It was in his power to bestow the highest happiness which earth can give; after all, his love outweighed everything that she must sacrifice for it.

To enjoy it, though but for a brief season, she ought not to refuse to bear the hardest, most terrible things, and, if what was now her secret became rumoured among the people, to accept humiliation, shame, and scorn.

Let the respectable women of Ratisbon, in their pride of virtue, maliciously cast stones at her; they could not look down upon her, for, as the object of the most illustrious sovereign's love, she was raised far above them.
Meanwhile, with a feeling of defiant self-confidence, she was again braiding her hair.

But the mental firmness which she had regained did not last; more than once her hand faltered while the comb was dividing the wealth of her golden tresses.

How ardently Charles had praised their luxuriant beauty!-and to-day he was to rejoice in it again.