er, arranging the stages of the King's journey to Paris, and
discussing with the Montfiquets certain points of etiquette regarding
the Prince's stay at their chateau on the day following his arrival in
France. One day, however, when they were at table--it was in the spring
of 1808--a stranger arrived at the Chateau de Mandeville, and asked for
M. Alexandre (the name taken by d'Ache, it will be remembered, at
Bayeux). D'Ache saw the man himself, and thinking his manner suspicious,
and his questions indiscreet, he treated him as a spy and showed him the
door, but not before the intruder had launched several threats at him.

This occurrence alarmed M. de Montfiquet, and he persuaded his guest to
leave Mandeville for a time. During the following night they both
started on foot for Rubercy, where M. Gilbert de Mondejen, a great
friend and confidant of d'Ache's, was living in hiding from the police
in the house of a Demoiselle Genneville. This old lady, who was an
ardent royalist, welcomed the fugitives warmly; they were scarcely
seated at breakfast, however, when a servant gave the alarm. "Here come
the soldiers!" she cried.

D'Ache and Mondejen rushed from the room and bounded across the porch
into the courtyard just as the gendarmes burst in at the gate. They
would have been caught if a horse had not slipped on the wet pavement
and caused some confusion, during which they shut themselves into a
barn, escaped by a door at the back, and jumping over hedges and ditches
gained a little wood on the further side of the Tortoue brook.

But d'Ache had been seen, and from that day he was obliged to resume his
wandering existence, living in the woods by day and tramping by night.
He was entirely without resources, for he had no money, but was certain
of finding a refuge, in case of need, in this region where malcontents
abounded and all doors opened to them. In this way he reached the forest
of Serisy, a part of which had formerly belonged to the Montfiquets; it
was here that the abandoned mines were situated that had been mentioned
to Licquet as Allain's place of refuge. Though obliged to abandon the
Chateau de Mandeville, where, as well as at Rubercy, the gendarmes had
made a search, d'Ache did not lack shelter around Bayeux. A Madame
Chivre, who lived on the outskirts of the town, had for fifteen years
been the providence of the most desperate Chouans, and d'Ache was sure
of a welcome from her; but he stayed only a few days.