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public courts past occurrences which will show that I am not free from
reproach, while you are infamous? (He turns to Mademoiselle de
Vaudrey) She cannot have told you everything, dear aunt? She was in
love with Viscount Langeac; I knew it, and respected her love; I was
so young! The viscount came to me; being without hope of inheriting a
fortune, and the last representative of his house, he unselfishly
offered to give up Louise de Vaudrey. I trusted in their mutual
generosity, and accepted her as a pure woman from his hands. Ah! I
would have given my life for her, and I have proved it! The wretched
man performed prodigies of valor on the Tenth of August, and called
down upon himself the rage of the mob; I put him under the protection
of some of my people; he was, however, discovered and taken to the
Abbaye. As soon as I learned his predicament, I gave into the hands of
a certain Boulard all the money I had collected for our flight! I
induced Boulard to join the Septembrists in order to save the viscount
from death; I procured his escape! (To the duchess) He paid me back
well, did he not? I was young, madly in love, impetuous, yet I never
crushed the boy! You have to-day made me the same requital for my
pity, as your lover made for my trust in him. Well--things remain just
as they were twenty years ago excepting that the time for pity is
past. And I will repeat what I said to you then: Forget your son, and
he shall live.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey
And shall her sufferings during those twenty years count for nothing?

The Duke
A great crime calls for a great atonement.

The Duchess
Ah--if you take my grief for a sign of remorse, I will again protest
to you, I am innocent! No! Langeac never betrayed your confidence; it
was not for his king alone he went to his death, and from the fatal
day on which he bade me farewell and surrendered me to you, I have
never seen him again.

The Duke
You purchased the life of your son by making an exactly contrary
declaration.

The Duchess
Can a compact dictated by terror be looked upon as an avowal of guilt?

The Duke
Do you intend to give that certificate of birth?

The Duchess
It is no longer in my possession.

The Duke
I will no longer answer then for your son's safety.

The Duchess
Have you weighed well the consequences of this threat?

The Duke
You ought to know me by this time.

The Duchess
The trouble is that you do not know me. You will no longer answer for