There all was still. Before the door opening upon the corridor she heard
the regular step of the soldier on guard. The waiters upon the emperor
were slumbering upon mattresses around him. It was a picture of profound
tranquillity.
With light steps Anna approached the cradle of her son, and, bending
down over him, regarded him with tender maternal glances, while his
still and peaceful slumber seemed to touch her heart with a sweet
emotion.
"Sleep, my dear child, my charming little emperor," she
murmured--"sleep, and in your dreams may you play with angels as
beautiful as yourself!"
Bending again over the cradle, she breathed a light kiss upon the rosy
lips of her child, and then noiselessly returned to her own chamber.
"And now," said she, drawing a long breath, "now will I, also, sleep and
dream! 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 that
announced the midnight.
At this same hour a lively movement commenced in the palace of the
Princess Elizabeth. Lights were seen glancing from window to window,
hurrying shadows were seen coming and going in the rooms, every thing
there announced an activity unusual for the hour, and certainly it was a
signal good fortune for Elizabeth that Anna had forbidden her husband's
sending a patrol through the streets. One single patrol passing the
palace might have frustrated the whole conspiracy!
But the streets were perfectly quiet; nowhere was a sentinel or watchman
to be seen.
The slight creaking and whizzing of a sledge upon the crackling snow was
now heard; it came nearer and nearer, and then there was a knocking
at the palace gate. The porter opened, and two sledges drove into the
court.
The first, with a rich covering and magnificent ornaments, was empty.
But Lestocq was seen to spring out of the second, and hurriedly enter
the palace.
Elizabeth, splendidly dressed, sparkling with brilliants, was waiting
in her small reception-room. No one but Alexis Razumovsky was with her.
Neither of them spoke, and their visages plainly discovered that they
were in a state of painfully uncomfortable suspense.
Elizabeth was pale and had a convulsive twitching about her mouth, her
form trembled feverishly, and she was obliged to cling to Razumovsky, to
prevent 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 is
arrested, 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 not
steps in the corridor? They come this way. They are my pursuers. They
come to conduct me to the scaffold! Save me, Alexis, save me!"