for having poisoned his entire family!"

Whilst she amused the people by her grimaces and grotesque gestures, and
while Mouchy held forth to some of them, Derues made his escape. Several
times between Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois and the rue de la Mortellerie he
nearly fainted, and was obliged to stop. While the danger lasted, he
had had sufficient self-control to confront it coolly, but now that he
calculated the depth of the abyss which for a moment had opened beneath
his feet, dizziness laid hold on him.

Other precautions now became necessary. His real name had been mentioned
before the commissionaire, and the widow Masson, who owned the cellar,
only knew him as Ducoudray. He went on in front, asked for the keys,
which till then had been left with her, and the chest was got downstairs
without any awkward questions. Only the porter seemed astonished that
this supposed wine, which was to be sold immediately, should be put in
such a place, and asked if he might come the next day and move it
again. Derues replied that someone was coming for it that very day. This
question, and the disgraceful scene which the man had witnessed, made
it necessary to get rid of him without letting him see the pit dug under
the staircase. Derues tried to drag the chest towards the hole, but
all his strength was insufficient to move it. He uttered terrible
imprecations when he recognised his own weakness, and saw that he would
be obliged to bring another stranger, an informer perhaps, into this
charnel-house, where; as yet, nothing betrayed his crimes. No sooner
escaped from one peril than he encountered another, and already he had
to struggle against his own deeds. He measured the length of the trench,
it was too short. Derues went out and repaired to the place where he had
hired the labourer who had dug it out, but he could not find the man,
whom he had only seen once, and whose name he did not know. Two whole
days were spent in this fruitless search, but on the third, as he was
wandering on one of the quays at the time labourers were to be found
there, a mason, thinking he was looking for someone, inquired what
he wanted. Derues looked well at the man, and concluding from his
appearance that he was probably rather simpleminded, asked--

"Would you like to earn a crown of three livres by an easy job?"

"What a question, master!" answered the mason. "Work is so scarce that I
am going back into the country this very evening."

"Very well! B