The Russian Fleet

Unsuspectingly had she followed Orloff to Leghorn; full of devoted
tenderness, full of glowing love, she was only anxious to fulfil all his
wishes and to constantly afford him new proofs of her affection.

And how? Did he not deserve that love? Was he not constantly paying her
the most delicate attentions? Was he not always as humbly submissive
as he was tender? Did it not seem as if the lion was subdued, that the
Hercules was tamed, by his tender Omphale, whom he adored, at whose feet
he lay for the purpose of looking into her eyes, to read in them her
most secret thoughts and wishes?

She was not only his wife, she was also his empress. Such he called her,
as such he respected her, and surrounded her with more than imperial
splendor.

The house of the English Consul Dyke was changed into an imperial palace
for Natalie, and the young and beautiful wife of the consul was her
first lady of honor. She established a court for the young imperial
princess, she surrounded her with numerous servants and a splendid train
of attendants whose duty it was to follow the illustrious young empress
everywhere, and never to leave her!

And Natalie suspected not that this English consul received from the
Empress of Russia a million of silver rubles, and that his wife was
rewarded with a costly set of brilliants for the hospitality shown to
this Russian princess, which was so well calculated to deceive not only
Natalie herself, but also the European courts whose attention had been
aroused. Natalie suspected not that her splendid train, her numerous
servants--that all these who apparently viewed her as their sublime
mistress, were really nothing more than spies and jailors, who watched
her every step, her every word, her every glance. Poor child, she
suspected nothing! They honored and treated her as an empress, and she
believed them, smiling with delight when the people of Leghorn--whenever
she with her splendid retinue appeared at her husband's side--shouted
with every demonstration of respect for her as an empress.