Combray family; France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815
Flierle slept at the chateau. Next day Bonnoeil conducted him to
Louviers, and there intrusted a packet of letters to him addressed to
d'Ache. Both directed their steps to Rouen, and the German fetched from
the Rue de l'Hopital, the milliner's reply, which she gave him herself
without saying a word.
He immediately continued his journey, and by March 20th was back at
Mandeville, and placed the precious mail in d'Ache's hands. The latter
had scarcely read it before he sent David word to get his boat ready,
and without losing a moment, the letters which had arrived from Rouen
were taken out to sea to the English fleet, to be forwarded to London.
We are still ignorant of the contents of these mysterious despatches,
and inquiry on this point is reduced to supposition. Some pretended that
d'Ache sent the manifesto to Mme. de Combray, and that it was
clandestinely printed in the cellars at Tournebut; others maintain that
towards March 15th Bonnoeil returned from Paris, bringing with him the
correspondence of the secret royalist committee which was to be sent to
the English Cabinet via Mandeville. D'Ache certainly attached immense
importance to this expedition, which ought, according to him, to make
the princes decide on the immediate despatch of funds, and to hasten the
preparation for the attack on the island of Tahitou. But days passed and
no reply came. In the agony of uncertainty he decided to approach Le
Chevalier, whom he only knew by reputation as being a shrewd and
resolute man. The meeting took place at Trevieres towards the middle of
April, 1807. Le Chevalier brought one of his aides-de-camp with him, but
d'Ache came alone.
The names of these two men are so little known, they occupy such a very
humble place in history, that we can hardly imagine, now that we know
how pitifully their dreams miscarried, how without being ridiculous they
could fancy that any result whatever could come of their meeting. The
surroundings made them consider themselves important: d'Ache was--or
thought he was--the mouthpiece of the exiled King; as for Le Chevalier,
whether from vainglory or credulity he boasted of an immense popularity
with the Chouans, and spoke mysteriously of the royalist committee
which, working in Paris, had succeeded, he said, in rallying to the
cause men of considerable importance in the entourage of the Emperor
himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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