“But that we may arrange, matters may be mended,” continued Ekaterina. “You might go to Petersburg, see the captive. To celebrate the peace, you have returned to her as her bridegroom.”
Orloff knit his brows, bent one knee to the ground, kissed the hand that was held out to him, and silently left the room. At the door, he regained his self-composure.
“Well! what! the empress! What did she say?” asked the courtiers.
“I have been honoured with a special invitation to the fêtes,” answered the count, “and now I am going to Petersburg to arrange my brother’s affairs.”
Count Orloff tried to seem very elated, very proud.… He understood that it was better for him to make haste. It was clear that the empress was not joking. Under pretence of an interview with his brother, he hastened the preparations for his journey, and was soon on his way to Petersburg.
CHAPTER XXI.
ORLOFF AND THE PRINCESS.
Worn out with her long sea voyage and imprisonment, the captive dragged on a miserable existence in the fortress. An acute fever, a sharp cough, accompanied by frequent hemorrhage, had developed into rapid consumption.