which you will
smilingly plunge, dragging us all after you. Well, peace be with you!
My sufferings have lately been so great, that I can only thank you for
furnishing me with the means of quickly ending them! Madame, we shall
meet again on the scaffold, or in Siberia! Until then, farewell!"

And, without waiting for an answer from the regent, the old man,
groaning, tottered out of the room.

"Thank Heaven that he is gone!" said Anna, drawing a long breath when
the door closed behind him. "This old ghost-seer has tormented me for
months with his strange vagaries, which weigh upon his soul like the
nightmare! Happily, thy letter, my beloved, has filled my whole heart
with the ecstasy of joy, else would his dark and foolish prophecies be
sufficient to sadden me."

Thus speaking, the princess again drew Count Lynar's letter from her
bosom and pressed it to her lips. Then she called her women to dress her
for the ball.

THE COURT BALL

Some hours later the _elite_ of the higher Russian nobility were
assembled in the magnificent halls of the regent. Princes and counts,
generals and diplomatists, beautiful women and blooming maidens, all
moved in a confused intermixture, jesting and laughing with each other.
They were all very gay on this evening, as the regent had herself set
the example. With the most unconstrained cheerfulness, radiant with joy,
did she wander through the rooms, dispensing smiles and agreeable words
among all whom she approached. She bore in her bosom the glowing and
cherished letter of her lover, and at its lightest rustling she seemed
to feel the immediate presence of the writer. That was the secret of her
gayety and her joyous smiles. People, perhaps, knew not this secret, but
they saw its effects, and, as the all-powerful regent deigned this day
to be cheerful and smiling, it was natural for this host of slavish
nobility, who breathe nothing but the air of the court, to adopt for
this evening's motto, "Gayety and smiles."

As we have said, only smiling lips and faces beaming with joy were to
be seen; all breathed pleasure and enjoyment, all jested and laughed;
it seemed as if all care and sorrow had fled from this happy, select
circle, to give place to the delights of life. They had, with submissive
humility, repressed all discontent and disaffection, all envyings and
enmities; they chatted and laughed, while every one knew or suspected
that they were standing on a volcano, whose overwhelmi