, Saint-Clemont?"
"I am not as despicable as you imagine," he replied calmly, undoing the latch of the prison cell door.
I lifted my head again and looked at him wonderingly, "How... Could it be that you are also a prisoner?"
This puzzled me, for I had assumed that those Thermidorists would immediately restore the freedom and status of the Dantonists. If Saint-Clemont had truly been arrested at a time like this, he would be incredibly unlucky.
However, the man at the prison gate quickly put an end to my thoughts. "No, I came in on my own."
Now I realised that indeed I had not heard the footsteps of a gaoler just now. Furthermore, the person before me was dressed neatly, showing no signs of being bound. So it was true, he had voluntarily walked in.
Before I could inquire further, Saint-Clemont offered his own explanation. His voice was soft, with a plain tone that revealed no particular emotion:
"I arrived in Paris last night. The moment I was back, I learned of my sister''s death. I went to the Percys'' house to find her, but it seems I was too late. I saw her pulling you inside and overheard your conversation. I waited outside. You never came out. The rain was heavy. I stood beneath the window all night, Quenet."
With his words, it all at once became clear to me. There was always a self-destructive air about this man, and I had always despised and detested such behaviour.
"You came here to seek death?" I had never held much fondness for Saint-Clemont, but his cowardice enraged me.
It was probably the thought that I would soon have to be eternally separated from you, while this lucky soul, who still held the power of life in his hands, casually discarded the very thing I held so dear, that in an instant, anger flared up within me, and I strode forward.
"This is pointless." I clenched his collar tightly, my voice surely filled with fury, as I struggled to suppress the urge to give