ceived, and continued to treat them with his ufual favour. A foreigner coming to him to denounce fome feditious discourses, he replied, that he hated informers, and ordered him to be punished. To the debaucheries of the court fucceeded the violent exercifes with which he haraffed the foldiers. His military mania no longer kept any bounds: he wished that a perpetual noife of cannon fhould give him in representation a foretaste of war: the noife of a befieged city was heard in his peaceable capital. He one day ordered them to let him hear a hundred large pieces of cannon fired at once; and it was neceffary, in order to prevent the execution of this whim, to reprefent to him that it would shake the city to the centre. He often rofe from table to proftrate himself on his knees, with a glafs in his hand, before a portrait of the king of Prusfia, exclaiming, "My brother, we will conquer the universe together.". He took into fingular favour that prince's envoy. He was defirous that this perfon fhould enjoy all the young women of the court, previous to his departure for the war. He fhut him up with them, and stood as guard at the door, with a drawn fword in his hand; and at one of those moments the Great Chancellor of the empire having arrived to transact some bufinefs, he faid to him, "Go, and give in your accounts to Prince George; you fee that I am a foldier." Prince George, of the houfe of Holftein, was one of his uncles, who had been lieutenant-general in Pruffia, and to whom he fometimes publicly faid," Uncle, you are not a very good general, the ́ king has difmiffed you."

"To cite the teftimony of the king of Sweden on a revolution, would be to cite the authority of a mafter; he is more fkilful on this fubject than any of my critics. But what is ftill more effential to the proofs which I wish to difcufs, the late king his father had been the tutor of Peter the Third, and afterwards was indebted to him for the throne; the court of Sweden was the only one that had the generofity to put on mourning for the death of that unfortunate EmpeA tie of gratitude and policy made them very attentive to that event. That prince, who, during his refdence at Paris, was connected with, you, madam, by an intimate friendfhip, which does equal honour to you both, told me in the prefence of the count of Creutz, who is fill his ambassador in France, and of the count of Lewenhaup, a field marthal in the

ror.

fervice of France, that the relation fent to the fenate of Sweden, was perfectly conformable to my narrative. He informed me that the king, his father, had himfelf chosen the two virtuous men of whom I have fpoken, to be the inftructors of Peter the Third. He added, that at the time of this appointment, there was no appearance that Peter would ever be invited into Ruffia; that the house of Holstein expected to fee him afcend the throne of Sweden, and that with the design of more cafily obtaining the fuffrages of the Swedish nation, his education had been directed to republican manners. He alfo confirmed, in an inconteftable manner, all that I have faid of the Emperor's education, and the mode in which I have attempted to explain the fingularities of his character.

"All hiftory prefents us only with one character of the fame description. It is that of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, appearing fometimes to forget his abfolute power, went about the streets of Antioch, foliciting the fuffrages of the loweit of the people, to raise him to fome inferior magiftracy, and who afterwards caufed a curule chair to be brought into the public markets, in which he judged the quarrels of the meanest of the populace. He united, fay the hiftorians, the most pompous magnificence with the meaneft arts of popularity; full of courage, warlike talents, and a knowledge of the arts, he inceffantly prostituted his abilities, his knowledge, his rank, and his dignity, fometimes in the fhops, at others in the forges and workshops, and in the vileft of games, in which it was his pleasure to exhibit himself amidst the most extraordinary pomp. He affumed, by turns, the manners and appearance of all conditions and all characters; fo that neither himfelf, nor any other perfon, knew what fort of a man he really was.

"It is remarkable that this fingular character may be explained precifely in the fame manner as I have explained that of the emperor, Peter the Third. That Afiatic defpot was a Greek by birth. He had in his youth refided fome time at Athens, and ftill longer at Rome, where he was fent as an hoftage. Is it not probable that he acquired in those two republics, that habit of equality, that ambition of diftinguishing himself by his perfonal merit? Impreffions received in his youth, preferved in a weak mind, the conceptions of which were lively and quick, produced that ridiculous compound of reafon, talent, and infanity.

3 A 2

"Antiochus

"Antiochus Epiphanes, and the czar Peter the Third, had both received an education on too great a scale for their genius: that is not in general the misfortune to which princes are expofed in their infancy. It appears to me certain, that the apparent contradictions of every character might thus be explained, if we could difcover in the generality of men, what has made the strongest impression on them in their earliest years."

CATHERINE.

"All eyes were turned on the Empress; but that princess, in appearance, isolated and tranquil, gave no room for fufpicion. During the obfequies of the late Emprefs, the gained the hearts of the people, by a rigorous devotion, and a scrupulous fidelity in the obfervance of the rites of the Greek reli. gion, abounding more with ceremonies than with morality She endeavoured to procure the love of the foldiers, by the only means which her folitude permitted, by questioning the fentinels with affability, and giving them her hand to kifs. One evening, as the was walking in a dark gallery, the fentinel having faluted her with his arms, she asked him how he knew her? He replied, in the Ruffian Ayle, a little in the Oriental manner: "Our mother! who would not know thee? thou lightest every place where thou art." She fent this foldier a piece of gold; and her emiffary brought him over to her faction. Ill-treated by the Emperor, every time that the was obliged to appear at court, fhe feemed to expect the utmoft violence. She was feen occafionally, in public, letting fall tears, as if in fpite of her efforts to rettrain them; endeavouring to make the general pity an inftrument in her favour. Her fecret partizans fpread the report of her danger; and she, in fact, appeared reduced to fuch a defolate ftate, and fallen into fuch difcredit, that she had even lost all authority in the interior of the palace, and her domestics served her only from attachment to her.

"If it is conceived that her defigns ought to be judged by her perils, and that what fhe dared may be juftified by what the had to fear, it will be afked, what were the precife intentions of her husband towards her? How can they be known with certainty Such a man had no fixed refolution; but he took dangerous fteps. It is however certain, that he proposed

to

to restore the unfortunate Ivan to liberty, and to acknowledge him as the heir of his throne; that with this design, he had ordered him to be brought to a fortress near Petersbourg, and had been to vifit him in that prifon. He recalled from. foreign parts, count Soltekof, that firfter, who had been given to the Emprefs, from the pretended neceffity of infuring the fucceffion, and he preffed him publicly to declare himself the father of the Great Duke, appearing refolved to disavow that child. His miftrefs began to display an inordinate ambition. Already did they speak in the palace, of divorcing those young ladies of the court, who had just complaints to make against their husbands; and the Emperor had just secretly ordered a dozen beds, perfectly alike, for a dozen approaching marriages; while no person was enabled to imagine who were the parties. But now every converfation confifted of the complaints, murmurs, and half fentences of perfons, who were mutually defirous of founding each other's fentiments. If the Emprefs was met, in her folitary walks, her air might be obferved to be ferious, but not melancholy. Clearsighted men might have difcovered in her countenance, that phlegmatic compofure under which great defigns are concealed.

Sedi

tious reports, circulated with artifice, to difpofe them to infurrection, were remarked among the people. It was the filent agitation which precedes a storm; and the public expected with anxiety fome great event which would produce a total change, hearing it faid, in all quarters, that the ruin of the Emprefs was certain; but also perceiving that a revolution was approaching. In the midst of the general interest in favour of the Emprefs, what made every one tremble for her was, that no rallying point was difcovered in her favour; no chief was perceived; the weakness of the great, and want of vigour in all the perfons who were known, did not permit them to caft their eyes on any one. The whole movement, in fact, was produced by a man who was hitherto unknown, and had not fixed the public attention.

"Orlof, the handsomest man in the North, of a moderate family, a gentleman, if you will, from the poffeffion of fome peasant flaves, his brothers being foldiers in the regiments of guards, had been chofen as aid-de-camp by the grand mafter of the artillery, the most oftentatious of Ruffians. The cuf tom of the country is, for all the generals, at all times, to re

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tain their aids-de-camp about their perfons; they guard their anti-chambers, follow their carriage on horfeback, and form the interior fociety of their houfe. The advantage of a handfome perfon, which had promoted Orlof, was foon the cause of his difgrace. The princefs Kourakine, one of the most feductive beauties of the court, a fair brunette, of a clear com plexion and lively turn, was, in public, the mistress of the general, and in private, of the aid-de-camp. The general was too vain to be jealous, but he was obliged to yield to evidence; he had the misfortune to furprise them together. The aid-de-camp was dismissed, and he was on the point of being banished for ever to the deferts of Siberia, when an invifible hand rescued him from ruin: it was the Great Duchefs. The rumour of this adventure reached her in the retreat in which the lived, before the death of the Empress Elizabeth. All that fhe was told of this handsome unfortunate, made her esteem him worthy her protection; and befides the princess Kourakine is fo well known, that the lover whom he has chofen,

may be always taken blindfold. Catherine Ivanouwena, an adroit and favourite waiting-maid, managed the intrigue, and took all the precaution which the greatest distrust could fuggeft; and Orlof, beloved by a beautiful unknown, far from fufpecting the whole extent of his good fortune, found himself already the happiest of men. It may be afked if he was more fo, when at length he faw, amidst the pomp of a public ceremony, the beauty whom he adored, on the throne? His life was not the lefs paffed in obfcurity. Whether it proceeded from tafte, from habit, or a planned defign, he lived only with foldiers; and though at the death of the general who had perfecuted him, the procured him the post of treasurer of the artillery, an office which conferred on him a captain's rank, he did not change his mode of life; and his cheft ferved no other purpose, than to procure him inore friends among the troops. He however attached himfelf to the purfuit of his mitrefs; he was found every where in her prefence, and yet no intrigue was ever conducted with more art and referve. In a distrustful court, fhe was never fufpected. It was only when Orlof was fuddenly raised to the fupreme rank, that the courtiers confeffed their fault in not having perceived it: they then recollected marks of fecret intelligence; they cited occafions which fhould have enlightenthem. But there refults only from thefe tardy remarks,

that