"Were I a tyrant," said he, "I should forbid Hoym ever to return hither, I am jealous of that Vulcan."
"Vulcan is likewise jealous," responded Anna.
"But Venus cannot love him!" said the King.
"Should love be wanting, there are other chains that bind yet stronger than those of love--the chains formed by oath and by duty."
The King smiled.
"An oath in love!"
"No, your Majesty, in marriage."
"But there are sacrilegious marriages," observed Augustus, "and I regard as such, those marriages in which beauty is united to ugliness. In such cases the gods give absolution for the broken oath."
"But pride will not suffer one to accept it."
"You are too severe, madame."