coxe’s travels in Russia . 735

caftle of St. Elmo at Naples . Being fecretly betrayed by his Finlandifh miftrefs, whomhe is reported to have married, and influenced by the mod folemn promiles of forgive-nefs, he was prevailed upon, by the emiffaries of his father, to return to Mofcow. Hav-ing there folemnly renounced all right of fucceffion to the crown, he was conveyed toPeterfburgh, thrown into the fortrefs, tried by a feledl committee, and condemned tofuffer death. The a£ts of his procefs and condemnation are well known, being publilhedby order of the Emperor , and are to be found in feveral authors *.

. Whatever prejudices we may have entertained againft Alexey, we cannot perufe thetrial without being fhocked at the cruel and unjuft mode with which it was conduced ;when his mercilefs perfecutors eagerly laid hold of every advantage afforded by hisyouth and fimplicity ; when his Finlandilh miftrefs, who was afterwards penftoned forher atteftations, depofed every angry expreffion againft his father, which fhe ever recol-lected to have fallen from him in the inoft unguarded moments: when not only hiswords and actions were brought to witnefs againft him, but his very thoughts fcrutinized,and his own confefiion extorted in prifon employed to conviCt him. Indeed many ofhis own depofitions, which tend moil to criminate him, by difcovering intentions of re-bellion, were not openly acknowledged, but only figned in prifon; and a ftgnal differ-ence is remarkable between his confeffions during his ftrft examination at Mofcow, whichwas more public, and thofe made at Peterfburgh, when his trial was chiefly conductedin private before Peter and his immediate confidents: circumftances which feem toprove the infliction of torture.

With refpedt to Alexey’s death, two opinions prevail; one advanced in the manifeftoof Peter, that he was feized with an apoplectic fit, and died of convulfions occafionedby the violent paflions of his mind and the terrors of death ; the other, that he wasfecretly executed in prifon. The latter is moft entitled to belief, notwithftanding theafiertions of Peter, and the apology of his panegyrifts.

Of all the accounts of the Prince’s death, that given by Bufching f is the moft proba-ble ; he pofitively affirms, that he was beheaded by order of his father, and that Martha!Weyde performed the office of executioner. He received the intelligence from Ma-dame Cramer, a lady at Peterfburgh,,who was in high confidence, both with Peter andCatharine, and was employed in fewing the head to his body before it lay in ftate. Dur-ing my ftay at Peterfburgh, I was at fome pains to authenticate this fad ; but found itextremely difficult to obtain any pofitive information concerning fo fecret a tranfa&ion.The moft material circumftances I could colleCt were communicated by an intimateacquaintance of the above-mentioned lady : he allured me that he always found herextremely averfe to hold any difcourfe on the death of Alexey; that fhe feemed ex-ceedingly fhocked whenever the topic was introduced, and nothing could be furtherextorted from her, than that fhe was the perfon who prepared the body for the cere-mony of lying in ftate. This unwillingnefs of the lady to enter upon the fubjeCt, toge-ther with her declaration that fhe prepared the body, adds a great degree of confirmationto the account of Bufching.

An additional proof, in favour of this faCt, I received from an Englilh gentleman J ofundoubted veracity, who affured me, from the information of Prince Cantemir’s fecre-

* Mottley, vol. ii. And more circumftantially in Perry, vol. ii.

t Buf. Hif. Mag. vol. iii. p. 234. Aifo introduction to vol. is.

f Mr. Ruft, who travelled with Mr. Hoare, foil of the late Henry Hoare, Efq. of Stourhead . Hebecame intimately acquainted at Aix la Chapelle with Vogenrock, who had been fecrctary to Prince Can-temir, was then eighty years of age, and had collected materials for the life of Peter I., but never reducedthem to order.

tary,