taken care to be seen at the Te Deum sung in
Notre-Dame for the taking of Dantzig. His precautions had been well
taken, and once again his aplomb was about to save him, when Real, much
embarrassed by this soft spoken prisoner, thought of sending him to
Caen, in the hope that confronting him with Flierle, Grand-Charles and
the Buquets might have some result. Caffarelli was convinced that Le
Chevalier was the leader in the plot, yet they had searched carefully in
his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur; without finding anything but some
private papers. Flierle had recognised him as the man to whom he acted
as secretary and courier, yet Le Chevalier had contemptuously replied
that "the German was not the sort to be his servant, and that their only
connection was that of benefactor and recipient." It was out of the
question that any tribunal could be found to condemn a man who on the
day of the crime had been sixty leagues from the place where it was
committed. As to convicting him as a royalist who approved of the theft
of public funds--they might as well do the same with all Normandy.
Besides, to Caffarelli, who had no allusions as to the sentiments of the
district, and who was always in fear of a new Chouan explosion, the
presence of Le Chevalier in prison at Caen was a perpetual nightmare.
Allain might suddenly appear with an army, and make an attempt to carry
off his chief similar to that which, under the Directory, saved the
lives of the Vicomte de Chambray and Chevalier Destouches, to the
amusement and delight of the whole province. And this is why the prudent
prefect, not caring to encumber himself with such a compromising
prisoner, in four days, obtained Real's permission to send him back to
Paris, where he was confined in the Temple. Ah! What a fine letter he
wrote to the Chief of Police, as soon as he arrived there, and how he
posed as the unlucky rival of Napoleon!

This profession of faith is too long to be given entirely, but it throws
such light on the character of the writer, and on the illusions which
the royalists obstinately fostered during the most brilliant period of
the imperial regime, that a few extracts are indispensable.

"You wished to know the truth concerning the declarations of
Flierle on my account, and on the projects that he divulged. I will
tell you of them. Denial suits well a criminal who fears the eye of
justice, but it is foreign to a character that fears nothing and to