Licquet listened quite seriously while his victim detailed the history of this fictitious person whom he himself had invented; he assured her that the choice was a wise one, for he had known Delaitre for a long time as a man whose loyalty was beyond all doubt.  As there could be no question of introducing him into the prison, Licquet kindly undertook to acquaint him with the service expected of him, and to give him the three letters which Mme. de Combray was to write immediately.  The first, which was very confidential, was addressed to the good Delaitre himself; the second was to be handed, at the moment of going on board, to Mauge, a lawyer at Valery, who was to provide the necessary money for the fugitive’s existence in England; the third accredited Delaitre to Mme. Acquet.  The Marquise ordered her daughter to follow the honest Captain, whom she represented as a tried friend; she begged her, in her own interest and that of all their friends, to leave the country without losing a day; and she concluded by saying that in the event of her obeying immediately, she would provide generously for all her wants; then she signed and handed the three letters to Licquet, overwhelming him with protestations of gratitude.

All the detective had to do was to procure a false Delaitre, since the real did not exist.  They selected an intelligent man, of suitable bearing, and making out a detailed passport, despatched him to Falaise, armed with the Marquise’s letters, to have an interview with the laundress.  Five days later he returned to Rouen.  The Chauvels, on seeing Mme. de Combray’s letters, quite unsuspectingly gave the messenger a warm welcome.  The gendarme, however, did not approve of the idea of crossing to England.  Mme. Acquet, he said, was very well hidden in Caen, and nobody suspected where she was.  What was the use of exposing her to the risk of embarking at a well watched port.  But as Delaitre insisted, saying that he had a commission from Mme. de Combray which he must carry out, Chauvel, whose duty kept him at Falaise, arranged to meet the Captain at Caen on the 2d of October.  He wished to present him himself to Mme. Acquet, and to help his mistress in this matter on which her future depended.  Thus it was that on the 1st of October, Licquet, now sure of success, put the false Captain Delaitre in the coach leaving for Caen, having given him as assistants, a nephew of the same name and a servant, both carefully chosen from amongst the wiliest of his assistants.  The next day the three spies got out at the Hotel du Pare in the Faubourg de Vaucelles at Caen, which Chauvel had fixed as the meeting-place, and whither he had promised to bring Mme. Acquet.

Six weeks previously, when quitting Falaise on the 23d August, after the examination to which Caffarelli had subjected her, Mme. Acquet, still ignorant of her mother’s arrest, had proposed going to Tournebut, in order to hide there for some time before starting for Paris, where she hoped to find Le Chevalier.  She had with her her third daughter, Celine, a child of six years, whom she counted on getting rid of by placing her at the school kept at Rouen by the ladies Dusaussay, where the two elder girls already were.  They were accompanied by Chauvel’s sister, a woman named Normand.