selves upon the earth before the ever-new
sun of imperial majesty which shone upon them in the person of
Elizabeth.

Catharine with a joyful spirit and a proud smile laid her hand in that
of Peter, and as she stepped with him to the altar she thought: "I do
this that I may one day be empress! and as I can reach that position in
no other way--well, then, let them call me the wife of this under-aged
boy! I will suffer it until the time when I shall no longer suffer, but
command."

With such thoughts did Catharine become the wife of the Grand-duke
Peter, who, as he with a loud and solemn "yes" vowed eternal truth to
his young wife, looked at the Countess Woronzow, and both exchanged a
stolen smile and a glowing glance of love.

"They may henceforth call this proud Catharine my wife," thought Peter,
"but I shall never love her, as my heart will ever belong to my dear
Woronzow! But Elizabeth has decided that Catharine shall be my wife.
I accommodate myself to her command, and obey now, that I may one day
command! But then woe to the wife this day forced upon me!"

And when the ceremony was ended, the new-married pair received with
smiling faces and radiant glances the congratulations of the court,
which in loud and ecstatic exclamations commended the love and happiness
of this young princely pair.

On the same day a second marriage was celebrated in this same imperial
palace, perhaps not so splendid, but certainly a happier one, for it
was love that united the two--love had overcome Elizabeth's aversion
to marriage, and decided her to raise her dear Alexis Razumovsky to the
position of her husband--love, and also a little superstition! As the
son born to Elizabeth some months previously had died soon after its
birth, and in this dispensation Elizabeth recognized the punishment of
heaven in disapproval of her connection with Alexis, she shudderingly,
remembered the words spoken by Eleonore Lapuschkin, and her heart was
filled with fear for the children which the future might bring her.

"I will destroy the curse which this Countess Lapuschkin has pronounced
against my children," thought Elizabeth, as she now for the second time
felt herself to be a mother. "If God blesses my children, the curse
of no human being can affect them, and this revengeful prayer of the
countess will have no more power when the priest of God has consented
and blessed the child now quietly reposing under my heart!"

This was the reason why Eli