rent points of the valley of Cinq-Cygne at
sufficient distance from each other to cause no alarm. These four
pickets were to form a square and close in around the chateau of
Cinq-Cygne. By leaving Corentin alone at Gondreville during his
consultation in the fields with Grevin, Malin had enabled him to fulfil
part of Fouche's orders and explore the house. When the Councillor of
State returned home he told Corentin so positively that the d'Hauteserre
and Simeuse brothers were in the neighborhood and probably at Cinq-Cygne
that the two agents despatched the captain with the rest of his company,
who, fortunately for the four gentlemen, crossed the forest on their
way to the chateau during the time when Michu was making Violette drunk.
Malin had told Corentin and Peyrade of the escape he had from lying in
wait for him. The two agents related the incident of the gun they
had seen the bailiff load, and Grevin had sent Violette to obtain
information as to what was going on at Michu's house. Corentin advised
the notary to take Malin to his own house in the little town of Arcis,
and let him sleep there as a measure of precaution. At the moment when
Michu and his wife were rushing through the forest on their way to
Cinq-Cygne, Peyrade and Corentin were starting from Gondreville for
Cinq-Cygne in a shabby wicker carriage, drawn by one post-horse driven
by the corporal of Arcis, one of the shrewdest men in the Legion, whom
the commandant at Troyes advised them to employ.

"The surest way to seize them all is to warn them," said Peyrade to
Corentin. "At the moment when they are well frightened and are trying to
save their papers or to escape we'll fall upon them like a thunderbolt.
The gendarmes surround the chateau now and are as good as a net. We
sha'n't lose one of them!"

"You had better send the mayor to warn them," said the corporal. "He
is friendly to them and wouldn't like to see them harmed; they won't
distrust him."

Just as Goulard was preparing to go to bed, Corentin, who stopped
the vehicle in a little wood, went to his house and told him,
confidentially, that in a few moments an emissary from the government
would require him to enter the chateau of Cinq-Cygne and arrest
the brothers d'Hauteserre and Simeuse; and in case they had already
disappeared he would have to ascertain if they had slept there the
night before, search Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's papers, and, possibly,
arrest both the masters and servants of the