Combray family; France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815
Then, with a steady look, speaking to herself: "I could also, in my turn
denounce Allain, seeing that he is an outlaw, but where should I say I
had met him?" She seemed most uneasy, not knowing what to do. Then she
hinted that she must go back to Falaise. But Lanoe was inflexible, he
swore he would go no further, and that she could apply to the farmer if
she wanted to. And giving his horse the rein he went off at a trot,
leaving her surrounded by the peasants, who silently gazed in wondering
consternation at the daughter of "their lady" covered with mud,
wild-eyed, her arms swinging and her whole appearance so hopeless and
forlorn as to awaken pity in the hardest heart.
The same evening the lawyer Lefebre, learned on reaching home, that Mme.
de Combray had sent her gardener to ask him to come to her immediately
in the Rue du Tripot. But worn out, he threw himself on his bed and
slept soundly till some one knocked at his door about one in the
morning. It was the gardener again, who was so insistent that Lefebre
decided to go with him in spite of fatigue. He found the Marquise wild
with anxiety. Truffault's boy had told her of the arrest of the Buquets,
and she had not gone to bed, expecting to see the gendarmes appear; her
only idea was to fly to Tournebut and hide herself there with her
daughter; she begged the lawyer to accompany them, and while excitedly
talking, tied a woollen shawl round her head. Lefebre, who was calmer,
told her that he had left Mme. Acquet at Noron in a state of exhaustion,
that they must wait until she was in a condition to travel before
starting, and that it would be impossible to obtain a carriage at this
time of night. But Mme. de Combray would listen to nothing; she gave her
gardener three crowns to go to Noron and tell Mme. Acquet that she must
start immediately for Tournebut by Saint-Sylvain and Lisieux; then
traversing the deserted streets with Lefebre, who stopped at his house
to get the three thousand francs, from the robbery of June 7th, she
reached the Val d'Ante and took the road to Caen.
It was very dark; the storm had ceased but the rain still fell heavily.
The old Marquise continued her journey over the flooded roads, defying
fatigue and only stopping occasionally to make sure she was not
followed. Lefebre, now afraid also, hastened his steps beside her,
bending beneath the weight of his portmanteau filled with crowns.
Neither spoke. The endless road was the same one taken by the waggon
containing the Alencon money on the day of the robbery, and the
remembrance of this rendered their wild night march still more tragic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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