d. She did not dare to mention Le Chevalier this time, but she
argued that for fear of her husband's spies she could neither take the
money to her own house, nor change it at any bankers in Caen and
Falaise; the whole country knew she was reduced to the last expedients.

Mme. de Combray feared no such dangers, and considered that "no one
would be astonished to see 50,000 or 60,000 francs at her disposal." But
she approved less of some other points in the affair, not that she was
astonished to find her daughter compromised in such an adventure, for
how many similar ones had she not helped to prepare in her Chateau of
Tournebut? Had she not inoculated her daughter with her political
fanaticism in representing men like Hingant de Saint-Maur, Raoul
Gaillard and Saint-Rejant as martyrs? And by what right could she be
severe, when she herself, daughter of the President of the Cour des
Comptes of Normandy, had been ready to join in a theft which, "the
sanctity of the cause," rendered praiseworthy in her eyes? The Marquise
de Combray, without knowing it, was a Jacobite reversed; she accepted
brigandage as the terrorists formerly accepted the guillotine; the
hoped-for end justified the means.

And so she did not pour out reproaches; she grew angry at the mention of
Le Chevalier whom she hated, but Mme. Acquet calmed her with the
assurance that her lover had acted under the express orders of d'Ache
and that everything had been arranged between the two men. As long as
her hero was concerned in the affair, Mme. de Combray was happy to take
a hand. That evening she reached Falaise, and leaving her daughter in
the Rue du Tripot, she asked hospitality from one of her relations, Mme.
de Treprel. Next morning she sent for Lefebre. Mme. Acquet, before
introducing him, coached him thus, "Say as little as possible about Le
Chevalier, and insist that d'Ache arranged everything." On this ground
Lefebre found Mme. de Combray most conciliating, and he had neither to
employ prayers nor entreaties, to obtain her promise to get the 60,000
francs from the Buquets; "she consented without any difficulty or
adverse opinion; she seemed very zealous and pleased at the turn things
had taken, and offered herself to take the money to Caen, and lodge it
with Nourry, d'Ache's banker." Mme. Acquet here observed that she was
not at liberty to dispose of the funds thus. She had only taken part in
the affair from love, and cared little for the royalist excheque