"Your majesty's true and devoted sister,
"MARIA THERESA." [Footnote: This letter of the empress is yet in the archives of St. Petersburg. Coxe, who copies it word for word, saw it there himself. See Coxe's "History of the House of Austria," vol. iv., page 592.]
As she read these words, the cheeks of the empress crimsoned with shame, and, burying her face in her hands, she sobbed aloud. When the paroxysm of her grief was over, her face was very pale and her eyes dim and swollen. "I must complete the humiliation," thought she; then folding the letter, it was directed "To Her Majesty the Empress of Russia."
She took up a tiny gold bell, and ringing it so that it gave out but a few strokes, a portiere was raised, and Koch entered the room.
"Take a copy of this letter, and send a courier with it to St. Petersburg. I have at last yielded to the wishes of my counsellors, and have written to the Empress of Russia. Peace, Koch—not a word!—my heart is not yet strong enough to bear the grief and shame of this hour."
The private secretary had scarcely left the room, when the page reentered, announcing Counsellor von Schrotter.
"Ah," said the empress, "he comes at the right moment. I am just in the mood to castigate those who have displeased me."
CHAPTER CXXIX.
THE GRATITUDE OF PRINCES.
The message of the empress had been received by Counsellor von Schrotter with rapture. His heart throbbed so joyfully that its every beat sent the quick blood bounding through his veins. The hour for acknowledgment of his long-tried services had arrived. For years he had lived a life of labor, research, and patient investigation. Among the deeds, parchments, and dusty green tables of the chancery, his youth had faded to middle age, and of its early hopes had retained but one single earthly ambition: it was that of taking a place among learned men, and becoming an authority of some weight in the judicial world. His pamphlets on the Bavarian succession had lifted him to fame, and now among his countrymen his name was beginning to be quoted as that of a great and accomplished jurist. Nothing was needed to complete the measure of his simple joys, save the approbation of the court, and some acknowledgment on the part of his sovereign of the fidelity with which he had labored for so many years in her behalf.