However, Pere Cartault’s prophecy was not fulfilled:  the blessing of Heaven did not descend on the Legrand establishment.  There seemed to be a succession of misfortunes which all Derues’ zeal and care as shopman could neither prevent nor repair.  He by no means contented himself with parading an idle and fruitless hypocrisy, and his most abominable deceptions were not those displayed in the light of day.  He watched by night:  his singular organisation, outside the ordinary laws of nature, appeared able to dispense with sleep.  Gliding about on tiptoe, opening doors noiselessly, with all the skill of an accomplished thief, he pillaged shop and cellar, and sold his plunder in remote parts of the town under assumed names.  It is difficult to understand how his strength supported the fatigue of this double existence; he had barely arrived at puberty, and art had been obliged to assist the retarded development of nature.  But he lived only for evil, and the Spirit of Evil supplied the physical vigour which was wanting.  An insane love of money (the only passion he knew) brought him by degrees back to his starting-point of crime; he concealed it in hiding-places wrought in the thick walls, in holes dug out by his nails.  As soon as he got any, he brought it exactly as a wild beast brings a piece of bleeding flesh to his lair; and often, by the glimmer of a dark lantern, kneeling in adoration before this shameful idol, his eyes sparkling with ferocious joy, with a smile which suggested a hyena’s delight over its prey, he would contemplate his money, counting and kissing it.

These continual thefts brought trouble into the Legrand affairs, cancelled all profits, and slowly brought on ruin.  The widow had no suspicion of Derues’ disgraceful dealings, and he carefully referred the damage to other causes, quite worthy of himself.  Sometimes it was a bottle of oil, or of brandy, or some other commodity, which was found spilt, broken, or damaged, which accidents he attributed to the enormous quantity of rats which infested the cellar and the house.  At length, unable to meet her engagements, Madame Legrand made the business over to him in February, 1770.  He was then twenty-five years and six months old, and was accepted as a merchant grocer in August the same year.  By an agreement drawn up between them, Derues undertook to pay twelve hundred livres for the goodwill, and to lodge her rent free during the remainder of her lease, which had still nine years to run.  Being thus obliged to give up business to escape bankruptcy, Madame Legrand surrendered to her creditors any goods remaining in her warehouse; and Derues easily made arrangements to take them over very cheaply.  The first step thus made, he was now able to enrich himself safely and to defraud with impunity under the cover of his stolen reputation.