Look you, Monsieur de Condillac, and you, madame, if I go, I'll need to take with me a better hostage than the whole garrison of this place.

I'll need for shield some one who will see to it that he is not hurt himself, just as I shall see to it that he is hurt before I am." "What do you mean?
Speak out, Fortunio," the Marquise bade him.
"I mean, madame, that I will go, not to do this thing, but to stand by and render help if help be needed.

Let Monsieur de Condillac go, and I will go with him, and I will undertake to see to it that he returns unhurt and that we leave the other stark." Both started, and the Seneschal leaned heavily upon the table.

He was not, with all his faults, a man of blood, and this talk of butchery turned him sick and faint.
Vainly now did the Marquise seek to alter the captain's resolution; but in this she received a sudden check from Marius himself.

He cut in upon her arguments to ask the captain: "How can you promise so much?
Do you mean that you and I must fall upon him?
You forget that he will have men about him.