c
attention, and this had to be satisfied, light had to be thrown on the
darkness: society demanded vengeance.

Derues felt some alarm in his dungeon, but his presence of mind and his
dissimulation in no wise deserted him, and he swore afresh every day to
the truth of his statements. But his last false assertion turned against
him: the bond for a hundred thousand livres which he professed to have
given to Duclos was a counterfeit which Duclos had annulled by a sort of
counter declaration made the same day. Another circumstance, intended to
ensure his safety, only redoubled suspicion. On April 8th, notes payable
to order to the amount of seventy-eight thousand livres, were received by
Monsieur de Lamotte's lawyer, as if coming from Madame de Lamotte. It
appeared extraordinary that these notes, which arrived in an ordinary
stamped envelope, should not be accompanied by any letter of advice, and
suspicion attached to Madame Derues, who hitherto had remained unnoticed.
An inquiry as to where the packet had been posted soon revealed the
office, distinguished by a letter of the alphabet, and the postmaster
described a servant-maid who had brought the letter and paid for it. The
description resembled the Derues' servant; and this girl, much alarmed,
acknowledged, after a great deal of hesitation, that she had posted the
letter in obedience to her mistress's orders. Whereupon Madame Derues
was sent as a prisoner to Fort l'Eveque, and her husband transferred to
the Grand-Chatelet. On being interrogated, she at length owned that she
had sent these notes to Monsieur de Lamotte's lawyer, and that her
husband had given them her in an envelope hidden in the soiled linen for
which she had brought him clean in exchange.

All this certainly amounted to serious presumptive evidence of guilt, and
if Derues had shown himself to the multitude, which followed every phase
of the investigation with increasing anxiety, a thousand arms would have
willingly usurped the office of the executioner; but the distance thence
to actual proof of murder was enormous for the magistracy. Derues
maintained his tranquillity, always asserting that Madame de Lamotte and
her son were alive, and would clear him by their reappearance. Neither
threats nor stratagems succeeded in making him contradict himself, and
his assurance shook the strongest conviction. A new difficulty was added
to so much uncertainty.

A messenger had been sent off secretly with