Note 6 — Chapter VI

Biographers and historians differ with respect to the circumstances which ensued on the pardon being announced. While some give the statement which I have adopted, others affirm that, when de Jars was taken back to prison, he remained for a long while speechless, and seemingly deprived of all consciousness. This is asserted by Madame de Motteville; and, as she was his intimate friend, her authority has considerable weight. But her assertion may be correct, and yet it is more than probable that de Jars may have made the reply which is attributed to him. I think the conduct ascribed to him in the text more consonant than any other with his intrepid character. Nature, however, can endure only to a certain point, and the effort that is made to bear up, and which, as long as danger is present, seldom fails with the honourable and brave, necessarily produces exhaustion when the struggle is over. It may therefore, easily be believed, that, though de Jars was capable of answering Laffemas with his wonted spirit—and the very sight of such a monster would stimulate that spirit—he might sink into insensibility on his return to prison.