"Well, and you alone remain silent, Lestocq?" asked the princess, with
tears in her eyes.
"I have not yet come to the end of my bad news," said Lestocq, with a
clouded brow.
"Ah!" jestingly interposed the princess, "you would, perhaps, as further
bad news, inform us that the Emperor Ivan has cut his first tooth!"
"No," said Lestocq, "I would only say to you, that the 18th of December,
the day on which the regent is to be crowned as empress, the 18th of
December is the day assigned for the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with
Prince Louis of Brunswick, the new Duke of Courland!"
The princess sprang up from her seat as if stung by an adder. Alexis
Razumovsky, who still knelt at her feet, uttered loud lamentations,
in which Woronzow and Grunstein soon joined. With calm triumph Lestocq
observed the effect produced by his words.
"What are you saying there?" at length Elizabeth breathlessly asked.
"I say that on the 18th of December the Princess Elizabeth is to be
married to Prince Louis of Brunswick, who has already come to St.
Petersburg for that purpose," calmly answered Lestocq.
"And I say," cried the princess, "that no such marriage will ever take
place!"
Lestocq shrugged his shoulders. "Princess Elizabeth is a gentle,
peace-loving, always suffering lamb," he said.
"But Princess Elizabeth can become a tigress when it concerns the
defence of her holiest rights!" exclaimed the princess, pacing the room
in violent excitement.
"Ah," she continued, "they are not then satisfied with delivering me
over to poverty and abandonment; it does not suffice them to see me so
deeply humiliated as to receive alms from this regent who occupies
the throne that belongs to me. They would rob me of my last and only
remaining blessing, my personal freedom! They would make my poor heart a
prisoner, and bind it with the chains and fetters of a marriage which I
abhor! No, no, I tell you that shall they never do."
And the princess, quite beside herself with rage, stamped her feet and
doubled up her little hands into fists. Now was she her father's real
and not unworthy daughter; Czar Peter's bold and savage spirit flashed
from her eyes, his scorn and courageous determination spoke from her
wildly excited features. She saw not, she heard not what was passing
around her; she was wholly occupied with her own angry thoughts, and
with those dreadful images which the mere idea of marriage had conjured
up.
Her four favorites stood together at some distance, observing her with
silent sympathy.
"It is now for you, Alexis Razumovsky, to complete the work we have
begun," whispered Lestocq to him. "Elizabeth loves you; you must nourish
in her this abhorrence of a marriage with the prince. You must make
yourself so loved, that she will dare all rather than lose you! We have
long enough remained in a state of abjectness; it is time to labor for
our advancement. To the work, to the work, Alexis Razumovsky! We must
make an empress of this Elizabeth, that she may raise us to wealth and
dignities!"