Gramont and Vadier became amazingly friendly. In the course of time Gramont stated that he was connected by ties of blood with the ci-devant Duke de Coulancourt, that he aimed at getting into his hands the estates confiscated; and that if Vadier, who was a most accomplished forger, would aid him, he would make it well worth his while, and enrich him; for Vadier’s extravagance equalled his love of blood. Struck with this proposal Vadier recollected the papers he had secreted in Toulon, and for them he went. Between them they forged several letters and a deed, purporting to annul the will the duke made, leaving his property to his duchess. In such a time of anarchy, confusion, and horror, they contrived to gain their ends, and the confiscated property of the Coulancourts was bestowed upon Monsieur Gramont; but the overthrow of Robespierre and his execution, and the destruction of all his partisans that could be caught, some time after, put Monsieur Gramont and Augustine Vadier to flight. Vadier was so execrated that he dared not shew himself any where near Paris; he contrived to get into Brittany, and joined the brigands, as they were then styled. A party he belonged to were forced to fly into Normandy; there he heard of Monsieur Gramont’s son being still in possession of his father’s property near Coulancourt; and as the son was well known to him, and knew of the manner in which he served his father, he discovered himself to him, and he gave him an asylum in his château. The pursuit after the partisans of Robespierre having relaxed, many had returned to Paris to foment fresh disturbances if they could; but Augustine Vadier, though he kept up a correspondence with several persons in the capital, was yet afraid to show himself. Bertrand Gramont had just retired from the army, and through the interest of a near connection, then in power with the party governing France, was made maire of the arrondissement in which Coulancourt was situated. He was immensely in debt, his only remaining estate being mortgaged to the last acre, and, in fact, he was living on the emoluments of his office. Totally unprincipled, caring not a straw about the political state of the country, or minding much whether France became a republic or flourished under a monarchical government, though indeed he inclined to the latter, his only object was self-aggrandizement, and his grand project to recover Coulancourt. Augustine Vadier had irrevocably lost the papers he once possessed, for in his flight from Paris he lost everything. Bertrand Gramont kept up a strict espionage upon Madame Coulancourt, his aim being to excite suspicion of her conduct, so that her estate of Coulancourt might be confiscated, he being assured that if that event ever occurred he should be able to get reinstated in the property.