"Ah, I almost love her for it,
as that gives me the right to chastise her. Lestocq, what punishment is
prescribed for a subject who dares revile his empress? You must know
it, you are familiar with the laws! Therefore tell me quickly, what
punishment?"
"It is written," said Lestocq, after a moment's reflection, "that any
one who dares so misuse his tongue as to revile the sublime majesty of
his emperor or empress with irreverent language, such criminal shall
have the instrument of his crime, his tongue, torn out by the roots!"
"And this time I will exercise no mercy!" triumphantly exclaimed
Elizabeth.
She kept her word--she exercised no mercy! Count Lapuschkin, with his
fair wife, the wife of Bestuscheff, the Chamberlain Lilienfeld, and some
others, were accused of high-treason and brought before the tribunal.
It was not difficult to convict the countess of the crime charged;
incautiously enough had she often expressed her attachment to the
cause of the imprisoned Emperor Ivan, and her contempt for the
Empress Elizabeth. And in what country is it not a crime to speak
disrespectfully of the prince, though he be a criminal and one of the
lowest of men?
She was therefore declared guilty; she was sentenced to be scourged
with the knout, to have her tongue torn out, and to be transported to
Siberia!
Elizabeth did not pardon her.
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