"Innocent!" cried Jacques aghast. "Ah! my dear comrade, I have already reminded you that this is no time for joking."
"And I replied that I was not joking."
"But still less is it a time for lying, for a joke is simply a relaxation of the mind, which offends neither heaven nor earth, while lying is a deadly sin, which compromises the soul's wellbeing."
"I have never lied."
"Why you say that you are innocent, and yet you have been fifteen years in prison?"
"Fifteen years more or less, I said."
"Ah!" cried Jacques, "and I also am innocent!"
"May God protect you then!" rejoined the dying man.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because a guilty man may hope for pardon; an innocent man, never!"