Perhaps it is not cowardice; perhaps it is courage, after all--courage to cut the knot.

I could not have survived the disgrace of any revelations, Aribert, and revelations would have been sure to come.

I have made a fool of myself, but I am ready to pay for it.

We of Posen--we always pay--everything except our debts.

Ah! those debts! Had it not been for those I could have faced her who was to have been my wife, to have shared my throne.