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Updated: July 24, 2025
All the gallants of the neighborhood are in the ranks; Chanlouineau, young d'Escorval, your son " M. de Sairmeuse was pouring forth a torrent of curses upon Marie-Anne when his valet re-entered the room. He suddenly checked himself, put on his uniform, and ordering Chupin to follow him, hastened from the house.
Two minutes after the departure of Marie-Anne and of Maurice, Chanlouineau was still battling with the foe. A dozen or more soldiers were in front of him. Twenty shots had been fired, but not a ball had struck him. His enemies always believed him invulnerable. "Surrender!" cried the soldiers, amazed by such valor; "surrender!" "Never! never!"
Chanlouineau admitted that he did not know, but declared that Marie-Anne, Lacheneur's daughter, knew her father's hiding-place. She had, he declared, perfect confidence in him; and if they would only send for her, and allow him ten minutes' private conversation with her, he was sure he could obtain the secret of her father's place of concealment. So the bargain was quickly concluded.
"The same pitiful farce that was played in Paris, only on a smaller scale," he murmured. "Avarice and human cowardice are the same the world over!" Meanwhile, Chanlouineau was going on with his recital. "To make the fete complete, the devil must have warned all the nobility in the neighborhood, for they all came running.
On reaching the little grove on the Reche, he paused for a moment at a place which commanded a view of the cottage. While he stood there, he saw Jean Lacheneur and Chanlouineau leave the house, each laden with a pedler's pack. Maurice was therefore sure that M. Lacheneur and Marie-Anne were alone in the house. He hastened to the cottage and entered without stopping to rap.
These articles Marie-Anne deposited in the room which Chanlouineau had adorned for her, and which she intended for the baron. After arranging them to her satisfaction she went out to meet young Poignot, who had told her that he would soon return with other articles.
"What is the matter?" he inquired anxiously. She handed him the letter, saying: "Read." Chanlouineau was only a poor peasant. His entire education had been derived from an old country pedagogue, whose school he attended for three winters, and who troubled himself much less about the progress of his students than about the size of the books which they carried to and from the school.
"Lacheneur, Abbe Midon, Chanlouineau, Baron d'Escorval " "Enough!" cried the duke. Now that danger was certain, his coolness returned; and his herculean form, a trifle bowed by the weight of years, rose to its full height. He gave the bell-rope a violent pull; a valet appeared. "My uniform," commanded M. de Sairmeuse; "my pistols! Quick!"
No one had ever slept upon this bed which poor Chanlouineau had destined for Marie-Anne. "It shall be for her," he said to himself, "or for no one." And it was Marie-Anne who rested there first dead.
Father Poignot was doubtless, even then, awaiting her at the rendezvous. She lifted the hearth-stone, and found the sum of money which Chanlouineau had named. The next morning, when he awoke, the abbe received the money. Now, Marie-Anne could breathe freely; and this peace, after so many trials and agitations, seemed to her almost happiness.
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