There
everyone bowed low before Citoyen Lacheneur.
Unlike most people, he did not forget his past hopes at the moment when
they might be realized.
He married Martha Barrois, and, leaving the country to work out its
own salvation without his assistance, he gave his time and attention to
agriculture.
Any close observer, in those days, would have felt certain that the man
was bewildered by the sudden change in his situation.
His manner was so troubled and anxious that one, to see him, would
have supposed him a servant in constant fear of being detected in some
indiscretion.
He did not open the chateau, but installed himself and his young wife in
the cottage formerly occupied by the head game-keeper, near the entrance
of the park.
But, little by little, with the habit of possession, came assurance.
The Consulate had succeeded the Directory, the Empire succeeded the
Consulate, Citoyen Lacheneur became M. Lacheneur.
Appointed mayor two years later, he left the cottage and took possession
of the chateau.
The former ploughboy slumbered in the bed of the Ducs de Sairmeuse; he
ate from the massive plate, graven with their coat-of-arms; he received
his visitors in the magnificent salon in which the Ducs de Sairmeuse had
received their friends in years gone by.
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