The Daughter of an Empress

by L. Mühlbach

  THE REVOLUTION

  Night had come. The lights in palaces and houses were graduallyextinguished. St. Petersburg began to sleep, or at least to give itselfthe appearance of sleeping. The regent, Anna Leopoldowna, also,had already dismissed her household and withdrawn into her privateapartments.

  It was a fine starlight night. Anna leaned upon the window-frame,thoughtfully and dreamily glancing up at the heavens. Her eyes graduallyfilled with tears, which slowly rolled down her cheeks and fell upon herhands. She was startled by the falling of these warm, glowing drops. Shewas thinking of Lynar, of the distant, warmly-desired one, to whom shewould gladly have devoted her whole existence, but to whom she couldbelong only through falsehood. She thought it would be nobler andgreater to renounce him, that her love might be consecrated by herabnegation, while actually devoting her life to the duties enjoinedby the laws and the Church. But these thoughts filled her bosom with anameless sorrow, and it was involuntarily that she wept.

  "No," she murmured low, "I cannot make this sacrifice; I cannot makean offering of my love to my virtue; for this bugbear of a compulsorymarriage I cannot give up a love which God Himself has inspired in myheart. Then let it be so! Let the world judge and the priests condemnme. I will not sacrifice my love to a prejudice. I know that this issinful, but God will have compassion on the sinner who has no otherhappiness on earth than this only one--a love that controls her wholebeing. And if this sin must be punished, oh, my Maker, I pray you topardon him, and let the punishment fall on me alone!"

  Thus speaking, she raised her arms and directed her eyes toward theheavens in fervent prayer. Suddenly a brilliant light flashed throughthe air--a star had shot from its sphere, and, after a short course, hadbecome extinguished.

  "That bodes misfortune," said Anna, with a shudder, her head sinkingupon her breast.

  At this moment there was a loud knocking at her door, and Prince Ulrich,Anna's husband, earnestly demanded admission.

  Anna hastened to open, asking with surprise the cause of his unusualvisit.

  "Anna," said the prince, hastily entering, "I come to warn you oncemore. Again has a warning letter been mysteriously conveyed to me. Ihave just found it upon my night-table. See for yourself. It imploresus to be on our guard. It informs us that we are threatened with afrightful danger, that Elizabeth conspires, and that we are lost if wedo not instantly take preventive measures."

  Anna read the warning letter, and then smilingly gave it back to herhusband.

  "Always the same old song, the same croaking of the toad," saidshe. "Count Ostermann has taken it into his head that Elizabeth isconspiring, and doubtless all these warning letters come from him. Readthem no more in future, my husband, and now let us retire to rest."

  "And what if it were, nevertheless, true," said the prince,pressingly--"if we are really threatened with a great danger? A wordfrom you can turn it away. Let us, therefore, be careful! Remember yourson, Anna--_his_ life is also threatened! Protect him, mother of theemperor! Allow me, the generalissimo of your forces, to take measuresof precaution! Let me establish patrols, and cause a regiment, for whosefidelity I can be answerable, to guard the entrances of the palace!"

  Anna smilingly shook her head. "No," said she, "nothing of all thatshall be done! Such precautions manifest suspicion, and would woundthe feelings of this good Elizabeth. She is innocent, believe me. Iyesterday sharply observed her, and she came out from the trial pure. Itwould be ignoble to distrust her now. Moreover, she has my princely wordthat I will always listen only to herself, and believe no one but her.In the morning I will go to her and show her this letter, that she mayhave an opportunity to justify herself."

  "You therefore consider her wholly innocent?" asked the prince, with asigh.

  "Yes, perfectly innocent. Her firm demeanor, her asseverations, hertears, have convinced me that it was unjust in us to believe the hatefulrumors that had spread concerning her. Let us therefore retire in peaceand quiet. No danger threatens us from Elizabeth!"

  There was something convincing and tranquillizing in Anna's immovableconviction; the prince felt his inability to oppose her, and was ashamedof his feminine fears in the face of her masculine intrepidity.

  With a sigh he took his leave and returned to his own room. At the doorhe turned once again.

  "Anna," said he, with solemnity, "you have decided upon our destiny,and God grant that it may eventuate happily! But should it be otherwise,should the monstrous and terrible break in upon you, then, at least,remember this hour, in which I warned you, and confess that I am freefrom all blame!"

  Without awaiting an answer, with a drooping head and deep sigh, theprince left the room.

  Anna looked after him with a compassionate smile.

  "Poor prince!" she murmured low, "he is always so timid and trembling;that indicates unhappiness! He loves me, and I cannot force my heartto return the feeling. Poor prince, it must be very sad to love and beunloved!"

  With a sigh she closed the door through which her husband had passed.

  "I will now sleep," said she. "Yes, sleep! Possibly Heaven may send me apleasant dream, and I may see my Lynar! But no, I must first go to Ivan,to ascertain whether his slumber is tranquil."

  With hasty steps she repaired to the adjacent chamber, which was that ofthe young emperor.

  There all was still. Before the door opening upon the corridor she heardthe regular step of the soldier on guard. The waiters upon the emperorwere slumbering upon mattresses around him. It was a picture of profoundtranquillity.

  With light steps Anna approached the cradle of her son, and, bendingdown over him, regarded him with tender maternal glances, while hisstill and peaceful slumber seemed to touch her heart with a sweetemotion.

  "Sleep, my dear child, my charming little emperor," shemurmured--"sleep, and in your dreams may you play with angels asbeautiful as yourself!"

  Bending again over the cradle, she breathed a light kiss upon the rosylips of her child, and then noiselessly returned to her own chamber.

  "And now," said she, drawing a long breath, "now will I, also, sleep anddream! Good-night, my beloved; good-night, Lynar!"

  With a happy smile she reclined upon her couch, and soon slumbered.

  At this moment the clock in the next chamber struck the twelfth hour.Slowly and solemnly resounded the tones of the striking clocks thatannounced the midnight.

  At this same hour a lively movement commenced in the palace of thePrincess Elizabeth. Lights were seen glancing from window to window,hurrying shadows were seen coming and going in the rooms, every thingthere announced an activity unusual for the hour, and certainly it was asignal good fortune for Elizabeth that Anna had forbidden her husband'ssending a patrol through the streets. One single patrol passing thepalace might have frustrated the whole conspiracy!

  But the streets were perfectly quiet; nowhere was a sentinel or watchmanto be seen.

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

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

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

  Elizabeth was pale and had a convulsive twitching about her mouth, herform trembled feverishly, and she was obliged to cling to Razumovsky, toprevent 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 isarrested, 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 notsteps in the corridor? They come this way. They are my pursuers. Theycome 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 herfavorite.

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

  "Princess Elizabeth!" exclaimed Lestocq, with solemnity, "I have comefor 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, andlooking 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!" saidWoronzow.

  "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 hisregiment. We go there first."

  "Then let us go!" said Elizabeth, striding forward. But she stopped onseeing that Alexis followed with the other two.

  "No," said she, "you must not go with us, Alexis. If I am to havecourage to act and speak, I must know that you are not mingled in thestrife--I must not have to tremble for your life! No, no, only whenI know that you are concealed and in safety, can I have courage tostruggle for an imperial crown. Promise me, therefore, Alexis, that youwill quietly remain here until I send a messenger for you!"

  Razumovsky begged and implored in vain--in vain he knelt before her, andcovered her hands with tears and kisses.

  Elizabeth remained inflexible, and, as Alexis yet persisted in hisprayers, she earnestly and proudly said: "Alexis Razumovsky, I commandyou to remain here. You will obey the first command of your empress!"

  "I will remain," sighed Alexis, "and the world will point the finger ofscorn at me, calling me a coward!"

  "And I will compel the world to honor you as a king!" said Elizabeth,with tenderness, beckoning to Lestocq and Woronzow to follow her fromthe room.

  Silently they hastened down the stairs--silently was Elizabeth handedinto her sledge, while Lestocq and Woronzow took their places in thesecond.

  "Forward!" thundered Lestocq's powerful voice, and the train rushedthrough the dark and deserted streets.

  St. Petersburg slept. No one appeared at the darkened windows of thesilent palaces, no one boded that a new empress was passing throughthe streets,--an empress, who at this time had but two subjects in hertrain!

  They had now reached the casern of the Peobrajensky regiment. There theyhalted. In the open door stands Grunstein with his thirty recruits.

  They silently approached the sledge of the princess and prostratedthemselves before her.

  "Hail to our empress!" whispered Grunstein low, and as low was itrepeated by the soldiers.

  "Let us enter the casern, call the soldiers, and awaken the officers;I myself will address them!" said Elizabeth, alighting from her sledge.She was now full of courage and resolution. In the face of danger now nolonger to be avoided, she had suddenly steeled her heart; her father'sspirit was awakened in her.

  With a firm step she entered the casern; the conspirators had alreadyraised an alarm there, and the suddenly aroused soldiers rushed fromall the corridors, with wonder and admiration staring at this nobleand beautiful woman who, radiant in the splendor of her beauty, andsparkling with jewels, stood in their midst.

  "Soldiers," cried Elizabeth, with a firm voice, "I come to implore yoursupport in my attempt to obtain justice in the realm of my father! I amthe daughter of the great Emperor Peter, the rightful heir to the throneof Russia, and I claim what is mine! I will no longer suffer a Germanprincess to give laws to you, my beloved brethren and countrymen! Followme, therefore, and let us drive away these foreign intruders who haveusurped the throne of your lawful sovereign!"

  "All hail, Elizabeth, our empress!" cried the conspirators, prostratingthemselves.

  Surprised, benumbed, and overpowered, the others made no opposition.Miserable slaves, they were accustomed to obey whoever dared assume thecommand over them,--and they therefore submitted. Falling upon theirknees, they took the oath of allegiance to the new empress!

  Elizabeth was now the empress of three hundred soldiers.

  "Up, now, my friends, to the palace of the czar, where these usurpersdwell and inflict upon you the shame of calling a cradled infant youremperor. Come, and let us punish them for this insult, by thrusting themfrom their usurped power!"

  "We will follow our empress in life and death!" cried the soldiers.

  They therefore started again, and once more hastened through the silentstreets until, at length, they reached the imperial palace, where dweltthe Emperor Ivan with his parents.

  Elizabeth, with her confidential partisans in four sledges, had hastenedon in advance of the others. With renewed courage they approached theprincipal entrance of the palace.

  The guard took to their arms, and the drummer was preparing to beat analarm, when a single blow of Lestocq's fist broke through the skin ofthe drum.

  The terrified drummer fell, and over his body passed the band ofconspirators, Elizabeth at their head.

  No one ventured to oppose them; the slaves fell upon their knees inhomage to her who announced herself as their mistress and empress!

  Thus meeting with universal submission and obedience, they approachedthe wing of the palace occupied by the Emperor Ivan and his mother theregent. Here is stationed an officer of the guard. He alone venturesdefiance to the intruders. He meets them with his sword drawn, andswears to strike down the first person who attempts to enter thecorridor.

  "Unhappy man, what is it you dare!" said Lestocq, boldly advancing. "Youare guilty of high-treason. Fall upon your knees and implore pardon ofyour empress, Elizabeth!"

  The officer shrank bank in terror. It was an empress who stood beforehim, and he had dared to defy her!

  Begging forgiveness and mercy, he dropped his sword and fell upon hisknees. The Russian slave was awakened in him, and he bent before the onewho had the power to command.

  Unobstructed, retained by no one, Elizabeth and her followers now strodethrough the corridor leading to the private apartments of the regent.Sentinels were placed at every door, with strict commands to strike downany one who should dare to oppose them.

  In this manner they reached the anteroom of the regent's chamber.

  Elizabeth had not the courage to go any farther. She hesitatinglystopped. A deep shame and repentance came over her when she thought ofthe noble confidence Anna had shown, and which she was now on the pointof repaying with the blackest treason.

  Lestocq, whose sharp, observing glances constantly rested upon her,divined her thoughts and the cause of her irresolution. He privatelywhispered some words to Grunstein, who, with thirty grenadiers,immediately approached the door of Anna's sleeping-room.

  With a single push the door was forced, and with a wild cry the soldiersrushed to the couch upon which Anna Leopoldowna was reposing.

  With a cry of anguish Anna springs up from her slumber, and shudderinglystares at the soldiers by whom she is encompassed, who, with roughvoices, command her to rise and follow them. They scarcely give her timeto put on a robe, and encase her little feet in shoes.

  But Anna has become perfectly calm and self-possessed. She knows she islost, and, too proud to weep or complain, she finds in herself courageto be tranquil.

  "I beg only to be allowed to speak to Elizabeth," said she, aloud. "Iwill do all you command me. I will follow you wherever you wish, onlylet me first see your empress, Elizabeth."

  Elizabeth, leaning against the door-post, had heard these words;yielding to an involuntary impulse of her heart, she pushed open thedoor and appeared upon the threshold
of Anna Leopoldowna's chamber.

  On perceiving her, a faint smile passed over Anna's features.

  "Ah, come you thus to me, Elizabeth?" she said, reproachfully, with aproud glance at the princess.

  Elizabeth could not support that glance. She cast down her eyes, andagain Anna Leopoldowna smiled. She was conquered, but before her,blushing with shame, stood her momentarily subdued conqueror. ButAnna now remembered her son, and, folding her hands, she said, in animploring tone:

  "Elizabeth, kill not my son! Have compassion upon him!"

  Elizabeth turned away with a shudder, she felt her heart rent, she hadnot strength for an answer.

  Lestocq beckoned the soldiers, and commanded them to remove thetraitress, Anna Leopoldowna.

  Thirty warriors took possession of the regent, who calmly and proudlysubmitted herself to them and suffered herself to be led away.

  In the corridor they encountered another troop of soldiers, who wereescorting the regent's husband, Prince Ulrich of Brunswick, and Anna'sfavorite, Julia von Mengden.

  "Anna!" sorrowfully exclaimed the prince, "oh, had you but listened tomy warning! Why did I not, in spite of your commands, what I ought tohave done? I alone am to blame for this sad misfortune."

  "It is no one's fault but mine," calmly responded Anna. "Pardon me, myhusband, pardon me, Julia."

  And so they descended to the sledges in waiting below. They placed theprince in one, and the regent, with Julia, in the other.

  "Ah," said Julia, throwing her arms around Anna's neck, "we shall atleast suffer together."

  Anna reclined her head upon her friend's shoulder.

  "God is just and good," said she. "He punishes me for my criminal love,and mercifully spares the object of my affections. I thank God for mysufferings. Julia, should you one day be liberated and allowed to seehim again, then bear to him my warmest greetings; then tell him that Ishall love him eternally, and that my last sigh shall be a prayer forhis happiness. I shall never see him again. Bear to him my blessing,Julia!"

  Julia dissolved in tears, and, clinging to her friend, she sobbed: "No,no, they will not dare to kill you."

  "Then they will condemn me to a life-long imprisonment," calmlyresponded Anna.

  "No, no, your head is sacred, and so is your freedom. They dare notattack either."

  "Nothing is sacred in Russia," laconically responded Anna.

  The sledges stopped at the palace of the Princess Elizabeth. Hardly twohours had passed since Elizabeth, in those same sledges, had left herpalace as a poor, trembling princess; and now, as reigning empress, shesent them back to the dethroned regent.

  The latter entered the palace of the princess as a prisoner, whileElizabeth, as empress, took possession of the palace of the czars.