Among
Grunstein's enlisted friends there are drunkards enough who would betray
you for a flask of brandy! Princess Elizabeth, would you be a nun or
an empress? Choose between these two destinations. There is no middle
course."
"Then I would be an empress!" said Elizabeth, with flashing eyes,
trembling with anxiety and excitement, and still examining the two
drawings. "Ah, you are an accomplished artist, Lestocq, you have
designed this picture with a horrible truth of resemblance. How I stand
there! how I wring my hands, the pale lips opened for a cry of terror,
and yet silenced by a view of those dreadful shears before whose deadly
operations my hair falls to the earth, and that veil entombs me while
yet living!"
And casting away the drawings, the princess trod them under foot,
declaring in a loud and imperious tone: "These drawings are false,
Lestocq, and that will I prove to you--I, the Empress Elizabeth!"
"All hail, my empress!" cried Lestocq, throwing himself at her feet
and kissing the hem of her robe; "blessings upon you, for you have now
rescued me from the hands of the executioner! You have saved my life,
in return for which I will this day place an imperial crown upon your
heavenly brows.
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