Listen to me, Fabiani. I love you, too. You are young; there are many beautiful women who smile tenderly on you--I know it. People get tired of queens as well as of other women.--Don't interrupt me!--If you ever fall in love with another woman, I want you to tell me about it.--Don't interrupt me, dear!--I may forgive you, if you tell me about it. You don't know how much I love you. I don't know myself. It is true, there are moments when I would rather see you dead than happy with another; but there are also moments when I would rather have you happy. Indeed, I don't know why they try to make me out such a wicked woman! FABIANI. I can only be happy with you, Mary! I love no one but you! THE QUEEN. Are you sure? Look at me! Are you sure? Oh, I am jealous sometimes! I imagine--where is the woman who does not think of these things?--sometimes I imagine that you are false to me. I would like to be invisible, so that I might follow you, and always know what you are doing, what you are saying, where you are! In fairy stories they tell about a ring which makes one invisible; I would give my crown to have such a ring as that. I keep thinking that you go to see the beautiful women in the city. Oh, you must not deceive me--indeed, you must not! FABIANI. Banish such thoughts from your mind, madame. I false to you, my love, my queen, my kind mistress! To do that, I would have to be the most thankless, the most miserable of men. And I have given you no reason to think me the most thankless, the most miserable of men. I love you, Mary; I adore you! I could not even look at another woman! I love you, I say; but don't you see it in my eyes? There must be some way to persuade you! Look at me well! Do I look like a man who is false? When a man deceives a woman, you can see it at once. Women are seldom mistaken about that. And what a time you choose to tell me these things--the one moment in my life when I love you the most! It is true, I am sure I never loved you so much as I do to-day. I am not speaking to the Queen. What do I care about the Queen? What can she do to me? She can have my head cut off; what does that amount to? You, Mary, can break my heart. It isn't your sovereignty that I love, it is yourself. It is your beautiful white and soft hand that I love to kiss; it isn't your scepter, madame. THE QUEEN. Thank you, my Fabiano. Good-by! Ah, my lord, how young you are! What beautiful black hair, what a graceful head you have! Come back to me in an hour. FABIANI. What you call an hour, I call a century! [_He goes out. As soon as he is gone, The Queen rises hastily, goes to a concealed door, opens it, and ushers in Simon Renard._ SCENE II The Queen, Simon Renard THE QUEEN. Come in, Sir Bailiff! Well, did you stay there? Did you hear him? SIMON RENARD. Yes, madame. THE QUEEN. What do you say to it? Oh, of all men on earth he is the most false, the most deceitful! What do you say to it? SIMON RENARD.