"'I see,' she at last said, angrily, 'that the party against me is firmly united. This letter of the Emperor's is evidently dictated by the King. They want to drive me to extremities. They want to be able to say to France and to my children that there is no Duchesse de Berry now, that there is only a foreigner entitled to neither protection nor pity! They are erecting a pillory and they want me to fasten myself to it.... They know me very little, if they think me capable of so mean-spirited an act. They who employ such lofty language to me have a false appreciation of their position and mine. They do not know the strength which public opinion can give me against them. They shall learn to know, for, as they want war, I accept it. I shall have everything printed, everything published. I shall prove that it is for me to impose conditions and not for me to accept any. I shall force the King to respect my rights and at last to give me back my children.' "Madame la Duchesse de Berry's utterance was loud and short, her gestures abrupt; and, but for her extreme agitation, I might have thought that she was repeating a part which she had studied. I expected this outburst; I was also prepared with the language which I should have to hold; but I did not hurry to reply. "Astonished at my silence: "'But, after all,' she asked, 'don't you think that I am right?' "'I shall dare to tell you everything, Madame, because my reasons for being absolutely sincere will justify the harshness of my words. All that Your Highness has just told me makes me fear that you are ill-informed, ill-advised or ill-inspired. I have listened to Madame with great attention and I am obliged to tell her that she is mistaken as to the King's intentions, but that she is also unfortunately mistaken as to her own position. The King, Madame, does not believe in Your Highness' marriage. He does not believe in it, because you refuse to give him the proof of it and because your friends continue to protest against the reality of this marriage. And yet it is important that the truth about this should be known. Too much has been said about it, or not enough. M. le Comte Lucchesi's presence about Your Highness is no longer to be explained. As long as this remains so, I am not afraid to say that the King, having his grand-children with him, cannot admit you into the interior of his family. Right, justice and reason are on His Majesty's side.' "Here the Duchesse de Berry, whose agitation was extreme, was unable to contain herself any longer and cried: "'But, monsieur, I give you my word of honour that I am married. The marriage-deed, which is perfectly regular, exists. It is deposited in safe hands, and I shall certainly not take it from them to place it in those of Charles X. and M. de Metternich.'