This first deed accomplished, another victim was already appointed.
Trembling at first as to the consequences of his forced confession,
Derues waited some days, paying, however, his creditor as promised. He
redoubles his demonstrations of piety, he casts a furtive glance on
everyone he meets, seeking for some expression of distrust. But no one
avoids him, or points him out with a raised finger, or whispers on seeing
him; everywhere he encounters the customary expression of goodwill.
Nothing has changed; suspicion passes over his head without alighting
there. He is reassured, and resumes his work. Moreover, had he wished
to remain passive, he could not have done so; he was now compelled to
follow that fatal law of crime which demands that blood must be effaced
with blood, and which is compelled to appeal again to death in order to
stifle the accusing voice already issuing from the tomb.

Edouard de Lamotte, loving his mother as much as she loved him, became
uneasy at receiving no visits, and was astonished at this sudden
indifference. Derues wrote to him as follows:

"I have at length some good news for you, my dear boy, but you must not
tell your mother I have betrayed her secret; she would scold me, because
she is planning a surprise for you, and the various steps and care
necessary in arranging this important matter have caused her absence.
You were to know nothing until the 11th or 12th of this month, but now
that all is settled, I should blame myself if I prolonged the uncertainty
in which you have been left, only you must promise me to look as much
astonished as possible. Your mother, who only lives for you, is going to
present you with the greatest gift a youth of your age can receive--that
of liberty. Yes, dear boy, we thought we had discovered that you have no
very keen taste for study, and that a secluded life will suit neither
your character nor your health. In saying this I utter no reproach, for