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!

The people were running to and fro in the wildest confusion in the
streets of St. Petersburg; they cried and shouted _vivas_ to their
empress who to-day accorded to them the splendid spectacle of the
knouting of some respectable ladies and gentlemen! Ah, that was a very
gracious and condescending empress to provide once more a delightful
spectacle for her serfs at the expense of the nobility! That was an
empress after their own hearts--real Russian blood!

Shrieking and shouting they rushed to the place of execution, pressing
against the barriers that separated the central point from the
spectators. There stood the bearded assistants of the executioner, there
lay the knouts and other instruments, and with eager glances the people
devoured all: they found all these preparations admirable, they rejoiced
with unrestrained delight in the prospect of seeing the handsomest woman
in the realm flayed with the knout. And not the common people alone, the
_noblesse_ must also be present; the great magnates of the court
must also come, if they would avoid exciting a suspicion that they
commiserated the condemned and revolted at their punishment. They all
came, these slavish magnates, perhaps with tears in their hearts, but
with smiles upon their lips; perhaps murmuring secret curses, but aloud
applauding the just sentence of the empress.

Now the closed carriages of the condemned were seen approaching in a
long, lingering train; the train halted, the doors were opened, and
in the centre of the place of execution appeared Eleonore Lapuschkin,
radiant w