"You will, I trust, pardon us, M. le Général, for having detained
you here and so long. But there were, as we thought, good and
sufficient reasons. If those have now lost some of their cogency,
we still stand by our action as having been justifiable in the
execution of our duty. We are now willing to let you go free,
because--because--"

"We have caught the person, the lady you helped to escape,"
blurted out the detective, unable to resist making the point.

"The Countess? Is she here, in custody? Never!"

"Undoubtedly she is in custody, and in very close custody too,"
went on M. Floçon, gleefully. "_ Au secret_, if you know what
that means--in a cell separate and apart, where no one is
permitted to see or speak to her."

"Surely not that? Jack--Papillon--this must not be. I beg of you,
implore, insist, that you will get his lordship to interpose."

"But, sir, how can I? You must not ask impossibilities. The
Contessa Castagneto is really an Italian subject now."

"She is English by birth, and whether or no, she is a woman, a
high-bred lady; and it is abominable, unheard-of, to subject her
to such monstrous treatment," said the General.

"But these gentlemen declare that they are fully warranted, that
she has put herself in the wrong--greatly, culpably in the wrong."