du Tillet was authorized to use, and this would send Cesar headlong
into bankruptcy so soon as Roguin had drawn from him his last funds.
The assignees of the failure would, as du Tillet felt certain, follow
his cue; and he, already possessed of the property paid over by the
perfumer and his associates, could sell the lands at auction and buy
them in at half their value with the funds of Roguin and the assets of
the failure. The notary went into this scheme believing that he should
enrich himself by the spoliation of Birotteau and his copartners; but
the man in whose power he had placed himself intended to take, and
eventually did take, the lion's share. Roguin, unable to sue du Tillet
in any of the courts, was glad of the bone flung to him, month by
month, in the recesses of Switzerland, where he found nymphs at a
reduction. Circumstances, actual facts, and not the imagination of a
tragic author inventing a catastrophe, gave birth to this horrible
scheme. Hatred without a thirst for vengeance is like a seed falling
on stony ground; but vengeance vowed to a Cesar by a du Tillet is a
natural movement of the soul. If it were not, then we must deny the
warfare between the angels of light and the spirits of darkness.

Du Tillet could not very easily assassinate the man who knew him to be
guilty of a petty theft, but he could fling him into the mire and
annihilate him so completely that his word and testimony would count
for nothing. For a long time revenge had germinated in his heart
without budding; for the men who hate most are usually those who have
little time in Paris to make plans; life is too fast, too full, too
much at the mercy of unexpected events. But such perpetual changes,
though they hinder premeditation, nevertheless offer opportunity to
thoughts lurking in the depths of a purpose which is strong enough to
lie in wait for their tidal chances. When Roguin first confided his
troubles to du Tillet, the latter had vaguely foreseen the possibility