Manginot resolved to search the country in company with Saint-Aubin, but he was either stupid or pretended to be so, and refused to give any assistance.  He led the gendarmes six leagues, as far as Aumale, and said, at first, that he recognised the Chateau de Mercatet-sur-Villers, but on looking carefully at the avenues and the arrangement of the buildings, he declared he had never been there.  The same thing happened at Beaulevrier and at Mothois; but on approaching Gournay his memory returned, and he led Manginot to a house in the hamlet of Saint-Clair which he asserted was the one to which Monnier had sent him.  On entering the courtyard he recognised the servant to whom he had given the horse six months before, a groom named Joseph Planchon.  Manginot instantly arrested the man, and then began his search.

The house belonged to an ex-officer of marine, Francois Robert d’Ache, who rarely occupied it, being an ardent sportsman and preferring his estates near Neufchatel-en-Bray, where there was more game.  Saint-Clair was occupied by Mme. d’Ache, an invalid who rarely left her room, and her two daughters, Louise and Alexandrine, as well as d’Ache’s mother, a bedridden octogenarian, and a young man named Caqueray, who was also called the Chevalier de Lorme, who farmed the lands of M. and Mme. d’Ache, whose property had recently been separated by law.  Caqueray looked upon himself as one of the family, and Louise, the eldest girl, was betrothed to him.

Nothing could have been less suspicious than the members of this patriarchal household, who seemed to know nothing of politics, and whose tranquil lives were apparently unaffected by revolutions.  The absence of the head of so united a family was the only astonishing thing about it.  But Mme. d’Ache and her daughters explained that he was bored at Saint-Clair and usually lived in Rouen, that he hunted a great deal, and spent his time between his relatives who lived near Gaillon and friends at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  They could not say where he was at present, having had no news of him for two months.

But on questioning the servants Manginot learned some facts that changed the aspect of affairs.  Lambert, the gardener, had recently been shot at Evreux, convicted of having taken part with a band of Chouans in an attack on the stage-coach, Caqueray’s brother had just been executed for the same cause at Rouen.  Constant Prevot, a farm hand, accused of having killed a gendarme, had been acquitted, but died soon after his return to Saint-Clair.  Manginot had unearthed a nest of Chouans, and only when he learned that the description of d’Ache was singularly like that of the mysterious Beaumont who had been seen with Georges at La Poterie, Aumale and Feuquieres, did he understand the importance of his discovery.  After a rapid and minute inquiry, he took it upon himself to arrest every one at Saint-Clair, and sent an express to Real, informing him of the affair, and asking for further instructions.