Nantes, therefore, she believed her enemies would never search
for her. She took refuge there in the house of two elderly maiden
ladies, the Demoiselles Duguigney, where she remained five months.
They must have been months of anguish to her, and of unspeakable
impatience. It is very possible that the Government did not care
to find her. She was the queen's niece, and if captured what could
be done with her? To set her free to hatch new plots would have
been bitterly condemned by the republicans; to imprison her would
have made an additional motive for royalist conspiracies; to execute
her would have been impossible. Marie Caroline, however, had solved
these difficult problems by her own misconduct.

Meantime the premiership of France passed into the hands of M.
Thiers. A Jew--a Judas--named Deutz, came to him mysteriously,
and bargained to deliver into his hands the Duchesse de Berri.
Thiers, who had none of the pity felt for her by the Orleans family,
closed with the offer. Some years before, Deutz had renounced his
Jewish faith and pretended to turn Christian. Pope Gregory XVI.
had patronized him, and had recommended him to the Duc de Berri as
a confidential messenger. He had frequently carried despatches of
importance, and knew that the duchess was in Nantes, but he did not
know her hiding-place. He contrived to persuade her to grant him an
interview. It took place at the Demoiselles Duguigney's house; but
he was led to believe that she only used their residence for that
purpose. With great difficulty he procured a second interview, in
the course of which, having taken his measures beforehand, soldiers
surrounded the house. Before they could enter it, word was brought
to the duchess that she was betrayed. She fled from the room, and
when the soldiers entered they could not find her. They were certain
that she had not left the house. They broke everything to pieces,
sounded the walls, ripped up the beds and furniture. Night came
on, and troops were left in every chamber. In a large garret, where
there was a wide fireplace, the soldiers collected some newspapers
and light wood, and about midnight built a fire. Soon within the
chimney a noise of kicking against an iron panel was heard, and
voices cried: "Let us out,--we surrender!"

For sixteen hours the duchess and two friends had been imprisoned
in a tiny hiding-place, separated from the hearth by a thin iron
sliding-panel, which, when the soldiers lit their fire,