The sweetness and the pain at her heart! Was this a meeting or a parting? Her throne, her power, her wealth, her triumphs in the diplomacy and the Diet were all as nothing in comparison with her love of Paul. He was her dearest possession, and yet--and yet--this clasp of his arms might be the last! Within an hour his corpse might be carried out of the cathedral, and the voice of the Czar would proclaim her downfall, and the accession of Bora. And what would life be without Paul? "Do not weep, Barbara," he cried, tenderly stroking her dark hair. "This day shall prove the brightest of your life." But Barbara failed to see how this could be. To her it would ever remain as the most wretched, for even if she should triumph over Czar and duke, that would not remove the reproach of illegitimacy publicly cast in her teeth. She shivered at the recollection. Of all the incidents which had happened that day, this--the imputed stain on her birth--had most wounded her pride. Would she ever be able to disprove the charge? But it was not the time to be thinking of this now. "Oh! Paul," she murmured, "it is selfish, it is wrong of me to hazard your life in this barbarous fashion." "It is too late to plead now," he answered gravely. "I have publicly accepted the honor--for an honor it is--of acting as the princess's champion, and not even Barbara herself shall dissuade me to withdraw." "But are you certain, quite certain, that you will be victorious?" "Try me," said Paul grimly. "How can I let you do this?" she cried in an outburst of anguish. "I will resign my crown. We will go away together to some other land where happiness may be found. Say 'yes' to this. Oh, Paul, don't--_don't_ fight. If you should fall--" "No fear of that, since your throne depends upon the issue." "My throne!" repeated Barbara bitterly. "What pleasure can it give me now? The Czar has learned that our Charter is no more. He claims Czernova as part of his empire. If I should continue to rule I must rule merely as his vassal. Consider the humiliations to which I shall be subjected. Is it worth while risking your life in order to preserve for me a gilded mockery of power?" How could Paul smile at the prospect presented by her words? Yet he did, pleasantly and tenderly. "Sweet princess!" he said, "for princess you are, and princess you shall remain, take courage." He turned her beautiful face upward to his own, and gazed into the depth of her dark eyes, on whose silken lashes the tear-drops glittered. "During my absence I have worked for the good of Czernova. I have splendid tidings for you. Fear no more the machinations of Russia. From this day forth you are firmly seated upon the throne." The sudden and unaccountable joy that filled Barbara's heart at that moment almost effaced the thought of the coming duel. "Oh, Paul, what--what do you mean?"