If I had said anything else, you would have known it to be a lie. But I bear no ill will against him. You will find, and I think you may already have found, that people like to describe me as mad, or insane, simply because I refuse to play by the rules they have set out for me and inhabited the role I was expected to. I am not mad. He had no more choice in this predicament than I did, so for me to do him harm does me no good at all, a very sane conclusion.
And if I did 'exert my influence'? What would you do? Am I meant to take that as a threat?