Munnich had turned very pale while the duke was thus speaking, and a
sombre inquietude was depicted on his features.
"I know not," he stammered, with embarrassment.
"But I know!" thundered the duke, "and in your terror-struck face I
read the confirmation of what I have said. Look in the glass, sir count,
and you will make no further attempt at denial."
"But the question here is not about what I might have once thought, but
of what you promised me. Your highness, I have made my first request!
It is for you to grant it. I implore your on the strength of your ducal
word to name me as the generalissimo of your troops!"
"No, never!" exclaimed the duke.
"You gave me your word!"
"I gave it as Duke of Courland! The regent is not bound by the promise
of the duke."
"I made you regent!"
"And I do not make you generalissimo!"
"You forfeit your word of honor?"
"No, ask something else, and I will grant it. But this is not feasible.
I must myself be the generalissimo of my own troops, or I should no
longer be the ruler! Ask, therefore, for something else."
Munnich was silent. His features indicated a frightful commotion, and
his bosom heaved violently.
"I have nothing further to ask," said he, after a pause.
"But, I will confer upon you a favor without your asking it!" proudly
responded the duke. "Count Munnich, I confirm you in your offices and
dignities, and, to prove to you my unlimited confidence, you shall
continue to be what you were under the Empress Anna, field-marshal in
the Russian army!"
"I thank you, sir duke," calmly replied Munnich. "It is very noble in
you that you do not send me into banishment for my presumptuous demand."
Clasping the offered hand of the duke, he respectfully pressed it to his
lips.
"And now go, to kiss the hand of the young emperor, that you may not be
accused of disrespect," smilingly added Biron; "one must always preserve
appearances."
Munnich silently bowed, while walking backward toward the door.
"We part as friends?" asked the duke, nodding an adieu.
"As friends for life and death!" said Munnich, with a smile.
But no sooner had the door closed behind him than the smile vanished
from his features, and was replaced by an expression of furious rage.
He threateningly shook his fist toward the door which separated him from
the duke, and with convulsively compressed lips and grating teeth he
said: "Yes, we now part as friends, but we shall yet meet as enemies! I
shall remember this hour, sir duke, and shall do my best to prevent your
forgetting it. Ah, you have not sent me to Siberia, but I will send you
there! And now to the Emperor Ivan. I shall there meet his parents, the
shamefully-slighted Ulrich of Brunswick, and his wife Anna Leopoldowna.
I think they will welcome me."