Causes Célèbres. "Yes, my dear sir," said Desrües. "Where did you leave them?" "On the terrace, near the lake." "What were you doing on the terrace, and why did you not accompany them farther?" "Through pure discretion. We went there at the request of Madame de la Motte to meet a gentleman, who, at the moment we arrived, alighted from a carriage. He saluted Ma dame de la Motte affectionately, and mani fested an extraordinary friendship for the son. In a few moments all three entered the carriage. Madame de la Motte and her son bade me adieu, and they then drove off. I was greatly astonished, and followed the carriage. I saw it enter the courtyard of a magnificent house. I rang the bell and I asked for Madame de la Motte; the servant replied that he did not know what I meant." This story, told in the most natural man ner possible, only served to increase the anger of M. de la Motte, and Desrües did not seek to prolong the interview. "Your interest," said Corad, one of the many friends Desrües had made at BuissonSoiief, " is to find Madame de la Motte as quickly as possible. With her present every thing will be made clear and indisputable; without her they will attack the genuineness of the instrument under which you claim." Desrües, greatly disturbed, returned to Paris. His plans had been checked; but he was not a man to give up the contest, and this partial defeat only served to redouble his energy. On his part, M. de la Motte, as soon as he learned that Desrües had departed for Paris, resolved to visit the city himself. He ar rived there on the 4th of May, and, curiously enough, took lodgings in the Rue de la Mortellerie, only a few steps from "The Pewter Pot." All his efforts to discover any traces of his wife and son proving fruitless, he finally determined to place the matter in the hands of the police. Desrües, however, scented the coming storm. He said to his wife and Bertin : "This miserable woman has played me a
403
pretty trick, and her disappearance may cause me no end of annoyance. I must find her, dead or alive. I know about where she must be at this moment, and I am going to seek for her." He packed up a few articles of clothing, and on the morning of the 5th of May he departed, announcing that he was going to Versailles and Palaiseau. Instead of doing as he had stated, he went directly to Lyons, where he arrived on the evening of May 7. He caused himself to be driven to the Hotel Blanc, in the Rue de l'Arsenal. There he registered as Desportes, a merchant of Paris, stating, as he did so, that he had come to Lyons to purchase goods. Early in the morning of the following day the false Desportes went out, and re turned in about an hour. " A tall lady," he said to one of the servants, "dressed in black, will call for me shortly. Show her to my room. I have important business with her." About nine o'clock a tall lady, dressed in black, presented herself and asked for M. Desportes. She appeared, in fact, uncom monly tall for a woman, and her face was carefully concealed. She was conducted to the apartment occupied by M. Desportes, and remained there for about an hour. After the departure of this lady, Desrües went out himself and made several pur chases, — among them a number of lady's dresses, which he had sent to his room at the hotel. . In the afternoon of the same day a tall lady, dressed in black, presented herself at the house of M. Pourra, a notary. On be ing introduced into his office, she said in a low voice, in which a certain hoarseness was observable, as if the speaker were suffering from a severe cold : " Monsieur, I have been recommended to you by M. Bergasse. I am on my way to Provence, and have only stopped at Lyons for a moment, to execute certain papers necessary for the termination of a transaction which I consummated in Paris. I wish to send to my husband, M. Saint-Faust de la Motte, a power of attorney."
