Collet's quick eye detected, lying in a corner, the white cap and apron of a cook, and a dish of caramel on the table. In the twinkling of an eye he had dressed himself as a cook, taken up the dish, kicked at the door, till the gensdarmes opened and allowed him to pass forth between them; they supposing him to be the cook.
Collet slipped out of the house and concealed himself next door. A hue and cry ensued, and the alarm bell rang; the gensdarmes galloped along the roads about Montpellier, and Collet looked on complacently from the window, till, after fifteen days, the search for him was relaxed, and then he left the town.
After having rambled about for a while without leaving traces of his presence, he reappeared in the department of Tarn, where he presented himself before the superior of the Schools of Christian Brothers, and informed him that he was a gentleman of private means and of a devout turn of soul, and that it was his desire to found a novitiate for the Brothers, and that he had a sum of 40,000 francs at his disposal for that purpose. Then he visited a M. Lajus, a Toulouse merchant, and entered into negotiation with him for the sale of a house he had, and he informed him that he was ex-sub-prefect of the department of Aine. M. Lajus accompanied him to the house, and allowed Collet to order and see to the carrying out of alterations, the pulling down of walls, etc., under his eye before a sou had been paid of the stipulated price. Then Collet returned to the mother house of the Christian Brothers and urged the director to visit the new novitiate. The worthy man was so delighted that he gave a holiday to all the inmates of the establishment, that they might go together to inspect the fresh acquisition.
