“And I cannot kill them!” shrieked Elizabeth, with closed fists. “I have tied my own hands in my unwise generosity! Ah, they call me an empress, and yet I cannot destroy those I hate!” “And who denies you that right?” asked Lestocq. “Destroy their bodies, but kill them not! Wherefore have we the knout, if it cannot flay the back of a beauty?” “Yes, wherefore have we the knout?” exclaimed Elizabeth, with a joyous laugh. “Ah, Lestocq, you are an exquisite man, you always give good advice. Ah, this beautiful Countess Eleonore shall be made acquainted with the knout!” “You have a double right for it,” said Lestocq, “for she has dared to speak of your majesty in unseemly language!” “Has she done that?” cried Elizabeth. “Ah, I almost love her for it, as that gives me the right to chastise her. Lestocq, what punishment is prescribed for a subject who dares revile his empress? You must know it, you are familiar with the laws! Therefore tell me quickly, what punishment?” “It is written,” said Lestocq, after a moment’s reflection, “that any one who dares so misuse his tongue as to revile the sublime majesty of his emperor or empress with irreverent language, such criminal shall have the instrument of his crime, his tongue, torn out by the roots!” “And this time I will exercise no mercy!” triumphantly exclaimed Elizabeth. She kept her word--she exercised no mercy! Count Lapuschkin, with his fair wife, the wife of Bestuscheff, the Chamberlain Lilienfeld, and some others, were accused of high-treason and brought before the tribunal. It was not difficult to convict the countess of the crime charged; incautiously enough had she often expressed her attachment to the cause of the imprisoned Emperor Ivan, and her contempt for the Empress Elizabeth. And in what country is it not a crime to speak disrespectfully of the prince, though he be a criminal and one of the lowest of men? She was therefore declared guilty; she was sentenced to be scourged with the knout, to have her tongue torn out, and to be transported to Siberia! Elizabeth did not pardon her. She was a princess--how, then, could she pardon one who had dared to revile her? Every crime is easier to pardon than that of high-treason; for every other there may be extenuating circumstances--for that, never; it is a capital crime which a prince never pardons; how then, could Elizabeth have done so?--Elizabeth, Empress by the grace of God, as all are princes and kings by the grace of God! The people were running to and fro in the wildest confusion in the streets of St. Petersburg; they cried and shouted _vivas_ to their empress who to-day accorded to them the splendid spectacle of the knouting of some respectable ladies and gentlemen! Ah, that was a very gracious and condescending empress to provide once more a delightful spectacle for her serfs at the expense of the nobility! That was an empress after their own hearts--real Russian blood!