What he was unable to accomplish must be done by
me, and for that purpose have I come. Princess Natalie, your fatherland
calls you, your throne awaits you! Follow me to your crowning in the
city of your fathers--follow me, that I may place the crown of your
grandfather, Peter the Great, upon your noble and beautiful head!"
THE WARNING
From this time forward Alexis Orloff was the inseparable companion of
Natalie. With the most reverential submission, and at the same time with
the tenderest affection, seemed he to be devoted to her, and equally to
adore her as his empress and his beloved.
He took pains to represent to her that she was necessarily and
inevitably destined to become an empress.
And she had comprehended him but too well. Ambition was awakened in this
young maiden of eighteen years; it was an imperial crown that called
her--why should she not listen to this call coming from the lips of
one in whom she had unlimited confidence, and toward whom she felt
infinitely grateful?
He had unfolded and explained all to her. He had told her of her mother,
the good Empress Elizabeth, who had made Russia so great and happy; he
had explained to her how Count Paulo Rasczinsky had flown with her
on the day of her mother's death, in order to preserve her from the
pursuits of her mother's successor, the cunning and cruel Peter III.
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