him to himself lent him large sums of money, which Le Chevalier
immediately distributed among the crowd of parasites that never left
him. Acquet told him of the separation with which his wife threatened
him, begging him to use all his eloquence to bring about an amicable
settlement.

The poor woman would never have known this peacemaker but for her
husband, and we are ignorant of the manner in which he acquitted himself
of his mission. She had yielded as much from inexperience as from
compulsion, to a man who for five years had made her life a martyrdom.
She lived at Falaise in an isolation that accorded ill with her yearning
for love and her impressionable nature. The person who now came suddenly
into her life corresponded so well with her idea of a hero--he was so
handsome, so brave, so generous, he spoke with such gentleness and
politeness that Mme. Acquet, to whom these qualities were startling
novelties, loved him from the first day with an "ungovernable passion."
She associated herself with his life with an ardour that excluded every
other sentiment, and she so wished to stand well with him that, casting
aside all prudence, she adopted his adventurous mode of living, mixing
with the outcasts who formed the entourage of her lover, and with them
frequenting the inns and cafes of Caen. He succeeded in avoiding the
surveillance of the police, and secretly undertook journeys to Paris
where he said he had friends in the Emperor's immediate circle. He
travelled by those roads in Normandy which were known to all the old
Chouans, talking to them of the good times when they made war on the
Blues, and not hesitating to say that, whenever he wished, he had only
to make a sign and an army would spring up around him. He maintained,
moreover, a small troop of determined men who carried his messages and
formed his staff.

There is not the slightest doubt that their chief resource lay in
carrying off the money of the State which was sent from place to place
in public conveyances, and it was this booty that enriched the coffers
of the party, the treasurer, Placene, having long since grown
indifferent to the source of his supplies. The agreement of certain
dates is singularly convincing. Thus, at the beginning of December,
1805, d'Ache was at Mandeville with the Monfiquets, in a state of such
penury that, as we have seen, Mme. de Combray sent him eight louis d'or
by Lanoe; nevertheless, he was thinking of going to England to fetch