"Princess! princess! you forget the tenure by which you hold your crown."
"I hold my crown," said Barbara, with proud flashing eyes, "by right of birth."
"A right that you cannot prove without my witness."
"And therefore you would use your knowledge?"
"To advance in Czernova the interests of the True Church."
"For that I could forgive you. But have you no ulterior aim? Shall I unmask the secret purpose of your heart? Radzivil made an unwise choice in sending you to the Vatican to plead for the dispensation. Were you really urgent on my behalf?"
"As urgent as one may be with a pope."
"Hypocrite!" said the princess, turning upon the cardinal with a blaze of scorn. "Can I not see you now in my mind's eye whispering in the ear of the Pope to withhold the dispensation? And why? The heretical duke must not marry the princess, because the cardinal would have her for his secret mistress. Will you say that I wrong you by this thought?"
"Princess, you have rightly divined my secret. It is true that I love you—"
"I would that Zabern could hear you!" said Barbara indignantly. "You, a priest, to talk to your princess of love!"