This period lasted for a fortnight. Ralph obtained an introduction, under a false name, to the wife of the Minister who openly protected Marescal, and succeeded in becoming uncommonly intimate with this rather mature lady, who was exceedingly jealous, and from whom her husband kept nothing secret. She was transported with joy by Ralph’s attentions. Without being aware of the part she was playing and ignorant moreover of Marescal’s passion for Aurelie, from hour to hour she kept Ralph informed of the Commissary’s intentions, of his plans with regard to Aurelie, and of the method by which he sought, with the Minister’s help, to smash Bregeac and those who supported him. Ralph was frightened: the attack was so well planned that he asked himself if he ought not to anticipate it, to carry off Aurelie, and so bring it to nothing before it was put into execution. “And what then?” he said to himself. “What should we gain by flight? The conflict would remain the same and everything would begin all over again.” He was able to resist the temptation. Returning home one evening, he found a note awaiting him. The Minister’s wife informed him that the final decisions had been made, among others that the arrest of Aurelie had been fixed for the next day, July the 12th, at three o’clock in the afternoon. “Poor little girl with the green eyes,” thought Ralph. “Will she have confidence in me in everything and in spite of everything, as I asked her? Will there not again be tears and anguish for her?” He slept peacefully, like a great commander on the eve of battle. He rose at eight o’clock. The decisive day had begun. Then, towards noon, as his maid, his old nurse Victoire, returned by the servants’ entrance with her basket of provisions, six men posted on the staircase, forced their way into the kitchen. “Is your master here?” said one of them roughly. “Come, hurry up! There’s no point in lying. I am the Commissary Marescal and I have a warrant for his arrest.” Pale and trembling she muttered: “He’s in his study.” “Take us to it!” He set his hand over her mouth, that she might not warn her master, and made her walk along the passage at the end of which she pointed to a door. Their adversary had not time to throw himself on guard. He was seized and tied up and dispatched almost as if he had been a trunk. Marescal said simply: “You are the chief of the robbers of the express. Your name is Ralph de Limézy.” Turning to his men he added: “Take him to the police station. Here’s the warrant. And keep your mouths shut, do you hear? Not a word about the personality of our ‘client’. You’re responsible for him, Tony. You, too, Labonce. Take him off, And at three o’clock meet me in front of Bregeac’s house. It will be the young lady’s turn then and the smashing up of her step-father.” Four men took away the prisoner. Marescal kept the fifth, Sauvinoux, with him.