e and Saint-Leu had been proved. For three
months, in Paris even, wherever the police had worked, they had struck
the trail of this same d'Ache, who appeared to have presided over the
whole organisation of the plot. Thus, he had been seen at Verdet's in
the Rue du Puits-de-l'Hermite, while Georges was there; he had met Raoul
Gaillard several times; in making an inventory of the papers of a young
lady called Margeot, with whom Pichegru had dined, two rather
enigmatical notes had been found, in which d'Ache's name appeared.

Mme. d'Ache and her eldest daughter had been since February in the
Madelonnettes prison; the second girl, Alexandrine, had been left at
liberty in the hope that in Paris, where she was a stranger, she would
be guilty of some imprudence that would deliver her father to the
police. She had taken lodgings in the Rue Traversiere-Saint-Honore, at
the Hotel des Treize-Cantons, and Real had immediately set two spies
upon her, but their reports were monotonously melancholy. "Very well
behaved, very quiet--she lives, and is daily with the master and
mistress of the hotel, people of mature age. She sees no one, and is
spoken of in the highest terms." From this side, also, all hope of
catching d'Ache had to be abandoned.

Another way was thought of, and on March 22d the order to open all the
gates was given. Fouche foresaw that in their anxiety to leave Paris all
of Georges' accomplices who had not been caught would hasten to return
to Normandy, and thanks to the watchfulness exercised, a clean sweep
might be made of them. The cleverly conceived idea had some result. On
the 25th a peasant called Jacques Pluquet of Meriel, near l'Isle-Adam,
when working in his field on the border of the wood of La Muette, saw
four men in hats pulled down over cotton caps, and with strong knotted
clubs, coming towards him. They asked him if they could cross the Oise
at Meriel. Pluquet replied that it was easy to do so, "but there were
gendarmes to examine all who passed." At that they hesitated. They
described themselves as conscript deserters coming from Valenciennes who
wished to get back to their homes. Pluquet's account is so picturesque
as to be worth quoting:

"I asked them where they belonged; they replied in Alencon. I remarked
that they would have trouble in getting there without being arrested.
One of them said: 'That is true, for after what had just happened in
Paris, everywhere is guarded.' Then, allowing the three o