trembles with fear of
you--therefore was it that she said to her favorite: 'Go, and deliver
me from this troublesome pretender. But do it in a sly, cautious, and
noiseless manner. Avoid attracting attention, murder her not, threaten
her not; I wish not to give people new reasons for calling me a
bloodthirsty woman. Entice her with flatteries into our net, induce her
to follow you voluntarily, that the people of no country in which she
may be may have an occasion to accuse us of using force.' Thus did
Catharine speak to her favorite; he understood her and swore to execute
her commands, as he did when Catharine ordered him to throttle her
husband, the Emperor Peter; as he also did when she ordered him to shoot
poor Ivan, the son of Anna Leopoldowna, for the criminal reason that
he had a greater right to the imperial crown of Russia than this little
German princess of Zerbst!"

"And he shot that poor innocent Ivan!" shudderingly asked Natalie. "Ah,
this Catharine is bloodthirsty as a hyena, and her friends and favorites
are hangmen's servants--ah, history will brand this murderer of Ivan!"

"It will," solemnly responded Cardinal Bernis, "and people will shudder
when they hear the name of the man who strangled the Emperor Peter, who
shot Ivan, and who, at the command of Catharine, has come to Italy
to ensnare the noble and innocent Princess Tartaroff with cunning and
flatteries and convey her to St. Petersburg. Shall I tell you this man's
name? He is called Alexis Orloff!"

The young maiden sprang up from her seat, her eyes flashed, and her
cheeks glowed.

"That is false," said she--"a shameful, malicious falsehood!"

"Would to God it were so!" cried the cardinal. "But it is too true,
princess! Oh, listen to me, and close not your ears to the truth.
Remember that I am an old man, who has long observed men, and long
studied life. I know this Russian diplomacy, and this Russian craft;
they have in them something devilish; and these Russian diplomatists,
they poison and confound the shrewdest with their deceitful smiles
and infernal cunning. Guard yourself, princess, against this Russian
diplomacy, and, above all things, be on your guard against this
ambassador of the Russian empress, Alexis Orloff!"

"Ah, you dare to defame him!" cried the young maiden, trembling with
anger. "You have, therefore, never seen him; you have never read in his
noble face that Count Alexis Orloff can never betray. He is a hero, and
a hero ne