through the whole province, and would not allow any one to assist in
drawing it up. This proclamation, written in the name of the princes,
stipulated a general amnesty, the retention of those in authority, a
reduction of taxation, and the abolition of conscription. Lanoe,
summoned to Mandeville, received ten louis and the manuscript of the
manifesto, with the order to get it printed as secretly as possible. The
crafty Norman promised, slipped the paper into the lining of his coat,
and after a fruitless--and probably very feeble--attempt on a printer's
apprentice at Falaise, returned it to Flierle, with many admonitions to
be prudent, but only refunded five louis. Flierle first applied to a
bookseller in the Froide Rue at Caen. The latter, as soon as he found
out what it contained, refused his assistance.

An incident now occurred, the importance of which it is difficult to
discover, but which seems to have been great, to judge from the mystery
in which it is shrouded. Whether he had received some urgent
communication from England, or whether, in his state of destitution, he
had thought of claiming the help of his friends at Tournebut, d'Ache
despatched Flierle to Mme. de Combray, and gave him two letters,
advising him to use the greatest discretion. Flierle set out on
horseback from Caen in the morning of March 13th. At dawn next day he
arrived at Rouen, and immediately repaired to the house of a Mme.
Lambert, a milliner in the Rue de l'Hopital, to whom one of the letters
was addressed. "I gave it to her," he said, "on her staircase, without
speaking to her, as I had been told to do, and set out that very morning
for Tournebut, where I arrived between two and three o'clock. I gave
Mme. de Combray the other letter, which she threw in the fire after
having read it."

Flierle slept at the chateau. Next day Bonnoeil conducted him to
Louviers, and there intrusted a packet of letters to him addressed to
d'Ache. Both directed their steps to Rouen, and the German fetched from
the Rue de l'Hopital, the milliner's reply, which she gave him herself
without saying a word.

He immediately continued his journey, and by March 20th was back at
Mandeville, and placed the precious mail in d'Ache's hands. The latter
had scarcely read it before he sent David word to get his boat ready,
and without losing a moment, the letters which had arrived from Rouen
were taken out to sea to the English fleet, to be forwarded to London.

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