joyful intelligence,
and received orders to penetrate into the palace with twenty men, to
capture the duke, and even kill him if he made resistance.

Without opposition Mannstein again returned to the palace with his small
band, carefully avoiding making the least noise in his approach. All the
soldiers in the palace knew him; and as the watch below had permitted
him to pass, they supposed he must have an important message for the
duke, and no one stopped him.

He had already wandered through several rooms, when an unforeseen
difficulty presented itself. Where is the sleeping-room of the duke?
Which way must he turn, in order to find him? He stood there undecided,
not daring to ask any of the attendants in the anterooms, lest perhaps
they might suspect him and awaken the duke! He finally resolved to go
forward and trust to accident. He passed two or three chambers--all were
empty, all was still!

Now he stands before a closed door! What if that should prove the
chamber of the duke? He thinks he hears a breathing.

He cautiously tries the door. Slightly closed, it yields to his
pressure, and he enters. There stands a huge bed with hanging curtains,
which are boldly drawn aside by Mannstein.

Before him lies the regent, Duke Biron of Courland, with his wife by his
side.

"Duke Biron, awake!" called Mannstein, with a loud voice. The ducal pair
started up from their slumber with a shriek of terror.

Biron leaps from the bed, but Mannstein overpowers him and holds him
fast until his soldiers come. The duke defends himself with his hands,
but is beaten down with musket-stocks. They bind his hands with an
officer's scarf, they wrap him in a soldier's mantle, and so convey him
down to Field-Marshal Munnich's carriage which is waiting, below, to
transport him to the winter palace.

While Mannstein and the soldiers were occupied with the duke, his
duchess had found an opportunity to make her escape. With only her light
night-dress, shrieking and lamenting, she had rushed into the street.

She was seized by a soldier, who, conducting her to Mannstein, asked
what he should do with her.

"Take her back into the palace!" said Mannstein, hastening past.

But the soldier, only anxious to rid himself of an encumbrance, threw
the now insensible duchess into the snow, and hurried away.

In this situation she was found by a captain of the guard, who lifted
her up and conveyed her into the palace to give her over to the care o