e kindly chats with the
soldiers, and admits the handsome stately grenadiers into her house, it
is done for the purpose of conspiring with them. Go to, Count Ostermann,
you are very innocent. Princess Elizabeth has but one passion, but it
is not the desire of ruling; and when she chats with handsome men, she
speaks not of conspiracy, believe me." And, laughing, the regent essayed
a new head-dress.

"And how do you explain the secret meetings of Lestocq and the Marquis
de la Chetardie?" asked Ostermann, with painfully-suppressed agitation.

"Explain? Why should I seek an explanation for things that do not at all
interest me? What is it to me what the surgeon Lestocq has to do with
the constantly-ailing French ambassador? Or do you think I should
trouble myself about the _lavements_ administered to an ambassador by a
surgeon?"

"Well, then, your highness will allow me to explain their meetings from
a less medical point of view? France is your enemy, France meditates
your destruction, and the Marquis de la Chetardie is exciting the
princess and Lestocq to an insurrection."

"And to what end, if I may be allowed to ask?" scornfully inquired Anna.

"France, struggling with internal and foreign enemies, at war with
Austria, involved in disputes with Holland and Spain, France would wish
at any price to see the Russian government so occupied with her own
domestic difficulties as to have no time to devote to international
affairs. She would provide you with plenty of occupation at home, that
you may not actively interfere with the affairs of the rest of the
world. That is the shrewd policy of France, and it would fill me with
admiration were it not fraught with the most terrible danger to us. The
Marquis de la Chetardie has it in charge to bring about a revolution
here at any price, and as an expert diplomatist, he very well
comprehends that Princess Elizabeth is the best means he can employ for
that purpose; for she, as the daughter of Czar Peter, has the sympathies
of the old Russians in her favor, and they will flock to her with shouts
of joy whenever she may announce to the people that she is ready to
drive the foreign rulers from Russia!"

"Ah, our good Russians," laughingly exclaimed the regent, "they shout
only for those who make them drunk, and for that the poor princess lacks
the means!"

"The Marquis de la Chetardie has, in the name of his king, offered her
an unlimited credit, and she is already provided with