"
"Methinks scarcely the dearest," replied Isabella, affected, in spite
of her every effort for control; "but of that here after. Marie, I
have pledged myself to my confessor, not to let this matter rest. He
has told me that my very affection for thee is a snare, and must
be sacrificed if it interfere with my duty; not alone as member of
Christ's church, but as Sovereign of a Catholic realm, whose bounden
duty it is to purge away all heresy and misbelief. I feel that he is
right, and, cost what it may, Christ's dictates must be obeyed. The
years of fraud--of passing for what thou wert not--I forgive, for thy
noble husband's sake; but my confessor has told me, and I feel its
truth, that if we allow thy return to thy people as thou art now, we
permit a continuance of such unnatural unions, encourage fraud,
and expose our subjects to the poisonous taint of Jewish blood and
unbelief. A Christian thou must become. The plan we have decided upon
must bring conviction at last; but it will be attended with such
long years of mental and physical suffering, that we shrink from the
alternative, and only thine own obstinacy will force us to adopt it."
She paused for above a minute; but though Marie's very lips had
blanched, and her large eyes were fixed in terror on the Queen's face,
there was no answer.
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