I am not'-- and she looked for a moment rather piteously upon the Countess--'I am not altogether so inhuman as you think.' 'And you can put these troubles of the state,' the Countess cried, 'to weigh with a man's love ?' 'Madame von Rosen, these troubles are affairs of life and death to many; to the Prince, and perhaps even to yourself, among the number,' replied the Princess, with dignity.

'I have learned, madam, although still so young, in a hard school, that my own feelings must everywhere come last.' 'O callow innocence!' exclaimed the other.

'Is it possible you do not know, or do not suspect, the intrigue in which you move?
I find it in my heart to pity you! We are both women after all--poor girl, poor girl!--and who is born a woman is born a fool.

And though I hate all women--come, for the common folly, I forgive you.

Your Highness'-- she dropped a deep stage curtsey and resumed her fan--'I am going to insult you, to betray one who is called my lover, and if it pleases you to use the power I now put unreservedly into your hands, to ruin my dear self.
O what a French comedy! You betray, I betray, they betray.