Combray family; France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815
Thus, Real did not know what was to become of Le Chevalier when Licquet
conceived the idea of giving him a role in his comedy. We have not yet
obtained all the threads of this new intrigue. Whether Licquet destroyed
certain over-explicit papers, or whether he preferred in so delicate a
matter to act without too much writing, there remain such gaps in the
story that we have not been able to establish the correlation of the
facts we are about to reveal. It is certain that the idea of exploiting
Mme. Acquet's passion and promising her the freedom of her lover in
exchange for a general confession, was originated by Licquet. He
declares it plainly in a letter addressed to Real. By this means they
obtained complete avowals from her. On December 12th she gave a detailed
account of her adventurous life from the time of her departure from
Falaise until her arrest; a few days later she gave some details of the
conspiracy of which d'Ache was the chief, to which we shall have to
return. What must be noted at present is this remarkable coincidence: on
the 12th she spoke, after receiving Licquet's formal promise to ensure
Le Chevalier's escape, and on the 14th he actually escaped from the
Temple. Had Licquet been to Paris between these two dates? It seems
probable; for he speaks in a letter of a "pretended absence" which might
well have been real.
The manner of Le Chevalier's escape is strange enough to be described.
By reason of his excited condition, "which threw him into continual
transports, and which had seemed to the concierge of the prison to be
the delirium of fever," he had been lodged, not in the tower itself, but
in a dependence, one of whose walls formed the outer wall of the prison,
and overlooked the exterior courts. He had been ill for several days,
and being subject to profuse sweats had asked to have his sheets changed
frequently, and so was given several pairs at a time. On December 13th,
at eight in the morning, the keeper especially attached to his person
(Savard) had gone in to arrange the little dressing-room next to Le
Chevalier's chamber. Returning at one o'clock to serve dinner, he found
the prisoner reading; at six in the evening another keeper (Carabeuf),
bringing in a light, saw him stretched on his bed. The next day on going
into his room in the morning, they found that he had fled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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