"You told me that I was to go through a novitiate of several months, during which time I might demand no assistance in my work. I accepted of you the money necessary for my modest needs. You were to me both brother and teacher. I saw you every day for hours. Little by little my eyes were opened to the light. Radiant horizons dazzled my vision. You filled me with your generous aspirations. You fired me with that fever of devotion and resignation, that thirst for sacrifices, from which spring saints and martyrs. You followed with interest my progress in the new path that you opened out to me. Day by day I wished that my initiation might end. I wished to take my part in action, in your projects. But now that you have revealed your birth, your station, I begin to doubt you. Is the object of your society really that which you have taught me it was, the recovery of the rights ravaged from the disinherited classes?" "The least doubt on your part on that score, Victoria, would be a cruel blow to me. We have taken arms for justice and right." "Pardon me, Franz. Then the _level_, that inflexible emblem--the social level--" "Is our emblem. Equality of rights for man and woman!" "It is your emblem, my lord? Yours, the son of a sovereign?" "The aim of my life is the triumph of liberty, the birth of the Republic! Hear me, Victoria. You have borne the hardships, the sufferings, the shame of a prison. Which, you or a person unknown to prison horrors, knows them better? Which would hate them more?" "I read your thought. Despotism itself has taught you its horror." "And you will no longer wonder at me--of a sovereign race, but yet as lowly of origin as you, as both our families originated in the same place--when I take the level as my emblem?" "I shall wonder no more, Franz; but to my wonder succeeds a glow of admiration." With her eyes full of tears, and bowing her knee before the Prince of Gerolstein, Victoria kissed his hand, saying, "May you be blessed and glorified for your generous sentiments." "Rise, Victoria," answered the Prince with emotion. "My conduct does not merit your admiration. It is but a puny sacrifice for us to make of our privileges, compared with the grandeur of our cause." Then after a pause, he resumed in mild and grave tones: "But now reflect on this solemn moment of your initiation. There is still time for you to retract your allegiance to us." "Franz, after three months of proof, I shall not weaken at the last moment. I am ready for the ceremony." "Think of the terrible vows you are about to take." "Be they what they may, I shall not be found wanting in faith, courage, or devotion." "I wished to reveal to you our family connection in order that you could accept from me without embarrassment, as should be between relatives, your means of livelihood for the future, should you not care to carry out your plan. Your liberty of action shall remain complete and absolute."