第35章

The diligence, which had left Mortagne about one in the morning, was driven by one Rousseau, whose conduct proved so suspicious that his arrest was judged necessary.The vehicle, driven slowly, would arrive about three o'clock in the forest of Chesnay.

A single gendarme accompanied the diligence, which would stop for breakfast at Donnery.Three passengers only were making the trip, and were now walking up the hill with the gendarme.

The driver, who had driven very slowly to the bridge of Chesnay at the entrance of the wood, now hastened his horses with a vigor and eagerness remarked by the passengers, and turned into a cross-road, called the road of Senzey.The carriage was thus out of sight; and the gendarme with the three young men were hurrying to overtake it when they heard a shout: "Halt!" and four shots were fired at them.

The gendarme, who was not hit, drew his sabre and rushed in the direction of the vehicle.He was stopped by four armed men, who fired at him; his eagerness saved him, for he ran toward one of the three passengers to tell him to make for Chesnay and ring the tocsin.But two brigands followed him, and one of them, taking aim, sent a ball through his left shoulder, which broke his arm, and he fell helpless.

The shouts and firing were heard in Donnery.A corporal stationed there and one gendarme ran toward the sounds.The firing of a squad of men took them to the opposite side of the wood to that where the pillage was taking place.The noise of the firing prevented the corporal from hearing the cries of the wounded gendarme; but he did distinguish a sound which proved to be that of an axe breaking and chopping into cases.He ran toward the sound.Meeting four armed bandits, he called out to them, "Surrender, villains!"They replied: "Stay where you are, or you are a dead man!" The corporal sprang forward; two shots were fired and one struck him;a ball went through his left leg and into the flank of his horse.

The brave man, bathed in blood, was forced to give up the unequal fight; he shouted "Help! the brigands are at Chesnay!" but all in vain.

The robbers, masters of the ground thanks to their numbers, ransacked the coach.They had gagged and bound the driver by way of deception.The cases were opened, the bags of money were thrown out; the horses were unharnessed and the silver and gold loaded on their backs.Three thousand francs in copper were rejected; but a sum in other coin of one hundred and three thousand francs was safely carried off on the four horses.

The brigands took the road to the hamlet of Menneville, which is close to Saint-Savin.They stopped with their plunder at an isolated house belonging to the Chaussard brothers, where the Chaussards' uncle, one Bourget, lived, who was knowing to the whole plot from its inception.This old man, aided by his wife, welcomed the brigands, charged them to make no noise, unloaded the bags of money, and gave the men something to drink.The wife performed the part of sentinel.The old man then took the horses through the wood, returned them to the driver, unbound the latter, and also the young men, who had been garotted.After resting for a time, Courceuil, Hiley, and Boislaurier paid their men a paltry sum for their trouble, and the whole band departed, leaving the plunder in charge of Bourget.

When they reached a lonely place called Champ-Landry, these criminals, obeying the impulse which leads all malefactors into the blunders and miscalculations of crime, threw their guns into a wheat-field.This action, done by all of them, is a proof of their mutual understanding.Struck with terror at the boldness of their act, and even by its success, they dispersed.

The robbery now having been committed, with the additional features of assault and assassination, other facts and other actors appear, all connected with the robbery itself and with the disposition of the plunder.

Rifoel, concealed in Paris, whence he pulled every wire of the plot, transmits to Leveille an order to send him instantly fifty thousand francs.

Courceuil, knowing to all the facts, sends Hiley to tell Leveille of the success of the attempt, and say that he will meet him at Mortagne.Leveille goes there.

Vauthier, on whose fidelity they think they can rely, agrees to go to Bourget, the uncle of the Chaussards, in whose care the money was left, and ask for the booty.The old man tells Vauthier that he must go to his nephews, who have taken large sums to the woman Bryond.But he orders him to wait outside in the road, and brings him a bag containing the small sum of twelve hundred francs, which Vauthier delivers to the woman Lechantre for her daughter.

At Leveille's request, Vauthier returns to Bourget, who this time sends for his nephews.The elder Chaussard takes Vauthier to the wood, shows him a tree, and there they find a bag of one thousand francs buried in the earth.Leveille, Hiley, and Vauthier make other trips, obtaining only trifling sums compared with the large sum known to have been captured.

The woman Lechantre receives these sums at Mortagne; and, on receipt of a letter from her daughter, removes them to Saint-Savin, where the woman Bryond now returns.

This is not the moment to examine as to whether the woman Lechantre had any anterior knowledge of the plot.

It suffices here to note that this woman left Mortagne to go to Saint-Savin the evening before the crime; that after the crime she met her daughter on the high-road, and they both returned to Mortagne; that on the following day Leveille, informed by Hiley of the success of the plot, goes from Alencon to Mortagne, and there visits the two women; later he persuades them to deposit the sums obtained with such difficulty from the Chaussards and Bourget in a house in Alencon, of which we shall speak presently,--that of the Sieur Pannier, merchant.

The woman Lechantre writes to the bailiff at Saint-Savin to come and drive her and her daughter by the cross-roads towards Alencon.