“I shall request her to do so,” proudly replied Orloff, “and I think my request will be a command to her.”
And the proud count was not mistaken. His request was a command for her. He told her she must leave Rome because she was no longer in safety there, and Princess Natalie believed him.
“We will go to Leghorn, and there await the arrival of the Russian fleet,” said he. “When that fleet shall have safely arrived, then our ends will be attained, then we shall have conquered, for then it will be evident that the empress has conceived no suspicion; and I am the commander of that fleet, which is wholly manned with conspirators who all await you as their empress. Will you follow me to Leghorn, Natalie?”
She clung with tender submissiveness to his bosom.
“I will follow you everywhere,” murmured she, “and any place to which you conduct me will be a paradise for me!”
THE RUSSIAN FLEET
Unsuspectingly had she followed Orloff to Leghorn; full of devoted tenderness, full of glowing love, she was only anxious to fulfil all his wishes and to constantly afford him new proofs of her affection.
And how? Did he not deserve that love? Was he not constantly paying her the most delicate attentions? Was he not always as humbly submissive as he was tender? Did it not seem as if the lion was subdued, that the Hercules was tamed, by his tender Omphale, whom he adored, at whose feet he lay for the purpose of looking into her eyes, to read in them her most secret thoughts and wishes?
She was not only his wife, she was also his empress. Such he called her, as such he respected her, and surrounded her with more than imperial splendor.