Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1934-11-24

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zkaefael Saba4lnk
ON TWO PARTS PART TwO9
the event brought diansy 10 St. Pc
tsrsturg end panic to the heart q
Catherine At poniafowsk1a insEsgnficn
she had been active In the intrigue and
Ia yet that other intrigue By which
A&me. Resourceful meant to safeguard
her future. Because Iekters had passed
between her and the fallen chancellor
for days the grim mirage Of Siberia
loomed before her until P0uiatowski
who had contxived to communicate with
Bestucheff, brought her lac0nic note
from him:
FEAR nothing. Madame. I have burnt
everything"
The old fox had espied the hunt as
It approached, and he had taken his
measures. She breathed freely again.
The tragedy she had feared was avert
ed now.
But q tragedy as black was 10 over
whelm her. Poniatowski's communities
lions with Bestucheff we're discovered
He was given his passports and ordered
to leave Russia instantly.
When Catherine received the note
informing her Of this. and exhibiting
his desolation, he had already gone.
Finding him ravished from her side
at q moment when her need Of him
was greatest, her spirit broke complete
". She called for death as the only
anodyne. In life nothing remained . :.
what was ambition what was power
. what was anything the world could
offer now7 In her bereavement, her
widOwhood, as she regarded it, she
kept to her apartments, took to her bed,
gave out that she Was I'll.
She read again and again the pathe-
tic little note which protested Ponia-
towski's undying love. She wrote to him
from the depths Of her poor, broken
heart that she would wait for him toI
the grave and beyond it. Then since
she must live for that reunion, she pre-
pared to face life again.
She came forth q rather wistful rig
ure, with 8 haunting sadness In her
dark magnetic eyes. But IN the fol-
lowing spring those eyes settled on q
young officer lately returned from the
Prussian campaign, and some Of the
wistfulness was observed to fade from
them.
His name was Gregory Orloff, and
the tales of his deeds at zorndorf, at
which place he had taken three wounds
made him the hero of the hour. For
the rest, with the blonde head of an
angel on the body Of a Hercules, he was
certainly man to hold the eye.
He was one of five brothers, all Of
them officers in the Guards; all Of
them tall, powerful fellows; all OF
them handsome, saving that the beauty
Of Alexis was married by scar: all Of /
them worshipped In their regiments
for their physical PROJECTIONS and their
prowess.
TO woman whose ambitions Bestu-
cheffs intriguing had awakened, this
command Of military influence was Just
then, when she found herself without
support, as much a recommendation as
his physical endowments Whatever the
future might hold, nothing would be
lost by attaching this young giant to
her person.
A hard drinler, reckless gamester,
and reputed of as boundiess an audacity
in gallantry as In all else, be was Of
poor intellect and Of no education.
Catherine found him as dun IS he
was handsome. Thus he offered q very
different experience from that which
the cultured. poetical Stanislas had
supplied. And meanwhile, for the spiri-
tUal companionship she craveds she
plunged at about this time into an In
timacy with the lively young Princess
Dashkoff, little suspecting that these
two we're to prove the instruments Of
her destiny.
This destiny, however, did not begin
when the Empress Elizabeth died. Not
shaping itself until the following year
It's chief architect. when all Is said. was
Peter himself. he lost no time. AS he
stratted behind the hearse, in his tight
Prussian CATERS, he disguised the pop
1Ious by his imbecile levities. Next he
the clergy by decreeing the
Of Church property and
scandalized all orthodox Russians by
proposing to return to the Lutheran re-
igion. Lastly, this worshiper Of Fred
rick the Great enraged the Guards by :