Was he not a weak, fallible mortal, subject, like every one else, to
suffering and disease, overcome by his passion, who had even been guilty
of an act which, had it been committed by the son of a Ratisbon family,
would have seemed to her reprehensible?

Again and again this question forced itself upon her, and with it
another--whether she, the woman who had never tolerated such a thing from
any one, ought not to undertake to defend herself against unjust
assaults, which humiliated her in her own eyes, no matter whence they
might come?

Would she not hold a higher position in his sight if she showed him, whom
no one ventured to contradict, that the woman he deemed worthy of his
love dared to defend her dignity, although he had deprived her of her
natural protectors?

Precisely because she was conscious of loving him with her whole soul,
because for his sake she had given the world the right to deny her honour
and dignity, she was eager to show him that she prized both, and was not
inclined to let them be assailed.

Hitherto she had not regarded it as a disgrace, but as the highest
distinction, to be deemed worthy of the love of the greatest monarch on
earth, and, with a sense of pride, had sacrificed her most sacred
possession to his wishes. But how could she retain this feeling if
he no longer showed her that he, too, regarded her worthy of him?

She had defied custom, law, the voice of her own conscience, and she did
not regret that she had done so. On no account would she have changed
what had occurred if only she succeeded in guarding herself from being