this
fete was only "conscription in disguise," had threatened to prevent the
ceremony, to surround the Mairie and burn the registers and the
recruiting papers. What contributed to the general uneasiness was the
fact that four men who were known to be gendarmes in disguise had been
hovering about, chiefly on the beach; they had had the audacity to
arrest two gunners, coast-guards in uniform and on duty, and demand
their papers. A serious brawl had ensued. At night the same men
"suddenly thrust a dark lantern in the face of every one they met."

M. Boullee, the Mayor of Luc, lived at the hamlet of
Notre-Dame-de-la-Delivrande, some distance from the town, and in much
alarm at the disturbances watched with his servants through part of the
night of the 7th-8th. At one o'clock in the morning, while he was with
them in a room on the ground floor, a shot was heard outside and a ball
struck the window frame. They rushed to the door, and in the darkness
saw a man running away; the cartouche was still burning in the
courtyard. M. Boullee immediately sent to the coast-guards to inform
them of the fact, and to ask for a reinforcement of two men who did not
arrive till near four o'clock. Having passed the night patrolling at
some distance from La Delivrande, they had not heard the shot that had
alarmed the mayor, but towards half-past three had heard firing and a
loud "Help, help!" in the direction of the junction of the road from
Bayeux with that leading to the sea.

It was now dawn and M. Boullee, reassured by the presence of the two
gunners, resolved to go out and explore the neighbourhood. On the road
to Luc, about five hundred yards from his house, a peasant hailed him,
and showed him, behind a hayrick almost on the edge of the road, the
body of a man. The face had received so many blows as to be almost
unrecognisable; the left eye was coming out of the socket; the hair was
black, but very grey on the temples, and the beard thin and short. The
man lay on his back, with a loaded pistol on each side, about two feet
from the body; the blade and sheath of a sword-cane had rolled a little
way off, and near them was the broken butt-end of a double-barrelled
gun. On raising the corpse to search the pockets, the hands were found
to be strongly tied behind the back. No papers were found that could
give any clue to his identity, but only a watch, thirty francs in
silver, and a little book on the first page of which was written the
name