She burst into a loud laugh; astonished and half angry, the kneeling men
looked up to her, and that only increased her hilarity.
"Ah, this is infinitely amusing," said the princess, continuing
to laugh; "there lie my vassals, and what vassals! Herr Lestocq, a
physician; Herr Grunstein, a bankrupt shopkeeper and now under-officer;
Herr Woronzow, chamberlain; and Alexis Razumovsky, my private secretary.
And here I am, the empress of such vassals, and what sort of an empress?
An empress of four subjects, an empress without a throne and without a
crown, without land and without a people--an empress who never was and
never will be an empress! And in this solemn buffoonery you cut such
serious faces as might make one die with laughter."
The princess threw herself upon the divan and laughed until the tears
ran down her cheeks.
"Princess," said Lestocq, rising, "these four men, at whom you now
laugh, will make you empress, and then it will be in your power to
convert this chirurgeon into a privy councillor and court physician,
this bankrupt merchant into a rich banker, this chamberlain into an
imperial lord-marshal, and your private secretary into a count or prince
of the empire.
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