Jacques wished he could think of something to say, but there was a lumpy knot of tension in his chest, wrapping painfully around his heart and lungs, making him feel strangely dizzy and trembly. He leaned on an end-table, half-bent over.
He felt suddenly weak from running and a sort of mind-numbing panic he had never expected to experience. Jacques felt he could not quite understand eveything. Everytime he tried to reach out and grasp what had happened, understanding eluded him, slipping through his fingers like liquid mercury. "It... it really was the National Guards. Firing on us, that is," Jacques clarified uncertainly.