n
to be seen.

The slight creaking and whizzing of a sledge upon the crackling snow was
now heard; it came nearer and nearer, and then there was a knocking
at the palace gate. The porter opened, and two sledges drove into the
court.

The first, with a rich covering and magnificent ornaments, was empty.
But Lestocq was seen to spring out of the second, and hurriedly enter
the palace.

Elizabeth, splendidly dressed, sparkling with brilliants, was waiting
in her small reception-room. No one but Alexis Razumovsky was with her.
Neither of them spoke, and their visages plainly discovered that they
were in a state of painfully uncomfortable suspense.

Elizabeth was pale and had a convulsive twitching about her mouth, her
form trembled feverishly, and she was obliged to cling to Razumovsky, to
prevent falling.

"Did you hear the opening of the court-yard gate?" she breathed low.
"Lestocq is not yet here, and it is past midnight. Certainly he is
arrested, all is discovered, and we are lost! I am fearfully anxious,
Alexis; I already seem to feel the sword at my throat. Ah, hear you not
steps in the corridor? They come this way. They are my pursuers. They
come to conduct me to the scaffold! Save me, Alexis, save me!"

And with a shrill cry of anguish the princess clung to the neck of her
favorite.

The door was now hastily opened, and upon the threshold appeared Lestocq
and Woronzow.

"Princess Elizabeth!" exclaimed Lestocq, with solemnity, "I have come
for you. The throne awaits its empress!"

"Up, Princess Elizabeth," said Alexis, "take courage, my fair empress,
give us an example of spirit and resolution!"

The princess slowly raised her pale face from Razumovsky's shoulder, and
looking around with timid glances, faintly said: "I suffer fearfully!
This anguish will kill me! My destiny is so cruel, I am so tormented.
Why must I be an empress?"

"That you may be no nun," laconically responded Lestocq.

"And to become the greatest and loftiest woman in the world!" said
Woronzow.

"To raise to your own elevation the man you love," whispered Alexis.

With a glance of tenderness, Elizabeth nodded to him.

"Yes," said she, "for your sake, my Alexis, I will become an empress!
Come, let us go. But where is Grunstein?"

"With his faithful followers he awaits us before the casern of his
regiment. We go there first."

"Then let us go!" said Elizabeth, striding forward. But she stopped on
seeing that Alexis followed