"Be seated; I see that you are agitated."
"Certainly, Your Majesty; but, in spite of everything, these lines only confirm my presentiment."
"Your presentiment?"
"Yes, Your Majesty; a presentiment that Countess Irma is not dead."
"Not dead? and why?"
"I know not what to say, but the proofs that were found in the lake and on the shore serve rather to confirm than refute my theory. They are too complete--"
"You loved our friend, I believe it," said the king; "but you did not fully understand her. Countess Irma was incapable of deceit; and have I not told you that boatmen saw the body of a woman floating in the lake?"
"Who knows what they may have seen? Nothing has been found as yet."
"On what do you base your presentiments?"
"It is fully consistent with my exalted opinion of that great woman, to conceive of her having withdrawn to some convent, in order to leave Your Majesty free. Yea, free and true."