e my peace and repose. Let Anna Leopoldowna declare herself
empress--what should I care? I should have to bend before her with my
congratulations. That is all!"

And the princess, letting her head glide upon Razumovsky's shoulder, as
if exhausted by this long speech, closed her fatigued eyelids.

"Ah, if Czar Peter, your great father, could hear you," sadly said
Lestocq, "he would spurn you for such pusillanimity, princess."

"It is, therefore, fortunate for me that he is dead," said the princess,
with a smile. "And now, my dear Lestocq, if you know nothing further,
let this suffice you: I tell you, once for all, that I have no desire
for this imperial throne. I would crown my head with roses and myrtles,
but not with that golden circle which would crush me to the earth.
Therefore, trouble me no more on this subject. Be content with what
I am, and if you cannot, well--then I must be reconciled to being
abandoned by you!"

"I will never desert you, even if I must follow you to suffering and
death!" exclaimed Alexis Razumovsky, casting himself at the feet of the
princess.

"We will remain true and faithful to you unto death!" cried Woronzow and
Grunstein.

"Well, and you alone remain silent, Lestocq?" asked the princess, with
tears in her eyes.

"I have not yet come to the end of my bad news," said Lestocq, with a
clouded brow.

"Ah!" jestingly interposed the princess, "you would, perhaps, as further
bad news, inform us that the Emperor Ivan has cut his first tooth!"

"No," said Lestocq, "I would only say to you, that the 18th of December,
the day on which the regent is to be crowned as empress, the 18th of
December is the day assigned for the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with
Prince Louis of Brunswick, the new Duke of Courland!"

The princess sprang up from her seat as if stung by an adder. Alexis
Razumovsky, who still knelt at her feet, uttered loud lamentations,
in which Woronzow and Grunstein soon joined. With calm triumph Lestocq
observed the effect produced by his words.

"What are you saying there?" at length Elizabeth breathlessly asked.

"I say that on the 18th of December the Princess Elizabeth is to be
married to Prince Louis of Brunswick, who has already come to St.
Petersburg for that purpose," calmly answered Lestocq.

"And I say," cried the princess, "that no such marriage will ever take
place!"

Lestocq shrugged his shoulders. "Princess Elizabeth is a gentle,
peace-loving, always suffer