coxe’s travels in r'ussia.
639
his propenfity to every fpecies of excefs which might enervate his frame, weaken hisunderftanding, and render him. averfe to bufuiefs. This calumny, however, has beenamply refuted by Muller*, who has fhewn, from unqueftionable authority, that Ivanand Peter had two different courts; the education of Peter was folely entrufted to hismother j and if improper perfons were placed about him, the blame muft fall upon her,and not upon Sophia. With refpeflt' to his propenfity to drinking, that vice was ex-tremely common in Ruffia, and Prince Vaffili t Galitzin was as remarkable for hisfobriety as the favourites of Peter, Le Fort and Boris Galitzin, were notorious for in-temperance. “ Le Fort,” fays a writer who was in Livonia when the Tzar and hisfuite palTed through that country in his firft journey to Holland, “ is a man of goodunderftanding ; very perfonable, engaging, and entertaining; a true Swifs for probityand bravery, but chiefly for drinking. Open tables are kept every where, with trumpetsand mulic, attended with feafting and exceflive drinking, as if His Tzarifh Majefty hadbeen another Bacchus. I have not yet feen fuch hard drinkers j it is not poffible toexprefs it, and they boaft of-it as a mighty qualification J.”
Thus it appears that Peter had examples of intemperance in his own houfehold ; andit cannot be fuppofed that Le Fort was the creature of Sophia. The evident falfehoodof fuch virulent accufations fhould induce us not to credit other calumnies ; particularlythe charge that fhe attempted to deftroy Peter by poifon, which, though it failed of itsintended effeft, difordered his conftitution, and occafionally produced melancholy anddefpair bordering on madnefs. This report took its rife from his pronenefs to epilepticfits j a diforder common in his family, which gradually diminifhed as he grew ftronger,but never entirely forfook him. Before an attack, the natural vehemence and favage-nefs of his temper broke out with redoubled violence, and rendered him the terror ofall who approached him! The inveterate rancour with which the enemies of Sophiahave calumniated her memory, .is in no inftance more evident than from their ab-furdly imputing the brutal ferocity of Peter to the effe&s of poifon which fhe admi-niftered §.
But it is time to trace the principal caufes of her fall. Sophia, to whom Ivan fur-rendered the direction of affairs, affumed fome exterior marks of homage, which feeratto have been hitherto appropriated only to the fovereigns of Ruffia. While the headsof her two brothers were imprefled on one fide of the coins, her image, arrayed with
* Journ of St. Pet. Mar. 1778, p. 168, 169.
f “ Galitzin was the only man of quality in Ruffia who could entertain, without forcing his.company todrink to exctfs. Brandy, the liquor which flowed at every other table, was feldom feen at his, who neverdrank any himfelf, but took much delight in rational and ingenious converfatron.”
Mottley’s Life of Peter.
^ Account of Livonia, p. 293.
§ “ 11 prenoit quelquefois des acces d’humeur chagrine, ou il fentblait frappe de l’klce noire qu’on vou-lait attenter a fa perfonne, et ou fes amis les plus familiers craignaient fes emportemens. Ces acces
ETAJENT UN RESTE FATAL DU POISON QV’lL REgUT Dk SON AMB1T1EU9E SOEUR SOPHIE. Oil en COI1-
naiffait l’approche a certains mowvemens tonmuljifs defa bouche. L’lmperatrice etait avertie b.lle venait luiparler; le fon de cette voix le calmait a I’inilant. Elle le faifait afieoir, et s’emparait en le cajolant de fatete, qu’elle grattait doucement. C’etaic comme un chatme, qui t’affovpiffail en peu dc minutes. Pour nepas troubler fon fommeil, el'le foutenait fa tete fur fon fein, fans fe rcmuer pendanl deux ou trots heures Alorail fe reveillait, entierement raffis et remis, au lieu qu’avant qu’elle eut etudie cette maniere fi fimple de lefoulager, ces acces etaient la terreur de ceux qui l’approchatent, a;ant caufe, dit on, quelques malheurs, etetant fuivi de maux de tele ajfreux, qui duraient des journees entieres Baffevitz in Buf. H. M. fx. p. 294.Strange effedls of poifon given in his infancy. Thofe who have been ufed to fee perfon6 in epileptic fits,will eafiiy difcover all the tfft'dls of that diforder from the words in Italics. Bifhop Burnet fays, “ he wa*fubjeil to convulfive motions all over his body, and his head feemed to be affe&ed with thcfe.”
the