The two gentlemen bowed respectfully. Mlle. de Soissons then addressed her aunt: "I have begged M. de Létorière to come here, madame, that I might tell him before you, and you before him, my irrevocable intentions. I am an orphan, and free in all my actions when they are not unworthy of my birth; but you are my relative, madame, and I know what is due to you, and I cannot better prove my respect than in imparting to you a resolution on which depends my destiny." . . . With the exception of the Marquis, the actors in this strange scene were lost in astonishment. Madame de Rohan-Soubise, stupefied at the language of the princess Julie, could not believe what she heard. Mlle. de Soissons continued: "I have offered my hand to M. de Létorière; he has accepted it." . . . "You have offered your hand!!" . . . cried Madame de Rohan-Soubise. "Princess Julie, you have lost your reason . . . or is this all an ill-judged pleasantry?" "Ah! mademoiselle," said Létorière, with a reproachful accent, seeing the young girl thus breaking the promise she had made to him, to wait the issue of the lawsuit before making a final decision. The princess Julie turned towards him: "You will soon learn why I have acted thus," said she; and she added, addressing her aunt with a solemn air, "I have not lost my reason; and what I say is serious. . . . Before God, who hears me, before you, madame, before you, Count de Lugeac, and before you, Abbé d'Arcueil, I, Julie Victorie de Soissons, swear to have no other husband but the Marquis of Létorière here before us;" and she tendered him her hand with a gesture of grandeur and simplicity. The Marquis took the charming hand, which he kissed with the most respectful and lively tenderness. This scene was so unexpected, so like a thunderbolt, that Madame Rohan-Soubise remained for a moment mute, interrogating with her eyes the count and the abbé, not less astonished. "And I," replied the Marquis, "swear to consecrate my life to the noble princess who has honored me with her choice. . . ." "And I, with all the authority which my relationship gives me," impetuously cried Madame de Rohan-Soubise, coming out of her stupor, "I declare to you, mademoiselle, that this shameful alliance is impossible, and that it shall never take place!" "The honor which Mlle. de Soissons deigns to do me, madame, prevents me from answering your outrageous words," said the Marquis, much moved. The Princess Julie replied, addressing herself to her aunt: