by the cowardly service he had rendered, and entered Donnay in triumph; he did not try to conceal his joy at all the catastrophes that had overtaken the Combrays, and treated them as vanquished enemies.  The family held a council.  The advice of Bonnoeil and Timoleon, as well as of the Marquise, was to sacrifice everything to save Mme. Acquet.  They knew that her husband’s denunciations made her the chief culprit, and that the accusation would rest almost entirely on her.  They determined to appeal to Chauveau-Lagarde, whom the perilous honour of defending Marie-Antoinette before the Revolutionary tribunal had rendered illustrious.  The great advocate undertook the defence of Mme. Acquet and sent a young secretary named Ducolombier, who usually lived with him, to Rouen to study the case—­“an intriguer calling himself doctor,” wrote Licquet scornfully.  Ducolombier stayed in Rouen and set himself to examine the condition of the Combrays’ fortune.  Mme. de Combray had consented some years back to the sale of a part of her property, and Timoleon, in the hope of averting financial disaster and being of use to his mother by diminishing her responsibility, had succeeded in having a trustee appointed for her.

The matter was brought to Rouen and it was there that, “for the safety of the State,” the trial took place that excited all Normandy in advance.  Curiosity was greatly aroused by the crime committed by “ladies of the chateau,” and surprising revelations were expected, the examination having lasted more than a year and having brought together an army of witnesses from around Falaise and Tournebut.  Mme. de Combray’s house in the Rue des Carmelites had become the headquarters of the defence.  Mlle. Querey had come out of prison after several weeks’ detention, and was there looking after the little Acquets, who had been kept at the pension Du Saussay in ignorance of what was going on around them:  the three children still suffered from the ill-treatment they had received in infancy.  Timoleon also lived in the Rue des Carmelites when the interests of his family did not require his presence in Falaise or Paris.  There, also, lived Ducolombier, who had organised a sort of central office in the house where the lawyers of the other prisoners could come and consult.  Mme. de Combray had chosen Maitre Gady de la Vigne of Rouen to defend her; Maitre Denise had charge of Flierle’s case, and Maitre le Bouvier was to speak for Lefebre and Placene.

Chauveau-Lagarde arrived in Rouen on December 1, 1808.  He had scarcely done so when he received a long epistle from Acquet de Ferolles, in which the unworthy husband tried to dissuade him from undertaking the defence of his wife, and to ruin the little testimony for the defence that Ducolombier had collected.  It seems that this scoundrelly proceeding immediately enlightened the eminent advocate as to the preliminaries of the drama, for from this day he proved for the Combray family not only a brilliant advocate, but a friend whose devotion never diminished.