days after having arranged a plan of campaign and issued instructions to his subordinates, he was informed that M. d’Ache was confined in the Conciergerie of the Palais de Justice.  He rushed to the Palais and ordered the prisoner to be brought before him.  It was “Tourlour,” d’Ache’s inoffensive brother Placide, arrested at Saint Denis-du-Bosguerard, where he had gone to visit his old mother.  Licquet’s disappointment was cruel, for he had nothing to expect from Tourlour; but to hide his chagrin he questioned him about his brother (whom Placide declared he had not seen for four years) and how he passed his time, which was spent, said Tourlour, when he was not in the Rue Saint-Patrice, between Saint-Denis-du-Bosguerard and Mme. de Combray’s chateau near Gaillon.  Placide declared that he only desired to live in peace, and to care for his aged and infirm mother.  This was the second time Licquet’s attention had been attracted by the name of Mme. de Combray.  He had already read it, incidentally, in the report of Flierle’s examination, and with the instinct of a detective, for whom a single word will often unravel a whole plot, he had a sudden intuition that in it lay the key to the entire affair.  Tourlour’s imprudent admission, which was to bring terrible catastrophes on Mme. de Combray’s head, gave Licquet a thread that was to lead him through the maze that Caffarelli had refused to enter.

Nearly a month earlier, Mme. de Combray had expressly forbidden Soyer to talk about her return with Lefebre.  She had shut herself up in her room with Catherine Querey, her chambermaid; the lawyer had shared Bonnoeil’s room.  Next day, Tuesday, July 28th, the Marquise had shown Lefebre the apartments prepared for the King and the hiding-places in the great chateau; Bonnoeil showed him copies of d’Ache’s manifesto, and the Duc d’Enghien’s funeral oration, which they read, with deep respect, after dinner.  Towards evening Soyer announced the postmaster of Gaillon, a friend who had often rendered valuable services to the people at Tournebut.  He had just heard that the commandant had received orders from Paris to search the chateau, and would do so immediately.  Mme. de Combray was not at all disturbed; she had long been prepared for this, and ordered Soyer to take some provisions to the little chateau, where she repaired that night with Lefebre.  There were two comfortable hiding-places there whose mechanism she explained to the lawyer.  One of them was large enough to contain two mattresses side by side; she showed Lefebre in, slipped after him, and shut the panels upon them both.  Bonnoeil remained alone at Tournebut.  The quiet life he had led for the last two years removed him from any suspicion, and he prepared to receive the gendarmes who appeared at dawn on Friday.  The commandant showed his order, and Bonnoeil, confident of the issue, and completely cool, opened all the doors and gave up the keys.  The soldiers rummaged the chateau from top to bottom.