their susceptibilities? It is impossible to
disentangle this affair; he was an adept at troubling water that he
might safely fish in it, and seemed jealous to such a degree of the
means he employed, that he would not divulge the secret to any one. With
an instinctive love of mystification, he kept up during his journey an
official correspondence with his prefect and a private one with Real.
He told one what he would not confess to the other; he wrote to
Savoye-Rollin that he was in a hurry to return to Rouen, while by the
same post he asked Real to get him recalled to Paris during the next
twenty-four hours. "If you adopt this idea, Monsieur, you must be kind
enough to select a pretext which will not wound or even scratch any
one's amour-propre." The "any one" mentioned here is Savoye-Rollin. What
secret had Licquet discovered, that he did not dare to confide, except
orally, and then only to the Imperial Chief of Police? We believe that
we are not wrong in premising that scarcely had he arrived at Caen when
he laid hands on a witness so important, and at the same time so
difficult to manipulate, that he was himself frightened at this
unexpected _coup de theatre_.

Whilst ferreting about in the prisons to which he had obtained access
that he might talk to Lanoe and the Buquets, he met Acquet de Ferolles,
who had been forgotten there for three months. Whether Mme. de Placene
was, as Vannier suspected, employed by the police and knew Licquet's
real personality, or whether the latter found another intermediary, it
is certain that he obtained Acquet de Ferolles' confidence from the
beginning, and that he got the credit of having him set at liberty. It
was after this interview that Licquet asked Real to recall him to Paris
for twenty-four hours. His journey took place in the early days of
November, and on the 12th, on an order from Real Acquet was rearrested
and taken in a post-chaise from Donnay to Paris, escorted by a sergeant
of police. On the 16th he was entered in the Temple gaol-book, and Real,
who hastened to interrogate him, showed him great consideration, and
promised that his detention should not be long. A note, which is still
to be found among the papers connected with this affair, seems to
indicate that this incarceration was not of a nature to cause great
alarm to the Lord of Donnay: "M. Acquet has been taken to Paris that he
may not interfere with the proceedings against his wife.... It is known
that he is unac