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If ever a condemned person had a right to appeal to the Sovereign's mercy it is Henriette Lechantre.
They betrayed their duty. One of them, foreseeing his fate, committed suicide, but not until he had made important revelations. The other, Mallet, denies nothing, his tacit admissions preclude all doubt, especially as to the guilt of the woman Bryond. The woman Lechantre, in spite of her constant denials, was privy to all.
"I expected you," said the kind old man, when Godefroid entered his room some fifteen minutes later. "I got up earlier than usual, for I felt sure you would be impatient." "Madame Henriette?" asked Godefroid, with visible anxiety. "Was Madame's daughter!" replied Monsieur Alain. "Madame's name is Lechantre de la Chanterie.
At the age of thirty-five, this man, then known under his true name of des Tours-Minieres, affecting a sincere piety, professing the utmost devotion to the interests of the Comte de Lille and a reverence for the memory of the insurgents who lost their lives at the West, disguising with great ability the secrets of his exhausted youth, and powerfully protected by the silence of creditors, and by the spirit of caste which exists among all country ci-devants, this man, truly a whited sepulchre, was introduced, as possessing every claim for consideration, to Madame Lechantre, who was supposed to be the possessor of a large fortune.
The woman Lechantre receives these sums at Mortagne; and, on receipt of a letter from her daughter, removes them to Saint-Savin, where the woman Bryond now returns. This is not the moment to examine as to whether the woman Lechantre had any anterior knowledge of the plot.
The old man tells Vauthier that he must go to his nephews, who have taken large sums to the woman Bryond. But he orders him to wait outside in the road, and brings him a bag containing the small sum of twelve hundred francs, which Vauthier delivers to the woman Lechantre for her daughter. At Leveille's request, Vauthier returns to Bourget, who this time sends for his nephews.
Both Bourlac and Mergi showed extraordinary bitterness against mother and daughter; they called the Baronne des Tours-Minieres 'the woman Bryond, and Madame 'the woman Lechantre. The names of accused persons in those days were all brought to one republican level, and were sometimes unrecognizable.
Evidently the name Lechantre stood for la Chanterie; in all probably the aristocracy of the name was intentionally thus concealed during the Revolution and under the Empire. Godefroid saw, in imagination, the landscape and the scenes where this drama had taken place. The forms and faces of the accomplices passed before his eyes.
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