The Daughter of an Empress

She received the staggering Petrovitch with a gracious smile, she

praised the dauntlessness with which he had guided her sledge in that

eventful night, and in gratitude for his good conduct she raised him, as

she had the grenadiers, to the rank of a nobleman by naming him a baron

of the Russian empire.

Petrovitch listened to her with a stupid laugh; and when the magnates

crowded around him, offering their hands and assuring him of their

friendship, he tremblingly and with effort stammered some unmeaning

words, and falling upon his knees, he bowed his head in the dust before

these great and powerful magnates, humbly kissing the hems of their

garments, not suspecting that he was their equal in rank.

And constantly more brilliant and beautiful beamed the imperial grace.

None of Elizabeth's faithful friends and servants were forgotten, for

she possessed a virtue rare among princes--she was grateful.

She named Lestocq her first physician, president of the medical

college, and member of her privy council. She made Grunstein an imperial

aide-de-camp, with the rank of brigadier-general; and Woronzow a count

and her first chamberlain.

Then, at last, she repeated the name of her friend Alexis Razumovsky.

Her fair brow lighted up as with a reflected sunbeam on his approaching

her throne, and, holding out to him both hands, she said aloud: "Alexis

Razumovsky, I have you most to thank for my success in dispossessing

the usurpers who have robbed me of my father's throne; for your wise

counsels gave me courage and force: be then, henceforth, next to my

throne, my chamberlain, Count Razumovsky!"

Bending a knee before her, Alexis gratefully kissed her beloved hand,

and the counts and gentlemen surrounded him, loudly praising the great

wisdom of the empress, whose divine penetration enabled her everywhere

to discover and reward true service!

"Ah," sighed Elizabeth, when, on the evening of this glorious day, she

was again alone with her confidential friends, "ah, my friends, I have

now complied with your wishes and allowed you to make an empress of me!

But forget not, Lestocq, that I have become empress only on condition

that I am not to be troubled with business and state affairs. This has

been a day of great exertion and fatigue, and I hope you will henceforth

leave me in repose. I have done what you wished, I am empress, and have

rewarded you for your aid, but now I also demand my reward, and that is

undisturbed peace! Once for all, in my private apartments no one is to

speak of state affairs, here I will have repose; you can carry on the

government through your bureaux and chancelleries; I will have

nothing to do with it! Here we will be gay and enjoy life. Come here, my

Alexis,--come here and tell me if this imperial crown is becoming, and

whether you found me fair in my ermine-trimmed purple mantle?"