which he only
gives us the substance here. Aided by his wonderful instinct and the
persistency of the investigator, he has managed to obtain access to
family papers, some of which were buried in old trunks relegated to the
attics, and in these papers has found precious documents which clear up
the depths of this affair of Quesnay where the mad passion of one poor
woman plays the greatest part.

And let no one imagine that he is going to read a romance in these
pages. It is an _historical_ study in the severest meaning of the word.
Lenotre mentions no fact that he cannot prove. He risks no hypothesis
without giving it as such, and admits no fancy in the slightest detail.
If he describes one of Mme. Acquet's toilettes, it is because it is
given in some interrogation. I have seen him so scrupulous on this
point, as to suppress all picturesqueness that could be put down to his
imagination. In no _cause celebre_ has justice shown more exactitude in
exposing the facts. In short, here will be found all the qualities that
ensured the success of his "Conspiration de la Rouerie," the chivalrous
beginning of the Chouannerie that he now shows us in its decline,
reduced to highway robbery!

As for me, if I have lingered too long by this old tower, it is because
it suggested this book; and we owe some gratitude to these mute
witnesses of a past which they keep in our remembrance.

Victorien Sardou.

The House of the Combrays

CHAPTER I

THE TREACHERY OF JEAN-PIERRE QUERELLE

Late at night on January the 25th, 1804, the First Consul, who, as it
often happened, had arisen in order to work till daylight, was looking
over the latest police reports that had been placed on his desk.

His death was talked of everywhere. It had already been announced
positively in London, Germany and Holland. "To assassinate Bonaparte"
was a sort of game, in which the English were specially active. From
their shores, well-equipped and plentifully supplied with money, sailed
many who were desirous of gaining the great stake,--obdurate Chouans and
fanatical royalists who regarded as an act of piety the crime that would
rid France of the usurper. What gave most cause for alarm in these
reports, usually unworthy of much attention, was the fact that all of
them were agreed on one point--Georges Cadoudal had disappeared. Since
this man, formidable by reason of his courage and tenacity of purpose,
had declared war without mercy on the First