The dramatic story of how Héracle-Olivier-Jean-Baptiste de Blocquel de Croix, Baron de Wismes and his friend, Arthur Le Moyne de la Borderie, later the outstanding nineteenth-century historian of Brittany, discovered and rescued a small part of the archives of the former Breton Chambre des Comptes in 1857 was told two years later in a fascinating article, ‘Le Trésor de la rue des Caves à Nantes’. While walking past an old house, de Wismes recalled, ‘j'aperçus deux ou trois individus accroupis près d'un puits situé dans l'angle de la cour de cette maison et occupés à laver des piles de vieux parchemins’ (‘I saw two or three individuals squatting near a well by the corner of this house, all busily engaged in washing piles of old parchment’). Overcome with curiosity, he entered the court, to be met by a man from Alsace, who showed him three rooms full of drying parchments. Recognising that many were medieval, de Wismes struck a bargain, offering to buy documents at two francs a pound. The deal completed, he carried home several kilos, and then immediately wrote to his friend La Borderie about his find, offering to share future spoils with him. A few days later, together they returned to repeat the procedure: