"I do not know why I should be taken for a Frenchman or an infidel.

I speak French well, I presume, but I spoke it from the cradle.

I speak English with equally good accent," he added, with the glimmer of a smile; for there was a kind of exhilaration in the little contest, even with so much at stake.

This miserable, silly charge had that behind it which might open up a grave, make its dead to walk, fright folk from their senses, and destroy their peace for ever.

Yet he was cool and thinking clearly.