too coarse and brutal to
appreciate the treasure that he possessed, and the more he saw how
universally beloved his wife was, the more did she become an object of
aversion to him. For some time he treated her with cold neglect, but by
degrees he became more brutal in his behaviour, until one day, when she
offended him in some trifling respect, he dealt her an inhuman blow
which stretched her, apparently lifeless, at his feet. Well pleased at
being delivered so easily from what he only regarded as a hateful
burden, he gave orders that she should be buried with all due pomp, and
hastened away to another part of the kingdom.

But when her ladies of honour came to raise the unhappy princess, they
found that she still breathed. Under the devoted attention of the
Countess of Konigsmark, who had always been her confidential attendant,
she slowly won her way back to life, and this while her funeral
obsequies were being celebrated with the greatest pomp throughout the
length and breadth of Russia, while the principal courts of Europe were
mourning her premature decease, and while her unnatural husband was
drowning the remembrance of his horrible crime in revelries and
excesses of all kinds. None knew that she was still alive but the
Countess of Konigsmark and one or two other of her most devoted
adherents. They kept her concealed from everyone; for well they knew
that Alexis, should he hear of her recovery, would take measures to rid
himself of her effectually. Acting under their advice, the princess
collected all the valuables she was able to lay her hands on, and, in
company with an old domestic, who assumed the character of her father,
set out for Paris. Here, however, she felt still within reach of Alexis,
and so, with her supposed father, she set sail for Louisiana, where the
French had lately formed extensive colonies. They settled down in New
Orleans, and Carolina began to rapidly recover her health and beauty.

A young man, by name Moldask, who held a Government appointment in New
Orleans and who had spent many years in Russia thought that he
recognised in the beautiful stranger the princess who had been the
brightest star of the Muscovite Court. However, he could not believe
that the highborn lady of whose death he had heard and the daughter of
the feeble old man who had lately arrived from France were the same
person, wonderful though the resemblance between them might be. He kept
his ideas secret, but made himself so