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266 was content to take all and give nothing. When she arrived she was not long in finding that she had a rival in the Princess Flavia; rendered desperate, she stood at nothing which might give or keep her power over the duke. As I say, he took and gave not. Simultaneously Antoinette found herself entangled in his audacious schemes. Unwilling to abandon him, bound to him by the chains of shame and hope, she yet would not be a decoy, nor at his bidding lure me to death. Hence the letters of warning she had written. Whether the lines she sent to Flavia were inspired by good or bad feeling, by jealousy or by pity, I do not know; but here also she served us well. When the duke went to Zenda she accompanied him; and here for the first time she learned the full measure of his cruelty, and was touched with compassion for the unfortunate king. From this time she was with us; yet, from what she told me, I knew that she still (as women will) loved Michael, and trusted to gain his life, if not his pardon, from the king as the reward for her assistance. His triumph she did not desire, for she loathed his crime, and loathed yet more