"You are right!" he murmured.
And turning to Olivier he said aloud—
"Then let us discover the prisoners without him!"
Olivier understood that matters were becoming very serious. However, Robespierre looked discouraged. How was it possible to find the women, under their assumed names, in Vendée? But Lebas remarked that they might be in Paris. At this Olivier visibly trembled, which Lebas did not fail to notice.
"Why," he continued—"why should he be so far from them?"
The point of this remark struck Robespierre.
"Yes, to be sure; you are right," he said, and interpreting Lebas's thoughts he bade him take a carriage and drive to each prison and interview every woman that had been arrested with a young girl. Lebas, who had already put on his hat, remarked that he did not think the night would suffice; there were so many women arrested with a daughter or a younger sister. And what if Olivier spoke the truth, and his mother had been inscribed on the prison-register under another name—her husband's, for instance?
"Mauluçon," interrupted Robespierre, the name suddenly recurring to him.
Lebas took out a note-book from his pocket. Was he a soldier, or a magistrate, this Mauluçon? Robespierre could not say. All he knew of him was that among the people represented as having gone into mourning for Louis XVI. he had seen the names of Pontivy, his son-in-law Mauluçon, and his daughter Clarisse.
"Clarisse!" repeated Lebas, stopping his note-taking.