"Believe me, Anna, such a condition is full of danger for yourself."
"I will not give it up. I would give my life for it. My honour requires it. Then I should be your Majesty's wife, in thought and in hope. Else you shall not touch me; I will kill myself if you do!"
The King retreated.
"Very well, then," said he, "if that is your wish, shall have it."
Anna gave a cry of joy.
"All the rest is as nothing in comparison with that!" she exclaimed in a voice full of happiness. "But first I must be divorced from Hoym."
"That shall be done to-morrow. I will have it signed in the consistory," said the King hastily. "Now, what further?"
"Nothing more on my side," she replied in a broken voice, as she knelt before the King. "That is sufficient for me."
"But it is not sufficient for the King, for me," said Augustus, seizing her in his arms, from which, however, Anna escaped by slipping down on the floor.
"I believe your Majesty's word," she exclaimed; "but before I permit myself to be touched, the chains that bind me must be broken, the divorce must be pronounced, your promise signed. I am Hoym's wife, I have sworn to be faithful to him--I must keep my oath."