“The man who has discovered Lacheneur will know how to find this traitor d’Escorval,” he remarked.
M. de Courtornieu, who was more calm, “took measures for the restoration of a great culprit to the hand of justice,” as he said.
He sent couriers in every direction, ordering them to make close inquiries throughout the neighborhood.
His commands were brief, but to the point; they were to watch the frontier, to submit all travellers to a rigorous examination, to search the house, and to sow the description of d’Escorval broadcast through the land.
But first of all he ordered the arrest both of Abbe Midon—the Cure of Sairmeuse, and of the son of Baron d’Escorval.
Among the officers present there was one, an old lieutenant, medalled and decorated, who had been deeply wounded by imputations uttered by the Duc de Sairmeuse.
He stepped forward with a gloomy air, and said that these measures were doubtless all very well, but the most pressing and urgent duty was to institute an investigation at once, which, while acquainting them with the method of escape, would probably reveal the accomplices.
On hearing the word “investigation,” neither the Duc de Sairmeuse nor the Marquis de Courtornieu could repress a slight shudder.
They could not ignore the fact that their reputations were at stake, and that the merest trifle might disclose the truth. A precaution neglected, the most insignificant detail, a word, a gesture might ruin their ambitious hopes forever.
They trembled to think that this officer might be a man of unusual shrewdness, who had suspected their complicity, and was impatient to verify his presumptions.