Then, placing on her impassable heart the hand of Seyton, she added, with a forced and icy smile, "Am I agitated?"
"No, in truth, not at all," said Seyton, with surprise; "I know what command you have over yourself. But at such a moment--where for you will be decided--a crown--or death--your calmness absolutely confounds me."
"Why this astonishment, my brother? did you not know that nothing--no, nothing has ever caused this marble heart to quicken its pulsations? It will only palpitate when I shall feel placed on my brow the sovereign crown. I hear Rudolph--leave me."
"Leave me!" cried Sarah, in a tone so imperious, so resolute, that her brother left the apartment some moments before the prince was introduced. When Rudolph entered the saloon, his countenance expressed pity; but seeing the countess seated in the chair decked with her jewels, he drew back with surprise, and his physiognomy became immediately somber and suspicious.
The countess, divining his thoughts, said to him in a soft and feeble voice, "You thought to find me dying; you came to receive my last farewell!"
"I have always regarded as sacred the last wishes of the dying, but it appears I have been deceived."
"Reassure yourself," said Sarah, interrupting Rudolph. "I have not deceived you; there remain for me but a few hours to live. Pardon me a last act of coquetry; I wished to spare you the usual attendants of a death-bed. I wished to die dressed as I was the first time I saw you. Alas! after ten years of separation, I see you again! Thanks--oh, thanks! But in your turn, render thanks to heaven for having moved you to come to listen to my last prayer. If you had refused me, I had carried with me to the tomb a secret which is going to make the joy, the happiness of your life. Joy mixed with some tears, like all other human felicity; but this felicity! you would buy it at the price of half the remaining days of your life!"
"What do you mean to say?" demanded the prince, with surprise.
"Yes, Rudolph, if you had not come, this secret would have followed me to the tomb--it had been my sole vengeance; and yet--no, no, I should not have had this terrible courage. Although you would have caused me much suffering, I should have divided with you this supreme happiness, which, more fortunate than I, you will a long time enjoy."