# Who are Robert and Marie *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 29 Jun 2003* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Don Palumbo *29 Jun 2003, 16:31* List, I know you have had an inconclusive running discussion regarding who these characters may be.  Since just about all of the many apparent allusions in BOTNS are rather easily identifiable, I'm hoping that someone can identify these characters, too: in Chapter 21 of SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, in the Jungle Garden of the Botanic Garden, Severian and Agia enter a jungle tree hut containing two apparently early-twentieth-century characters and a native named Insangoma.  The other characters are a husband and wife named Robert and Marie.  Robert is also a former art student in Paris and appears to have malaria.  (In reference to your earlier musings, the malaria may account for Robert's ability to see S & A.)  But who are these people? --Don Palumbo ---