quainted with his wife's offence, but M. Real believes it
necessary to keep him at a distance." That was not the tone in which the
police of that period usually spoke of their ordinary prisoners, and it
seems advisable to call attention to the fact. Let us add that the
royalists detained in the Temple were not taken in by it. M. de Revoire,
an old habitue of the prison, who spent the whole of the Imperial period
in captivity told the Combray family after the Restoration, that all the
prisoners considered Acquet "as a spy, an informer, the whole time he
was in the Temple." After a week's imprisonment and three weeks'
surveillance in Paris, he was set at liberty and returned to Donnay.

From the comparison of these facts and dates, is one not led to infer
that Licquet had persuaded Acquet without much difficulty we may be
sure, to become his wife's accuser? But the desire not to compromise
himself, and still more the dread of reprisals, shut the mouth of the
unworthy husband at Caen, eager though he was to speak in Paris,
provided that no one should suspect the part he was playing; hence this
sham imprisonment in the Temple--evidently Licquet's idea--which gave
him time to make revelations to Real.

Whatever it may have been, this incident interrupted Licquet's journey
to Caen. He continued it towards the middle of November, quitting Rouen
on the 18th, still accompanied by Delaitre and others of his cleverest
men. This time he represented himself as an inspector of taxes, which
gave him the right of entering houses and visiting even the cellars. His
aim was to unearth Allain, Buquet and especially d'Ache, but none of
them appeared. We cannot deal with this third journey in detail, as
Licquet has kept the threads of the play secret, but from
half-confidences made to Real, we may infer that he bought the
concurrence of Langelley and Chauvel on formal promises of immunity from
punishment; they consented to serve the detective and betray Allain, and
they were on the point of delivering him up when "fear of the Gendarme
Mallet caused everything to fail." Licquet fell back with his troop,
taking with him Chauvel, Mallet and Langelley, who were soon to be
followed by Lanoe, Vannier, Placene and all the Buquets, save Joseph,
who had not been seen again. But before starting on his return journey
to Rouen, Licquet wished to pay his respects to Count Caffarelli, the
Prefect of Calvados, in whose territory he had just been hunting. T