he
had been seen in the temple about six years ago, and that every one
there considered him a spy and an informer...."

Thus, little by little Mme. de Combray arrived at the conclusion that
all her misfortunes had been caused by her enemies' hatred. In 1815 a
biographer published a life of the Marquise, which was preceded by a
dedication to herself which she had evidently dictated, and which placed
her high up in the list of royalist martyrs.

This halo pleased her immensely. She was present at the fetes given at
the Rouen prefecture, where she walked triumphantly--still holding
herself very erect and wearing lilies in her hair--through the very
halls into which she had once been dragged handcuffed by Savoye-Rollin's
gaolers. At dinners where she was an honoured guest she would recount,
with astonishing calmness, her impressions of the pillory and the
prisons. She sent a confidential agent to Donnay "to obtain news of the
Sieur Acquet," who was not at all satisfied and by no means at ease, as
we can well imagine. It was said that he had sent for his sister to come
and take care of his three children, the eldest of whom was nearly
twenty years of age. Acquet pretended to be ill in order to defer his
departure from Donnay. He finally quitted Normandy early in the autumn
of 1814, taking with him his three daughters, "whom he counted on
marrying off in his own home." "He is without house or home," wrote Mme.
de Combray, "and possesses nothing but the shame by which he is
covered." Acquet de Ferolles settled at Saint-Hilaire-de-Tulmont, where
he died on April 6th, 1815.

With the Hundred Days came another sudden change. At the first rumour of
Bonaparte's landing, Mme. de Combray set out for the coast and crossed
to England. If the alarm was intense, it lasted but a short time. In
July, 1815, the Marquise returned to Tournebut, which she busied herself
with repairing. She found scope for her energy in directing the workmen,
in superintending to the smallest detail the administration of her
estate, and in looking after her household with the particularity of
former times. Although Louis XVIII's Jacobinism seems to have been the
first thing that disillusioned the old royalist, she was none the less
the Lady of Tournebut, and within the limits of her estate she could
still believe that she had returned to the days before 1789. She still
had her seat at church, and her name was to be found in 1819 inscribed
on the bell at Aube