“Oh, they were very gay at the yesterday’s dinner of the conspirators,” said Lestocq.  “The husband of Countess Lapuschkin even ventured to drink the health of the Emperor Ivan, and to his speedy liberation!”

“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!