"I have decided that I have no choice. I, too, must emigrate. I
am lucky to be able to do so, lucky to have found no one amid
yesterday's chaos in Paris to whom I could report myself as I
foolishly desired, else I might no longer be armed with these."
He drew from his pocket the powerful passport of the Commission of
Twelve, enjoining upon all Frenchmen to lend him such assistance as
he might require, and warning those who might think of hindering
him that they did so at their own peril. He spread it before her.
"With this I conduct you all safely to the frontier. Over the
frontier M. de Kercadiou and Mme. de Plougastel will have to conduct
me; and then we shall be quits."
"Quits?" quoth she. "But you will be unable to return!"
"You conceive, of course, my eagerness to do so. My child, in a
day or two there will be enquiries. It will be asked what has
become of me. Things will transpire. Then the hunt will start.
But by then we shall be well upon our way, well ahead of any
possible pursuit. You don't imagine that I could ever give the
government any satisfactory explanation of my absence - assuming
that any government remains to which to explain it?"
"You mean.
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