All passions are unfettered, all want to fight for freedom, and
against the chains with which the royal government has held them
bound. An abyss has opened between the crown and the nation, and the
States-General and the Third Estate will not close it, but only
widen it. I tell you, Margaret, dark days are approaching; I see
them coming, and I cannot, for your sake, withdraw from them, for I
am the soldier of the queen. I must keep guard before her door, and,
if I cannot save her, I must die in her service. Know this,
Margaret, but know, too, that I love you. Let me repeat, that from
you alone all fortune and happiness can come to me, and then do you
decide. Will you, after all that I have told you, still accept my
hand, which I offer you in tenderest affection? Will you be my wife,
knowing that my life belongs not to you alone, but still more to
another? Will you share with me the dangers of a stormy time, of an
inevitable future with me, and devote yourself with, me to the
service of the queen? Examine yourself, Margaret, before you answer.
Do not forget your great and noble heart; consider that it is a vast
sacrifice to devote your life to a man who is prepared every hour to
give his life for another woman--to leave the one he loves, and to
go to his death in defence of his queen.
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