... as they had to the Empress Anna; they threw themselves upon the earth when they met him, they humbly bared their heads when passing his palace; and when the magnates of the realm, the princes and ... withbrilliants of an unusual size, and had not the arms emblazoned upon the door of his chair, in spite of the dustand dirt, betrayed a noble rank. The arms were those of the Ostermann family, and ... woman, and she trembled when thinking of the poison, the dagger, the throttling hands, and flaying sword, which had constantly beset the throne of Russian, and in amanner had been the means...