation of the plot is what +interests us, by reason of the part taken in it by d'Ache. No one has +ever explained what might have resulted politically from the combination +of Moreau's embittered ambition, the insouciance of Pichegru, and the +fanatical ardour of Georges. Of this ill-assorted trio the latter alone +had decided on action, although he was handicapped by the obstinacy of +the princes in refusing to come to the fore until the throne was +reestablished. He told the truth when he affirmed before the judges, +later on, that he had only come to France to attempt a restoration, the +means for which were never decided on, for they had not agreed on the +manner in which they should act towards Bonaparte. A strange plan had at +first been suggested. The Comte d'Artois, at the head of a band of +royalists equal in number to the Consul's escort, was to meet him on the +road to Malmaison, and provoke him to single combat, but the presence +of the Prince was necessary for this revival of the Combat of Thirty, +and as he refused to appear, this project of rather antiquated chivalry +had to be abandoned. Their next idea was to kidnap Bonaparte. Some +determined men--as all of Georges' companions were--undertook to get +into the park at Malmaison at night, seize Bonaparte and throw him into +a carriage which thirty Chouans, dressed as dragoons, would escort as +far as the coast. They actually began to put this theatrical "coup" into +execution. Mention is made of it in the Memoirs of the valet Constant, +and certain details of the investigation confirm these assertions. Raoul +Gaillard, who still lived at the Hotel de Bordeaux, and entertained his +friends Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu and Massignon, +farmer of Saint-Lubin there, had discovered that Massignon leased some +land from Macheret, the First Consul's coachman, and had determined at +all hazards to make this man's acquaintance. He even had the audacity to +show himself at the Chateau of Saint-Cloud in the hope of meeting him. +Besides this, Genty, a tailor in the Palais-Royal, had delivered four +chasseur uniforms, ordered by Raoul Gaillard, and Debausseaux, a tailor +at Aumale, during one of their journeys had measured some of Monnier's +guests for cloaks and breeches of green cloth, which only needed metal +buttons to be transformed into dragoon uniforms. + +Querelle's denunciations put a stop to all these preparations. Nothing +remained but to run to earth again. A great many of the conspirators +succeeded in doing this, but all were not so fortunate. The first one +seized by Real's men was Louis Picot, Georges' servant. He was a coarse, +rough man, entirely devoted to his master, under whose orders he had +served in the Veudee. He was taken to the Prefecture and promised +immediate liberty in exchange for one word that would put the police on +the track of Georges. He was offered 1,500 louis d'or, which they took +care to count out before him, and on his refusal to betray his master, +Real had him put to the torture. Bertrand, the concierge of the depot, +undertook the task. The unfortunate Picot's fingers were crushed by +means of an old gun and a screw-driver, his feet were burned in the +presence of the officers of the guard. He revealed nothing. "He has +borne everything with criminal resignation," the judge-inquisitor, +Thuriot, wrote to Real; "he is a fanatic, hardened by crime. I have now +left him to solitude and suffering; I will begin again to-morrow; he +knows where Georges is hidden and must be made to reveal it." + +The next day the torture was continued, and this time agony wrung the +address of the Chaillot house from Picot. They hastened there--only to +find it empty. But the day had not been wasted, for the police, on an +anonymous accusation, had seized Bouvet de Lozier as he was entering the +house of his mistress, Mme. de Saint-Leger, in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. He +was interrogated and denied everything. Thrown into the Temple, he +hanged himself in the night, by tying his necktie to the bars of his +cell. A gaoler hearing his death-rattle, opened the door and took him +down; but Bouvet, three-quarters dead, as soon as they had brought him +to, was seized with convulsive tremblings, and in his delirium he spoke. + +This attempted suicide, to tell the truth, was only half believed in, +and many people, having heard of the things that were done in the Temple +and the Prefecture, believed that Bouvet had been assisted in his +strangling, just as they had put Picot's feet to the fire. What gave +colour to these suspicions was the fact that Bouvet's hands "were +horribly swollen" when he appeared before Real the next day, and also +the strange form of the declaration which he was reputed to have +dictated at midnight, just as he was restored to life. "A man who comes +from the gates of the tomb, still covered with the shadows of death, +demands vengeance on those who, by their perfidy," etc. Many were agreed +in thinking that that was not the style of a suicide, with the +death-rattle still in his throat, but that Real's agents must have lent +their eloquence to this half-dead creature. + +However it may have been, the government now knew enough to order the +most rigorous measures to be taken against the "last royalists." Bouvet +had, like Picot, only been able to mention the house at Chaillot, and +the lodging in the Rue Careme-Prenant, and Georges' retreat was still +undiscovered. The revelations that fear or torture had drawn from his +associates only served to make the figure of this extraordinary man loom +greater, by showing the power of his ascendancy over his companions, and +the mystery that surrounded all his actions. A legend grew around his +name, and the communications published by _Le Moniteur_, contributed not +a little towards making him a sort of fantastic personage, whom one +expected to see arise suddenly, and by one grand theatrical stroke put +an end to the Revolution. + +Paris lived in a fever of excitement during the first days of March, +1804, anxiously following this duel to the death, between the First +Consul and this phantom-man who, shut up in the town and constantly seen +about, still remained uncaught. The barriers were closed as in the +darkest days of the Terror. Patrols, detectives and gendarmes held all +the streets; the soldiers of the garrison had departed, with loaded +arms, to the boulevards outside the walls. White placards announced that +"Those who concealed the brigands would be classed with the brigands +themselves"; the penalty of death attached to any one who should shelter +one of them, even for twenty-four hours, without denouncing him to the +police. The description of Georges and his accomplices was inserted in +all the papers, distributed in leaflets, and posted on the walls. Their +last domicile was mentioned, as well as anything that could help to +identify them. The clerks at the barriers were ordered to search +barrels, washerwomen's carts, baskets, and, as the cemeteries were +outside the walls, to look carefully into all the hearses that carried +the dead to them. + + * * * * * + +On leaving Chaillot, Georges had returned to Verdet, in the Rue du +Puits-de-l'Hermite. As he did not go out and his friends dared not come +to see him, Mme. Verdet had instituted herself commissioner for the +conspiracy. + +One evening she did not return. Armed with a letter for Bouvet de +Lozier, she had arrived at the Rue Saint-Sauveur just as they were +taking him to the Temple, and had been arrested with him. Thus the +circle was narrowing around Georges. He was obliged to leave the Rue du +Puits-de-l'Hermite in haste, for fear that torture would wring the +secret of his asylum from Mme. Verdet. But where could he go? The house +at Chaillot, the Hotel of the Cloche d'Or, the Rue Careme-Prenant were +now known to the police. Charles d'Hozier, on being consulted, showed +him a retreat that he had kept for himself, which had been arranged for +him by Mlle. Hisay, a poor deformed girl, who served the conspirators +with tireless zeal, taking all sorts of disguises and vying in address +and activity with Real's men. She had rented from a fruitseller named +Lemoine, a little shop with a room above it, intending "to use it for +some of her acquaintances." + +It was there that she conducted Georges on the night of February 17. The +next day two of his officers, Burban and Joyaut, joined him there, and +all three lived at the woman Lemoine's for twenty days. They occupied +the room above, leaving the shop untenanted save by Mlle. Hisay and a +little girl of Lemoine's, who kept watch there. At night both of them +went up to the room, and slept there, separated by a curtain from the +beds occupied by Georges and his accomplices. The fruiterer and her +daughter were entirely ignorant of the standing of their guests, Mlle. +Hisay having introduced them as three shop-keepers who were +unfortunately obliged to hide from their creditors. + +This incognito occasioned some rather amusing incidents. One day Mme. +Lemoine, on returning from market where the neighbours had been +discussing the plot that was agitating all Paris, said to her tenants, +"Goodness me! You don't know about it? Why, they say that that miserable +Georges would like to destroy us all; if I knew where he was, I'd soon +have him caught." + +Another time the little girl brought news that Georges had left Paris +disguised as an aide-de-camp of the First Consul. Some days later, when +Georges asked her what the latest news was, she answered, "They say the +rascal has escaped in a coffin." + +"I should like to go out the same way," hinted Burban. + +However, the police had lost track of the conspirator. It was generally +supposed that he had passed the fortifications, when on the 8th of +March, Petit, who had known Leridant, one of the Chouans, for a long +time, saw him talking with a woman on the Boulevard Saint-Antoine. He +followed him, and a little further off, saw him go up to a man who +struck him as bearing a great likeness to Joyaut, whose description had +been posted on all the walls. + +It was indeed Joyaut, who had left Mme. Lemoine's for the purpose of +looking for a lodging for Georges where he would be less at the mercy +of chance than in the fruitseller's attic. Leridant told him that the +house of a perfumer named Caron, in the Rue Four-Saint-Germain, was the +safest retreat in Paris. For some years Caron, a militant royalist, had +sheltered distressed Chouans, in the face of the police. He had hidden +Hyde de Neuville for several weeks; his house was well provided with +secret places, and for extreme cases he had made a place in his +sign-post overhanging the street, where a man could lie _perdu_ at ease, +while the house was being searched. Leridant had obtained Caron's +consent, and it was agreed that Leridant should come in a cab at seven +o'clock the next evening to take Georges from Sainte-Genevieve to the +Rue du Four. + +When he had seen the termination of the interview of which his +detective's instinct showed him the importance, Petit, who had remained +at a distance, followed Joyaut, and did not lose sight of him till he +arrived at the Place Maubert. Suspecting that Georges was in the +neighbourhood he posted policemen at the Place du Pantheon, and at the +narrow streets leading to it; then he returned to watch Leridant, who +lodged with a young man called Goujon, in the cul-de-sac of the +Corderie, behind the old Jacobins Club. The next day, March 9th, Petit +learned through his spies that Goujon had hired out a cab, No. 53, for +the entire day. He hastened to the Prefecture and informed his +colleague, Destavigny, who, with a party of inspectors took up his +position on the Place Maubert. If, as Petit supposed, Georges was hidden +near there, if the cab was intended for him, it would be obliged to +cross the place where the principal streets of the quarter converged. +The order was given to let it pass if it contained only one person, but +to follow it with most extreme care. + +The night had arrived, and nothing had happened to confirm the +hypotheses of Petit, when, a little before seven o'clock, a cab appeared +on the Place, coming from the Rue Galande. Only one man was on it, +holding the reins. The spies in different costumes, who hung about the +fountain, recognised him as Leridant. The cab was numbered 53, and had +only the lantern at the left alight. It went slowly up the steep Rue de +la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve; the police, hugging the walls, followed it +far off. Petit, the Inspector Caniolle, and the officer of the peace, +Destavigny, kept nearer to it, expecting to see it stop before one of +the houses in the street, when they would only have to take Georges on +the threshold. But to their great disappointment the cab turned to the +right, into the narrow Rue des Amandiers, and stopped at a porte cochere +near the old College des Grassins. As the lantern shed a very brilliant +light, the three detectives concealed themselves in the lanes near by. +They saw Leridant descend from the cab. He went through a door, came +out, went in again and stayed for a quarter of an hour. Then he turned +his horse round, and got up on the seat again. + +The cab turned again into the Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, and +went slowly down it; it went across the Place Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, +following the houses. Caniolle walked behind it, Petit and Destavigny +followed at a distance. Just as the carriage arrived at the corner of +the Rue des Sept-Voies, four individuals came out from the shadow. One +of them seized the apron, and helping himself up by the step, flung +himself into the cab, which had not stopped, and went off at full +speed.... + +The police had recognised Georges, disguised as a market-porter. +Caniolle, who was nearest, rushed forward; the three men who had +remained on the spot, and who were no other than Joyaut, Burban and +Raoul Gaillard, tried to stop him. Caniolle threw them off, and chased +the cab which had disappeared in the Rue Saint-Etienne-des-Gres. He +caught up to it, just as it was entering the Passage des Jacobins. +Seizing the springs, he was carried along with it. The two officers of +the peace, less agile, followed crying, "Stop! Stop!" + +Georges, seated on the right of Leridant, who held the reins, had turned +to the back of the carriage and tried to follow the fortunes of the +pursuit through the glass. The moment that he had jumped into the +carriage, he had seen the detectives, and said to Leridant: "Whip him, +whip him hard!" + +"To go where?" asked the other. + +"I do not know, but we must fly!" + +And the horse, tingling with blows, galloped off. + +At the end of the Passage des Jacobins, which at a sharp angle ended in +the Rue de la Harpe, Leridant was obliged to slow up in order to turn on +the Place Saint-Michel, and not miss the entrance to the Rue des +Fosses-Monsieur-le-Prince. He turned towards the Rue du Four, hoping, +thanks to the steepness of the Rue des Fosses, to distance the +detectives and arrive at Caron's before they caught up with the +carriage. + +From where he was Georges could not, through the little window, see +Caniolle crouched behind the hood. But he saw others running with all +their might. Destavigny and Petit had indeed continued the pursuit, and +their cries brought out all the spies posted in the quarter. Just as +Leridant wildly dashed into the Rue des Fosses, a whole pack of +policemen rushed upon him. + +At the approach of this whirlwind the frightened passers-by shrank into +the shelter of the doorways. Their minds were so haunted by one idea +that at the sight of this cab flying past in the dark with the noise of +whips, shouts, oaths, and the resonant clang of the horse's hoofs on the +pavement, a single cry broke forth, "Georges! Georges! it is Georges!" +Anxious faces appeared at the windows, and from every door people came +out, who began to run without knowing it, drawn along as by a +waterspout. Did Georges see in this a last hope of safety? Did he +believe he could escape in the crowd? However that may be, at the top of +the Rue Voltaire he jumped out into the street. Caniolle, at the same +moment, left the back of the cab--which Petit, and another policeman +called Buffet, had at last succeeded in outrunning,--threw himself on +the reins, and allowing himself to be dragged along, mastered the horse, +which stopped, exhausted. Buffet took one step towards Georges, who +stretched him dead with a pistol shot; with a second ball the Chouan rid +himself, for a moment at least, of Caniolle. He still thought, probably, +that he could hide himself in the crowd; and perhaps he would have +succeeded, for Destavigny, who had run up, "saw him before him, standing +with all the tranquillity of a man who has nothing to fear, and three or +four people near him appeared not to be thinking more about Georges than +anything else." He was going to turn the corner of the Rue de +l'Observance when Caniolle, who was only wounded, struck him with his +club. In an instant Georges was surrounded, thrown down, searched and +bound. The next morning more than forty individuals, among them several +women, made themselves known to the judge as being each "the principal +author" of the arrest of the "brigand" chief. + +By way of the Carrefour de la Comedie, the Rues des Fosses Saint-Germain +and Dauphine, Georges, tied with cords, was taken to the Prefecture. A +growing mob escorted him, more out of curiosity than anger, and one can +imagine the excitement at police headquarters when they heard far off on +the Quai des Orfevres, the increasing tumult announcing the event, and +when suddenly, from the corps de garde in the salons of the Prefect +Dubois the news came, "Georges is taken!" + +A minute later the vanquished outlaw was pushed into the office of +Dubois, who was still at dinner. In spite of his bonds he still showed +so much pride and coolness that the all-powerful functionary was almost +afraid of him. Desmaret, who was present, could not himself escape this +feeling. + +"Georges, whom I saw for the first time," he said, "had always been to +me a sort of Old Man of the Mountain, sending his assassins far and +near, against the powers. I found, on the contrary, an open face, bright +eyes, fresh complexion, and a look firm but gentle, as was also his +voice. Although stout, his movements and manner were easy; his head +quite round, with short curly hair, no whiskers, and nothing to indicate +the chief of a mortal conspiracy, who had long dominated the _landes_ of +Brittany. I was present when Comte Dubois, the prefect of police, +questioned him. His ease amidst all the hubbub, his answers, firm, +frank, cautious and couched in well-chosen language, contrasted greatly +with my ideas about him. + +"Indeed his first replies showed a disconcerting calm. One may be +quoted. When Dubois, not knowing where to begin, rather foolishly +reproached him with the death of Buffet, 'the father of a family,' +Georges smilingly gave him this advice:--'Next time, then, have me +arrested by bachelors.'" + +His courageous pride did not fail him either in the interrogations he +had to submit to, or before the court of justice. His replies to the +President are superb in disdain and abnegation. He assumed all +responsibility for the plot, and denied knowledge of any of his friends. +He carried his generosity so far as to behave with courteous dignity +even to those who had betrayed him; he even tried to excuse the +indifference of the princes whose selfish inertia had been his ruin. He +remained great until he reached the scaffold; eleven faithful Chouans +died with him, among the number being Louis Picot, Joyaut and Burban, +whose names have appeared in this story. + +Thus ended the conspiracy. Bonaparte came out of it emperor. Fouche, +minister of police, and his assistants were not going to be useless, for +if in the eyes of the public, Georges' death seemed the climax, it was +in reality but one incident in a desperate struggle. The depths sounded +by the investigation had revealed the existence of an incurable evil. +The whole west of France was cankered with Chouannerie. From Rouen to +Nantes, from Cherbourg to Poitiers, thousands of peasants, bourgeois and +country gentlemen remained faithful to the old order, and if they were +not all willing to take up arms in its cause, they could at least do +much to upset the equilibrium of the new government. And could not +another try to do what Georges Cadoudal had attempted? If some one with +more influence over the princes than he possessed should persuade one of +them to cross the Channel, what would the glory of the parvenu count +for, balanced against the ancient prestige of the name of Bourbon, +magnified and as it were sanctified by the tragedies of the Revolution? +This fear haunted Bonaparte; the knowledge that in France these +Bourbons, exiled, without soldiers or money, were still more the masters +then he, exasperated him. He felt that he was in their home, and their +nonchalance, contrasted with his incessant agitation, indicated both +insolence and disdain. + +The police, as a matter of fact, had unearthed only a few of the +conspirators. Many who, like Raoul Gaillard, had played an important +part in the plot, had succeeded in escaping all pursuit; they were +evidently the cleverest, therefore the most dangerous, and among them +might be found a man ambitious of succeeding Cadoudal. The capture to +which Fouche and Real attached the most importance was that of d'Ache, +whose presence at Biville and Saint-Leu had been proved. For three +months, in Paris even, wherever the police had worked, they had struck +the trail of this same d'Ache, who appeared to have presided over the +whole organisation of the plot. Thus, he had been seen at Verdet's in +the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite, while Georges was there; he had met Raoul +Gaillard several times; in making an inventory of the papers of a young +lady called Margeot, with whom Pichegru had dined, two rather +enigmatical notes had been found, in which d'Ache's name appeared. + +Mme. d'Ache and her eldest daughter had been since February in the +Madelonnettes prison; the second girl, Alexandrine, had been left at +liberty in the hope that in Paris, where she was a stranger, she would +be guilty of some imprudence that would deliver her father to the +police. She had taken lodgings in the Rue Traversiere-Saint-Honore, at +the Hotel des Treize-Cantons, and Real had immediately set two spies +upon her, but their reports were monotonously melancholy. "Very well +behaved, very quiet--she lives, and is daily with the master and +mistress of the hotel, people of mature age. She sees no one, and is +spoken of in the highest terms." From this side, also, all hope of +catching d'Ache had to be abandoned. + +Another way was thought of, and on March 22d the order to open all the +gates was given. Fouche foresaw that in their anxiety to leave Paris all +of Georges' accomplices who had not been caught would hasten to return +to Normandy, and thanks to the watchfulness exercised, a clean sweep +might be made of them. The cleverly conceived idea had some result. On +the 25th a peasant called Jacques Pluquet of Meriel, near l'Isle-Adam, +when working in his field on the border of the wood of La Muette, saw +four men in hats pulled down over cotton caps, and with strong knotted +clubs, coming towards him. They asked him if they could cross the Oise +at Meriel. Pluquet replied that it was easy to do so, "but there were +gendarmes to examine all who passed." At that they hesitated. They +described themselves as conscript deserters coming from Valenciennes who +wished to get back to their homes. Pluquet's account is so picturesque +as to be worth quoting: + +"I asked them where they belonged; they replied in Alencon. I remarked +that they would have trouble in getting there without being arrested. +One of them said: 'That is true, for after what had just happened in +Paris, everywhere is guarded.' Then, allowing the three others to go on +ahead, he said to me, 'But if they arrest us, what will they do to us?' +I replied: 'They will take you back to your corps, from brigade to +brigade.' On that he said, 'If they catch us, they will make us do ten +thousand leagues.' And he left me to regain his comrades, the youngest +of whom might have been twenty-two years old and seemed very sad and +tired." + +The next morning some people at Auvers found a little log cabin in a +wood in which the four men had spent the night. They were seen on the +following days, wandering in the forest of l'Isle-Adam. At last, on +April 1st they went to the ferryman of Meriel, Eloi Cousin, who was +sheltering two gendarmes. While they were begging the ferryman to take +them in his boat, the gendarmes appeared, and the men fled. A pistol +shot struck one of them, and a second, who stopped to assist his +comrade, was also taken. The two others escaped to the woods. + +The wounded man was put in a boat and taken to the hospital at Pontoise, +where he died the next day. Real, who was immediately informed of it, +immediately sent Querelle, whom he was carefully keeping in prison to +use in case of need, and he at once recognised the corpse to be that of +Raoul Gaillard, called Houvel, or Saint-Vincent, the friend of d'Ache, +the principal advance-agent of Georges. The other prisoner was his +brother Armand, who was immediately taken to Paris and thrown into the +Temple. + +The commune of Meriel had deserved well of the country, and the First +Consul showed his satisfaction in a dazzling manner. He expressed a +desire to make the acquaintance of this population so devoted to his +person, and on the 8th of April, the sous-prefet of Pontoise presented +himself at the Tuileries at the head of all the men of the village. +Bonaparte congratulated them personally, and as a more substantial proof +of his gratitude, distributed among them a sum of 11,000 francs, found +in Raoul Gaillard's belt. + +This was certainly a glorious event for the peasants of Meriel, but it +had an unexpected result. When they returned the next day they learned +that a stranger, "well dressed, well armed and mounted on a fine horse," +profiting by their absence, had gone to the village, and, "after many +questions addressed to the women and children, had gone to the place +where Raoul Gaillard was wounded, trying to find out if they had not +found a case, to which he seemed to attach great importance." This +incident reminded them that, in the boat that took him to Pontoise, +Raoul Gaillard, then dying, had anxiously asked if a razor-case had been +found among his things. On receiving a negative reply, "he had appeared +to be very much put out, and was heard to murmur that the fortune of the +man who would discover this case was made." + +The visits of this stranger--since seen, "in the country, on the heights +and near the woods,"--his threats of vengeance, and this mysterious +case, provided matter for a report that perplexed Real. Was this not +d'Ache? A great hunt was organised in the forest of Carnelle, but it +brought no result. Four days later they explored the forest of +Montmorency, where some signs of the "brigands'" occupation were seen, +but of d'Ache no trace at all, and in spite of the fierceness that +Real's men, incited by the promise of large rewards, brought to this +chase of the Chouans, after weeks and months of research, of enquiries, +tricks, false trails followed, and traps uselessly laid, it had to be +admitted that the police had lost the scent, and that Georges' clever +accomplice had long since disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE COMBRAYS + + +At the period of our story there existed in the department of the Eure, +on the left bank of the Seine, beyond Gaillon, a large old manor-house, +backed by the hill that extended as far as Andelys; it was called the +Chateau de Tournebut. Although its peaked roofs could be seen from the +river above a thicket of low trees, Tournebut was off the main route of +travel, whether by land or water, from Rouen to Paris. Some fairly large +woods separated it from the highroad which runs from Gaillon to +Saint-Cyr-de-Vaudreuil, while the barges usually touched at the hamlet +of Roule, where hacks were hired to take passengers and goods to the +ferry of Muids, thereby saving them the long detour made by the Seine. +Tournebut was thus isolated between these two much-travelled roads. Its +principal facade, facing east, towards the river, consisted of two heavy +turrets, one against the other, built of brick and stone in the style of +Louis XIII, with great slate roofs and high dormer windows. After these +came a lower and more modern building, ending with the chapel. In front +of the chateau was an old square bastion forming a terrace, whose mossy +walls were bathed by the waters of a large stagnant marsh. The west +front which was plainer, was separated by only a few feet of level +ground from the abrupt, wooded hill by which Tournebut was sheltered. A +wall with several doors opening on the woods enclosed the chateau, the +farm and the lower part of the park, and a wide morass, stretching from +the foot of the terrace to the Seine, rendered access impossible from +that side. + +By the marriage of Genevieve de Bois-l'Eveque, Lady of Tournebut, this +mansion had passed to the family of Marillac, early in the seventeenth +century. The Marshal Louis de Marillac--uncle of Mme. Legras, +collaborator of St. Vincent de Paul--had owned it from 1613 to 1631, and +tradition asserted that during his struggle against Cardinal Richelieu +he had established there a plant for counterfeiting money. To him was +due the construction of the brick wing which remained unfinished, his +condemnation to death for peculation having put a stop to the +embellishments he had intended to make. + +There are very few chateaux left in France like this romantic manor of a +dead and gone past, whose stones have endured all the crises of our +history, and to which each century has added a tower, or a legend. +Tournebut, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was a perfect +type of these old dwellings, where there were so many great halls and so +few living rooms, and whose high slate roofs covered intricacies of +framework forming lofts vast as cathedrals. It was said that its thick +walls were pierced by secret passages and contained hiding-places that +Louis de Marillac had formerly used. + +In 1804 Tournebut was inhabited by the Marquise de Combray, born +Genevieve de Brunelles, daughter of a President of the Cour des Comptes +of Normandy. Her husband, Jean-Louis-Armand-Emmanuel Helie de Combray, +had died in 1784, leaving her with two sons and two daughters, and a +great deal of property in the environs of Falaise, in the parishes of +Donnay, Combray, Bonnoeil and other places. Madame de Combray had +inherited Tournebut from her mother, Madeleine Hubert, herself a +daughter of a councillor in the Parliament of Normandy. Besides the +chateau and the farm, which were surrounded by a park well-wooded with +old trees, the domain included the woods that covered the hillside, at +the extremity of which was an old tower, formerly a wind-mill, built +over deep quarries, and called the "Tower of the Burned Mill," or "The +Hermitage." It figures in the ancient plans of the country under the +latter name, which it owes to the memory of an old hermit who lived in +the quarries for many years and died there towards the close of the +reign of Louis XV, leaving a great local reputation for holiness. + +Mme. de Combray was of a "haughty and imperious nature; her soul was +strong and full of energy; she knew how to brave danger and public +opinion; the boldest projects did not frighten her, and her ambition was +unbounded." Such is the picture that one of her most irreconcilable +enemies has drawn of her, and we shall see that the principal traits +were faithfully described. But to complete the resemblance one must +first of all plead an extenuating circumstance: Madame de Combray was a +fanatical royalist. Even that, however, would not make her story +intelligible, if one did not make allowance for the Calvary that the +faithful royalists travelled through so many years, each station of +which was marked by disillusions and failures. Since the war on the +nobles had begun in 1789, all their efforts at resistance, disdainful at +first, stubborn later on, blundering always, had been pitifully +abortive. Their rebuffs could no longer be counted, and there was some +justification in that for the scornful hatred on the part of the new +order towards a caste which for so many centuries had believed +themselves to be possessed of all the talents. Many of them, it is true, +had resigned themselves to defeat, but the _Intransigeants_ continued to +struggle obstinately; and to say truth, this tenacious attachment to the +ghost of monarchy was not without grandeur. + +From the very beginning of the Revolution the Marquise de Combray had +numbered herself among the unchangeable royalists. Her husband, a +timorous and quiet man, who employed in reading the hours that he did +not consecrate to sleep, had long since abandoned to her the direction +of the household and the management of his fortune. Widowhood had but +strengthened the authority of the Marquise, who reigned over a little +world of small farmers, peasants and servants, more timid, perhaps, than +devoted. + +She exacted complete obedience from her children. The eldest son, called +the Chevalier de Bonnoeil, after a property near the Chateau of +Donnay, in the environs of Falaise, supported the maternal yoke +patiently; he was an officer in the Royal Dragoons at the time of the +Revolution. His younger brother, Timoleon de Combray, was of a less +docile nature. On leaving the military school, as his father was just +dead he solicited from M. de Vergennes a mission in an uncivilised +country and set sail for Morocco. Timoleon was a liberal-minded man, of +high intellectual culture, and a philosophical scepticism that fitted +ill with the Marquise's authoritative temper; although a devoted and +respectful man, it was to get away from his mother's tutelage that he +expatriated himself. "Our diversity of opinion," he said later on, "has +kept me from spending two consecutive months with her in seventeen +years." From Morocco he went to Algiers and thence to Tunis and Egypt. +He was about to penetrate to Tartary when he heard of the outbreak of +the Revolution; and immediately started for France where he arrived at +the beginning of 1791. + +Of Mme. de Combray's two daughters the eldest had married, in 1787, at +the age of twenty-two, Jacques-Philippe-Henri d'Houel; the youngest +Caroline-Madeleine-Louise-Genevieve, was born in 1773, and consequently +was only eleven years old when her father died. This child is the +heroine of the drama we are about to relate. + +In August, 1791, Mme. de Combray inscribed herself and her two sons on +the list of the hostages of Louis XVI which the journalist Durosay had +conceived. It was a courageous act, for it was easy to foresee that the +six hundred and eleven names on "this golden book of fidelity," would +soon all be suspected. While hope remained for the monarchy the two +brothers struggled bravely. Timoleon stayed near the King till August +10, and only went to England after he had taken part in the defence of +the Tuileries; Bonnoeil had emigrated the preceding year, and served +in the army of the Princes. Mme. de Combray, left alone with her two +daughters--the husband of the elder had also emigrated,--left Tournebut +in 1793, and settled in Rouen, where, although she owned much real +estate in the town, she rented in the Rue de Valasse, Faubourg +Bouvreuil, "an isolated, unnumbered house, with an entrance towards the +country." She gave her desire to finish the education of her younger +daughter who was entering her twentieth year as a reason for her +retreat. + +Caroline de Combray was very small,--"as large as a dog sitting," they +said,--but charming; her complexion was delicately pure, her black hair +of extraordinary length and abundance. She was loving and sensible, very +romantic, full of frankness and vivacity; the great attraction of her +small person was the result of a piquant combination of energy and +gentleness. She had been brought up in the convent of the Nouvelles +Catholiques de Caen, where she stayed six years, receiving lessons from +"masters of all sorts of accomplishments, and of different languages." +She was a musician and played the harp, and as soon as they were settled +in Rouen her mother engaged Boieldieu as her accompanist, "to whom she +long paid six silver francs per lesson," a sum that seemed fabulous in +that period of paper-money, and territorial mandates. + +Madame de Combray, besides, was much straightened. As both her sons had +emigrated, all the property that they inherited from their father was +sequestrated. Of the income of 50,000 francs possessed by the family +before the Revolution, scarcely fifty remained at her disposal, and she +had been obliged to borrow to sustain the heavy expenses of her house in +Rouen. + +Besides her two daughters and the servants, she housed half a dozen nuns +and two or three Chartreux, among them a recusant friar called +Lemercier, who soon gained great influence in the household. By reason +of his refractoriness Pere Lemercier was doomed, if discovered, to +death, or at least to deportation, and it will be understood that he +sympathised but feebly with the Revolution that consigned him, against +his will, to martyrdom. He called down the vengeance of heaven on the +miscreants, and not daring to show himself, with unquenchable ardour +preached the holy crusade to the women who surrounded him. + +Mme. de Combray's royalist enthusiasm did not need this inspiration; a +wise man would have counselled resignation, or at least patience, but +unhappily, she was surrounded only by those whose fanaticism encouraged +and excused her own. Enthusiastic frenzy had become the habitual state +of these people, whose overheated imaginations were nourished on +legendary tales, and foolish hopes of imminent reprisals. They welcomed +with unfailing credulity the wildest prophecies, announcing terrible +impending massacres, to which the miraculous return of the Bourbon +lilies would put an end, and as illusions of this kind are strengthened +by their own deceptions, the house in the Rue de Valasse soon heard +mysterious voices, and became the scene "of celestial apparitions," +which, on the invitation of Pere Lemercier predicted the approaching +destruction of the blues and the restoration of the monarchy. + +On a certain day in the summer of 1795, a stranger presented himself to +Pere Lemercier, armed with a password, and a very warm recommendation +from a refractory priest, who was in hiding at Caen. He was a Chouan +chief, bearing the name and title of General Lebret; of medium stature, +with red hair and beard, and cold steel-coloured eyes. Introduced to +Mme. de Combray by Lemercier, he admitted that his real name was Louis +Acquet d'Hauteporte, Chevalier de Ferolles. He had come to Rouen, he +said, to transmit the orders of the Princes to Mallet de Crecy, who +commanded for the King in Upper Normandy. + +We can judge of the welcome the Chevalier received. Mme. de Combray, her +daughters, the nuns and the Chartreux friars used all their ingenuity to +satisfy the slightest wish of this man, who modestly called himself "the +agent general of His Majesty." They arranged a hiding-place for him in +the safest part of the house, and Pere Lemercier blessed it. Acquet +stayed there part of the day, and in the evening joined in the usual +pursuits of the household, and related the story of his adventures by +way of entertainment. + +According to him, he possessed large estates in the environs of the +Sables-d'Olonne, of which place he was a native. An officer in the +regiment of Brie infantry before the Revolution, being at Lille in 1791 +he had taken advantage of his nearness to the frontier to incite his +regiment to insurrection and emigrate to Belgium. He had then put +himself at the disposal of the Princes, and had enlisted men for the +royal army in Veudee, Poitou and Normandy, helping priests to emigrate, +and saving whole villages from the fury of the blues. He named Charette, +Frotte and Puisaye as his most intimate friends, and these names +recalled the chivalrous times of the wars in the west in which he had +taken a glorious part. Sometimes he disappeared for several days, and on +his return from these mysterious absences, would let it be known that he +had just accomplished some great deed, or brought a dangerous mission to +a successful termination. In this way the Chevalier Acquet de Ferolles +had become the idol of the little group of naive royalists among whom he +had found refuge. He had bravely served _the cause_; he plumed himself +on having merited the surname of "_toutou_ of the Princes," and in Mme. +de Combray's dazzled eyes this was equal to any number of references. + +Acquet was in reality an adventurer. If we were to take account here of +all the evil deeds he is credited with, we should be suspected of +wantonly blackening the character of this melodramatic figure. A few +facts gathered by the Combrays will serve to describe him. As an officer +at Lille he was about to be imprisoned as the result of an odious +accusation, but deserted and escaped to Belgium, not daring to join the +army of the emigres. He stopped at Mons, then went to the west of +France, and became a Chouan, but politics had nothing to do with this +act. He associated himself with some bravos of his stripe, and plundered +travellers, and levied contributions on the purchasers of national +property. In the Eure, where he usually pursued his operations, he +assassinated with his own hand two defenceless gamekeepers whom his +little band had encountered. + +He delighted in taking the funds of the country school-teachers, and to +give a colour of royalism to the deed, he would nightly tear down the +trees of liberty in the villages in which he operated. Tired at last of +"an occupation where there was nothing but blows to receive, and his +head to lose," he went to seek his fortune in Rouen; and before he +presented himself to Mme. de Combray, had without doubt made enquiries. +He knew he would find a rich heiress, whose two brothers, emigrated, +would probably never return, and from the first he set to work to +flatter the royalist hobby of the mother, and the romantic imagination +of the young girl. Pere Lemercier was himself conquered; Acquet, to +catch him, pretended the greatest piety and most scrupulous devotion. + +A note of Bonnoeil's informs us of the way this tragic intrigue +ended. "Acquet employed every means of seduction to attain his end. The +young girl, fearing to remain long unmarried because of the unhappy +times, listened to him, in spite of the many reasons for waiting and for +refusing the proposals of a man whose name, country and fortune were +unknown to them. The mother's advice was unfortunately not heeded, and +she found herself obliged to consent to the marriage, the laws of that +period giving the daughters full liberty, and authorising them to shake +off the salutary parental yoke." + +The dates of certain papers complete the discreet periphrases of +Bonnoeil. The truth is that Acquet "declared his passion" to Mlle. de +Combray and as she, a little doubtful though well-disposed to allow +herself to be loved, still hesitated, the Chevalier signed a sort of +mystic engagement dated January 1, 1796, where, "in sight of the Holy +Church and at the pleasure of God," he pledged himself to marry her on +demand. She carefully locked up this precious paper, and a little less +than ten months later, the 17th October, the municipal agent of +Aubevoye, in which is situated the Chateau of Tournebut, inscribed the +birth of a daughter, born to the citizeness Louise-Charlotte de Combray, +"wife of the citizen Louis Acquet." Here, then, is the reason that the +Marquise "found herself obliged to consent to the marriage," which did +not take place until the following year, mention of it not being made in +the registry of Rouen until the date 17th June, 1797. + +Acquet had thus attained his wish; he had seduced Mlle. de Combray to +make the marriage inevitable, and this accomplished, under pretext of +preventing their sale, he caused the estates of the Combrays situated at +Donnay near Falaise, and sequestrated by the emigration of Bonnoeil, +to be conveyed to him. Scarcely was this done when he began to pillage +the property, turning everything into money, cutting down woods, and +sparing neither thickets nor hedges. "The domain of Donnay became a sort +of desert in his hands." Stopped in his depredations by a complaint of +his two brothers-in-law he tried to attack the will of the Marquis de +Combray, pretending that his wife, a minor at the time of her father's +death, had been injured in the division of property. This was to declare +open war on the family he had entered, and to compel his wife to espouse +his cause he beat her unmercifully. A second daughter was born of this +unhappy union, and even the children did not escape the brutality of +their father. A note on this subject, written by Mme. Acquet, is of +heart-breaking eloquence: + +"M. Acquet beat the children cruelly every day; he ill-treated me also +unceasingly: he often chastised them with sticks, which he always used +when he made the children read; they were continually black and blue +with the blows they received. He gave me such a severe blow one day that +blood gushed from my nose and mouth, and I was unconscious for some +moments.... He went to get his pistols to blow out my brains, which he +would certainly have done if people had not been present.... He was +always armed with a dagger." + +In January, 1804, Mme. Acquet resolved to escape from this hell. +Profiting by her husband's absence in La Veudee she wrote to him that +she refused to live with him longer, and hastened to Falaise to ask a +shelter from her brother Timoleon, who had lately returned to France. +Timoleon, in order to prevent a scandal, persuaded his sister to return +to her husband's house. She took this wise advice, but refused to see M. +Acquet, who, returning in haste and finding her barricaded in the +chateau, called the justice of the peace of the canton of Harcourt, +aided by his clerk and two gendarmes, to witness that his wife refused +to receive him. Having, one fine morning, "found her desk forced and all +her papers taken," she returned to Falaise, obtained a judgment +authorising her to live with her brother, and lodged a petition for +separation. + +Things were at this point when the trial of Georges Cadoudal was in +progress. Acquet, exasperated at the resistance to his projects, swore +that he would have signal vengeance on his wife and all the Combrays. +They were, unhappily, to give his hatred too good an opportunity of +showing itself. + +After passing three years in Rouen, Mme. de Combray returned to +Tournebut in the spring of 1796, with her royalist passions and +illusions as strong as ever. She had declared war on the Revolution, and +believed that victory was assured at no distant period. It is a not +uncommon effect of political passion to blind its subjects to the point +of believing that their desires and hopes are imminent realities. Mme. +de Combray anticipated the return of the King so impatiently that one of +her reasons for returning to the chateau was to prepare apartments for +the Princes and their suite in case the debarkation should take place on +the coast of Normandy. Once before, in 1792, Gaillon had been designated +as a stopping-place for Louis XVI in case he should again make the +attempt that had been frustrated at Varennes. The Chateau de Gaillon was +no longer habitable in 1796, but Tournebut, in the opinion of the +Marquise, offered the same advantages, being about midway between the +coast and Paris. Its isolation also permitted the reception of passing +guests without awakening suspicion, while the vast secret rooms where +sixty to eighty persons could hide at one time, were well suited for +holding secret councils. To make things still safer, Mme. de Combray now +acquired a large house, situated about two hundred yards from the walls +of Tournebut, and called "Gros-Mesnil" or "Le Petit Chateau." It was a +two-story building with a high slate roof; the court in front was +surrounded by huts and offices; a high wall enclosed the property on all +sides, and a pathway led from it to one of the doors in the wall +surrounding Tournebut. + +As soon as she was in possession of the Petit Chateau, Mme. de Combray +had some large secret places constructed in it. For this work she +employed a man called Soyer who combined the functions of intendant, +maitre d'hotel and valet-de-chambre at Tournebut. Soyer was born at +Combray, one of the Marquise's estates in Lower Normandy, and entered +her service in 1791, at the age of sixteen, in the capacity of scullion. +He had gone with his mistress to Rouen during the Terror, and since the +return to Tournebut she had given the administration of the estate into +his hands. In this way he had authority over the domestics at the +chateau, who numbered six, and among whom the chambermaid Querey and the +gardener Chatel deserve special mention. Each year, about Easter, Mme. +de Combray went to Rouen, where under pretext of purchases to make and +rents to collect, she remained a month. Only Soyer and Mlle. Querey +accompanied her. Besides her patrimonial house in the Rue Saint-Amand, +she had retained the quiet house in the Faubourg Bouvreuil which still +served as a refuge for the exiles sought by the police of the Directory, +and as a depot for the refractories who were sure of finding supplies +there and means of rejoining the royalist army. Tournebut itself, +admirably situated between Upper and Lower Normandy, became the refuge +for all the partisans whom a particularly bold stroke had brought to the +attention of the authorities on either bank of the river, totally +separated at this time by the slowness and infrequency of communication, +and also by the centralisation of the police which prevented direct +intercourse between the different departmental authorities. It was in +this way that Mme. de Combray, having become from 1796 to 1804, the +chief of the party with the advantage of being known as such only to +the party itself, sheltered the most compromised of the chiefs of Norman +Chouannerie, those strange heroes whose mad bravery has brought them a +legendary fame, and whose names are scarcely to be found, doubtfully +spelled, in the accounts of historians. + +Among those who sojourned at Tournebut was Charles de Margadel, one of +Frotte's officers, who had organised a royalist police even in Paris. +Thence he had escaped to deal some blows in the Eure under the orders of +Hingant de Saint-Maur, another habitue of Tournebut who was preparing +there his astonishing expedition of Pacy-sur-Eure. Besides Margadel and +Hingant, Mme. de Combray had oftenest sheltered Armand Gaillard, and his +brother Raoul, whose death we have related. Deville, called "Tamerlan"; +the brothers Tellier; Le Bienvenu du Buc, one of the officers of +Hingant; also another, hidden under the name of Collin, called +"Cupidon"; a German bravo named Flierle, called "Le Marchand," whom we +shall meet again, were also her guests, without counting +"Sauve-la-Graisse," "Sans-Quartier," "Blondel," "Perce-Pataud"--actors +in the drama, without name or history, who were always sure of finding +in the "cachettes" of the great chateau or the Tour de l'Ermitage, +refuge and help. + +These were compromising tenants, and it is quite easy to imagine what +amusements at Tournebut served to fill the leisure of these men so long +unaccustomed to regular occupation, and to whom strife and danger had +become absolute necessaries. Some statistics, rather hard to prove, will +furnish hints on this point. In September, 1800, the two coaches from +Caen to Paris were stopped between Evreux and Pacy, at a place called +Riquiqui, by two hundred armed brigands, and 48,000 livres belonging to +the State taken. Again, in 1800, the coach from Rouen to Pont-Audemer +was attacked by twenty Chouans and a part of the funds carried off. In +1801 a coach was robbed near Evreux; some days later the mail from Caen +to Paris was plundered by six brigands. On the highroad on the right +bank of the Seine attacks on coaches were frequent near Saint-Gervais, +d'Authevernes, and the old mill of Mouflaines. It was only a good deal +later, when the chateau of Tournebut was known as an avowed retreat of +the Chouans, that it occurred to the authorities that "by its position +at an equal distance from the two roads to Paris by Vernon and by +Magny-en-Vexin, where the mail had so often been stopped," it might well +have served as a centre of operations, and as the authors of these +outrages remained undiscovered, they credited them all to Mme. de +Combray's inspiration, and this accusation without proof is none too +bold. The theft of state funds was a bagatelle to people whom ten years +of implacable warfare had rendered blase about all brigandage. Moreover, +it was easily conceivable that the snare laid by Bonaparte for Frotte, +who was so popular in Normandy, the summary execution of the General and +his six officers, the assassination of the Duc d'Enghien, the death of +Georges Cadoudal (almost a god to the Chouans) and of his brave +companions, following so many imprisonments without trial, acts of +police treachery, traps and denunciations paid for and rewarded, had +exasperated the vanquished royalists, and envenomed their hatred to the +point of believing any expedient justifiable. Such was the state of mind +of Mme. de Combray in the middle of 1804, at which date we have stopped +the recital of the marital misfortunes of Mme. Acquet de Ferolles, and +it justified Bonald's saying: "Foolish deeds done by clever men, +extravagances uttered by men of intellect, crimes committed by honest +people--such is the story of the revolution." + + * * * * * + +D'Ache had taken refuge at Tournebut. He had left Paris as soon as the +gates were opened, and whether he had escaped surveillance more cleverly +than the brothers Gaillard, whether he had been able to get immediately +to Saint-Germain where he had a refuge, and from there, without risking +the passage of a ferry or a bridge, without stopping at any inn, had +succeeded in covering in one day the fifteen leagues that separated him +from Gaillon, he arrived without mishap at Tournebut where Mme. de +Combray immediately shut the door of one of the hiding-places upon him. + +Tournebut was familiar ground to d'Ache. He was related to Mme. de +Combray, and before the Revolution, when he was on furlough, he had made +long visits there while "grandmere Brunelle" was still alive. He had +been back since then and had spent there part of the autumn of 1803. +There had been a grand reunion at the chateau then, to celebrate the +marriage of M. du Hasey, proprietor of a chateau near Gaillon. Du Hasey +was aide-de-camp to Guerin de Bruslard, the famous Chouan whom Frotte +had designated as his successor to the command of the royal army, and +who had only had to disband it. This reunion, which is often mentioned +in the reports, by the nature and quality of the guests, was more +important than an ordinary wedding-feast. + +D'Ache learned at Tournebut of the proclamation of the Empire and the +death of Georges. He looked upon it as a death-blow to the royalist +hopes; where-ever one might turn there was no resource--no chiefs, no +money, no men. If many royalists remained in the Orne and the Manche, it +was impossible to group them or pay them. The government gained strength +and authority daily; at the slightest movement France felt the iron +grasp in which she was held tightened around her, and such was the +prestige of the extraordinary hero who personified the whole regime, +that even those he had vanquished did not disguise their admiration. The +King of Spain--a Bourbon--sent him the insignia of the Golden Fleece. +The world was fascinated and history shows no example of material and +moral power comparable to that of Napoleon when the Holy Father crossed +the mountains to recognise and hail him as the instrument of Providence, +and anoint him Caesar in the name of God. + +It was, however, just at this time that d'Ache, an exile, concealed in +the Chateau of Tournebut, without a companion, without a penny, without +a counsellor or ally other than the aged woman who gave him refuge, +conceived the astonishing idea of struggling against the man before whom +all Europe bowed the knee. Looked at in this light it seems madness, but +undoubtedly d'Ache's royalist illusions blinded him to the conditions of +the duel he was to engage in. But these illusions were common to many +people for whom Bonaparte, at the height of his power, was never +anything but an audacious criminal whose factitious greatness was at the +mercy of a well-directed and fortunate blow. + +Fouche's police had not given up hopes of finding the fugitive. They +looked for him in Paris, Rouen, Saint-Denis-du-Bosguerard, near +Bourgtheroulde, where his mother possessed a small estate; they watched +closest at Saint-Clair whither his wife and daughters had returned after +the execution of Georges. The doors of the Madelonnettes prison had been +opened for them and they had been informed that they must remove +themselves forty leagues from Paris and the coast; but the poor woman, +almost without resources, had not paid attention to this injunction, and +they were allowed to remain at Saint-Clair in the hope that d'Ache would +tire of his wandering life, and allow himself to be taken at home. As to +Placide, as soon as he found himself out of the Temple, and had +conducted his sister-in-law and nieces home, he returned to Rouen, where +he arrived in mid-July. Scarcely had he been one night in his lodging in +the Rue Saint-Patrice, when he received a letter--how, or from where he +could not say--announcing that his brother had gone away so as not to +compromise his family again, and that he would not return to France +until general peace was proclaimed, hoping then to obtain permission +from the government to end his days in the bosom of his family. + +D'Ache, however, was living in Tournebut without much mystery. The only +precaution he took was to avoid leaving the property, and he had taken +the name of "Deslorieres," one of the pseudonyms of Georges Cadoudal, +"as if he wanted to name himself as his successor." Little by little the +servants became accustomed to the presence of this guest of whom Mme. de +Combray took such good care "because he had had differences with the +government," as she said. Under pretext of repairs undertaken in the +church of Aubevoye, the cure of the parish was invited to celebrate mass +every Sunday in the chapel of the chateau, and d'Ache could thus be +present at the celebration without showing himself in the village. + +Doubtless the days passed slowly for this man accustomed to an active +life; he and his old friend dreamt of the return of the King, and +Bonnoeil, who spent part of the year at Tournebut, read to them a +funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, a virulent pamphlet that the +royalists passed from hand to hand, and of which he had taken a copy. +How many times must d'Ache have paced the magnificent avenue of limes, +which still exists as the only vestige of the old park. There is a +moss-grown stone table on which one loves to fancy this strange man +leaning his elbow while he thought of his "rival," and planned the +future according to his royalist illusions as the other in his Olympia, +the Tuileries, planned it according to his ambitious caprices. + +This existence lasted fifteen months. From the time of his arrival at +the end of March, 1804, until the day he left, it does not seem that +d'Ache received any visitors, except Mme. Levasseur of Rouen, who, if +police reports are to be believed, was simultaneously his mistress and +Raoul Gaillard's. The truth is that she was a devoted friend of the +royalists--to whom she had rendered great service, and through her +d'Ache was kept informed of what happened in Lower Normandy during his +seclusion at Tournebut. Since the general pacification, tranquillity +was, in appearance at least, established; Chouannerie seemed to be +forgotten. But conscription was not much to the taste of the rural +classes, and the rigour with which it was applied alienated the +population. The number of refractories and deserters augmented at each +requisition; protected by the sympathy of the peasants they easily +escaped all search; the country people considered them victims rather +than rebels, and gave them assistance when they could do so without +being seen. There were here all the elements of a new insurrection; to +which would be added, if they succeeded in uniting and equipping all +these malcontents, the survivors of Frotte's bands, exasperated by the +rigours of the new regime, and the ill-treatment of the gendarmes. + +The descent of a French prince on the Norman coast would in d'Ache's +opinion, group all these malcontents. Thoroughly persuaded that to +persuade one of them to cross the channel it would suffice to tell M. le +Comte d'Artois or one of his sons that his presence was desired by the +faithful population in the West, he thought of going himself to England +with the invitation. Perhaps they would be able to persuade the King to +put himself at the head of the movement, and be the first to land on +French soil. This was d'Ache's secret conviction, and in the ardour of +his credulous enthusiasm he was certain that on the announcement, +Napoleon's Empire would crumble of itself, without the necessity of a +single blow. + +Such was the eternal subject of conversation between Mme. de Combray and +her guest, varied by interminable parties of cards of tric-trac. In +their feverish idleness, isolated from the rest of the world, ignorant +of new ideas and new manners, they shut themselves up with their +illusions, which took on the colour of reality. And while the exile +studied the part of the coast where, followed by an army of volunteers +with white plumes, he would go to receive his Majesty, the old Marquise +put the last touches to the apartments long ago prepared for the +reception of the King and his suite on their way to Paris. And in order +to perpetuate the remembrance of this visit, which would be the most +glorious page in the history of Tournebut, she had caused the old part +of the chateau, left unfinished by Marillac, to be restored and +ornamented. + +In July, 1805, after more than a year passed in this solitude, d'Ache +judged that the moment to act had arrived. The Emperor was going to +take the field against a new coalition, and the campaign might be +unfavourable to him. It only needed a defeat to shake to its foundations +the new Empire whose prestige a victorious army alone maintained. It was +important to profit by this chance should it arrive. And in order to be +within reach of the English cruiser d'Ache had to be near Cotentin; he +had many devoted friends in this region and was sure of finding a safe +retreat. Mme. de Combray, taking advantage of the fair of Saint-Clair +which was held every year in mid-July, near the Chateau of Donnay, could +conduct her guest beyond Falaise without exciting suspicion. They +determined to start then, and about July 15, 1805, the Marquise left +Tournebut with her son Bonnoeil, in a cabriolet that d'Ache drove, +disguised as a postillion. + +In this equipage, the man without any resource but his courage, and his +royalist faith, whose dream was to change the course of the world's +events, started on his campaign; and one is obliged to think, in face of +this heroic simplicity, of Cervantes' hero, quitting his house one fine +morning, and armed with an old shield and lance, encased in antiquated +armour and animated by a sublime but foolish faith, going forth to +succour the oppressed, and declare war on Giants. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ADVENTURES OF D'ACHE + + +The demesne of Donnay, situated about three leagues from Falaise on the +road to Harcourt, was one of the estates which Acquet de Ferolles had +usurped, under pretext of saving them from the Public Treasury and of +taking over the management of the property of his brother-in-law, +Bonnoeil, who was an emigre. Now, the latter had for some time +returned to the enjoyment of his civil rights, but Acquet had not +restored his possessions. This terrible man, acting in the name of his +wife, who was a claimant of the inheritance of the late M. de Combray, +had instituted a series of lawsuits against his brother-in-law. He +proved to be such a clever tactician, that though Mme. Acquet had for +some time been suing for a separation, he managed to live on the Combray +estates; fortifying his position by means of a store of quotations +drawn, as occasion demanded, from the Common Law of Normandy, the +Revolutionary Laws and the Code Napoleon. To deal with these questions +in detail would be wearisome and useless. Suffice it to say that at the +period at which we have arrived, all that Mme. Acquet had to depend upon +was a pension of 2,000 francs which the court had granted to her on +August 1, 1804, for her maintenance pending a definite decision. She +lived alone at the Hotel de Combray in the Rue du Trepot at Falaise, a +very large house composed of two main buildings, one of which was vacant +owing to the absence of Timoleon who had settled in Paris. Mme. de +Combray had undertaken to assist with her granddaughters' education, and +they had been sent off to a school kept by a Mme. du Saussay at Rouen. + +Foreseeing that this state of things could not last forever, Acquet, +despite Bonnoeil's oft-repeated protests, continued to devastate +Donnay, so as to get all he could out of it, cutting down the forests, +chopping the elms into faggots, and felling the ancient beeches. The +very castle whose facade but lately reached to the end of the stately +avenue, suffered from his devastations. It was now nothing but a ruin +with swing-doors and a leaking roof. Here Acquet had reserved a garret +for himself, abandoning the rest of the house to the ravages of time and +the weather. Shut up in this ruin like a wild beast in his lair, he +would not permit the slightest infringement of what he called his +rights. Mme. de Combray wished to spend the harvest season of 1803 at +the chateau, where the happiest years of her life had been passed, and +where all her children had grown up, but Acquet made the bailiff turn +her out, and the Marquise took refuge in the village parsonage, which +had been sold at the time of the Revolution as national property, and +for which she had supplied half the money, when the Commune bought it +back, to restore it to its original purpose. Since no priest had yet +been appointed she was able to take up her residence there, to the +indignation of her son-in-law, who considered this intrusion as a piece +of bravado. + +Two years later Mme. de Combray had still no other shelter at Donnay, +and it was to this parsonage that she brought d'Ache. They arrived there +on the evening of July 17th. A long stay in this conspicuous house, +which was always exposed to the hateful espionage of Acquet, was out of +the question for the exile. He nevertheless spent a fortnight there, +without trying to hide himself, even going so far as to hunt, and +receive several visits, among others one from Mme. Acquet, who came from +Falaise to see her mother, and thus met d'Ache for the first time. At +the beginning of August he quitted Donnay, and Mme. de Combray +accompanied him as far as the country chateau of a neighbour, M. +Descroisy, where he passed one night. At break of day he set out on +horseback in the direction of Bayeux, Mme. de Combray alone knowing +where he went. + +In this neighbourhood d'Ache had the choice of several places of refuge. +He was closely connected by ties of friendship with the family of +Duquesnay de Monfiquet who lived at Mandeville near Trevieres. M. de +Monfiquet, a thoroughly loyal but quite unimportant nobleman, having +emigrated at the outbreak of the Revolution, his estate at Mandeville +had been sequestrated and his chateau pillaged and half demolished. Mme. +de Monfiquet, a clever and energetic woman, being left with six +daughters unprovided for, took refuge with the d'Ache's at Gournay, +where she spent the whole period of the Terror. Madame d'Ache even kept +Henriette, one of the little girls who was ill-favoured and hunchbacked +but remarkably clever, with her for five years. + +Monsieur de Monfiquet, returning from abroad in the year VII, and having +somewhat reorganised his little estate at Mandeville, lived there in +poverty with his family in the hope that brighter days would dawn for +them with the return of the monarchy. On all these grounds d'Ache was +sure of finding not only a safe retreat but congenial society. The few +persons who were acquainted with what passed at Mandeville were +convinced that Mlle. Henriette possessed a great influence over the +exile, and that she had been his mistress for a long time. According to +general opinion he made her his confidant and she helped him like a +devoted admirer. In fact she arranged several other hiding-places for +him in the neighbourhood of Trevieres in case of need;--one at the mill +at Dungy, another with M. de Cantelou at Lingevres, and a third at a +tanner's named La Perandeere at Bayeux. And to escort him in his flights +she secured a man of unparalleled audacity who had been a brigand in the +district for ten years, and who had to avenge the death of his two +brothers, who had fallen into an ambush and been shot at Bayeux in 1796. +People called him David the Intrepid. Having been ten times condemned to +death and certain of being shot as soon as he was caught, David had no +settled abode. On stormy nights he would embark in a boat which he +steered himself, and, sure of not being overtaken, he would reach +England where he used to act as an agent for the emigrants. They say +that he was not without influence with the entourage of the Comte +d'Artois. When he stayed in France he lodged with an old lady former +housekeeper to a Councillor of the Parliament of Normandy, who lived +alone in an old house in Bayeux and to whom he had been recommended by +Mlle. Henriette de Monfiquet. David did not take up much room. When he +arrived he set in motion a contrivance of his own by which two steps of +the principal staircase were raised, and slipping into the cavity thus +made, he quickly replaced everything. All the gendarmes in Calvados +could have gone up and down this staircase without suspecting that a man +was hidden in the house, where, however, he was never looked for. + +These were the persons and means made use of by d'Ache in his new +theatre of operations: a poor hunchbacked girl was his council, and his +army was composed of David the Intrepid. He was, moreover, penniless. At +the beginning of the autumn Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis by +Lanoe, a keeper who had been in her service, and who now occupied a +small farm at Glatigny, near to Bretteville-sur-Dives. Lanoe belonged to +that rapacious type of peasant whom even a small sum of money never +fails to attract. Already he had on two occasions acted as guide to the +Baron de Commarque and to Frotte when Mme. de Combray offered them +shelter at Donnay. For this he had been summoned before a military +commission and spent nearly two years in prison, but this had no +effect. For three francs he would walk ten leagues and if he complained +sufficiently of the dangers to which these missions exposed him the sum +was doubled and he would go away satisfied. In the middle of August he +went to Mandeville to fetch d'Ache to Donnay, where he spent ten days +and again passed three weeks at the end of September. He was to have +gone there again in December, but at the moment when he was preparing to +start Bonnoeil suddenly appeared at Mandeville, having come to warn +him not to venture there as Mme. de Combray had been accused of a crime +and was on the point of being arrested. + + * * * * * + +It was not without vexation that Acquet saw his mother-in-law settling +herself at his very door. Keenly on the lookout for any means of +annoying the Marquise, he was struck by the idea that if an incumbent +were appointed to the vacant cure of Donnay, he would have to live at +the parsonage, half of which belonged to the Commune, and that their +being obliged to live in the same house would be a great inconvenience +to Mme. de Combray. This prospect charmed Acquet, and as he had several +friends in high positions, among them the Baron Darthenay his neighbour +at Meslay, who had lately been elected deputy for Calvados, he had small +difficulty in getting a priest appointed. A few days afterwards a cure, +the Abbe Clerisse, arrived at Donnay, fully determined to carry out the +duties of his ministry faithfully, and very far from foreseeing the +tragic fate in store for him. + +Mme. de Combray had made herself quite comfortable at the parsonage, +which she considered in a manner her own property since she had +furnished half the money for its purchase. She now saw herself compelled +to surrender a portion of it, which from the very first embittered her +against the new arrival. Acquet, for his part, feted his protege, and +welcoming him cordially put him on his guard against the machinations of +the Marquise, whom he represented as an inveterate enemy of the +conciliatory government to which France owed the Concordat. The Abbe +Clerisse, who, from the construction of the house was obliged to use the +rooms in common with Mme. de Combray, was not long in noticing the +mysterious behaviour of the occupants. There were conferences conducted +in whispers, visitors who arrived at night and left at dawn, secret +comings and goings, in short, all the strange doings of a houseful of +conspirators, so that the good cure one day took Lanoe aside and +recommended him to be prudent, "predicting that he would get himself +into serious difficulties if he did not quit the service of the Marquise +as soon as possible." Mme. de Combray, in her exasperation, called the +Abbe "Concordataire," an epithet which, from her, was equivalent to +renegade. She had the imprudence to add that the reign of the "usurper +would not last forever, and that the princes would soon return at the +head of an English army and restore everything." In her wrath she left +the parsonage, making a great commotion, and went to beg shelter from +her farmer Hebert, who lived in a cottage used as a public house, called +La Bijude, where the road from Harcourt met that from Cesny. Acquet was +triumphant. The astonished Abbe remained passive; and as ill luck would +have it, fell ill and died a few days afterwards. A report was +circulated, emanating from the chateau, that he had died of grief caused +by Mme. de Combray. Then people began to talk in whispers about a +certain basket of white wine with which she had presented the poor +priest. A week later all those who sided with Acquet were convinced that +the Marquise had poisoned the Abbe Clerisse, "after having been +imprudent enough to take him into her confidence." Feeling ran high in +the village. Acquet affected consternation. The authorities, no doubt +informed by him, began making investigations when a nephew of the +Marquise, M. de Saint Leonard, Mayor of Falaise, who was on very good +terms with the Court, came down to hush up the affair and impose silence +on the mischief-makers. + +This first bout between Acquet de Ferolles and the family de Combray +resulted in d'Ache's being forbidden the house of his old friend. +Feeling herself in the clutches of an enemy who was always on the watch, +she did not dare to expose to denunciation a man on whose head the fate +of the monarchy rested. D'Ache did not come to La Bijude the whole +winter. Mme. de Combray lived there alone with her son Bonnoeil and +the farmer Hebert. She had the house done up and repainted, but it +distressed her to be so meanly lodged, and she regretted the lofty +halls and the quiet of Tournebut. At the beginning of Lent, 1806, she +sent Lanoe for the last time to Mandeville to arrange with d'Ache some +means of correspondence, and with Bonnoeil she again started for +Gaillon, determined never again to set foot on her estates in Lower +Normandy as long as her son-in-law reigned there, and thoroughly +convinced that the fast approaching return of the King would avenge all +the humiliations she had lately endured. She had, moreover, quarrelled +with her daughter, who had only come to Donnay twice during her mother's +stay, and had there displayed only a very moderate appreciation of +d'Ache's plans, and had seemed entirely uninterested in the annoyance +caused to the Marquise, and her exodus to La Bijude. + +If Mme. Acquet de Ferolles was really lacking in interest, it was +because a great event had occurred in her own life. + +Acquet knew that his wife's suit for a separation must inevitably be +granted. The ill-treatment she had had to endure was only too +well-known, and every one in Falaise took her part. If Acquet lost the +case, it would mean the end of the easy life he was leading at Donnay, +and he not only wished to gain time but secretly hoped that his wife +would commit some indiscretion that would regain for him if not the +sympathies of the public, at least her loss of the suit which if won, +would ruin him. In order to carry out his Machiavellian schemes, he +pretended that he wished to come to an understanding with the Combray +family, and he despatched one of his friends to Mme. Acquet to open +negotiations. This friend, named Le Chevalier, was a handsome young man +of twenty-five, with dark hair, a pale complexion and white teeth. He +had languishing eyes, a sympathetic voice and a graceful figure, +inexhaustible good-humour, despite his melancholy appearance, and +unbounded audacity. As he was the owner of a farm in the Commune of +Saint Arnould in the neighbourhood of Exmes, he was called Le Chevalier +de Saint-Arnould, which gave him the position of a nobleman. He was +moreover related to the nobility. + +Less has been written about Le Chevalier than about most of those who +were concerned in the troubles in the west. Nevertheless, his adventures +deserve more than the few lines, often incorrect, devoted to him by some +chroniclers of the revolt of the Chouans. He was a remarkable +personality, very romantic, somewhat of an enigma, and one who by a +touch of gallantry and scepticism was distinguished from his savage and +heroic companions. + +Born with a generous temperament and deeply in love with glory, as he +said, he was the son of a councillor, hammer-keeper to the corporation +of the woods and forests of Vire. A stay of several years in Paris where +he took lessons from different masters as much in science as in the arts +and foreign languages, had completed his education. He returned to Saint +Arnould in 1799, uncertain as to the choice of a career, when a chance +meeting with Picot, chief of the Auge division, whose death was +described at the beginning of this story, decided his vocation, and Le +Chevalier became a royalist officer, less from conviction than from +generous feelings which inclined him towards the cause of the vanquished +and oppressed. A pistol shot broke his left arm two or three days after +he was enrolled, and he was scarcely cured of this wound when he again +took the field and was implicated in the stopping of a coach. Three of +his friends were imprisoned, and when he himself was arrested, he +succeeded in proving that on the very day of the attack, in the +neighbourhood of Evreux, he was on a visit to a senator in Paris who had +great friends among the authorities, and the magistrates were compelled +to yield before this indisputable alibi. Le Chevalier, nevertheless, +appeared before the tribunal which was trying the cases of his +companions, and pleaded their cause with the eloquence inspired by the +purest and bravest friendship, and when he heard them condemned to +death, he begged in a burst of feeling which amazed everybody, to be +allowed to share their fate. It was considered a sufficient punishment +to send him to prison at Caen, whence he was liberated a few months +later, though he had to remain in the town under police surveillance. It +was then that the wild romance of his life began. + +He possessed an ample fortune. His chivalrous behaviour in the affair at +Evreux had gained for him, among the Chouans such renown that without +knowing him otherwise than from hearsay, Mme. de Combray travelled +across Normandy, as did many other royalist ladies in order to visit the +hero in prison and offer him her services. He had admirers who fawned +on him, flatterers who praised him to the skies, and how could this +rather hot-headed youth of twenty resist such adulation at that strange +epoch when even the wisest lost their balance? At least his folly was +generous. + +Scarcely out of prison he was seized with pity for the misery of the +pardoned Chouans, veritable pariahs, who lived by all sorts of +contrivances or were dependent on charity, and he made their care his +special charge. He was always followed by a dozen of these parasites, a +ragged troop of whom filled the Cafe Hervieux, where he held his court +and which moreover was frequented by teachers of English, mathematics +and fencing, whom he had in his pay, and from whom he took lessons when +not playing faro. + +Le Chevalier had a warm heart, and a purse that was never closed. He was +a facile speaker whose eloquence was of a forensic type. His friendships +were passionate. While in prison he received news of the death of one of +his friends, Gilbert, who had been guillotined at Evreux, and when some +one congratulated him on his approaching release he replied: "Ah, my +dear comrade! do you think this is a time to congratulate me? Do you +know so little of my heart and are you so ignorant of the love I bore +Gilbert? The happiness of my life is destroyed forever. Nothing can fill +the void in my heart.... I have lived, ah! far too long. O divine duties +of friendship and honour, how my heart burns to fulfil you! O eternity +or annihilation, how sweet will you seem to me whence once I have +fulfilled them!" Such was Le Chevalier's style and this affection +contrasted singularly with the world in which he lived. His comparative +wealth, his generosity, and an air of mystery about his life, gave him a +certain advantage over the most popular leaders. People knew that he was +dreaming of gigantic projects, and his partisans considered him cut out +for the accomplishment of great things. + +In reality Le Chevalier squandered his patrimony recklessly. +The treasury of the party--presided over by an old officer of +Frotte's, Bureau de Placene, who pompously styled himself the +Treasurer-General--was empty, and orders came from "high places," +without any one exactly knowing whence they emanated, for the faithful +to refill them by pillaging the coffers of the state. The police had +little by little relaxed their supervision of Le Chevalier's conduct, +and he took advantage of this to go away for short periods. It was +remarked that each of his absences generally coincided with the stopping +of a coach--a frequent occurrence in Normandy at this time, and one that +was considered as justifiable by the royalists. Seldom did they feel any +qualms about these exploits. The driver, and often his escort, were +accomplices of the Chouans. A few shots were fired from muskets or +pistols to keep up the pretence of a fight. Some of the men opened the +chests while others kept watch. The money belonging to the government +was divided to the last sou, while that belonging to private individuals +was carefully returned to the strong box. A few hours later the band +returned to Caen and the noisy meetings at the Cafe Hervieux were not +even interrupted. + +What renders the figure of Le Chevalier especially attractive, despite +these mad pranks, which no one of his day considered dishonourable, is +the deep private grief which saddened his adventurous life. In 1801, +when he was twenty-one years of age, and during his detention at Caen, +he had married Lucile Thiboust, a girl somewhat older than himself, +whose father had been overseer of an estate. He was obliged to break out +of prison to spend a few rare hours with the wife whom he dearly loved, +all the more so since his passion was oftenest obliged to expend itself +in ardent letters not devoid of literary merit. In prison he learned of +the birth of a son born of this union, and a week later, of the death of +his adored wife. His grief was terrible, but he was seized with a +passionate love for his child, and it is said that from that day forth +he cared for no one else. He had lived so fast that at the age of +twenty-three he was tired of life; his only anxiety was for the future +of his son, whom he had confided to the care of a good woman named Marie +Hamon. He traced out a line of conduct for this babe in swaddling +clothes: "Let him flee corruption, seduction and all shameful and +violent passions; let him be a friend as they were in ancient Greece, a +lover as in ancient Gaul." + +In short his exploits, his captivity, his sorrows, his eloquence, his +courage, his noble bearing, made Le Chevalier a hero of romance, and +this was the man whom Acquet de Ferolles deemed it wise to despatch to +his wife. Doubtless he had made his acquaintance through the medium of +some of his Chouan comrades. He received him at Donnay, and in order to +attach him to himself lent him large sums of money, which Le Chevalier +immediately distributed among the crowd of parasites that never left +him. Acquet told him of the separation with which his wife threatened +him, begging him to use all his eloquence to bring about an amicable +settlement. + +The poor woman would never have known this peacemaker but for her +husband, and we are ignorant of the manner in which he acquitted himself +of his mission. She had yielded as much from inexperience as from +compulsion, to a man who for five years had made her life a martyrdom. +She lived at Falaise in an isolation that accorded ill with her yearning +for love and her impressionable nature. The person who now came suddenly +into her life corresponded so well with her idea of a hero--he was so +handsome, so brave, so generous, he spoke with such gentleness and +politeness that Mme. Acquet, to whom these qualities were startling +novelties, loved him from the first day with an "ungovernable passion." +She associated herself with his life with an ardour that excluded every +other sentiment, and she so wished to stand well with him that, casting +aside all prudence, she adopted his adventurous mode of living, mixing +with the outcasts who formed the entourage of her lover, and with them +frequenting the inns and cafes of Caen. He succeeded in avoiding the +surveillance of the police, and secretly undertook journeys to Paris +where he said he had friends in the Emperor's immediate circle. He +travelled by those roads in Normandy which were known to all the old +Chouans, talking to them of the good times when they made war on the +Blues, and not hesitating to say that, whenever he wished, he had only +to make a sign and an army would spring up around him. He maintained, +moreover, a small troop of determined men who carried his messages and +formed his staff. + +There is not the slightest doubt that their chief resource lay in +carrying off the money of the State which was sent from place to place +in public conveyances, and it was this booty that enriched the coffers +of the party, the treasurer, Placene, having long since grown +indifferent to the source of his supplies. The agreement of certain +dates is singularly convincing. Thus, at the beginning of December, +1805, d'Ache was at Mandeville with the Monfiquets, in a state of such +penury that, as we have seen, Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis d'or +by Lanoe; nevertheless, he was thinking of going to England to fetch +back the princes. He would require a considerable sum to prepare for his +journey, and to guard against all the contingencies of this somewhat +audacious attempt. Mme. Acquet was informed of the situation by her +mother whom she came to visit at Donnay, and on the 22d December, 1805, +the coach from Rouen to Paris was attacked on the slope of Authevernes, +at a distance of only three leagues from the Chateau of Tournebut. The +travellers noticed that one of the brigands, dressed in a military +costume, and whom his comrades called The Dragon, was so much thinner +and more active than the rest, that he might well have been taken "for a +woman dressed as a man." A fresh attack was made at the same place by +the same band on the 15th February, 1806; and as before the band +disappeared so rapidly, once the blow was struck, that it seemed they +must have taken refuge in one of the neighbouring houses. Suspicion fell +on the Chateau de Mussegros, situated about three leagues from +Authevernes; but nobody then thought of Tournebut, the owners of which +had been absent for seven months. It was only in March that Mme. de +Combray returned there, and it was in April that d'Ache, having laid in +a good stock of money, decided to cross the channel and convey to the +princes the good wishes of their faithful provinces in the west. + +D'Ache had not wasted his time during his stay at Mandeville. It was a +difficult enterprise in existing circumstances to arrange his crossings +with any chance of success. The embarkation was easy enough, and David +the Intrepid had undertaken to see to it; but it was especially +important to secure a safe return, and a secret landing on the French +coast, lined as it was by patrols, watched day and night by custom-house +officers, and guarded by sentinels at every point where a boat could +approach the shore, offered almost insuperable difficulties. D'Ache +selected a little creek at the foot of the rocks of Saint Honorine, +scarcely two leagues from Trevieres and David, who knew all the coast +guards in the district, bribed one of them to become an accomplice. + +It was on a stormy night at the end of April, 1806, that d'Ache put to +sea in a boat seventeen feet long, which was steered by David the +Intrepid. After tossing about for fifty hours, they landed in England. +David immediately stood out to sea again, while d'Ache took the road to +London. + +One can easily imagine what the feelings of these royalist fanatics must +have been when they approached the princes to whom they had devoted so +many years of their lives, hunted over France and pursued like +malefactors; how they must have anticipated the welcome in London that +their devotion merited. They were prepared to be treated like sons by +the King, as friends by the princes, as leaders by the emigrants, who +were only waiting to return till France was reconquered for them. The +deception was cruel. The emigrant world, so easy to dupe on account of +its misfortunes, and immeasurable vanity, had fallen a victim to so many +false Chouans--spies in disguise and barefaced swindlers, who each +brought plans for the restoration, and after obtaining money made off +and were never seen again--that distrust at last had taken the place of +the unsuspecting confidence of former days. Every Frenchman who arrived +in London was considered an adventurer, and as far as we can gather from +this closed page of history,--for those, who tried the experiment of a +visit to the exiled princes, have respectfully kept silence on the +subject of their discomfiture--it appears that terrible mortifications +were in store for the militant royalists who approached the emigrant +leaders. D'Ache did not escape disillusionment, and though he did not +disclose the incidents of his stay in London, we know that at first he +was thrown into prison, and that for two months he could not succeed in +obtaining an interview with the Comte d'Artois, much less with the +exiled King. + +M. de la Chapelle, the most influential man at the little court at +Hartwell, sent for him and questioned him about his plans, but was +opposed to his being received by the princes, though he put him in +communication with King George's ministers, every person who brought +news of any plot against Napoleon's government being sure of a welcome +and a hearing from the latter. + +After three weeks of conferences the expedition which was to support a +general rising of the peasants in the West, was postponed till the +spring of 1807. A feigned attack on Port-en-Bessin would allow of their +surprising the islands of Tahitou and Saint-Marcouf as well as Port-Bail +on the western slope of the Cotentin. The destruction of the roads, +which protect the lower part of the peninsula, would insure the success +of the undertaking by cutting off Cherbourg which, attacked from behind, +would easily be carried, resistance being impossible. The invading army, +concentrating under the forts of the town, in which they would have a +safe retreat, would descend by Carenton on Saint-Lo and Caen to meet the +army of peasants and malcontents whose cooperation d'Ache guaranteed. +He undertook to collect twenty thousand men; the English government +offered the same number of Russian and Swedish soldiers, and to provide +for their transportation to the coast of France. Pending this, d'Ache +was given unlimited credit on the banker Nourry at Caen. + +His stay in London lasted nearly three months. Towards the end of July +an English frigate took him to the fleet where Admiral Saumarez received +him with great deference, and equipped a brig with fourteen cannon to +convey him to the shore. When, at night, they were within a gunshot of +the coast of Saint-Honorine, d'Ache himself made the signals agreed +upon, which were quickly answered by the coast guard on shore. An hour +afterwards David the Intrepid's boat hailed the English brig, and before +daybreak d'Ache was back at Mandeville, sharing with his hosts the joy +he felt at the success of his voyage. They began to make plans +immediately. It was decided on the spot that the Chateau de Monfiquet +should shelter the King during the first few days after he landed. Eight +months were to elapse before the beginning of the campaign, and as money +was not lacking this time was sufficient for d'Ache to prepare for +operations. + +We may as well mention at once that the English Cabinet, while playing +on the fanaticism of d'Ache, as they had formerly done on that of +Georges Cadoudal and so many others, had not the slightest intention of +keeping their promises. Their hatred of Napoleon suggested to them the +infamous idea of exciting the naive royalists of France by raising +hopes they never meant to satisfy. They abandoned them once they saw +their dupes so deeply implicated that there was no drawing back, caring +little if they helped them to the scaffold, desirous only of maintaining +agitations in France and of driving them into such desperate straits +that some assassin might arise from among them who would rid the world +of Bonaparte. Here lies, doubtless, one of the reasons why the exiled +princes so obstinately refused to encourage their partisans' attempts. +Did they know of the snares laid for these unhappy creatures? Did they +not dare to put them on their guard for fear of offending the English +government? Was this the rent they paid for Hartwell? The history of the +intrigues which played around the claimant to the throne is full of +mystery. Those who were mixed up in them, such as Fauche-Bonel or Hyde +de Neuville were ruined, and it required the daylight of the Restoration +to open the eyes of the persons most interested to the fact that certain +professions of devotion had been treacherous. + +As far as d'Ache was concerned it seems fairly certain that he did not +receive any promise from the princes, and was not even admitted to their +presence; the English ministers alone encouraged him to embark on this +extraordinary adventure, in which they were fully determined to let him +ruin himself. Therefore the "unlimited" credit opened at the banker +Nourry's was only a bait: while making the conspirators think they would +never want for money, the credit was limited beforehand to 30,000 +francs, a piece of duplicity which enraged even the detectives who, +later on, discovered it. + +It is not easy to follow d'Ache in the mysterious work upon which he +entered: the precautions he took to escape the police have caused him to +be lost to posterity as well. Some slight landmarks barely permit our +following his trail during the few years which form the climax of his +wonderful career. + +We find him first of all during the autumn of 1806, at La Bijude, where +Mme. de Combray, who had remained at Tournebut had charged Bonnoeil +and Mme. Acquet to go and receive him. There was some question of +providing him with a messenger familiar with the haunts of the Chouans +and the dangers connected with the task. To fulfil this duty Mme. Acquet +proposed a German named Flierle whom Le Chevalier recommended. Flierle +had distinguished himself in the revolt of the Chouans; a renowned +fighter, he had been mixed up in every plot. He was in Paris at the time +of the eighteenth Fructidor; he turned up there again at the moment when +Saint-Rejant was preparing his infernal machine; he again spent three +months there at the time of Georges' conspiracy. For the last two years, +whilst waiting for a fresh engagement, he had lived on a small pension +from the royal treasury, and when funds were low, he made one of his +more fortunate companions in old days put him up; and thus he roamed +from Caen to Falaise, from Mortain to Bayeux or Saint-Lo, even going +into Mayenne in his wanderings. Although he would never have +acknowledged it, we may say that he was one of the men usually employed +in attacking public vehicles: in fact, he was an adept at it and went by +the name of the "Teisch." + +Summoned to La Bijude he presented himself there one morning towards the +end of October. D'Ache arrived there the same evening while they were at +dinner. They talked rather vaguely of the great project, but much of +their old Chouan comrades. In spite of his decided German accent Flierle +was inexhaustible on this theme. He and d'Ache slept in the same room, +and this intimacy lasted two whole days, at the end of which it was +decided that Flierle should be employed as a messenger at a salary of +fifty crowns a month. That same night, Lanoe conducted d'Ache two +leagues from La Bijude and left him on the road to Arjentan. + +Here is a new landmark: on November 26th, Veyrat, the inspector of +police, hastily informed Desmarets that d'Ache, whom they had been +seeking for two years, had arrived the night before in Paris, getting +out of the coach from Rennes in the company of a man named Durand. The +latter, leaving his trunk at the office, spent the night at a house in +the Rue Montmartre, whence he departed the next morning for Boulogne. As +for d'Ache, wrote Veyrat, he had neither box nor parcel, and disappeared +as soon as he got out of the carriage. Search was made in all the +furnished lodgings and hotels in the neighbourhood, but without result. +Desmarets set all his best men to work, but in vain: d'Ache was not to +be found. + +He was at Tournebut, where he spent a month. It is probable that a +pressing need of money was the cause of this journey to Paris and his +visit to Mme. de Combray. By this time d'Ache had exhausted his credit +at the banker Nourry's. Believing that this source would never be +exhausted, he had drawn on it largely. His disappointment was therefore +cruel when he heard that his account was definitely closed. He found +himself again without money, and by a coincidence which must be +mentioned, the diligence from Paris to Rouen was robbed, during his stay +at Tournebut, in November, 1806, at the Mill of Monflaines, about a +hundred yards from Authevernes, where the preceding attacks had taken +place. The booty was not large this time, and when d'Ache again took the +road to Mandeville his resources consisted of six hundred francs. + +He was obliged to spend the winter in torturing idleness; there is no +indication of his movements till February, 1807. The time fixed for the +great events was drawing near, and it was important to make them known. +He decided on the plan of a manifesto which was to be widely circulated +through the whole province, and would not allow any one to assist in +drawing it up. This proclamation, written in the name of the princes, +stipulated a general amnesty, the retention of those in authority, a +reduction of taxation, and the abolition of conscription. Lanoe, +summoned to Mandeville, received ten louis and the manuscript of the +manifesto, with the order to get it printed as secretly as possible. The +crafty Norman promised, slipped the paper into the lining of his coat, +and after a fruitless--and probably very feeble--attempt on a printer's +apprentice at Falaise, returned it to Flierle, with many admonitions to +be prudent, but only refunded five louis. Flierle first applied to a +bookseller in the Froide Rue at Caen. The latter, as soon as he found +out what it contained, refused his assistance. + +An incident now occurred, the importance of which it is difficult to +discover, but which seems to have been great, to judge from the mystery +in which it is shrouded. Whether he had received some urgent +communication from England, or whether, in his state of destitution, he +had thought of claiming the help of his friends at Tournebut, d'Ache +despatched Flierle to Mme. de Combray, and gave him two letters, +advising him to use the greatest discretion. Flierle set out on +horseback from Caen in the morning of March 13th. At dawn next day he +arrived at Rouen, and immediately repaired to the house of a Mme. +Lambert, a milliner in the Rue de l'Hopital, to whom one of the letters +was addressed. "I gave it to her," he said, "on her staircase, without +speaking to her, as I had been told to do, and set out that very morning +for Tournebut, where I arrived between two and three o'clock. I gave +Mme. de Combray the other letter, which she threw in the fire after +having read it." + +Flierle slept at the chateau. Next day Bonnoeil conducted him to +Louviers, and there intrusted a packet of letters to him addressed to +d'Ache. Both directed their steps to Rouen, and the German fetched from +the Rue de l'Hopital, the milliner's reply, which she gave him herself +without saying a word. + +He immediately continued his journey, and by March 20th was back at +Mandeville, and placed the precious mail in d'Ache's hands. The latter +had scarcely read it before he sent David word to get his boat ready, +and without losing a moment, the letters which had arrived from Rouen +were taken out to sea to the English fleet, to be forwarded to London. + +We are still ignorant of the contents of these mysterious despatches, +and inquiry on this point is reduced to supposition. Some pretended that +d'Ache sent the manifesto to Mme. de Combray, and that it was +clandestinely printed in the cellars at Tournebut; others maintain that +towards March 15th Bonnoeil returned from Paris, bringing with him the +correspondence of the secret royalist committee which was to be sent to +the English Cabinet via Mandeville. D'Ache certainly attached immense +importance to this expedition, which ought, according to him, to make +the princes decide on the immediate despatch of funds, and to hasten the +preparation for the attack on the island of Tahitou. But days passed and +no reply came. In the agony of uncertainty he decided to approach Le +Chevalier, whom he only knew by reputation as being a shrewd and +resolute man. The meeting took place at Trevieres towards the middle of +April, 1807. Le Chevalier brought one of his aides-de-camp with him, but +d'Ache came alone. + +The names of these two men are so little known, they occupy such a very +humble place in history, that we can hardly imagine, now that we know +how pitifully their dreams miscarried, how without being ridiculous they +could fancy that any result whatever could come of their meeting. The +surroundings made them consider themselves important: d'Ache was--or +thought he was--the mouthpiece of the exiled King; as for Le Chevalier, +whether from vainglory or credulity he boasted of an immense popularity +with the Chouans, and spoke mysteriously of the royalist committee +which, working in Paris, had succeeded, he said, in rallying to the +cause men of considerable importance in the entourage of the Emperor +himself. + +Since he had been Mme. Acquet's adored lover, Le Chevalier's visits to +the Cafe Hervieux had become rarer; his parasites had dispersed, and +although he still kept up his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur at Caen, he +spent the greater part of his time either at Falaise or at La Bijude, +where his devoted mistress alternately lived. The police of Count +Caffarelli, Prefect of Calvados, had ceased keeping an eye on him, and +he even received a passport for Paris, whither he went frequently. He +always returned more confident than before, and in the little group +amongst whom he lived at Falaise--consisting of his cousin, Dusaussay, +two Chouan comrades, Beaupaire and Desmontis; a doctor in the Frotte +army, Reverend; and the Notary of the Combray family, Maitre Febre--he +was never tired of talking in confidence about the secret Royalist +Committee, and the near approach of the Restoration. The revolution +which was to bring it about, was to be a very peaceful one, according to +him. Bonaparte, taken prisoner by two of his generals, each at the head +of 40,000 men, was to be handed over to the English and replaced by "a +regency, the members of which were to be chosen from among the senators +who could be trusted." The Comte d'Artois was then to be recalled--or +his son, the Duc de Berry--to take possession of the kingdom as +Lieutenant-General. + +Did Le Chevalier believe in this Utopia? It has been said that in +propagating it "he only sought to intoxicate the people and excite them +to acts of pillage, the profits of which would come to him without any +of the danger." This accusation fits in badly with the chivalrous +loyalty of his character. It seems more probable that on one of his +journeys to Paris he fell into the trap set by the spy Perlet who, paid +by the princes to be their chief intelligence agent, sold their +correspondence to Fouche and handed over to the police the royalists who +brought the letters. This Perlet had invented, as a bait for his trap, a +committee of powerful persons who, he boasted, he had won over to the +royal cause, and doubtless Le Chevalier was one of his only too numerous +victims. Whatever it was, Le Chevalier took a pride in his high +commissions, and went to meet d'Ache as an equal, if not a rival. + +At the beginning, the conference was more than cold. These two men, so +different in appearance and character, both aspired to play a great part +and were instinctively jealous of each other. Their own personal +feelings divided them. One was the lover of Mme. Acquet de Ferolles, the +other was the friend of Mme. de Combray, and the latter blamed her +daughter for her misconduct, and had forbidden her ever to come back to +Tournebut. Le Chevalier, after the usual civilities, refused to continue +the conversation till he was informed of the exact nature of the powers +conferred by the King on his interlocutor, and the authority with which +he was invested. Now, d'Ache had never had any written authority, and +arrogantly intrenched himself behind the confidence which the princes +had shown in him from the very first days of the revolution. He stated +that he was expecting a regular commission from them. Whereupon Le +Chevalier, seizing the advantage, called him an "agent of the English," +and placing his pistols on the table "invited him to blow out his brains +immediately." They both grew calmer, however, and explained their plans. +Le Chevalier knew most of the Norman Chouans, either from having fought +by their side, or from having made their acquaintance in the various +prisons in Caen or Evreux, wherein he had been confined. He therefore +undertook the enrollment and management of the army, the command of +which he would assign to two men who were devoted to him. The name of +one is not published; they say he was an ex-chief of Staff to Charette. +The other was famous through the whole revolt of the Chouans under the +pseudonym of General Antonio; his real name was Allain, and he had been +working with Le Chevalier since the year IX. The latter was sure also +of the cooperation of his friend M. de Grimont, manager of the stud at +Argentan, who would furnish the prince's army with the necessary +cavalry; besides which he offered to go to Paris for the "great event," +and took upon himself with the assistance of certain accomplices "to +secure the imperial treasury." D'Ache, for his part, was to go to +England to fetch the King, and was to preside over the disembarkation +and lead the Russo-Swedish army through insurgent Normandy to the gates +of the capital. + +Their work thus assigned, the two men parted allies, but not friends. +D'Ache was offended at Le Chevalier's pretensions; the latter returning +to Mme. Acquet, did not disguise the fact that, in his opinion, d'Ache +was nothing but a common intriguer and an agent of England. + +There still remained the question of money which, for the moment, took +precedence of all others. They had agreed that it was necessary to +pillage the coffers of the state whilst waiting the arrival of subsidies +from England, but neither d'Ache nor Le Chevalier expressed himself +openly; each wished to leave the responsibility of the theft to the +other. Later, they both obstinately rejected it, Le Chevalier affirming +that d'Ache had ordered the stopping of public conveyances in the King's +name, while d'Ache disowned Le Chevalier, accusing him of having brought +the cause into disrepute by employing such means. The dispute is of +little interest. The money was lacking, and not only were the royal +coffers empty, but what was of more immediate importance, Le Chevalier +and his friends were without resources. In consequence of leading a wild +life and sacrificing himself for his party, he had spent his entire +fortune, and was overwhelmed with debts. The lawyer Vanier, who was +entrusted with the management of his business affairs, lost his head at +the avalanche of bills, protests and notes of hand which poured into his +office, and which it was impossible to meet. The lawyer Lefebre, a fat +and sensual free-liver, was equally low in funds, and laid on the +government the blame of the confusion into which his affairs had fallen, +though it had been entirely his own fault. As for Le Chevalier himself, +he attributed his ruin, not without justice, to his disinterestedness +and devotion to the royal cause, which was his excuse for the past and +the future. Mme. Acquet, who loved him blindly, had given her last louis +to provide for his costly liberality. Touching letters from her are +extant, proving how attached she was to him: + + "I am herewith sending you a letter from Mme. Blins" (a creditor). + "My only regret is that I have not the sum. It would have given me + great pleasure to pay it for you, and then you would never have + known.... I love you with all my heart. I am entirely yours, and + there is nothing I would not do for you.... Love me as I love you. + I embrace you tenderly." + +"There is nothing I would not do for you,"--and the poor woman was +wretched in the knowledge that the hero whom she idolised was hampered +for want of small sums of money. She could not ward off the trouble, +since her demand for a separation had recently been refused. Acquet was +triumphant. She was reduced to living on a modest pension of 2,000 +francs, and not able to sell what she had inherited from her father. One +evening, when she and Lanoe were alone in the Hotel de Combray, in the +Rue du Tripot at Falaise, one part of which was rented to the collector +of taxes, she heard through the wall the chinking of the money, which +they were packing into bags. On hearing it she fell into a sort of +delirium, thinking that here was the wherewithal to satisfy her lover's +fancies.... + +"Lanoe," she said suddenly, "I must have some money; I only want 10,000 +francs." + +The terrified Lanoe gave her no answer then, but a few days later, when +he was driving her back in her cabriolet to Falaise from La Bijude, she +returned to the charge, and gave him a piece of yellow wax wrapped up in +cotton telling him to go and take an impression of the tax collector's +lock as soon as they arrived at the Rue du Tripot. Lanoe excused +himself, saying that the house belonged to M. Timoleon, and that +disagreeable consequences might arise. But she insisted. "I must have +the impression," she said. "I do not tell you why I want it, but I will +have it." Lanoe, to get out of a task he did not like, went away and +secretly took an impression of the lock of the hayloft. A key was made +by this pattern, and when night came the Marquise de Combray's daughter +stole down--holding her breath and walking noiselessly--to the tax +collector's office, and vainly tried to open the door. + + * * * * * + +About the same time Le Chevalier, who had just returned from a journey +to Paris, heard from the lawyer Vanier, who was quite as much in debt as +his client, that the pecuniary situation was desperate. "I dread," wrote +Vanier, "the accomplishment of the psalm: Unde veniet auxilium nobis +quia perimus." To which Le Chevalier replied, as he invariably did: "In +six weeks, or perhaps less, the King will be again on his throne. +Brighter days will dawn, and we shall have good posts. Now is the time +to show our zeal, for those who have done nothing will, as is fair, have +nothing to expect." He added that the hour was propitious, "since +Bonaparte was in the middle of Germany with his whole army." + +He loved to talk this way, as it made him appear, as it were, Napoleon's +rival, raising him to the place he held in his own imagination. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE AFFAIR OF QUESNAY + + +The lawyer, Lefebre, of high stature, with broad shoulders and florid +complexion, loved to dine well, and spent his time between billiards, +"Calvados" and perorations in the cafes. For taking this part in the +conspiracy he expected a fat sinecure on the return of the Bourbons, in +recompense for his devotion. + +Early in April, 1807, Lefebre and Le Chevalier were dining together at +the Hotel du Point-de-France at Argentan. They had found Beaurepaire, +Desmontis and the Cousin Dusaussay there; they went to the cafe and +stayed there several hours. Allain, called General Antonio, whom Le +Chevalier had chosen as his chief lieutenant, appeared and was presented +to the others. Allain was over forty; he had a long nose, light eyes, a +face pitted with smallpox, and a heavy black beard; the manner of a calm +and steady bourgeois. Le Chevalier took a playing card, tore half of it +off, wrote a line on it and gave it to Allain, saying, "This will admit +you." They talked awhile in the embrasure of a window, and the lawyer +caught these words: "Once in the church, you will go out by the door on +the left, and there find a lane; it is there...." + +When Allain had gone Le Chevalier informed his friends of the affair on +hand. At the approach of each term, funds were passed between the +principal towns of the department; from Alencon, Saint-Lo and Evreux +money was sent to Caen, but these shipments took place at irregular +dates, and were generally accompanied by an escort of gendarmes. As the +carriage which took the funds to Alencon usually changed horses at +Argentan, it was sufficient to know the time of its arrival in that town +to deduce therefrom the hour of its appearance elsewhere. Now Le +Chevalier had secured the cooperation of a hostler named Gauthier, +called "Boismale," who was bribed to let Dusaussay know when the +carriage started. Dusaussay lived at Argentan, and by starting +immediately on horseback, he could easily arrive at the place where the +conspirators were posted several hours before the carriage. Allain had +just gone to find Boismale. + +When he returned to the cafe, he gave the result of his efforts. The +hostler had decided to help Le Chevalier, but the affair would probably +not take place for six weeks or two months, which was longer than +necessary to collect the little troop needed for the expedition. The +roles were assigned: Allain was to recruit men; the lawyer would procure +guns wherewith to arm them; and besides this he allowed Allain to use a +house in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent de Falaise, which he was +commissioned to sell. Here could be established "a depot for arms and +provisions," for one difficulty was to lodge and feed the recruits +during the period of waiting. Le Chevalier answered for the assistance +of Mme. Acquet de Ferolles, whom he easily persuaded to hide the men for +a few days at least; he also offered as a meeting-place his house in the +Rue de Saint-Sauveur at Caen. + +The chief outlines of the affair being thus arranged, they parted, and +the next day Allain took the road, having with him as usual, a complete +surveyor's outfit, and a sort of diploma as "engineer" which served as a +reference, and justified his continual moves. He was, moreover, a +typical Chouan, determined and ready for anything, as able to command a +troop as to track gendarmes; bold and cunning, he knew all the +malcontents in the country, and could insure their obedience. The +recruiting of this troop, armed, housed and provided for during two +months, roaming the country, hiding in the woods, leading in the +environs of Caen and Falaise the existence of Mohicans, without causing +astonishment to a single gendarme, and, satisfied with having enough to +eat and to drink, never thinking of asking what was required of them, is +beyond belief. And it was in the most brilliant year of the imperial +regime, at the apogee of the much boasted administration, which in +reality was so hollow. The Chouans had sown such disorganisation in the +West, that the authorities of all grades found themselves powerless to +struggle against this ever-recurring epidemic. Count Caffarelli, prefet +of Calvados, in his desire to retain his office, treated the +refractories with an indolence bordering on complicity, and continued to +send Fouche the most optimistic reports of the excellent temper of his +fellow-citizens and their inviolable attachment to the imperial +constitution. + +It was the middle of April, 1807. Allain passed through Caen, where he +joined Flierle, and both of them hiding by day and marching at night, +gained the borders of Brittany. Allain knew where to find men; +twenty-five leagues from Caen, in the department of La Manche, some way +from any highroad, is situated the village of La Mancelliere, whose men +were all refractories. General Antonio, who was very popular among the +malcontents, was shown the house of a woman named Harel whose husband +had joined the sixty-third brigade in the year VIII and deserted six +months after, "overcome by the desire to see his wife and children." His +story resembled many others; conscription was repugnant to these +peasants of ancient France, who could not resign themselves to losing +sight of their clock tower; they were brave enough and ready to fight, +but to them, the immediate enemy was the gendarmes, the "Bleus," whom +they saw in their villages carrying off the best men, and they felt no +animosity against the Prussians and Austrians who only picked a quarrel +with Bonaparte. + +As he came with an offer of work to be well paid for, Allain was well +received by Mme. Harel, who with her children was reduced to extreme +poverty. It was a question, he said, "of a surveying operation +authorised by the government." Harel came out of hiding in the evening, +and eagerly accepted his old chief's proposition, and as the latter +needed some strong pole-carriers, Harel presented two friends to the +"General" under the names of "Grand-Charles" and "Coeur-le-Roi." +Allain completed his party by the enrollment of three others, Le +Hericey, called "La Sagesse"; Lebree, called "Fleur d'Epine"; and Le +Lorault, called "La Jeunesse." They drank a cup of cider together, and +left the same evening, Allain and Flierle leading them. + +In six stages they arrived at Caen, and Allain took them to Le +Chevalier's house in the Rue Saint Sauveur. They had to stay there three +weeks. They were put in the loft on some hay, and Chalange, Le +Chevalier's servant, who took them their food, always found them +sleeping or playing cards. In order not to awaken the suspicions of the +usual tradespeople, Lerouge, called "Bornet," formerly a baker, +undertook to make the bread for the house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. One +day he brought in his bread cart four guns procured by Lefebre; Harel +cleaned them, took them to pieces, and hid them in a bundle of straw. +Then the guns were put on a horse which Lerouge led out at night from +the cellar which opened on the Rue Quimcampoix at the back of the house. +The men followed, and under Allain's guidance crossed the town; when +they reached the extremity of the Faubourg de Vaucelles they stopped and +distributed the arms. Lerouge went back to town with the horse, and the +little troop disappeared on the highroad. + +At about five leagues from Caen, after having passed Langannerie, where +a brigade of gendarmerie was stationed, the Falaise road traverses a +small but dense thicket called the wood of Quesnay. The men stopped +there, and passed a whole day hidden among the trees. The following +night Allain led them a three hours' march to a large abandoned house, +whose doors were open, and installed them in the loft on some hay. This +was the Chateau of Donnay. + +Le Chevalier had not deceived himself. Mme. Acquet had received his +suggestion with enthusiasm; the thought that she would be useful to her +hero, that she would share his danger, blinded her to all other +considerations. She had offered Allain and his companions the +hospitality of Bijude, without any fear of compromising her lover, who +made long sojourns there, and she decided on the audacious plan of +lodging them with her husband, who, inhabiting a wing of the Chateau of +Donnay, abandoned the main body of the chateau, which could be entered +from the back without being seen. Perhaps she hoped to throw a suspicion +of complicity on Acquet if the retreat should be discovered. As to Le +Chevalier, learning that d'Ache had just left Mandeville and gone to +England "after having announced his speedy return with the prince, with +munitions, money, etc.," he left for Paris, having certain arrangements, +he said, to make with the "Comite secret." Before quitting La Bijude, he +enjoined his mistress, in case the coup should be made in his absence, +to remit the money seized to Dusaussay, who would bring it to him in +Paris where the committee awaited it. She gave him a curl of her fine +black hair to have a medallion made of it, and made him promise "that he +would not forget to bring her some good eau-de-cologne." They then +embraced each other, and he left. It was May 17, 1807, and this was the +last time she saw him. + +She did not remain idle, but herself prepared the food of the seven men +lodged in the chateau. Bundles of hay and straw served them for beds; +they were advised not to go out, even for the most pressing needs and +they stayed there ten days. Every evening Mme. Acquet appeared in this +malodorous den, holding her parasol in her gloved hands, dressed in a +light muslin, and a straw hat. She was usually accompanied by her +servant Rosalie Dupont, a big strong girl, and Joseph Buquet a shoemaker +at Donnay both carrying large earthen plates containing baked veal and +potatoes. It was the hour of kindliness and good cheer; the chatelaine +did not disdain to preside at the repast, coming and going among the +unkempt men, asking if these "good fellows" needed anything and were +satisfied with their fare. She was the most impatient of all; whether +she took the political illusions of those who had drawn her into the +affair seriously, and was anxious to expose herself for "the good +cause"; whether her fatal passion for La Chevalier had completely +blinded her, she took her share in the attack that was being prepared, +which it seemed to her, would put an end to all her misfortunes. She had +already committed an act of foolish boldness in receiving and keeping +Allain's recruits in a house occupied by her husband, and in daring to +visit them there herself; she was thus compromising herself, as if she +enjoyed it, under the eyes of her most implacable enemy, and no doubt +Acquet, informed by his well-trained spies, of all that happened, +refrained from intervention for fear of interrupting an adventure in +which his wife must lose herself irremediably. + +Mme. Acquet also behaved as if she was certain of the complicity of the +whole country; she arranged the slightest details of the expedition with +astonishing quickness of mind. With her own hands she made large wallets +of coarse cloth, to carry provisions for the party, and contain the +money taken from the chests. She hastened to Falaise to ask Lefebre to +receive Allain and Flierle while awaiting the hour of action. Lefebre +who had already fixed his price and exacted a promise of twelve thousand +francs from the funds, would only, however, half commit himself. He +nevertheless agreed to lodge Allain and Flierle in the vacant building +in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent. Reassured on this point Mme. Acquet +returned to Donnay; during the night of 28th May, the men left the +chateau without their arms and were conducted to a barn, where they were +left all day alone with a small cask of cider which they soon emptied. +Mme. Acquet was meanwhile preparing another retreat for them. A short +way from the Church of Donnay there was an isolated house belonging to +the brothers Buquet, who were devoted to the Combrays; Joseph, the +shoemaker, had in the absence of Le Chevalier, been known as Mme. +Acquet's lover in the village, and if in the absence of any definite +testimony, it is possible to save this poor woman's memory from this +new accusation, we must still recognise the fact that she exercised an +extraordinary influence over this man. He submitted to her blindly "by +the rights she had granted him," said a report addressed to the Emperor. +Whatever the reason, she had only to say the word for Joseph Buquet to +give her his house, and the six men took possession next day. The +Buquets' mother undertook to feed them for four days; they left her at +dusk on the 2d June; Joseph showed them the road and even led them a +short way. + +The poor fellows dragged along till morning, losing themselves often and +not daring to ask the way or to follow beaten tracks. They met Allain at +dawn, one mile from Falaise, on the edge of a wood near the hamlet of +Jalousie; he took them across Aubigny to an isolated inn at the end of +the village. + +Lefebre had presented Allain to the innkeeper the night before, asking +if he would receive "six honest deserters whom the gendarmes tormented," +for a few days, and the man had replied that he would lodge them with +pleasure. + +As soon as they arrived at the inn Allain and his men, dropping with +fatigue, asked for breakfast and went at once to the room prepared for +them. It was half past four in the morning; they lay down on the straw +and did not move all day except for meals. The night and all next day +passed in the same manner. On Thursday June 4th they put some bread, +bacon and jugs of cider in their wallets and left about nine in the +evening. On Friday Allain appeared at the inn of Aubigny alone; he +ordered the servant to take some food to the place where the Caen and +Harcourt roads met. Two men were waiting there, who took the food and +went off in haste. Allain went to bed about two in the morning; about +midday on Saturday as he was sitting down to table a carriage stopped at +the inn door; Lefebre and Mme. Acquet got out. They brought seven guns +which were carried up to the loft. They talked; Mme. Acquet took some +lemons from a little basket, and cut them into a bowl filled with white +wine and brandy, and she and Lefebre drank while consulting together. +The heat was intolerable and all three were overcome. Mme. Acquet had to +be helped to her carriage and Lefebre undertook to conduct her to +Falaise. Allain, left alone at Aubigny, ordered supper "for six or seven +persons." He was attending to its preparation when a horseman appeared +and asked to speak with him. It was Dusaussay who brought news. He had +come straight from Argentan where he had seen the coach, laden with +chests of silver, enter the yard of the inn of Point-de-France; he +described the waggon, the harness and the driver, then remounted and +rode rapidly away. Just then the entire band reappeared, led by Flierle. +Arms were distributed, and the men stood round the table eating hastily. +They filled their wallets with bread and cold meat and left at night. +Allain and Flierle accompanied them and returned to the inn after two +hours' absence. They did not sleep; they were heard pacing heavily up +and down the loft until daylight. On Sunday, June 7, Allain paid the +reckoning, bought a short axe and an old gun from the innkeeper, making +eight guns in all at the disposal of the band. At seven in the morning +he left with Flierle, and three leagues from there, arrived at the wood +of Quesnay where his men had passed the night. + +The waggon destined for the transportation of the funds had been loaded +on the 5th at Alencon, in the yard of the house of M. Decres, +receiver-general of the Orne, with five heavy chests containing 33,489 +francs, 92 centimes. On the 6th, the carrier, Jean Gousset, employed by +the manager of stage coaches at Alencon, had harnessed three horses to +it, and escorted by two gendarmes had taken the road to Argentan, where +he arrived at five in the evening. He stopped at Point-de-France, where +he had to take a sixth chest containing 33,000 francs, which was +delivered in the evening by the agents of M. Larroc, receiver of +finances. The carriage, carefully covered, remained in the inn yard +during the night. Gousset, who had been drinking, went to and fro +"talking to every one of his charge"; he even called a traveller, M. +Lapeyriere, and winking at the chest that was being hoisted on the +waggon, said: "If we each had ten times as much our fortunes would be +made." He harnessed up at four o'clock on Sunday, the 7th. He had been +given a fourth horse, and three gendarmes accompanied him. They made the +five leagues between Argentan and Falaise rather slowly, arriving about +half past ten. Gousset stopped with Bertaine at the "Cheval Noir," +where the gendarmes left him; he dined there, and as it was very hot, +rested till three in the afternoon, during which time the waggon stayed +in front of the inn unguarded. It was noticed that the horses were +harnessed three hours before starting, and the conclusion was drawn that +Gousset did not want to arrive before night at Langannerie, where he +would sleep. In fact, he took his time. At a quarter past three he +started, without escort, as all the men of the brigade of Falaise were +employed in the recruiting that took place that day. As he left the +village he chanced to meet Vinchon, gendarme of the brigade of +Langannerie, who was returning home on foot with his nephew, a young boy +of seventeen, named Antoine Morin. They engaged in conversation with the +carrier, who walked on the left of the waggon, and went with him. These +chance companions were in no hurry, and Gousset did not appear to be in +any haste to arrive. At the last houses of the suburbs he offered some +cider; after some hundred yards the gendarme returned the compliment and +they stopped at the "Sauvage." A league further, another stop was made +at the "Vieille Cave." Gousset then proposed a game of skittles, which +the gendarme and Morin accepted. It was nearly seven in the evening when +they passed Potigny. The evening was magnificent and the sun still high +on the horizon; as they knew they would not see another inn until the +next stage was reached, they made a fourth stop there. At last Gousset +and his companions started again; they could now reach Langannerie in +an hour, where they would stop for the night. + + * * * * * + +The evening before, Mme. Acquet de Ferolles, returning to Falaise with +Lefebre, had gone to bed more sick with fatigue than drink; however, she +had returned to Donnay at dawn in the fear that her absence might awaken +suspicion. This Sunday, the 7th June, was indeed the Fete-Dieu, and she +must decorate the wayside altars as she did each year. + +Lanoe, who had arrived the evening before from his farm at Glatigny, +worked all the morning hanging up draperies, and covering the walls with +green branches. Mme. Acquet directed the arrangements for the procession +with feverish excitement, filling baskets with rose leaves, grouping +children, placing garlands. Doubtless her thoughts flew from this +flowery fete to the wood yonder, where at this minute the men whom she +had incited waited under the trees, gun in hand. Perhaps she felt a +perverse pleasure in the contrast between the hymns sung among the +hedges and the criminal anxiety that wrung her. Did she not confess +later that in the confusion of her mind she had not feared to call on +God for the success of "her enterprise"? + +When, about five o'clock, the procession was at an end, Mme. Acquet went +through the rose-strewn streets to find her confidante, Rosalie Dupont. +Such was her impatience that she soon left this girl, irresistibly drawn +to the road where her own fate and that of her lover were being +decided. Lanoe, who was returning to Glatigny in the evening, was +surprised to meet the chatelaine of La Bijude in a little wood near +Clair-Tizon. She was scarcely a league from the place where the men were +hidden. From her secluded spot she could, with beating heart, motionless +and mute with anguish, hear the noise of shooting, which rung out clear +in the silence of the summer evening. It was exactly a quarter to eight. + + * * * * * + +The waggon had, indeed, left Potigny at seven o'clock. A little way from +the village, the road, which had been quite straight for six leagues, +descended a low hill at the foot of which is the wood of Quesnay, a low +thicket of hazel, topped by a few oaks. Allain had posted his men along +the road under the branches; on the edge of the wood towards Falaise +stood Flierle, Le Hericey, and Fleur d'Epine. Allain himself was with +Harel and Coeur-le-Roi, at the end nearest Langannerie. Grand-Charles +and Le Lorault were placed in the middle of the wood at equal distances +from these two groups. + +The eight men had waited since midday for the appearance of the +treasure. They began to lose patience and spoke of returning to Aubigny +for supper when they heard the rumbling of the waggon descending the +hill. It came down rapidly, Gousset not having troubled to put on the +brake. They could hear him shouting to the horses. Walking on the left +of the waggon he drove them by means of a long rope; his little dog +trotted beside him. Vinchon and Morin were, for the moment, left behind +by the increased speed of the waggon. The men at the first and second +posts allowed it to pass without appearing; it was now between the two +thickets through which the road ran; in a few minutes it attained the +edge of the wood near Langannerie, when suddenly, Gousset saw a man in a +long greatcoat and top-boots in the middle of the road, with his gun +pointed at him; it was Allain. + +"Halt, you rascal!" he cried to the carrier. + +Two of his companions, attired only in drawers and shirt, with a +coloured handkerchief knotted round the head, came out of the wood, +shouldered arms and took aim. With a tremendous effort, Gousset, seized +with terror, turned the whole team to the left, and with oaths and blows +flung it on to a country road which crossed the main road obliquely a +little way from the end of the wood. But in an instant the three men +were upon him; they threw him down and held a gun to his head while two +others came out of the wood and seized the horses' heads. The struggle +was short; they tore off Gousset's cravat and bound his eyes with it, he +was searched and his knife taken, then cuffed, pushed into the wood and +promised a ball if he moved. + +But Vinchon and Morin, who were behind, had seen the waggon disappear in +the wood. Morin, not caring to join in the scuffle, hurried across the +fields, turned the edge of the wood, and ran towards Langannerie to +inform the gendarmes. Vinchon, on the contrary, drew his sabre and +advanced towards the road, but he had only taken a few steps when he +received a triple discharge from the first post. He fell, with a ball in +his shoulder, and rolled in the ditch, his blood flowing. The men then +hastened to the waggon; they cut the cords of the tarpaulin with +Gousset's knife, uncovered the chests and attacked them with hatchets. +Whilst two of the brigands unharnessed the horses, the others flung the +money, handfuls of gold and crowns, pell-mell into their sacks. The +first one, bursting with silver, was so heavy that it took three men to +hoist it on to the back of a horse; Gousset himself, in spite of his +bandaged eyes, was invited to lend a hand and obeyed gropingly. They +were smashing the second chest when the cry, "To arms!" interrupted +them. Allain rallied his men, and lined them up along the road. + +Morin, on arriving at Langannerie had only found the corporal and one +other gendarme there; they mounted immediately and galloped to the wood +of Quesnay. It was almost night when they reached the edge of the wood. +A volley of shots greeted them; the corporal was hit in the leg, and his +horse fell mortally wounded; his companion, who was deaf, did not know +which way to turn. Seeing his chief fall, he thought it best to retreat; +and ran to the hamlet of Quesnay to get help. The noise of the firing +had already alarmed the neighbourhood; the tocsin sounded at Potigny, +Ouilly-le-Tesson and Sousmont; peasants flocked to each end of the wood, +but they were unarmed and dared not advance. Allain had posted five of +his men as advance-guard who fired in the thicket at their own +discretion, and kept the most determined of the enemy at bay. Behind +this curtain of shooters the noise could be heard of axes breaking open +chests, planks torn apart and oaths of the brigands in haste to complete +their pillage. This extraordinary scene lasted nearly an hour. At last, +at a call, the firing ceased, the robbers plunged into the thicket, and +the steps of the heavily-laden horse, urged on by the men, were heard +disappearing on the crossroad. + +They took the road to Ussy, with their booty and the carrier Gousset, +still with his eyes bandaged and led by Grand-Charles. They travelled +fast, at night--to avoid pursuit. Less than half a league from Quesnay +the road they followed passed the hamlet of Aisy, on the outskirts of +Sousmont, whose mayor had a chateau there. He was called M. Dupont +d'Aisy, and had this very evening entertained Captain Pinteville, +commander of the gendarmerie of the district. The party had been broken +up by the distant noise of shooting. M. Dupont at once sent his servants +to give the alarm at Sousmont; in less than an hour he had mustered +thirty villagers and putting himself at their head with Captain +Pinteville he marched towards Quesnay. They had not gone a hundred paces +when they encountered Allain's men, and the fight began. The brigands +kept up a well-sustained fire, which produced no other effect than to +disperse the peasants. Dupont d'Aisy and Captain Pinteville himself +considered it dangerous to continue the struggle against such +determined adversaries; they retired their men, and resolutely turning +their backs to the enemy retreated towards Quesnay. + +When they arrived in the wood a crowd was already there; from the +neighbouring villages where the tocsin still sounded, people came, drawn +entirely by curiosity. They laughed at the fine trick played on the +government, they thought the affair well managed, and did not hesitate +to applaud its success. They surrounded the waggon, half-sunk in the +ruts in the road, and searched the little wood for traces of the combat. + +The arrival of the mayor and Captain Pinteville restored things to order +somewhat. They had brought lanterns, and in the presence of the +gendarmes who had now arrived in numbers, the peasants collected the +remains of the chests, and replaced in them the coppers that the robbers +had scornfully thrown in the grass. They found the carrier's leather +portfolio containing the two bills of lading, in the thicket, and +learned therefrom that the government had lost a little over 60,000 +francs, and in face of this respectable sum, their respect for the men +who had done the deed increased. In the densest part of the wood they +found a sort of hut made of branches, and containing bones, empty +bottles and glasses, and the legend immediately grew that the brigands +had lived there "for weeks," waiting for a profitable occasion. Those +who had taken part in the fight from a distance described "these +gentlemen," who numbered twelve, they said; three wore grey overcoats +and top-boots; another witness had been struck "by the exceeding +smallness of two of the brigands." + +At last, the money collected and put in the chests, they harnessed two +horses to the waggon and took it to the mayor's. He was now unsparing of +attention; he did not leave the waggon which was put in his yard, and +locked up the broken chests and money which amounted to 5,404 francs. +And when M. le Comte Caffarelli, prefet of Calvados arrived at dawn, he +was received by Dupont-d'Aisy, and after having heard all the witnesses +and received all information possible, he sent the minister of police +one of the optimistic reports that he prepared with so much assurance. +In this one he informed his Excellency that "after making examination +the shipment had been found intact, except the chests containing the +government money." M. Caffarelli knew to perfection the delicate art of +administrative correspondence and with a great deal of cool water, could +slip in the gilded pill of disagreeable truth. + +This model functionary spent the day at Aisy waiting for news; the +peasants and gendarmes scoured the country with precaution, for, since +the night, the legend had grown and it was told, not without fear, how +M. Dupont d'Aisy had courageously given battle to an army of brigands. +About midday the searchers returned leading the four horses which they +had found tied to a hedge near the village of Placy, and poor Gousset +who was found calmly seated in the shade of a tree near a wheat-field. +He said that the band had left him there very early in the morning after +having made him march all night with bandaged eyes. At the end of an +hour and a half, hearing nothing, he had ventured to unfasten the +bandage, and not knowing the country, had waited till some one came to +seek him. He could give no information respecting the robbers, except +that they marched very fast and gave him terrible blows. M. Caffarelli +commiserated the poor man heartily, charged him to take the waggon and +smashed chests back to Caen, then, after having warmly congratulated M. +Dupont d'Aisy on his fine conduct, he returned home. + +After the scuffle at Aisy, Allain and his companions had marched in +haste to Donnay, but missed their way. Crossing the village of +Saint-Germain-le-Vasson, they seized a young miller who was taking the +air on his doorstep, and who consented to guide them, though very much +afraid of this band of armed men with heavily-laden wallets. He led them +as far as Acqueville and Allain sent him away with ten crowns. It was +nearly midnight when they reached Donnay; they passed behind the chateau +where Joseph Buquet was waiting for them and led them to his house. He +and his brother made the eight men enter, enjoined silence, helped them +to empty their sacks into a hole that had been made at the end of the +garden, then gave them a drink. After an hour's rest Allain gave the +signal for departure. He was in haste to get his men out of the +department of Calvados, and shelter them from the first pursuit of +Caffarelli's police. At daybreak they crossed the Orne by the bridge of +La Landelle, threw their guns into a wheat-field and separated after +receiving each 200 francs. + +This day, the 8th June, passed in the most perfect calm for the +inhabitants of Donnay. Mme. Acquet did not leave La Bijude. In the +afternoon a tanner of Placy, called Brazard, passed the house and called +to Hebert whom he saw in the garden. He told him that when he got up +that morning he had found four horses tied to his hedge. The gendarmes +from Langannerie had come and claimed them saying "they belonged to the +Falaise-Caen coach which had been attacked in the night by Chouans." +Hebert was much astonished; Mme. Acquet did not believe it; but the +report spread and by evening the news was known to the whole village. + +Acquet had remained invisible for a month; his instinct of hatred and +some information slyly obtained, warned him that his wife was working +her own ruin, and he would do nothing to stop her good work. Some days +before, Aumont, his gardener, had remarked one morning that the dew was +brushed off the grass of the lawn, and showed footsteps leading to the +cellar of the chateau, but Acquet did not seem to attach any importance +to these facts. + +He learned from his servant of the robbery of the coach. The next day, +Redet, the butcher of Meslay, said that ten days previously, when he was +passing the ruins of the Abbey of Val "his mare shied, frightened at the +sight of seven or eight men, who came out from behind a hedge;" they +asked him the way to Rouen. Redet, without answering, made off, and as +he told every one of this encounter, Hebert the liegeman of Mme. de +Combray, had instantly begged him not to spread it about. If Acquet had +retained any doubt, this would have satisfied him. He hurried to Meslay +to consult with his friend Darthenay, and the next day, he wrote to the +commandant of gendarmerie inviting him to search the Chateau of Donnay. + +The visit took place on Friday, 12th June, and was conducted by Captain +Pinteville. Acquet offered to guide him, and the search brought some +singular discoveries. Certain doors of this great house, long abandoned, +were found with strong locks recently put on; others were nailed up and +had to be broken in. "In a dark, retired loft that it was difficult to +enter" (Acquet conducted the gendarmes) "a pile of hay still retained +the impress of six men who had slept on it"; some fresh bones, scraps of +bread and meat, and the dirt bore witness that the band had lived there; +some sheets of paper belonging to a memoir printed by Hely de +Bonnoeil, brother of Mme. Acquet were rolled into cartridges and +hidden in a corner under the tiles. They also found the sacks that the +Buquets had hidden there after the theft; in the floor of the cellar a +hole, "two and a half feet square, and of the same depth had been dug to +hold the money;" they had taken the precaution to tear up the flooring +above so that the depot could be watched from there. The idea of hiding +the treasure here had been abandoned, as we know, in favour of Buquets'; +but the discovery was important and Pinteville drew up a report of it. + +But things went no further. What suspicion could attach to the owners +of Donnay? The brigands, it is true, had made use of their house, but +there were no grounds for an accusation of complicity in that. Neither +Pinteville nor Caffarelli, who transmitted the report to the minister, +thought of pushing their enquiries any further. + +Fouche knew no more about it, but he thought that the affair was being +feebly conducted. It seemed evident that the attempt at Quesnay would +swell the already long list of thefts of public funds, by those who +would forever remain unpunished. Real, instinctively scenting d'Ache in +the business, remembered Captain Manginot who at the time of Georges +Cadoudal's plot, had succeeded in tracing the stages of the conspirators +between Biville and Paris, and to whom they owed the discovery of the +role played by d'Ache in the conspiracy. + +Manginot then received an order to proceed to Calvados immediately. On +the 23d June he arrived at Caffarelli's bearing this letter of +introduction: "The skill, the zeal and good fortune of this officer in +these cases, is well known; they were proved in a similar affair, and I +ask you to welcome him as he deserves to be welcomed." The prefet was +quite willing; he knew too well the habits of the Chouans, and their +cleverness in disappearing to have any personal illusions as to the +final result of the adventure, but he said nothing and on the contrary +showed the greatest confidence in the dexterity of a man who stood so +well at court. + +Manginot began with a fresh search at Donnay; and, as his reputation +obliged him to be successful, and as he was not unwilling to astonish +the authorities of Calvados by the quickness of his perceptions, he +caused Acquet de Ferolles to be arrested. It was he who had first warned +the gendarmes of the sojourn of the brigands at Donnay, and this seemed +exceedingly suspicious; the same day he gave the order to take Hebert. +Several people in the village insinuated that Acquet and Hebert were +irreconcilable enemies and that Manginot was on the wrong track; but the +detective's head was now swelled with importance and he would not draw +back. Following his extravagant deductions he decided that the +complicity of Gousset, convicted of drinking and playing skittles the +whole way, was undoubted, and the poor man was arrested in his village +where he had returned to his wife and children to recover from his +excitement. At last Manginot, evidently animated by his blunders, took +it into his head that Dupont d'Aisy himself might well have kept +Pinteville at dinner and excited the peasants in order to secure the +retreat of the brigands, and issued a warrant against him to the +stupefaction of Caffarelli who thus saw imprisoned all those whose +conduct he had praised, and whom he had given as examples of devotion. +Thus, in a region where he had only to touch, so to say, to catch a +criminal, Captain Manginot was unlucky enough to incarcerate only the +innocent, and to complete the irony, these innocent prisoners made such +a poor face before the court of enquiry that his suspicions were +justified. Acquet was very anxious to denounce his wife, but he would +not speak without certainty and the magistrate before whom he appeared +at Falaise notes that in the course of interrogations "he contradicted +himself; his replies were far from satisfactory, though he arranged them +with the greatest care and reflected long before speaking." At the first +insinuation he made against Mme. de Combray and her daughter, the judge +indignantly silenced him, and sent him well-guarded to Caen where he was +put in close custody. As to Hebert, not wishing to compromise the ladies +of La Bijude to whom he was completely devoted, he scarcely replied to +the questions put to him; all, even to Dupont d'Aisy lent themselves to +the suspicions of Manginot. Sixty guns were found at the mayor's house, +which seemed an excessive number, even for the great sportsman he prided +himself on being, and here again all indications tended to convince +Manginot that he was on the right track. + +Mme. Acquet, meanwhile feigned the greatest security. Seeing things +straying from the right way, she might indeed imagine that she was +removed from all danger, and she had besides, other anxieties. The +Chevalier had been waiting in Paris since the 7th of June for the money +he so urgently needed, and as nothing appeared in spite of his +reiterated demands, he decided to come and fetch it himself; he did not +dare, however, to appear near Falaise, so arranged a meeting at Laigle +with Lefebre, earnestly entreating him to bring him all the money he +possibly could. But the Buquets, with whom the 60,000 francs had been +left on the 7th June, obstinately refused to give it up in spite of Mme. +Acquet's entreaties; they had removed the money from their garden and +hidden it in various places which they jealously kept secret. However, +through her influence over Joseph, Mme. Acquet succeeded in obtaining +3,300 francs which she gave the lawyer to take to Le Chevalier, but +Lefebre, as soon as he got hold of the money, declared that he had been +promised 12,000 francs for his assistance, and that he would keep this +on account. He went to meet Le Chevalier at Laigle however, and to calm +his impatience told him that Dusaussay was going to start for Paris +immediately with 60,000 francs which he would give him intact. Mme. +Acquet was desperate; prudence forbade her trying to overcome the +Buquets' obstinacy, and they, in order to keep the money, asserted that +it belonged to the royal exchequer, and they were responsible for it; so +the unhappy woman found that she had committed a crime that the +obstinacy of these rapacious peasants rendered useless. She was ready to +abandon all in order to rejoin Le Chevalier, ready even to expatriate +herself with him, when they heard that Mme. de Combray, hearing rumours +of what had happened in Lower Normandy, had decided to come to Falaise, +to plead the cause of her farmer, Hebert. She had left Tournebut on the +13th July and taken the Caen coach to Evreux. + +Mme. Acquet had gone to Langannerie to meet her mother, and when Mme. de +Combray descended from the coach the young woman threw herself into her +arms. As the Marquise seemed rather surprised at this display of feeling +to which she had become unaccustomed, her daughter said in a low voice, +sobbing: + +"Save me, mama, save me!" + +Mother and daughter resumed the affectionate confidence of former days. +While the horses were being changed and the postillions were taking a +drink in the inn, they seated themselves beneath a tree near the road. +Mme. Acquet made a full confession. She told how her love for Le +Chevalier had led her to join in the affair of June 7th, to keep Allain +and his men, and to hide the stolen money with the Buquets. If it should +be found there she was lost, and it was important to get it from the +Buquets and send it to the leaders of the party for whom it was +intended. She did not dare to mention Le Chevalier this time, but she +argued that for fear of her husband's spies she could neither take the +money to her own house, nor change it at any bankers in Caen and +Falaise; the whole country knew she was reduced to the last expedients. + +Mme. de Combray feared no such dangers, and considered that "no one +would be astonished to see 50,000 or 60,000 francs at her disposal." But +she approved less of some other points in the affair, not that she was +astonished to find her daughter compromised in such an adventure, for +how many similar ones had she not helped to prepare in her Chateau of +Tournebut? Had she not inoculated her daughter with her political +fanaticism in representing men like Hingant de Saint-Maur, Raoul +Gaillard and Saint-Rejant as martyrs? And by what right could she be +severe, when she herself, daughter of the President of the Cour des +Comptes of Normandy, had been ready to join in a theft which, "the +sanctity of the cause," rendered praiseworthy in her eyes? The Marquise +de Combray, without knowing it, was a Jacobite reversed; she accepted +brigandage as the terrorists formerly accepted the guillotine; the +hoped-for end justified the means. + +And so she did not pour out reproaches; she grew angry at the mention of +Le Chevalier whom she hated, but Mme. Acquet calmed her with the +assurance that her lover had acted under the express orders of d'Ache +and that everything had been arranged between the two men. As long as +her hero was concerned in the affair, Mme. de Combray was happy to take +a hand. That evening she reached Falaise, and leaving her daughter in +the Rue du Tripot, she asked hospitality from one of her relations, Mme. +de Treprel. Next morning she sent for Lefebre. Mme. Acquet, before +introducing him, coached him thus, "Say as little as possible about Le +Chevalier, and insist that d'Ache arranged everything." On this ground +Lefebre found Mme. de Combray most conciliating, and he had neither to +employ prayers nor entreaties, to obtain her promise to get the 60,000 +francs from the Buquets; "she consented without any difficulty or +adverse opinion; she seemed very zealous and pleased at the turn things +had taken, and offered herself to take the money to Caen, and lodge it +with Nourry, d'Ache's banker." Mme. Acquet here observed that she was +not at liberty to dispose of the funds thus. She had only taken part in +the affair from love, and cared little for the royalist exchequer; she +only cared that her devotion should profit the man she adored, and if +the money was sent to d'Ache, all her trouble would be useless. She +tried to insist, saying that Dusaussay would take the money to the +royalist treasurer in Paris, that Le Chevalier was waiting for it in +order to go to Poitou where his presence was indispensable. But Mme. de +Combray was inflexible on this point; the entire sum should be delivered +to d'Ache's banker, or she would withdraw her assistance. Mme. Acquet +was obliged to yield with a heavy heart, and they began at once to +consider the best means of transporting it. The Marquise sent Jouanne, +the son of the old cook at Glatigny, to tell Lanoe that she wished to +see him at once. Jouanne made the six leagues between Falaise and +Glatigny at one stretch, and returned without taking breath, with Lanoe, +who put him up behind him on his horse. They had scarcely arrived when +Mme. de Combray ordered Lanoe to get a carriage at Donnay and prepare +for a journey of several days. Lanoe objected a little, said it was +harvest time, and that he had important work to finish, but all that +mattered little to the Marquise, who was firm and expected to be obeyed. +Mme. Acquet also insisted saying, "You know that mama only feels safe +when you drive her and that you are always well paid for it." This +decided Lanoe who started for Bijude where he slept that night. Mme. de +Combray did not spare her servants, and distance was not such an +obstacle to those people, accustomed to marching and riding, as it is +nowadays. This fact will help to explain some of the incidents that are +to follow. + +On Thursday, July 16th, Lanoe returned to Falaise with a little cart +that a peasant of Donnay had lent him, to which he had harnessed his +horse and another lent him by Desjardins, one of Mme. de Combray's +farmers. The two women got in and started for La Bijude, Lefebre +accompanying them to the suburbs. He arranged a meeting with them at +Caen two days later, and gave them a little plan he had drawn which +would enable them to avoid the more frequented highroad. + +Mme. de Combray and her daughter slept that night at La Bijude. The next +day was spent in arguing with the Buquets who did not dare to resist the +Marquise's commands, and at night they delivered, against their will, +two sacks containing 9,000 francs in crowns which she caused to be +placed in the cart, which was housed in the barn. It was impossible to +take more the first time, and Mme. Acquet rejoiced, hoping that the rest +of the sum would remain at her disposal. The Marquise had judged it +prudent to send Lanoe away to the fair at Saint-Clair which was held in +the open country about a league away, and they only saw him again at the +time fixed for their departure on Saturday. He has left an account of +the journey, which though evidently written in a bad temper, is rather +picturesque. + +"I returned from the fair," he says, "towards one o'clock in the +afternoon, and while I was harnessing the horses I saw a valise and +night bag in the carriage. Colin, the servant at La Bijude, threw two +bundles of straw in the carriage for the ladies to sit on, and Mme. de +Combray gave me a portmanteau, a package which seemed to contain linen, +and an umbrella to put in the carriage. On the road I made the horses +trot, but Mme. Acquet told me not to go so fast because they didn't want +to arrive at Caen before evening, seeing that they had stolen money in +the carriage. I looked at her, but said nothing, but I said to myself: +'This is another of her tricks; if I had known this before we started I +would have left them behind; she used deceit to compromise me, not being +able to do so openly.' When I reproached her for it some days later she +said: 'I suspected that if I had told you of it, you would not have +gone.' During the journey the ladies talked together, but the noise of +the carriage prevented me from hearing what they said. However, I heard +Mme. Acquet say that this money would serve to pay some debts or to give +to the unfortunate. I also heard her say that Le Chevalier had great +wit, and Mme. de Combray replied that M. d'Ache's wit was keener; that +Le Chevalier had perhaps a longer tongue...." + +The itinerary arranged by Lefebre, left the main road at +Saint-Andre-de-Fontenay near the hamlet of Basse-Allemagne; night was +falling when Lanoe's carriage crossed the Orne at the ferry of Athis. +From there they went to Bretteville-sur-Odon in order to enter the town +as if they had come from Vire or Bayeux. The notary had arrived during +the day at Caen, and after having left his horse at the inn at +Vaucelles, he crossed the town on foot and went to meet "the treasure" +on the Vire road. Just as eight was striking he reached the first houses +in Bretteville and was going to turn back, astonished at not meeting the +cart when Mme. Acquet called to him from a window. He entered; Mme. de +Combray and her daughter had stopped there while Lanoe was having one of +the wheels mended. They took some refreshment, rested the horses and set +out again at ten o'clock. Lefebre got in with them and when they arrived +at Granville he got down and paid the duty on the two bundles of straw +that were in the waggon, and then entered the town without further +delay. + +By the notary's advice they had decided to take the money to Gelin's +inn, in the Rue Pavee. Gelin was the son-in-law of Lerouge, called +Bornet, whom Le Chevalier sometimes employed, but the waggon was too +large to get into the courtyard of the inn; some troops had been passing +that day and the house was filled with soldiers. They could not stay +there, but had to leave the money there, and while Gelin watched, the +Marquise, uneasy at finding herself in such a place, unable to leave the +yard because the waggon stopped the door, had to assist in unloading it. +Two men were very busy about the waggon, one of them held a dark +lantern; Lefebre, Lerouge and even Mme. Acquet pulled the sacks from the +straw and threw them into the house by a window on the ground floor. +Mme. de Combray seemed to feel her decadence for the first time; she +found herself mixed up in one of those expeditions that she had until +then represented as chivalrous feats of arms, and these by-ways of +brigandage filled her with horror. + +"But they are a band of rascals," she said to Lanoe, and she insisted on +his taking her away; she was obliged to pass through the inn filled with +men drinking. At last, outside, without turning round she went to the +Hotel des Trois Marchands, opposite Notre-Dame, where she usually +stayed. + +Mme. Acquet had no such qualms; she supped with the men, and in the +night had a mysterious interview with Allain behind the walls of +Notre-Dame. Where Mme. Acquet slept that night is not known; she only +appeared at the Hotel des Trois Marchands four days later, where she met +Mme. de Combray who had just returned from Bayeux. In her need of +comfort the Marquise had tried to see d'Ache and find out if it were +true that Allain had acted according to his orders, but d'Ache had +assured his old friend that he disapproved of such vile deeds, and that +"he was still worthy of her esteem." She had returned to Caen much +grieved at having allowed herself to be deceived by her daughter and the +lawyer; she told them nothing of her visit to Bayeux, except that she +had not seen d'Ache and that he was still in England; then, quite put +out, she returned to Falaise in the coach, not wanting to travel with +her daughter. Mme. Acquet, the same day,--Thursday the 23d July--took a +carriage that ran from Caen to Harcourt and got down at Forge-a-Cambro +where Lanoe, who had returned to Donnay on Monday, was waiting, with his +waggon. + +As soon as she was seated Lanoe informed her that the gendarmes had gone +to Donnay and searched the Buquets' house, but left without arresting +any one; "a man in a long black coat was conducting them." Mme. Acquet +asked several questions, then told Lanoe to whip up the horses and +remained silent until they reached La Bijude; he observed her with the +corner of his eye, and saw that she was very pale. When they arrived at +the village she went immediately to the Buquets and remained a quarter +of an hour closeted with Joseph. No doubt she was making a supreme +effort to get some money from him; she reappeared with heightened colour +and very excited. "Quick, to Falaise," she said. But Lanoe told her he +had something to do at home, and that his horse could not be always on +the go. But she worried him until he consented to take her. + +While the horse was being fed Mme. Acquet went to La Bijude and threw +herself on the bed, fully dressed. The day had been very heavy and +towards evening lightning flashed brightly. About two in the morning +Lanoe knocked on the window and Mme. Acquet appeared, ready to start. +She got up behind him, and they took the road by the forest of +Saint-Clair and Bonnoeil, and when they were going through the wood +the storm burst with extraordinary violence, huge gusts bent the trees, +breaking the branches, the rain fell in torrents, changing the road to +a river; the horse still advanced however, but towards day, when +approaching the village of Noron, Mme. Acquet suddenly felt such violent +indisposition that she fell to the ground in a faint. Lanoe laid her on +the side of the road in the mud. When she came to herself she begged him +to leave her there, and hasten to Falaise and bring back Lefebre; she +seemed to be haunted by the thought of the man in the black overcoat who +had guided the gendarmes at Donnay. Lanoe, in a great fright, obeyed, +but Lefebre could not come before afternoon; at Noron they found Mme. +Acquet in an inn to which she had dragged herself. The poor woman was in +a fever, and almost raving she told Lefebre that she had no money to +give him; that the gendarmes had been to Donnay; that the man who showed +them the way was probably one of Allain's companions, but that she +feared nothing and was going there to bring back the money. + +Lefebre tried to calm her, but when he left after half an hour's talk, +she tried Lanoe, begging him to take her back to Donnay; he resisted +strongly, not wanting to hear any more of the affair, but at last he +softened at her despair, but swore that now he had had enough of it, and +would leave her at La Bijude. She agreed to all, climbed on the horse, +and taking Lanoe round the waist as before, her dripping garments +clinging to her shivering form, she started again for Donnay. When +passing Villeneuve, a farm belonging to her brother Bonnoeil she saw a +group of women gesticulating excitedly; the farmer Truffault came up +and in response to her anxious enquiries, replied: + +"A misfortune has taken place; the gendarmes have been to the Buquets, +and taken the father, mother and eldest son. Joseph, who hid himself, is +alone and very unhappy." + +The farmer added that he had just sent his boy to Falaise to inform Mme. +de Combray of the event. Mme. Acquet got off her horse, drew Truffault +aside and questioned him in a low voice. When she returned to Lanoe she +was as white as a wax candle. "I am lost," she said, "Joseph Buquet will +denounce me." + +Then, with a steady look, speaking to herself: "I could also, in my turn +denounce Allain, seeing that he is an outlaw, but where should I say I +had met him?" She seemed most uneasy, not knowing what to do. Then she +hinted that she must go back to Falaise. But Lanoe was inflexible, he +swore he would go no further, and that she could apply to the farmer if +she wanted to. And giving his horse the rein he went off at a trot, +leaving her surrounded by the peasants, who silently gazed in wondering +consternation at the daughter of "their lady" covered with mud, +wild-eyed, her arms swinging and her whole appearance so hopeless and +forlorn as to awaken pity in the hardest heart. + +The same evening the lawyer Lefebre, learned on reaching home, that Mme. +de Combray had sent her gardener to ask him to come to her immediately +in the Rue du Tripot. But worn out, he threw himself on his bed and +slept soundly till some one knocked at his door about one in the +morning. It was the gardener again, who was so insistent that Lefebre +decided to go with him in spite of fatigue. He found the Marquise wild +with anxiety. Truffault's boy had told her of the arrest of the Buquets, +and she had not gone to bed, expecting to see the gendarmes appear; her +only idea was to fly to Tournebut and hide herself there with her +daughter; she begged the lawyer to accompany them, and while excitedly +talking, tied a woollen shawl round her head. Lefebre, who was calmer, +told her that he had left Mme. Acquet at Noron in a state of exhaustion, +that they must wait until she was in a condition to travel before +starting, and that it would be impossible to obtain a carriage at this +time of night. But Mme. de Combray would listen to nothing; she gave her +gardener three crowns to go to Noron and tell Mme. Acquet that she must +start immediately for Tournebut by Saint-Sylvain and Lisieux; then +traversing the deserted streets with Lefebre, who stopped at his house +to get the three thousand francs, from the robbery of June 7th, she +reached the Val d'Ante and took the road to Caen. + +It was very dark; the storm had ceased but the rain still fell heavily. +The old Marquise continued her journey over the flooded roads, defying +fatigue and only stopping occasionally to make sure she was not +followed. Lefebre, now afraid also, hastened his steps beside her, +bending beneath the weight of his portmanteau filled with crowns. +Neither spoke. The endless road was the same one taken by the waggon +containing the Alencon money on the day of the robbery, and the +remembrance of this rendered their wild night march still more tragic. + +It was scarcely dawn when the fugitives crossed the wood of Quesnay; at +Langannerie they left the highroad and crossed by Bretteville-le-Rabet. +It was now broad daylight, barns were opening, and people looked +astonished at this strange couple who seemed to have been walking all +night; the Marquise especially puzzled them, with her hair clinging to +her cheeks, her skirts soaked and her slippers covered with mud. But no +one dared question them. + +At six in the morning Mme. de Combray and her companion arrived at +Saint-Sylvain, five good leagues from Falaise. If Mme. Acquet had +succeeded in leaving Noron they ought to meet her there. Lefebre +enquired at the inn, but no one had been there. They waited for two +hours which the lawyer employed in seeking a waggon to go on to Lisieux. +A peasant agreed to take them for fifteen francs paid in advance, and +about eight o'clock, as Mme. Acquet had not arrived they decided to +start. They stopped at Croissanville a little further on, and while +breakfasting, Lefebre wrote to Lanoe telling him to find Mme. Acquet at +once and tell her to hasten to her mother at Tournebut. + +The rest of the journey was uneventful. They reached Lisieux at +supper-time and slept there. The next day Mme. de Combray took two +places under an assumed name, in the coach for Evreux, where they +arrived in the evening. The fugitives had a refuge in the Rue de +l'Union with an old Chouan named Vergne, who had been in orders before +the Revolution, but had become a doctor since the pacification. Next day +Mme. de Combray and Lefebre made five leagues from Evreux to Louviers; +they got out before entering the town as the Marquise wished to avoid +the Hotel du Mouton where she was known. They went by side streets to +the bridge of the Eure where they hired a carriage which took them by +nightfall to the hamlet of Val-Tesson. They were now only a league from +Tournebut which they could reach by going through the woods. But would +they not find gendarmes there? Mme. de Combray's flight might have +aroused suspicion at Falaise, Caen and Bayeux, and brought police +supervision to her house. It was nine in the evening when, after an +hour's walk, she reached the Hermitage. She thought it prudent to send +Lefebre on ahead, and accompanied him to the gate where she left him to +venture in alone. All appeared tranquil in the chateau, the lawyer went +into the kitchen where he found a scullery maid who called Soyer, the +confidential man, and Mme. de Combray only felt safe when she saw the +latter himself come to open a door into the garden; she then slipped, +without being seen, into her own room. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE YELLOW HORSE + + +The man in the "black overcoat" who had conducted the gendarmes on their +visit to Donnay, was no other than "Grand-Charles," one of Allain's +followers. He had been arrested at Le Chalange on July 14th, and had +consented without hesitation, to show the spot in the Buquets' garden +where the money had been hidden. He recognised the position of the house +and garden, the room in which Allain and his companions had been +received on the night of the robbery, and even the glass which Mme. +Buquet had filled for him. At the bottom of the garden traces of the +excavation that had contained the money were found; the loft contained +linen, and other effects of Mme. Acquet; her miniature was hanging on +the wall of Joseph's room. Joseph alone had fled; his father, mother, +and brother were taken to prison in Caen the same evening. + +"Grand-Charles," who did not want to be the only one compromised, showed +the greatest zeal in searching for his accomplices. As Querelle had done +before, he led Manginot and his thirty gendarmes over all the country, +until they reached the village of Mancelliere, which passed as the most +famous resort of malcontents in a circuit of twenty leagues. As in the +happiest days of the Chouan revolt, there were bloody combats between +the gendarmes and the deserters. After one of these engagements +Pierre-Francois Harel,--who had passed most of his time since the +Quesnay robbery in a barrel sunk in the earth at the bottom of a +garden--was arrested in the house of a M. Lebougre, where he had gone to +get some brandy and salt to dress a wound. But Manginot made a more +important capture in Flierle, who was living peacefully at +Amaye-sur-Orne, with one of his old captains, Rouault des Vaux. Flierle +told his story as soon as he was interrogated; he knew that "high +personages" were in the plot, and thought they would think twice before +pushing things to an issue. + +If Manginot was thus acting with an energy worthy of praise, he received +none from Caffarelli, who was distressed at the turn affairs had taken, +and wished that the affair of Quesnay might be reduced to the +proportions of a simple incident. He interrogated the prisoners with the +reserve and precaution of a man who was interfering in what did not +concern him, and if he learned from Flierle much that he would rather +not have known about the persistent organisation of the Chouans in +Calvados, he could get no information concerning the deed that had led +to his arrest. + +The German did not conceal his fear of assassination if he should speak, +Allain having promised, on June 8th, at the bridge of Landelle, "poison, +or pistol shot to the first who should reveal anything, and the +assistance of two hundred determined men to save those who showed +discretion, from the vengeance of Bonaparte." + +Things were different in Paris. The police were working hard, and Fouche +was daily informed of the slightest details bearing on the events that +were taking place in Lower Normandy. For several weeks detectives had +been watching a young man who arrived in Paris the second fortnight of +May; he was often seen in the Palais-Royal, and called himself openly +"General of the Chouans," and assumed great importance. The next report +gave his name as Le Chevalier, from Caen, and more information was +demanded of Caffarelli. The Prefect of Calvados replied that the +description tallied with that of a man who had often been denounced to +him as an incorrigible royalist; he was easy to recognise as he had lost +the use of his left arm: + +The police received orders not to lose sight of this person. He lived at +the Hotel de Beauvais, Rue des Vieux-Augustins, a house that had been +known since the Revolution as the resort of royalists passing through +Paris. Le Chevalier went out a great deal; he dined in town nearly every +night, with people of good position. He was followed for a fortnight; +then the order for his arrest was given, and on July 15th he was taken, +handcuffed, to the prefecture of police and accused of participation in +the robbery at Quesnay. + +Le Chevalier was not the man to be caught napping. His looks, his manner +and his eloquence had got him out of so many scrapes, that he doubted +not they would once more save his life. The letter he wrote to Real on +the day of his arrest is so characteristic of him--at once familiar and +haughty--that it would be a pity not to quote it: + + "Arrested on a suspicion of brigandage, of which it is as important + to justify myself as painful to have to do it, but full of + confidence in my honour, which is unimpeachable, and in the + well-known justice of your character, I beg you to grant me a few + minutes' audience, during which--being well disposed to answer your + questions, and even to forestall them--I flatter myself that I can + convince you that the condition of my affairs and, above all, my + whole conduct in life, raise me above any suspicion of brigandage + whatever. I hope also, Monsieur, that this conversation, the favour + of which your justice will accord me, will convince you that I am + not mad enough to engage in political brigandage, or to engage in a + struggle with the government to which the proudest sovereigns have + yielded.... + + "A. Le Chevalier." + +And to prove that he had taken no part in the robbery of June 7th, he +added to his letter twenty affirmations of honourable and well-known +persons who had either seen or dined with him in Paris each day of the +month from the 1st to the 20th. Among these were the names of his +compatriot, the poet Chenedolle, and Dr. Dupuytren whom he had consulted +on the advisability of amputating the fingers of his left hand, long +useless. He had even taken care to be seen at the Te Deum sung in +Notre-Dame for the taking of Dantzig. His precautions had been well +taken, and once again his aplomb was about to save him, when Real, much +embarrassed by this soft spoken prisoner, thought of sending him to +Caen, in the hope that confronting him with Flierle, Grand-Charles and +the Buquets might have some result. Caffarelli was convinced that Le +Chevalier was the leader in the plot, yet they had searched carefully in +his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur; without finding anything but some +private papers. Flierle had recognised him as the man to whom he acted +as secretary and courier, yet Le Chevalier had contemptuously replied +that "the German was not the sort to be his servant, and that their only +connection was that of benefactor and recipient." It was out of the +question that any tribunal could be found to condemn a man who on the +day of the crime had been sixty leagues from the place where it was +committed. As to convicting him as a royalist who approved of the theft +of public funds--they might as well do the same with all Normandy. +Besides, to Caffarelli, who had no allusions as to the sentiments of the +district, and who was always in fear of a new Chouan explosion, the +presence of Le Chevalier in prison at Caen was a perpetual nightmare. +Allain might suddenly appear with an army, and make an attempt to carry +off his chief similar to that which, under the Directory, saved the +lives of the Vicomte de Chambray and Chevalier Destouches, to the +amusement and delight of the whole province. And this is why the prudent +prefect, not caring to encumber himself with such a compromising +prisoner, in four days, obtained Real's permission to send him back to +Paris, where he was confined in the Temple. Ah! What a fine letter he +wrote to the Chief of Police, as soon as he arrived there, and how he +posed as the unlucky rival of Napoleon! + +This profession of faith is too long to be given entirely, but it throws +such light on the character of the writer, and on the illusions which +the royalists obstinately fostered during the most brilliant period of +the imperial regime, that a few extracts are indispensable. + + "You wished to know the truth concerning the declarations of + Flierle on my account, and on the projects that he divulged. I will + tell you of them. Denial suits well a criminal who fears the eye of + justice, but it is foreign to a character that fears nothing and to + whom the first success of his enterprises lies in the esteem of his + enemies. + + * * * * * + + "Your Excellency will kindly see in me neither a man trembling at + death, nor a mind seduced by the hope of reward. I ask nothing to + tell what I think, for in telling it I satisfy myself. I planned an + insurrection against Napoleon's government, I desired his ruin, if + I have not been able to effect it, it is because I have always been + badly seconded and often betrayed. + + "What were my means of entertaining at least the hope of success? + Not wishing to appear absolutely mad in your eyes, I am going to + make them known; but not wishing to betray the confidence of those + who would have served me, I shall withhold the details. + + * * * * * + + "I was born generous, and a lover of glory. After the amnesty of + the year VIII I was the richest among my comrades: my money, well + dispensed, procured me followers. For several years I watched for a + favourable moment to revolt. The last campaign in Austria offered + this occasion. Every one in the West believed in the defection of + the French armies; I did not believe in it, but was going to profit + by the general opinion. Victory came too quickly, and I had hardly + time to plan anything. + + "After having established connections in several departments, I + left for Paris. There, all concurred in fortifying my hopes. Many + republicans shared my wishes; I negotiated with them for a reunion + of parties, to make action more certain and reaction less strong. + The movement must take place in the capital, a provisional + government must be established,--all France would have passed + through a new regime before the Emperor returned. + + "But it did not take me long to discover that the republicans had + not all the means they boasted.... I returned to the royalists in + the capital; they were disunited and without plans. I had only a + few men in Paris; I abandoned my designs there, and returned to the + provinces. There I could collect two or three thousand men, and as + soon as I had done that I should have sent to ask the Bourbon + princes to put themselves at the head of my troops.... + + "But at the opening of the second campaign my plans were postponed. + However, the measures I had been obliged to take could not remain + secret. Some refractory conscripts, some deserters, appeared armed, + at different places; they had to be maintained, and without an + order _ad hoc_, but by virtue of general instructions, one of my + officers possessed himself of the public funds for the purpose.... + The guilty ones are ... myself, for whom I ask nothing, not from + pride, for the haughtiest spirit need not feel humiliated at + receiving grace from one who has granted it to kings, but from + honour. Your Excellency will no doubt wish to know the motive that + urged me to conceive and nourish such projects. The motive is this: + I have seen the unhappiness of the amnestied, and my own + misfortune; people proscribed in the state, classed as serfs, + excluded not only from all employment, but also tyrannised by those + who formerly only lacked the courage to join their cause.... + + "Whatever fate is reserved for me, I beg you to consider that I + have not ceased to be a Frenchman, that I may have succumbed to + noble madness, but have not sought cowardly success; and I hope + that, in view of this, your Excellency will grant me the only + favour I ask for myself--that my trial, if I am to have one, may be + military, as well as its execution.... + + "A. Le Chevalier." + +One can imagine the stupefaction, on reading this missive of Fouche, of +Real, Desmarets, Veyrat, and of all those on whom it rested to make his +people appear to the Master as enthusiastic and contented, or at least +silent and submissive. They felt that the letter was not all bragging; +they saw in it Georges' plan amplified; the same threat of a descent of +Bourbons on the coast, the same assurance of overturning, by a blow at +Bonaparte, the immense edifice he had erected. In fact, the belief that +the Empire, to which all Europe now seemed subjugated, was at the mercy +of a battle won or lost, was so firmly established in the mind of the +population, that even a man like Fouche, for example, who thoroughly +understood the undercurrents of opinion, could never believe in the +solidity of the regime that he worked for. Were not the germs of the +whole story of the Restoration in Le Chevalier's profession of faith? +Were they not found again, five years later, in the astonishing +conception of Malet? Were things very different in 1814? The Emperor +vanquished, the defection of the generals, the descent of the princes, +the intervention of a provisional government, the reestablishment of the +monarchy, such were, in reality the events that followed; they were what +Georges had foreseen, what d'Ache had anticipated, what Le Chevalier had +divined with such clear-sightedness. Though they seemed miraculous to +many people they were simply the logical result of continued effort, the +success of a conspiracy in which the actors had frequently been changed, +but which had suffered no cessation from the coup d'etat of Brumaire +until the abdication at Fontainebleau. The chiefs of the imperial +police, then, found themselves confronted by a new "affaire Georges." +From Flierle's partial revelations and the little that had been learned +from the Buquets, they inferred that d'Ache was at the head of it, and +recommended all the authorities to search well, but quietly. In spite of +these exhortations, Caffarelli seemed to lose all interest in the plot, +which he had finally analysed as "vast but mad," and unworthy of any +further attention on his part. + +The prefect of the Seine-Inferieure, Savoye-Rollin, had manifested a +zeal and ardour each time that Real addressed him on the subject of the +affair of Quesnay, in singular contrast with the indifference shown by +his colleague of Calvados. Savoye-Rollin belonged to an old +parliamentary family. Being advocate-general to the parliament of +Grenoble before 1790, he had adopted the more moderate ideas of the +Revolution, and had been made a member of the tribunate on the +eighteenth Brumaire in 1806, at the age of fifty-two, he replaced +Beugnot in the prefecture of Rouen. He was a most worthy functionary, a +distinguished worker, and possessor of a fine fortune. + +Real left it to Savoye-Rollin to find d'Ache, who, they remembered, had +lived at the farm of Saint-Clair near Gournay, before Georges' +disembarkation, and who possessed some property in the vicinity of +Neufchatel. The police of Rouen was neither better organised nor more +numerous than that of Caen, but its chief was a singular personage whose +activity made up for the qualities lacking in his men. He was a little, +restless, shrewd, clever man, full of imagination and wit, frank with +every one and fearing, as he himself said, "neither woman, God nor +devil." He was named Licquet, and in 1807 was fifty-three years old. At +the time of the Revolution he had been keeper of the rivers and forests +of Caudebec, which position he had resigned in 1790 for a post in the +municipal administration at Rouen. In the year IV he was chief of the +Bureau of Public Instruction, but in reality he alone did all the work +of the mayoralty, and also some of that of the Department, and did it so +well that he found himself, in 1802, in the post of secretary-in-chief +of the municipality. In this capacity he gave and inspected all +passports. For five years past no one had been able to travel in the +Seine-Inferieure without going through his office. As he had a good +memory and his business interested him, he had a very clear recollection +of all whom he had scrutinised and passed. He remembered very well +having signed the passport that took d'Ache from Gournay to +Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1803, and retained a good idea of the robust +man, tall, with a high forehead and black hair. He remembered, moreover, +that d'Ache's "toe-nails were so grown into his flesh that he walked on +them." + +Since this meeting with d'Ache, Licquet's appointments had increased +considerably; while retaining his place as secretary-general, he had +obtained the directorship of police, and fulfilled his functions with so +much energy, authority and cunning that no one dreamt of criticising his +encroachments. He was, besides, much feared for his bitter tongue, but +he pleased the prefect, who liked his wit and appreciated his +cleverness. From the beginning Licquet was fascinated by the idea of +discovering the elusive conspirator and thus demonstrating his +adroitness to the police of Paris; and his satisfaction was profound, +when, on the 17th of August, 1807, three days after having arranged a +plan of campaign and issued instructions to his subordinates, he was +informed that M. d'Ache was confined in the Conciergerie of the Palais +de Justice. He rushed to the Palais and ordered the prisoner to be +brought before him. It was "Tourlour," d'Ache's inoffensive brother +Placide, arrested at Saint Denis-du-Bosguerard, where he had gone to +visit his old mother. Licquet's disappointment was cruel, for he had +nothing to expect from Tourlour; but to hide his chagrin he questioned +him about his brother (whom Placide declared he had not seen for four +years) and how he passed his time, which was spent, said Tourlour, when +he was not in the Rue Saint-Patrice, between Saint-Denis-du-Bosguerard +and Mme. de Combray's chateau near Gaillon. Placide declared that he +only desired to live in peace, and to care for his aged and infirm +mother. This was the second time Licquet's attention had been attracted +by the name of Mme. de Combray. He had already read it, incidentally, in +the report of Flierle's examination, and with the instinct of a +detective, for whom a single word will often unravel a whole plot, he +had a sudden intuition that in it lay the key to the entire affair. +Tourlour's imprudent admission, which was to bring terrible catastrophes +on Mme. de Combray's head, gave Licquet a thread that was to lead him +through the maze that Caffarelli had refused to enter. + +Nearly a month earlier, Mme. de Combray had expressly forbidden Soyer to +talk about her return with Lefebre. She had shut herself up in her room +with Catherine Querey, her chambermaid; the lawyer had shared +Bonnoeil's room. Next day, Tuesday, July 28th, the Marquise had shown +Lefebre the apartments prepared for the King and the hiding-places in +the great chateau; Bonnoeil showed him copies of d'Ache's manifesto, +and the Duc d'Enghien's funeral oration, which they read, with deep +respect, after dinner. Towards evening Soyer announced the postmaster +of Gaillon, a friend who had often rendered valuable services to the +people at Tournebut. He had just heard that the commandant had received +orders from Paris to search the chateau, and would do so immediately. +Mme. de Combray was not at all disturbed; she had long been prepared for +this, and ordered Soyer to take some provisions to the little chateau, +where she repaired that night with Lefebre. There were two comfortable +hiding-places there whose mechanism she explained to the lawyer. One of +them was large enough to contain two mattresses side by side; she showed +Lefebre in, slipped after him, and shut the panels upon them both. +Bonnoeil remained alone at Tournebut. The quiet life he had led for +the last two years removed him from any suspicion, and he prepared to +receive the gendarmes who appeared at dawn on Friday. The commandant +showed his order, and Bonnoeil, confident of the issue, and completely +cool, opened all the doors and gave up the keys. The soldiers rummaged +the chateau from top to bottom. Nothing could have been more innocent +than the appearance of this great mansion, most of whose apartments +seemed to have been long unoccupied, and Bonnoeil stated that his +mother had gone a fortnight ago to Lower Normandy, where she went every +year about this time to collect her rents and visit her property near +Falaise. When the servants were interrogated they were all unanimous in +declaring that with the exception of Soyer and Mlle. Querey, they had +seen the Marquise start for Falaise, and did not know of her return. +The commandant returned to Gaillon with his men, little suspecting that +the woman he was looking for was calmly playing cards with one of her +accomplices a few steps away, while they were searching her house. + +She lived with her guest for eight days in this house with the false +bottom, so to speak, never appearing outside, wandering through the +unfurnished rooms during the day, and returning to her hiding-place at +night. + +They did not return to Tournebut till August 4th. The same day Soyer +received a letter from Mme. Acquet, on the envelope of which she had +written, "For Mama." It was an answer to the letter sent to +Croissanville by Lefebre. Mme. Acquet said that her mother's departure +did her a great wrong, but that all danger was over and Lefebre could +return to Falaise without fear. As for herself, she had found refuge +with a reliable person; the Abbe Moraud, vicar of Guibray, would take +charge of her correspondence. Of the proposal which had been made her to +take refuge at Tournebut, not a word. Evidently Mme. Acquet preferred +the retreat she had chosen for herself--where, she did not say. Mme. de +Combray, either hurt at this unjustifiable defiance, or afraid that she +would prove herself an accomplice in the theft if she did not separate +herself entirely from Mme. Acquet, made her maid reply that it was "too +late for her to come now, that she was very ill and could receive no +one." And thus the feeling that divided these two women was clearly +defined. + +Lefebre undertook to give the letter to Abbe Moraud; he was in a great +hurry to return to Falaise, where he felt much safer than at Tournebut. +He left the same day, after having chosen a yellow horse from the +stables of the chateau. He put on top-boots and an overcoat belonging to +Bonnoeil, and left by a little door in the wall of the park. Soyer led +him as far as the Moulin des Quatre-Vents on the highroad. Lefebre took +the Neubourg road so as to avoid Evreux and Louviers. Two days after, he +breakfasted at Glatigny with Lanoe, leaving there his boots, overcoat, +and the yellow horse, and started gaily for Falaise, where he arrived in +the evening. He saw Mme. Acquet on the 7th, and found her completely at +her ease. + +When Lanoe had abandoned her at the farm of Villeneuve, twelve days +before, Mme. Acquet had entreated so pitifully that a woman who was +there had gone to fetch Collin, one of the servants at La Bijude; Mme. +de Combray's daughter had returned with him to Falaise, on one of the +farmer's horses. She dared not go to the house in the Rue du Tripot, and +therefore stopped with an honest woman named Chauvel, who did the +washing for the Combray family. She was drawn there by the fact that the +son, Victor Chauvel, was one of the gendarmes who had been at Donnay the +night before, and she wanted to find out from him if the Buquets had +denounced her. + +She went to the Chauvels' under pretence of getting Captain Manginot's +address. The gendarme was at supper. He was a man of thirty-six, an old +hussar, and a good fellow, but although married and the father of three +children, known as a "gadder, and fond of the sex." "When women are +around, Chauvel forgets everything," his comrades used to say. He now +saw Mme. Acquet for the first time, and to her questions replied that +her name had indeed been mentioned, and that Manginot, who was at the +"Grand-Ture," was looking for her. The young woman began to cry. She +implored Mme. Chauvel to keep her, promised to pay her, and appealed to +her pity, so that the washerwoman was touched. She had an attic in the +third story, some bedding was thrown on the floor, and from that place +Mme. Acquet wrote to tell her mother that she had found a safe retreat. + +It was very safe indeed, and one can understand that she did not feel +the need of telling too precisely the conditions of the hospitality she +was given. Is it necessary to insist on the sort of relations +established from the moment of her arrival at the Chauvels, between the +poor woman whose fear of capture killed every other feeling and the +soldier on whom her fate depended? Chauvel had only to say one word to +insure her arrest; she yielded to him, he held his tongue and the +existence which then began for them both was so miserable and so tragic +that it excites more pity than disgust. Mme. Acquet had only one +thought--to escape the scaffold; Chauvel had only one wish--to keep this +unexpected mistress, more dear because he sacrificed for her his career, +his honour and perhaps his life. At first things went calmly enough. No +warrant had been issued for the fugitive, and in the evening she used to +go out disguised with Chauvel. Soon she grew bolder and walked in broad +daylight in the streets of Falaise. On the 15th of August Lefebre had +Lanoe to breakfast and invited her also; they talked freely, and Mme. +Acquet made no secret of the fact that she was living with the Chauvels +and that the son kept her informed of all orders received from Caen or +Paris. Lefebre led the conversation round to the "treasure," for the +money hidden at the Buquets had excited much cupidity. Bureau de +Placene, as "banker" to the Chouans, had advanced the claims of the +royal exchequer; Allain and Lerouge the baker--who showed entire +disinterestedness--had gone to Donnay, and with great trouble got 1,200 +francs from the Buquets; five times Lerouge had gone in a little cart, +by appointment, to the forest of Harcourt, where he waited under a large +tree near the crossroad till Buquet brought him some money. In this way +Placene received 12,000 francs in crowns, "so coated with mud that his +wife was obliged to wash them." But Joseph's relations, who had been +arrested when he fled, swore that he alone knew where the rest of the +money was buried, and no one could get any more of it. + +While at breakfast with the lawyer and Lanoe Mme. Acquet begged the +latter to undertake a search. She believed the money was buried in the +field of buckwheat between the Buquets' house and the walls of the +chateau, and wanted Lanoe to dig there, but he refused. She seemed to +have lost her head completely. She planned to throw herself at the +Emperor's feet imploring his pardon; she talked of recovering the stolen +money, returning it to the government, adding to it her "dot," and +leaving France forever. When she returned in the evening greatly +excited, she told the washerwoman of her plans; she dwelt on the idea +for three days, and thought she had only to restore the stolen money to +guarantee herself against punishment. + +Chauvel was on duty. When he returned on the 19th he brought some news. +Caffarelli was to arrive in Falaise the next day, to interrogate Mme. +Acquet. The night passed in tears and agony. The poor woman attempted +suicide, and Chauvel seized the poison she was about to swallow. An +obscure point is reached here. Even if Caffarelli's ease and +indifference are admitted, it is hard to believe that he was an active +accomplice in the plot; but on the other hand, it is surprising that +Mme. Acquet did not fly as soon as she heard of his intended visit, and +that she consented to appear before him as if she were sure of finding +help and protection. The interview took place in the house of the mayor, +M. de Saint-Leonard, a relative of Mme. de Combray's, and resembled a +family council rather than an examination. Caffarelli was more paternal +than his role of judge warranted, and it was long believed in the family +that Mme. de Combray's remote relationship with the Empress Josephine's +family, which they had been careful not to boast of before, was drawn +upon to soften the susceptible prefect. Whatever the reason, Mme. +Acquet left the mayor's completely reassured, told Mme. Chauvel that she +was going away, and took many messages from the good woman to Mme. de +Combray, with whom she said she was going to spend several days at +Tournebut. On the 22d she made a bundle of her belongings, and taking +the arm of the gendarme, left the washerwoman's house disguised as a +peasant. + +Life at Tournebut resumed its usual course after Lefebre's departure. +Mme. de Combray, satisfied that her daughter was safe, and that the +prefect of Calvados even if he suspected her, would never venture to +cause her arrest, went fearlessly among her neighbours. She was not +aware that the enquiry had passed from Caffarelli's hands into those of +the prefect of Rouen, and was now managed by a man whose malignity and +stubbornness would not be easily discouraged. + +Licquet had taken a fortnight to study the affair. His only clues were +Flierle's ambiguous replies and the Buquets' cautious confessions, but +during the years that he had eagerly devoted to detective work as an +amateur, he had laid up a good store of suspicions. The failure of the +gendarmes at Tournebut had convinced him that this old manor-house, so +peaceful of aspect, hid terrible secrets, and that its occupants had +arranged within it inaccessible retreats. Then he changed his tactics. +Mme. de Combray and Bonnoeil had gone in perfect confidence to spend +the afternoon at Gaillon; when they returned to Tournebut in the evening +they were suddenly stopped by a detachment of gendarmes posted across +the road. They were obliged to give their names; the officer showed a +warrant, and they all returned to the chateau, which was occupied by +soldiers. The Marquise protested indignantly against the invasion of her +house, but was forced to be present at a search that was begun +immediately and lasted all the evening. Towards midnight she and her son +were put into a carriage with two gendarmes and taken under escort to +Rouen, where, at dawn, they were thrown into the Conciergerie of the +Palais de Justice. + +Licquet was only half satisfied with the result of the expedition; he +had hoped to take d'Ache, whom he believed to be hidden at Tournebut; +the police had arrested Mme. Levasseur and Jean-Baptiste Caqueray, +lately married to Louise d'Ache; but of the conspirator himself there +was no trace. For three years this extraordinary man had eluded the +police. Was it to be believed that he had lived all this time, buried in +some oubliette at Tournebut, and could one expect that Mme. de Combray +would reveal the secret of his retreat? + +As soon as she arrived at the Conciergerie, Licquet, without showing +himself, had gone to "study" his prisoner. Like an old, caged lioness, +this woman of sixty-seven behaved with surprising energy; she showed no +evidence of depression or shame; she did as she liked in the prison, +complained of the food, grumbled all day, and raged at the gaolers. +There was no reason to hope that she would belie her character, nor to +count on an emotion she did not feel to obtain any information from +her. The prefect had her brought in a carriage to his house on August +23d, and interrogated her for two days. With the experience and +astuteness of an old offender, the Marquise assumed complete frankness; +but she only confessed to things she could not deny with success. +Licquet asked several questions; she did not reply until she had caused +them to be repeated several times, under pretence that she did not +understand them. She struggled desperately, arguing, quibbling, fighting +foot by foot. If she admitted knowing d'Ache and having frequently +offered him hospitality, she positively denied all knowledge of his +actual residence. In short, when Savoye-Rollin and Licquet sent her back +to the Conciergerie, they felt that they had had the worst of it and +gained nothing. Bonnoeil, when his turn came told them nothing but +what they already knew, and Placide d'Ache flew into a rage and denied +everything. + +The prefect and his acolyte were feeling somewhat abashed at their +failure, when the concierge who had taken Mme. de Combray back to the +Palais asked to speak to them. He told them that in the carriage the +Marquise had offered him a large sum if he would take some letters to +one of the prisoners. Accustomed to these requests he had said neither +yes nor no, but had told "the Combray woman" that he would see her at +night, when going the rounds, and he had come to get the prefect's +orders concerning this correspondence. Licquet urged that the concierge +be authorised to receive the letters. He hoped by intercepting them to +learn much from the confidences and advice the Marquise would give her +fellow-prisoners. The idea was at first very repugnant to Savoye-Rollin, +but the Marquise's proposal seemed to establish her guilt so thoroughly, +that he did not feel obliged to be delicate and consented, not without +throwing on his secretary-general (one of Licquet's titles) the +responsibility for the proceeding. Having obtained this concession +Licquet took hold of the enquiry, and found it a good field for the +employment of his particular talents. No duel was ever more pitiless; +never did a detective show more ingenuity and duplicity. From "love of +the art," from sheer delight in it, Licquet worked himself up against +his prisoners with a passion that would be inexplicable, did not his +letters reveal the intense joy the struggle gave him. He felt no hatred +towards his victims, but only a ferocious satisfaction in seeing them +fall into the traps he prepared and in unveiling the mysteries of a plot +whose political significance seemed entirely indifferent to him. + +With the keenest anticipation he awaited the time when Mme. de Combray's +letters to Bonnoeil and "Tourlour" should be handed to him. He had to +be patient till next day, and this first letter told nothing; the +Marquise gave her accomplices a sketch of her examination, and did it so +artfully that Licquet suspected her of having known that the letter was +to pass through his hands. The same day the concierge gave him another +letter as insignificant as the first, which, however, ended with this +sentence, whose perusal puzzled Licquet: "Do you not know that +Tourlour's brother has burnt the muslin fichu?" + +"Tourlour's brother"--that was d'Ache. Had he recently returned to +Tournebut? Was he still there? Another letter, given to the gaoler by +Bonnoeil, answered these questions affirmatively. It was addressed to +a man of business named Legrand in the Rue Cauchoise, and ran thus: "I +implore you to start at once for Tournebut without telling any one of +the object of your journey; go to Grosmenil (the little chateau), see +the woman Bachelet, and burn everything she may have that seems +suspicious; you will do us a great service. Return this letter to me. +Tell Soyer that if any one asks if M. d'Ache has returned, it is two +years since he was seen at Tournebut." + +That same evening the order for Soyer's arrest was sent to Gaillon, and +twelve hours later he also was in the Conciergerie at Rouen. This did +not prevent Bonnoeil's writing to him the next day, Licquet, as may be +imagined, not having informed the prisoners of his arrest. + +"I beg you, my dear Soyer, to look in the two or three desks in my +mother's room, and see if you cannot find anything that could compromise +her, above all any of M. Delorieres' (d'Ache's) writing. Destroy it all. +If you are asked how long it is since M. Delorieres was at Tournebut, +say he has not been there for nearly two years. Tell this to Collin, to +Catin, and to the yard girl...." + +Licquet carefully copied these letters and then sent them to their +destination, hoping that the answers would give him some light. In his +frequent visits to the prisoners he dared not venture on the slightest +allusion to the confidences they exchanged, for fear that they might +suspect the fidelity of their messenger, and refuse his help. Thus, many +points remained obscure to the detective. The next letter from +Bonnoeil to Soyer contained this sentence: "Put the small curtains on +the window of the place where I told you to bury the nail...." We can +imagine Licquet with his head in his hands trying to solve this enigma. +The muslin fichu, the little curtains, the nail--was this a cipher +decided on in advance between the prisoners? And all these precautions +seemed to be taken for the mysterious d'Ache whose safety seemed to be +their sole desire. A word from Mme. de Combray to Bonnoeil leaves no +doubt as to the conspirator's recent sojourn at Tournebut: "I wish Mme. +K.... to go to my house and see with So ... if Delor ... has not left +some paper in the oil-cloth of the little room near the room where the +cooks slept. Let him look everywhere and burn everything." This time the +information seemed so sure that Licquet started for Tournebut, which had +been occupied by gendarmes for a fortnight; he took Soyer to guide him, +and the commissary of police, Legendre, to make a report of the search. + +They arrived at Tournebut on the morning of September 5th. Licquet, who +was much exhilarated by this hunt for conspirators, must have felt a +singular emotion on approaching the mysterious mansion, object of all +his thoughts. He took it all in at a glance, he was struck by the +isolation of the chateau, away from the road below the woods; he found +that it could be entered at twenty different places, without one's being +seen. He sent away the servants, posted a gendarme at each door, and +conducted by Soyer, entered the apartments. + +First he went to the brick wing built by de Marillac, where was a vast +chamber occupied by Bonnoeil and leading to the great hall, +astoundingly high and solemn in spite of its dilapidation, with a brick +floor, a ceiling with great beams, and immense windows looking over the +terrace towards the Seine. By a double door with monumental ironwork, +set in a wall as thick as a bastille, Mme. de Combray's apartments were +reached, the first room wainscoted, then a boudoir, next a small room +hidden by a staircase, and communicating with a lot of other small, low +rooms. A long passage, lighted by three windows opening on the terrace, +led, leaving the Marquise's bedchamber on the right, to the most ancient +part of the chateau the front of which had been recently restored. +Having crossed the landing of the steps leading to the garden, one +reached the salon; then the dining-room, where there was a stone +staircase leading to the first floor. On this were a long passage and +three chambers looking out on the valley of the Seine, and a lot of +small rooms that were not used. All the rest was lofts, where the +framework of the roofs crossed. When a door was opened, frightened bats +flapped their wings with a great noise in the darkness of this forest +of enormous, worm-eaten beams. In fact, everything looked very simple; +there was no sign whatever of a hiding-place. The furniture was opened, +the walls sounded, and the panels examined without finding any hollow +place. It was now Soyer's turn to appear. Whether he feared for himself, +or whether Licquet had made him understand that denial was useless, Mme. +de Combray's confidential man consented to guide the detectives. He took +a bunch of keys and followed by Licquet and Legendre, went up to a +little room under the roof of a narrow building next to Marillac's wing. +This room had only one window, on the north, with a bit of green stuff +for a curtain; its only furniture was a miserable wooden bed drawn into +the middle of the room. Licquet and the commissary examined the +partitions and had them sounded. Soyer allowed them to rummage in all +the corners, then, when they had given up all idea of finding anything +themselves, he went up to the bed, put his hand under the mattress and +removed a nail. They immediately heard the fall of a weight behind the +wall, which opened, disclosing a chamber large enough to hold fifteen +persons. In it were a wooden bench, a large chafing-dish, silver +candlesticks, a trunk full of papers and letters, two packets of hair of +different colours, and some treatises on games. They seized among other +things, the funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, copied by Placide, and +the passport d'Ache had obtained at Rouen in 1803, which was signed by +Licquet. When they had put everything in a bag and closed the +partition, when they had sufficiently admired the mechanism which left +no crack or opening visible, Soyer, still followed by two policemen, +went over the whole chateau, climbed to the loft, and stopped at last in +a little room at the end of the building. It was full of soiled linen +hung on ropes; a thick beam was fixed almost level with the ground, the +whole length of the wall embellished with shelves supported by brackets. +Soyer thrust his hand into a small, worm-eaten hole in the beam, and +drawing out a piece of iron, fitted it on a nail that seemed to be +driven into one of the brackets. Instantly the shelves folded up, a door +opened in the wall, and they entered a room large enough to hold fifty +people with ease. A window--impossible to discover from the +outside--opened on the roof of the chapel, and gave light and air to +this apartment; it contained only a large wardrobe, in which were an +earthen dish and an altar stone. + +And so this old manor-house, with its venerable and homelike air, was +arranged as a resort for brigands, and an arsenal and retreat for a +little army of conspirators. For Soyer also revealed the secrets of the +_oubliettes_ of the little chateau, whose unfurnished rooms could +shelter a considerable garrison; they only found there three trunks full +of silver, marked with so many different arms that Licquet believed it +must have come from the many thefts perpetrated during the last fifteen +years in the neighbourhood. On examination it proved to be nothing of +the sort, but that all these different pieces of silver bore the arms +of branches of the families of Brunelle and Combray; but even though he +was obliged to withdraw his first supposition, Licquet was firm in +attributing to the owners of Tournebut all the misdeeds that had been +committed in the region since the Directory. These perfect +hiding-places, this chateau on the banks of the river, in the woods +between two roads, like the rocky nests in which the robber-chiefs of +the middle ages fortified themselves, explained so well the attacks on +the coaches, the bands of brigands who disappeared suddenly, and +remained undiscoverable, that the detective gave free rein to his +imagination. He persuaded himself that d'Ache was there, buried in some +hollow wall of which even Soyer had not the secret, and as the only +hope, in this event, was to starve him out, Licquet sent all of Mme. de +Combray's servants away, and left a handful of soldiers in the chateau, +the keys of which, as well as the administration of the property, he +left in the hands of the mayor of Aubevoye. + +His first thought on returning to Rouen was for his prisoners. They had +continued to correspond during his absence, and copies of all their +letters were faithfully delivered to him; but they seemed to have told +each other all they had that was interesting to tell, and the +correspondence threatened to become monotonous. The imagination of the +detective found a way of reawakening the interest. One evening, when +every one was asleep in the prison, Licquet gave the gaoler orders to +open several doors hastily, to push bolts, and walk about noisily in the +corridors, and when, next day, Mme. de Combray enquired the cause of +all this hubbub, she was easily induced to believe that Lefebre had been +arrested at Falaise and imprisoned during the night. An hour later the +concierge, with a great show of secrecy, gave the Marquise a note +written by Licquet, in which "Lefebre" informed her of his arrest, and +said that he had disguised his writing as an act of prudence. The +stratagem was entirely successful. Mme. de Combray answered, and her +letter was immediately given to Licquet, who, awaiting some definite +information, was astonished to find himself confronted with a fresh +mystery. "Let me know," said the Marquise, "how the horse went back; +that no one saw it anywhere." + +What horse? What answer should he give? If Lefebre had been really in +prison, it would have been possible to give a sensible reply, but +without his help how could Licquet avoid awakening her suspicions as to +the personality of her correspondent? In the role of the lawyer he wrote +a few lines, avoiding any mention of the horse, and asking how the +examinations went off. To this the Marquise replied: "The prefect and a +bad fellow examined us. But you do not tell me if the horse has been +sent back, and by whom. If they asked me, what should I say?" + +The "bad fellow" was Licquet himself, and he knew it; but this time he +must answer. Hoping that chance would favour him, he adopted an +expedient to gain time. He let Mme. de Combray hear that Lefebre had +fainted during an examination, and was not in a condition to write. But +she did not slacken her correspondence, and wrote several letters daily +to the lawyer, which greatly increased Licquet's perplexity: + +"Tell me what has become of my yellow horse. The police are still at +Tournebut; now if they hear about the horse--you can guess the rest. Be +smart enough to say that you sold it at the fair at Rouen. Little +Licquet is sharp and clever, but he often lies. My only worry is the +horse; they will soon have the clue. My hand trembles; can you read +this? If I hear anything about the horse I will let you know at once, +but just now I know nothing. Don't worry about the saddle and bridle. +They were sent to Deslorieres, who told me he had received them." + +This yellow horse assumed gigantic proportions in Licquet's imagination; +it haunted him day and night, and galloped through all his nightmares. A +fresh search at Tournebut proved that the stables contained only a small +donkey and four horses, instead of the usual five, and the peasants said +that the missing beast was "reddish, inclining to yellow." As the +detective sent Real all of Mme. de Combray's letters in his daily +budget, they were just as much agitated in Paris over this mysterious +animal, whose discovery was, as the Marquise said, the clue to the whole +affair. Whom had this horse drawn or carried? One of the Bourbon +princes, perhaps? D'Ache? Mme. Acquet, whom they were vainly seeking +throughout Normandy? Licquet was obliged to confess to his chiefs that +he did not know to what occurrence the story of the horse referred. He +felt that the weight attached by Mme. de Combray to its return, +increased the importance of knowing what it had been used for. "This is +the main point," he said; "the horse, the saddle and bridle must be +found." + +In the absence of Lefebre, who could have solved the enigma, and whom +Caffarelli had not decided to arrest, there remained one way of +discovering Mme. de Combray's secret--an odious way, it is true, but one +that Licquet, in his bewilderment, did not hesitate to employ. This was +to put a spy with her, who would make her speak. There was in the +Conciergerie at Rouen a woman named Delaitre, who had been there for six +years. This woman was employed in the infirmary; she had good enough +manners, expressed herself well, and was about the same age as Mme. +Acquet. It was easy to believe that, in return for some remission of her +sentence, she would act as Licquet's spy. They spoke of her to the +Marquise, taking care to represent her as a royalist, persecuted for her +opinions. The Marquise expressed a wish to see her; Delaitre played her +part to perfection, saying that she had been educated with Mme. Acquet +at the convent of the Nouvelles Catholique, and that she felt honoured +in sharing the prison of the mother of her old school friend. In short, +that evening she was in a position to betray the Marquise's confidence +to Licquet. She had learned that Mme. Acquet had assisted at many of the +attacks on coaches, dressed as a man. Mme. de Combray dreaded nothing +more than to have her daughter fall into the hands of the police. "If +she is taken," she said, "she will accuse me." The Marquise was resigned +to her fate; she knew she was destined for the scaffold; "after all, the +King and the Queen had perished on the guillotine, and she would die +there also." However, she was anxious to know if she could be saved by +paying a large sum; but not a word was said about the yellow horse. + +The next day she again wrote of the fear she felt for her daughter; she +would have liked to warn her to disguise herself and go as a servant ten +or twelve leagues from Falaise. "If she is arrested she will speak, and +then I am lost," she continued; so that Licquet came to the conclusion +that the reason the Marquise did not want the yellow horse to be found +was that it would lead to the discovery of her daughter. Mme. Acquet had +so successfully disappeared during the last two weeks that Real was +convinced she had escaped to England. Nothing could be done without +d'Ache or Mme. Acquet. The failure of the pursuit, showing the organised +strength of the royalist party and the powerlessness of the government, +would justify Caffarelli's indolent neutrality. On the other hand, +Licquet knew that failure spelled ruin for him. He had made the affair +his business; his prefect, Savoye-Rollin, was very half-hearted about +it, and quite ready to stop all proceedings at the slightest hitch. Real +was even preparing to sacrifice his subordinate if need be, and to the +amiable letters at first received from the ministry of police, +succeeded curt orders that implied disfavour. "It is indispensable to +find Mme. Acquet's retreat." "You must arrest d'Ache without delay, and +above all find the yellow horse." + +As if the Marquise were enjoying the confusion into which the mention of +this phantom beast threw her persecutor, she continued to scribble on +scraps of paper which the concierge was told to take to the lawyer, who +never received them. + +"There is one great difficulty; the yellow horse is wanted. I shall send +a safe and intelligent man to the place where it is, to tell the people +to have it killed twelve leagues away and skinned at once. Send me in +writing the road he must take, and the people to whom he must apply, so +as to be able to do it without asking anything. He is strong and able to +do fifteen leagues a day. Send me an answer." + +Mme. de Combray had applied to the woman Delaitre for this "safe and +intelligent man," and the latter had, at Licquet's instance, offered the +services of her husband, an honest royalist, who in reality did not +exist, but was to be personated by a man whom Licquet had ready to send +in search of the horse as soon as its whereabouts should be determined. +Lefebre refused to answer this question for the same reason that he had +refused to answer others, and the detective was obliged to confess his +perplexity to Real. "There is no longer any trouble in intercepting the +prisoner's letters; the difficulty of sending replies increases each +day. You must give me absolution, Monsieur, for all the sins that this +affair has caused me to commit; for the rest, all is fair in love and +war, and surely we are at war with these people." To which Real replied: +"I cannot believe that the horse only served for Mme. Acquet's flight; +they would not advise the strange precaution of taking it twelve leagues +away, killing, and skinning it on the spot. These anxieties show the +existence of some grave offence, for which the horse was employed, and +which its discovery will disclose. You must find out the history of this +animal; how long Mme. de Combray has had it, and who owned it before." +In vain Licquet protested that he had exhausted his supply of inventions +and ruses; the invariable reply was, "Find the yellow horse!" + +He cursed his own zeal; but an unexpected event renewed his confidence +and energy. Lefebre, who was arrested early in September, had just been +thrown into the Conciergerie at Rouen. This new card, if well played, +would set everything right. It was easy to induce Mme. de Combray to +write another letter insisting once more on knowing "the exact address +of the horse," and the lawyer at last answered unsuspectingly, "With +Lanoe at Glatigny, near Bretteville-sur-Dives." + +With Lanoe! Why had Licquet never guessed it! This name, indeed, so +often mentioned in the declarations of the prisoners, had made no +impression on him. Mme. Acquet was hidden there without doubt, and he +triumphantly sent off an express to Real announcing the good news, and +sent two sharp men to Glatigny at the same time. They left Rouen on +September 15th, and time lagged for Licquet while awaiting their return. +Three days, five days, ten days passed without any news of them. In his +impatience he spent his time worrying Lefebre. A continuous +correspondence was established between him and Mme. de Combray; but in +his letters, as in his examination, he showed great mistrust, and +Licquet even began to fear that the prudent lawyer would not have told +where the yellow horse was, if he had not been sure that the hunt for it +would be fruitless. And so the detective, who had played his last card, +was in an agony during the two weeks' absence of his men. At last they +returned, discomfited and weary, leading the foundered yellow horse, and +accompanied by a sort of colossus, "somewhat resembling a grenadier," +who was no other than Lanoe's wife. + +The story told by Licquet's emissaries was as short as it was delusive. +On arriving at Bretteville-sur-Dives they had gone to the farm of +Glatigny, but had not found Lanoe, whom Caffarelli had arrested a +fortnight before. His wife had received them, and after their first +enquiry had led them to the famous horse's stable, enchanted at being +relieved of the famished beast who consumed all her fodder. The men had +gone as far as Caen, and obtained the prefect's authorisation to speak +to Lanoe. The latter remembered that Lefebre had left the horse with him +at the end of July, on returning from Tournebut, but he denied all +knowledge of Mme. Acquet's retreat. If he was to be believed, she was "a +prisoner of her family," and would never be found, as the whole country +round Falaise was "sold" to the mayor, M. de Saint-Leonard, who had +declared himself his cousin's protector. + +Lanoe's wife was sent back to Glatigny, but the horse was kept at +Rouen--apparently in the hope that this dumb witness would bring some +revelation. Licquet even cut off some of its hairs and sent them, +carefully wrapped up, to Mme. de Combray, implying that they came from +the faithful Delaitre, to whom the Marquise had confided the task of +disposing of the compromising animal. The same evening the Marquise, +completely reassured, wrote the following note to the lawyer: + +"You see that my commissioner was speedy. I have had certain proof. He +went to Lanoe's wife, found the horse, got on it, went five or six +leagues, killed it, and brought away the skin. He brought me some of its +coat, and I send you half, so that you may see the truth for yourself, +and so have no fear. I am going to write to Soyer to say that he sold +the horse at Guibray for 350 livres." + +In her joy at being delivered from her nightmare, she wrote the same day +to Colas, her groom, who was also in the Conciergerie: "Do not worry: do +you need money? I will send you twelve francs. The cursed horse! They +have sent me some of its skin, which I send for recognition. Burn this." +And to her chambermaid, Catherine Querey: "The horse is killed. My agent +skinned and burnt it. If you are asked about the missing horse, say that +it was sold. My miserable daughter gives me a great deal of pain." + +Thus ends the story of the yellow horse. It finished its mysterious +odyssey in the stables of Savoye-Rollin, where Licquet often visited it, +as if he could thus learn its secret. For a doubt remained, and Real's +suggestion haunted him: "If the horse had only served for Mme. Acquet's +flight, they would not advise the strange precaution of taking it twelve +leagues away, killing, and skinning it on the spot." Even now a great +deal of mystery hangs about it. The horse had not been used by Mme. +Acquet, because we know that since the robbery of June 7th, she had not +left the neighbourhood of Falaise. Lefebre had ridden it from Tournebut; +but was that a fact to be so carefully concealed? Why did the Marquise +in her confidential letters insist on this point? "Say that the lawyer +returned to his house on foot," is a sentence that we find in each of +her letters. Since no mystery was made of the journey, why was its means +of accomplishment important? + +There was something unexplained, and Licquet was not satisfied. His +tricks had brought no result. D'Ache was not found; Mme. Acquet had +disappeared; her description had in vain been sent to all the brigades. +Manginot, in despair of finding her, had renounced the search, and +Savoye-Rollin himself was "determined to suspend all action." Such was +the situation during the last days of September. It seemed most probable +that the affair of Quesnay and the great plot of which it was an +off-shoot, were going to join many others of the same kind, whose +originators Fouche's police had despaired of finding, when an unexpected +event reawakened Licquet's fervour and suggested to him a new +machination. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MADAME ACQUET + + +Seclusion, isolation and trouble had in no way softened the Marquise de +Combray's harsh nature. From the very first day, this woman, accustomed +to living in a chateau, had accommodated herself to the life of a +prisoner without abating anything of her haughty and despotic character. +Her very illusions remained intact. She imagined that from her cell she +still directed her confederates and agents, whom she considered one and +all as servants, never suspecting that the permission to write letters, +of which she made such bad use, was only a trap set for her ingenuous +vanity. In less than a month she had written more than a hundred letters +to her fellow-prisoners, which all passed through Licquet's hands. To +one she dictated the answers he was to give, to another she counselled +silence,--setting herself up to be an absolute judge of what they ought +to say or to hold back, being quite unable to imagine that any of these +unhappy people might prefer life to the pleasure of obeying her. She +would have treated as a liar any one, be he who he might, who affirmed +that all her accomplices had deserted her, that Soyer had hastened to +disclose the secret hiding-places at Tournebut, that Mlle. Querey had +told all about what she had seen, that Lanoe pestered Caffarelli with +his incessant revelations, and that Lefebre, whom nothing but prudence +kept silent, was very near telling all he knew to save his own head. + +The Marquise was ignorant of all these defections. Licquet had created +such an artificial atmosphere around her that she lived under the +delusion that she was as important as before. Convinced that nobody was +her equal in finesse and authority, she considered the detective +sufficiently clever to deal with a person of humble position, but +believed that as soon as she cared to trouble herself to bring it about, +he would become entirely devoted to her. And Licquet, with his almost +genial skilfulness, so easily fathomed the Marquise's proud soul--was +such a perfect actor in the way he stood before her, spoke to her, and +looked at her with an air of submissive admiration,--that it was no +wonder she thought he was ready to serve her; and as she was not the +sort of woman to use any discretion with a man of his class, she +immediately despatched the turnkey to offer him the sum of 12,000 +francs, half down, if he would consent to promote her interests. Licquet +appeared very grateful, very much honoured, accepted the money, which he +put in the coffers of the prefecture, and the very same day read a +letter in which Mme. de Combray informed her accomplices of the great +news: "We have the little secretary under our thumb." + +Ah! what great talks Licquet and the prisoner had, now they had become +friends. From the very first conversation he satisfied himself that she +did not know Mme. Acquet's hiding-place; but the lawyer Lefebre, who +had at last ceased to be dumb, had not concealed the fact that it might +be learned through a laundress at Falaise named Mme. Chauvel, and +Licquet immediately informed Mme. de Combray of this fact and +represented to her, in a friendly manner, the danger in which her +daughter's arrest would involve her, and insinuated that the only hope +of security lay in the escape to England of Mme. Acquet, "on whose head +the government had set a price." + +The idea pleased the Marquise; but who would undertake to discover the +fugitive and arrange for her embarcation? Whom dared she trust, in her +desperate situation? Licquet seemed the very one; he, however, excused +himself, saying that a faithful man, carrying a letter from Mme. de +Combray, would do as well, and the Marquise never doubted that her +daughter would blindly follow her advice--supported by a sufficient sum +of money to live abroad while awaiting better days. It remained to find +the faithful man. The Marquise only knew of one, who, quite recently, at +her request, had consented to go and look for the yellow horse, which he +had killed and skinned, and who, she said, had acquitted himself so +cleverly of his mission. She was never tired of praising this worthy +fellow, who only existed, as every one knew, in her own imagination; she +admitted that she did not know him personally, but had corresponded with +him through the medium of the woman Delaitre, who had been placed near +her; but she knew that he was the woman's husband, captain of a boat at +Saint Valery-en-Caux, and, in addition, a relation of poor Raoul +Gaillard, whom the Marquise remembered even in her own troubles. + +Licquet listened quite seriously while his victim detailed the history +of this fictitious person whom he himself had invented; he assured her +that the choice was a wise one, for he had known Delaitre for a long +time as a man whose loyalty was beyond all doubt. As there could be no +question of introducing him into the prison, Licquet kindly undertook to +acquaint him with the service expected of him, and to give him the three +letters which Mme. de Combray was to write immediately. The first, which +was very confidential, was addressed to the good Delaitre himself; the +second was to be handed, at the moment of going on board, to Mauge, a +lawyer at Valery, who was to provide the necessary money for the +fugitive's existence in England; the third accredited Delaitre to Mme. +Acquet. The Marquise ordered her daughter to follow the honest Captain, +whom she represented as a tried friend; she begged her, in her own +interest and that of all their friends, to leave the country without +losing a day; and she concluded by saying that in the event of her +obeying immediately, she would provide generously for all her wants; +then she signed and handed the three letters to Licquet, overwhelming +him with protestations of gratitude. + +All the detective had to do was to procure a false Delaitre, since the +real did not exist. They selected an intelligent man, of suitable +bearing, and making out a detailed passport, despatched him to Falaise, +armed with the Marquise's letters, to have an interview with the +laundress. Five days later he returned to Rouen. The Chauvels, on seeing +Mme. de Combray's letters, quite unsuspectingly gave the messenger a +warm welcome. The gendarme, however, did not approve of the idea of +crossing to England. Mme. Acquet, he said, was very well hidden in Caen, +and nobody suspected where she was. What was the use of exposing her to +the risk of embarking at a well watched port. But as Delaitre insisted, +saying that he had a commission from Mme. de Combray which he must carry +out, Chauvel, whose duty kept him at Falaise, arranged to meet the +Captain at Caen on the 2d of October. He wished to present him himself +to Mme. Acquet, and to help his mistress in this matter on which her +future depended. Thus it was that on the 1st of October, Licquet, now +sure of success, put the false Captain Delaitre in the coach leaving for +Caen, having given him as assistants, a nephew of the same name and a +servant, both carefully chosen from amongst the wiliest of his +assistants. The next day the three spies got out at the Hotel du Pare in +the Faubourg de Vaucelles at Caen, which Chauvel had fixed as the +meeting-place, and whither he had promised to bring Mme. Acquet. + +Six weeks previously, when quitting Falaise on the 23d August, after the +examination to which Caffarelli had subjected her, Mme. Acquet, still +ignorant of her mother's arrest, had proposed going to Tournebut, in +order to hide there for some time before starting for Paris, where she +hoped to find Le Chevalier. She had with her her third daughter, +Celine, a child of six years, whom she counted on getting rid of by +placing her at the school kept at Rouen by the ladies Dusaussay, where +the two elder girls already were. They were accompanied by Chauvel's +sister, a woman named Normand. + +She went first to Caen where she was to take the diligence, and lodged +with Bessin at the Coupe d'Or in the Rue Saint-Pierre. Chauvel came +there the following day to say good-bye to his friend and they dined +together. While they were at table, a man, whom the gendarme did not +know, entered the room and said a few words to Mme. Acquet, who went +into the adjoining room with him. It was Lemarchand, the innkeeper at +Louvigny, Allain's host and friend. Chauvel grew anxious at this private +conversation, and seeing the time of the diligence was approaching, +opened the door and warned Mme. Acquet that she must get ready to start. +To his great surprise, she replied that she was no longer going, as +important interests detained her in Caen. She begged him to escort the +woman Normand and the little girl to the coach, and gave him the address +of a lawyer in Rouen with whom the child could be left. The gendarme +obeyed, and when he went back to the Coupe d'Or an hour later, his +mistress had left. He returned sadly to Falaise. + +Lemarchand, who had been informed of Mme. Acquet's journey, came to tell +her, from Allain, that "a lodging had been found for her where she would +be secure, and that, if she did not wish to go, she had only to come to +the Promenade Saint-Julien at nightfall, and some one would meet her and +escort her to her new hiding-place." It may well be that a threat of +denouncing her, if she left the country, was added to this obliging +offer. At any rate she was made to defer her journey. Towards ten +o'clock at night, according to Lemarchand's advice, she reached the +Promenade Saint-Julien alone, walked up and down under the trees for +some time, and seeing two men seated on a bench, she went and sat down +beside them. At first they eyed each other without saying a word; at +last, one of the strangers asked her if she were not waiting for some +one. Upon her answering in the affirmative they conferred for a moment, +and then gave their names. They were the lawyer Vannier and Bureau de +Placene, two intimate friends of Le Chevalier's. Mme. Acquet, in her +turn, mentioned her name, and Vannier offering her his arm, escorted her +to his house in the Rue Saint-Martin. + +They held a council next day at breakfast. Lemarchand, Vannier, and +Bureau de Placene appeared very anxious to keep Mme. Acquet. She was, +they said, sure of not being punished as long as she did not quit the +department of Calvados. Neither the prefect nor the magistrates would +trouble to enquire into the affair, and all the gentry of Lower Normandy +had declared for the family of Combray, which was, moreover, connected +with all the nobility in the district. Such were the ostensible reasons +which the three confederates put forth, their real reason was only a +question of money. They imagined that Mme. Acquet had the free disposal +of the treasure buried at the Buquets, which amounted to more than +40,000 francs. Finding her ready to rejoin Le Chevalier, and persuaded +that she would carry the remainder of this stolen money to her lover, +they thought it well to stop her and the money, to which they believed +they had a right--Lemarchand as Allain's friend and creditor, Placene in +his capacity of cashier to the Chouans. The lawyer Vannier, as +liquidator of Le Chevalier's debts, had offered to keep Mme. Acquet +prisoner until they had succeeded in extorting the whole sum from her. + +The life led by the unhappy woman at Vannier's, where she was a prey to +this trio of scoundrels, was a purgatory of humiliations and misery. +When the lawyer understood that not only did his prisoner not possess a +single sou, but that she could not dispose of the Buquets' treasure, he +flew into a violent passion and plainly threatened to give her up to the +police; he even reproached her "for what she eat," swearing that somehow +or other "he would make her pay board, for he certainly was not going to +feed her free of cost." The unhappy woman, who had spent her last louis +in paying for the seat in the Rouen diligence, which she had not +occupied, wrote to Lefebre early in September, begging him to send her a +little money. He had received a large share of the plunder and might at +least have shown himself generous; but he replied coolly that he could +do nothing for her; and that she had better apply to Joseph Buquet. + +This was exactly what they wished her to do. Vannier himself brutally +advised her to try going to Donnay, even at the risk of being arrested, +in order to bring back some money from there; and Lemarchand, rather +than lose sight of her, resolved to accompany her. + +Mme. Acquet, worn out and reduced to a state of subjection, consented to +everything that was demanded of her. Dressed as a beggar, she took the +road to Donnay where formerly she had ruled as sovereign mistress; she +saw again the long avenues at the end of which the facade of the +chateau, imposing still despite its decay, commanded a view of the three +terraces of the park; she walked along by the walls to reach the +Buquets' cottage where Joseph, who was hiding in the neighbouring woods, +occasionally returned to watch over his treasure. She surprised him +there on this particular day, and implored him to come to her assistance +but the peasant was inflexible; she obtained, however, the sum of one +hundred and fifty francs, which he counted out to her in twelve-sou +pieces and copper money. On the evening of her return to Caen Mme. +Acquet faithfully made over the money to Vannier, reserving only fifteen +francs for her trouble; moreover, she was obliged to submit to her +host's obscene allusions as to the means she had employed to extort this +ridiculous sum from Buquet. She bore everything unmoved; her +indifference resembled stupefaction; she no longer appeared conscious of +the horrors of her situation or the dangers to which she was exposed. +Her happiest days were spent in walks round the town with Chauvel with +whom she arranged meetings and who used to come from Falaise to pass a +few hours with her; they went to a neighbouring village, dined there, +and returned to the town at dusk. + +Allain, too, showed some interest in her. He was hiding in the +neighbourhood of Caen, and sometimes came in the evening to confer with +Vannier in company with Bureau de Placene and a lawyer named Robert +Langelley with whom her host had business dealings. They were all +equally needed, and spent their time in planning means to make Joseph +Buquet disgorge. Allain proposed only one plan, and it was adopted. Mme. +Acquet was to go to Donnay again and try to soften the peasant; if he +refused to show where the money was hidden, Allain was to spring on him +and strangle him. + +They set out from Caen one morning, about the 25th of September. Mme. +Acquet had arranged to meet Joseph at the house of a farmer named +Halbout, which was situated at some distance from the village of Donnay. +He came at the appointed hour; but as he was approaching carefully, +fearing an ambuscade, he caught sight of Allain hiding behind a hedge, +and taking fright made off as fast as his legs could carry him. + +They had to go back to Caen empty-handed and face the anger of Vannier, +who accused his lodger of complicity with the Buquets to make their +attempts miscarry. A fresh council was held, and this time Chauvel was +admitted; he too, had a plan. This was that he and Mallet, one of his +comrades, should go to Donnay in uniform; Langelley was to play the +part of commissary of police. "They were to arrest Buquet on the part of +the government; if he consented to say where the money was, he was to be +given his liberty, and the address of a safe hiding-place; in case of +his refusing, the police were to kill him, and they would then be free +to draw up a report of contumacy." + +The Marquise de Combray's daughter was present at these conferences, +meek and resigned, her heart heavy at the thought that this wretched +money would become the prey of these men who had had none of the trouble +and who would have all the profit. Every day she sank deeper and deeper +into this quagmire; the plots that were hatched there, the things she +heard--for they showed no reserve before her--were horrible. As she +represented 40,000 francs to these ruffians, she had to endure not only +their brutal gallantries, but also their confidences. "Mme. Placene one +day suggested the enforced disappearance of the baker Lerouge," says +Bornet, as he was "very religious and a very good man," she was afraid +that if he were arrested, "he would not consent to lie, and would ruin +them all." Langelley specially feared the garrulity of Flierle and +Lanoe, in prison at Caen, and he was trying to get them poisoned. He had +already made an arrangement "with the chemist and the prison doctor, +whom he had under his thumb," and he also knew a man who "for a small +sum, would create a disturbance in the town, allow himself to be +arrested and condemned to a few months' imprisonment, and would thus +find a way of getting rid of these individuals." They also spoke of +Acquet, who was still in jail at Caen. In everybody's opinion Mme. +Vannier was his mistress, and went to see him every day in his cell. He +was supposed to be a government spy, and Placene pretended that Vannier +received money from him to keep him informed of Mme. Acquet's doings. +Langelley, for his part, said that Placene was a rogue and that if "he +had already got his share of the plunder, he received at least as much +again from the police." + +The poor woman who formed the pivot of these intrigues was not spared by +her unworthy accomplices. Having in mind Joseph Buquet and Chauvel, they +all suspected one another of having been her lovers. Vannier had thus +made her pay for her hospitality; Langelley and the gendarme Mallet +himself, had exacted the same price--accusations it was as impossible as +it was useless to refute. She herself well knew her own abasement, and +at times disgust seized her. On the evening of September 27th, she did +not return to Vannier's; escaping from this hell, she craved shelter +from a lacemaker named Adelaide Monderard, who lodged in the Rue du Han, +and who was Langelley's mistress. The girl consented to take her in and +gave her up one of the two rooms which formed her lodgings, and which +were reached by a very dark staircase. It was a poor room under the +roof, lighted by two small casements, the furniture being of the +shabbiest. Chauvel came to see her there the following day, and there it +was that she learnt of the expected arrival of Captain Delaitre, sent +by Mme. de Combray to save her, and secure her the means of going to +England. Mme. Acquet manifested neither regret nor joy. She was +astonished that her mother should think of her; but it seems that she +did not attach great importance to this incident, which was to decide +her fate. A single idea possessed her: how to find a retreat which would +allow of her escaping from Vannier's hateful guardianship; and +Langelley, who was very surprised at finding her at the lacemaker's, +seeing her perplexity offered to escort her to a country house, about a +league from the town, where his father lived. She set out with him that +very evening; at the same hour the false Captain Delaitre left Rouen, +and the ruse so cleverly planned by Licquet, put an end to Mme. Acquet's +lamentable adventures. + +Arriving at the Hotel du Pare on October 2d, "Captain" Delaitre went to +the window of his room and saw a man hurrying down the street with a +very small woman on his arm, very poorly dressed. From his walk he +recognised Chauvel dressed as a bourgeois; the woman was Mme. Acquet. +The two men bowed, and Chauvel leaving his companion, went up to the +Captain's room. "There were compliments, handshakes, the utmost +confidence, as is usual between a soldier and a sailor." Chauvel +explained that he had walked from Falaise that afternoon, and that in +order to get off, he had pretended to his chiefs that private business +took him to Bayonne. The false Delaitre immediately handed him Mme. de +Combray's two letters which Chauvel read absently. + +"Let us go down," he said; "the lady is near and awaits us." + +They met her a few steps farther down the road in company with +Langelley, whom Chauvel introduced to Delaitre. The latter immediately +offered his arm to Mme. Acquet: Chauvel, Langelley and the "nephew +Delaitre" followed at some distance. They passed the bridge and walked +along by the river under the trees of the great promenade, talking all +the time. It was now quite dark. + +Captain Delaitre "after having given Mme. Acquet her mother's +compliments, informed her of the latter's intentions concerning her +going to England or the isles." But the young woman flatly rejected the +proposal; she was, she said, "quite safe with her friend's father, +within reach of all her relations, and she would never consent to leave +Caen, where she had numerous and devoted protectors." The Captain +objected that this determination was all the more to be regretted since +"the powerful personage who was interesting himself in the fate of his +own people, demanded that she should have quitted France, before he +began to seek Mme. de Combray's release." To which Mme. Acquet replied +that she should never alter her decision. + +The discussion lasted about half an hour. The Captain having mentioned a +letter of Mme. de Combray's of which he was the bearer, Mme. Acquet +turned to Langelley and asked him to escort her to an inn, where she +might read it. They crossed the bridge following Langelley up the Rue de +Vaucelles, and stopped at an inn situated about a hundred yards above +the Hotel du Pare. Mme. Acquet and her companions entered the narrow +passage and went up-stairs to a room on the first floor, where they +seated themselves at a table, and Langelley ordered wine and biscuits. +The young woman took the Marquise's letter from the Captain's hands; all +those around her were silent and watched attentively. They noticed that +"she changed colour at every line and sighed." + +"When do you start?" she asked Delaitre, wiping her eyes. + +"Very early to-morrow," he replied. + +She heaved another great sigh and began to read again. She became very +nervous, and seemed about to faint. When she had finished the letter, +she questioned Delaitre anew. + +"You know for certain, sir, what this letter contains?" + +"Yes, Madame; your mother read it to me." + +She was silent for "more than two minutes"; then she said as if she were +making a great effort: + +"One must obey one's mother's orders. Well, Monsieur, I will go with +you. Will you not wait till to-morrow evening?" + +Captain Delaitre at first demurred at the idea of deferring his journey; +but at last their departure was fixed for the following day, October 3d, +at nightfall. A heated discussion ensued. Langelley noticed that +Vannier, Allain, Placene and the others did not approve of Mme. +Acquet's decision. They were all certain that she ran not the slightest +risk by remaining in Caen, inasmuch as there would never be a judge to +prosecute nor a tribunal to condemn her. Delaitre replied that it was +precisely to guard against the indulgence of the Calvados authorities, +that an imperial decree had laid the affair before the special court at +Rouen; but the lawyer who could not see his last chance of laying hands +on the Buquets' treasure disappear without feeling some annoyance, +replied that nothing must be decided without the advice of their +friends. The young woman ended the discussion by declaring that she was +going "because it was her mother's wish." + +"Are you sure," asked Chauvel, "that that really is your mother's +writing?" + +She answered yes, and the gendarme said that in his opinion she was +right to obey. + +They then settled the details of the departure. Langelley offered to +conduct the travellers to the borders of the department of Calvados, +which Delaitre knew very slightly. Mme. Acquet was to take no luggage. +Her clothes were to be forwarded to her, care of the Captain, at the +Rouen office. The conversation took a "tone of the sincerest friendship +and the greatest confidence." When the hour for separating came, Mme. +Acquet pressed the Captain's hand several times, saying, "Till +to-morrow, then, Monsieur." And as she went down the stairs Chauvel +remained behind with Delaitre, to make sure that the latter had brought +money to pay the small debts which the fugitive had incurred with the +tradesmen. + +Towards eleven on the following morning Chauvel presented himself at the +inn alone. He went up at once to Delaitre's room who asked him to lunch +and sent his nephew out to get oysters. Chauvel had come to beg Delaitre +to put off his journey another day, as Mme. Acquet could not start +before Sunday, the 4th. While they were at lunch Chauvel became quite +confidential. He could not see his friend go away without regret; he +alone, he said, had served her from pure devotion. He told how, in order +to put off his comrades, who had been charged by Manginot to draw up a +description of the fugitive, he had intentionally made it out +incorrectly, describing her "as being very stout and having fair hair." +He talked of d'Ache whom he considered a brigand and "the sole cause of +all the misfortunes which had happened to Mme. de Combray and her +family." Finally he inquired if the Captain would consent to take Buquet +and Allain to England as they were in fact two of the principal actors +in the affair, and the Captain consented very willingly. It was agreed +that as soon as he had landed Mme. Acquet in England, he should return +to Saint-Valery which was his port. All Allain and Buquet had to do, was +to go to Privost, the innkeeper, opposite the post at Cany on Wednesday, +the 14th, and he would meet them and take them on board. + +During luncheon Delaitre, who was obviously a messenger of Providence, +counted out 400 francs in gold on the table, and gave them to Chauvel +to pay his mistress's debts. + +Vannier had claimed six louis for the hospitality he had shown her, +alleging that "this sort of lodger ought to pay more than the others on +account of the risk;" he further demanded that the cost of twenty +masses, which Mme. Acquet had had said, should be refunded to him. +Chauvel spent part of the Sunday with Delaitre; the meeting was fixed +for seven in the evening. The Captain was to wait at the door of his inn +and follow Mme. Acquet when he saw her pass with the gendarme. She only +appeared at ten at night, and they walked separately as far as +Vaucelles. Langelley kept them waiting, but he arrived at last on a +borrowed horse; the Captain had got a post-horse; as for the nephew, +Delaitre, and the servant, they had gone back the evening before to +Rouen. + +The time had come to say good-bye. Mme. Acquet embraced Chauvel who +parted from her "in the tenderest manner, enjoining Delaitre to take the +greatest care of the precious object confided to him." Langelley, armed +with a club for a riding whip, placed himself at the head of the +cavalcade, Delaitre warmly wrapping Mme. Acquet in his cloak, took her +up behind him, and with renewed good wishes, warm handshakes, and sad +"au revoirs" the horsemen set off at a trot on the road to Dives. +Chauvel saw them disappear in the mist, but he waited at the deserted +crossroads as long as he could hear the clatter of their horses' hoofs +on the road. + +They arrived at Dives about three in the morning. The young woman, who +had seemed very lively, protested that she was not tired, and refused to +get off. Therefore Langelley alone entered the post-house, woke up the +guide he had engaged the day before, and they continued their journey. +The day was breaking when they arrived at Annebault; the three travelers +halted at an inn where they spent the whole day; the lawyer and Mme. +Acquet settled their little accounts. They slept a little, they talked a +great deal, and spent a long time over dinner. At six in the evening +they mounted their horses again and took the road to Pont-l'Eveque. +Langelley escorted the fugitives as far as the forest of Touques: before +leaving Mme. Acquet, he asked her for a lock of her hair; he then +embraced her several times. + +It was nearly midnight when the young woman found herself alone with +Delaitre. The horse advanced with difficulty along the forest roads. +Clinging to the Captain with both arms, Mme. Acquet no longer talked; +her excitement of yesterday had given place to a kind of stupor, so that +Delaitre, who in the darkness could not see that her great dark eyes +were open, thought that she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. At three +in the morning they at length arrived at the suburbs of Pont-Audemer; +the Captain stopped at the post-house and asked for a room; in the +register which was presented to him he wrote: "Monsieur Delaitre and +wife." + +They were breakfasting towards noon when a non-commissioned marine +officer, accompanied by an escort of two men, entered the room. He went +straight up to Delaitre, asked his name, and observing his agitation, +called upon him to show his papers. These he took possession of after a +brief examination, and then ordered the soldiers to put Delaitre under +arrest. + +The officer, an amiable and talkative little man, continually excused +himself to Mme. Acquet for the annoyance he was causing her. Captain +Delaitre, he said, had left his ship without any authority, and it had +been pointed out, moreover, that he had willingly engaged in smuggling +while pretending to be trading along the coast. He did not commit the +indiscretion of inquiring the lady's name, nor what reason she had for +scouring the country in company of a ship's captain; but he carefully +gave her to understand that she must be detained until they got to +Rouen, whither Delaitre would be escorted to receive a reprimand from +the commandant of the port. Mme. Acquet was convinced that it was +nothing but a misunderstanding which would be cleared up at Rouen, and +troubled very little about the incident; and as she was worn out with +fatigue, she expressed a wish to spend that night and the following day +at Pont-Audemer. The little officer consented with alacrity, and whilst +appearing only to keep an eye on Delaitre, he never for an instant lost +sight of the young woman, whose attitudes, gestures and appearance he +scrutinised with malicious eyes. It was Licquet, as we have already +guessed, who in his haste to know the result of the false Delaitre's +adventures, had dressed himself up in a borrowed uniform and come to +receive his new victim. He was full of forethought for her; he took her +in a carriage from Pont-Audemer to Bourg-Achard, where he allowed her to +rest. On the morning of the seventh they left Bourg-Achard and arrived +at Rouen before midday. The kindly officer was so persuasive that Mme. +Acquet offered no resistance nor recriminations when she was taken to +the Conciergerie, where she was entered under the name of Rosalie +Bourdon, doubtless the one under which she had travelled. She appeared +quite indifferent to all that went on around her. On entering this +prison, where she knew her mother was, she showed absolutely no emotion. +She remained in this state of resigned lassitude for two days. Licquet, +who came to see her several times, endeavoured to keep her under the +impression that her imprisonment had no other cause than Delaitre's +infringement of the maritime regulations; he even took the precaution of +pretending not to know her name. + +Meanwhile, he laid his plans for attack. At first his joy, at capturing +the much desired prey had been so keen that he could not withstand the +pleasure of writing the news straight to Real whom he asked to keep it +secret for a fortnight. On reflexion he realised how difficult it would +be to obtain confessions from a woman who had been so hideously +deceived, and he felt that the traps, into which the naive Mme. de +Combray had fallen would be of no avail in her daughter's case. He had +better ones: on his person he carried the letter which Mme. de Combray +had written to her dear Delaitre, which he had taken from the Captain in +Mme. Acquet's very presence. In this letter, the Marquise had spoken of +her daughter as "the vilest of creatures, lamenting that for her own +safety she was obliged to come to the assistance of such a monster; she +especially complained of the amount of money it was costing her." + +On the 9th of October, Licquet came into Mme. Acquet's cell, began to +converse familiarly with her, told her that he knew her name and showed +her Mme. de Combray's letter. On reading it Mme. Acquet flew into a +violent passion. Licquet comforted her, gave her to understand that he +was her only friend, that her mother hated her and had only helped her +in the hope of saving her own life; that the lawyer Lefebre had sold +himself to the police on giving the Chauvels' address at Falaise, in +proof of which he showed her the note written by the lawyer's own hand. +He even went so far as to allude to certain infidelities on the part of +Le Chevalier, and to the mistresses he must have had in Paris, till at +last the unhappy woman burst into tears of indignation and grief. + +"Enough," she said; "it is my turn now; you must receive my declaration +immediately, and take it at once to the prefect. I will confess +everything. My life is a burden to me." + +She immediately told the long story of d'Ache's plans, his journeys to +England, the organisation of the plot, the attempt to print the Prince's +manifesto, and also how he had beguiled Le Chevalier and had succeeded +in drawing him into it, by promises of high rank and great honours. She +said, too, that d'Ache whom she accused of having caused all the +unhappiness of her life, had recommended robbing the public treasury; +that the attacks on the coaches had been carried out by his orders, +which had been "to stop them all." She accused her mother of helping to +transport the booty to Caen; herself she accused of having sheltered the +brigands. The only ones she excused were Joseph Buquet, who had only +carried out her instructions, and Le Chevalier whom she represented as +beguiled by d'Ache's misleading promises. Her "frantic passion" was +apparent in every word she uttered: she even told Licquet that "if she +could save Le Chevalier's life at the cost of her own she would not +hesitate." + +When she had finished her long declaration, she fell into a state of +deep depression. On entering the prison next day, Licquet found her +engaged in cutting off her magnificent hair, which, she said sadly, she +wished to save from the executioner. She observed that since she was +miserably destined to die, Chauvel, who called himself her friend, had +done very wrong in preventing her from taking poison: all would have +been over by now. But she hoped that grief would kill her before they +had time to condemn her. + +As she said these words she turned her beautiful piercing eyes to a dark +corner of her cell. Licquet, following her gaze, saw a very prominent +nail sticking in the wall at a height of about six feet. Without letting +her see his anxiety, he tried to direct the prisoner's attention to +other objects, and succeeded in working her up to a state of "wild +gaiety." + +That very day the nail was taken out, but there still remained the +bolts of the door and the bed-posts, to which, being of such low +stature, she could hang herself; a woman from Bicetre was therefore set +to watch her. + +It would be impossible to follow Licquet through all the phases of the +inquiry. This diabolical man seems to have possessed the gift of +ubiquity. He was in the prison where he worked upon the prisoners; at +the prefecture directing the examinations; at Caen, making inquiries +under the very nose of Caffarelli, who believed that the affair had long +since been buried; at Falaise, where he was collecting testimony; at +Honfleur, at Pont-Audemer, at Paris. He drew up innumerable reports, and +sent them to the prefect or to Real, with whom he corresponded directly, +and when he was asked what reward he was ambitious of obtaining for his +devoted service to the State, he replied philosophically: "I do not work +for my own glory, but only for that of the police generally, and of our +dear Councillor, whom I love with all my heart. As for me, poor devil, I +am destined to remain obscure, which, I must say, pleases me, since I +recognise the inconvenience of having a reputation." + + * * * * * + +One of the most picturesque events of his enquiry was another journey +taken towards the end of October by the false Captain Delaitre and his +false nephew in search of Allain and Buquet, whom they had not found on +the day mentioned at the inn at Cany. At Caen Delaitre saw again the +lawyer Langelley, the Placenes and Monderard's daughter, and they +entertained him. He gave them very good news of Mme. Acquet, who, he +said, was comfortably settled at a place on the English coast; but +although he had a very important letter for Allain, which Mme. de +Combray wished him to take to England without delay, the wily Chouan did +not show himself. His daughter, who had set up as a dressmaker at Caen +and was in communication with Mme. Placene, undertook, however, to +forward the letter to him. The Captain announced his intention of +following the girl in the hope of discovering her father's retreat, but +Langelley and the others assured him that it would be a waste of time. +The young girl alone knew where the outlaw was hidden and "each time she +went to take him news, she disguised herself, entered a house, disguised +herself afresh before leaving, went into another house, changed her +costume yet again, and so on. It was impossible to be sure when she came +out of each house that it was the same person who had gone in, and to +know in which her father was." Two days later the girl reappeared. She +said that her father had gone to his own home near Cherbourg, where "he +had property." He wanted to sell his furniture and lease his land before +going to England. This was the other side of the terrible "General +Antonio." He was a good father and a small landed proprietor. Delaitre +realised that this was a defeat, and that Allain was not easily to be +beguiled. He did not persist, but packed up his traps and returned to +Rouen. + +This check was all the more painful to Licquet, since he had hoped that +by attracting Allain, d'Ache would also be ensnared. Without the latter, +who was evidently the head of the conspiracy, only the inferiors could +be arraigned, and the part of the principal criminal would have to be +passed over in silence, in consequence of which the affair would sink to +the proportions of common highway robbery. Stimulated by these motives, +and still more so by his amour-propre, Licquet set out for Caen. His joy +in action was so keen that it pervades all his reports. He describes +himself as taking the coach with Delaitre, his nephew and "two or three +active henchmen." He is so sure of success that he discounts it in +advance: "I do not know," he writes to Real, "whether I am flattering +myself too much, but I am tempted to hope that the author will be called +for at the end of the play." + +It is to be regretted that we have no details of this expedition. In +what costume did Licquet appear at Caen? What personality did he assume? +How did he carry out his manoeuvres between Mme. Acquet's friends, his +confederate Delaitre and the Prefect Caffarelli, without arousing any +one's suspicion or wounding their susceptibilities? It is impossible to +disentangle this affair; he was an adept at troubling water that he +might safely fish in it, and seemed jealous to such a degree of the +means he employed, that he would not divulge the secret to any one. With +an instinctive love of mystification, he kept up during his journey an +official correspondence with his prefect and a private one with Real. +He told one what he would not confess to the other; he wrote to +Savoye-Rollin that he was in a hurry to return to Rouen, while by the +same post he asked Real to get him recalled to Paris during the next +twenty-four hours. "If you adopt this idea, Monsieur, you must be kind +enough to select a pretext which will not wound or even scratch any +one's amour-propre." The "any one" mentioned here is Savoye-Rollin. What +secret had Licquet discovered, that he did not dare to confide, except +orally, and then only to the Imperial Chief of Police? We believe that +we are not wrong in premising that scarcely had he arrived at Caen when +he laid hands on a witness so important, and at the same time so +difficult to manipulate, that he was himself frightened at this +unexpected _coup de theatre_. + +Whilst ferreting about in the prisons to which he had obtained access +that he might talk to Lanoe and the Buquets, he met Acquet de Ferolles, +who had been forgotten there for three months. Whether Mme. de Placene +was, as Vannier suspected, employed by the police and knew Licquet's +real personality, or whether the latter found another intermediary, it +is certain that he obtained Acquet de Ferolles' confidence from the +beginning, and that he got the credit of having him set at liberty. It +was after this interview that Licquet asked Real to recall him to Paris +for twenty-four hours. His journey took place in the early days of +November, and on the 12th, on an order from Real Acquet was rearrested +and taken in a post-chaise from Donnay to Paris, escorted by a sergeant +of police. On the 16th he was entered in the Temple gaol-book, and Real, +who hastened to interrogate him, showed him great consideration, and +promised that his detention should not be long. A note, which is still +to be found among the papers connected with this affair, seems to +indicate that this incarceration was not of a nature to cause great +alarm to the Lord of Donnay: "M. Acquet has been taken to Paris that he +may not interfere with the proceedings against his wife.... It is known +that he is unacquainted with his wife's offence, but M. Real believes it +necessary to keep him at a distance." That was not the tone in which the +police of that period usually spoke of their ordinary prisoners, and it +seems advisable to call attention to the fact. Let us add that the +royalists detained in the Temple were not taken in by it. M. de Revoire, +an old habitue of the prison, who spent the whole of the Imperial period +in captivity told the Combray family after the Restoration, that all the +prisoners considered Acquet "as a spy, an informer, the whole time he +was in the Temple." After a week's imprisonment and three weeks' +surveillance in Paris, he was set at liberty and returned to Donnay. + +From the comparison of these facts and dates, is one not led to infer +that Licquet had persuaded Acquet without much difficulty we may be +sure, to become his wife's accuser? But the desire not to compromise +himself, and still more the dread of reprisals, shut the mouth of the +unworthy husband at Caen, eager though he was to speak in Paris, +provided that no one should suspect the part he was playing; hence this +sham imprisonment in the Temple--evidently Licquet's idea--which gave +him time to make revelations to Real. + +Whatever it may have been, this incident interrupted Licquet's journey +to Caen. He continued it towards the middle of November, quitting Rouen +on the 18th, still accompanied by Delaitre and others of his cleverest +men. This time he represented himself as an inspector of taxes, which +gave him the right of entering houses and visiting even the cellars. His +aim was to unearth Allain, Buquet and especially d'Ache, but none of +them appeared. We cannot deal with this third journey in detail, as +Licquet has kept the threads of the play secret, but from +half-confidences made to Real, we may infer that he bought the +concurrence of Langelley and Chauvel on formal promises of immunity from +punishment; they consented to serve the detective and betray Allain, and +they were on the point of delivering him up when "fear of the Gendarme +Mallet caused everything to fail." Licquet fell back with his troop, +taking with him Chauvel, Mallet and Langelley, who were soon to be +followed by Lanoe, Vannier, Placene and all the Buquets, save Joseph, +who had not been seen again. But before starting on his return journey +to Rouen, Licquet wished to pay his respects to Count Caffarelli, the +Prefect of Calvados, in whose territory he had just been hunting. The +latter did not conceal his displeasure, and thought it strange that his +own gendarmes should be ordered to proceed with criminal cases and to +make arrests of which they neglected even to inform him. Licquet states +that after "looking black at him, Caffarelli laughed till he cried" over +the stories of the false Captain Delaitre and the false inspector of +taxes. It is probable that the story was well told; but the Prefect of +Calvados was none the less annoyed at the unceremonious procedure, as he +testified a little later with some blustering. Licquet, moreover, was +not deceived: on his return from Caen, he wrote: "Behold, I have +quarrelled with the Prefect of Calvados." + +However, he cared very little about it. It had been tacitly decreed that +the robbery at Quesnay should be judged by a special court at Rouen. +Licquet became the organiser and stage-manager of the proceedings. At +the end of 1807 he had under lock and key thirty-eight prisoners whom he +questioned incessantly, and kept in a state of uncertainty as to whether +he meant to confront them with each other. But he declared himself +dissatisfied. D'Ache's absence spoiled his joy. He quite understood that +without the latter, his triumph would be incomplete, his work would +remain unfinished, and it was doubtless due to this torturing obsession +that he owed the idea, as cruel as it was ingenious, of a new drama of +which the old Marquise de Combray was again the victim. + +On a certain day of November, 1807, she heard from her cell an unusual +tumult in the passages of the prison. Doors burst open and people called +to each other. There were cries of joy, whispers, exclamations of +astonishment or vexation, then long silences, which left the prisoner +perplexed. The next day when Licquet came to visit her she noticed that +his face wore a troubled expression. He was very laconic, mentioned +grave events which were preparing, and disappeared like a busy man. To +prisoners everything is a reason for hope, and that night Mme. de +Combray gave free course to her illusions. The following day she +received through the woman Delaitre, a short letter from the honest +"Captain"--the man who had saved Mme. Acquet, killed the yellow horse, +and whom she called her guardian angel. The guardian angel wrote only a +few words: "Bonaparte is overthrown; the King is about to land in +France; the prisons are opening everywhere. Write a letter at once to M. +d'Ache which he can hand to his Majesty. I will undertake to forward it +to him." + +It is a truly touching fact that the old Marquise, whose energy no +fatigue, no moral torture could abate, fainted from happiness on +learning of her King's return. + +The event realised all her hopes. For so many years she had been +expecting it from one moment to another, without ever growing +discouraged, that a denouement for which she had been prepared so long, +seemed quite natural to her, and she immediately made her arrangements +for the new life that was about to commence. She first of all wrote a +line of thanks to the "good Delaitre," promising her protection and +assuring him that he should be rewarded for his devotion. She then +wrote to d'Ache a letter overflowing with joy. + + "I have reached the pinnacle of my happiness, my dear Vicomte," she + wrote, "which is that of all France. I rejoice in your glory. M. + Delaitre has rendered me the greatest services, and during the past + two months has been constantly journeying in my behalf. His wife, + my companion in misfortune, has turned towards me his interest in + the unhappy, and he has sent me a message informing me of the great + events which are to put an end to all our troubles, advising me to + write a letter to the King and send it to you to present to him. + This is a bright idea, and compensates for the fact that my son is + not lucky enough to be in his proper place, as we desired and + planned. Your dear brother in chains is only supported by the + thought of your glory. I do not know how to speak to a king so + great by reason of his courage and virtue. I have allowed my heart + to speak, and I count upon you to obtain the favour of a visit from + him at Tournebut. The prisons are open everywhere.... I have borne + my imprisonment courageously for three years, but fell ill on + hearing the great news. You will let me know in time if I am to + have the happiness of entertaining the King. It is very bold of me + to ask if such a favour is possible in a house which I believe to + be devastated by commissioners who have exhausted on it their rage + at not finding you there. Render, I beg of you, to M. Delaitre all + that I owe him. You will know him as a relation of our poor Raoul. + He is inspired with the same sentiments and begs you to let him + serve you, not wishing to remain idle in such a good cause and at + such a great moment. This letter bears the marks of our + imprisonment. Accept, my dear Vicomte, my sentiments of attachment + and veneration. + + "I have the honour to be, + + "Your very humble servant, + + "De Combray. + + "I shall go to your mother's to await the King's passing, if I + obtain my liberty before his arrival, and I shall have to go to + Tournebut in order to have everything repaired and made ready if I + am to enjoy this favour. You will write, and wait impatiently." + +The most heartrending of the letters despatched by the duped old +royalist in her joy, is the one destined for the King himself. Proud of +his stratagem, Licquet forwarded it to the police authorities, who +retained it. It is written in a thick, masculine hand on large +paper--studied, almost solemn at the beginning, then, with the +outpouring of her thoughts, ending in an almost illegible scribble. One +feels that the poor woman wanted to say everything, to empty her heart, +to free herself of eighteen years of mortification, mourning and +suppressed indignation. The following is the text of the letter, almost +complete: + + "_To His Majesty Louis XVIII._ + + "Sire:--From my prison, where at the age of sixty-six, I + as well as my son, have been thrust for the last four months, we + have the happiness of offering you our respects and congratulations + on your happy accession to your throne. All our wishes are + fulfilled, sire.... + + "The few resources still at our command were devoted to supporting + your faithful servants of every class, and in saving them from + execution. I have to regret the loss of the Chevalier de + Margadelle, Raoulle, Tamerlan and the young Tellier, all of whom + were carried away by their zeal for your Majesty's cause and fell + victims to it at Paris and Versailles. I had hired a house, which I + gave up to them with all the hiding-places necessary for their + safety. My son had the good fortune to be under the orders of + Messieurs de Frotte and Ingant de St. Maur. + + "I am sending my letter to M. le Vicomte d'Ache, in order that he + may present it to your Majesty and solicit a favour very dear to my + heart--that you will condescend to stay at my house on your way to + Paris. Sire, you will find my house open, and, they say, surrounded + with barricades, consequences of the ill-usage it has received + during their different investigations, another of which has + recently occurred in the hope of finding M. le Vicomte d'Ache and + my daughter, as well as repeated sojourns made by order of the + prefect, and an interrogation by his secretary, after having been + subjected to an examination lasting eleven hours in this so-called + Court of Justice, in order that I might inform them of my + correspondence with M. de Ache as well as of a letter I received + from him on the 17th of last March. The worst threats have been + used such as being confronted with Le Chevalier, and my being sent + to Paris to be guillotined, but nothing terrified me, I did not + tell them anything about my relations with him or where he was + living. I had just left him ten days previously. My reply to this + persecution was that M. de Ache was in London, and I concluded by + assuring them that I did not fear death, that I would fervently + perform my last act of contrition, and that my head would fall + without my disclosing this interesting mystery. + + "My liberty was promised me six weeks ago, but at the price of a + large sum of money, which is, I believe, to be divided between the + prefect and his secretary Niquet (_sic_). Half the sum is safely + under lock and key in the latter's bureau. I have been a long time + trying to collect the sum demanded, as I received little assistance + from those who called themselves my friends. My very property was + refused me with arrogant threats, for it was believed that I was to + be put to the sword. The only end I hoped to attain by my + sacrifices was to save my daughter, upon whose head a price of + 6,000 francs had been set at Caen. The family Delaitre, without any + other interest in me than that which misfortune inspires have + displayed indefatigable zeal in my cause, exposing their lives to + great danger in order to remove her from Caen, where the + authorities left no stone unturned. + + "Three of my servants have been cast into prison, a fourth, named + Francois Hebert, commendable for thirty-seven years' faithful + service, defended our interests, and for his honesty's sake has + been in chains since the month of July. What must he not have + suffered during the last eleven years at the hands of the + authorities, the tax receivers at Harcourt, Falaise and Caen, and + of many others who wished his ruin because at our advice he + purposely took the farm on our estate, that he might there save + your persecuted followers. He is well known to M. de Frotte whose + esteem he enjoyed, and whom he received with twenty-four of his + faithful friends, knowing they would be safe in his house. All this + anxiety has greatly impaired his health and that of his wife, who + was pregnant at the time, and consequently their son, aged eleven, + is in very delicate health. The Dartenet (_sic_) family have caused + many of our misfortunes by daily denunciations, which they renewed + with all their might in January, 1806. It was only by a special + providence that we, as well as M. le Vicomte d'Ache, escaped + imprisonment. My son hastened to warn him not to return to our + cottage, which was part of my dowry, and offended the Dartenets, + who wanted this tavern that they might turn it into a special inn + for their castle, which is the fruit of their iniquity. + + "My son and I both crave your Majesty's protection and that of the + princes of the blood. + + "I respectfully remain, + + "Your Majesty's very humble and obedient servant, + + "De Combray." + +It was, as we see, a general confession. What must have been the +Marquise's grief and rage on learning that she had been deceived? At +what moment did Licquet cease to play a double part with her? With what +invectives must she not have overwhelmed him when he ceased? How did +Mme. de Combray learn that her noblest illusions had been worked upon to +make her give up her daughter and betray all her friends? These are +things Licquet never explained, either because he was not proud of the +dubious methods he employed, or, more probably, because he did not care +what his victims thought of them. Besides, his mind was occupied with +other things. Mme. de Combray had hinted to Delaitre that d'Ache usually +stayed in the neighbourhood of Bayeux, without stating more precisely +where, as she was certain he would easily be found beside the newly +landed King. Licquet, therefore, went in search of him, and his men +scoured the neighbourhood. Placene, for his part, annoyed at finding +that Allain did not keep his word and made no attempt to deliver his +imprisoned comrades, gave some hints. In order to communicate with +Allain and d'Ache, one was, according to him, obliged to apply to an +innkeeper at Saint-Exupere. This man was in correspondence with a fellow +named Richard, who acted as courier to the two outlaws. "Between Bayeux +and Saint-Lo is the coal mine of Litre, and the vast forest of Serisy is +almost contiguous to it. This mine employed five or six hundred workmen, +and as Richard was employed there one was inclined to think that the +subterranean passages might serve as a refuge to Allain and d'Ache, +whether they were there in the capacity of miners, or were hidden in +some hut or disused ditch." + +The information was too vague to be utilised, and Licquet thought it +wiser to direct his batteries on another point. He had under his thumb +one victim whom as yet he had not tortured, and from whom he hoped much: +this was Mme. Acquet. "She is," he wrote, "a second edition of her +mother for hypocrisy, but surpasses her in maliciousness and +ill-nature.... Her children seem to interest her but little; she never +mentions them to any one, and her heart is closed to all natural +sentiments." + +But I believe that it was to excuse himself in his chief's eyes that +Licquet painted such a black picture of the prisoner. His own heart was +closed to all compassion, and we find in this man the inexorable +impassibility of a Laffemas or a Fouquier Tinville, with a refined irony +in addition which only added to the cruelty. The moral torture to which +he subjected Mme. Acquet is the product of an inquisitor's mind. "At +present," he remarked, "as the subject is somewhat exhausted, I shall +turn my attention to setting our prisoners against one another. The +little encounter may give us some useful facts." + +The little encounter broke the prisoner's heart, and deprived her of the +only consoling thought so many misfortunes had left her. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PAYING THE PENALTY + + +"Le Chevalier is the adored one." + +It was thus that Licquet summarised his first conversation with Mme. +Acquet. He had been certain for some time that her unbridled passion for +her hero held such a place in her heart that it had stifled all other +feeling. For his sake she had harboured Allain's men; for him she had so +often gone to brave the scornful reception of Joseph Buquet; and for him +she had so long endured the odious life in Vannier's house. Licquet +decided that so violent a passion, "well handled," might throw some new +light on affairs. This incomparable comedian should have been seen +playing his cruel game. In what manner did he listen to the love-sick +confidences of his prisoner? In what sadly sympathetic tones did he +reply to the glowing pictures she drew of her lover? For she spoke of +little else, and Licquet listened silently until the moment when, in a +burst of feeling, he took both her hands, and as if grieved at seeing +her duped, exclaiming with hypocritical regard: "My poor child! Is it +not better to tell you everything?" made her believe that Le Chevalier +had denounced her. She refused at first to believe it. Why should her +lover have done such an infamous thing? But Licquet gave reasons. Le +Chevalier, while in the Temple had learned, from Vannier or others, of +her relations with Chauvel, and in revenge had set the police on the +track of his faithless friend. And so the man for whom she had +sacrificed her life no longer loved her! Licquet, in order to torture +her, overwhelmed the unhappy woman with the intentionally clumsy +consolation that only accentuates grief. She wept much, and had but one +thing to say. + +"I should like to save him in spite of his ingratitude." + +This was not at all what the detective wished. He had hoped she would, +in her turn, accuse the man who had betrayed her; but he could gain +nothing on this point. She felt no desire for revenge. The letters she +wrote to Le Chevalier (Licquet encouraged correspondence between +prisoners) are full of the sadness of a broken but still loving heart. + +"It is not when a friend is unfortunate that one should reproach him, +and I am far from doing so to you, in spite of your conduct as regards +me. You know I did everything for you,--I am not reproaching you for +it,--and after all, you have denounced me! I forgive you with all my +heart, if that can do you any good, but I know your reason for being so +unjust to me; you thought I had abandoned you, but I swear to you I had +not." + +There was not much information in that for Licquet, and in the hope of +learning something, he excited Mme. Acquet strongly against d'Ache. +According to him d'Ache was the one who first "sold them all"; it was +he who caused Le Chevalier to be arrested, to rid himself of a +troublesome rival after having compromised him; it was to d'Ache alone +that the prisoners owed all their misfortunes. And Licquet found a +painful echo of his insinuations in all Mme. Acquet's letters to her +lover; but he found nothing more. "You know that Delorriere d'Ache is a +knave, a scoundrel; that he is the cause of all your trouble; that he +alone made you act; you did not think of it yourself, and he advised you +badly. He alone deserves the hatred of the government. He is abhorred +and execrated as he deserves to be, and there is no one who would not be +glad to give him up or kill him on the spot. He alone is the cause of +your trouble. Recollect this; do not forget it." + +It is not necessary to say that these letters never reached Le +Chevalier, who was secretly confined in the tower of the Temple until +Fouche decided his fate. He was rather an embarrassing prisoner; as he +could not be directly accused of the robbery of Quesnay in which he had +not taken part, and as they feared to draw him into an affair to which +his superb gift of speech, his importance as a Chouan gentleman, his +adventurous past and his eloquent professions of faith might give a +political significance similar to that of Georges Cadoudal's trial, +there remained only the choice of setting him at liberty or trying him +simply as a royalist agent. Now, in 1808 they did not wish to mention +royalists. It was understood that they were an extinct race, and orders +were given to no longer speak of them to the public, which must long +since have forgotten that in very ancient days the Bourbons had reigned +in France. + +Thus, Real did not know what was to become of Le Chevalier when Licquet +conceived the idea of giving him a role in his comedy. We have not yet +obtained all the threads of this new intrigue. Whether Licquet destroyed +certain over-explicit papers, or whether he preferred in so delicate a +matter to act without too much writing, there remain such gaps in the +story that we have not been able to establish the correlation of the +facts we are about to reveal. It is certain that the idea of exploiting +Mme. Acquet's passion and promising her the freedom of her lover in +exchange for a general confession, was originated by Licquet. He +declares it plainly in a letter addressed to Real. By this means they +obtained complete avowals from her. On December 12th she gave a detailed +account of her adventurous life from the time of her departure from +Falaise until her arrest; a few days later she gave some details of the +conspiracy of which d'Ache was the chief, to which we shall have to +return. What must be noted at present is this remarkable coincidence: on +the 12th she spoke, after receiving Licquet's formal promise to ensure +Le Chevalier's escape, and on the 14th he actually escaped from the +Temple. Had Licquet been to Paris between these two dates? It seems +probable; for he speaks in a letter of a "pretended absence" which might +well have been real. + +The manner of Le Chevalier's escape is strange enough to be described. +By reason of his excited condition, "which threw him into continual +transports, and which had seemed to the concierge of the prison to be +the delirium of fever," he had been lodged, not in the tower itself, but +in a dependence, one of whose walls formed the outer wall of the prison, +and overlooked the exterior courts. He had been ill for several days, +and being subject to profuse sweats had asked to have his sheets changed +frequently, and so was given several pairs at a time. On December 13th, +at eight in the morning, the keeper especially attached to his person +(Savard) had gone in to arrange the little dressing-room next to Le +Chevalier's chamber. Returning at one o'clock to serve dinner, he found +the prisoner reading; at six in the evening another keeper (Carabeuf), +bringing in a light, saw him stretched on his bed. The next day on going +into his room in the morning, they found that he had fled. + +Le Chevalier had made in the wall of his dressing-room, which was two +yards thick, a hole large enough to slip through. They saw that he had +done it with no other tool than a fork; two bits of log, cut like +wedges, had served to dislodge and pull out the stones. The operation +had been so cleverly managed, all the rubbish having been carefully +taken from within, that no trace of demolition appeared on the outside. +The prisoner (Vandricourt) who was immediately below had not noticed any +unwonted noise, although he did not go to bed till eleven o'clock. Le +Chevalier, whose cell was sixteen feet above the level of the court, had +also been obliged to construct a rope to descend by; he had plaited it +with long strips cut from a pair of nankeen breeches and the cover of +his mattress. Having got into the courtyard during the night by this +means, he had to wait till the early morning when bread was brought in +for the prisoners. The concierge of the Temple was in the habit of going +back to bed after having admitted the baker, and the gate remained open +for "a quarter of an hour and longer, while bread was being delivered at +the wickets." + +People certainly escaped from the Temple as much as from any other +prison. The history of the old tower records many instances of men +rescued by their friends in the face of gaolers and guard, but +confederates were necessary for the success of these escapes. Given the +topography of the Temple in 1807, it would seem impossible for one man +alone, with no outside assistance, to have pierced a wall six feet thick +in a few hours, and to have crossed the old garden of the grand prior, +where in order to reach the street he would either have had to climb the +other wall of the enclosure, or to pass the palace and courts to get to +the door--that of the Rue du Temple--which, as stated in the official +report, remained open every morning for twenty minutes during the +baker's visit. The impossibility of success leads us to think that if Le +Chevalier triumphed over so many obstacles, it was because some one made +it easy for him to do so. + +Real put a man on his track who for ten years had been the closest +confidant of the secrets of the police, and had conducted their most +delicate affairs. This was Inspector Pasque. With Commissary Beffara, +he set off on the search. Licquet, one of the first to be informed of +Le Chevalier's escape, immediately showed Mme. Acquet the letter +announcing it, taking care to represent it, confidentially, as his own +work. He received in return a copious confession from his grateful +prisoner. This time she emptied all the corners of her memory, returning +to facts already revealed, adding details, telling of all d'Ache's +comings and goings, his frequent journeys to England, and of the manner +in which David l'Intrepide crossed the channel. Licquet tried more than +all to awaken her memories of Le Chevalier's relations with Parisian +society. She knew that several official personages were in the "plot," +but unfortunately could not recollect their names, "although she had +heard them mentioned, notably by Lefebre, with whom Le Chevalier +corresponded on this subject." However, as the detective persisted she +pronounced these words, which Licquet eagerly noted: + +"One of these personages is in the Senate; M. Lefebre knows him. Another +was in office during the Terror, and can be recognised by the following +indications: he frequently sees Mme. Menard, sister of the widow, Mme. +Flahaut, who has married M. de ----, now ambassador to Holland, it is +believed. This lady lives sometimes at Falaise and sometimes in Paris, +where she is at present. This individual is small, dark and slightly +humped; he has great intellect, and possesses the talent for intrigue in +a high degree. The other personages are rich. The declarant cannot state +their number. Le Chevalier informed her that affairs were going well in +Paris, that they were awaiting news of the Prince's arrival to declare +for him." + +Licquet compelled Mme. Acquet to repeat these important declarations +before the prefect, and on the 23d of December, she signed them in +Savoye-Rollin's office. The same evening Licquet tried to put names to +all these anonymous persons. With the prisoner by his side and the +imperial almanac in his hand, he went over the list of senators, great +dignitaries and notabilities of the army and the administration, but +without success. "The names that were pronounced before her," he wrote +to Real, "are effaced from her memory; perhaps Lefebre will tell us who +they are." + +The lawyer, in fact, since he saw things becoming blacker, had been very +loquacious with Licquet. He cried with fear when in the prefect's +presence, and promised to tell all he knew, begging them to have pity on +"the unfortunate father of a family." He spoke so plainly, this time, +that Licquet himself was astounded. The lawyer had it indeed from Le +Chevalier, that the day the Duc de Berry landed in France, the Emperor +would be arrested by two officers "who were always near his person, and +who each of them would count on an army of forty thousand men!" And when +Lefebre was brought before the prefect to repeat this accusation, and +gave the general's names, Savoye-Rollin was so petrified with +astonishment that he dared not insert them in the official report of the +inquiry; furthermore, he refused to write them with his own hand, and +compelled the lawyer himself to put on paper this blasphemy before +which official pens recoiled. + +"Lefebre insists," wrote Savoye-Rollin to Real, "that Le Chevalier would +never tell him the names of all the conspirators. Lefebre has, however, +given two names, one of which is so important and seems so improbable, +that I cannot even admit a suspicion of it. Out of respect for the +august alliance which he has contracted, I have not put his name in the +report of the inquiry; it is added to my letter, in a declaration +written and signed by the prisoner." And in his letter there is a note +containing these lines over Lefebre's signature: "I declare to Monsieur +le Prefect de la Seine Inferieur that the two generals whom I did not +name in my interrogation to-day and who were pointed out to me by M. le +Chevalier, are the Generals Bernadotte and Massena." + +Bernadotte and Massena! At the ministry of police they pretended to +laugh heartily at this foolish notion; but perhaps some who knew the +"true inwardness" of certain old rivalries--Fouche above all--thought it +less absurd and impossible than they admitted it to be. This fiend of a +man, with his way of searching to the bottom of his prisoners' +consciences, was just the one to find out that in France Bonaparte was +the sole partisan of the Empire. In any case these were not ideas to be +circulated freely, and from that day Real promised himself that if +Pasque and Beffara succeeded in finding Le Chevalier, he should never +divulge them before any tribunal. + +The two agents had established a system of surveillance on all the +roads of Normandy, but without much hope: Le Chevalier, who had escaped +so many spies and got out of so many snares during the past eight years, +was considered to bear, as it were, a charmed life. He was taken, +however, and as his escape had seemed to be the result of the +detective's schemes, so in the manner in which he again fell into the +hands of Real's agents was Licquet's handiwork again recognised. The +latter, indeed, was the only one who knew enough to make the capture +possible. In his long conversation with Mme. Acquet, he had learned that +in leaving Caen in the preceding May, Le Chevalier had confided his +five-year-old son to his servant Marie Humon, with orders to take him to +his friend the Sieur Guilbot at Evreux. At the beginning of August the +child had been taken to Paris and placed with Mme. Thiboust, Le +Chevalier's sister-in-law. + +In what way was the son used to capture the father? We have never been +able thoroughly to clear up this mystery. The accounts that have been +given of this great detective feat are evidently fantastic, and remain +inexplicable without the intervention of a comrade betraying Le +Chevalier after having given him unequivocal proofs of devotion. Thus, +it has been said that Real, "having recourse to extraordinary means," +could have caused the arrest of "the sister-in-law and daughter of the +fugitive, and their incarceration in the prisons of Caen with filthy and +disreputable women." Le Chevalier, informed of their incarceration--by +whom?--would have offered himself in place of the two women, and the +police would have accepted the bargain. + +Told in this manner, the story does not at all agree with the documents +we have been able to collect. Le Chevalier had no daughter, and no trace +is to be found of the transference of Mme. Thiboust to Caen. The other +version is no more admissible. Scarcely out of the Temple, we are +assured, the outlaw would not have been able to resist the desire to see +his son, and would have sent to beg Mme. Thiboust--by whom again?--to +bring him to the Passage des Panoramas. Naturally the police would +follow the woman and child, and Le Chevalier be taken in their arms. It +is difficult to imagine so sharp a man setting such a childish trap for +himself, even if his adventurous life had not accustomed him for a long +time to live apart from his family. + +The truth is certainly far otherwise. It is necessary, first of all, to +know who let Le Chevalier out of prison. Mme. de Noel, one of his +relations, said later, that "they had offered employment to the prisoner +if he would denounce his accomplice," which offer he haughtily refused. +As his presence was embarrassing, his gaolers were ordered "to let him +go out on parole in the hope that he would not come back," and could +then be condemned for escaping. Le Chevalier profited by the favour, but +returned at the appointed time. This toleration was not at all +surprising in this strange prison, the theatre of so many adventures +that will always remain mysteries. Desmarets tells how the concierge +Boniface allowed an important prisoner, Sir Sidney Smith, to leave the +Temple, "to walk, take baths, dine in town, and even go out hunting;" +the commodore never failed to return to sleep in his cell, and "took +back his parole in reentering." + +It was necessary then, for some one to undertake to get Le Chevalier out +of the Temple, as he would not break his parole when he was outside; and +this explains the simulated escape. What cannot be established, +unfortunately, is the part taken by Fouche and Real. Were they the +instigators or the dupes? Did they esteem it better to feign ignorance, +or was it in reality the act of subalterns working unknown to their +chiefs? In any case, no one for a moment believed in the wall two yards +thick bored through in one night by the aid of a fork, any more than in +the rope-ladder made from a pair of nankeen breeches. Real, in revenge, +dismissed the concierge of the prison, put the gaoler Savard in irons, +and exacted a report on "all the circumstances that could throw any +light on the acquaintances the prisoner must have had in the prison to +facilitate his escape." + +It seems very probable that Licquet, either directly or through an agent +like Perlet, in whom Le Chevalier had the greatest confidence, had had a +hand in this escape. As soon as the prisoner was free, as soon as Mme. +Acquet had given up all her secrets as the price of her lover's liberty, +it only remained to secure him again, and the means employed to gain +this end must have been somewhat discreditable, for in the reports sent +to the Emperor, who was daily informed of the progress of the affair, +things were manifestly misrepresented. The following facts cannot be +questioned: Le Chevalier had found in Paris "an impenetrable retreat +where he could boldly defy all the efforts of the police;" Fouche, +guessing at the feelings of the fugitive, issued a warrant against Mme. +Thiboust. By whom was Le Chevalier informed in his hiding-place of his +sister-in-law's arrest? It is here, evidently, that a third person +intervened. However that may be, the outlaw wrote to Fouche "offering to +show himself as soon as the woman who acted as a mother to his son +should be set at liberty." Fouche had Mme. Thiboust brought before him, +and gave her a safe conduct of eight days for Le Chevalier, with +positive and reiterated assurance that he would give him a passport for +England as soon as he should deliver himself up. + +Mme. Thiboust returned home to the Rue des Martyrs, where Le Chevalier +came to see her; it was the evening of the 5th of January, 1808. He +covered his little son with kisses and put him in bed: the child always +remembered the caresses he received that evening. Mme. Thiboust, who did +not put much faith in Fouche's promises, begged her brother-in-law to +flee. "No, no," he replied; and later on she reported his answer thus: +"The minister has kept his promise in setting you at liberty and I must +keep mine--honour demands it; to hesitate would be weak, and to fail +would be a crime." On the morning of the 6th, persuaded--or pretending +to be--that Fouche was going to assist his crossing to England, he +embraced his child and sister-in-law. + +"Come," he said, "it is Twelfth-Night, and it is a fine day; have a mass +said for us, and get breakfast ready. I shall be back in two hours." + +Two hours later Inspector Pasque restored him to the Temple, and saw +that he was put "hands and feet in irons, in the most rigorous +seclusion, under the surveillance of a police agent who was not to leave +him day or night." + +The same evening Fouche sent the Emperor a report which contained no +mention of the chivalrous conduct of Le Chevalier; it said that "the +police had seized this brigand at the house of a woman with whom he had +relations, and that they had succeeded in throwing themselves upon him +before he could use his weapons." On the morning of the 9th, Commandant +Durand, of the staff, presented himself at the Temple, and had the irons +removed from the prisoner, who appeared at noon before a military +commission in a hall in the staff office, 7 Quoi Voltaire. This +expeditious magistracy was so sparing of its paper and ink that it took +no notes. It played, in the social organisation, the role of a trap into +which were thrust such people as were found embarrassing. Some were +condemned whose fate is only known because their names have been found +scribbled on a torn paper that served as an envelope for police reports. + +Le Chevalier was condemned to death; he left the office of the staff at +four o'clock and was thrown into the Abbaye to await execution. While +the preparations were being made he wrote the following letter to Mme. +Thiboust who had been three days without news, and it reached the poor +woman the next day. + + "_Saturday_, 9 January, 1808. + + "I am going to die, my sister, and I bequeath you my son. I do not + doubt that you will show him all a mother's tenderness and care. I + beg you also to have all the firmness and vigilance that I should + have had in forming his character and heart. + + "Unfortunately, in leaving you the child that is so dear to me, I + cannot also leave you a fortune equal to that which I inherited + from my parents. I reproach myself, more than for any other fault + in my life, for having diminished the inheritance they transmitted + to me. Bring him up according to his actual fortune, and make him + an artisan, if you must, rather than commit him to the care of + strangers. + + "One of my greatest regrets in quitting this life, is leaving it + without having shown my gratitude to you and your daughter. + + "Good-bye; I shall live, I hope, in your remembrance, and you will + keep me alive in that of my son. + + "Le Chevalier." + +Night had come--a cold misty winter night--when the cab that was to take +the prisoner to his execution arrived at the door of the Abbaye. It was +a long way from Saint-Germain-des-Pres to the barriers by way of the Rue +du Four and Rue de Grenelle, the Avenue de l'Ecole Militaire, and the +tortuous way that is now the Rue Dupleix. The damp fog made the night +seem darker; few persons were about, and the scene must have been +peculiarly gloomy and forbidding. The cab stopped in the angle formed +by the barrier of Grenelle, and on the bare ground the condemned man +stood with his back to the wall of the enclosure. It was the custom at +night executions to place a lighted lantern on the breast of the victim +as a target for the men. + +It was all over at six o'clock. While the troop was returning to town +the grave-diggers took the corpse which had fallen beneath the wall and +carried it to the cemetery of Vaugirard; a neighbouring gardener and an +old man of eighty, whom curiosity had led to the corpse of this unknown +Chouan, served as witnesses to the death certificate. + +The death of Le Chevalier put an end to the prosecution of the affair of +Quesnay. He was one of those prisoners of whom the grand judge said +"that they could not be set at liberty, but that the good of the State +required that they should not appear before the judges"; and they feared +that by pushing the investigations farther they might bring on some +great political trial that would agitate the whole west of France, +always ready for an insurrection, and shown in the reports to be +organised for a new Chouan outburst. It is certain that d'Ache's capture +would have embarrassed Fouche seriously, and in default of causing him +to disappear like Le Chevalier, he would much have preferred to see him +escape the pursuit of his agents. The absence of these two leaders in +the plot would enable him to represent the robbery of June 7th, as a +simple act of brigandage which had no political significance whatever. + +They therefore imposed silence on the gabblings of Lefebre, who had +become a prey to such incontinence of denunciations that he only stopped +them to lament his fate and curse those who had drawn him into the +adventure; they moderated Licquet's zeal, and the prefect confided to +him the drawing up of the general report of the affair, a task of which +he acquitted himself so well that his voluminous work seemed to Fouche +"sufficiently luminous and circumstantial to be submitted as it was to +his Majesty." + +Then they began, but in no haste, to concern themselves with the trial +of the other prisoners. It was necessary, according to custom, to +interrogate and confront the forty-seven persons imprisoned; of this +number the prosecution only held thirty-two, of whom twenty-three were +present. These were Flierle, Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Epine and Le +Hericey who by Allain's orders had attacked the waggon; the Marquise de +Combray, her daughter and Lefebre, instigators of the crime; Gousset the +carrier; Alexandre Buquet, Placene, Vannier, Langelley, who had received +the money; Chauvel and Lanoe as accomplices, and the innkeepers of +Louvigny, d'Aubigny and elsewhere who had entertained the brigands. +Those absent were d'Ache, Allain, Le Lorault called "La Jeunesse," +Joseph Buquet, the Dupont girl, and the friends of Le Chevalier or +Lefebre who were compromised by the latter's revelations--Courmaceul, +Reverend, Dusaussay, etc., Grenthe, called "Coeur-le-Roi," had died in +the conciergerie during the enquiry. Mme. de Combray's gardener, +Chatel, had committed suicide a few days after his arrest. As to Placide +d'Ache and Bonnoeil, it was decided not to bring them to trial but to +take them later before a military commission. Everything was removed +that could give the trial political significance. + +Mme. de Combray, who was at last enlightened as to the kind of interest +taken in her by Licquet, and awakened from the illusions that the +detective had so cleverly nourished, had been able to communicate +directly with her family. Her son Timoleon had never approved of her +political actions and since the Revolution had stayed away from +Tournebut; but as soon as he heard of their arrest he hurried to Rouen +to be near his mother and brother in prison. The letters he exchanged +with Bonnoeil, as soon as it was permitted, show a strong sense of the +situation on the part of both, irreproachable honesty and profound +friendship. This family, whom it suited Licquet to represent as +consisting of spiteful, dissolute or misguided people, appears in a very +different light in this correspondence. The two brothers were full of +respect for their mother, and tenderly attached to their sister: +unfortunate and guilty as she was, they never reproached her, nor made +any allusion to facts well-known and forgiven. They were all leagued +against the common enemy, Acquet, whom they considered the cause of all +their suffering. This man had returned from the Temple strengthened by +the cowardly service he had rendered, and entered Donnay in triumph; he +did not try to conceal his joy at all the catastrophes that had +overtaken the Combrays, and treated them as vanquished enemies. The +family held a council. The advice of Bonnoeil and Timoleon, as well as +of the Marquise, was to sacrifice everything to save Mme. Acquet. They +knew that her husband's denunciations made her the chief culprit, and +that the accusation would rest almost entirely on her. They determined +to appeal to Chauveau-Lagarde, whom the perilous honour of defending +Marie-Antoinette before the Revolutionary tribunal had rendered +illustrious. The great advocate undertook the defence of Mme. Acquet and +sent a young secretary named Ducolombier, who usually lived with him, to +Rouen to study the case--"an intriguer calling himself doctor," wrote +Licquet scornfully. Ducolombier stayed in Rouen and set himself to +examine the condition of the Combrays' fortune. Mme. de Combray had +consented some years back to the sale of a part of her property, and +Timoleon, in the hope of averting financial disaster and being of use to +his mother by diminishing her responsibility, had succeeded in having a +trustee appointed for her. + +The matter was brought to Rouen and it was there that, "for the safety +of the State," the trial took place that excited all Normandy in +advance. Curiosity was greatly aroused by the crime committed by "ladies +of the chateau," and surprising revelations were expected, the +examination having lasted more than a year and having brought together +an army of witnesses from around Falaise and Tournebut. Mme. de +Combray's house in the Rue des Carmelites had become the headquarters +of the defence. Mlle. Querey had come out of prison after several weeks' +detention, and was there looking after the little Acquets, who had been +kept at the pension Du Saussay in ignorance of what was going on around +them: the three children still suffered from the ill-treatment they had +received in infancy. Timoleon also lived in the Rue des Carmelites when +the interests of his family did not require his presence in Falaise or +Paris. There, also, lived Ducolombier, who had organised a sort of +central office in the house where the lawyers of the other prisoners +could come and consult. Mme. de Combray had chosen Maitre Gady de la +Vigne of Rouen to defend her; Maitre Denise had charge of Flierle's +case, and Maitre le Bouvier was to speak for Lefebre and Placene. + +Chauveau-Lagarde arrived in Rouen on December 1, 1808. He had scarcely +done so when he received a long epistle from Acquet de Ferolles, in +which the unworthy husband tried to dissuade him from undertaking the +defence of his wife, and to ruin the little testimony for the defence +that Ducolombier had collected. It seems that this scoundrelly +proceeding immediately enlightened the eminent advocate as to the +preliminaries of the drama, for from this day he proved for the Combray +family not only a brilliant advocate, but a friend whose devotion never +diminished. + +The trial opened on December 15th in the great hall of the Palais. A +crowd, chiefly peasants, collected as soon as the doors were opened in +the part reserved for the public. A platform had been raised for the +twenty-three prisoners, among whom all eyes searched for Mme. Acquet, +very pale, indifferent or resigned, and Mme. de Combray, very much +animated and with difficulty induced by her counsel to keep silent. +Besides the president, Carel, the court was composed of seven judges, of +whom three were military; the imperial and special Procurer-General, +Chopais-Marivaux, occupied the bench. + +From the beginning it was evident that orders had been given to suppress +everything that could give political colour to the affair. As neither +d'Ache, Le Chevalier, Allain nor Bonnoeil was present, nor any of the +men who could claim the honour of being treated as conspirators and not +as brigands, the judges only had the small fry of the plot before them, +and the imperial commissary took care to name the chiefs only with great +discretion. He did it by means of epithets, and in a melodramatic tone +that caused the worthy people who jostled each other in the hall to +shiver with terror. + +Never had the gilded panels, which since the time of Louis XII had +formed the ceiling of the great hall of the Palais, heard such +astonishing eloquence; for three hours the Procurer Chopais-Marivaux +piled up his heavy sentences, pretentious to the point of +unintelligibility. When, after having recounted the facts, the +magistrate came to the flight of Mme. Acquet and her sojourn with the +Vanniers and Langelley, and it was necessary without divulging Licquet's +proceedings to tell of her arrest, he became altogether +incomprehensible. He must have thought himself lucky in not having +before him, on the prisoners' bench, a man bold enough to show up the +odious subterfuges that had been used in order to entrap the +conspirators and obtain their confessions; there is no doubt that such a +revelation would have gained for the two guilty women, if not the +leniency of the judges, the sympathy at least of the public, who all +over the province were awaiting with anxious curiosity the slightest +details of the trial. The gazettes had been ordered to ignore it; the +_Journal de Rouen_ only spoke of it once to state that, as it lacked +space to reproduce the whole trial, it preferred to abstain altogether; +and but for a few of Licquet's notes, nothing would be known of the +character of the proceedings. + +The interrogation of the accused and the examination of the witnesses +occupied seven sittings. On Thursday, December 22d, the Procurer-General +delivered his charge. The prosecution tried above all to show up the +antagonism existing between Mme. de Combray and M. Acquet de Ferolles. +The latter's denunciations had borne fruit; the Marquise was represented +as having tried "to get rid of her son-in-law by poisoning his drink." +And the old story of the bottles of wine sent to Abbe Clarisse and of +his inopportune death were revived; all the unpleasant rumours that had +formerly circulated around Donnay were amplified, made grosser, and +elevated to the position of accomplished facts. It was decided that +poison "was a weapon familiar to the Marquise of Combray," and as, +after having replied satisfactorily to all the first questions asked +her, she remained mute on this point, a murmur of disapprobation ran +round the audience, to the great joy of Licquet. "The prisoner," he +notes, "whose sex and age at first rendered her interesting, has lost +to-day every vestige of popularity." + +We know nothing of Mme. Acquet's examination, and but little of +Chauveau-Lagarde's pleading; a leaf that escaped from his portfolio and +was picked up by Mme. de Combray gives a few particulars. This paper has +some pencilled notes, and two or three questions written to Mme. Acquet +on the prisoners' bench, to which she scrawled a few words in reply. We +find there a sketch of the theme which the advocate developed, doubtless +to palliate his client's misconduct. + +"Mme. Acquet is reproached with her liaisons with Le Chevalier; she can +answer--or one can answer for her--that she suffered ill-treatment of +all kinds for four years from a man who was her husband only from +interest, so much so that he tried to get rid of her.... Fearful at one +time of being poisoned, at another of having her brains dashed out,... +her suit for separation had brought her in touch with Le Chevalier, whom +she had not known until her husband let him loose on her in order to +bring about an understanding...." + +During the fifteen sittings of the court a restless crowd filled the +hall, the courts of the Palais, and the narrow streets leading to it. At +eight o'clock in the morning of December 30th, the president, Carel, +declared the trial closed, and the court retired to "form its opinions." +Not till three o'clock did the bell announce the return of the +magistrates. The verdict was immediately pronounced. Capital punishment +was the portion of Mme. Acquet, Flierle, Lefebre, Harel, Grand-Charles, +Fleur d'Epine, Le Hericey, Gautier-Boismale, Lemarchand and Alexandre +Buquet. The Marquise de Combray was condemned to twenty-two years' +imprisonment in irons, and so were Lerouge, called Bornet, Vannier and +Bureau-Placene. The others were acquitted, but had to be detained "for +the decision of his Excellency, the minister-of-police." The Marquise +was, besides, to restore to the treasury the total sum of money taken. +Whilst the verdict was being read, the people crowded against the +barriers till they could no longer move, eagerly scanning the +countenances of the two women. The old Marquise, much agitated, +declaimed in a loud voice against the Procurer-General: "Ah! the +monster! The scoundrel! How he has treated us!" + +Mme. Acquet, pale and impassive, seemed oblivious of what was going on +around her. When she heard sentence of death pronounced against her, she +turned towards her defender, and Chauveau-Lagarde, rising, asked for a +reprieve for his client. Although she had been in prison for fourteen +months, she was, he said, "in an interesting condition." There was a +murmur of astonishment in the hall, and while, during the excitement +caused by this declaration, the court deliberated on the reprieve, one +of the condemned, Le Hericey, leapt over the bar, fell with all his +weight on the first rows of spectators, and by kicks and blows, aided by +the general bewilderment, made a path for himself through the crowd, and +amid shouts and shoves had already reached the door when a gendarme +nabbed him in passing and threw him back into the hall, where, trampled +on and overcome with blows, he was pushed behind the bar and taken away +with the other condemned prisoners. The reprieve asked for Mme. Acquet +was pronounced in the midst of the tumult, the crush at the door of the +great hall being so great that many were injured. + +The verdict, which soon became known all over the town, was in general +ill received. If the masses showed a dull satisfaction in the punishment +of the Combray ladies, saying "that neither rank nor riches had counted, +and that, guilty like the others, they were treated like the others," +the bourgeois population of Rouen, still very indulgent to the +royalists, disapproved of the condemnation of the two women, who had +only been convicted of a crime by which neither of them had profited. +The reprieve granted to Mme. Acquet, "whose declaration had deceived no +one," seemed a good omen, indicating a commutation of her sentence. The +nine "brigands" condemned to death received no pity. Lefebre was not +known in Rouen, and his attitude during the trial had aroused no +sympathy; the others were but vulgar actors in the drama, and only +interested the populace hungry for a spectacle on the scaffold. The +executions would take place immediately, the judgments pronounced by the +special court being without appeal, like those of the former +revolutionary tribunals. + +The nine condemned men were taken to the conciergerie. It was night when +their "toilet" was begun. The high-executioner, Charles-Andre Ferey, of +an old Norman family of executioners, had called on his cousins Joanne +and Desmarets to help him, and while the scaffold was being hastily +erected on the Place du Vieux-Marche, they made preparations in the +prison. In the anguish of this last hour on earth Flierle's courage +weakened. He sent a gaoler to the imperial procurer to ask "if a +reprieve would be granted to any one who would make important +revelations." On receiving a negative reply the German seemed to resign +himself to his fate. "Since that is the case," he said, "I will carry my +secret to the tomb with me." + +The doors of the conciergerie did not open until seven in the evening. +By the light of torches the faces of the condemned were seen in the +cart, moving above the crowds thronging the narrow streets. The usual +route from the prison to the scaffold was by the Rue du Gros-Horloge, +and this funeral march by torchlight and execution at midnight in +December must have been a terrifying event. The crowd, kept at a +distance, probably saw nothing but the glimmering light of the torches +in the misty air, and the shadowy forms moving on the platform. +According to the _Journal de Rouen_ of the next day, Flierle mounted +first, then Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Epine and Le Hericey who took +part with him in the attack on June 7th. Lefebre "passed" sixth. The +knife struck poor Gautier-Boismale badly, as well as Alexandre Buquet, +who died last. The agony of these two unfortunates was horrible, +prolonged as it was by the repairs necessary for the guillotine to +continue its work. The bloody scene did not end till half-past eight in +the morning. + +The next day, December 31st, the exhibition on the scaffold of Mme. de +Combray, Placene, Vannier, and Lerouge, all condemned to twenty-two +years' imprisonment, was to take place. But when they went to the old +Marquise's cell she was found in such a state of exasperation, fearful +crises of rage being succeeded by deep dejection, that they had to give +up the idea of removing her. The three men alone were therefore tied to +the post, where they remained for six hours. As soon as they returned to +the conciergerie they were sent in irons to the House of Detention at +the general hospital, whence they were to go to the convict prison. + +The Marquise had not twenty-two years to live. The thought of ending her +days in horrible Bicetre with thieves, beggars and prostitutes; the +humiliation of having been defeated, deceived and made ridiculous in the +eyes of all Normandy; and perhaps more than all, the sudden +comprehension that it had all been a game, that the Revolution would +triumph in the end, that she, a great and powerful lady--noble, rich, a +royalist--was treated the same as vulgar criminals, was so cruel a blow, +that it was the general impression that she would succumb to it. It is +impossible nowadays to realise what an effect these revelations must +have produced on a mind obstinately set against all democratic +realities. For nearly a month the Marquise remained in a state of +stupefaction; from the day of her condemnation till January 15th it was +impossible to get her to take any kind of nourishment. She knew that +they were watching for the moment when she would be strong enough to +stand the pillory, and perhaps she had resolved to die of hunger. There +had been some thought--and this compassionate idea seems to have +originated with Licquet--of sparing the aged woman this supreme agony, +but the Procurer-General showed such bitter zeal in the execution of the +sentence, that the prefect received orders from Real to proceed. He +writes on January 29th: "I am informed of her condition daily. She now +takes light nourishment, but is still extremely feeble; we could not +just now expose this woman to the pillory without public scandal." + +What was most feared was the indignation of the public at sight of the +torture uselessly inflicted on an old woman who had already been +sufficiently punished. The prefect's words, "without scandal," showed +how popular feeling in Rouen had revolted at the verdict. More than one +story got afloat. As the details of the trial were very imperfectly +known, no journal having published the proceedings, it was said that the +Marquise's only crime was her refusal to denounce her daughter, and +widespread pity was felt for this unhappy woman who was considered a +martyr to maternal love and royalist faith. Perhaps some of this +universal homage was felt even in the prison, for towards the middle of +February the Marquise seemed calmer and morally strengthened. The +authorities profited by this to order her punishment to proceed. It was +February the 17th, and as one of her "attacks" was feared, they +prudently took her by surprise. She was told that Dr. Ducolombier, +coming from Chauveau-Lagarde, asked to see her at the wicket. She went +down without suspicion and was astonished to find in place of the man +she expected, two others whom she had never seen. One was the +executioner Ferey, who seized her hands and tied her. The doors opened, +and seeing the gendarmes, the cart and the crowd, she understood, and +bowed her head in resignation. + +On the Place du Vieux-Marche the scaffold was raised, and a post to +which the text of the verdict was affixed. The prisoner was taken up to +the platform; she seemed quite broken, thin, yet very imposing, with her +still black hair, and her air of "lady of the manor." She was dressed in +violet silk, and as she persisted in keeping her head down, her face was +hidden by the frills of her bonnet. To spare her no humiliation Ferey +pinned them up; he then made her sit on a stool and tied her to the +post, which forced her to hold up her head. + +What she saw at the foot of the scaffold brought tears of pride to her +eyes. In the first row of the crowd that quietly and respectfully filled +the place, ladies in sombre dresses were grouped as close as possible to +the scaffold, as if to take a voluntary part in the punishment of the +old Chouanne; and during the six hours that the exhibition lasted the +ladies of highest rank and most distinguished birth in the town came by +turns to keep her company in her agony; some of them even spread flowers +at the foot of the scaffold, thus transforming the disgrace into an +apotheosis. + +The heart of the Marquise, which had not softened through seventeen +months of torture and anxiety, melted at last before this silent homage; +tears were seen rolling down her thin cheeks, and the crowd was touched +to see the highest ladies in the town sitting round this old unhappy +woman, and saluting her with solemn courtesies. + +At nightfall Mme. de Combray was taken back to the conciergerie; later +in the evening she was sent to Bicetre, and several days afterwards +Chopais-Marivaux, thinking he had served the Master well, begged as the +reward of his zeal for the cross of the Legion of Honour. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE FATE OF D'ACHE + + +D'Ache, however, had not renounced his plans; the arrest of Le +Chevalier, Mme. de Combray and Mme. Acquet was not enough to discourage +him. It was, after all, only one stake lost, and he was the sort to +continue the game. It is not even certain that he took the precaution, +when Licquet was searching for him all over Normandy, to leave the +Chateau of Montfiquet at Mandeville, where he had lived since his +journey to England in the beginning of 1807. Ten months after the +robbery of Quesnay he was known to be in the department of the Eure; +Licquet, who had just terminated his enquiry, posted to Louviers, +d'Ache, he found, had been there three days previously. From where had +he come? From Tournebut, where, in spite of the search made, he could +have lived concealed for six months in some well-equipped hiding-place? +Unlikely as this seems, Licquet was inclined to believe it, so much was +his own cunning disconcerted by the audacious cleverness of his rival. +The letter in which he reports to Real his investigation in the Eure, is +stamped with deep discouragement; he did not conceal the fact that the +pursuit of d'Ache was a task as deceptive as it was useless. Perhaps he +also thought that Le Chevalier's case was a precedent to be followed; +d'Ache would have been a very undesirable prisoner to bring before a +tribunal, and to get rid of him without scandal would be the best thing +for the State. Licquet felt that an excess of zeal, bringing on a +spectacular arrest such as that of Georges Cadoudal, would be +ill-received in high quarters, and he therefore showed some nonchalance +in his search for the conspirator. + +D'Ache, meanwhile, showed little concern on learning of the capture of +his accomplices. Lost in his illusions he took no care for his own +safety, and remained at Mandeville, organising imaginary legions on +paper, arranging the stages of the King's journey to Paris, and +discussing with the Montfiquets certain points of etiquette regarding +the Prince's stay at their chateau on the day following his arrival in +France. One day, however, when they were at table--it was in the spring +of 1808--a stranger arrived at the Chateau de Mandeville, and asked for +M. Alexandre (the name taken by d'Ache, it will be remembered, at +Bayeux). D'Ache saw the man himself, and thinking his manner suspicious, +and his questions indiscreet, he treated him as a spy and showed him the +door, but not before the intruder had launched several threats at him. + +This occurrence alarmed M. de Montfiquet, and he persuaded his guest to +leave Mandeville for a time. During the following night they both +started on foot for Rubercy, where M. Gilbert de Mondejen, a great +friend and confidant of d'Ache's, was living in hiding from the police +in the house of a Demoiselle Genneville. This old lady, who was an +ardent royalist, welcomed the fugitives warmly; they were scarcely +seated at breakfast, however, when a servant gave the alarm. "Here come +the soldiers!" she cried. + +D'Ache and Mondejen rushed from the room and bounded across the porch +into the courtyard just as the gendarmes burst in at the gate. They +would have been caught if a horse had not slipped on the wet pavement +and caused some confusion, during which they shut themselves into a +barn, escaped by a door at the back, and jumping over hedges and ditches +gained a little wood on the further side of the Tortoue brook. + +But d'Ache had been seen, and from that day he was obliged to resume his +wandering existence, living in the woods by day and tramping by night. +He was entirely without resources, for he had no money, but was certain +of finding a refuge, in case of need, in this region where malcontents +abounded and all doors opened to them. In this way he reached the forest +of Serisy, a part of which had formerly belonged to the Montfiquets; it +was here that the abandoned mines were situated that had been mentioned +to Licquet as Allain's place of refuge. Though obliged to abandon the +Chateau de Mandeville, where, as well as at Rubercy, the gendarmes had +made a search, d'Ache did not lack shelter around Bayeux. A Madame +Chivre, who lived on the outskirts of the town, had for fifteen years +been the providence of the most desperate Chouans, and d'Ache was sure +of a welcome from her; but he stayed only a few days. + +Mme. Amfrye also assisted him. This woman who never went out except to +church, and was seen every morning with eyes downcast, walking to +Saint-Patrice with her servant carrying her prayer book, was one of the +fiercest royalists of the region. She looked after the emigrants' funds +and took charge of their correspondence. Once a week a priest rang her +door-bell; it was the Abbe Nicholas, cure of Vierville, a little fishing +village. The Abbe, whose charity was proverbial, and accounted for his +visits to Mme. Amfrye, was in reality a second David l'Intrepide; mass +said and his beads told, he got into a boat and went alone to the +islands of Saint-Marcouf, where an exchange of letters was made with the +English emissaries, the good priest bringing his packet back to Bayeux +under his soutane. + +D'Ache could also hide with Mademoiselle Dumesnil, or Mlle. Duquesnay de +Montfiquet, to both of whom he had been presented by Mme. de Vaubadon, +an ardent royalist who had rendered signal service to the party during +the worst days of the Terror. She was mentioned among the Normans who +had shown most intelligent and devoted zeal for the cause. + +Born de Mesnildot, niece of Tourville, she had married shortly before +the Revolution M. le Tellier de Vaubadon, son of a member of the Rouen +Parliament, a handsome man, amiable, loyal, elegant, and most charmingly +sociable. She was medium-sized, not very pretty, but attractive, with a +very white skin, tawny hair, and graceful carriage. Two sons were born +of this union, and on the outbreak of the Revolution M. de Vaubadon +emigrated. After several months of retreat in the Chateau of Vaubadon, +the young woman tired of her grass-widowhood, which seemed as if it +would be eternal, and returned to Bayeux where she had numerous +relations. The Terror was over; life was reawakening, and the gloomy +town gave itself up to it gladly. "Never were balls, suppers, and +concerts more numerous, animated and brilliant in Bayeux than at this +period." Mme. de Vaubadon's success was marked. When some of her papers +were seized in the year IX the following note from an adorer was found: +"All the men who have had the misfortune to see you have been mortally +wounded. I therefore implore you not to stay long in this town, not to +leave your apartment but at dusk, and veiled. We hope to cure our +invalids by cold baths and refreshing drinks; but be gracious enough not +to make incurables." + +So that her children should not be deprived of their father's fortune, +which the nation could sequestrate as the property of an _emigre_, Mme. +de Vaubadon, like many other royalists, had sued for a divorce. All +those who had had recourse to this extremity had asked for an annulment +of the decree as soon as their husbands could return to France, and had +resumed conjugal relations. But Mme. de Vaubadon did not consider her +divorce a mere formality; she intended to remain free, and even brought +suit against her husband for the settlement of her property. This act, +which was severely criticised by the aristocracy of Bayeux, alienated +many of her friends and placed her somewhat on the outskirts of +society. From that time lovers were attributed to her, and it is certain +that her conduct became more light. She scarcely concealed her liaison +with Guerin de Bruslart, the leader of the Norman Chouans, the successor +of Frotte, and a true type of the romantic brigand, who managed to live +for ten years in Normandy and even in Paris, without falling into one of +the thousand traps set for him by Fouche. Bruslart arrived at his +mistress's house at night, his belt bristling with pistols and poniards, +and "always ready for a desperate hand-to-hand fight." + +Together with this swaggerer Mme. de Vaubadon received a certain +Ollendon, a Chouan of doubtful reputation, who was said to have gone +over to the police through need of money. Mme. de Vaubadon, since her +divorce, had herself been in a precarious position. She had dissipated +her own fortune, which had already been greatly lessened by the +Revolution. She was now reduced to expedients, and seeing closed to her +the doors of many of the houses in Bayeux to which her presence had +formerly given tone, she went to Caen and settled in the Rue Guilbert +nearly opposite the Rue Coupee. + +Whether it was that Ollendon had decided to profit by her relations with +the Chouans, or that Fouche had learned that she was in need and would +not refuse good pay for her services, Mme. de Vaubadon was induced to +enter into communication with the police. The man whom in 1793 Charlotte +Corday had immortally branded with a word, Senator Doulcet de +Pontecoulant, undertook to gain this recruit for the imperial +government. + +If certain traditions are to be trusted, Pontecoulant, who was supposed +to be one of Acquet de Ferolles' protectors, had insinuated to Mme. de +Vaubadon that "her intrigues with the royalists had long been known in +high places, and an order for her arrest and that of d'Ache, who was +said to be her lover, was about to be issued." "You understand," he +added, "that the Emperor is as merciful as he is powerful, that he has a +horror of punishment and only wants to conciliate, but that he must +crush, at all costs, the aid given to England by the agitation on the +coasts. Redeem your past. You know d'Ache's retreat: get him to leave +France; his return will be prevented, but the certainty of his +embarkation is wanted, and you will be furnished with agents who will be +able to testify to it." + +In this way Mme. de Vaubadon would be led to the idea of revealing +d'Ache's retreat, believing that it was only a question of getting him +over to England; but facts give slight support to this sugared version +of the affair. After the particularly odious drama that we are about to +relate, all who had taken part in it tried to prove for themselves a +moral alibi, and to throw on subordinates the horror of a crime that had +been long and carefully prepared. Fouche, whom few memories disturbed, +was haunted by this one, and attributed to himself a role as chivalrous +as unexpected. According to him, d'Ache, in extremity, had tried a bold +stroke. This man, who, since Georges' death, had so fortunately escaped +all the spies of France, had of his own will suddenly presented himself +before the Minister of Police, to convert him to royalist doctrines! +Fouche had shown a loyalty that equalled his visitor's boldness. "I do +not wish," he said, "to take advantage of your boldness and have you +arrested _hic et nunc_; I give you three days to get out of France; +during this time I will ignore you completely; on the fourth day I will +set my men on you, and if you are taken you must bear the consequences." + +This is honourable, but without doubt false. Besides the improbability +of this conspirator offering himself without reason to the man who had +hunted him so long, it is difficult to imagine that such a meeting could +have taken place without any mention of it being made in the +correspondence in the case. None of the letters exchanged between the +Minister of Police and the prefects makes any allusion to this visit; it +seems to accord so little with the character of either that it must be +relegated to the ranks of the legends with which Fouche sought to hide +his perfidies. It is certain that a snare was laid for d'Ache, that Mme. +de Vaubadon was the direct instrument, that Pontecoulant acted as +intermediary between the minister and the woman; but the inventor of the +stratagem is unknown. A simple recital of the facts will show that all +three of those named are worthy to have combined in it. + +Public rumour asserts that Mme. de Vaubadon had been d'Ache's mistress, +but she did not now know where he was hidden. In the latter part of +August, 1809, she went to Bayeux to find out from her friend Mlle. +Duquesnay de Montfiquet if d'Ache was in the neighbourhood, and if so, +with whom. Mlle. de Montfiquet, knowing Mme. de Vaubadon to be one of +the outlaw's most intimate friends, told her that he had been living in +the town for a long time, and that she went to see him every week. The +matter ended there, and after paying some visits, Mme. de Vaubadon +returned by coach the same evening to Caen. + +It became known later that she had a long interview with Pontecoulant +the next day, during which it was agreed that she should deliver up +d'Ache, in return for which Fouche would pay her debts and give her a +pension. But she attached a strange condition to the bargain; she +refused "to act with the authorities, and only undertook to keep her +promise if they put at her disposal, while leaving her completely +independent, a non-commissioned officer of gendarmerie, whom she was to +choose herself, and who would blindly obey her orders, without having to +report to his chiefs." Perhaps the unfortunate woman hoped to retain +d'Ache's life in her keeping, and save him by some subterfuge, but she +had to deal with Pontecoulant, Real and Fouche, three experienced +players whom it was difficult to deceive. They accepted her conditions, +only desiring to get hold of d'Ache, and determined to do away with him +as soon as they should know where to catch him. + +On Thursday, September 5th, Mme. de Vaubadon reappeared in Bayeux, and +went to Mlle. Duquesnay de Montfiquet to tell her of the imminent danger +d'Ache was in, and to beg her to ensure his safety by putting her in +communication with him. We now follow the story of a friend of Mme. de +Vaubadon's family who tried to prove her innocent, if not of treachery, +at least of the crime that was the result of it. Mlle. de Montfiquet had +great confidence in her friend's loyalty, but not in her discretion, and +obstinately refused to take Mme. de Vaubadon to d'Ache. The former, +fearing that action would be taken without her, returned to the charge, +but encountered a firm determination to be silent that rendered her +insistence fruitless. In despair at the possibility of having aroused +suspicions that might lead to the disappearance of d'Ache, she resolved +not to leave the place. + +"I do not wish to be seen in Bayeux," she said to her friend, "I am +going to sleep here." + +"But I have only one bed." + +"I will share it with you." + +During the night, as the two women's thoughts kept them from sleeping, +Mme. de Vaubadon changed her tactics. + +"You have no means of saving him," she hinted, "whilst all my plans are +laid. I have at my disposal a boat that for eight or nine hundred francs +will take him to England; I have some one to take him to the coast, and +two sailors to man the boat. If you will not tell me his retreat, at +least make a rendezvous where my guide can meet him. If you refuse he +may be arrested to-morrow, tried, and shot, and the responsibility for +his death will fall on you." + +Mlle. de Montfiquet gave up; she promised to persuade d'Ache to go to +England. It was now Friday, September 6th. It was settled that at ten +o'clock in the evening of the following day she herself should take him +to the village of Saint-Vigor-le-Grand, at the gates of Bayeux. She +would advance alone to meet the guide sent by Mme. de Vaubadon; the men +would say "Samson," to which Mlle. de Montfiquet would answer "Felix," +and only after the exchange of these words would she call d'Ache, hidden +at a distance. + +Mme. de Vaubadon returned to Caen, arriving at home before midday. Most +of the frequenters of her salon at this period were aspirants for her +favours, and among whom was a young man of excellent family, M. Alfred +de Formigny, very much in love, and consequently very jealous of +Ollendon, who was then supposed to be the favoured lover. In the evening +of this day, M. de Formigny went to Mme. de Vaubadon's. He was told that +she was not at home, but as he saw a light on the ground floor, and +thought he could distinguish the silhouette of a man against the +curtains, he watched the house and ascertained that its mistress was +having an animated conversation with a visitor whose back only could be +seen, and whom he believed to be his rival. Wishing to make sure of it, +and determined to have an explanation, he stood sentinel before the door +of the house. "Soon a man wrapped in a cloak came out, who, seeing that +he was watched, pulled the folds of it up to his eyes. M. de Formigny, +certain that it was Ollendon, threw himself on the man, and forced off +the cloak." But he felt very sheepish when he found himself face to face +with Foison, quartermaster of gendarmerie, who, not less annoyed, +growled out a few oaths, and hastily made off. The same evening M. de +Formigny told his adventure to some of his friends, but his indiscretion +had no consequences, it seemed, Mme. de Vaubadon's reputation being so +much impaired that a new scandal passed unnoticed. + +Meanwhile Mlle. de Montfiquet had kept her promise. As soon as her +friend left her, she went to Mlle. Dumesnil's, where d'Ache had lived +for the last six weeks, and told him of Mme. de Vaubadon's proposition. +The offer was so tempting, it seemed so truly inspired by the most +zealous and thoughtful affection, and came from so trusted a friend, +that he did not hesitate to accept. It appears, however, that he was not +in much danger in Bayeux, and took little pains to conceal himself, for +on Saturday morning he piously took the sacrament at the church of +Saint-Patrice, then returned to Mlle. Dumesnil's and arranged some +papers. As soon as it was quite dark that evening Mlle. de Montfiquet +came to fetch him, and found him ready to start. He was dressed in a +hunting jacket of blue cloth, trousers of ribbed green velvet and a +waistcoat of yellow pique. He put two loaded English pistols in the +pockets of his jacket and carried a sword-cane. Mlle. de Montfiquet gave +him a little book of "Pensees Chretiennes," in which she had written +her name; then, accompanied by her servant, she led him across the +suburbs to Saint-Vigor-le-Grand. She found Mme. de Vaubadon's guide at +the rendezvous before the church door; it was Foison, whom she +recognised. The passwords exchanged, d'Ache came forward, kissed Mlle. +de Montfiquet's hand, bade her adieu, and started with the gendarme. The +anxious old lady followed him several steps at a distance, and saw +standing at the end of the wall of the old priory of Saint-Vigor, two +men in citizen's dress, who joined the travellers. All four took the +cross road that led by the farm of Caugy to Villiers-le-Sec. They +wished, by crossing the Seule at Reviers, to get to the coast at +Luc-sur-Mer, seven leagues from Bayeux, where the embarkation was to +take place. + + * * * * * + +When d'Ache and his companions left Bayeux, Luc-sur-Mer was in a state +of excitement. The next day, Sunday, lots were to be drawn for the +National Guard, and the young people of the village, knowing that this +fete was only "conscription in disguise," had threatened to prevent the +ceremony, to surround the Mairie and burn the registers and the +recruiting papers. What contributed to the general uneasiness was the +fact that four men who were known to be gendarmes in disguise had been +hovering about, chiefly on the beach; they had had the audacity to +arrest two gunners, coast-guards in uniform and on duty, and demand +their papers. A serious brawl had ensued. At night the same men +"suddenly thrust a dark lantern in the face of every one they met." + +M. Boullee, the Mayor of Luc, lived at the hamlet of +Notre-Dame-de-la-Delivrande, some distance from the town, and in much +alarm at the disturbances watched with his servants through part of the +night of the 7th-8th. At one o'clock in the morning, while he was with +them in a room on the ground floor, a shot was heard outside and a ball +struck the window frame. They rushed to the door, and in the darkness +saw a man running away; the cartouche was still burning in the +courtyard. M. Boullee immediately sent to the coast-guards to inform +them of the fact, and to ask for a reinforcement of two men who did not +arrive till near four o'clock. Having passed the night patrolling at +some distance from La Delivrande, they had not heard the shot that had +alarmed the mayor, but towards half-past three had heard firing and a +loud "Help, help!" in the direction of the junction of the road from +Bayeux with that leading to the sea. + +It was now dawn and M. Boullee, reassured by the presence of the two +gunners, resolved to go out and explore the neighbourhood. On the road +to Luc, about five hundred yards from his house, a peasant hailed him, +and showed him, behind a hayrick almost on the edge of the road, the +body of a man. The face had received so many blows as to be almost +unrecognisable; the left eye was coming out of the socket; the hair was +black, but very grey on the temples, and the beard thin and short. The +man lay on his back, with a loaded pistol on each side, about two feet +from the body; the blade and sheath of a sword-cane had rolled a little +way off, and near them was the broken butt-end of a double-barrelled +gun. On raising the corpse to search the pockets, the hands were found +to be strongly tied behind the back. No papers were found that could +give any clue to his identity, but only a watch, thirty francs in +silver, and a little book on the first page of which was written the +name "Duquesnay de Montfiquet." + +The growing daylight now made an investigation possible. Traces of blood +were found on the road to Luc from the place where the body lay, to its +junction with the road to Bayeux, a distance of about two hundred yards. +It was evident that the murder had been committed at the spot where the +two roads met, and that the assassins had carried the corpse to the +fields and behind the hayrick to retard discovery of the crime. The +disguised gendarmes whose presence had so disturbed the townsfolk had +disappeared. A horse struck by a ball was lying in a ditch. It was +raised, and though losing a great deal of blood, walked as far as the +village of Mathieu, on the road to Caen, where it was stabled. + +These facts having been ascertained, M. Boullee's servants and the +peasants whom curiosity had attracted to the spot, escorted the dead +body, which had been put on a wheelbarrow, to La Delivrande. It was laid +in a barn near the celebrated chapel of pilgrimages, and there the +autopsy took place at five in the afternoon. It was found that "death +was due to a wound made by the blade of the sword-cane; the weapon, +furiously turned in the body, had lacerated the intestines." Three balls +had, besides, struck the victim, and five buckshot had hit him full in +the face and broken several teeth; of two balls fired close to the body, +one had pierced the chest above the left breast, and the other had +broken the left thigh, and one of the murderers had struck the face so +violently that his gun had broken against the skull. + +The mayor had been occupied with the drawing of lots all day, and only +found time to write and inform the prefect of the murder when the +doctors had completed their task. He was in great perplexity, for the +villagers unanimously accused the gendarmes of the mysterious crime. It +was said that at dawn that morning the quartermaster Foison and four of +his men had gone into an inn at Mathieu, one of them carrying a gun with +the butt-end broken. While breakfasting, these "gentlemen," not seeing a +child lying in a closed bed, had taken from a tin box some "yellow +coins" which they divided, and the inference drawn was that the +gendarmes had plundered a traveller whom they knew to be well-supplied, +and sure of impunity since they could always plead a case of rebellion, +had got rid of him by murder. This was the sense of the letter sent to +Caffarelli by the Mayor of Luc on the evening of the 8th. The next +morning Foison appeared at La Delivrande to draw up the report. When +Boullee asked him a few questions about the murder, he answered in so +arrogant and menacing a tone as to make any enquiry impossible. Putting +on a bold face, he admitted that he had been present at the scene of the +crime. He said that while he was patrolling the road to Luc with four of +his men, two individuals appeared whom he asked for their papers. One of +them immediately fled, and the other discharged his pistols; the +gendarmes seized him, and in spite of his desperate resistance succeeded +in bringing him down. He stayed dead on the ground, "having been struck +several times during the struggle." + +"But his pistols were still loaded," said some one. + +Foison made no reply. + +"But his hands were tied," said the mayor. + +Foison tried to deny it. + +"Here are the bands," said Boullee, drawing from his pocket the ribbon +taken from the dead man's hands. And as Captain Mancel, who presided at +the interview, remarked that those were indeed the bands used by +gendarmes, Foison left the room with more threats, swearing that he owed +an account to no one. + +The news of the crime had spread with surprising rapidity, and +indignation was great wherever it was heard. In writing to Real, +Caffarelli echoed public feeling: + +"How did it happen that four gendarmes were unable to seize a man who +had struggled for a long time? How came it that he was, in a way, +mutilated? Why, after having killed this man, did they leave him there, +without troubling to comply with any of the necessary formalities? Ask +these questions, M. le Comte; the public is asking them and finds no +answer. What is the reply, if, moreover, as is said, the person was +seized, his hands tightly tied behind his back, and then shot? What are +the terrible consequences to be expected from these facts if they are +true? How will the gendarmes be able to fulfil their duties without fear +of being treated as assassins or wild beasts?" + +It must be mentioned that as soon as the crime was committed, Foison had +gone to Caen and given Pontecoulant the papers found on d'Ache, which +contained information as to the political and military situation on the +coast of Normandy, and on the possibility of a disembarkation. +Pontecoulant had immediately posted off, and on the morning of the 11th +told Fouche verbally of the manner in which Foison and Mme. de Vaubadon +had acquitted themselves of their mission. It remained to be seen how +the public would take things, and Caffarelli's letter presaged no good; +what would it be when it became known that the gendarme assassins had +acted with the authorisation of the government? Happily, a confusion +arose that retarded the discovery of the truth. In the hope of +determining the dead man's identity, the Mayor of Luc had exposed the +body to view, and many had come to see it, including some people from +Caen. Four of these had unanimously recognised the corpse as that of a +clock-maker of Paris, named Morin-Cochu, well known at the fairs of +Lower Normandy. Fouche allowed the public to follow this false trail, +and it was wonderful to see his lieutenants, Desmarets, Veyrat, Real +himself, looking for Morin-Cochu all over Paris as if they were +ignorant of the personality of their victim. And when Morin-Cochu was +found alive and well in his shop in the Rue Saint-Denis, which he had +not left for four years, they began just as zealously to look for his +agent Festau, who might well be the murdered man. + +Caffarelli, however, was not to be caught in this clumsy trap. He knew +how matters stood now, and showed his indignation. He wrote very +courageously to Real: "You will doubtless ask me, M. le Comte, why I +have not tried to show up the truth? My answer is simple: it is publicly +rumoured that the expedition of the gendarmes was ordered by M. the +Senator Comte de P----, to whom were given the papers found on the +murdered man, and who has gone to Paris, no doubt to transmit them to +his Excellency the Minister of Police. Ought I not to respect the secret +of the authorities?" + +And all that had occurred in his department for the two last years that +it had not been considered advisable to tell him of, all the +irregularities that in his desire for peace he had thought he should +shut his eyes to, all the affronts that he had patiently endured, came +back to his mind. He felt his heart swell with disgust at cowardly acts, +dishonourable tools, and odious snares, and nobly explained his +feelings: + +"Certainly I am not jealous of executing severe measures and I should +like never to have any of that kind to enforce. But I owe it to myself +as well as to the dignity of my office not to remain prefect in name +only, and if any motives whatever can destroy confidence in me to this +point on important matters I must simply be told of it and I shall know +how to resign without murmuring. It is not permissible to treat a man +whose honesty and zeal cannot be mistaken, in the manner in which I have +been treated for some time. I cannot conceal from you, M. le Comte, that +I am keenly wounded at the measures that have been taken towards me. It +has been thought better to put faith in people of tarnished and +despicable reputation, the terror of families, than in a man who has +only sought the good of the country he represented, and known no other +ambition than that of acting wisely." + +And this letter, so astonishing from the pen of an imperial prefect, was +a sort of revenge for all the poor people for whom the police had laid +such odious traps; it would remind Fouche of all the Licquets and +Foisons who in the exercise of justice found matter for repugnant +comedies. It was surprising that Licquet had had no hand in the affair +of La Delivrande. Had he breathed it to Real? It is possible, though +there is no indication of his interference, albeit his manner is +recognised in the scenario of the snare to which d'Ache fell a victim, +and in the fact that he appeared at the end, coming from Rouen with his +secretary Dupont, and the husband of the woman Levasseur who was said to +have been d'Ache's mistress. + +On the morning of September 23d, a meeting took place at seven o'clock +at the Mayor of Luc's house. The doctors who had held the autopsy were +there, Captain Mancel and Foison, who was in great agitation, although +he tried to hide it, at having to assist at the exhumation of his +victim. They started for the cemetery, and the grave-digger did his +work. After fifteen minutes the shovel struck the board that covered +d'Ache's body, and soon after the corpse was seen. The beard had grown +thick and strong. Foison gazed at it. It was indeed the man with whom he +had travelled a whole night, chatting amiably while each step brought +him nearer to the assassins who were waiting for him. Licquet moved +about with complete self-control, talking of the time when he had known +the man who lay there, his face swollen but severe, his nose thin as an +eagle's beak, his lips tightened. Suddenly the detective remembered a +sign that he had formerly noted, and ordered the dead man's boots to be +removed. All present could then see that d'Ache's "toe-nails were so +grown over into his flesh that he walked on them." Foison also saw, and +wishing to brave this corpse, more terrifying for him than for any one +else, he stooped and opened the dead lips with the end of his cane. A +wave of fetid air struck the assassin full in the face, and he fell +backward with a cry of fear. + +This incident terminated the enquiry; the body was returned to the +earth, and those who had been present at the exhumation started for La +Delivrande. Foison walked alone behind the others; no one spoke to him, +and when they arrived at the mayor's, where all had been invited to +dine, he remained on the threshold which he dared not cross, knowing +that for the rest of his life he would never again enter the house of an +honest man. + +The same evening at Caen, where everything was known, although Fouche +was still looking for Morin-Cochu, the vengeance of the corpse +annihilating Foison was the topic of all conversations. There was a +certain gaiety in the town, that was proud of its prefect's attitude. +When the curtain went up at the theatre, while all the young "swells" +were in the orchestra talking of the event that was agitating "society," +they saw a blonde woman with a red scarf on her shoulders in one of the +boxes. The first one that saw her could not believe his eyes: it was +Mme. de Vaubadon! The name was at first whispered, then a murmur went +round that at last broke into an uproar. The whole theatre rose +trembling, and with raised fists cried: "Down with the murderess! She is +the woman with the red shawl; it is stained with d'Ache's blood. Death +to her!" + +The unhappy woman tried to put on a bold face, and remained calm; it is +supposed that Pontecoulant was in the theatre, and perhaps she hoped +that he, at least, would champion her. But when she understood that in +that crowd, among whom many perhaps had loved her, no one now would +defend her, she rose and left her box, while some of the most excited +hustled into the corridor to hoot her in passing. She at last escaped +and got to her house in the Rue Guilbert, and the next day she left Caen +forever. + +Less culpable certainly, and now pitied by all to whom d'Ache's death +recalled the affair of Quesnay, Mme. Acquet was spending her last days +in the conciergerie at Rouen. After the petition for a reprieve on +account of her pregnancy, and the visit of two doctors, who said they +could not admit the truth of her plea, Ducolombier used all his efforts +to obtain grace from the Emperor. As soon as the sentence was pronounced +he had hurried to Paris in quest of means of approaching his Majesty. +His relative, Mme. de Saint-Leonard, wife of the Mayor of Falaise, +joined him there, and got her relatives in official circles to interest +themselves. But the Emperor was then living in a state of continual +agitation; Laeken, Mayence and Cassel were as familiar stopping-places +as Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau, and even if a few minutes' audience +could be obtained, what hope was there of fixing his attention on the +life of an insignificant woman? Chauveau-Lagarde advised the +intervention of Mme. Acquet's three girls, the eldest now twelve, and +the youngest not eight years old. Mourning garments were hastily bought +for them, and they were sent to Paris on January 24th, with a Mlle. +Bodinot. Every day they pursued the Emperor's carriage through the town, +as he went to visit the manufactories. Timoleon, Mme. de Saint-Leonard, +and Mlle. de Seran took turns with the children; they went to Malmaison, +to Versailles, to Meudon. At last, on March 2d, at Sevres, one of the +children succeeded in getting to the door of the imperial carriage, and +put a petition into the hands of an officer, but it probably never +reached the Emperor, for this step that had cost so much money and +trouble remained ineffectual. + +There are among Mme. de Combray's papers more than ten drafts of +petitions addressed to the Emperor's brothers, to Josephine, and even to +foreign princes. But each of them had much to ask for himself, and all +were afraid to importune the master. The latter was now in Germany, +cutting his way to Vienna, and poor Mme. Acquet would have had slight +place in his thoughts in spite of the illusions of her friends, had he +ever even heard her name. In April the little Acquets returned to Mme. +Dusaussay in Rouen. She wrote to Timoleon: + +"I am not surprised that you were not satisfied with the children; until +now they have only been restrained by fear, and the circumstances of the +journey to Paris brought them petting and kindness of which they have +taken too much advantage. If worse trouble comes to Mme. Acquet, we will +do our best to keep them in ignorance of it, and it is to be hoped the +same can be done for your mother." + +And so all hope of grace seemed lost for the poor woman, and it would +have been very easy to forget her in prison, for who could be specially +interested in her death? Neither Fouche, Real, the prefect nor even +Licquet, who, once the verdict was given, seemed to have lost all +animosity towards his victims. Only the imperial procurer, +Chapais-Marivaux, seemed determined on the execution of the sentence. He +had already caused two consultations to be held on the subject of Mme. +Acquet's health. The specialists could not or would not decide upon it, +and this gave some hope to Mme. de Combray, who from her cell in Bicetre +still presided over all efforts made for her daughter, and continued to +hold a firm hand over her family. + +As the Emperor had now entered Vienna in triumph, the Marquise thought +it a good time to implore once more the conqueror's pity. She sent for +her son Timoleon on June 1st. She had decided to send her two eldest +grandchildren to Vienna with their aunt Mme. d'Houel and the faithful +Ducolombier, who offered to undertake the long journey. Chauveau-Lagarde +drew up a petition for the children to give to Napoleon, and they left +Rouen about July 10th, arriving in Vienna the fortnight following the +battle of Wagram. Ducolombier at once sought a means of seeing the +Emperor. Hurried by the Marquise, who allowed no discussion of the +methods that seemed good to her, he had started without recommendations, +letters of introduction or promises of an audience, and had to wait for +chance to give him a moment's interview with Napoleon. He established +himself with Mme. d'Houel and the children at Schoebruenn, where the +imperial quarters were, and by dint of solicitations obtained the +privilege of going into the court of the chateau with other supplicants. + +The Emperor was away; he had wished to revisit the scene of his +brilliant victory, and during the whole day Ducolombier and his +companions waited his return on the porch of the chateau. Towards +evening the gate opened, the guard took up arms, drums beat and the +Emperor appeared on horseback in the immense courtyard, preceded by his +guides and his mameluke, and followed by a numerous staff. The hearts of +the poor little Acquets must have beaten fast when they saw this master +of the world from whom they were going to beg their mother's life. In a +moment the Emperor was upon them; Ducolombier pushed them; they fell on +their knees. + +Seeing these mourning figures, Napoleon thought he had before him the +widow and orphans of some officer killed during the campaign. He raised +the children kindly. + +"Sire! Give us back our mother!" they sobbed. + +The Emperor, much surprised, took the petition from Mme. d'Houel's hands +and read it through. There were a few moments of painful silence; he +raised his eyes to the little girls, asked Ducolombier a few brief +questions, then suddenly starting on, + +"I cannot," he said drily. + +And he disappeared among the groups humbly bowing in the hall. Some one +who witnessed the scene relates that the Emperor was very much moved +when reading the petition. "He changed colour several times, tears were +in his eyes and his voice trembled." The Duke of Rovigo asserted that +pardon would be granted; the Emperor's heart had already pronounced it, +but he was very angry with the minister of police, who after having made +a great fuss over this affair and got all the credit, left him supreme +arbiter without having given him any information concerning it. + +"If the case is a worthy one," said Napoleon, "why did he not send me +word of it? and if it is not, why did he give passports to a family whom +I am obliged to send away in despair?" + +The poor children had indeed to return to France, knowing that they +took, as it were, her death sentence to their mother. Each relay that +brought them nearer to her was a step towards the scaffold; nothing +could now save the poor woman, and she waited in resignation. Never, +since Le Chevalier's death, had she lost the impassive manner that had +astonished the spectators in court. Whether solitude had altered her +ardent nature, or whether she looked on death as the only possible end +to her adventurous existence, she seemed indifferent as to her fate, and +thought no longer of the future. Licquet had long abandoned her; he had +been "her last friend." Of all the survivors of the affair of Quesnay +she was the only one left in the conciergerie, the others having gone to +serve their terms in Bicetre or other fortresses. + +Whilst it had seemed possible that Mme. Acquet's friends might obtain +the Emperor's interest in her case, she had received great care and +attention, but since the return of her daughters from Vienna things had +changed. She had become once more "the woman Acquet," and the interest +that had been taken in her gave place to brutal indifference. On August +23d (and this date probably accords with the return of the children and +their aunt) Chapais-Marivaux, in haste to end the affair, sent three +health-officers to examine her, but these good people, knowing the +consequence of their diagnosis, declared that "the symptoms made it +impossible for them to pronounce an opinion on the state of the +prisoner." + +Chapais-Marivaux took a month to find doctors who would not allow pity +to interfere with their professional duty, and on October 6th the +prefect wrote to Real: "M. le Procureur-General has just had the woman +Acquet examined by four surgeons, three of whom had not seen her before. +They have certified that she is not pregnant, and so she is to be +executed to-day." + +We know nothing of the way in which she prepared for death, nor of the +feeling which the news of her imminent execution must have occasioned in +the prison; but when she was handed over to the executioner for the +final arrangements, Mme. Acquet wrote two or three letters to beg that +her children might never fall into her husband's hands. Her toilet was +then made; her beautiful black hair, which she had cut off on coming to +the conciergerie two years previously, fell now under the executioner's +scissors; she put on a sort of jacket of white flannel, and her hands +were tied behind her back. She was now ready; it was half past four in +the afternoon, the doors opened, and a squad of gendarmes surrounded the +cart. + +The cortege went by the "Gros-Horloge" to the "Vieux-Marche." Some one +who saw Mme. Acquet pass, seated in the cart beside the executioner +Ferey, says that "her white dress and short black hair blowing in her +face made the paleness of her skin conspicuous; she was neither downcast +nor bold; the sentence was cried aloud beside the cart." + +She died calmly, as she had lived for months. At five o'clock she +appeared on the platform, very white and very tranquil; unresisting, she +let them tie her; without fear or cry she lay on the board which swung +and carried her under the knife. Her head fell without anything +happening to retard the execution, and the authorities congratulated +themselves on the fact in the report sent to Real that evening: "The +thing caused no greater sensation than that ordinarily produced by +similar events; the rather large crowd did not give the slightest +trouble." + +And those who had stayed to watch the scaffold disappeared before the +gendarmes escorting the men who had come to take away the body. A few +followed it to the cemetery of Saint-Maur where the criminals were +usually buried. The basket was emptied into a ditch that had been dug +not far from a young tree to which some unknown hand had attached a +black ribbon, to mark the spot which neither cross nor tombstone might +adorn. The rain and wind soon destroyed this last sign; and nothing now +remains to show the corner of earth in the deserted and abandoned +cemetery in which still lies the body of the woman whose rank in other +times would have merited the traditional epitaph: "A very high, noble +and powerful lady." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CHOUANS SET FREE + + +A letter in a woman's handwriting, addressed to Timoleon de Combray, +Hotel de la Loi, Rue de Richelieu, its black seal hastily broken, +contains these words: "Alas, my dear cousin, you still continued to hope +when all hope was over.... I cannot leave your mother and I am anxious +about M. de Bonnoeil's condition." + +This is all that we can glean of the manner in which Mme. Acquet's +mother and brothers learned of her execution on October 6th. Mme. de +Combray at least displayed a good deal of energy, if not great calmness. +After the winter began, the letters she wrote Timoleon regained their +natural tone. The great sorrow seems to have been forgotten; they all +were leagued together against Acquet, who still reigned triumphant at +Donnay, and threatened to absorb the fortune of the whole family. The +trial had cost an enormous sum. Besides the money stolen in the woods at +Quesnay, which the Marquise had to refund, she had been obliged to spend +money freely in order to "corrupt Licquet," for Chauveau-Lagarde's fee, +for her advocate Maitre Gady de la Vigne, and for Ducolombier's journeys +to Paris and Vienna with the little girls,--the whole outlay amounting +to nearly 125,000 francs; and as the farms at Tournebut were +tenantless, while Acquet retained all the estates in lower Normandy and +would not allow them anything, the Marquise and her sons found their +income reduced to almost nothing. There remained not a single crown of +the 25,000 francs deposited in August, 1807, with Legrand. All had been +spent on "necessaries for the prisoners, or in their interests." + +Acquet was intractable. When the time for settling up came, he refused +insolently to pay his share of the lawsuit or for his children's +education. "Mme. de Combray, in order to carry out her own frenzied +plots," he stated, "had foolishly used her daughter's money in paying +her accomplices, and now she came and complained that Mme. Acquet lacked +bread and that she supported her, besides paying for the children's +schooling.... Mme. Acquet left her husband's house on the advice of her +mother who wished to make an accomplice of her. They took away the +children, their father did not even know the place of their retreat, and +the very persons who had abducted them came and asked him for the cost +of their maintenance." + +This was his plea; to which the Combrays replied: "The fee of Mme. +Acquet's lawyer, the expenses of the journey to Vienna and of the little +girls' stay in Paris that they might beg for their mother's pardon, +devolved, if not on the prisoner's husband, at least on her young +children as her heirs; and in any case Acquet ought to pay the bill." +But the latter, who was placed in a very strong position by the +services he had rendered Real and by the protection of Pontecoulant, +with whom he had associated himself, replied that Chauveau-Lagarde, +while pretending to plead for Mme. Acquet, had in reality only defended +Mme. de Combray: "All Rouen who heard the counsel's speech bears witness +that the daughter was sacrificed to save the mother.... The real object +of their solicitude had been the Marquise. Certainly they took very +little interest in their sister, and the moment her eyes were closed in +death, were base enough to ask for her funeral expenses in court, and +hastened to denounce her children to the Minister of Public Affairs in +order that they might be forced to pay for the sentence pronounced +against their mother." + +The case thus stated, the discussion could only become a scandal. +Bonnoeil disclosed the fact that his brother-in-law, on being asked by +a third person what influences he could bring to bear in order to obtain +Mme. Acquet's pardon, had replied that "such steps offered little chance +of success, and that from the moment the unhappy woman was condemned, +the best way to save her from dying on the scaffold, would be to poison +her in prison." A fresh suit was begun. The correspondence which passed +between the exasperated Combrays and their brother-in-law, who succeeded +in maintaining his self-control, must have made all reconciliation +impossible. A letter in Bonnoeil's handwriting is sufficient to +illustrate the style: + + "Is it charitable for an old French chevalier, a defender of the + Faith and of the Throne, to increase the sorrows on which his two + brothers-in-law are feeding in the silence of oblivion? Does he + hope in his exasperation that he will be able to force them into a + repetition of the story of the crimes committed by Desrues, + Cartouche, Pugatscheff, Shinderhannes, and other impostors, + thieves, garrotters and ruffians, who have rendered themselves + famous by their murders, poisonings, cruelties and cowardly + actions? They promise that, once their case is decided, they will + not again trouble Sieur Acquet de Ferolles." + +The invectives were, to say the least, ill-timed. The Combrays had gone +to law in order to force this man, whom they compared to the most +celebrated assassins, to undertake the education of their sister's three +children. These orphans, for whose schooling at the Misses Dusaussay's +no one was ready to pay, were pitied by all who knew of their situation. +Some pious ladies mentioned it to the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, who +kindly offered to subscribe towards the cost of their education. The +Combrays proudly refused, for which Acquet naturally blamed them. "They +think their nieces would be dishonoured by accepting a favour," he +wrote. + +Mme. de Combray might perhaps have yielded, if any one had made her +understand that her granddaughters were the only stake she had left. In +fact, since Mme. Acquet's death, no stone had been left unturned to +obtain the old Marquise's pardon. Ducolombier even went to Navarre to +entreat the help of the Empress Josephine, whose credit did not stand +very high. We can understand that after the official notification of the +imperial divorce, and as soon as the great event became known, the +Combrays, renouncing their relationship (which was of the very +slightest) with the Tascher de la Pageries, began immediately to count +in advance on the clemency of the future Empress, be she who she might. +When it was certain that an Archduchess was to succeed General +Beauharnais's widow on the throne of France, Ducolombier set out for +Vienna in the hope of outstripping the innumerable host of those who +went there as petitioners. It does not appear that he got farther than +Carlsruhe, and his journey was absolutely fruitless; but it soon became +known that the imperial couple intended making a triumphal progress +through the north of France, ending at Havre or Rouen, and it was then +decided that the little Acquets should appear again. + +At three o'clock in the afternoon of May 30th, the Emperor and Empress +arrived at Rouen. Ducolombier, walking in front of the three little +girls, who were escorted by Mlle. Querey, tried to force a passage for +them through the streets leading to the imperial residence, but could +not get into the house, and was obliged to content himself with handing +the petition, drawn up by Chauveau-Legarde, to the King of Westphalia. +He hoped the next day to be able to place the children on the Emperor's +route as he was on his way to visit some spinning mills; but as soon as +he was in the street with the orphans, he learnt that Napoleon had +inspected the factories at half past three in the morning, and that his +departure was fixed for ten o'clock. Branzon, a revenue collector and +friend of Licquet's procured the little Acquets a card from the prefect, +by showing which they were allowed to wait at the door of the Emperor's +residence. We quote the very words of the letter written the same day by +Ducolombier to Bonnoeil and the old Marquise: + + "Mlle. Querey and the three little girls were permitted to wait at + the door of the prefecture where, as you must know, they allow no + one. As soon as their Majesties' carriage came out, little Caroline + cried out to the Empress. The Emperor lowered the window to take + the petition, and handed it to the Empress, as it was meant for + her. The Empress bent forward in order to see them...." + +This time their confidence was unbounded. The old Marquise was already +congratulated on her approaching liberation; but days passed and nothing +more was heard of it. They waited patiently for a year, their hopes +growing fainter each day, and when it became only too evident that the +petition had had no effect, Timoleon ventured to remind the Empress of +it, and drew up in his own name a fresh request for his mother's pardon, +with no better result than before. A supreme and useless effort was made +on the 30th of August, 1813, when Marie Louise was Empress-Queen-Regent. +At this time Bonnoeil had at length been let out of prison, where he +had been unjustly detained since August, 1807. He had not appeared +before the court, and consequently was not condemned, but was detained +as a "precautionary measure." As his health was much impaired by his +stay at the conciergerie, the prefect took it upon himself to have him +removed, and placed him at Rouen under the supervision of the police. + +For there he could at least keep himself informed of what was going on. +If the newspapers gave but little news, he could still collect the +rumours of the town. Doubtless he was the first to advise his mother to +submit to her fate; and from this very moment the Marquise displayed an +astonishing serenity, as if she in fact foresaw the fall of him whom she +considered her personal enemy. She had accustomed herself very quickly +to life in the prison to which she had been transferred in 1813. The +rules were not very strict for those inmates who had a little money to +spend; she received visitors, sent to Tournebut for her backgammon-board +and her book of rules, and calmly awaited the long-hoped-for +thunderbolt. + +It fell at length, and the old Chouan must have flushed with triumph +when she heard that Bonaparte was crushed. What a sudden change! In less +than a day, the prisoner became again the venerable Marquise de Combray, +a victim to her devotion to the royal cause, a heroine, a martyr, a +saint; while at the other end of Normandy, Acquet de Ferolles, who had +at last decided to take in his three children, felt the ground tremble +under his feet, and hurriedly made his preparations for flight. In their +eagerness to make themselves acceptable to the Combrays, people "who +would not have raised a finger to help them when they were overwhelmed +with misfortune," now revealed to them things that had hitherto been +hidden from them; and thus the Marquise and her sons learned how Senator +Pontecoulant, out of hatred for Caffarelli, "whom he wished to ruin," +had undertaken, "with the aid of Acquet de Ferolles," to hand over +d'Ache to assassins. Proscribed royalists emerged on all sides from the +holes where they had been burrowing for the last fifteen years. There +was a spirit of retaliation in the air. Every one was making up his +account and writing out the bill. In this home of the Chouannerie, where +hatred ran rife and there were so many bitter desires for revenge, a +terrible reaction set in. The short notes, which the Marquise exchanged +with her sons and servants during the last few days of her captivity, +expressed neither joy at the Princes' return nor happiness at her own +restoration to liberty. They might be summed up in these words: "It is +our turn now," and the germ of the dark history of the Restoration and +the revolutions which followed it is contained in the outpourings of +this embittered heart, which nothing save vengeance could henceforth +satisfy. + +On Sunday, May 1st, 1814, at the hour when Louis XVIII was to enter +Saint Ouen, the doors of the prison were opened for the Marquise de +Combray, who slept the following night at her house in the Rue des +Carmelites. The next day at 1.30 p.m. she set out for Tournebut +with Mlle. Querey; her bailiff, Leclerc, came as far as Rouen to fetch +her in his trap. All the public conveyances were overcrowded; on the +roads leading to Paris there was an uninterrupted stream of vehicles of +all sorts, of cavaliers and of foot passengers, all hurrying to see the +King's return to his capital. Bonnoeil, who was at last delivered from +police supervision, had to set out on foot for Tournebut; he walked the +distance during the night, and arrived in the morning to find his mother +already installed there and making an inspection of the despoiled old +chateau which she had never thought to see again. The astonishing +reversions of fate make one think of the success which the opera "La +Dame Blanche" had some years later. This charming work sang their own +history to these nobles who were still smarting, and recalled to them +their ruined past. The abandoned "Chateau d'Avenel," the "poor Dame +Marguerite" spinning in the deserted halls and dreaming of her masters, +the mysterious being who watched over the destinies of the noble family, +and the amusing revival of those last vestiges of feudal times, the +bailiff, the bell in the turret, the gallant paladin, the knight's +banner--all these things saddened our grandmothers by arousing the +melancholy spectre of the good old times. + +At the beginning of August, 1814, Guerin-Bruslart, who had become M. le +Chevalier de Bruslard, Field Marshal in the King's army, attracted his +Majesty's attention to the survivors of the affair of Quesnay. He took +Le Chevalier's son, aged twelve years, to the Tuileries, and the King +accorded him a pension and a scholarship at one of the royal colleges. +The very same day Louis XVIII signed a royal pardon, which the Court of +Rouen ratified a few days later, by which Mme. de Combray's sentence was +annulled. On September 5th the Marquise saw her wildest dream realised +and was presented to the King--a fact which was mentioned in the +_Moniteur_ of the following day. + +This signal favour rallied many to the Combrays. Denunciations of Acquet +and his friends were heard on all sides. The letters written at this +period from Bonnoeil to his brother testify to the astonishment they +felt at these revelations. They made a fresh discovery every day. "M. +Bruslard told me the other day that La Vaubadon wished to have him +arrested, but that he took care not to fall into the trap she had set +for him." "With regard to Licquet, he knew d'Ache well and had made up +to him before the affair with Georges, believing at that time that there +would be a change of government." "It is quite certain that it was +Senator Pontecoulant who had d'Ache killed; Frotte's death was partly +due to him." "With regard to Acquet, M. de Rivoire told Placene that he +had been seen in the temple about six years ago, and that every one +there considered him a spy and an informer...." + +Thus, little by little Mme. de Combray arrived at the conclusion that +all her misfortunes had been caused by her enemies' hatred. In 1815 a +biographer published a life of the Marquise, which was preceded by a +dedication to herself which she had evidently dictated, and which placed +her high up in the list of royalist martyrs. + +This halo pleased her immensely. She was present at the fetes given at +the Rouen prefecture, where she walked triumphantly--still holding +herself very erect and wearing lilies in her hair--through the very +halls into which she had once been dragged handcuffed by Savoye-Rollin's +gaolers. At dinners where she was an honoured guest she would recount, +with astonishing calmness, her impressions of the pillory and the +prisons. She sent a confidential agent to Donnay "to obtain news of the +Sieur Acquet," who was not at all satisfied and by no means at ease, as +we can well imagine. It was said that he had sent for his sister to come +and take care of his three children, the eldest of whom was nearly +twenty years of age. Acquet pretended to be ill in order to defer his +departure from Donnay. He finally quitted Normandy early in the autumn +of 1814, taking with him his three daughters, "whom he counted on +marrying off in his own home." "He is without house or home," wrote Mme. +de Combray, "and possesses nothing but the shame by which he is +covered." Acquet de Ferolles settled at Saint-Hilaire-de-Tulmont, where +he died on April 6th, 1815. + +With the Hundred Days came another sudden change. At the first rumour of +Bonaparte's landing, Mme. de Combray set out for the coast and crossed +to England. If the alarm was intense, it lasted but a short time. In +July, 1815, the Marquise returned to Tournebut, which she busied herself +with repairing. She found scope for her energy in directing the workmen, +in superintending to the smallest detail the administration of her +estate, and in looking after her household with the particularity of +former times. Although Louis XVIII's Jacobinism seems to have been the +first thing that disillusioned the old royalist, she was none the less +the Lady of Tournebut, and within the limits of her estate she could +still believe that she had returned to the days before 1789. She still +had her seat at church, and her name was to be found in 1819 inscribed +on the bell at Aubevoye of which she was patroness. + +Mme. de Combray never again quitted Tournebut, where she lived with her +son Bonnoeil, waited upon by Catherine Querey, who had been faithful +to her in her misfortunes. Except for this faithful girl, the Marquise +had made a clean sweep of all her old servants. None of them are to be +found among the persons who surrounded her during the Restoration. These +were a maid, Henriette Lerebour, a niece of Mlle. Querey; a cook, a +coachman and a footman. During the years that followed, there was an +incessant coming and going of workmen at Tournebut. In 1823 the chateau +and its surrounding walls were still undergoing repairs. In the middle +of October of the same year, Mme. de Combray, who was worn out, took to +her bed. On the morning of Thursday, the 23d, it was reported that she +was very ill, and two village women were engaged to nurse her. At eight +o'clock in the evening the tolling of the bells announced that the +Marquise was no more. + +Her age was eighty-one years and nine months. When the judge called on +Friday, at Bonnoeil's special request, to affix seals to her effects, +he asked to be taken first into the chamber of death, where he saw the +Marquise lying in her painted wooden bed, hung with chintz curtains. The +funeral took place at the church of Aubevoye, the poor of the village +forming an escort to the coffin which the men carried on their +shoulders. After the service it was laid in a grave dug under a large +dark tree at the entrance to the cemetery. The tomb, which is carefully +kept, bears to this day a quite legible inscription setting forth in +clumsy Latin the Marquise de Combray's extraordinary history. + +The liquidation of her debts, which followed on her decease and the +division of her property, brought Acquet de Ferolles' daughters to +Tournebut, all three of whom were well married. In making an inventory +of the furniture in the chateau, they found amongst things forgotten in +the attic the harp on which their mother had played when as a young girl +she had lived at Tournebut, and a saddle which the "dragoon" may have +used on her nocturnal rides towards the hill of Authevernes in pursuit +of coaches. + +Mme. de Combray's sons kept Tournebut, and Bonnoeil continued to live +there. There are many people in Aubevoye who remember him. He was a tall +old man, with almost the figure of an athlete, though quite bowed and +bent. His eyebrows were grizzled and bushy, his eyes large and very +dark, his complexion sunburned. He was somewhat gloomy, and seemed to +care for nothing but to talk with a very faded and wrinkled old woman in +a tall goffered cap, who was an object of veneration to everybody. This +was Mlle. Querey. All were aware she had been Mme. de Combray's +confidante and knew all the Marquise's secrets: and she was often seen +talking at great length to Bonnoeil about the past. + +Bonnoeil died at Tournebut in 1846, at the age of eighty-four, and the +manor of Marillac did not long outlast him. Put up for sale in 1856, it +was demolished in the following year and replaced by a large and +splendid villa. While the walls of the old chateau were being +demolished, the peasants of Aubevoye, who had so often listened to the +legends concerning it, displayed great curiosity as to the mysteries +which the demolition would disclose. Nothing was discovered but a partly +filled up subterranean passage, which seemed to run towards the small +chateau. The secret of the other hiding-places had long been known. A +careful examination of the old dwelling produced only one surprise. A +portmanteau containing 3,000 francs in crowns and double-louis was found +in a dark attic. Mme. de Combray's grandchildren knew so little of the +drama of their house, that no one thought of connecting this find with +the affairs of Quesnay, of which they had scarcely ever heard. It seems +probable that this portmanteau belonged to the lawyer Lefebre and was +hidden by him, unknown to the Marquise, in the hope of being able to +recover it later on. + +A very few words will suffice to tell the fate of the other actors in +this drama. Licquet was unfortunate; but first of all he asked for the +cross of the Legion of Honour. "I have served the government for twenty +years," he wrote to Real. "I bristle with titles. I am the father of a +family and am looked up to by the authorities. My only ambition is +honour, and I am bold enough to ask for a sign. Will you be kind enough +to obtain it for me?" Did Real not dare to stand sponsor for such a +candidate? Did they think that the cross, given hitherto so +parsimoniously to civilians, was not meant for the police? Licquet was +obliged to wait in patience. In the hope of increasing his claims to the +honour he coveted, he went in quest of new achievements, and had the +good fortune to discover a second attack on a coach, far less +picturesque, as a matter of fact, than the one to which he owed his +fame, but which he undertook to work up like a master, and did it so +well, by dint of disguises, forged letters, surprised confidences, the +invention of imaginary persons, and other melodramatic tricks, that he +succeeded in producing at the Criminal Court at Evreux seven prisoners +against whom the evidence was so well concocted that five at least were +in danger of losing their heads. But when the imperial Procurator +arrived at the place, instead of accepting the work as completed, he +carefully examined the papers referring to the inquiry. Disgusted at the +means used to drag confessions from the accused, and indignant that his +name should have been associated with so repulsive a comedy, he asked +for explanations. Licquet attempted to brazen it out, but was scornfully +told to hold his peace. Wounded to the quick, he began a campaign of +recriminations, raillery and invective against the magistrates of Eure, +which was only ended by the unanimous acquittal of the seven innocent +persons whom he had delivered over to justice, and whose release the +Procurator himself generously demanded. + +The blow fell all the heavier on Licquet as he was at the time deeply +compromised in the frauds of his friend Branzon, a collector at Rouen, +whose malversations had caused the ruin of Savoye-Rollin. The prefect's +innocence was firmly established, but Branzon, who had already been +imprisoned as a Chouan in the Temple, and whose history must have been a +very varied one, was condemned to twelve years' imprisonment in chains. + +This also was a blow to Licquet. Realising, during the early days of the +Restoration, that the game he had played had brought him more enemies +than friends, he thought it wise to leave Rouen, and like so many others +lose himself among the police in Paris. Doubtless he was not idle while +he was there, and if the fire of 1871 had not destroyed the archives of +the prefecture, it would have been interesting to search for traces of +him. We seem to recognise his methods in the strangely dubious affair of +the false dauphin, Mathurin Bruneau. This obscure intrigue was connected +with Rouen; his friend Branzon, who was detained at Bicetre, was the +manager of it. A certain Joseph Paulin figured in it--a strange person, +who boasted of having received the son of Louis XVI at the door of the +temple and, for this reason, was a partisan of two dauphins. Joseph +Paulin was, in my opinion, a very cunning detective, who was, moreover, +charged with the surveillance of the believers, sincere or otherwise, +in the survival of Louis XVII. In order the better to gain their +confidence, he pretended to have had a hand in the young King's flight. +With the exception of a few plausible allegations, the accounts he gave +of his wonderful adventures do not bear investigation. What makes us +think that he was Licquet's pupil, or that at least he had some +connection with the police of Rouen, is that in 1817, at the time of the +Bruneau intrigue, we find him marrying the woman, Delaitre, aged +forty-six, and living on an allowance from the parish and a sum left him +"by a person who had died at Bicetre." The woman Delaitre seemed to be +identical with the spy whom Licquet had so cleverly utilised. + +Joseph Paulin died in 1842; his wife survived him twenty years, dying at +last in the Rue Croix de Fer at the age of ninety-one. Up to the time of +her death she received a small pension from the town. As to Licquet, he +lived to one hundred--but without any decoration--in his lodging in the +Rue Saint-Le. The old man's walks in the streets which were so familiar +to him, must have been rich in memories. The "Gros-Horloge" under which +the tumbrils had passed; the "Vieux-Marche," where so many heads had +fallen which the executioner owed to him; le Faubourg Bouvreuil, where +the graves of his victims grew green; Bicetre, the old conciergerie, the +palace itself, which he could see from his windows,--all these objects +must have called up to his mind painful recollections. The certificate +of his death, which bears the date February 7, 1855, simply describes +him as an ex-advocate. + +Querelle, whose denunciation ruined Georges Cadoudal, was set at liberty +at the end of a year. Besides his life, Desmarets had promised him the +sum of 80,000 francs to pay his debts with, but as they were in no hurry +to hand him the money, his creditors lost patience and had him shut up +in Sainte-Pelagie. Desmarets at last decided to pay up, and Querelle was +sent to Piemont, where he lived on a small pension from the government. +In 1814 we find those of Georges' accomplices who had escaped the +scaffold--among whom were Hozier and Amand Gaillard,--scattered among +the prisons of the kingdom, in the fortresses of Ham, Joux, and +Bouillon. Others who had been sent under surveillance forty leagues from +Paris and the seacoast, reappeared, ruined by ten years of enforced +idleness, threats and annoyances. Vannier the lawyer died in prison at +Brest; Bureau de Placene, who was let out of prison at the Restoration, +assisted Bruslard in the distribution of the rewards granted by the King +to those who had helped on the good cause. Allain, who had been +condemned to death for contumacy by the decree of Rouen, gave himself up +in 1815. He was immediately set free, and a pension granted him. Seeing +which, Joseph Buquet, who was in the same predicament, presented +himself, and being acquitted immediately, returned to Donnay, dug up the +43,000 francs remaining over from the sum stolen in 1807, and lived +"rich and despised." As to the girl Dupont, who had been Mme. Acquet's +confidante, she was kept in prison till 1814. Being released on the +King's return she immediately took refuge in a convent where she spent +the rest of her life. + +Mme. de Vaubadon, who lived disguised under the name of Tourville, which +had been her mother's, died in misery in a dirty lodging-house at +Belleville on January 23, 1848; her body was borne on the following day +to the parish cemetery, where the old register proves that no one bought +a corner of ground for her where she could rest in peace. M. de Vaubadon +had died eight years previously, having pardoned her some years before. + +Certain of the inhabitants of Saint-Lo still remember the tall old man, +always gloomy and with a pale complexion, who seemed to have only one +idea, and who, to the last day of his life, loved and defended the woman +to whom he had given his name. As for Foison, the murderer, he was made +a lieutenant and received the cross of the Legion of Honour. Caffarelli, +to whose lot it fell to present it to him, excused himself on a plea of +necessary absence. M. Lance, the Secretary-General for the prefecture, +who was obliged to take his place, could not, as he bestowed the +decoration, refrain "from letting him observe the disgust he felt for +his person, and the shame he experienced at seeing the star of the brave +thus profaned." M. Lance was dismissed at the instance of Foison, who, +soon afterwards, was made an officer, and despatched to the army in +Spain, whither his reputation had preceded him. Tradition assures us +that an avenger had reserved for him a death similar to d'Ache's, and +that he was found on the road one morning pierced with bullets. Nothing +is farther from the truth. Foison became a captain and lived till 1843. + +D'Ache's family, which returned to Gournay after Georges Cadoudal's +execution, was disturbed afresh at Mme. de Combray's arrest. As we have +said before, Licquet had had Jean Baptiste de Caqueray (who had married +Louise d'Ache in 1806) brought handcuffed into Rouen, but had scarcely +examined him. "Caqueray," he wrote, "is quite innocent; he quarrelled +with his father-in-law;" and he dismissed him with this remark: "If only +he had known the prey he was allowing to escape!" Up to 1814 Caqueray +did not again attract the attention of the police. At the Restoration he +was made a captain of gendarmes. His wife Louise d'Ache was in 1815 +appointed lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Bourbon, by whom she had in +part been brought up, being on her mother's side the niece of the gentle +Vicomte de Roquefeuille, who had previously "consoled the Duchess so +tenderly for the desertion of her inconstant husband." Louise d'Ache +died in 1817, and her sister Alexandrine, who was unmarried, was in her +turn summoned to the Princess, and took the title of Comtesse d'Ache. In +spite of the Princes' favour, Caqueray remained a captain of gendarmes +till he left the service in 1830. It was only then made known that in +1804, at the time of Querelle's disclosures and of the journey +undertaken by Savary to Biville, to surprise a fourth landing of +conspirators, it was he, Jean-Baptiste de Caqueray, who, warned by a +messenger from Georges that "all were compromised," started from Gournay +on horseback, reached the farm of La Poterie in twelve hours, crossed +three lines of gendarmes, and signalled to the English brig which was +tacking along the coast, to stand out to sea. Caqueray immediately +remounted his horse, endured the fire of an ambuscade, flung himself +into the forest of Eu, and succeeded in reaching Gournay before his +absence had been noticed, and just in time to receive a visit from +Captain Manginot, who, as we have already related, sent him to the +Temple with Mme. d'Ache and Louise. + +Caqueray died in 1834, leaving several children quite unprovided for. +They were, however, adopted by their grandmother, d'Ache's widow, who +survived her daughters and son-in-law. She was small and had never been +pretty, but had very distinguished and imposing manners. She is said to +have made the following answer to a great judge who, at the time of her +arrest, asked her where her husband was: "You doubtless do not know, +Monsieur, whom you are addressing." From that time they ceased +questioning her. She lived on till 1836. She was never heard to +complain, though she and her family had lived in great poverty and known +constant anxiety. She had lost her money, and her husband had died at +the hand of a treacherous assassin. All her children had gone before +her, and in spite of all her misfortunes, and old though she was, she +still strove to bring up her grandchildren "to love their lawful King," +for whose sake she had now nothing left to sacrifice. + +Perhaps in the course of that tragic night when the defeated Napoleon +found himself alone in deserted Fontainebleau, the great Emperor's mind +may have reverted jealously to those stubborn royalists whom neither +their Princes' apathy nor the certainty of never being rewarded could +daunt. At that very moment the generals whom he had loaded with titles +and wealth were hastening to meet the Bourbons. He had not one friend +left among the hundred million people he had governed in the day of his +power. His mameluke had quitted him, his valet had fled. And if he +thought of Georges guillotined in the Place de la Greve, of Le Chevalier +who fell at the wall at Grenelle, of d'Ache stabbed on the road, he must +also have thought of the speech ascribed to Cromwell: "Who would do the +like for me?" + +And perhaps of all his pangs this was the cruellest and most vengeful. +His cause must, in its turn, be sanctified by misfortune to gain its +fanatics and its martyrs. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE COMBRAYS*** + + +******* This file should be named 17067.txt or 17067.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/6/17067 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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