“I can understand that.”
“And though Sartines had put me there for my own good—so he said—and to keep me from being imprisoned by Choiseul, it began to dawn on me that I had been a fool.”
“Ah, that began to dawn on you.”
“I said to myself, ‘Sartines is no doubt the best soul in the world, but the best souls are sometimes selfish.’ I said to myself, ‘Sartines has compromised himself in a way by playing this game with Choiseul, and hiding me from him.’ I said to myself, ‘Sartines, however kind he may be, is not the man to compromise himself by letting me out whilst Choiseul has any power in France.’ In fact, I felt that were I to remain passive, I would be saved from M. de Choiseul, but I would still be a prisoner, and that, perhaps, for years, so I determined to escape, to go straight to Choiseul and to tell him frankly the truth about the business for which he wished to apprehend me.”
“I have heard that you killed a man,” said Chartres.
“I did. And that man was one of Choiseul’s agents, but he was a ruffian who was molesting a girl, and whom I caught in the act. I followed him, he attacked me and I killed him in fair fight.”
“Can the girl give evidence?”
“Yes.”
“Then why on earth, my dear fellow, did you resist arrest that night when M. Camus was deputed to arrest you? I had the whole story from Monpavon.”
“I resisted arrest because I wanted to go to Paris to meet a woman who had given me an appointment.”