He muttered unobtrusively somewhere deep down in his throat something about having done his military service in the French artillery.

At once, with contemptuous perversity, Mr Vladimir changed the language, and began to speak idiomatic English without the slightest trace of a foreign accent.
"Ah! Yes.

Of course.

Let's see.

How much did you get for obtaining the design of the improved breech-block of their new field-gun ?" "Five years' rigorous confinement in a fortress," Mr Verloc answered unexpectedly, but without any sign of feeling.
"You got off easily," was Mr Vladimir's comment.