brays replied: "The fee of Mme.
Acquet's lawyer, the expenses of the journey to Vienna and of the little
girls' stay in Paris that they might beg for their mother's pardon,
devolved, if not on the prisoner's husband, at least on her young
children as her heirs; and in any case Acquet ought to pay the bill."
But the latter, who was placed in a very strong position by the
services he had rendered Real and by the protection of Pontecoulant,
with whom he had associated himself, replied that Chauveau-Lagarde,
while pretending to plead for Mme. Acquet, had in reality only defended
Mme. de Combray: "All Rouen who heard the counsel's speech bears witness
that the daughter was sacrificed to save the mother.... The real object
of their solicitude had been the Marquise. Certainly they took very
little interest in their sister, and the moment her eyes were closed in
death, were base enough to ask for her funeral expenses in court, and
hastened to denounce her children to the Minister of Public Affairs in
order that they might be forced to pay for the sentence pronounced
against their mother."

The case thus stated, the discussion could only become a scandal.
Bonnoeil disclosed the fact that his brother-in-law, on being asked by
a third person what influences he could bring to bear in order to obtain
Mme. Acquet's pardon, had replied that "such steps offered little chance
of success, and that from the moment the unhappy woman was condemned,
the best way to save her from dying on the scaffold, would be to poison
her in prison." A fresh suit was begun. The correspondence which passed
between the exasperated Combrays and their brother-in-law, who succeeded
in maintaining his self-control, must have made all reconciliation
impossible. A letter in Bonnoeil's handwriting is sufficient to
illustrate the style:

"Is it charitable for an old French chevalier, a defender of the
Faith and of the Throne, to increase the sorrows on which his two
brothers-in-law are feeding in the silence of oblivion? Does he
hope in his exasperation that he will be able to force them into a
repetition of the story of the crimes committed by Desrues,
Cartouche, Pugatscheff, Shinderhannes, and other impostors,
thieves, garrotters and ruffians, who have rendered themselves
famous by their murders, poisonings, cruelties and cowardly
actions? They promise that, once their case is decided, they will
not again trouble