Lechesneau make no delay in sending his whole force of gendarmerie to the forest and to the valley of Cinq-Cygne; telling Giguet to take with him the justice of peace, who, according to the terms of the Code, would then become an auxiliary police-officer.  He ordered them to make all preliminary inquiries in the township of Cinq-Cygne, and to take testimony if necessary; and to save time, he dictated and signed a warrant for the arrest of Michu, against whom the charge was evident on the positive testimony of Violette.  After the departure of the gendarmes Lechesneau returned to the important question of issuing warrants for the arrest of the Simeuse and d’Hauteserre brothers.  According to the Code these warrants would have to contain the charges against the delinquents.

Giguet and the justice of peace rode so rapidly to Cinq-Cygne that they met Laurence’s servants returning from the festivities at Troyes.  Stopped, and taken before the mayor where they were interrogated, they all stated, being ignorant of the importance of the answer, that their mistress had given them permission to spend the whole day at Troyes.  To a question put by the justice of the peace, each replied that Mademoiselle had offered them the amusement which they had not thought of asking for.  This testimony seemed so important to the justice of the peace that he sent back a messenger to Gondreville to advise Lechesneau to proceed himself to Cinq-Cygne and arrest the four gentlemen, while he went to Michu’s farm, so that the five arrests might be made simultaneously.

This new element was so convincing that Lechesneau started at once for Cinq-Cygne.  He knew well what pleasure would be felt in Troyes at such proceedings against the old nobles, the enemies of the people, now become the enemies of the Emperor.  In such circumstances a magistrate is very apt to take mere presumptive evidence for actual proof.  Nevertheless, on his way from Gondreville to Cinq-Cygne, in the senator’s own carriage, it did occur to Lechesneau (who would certainly have made a fine magistrate had it not been for his love-affair, and the Emperor’s sudden morality to which he owed his disgrace) to think the audacity of the young men and Michu a piece of folly which was not in keeping with what he knew of the judgment and character of Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne.  He imagined in his own mind some other motives for the deed than the restitution of Gondreville.  In all things, even in the magistracy, there is what may be called the conscience of a calling.  Lechesneau’s perplexities came from this conscience, which all men put into the proper performance of the duties they like—­scientific men into science, artists into art, judges into the rendering of justice.  Perhaps for this reason judges are really greater safeguards for persons accused of wrong-doing than are juries.  A magistrate relies only on reason and its laws; juries are floated to and fro by the waves of sentiment.  The director of the jury accordingly set several questions before his mind, resolving to find in their solution satisfactory reasons for making the arrests.