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"Punish them all, all!" had Elizabeth said, "but the regent, her husband, 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. "We must let them go free, but it would be dangerous to let them ever reach Germany.
"That is a punishment for which angels might be grateful!" responded Alexis Razumovsky, kneeling to the princess and pressing her hand to his burning lips. "Ah, that I might oftener incur such punishment!" "Do you then prefer punishment to reward?" asked Elizabeth, tenderly bending down to him and looking deep into his eyes. "She loves him!" whispered Grunstein to the chamberlain Woronzow.
Alexis Razumovsky stood by her bedside, weeping. Overcome, as it seemed, by his sorrow, another left the death-chamber of the empress, and rushed to his horse, standing ready in the court below! This other was Count Rasczinsky, the confidant of the empress. The bells rang in St. Petersburg, the cannon roared; there were both joy and sorrow in what the bells and cannon announced!
Razumovsky begged and implored in vain in vain he knelt before her, and covered her hands with tears and kisses. Elizabeth remained inflexible, and, as Alexis yet persisted in his prayers, she earnestly and proudly said: "Alexis Razumovsky, I command you to remain here. You will obey the first command of your empress!"
The great returned to their palaces, and also Alexis Razumovsky, who, that he might not excite the anger of the empress, had likewise attended the execution, returned to the imperial palace. Elizabeth was standing before a large Venetian mirror, scrutinizing a toilet which she had to-day changed for the fourth time. "Well," she asked of Alexis, as he entered, "was it an interesting spectacle?
He gently encircled her delicate form with his arm, and, inclining his mouth so close to her ear that she felt his hot breath upon her cheek, whispered: "Will Natalie love her Alexis as Elizabeth loved Alexis Razumovsky? Ah, you know not how boundlessly, how immeasurably I love you! Yes, immeasurably, Natalie. You are my happiness, my life, my future.
Alexis Razumovsky, who still knelt at her feet, uttered loud lamentations, in which Woronzow and Grunstein soon joined. With calm triumph Lestocq observed the effect produced by his words. "What are you saying there?" at length Elizabeth breathlessly asked. "I say that on the 18th of December the Princess Elizabeth is to be married to Prince Louis of Brunswick, who has already come to St.
"Alexis!" called the princess, as Razumovsky was about to withdraw with the others "Alexis, you will remain awhile. While my women are undressing me, you shall sing me to sleep with that charming slumber-song you sing so splendidly!" Alexis smiled and remained.
A longer view of this triumph of the countess became insufferable; alleging a sudden attack of illness, she immediately took leave of the regent, and ordered her carriage. Tears of anger and love stood in her eyes as Razumovsky approached to aid her in entering it. Hurling away his hand, she entered the carriage without assistance.
Count Alexei Grigorevitch Razumovsky was the Empress Elizabeth's husband, the uneducated but handsome son of a plain Kazak from Little Russia, who attracted the attention of Elizaveta Petrovna as his sweet voice rang out in the imperial choir, at mass, in her palace church.
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