And Louis, spying and fleeing, and when overtaken, promising silence, was quite in the picture.

The only thing, indeed, which stood out awkwardly, and refused to fall into place, was the fashion in which the Syndic had turned and gone off the bridge.

And for that there might be reasons.

He might have been seized with a sudden attack of his illness, or he might have perceived Basterga watching him from the farther bank.
On the whole, the scholar, forgetting that cowards are ever liars, saw no reason to doubt Louis' story.

It did but add one more to the motives he had for action: immediate, decisive, striking action, if he would save his neck, if he would succeed in his plans.