What were they likely to do to the future Comte de Gondreville?
Did they mean to force him to make over the estate for which Michu declared in 1799 he had the money to pay?
But there was another aspect of the cast to the knowing criminal lawyer.
He asked himself what could be the object of the careful search made of the chateau.

If revenge were at the bottom of the matter, the assailants would have killed the senator.

Perhaps he had been killed and buried.
The abduction, however, seemed to point to imprisonment.

But why keep their victim imprisoned after searching the castle?
It was folly to suppose that the abduction of a dignitary of the Empire could long remain secret.

The publicity of the matter would prevent any benefit from it.
To these suggestions Pigoult replied that justice was never able to make out all the motives of scoundrels.