"Grand-Charles," who did not want to be the only one compromised, showed
the greatest zeal in searching for his accomplices. As Querelle had done
before, he led Manginot and his thirty gendarmes over all the country,
until they reached the village of Mancelliere, which passed as the most
famous resort of malcontents in a circuit of twenty leagues. As in the
happiest days of the Chouan revolt, there were bloody combats between
the gendarmes and the deserters. After one of these engagements
Pierre-Francois Harel,--who had passed most of his time since the
Quesnay robbery in a barrel sunk in the earth at the bottom of a
garden--was arrested in the house of a M. Lebougre, where he had gone to
get some brandy and salt to dress a wound. But Manginot made a more
important capture in Flierle, who was living peacefully at
Amaye-sur-Orne, with one of his old captains, Rouault des Vaux. Flierle
told his story as soon as he was interrogated; he knew that "high
personages" were in the plot, and thought they would think twice before
pushing things to an issue.

If Manginot was thus acting with an energy worthy of praise, he received
none from Caffarelli, who was distressed at the turn affairs had taken,
and wished that the affair of Quesnay might be reduced to the
proportions of a simple incident. He interrogated the prisoners with the
reserve and precaution of a man who was interfering in what did not
concern him, and if he learned from Flierle much that he would rather
not have known about the persistent organisation of the Chouans in
Calvados, he could get no information concerning the deed that had led
to his arrest.

The German did not conceal his fear of assassination if he should speak,
Allain having promised, on June 8th, at the bridge of Landelle, "poison,
or pistol shot to the first who should reveal anything, and the
assistance of two hundred determined men to save those who showed
discretion, from the vengeance of Bonaparte."

Things were different in Paris. The police were working hard, and Fouche
was daily informed of the slightest details bearing on the events that
were taking place in Lower Normandy. For several weeks detectives had
been watching a young man who arrived in Paris the second fortnight of
May; he was often seen in the Palais-Royal, and called himself openly
"General of the Chouans," and assumed great importance. The next report
gave his name as Le Chevalier, from Caen, and more information was
dem