Sign the despatch, and let us be done with this delay.' 'Madam, I said "honourable,"' returned Otto, bowing.

'This war is, in my eyes, and by Herr von Gondremark's account, an inadmissible expedient.
If we have misgoverned here in Grunewald, are the people of Gerolstein to bleed and pay for our mis-doings?
Never, madam; not while I live.

But I attach so much importance to all that I have heard to-day for the first time--and why only to-day, I do not even stop to ask--that I am eager to find some plan that I can follow with credit to myself.' 'And should you fail ?' she asked.
'Should I fail, I will then meet the blow half-way,' replied the Prince.
'On the first open discontent, I shall convoke the States, and, when it pleases them to bid me, abdicate.' Seraphina laughed angrily.

'This is the man for whom we have been labouring!' she cried.

'We tell him of change; he will devise the means, he says; and his device is abdication?
Sir, have you no shame to come here at the eleventh hour among those who have borne the heat and burthen of the day?
Do you not wonder at yourself?
I, sir, was here in my place, striving to uphold your dignity alone.