She did not know whether she had merely exchanged masters or what had happened.

Smiling ironically at her bewilderment, which he somehow resented in his heart, Marteau proceeded to further explanation.
"You are free, mademoiselle," he repeated emphatically, bowing before her.
"But I thought----" "Did you think that I could be allied with such cowardly thieves and vagabonds as those ?" "But you said----" "It was simply a ruse.

Could you imagine that one of my family, that I, should fail in respect and devotion to one of yours, to you?
I determined to free you the instant I saw you." "And will you not complete your good work ?" broke out the man tied to the chair in harsh and foreign but sufficiently comprehensible French, "by straightway releasing me, young sir ?" "But who is this ?" "This is Sir Gervaise Yeovil," answered Mademoiselle Laure, "my attorney, an English officer-of-the-law, of Lord Castlereagh's suite, who came with me from Chatillon to get certain papers and----" "Why all this bother and explanation ?" burst out Sir Gervaise.

"Tell him to cut these lashes and release me from this cursed bondage," he added in English.
"That is quite another matter, sir," said Marteau gravely.

"I regret that you are an enemy and that I can not----" "But we are not enemies, Monsieur," cried one of the officers, who had just succeeded in working a gag out of his mouth.