[Bending the knee before her, as on the Coronation day] Oh, Sovereign, oh, brave warrior, may the day dawn which will brighten your dark destiny! [He rises.]
EMPRESS [Trembling]
Oh, dispense with all vain formalities. The minutes left to us are sparingly numbered——Drop the mask and speak quickly. Who are you? A Tartar, alas! are you not? Otherwise you would have been unable to break through their ring of steel——A Tartar, say?
EMPEROR
Yes.
EMPRESS
A spy, then, when you came on my Coronation day? Nothing but a spy, alas!
EMPEROR
No! One who risked his life that day, as he does again, to save yours.
EMPRESS