ning Foison appeared at La Delivrande to draw up the report. When
Boullee asked him a few questions about the murder, he answered in so
arrogant and menacing a tone as to make any enquiry impossible. Putting
on a bold face, he admitted that he had been present at the scene of the
crime. He said that while he was patrolling the road to Luc with four of
his men, two individuals appeared whom he asked for their papers. One of
them immediately fled, and the other discharged his pistols; the
gendarmes seized him, and in spite of his desperate resistance succeeded
in bringing him down. He stayed dead on the ground, "having been struck
several times during the struggle."

"But his pistols were still loaded," said some one.

Foison made no reply.

"But his hands were tied," said the mayor.

Foison tried to deny it.

"Here are the bands," said Boullee, drawing from his pocket the ribbon
taken from the dead man's hands. And as Captain Mancel, who presided at
the interview, remarked that those were indeed the bands used by
gendarmes, Foison left the room with more threats, swearing that he owed
an account to no one.

The news of the crime had spread with surprising rapidity, and
indignation was great wherever it was heard. In writing to Real,
Caffarelli echoed public feeling:

"How did it happen that four gendarmes were unable to seize a man who
had struggled for a long time? How came it that he was, in a way,
mutilated? Why, after having killed this man, did they leave him there,
without troubling to comply with any of the necessary formalities? Ask
these questions, M. le Comte; the public is asking them and finds no
answer. What is the reply, if, moreover, as is said, the person was
seized, his hands tightly tied behind his back, and then shot? What are
the terrible consequences to be expected from these facts if they are
true? How will the gendarmes be able to fulfil their duties without fear
of being treated as assassins or wild beasts?"

It must be mentioned that as soon as the crime was committed, Foison had
gone to Caen and given Pontecoulant the papers found on d'Ache, which
contained information as to the political and military situation on the
coast of Normandy, and on the possibility of a disembarkation.
Pontecoulant had immediately posted off, and on the morning of the 11th
told Fouche verbally of the manner in which Foison and Mme. de Vaubadon
had acquitted themselves of their mission. It remained to be seen