"But that is high-treason!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "Ah, I had cause to
tremble and eternally to stand in fear of my murderers! I already see
them lurking around me, encircling me on all sides, to destroy me!
Lestocq, save me from my murderers!"
And with a cry of anguish the empress clung convulsively to the arm of
her physician.
"The incautiousness of these conspirators has already saved you,
empress," said Lestocq. "They have delivered themselves into our hand,
they have made us masters of the situation. What would you more? You
will punish the traitors; that is all!"
"And I cannot kill them!" shrieked Elizabeth, with closed fists. "I have
tied my own hands in my unwise generosity! Ah, they call me an empress,
and yet I cannot destroy those I hate!"
"And who denies you that right?" asked Lestocq. "Destroy their bodies,
but kill them not! Wherefore have we the knout, if it cannot flay the
back of a beauty?"
"Yes, wherefore have we the knout?" exclaimed Elizabeth, with a joyous
laugh. "Ah, Lestocq, you are an exquisite man, you always give good
advice. Ah, this beautiful Countess Eleonore shall be made acquainted
with the knout!"
"You have a double right for it," said Lestocq, "for she has dared to
speak of your majesty in unseemly language!"
"Has she done that?" cried Elizabeth. "Ah, I almost love her for it,
as that gives me the right to chastise her. Lestocq, what punishment is
prescribed for a subject who dares revile his empress? You must know
it, you are familiar with the laws! Therefore tell me quickly, what
punishment?"
"It is written," said Lestocq, after a moment's reflection, "that any
one who dares so misuse his tongue as to revile the sublime majesty of
his emperor or empress with irreverent language, such criminal shall
have the instrument of his crime, his tongue, torn out by the roots!"
"And this time I will exercise no mercy!" triumphantly exclaimed
Elizabeth.
She kept her word--she exercised no mercy! Count Lapuschkin, with his
fair wife, the wife of Bestuscheff, the Chamberlain Lilienfeld, and some
others, were accused of high-treason and brought before the tribunal.
It was not difficult to convict the countess of the crime charged;
incautiously enough had she often expressed her attachment to the
cause of the imprisoned Emperor Ivan, and her contempt for the
Empress Elizabeth. And in what country is it not a crime to speak
disrespectfully of the prince, though he be a criminal and one of the
lowest of men?
She was therefore declared guilty; she was sentenced to be scourged
with the knout, to have her tongue torn out, and to be transported to
Siberia!
Elizabeth did not pardon her. She was a princess--how, then, could she
pardon one who had dared to revile her? Every crime is easier to pardon
than that of high-treason; for every other there may be extenuating
circumstances--for that, never; it is a capital crime which a prince
never pardons; how then, could Elizabeth have done so?--Elizabeth,
Empress by the grace of God, as all are princes and kings by the grace
of God!