in one of the boxes.  The first one that saw her could not believe his eyes:  it was Mme. de Vaubadon!  The name was at first whispered, then a murmur went round that at last broke into an uproar.  The whole theatre rose trembling, and with raised fists cried:  “Down with the murderess!  She is the woman with the red shawl; it is stained with d’Ache’s blood.  Death to her!”

The unhappy woman tried to put on a bold face, and remained calm; it is supposed that Pontecoulant was in the theatre, and perhaps she hoped that he, at least, would champion her.  But when she understood that in that crowd, among whom many perhaps had loved her, no one now would defend her, she rose and left her box, while some of the most excited hustled into the corridor to hoot her in passing.  She at last escaped and got to her house in the Rue Guilbert, and the next day she left Caen forever.

Less culpable certainly, and now pitied by all to whom d’Ache’s death recalled the affair of Quesnay, Mme. Acquet was spending her last days in the conciergerie at Rouen.  After the petition for a reprieve on account of her pregnancy, and the visit of two doctors, who said they could not admit the truth of her plea, Ducolombier used all his efforts to obtain grace from the Emperor.  As soon as the sentence was pronounced he had hurried to Paris in quest of means of approaching his Majesty.  His relative, Mme. de Saint-Leonard, wife of the Mayor of Falaise, joined him there, and got her relatives in official circles to interest themselves.  But the Emperor was then living in a state of continual agitation; Laeken, Mayence and Cassel were as familiar stopping-places as Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau, and even if a few minutes’ audience could be obtained, what hope was there of fixing his attention on the life of an insignificant woman?  Chauveau-Lagarde advised the intervention of Mme. Acquet’s three girls, the eldest now twelve, and the youngest not eight years old.  Mourning garments were hastily bought for them, and they were sent to Paris on January 24th, with a Mlle. Bodinot.  Every day they pursued the Emperor’s carriage through the town, as he went to visit the manufactories.  Timoleon, Mme. de Saint-Leonard, and Mlle. de Seran took turns with the children; they went to Malmaison, to Versailles, to Meudon.  At last, on March 2d, at Sevres, one of the children succeeded in getting to the door of the imperial carriage, and put a petition into the hands of an officer, but it probably never reached the Emperor, for this step that had cost so much money and trouble remained ineffectual.

There are among Mme. de Combray’s papers more than ten drafts of petitions addressed to the Emperor’s brothers, to Josephine, and even to foreign princes.  But each of them had much to ask for himself, and all were afraid to importune the master.  The latter was now in Germany, cutting his way to Vienna, and poor Mme. Acquet would have had slight place in his thoughts in spite of the illusions of her friends, had he ever even heard her name.  In April the little Acquets returned to Mme. Dusaussay in Rouen.  She wrote to Timoleon: