The Daughter of an Empress

"But that is high-treason!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "Ah, I had cause to

tremble and eternally to stand in fear of my murderers! I already see

them lurking around me, encircling me on all sides, to destroy me!

Lestocq, save me from my murderers!"

And with a cry of anguish the empress clung convulsively to the arm of

her physician.

"The incautiousness of these conspirators has already saved you,

empress," said Lestocq. "They have delivered themselves into our hand,

they have made us masters of the situation. What would you more? You

will punish the traitors; that is all!"

"And I cannot kill them!" shrieked Elizabeth, with closed fists. "I have

tied my own hands in my unwise generosity! Ah, they call me an empress,

and yet I cannot destroy those I hate!"

"And who denies you that right?" asked Lestocq. "Destroy their bodies,

but kill them not! Wherefore have we the knout, if it cannot flay the

back of a beauty?"

"Yes, wherefore have we the knout?" exclaimed Elizabeth, with a joyous

laugh. "Ah, Lestocq, you are an exquisite man, you always give good

advice. Ah, this beautiful Countess Eleonore shall be made acquainted

with the knout!"

"You have a double right for it," said Lestocq, "for she has dared to

speak of your majesty in unseemly language!"

"Has she done that?" cried Elizabeth. "Ah, I almost love her for it,

as that gives me the right to chastise her. Lestocq, what punishment is

prescribed for a subject who dares revile his empress? You must know

it, you are familiar with the laws! Therefore tell me quickly, what

punishment?"

"It is written," said Lestocq, after a moment's reflection, "that any

one who dares so misuse his tongue as to revile the sublime majesty of

his emperor or empress with irreverent language, such criminal shall

have the instrument of his crime, his tongue, torn out by the roots!"

"And this time I will exercise no mercy!" triumphantly exclaimed

Elizabeth.

She kept her word--she exercised no mercy! Count Lapuschkin, with his

fair wife, the wife of Bestuscheff, the Chamberlain Lilienfeld, and some

others, were accused of high-treason and brought before the tribunal.

It was not difficult to convict the countess of the crime charged;

incautiously enough had she often expressed her attachment to the

cause of the imprisoned Emperor Ivan, and her contempt for the

Empress Elizabeth. And in what country is it not a crime to speak

disrespectfully of the prince, though he be a criminal and one of the

lowest of men?

She was therefore declared guilty; she was sentenced to be scourged

with the knout, to have her tongue torn out, and to be transported to

Siberia!

Elizabeth did not pardon her. She was a princess--how, then, could she

pardon one who had dared to revile her? Every crime is easier to pardon

than that of high-treason; for every other there may be extenuating

circumstances--for that, never; it is a capital crime which a prince

never pardons; how then, could Elizabeth have done so?--Elizabeth,

Empress by the grace of God, as all are princes and kings by the grace

of God!