But a fragment of this hard apple had hit the eye of the
Duke of Gloucester, who was standing near, and seriously injured it. The
sympathies of the whole company were excited for the English prince, and
he was immediately surrounded by a pitying and lamenting crowd. Count
Orloff alone had nothing to say to him, and not the slightest excuse to
make. He smilingly rocked himself upon his chair, and hummed a Russian
popular song in praise of his empress.
And was it not also an insult for Alexis Orloff now to show himself a
friend to the Jesuits, whom the decree of God's vicegerent had outlawed
and proscribed? Was it not an insult that he loudly and publicly
promised to these persecuted Jesuits a kind reception and efficient
protection in Russia, and invited them to found new communities and new
cloisters there?
But Alexis Orloff cared little for the dissatisfaction of the Romans,
He said to his confidant Stephano: "There is no greater pleasure than to
set at defiance all the world, and to oppose all these things which the
stupid people would impose upon us as laws. The friend and favorite of
the Empress Catharine has no occasion for complying with such miserable
laws; wherever I set my foot, there the earth belongs to me, and I will
forcibly maintain my pretensions whenever they are disputed! In Russia
I am the serf of the empress, in revenge for which I will, at least
abroad, treat all the world as my serfs.
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