Mme. Acquet, meanwhile feigned the greatest security.  Seeing things straying from the right way, she might indeed imagine that she was removed from all danger, and she had besides, other anxieties.  The Chevalier had been waiting in Paris since the 7th of June for the money he so urgently needed, and as nothing appeared in spite of his reiterated demands, he decided to come and fetch it himself; he did not dare, however, to appear near Falaise, so arranged a meeting at Laigle with Lefebre, earnestly entreating him to bring him all the money he possibly could.  But the Buquets, with whom the 60,000 francs had been left on the 7th June, obstinately refused to give it up in spite of Mme. Acquet’s entreaties; they had removed the money from their garden and hidden it in various places which they jealously kept secret.  However, through her influence over Joseph, Mme. Acquet succeeded in obtaining 3,300 francs which she gave the lawyer to take to Le Chevalier, but Lefebre, as soon as he got hold of the money, declared that he had been promised 12,000 francs for his assistance, and that he would keep this on account.  He went to meet Le Chevalier at Laigle however, and to calm his impatience told him that Dusaussay was going to start for Paris immediately with 60,000 francs which he would give him intact.  Mme. Acquet was desperate; prudence forbade her trying to overcome the Buquets’ obstinacy, and they, in order to keep the money, asserted that it belonged to the royal exchequer, and they were responsible for it; so the unhappy woman found that she had committed a crime that the obstinacy of these rapacious peasants rendered useless.  She was ready to abandon all in order to rejoin Le Chevalier, ready even to expatriate herself with him, when they heard that Mme. de Combray, hearing rumours of what had happened in Lower Normandy, had decided to come to Falaise, to plead the cause of her farmer, Hebert.  She had left Tournebut on the 13th July and taken the Caen coach to Evreux.

Mme. Acquet had gone to Langannerie to meet her mother, and when Mme. de Combray descended from the coach the young woman threw herself into her arms.  As the Marquise seemed rather surprised at this display of feeling to which she had become unaccustomed, her daughter said in a low voice, sobbing: 

“Save me, mama, save me!”

Mother and daughter resumed the affectionate confidence of former days.  While the horses were being changed and the postillions were taking a drink in the inn, they seated themselves beneath a tree near the road.  Mme. Acquet made a full confession.  She told how her love for Le Chevalier had led her to join in the affair of June 7th, to keep Allain and his men, and to hide the stolen money with the Buquets.  If it should be found there she was lost, and it was important to get it from the Buquets and send it to the leaders of the party for whom it was intended.  She did not dare to mention Le Chevalier this time, but she argued that for fear of her husband’s spies she could neither take the money to her own house, nor change it at any bankers in Caen and Falaise; the whole country knew she was reduced to the last expedients.