"Alas," said she, "there was a time when a good Frenchman would have expressed his sentiments in better terms than those. It was not possible then to love his country without loving his rulers."
Gilbert blushed and bowed, feeling the thrill at his heart which the Queen could impart in her periods of winning intimacy.
"Madam, I beg to boast that I love the monarchy better than many."
"Are we not at an era when it is not enough to say so, but actions should speak?"
"Madam, I was your enemy yesterday, when you had me imprisoned, and now I am your servant."
"But whence the change? it is not in your nature, doctor, to change your feelings, opinion and belief so readily. You are a man with a deep-rooted memory; you know how to lengthen out your vengeance. Tell me the aim of your change?"
"Madam, you reproach me with loving my country too dearly."
"You love it so as to stoop to serve me, the foreigner? no I am a Frenchwoman—I love my country. You smile—but it is my country. I have adopted it. German by birth, I am French through the heart; but I love France through the King and the respect due the God which consecrated me to it. But I understand you; it is not the same thing. You love France purely and simply for France's sake."
"Madam, I cannot be outspoken without disrespect," replied the doctor.
"Oh," she said, "dreadful is this epoch when men pretending to be honorable isolate two principles that should never be parted, and have always marched forward together: France and her King. Is there not a tragedy in which a queen, abandoned by all, is asked: What remains? and she answers 'I!' Well, like Medea, I am here—and we shall see the outcome."