She regarded him with a dreamy smile. "You speak as Paulo often spoke
to me," said she. "He also swore to me that he would one day place an
imperial crown upon my head, and elevate me to great power! I understood
him as little as I understand you!"
A slight scornful smile momentarily passed over Orloff's features.
"Catharine has therefore rightly divined," thought he, "and her wise
mind rightly understood this Rasczinsky. There was, indeed, question of
an imperial crown, and this was to have been the new little empress!"
Aloud he said: "You will soon understand me, princess, and it is time
you knew of what crown Paulo spoke."
"I know it not," said she, "nor do I desire to know it! Perhaps it was
a jest, with which he sought to console me when I complained of being
a homeless orphan, a poor child, who knew not even the name of her
mother!"
"Do you not know that?" exclaimed Orloff, with astonishment.
She sadly shook her head. "They would never tell it me," said she. "But
I have her image in my heart, and that, at least, I shall never lose or
forget!"
"I knew your mother," said Orloff; "she was beautiful as you are, and
mild and merciful."
"You knew her!" exclaimed the young maiden, grasping his hand and
looking at him with a confiding friendliness. "Oh, you knew her! You
will now be doubly dear to me, for those bright eyes have seen my
mother, and perhaps this hand which now rests in mine has also touched
hers!"
"That," said Count Orloff, with a smile, "I should not have dared to do;
it would have been high-treason!"
"Was she, then, so great a sublime a princess?" asked Natalie.
"She was an empress!"
"An empress!" And the young maiden, sprang up with beaming eyes and
glowing cheeks. "My mother was an empress!" said she, breathing hard.
"Empress Elizabeth of Russia."
Overcome by the feelings suddenly excited by this news, Natalie sank
again upon her seat and covered her face with her hands. Tears gushed
out between her delicate, slender fingers; her whole being was in
violent, feverish commotion. Then, raising her arms toward heaven, with
a celestial smile, while the tears overflowed her face, she said: "I am,
then, no longer a homeless orphan; I have a fatherland, and my mother
was an empress!"
Count Orloff respectfully kissed the hem of her garment.
"You are the daughter of an empress," said he, "and will yourself be an
empress! That was what Paulo wished, and therefore have they condemned
him as a criminal. What he was unable to accomplish must be done by
me, and for that purpose have I come. Princess Natalie, your fatherland
calls you, your throne awaits you! Follow me to your crowning in the
city of your fathers--follow me, that I may place the crown of your
grandfather, Peter the Great, upon your noble and beautiful head!"