"The abominable history of Leroi de Valine, condemned to death at the age
of sixteen 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