Yes, even princes must die, glorious and lofty as they are, proudly as

they stand over their trembling subjects! Even to them comes the dark

hour in which all the borrowed and artistically-combined tinsel of their

lives falls from them; a dark hour, in which they tremble and repent,

and pray to God for what they seldom granted to their fellow-men--mercy!

Mercy for those false tales which they have imposed upon the people,

for those false tales of the higher endowments of princes, of inherited

wisdom which raises them above the rest of mankind--mercy for their

arbitrariness, their pride, and their insolence--mercy for a poor

beggar, who, until then, had called himself a rich and powerful prince.

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And this hour came for Elizabeth. After twenty years of splendor, of

absolute, unlimited power, of infallibility, of likeness to the gods,

came the depressing hour in which Elizabeth ceased to be an empress, and

became only a trembling earth-worm, imploring mercy, aid, amelioration

of her sufferings from her Creator!

She suffered much, this poor empress, dethroned by death; she suffered,

although reposing upon silken cushions, with a gold-embroidered covering

for her shaking limbs.

And she was yet so young, hardly fifty, and she loved life so intensely!

Oh, she would have given half of her empire for a few more years of life

and enjoyment. But what cares Death for the wishes of an empress?

Here ends her earthly supremacy! Groaning and writhing, the earth-worm

tremblingly submits.

Where, now, were all her favorites--those high lords of the court, those

grand noblemen, created from soldiers, grooms, lackeys, and serfs--where

were they now? Why stood they not around the death-bed of their empress?

Why were they not there, that the remembrance of the benefits conferred

upon them might drive away those terrible reminiscences of the torments

she had inflicted upon others? Where were they, her counts, barons,

field-marshals, and privy councillors, whom she had raised from nothing

to the first positions in the realm?

None were with her! They had all hastened thence for the preservation

of their ill-gotten wealth, to crawl in the dust before Peter, to be the

first to pay him homage, that he might pardon their greatness and their

possessions! From the death-bed they had fled to Peter, and kneeling

before him, they praised God for at length bestowing upon the happy

realm the noblest and best ruler, Peter III.!

But where were Elizabeth's more particular friends, who had made her an

empress?

Where was Lestocq?

Him the empress had banished to Siberia. Yielding to the prayers and

calumnies of his enemies, which she was too weak to withstand, she had

given him up; she had sacrificed him to procure peace and quiet for

herself, and in the same hour in which she had tenderly pressed

his hand, and called him her friend, had she signed his sentence of

banishment! Lestocq had for nine years languished in Siberia.




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