People
looked at the fair youthful face of Catharine, and sought to read in her
majestic high forehead the hopes that Russia might cherish of her! It
was, therefore, a festival of the present and future that was there and
then celebrated, and the magnates humbly prostrated themselves before
this new star, and threw themselves upon the earth before the ever-new
sun of imperial majesty which shone upon them in the person of
Elizabeth.
Catharine with a joyful spirit and a proud smile laid her hand in that
of Peter, and as she stepped with him to the altar she thought: "I do
this that I may one day be empress! and as I can reach that position in
no other way--well, then, let them call me the wife of this under-aged
boy! I will suffer it until the time when I shall no longer suffer, but
command."
With such thoughts did Catharine become the wife of the Grand-duke
Peter, who, as he with a loud and solemn "yes" vowed eternal truth to
his young wife, looked at the Countess Woronzow, and both exchanged a
stolen smile and a glowing glance of love.
"They may henceforth call this proud Catharine my wife," thought Peter,
"but I shall never love her, as my heart will ever belong to my dear
Woronzow! But Elizabeth has decided that Catharine shall be my wife.
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