The Daughter of an Empress Read online

  Produced by Dagny and John Bickers

  THE DAUGHTER OF AN EMPRESS

  By Louise Muhlbach

  CONTENTS

  Countess Natalie Dolgorucki Count Munnich Count Ostermann The Night of the Conspiracy Hopes Deceived The Regent Anna Leopoldowna The Favorite No Love Princess Elizabeth A Conspiracy The Warning The Court Ball The Pencil-Sketch The Revolution The Sleep of Innocence The Recompensing Punishment The Palace of the Empress Eleonore Lapuschkin A Wedding Scenes and Portraits Princes also must die The Charmed Garden The Letters Diplomatic Quarrels The Fish Feud Pope Ganganelli (Clement XIV.) The Pope's Recreation Hour A Death-Sentence The Festival of Cardinal Bernis The Improvisatrice The Departure An Honest Betrayer Alexis Orloff Corilla The Holy Chafferers "Sic transit gloria mundi" The Vapo The Invasion Intrigues The Dooming Letter The Russian Officer Anticipation He! The Warning The Russian Fleet Conclusion

  THE DAUGHTER OF AN EMPRESS

  COUNTESS NATALIE DOLGORUCKI

  "No, Natalie, weep no more! Quick, dry your tears. Let not myexecutioner see that we can feel pain or weep for sorrow!"

  Drying her tears, she attempted a smile, but it was an unnatural,painful smile.

  "Ivan," said she, "we will forget, forget all, excepting that we loveeach other, and thus only can I become cheerful. And tell me, Ivan, haveI not always been in good spirits? Have not these long eight years inSiberia passed away like a pleasant summer day? Have not our heartsremained warm, and has not our love continued undisturbed by theinclement Siberian cold? You may, therefore, well see that I have thecourage to bear all that can be borne. But you, my beloved, you myhusband, to see you die, without being able to save you, without beingpermitted to die with you, is a cruel and unnatural sacrifice! Ivan, letme weep; let your murderer see that I yet have tears. Oh, my God, I haveno longer any pride, I am nothing but a poor heart-broken woman! Yourwidow, I weep over the yet living corpse of my husband!" With convulsivesobs the trembling young wife fell upon her knees and with frantic griefclung to her husband's feet.

  Count Ivan Dolgorucki no long felt the ability to stand aloof from hersorrow. He bent down to his wife, raised her in his arms, and with herhe wept for his youth, his lost life, the vanishing happiness of hislove, and the shame of his fatherhood.

  "I should joyfully go to my death, were it for the benefit of mycountry," said he. "But to fall a sacrifice to a cabal, to the jealousyof an insidious, knavish favorite, is what makes the death-hour fearful.Ah, I die for naught, I die that Munnich, Ostermann, and Biron mayremain securely in power. It is horrible thus to die!"

  Natalie's eyes flashed with a fanatic glow. "You die," said she, "andI shall live, will live, to see how God will avenge you upon theseevil-doers. I will live, that I may constantly think of you, and inevery hour of the day address to God my prayers for vengeance andretribution!"

  "Live and pray for our fatherland!" said Ivan.

  "No," she angrily cried, "rather let God's curse rest upon this Russia,which delivers over its noblest men to the executioner, and raises itsignoblest women to the throne. No blessing for Russia, which is cursedin all generations and for all time--no blessing for Russia, whosebloodthirsty czarina permits the slaughter of the noble Ivan and hisbrothers!"

  "Ah," said Ivan, "how beautiful you are now--how flash your eyes, andhow radiantly glow your cheeks! Would that my executioner were nowcome, that he might see in you the heroine, Natalie, and not thesorrow-stricken woman!"

  "Ah, your prayer is granted; hear you not the rattling of the bolts, theroll of the drum? They are coming, Ivan, they are coming!"

  "Farewell, Natalie--farewell, forever!"

  And, mutually embracing, they took one last, long kiss, but wept not.

  "Hear me, Natalie! when they bind me upon the wheel, weep not. Beresolute, my wife, and pray that their torments may not render me weak,and that no cry may escape my lips!"

  "I will pray, Ivan."

  In half an hour all was over. The noble and virtuous Count IvanDolgorucki had been broken upon the wheel, and three of his brothersbeheaded, and for what?--Because Count Munnich, fearing that the nobleand respected brothers Dolgorucki might dispossess him of his usurpedpower, had persuaded the Czarina Anna that they were plotting heroverthrow for the purpose of raising Katharina Ivanovna to the imperialthrone. No proof or conviction was required; Munnich had said it, andthat sufficed; the Dolgoruckis were annihilated!

  But Natalie Dolgorucki still lived, and from the bloody scene of herhusband's execution she repaired to Kiew. There would she live in thecloister of the Penitents, preserving the memory of the being she loved,and imploring the vengeance of Heaven upon his murderers!

  It was in the twilight of a clear summer night when Natalie reached thecloister in which she was on the next day to take the vows and exchangeher ordinary dress for the robe of hair-cloth and the nun's veil.

  Foaming rushed the Dnieper within its steep banks, hissing broke thewaves upon the gigantic boulders, and in the air was heard the sound asof howling thunder and a roaring storm.

  "I will take my leave of nature and of the world," murmured Natalie,motioning her attendants to remain at a distance, and with firm feetclimbing the steep rocky bank of the rushing Dnieper. Upon their kneesher servants prayed below, glancing up to the rock upon which they sawthe tall form of their mistress in the moonlight, which surrounded itwith a halo; the stars laid a radiant crown upon her pure brow, and herlocks, floating in the wind, resembled wings; to her servants she seemedan angel borne upon air and light and love upward to her heavenly home!Natalie stood there tranquil and tearless. The thoughtful glances of herlarge eyes swept over the whole surrounding region. She took leaveof the world, of the trees and flowers, of the heavens and the earth.Below, at her feet, lay the cloister, and Natalie, stretching forth herarms toward it, exclaimed: "That is my grave! Happy, blessed Ivan, thoudiedst ere being coffined; but I shall be coffined while yet alive! Istand here by thy tomb, mine Ivan. They have bedded thy noble form inthe cold waves of the Dnieper, whose rushing and roaring was thy funeralknell, mine Ivan! I shall dwell by thy grave, and in the deathlikestillness of my cell shall hear the tones of the solemn hymn with whichthe impetuous stream will rock thee to thine eternal rest! Receive,then, ye sacred waves of the Dnieper, receive thou, mine Ivan, in thycold grave, thy wife's vow of fidelity to thee. Again will I espousethee--in life as in death, am I thine!"

  And drawing from her finger the wedding-ring which her beloved husbandhad once placed upon it, she threw it into the foaming waves.

  Bending down, she saw the ring sinking in the waters and murmured: "Igreet thee, Ivan, I greet thee! Take my ring--forever am I thine!"

  Then, rising proudly up, and stretching forth her arms toward heaven,she exclaimed aloud: "I now go to pray that God may send thee vengeance.Woe to Russia, woe!" and the stream with its boisterous waves howled andthundered after her the words: "Woe to Russia, woe!"