ou make me shudder.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey
You know very well, Louise, that pride of race is hereditary with the
Montsorels, as it is with the Montemarts.

The Duchess
I know it too well! The doubt cast upon his child's legitimacy has
almost crazed him.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey
You are wrong there. The duke has a warm heart, and a cool head; in
all matters that concern the sentiments on which they live, men of
that temper act promptly in carrying out their ideas.

The Duchess
But, dear aunt, do you know at what price he has granted me the life
of Fernand? Haven't I paid dearly for the assurance that his days were
not to be shortened? If I had persisted in maintaining my innocence I
should have brought certain death upon him; I have sacrificed my good
name to save my son. Any mother would have done as much. You were
taking care of my property here; I was alone in a foreign land, and
was the prey of ill-health, fever, and with none to counsel me, and I
lost my head; for since that time it has constantly occurred to me
that the duke would never have carried out his threats. In making the
sacrifice I did, I knew that Fernand would be poor and destitute,
without a name, and dwelling in an unknown land; but I knew also that
his life would be safe, and that some day I should recover him, even
if I had to search the whole world over! I felt so cheerful as I came
in that I forgot to give you the certificate of Fernand's birth, which
the Spanish ambassador's wife has at last obtained for me; carry it
about with you until you can place it in the hands of your confessor.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey
The duke must certainly have learnt the measures you have taken in
this matter, and woe be to your son! Since his return he has been very
busy, and is still busy about something.

The Duchess
If I shake off the disgrace with which he has tried to cover me, if I
give up shedding tears in silence, be assured that nothing can bend me
from my purpose. I am no longer in Spain or England, at the mercy of a
diplomat crafty as a tiger, who during the whole time of our
emigration was reading the thoughts of my heart's inmost recesses, and
with invisible spies surrounding my life as by a network of steel;
turning my secrets into jailers, and keeping me prisoner in the most
horrible of prisons, an open house! I am in France, I have found you
once more, I hold my place at court, I can speak my mind there; I
shall learn what has become of t