The Daughter of an Empress

The field-marshal ordered his carriage and proceeded to the palace of

the Duke of Courland.

A deathlike stillness prevailed in the streets through which he rode. On

every hand were to be seen only curtained windows and closed palaces;

it seemed as if this usually so brilliant and noisy quarter of St.

Petersburg had suddenly become deserted and desolate. The usual

equipages, with their gold and silver-laced attendants, were nowhere to

be seen.

The count's carriage thundered through the deserted streets, but

wherever he passed curious faces were seen peeping from the curtained

windows of the palaces; all doors were hastily opened behind him, and he

was followed by the runners of the counts and princes, charged with the

duty of espying his movements.

Count Munnich saw all that, and smiled.

"I have now given them the signal," said he, "and this servile Russian

nobility will rush hither, like fawning hounds, to bow before a new idol

and pay it their venal homage."

The carriage now stopped before the palace of the Duke of Courland, and

with an humble and reverential mien Munnich ascended the stairs to the

brilliant apartments of Biron.

He found the duke alone; absorbed in thought, he was standing at the

window looking down into streets which were henceforth to be subjected

to his sway.

"Your highness is surveying your realm," said Munnich, with a smile.

"Wait but a little, and you will soon see all the great nobility

flocking here to pay you homage. My carriage stops before your door, and

these sharp-scenting hounds now know which way to turn with their abject

adoration."

"Ah," sadly responded Biron, "I dread the coming hour. I have a

misfortune-prophesying heart, and this night, in a dream, I saw myself

in a miserable hut, covered with beggarly rags, shivering with cold and

fainting with hunger!"

"That dream indicated prosperity and happiness, your highness,"

laughingly responded Munnich, "for dreams are always interpreted by

contraries. You saw yourself as a beggar because you were to become

our ruler--because a purple mantle will this day be placed upon your

shoulders."

"Blood also is purple," gloomily remarked the duke, "and a sharp poniard

may also convert a beggar's blouse into a purple mantle! Oh, my friend,

would that I had never become what I am! One sleeps ill when one must

constantly watch his happiness lest it escape him. And think of it, my

fortunes are dependent upon the eyes of a child, a nurseling, that with

its mother's milk imbibes hatred to me, and whose first use of speech

will be, perhaps, to curse me!"

"Then it must be your task to teach the young emperor Ivan to speak,"

exclaimed Munnich--"in that case he will learn to bless you."

"I shall not be able to snatch him from his parents," said Biron. "But

those parents certainly hate me, and indeed very naturally, as they, it

seems, were, next to me, designated as the guardians of their son Ivan.

The Duchess Anna Leopoldowna of Brunswick is ambitious."