"Princess," said he, "the empress herself girded me with this sword, and I swore it should never leave my side but with my life. You are dearer to me than my life or my honor, and I therefore break my sacred oath. Take my sword, I am now without arms, and you will no longer have occasion to tremble before me."She smilingly shook her head. "You still remain a hero, though without arms--it lies in your eyes!""I would close my eyes," said he, "but then I should not see you, princess, and I have already so long languished for a sight of you!""Why, then, came you not sooner?" she asked, now feeling herself entirely cheerful and unembarrassed. "Oh, did you but know how impatiently I have awaited you!"And with childish innocence she began to relate how much she had thought of him, how often she had dreamed of him, how she had sometimes spoken aloud to him, and almost thought she heard his answers!
Count Orloff listened to her with surprise and delight. Thus had he not expected to find her, so childishly cheerful, so charmingly innocent, and yet at the same time with so much maidenly reserve, so much natural dignity. Now she laughed like a child, now was her face serious and proud, now again tender and timid. She was at once a timid child and a glowing woman; she was innocent as an angel, and yet so full of sweet, unconscious maiden coquetry. She enchanted, while inspiring devotion, she excited passions and desires, while, with a natural maiden dignity, she kept one within the bounds of respect. She was entirely different from what Orloff had expected; perhaps less beautiful, less dazzling, but infinitely more lovely. She enchanted him with her smile, and her innocent childish face touched him.
"Speak on, speak on!" said he, when she became silent. "It is delightful to listen to you, princess.""Why do you call me so?" asked she, with a slight contraction of her brow. "It is such a strange cold word! It does not at all belong to me, and it is only within the last few months that I have been thus addressed. With wise and tender forbearance, Paulo long delayed informing me that I was a princess, and that was beautiful in him. To be a princess and yet an orphan, a poor, deserted, helpless child, living upon the charity of a friend, and tremulously clinging to his protecting hand! See, that is what I am, a poor orphan; why, then, do you call me princess!""Because you are so in reality," responded Orloff, pressing the hem of her garment to his lips--"because I am come to lead you to your splendid and powerful future!--because I will glorify you above all women on earth, and make you mistress of this great empire."She regarded him with a dreamy smile. "You speak as Paulo often spoke to me," said she. "He also swore to me that he would one day place an imperial crown upon my head, and elevate me to great power! Iunderstood him as little as I understand you!"A slight scornful smile momentarily passed over Orloff's features.
"Catharine has therefore rightly divined," thought he, "and her wise mind rightly understood this Rasczinsky. There was, indeed, question of an imperial crown, and this was to have been the new little empress!"Aloud he said: "You will soon understand me, princess, and it is time you knew of what crown Paulo spoke.""I know it not," said she, "nor do I desire to know it! Perhaps it was a jest, with which he sought to console me when I complained of being a homeless orphan, a poor child, who knew not even the name of her mother!""Do you not know that?" exclaimed Orloff, with astonishment.
She sadly shook her head. "They would never tell it me," said she.
"But I have her image in my heart, and that, at least, I shall never lose or forget!""I knew your mother," said Orloff; "she was beautiful as you are, and mild and merciful.""You knew her!" exclaimed the young maiden, grasping his hand and looking at him with a confiding friendliness. "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. 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!"
