The woman’s incredible vanity survived everything. Her voice sank to a whisper at the two last words of the date, for Greifenstein had never known her real age.
‘You caused me to betray the arsenal,’ continued Rieseneck inexorably.
‘I did.’
‘You abandoned me when I was in prison. When I escaped you refused to follow me. You sent me false news of your death, with a lock of your hair and the child.’
Clara repeated each word, like a person hypnotised and subject to the will of another.
‘Then you must have changed your name.’
‘I changed my name.’
‘And you induced Hugo von Greifenstein to marry you, knowing that he was my brother and that I was alive. I had often told you of him.’
Clara made the statement in the words dictated.
‘And now you are to die, and may the Lord have mercy upon your sinful soul.’