It is true that I loved and still do love Guiscardo, and as long as I shall live, which will not be long, I shall love him; and if there is love after death, then I shall continue loving him. I was moved to act this way not so much by my womanly weakness but by your own lack of interest in me (getting me married), as well as by Guiscardo's own worth. It is clear, Tancredi, that you are made of flesh and blood and that you have fathered a daughter made of flesh and blood, not on of stone and iron; and thought you are old now, you should have remembered the nature and power of the laws of youth...(83)