Mme. de Combray feared no such dangers, and considered that “no one would be astonished to see 50,000 or 60,000 francs at her disposal.”  But she approved less of some other points in the affair, not that she was astonished to find her daughter compromised in such an adventure, for how many similar ones had she not helped to prepare in her Chateau of Tournebut?  Had she not inoculated her daughter with her political fanaticism in representing men like Hingant de Saint-Maur, Raoul Gaillard and Saint-Rejant as martyrs?  And by what right could she be severe, when she herself, daughter of the President of the Cour des Comptes of Normandy, had been ready to join in a theft which, “the sanctity of the cause,” rendered praiseworthy in her eyes?  The Marquise de Combray, without knowing it, was a Jacobite reversed; she accepted brigandage as the terrorists formerly accepted the guillotine; the hoped-for end justified the means.

And so she did not pour out reproaches; she grew angry at the mention of Le Chevalier whom she hated, but Mme. Acquet calmed her with the assurance that her lover had acted under the express orders of d’Ache and that everything had been arranged between the two men.  As long as her hero was concerned in the affair, Mme. de Combray was happy to take a hand.  That evening she reached Falaise, and leaving her daughter in the Rue du Tripot, she asked hospitality from one of her relations, Mme. de Treprel.  Next morning she sent for Lefebre.  Mme. Acquet, before introducing him, coached him thus, “Say as little as possible about Le Chevalier, and insist that d’Ache arranged everything.”  On this ground Lefebre found Mme. de Combray most conciliating, and he had neither to employ prayers nor entreaties, to obtain her promise to get the 60,000 francs from the Buquets; “she consented without any difficulty or adverse opinion; she seemed very zealous and pleased at the turn things had taken, and offered herself to take the money to Caen, and lodge it with Nourry, d’Ache’s banker.”  Mme. Acquet here observed that she was not at liberty to dispose of the funds thus.  She had only taken part in the affair from love, and cared little for the royalist exchequer; she only cared that her devotion should profit the man she adored, and if the money was sent to d’Ache, all her trouble would be useless.  She tried to insist, saying that Dusaussay would take the money to the royalist treasurer in Paris, that Le Chevalier was waiting for it in order to go to Poitou where his presence was indispensable.  But Mme. de Combray was inflexible on this point; the entire sum should be delivered to d’Ache’s banker, or she would withdraw her assistance.  Mme. Acquet was obliged to yield with a heavy heart, and they began at once to consider the best means of transporting it.  The Marquise sent Jouanne, the son of the old cook at Glatigny, to tell Lanoe that she wished to see him at once.  Jouanne made the six leagues