The officials had hoped to appease the duke’s wrath a little, by informing him of Lacheneur’s arrest; but he knew of this already, for Chupin had ventured to wake him up in the middle of the night to tell him the great news. The baron’s escape afforded his grace an opportunity to exalt Chupin’s merits. “The man who discovered Lacheneur will know how to find this traitor D’Escorval,” he remarked. As for M. de Courtornieu, he took what he called “measures for restoring this great culprit to the hands of justice.” That is to say, he despatched couriers in every direction, with orders to make close inquiries throughout the neighbourhood. His commands were brief, but to the point; they were to watch the frontier, to submit all travellers to a rigorous examination, to search the houses and sow the description of D’Escorval’s appearance broadcast through the land. But first of all he issued instructions for the arrest of the Abbe Midon and Maurice d’Escorval. Among the officers present there was an old lieutenant, who had felt deeply wounded by some of the imputations which the Duke de Sairmeuse had cast right and left in his affected wrath. This lieutenant heard the Marquis de Courtornieu give his orders, and then stepped forward with a gloomy air, remarking that these measures were doubtless all very well, but at the same time it was urgent that an investigation should take place at once, so as to learn for certain how the baron had escaped and who were his accomplices if he had any. At the mention of this word “investigation,” both the Duke de Sairmeuse and the Marquis de Courtornieu shuddered. They could not ignore the fact that their reputations were at stake, and that the merest trifle might disclose the truth. A neglected precaution, any insignificant detail, an imprudent word or gesture might ruin their ambitious hopes forever. They trembled to think that this officer might be a man of unusual shrewdness, who had suspected their simplicity, and was impatient to verify his presumptions. In point of fact, they were unnecessarily alarmed, for the old lieutenant had not the slightest suspicion of the truth. He had spoken on the impulse of the moment, merely to give vent to his displeasure. He was not even keen enough to remark a rapid glance which the duke and the marquis exchanged. Martial noticed this look, however, and with studied politeness, remarked: “Yes we must institute an investigation; that suggestion is as shrewd as it is opportune.” The old lieutenant turned away with a muttered oath. “That coxcomb is poking fun at me,” he thought; “and he and his father and that prig the marquis deserve a box on the ears.”