The commune of Meriel had deserved well of the country, and the First Consul showed his satisfaction in a dazzling manner.  He expressed a desire to make the acquaintance of this population so devoted to his person, and on the 8th of April, the sous-prefet of Pontoise presented himself at the Tuileries at the head of all the men of the village.  Bonaparte congratulated them personally, and as a more substantial proof of his gratitude, distributed among them a sum of 11,000 francs, found in Raoul Gaillard’s belt.

This was certainly a glorious event for the peasants of Meriel, but it had an unexpected result.  When they returned the next day they learned that a stranger, “well dressed, well armed and mounted on a fine horse,” profiting by their absence, had gone to the village, and, “after many questions addressed to the women and children, had gone to the place where Raoul Gaillard was wounded, trying to find out if they had not found a case, to which he seemed to attach great importance.”  This incident reminded them that, in the boat that took him to Pontoise, Raoul Gaillard, then dying, had anxiously asked if a razor-case had been found among his things.  On receiving a negative reply, “he had appeared to be very much put out, and was heard to murmur that the fortune of the man who would discover this case was made.”

The visits of this stranger—­since seen, “in the country, on the heights and near the woods,”—­his threats of vengeance, and this mysterious case, provided matter for a report that perplexed Real.  Was this not d’Ache?  A great hunt was organised in the forest of Carnelle, but it brought no result.  Four days later they explored the forest of Montmorency, where some signs of the “brigands’” occupation were seen, but of d’Ache no trace at all, and in spite of the fierceness that Real’s men, incited by the promise of large rewards, brought to this chase of the Chouans, after weeks and months of research, of enquiries, tricks, false trails followed, and traps uselessly laid, it had to be admitted that the police had lost the scent, and that Georges’ clever accomplice had long since disappeared.

CHAPTER III

THE COMBRAYS

At the period of our story there existed in the department of the Eure, on the left bank of the Seine, beyond Gaillon, a large old manor-house, backed by the hill that extended as far as Andelys; it was called the Chateau de Tournebut.  Although its peaked roofs could be seen from the river above a thicket of low trees, Tournebut was off the main route of travel, whether by land or water, from Rouen to Paris.  Some fairly large woods separated it from the highroad which runs from Gaillon to Saint-Cyr-de-Vaudreuil, while the barges usually touched at the hamlet of Roule, where hacks were hired to take passengers and goods to the ferry of Muids, thereby saving them the long detour made by the Seine.  Tournebut was