le regiment guarded its banks and bridges by night! Munnich could no
longer fall upon her by surprise, as she could have him always watched.

Anna no longer trembled with fear; she could yield to her natural
indolence, and if she sometimes, from fear of Munnich, troubled herself
about state affairs and labored with her ministers, she now felt it to
be an oppressive burden, to which she could no longer consent to subject
herself.

Satiated and exhausted, she in some measure left the wielding of the
sceptre to her first and confidential minister, Count Golopkin. He ruled
in her name, as Count Ostermann was generalissimo in the name of her
husband the Prince of Brunswick. Why trouble themselves with the pains
and cares of governing, when it was permitted them to only enjoy the
pleasures of their all-powerful position?

The minister might flourish the knout and proclaim the Siberian
banishment over the trembling people; the scourged might howl, and the
banished might lament, the great and powerful might dispose of the souls
and bodies of their serfs; rare honesty might be oppressed by consuming
usury; offices, honors, and titles might be gambled for; justice
and punishment might be bought and sold; vice and immorality might
universally prevail--Anna would not know it. She would neither see nor
hear any thing of this outside world! The palace is her world, in which
she is happy, in which she revels!

Ah, that charming, silent little boudoir, with is soft Turkish carpet,
with its elastic divans and heavily curtained windows and doors--that
little boudoir is now her paradise, the temple of her happiness! In it
she lingers, and in it is she blessed. There she reposes, dreaming of
past delightful hours, or smiling with the intoxication of the still
more delightful present in the arms of the one she loves.

THE FAVORITE

See how her eyes flash, how her heart beats--how beautiful she is in the
warm glow of excitement, this beautiful Anna Leopoldowna.

The door opens, and a smiling young maiden looks in with many a nod of
her little head.

"Ah, is it you, my Julia?" calls the princess, opening her arms to press
the young girl to her heart. "Come, I will kiss you, and imagine it is
he who receives the kiss! Ah, what would this poor Anna Leopoldowna
be if deprived of her dear friend, Julia von Mengden?" And drawing her
favorite down into her lap, she continued: "Now relate to me, Julia.
Set your tongue in motion, that