, you must understand that in order to escape I must create, in advance, a public belief in that escape, a belief amounting to an article of faith, an absolute conviction, a reality as glittering as the sun. And I did create that belief that Arsène Lupin would escape, that Arsène Lupin would not be present at his trial. And when you gave your evidence and said: ‘That man is not Arsène Lupin,’ everybody was prepared to believe you. Had one person doubted it, had anyone uttered this simple restriction: Suppose it is Arsène Lupin?⁠—from that moment, I was lost. If anyone had scrutinized my face, not imbued with the idea that I was not Arsène Lupin, as you and the others did at my trial, but with the idea that I might be Arsène Lupin; then, despite all my precautions, I should have been recognized. But I had no fear. Logically, psychologically, no one could entertain the idea that I was Arsène Lupin.”

He grasped Ganimard’s hand.