His voice very low, he said to me:

"You know that if you make a full, complete confession, I'll promise
to do my very best for you. And as a matter of fact you have been
under the eyes of our Secret Service ever since you came to
Belgium. We are aware of everything that you have done."

Was that a bluff or the truth? If it was true then they knew about
my capture near Louvain on the day before in suspicious
observation of the signaling-balloon. If this was a bluff, then my
confession would be simply a case of gratuitously damning myself
and likewise endangering my companion of yesterday's adventure--the
British lieutenant with the American passport. Yet again if Javert
knew all he pretended to, silence about that episode would make
it appear doubly heinous. So while with my tongue I retailed a simple,
harmless version of my doings in Belgium in my brain I carried on a
debate whether to make an avowal of the Louvain escapade or not.

I came to the decision that Javert was just bluffing. Later
developments proved me right. He knew nothing about it. Even
the German Secret Service is not omniscient. Getting no results
then from these wheedling tactics Javert shifted back to his
bullying and essayed once more to browbeat me into a confession.
Calling to his aid two officers who had been but casual onlookers
they began volleying charges at me with machine-gun rapidity.

"You know that you are a spy." "We know that you are a spy."
"Why do you deny it?" "You know that you have been lying."
"Better own up to all that you have done." "Out with it now!"