It is my duty to tell you that I think you behaved in the most honourable manner, under the circumstances, and I am deeply indebted to you for the gallant way in which you came back to stand by me, when you were yourself free.

In a nobler warfare, such an action would have been rewarded with a cross of honour, as it truly deserved.

It is true, as well, that you were not so intimately connected with the main question at stake, as I was, since it was I who was suspected of being in possession of unlawfully gotten goods.

You were consequently, I think, at liberty to take your freedom if you could get it, without consulting your conscience further.

Now my position was, and is, very different.