Mar. Hush, Charles! She comes!
(Enter Carlotta, richly dressed)
Car. Ah, cousins, trimming now your smiles to greet
The deputies?
Char. Nay, calling up our tears
To grace farewell to Miramar!
Car. No tears!
We ’ll think but of an empire and a crown,
Not Miramar!
(Enter Maximilian, dressed in the uniform of Vice-Admiral of the Austrian navy)
Max. An empire and a crown?
At last I am out-rivalled in your heart!
Car. Nay, nay, thou know’st, my lord, thou art my empire!
Grant me so much as now I look upon
And I ’m as rich as Jove with Saturn’s sceptre
New-swinging o’er the world!
Char. Then you risk much
For an unstable throne.
Car. Not risk!