s, they stopped at the Fleur-de-lys inn, but there the sickness
which the boy had complained of during the journey became very serious,
and the innkeeper, having young children, and believing that he
recognised symptoms of smallpox, which just then was ravaging
Versailles, refused to receive them, saying he had no vacant room. This
might have disconcerted anyone but Derues, but his audacity, activity,
and resource seemed to increase with each fresh obstacle. Leaving
Edouard in a room on the ground floor which had no communication with
the rest of the inn, he went at once to look for lodgings, and hastily
explored the town. After a fruitless search, he found at last, at the
junction of the rue Saint-Honore with that of the Orangerie, a cooper
named Martin, who had a furnished room to spare. This he hired at thirty
sous per day for himself and his nephew, who had been taken suddenly
ill, under the name of Beaupre. To avoid being questioned later, he
informed the cooper in a few words that he was a doctor; that he had
come to Versailles in order to place his nephew in one of the offices
of the town; that in a few days the latter's mother would arrive to join
him in seeing and making application to influential persons about
the court, to whom he had letters of introduction. As soon as he had
delivered this fable with all the appearance of truth with which he knew
so well how to disguise his falsehoods, he went back to the young de
Lamotte, who was already so exhausted that he was hardly able to drag
himself as far as the cooper's house. He fainted on arrival, and was
carried into the hired room, where Derues begged to be left alone with
him, and only asked for certain beverages which he told the people how
to prepare.

Whether it was that the strength of youth fought against the poison, or
that Derues took pleasure in watching the sufferings of his victim, the
agony of the poor lad was prolonged until the fourth day. The sickness
continuing incessantly, he sent the cooper's wife for a medicine which
he prepared and administered himself. It produced terrible pain,
and Edouard's cries brought the cooper and his wife upstairs. They
represented to Derues that he ought to call in a doctor and consult
with him, but he refused decidedly, saying that a doctor hastily fetched
might prove to be an ignorant person with whom he could not agree, and
that he could not allow one so dear to him to be prescribed for and
nursed by anyone but