Tranquillity was again established in Russia. Once again all faces were
lighted up with joy at this new state of affairs, and again the people
congratulated themselves on the good fortune of the Russian empire! All
this was done four weeks previously, when Biron took upon himself the
regency, and the same will be done again when another comes to overthrow
the Regent Anna!
It was on the day after this new revolution, when Munnich, entering the
palace with a proud step and elevated head, requested an interview with
the regent.
"Your highness," he said, not bending the knee before his sovereign as
custom demanded, but only slightly pressing her hand to his lips--"your
highness, I have redeemed my word and fulfilled my promise. I promised
to liberate you from Biron and make you regent, and I have kept my word.
Now, madame, it is for you to fulfil your pledge! You solemnly promised
that when I should succeed in making you regent, you would immediately
and unconditionally grant me whatever I might demand. Well, now, you are
regent, and I come to proffer my request!"
"It will make me happy, field-marshal, to discharge a small part of my
obligations toward you, by yielding to your demand. Ask quickly, that I
may the sooner give!" said Anna Leopoldowna, with an engaging smile.
"Make me the generalissimo of your forces!" responded Munnich in an
almost commanding tone.
A cloud gathered over the smiling features of the regent.
"Why must you ask precisely this--this one only favor which it is
no longer in my power to bestow?" she sadly said. "There are so many
offices, so many influential positions--ah, I could prove my gratitude
to you in so many ways! Ask for money, treasures, landed estates--all
these it is in my power to give. Why must you demand precisely that
which is no longer mine!"
Munnich stared at her with widely opened eyes, trembling lips, and
pallid cheeks. His head swam, and he thought he could not have rightly
heard.
"I hope this is only a misunderstanding!" he stammered. "I must have
heard wrong; it cannot be your intention to refuse me."
"Would to God it were yet in my power to gratify you!" sighed the
regent. "But I cannot give what is no longer mine! Why came you not a
few hours earlier, field-marshal? then it would have been yet possible
to comply with your request. But now it is too late!"
"You have, then, appointed another generalissimo?" shrieked Munnich,
quivering with rage.
"Yes," said Anna, smiling; "and see, there comes my generalissimo!"
It was the regent's husband, Prince Ulrich von Brunswick, who that
moment entered the room and calmly greeted Munnich.
"You have here a rival, my husband," said the princess, without
embarrassment; "and had I not already signed your diploma, it is very
questionable whether I should now do it, now that I know Count Munich
desires the appointment."