Tulle

Tulle is the railway departure point in The Jackal’s flight from the countryside toward Paris. The town marks a shift in his escape: he abandons the identity that has served him on the road, then enters the ordinary flow of rail travel under a new disguise.

The abandoned identity

In a ravine six miles outside Tulle, The Jackal throws away the suitcase containing all his English clothes and the passport in the name of Alexander Duggan. The case drops over a bridge parapet and disappears with a crash into the undergrowth. Its contents have served their purpose; near Tulle, the discarded luggage makes the change of identity physical and irreversible.

Reaching the station

After circling Tulle until he finds the station, The Jackal leaves his car inconspicuously three streets away. He carries two suitcases and a grip for half a mile to the railway booking office. There he asks for a single second-class ticket to Paris and learns that it costs ninety-seven new francs. The walk and the unremarkable purchase place him among routine travellers rather than behind the wheel of the car that brought him there.

Departure by train

The Paris train is slightly late and reaches Tulle at one o’clock. Among those boarding is a grey-haired Protestant pastor: The Jackal takes a corner seat in a compartment shared only with two middle-aged women, puts on gold-rimmed reading glasses, and opens a large book about churches and cathedrals from his hand-grip. The disguise presents him as a quiet reader with a destination, not a fugitive. He learns that the train is due in Paris at ten past eight that evening, carrying him onward from Tulle beneath an assumed appearance.