“Will you then immediately give me a recipe for my eyes?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Well, listen, then.”

And the princess repeated, word for word, to the breathless Lestocq, her conversation with Anna Leopoldowna.  Lestocq listened to her with most intense interest, taking a piece of paper from the table and mechanically writing some unmeaning lines upon it with an appearance of heedlessness.  Perhaps it was this mechanical occupation that enabled him to remain so calm and circumspect.  During the narration of the princess his features again assumed their expression of firmness and determination; his eyes again flashed, and around his mouth played a saucy, scornful smile, such as was usually seen there when, conscious of his superiority, he had formed a bold resolution.

“This good regent has executed a stroke of policy for which Ostermann will never forgive her,” said he, after the princess had finished her narration.  “She should have kept silence and appeared unconstrained—­then we should have been lost; but now it is she.”

“No,” exclaimed the princess, with generous emotion, “the regent has chosen precisely the best means for disarming us!  She has manifested a noble confidence in me, she has discredited the whisperings of her minister and counsellors, and instead of destroying me, as she should have done, she has warned me with the kindness and affection of a sister.  I shall never forget that, Lestocq; I shall ever be grateful for that!  Henceforth the Regent or Empress Anna Leopoldowna shall have no truer or more obedient subject than I, the Princess Elizabeth!”

“By this you would not say, princess—­”

“By this I mean to say,” interposed Elizabeth, “that this conspiracy is brought to a bloodless conclusion, and that, from this hour, there is but one woman in this great Russian realm who has any claim to the title of empress, and that woman is the Regent Anna Leopoldowna!”

“You will therefore renounce your sacred and well-grounded claims to the imperial throne?” asked Lestocq, continuing his scribbling.

“Yes, that will I,” responded Elizabeth.  “I will no longer be plagued with your plans and machinations—­I will have repose.  In the interior of my palace I will be empress; there will I establish a realm, a realm of peace and enjoyable happiness; there will I erect the temple of love, and consecrate myself as its priestess!  No, speak no more of revolutions and conspiracies.  I am not made to sit upon a throne as the feared and thundering goddess of cowardly slaves, causing millions to tremble at every word and glance!  I will not be empress, not the bugbear of a quaking, kneeling people, I will be a woman, who has nothing to do with the business and drudgery of men; I will not be plagued with labor and care, but will enjoy and rejoice in my existence!”

“For that you will be allowed no time!” said Lestocq, with solemnity.  “When you give up your plans and renounce your rights, then, princess, it will be all over with the days of enjoyment and happiness.  It will then no longer be permitted you to convert your palace into a temple of pleasure, and thenceforth you will be known only as the priestess of misfortune and misery!”