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Never had the young detective's faculties been more keenly on the alert. Diplomatist and politician, born at Montaignac, December 3d, 1769; of an old family of lawyers. He was completing his studies in Paris at the outbreak of the Revolution and embraced the popular cause with all the ardor of youth.
And the duke, appointed to the command of the military forces, and the marquis, made presiding judge of the court at Montaignac, were both obliged to leave their beautiful homes and take up their abode in rather dingy quarters in town. They did not murmur at the change; their vanity was satisfied. Louis XVIII. was on the throne; their prejudices were triumphant; they were happy.
As soon as we assert ourselves, all these rascals, whose rebellion alarms you, will quietly sink out of sight." Such was really his opinion. On the way from Montaignac to Sairmeuse, the duke, comfortably ensconced in his berlin, unfolded his theories for the benefit of his son. "The King has been poorly advised," he said, in conclusion.
Chupin trembled, he who had formerly been bronze, and a fleeting color dyed his cheeks. "The Montaignac police are at your disposal," he answered sulkily. "They, perhaps, can satisfy the curiosity of Monsieur le Marquis. I do not belong to the police." Was he in earnest, or was he endeavoring to augment the value of his services by refusing them? Martial inclined to the latter opinion.
Burdened with remorse, despised and jeered at, and stoned whenever he showed himself upon the street, and horror-stricken whenever he thought of the terrible threats of Balstain, the Piedmontese innkeeper, Chupin left Montaignac and came to beg an asylum at the Chateau de Sairmeuse.
The abbe and Maurice found an explanation of this evident terror on reaching the hotel to which they had ordered the coachman to take them. They had designated the Hotel de France, where the baron always stopped when he visited Montaignac, and whose proprietor was none other than Laugeron, that friend of Lacheneur, who had been the first to warn him of the arrival of the Duc de Sairmeuse.
Mme. d'Escorval left the room to write a few lines to a lady friend, whose husband exerted considerable influence in Montaignac. Maurice and Marie-Anne were left alone. It was the first moment of freedom and solitude which they had found since Marie-Anne's confession.
It was impossible to doubt this intelligence, for the Montaignac papers mentioned this fact, with all the circumstances on the following day. The abbe attributed this sudden and happy change entirely to the rupture between the duke and the marquis, and this was the universal opinion in the neighborhood.
The clock in the tower of Sairmeuse was striking the hour of eight when Lacheneur and his little band of followers left the Reche. An hour later, at the Chateau de Courtornieu, Mlle. Blanche, after finishing her dinner, ordered the carriage to convey her to Montaignac.
After supper Chupin sent for a cart; the prisoner, securely bound, was placed in it, and the party started for Montaignac. The great bell was striking two when Lacheneur was brought into the citadel. At that very moment M. d'Escorval and Corporal Bavois were making their preparations for escape.
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