love, or the magic spell which emanates from genuine royalty, forced her
to silence?

No matter.

A good angel had aided her to control herself, and in a rapid prayer
she besought the Holy Virgin to assist her in future if her august lover
again roused her to rebellion.

Now that she was losing her most sincere friends, the only ones who
might have ventured a kindly warning, she must learn to guard herself.

Perhaps it was fortunate that she had already discovered how necessary
it was not only to show the mighty sovereign to whom her heart belonged
that he was dear to her, but also to display the timid reverence with
which millions bowed before him. But if she imposed this constraint upon
herself, would her love still remain the same?

"No, no, and again no!" cried the refractory spirit within.

Was he not a weak, fallible mortal, subject, like every one else, to
suffering and disease, overcome by his passion, who had even been guilty
of an act which, had it been committed by the son of a Ratisbon family,
would have seemed to her reprehensible?

Again and again this question forced itself upon her, and with it
another--whether she, the woman who had never tolerated such a thing
from any one, ought not to undertake to defend herself against unjust
assaults, which humiliated her in her own eyes, no matter whence they
might come?

Would she not hold a higher position in his sight if she showed him,
whom no one ventured to contradict, that the woman he deemed worthy of
his love dared to defend her dignity, although he had deprived her of
her natural protectors?

Precisely because she was conscious of loving him with her whole soul,
because for his sake she had given the world the right to deny her
honour and dignity, she was eager to show him that she prized both, and
was not inclined to let them be assailed.

Hitherto she had not regarded it as a disgrace, but as the highest
distinction, to be deemed worthy of the love of the greatest monarch
on earth, and, with a sense of pride, had sacrificed her most sacred
possession to his wishes. But how could she retain this feeling if he no
longer showed her that he, too, regarded her worthy of him?

She had defied custom, law, the voice of her own conscience, and she did
not regret that she had done so. On no account would she have changed
what had occurred if only she succeeded in guarding herself from being
humiliated by her lover. To accomplish this, it was worth