"Sire, I cannot!" murmured Louise, raising her hands imploringly to
the king.

"You cannot!" cried the king, whose face glowed with anger; "you
cannot, that means you will not, because your vain, coquettish heart
will not resign the love of the prince. You submit to resign his
hand, because you must; but you wish to retain his love: he must
think of you as a heavenly ideal, to be adored and longed for,
placed amongst the stars for worship. Ah, madame, you are not
willing to make the gulf between you impassable! You say you wish,
at least, to retain the respect of Prince Henry. I ask you, madame,
what you have done to deserve his respect? You were an ungrateful
and undutiful daughter; you did not think of the shame and sorrow
you prepared for your parents, when you arranged your flight with
the gardener. I succeeded in rescuing you from dishonor by marrying
you to a brave and noble cavalier. It depended upon you entirely to
gain his love and respect, but you forgot your duty as a wife, as
you had forgotten it as a daughter. You had no pity with the faults
and follies of your husband, you drove him to despair. At last, to
drown his sorrows, he became a drunkard, and you, instead of
remaining at his side to encourage and counsel him, deserted him,
and so heartlessly exposed his shame that I, to put an end to the
scandal, permitted your divorce. You not only forgot your duty as a
wife and daughter, but also as a mother. You have deprived your
child of a father, you have made her ail orphan; you have soiled,
almost depraved her young soul; and now, after all this, you wish to
be adored and respected as a saint by my poor brother! No, madame! I
shall know how to save him from this delusion; I shall tell to him
and the world the history of little Louise von Schwerin! Fritz