p, 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?"

"My lofty empress is always the fairest of women," tenderly responded
Alexis.

"Call me not empress," said she, drawing him closer to her. "That
brings again to mind all the hardships and wearinesses I have this day
encountered."

"Only yet a moment, your majesty; let me remind you that you are now
empress, and, as such, have duties to perform!" pressingly exclaimed
Lestocq. "You have this day exercised the pleasantest right of your
imperial power--the right of rewarding and making happy. But there
remains another and not less important duty; your majesty must now think
of punishing. The regent, and her husband and son, are prisoners; as,
also are Munnich, Ost