The inhabitants of Chateau-Gonthier were very favourable to
the Vendean cause; Henri received every information which the people
could give him, and at last succeeded in tracing Lechelle into a large
half-ruined house, in the lower portion of which, a wine shop, for the
accommodation of the poorer classes, was kept open. Here they learnt,
from the neighbours, that he had been seen to enter the house, and an
old woman, who alone kept her position behind the counter, confessed
with some hesitation, that a man, answering the description of him they
sought, bad entered the shop about an hour since; that he had hastily
swallowed a large quantity of brandy, and then, instead of leaving the
shop, had rushed through the inner door and gone upstairs.
"He wasn't here a minute in all," said she; "and he said nothing about
paying for what he took--and, when I saw him going in there, I thought
it best to let him have his own way."
"And he is there still," said Chapeau, who had now again joined his
master.
"Unless he went out through the window, he is; there is no other way out
than what you see there.
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