the princess Sophia, who aspired to the throne, and fomented the spirit of revolt and sedition among the insolent and savage militia of the Strelitz. It was in one of these insurrections that the Czar saw his maternal uncle Nariskia massacred, and risked his own life. At length the design was formed to assassinate him at the imperial palace of Krémelin, and to place the princess Sophia on the throne.

Menzicoff was so fortunate as to discover the very first symptoms of this horrid plot.He instantly made the Czar acquainted with the danger that threatened him, when the young prince, for he was then no more than seventeen years of age, took the necessary measures to seize the conspirators, who were consigned to the extirpating hand of the execu

tioner.

But Peter, in advancing his favourite, never deviated, at least in the military employments which he conferred upon him, from that regular gradation of rank to which he himself submitted. He first made him a lieutenant in the company of bombardiers attached to the regiment of Préobrazinski guards, and Peter took a commission in the same company which rendered him subordinate to his friend. It is a very singular circumstance in history, that a monarch had sufficient strength of mind to conceive, that emnulation, being a very powerful spring of human action, would receive an irresistible impulse, if he appeared himself to be more delighted with a common command, which he should have attained by his merit and his actions, than with the throne itself, for which he was solely indebted to the accident of his birth. Thus he acquired the right of reserving all his favours exclusively to talents and to services. It was indeed the great secret of his politics to persuade his subjects, that a man might rise from the lowest condition to the highest situation, by proving himself worthy of it; and that no rank, however elevated, could save from chastisement the man who had deserved it. Gratitude alone could disarm his justice, for he never forgot any service which had been rendered him. If therefore it should be asked what means he employed to accomplish such great things? it may be answered-that he had acquired the true science of kings:-how to inflict punishments and to confer rewards.

While Charles XII. was inebriated with the vain and transient glory of giving to Stanislaus the territories of Augustus, Peter extended his empire by solid and lasting conquests. He united to it the finest provinces of the Gulf of Finland, Livonia, Carelia, Estonia, and Ingria. The chief place of the latter was Notebourg, which he afterwards named Shlusselbourg, because it is the key of Ingria and Finland. Menzicoff distinguished himself at the siege of this place, and the Crar presented him with the government, to

which he afterwards added that of the province, with the dignity of a prince, the rank of major-general, and the blue ribbon of St. Andrew. He also took the title of Prince Menzicoff; because, in Russia, the titles spring from the persons of those who bear them, and not from their territorial possessions.

Menzicoff had already displayed military talents, by no means inferior to the rewards which he had received. Being intrusted with a particular command, he had beat several bodies of Swedish troops, at a time when the soldiery of Charles XII. were considered as invincible, and when the Czar saw the king Augustus at Chokzin, a fugitive and despoiled of the crown of Poland, he was indebted to Menzicoff for the pleasure of presenting to his unfortunate ally the colours taken from their common enemy; and the first pledge of the promise he then made to that prince, to restore and to avenge him.

It was not only in war that Menzicoff was serviceable to his master: he had acquired knowledge of various kinds, which enabled him to second the designs of Peter, who was occupied in embellishing and fortifying his territories, at the same time that he was combating his enemies. Already Petersburgh was rising into grandeur, the particular object of the Czar's ambition, and the favourite work of his reign. Possessed at length of the provinces which border on the Baltic, he determined to fix the seat of his empire, in the midst of his new conquests, and consequently bring it nearer to the rest of Europe, from which his vast possessions in the distant parts of the north and the east had removed it.The superintendance of this grand monument placed at the mouth of the Neva, and which was to bear the name of its founder, had been confided to the care of Menzicoft in the absence of the Czar, when other enterprizes called him away. It was even Menzicoff who erected, after the wooden model directed by Peter himself, the fort of Cronstadt on the shore of the Baltic, whose foundations were laid in the sea, and which was intended to serve as a suburb to the rising city of Petersburgh.From day to day did he increase in favour with his master; but his glory kept pace with it. Fortune, which seemed to furnish him with brilliant opportunities of acquiring renown, had conducted the king Augustus to Menzicoff in Pomerania, where he commanded the troops of the Czar. The dethroned monarch being then reduced to the two-fold humiliation of having no other asylum but the Russian camp at the very time when he was treating secretly for his abdication with Charles XII. Menzicoff, who was altogether ignorant of this negociation, had the Swedish General Mandlerfeld in front of him, and he gave him battle near Kalish, October 19, 1796; nor did Augustus dare to utter a word,

in opposition to it. The Russians gained a complete victory, killed four thousand of the enemy, and made two thousand six hundred prisoners. This victory, however, caused no alteration in the treaty between Augustus and Charles, whose ascendancy still prevailed in Poland; but that circumstance did not lessen the honour acquired by Menzicoff, in having defeated the Swedes in a pitched battle, an honour which the Russians had enjoyed but ence since the commencement of the war, under General Sheremetof, whom Peter, as a reward for that exploit, had ordered to make a triumphal entry into Moscow.

The Czar was at this time too much occupied in his plans to repulse Charles XII. who was advancing towards Russia, to send Prince Menzicoff to receive a triumph at Moscow, which was three hundred leagues from the theatre of the war. He had too much occasion for his services to spare them for a moment: so that instead of the pomp of a triumph, he offered him the first of all rewards, an opportunity to acquire new glory; and he soon enjoyed that of contending in person with Charles himself between the Boristhenes and the Desna, on the frontiers of the Ukraine. Menzicoff, at the head of the Russian cavalry, fell upon the Swedish advanced guard, and threw it into disorder; while Charles, in repulsing the Russians, which he did with great difficulty, put his life in continual jeopardy. He, however, continued to advance into the Ukraine, where he expected to be joined on one side by the Cossack Mazeppa, and on the other, by General Levenhaupt, who was on the march with a very considerable army and a large supply of stores and ammunition. The Czar, having been joined by Menzicoff, marched forwards to meet Levenhaupt, one of the ablest generals in the service of Charles XII. A very bloody battle accordingly took place near Lesnau, which continued during three days, and where Levenhaupt lost one half of his soldiers, seven pieces of artillery, and fortyfour stand of colours. It was with great difficulty that he could join the king with half the conquered ariny; But notwithstanding his loss, he was enabled to give very considerable support to Charles. He was master of Bathurin, a strong place of the Ukraine, and abundantly provided with all kinds of stores. Thither he had taken his route, in order to recruit his army with whatever it wanted, and to open the way for him to Moscow. It was there that Menzicoff rendered a more essential service to his master, than all which he had previously performed, and to which the Czar considered himself as indebted not only for his preservation, but his crown. They were about a hundred leagues from Bathurin, when Peter, who watched the mosions of the Swedish monarch, could neither

advance upon him, nor tell whither he was going. The active intrepidity of Menzicoff preserved the Czar from this danger. There were some Russian regiments dispersed about the vicinity of Bathurin: he accordingly quitted the imperial army with very few at tendants, took a bye route, not even known to the Swedes, pursued his journey with incredible alacrity, contrived to assemble all the Russian troops he found in their different quarters, put all the infantry on horseback, sent the artillery onwards by post horses, stormed the town of Bathurin, mounted the ramparts sword in hand, and having carried them, plundered the place and reduced it to ashes, Arms, provisions, stores, were all carried off," and Charles was forced to go and lay siege to Pultava, before which place he found the rock on which was dissipated that astonishing and rapid fortune that resembled a storin its terrible effects and its transient duration.

Menzicoff, who had contributed to the victory of Lesnau, had the glory to achieve that of Pultava. He commanded the Russian army for two months, during the absence of the Czar. On the day of battle, he cut off a corps of six thousand men from the Swedish army, and compelled them to lay down their arms and it was he who pursued general Levenhaupt to Pérévolotina, Torced him to capitulate and yield himself a prisoner of war, with fourteen thousand men, the sole remains of that army of Charles XII. which had hitherto been considered as invincible, had made Saxony, Poland, and Russia tremble, and had carried its terrors from the gates of Leipsick to the ramparts of Pultava.

No rewards could be too great for such services, and they were lavished upon him. He was now advanced to the rank of field-marshal and the place of first senator, which is most eminent in the civil administration; he was also at the head of every department of the public affairs, and was decorated with the most distinguished orders of Russia. His credit, his power, and his riches were unlimited. The emperor who abridged his own grandeur to enrich his favourite invested him with immense possessions. They were scattered throughout every province of the Russian cinpire, and he could travel from Riga in Livonia, to Derbent on the frontiers of Persia, and sleep every night on an estate of his own. A hundred and fifty thousand families constituted the number of his vassals. In short, when the Czar set off for his unfortunate canpaign of Pruth, and when he afterwards made his second tour through part of Europe, he left Prince Menzicoff regent of the empire with absolute dominion.

But he abused his power: and to the picture of his splendid actions must succeed that of his faults. Like many others, he disgrae

ed the fortune which he at first merited. He knew inankind well, and what use to make of them; but he confined his employments to his own creatures, and looked to no other merit than that which had placed itself under his protection. His tyrannic pride desired to crush all who refused to creep and cringe before him and he once treated a senator as a rebel and threatened him with the rack, because he dared to deliver an opinion different from his own. Insatiable of treasure, he increased by extortion and by rapine the wealth he had received from the bounty of the Emperor. Complaints, however, poured forth against him from all quarters, and the Czar, on his return from Pruth, appointed a chamber of justice to examine into the malversations practised during his absence. To convict Menzicoff, orders signed by himself were produced and which evidently proved his robberies and various other acts of injustice. It is said, that he rested his defence altogether, upon his ignorance, and the facility with which he might be surprised into mistakes, by presenting him papers which he could not tead; and he threw the whole blame upon the treachery or dishonesty of his secretaries. This excuse, however, is not very credible. It is not to be supposed that, on his advancement to the high offices of government, he had not learn to read. But, be that as it I

were ineffectual, and as it generally happens, his influence increased by the very efforts which were made to destroy it.

The fame of his power being spread through Europe, he was courted by all the foreign princes. The Kings of Denmark, of Prus sia, and of Poland, sent him their respective orders, and, knowing his avarice, annexed considerable pensions to them. The Emperor treated him a prince of the empire, and gave him the Duchy of Cossel in Silesia. All the German princes, who had any thing to hope, or to feaf, from the Czar, became the flatterers of his favourite; they loaded him with presents; and, in spite of the rigid etiquette of Germany, gave him the title of highness. In one word, no private man ever enjoyed such high honours and possessed so much wealth.

Courted as he was by so many sovereigns, and sharing, as it may be said, the empire with his master, he considered himself as superior to all attacks, and protected from every reverse of fortune. He had persuaded himself that punishment could never overtake him. But his pomp and his expenses were beyond the means even of his wealth, inmense as it was, to sustain, and he had recour-e to all the co trivances with which his power furnished him to amass new treasures.-During the expedition of the Czar into Persia, he carried his avidity to such an audacious height as to

con

debase the national coin, and by that daring measure had threatened the commerce of the country with ruin. This was a capital crime. The public outcry aroused the anger of the Czar, and he openly declared that he would punish the criminal.-It was well known that Peter did not threaten in vain, nor inflict ordinary punishment. Nothing was more remarkable in this prince, than the active and profound sentiment of justice and magnanimity, which sometimes redoubled the natural impetuosity of his character and rendered it more terrible; while, at others, it arrested and disarmed him in the most violent paroxysms of passion. All his emotions were sudden and hasty; nor was the suppression of them less rapid. Various well authenticated examples of this disposition might be cited; but we confine ourselves to those circumstances which relate to Menzicoff. How many times did he call forth the passionate anger of the Emperor against himself, and as often did he calm him with a single word. It appeared, as if he held in his hand the springs which governed that ardent and elevated mind. One day, when the Czar threatened to destroy him, the minister replied," And if you do, what then?-You will have the pleasure to destroy your own work," and the Emperor was instantly appeased. Nevertheless, when Peter returned from his Persian cam paign, Menzicoff sunk at once, from the height of confidence as it were into the very abyss of discouragement and apprehension He did not even present himself before the Emperor on his arrival at Petersburgh; but re mained in his palace, on the banks of the Neva, on the pretence of sickness, which it is not improbable that disquietude and alarm had actually produced. He was in bed when his people announced the approach of the Czar, who had passed the Neva, and had come to pay a visit, with but few attendants, and without any previous notification. He sat down at the head of the bed, and was making inquires respecting his health; when Menzicoff informed him that his real illness proceeded from the displeasure of his master, which he acknowledged that he had merited. He did not attempt to offer an excuse, and appeared to expect the severest punishment. This confession touched the Emperor. "Alexander," said he, take courage, you "have indeed committed an heinous offence

sessing, when, seduced by the intrigues of Baron de Goerts, but more probably by a douceur of 400,000 livres, he consented to deliver it into the hands of Frederic William, King of Prussia, on the strength of promises which were never realised. Peter was violently irritated on this occasion; and Menzicoff who had been informed of that circumstance, but who well knew the character of his master, formed a very singular plan of defence and pursued a conduct still more extraordinary. On his arrival he retired to his palace, and did not go to court. The Czar sent to know the cause of his absence; when he haughtily answered, that it was not according to etiquette, for the last person who arrived to pay the first visit. Peter, more exasperated than ever, ordered certain Lords, known to be enemies of Menzicoff, to follow him, that they might witness the humiliation of an insolent and criminal subject. On his arrival, he loaded him with reproaches, and became so irritated as to be on the point of striking him. Menzicoff supplicated his master to grant him a private audience, but it was with great difficulty he obtained it. They then passed into a cabinet, when the minister assuming a more firm tone "you idolise glory," said he to the Czar," and I thought that I "had advanced your own: Charles, your rival,

gave away kingdoms; but it was the wish "of my heart that you should do more than "he; and, that one of your subjects should

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give away provinces; an honour which "never belonged to any one but to yourself: " is not this far superior to the possession of "a territory so far removed from your king"dom, that you could not have retained it?" Peter, naturally struck with every thing that was great, was most sensibly affected by this answer: and the favourable impression being once made, Menzicoff found no difficulty in compleating his purpose; and the Emperor returned from this private conference, manifesting the utmost regard to his minister in the presence of those, who certainly looked for a very different exhibition.

It has, however, been generally believed, that with respect to the diminution of the coin, by the favourite, gratitude was not the sole motive to the Emperor's clemency, and that without the protection of the Empress Catherine, he would not have obtained his pardon. The history of that Princess is well known, and her fortune is still more surprising than that of Menzicoff. She was born in Livonia and made prisoner at Marienbourg, when she entered into the service of the Princess Menzicoff. There the Emperor first saw her and having discovered her superior merit, he raised her to his throne, while her great virtues and eminent talents justified his choice.

It may be generally observed, that the

minister entered into all the views of Peter in humbling the great territorial Lords, who had rendered themselves too formidable, by elevating men who made amends for their inferior birth, by their superior merit. It was this principle also which established the credit of Le Fort and Jagozinski who served him in the interior administration as Menzi coff did at the head of his armies.

Peter, as is well known, was an enemy to pomp and exterior display in himself; he therefore employed Menzicoff to play the splendid part of Emperor, while he contented himself with simplicity of appearance, great actions, and domestic freedom. He permit ted Menzicoff to reign at court while he reigned for posterity. This minister did all the honours of the court festivals, gave audience to ambassadors, and received the homage due to the Emperor himself. - The magnificence and splendour of his appearance was equal to his character as imperial represen tative. On some public occasion, the Empress Catherine said jocosely to her husband, "Do but see what a great number of diamonds "decorate the Princess Menzicoff, and your "wife has none at all." The Czar embracing her immediately replied, "my dear friend, "whenever it shall please God that I make

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peace with Sweden, I promise, that you "shall have as many diamonds as the Princess "Menzicoff."

Catherine was the constant friend of Menzicoff, and it appears that, in the latter years of Peter's reign, she alone supported him against the people who hated him, and against the Czar himself, who began to lose his predilection for him.—But notwithstanding this protection, it was now become a matter of doubt whether his former services, and the royal favour would be able to maintain him against his enemies and his faults. But it. was not reserved for Peter to punish him; and that great man who was taken away too soon for his country, was spared, at least, the sad and painful office of overturning what he had erected. He died; and Menzicoff being in possession of all his employments, and consequently the most powerful man in the empire, was now in a situation to prove his gratitude to the Czarina. Peter had not taken any measures to regulate the succession. There was a party indeed who supported the claim of the Grand Duke, son of the unfortunate Petrowitz who had been cut off by Peter, but the credit and activity of Menzicoff placed Catherine on the throne. She began her reign by creating him Generalissimo, a rank superior to that of Field Marshal; and expressed her intention to create his son Duke of Courland, which, how. ever, was never fulfilled,

It will be readily believed, that so proud a man as Menzicoff, might make his impor

tance too irksome to a woman whose sovereignty he regarded as his own work. On the other hand it is not improbable that the widow of Peter the Great would bear with repugnance the weight of obligation to a man, to whom she had extended protection: from this disposition so natural to them both, mutual suspicions arose. Catherine, with all her exterior attentions to Menzicoff, was contriving in secret to cast off the yoke of a too powerful minister: and Menzicoff was labouring to form a support against the party which he had raised among that which he had beat down. He had therefore entered into a negociation with the court of Vienna to secure the throne, after the death of the Czarina, to the grandson of Peter the great, nephew by her mother's side, to the imperial consort of Charles. This treaty had been just signed by Menzicoff and the Count de Rabutin, imperial minister at the court of Russia, when the Czarina died, after a reign of two years. Hatred, which does not even wait for probabilities in order to suppose crimes; and popular credulity which feeds on accusations of atrocity, did not fail to impute to Menziceff, a death which happened at a moment 80 suited to his purposes: the same reports had prevailed on the death of Peter; and it becomes history to reject such odious imputations where they are unsupported by any proof. Besides, whatever failings might be found in the character, whatever errors might have appeared in the conduct of the minister, they were not of a colour to justify such a charge; his mind was superior to such base designs and atrocious misdeeds.

We now behold Menzicoff the master of a third reign, with a more absolute power than he had hitherto possessed, as he had to govern an emperor of only twelve years of age, who owed him every thing. It might be thought that his power was less exposed than ever to revolutions. Fear was the engine of his government; even the young emperor, who regarded him as the protector of his childhood and the avenger of his rights, trembled before him. This able and ambitious minister already sure of a pupil who was attached to him by gratitude shackled him also by ter

ror.

With a mind continually reflecting on the misfortunes of his father, and the perils that had besieged his infant years, Peter the second was perfectly prepared to receive the alarms with which Menzicoff agitated his apprehensive credulity. He considered himself as surrounded with enemies and conspirators; and on that pretext, the minister had sent into exile all those whom he regarded as deserving of suspicion. No one without his permission dare approach the Emperor, nor did the Emperor dare to speak to any one without his concurrence. Menzicoff who did

not fear any obstacle, as he did not require any assent, proposed to him, as the only means of establishing the imperial authority on a sure foundation, to create him vicar ge neral of the empire. The patents were ac cordingly prepared, and they wanted nothing but the signature of the Emperor. Soon after, the projected marriage between Peter the second and the eldest daughter of Menzicoff was taken into consideration. It was one of the secret conditions of the treaty concluded by the minister of Charles; and Peter in submitting to it, might believe that he did no more than fulfil the wishes of his family and of those who united to secure his succession to the imperial crown. The ceremonials of affiance were celebrated in the most public manner, in presence of the senate and the great officers of the court. No one dared to murmur, and all the discontented persons of whom there was any reason to be afraid, had either retired of themselves, or were removed by the arm of power to some distant residence. The whole passed therefore without opposition; but it was remarked that the ceremony displayed nothing more than a mournful pomp and an ill-omened solemnity; and the only substitute for the joy usual on such occasions, was that which tyranny can always obtain, when it is unresisted, silence and sorrow.

Menzicoff waited but for the marriage of his daughter, and then, being father of the Empress and father in-law of the Emperor; was he not in effect the possessor of a throne, of which his grand children would be the heirs? He imagined that one step more would conduct him to the pinnacle of greatness; alas! he was at the moment of his ruin.

The Prince Dolgorouki and the Count Osterman, two secret, and consequently two dangerous enemies, were neither the objects of his vengeance nor of his suspicions. They had both experienced his insolence and his injustice, but they had wisely given way to the circumstances of the times, and he either thought them devoted to his interests, or had confounded them with the crowd of those whom he had outraged, but did not fear.

Some time after the ceremonial of affiance, Menzicoff was attacked by a dangerous disorder; and it became necessary to find some one to whom he could safely confide the person of the Emperor. He accordingly placed him in the hands of Prince Dolgorouki, for no other reason, but because he neither loved nor feared him. The latter seized the favourable opportunity and knew how to render it decisive. He called Osterman to assist him in completing the ruin of their common enemy. The young Dolgorouki, son of the prince of that name, and about the same age as the Czar, was the most useful instru