The Prefect of Police, obeying the Confrérie des Vigilants, a secret society to which the Baroness belonged, dismissed Vidocq. He and his men set up a paper mill. They encounter hostility from the local population. The notary in charge of a wealthy banker's estate is killed by a parcel bomb. The vitriolic corpse of one of the notary's clerks is found near the paper mill. Vidocq, under suspicion, discovers that the corpses are actually those of beggars, stolen from the morgue. The notary and his two clerks, alive and well, are none other than the grand masters of the Confrérie, to whom the murdered banker bequeathed his fortune...