The house once bought, the illustrious doctor, instead of leaving
there, wrote to his nephew to let it. The Folie-Levraught was
therefore occupied by the notary of Nemours, who about that time sold
his practice to Dionis, his head-clerk, and died two years later,
leaving the house on the doctor's hands, just at the time when the
fate of Napoleon was being decided in the neighbourhood. The doctor's
heirs, at first misled, had by this time decided that his thought of
returning to his native place was merely a rich man's fancy, and that
probably he had some tie in Paris which would keep him there and cheat
them of their hoped-for inheritance. However, Minoret-Levrault's wife
seized the occasion to write him a letter. The old man replied that as
soon as peace was signed, the roads cleared of soldiers, and safe
communications established, he meant to go and live at Nemours. He
did, in fact, put in an appearance with two of his clients, the
architect of his hospital and an upholsterer, who took charge of the
repairs, the indoor arrangements, and the transportation of the
furniture. Madame Minoret-Levrault proposed the cook of the late
notary as caretaker, and the woman was accepted.

When the heirs heard that their uncle and great-uncle Minoret was
really coming to live in Nemours, they were seized (in spite of the
political events which were just then weighing so heavily on Brie and
on the Gatinais) with a devouring curiosity, which was not surprising.
Was he rich? Economical or spendthrift? Would he leave a fine fortune
or nothing? Was his property in annuities? In the end they found out
what follows, but only by taking infinite pains and employing much
subterraneous spying.

After the death of his wife, Ursula Mirouet, and between the years
1789 and 1813, the doctor (who had been appointed consulting physician