“Yes, I am of that opinion.”

“You deceive yourself, then, Amelia.  I have not surrounded you with spies; I have intercepted no letters.  You look at me incredulously.  I declare to you that I speak the truth.  Now you can comprehend, my sister, that your heart has deceived you—­you have squandered your love upon a wretched object who has forgotten you.”

“Sire!” cried Amelia, with flaming eyes, “no abuse of the man I love!”

“You love him still!” said the king, white with passion, and no longer able to control his rage—­“you love him still!  You have wept and bewailed him, while he has shamefully betrayed and mocked at you.  Yes, look on me, if you will, with those scornful, rebellious glances—­it is as I say!  You must and shall know all!  I have spared you until now; I trusted in your own noble heart!  I thought that, driven by a storm of passion, it had, like a proud river, for one moment overstepped its bounds; then quietly, calmly resumed that course which nature and fate had marked out for it.  I see now that I have been deceived in you, as you have been deceived in Trenck!  I tell you he has betrayed you!  He, formerly a Prussian officer, at the luxurious and debauched court of Petersburg, has not only betrayed you, but his king.  At the table of his mistress, the wife of Bestuchef, he has shown your picture and boasted that you gave it to him.  The Duke of Goltz, my ambassador at the Russian court, informed me of this; and look you, I did not slay him!  I did not demand of the Empress Anne that the Prussian deserter should be delivered up.  I remembered that you had once loved him, and that I had promised you to be lenient.  But I have had him closely watched.  I know all his deeds; I am acquainted with all his intrigues and artifices.  I know he has had a love-affair with the young Countess Narischkin—­that he continued his attentions long after her marriage with General Bondurow.  Can you believe, my sister, that he remembered the modest, innocent oaths of love and constancy he had exchanged with you while enjoying himself in the presence of this handsome and voluptuous young woman?  Do you believe that he recalled them when he arranged a plan of flight with his beloved, and sought a safe asylum beyond the borders of Russia?  Do you believe that he thought of you when he received from this ill-regulated woman her diamonds and all the gold she possessed, in order to smooth the way to their escape?”

“Mercy, mercy!” stammered Amelia, pale and trembling, and sinking upon a seat.  “Cease, my brother; do you not see that your words are killing me?  Have pity upon me!”

“No! no mercy!” said the king; “you must and you shall know all, in order that you may be cured of this unholy malady, this shameful love.  You shall know that Trenck not only sells the secrets of politics, but the secrets of love.  Every thing is merchandise with him, even his own heart.  He not only loved the beautiful Bondurow but he loved her diamonds.  This young woman died of the small-pox, a few days before the plan of flight could be fully arranged.  Trenck, however, became her heir; he refused to give back the brilliants and the eight thousand rubles which she had placed in his hands.”