The robbers, masters of the ground thanks to their numbers, ransacked the coach.They had gagged and bound the driver by way of deception.The cases were opened, the bags of money were thrown out; the horses were unharnessed and the silver and gold loaded on their backs.Three thousand francs in copper were rejected; but a sum in other coin of one hundred and three thousand francs was safely carried off on the four horses.
The brigands took the road to the hamlet of Menneville, which is close to Saint-Savin.They stopped with their plunder at an isolated house belonging to the Chaussard brothers, where the Chaussards' uncle, one Bourget, lived, who was knowing to the whole plot from its inception.This old man, aided by his wife, welcomed the brigands, charged them to make no noise, unloaded the bags of money, and gave the men something to drink.The wife performed the part of sentinel.The old man then took the horses through the wood, returned them to the driver, unbound the latter, and also the young men, who had been garotted.After resting for a time, Courceuil, Hiley, and Boislaurier paid their men a paltry sum for their trouble, and the whole band departed, leaving the plunder in charge of Bourget.
When they reached a lonely place called Champ-Landry, these criminals, obeying the impulse which leads all malefactors into the blunders and miscalculations of crime, threw their guns into a wheat-field.This action, done by all of them, is a proof of their mutual understanding.Struck with terror at the boldness of their act, and even by its success, they dispersed.
The robbery now having been committed, with the additional features of assault and assassination, other facts and other actors appear, all connected with the robbery itself and with the disposition of the plunder.
Rifoel, concealed in Paris, whence he pulled every wire of the plot, transmits to Leveille an order to send him instantly fifty thousand francs.