La duchesse lui avait écrit qu’il serait surpris par le grand air, et qu’à peine hors de sa prison il se trouverait dans l’impossibilité de marcher ; dans ce cas il valait mieux pourtant s’exposer à être repris que se précipiter du haut d’un mur de cent quatre-vingts pieds.
The Duchessa had written that he would feel the shock of the fresh air, and that once he was out of his prison he might find it impossible to walk; in that case it was better to run the risk of being caught than to let himself fall from a height of a hundred and eighty feet.