ngers her daughter was incurring until the day when the money
was carried to Alencon; nevertheless she was unable to establish her
innocence, although defended by one of the greatest lawyers of that
time. The president, du Ronceret, and the vice-president, Blondet,
of the court of Alencon did their best to save our poor lady. But the
influence of the councillor of the Imperial Court who presided at her
trial before the Criminal and Special Court, the famous Mergi, and that
of Bourlac the attorney-general was such over the other judges that they
obtained her condemnation. Both Bourlac and Mergi showed extraordinary
bitterness against mother and daughter; they called the Baronne des
Tours-Minieres 'the woman Bryond,' and Madame 'the woman Lechantre.'
The names of accused persons in those days were all brought to one
republican level, and were sometimes unrecognizable. The trial had
several very extraordinary features, which I cannot now recall; one
piece of audacity remains in my memory which will serve to show you what
sort of men those Chouans were. The crowd which assembled to hear the
trial was immense; it even filled the corridors and the square before
the court-house. One morning, after the opening of the court-room and
before the arrival of the judges, Pille-Miche, a famous Chouan, sprang
over the balustrade into the middle of the crowd, elbowing right and
left, 'charging like a wild boar,' as Bordin told me, through the
frightened people. The guards and the gendarmes dashed after him and
caught him just as he reached the square; after that the guards were
doubled. A picket of gendarmerie was stationed in the square, for they
feared there were Chouans on the ground ready to rescue the prisoners.
As it was, three persons were crushed to death on this occasion. It was
afterwards discovered that Contenson (neither my friend Bordin nor I
could ever bring ourselves to call him the Baron des Tours-Minieres, nor
Bryond which is the name of an old family),--it was, I say, discovered
that this wretch Contenson had obtained sixty thousand francs of the
stolen money from the Chaussards; he gave ten thousand to the younger
Chaussard, whom he took with him into the detective police and
innoculated with his vices; his other accomplices got nothing from him.
Madame de la Chanterie invested the money restored to her by the king in
the public Funds, and bought this house to please her uncle, Monsieur
de Boisfrelon, who gave her the m