and putting himself at their head with Captain Pinteville he marched towards Quesnay.  They had not gone a hundred paces when they encountered Allain’s men, and the fight began.  The brigands kept up a well-sustained fire, which produced no other effect than to disperse the peasants.  Dupont d’Aisy and Captain Pinteville himself considered it dangerous to continue the struggle against such determined adversaries; they retired their men, and resolutely turning their backs to the enemy retreated towards Quesnay.

When they arrived in the wood a crowd was already there; from the neighbouring villages where the tocsin still sounded, people came, drawn entirely by curiosity.  They laughed at the fine trick played on the government, they thought the affair well managed, and did not hesitate to applaud its success.  They surrounded the waggon, half-sunk in the ruts in the road, and searched the little wood for traces of the combat.

The arrival of the mayor and Captain Pinteville restored things to order somewhat.  They had brought lanterns, and in the presence of the gendarmes who had now arrived in numbers, the peasants collected the remains of the chests, and replaced in them the coppers that the robbers had scornfully thrown in the grass.  They found the carrier’s leather portfolio containing the two bills of lading, in the thicket, and learned therefrom that the government had lost a little over 60,000 francs, and in face of this respectable sum, their respect for the men who had done the deed increased.  In the densest part of the wood they found a sort of hut made of branches, and containing bones, empty bottles and glasses, and the legend immediately grew that the brigands had lived there “for weeks,” waiting for a profitable occasion.  Those who had taken part in the fight from a distance described “these gentlemen,” who numbered twelve, they said; three wore grey overcoats and top-boots; another witness had been struck “by the exceeding smallness of two of the brigands.”

At last, the money collected and put in the chests, they harnessed two horses to the waggon and took it to the mayor’s.  He was now unsparing of attention; he did not leave the waggon which was put in his yard, and locked up the broken chests and money which amounted to 5,404 francs.  And when M. le Comte Caffarelli, prefet of Calvados arrived at dawn, he was received by Dupont-d’Aisy, and after having heard all the witnesses and received all information possible, he sent the minister of police one of the optimistic reports that he prepared with so much assurance.  In this one he informed his Excellency that “after making examination the shipment had been found intact, except the chests containing the government money.”  M. Caffarelli knew to perfection the delicate art of administrative correspondence and with a great deal of cool water, could slip in the gilded pill of disagreeable truth.