The second, through the influence of his elder brother, was made postmaster at Conches.  His only child was a daughter, married to a rich farmer named Guerbet.  He died in 1817.

The last of the Mouchons, who was a priest, and the curate of Ville-aux-Fayes before the Revolution, was again a priest after the re-establishment of Catholic worship, and again the curate of the same little town.  He was not willing to take the oath, and was hidden for a long time in the hermitage of Les Aigues, under the protection of the Gaubertins, father and son.  Now about sixty-seven years of age, he was treated with universal respect and affection, owing to the harmony of his nature with that of the inhabitants.  Parsimonious to the verge of avarice, he was thought to be rich, and the credit of being so increased the respect that was shown to him.  Monseigneur the bishop paid the greatest attention to the Abbe Mouchon, who was always spoken of as the venerable curate of Ville-aux-Fayes; and the fact that he had several times refused to go and live in a splendid parsonage attached to the Prefecture, where Monseigneur wished to settle him, made him dearer still to his people.

Gaubertin, now mayor of Ville-aux-Fayes, received steady support from his brother-in-law Gendrin, who was judge of the municipal court.  Gaubertin the younger, the solicitor who had the most practice before this court and much repute in the arrondissement, was already thinking of selling his practice after five years’ exercise of it.  He wanted to succeed his Uncle Gendrin as counsellor whenever the latter should retire from the profession.  Gendrin’s only son was commissioner of mortgages.

Soudry’s son, who for the last two years had been prosecuting-attorney at the prefecture, was Gaubertin’s henchman.  The clever Madame Soudry had secured the future of her husband’s son by marrying him to Rigou’s only daughter.  The united fortunes of the Soudrys and the ex-monk, which would come eventually to the attorney, made that young man one of the most important personages of the department.

The sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, Monsieur des Lupeaulx, nephew of the general-secretary of one of the most important ministries in Paris, was the prospective husband of Mademoiselle Elise Gaubertin, the mayor’s youngest daughter, whose dowry, like that of her elder sister, was two hundred thousand francs, not to speak of “expectations.”  This functionary showed much sense, though not aware of it, in falling in love with Mademoiselle Elise when he first arrived at Ville-aux-Fayes, in 1819.  If it had not been for his social position, which made him “eligible,” he would long ago have been forced to ask for his exchange.  But Gaubertin in marrying him to his daughter thought much more of the uncle, the general-secretary, than of the nephew; and in return, the uncle, for the sake of his nephew, gave all his influence to Gaubertin.

Thus the Church, the magistracy both removable and irremovable, the municipality, and the prefecture, the four feet of power, walked as the mayor pleased.  Let us now see how that functionary strengthened himself in the spheres above and below that in which he worked.