or criminals seized with a frenzy, had certainly passed the night
in the house.

The count's library, especially, had been turned topsy-turvy. The
assassins had not taken the trouble to force the locks; they had
gone to work with a hatchet. Surely they were confident of not
being overheard; for they must have struck tremendous blows to make
the massive oaken bureau fly in pieces.

Neither parlor nor smoking-room had been respected. Couches, chairs,
canopies were cut and torn as if they had been lunged at with swords.
Two spare chambers for guests were all in confusion.

They then ascended to the second story.

There, in the first room which they penetrated, they found, beside
a trunk which had been assaulted, but which was not opened, a
hatchet for splitting wood which the valet de chambre recognized as
belonging to the house.

"Do you understand now?" said the mayor to M. Plantat. "The
assassins were in force, that's clear. The murder accomplished,
they scattered through the chateau, seeking everywhere the money
they knew they would find here. One of them was engaged in breaking
open this trunk, when the others, below, found the money; they
called him; he hastened down, and thinking all further search
useless, he left the hatchet here."

"I see it," said the brigadier, "just as if I had been here."