"I beg ten thousand pardons," he said to
the gentleman with whom he was playing;
"but I am afraid I must ask you to let me
go before the game is done. I have a patient
to see at ten o'clock, and the hour has just
struck. Here is a friend of mine," he continued,
bringing forward one of the bystanders
by the arm, "who will, with your permission,
play in my place. It is quite immaterial to
me whether he loses or whether he wins, I am
merely anxious that your game should not be
interrupted. Ten thousand pardons again.
Nothing but the necessity of seeing a patient
could have induced me to be guilty of this
apparent rudeness. I wish you much
pleasure, gentlemen, and I most unwillingly bid
you good night."

With that polite farewell, he departed.
The patient whom he was going to cure was
the sick Russian Empire.

He got into his sledge, and drove off to
the palace of the Princess Elizabeth. She
trembled a little when he told her quietly
that the hour had come for possessing herself
of the throne; but, soon recovering her
spirits, dressed to go out, concealed a knife
about her in case of emergency, and took her
place by the side of Lestoc in the sledge.
The two then set forth together for the
French embassy to pick up the second leader
of the conspiracy.

They found the Marquis alone, cool,
smiling, humming a gay French tune, and
quietly amusing himself by making a drawing.
Elizabeth and Lestoc looked over his shoulder,
and the former started a little when she saw
what the subject of the drawing was. In
the background appeared a large monastery,
a grim prison-like building, with barred
windows and jealously-closed gates; in
the foreground were two high gibbets and
two wheels of the sort used to break criminals
on. The drawing was touched in with
extraordinary neatness and steadiness of
hand; and the marquis laughed gaily
when he saw how seriously the subject
represented had startled and amazed the Princess
Elizabeth.

"Courage, madam!" he said. "I was
only amusing myself by making a sketch
illustrative of the future which we may all
three expect if we fail in our enterprise. In
an hour from this time, you will be on the
throne, or on your way to this ugly building."
(He touched the monastery in the
background of the drawing lightly with the point
of his pencil.) "In an hour from this time,
also, our worthy Lestoc and myself will either
be the two luckiest men in Russia, or the
two miserable criminals who are bound on
these" (he touched the wheels) "and hung
up afterwards on those" (he touched the
gibbets). "You will pardon me, madam, for
indulging in this ghastly fancy? I was
always eccentric from childhood. My good
Lestoc, as we seem to be quite ready, perhaps
you will kindly precede us to the door, and
allow me the honour of handing the Princess
to the sledge?"

They left the house, laughing and chatting
as carelessly as if they were a party going to
the theatre. Lestoc took the reins. "To the
palace of the Duchess Regent, coachman!"
said the Marquis, pleasantly. And to the
palace they went.

They made no attempt to slip in by
back-doors, but boldly drove up to the grand
entrance, inside of which the guard-house
was situated.

"Who goes there?" cried the sentinel as
they left the sledge and passed in.

The Marquis took a pinch of snuff.

"Don't you see, my good fellow?" he said.
"A lady and two gentlemen."

The slightest irregularity was serious
enough to alarm the guard at the Imperial
palace in those critical times. The sentinel
presented his musket at the Marquis, and a
drummer-boy who was standing near ran to
his instrument and caught up his drum-sticks
to beat the alarm.

Before the sentinel could fire, he was
surrounded by the thirty-three conspirators, and
was disarmed in an instant. Before the
drummer-boy could beat the alarm, the
Princess Elizabeth had drawn out her knife
and had stabbed—not the boy, but—the drum!
These slight preliminary obstacles being thus
disposed of, Lestoc and the Marquis, having
the Princess between them, and being
followed by their thirty-three adherents, marched
resolutely into the great hall of the palace,
and there confronted the entire guard.

"Gentlemen," said the Marquis, "I have
the honour of presenting you to your future
empress, the daughter of Peter the Great."

Half the guard had been bribed by the
cunning Lestoc. The other half, seeing their
comrades advance and pay homage to the
Princess, followed the example of loyalty.
Elizabeth was escorted into a room on the
ground-floor by a military court formed in
the course of five minutes. The Marquis and
the faithful thirty-three went up-stairs to the
sleeping apartments of the palace. Lestoc
ran out, and ordered a carriage to be got
ready—then joined the Marquis and the
conspirators. The Duchess Regent and her
child were just retiring for the night when
the German surgeon and the French ambassador
politely informed them that they were
prisoners. Entreaties were of no avail;
resistance was out of the question. Both
mother and son were led down to the carriage
that Lestoc had ordered, and were driven off,
under a strong guard, to the fortress of
Riga.

The palace was secured, and the Duchess
was imprisoned, but Lestoc and the Marquis
had not done their night's work yet. It was
necessary to make sure of three powerful
personages connected with the government.
Three more carriages were ordered out when
the Duchess's carriage had been driven off;