by L. Mühlbach
PUNISHMENT
"Punish them all, all!" had Elizabeth said, "but the regent, herhusband, and her son--them you will permit to return to Germany!"
"We must accomplish the will of the empress, and therefore let them go!"
"We will obey her commands," said Lestocq to Alexis Razumovsky. "Wemust let them go free, but it would be dangerous to let them ever reachGermany. With their persons they would preserve their rights and theirclaims, and Elizabeth would always stand in fear of this regent and thisyoung growing emperor, whose claims to the imperial Russian crown areincontestable. You alone, Razumovsky, can turn away this danger from thehead of the empress, by convincing her of its reality, and inducing herto change her mind. Reflect that the safety of the empress is our own;reflect that, as we have risen with her, so shall we fall with her!"
"Rely upon me," said Alexis, with a confident smile; "this regent andher young Emperor Ivan shall never pass the Russian boundary! Let themnow go, but send a strong guard with them, and travel by slow marches,that our couriers may be able to overtake them at a later period. Thatis all you have to do in the case."
And, humming a sentimental song, Alexis repaired to the apartments ofthe empress.
Before the back door of the palace Elizabeth had occupied as princess, atravelling-sledge was waiting. Gayly sounded and clattered the bells onthe six small horses attached to the sledge; gayly did the postilionsblow their horns, and with enticing calls resounded the thundering_fanfares_ through the cold winter air.
To those for whom this sledge was destined, this call sounded like agreeting from heaven. It was to them the dove with the olive-branch,announcing to them the end of their torments; it was the messenger ofpeace, which gave them back their freedom, their lives, and perhapseven happiness. They were to return to Germany, their long-missed home;hastening through the Russian snow-fields, they would soon reach asofter climate, where they would be surrounded by milder manners andcustoms. What was it to Anna that she was to be deprived of earthlyelevation and power--what cared she that she henceforth would no morehave the pleasure of commanding others? She was free, free from the taskof ruling slaves and humanizing barbarians; free from the constraintof greatness, and, finally free to live in conformity with her owninclinations, and perhaps, ah, perhaps, to found a happiness, the baredreaming of which already caused her heart to tremble with unspeakableecstasy.
Again and again the _fanfares_ resounded without. Anna, weeping, toreherself from the arms of Julia. She had in vain implored the favor oftaking Julia von Mengden with her. Elizabeth had refused it, and, inthis refusal, she had pronounced the sentence of the favorite--this wasunderstood by both Julia and Anna.
They held each other in a last embrace. Anna wept hot tears, but Juliaremained calm, and even smiled.
"They may send me to Siberia, if they please, my heart will remain warmunder the coldness of the Siberian climate, and this great happiness ofknowing that you and yours are saved they cannot rend from me; that willbe for me a talisman against all misfortunes!"
"But I," sadly responded Anna--"shall I not always be tortured by thereflection that it is I who have been the cause of your misfortunes? Areyou not condemned because you loved and were true to me? Ah, does love,then, deserve so hard a punishment?"
"The punishment passes, but love remains," calmly responded Julia. "Thatwill always be my consolation."
"And mine also," sighed Anna.
"You will not need it," said Julia, with a smile. "You, at least, willbe happy."
Anna sighed again, and her cheek paled. A dark and terrible image arosein her soul, and she shudderingly whispered:
"Ah, would that we were once beyond the Russian boundary, for then,first, shall we be free."
"Then let us hasten our journey," said Prince Ulrich; "once in thesledge, and every minute brings us nearer to freedom and happiness. Onlyhear how the horns are calling us, Anna--they call us to Germany! Come,take your son, wrap him close in your furred mantle, and let us hastenaway--away from here!" The prince laid little Ivan in the arms of hiswife, and drew her away with him.
"Farewell, farewell, my Julia!" cried Anna, as she took he seat in thesledge.
"Farewell!" was echoed as a low spirit-breath from the palace.
Shuddering, Anna pressed her child to her bosom, and cast an anxiouslyinterrogating glance at her husband, who was sitting by her.
"Be calm, tranquillize yourself--it will all be well," said the latter,with a smile.
The postilion blew his horn--the horses started; gayly resounded thetones of the silver bells; with a light whizzing, away flew the sledgeover the snow. It bore thence a dethroned emperor and his overthrownfamily!
Rapidly did this richly-laden sledge pass through the streets, but,following it, was a troop of armed, grim-looking soldiers, likeunwholesome ravens following their certain booty.
At about the same hour, another armed troop passed through the streetsof St. Petersburg. With drawn swords they surrounded two closely-coveredsledges, the mysterious occupants of which no one was allowed to descry!The train made a halt at the same gate through which the overthrownimperial family had just passed. The soldiers surrounded the sledgesin close ranks; no one was allowed a glimpse at those who alighted fromthem.
But these extra precautions of the soldiery were unnecessary, as nobodywished to see the unfortunate objects. Every one timidly glanced aside,that they might not, by looking at the poor creatures, bring themselvesinto suspicion of favoring men suffering under the displeasure of thegovernment. But though they looked not at them, every one knew who theywere; though they dared not speak to each other, every one tremblinglysaid to himself: "There go Munnich and Ostermann to their trials!"
Munnich and Ostermann, the faithful servants of Peter theGreat--Munnich, whom Prince Eugene called "his beloved pupil;"Ostermann, of whom the dying Czar Peter said he had never caught him ina fault; that he was the only honest statesman in Russia--Munnich andOstermann, those two great statesmen to whom Russia was chiefly indebtedfor what civilization and cultivation she had acquired, were now accusedof high-treason, and sent for trial before a commission commanded tofind them guilty and to punish them. They were to be put out of the waybecause they were feared, and to be feared was held as a crime deservingdeath!
Firm and outrageous stood they before their judges. In this hour oldOstermann had shaken off his illness and thrown away the shield of hisphysical sufferings! He would not intrench himself behind his age andhis sickness; he would be a man, and boldly offer his unprotected breastto the murderous weapons of his enemies!
For, that he was lost he knew! A single glance at his judges madehim certain of it, and from this moment his features wore a calm andcontemptuous smile, an unchangeable expression of scorn. With an ironiccuriosity he followed his judges through the labyrinth of artfullycontrived captious questions by which they hoped to entangle him;occasionally he gave himself, as it were for his own amusement, theappearance of voluntarily being caught in their nets, until he finallyby a side spring tore their whole web to pieces and laughingly deridedhis judges for not being able to convict him!
He was accused of having, by his cabals alone, after the death ofCatharine, effected the elevation to the throne of Anna, Duchess ofCourland. And yet they very well knew that precisely at that timeOstermann had for weeks pretended to be suffering from illness, forthe very purpose of avoiding any intermingling with state affairs. Theyaccused him of having suppressed the testament of Catharine, and yetthat testament had been published in all the official journals of thetime!
Ostermann laughed loud at all of these childish accusations.
"Ah," said he, "should I be sitting in your places, and you all, thoughinnocent, should be standing accused before me, my word for it, I wouldso involve you in questions and answers that you would be compelledto confess your guilt! But you do not understand questioning, and oldOstermann is a sly fox that does not allow himself to be easily caught!The best way will be for you to declare me guilty
, though I am nocriminal; for as your empress has commanded that I should be foundguilty, it would certainly be in me a crime worthy of death not to beguilty."
"You dare to deride our empress!" cried one of the judges.
"Aha!" said Ostermann, laughing, "I have there thrown you a bait, andyou, good judicial fishes, bite directly! That is very well, you are nowin a good way! Only go on, and I will help you to find me guilty, ifit be only of simple high-treason. It will then be left to the mercy ofyour empress to declare me convicted of threefold high-treason! Go on,go on!"
But Munnich showed himself less unruffled and sarcastic in the face ofhis judges. These never-ending questions, this ceaseless teasing abouttrifles, exhausted his patience at last. He wearied of continuallyturning aside these laughably trivial accusations, of convincing hisjudges of his innocence, and making them ashamed of the nature of theproofs adduced.
"Let it suffice," said he, at length to his judges; "after hours of vainlabor, you see that in this way you will never attain your end. I willpropose to you a better and safer course. Write down your questions, andappend to each the answer you desire me to give; I will then sign thewhole protocol and declare it correct."
"Are you in earnest?" joyfully asked the judges.
"Quite in earnest!" proudly answered Munnich.
They were shameless enough to accept his offer; they troubled him withno more questions, but wrote in the protocol such answers as wouldbest suit the purpose of his judges. In these answers Munnich declaredhimself guilty of all the crimes laid to his charge, acknowledgedhimself to be a traitor, and deserving death.
When they had finished their artistic labor, they handed to Munnich thepen for his signature.
He calmly took the pen, and, while affixing his signature, said with acontemptuous smile: "Was I not right? In this way it is rendered mucheasier for you to make of me a very respectable criminal, and I haveonly the trouble of writing my name! I thank you, gentlemen, for thisindulgence."
Quick and decisive as were the hearings, now followed the sentences.Ostermann was condemned to be broken on the wheel, Munnich to bequartered, and the two ministers, Lowenwald and Golopkin, to the axe!
But Elizabeth had promised her people that no one should be punishedwith death; she must abide by that promise, and she did. She commutedthe punishment of the condemned, as also of Julia von Mengden, intobanishment to Siberia for life. What a grace! and even this grace wasfirst communicated to Ostermann after his old limbs had been bound tothe wheel and his executioners were on the point of crushing him!
But even in this extreme moment Count Ostermann's calm heroism did notforsake him.
"I was convinced that such would be the result!" he calmly said, quietlystretching his released limbs; "this Empress Elizabeth has not thecourage to break her oath by chopping off a few heads! It is a pity. Onthe wheel it might have become a little warm for me, but in Siberia itwill be fearfully cold."
From the windows of her palace Elizabeth had witnessed the preparationsfor this pretended execution; and as she knew that at last theirpunishment would be commuted, she was amused to see the solemnearnestness and the death-shudder of the condemned. It was a veryentertaining hour that she and her friends passed at that window, andthe comical face of old Ostermann, the proud gravity of Count Munnich,the folded hands and heaven-directed glances of Golopkin and Lowenwald,had often made her laugh until the tears ran down her cheeks.
"That was a magnificent comedy!" said she, retreating from the windowwhen the condemned were released from their bands and raised into thevehicles that were immediately to start with them for Siberia. "Yes, itwas, indeed, very amusing! But tell me, Lestocq, where are they about totake old Count Ostermann?"
"To the most northerly part of Siberia!" calmly replied Lestocq.
"Poor old man!" signed Elizabeth; "it must be very sad for him thus topass his last years in suffering and deprivation."
Lestocq seemed not to have heard her remark, and laughingly continued:"To Munnich I have thought to apply a jest of his own."
"Ah, a jest!" cried Elizabeth, suddenly brightening up. "Let me hear it.You know I love a jest, it is so amusing! Quick, therefore, let us hearit!"
"Perhaps your majesty may remember Biron, Duke of Courland," saidLestocq. "Count Munnich, as you know, overthrew him, and placed AnnaLeopoldowna in the regency. Biron has ever since lived at Pelym inSiberia, and, indeed, in a house of which Munnich himself drew theplan, the rooms of which are so low that poor Biron, who is as tall asMunnich, could never stand erect in them. The good Munnich, he was verydevoted to the duke, and hence in pure friendship invented this means ofreminding him, every hour in the day, of the architect of his house, hisfriend Munnich!"
"Ah, you promised us a jest, and you are there repeating an old andwell-known story!" interposed the empress, yawning.
"Now comes the joke!" continued Lestocq. "We have transferred Biron toanother colony, and Herr Munnich will occupy the poetical pleasure-houseof his friend Biron at Pelym."
"Ah, that is delightful, in fact!" cried Elizabeth, clapping her littlehands. "How will Munnich curse himself for cruelty which now comes hometo himself! That is very witty in you, Herr Lestocq; very laughable, isit not, Alexis? But, Alexis, you do not laugh at all; you look sad. Whatis the matter with you? Who has disobliged, who has wounded you?"
Alexis sighed. "You yourself!" he said, in a low tone.
"I?" exclaimed the astonished empress. "I could not be so inhuman!"
"No, only to wound me by refusing the first request I addressed to you!"
"Name your request once more, I have forgotten it!" said Elizabeth withvehemence.
Alexis Razumovsky fell upon his knees before her, and, imploringlyraising his hands, said:
"Elizabeth, my empress, have compassion for my care and anxiety on youraccount; leave me not to tremble for your safety! Grant me the happinessof seeing you unthreatened and free from danger in your greatnessand splendor! Oh, Elizabeth, listen to the prayer of your faithfulservant--let not this Anna Leopoldowna pass the boundary of yourrealm--let not your most deadly enemy escape!"
"Oh, grant his prayer," cried Lestocq, kneeling beside Alexis; "thereis wisdom in his words; listen to him rather than to the too greatgenerosity of your own heart! Let not your enemies escape, but seizethem while they are yet in your power!"
"Elizabeth, greatest and fairest woman on earth," implored Alexis, "havecompassion for my anxiety; I shall never laugh again, never be cheerful,if you allow these your most dangerous enemies to withdraw themselvesfrom your power!"
Elizabeth bent down to him with a smile of tenderness, and laid her lefthand upon his locks, while with her right she gently raised his head toherself.
"Love you me, then, so very much, my Alexis," she asked, "that yousuffer with anxiety for my safety? Ah, that makes me happy--that fillsmy whole heart with joy! Only look at him, Lestocq; see how beautifulhe is, and then say whether one can refuse the prayer of those heavenlyeyes, those pleading lips?"
"You will, then, grant my prayer?" exultingly asked Alexis.
"Well, yes," tenderly responded she, "since there is no other means ofrendering you again cheerful and happy, I must, indeed, consent to thefulfilment of your wishes, and not let my enemies quit the country if itbe yet possible to retain them."
"They have proceeded by slow marches, and can hardly now have arrivedin Riga, where they are to rest several days," said Lestocq. "Therewill consequently be time for a courier yet to reach them with yourcounter-order."
"And he must be dispatched immediately!" said Alexis, pressing the handof the empress to his lips. "In this hour will my kind and graciousempress sign the command for the arrest of Anna Leopoldowna, herhusband, and her son!"
"Already another signature!" sighed Elizabeth. "How you annoy me withthis eternal signing and countersigning! Will it, then, never have anend? I already begin to hate my name, because of being compelled sooften 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 wouldnow relieve me of half my labor!"
But in spite of her lamentings, Elizabeth nevertheless, a quarter of anhour later, subscribed the order to arrest the regent, her husband, andson, and shut them up, preliminarily, in the citadel of Riga.
"So now I hope you will again be happy and cheerful," said she, throwingaway the pen, and with a tender glance at Razumovsky. "Come, lookat me--I have done all you wished; let us now be gay and take ourpleasure."
And while Elizabeth was jesting and laughing with Alexis, Lestocq,taking the newly-signed order, hurried away to dispatch his courier.
At length they had reached the borders of this feared, perniciousRussian empire. They now needed no longer to tremble, no longer to fearat the slightest sound. Only a short quarter of an hour and the boundarywill be passed and liberty secured!
They had made a halt at a small public house near the boundary. Thehorses were to be changed there, and there the soldiers of the escortwere to get their last taste of Russian brandy before crossing theborder.
Anna and her husband have remained in the sledge. She holds her son inher arms, she presses him to her bosom, full of exulting maternal joy:for he is now saved, this poor little emperor; Anna has now no longer tofear that her son will be torn from her--he is saved--he belongs to her;she can rejoice in his childish beauty, in the happy consciousness ofsafety.
She has thrown back the curtains of the sledge. She felt no cold. Withjoy-beaming eyes she looked forward to that blessed land beyond theboundary! There, where upon its tall staff the Russian flag floated highin the air, there freedom and happiness were to begin for her--therewill she find again her youth and her maiden dreams, her cheerfulnessand her pleasure--there is freedom--golden, heavenly freedom!
She is so happy at this moment that she loves all and every one. For thefirst time she feels a sort of tenderness for her husband, who patientlybearing all in silence, had complained and wept only for her. Gentlyshe reclined her head upon his shoulder, and with a cry of ecstasy theprince encircled her neck with his arms.
"Oh, my husband," she whispered, with overflowing eyes, "look there,over there! There is our future, there will we seek for happiness.Perhaps we may unitedly find it in the same path, for we have here asweet bond to hold our hands together. Look at him, your son. Ulrich,you are the father of my child! Grant my heart only a little repose, andperhaps we may yet be happy with each other."
Prince Ulrich's eyes were suffused with tears; he experienced a momentof the purest happiness. He impressed a kiss upon the brow of his wife,and in a low tone called her by the tenderest names.
The child awoke and smilingly looked up from Anna's bosom to both of hisparents. Anna lifted up the little Ivan.
"Look there, my son," said she--"there you will no longer be an emperor,but you will have the right to be a free and happy man. No crown awaitsyou there, but freedom, worth more than all the crowns in the world."
Little Ivan exultingly stretched forth his tiny arms, as if he woulddraw down to his childish heart this future and this freedom so highlylauded by his mother.
And, like the child, the parents looked smilingly out upon the broadexpanse that stretched away before them.
Look only forward, constantly forward, where the skies are clear, anddream of happiness! Look forward--no, turn not backward your glance, forthe horizon darkens in your rear; misfortune is closely following uponyour track! You see it not, you only look forward and still you smile.
It draws nearer and nearer, this black cloud of evil. It is the ravens,the booty-scenting ravens who are following you!
Look forward, dream yourselves happy, and smile yet. What would it helpyou to look back! You cannot escape the calamity.
Nearer and nearer, with a wild cry, rush these ravens of misfortune; theair already bears detached sounds to Anna's ears.
She trembles. It is as if her boding soul scented the approaching evil.Pressing her child closer to her bosom, she gives her husband her hand.
The horses are attached to the sledge, and the soldiers leave thepublic house. All is ready for the train to go on over the boundary. Thepostilions draw the rein! Now a wild cry of "Halt! halt!"
The soldiers bear up, the postilions halt!
"Forward! forward!" shrieks Prince Ulrich, in mortal anguish.
"Halt! in the name of the empress!" cried an officer who came rushingpast upon a foaming steed, and he handed to the commander of the escortan open writing, furnished with the imperial seal.
The commander turned to the postilions.
"To the right about, toward Riga!" ordered he, and then, turning to thetrembling princely pair, he said: "In the name of the empress, you aremy prisoners! I am directed to conduct you to the citadel of Riga!"
With a loud groan, Anna sinks into the arms of her husband. He consolesher with the most soothing and affectionate words; he has thought,sorrow, only for her--he feels not for himself, but only for her.
For a moment Anna was overpowered by this unexpected horror; then shecalmly rose erect, and pressed her son more closely to her bosom.
"We are all lost," whispered she, "prisoners forever! Poor child--poor,unhappy husband!"
"Despair not," said Prince Ulrich, "all may yet turn out well! Who knowshow soon aid may reach us!"
Anna lightly shook her head, and thinking of the last words of herfriend, she murmured low: "Punishment passes, but love remains!"
