A Dark Affair (The Gondreville Mystery,A Murky Business) (1803-1806,1834)

During the French Revolution two sons of rural aristocracy flee from France after the death of their father leaving their young sister behind. Their sister matures into a daring defender of the aristocratic cause together with the faithful but churlish steward (everyone's enemy) of a neighboring estate. Together they arrange for the return of her brothers to France and for a hiding place in the caverns of an abandoned monastery deep in the forest. They outsmart the secret police sent to keep tabs on things, but get falsely accused of a kidnapping that they had nothing to do with. The much hated steward gets the chop, the brothers get a reprieve from Napoleon only to meet the same fate as most soldiers of the Napoleonic wars. The whole story ends many years later during a dinner party where it's revealed that the kidnapping was all part of a high level political conspiracy that failed. Someone had to take the fall and the young woman and her brothers were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(Long, Une Tenebreuse Affaire, hmist10.txt)