nd 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."

"Bah! for the present she is in love," exclaimed Munnich, with a laugh,
"and women, when in love, think of nothing but