Public rumour asserts that Mme. de Vaubadon had been d’Ache’s mistress, but she did not now know where he was hidden.  In the latter part of August, 1809, she went to Bayeux to find out from her friend Mlle. Duquesnay de Montfiquet if d’Ache was in the neighbourhood, and if so, with whom.  Mlle. de Montfiquet, knowing Mme. de Vaubadon to be one of the outlaw’s most intimate friends, told her that he had been living in the town for a long time, and that she went to see him every week.  The matter ended there, and after paying some visits, Mme. de Vaubadon returned by coach the same evening to Caen.

It became known later that she had a long interview with Pontecoulant the next day, during which it was agreed that she should deliver up d’Ache, in return for which Fouche would pay her debts and give her a pension.  But she attached a strange condition to the bargain; she refused “to act with the authorities, and only undertook to keep her promise if they put at her disposal, while leaving her completely independent, a non-commissioned officer of gendarmerie, whom she was to choose herself, and who would blindly obey her orders, without having to report to his chiefs.”  Perhaps the unfortunate woman hoped to retain d’Ache’s life in her keeping, and save him by some subterfuge, but she had to deal with Pontecoulant, Real and Fouche, three experienced players whom it was difficult to deceive.  They accepted her conditions, only desiring to get hold of d’Ache, and determined to do away with him as soon as they should know where to catch him.

On Thursday, September 5th, Mme. de Vaubadon reappeared in Bayeux, and went to Mlle. Duquesnay de Montfiquet to tell her of the imminent danger d’Ache was in, and to beg her to ensure his safety by putting her in communication with him.  We now follow the story of a friend of Mme. de Vaubadon’s family who tried to prove her innocent, if not of treachery, at least of the crime that was the result of it.  Mlle. de Montfiquet had great confidence in her friend’s loyalty, but not in her discretion, and obstinately refused to take Mme. de Vaubadon to d’Ache.  The former, fearing that action would be taken without her, returned to the charge, but encountered a firm determination to be silent that rendered her insistence fruitless.  In despair at the possibility of having aroused suspicions that might lead to the disappearance of d’Ache, she resolved not to leave the place.

“I do not wish to be seen in Bayeux,” she said to her friend, “I am going to sleep here.”

“But I have only one bed.”

“I will share it with you.”

During the night, as the two women’s thoughts kept them from sleeping, Mme. de Vaubadon changed her tactics.

“You have no means of saving him,” she hinted, “whilst all my plans are laid.  I have at my disposal a boat that for eight or nine hundred francs will take him to England; I have some one to take him to the coast, and two sailors to man the boat.  If you will not tell me his retreat, at least make a rendezvous where my guide can meet him.  If you refuse he may be arrested to-morrow, tried, and shot, and the responsibility for his death will fall on you.”