colleague, Destavigny, who, with a party of inspectors took up his
position on the Place Maubert. If, as Petit supposed, Georges was hidden
near there, if the cab was intended for him, it would be obliged to
cross the place where the principal streets of the quarter converged.
The order was given to let it pass if it contained only one person, but
to follow it with most extreme care.

The night had arrived, and nothing had happened to confirm the
hypotheses of Petit, when, a little before seven o'clock, a cab appeared
on the Place, coming from the Rue Galande. Only one man was on it,
holding the reins. The spies in different costumes, who hung about the
fountain, recognised him as Leridant. The cab was numbered 53, and had
only the lantern at the left alight. It went slowly up the steep Rue de
la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve; the police, hugging the walls, followed it
far off. Petit, the Inspector Caniolle, and the officer of the peace,
Destavigny, kept nearer to it, expecting to see it stop before one of
the houses in the street, when they would only have to take Georges on
the threshold. But to their great disappointment the cab turned to the
right, into the narrow Rue des Amandiers, and stopped at a porte cochere
near the old College des Grassins. As the lantern shed a very brilliant
light, the three detectives concealed themselves in the lanes near by.
They saw Leridant descend from the cab. He went through a door, came
out, went in again and stayed for a quarter of an hour. Then he turned
his horse round, and got up on the seat again.

The cab turned again into the Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, and
went slowly down it; it went across the Place Saint-Etienne-du-Mont,
following the houses. Caniolle walked behind it, Petit and Destavigny
followed at a distance. Just as the carriage arrived at the corner of
the Rue des Sept-Voies, four individuals came out from the shadow. One
of them seized the apron, and helping himself up by the step, flung
himself into the cab, which had not stopped, and went off at full
speed....

The police had recognised Georges, disguised as a market-porter.
Caniolle, who was nearest, rushed forward; the three men who had
remained on the spot, and who were no other than Joyaut, Burban and
Raoul Gaillard, tried to stop him. Caniolle threw them off, and chased
the cab which had disappeared in the Rue Saint-Etienne-des-Gres. He
caught up to it, just as it was entering the Passage des Jacobin