order for her arrest and that of d'Ache, who was
said to be her lover, was about to be issued." "You understand," he
added, "that the Emperor is as merciful as he is powerful, that he has a
horror of punishment and only wants to conciliate, but that he must
crush, at all costs, the aid given to England by the agitation on the
coasts. Redeem your past. You know d'Ache's retreat: get him to leave
France; his return will be prevented, but the certainty of his
embarkation is wanted, and you will be furnished with agents who will be
able to testify to it."

In this way Mme. de Vaubadon would be led to the idea of revealing
d'Ache's retreat, believing that it was only a question of getting him
over to England; but facts give slight support to this sugared version
of the affair. After the particularly odious drama that we are about to
relate, all who had taken part in it tried to prove for themselves a
moral alibi, and to throw on subordinates the horror of a crime that had
been long and carefully prepared. Fouche, whom few memories disturbed,
was haunted by this one, and attributed to himself a role as chivalrous
as unexpected. According to him, d'Ache, in extremity, had tried a bold
stroke. This man, who, since Georges' death, had so fortunately escaped
all the spies of France, had of his own will suddenly presented himself
before the Minister of Police, to convert him to royalist doctrines!
Fouche had shown a loyalty that equalled his visitor's boldness. "I do
not wish," he said, "to take advantage of your boldness and have you
arrested _hic et nunc_; I give you three days to get out of France;
during this time I will ignore you completely; on the fourth day I will
set my men on you, and if you are taken you must bear the consequences."

This is honourable, but without doubt false. Besides the improbability
of this conspirator offering himself without reason to the man who had
hunted him so long, it is difficult to imagine that such a meeting could
have taken place without any mention of it being made in the
correspondence in the case. None of the letters exchanged between the
Minister of Police and the prefects makes any allusion to this visit; it
seems to accord so little with the character of either that it must be
relegated to the ranks of the legends with which Fouche sought to hide
his perfidies. It is certain that a snare was laid for d'Ache, that Mme.
de Vaubadon was the direct instrument, that Pontecoulant acted as