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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 735
caftle of St. Elmo at Naples. Being fecretly betrayed by his Finlandifh miftrefs, whom
he is reported to have married, and influenced by the moft folemn promifes of forgives
nefs, he was prevailed upon, by the emiflaries of his father, to return to Mofcow. Hay-
ing there folemnly renounced all right of fucceflion to the crown, he was conveyed to
Peterfburgh, thrown into the fortrefs, tried by a felel committee, and condemned to
fuffer death. The aéts of his procefs and condemnation are well known, being publifhed
by order of the Emperor, and are to be found in feveral authors *.’
Whatever prejudices we may have entertained againft Alexey, we cannot perufe the
trial without being fhocked at the cruel and unjuft mode with which it was conducted 5
when his mercilefs perfecutors eagerly laid hold of every advantage afforded by his
youth and fimplicity ; when his Tinlandifh miftrefs, who was afterwards penfioned for
her atteltations, depofed every angry expreffion againft his father, which fhe ever recol-
le€ted to have fallen from him in the moft unguarded moments: when not only his
words and actions were brought to witnefs againft him, but his very thoughts fcrutinized,
and his own confeflion extorted in prifon employed to convict him. Indeed many of
his own depofitions, which tend moit to criminate him, by difcovering intentions of re-
bellion, were not openly acknowledged, but only figned in prifon; and a fignal differ-
ence is remarkable between his confeflions during his firft examination at Mofcow, which
was more public, and thofe made at Peterfburgh, when his trial was chiefly conducted
in private before Peter and his immediate confidents: circumftances which feem to
prove the infliGion of torture.
With refpeé to Alexéy’s death, two opinions prevail ; one advanced in the manifefto
of Peter, that he was feized with an apoplectic fit, and died of convulfions occafioned
by the violent paflions of his mind and the terrors of death; the other, that he was
fecretly executed in prifon. The latter is moft entitled to belief, notwithftanding the
affertions of Peter, and the apology of his panegyrifts.
Of all the accounts of the Prince’s death, that given by Bufching + is the moft proba-
ble; he pofitively affirms, that he was beheaded by order of his father, and that Marfhal
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 and
Catharine, and was employed in fewing the head to his body before it lay in ftlate. Dur-
ing my ftay at Peterfburgh, I was at fome pains to authenticate this fact; but found it
extremely difficult to obtain any pofitive information concerning fo fecret a tranfaction.
The molt material circumftances I could collect were communicated by an intimate
acquaintance of the above-mentioned lady: he affured me that he always found her
extremely averfe to hold any difcourfe on the death of Alexéy; that fhe feemed ex-
ceedingly fhocked whenever the topic was introduced, and nothing could be further
extorted 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 fubje@t, toge-
ther with her declaration that fhe prepared the body, adds a great degree of confirmation
to the account of Bufching.
An_ additional proof, in favour of this fact, I received from an Englifh gentleman { of
undoubted veracity, who aflured me, from the information of Prince Cantemir’s fecre-
* Mottley, vol. ii. And more circumftantially in Perry, yol. ii.
+ Buf. Hif. Mag. vol. iii. p. 234. Alfo introdution to vol. ix.
$ Mr. Roft, who travelled with Mr. Hoare, fon of tbe late Henry Hoare, Efq. of Stourhead. He
became intimately acquainted at Aix la Chapelle with Vogenrock, who had been fecretary to Prince Can-
temir, was then eighty years of age, and had colletcd materials for the life of Peter I., but never reduced
them to order,
tary,
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