“Oh, this adored saint has, then, a lover!” exclaimed the empress. “And I believed her spotless as a lily, so pure that I felt abashed in her presence!”
“You have banished her lover to Siberia, the lover of Eleonore, Count Lowenwald. You may believe that that has caused her a mortal grief.”
“Ah,” joyfully exclaimed Elizabeth, “I have, therefore, unknowingly caused her tears to flow! But I will yet do it with a perfect consciousness! Relate to me in detail exactly what you know of this conspiracy!”
And Lestocq related that Eleonore Lapuschkin, in connection with her husband, the chamberlain Lilienfeld, and Madame Bestuscheff, who was the sister of the condemned Golopkin, had entered into a conspiracy for the overthrow of Elizabeth and the placing of Ivan upon the throne, and thus releasing the prisoners banished to Siberia.
“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?”