"Then, sir, it is a command?"
"A command."
"If I were inclined to submit to it, at least you must confess it is somewhat tyrannical."
"I should be very indulgent to do so."
"Indulgent! And what have you to reproach me with, sir? Have I not been indulgent a thousand times to your fits and gusts of passion? have I not carefully concealed them from all the world? Have you not repeated to me a hundred times, that, although we lived beneath the same roof, I was free in all my actions? It is true that soon after you came all wretched to recall your words. But again I say, sir, I am wrong to reply to you; I am, no doubt, at this moment, like yourself, a dupe to your aberration of mind."
"I am mad, then, am I, as my whims seem to announce? Ah, it has not been your fault that these appearances, of which you were the sole cause, which I affected from compassion to you (you do not deserve that I should explain to you my meaning)—it has not been your fault, I repeat, that these appearances should indeed become reality! But I believed that, enlightened, at least, by these alternations of passion and horror——"
"Horror!" exclaimed the princess.
"Horror!" repeated the prince, coldly,—"I believed that you would have understood the enormity of your crimes, and the endurance of my infatuation which survived them. But, no; not even that! Happily for me at this moment that infatuation is over; your last blow has destroyed it. But the horror still endures—do you mark me?—the horror, I say——"
"I hear you—mon Dieu!—but I understand you not."
"I have loved you, you bear my name—thus this abominable secret shall remain buried between us. Go, then, in Heaven's name, depart, and thank me on your knees for being as forbearing as I am!"