She received the staggering Petrovitch with a gracious smile, she
praised the dauntlessness with which he had guided her sledge in that
eventful night, and in gratitude for his good conduct she raised him, as
she had the grenadiers, to the rank of a nobleman by naming him a baron
of the Russian empire.
Petrovitch listened to her with a stupid laugh; and when the magnates
crowded around him, offering their hands and assuring him of their
friendship, he tremblingly and with effort stammered some unmeaning
words, and falling upon his knees, he bowed his head in the dust before
these great and powerful magnates, humbly kissing the hems of their
garments, not suspecting that he was their equal in rank.
And constantly more brilliant and beautiful beamed the imperial grace.
None of Elizabeth's faithful friends and servants were forgotten, for
she possessed a virtue rare among princes--she was grateful.
She named Lestocq her first physician, president of the medical
college, and member of her privy council. She made Grunstein an imperial
aide-de-camp, with the rank of brigadier-general; and Woronzow a count
and her first chamberlain.
Then, at last, she repeated the name of her friend Alexis Razumovsky.
Her fair brow lighted up as with a reflected sunbeam on his approaching
her throne, and, holding out to him both hands, she said aloud: "Alexis
Razumovsky, I have you most to thank for my success in dispossessing
the usurpers who have robbed me of my father's throne; for your wise
counsels gave me courage and force: be then, henceforth, next to my
throne, my chamberlain, Count Razumovsky!"
Bending a knee before her, Alexis gratefully kissed her beloved hand,
and the counts and gentlemen surrounded him, loudly praising the great
wisdom of the empress, whose divine penetration enabled her everywhere
to discover and reward true service!
"Ah," sighed Elizabeth, when, on the evening of this glorious day, she
was again alone with her confidential friends, "ah, my friends, I have
now complied with your wishes and allowed you to make an empress of me!
But forget not, Lestocq, that I have become empress only on condition
that I am not to be troubled with business and state affairs. This has
been a day of great exertion and fatigue, and I hope you will henceforth
leave me in repose. I have done what you wished, I am empress, and have
rewarded you for your aid, but now I also demand my reward, and that is
undisturbed peace! Once for all, in my private apartments no one is to
speak of state affairs, here I will have repose; you can carry on the
government through your bureaux and chancelleries; I will have
nothing to do with it! Here we will be gay and enjoy life. Come here, my
Alexis,--come here and tell me if this imperial crown is becoming, and
whether you found me fair in my ermine-trimmed purple mantle?"