"Oh, you knew her! You
will now be doubly dear to me, for those bright eyes have seen my
mother, and perhaps this hand which now rests in mine has also touched
hers!"
"That," said Count Orloff, with a smile, "I should not have dared to do;
it would have been high-treason!"
"Was she, then, so great a sublime a princess?" asked Natalie.
"She was an empress!"
"An empress!" And the young maiden, sprang up with beaming eyes and
glowing cheeks. "My mother was an empress!" said she, breathing hard.
"Empress Elizabeth of Russia."
Overcome by the feelings suddenly excited by this news, Natalie sank
again upon her seat and covered her face with her hands. Tears gushed
out between her delicate, slender fingers; her whole being was in
violent, feverish commotion. Then, raising her arms toward heaven, with
a celestial smile, while the tears overflowed her face, she said: "I am,
then, no longer a homeless orphan; I have a fatherland, and my mother
was an empress!"
Count Orloff respectfully kissed the hem of her garment.
"You are the daughter of an empress," said he, "and will yourself be an
empress! That was what Paulo wished, and therefore have they condemned
him as a criminal.
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