Saint-Clair, and sent an express to Real, informing him of
the affair, and asking for further instructions.

It had been the custom for several years, when a person was denounced to
the police as an enemy of the government, or a simple malcontent, to
have his name put up in Desmarets' office, and to add to it, in
proportion to the denunciations, every bit of information that could
help to make a complete portrait of the individual. That of d'Ache was
consulted. There were found annotations of this sort: "By reason of his
audacity he is one of the most important of the royalists," "Last
December he took a passport at Rouen for Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he
was called by business," "His host at Saint-Germain, Brandin de
Saint-Laurent, declares that he did not sleep there regularly, sometimes
two, sometimes three days at a time." At last a letter was intercepted
addressed to Mme. d'Ache, containing this phrase, which they recognised
as Georges' style: "Tell M. Durand that things are taking a good
turn,... his presence is necessary.... He will have news of me at the
Hotel de Bordeaux, rue de Grenelle, Saint-Honore, where he will ask for
Houvel." Now Houvel was the unknown man who, first of all, had gone to
the vine-dresser of Saint-Leu to persuade him to aid the "brigands."
Thus d'Ache's route was traced from Biville to Paris and the conclusion
drawn that, knowing all the country about Bray, where he owned estates,
he had been chosen to arrange the itinerary of the conspirators and to
organise their journeys. He had accompanied them from La Poterie to
Feuquieres, sometimes going before them, sometimes staying with them in
the farms where he had found for them places of refuge.

In default of Georges, then, d'Ache was the next best person to seize,
and the First Consul appreciated this fact so keenly that he organised
two brigades of picked soldiers and fifty dragoons. But they only served
to escort poor sick Mme. d'Ache, her daughter Louise and their friend
Caqueray, who were immediately locked up--the last named in the Tower of
the Temple, and the two women in the Madelonnettes. The infirm old
grandmother remained at Saint-Clair, while Alexandrine wished to follow
her mother and sister, and was left quite at liberty. But d'Ache could
not be found. Manginot's army had searched the whole country, from
Beauvais to Treport, without success; they had sought him at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he was said to be hidden, at
Sai