izabeth, listen to the prayer of your faithful
servant--let not this Anna Leopoldowna pass the boundary of your
realm--let not your most deadly enemy escape!"

"Oh, grant his prayer," cried Lestocq, kneeling beside Alexis; "there
is wisdom in his words; listen to him rather than to the too great
generosity of your own heart! Let not your enemies escape, but seize
them while they are yet in your power!"

"Elizabeth, greatest and fairest woman on earth," implored Alexis, "have
compassion for my anxiety; I shall never laugh again, never be cheerful,
if you allow these your most dangerous enemies to withdraw themselves
from your power!"

Elizabeth bent down to him with a smile of tenderness, and laid her left
hand upon his locks, while with her right she gently raised his head to
herself.

"Love you me, then, so very much, my Alexis," she asked, "that you
suffer with anxiety for my safety? Ah, that makes me happy--that fills
my whole heart with joy! Only look at him, Lestocq; see how beautiful
he is, and then say whether one can refuse the prayer of those heavenly
eyes, those pleading lips?"

"You will, then, grant my prayer?" exultingly asked Alexis.

"Well, yes," tenderly responded she, "since there is no other means of
rendering you again cheerful and happy, I must, indeed, consent to the
fulfilment of your wishes, and not let my enemies quit the country if it
be yet possible to retain them."

"They have proceeded by slow marches, and can hardly now have arrived
in Riga, where they are to rest several days," said Lestocq. "There
will consequently be time for a courier yet to reach them with your
counter-order."

"And he must be dispatched immediately!" said Alexis, pressing the hand
of the empress to his lips. "In this hour will my kind and gracious
empress sign the command for the arrest of Anna Leopoldowna, her
husband, and her son!"

"Already another signature!" sighed Elizabeth. "How you annoy me with
this eternal signing and countersigning! Will it, then, never have an
end? I already begin to hate my name, because of being compelled so
often to write it under your musty old documents. Why did the emperor,
my dear deceased father, give me so long a name!--a shorter one would
now relieve me of half my labor!"

But in spite of her lamentings, Elizabeth nevertheless, a quarter of an
hour later, subscribed the order to arrest the regent, her husband, and
son, and shut them up, preliminarily, in the citadel o