“Bah! for that very reason!” said Munnich, with a cruel laugh.  “He has carried his head high long enough; now he may learn to bow.”

“But that will be a continual torment!” exclaimed the Duke of Brunswick.

“On, has he not tormented us?” angrily responded Munnich.  “We need reprisals.”

“How strange and horrible!” said Anna Leopoldowna, shuddering; “this man is now standing here clothed with unlimited power, and we are already holding in our hands the plan of his prison!”

“Yes, yes, and with this plan in his pocket will Count Munnich now go to dine with Biron and enjoy his hospitality!” laughingly exclaimed Ostermann.  “Ah, that must make the dinner particularly piquant!  How agreeable it must be to press the regent’s hand, and at the same time feel the rustling in your pocket of the paper upon which you have drawn the plan of his Siberian prison!  But you are in the right.  The regent has deeply offended you.  How could he dare refuse to make you his generalissimo?”

“Ah, it is not for that,” said Munnich with embarrassment; and, seeking to give the conversation a different turn, he continued—­“ah, see, Count Ostermann, what a terrible animal is crawling there upon your dress!”

“Policy, nothing but policy,” tranquilly responded Ostermann, while the princess turned away with an expression of repugnance.

“Well,” cried the prince, laughing, “explain to us, Count Ostermann, what those disgusting insects have to do with policy or politics?”

“We are all four Germans,” said Ostermann, “and consequently are all familiar with the common saying, ’Tell me the company you keep, and I will tell you what you are!’ I have always kept that in mind since I have been in Russia; and to make this good people forget that I am a foreigner, I have taken particular pains to furnish myself with a supply of their dirt and of these delicate insects.  If any one asks me who I am, I show him these creatures with whom I associate, and he immediately concludes that I am a Russian.”

Ostermann joined in the laugh that followed this explanation, but suddenly he uttered a piercing cry, and sank down upon a chair.

“Ah, these pains will be the death of me!” he moaned—­“ah, I already feel the ravages of death in my blood; yes, I have long known that a dangerous malady was hovering over me, and my death-bed is already prepared at home!  I am a poor failing old man, and who knows whether I shall outlive the evening of this day?”

While Ostermann was thus lamenting, and the prince with kindly sympathy was occupied about him, Munnich had returned the drawing to his pocket, and was speaking in a low tone to the duchess of some yet necessary preparations for the night.  Count Ostermann, notwithstanding his lamentations and his pretended pains, had yet a sharp ear for every word they spoke.  He very distinctly heard the duchess say:  “Well, I am satisfied!  I shall expect you at about two o’clock in the morning, and if the affair is successful, you, Count Munnich, may be sure of my most fervent gratitude; you will then have liberated Russia, the young emperor, and myself, from a cruel and despotic tyrant, and I shall be eternally beholden to you.”