Without are standing three most worthy,
corpulent, tobacco-scented ambassadors, who desire an audience. Your
grace is, above all things, regent, and must receive them."
"Must!" exclaimed Anna, suddenly contracting her brows. "We will first
hear what they desire of us."
"The first is the envoy of the great Persian conqueror,
Thamas-Kouli-Khan, who comes to lay at your feet the magnificent
presents of his master."
"Bah! they are presents for the young Emperor Ivan. He may, therefore,
be conducted to the cradle of my son, and there display his presents. It
does not interest me."
"The second is a messenger from our camp. He brings news of a great
victory obtained by one of your brave generals over the Swedes!"
"But what does that concern me?" angrily cried the regent. "Let them
conquer or be defeated, it is all the same to me. That concerns my
husband the generalissimo! Let me be spared the sight of the warlike and
blood-dripping messenger!"
"The third is the ambassador of the wavering and shaking young Austrian
Empress Maria Theresa. He comes, he says, upon a secret mission, and
pretends to have discovered a sort of conspiracy that is hatching
against you."
"Let him go with his discovery to Golopkin, our minister of the
interior.
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