." M. Caffarelli knew to perfection the delicate art of
administrative correspondence and with a great deal of cool water, could
slip in the gilded pill of disagreeable truth.

This model functionary spent the day at Aisy waiting for news; the
peasants and gendarmes scoured the country with precaution, for, since
the night, the legend had grown and it was told, not without fear, how
M. Dupont d'Aisy had courageously given battle to an army of brigands.
About midday the searchers returned leading the four horses which they
had found tied to a hedge near the village of Placy, and poor Gousset
who was found calmly seated in the shade of a tree near a wheat-field.
He said that the band had left him there very early in the morning after
having made him march all night with bandaged eyes. At the end of an
hour and a half, hearing nothing, he had ventured to unfasten the
bandage, and not knowing the country, had waited till some one came to
seek him. He could give no information respecting the robbers, except
that they marched very fast and gave him terrible blows. M. Caffarelli
commiserated the poor man heartily, charged him to take the waggon and
smashed chests back to Caen, then, after having warmly congratulated M.
Dupont d'Aisy on his fine conduct, he returned home.

After the scuffle at Aisy, Allain and his companions had marched in
haste to Donnay, but missed their way. Crossing the village of
Saint-Germain-le-Vasson, they seized a young miller who was taking the
air on his doorstep, and who consented to guide them, though very much
afraid of this band of armed men with heavily-laden wallets. He led them
as far as Acqueville and Allain sent him away with ten crowns. It was
nearly midnight when they reached Donnay; they passed behind the chateau
where Joseph Buquet was waiting for them and led them to his house. He
and his brother made the eight men enter, enjoined silence, helped them
to empty their sacks into a hole that had been made at the end of the
garden, then gave them a drink. After an hour's rest Allain gave the
signal for departure. He was in haste to get his men out of the
department of Calvados, and shelter them from the first pursuit of
Caffarelli's police. At daybreak they crossed the Orne by the bridge of
La Landelle, threw their guns into a wheat-field and separated after
receiving each 200 francs.

This day, the 8th June, passed in the most perfect calm for the
inhabitants of Donnay. Mme. Acquet did n