This dangerous agitator, concealed, according to the usual custom of the rebels, under the name of Pierrot, went from place to place throughout the departments of the West gathering together the elements of rebellion; but his chief resort was the chateau of Saint-Savin, the residence of a Madame Lechantre and her daughter, a Madame Bryond, situated in the district of Saint-Savin, arrondissement of Mortagne.Several of the most horrible events of the rebellion of 1799 are connected with this strategic point.
Here a bearer of despatches was murdered, his carriage pillaged by the brigands under command of a woman, assisted by the notorious Marche-a-Terre.Brigandage appeared to be endemic in that locality.
An intimacy, which we shall not attempt to characterize, existed for more than a year between the woman Bryond and the said Rifoel.
It was in this district that an interview took place, in April, 1808, between Rifoel and a certain Boislaurier, a leader known by the name of August in the baneful rebellions of the West, who instigated the affair now before the court.
The somewhat obscure point of the relations between these two leaders is cleared up by the testimony of numerous witnesses, and also by the judgment of the court which condemned Rifoel.
From that time Boislaurier had an understanding with Rifoel, and they acted in concert.
They communicated to each other, at first secretly, their infamous plans, encouraged by the absence of His Imperial and Royal Majesty with the armies in Spain.Their scheme was to obtain possession of the money of the Treasury as the fundamental basis of future operations.
Some time after this, one named Dubut, of Caen, sent an emissary to the chateau of Saint-Savin named Hiley--commonly called "The Laborer," long known as a highwayman, a robber of diligences--to give information as to the men who could safely be relied upon.