rd."

"Wretched man," said the unfortunate widow, "may God forgive your soul;
but your body will assuredly end on the gallows!"

It was in vain that she complained, and told of this abominable swindle;
Derues had been beforehand with her, and the slander he had disseminated
bore its fruits. It was said that his old mistress was endeavouring by
an odious falsehood to destroy the reputation of a man who had refused
to be her lover. Although reduced to poverty, she left the house
where she had a right to remain rent free, preferring the hardest and
dreariest life to the torture of remaining under the same roof with the
man who had caused her ruin.

We might relate a hundred other pieces of knavery, but it must not be
supposed that having begun by murder, Derues would draw back and remain
contented with theft. Two fraudulent bankruptcies would have sufficed
for most people; for him they were merely a harmless pastime. Here
we must place two dark and obscure stories, two crimes of which he is
accused, two victims whose death groans no one heard.

The hypocrite's excellent reputation had crossed the Parisian bounds.
A young man from the country, intending to start as a grocer in the
capital, applied to Derues for the necessary information and begged for
advice. He arrived at the latter's house with a sum of eight thousand
livres, which he placed in Derues' hands, asking him for assistance in
finding a business. The sight of gold was enough to rouse the instinct
of crime in Derues, and the witches who hailed Macbeth with the promise
of royalty did not rouse the latter's ambitious desires to a greater
height than the chance of wealth did the greed of the assassin; whose
hands, once closed over the eight thousand livres, were never again
relaxed. He received them as a deposit, and hid them along with his
previous plunder, vowing never to return them. Several days had elapsed,
when one afternoon Derues returned home with an air of such unusual
cheerfulness that the young man questioned him. "Have you heard some
good news for me?" he asked, "or have you had some luck yourself?"

"My young friend," answered Derues, "as for me, success depends on my
own efforts, and fortune smiles on me. But I have promised to be useful
to you, your parents have trusted me, and I must prove that their
confidence is well founded. I have heard to-day of a business for
disposal in one of the best parts of Paris. You can have it for twelve
thousand