Real put a man on his track who for ten years had been the closest confidant of the secrets of the police, and had conducted their most delicate affairs.  This was Inspector Pasque.  With Commissary Beffara, he set off on the search.  Licquet, one of the first to be informed of Le Chevalier’s escape, immediately showed Mme. Acquet the letter announcing it, taking care to represent it, confidentially, as his own work.  He received in return a copious confession from his grateful prisoner.  This time she emptied all the corners of her memory, returning to facts already revealed, adding details, telling of all d’Ache’s comings and goings, his frequent journeys to England, and of the manner in which David l’Intrepide crossed the channel.  Licquet tried more than all to awaken her memories of Le Chevalier’s relations with Parisian society.  She knew that several official personages were in the “plot,” but unfortunately could not recollect their names, “although she had heard them mentioned, notably by Lefebre, with whom Le Chevalier corresponded on this subject.”  However, as the detective persisted she pronounced these words, which Licquet eagerly noted: 

“One of these personages is in the Senate; M. Lefebre knows him.  Another was in office during the Terror, and can be recognised by the following indications:  he frequently sees Mme. Menard, sister of the widow, Mme. Flahaut, who has married M. de ——­, now ambassador to Holland, it is believed.  This lady lives sometimes at Falaise and sometimes in Paris, where she is at present.  This individual is small, dark and slightly humped; he has great intellect, and possesses the talent for intrigue in a high degree.  The other personages are rich.  The declarant cannot state their number.  Le Chevalier informed her that affairs were going well in Paris, that they were awaiting news of the Prince’s arrival to declare for him.”

Licquet compelled Mme. Acquet to repeat these important declarations before the prefect, and on the 23d of December, she signed them in Savoye-Rollin’s office.  The same evening Licquet tried to put names to all these anonymous persons.  With the prisoner by his side and the imperial almanac in his hand, he went over the list of senators, great dignitaries and notabilities of the army and the administration, but without success.  “The names that were pronounced before her,” he wrote to Real, “are effaced from her memory; perhaps Lefebre will tell us who they are.”

The lawyer, in fact, since he saw things becoming blacker, had been very loquacious with Licquet.  He cried with fear when in the prefect’s presence, and promised to tell all he knew, begging them to have pity on “the unfortunate father of a family.”  He spoke so plainly, this time, that Licquet himself was astounded.  The lawyer had it indeed from Le Chevalier, that the day the Duc de Berry landed in France, the Emperor would be arrested by two officers “who were always near his person, and who each