COXJi’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
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giving public audience to foreign ambaffadors; while Peter , averfe to the pomp ofroyalty, appeared as a private perfon in his fuite. So-great indeed was the afcendencywhich this favourite acquired over the Emperor , as to occafion a report among the Ruf-fians, that he fafcinated by witchcraft the mind of his mailer.
On the death of Peter the power of Mentchikof was hill more unbounded. Catha-rine, chiefly indebted to his affihance for her elevation to the throne, gratefully refignedto him the foie adminiftration of affairs; his authority continued undiminilhed to themoment of her deceafe, and the claufe in her will *, by which fhe ordered her fuccehbrPeter If . to efpoufe the Prince’s daughter, was at once a proof of his afcendency and hergratitude.
His intrigues and power, his ambition and arrogance, his difrefpe&ful behaviour toPeter II . f, and the peculiar circumltances of his difgrace are related in the Memoirs ofManftein j. Being arrefted, in September, 1727, he was imprifoned at Berefof, a fmalltown upon the river Oby, in a wooden hovel inclofed with pallifadoes, where he endedhis days. He fupported his difgrace with firmnefs and refignation §: he received adaily allowance of ten roubles, from which he even faved a fufficiency to build a woodenchurch, and arnufed himfelfby affifling the workmen in the conftruflion. He furvivedhis fall two years and five months, dying in November, 1729, of an apoplexy J[.
The wife of Prince Mentchikof, affe&ed with her hufband’s difgrace, became blindwith weeping, and expired on the road to Berefof. One of his daughters died beforeher father in prifon ; and his furviving fon and daughter were releafed at the acceffionof the Emprefs Anne. The daughter was married to Guftavus Biren, brother to theDuke of Courland, and the fon promoted in the army. A grandson of Prince Ment-chikof is now living : he is an officer in the Ruffian army, and inherits the name, butneither the riches or power of his grandfather.
Soon after the fall of Mentchikof, the palace of Oranienbaum was converted into anhofpital for failors; but was afterwards chofen by Peter the Third for his favouriterefidence. The body of the edifice was built by Mentchikof, and confifts of two ftories,containing a range of fmall apartments; the wings, which are long buildings of oneflory, were added by the Emperor.
Palling from the palace to the fortrefs, we obferved a miniature model of a citadel,made by order of Peter III . when he firft contra&ed a fondnefs for military lludies, forthe purpofe of learning praftical fortification. The Fortrefs, which is furrounded witha ditch and rampart, and llrengthened with baflions, was raifed by Peter when GreatDuke, and contains a building called the governor’s houfe, which he generally inhabitedhimfelf, and into which he admitted only his officers and favourites, while his court re-fided in the palace. Near it were barracks for a fmall garrifon, fome wooden houfesfor the principal officers, and a fmall Lutheran chapel, where the Holftein foldiersaffembled for divine fervice. The governor’s houfe is a brick building lluccoed, withfour windows in front, and contains eight fmall rooms. It remains exactly in the fameftate as during the life-time of the Emperor , neither the furniture, nor the bed, in which
* Gordon fuppofes that this will was forged by Prince Mentchikof; a fuppofition for which there is notthe lea » proof. We mu ft diftinguilh between thofe parts of Gordon’s hiftory, which relate to events whilehe was in Ruffia, and the others which he wrote after he quitted that country in 1711. He fpeaks worfeof Prince Mentchikof than he feems to defervc, and particularly arraigns his courage.
+ Munic gives, amongft others, the following inftances of his arrogance, “ Lorfqu’il eCrivoit au jeuneEmpereur il le traitoit de fils et fous-fignoit la lettre ; Votre Pere Menfchikow. Aux eglifes il fe metcoit ala tribune de l’Empereur,” &c. Ebauche, &c. p. 67.
P. 2. to p. 13. § Manftein, p. 10. || See Schmidt Material/en, p. 248.
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