fat man, with a full, rather hard face,
round-shouldered, and with a slight trouble in his arms."

"These gentlemen," he added, "usually arrived at night, and left about
midnight; they were satisfied with our humble fare, and always kept
together in a corner, talking."

When the tide was full Horne went down to the beach to watch for the
sloop. The password was "Jacques," to which the men in the boat replied
"Thomas."

Manginot, as may well be imagined, arrested all who in any way had
assisted the conspirators, and hurried them off to Paris. The tower of
the Temple became crowded with peasants, with women in Normandy caps,
and fishermen of Dieppe, dumbfounded at finding themselves in the famous
place where the monarchy had suffered its last torments. But these were
only the small fry of the conspiracy, and the First Consul, who liked to
pose as the victim exposed to the blows of an entire party, could not
with decency take these inoffensive peasants before a high court of
justice. While waiting for chance or more treachery to reveal the refuge
of Georges Cadoudal, the discovery of the organisers of the plot was
most important, and this seemed well-nigh impossible, although Manginot
had reason to think that the centre of the conspiracy was near Aumale or
Feuquieres.

His attention had been attracted by a deposition mentioning the black
horse that Georges had ridden from Preuseville to Aumale--the one that
the school-master Monnier had hidden in a corridor of his house. With
this slight clue he started for the country. There he learned that a
workman called Saint-Aubin, who lived in the hamlet of Coppegueule, had
been ordered to take the horse to an address on a letter which Monnier
had given him. This man, when called upon to appear, remembered that he
had led the horse "to a fine house in the environs of Gournay." When he
arrived there a servant had taken the animal to the stables, and a lady
had come out and asked for the letter, but he denied all knowledge of
the lady's name or the situation of the house.

Manginot resolved to search the country in company with Saint-Aubin, but
he was either stupid or pretended to be so, and refused to give any
assistance. He led the gendarmes six leagues, as far as Aumale, and
said, at first, that he recognised the Chateau de Mercatet-sur-Villers,
but on looking carefully at the avenues and the arrangement of the
buildings, he declared he had never been there. The same thing ha