e wanted to name himself as his successor." Little by little the
servants became accustomed to the presence of this guest of whom Mme. de
Combray took such good care "because he had had differences with the
government," as she said. Under pretext of repairs undertaken in the
church of Aubevoye, the cure of the parish was invited to celebrate mass
every Sunday in the chapel of the chateau, and d'Ache could thus be
present at the celebration without showing himself in the village.

Doubtless the days passed slowly for this man accustomed to an active
life; he and his old friend dreamt of the return of the King, and
Bonnoeil, who spent part of the year at Tournebut, read to them a
funeral oration of the Duc d'Enghien, a virulent pamphlet that the
royalists passed from hand to hand, and of which he had taken a copy.
How many times must d'Ache have paced the magnificent avenue of limes,
which still exists as the only vestige of the old park. There is a
moss-grown stone table on which one loves to fancy this strange man
leaning his elbow while he thought of his "rival," and planned the
future according to his royalist illusions as the other in his Olympia,
the Tuileries, planned it according to his ambitious caprices.

This existence lasted fifteen months. From the time of his arrival at
the end of March, 1804, until the day he left, it does not seem that
d'Ache received any visitors, except Mme. Levasseur of Rouen, who, if
police reports are to be believed, was simultaneously his mistress and
Raoul Gaillard's. The truth is that she was a devoted friend of the
royalists--to whom she had rendered great service, and through her
d'Ache was kept informed of what happened in Lower Normandy during his
seclusion at Tournebut. Since the general pacification, tranquillity
was, in appearance at least, established; Chouannerie seemed to be
forgotten. But conscription was not much to the taste of the rural
classes, and the rigour with which it was applied alienated the
population. The number of refractories and deserters augmented at each
requisition; protected by the sympathy of the peasants they easily
escaped all search; the country people considered them victims rather
than rebels, and gave them assistance when they could do so without
being seen. There were here all the elements of a new insurrection; to
which would be added, if they succeeded in uniting and equipping all
these malcontents, the survivors of Frotte's bands, exasperat