The Duchess And is it not much more honorable to violate such an oath, than to remain faithful to all others?
The Duke
We are henceforth both of us released from our engagements.
The Duchess
Have you, up to the present day, respected yours?
The Duke
I have, madame.
The Duchess
Listen to him, aunt, and bear witness to this declaration.
Mademoiselle de Vaudrey But has it never occurred to you, my dear sir, that Louise is innocent?
The Duke Of course you think so, Mademoiselle de Vaudrey. And what would not I give to share your opinion! The duchess has had twenty years in which to prove to me her innocence.
The Duchess For twenty years you have wrung my heart without pity and without intermission.
The Duke Madame, unless you hand me this certificate, your Fernand will have serious cause for alarm. As soon as you returned to France you secured the document, and are trying to employ it as a weapon against me. You desire to obtain for your son a fortune and a name which do not belong to him; to secure his admission into a family, whose race has up to my time been kept pure by wives of stainless reputation, a family which has never formed a single mesalliance—
The Duchess
And which will be worthily represented by your son Albert.