It is our privilege to
bestow upon you the highest honor that may be conferred on any woman in
the realm; the position of Empress.
"When you have signified your acceptance of this great elevation, I must
put to you several questions concerning your future duties to the State,
and these are embodied in a document which you will be asked to sign."
The Countess did not raise her eyes. While the Archbishop was speaking
the color flamed up in her cheeks, but faded away again, and her
guardian, who watched her very intently across the table, saw her face
become so pale that he feared she was about to faint. However, she
rallied, and at last looked up, not at her dark-browed questioner, but
at the Archbishop of Cologne.
"May I not know," she said, in a voice scarcely audible, "who is my
future husband?"
"Surely, surely," replied her guardian soothingly, "but the Elector of
Mayence is our spokesman here, and you must address your question to his
Lordship."
She now turned her frightened eyes upon Mayence, whose brow had become
slightly ruffled at this interruption, and whose lips were more firmly
closed.
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