intended in the evening to drive to Presles openly in
his own carriage, should be starting early the next morning incognito in
Pierrotin's coucou?

Here a few words on the life of the steward Moreau become indispensable.

Moreau, steward of the state of Presles, was the son of a provincial
attorney who became during the Revolution syndic-attorney at Versailles.
In that position, Moreau the father had been the means of almost saving
both the lives and property of the Serizys, father and son. Citizen
Moreau belonged to the Danton party; Robespierre, implacable in his
hatreds, pursued him, discovered him, and finally had him executed at
Versailles. Moreau the son, heir to the doctrines and friendships of
his father, was concerned in one of the conspiracies which assailed
the First Consul on his accession to power. At this crisis, Monsieur
de Serizy, anxious to pay his debt of gratitude, enabled Moreau, lying
under sentence of death, to make his escape; in 1804 he asked for his
pardon, obtained it, offered him first a place in his government office,
and finally took him as private secretary for his own affairs.

Some time after the marriage of his patron Moreau fell in love with the
countess's waiting-woman and married her. To avoid the annoyances of the
false position in which this marriage placed him (more than one example
of which could be seen at the imperial court), Moreau asked the count to
give him the management of the Presles estate, where his wife could
play the lady in a country region, and neither of them would be made
to suffer from wounded self-love. The count wanted a trustworthy man
at Presles, for his wife preferred Serizy, an estate only fifteen miles
from Paris. For three or four years Moreau had held the key of the
count's affairs; he was intelligent, and before the Revolution he had
studied law in his father's office; so Monsieur de Serizy granted his
request.

"You can never advance in life," he said to Moreau, "for you have broken
your neck; but you can be happy, and I will take care that you are so."

He gave Moreau a salary of three thousand francs and his residence in a
charming lodge near the chateau, all the wood he needed from the timber
that was cut on the estate, oats, hay, and straw for two horses, and a
right to whatever he wanted of the produce of the gardens. A sub-prefect
is not as well provided for.

During the first eight years of his stewardship, Moreau managed the
estate conscie