At the beginning of August, 1814, Guerin-Bruslart, who had become M. le Chevalier de Bruslard, Field Marshal in the King’s army, attracted his Majesty’s attention to the survivors of the affair of Quesnay.  He took Le Chevalier’s son, aged twelve years, to the Tuileries, and the King accorded him a pension and a scholarship at one of the royal colleges.  The very same day Louis XVIII signed a royal pardon, which the Court of Rouen ratified a few days later, by which Mme. de Combray’s sentence was annulled.  On September 5th the Marquise saw her wildest dream realised and was presented to the King—­a fact which was mentioned in the Moniteur of the following day.

This signal favour rallied many to the Combrays.  Denunciations of Acquet and his friends were heard on all sides.  The letters written at this period from Bonnoeil to his brother testify to the astonishment they felt at these revelations.  They made a fresh discovery every day.  “M.  Bruslard told me the other day that La Vaubadon wished to have him arrested, but that he took care not to fall into the trap she had set for him.”  “With regard to Licquet, he knew d’Ache well and had made up to him before the affair with Georges, believing at that time that there would be a change of government.”  “It is quite certain that it was Senator Pontecoulant who had d’Ache killed; Frotte’s death was partly due to him.”  “With regard to Acquet, M. de Rivoire told Placene that he had been seen in the temple about six years ago, and that every one there considered him a spy and an informer....”

Thus, little by little Mme. de Combray arrived at the conclusion that all her misfortunes had been caused by her enemies’ hatred.  In 1815 a biographer published a life of the Marquise, which was preceded by a dedication to herself which she had evidently dictated, and which placed her high up in the list of royalist martyrs.

This halo pleased her immensely.  She was present at the fetes given at the Rouen prefecture, where she walked triumphantly—­still holding herself very erect and wearing lilies in her hair—­through the very halls into which she had once been dragged handcuffed by Savoye-Rollin’s gaolers.  At dinners where she was an honoured guest she would recount, with astonishing calmness, her impressions of the pillory and the prisons.  She sent a confidential agent to Donnay “to obtain news of the Sieur Acquet,” who was not at all satisfied and by no means at ease, as we can well imagine.  It was said that he had sent for his sister to come and take care of his three children, the eldest of whom was nearly twenty years of age.  Acquet pretended to be ill in order to defer his departure from Donnay.  He finally quitted Normandy early in the autumn of 1814, taking with him his three daughters, “whom he counted on marrying off in his own home.”  “He is without house or home,” wrote Mme. de Combray, “and possesses nothing but the shame by which he is covered.”  Acquet de Ferolles settled at Saint-Hilaire-de-Tulmont, where he died on April 6th, 1815.