The prefect of the Seine-Inferieure, Savoye-Rollin, had manifested a zeal and ardour each time that Real addressed him on the subject of the affair of Quesnay, in singular contrast with the indifference shown by his colleague of Calvados.  Savoye-Rollin belonged to an old parliamentary family.  Being advocate-general to the parliament of Grenoble before 1790, he had adopted the more moderate ideas of the Revolution, and had been made a member of the tribunate on the eighteenth Brumaire in 1806, at the age of fifty-two, he replaced Beugnot in the prefecture of Rouen.  He was a most worthy functionary, a distinguished worker, and possessor of a fine fortune.

Real left it to Savoye-Rollin to find d’Ache, who, they remembered, had lived at the farm of Saint-Clair near Gournay, before Georges’ disembarkation, and who possessed some property in the vicinity of Neufchatel.  The police of Rouen was neither better organised nor more numerous than that of Caen, but its chief was a singular personage whose activity made up for the qualities lacking in his men.  He was a little, restless, shrewd, clever man, full of imagination and wit, frank with every one and fearing, as he himself said, “neither woman, God nor devil.”  He was named Licquet, and in 1807 was fifty-three years old.  At the time of the Revolution he had been keeper of the rivers and forests of Caudebec, which position he had resigned in 1790 for a post in the municipal administration at Rouen.  In the year IV he was chief of the Bureau of Public Instruction, but in reality he alone did all the work of the mayoralty, and also some of that of the Department, and did it so well that he found himself, in 1802, in the post of secretary-in-chief of the municipality.  In this capacity he gave and inspected all passports.  For five years past no one had been able to travel in the Seine-Inferieure without going through his office.  As he had a good memory and his business interested him, he had a very clear recollection of all whom he had scrutinised and passed.  He remembered very well having signed the passport that took d’Ache from Gournay to Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1803, and retained a good idea of the robust man, tall, with a high forehead and black hair.  He remembered, moreover, that d’Ache’s “toe-nails were so grown into his flesh that he walked on them.”

Since this meeting with d’Ache, Licquet’s appointments had increased considerably; while retaining his place as secretary-general, he had obtained the directorship of police, and fulfilled his functions with so much energy, authority and cunning that no one dreamt of criticising his encroachments.  He was, besides, much feared for his bitter tongue, but he pleased the prefect, who liked his wit and appreciated his cleverness.  From the beginning Licquet was fascinated by the idea of discovering the elusive conspirator and thus demonstrating his adroitness to the police of Paris; and his satisfaction was profound, when, on the 17th of August, 1807, three