Since he had been Mme. Acquet’s adored lover, Le Chevalier’s visits to the Cafe Hervieux had become rarer; his parasites had dispersed, and although he still kept up his house in the Rue Saint-Sauveur at Caen, he spent the greater part of his time either at Falaise or at La Bijude, where his devoted mistress alternately lived.  The police of Count Caffarelli, Prefect of Calvados, had ceased keeping an eye on him, and he even received a passport for Paris, whither he went frequently.  He always returned more confident than before, and in the little group amongst whom he lived at Falaise—­consisting of his cousin, Dusaussay, two Chouan comrades, Beaupaire and Desmontis; a doctor in the Frotte army, Reverend; and the Notary of the Combray family, Maitre Febre—­he was never tired of talking in confidence about the secret Royalist Committee, and the near approach of the Restoration.  The revolution which was to bring it about, was to be a very peaceful one, according to him.  Bonaparte, taken prisoner by two of his generals, each at the head of 40,000 men, was to be handed over to the English and replaced by “a regency, the members of which were to be chosen from among the senators who could be trusted.”  The Comte d’Artois was then to be recalled—­or his son, the Duc de Berry—­to take possession of the kingdom as Lieutenant-General.

Did Le Chevalier believe in this Utopia?  It has been said that in propagating it “he only sought to intoxicate the people and excite them to acts of pillage, the profits of which would come to him without any of the danger.”  This accusation fits in badly with the chivalrous loyalty of his character.  It seems more probable that on one of his journeys to Paris he fell into the trap set by the spy Perlet who, paid by the princes to be their chief intelligence agent, sold their correspondence to Fouche and handed over to the police the royalists who brought the letters.  This Perlet had invented, as a bait for his trap, a committee of powerful persons who, he boasted, he had won over to the royal cause, and doubtless Le Chevalier was one of his only too numerous victims.  Whatever it was, Le Chevalier took a pride in his high commissions, and went to meet d’Ache as an equal, if not a rival.

At the beginning, the conference was more than cold.  These two men, so different in appearance and character, both aspired to play a great part and were instinctively jealous of each other.  Their own personal feelings divided them.  One was the lover of Mme. Acquet de Ferolles, the other was the friend of Mme. de Combray, and the latter blamed her daughter for her misconduct, and had forbidden her ever to come back to Tournebut.  Le Chevalier, after the usual civilities, refused to continue the conversation till he was informed of the exact nature of the powers conferred by the King on his interlocutor, and the authority with which he was invested.  Now, d’Ache had never had any written authority, and arrogantly