The features were Grecian in their regularity, but with the capacity for passion thrown in as an artistic contradiction; a straight nose, but a low, square forehead; a perfect mouth in form, but the curves tending to cruelty; the face long, the expression suggesting the lofty scorn, the high sense of duty of a Marie Antoinette, with the determination and murderous fire of a Charlotte Corday. Clytemnestra and Diana in one; a something lovable and lovely with homicidal tendencies; an indescribable creature, whose face I have tried to suggest in that sketch, and whose story might well be the history I want to convey in my competition for the medal! Do you know the story of Madame Lapukin, in the days of Elizabeth of Russia?"
"No," said Chetwynd, watching the play of Philip's mobile features, as the enthusiast endeavored to convey to him an idea of the woman whom he hoped to make live again on canvas, wondering at the same time where he would get his model if he could not find the woman of the opera and induce her to sit for him.
"One Germain de Lagny tells the story, in his account of Russia, translated by John Bridgman and published by Bogue. In 1760, Madame Lapukin, a rare beauty, the envy of the Czarina, said to have betrayed the secret of the Empress' liaison with Prince Razoumowsky, was condemned, in spite of the privilege of the nobility never to suffer the punishment of the knout, to be publicly whipped and her tongue torn from the roots! Think of it. This lovely woman, who had been feted and caressed by society, the beauty of a luxurious court! She was stripped, submitted to other indignities, and her flesh cut into strips from her shoulders to her hips. Her tongue was torn out, and then with a refinement of cruelty which is carried out to this day she was sent into hospital, and cured of her wounds sufficiently to enable her to be marched to Siberia. She did not die by the way, but lived to be recalled by Peter
