he had spent his entire
fortune, and was overwhelmed with debts. The lawyer Vanier, who was
entrusted with the management of his business affairs, lost his head at
the avalanche of bills, protests and notes of hand which poured into his
office, and which it was impossible to meet. The lawyer Lefebre, a fat
and sensual free-liver, was equally low in funds, and laid on the
government the blame of the confusion into which his affairs had fallen,
though it had been entirely his own fault. As for Le Chevalier himself,
he attributed his ruin, not without justice, to his disinterestedness
and devotion to the royal cause, which was his excuse for the past and
the future. Mme. Acquet, who loved him blindly, had given her last louis
to provide for his costly liberality. Touching letters from her are
extant, proving how attached she was to him:

"I am herewith sending you a letter from Mme. Blins" (a creditor).
"My only regret is that I have not the sum. It would have given me
great pleasure to pay it for you, and then you would never have
known.... I love you with all my heart. I am entirely yours, and
there is nothing I would not do for you.... Love me as I love you.
I embrace you tenderly."

"There is nothing I would not do for you,"--and the poor woman was
wretched in the knowledge that the hero whom she idolised was hampered
for want of small sums of money. She could not ward off the trouble,
since her demand for a separation had recently been refused. Acquet was
triumphant. She was reduced to living on a modest pension of 2,000
francs, and not able to sell what she had inherited from her father. One
evening, when she and Lanoe were alone in the Hotel de Combray, in the
Rue du Tripot at Falaise, one part of which was rented to the collector
of taxes, she heard through the wall the chinking of the money, which
they were packing into bags. On hearing it she fell into a sort of
delirium, thinking that here was the wherewithal to satisfy her lover's
fancies....

"Lanoe," she said suddenly, "I must have some money; I only want 10,000
francs."

The terrified Lanoe gave her no answer then, but a few days later, when
he was driving her back in her cabriolet to Falaise from La Bijude, she
returned to the charge, and gave him a piece of yellow wax wrapped up in
cotton telling him to go and take an impression of the tax collector's
lock as soon as they arrived at the Rue du Tripot. Lanoe excused
himsel