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 bet