# Tangled Meshes explained — I Will Repay

> Chapter companion for I Will Repay by Baroness Orczy.

## What happens

Juliette seizes a brief moment alone to destroy compromising papers that would incriminate Déroulède. She hides the leather case, retreats to her room, and burns the correspondence in a stove lamp, despite the risk of discovery by Merlin and his soldiers. Pétronelle wakes but is sent away, and Juliette successfully reduces the evidence to ashes.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Sacrifice

Juliette risks her own safety and dignity to destroy evidence that would condemn Déroulède, driven by her love for him.

### Betrayal and Trust

Juliette's actions are a direct betrayal of the revolutionary authorities who trust her as a witness, while she secretly works to save the man she once denounced.

## Character check-ins

### Juliette de Marny

Acts decisively to destroy the compromising letters, risking her own safety to save Déroulède.

### Pétronelle

Awakens from sleep and is sent to the kitchen by Juliette to avoid questioning by soldiers.

### Citizen Merlin

Leads the search of Déroulède's house; his footsteps and laugh are heard from the bedroom.

### Paul Déroulède

The man Juliette loves and seeks to protect; the papers she destroys would have sent him to the guillotine.

## Key lines

> She had but a few moments at her command in which to devise an issue out of these tangled meshes, which she had woven round the man she loved.

Juliette had only a short time to find a way out of the complicated situation she had created for the man she loved.

_Reflects Juliette's urgency and her role in entangling Déroulède._

> Regardless of any consequences to herself, she had but the one object in view, to save Déroulède at all costs.

She cared nothing for her own fate; her only goal was to rescue Déroulède no matter the price.

_Highlights Juliette's self-sacrificing determination._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/i_will_repay_se/chapters/xiii-tangled-meshes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/i_will_repay_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/i_will_repay_se/chapters