"Signora, as regards your latter question, the elector himself will have great pleasure in answering it. As regards the former, the Archduchess Antonia is handsome, but sickly, and her ill-health has lost her the affection of her husband."
"Ah!" cried Lucretia, relieved, "he does not love her."
"He loves her no longer," said the marquis. "But he was greatly taken by the charms of the Countess Kaunitz; and as the elector's alliance with Austria was a matter of more importance than his conjugal relations with the archduchess, the husband of the fair countess was appointed ambassador to Bavaria, and his wife ambassadress. It was through the influence of this charming ambassadress that Max Emmanuel joined the forces of Austria."
"So he has a mistress, then? One whom he loves?"
"Whom he loved until he saw the Countess Canossa."
"Do you think I could supplant her?" exclaimed Lucretia, her large eyes darting fire at the thought.
"I do not doubt it," was the flattering reply. "If you choose, you can trample under foot this arrogant Austrian, who flatters herself that Max Emmanuel is all her own."
"I would like to try," cried Lucretia, with the air of an amazon about to go into battle.
"Then let me offer my services," said the marquis, bowing. "The elector is peculiar, and has pretensions to be loved for his own sake; therefore he would never quite trust the disinterested affections of a woman whom he had power to raise from poverty to affluence."
"Ah!" cried Lucretia, with a significant bend of the head. "NOW I begin to apprehend your meaning as well as your munificence."