he whole company assembled
at table, and Monsieur Michaud passed there on his way to Soulanges,
which he reached at eleven. His horse reared between the two pavilions
on the mail-road; but he may have been shot before reaching Blangy and
yet have stayed in the saddle for some little time. We should have to
issue warrants for at least twenty persons and arrest them; but I know
these peasants, and so do these gentlemen; you might keep them a year in
prison and you would get nothing out of them but denials. What could you
do with all those who were at Tonsard's?"

They sent for Langlume, the miller, and the assistant of General
Montcornet as mayor; he related what had taken place in the tavern, and
gave the names of all present; none had gone out except for a minute or
two into the courtyard. He had left the room for a moment with Tonsard
about eleven o'clock; they had spoken of the moon and the weather, and
heard nothing. At two o'clock the whole party had taken the bride and
bridegroom to their own house.

The general arranged with the sergeant, the lieutenant, and the civil
authorities to send to Paris for the cleverest detective in the service
of the police, who should come to the chateau as a workman, and behave
so ill as to be dismissed; he should then take to drinking and frequent
the Grand-I-Vert and remain in the neighborhood in the character of an
ill-wisher to the general. The best plan they could follow was to watch
and wait for a momentary revelation, and then make the most of it.

"If I have to spend twenty thousand francs I'll discover the murderer of
my poor Michaud," the general was never weary of saying.

He went off with that idea in his head, and returned from Paris in the
month of January with one of the shrewdest satellites of the chief of
the detective police, who was brought down ostensibly to do some work
to the interior of the chateau. The man was discovered poaching. He was
arrested, and turned off, and soon after--early in February--the general
rejoined his wife in Paris.

CHAPTER X. THE TRIUMPH OF THE VANQUISHED

One evening in the month of May, when the fine weather had come and the
Parisians had returned to Les Aigues, Monsieur de Troisville,--who had
been persuaded to accompany his daughter,--Blondet, the Abbe Brossette,
the general, and the sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, who was on a visit
to the chateau, were all playing either whist or chess. It was about
half-past eleven o