Short Fiction - Xavier de Maistre (the unexpected everything .txt) 📗

The lady desired her to wait for Mr. Violier, and when this gentleman, on his return home, saw her and heard her tale, instead of offering alms, he promised to speak, on the same day, to the Empress in her behalf. He begged her to remain to dinner, hoping that, at his return from the Palace, whither at that moment his official duties obliged him to go, he should be able to give her some news.

The Empress directed her Secretary to present Prascovia to her, on the same evening, at six o’clock. The astonished girl almost fainted, when Mr. Violier brought her this news: instead of thanking him, she raised her eyes to heaven, and said in a trembling voice: “Thus, oh God! have I not in vain put my trust in thee.” In her extreme agitation, she seized the hands of Mrs. Violier, covered them with her kisses, and begged her to express her gratitude to the generous man, to whom her father would be indebted for his liberty.

Towards evening, making a very trifling change in her simple dress, she accompanied Mr. Violier to the Imperial Palace. Remembering what her father had told her, of the difficulty of being admitted into it, she said to Mr. Violier: “Oh! if he could now see me, and know in the presence of whom I shall soon find myself, how happy would he feel!”

Without any preparation for what she had to say, or any direction of what she was to do, she entered the cabinet of the Empress, perfectly self-possessed. The Empress received her with her characteristic benevolence, and put several questions to her, with a desire to have farther details of her history, than the Secretary had been able to give. Prascovia answered with as much respect and composure, as the best educated person could have shown, on such an occasion. Persuaded that her father was innocent, she did not solicit his pardon, but the revision of his trial. The Empress praised her for her courage and filial virtue, offered to recommend her to the Emperor, and ordered that three hundred roubles should be given to her, as an earnest of farther interest and protection.

Prascovia left the palace with such a sense of these favours, that when Mrs. Violier asked her, if she was pleased with her reception, she could answer only with her tears.

A lady of the Princess’s retinue, remembering that she had not met with Prascovia, since she had walked out in the morning, was, on inquiring, informed by the servant, who had accompanied her, that he had seen her go with Mr. Violier in a carriage to the palace, and she quickly inferred that she must have been presented at court. When she entered the Princess’s mansion, towards the close of the evening, she was, for the first time since her first visit, ushered into the assembly room, where her recent fortune had already produced a happy revolution in her favour. The persons who had shown her friendship, were less profuse in congratulations, than those who had treated her with indifference. Some of the latter discovered that she had fine eyes and was well made. When she said that she was now certain of her father’s liberty, nobody thought that it could be otherwise; and several persons, less hasty in encouraging her confidence, offered to recommend her to the ministers. The amateur of whist congratulated her, as soon as he rose from his game.

When she awoke next morning, she asked herself: “Is it not all a dream? have I indeed, seen the Empress? has she, indeed, deigned to speak to me with so much goodness?”⁠—She rose hastily to look in a drawer, to convince her self, by the sight of the present she had received, that her imagination did not deceive her.

A few days afterwards, the Empress-mother assigned her a pension, and introduced her, herself, to the Emperor and his august consort, who both received her with the most gracious kindness and benevolence, and presented her with five thousand roubles. But what gave her the greatest happiness, was his Imperial Majesty’s command, that the trial of her father should immediately be revised.

The lively interest with which she inspired Count Kotchoubey, then Minister of the Interior, and all his family, removed many difficulties which might yet have retarded the accomplishment of her dearest wishes. That estimable statesman united in his person two things, which are not often found together: the inclination, and the means of doing good; and many afflicted families had cause to thank him, before they imagined that he knew of their misfortunes.

The revision of Lopouloff’s trial fell happily, under the jurisdiction of this Minister, and from that moment Prascovia was certain of success. Known to the Imperial family, and protected by the Minister, she soon became the object of universal interest. The Representatives of foreign Courts vied with the most distinguished inhabitants of the capital, in giving her marks of esteem and affection. Some ladies settled on her an annual pension. Yet these seductive favours did not alter the simplicity of her character, nor the modesty of her manners; and if anything distinguished her from any other demure and humble country girl, it was but the fearlessness of perfect innocence. After a most laborious study of society, a sagacious mind will feel convinced, that perfect artlessness, and an unassuming demeanour, are the most captivating qualities; and thus learn that, after all, nature is our best and unerring guide. The unsophisticated Prascovia could, without effort, display the winning graces of simplicity, and mingle, without the least disparagement, in the best society, her good sense and sound judgment supplying the place of education. Her quick and happy repartees discountenanced many, who had been more favoured in this latter respect.

Being once interrupted in her narrative, in the presence of a numerous company, by a person, who asked her for what crime her father had been banished, she answered indignantly, and in a tone of cold reproof: “Sir, a father