who, returning in haste and finding her barricaded in the
chateau, called the justice of the peace of the canton of Harcourt,
aided by his clerk and two gendarmes, to witness that his wife refused
to receive him. Having, one fine morning, "found her desk forced and all
her papers taken," she returned to Falaise, obtained a judgment
authorising her to live with her brother, and lodged a petition for
separation.

Things were at this point when the trial of Georges Cadoudal was in
progress. Acquet, exasperated at the resistance to his projects, swore
that he would have signal vengeance on his wife and all the Combrays.
They were, unhappily, to give his hatred too good an opportunity of
showing itself.

After passing three years in Rouen, Mme. de Combray returned to
Tournebut in the spring of 1796, with her royalist passions and
illusions as strong as ever. She had declared war on the Revolution, and
believed that victory was assured at no distant period. It is a not
uncommon effect of political passion to blind its subjects to the point
of believing that their desires and hopes are imminent realities. Mme.
de Combray anticipated the return of the King so impatiently that one of
her reasons for returning to the chateau was to prepare apartments for
the Princes and their suite in case the debarkation should take place on
the coast of Normandy. Once before, in 1792, Gaillon had been designated
as a stopping-place for Louis XVI in case he should again make the
attempt that had been frustrated at Varennes. The Chateau de Gaillon was
no longer habitable in 1796, but Tournebut, in the opinion of the
Marquise, offered the same advantages, being about midway between the
coast and Paris. Its isolation also permitted the reception of passing
guests without awakening suspicion, while the vast secret rooms where
sixty to eighty persons could hide at one time, were well suited for
holding secret councils. To make things still safer, Mme. de Combray now
acquired a large house, situated about two hundred yards from the walls
of Tournebut, and called "Gros-Mesnil" or "Le Petit Chateau." It was a
two-story building with a high slate roof; the court in front was
surrounded by huts and offices; a high wall enclosed the property on all
sides, and a pathway led from it to one of the doors in the wall
surrounding Tournebut.

As soon as she was in possession of the Petit Chateau, Mme. de Combray
had some large secret places constructed in it.