idden there after the theft; in the floor of the cellar a
hole, "two and a half feet square, and of the same depth had been dug to
hold the money;" they had taken the precaution to tear up the flooring
above so that the depot could be watched from there. The idea of hiding
the treasure here had been abandoned, as we know, in favour of Buquets';
but the discovery was important and Pinteville drew up a report of it.

But things went no further. What suspicion could attach to the owners
of Donnay? The brigands, it is true, had made use of their house, but
there were no grounds for an accusation of complicity in that. Neither
Pinteville nor Caffarelli, who transmitted the report to the minister,
thought of pushing their enquiries any further.

Fouche knew no more about it, but he thought that the affair was being
feebly conducted. It seemed evident that the attempt at Quesnay would
swell the already long list of thefts of public funds, by those who
would forever remain unpunished. Real, instinctively scenting d'Ache in
the business, remembered Captain Manginot who at the time of Georges
Cadoudal's plot, had succeeded in tracing the stages of the conspirators
between Biville and Paris, and to whom they owed the discovery of the
role played by d'Ache in the conspiracy.

Manginot then received an order to proceed to Calvados immediately. On
the 23d June he arrived at Caffarelli's bearing this letter of
introduction: "The skill, the zeal and good fortune of this officer in
these cases, is well known; they were proved in a similar affair, and I
ask you to welcome him as he deserves to be welcomed." The prefet was
quite willing; he knew too well the habits of the Chouans, and their
cleverness in disappearing to have any personal illusions as to the
final result of the adventure, but he said nothing and on the contrary
showed the greatest confidence in the dexterity of a man who stood so
well at court.

Manginot began with a fresh search at Donnay; and, as his reputation
obliged him to be successful, and as he was not unwilling to astonish
the authorities of Calvados by the quickness of his perceptions, he
caused Acquet de Ferolles to be arrested. It was he who had first warned
the gendarmes of the sojourn of the brigands at Donnay, and this seemed
exceedingly suspicious; the same day he gave the order to take Hebert.
Several people in the village insinuated that Acquet and Hebert were
irreconcilable enemies and that Manginot w