wish for such assistance, and, huddling on my clothes, I followed
him alone to my brother's apartments. In going thither, I had
occasion to traverse the whole gallery, which was filled with
people, who, at another time, would have pressed forward to pay
their respects to me; but, now that Fortune seemed to frown upon
me, they all avoided me, or appeared as if they did not see me.

Coming into my brother's apartments, I found him not at all affected
by what had happened; for such was the constancy of his mind,
that his arrest had wrought no change, and he received me with
his usual cheerfulness. He ran to meet me, and taking me in his
arms, he said:

"Queen! I beg you to dry up your tears; in my present situation,
nothing can grieve me so much as to find you under any concern; for
my own part, I am so conscious of my innocence and the integrity
of my conduct, that I can defy the utmost malice of my enemies.
If I should chance to fall the victim of their injustice, my
death would prove a more cruel punishment to them than to me,
who have courage sufficient to meet it in a just cause. It is
not death I fear, because I have tasted sufficiently of the
calamities and evils of life, and am ready to leave this world,
which I have found only the abode of sorrow; but the circumstance
I dread most is, that, not finding me sufficiently guilty to
doom me to death, I shall be condemned to a long, solitary
imprisonment; though I should even despise their tyranny in that
respect, could I but have the assurance of being comforted by
your presence."

These words, instead of stopping my tears, only served to make