The Daughter of an Empress

It was a splendid dinner, that which the regent had this day prepared

for his guests. Count Munnich was very much devoted to the pleasures of

the table, and, sitting near the regent, he gave himself wholly up to

the cheerful humour which the excellent viands and delicate wines were

calculated to stimulate. At times he entirely forgot his deep-laid plans

for the coming night, and then again he would suddenly recollect them

in the midst of his gayest conversation with his host, and while

volunteering a toast in praise of the noble regent, and closing it by

crying--"A long life and reign to the great regent, Biron von Courland!"

he secretly and with a malicious pleasure thought: "This is thy

last dinner, sir duke! A few hours, and those lips, now smiling with

happiness, will be forever silenced by our blows!"

These thoughts made the field-marshal unusually gay and talkative,

and the regent protested that Munnich had never been a more agreeable

convive than precisely to-day. Therefore, when the other guests

retired, he begged of Munnich to remain with him awhile; and the

field-marshal, thinking it might possibly enable him to prevent any

warning reaching the regent, consented to stay.

They spoke of past times, of the happy days when the Empress Anna yet

reigned, and when all breathed of pleasure and enjoyment at that happy

court; and perhaps it was these recollections that rendered Biron sad

and thoughtful. He was absent and low-spirited, and his large, flashing

eyes often rested with piercing glances upon the calm and smiling face

of Munnich.

"You all envy me on account of my power and dominion," said he to

Munnich; "of that I am not ignorant. But you know not with what secret

pain and anguish these few hours of splendor are purchased!--the

sleepless nights in which one fears seeing the doors open to give

admission to murderers, and then the dreams in which blood is seen

flowing, and nothing is heard but death-shrieks and lamentations! Ah, I

hate the nights, which are inimical to all happiness. In the night

will misfortune at some time overtake me--in the night the evil spirit

reigns!"

With a drooping head the regent had spoken half to himself; but suddenly

raising his head and looking Munnich sharply in the eyes, he said:

"Have you, Mr. Field-Marshal, during your campaigns, never in the night

foreseen any important event?"

Munnich shuddered slightly, and the color forsook his cheeks. "He knows

all, and I am lost," thought he, and his hand involuntarily sought his

sword. "I will defend myself to the last drop of my blood," was his

first idea.

But Biron, although surprised, saw nothing of the field-marshal's

strange commotion--he was wholly occupied with his own thoughts, and

only awaited an answer to his question.

"Well, Mr. Field-Marshal," he repeated, "tell me whether in the night

you have ever had the presentiment of any important event?"