agent of
Aubevoye, in which is situated the Chateau of Tournebut, inscribed the
birth of a daughter, born to the citizeness Louise-Charlotte de Combray,
"wife of the citizen Louis Acquet." Here, then, is the reason that the
Marquise "found herself obliged to consent to the marriage," which did
not take place until the following year, mention of it not being made in
the registry of Rouen until the date 17th June, 1797.

Acquet had thus attained his wish; he had seduced Mlle. de Combray to
make the marriage inevitable, and this accomplished, under pretext of
preventing their sale, he caused the estates of the Combrays situated at
Donnay near Falaise, and sequestrated by the emigration of Bonnoeil,
to be conveyed to him. Scarcely was this done when he began to pillage
the property, turning everything into money, cutting down woods, and
sparing neither thickets nor hedges. "The domain of Donnay became a sort
of desert in his hands." Stopped in his depredations by a complaint of
his two brothers-in-law he tried to attack the will of the Marquis de
Combray, pretending that his wife, a minor at the time of her father's
death, had been injured in the division of property. This was to declare
open war on the family he had entered, and to compel his wife to espouse
his cause he beat her unmercifully. A second daughter was born of this
unhappy union, and even the children did not escape the brutality of
their father. A note on this subject, written by Mme. Acquet, is of
heart-breaking eloquence:

"M. Acquet beat the children cruelly every day; he ill-treated me also
unceasingly: he often chastised them with sticks, which he always used
when he made the children read; they were continually black and blue
with the blows they received. He gave me such a severe blow one day that
blood gushed from my nose and mouth, and I was unconscious for some
moments.... He went to get his pistols to blow out my brains, which he
would certainly have done if people had not been present.... He was
always armed with a dagger."

In January, 1804, Mme. Acquet resolved to escape from this hell.
Profiting by her husband's absence in La Veudee she wrote to him that
she refused to live with him longer, and hastened to Falaise to ask a
shelter from her brother Timoleon, who had lately returned to France.
Timoleon, in order to prevent a scandal, persuaded his sister to return
to her husband's house. She took this wise advice, but refused to see M.
Acquet,