to Lanoe telling him to find Mme. Acquet at
once and tell her to hasten to her mother at Tournebut.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. They reached Lisieux at
supper-time and slept there. The next day Mme. de Combray took two
places under an assumed name, in the coach for Evreux, where they
arrived in the evening. The fugitives had a refuge in the Rue de
l'Union with an old Chouan named Vergne, who had been in orders before
the Revolution, but had become a doctor since the pacification. Next day
Mme. de Combray and Lefebre made five leagues from Evreux to Louviers;
they got out before entering the town as the Marquise wished to avoid
the Hotel du Mouton where she was known. They went by side streets to
the bridge of the Eure where they hired a carriage which took them by
nightfall to the hamlet of Val-Tesson. They were now only a league from
Tournebut which they could reach by going through the woods. But would
they not find gendarmes there? Mme. de Combray's flight might have
aroused suspicion at Falaise, Caen and Bayeux, and brought police
supervision to her house. It was nine in the evening when, after an
hour's walk, she reached the Hermitage. She thought it prudent to send
Lefebre on ahead, and accompanied him to the gate where she left him to
venture in alone. All appeared tranquil in the chateau, the lawyer went
into the kitchen where he found a scullery maid who called Soyer, the
confidential man, and Mme. de Combray only felt safe when she saw the
latter himself come to open a door into the garden; she then slipped,
without being seen, into her own room.

CHAPTER VI

THE YELLOW HORSE

The man in the "black overcoat" who had conducted the gendarmes on their
visit to Donnay, was no other than "Grand-Charles," one of Allain's
followers. He had been arrested at Le Chalange on July 14th, and had
consented without hesitation, to show the spot in the Buquets' garden
where the money had been hidden. He recognised the position of the house
and garden, the room in which Allain and his companions had been
received on the night of the robbery, and even the glass which Mme.
Buquet had filled for him. At the bottom of the garden traces of the
excavation that had contained the money were found; the loft contained
linen, and other effects of Mme. Acquet; her miniature was hanging on
the wall of Joseph's room. Joseph alone had fled; his father, mother,
and brother were taken to prison in Caen the same evening.