The Daughter of an Empress

"Princess!" reproachfully exclaimed Alexis--"Elizabeth, you, my august

and gentle empress, you will not sacrifice an innocent woman to a

momentary jealous vagary!"

"Ah, he ventures to intercede for her!" cried Elizabeth, with a hoarse

laugh, and, turning to Lestocq, she continued, with anger-flashing eyes:

"Lestocq, I have yet a condition to make before consenting to become an

empress."

"Name your condition, princess, and if it be within the compass of human

power it shall be fulfilled."

Casting an angry glance at Razumovsky, Elizabeth said, with a sinister

smile: "Swear to me, by all you hold most sacred, to find some fault in this

Countess Lapuschkin which shall give me the right to condemn her to

death!"

"I swear it by all I hold most sacred," solemnly responded Lestocq.

"And you will do well in that!" exclaimed Alexis. "For when a crime

rests upon her, and she, only with a word or look, offends against my

fair and noble empress, she will deserve such condemnation."

"You will, then, defend her no longer?" asked the somewhat appeased

princess, bending down to her kneeling lover.

"What is Countess Lapuschkin to me?" tenderly responded Alexis. "For

me there is but one woman, one empress, and one beauty, and that is

Elizabeth!"

The princess smiled with satisfaction. "Lestocq," said she, "this time

I keep my word. I am ready to dare all, in order to place the imperial

crown upon my head. I must and will be empress, that I may have the

power to reward you all, and to raise you, my Alexis, to me!"

And drawing the handsome Alexis up to herself, she gave him her hand to

kiss.

"I now go to make all necessary preparations," said Lestocq. "At

midnight I will come for you. Be ready at that time, Elizabeth!"

"I will then be ready!" said Princess Elizabeth, nodding a farewell to

Lestocq.

"At midnight!" she then thoughtfully continued. "Well, we have twelve

hours until then, which will suffice for the invention of a suitable

toilet. Alexis, tell me what sort of dress I shall wear. What color

best becomes me and in what shall I please the soldiers? The toilet,

my Alexis, is often decisive in such cases; an unsuitable costume might

cause me to displease the conspirators, and lead them to give up the

enterprise. You must aid me, Alexis, in choosing a costume. Come, let us

repair to the wardrobe, and call my women. I will try on all my dresses,

one after the other; then you shall decide which is most becoming, and

that will we choose."

The princess and her lover betook themselves to the wardrobe, and called

her women to assist in selecting a suitable revolution-toilet.