nfide in him!" exclaimed the
cardinal. "But it cannot be that you know his history: have you any idea
to whom he is indebted for his prosperity and greatness?"

"The Empress Catharine, his mistress," said Natalie, without
embarrassment.

The cardinal looked, with increasing astonishment, into her calm,
smiling face. "I now comprehend it all," he then said; "they have laid a
very shrewd and cunning plan. They have deceived you while telling you a
part of the truth!"

"No one has deceived me," indignantly responded Natalie. "I tell you,
Sir Cardinal, that I am neither deceived nor overreached, easy as you
seem to think it to deceive me!"

"Oh, it is always easy to deceive innocence and nobleness," sadly
remarked the cardinal. "Listen to me, princess, and think, I conjure
you, that this time a true and sincere friend is speaking to you."

"And how shall I recognize that?" asked the young maiden, with a slight
touch of irony. "How shall I recognize a friend, when, as you say, it is
precisely my pretended friends who are my enemies!"

"Recognize me by this!" said the cardinal, drawing a folded paper from
his bosom and handing it to the princess.

"That is Count Paulo's handwriting!" she joyfully exclaimed.

"Ah, you recognize the handwriting," said the cardinal, "and you see
that this letter is addressed to me. Count Paulo therefore considers me
his friend!"

"May I read this letter?"

"I beg you to do so."

Natalie unfolded the letter and read: "Warn the Princess Tartaroff;
danger threatens her!"

"That is all?" she asked with a smile.

"That is all!" said the cardinal; "but when Paulo considered these few
words of sufficient importance to send them to me, you may well suppose
they are of the utmost significance."

"Count Paulo is in Siberia," said Natalie, shaking her head; "how could
he have written you from thence?"

"How he succeeded in doing so, I know not, but the firm, determined will
of man often conquers supposed impossibilities! Enough--in a mysterious,
enigmatical manner was this letter put into the hands of our ambassador
at St. Petersburg, with the most urgent prayer that he would immediately
send it to me by a special courier, with all the necessary particulars."

"And was that done?" asked Natalie.

"It was done! I know why your life is threatened! Princess Tartaroff,
you are the daughter of the Empress Elizabeth; and therefore it is that
this Empress Catharine, upon her usurped throne,