From the windows of her palace Elizabeth had witnessed the preparations for this pretended execution; and as she knew that at last their punishment would be commuted, she was amused to see the solemn earnestness and the death-shudder of the condemned.  It was a very entertaining hour that she and her friends passed at that window, and the comical face of old Ostermann, the proud gravity of Count Munnich, the folded hands and heaven-directed glances of Golopkin and Lowenwald, had often made her laugh until the tears ran down her cheeks.

“That was a magnificent comedy!” said she, retreating from the window when the condemned were released from their bands and raised into the vehicles that were immediately to start with them for Siberia.  “Yes, it was, indeed, very amusing!  But tell me, Lestocq, where are they about to take old Count Ostermann?”

“To the most northerly part of Siberia!” calmly replied Lestocq.

“Poor old man!” signed Elizabeth; “it must be very sad for him thus to pass his last years in suffering and deprivation.”

Lestocq seemed not to have heard her remark, and laughingly continued:  “To Munnich I have thought to apply a jest of his own.”

“Ah, a jest!” cried Elizabeth, suddenly brightening up.  “Let me hear it.  You know I love a jest, it is so amusing!  Quick, therefore, let us hear it!”

“Perhaps your majesty may remember Biron, Duke of Courland,” said Lestocq.  “Count Munnich, as you know, overthrew him, and placed Anna Leopoldowna in the regency.  Biron has ever since lived at Pelym in Siberia, and, indeed, in a house of which Munnich himself drew the plan, the rooms of which are so low that poor Biron, who is as tall as Munnich, could never stand erect in them.  The good Munnich, he was very devoted to the duke, and hence in pure friendship invented this means of reminding him, every hour in the day, of the architect of his house, his friend Munnich!”

“Ah, you promised us a jest, and you are there repeating an old and well-known story!” interposed the empress, yawning.

“Now comes the joke!” continued Lestocq.  “We have transferred Biron to another colony, and Herr Munnich will occupy the poetical pleasure-house of his friend Biron at Pelym.”

“Ah, that is delightful, in fact!” cried Elizabeth, clapping her little hands.  “How will Munnich curse himself for cruelty which now comes home to himself!  That is very witty in you, Herr Lestocq; very laughable, is it not, Alexis?  But, Alexis, you do not laugh at all; you look sad.  What is the matter with you?  Who has disobliged, who has wounded you?”

Alexis sighed.  “You yourself!” he said, in a low tone.

“I?” exclaimed the astonished empress.  “I could not be so inhuman!”

“No, only to wound me by refusing the first request I addressed to you!”

“Name your request once more, I have forgotten it!” said Elizabeth with vehemence.