of it," said Anna, "but at last my ministers will
compel me to imprison Lestocq and bring him to trial, in order to get
the truth out of him."

"Ah, they will torture him, and yet he is innocent!" cried Elizabeth,
bursting into tears. And, clasping the regent's neck, she anxiously
exclaimed: "Ah, Anna, dear Anna, save me from my enemies! Let them not
steal away my friends and ruin me! They would also torture me and send
me to Siberia; Anna, my friend, my sovereign, save me! You alone can do
it, for you know me, and know that I am innocent! The idea that I should
conspire against you, against you whom I love, and to whom, upon
the sacred books of our religion, I have sworn eternal fidelity and
devotion! Anna, Anna, I swear to you by the soul of my father, I am
innocent, as also is my friend. Lestocq has never passed the threshold
of the French ambassador's hotel! Oh, dear, dear Anna, have mercy on me,
and do not permit them to torture me and wrench my poor members!"

With a loud cry of anguish, with streaming tears, pale and trembling,
Elizabeth sank down at the regent's feet.

It was this cry of anguish that rang through the hall, and spread
everywhere astonishment and consternation. And this shrieking,
and weeping, and trembling, was no mask, but truth. Elizabeth was
frightened, she wept and trembled from fear, but she had sufficient
presence of mind not to betray herself in words. It was fear even that
gave her that presence of mind and enabled her to play her part in a
manner so masterly that the regent was completely deceived. Taking the
princess in her arms, she pressed her to her bosom, at the same time
endeavoring to reassure and console her with tender and affectionate
words, with reiterated promises of her protection and her love.

But it was a long time before the trembling and weeping princess
could be tranquillized--before she could be made to believe Anna's
asseverations that she had always loved and never mistrusted her.

"What most deeply saddens me," said Elizabeth, with feeling, "is the
idea that you, my Anna, could believe these calumnies, and suppose me
capable of such black treason. Ah, I should be as bad as Judas Iscariot
could I betray my noble and generous mistress."

Tears of emotion stood in Anna's eyes. She impressed a tender kiss upon
Elizabeth's lips, and with her own hand wiped the tears from the cheeks
of the princess.

"Weep no more, Elizabeth," she tenderly said--"nay, I beg of yo