Mme. Acquet also behaved as if she was certain of the complicity of the whole country; she arranged the slightest details of the expedition with astonishing quickness of mind.  With her own hands she made large wallets of coarse cloth, to carry provisions for the party, and contain the money taken from the chests.  She hastened to Falaise to ask Lefebre to receive Allain and Flierle while awaiting the hour of action.  Lefebre who had already fixed his price and exacted a promise of twelve thousand francs from the funds, would only, however, half commit himself.  He nevertheless agreed to lodge Allain and Flierle in the vacant building in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent.  Reassured on this point Mme. Acquet returned to Donnay; during the night of 28th May, the men left the chateau without their arms and were conducted to a barn, where they were left all day alone with a small cask of cider which they soon emptied.  Mme. Acquet was meanwhile preparing another retreat for them.  A short way from the Church of Donnay there was an isolated house belonging to the brothers Buquet, who were devoted to the Combrays; Joseph, the shoemaker, had in the absence of Le Chevalier, been known as Mme. Acquet’s lover in the village, and if in the absence of any definite testimony, it is possible to save this poor woman’s memory from this new accusation, we must still recognise the fact that she exercised an extraordinary influence over this man.  He submitted to her blindly “by the rights she had granted him,” said a report addressed to the Emperor.  Whatever the reason, she had only to say the word for Joseph Buquet to give her his house, and the six men took possession next day.  The Buquets’ mother undertook to feed them for four days; they left her at dusk on the 2d June; Joseph showed them the road and even led them a short way.

The poor fellows dragged along till morning, losing themselves often and not daring to ask the way or to follow beaten tracks.  They met Allain at dawn, one mile from Falaise, on the edge of a wood near the hamlet of Jalousie; he took them across Aubigny to an isolated inn at the end of the village.

Lefebre had presented Allain to the innkeeper the night before, asking if he would receive “six honest deserters whom the gendarmes tormented,” for a few days, and the man had replied that he would lodge them with pleasure.

As soon as they arrived at the inn Allain and his men, dropping with fatigue, asked for breakfast and went at once to the room prepared for them.  It was half past four in the morning; they lay down on the straw and did not move all day except for meals.  The night and all next day passed in the same manner.  On Thursday June 4th they put some bread, bacon and jugs of cider in their wallets and left about nine in the evening.  On Friday Allain appeared at the inn of Aubigny alone; he ordered the servant to take some food to the place where the Caen and Harcourt