"I mean, that at any price, I must enter that room. If the key is
not given to me, I will call upon my soldiers to break down the
door; as they have learned to tear down the walls of a fortress, it
will be an easy task; that if the Queen of Poland does not value her
high position sufficiently to guard herself against any attack, I
will be compelled to lay hands upon a royal princess, and lead her
by force from that door, which my soldiers must open! But, once
more, I bend my knee, and implore your majesty to preserve me from
this crime, and to have mercy on me."

And again he fell upon his knees supplicating for pity.

"Be merciful! be merciful!" cried the queen's confessor and the
Countess Ogliva, who both knew that General Wylich would do all that
he had said, and had both fallen on their knees, adding their
entreaties to his. "Your Majesty has done all that human power can
do. It is now time to guard your holy form from insult. Have mercy
on your threatened royalty."

"No, no!" murmured the queen, "I cannot! I cannot! Death would be
sweet in comparison to this humiliating defeat."

The queen's confessor, Father Guarini, now rose from his knees, and,
approaching the queen, he said, in a solemn, commanding voice:

"My daughter, by virtue of my profession, as a servant of the holy
mother church, to whom is due obedience and trust, I command you to
deliver up to this man the key of this door."