What I desire you to understand, Monsieur de Lesperon, is that if I go to Toulouse alone, when the time comes to proclaim myself, and it is found that I am not Rene de Lesperon, of Lesperon in Gascony, they will assume that you are dead, and there will be no count against me.
"But if you come with me, and thereby afford proof that you are alive, my impersonation of you may cause me trouble.

They may opine that I have been an abettor of treason, that I have attempted to circumvent the ends of justice, and that I may have impersonated you in order to render possible your escape.

For that, you may rest assured, they will punish me.
"You will see, therefore, that my own safety rests on your passing quietly out of France and leaving the belief behind you that you are dead--a belief that will quickly spread once I shall have cast off your identity.

You apprehend me ?" "Vaguely, monsieur; and perhaps you are right.

What do you say, Stanislas ?" "Say ?" cried the fiery Marsac.