"By heaven, Your Majesty, I believe you look upon yourself from the point of view you credit to this English girl! You forget the Emperor in the man."
"I have thought well, and at last I see nothing in one which need interfere with the other."
"Love indeed makes men blind, and I see it spares not the eyes of emperors."
"I have given my word to bear with you and your tongue, Von Markstein."
"And I know that you will keep it. I must speak; I speak for Rhaetia, and for your better self! Your Majesty, I understand that you are now 241 following this lady with the purpose of informing her that she has triumphed that she is to be the Empress."
"If she will have the Emperor for her husband."
"A lady whose name is of so little value to her that she steals another! The nation will not bear it, Your Majesty."
"I think you speak for yourself, not for Rhaetia, Chancellor," said Maximilian. "I am not so old as you by four-and-thirty years, yet I believe I can judge of what my people will bear at least as well as you can. The law which obliges an Emperor of Rhaetia to marry Royalty is an unwritten law, a law solely of custom, handed down through many generations. I will not spoil my life by submitting to its yoke, since by breaking it the nation gains, rather than loses. You have seen Miss de Courcy. Where could I find another such woman for my wife—for Rhaetia's Empress?"
"You have not seen Princess Sylvia of Eltzburg-Neuwald, who is famed for her beauty."
"I have no wish to see her; her beauty is for him who has not looked 242 on perfection. There is but one woman in the world for me; and I swear to you, Von Markstein, if I cannot have her, I will go to my grave unmarried. Let the crown fall to my uncle's son. I'll not perjure myself—no, not even for Rhaetia."