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And such refractory conduct toward a Russian master, had it not in all

times been a terrible and execrable crime--a crime for which banishment

to Siberia had always been considered a mild punishment?

Poor Anna! called to rule over Russia, she lacked only the first and

most necessary qualification for her position--a Russian heart! There

was, in this Gerentleness and

oodness To a less barbarous people she

racious benefactor!

But her arm was too weak to wield the knout instead of the sceptre

over this people of slaves, her heart too soft to judge with inexorable

severity according to the barbarous Russian lahich, never pardoning,

always condeed from her the hearts of the

Russians They felt that it was no Russian who reigned over them; and

because they had no occasion to tremble and creep in the dust before

her, they almost despised her, and derided the idyllic sentiood German princess ished to realize her fantastic drea a horde of barbarians as a civilized people!

The slaves longed for their foreness, and to them it seemed unnatural not

everywhere to see the brandished knout, the avenging scaffold, and the

transport-carriages departing for Siberia!

Much as Ostermann importuned her, often as her own husband warned her,

Anna nevertheless refused; she would not banish Field-Marshal Munnich