For him Juliette was as far above political intrigue as the angels.

He would as soon have suspected one of the saints enshrined in Notre Dame as this beautiful, almost ethereal creature, who had been sent by Heaven to gladden his heart and to elevate his very thought.
But Juliette understood Merlin's attitude, and guessed that her written denunciation had come into his hands.

Her every thought, every living sensation within her, was centred in this one thing: to save the man she loved from the consequences of her own crime against him.

And for this, even the shadow of suspicion must be removed from him.

Merlin's iniquitous law should not touch him again.
When Deroulede at last had been released, after the outrage to which he had been personally subjected, Merlin was literally, and figuratively too, looking about him for an issue to his present dubious position.
Judging others by his own standard of conduct, he feared now that the popular Citizen-Deputy would incite the mob against him, in revenge for the indignities which he had had to suffer.