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ed to his views, implicitly followed the direction of their leader. The people, though not insensible to the disorders of the court, reverenced in the empress, whose vices they overlooked, the lineage of the great Peter, the hero of the nation.

An army, consisting of forty thousand Russians, commanded by general Apraxin, had been ordered by the empress to assist Maria Theresa in reconquering Silesia from the Prussian monarch. The grand-duke, distressed at this attack on his favourite, applied to the chancellor to recal the troops. Elizabeth at this crisis falling sick, the path to the throne seemed opening to Peter: Bestucheff, on this prospect, sacrificed to ambition his hatred to the duke and the honour of the empire. Apraxin received orders to abandon his conquests, and to hasten his return. The empress, reviving, suspected treachery: the general was called upon to justify his conduct, which he did by producing the orders of the chancellor. Bestucheff, become the dupe of his own cupidity, was removed from his offices and put under arrest. Count Vorontzaff succeeded to his office and employments.

Previous to this revolution, the enemies of Bestucheff had, as a means of effecting his ruin, determined to foment the discord between the ducal pair, and to charge on the original mover of their disunion whatever consequences might ensue. With this view the attention of Peter was roused to the conduct of his wife; her interviews with Poniatoffsky were remarked, their gestures watched, and their expressions analysed. The conversation one evening at table, where Catherine was seated opposite to her lover, chanced to turn on horsemanship, the dexterity of some women in this exercise, and the dangers to which it exposed them. Catherine, her eyes turned towards Poniatoffsky, replied with vivacity, that her courage was unbounded, and few women were so bold as herself. This expression, tortured and exaggerated, was reported to the duke, to which suggestions were added calculated to rouse his suspicions. His jealousy thus awakened, no time was lost to confirm his fears. Peter, overwhelmed with vexation, condemned his own imprudence, bewailed his fate, and, no longer observing the respect towards the duchess with which he had hitherto treated her, forbade her to be seen with the Pole; while hastening to the empress, he implored her to avenge the affront he had suffered. He informed her at the same time, that the misconduct of the duchess had been favoured by the chancellor, who had also abused her imperial confidence. At the conclusion of this address, the order sent by Bestucheff for the recal of the troops from Silesia had been displayed. Thus had the fall of the chancellor been prepared: deprived of his offices, he was tried, found guilty, and condemned to death. This sentence was however softened by Elizabeth, who contented herself with banishing him to an estate beyond Moscow.

Catherine, with every thing to apprehend from the resentment of her husband, now beheld herself completely deserted: her most assiduous parasites were the first to forsake her in her distress : sustained only by her own courage, she determined to essay the powers of her address, and to demand of the empress an audience. This request being rejected, she applied to the embassador of France, whose influence at court gave her hopes of success through his mediation: to him she represented her distress and her contrition, and entreated him to speak in her behalf to the empress. The embassador, having replied with respect, and given her such counsel as appeared to him most prudent, declined any farther interference. The situation of Catherine, whom the consciousness of innocence could not support, was, on receiving this reply, sufficiently humiliating. Poniatoffsky, not less disquieted than his mistress, had received from Warsaw letters of recal, with

out being able to resolve on quitting Russia. Feigning sickness, he confined himself during the day to his hotel, and, under the obscurity of the evening, repaired to the apartments of the grandduchess. Malice and suspicion are not to be disarmed or evaded; the assignations of the lovers were discovered, and information conveyed to the empress.

By the return of summer, these difficulties were increased: Catherine was obliged to ac company her husband to Oranienbaum; and Poniatoffsky reduced to invention and disguise for access to the palace. Thus circumstanced, he was one day sauntering through one of the walks in the grounds where the duchess had appointed to meet him, when a domestic recognised him through his disguise, and ran to acquaint the duke of his discovery. Peter, willing to mortify his rival, commissioned a Russian officer, of a robust and athletic figure, to seize on the Pole unawares, and to bring him before him. The officer, on accosting the person pointed out to him, interrogated him roughly respecting his name and business. Poniatoffsky, thus taken by surprise, stammered out an incoherent excuse, which implyed that he was a German taylor, and that he came to mea

sure an Holstein officer. • My orders,' replied the Russ, are to bring you before the grandduke.'' You must allow me,' returned the Pole, ' to decline the honour, though my fortune should depend upon it. I am in haste, and have not a moment to spare.' 'Oh, as to that matter,' rejoined his sturdy antagonist, whether you have time or not, you must follow me.' Having thus said, and observing his reluctance, he made a slip-knot in his handkerchief, which he threw over the neck of his captive, and thus dragged him to the feet of his master. Peter, seeing Poniatoffsky brought like a criminal before him, affected an angry air, and, in a feigned passion, rated the officer for his mistake. This adventure, with which he afterwards amused himself, he failed not to relate in the presence of the duchess.

It was about this period, that Peter, retaliating upon his wife, formed a connection with the third daughter of the senator Vorontzoff, brother to the new chancellor. The youngest of these sisters was the princess Dashkoff, whose talents, activity, and courage, became afterwards so conspicuous. The favourite of the duke, inferior to her sisters both in beauty and endowments, captivated the affections of Peter by her cheerfulness and good

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