of aught else, I resign myself as a Christian
to the judgment of God."

It was the only line of defence which remained open to him, and he
clung to it, with the hope of imposing on the magistrates by redoubled
hypocrisy and pious observances. But all this laboriously constructed
scaffolding of lies was shaken to its base and fell away piece by piece.
Every moment brought fresh and overwhelming revelations. He professed
that Madame de Lamotte had died suddenly in his house, and that, fearing
suspicion, he had buried her secretly. But the doctors called on to
examine the body declared that she had been poisoned with corrosive
sublimate and opium. The pretended payment was clearly an odious
imposture, the receipt a forgery! Then, like a threatening spectre,
arose another question, to which he found no reply, and his own
invention turned against him.

Why, knowing his mother was no more, had he taken young de Lamotte to
Versailles? What had become of the youth? What had befallen, him? Once
on the track, the cooper with whom he had lodged on the 12th of February
was soon discovered, and an Act of Parliament ordered the exhumation of
the corpse buried under the name of Beaupre, which the cooper identified
by a shirt which he had given for the burial. Derues, confounded by
the evidence, asserted that the youth died of indigestion and venereal
disease. But the doctors again declared the presence of corrosive
sublimate and opium. All this evidence of guilt he met with assumed
resignation, lamenting incessantly for Edouard, whom he declared he had
loved as his own son. "Alas!" he said, "I see that poor boy every night!
But it softens my grief to know that he was not deprived of the last
consolations of religion! God, who sees me, and who knows my innocence,
will enlighten the magistrates, and my honour will be vindicated."

The evidence being complete, Derues was condemned by sentence of the
Chatelet, pronounced April 30th, and confirmed by Parliament, May 5th.
We give the decree as it is found in the archives:

"This Court having considered the trial held before the Provost of
Paris, or his Deputy-Lieutenant at the Chatelet, for the satisfaction
of the aforesaid Deputy at the aforesaid Chatelet, at the request of the
Deputy of the King's Attorney General at the aforesaid Court, summoner
and plaintiff, against Antoine-Francois Derues, and Marie-Louise
Nicolais, his wife, defendants and accused, prisoners in the prisons
of the