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.
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