"If not yourself, it is the absolute power you exercise, which corrupts your soul, and leads your justice astray."
"Very well. Then you establish yourself as a judge of my conduct, and forget you have but a few moments left to save yourself from death."
"You have no right to take my life, for I am not your subject. If you violate the law of nations, so much the worse for you. For my own part, I had rather die than live one day longer under your laws."
"You confess your hatred frankly," said the king, who appeared to penetrate Consuelo's design, and who was about to foil it by putting on an air of sang-froid and contempt. "I see that you have been to a good school, and the rôle of Spartan virgin, which you play so well, is a great evidence against your accomplices. It reveals their conduct more completely than you think. You are not acquainted with the law of nations and of men. Any sovereign can destroy all in his states who conspire against him."
"I a conspirator!" said Consuelo, carried away by the feeling of conscious truth, and too indignant to vindicate herself. She shrugged her shoulders, turned her back on the king, and without knowing what she was doing, seemed about to go away.
"Where are you going?" said the king, struck by her air of candor.
"To the prison!—to the scaffold!—to any place you please!—provided you do not make me listen to this absurd accusation!"
"You are very angry," said the king, with a sardonic laugh. "Do you wish to know why? You come here with the intention of playing the Roman before me, and your comedy has been cut down into a mere interlude. Nothing is so mortifying, especially to an actress, as not to be able to play her part effectively."
Consuelo, scorning to reply, folded her arms and looked so fixedly at the king that he was disconcerted. To stifle the rage which burned within him, he was forced to break silence, and resume his bitter mockery, hoping that in this way he would irritate the accused, and that to defend herself she would lose her reserve and distrust.
"Yes," said he, as if in reply to the silent language of her proud face. "I know well enough you have been made to think I was in love with you, and that you could brave me with impunity. All this would be very amusing, were it not that persons on whom I place a higher estimate were not the cause of the affair. Vain of playing a great part, you forgot that subaltern confidants are always sacrificed by those who employ them. I cannot, therefore, punish them, for they are too near to me for it to be possible to chastise them, except by the contemplation of your suffering. It is for you to see if you can undergo this misfortune for persons who have betrayed your interests, and have on your ambitious and indiscreet zeal thrown all the suffering."