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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 699
giving public audience to foreign ambafladors; while Peter, averfe to the pomp of
royalty, appeared as a private perfon in his fuite. So great indeed was the afcendency
which this favourite acquired over the Emperor, as to occafion a report antong the Ruf-
fians, that he fafcinated by witchcraft the mind of his matter.
On the death of Peter the power of Mentchikof was ftill more unbounded. Catha-
rine, chiefly indebted to his affiftance for her elevation to the throne, gratefully refigned
to him the fole adminiftration of affairs; his authority continued undiminifhed to the
moment of her deceafe, and the claufe in her will *, by which fhe ordered her fucceflor
Peter II. to efpoufe the Prince’s daughter, was at once a proof of his afcendency and her
gratitude.
His intrigues and power, his ambition and arrogance, his difrefpectful behaviour to
Peter II. t, and the peculiar circumftances of his dilgrace are related in the Memoirs of
Manftein ¢. Being arrefted, in September, 1727, he was imprifoned at Berefof, a fmall
town upon the river Oby, in a wooden hovel inclofed with pallifadoes, where he ended
his days. He fupported his difgrace with firmnefs and refignation §: he received a
daily allowance of ten roubles, from which he even faved a fufficiency to build a wooden
church, and amufed himfelf by affifting the workmen in the conftruction. He furvived
his fall two years and five months, dying in November, 1729, of an apoplexy {j.
The wife of Prince Mentchikof, affected with her hufband’s difgrace, became blind
with weeping, and expired on the road to Berefof. One of his daughters died before
her father in prifon; and his furviving fon and daughter were releafed at the acceflion
of the Emprefs Anne. The daughter was married to Guftavus Biren, brother to the
Duke of Courland, and the fon promoted in the army. A grandfon of Prince Ment-
chikof is now living : he is an officer in the Ruffian army, and inherits the name, but
neither the riches or power of his grandfather.
Soon after the fall of Mentchikof, the palace of Oranienbaum was converted into an
hofpital for failors; but was afterwards chofen by Peter the Third for his favourite
refidence. The body of the edifice was built by Mentchikof, and confilts of two ftories,
containing a range of fmall apartments; the wings, which are long buildings of one
{tory, were added by the Emperor.
Paffing from the palace to the fortrefs, we obferved a miniature model of a citadel,
made by order of Peter III. when he firft contra€ted a fondnefs for military ftudies, for
the purpofe of learning prattical fortification. The fortrefs, which is furrounded with
a ditch and rampart, and ftrengthened with baftions, was raifed by Peter when Great
Duke, and contains a building called the governor’s houfe, which he generally inhabited,
himfelf, and into which he admitted only his officers and favourites, while his court re-
fided in the palace. Near it were barracks for a {mall garrifon, fome wooden houfes
for the principal officers, and a fmall Lutheran chapel, where the Holftein foldiers
affembled for divine fervice. ‘The governor’s houfe is a brick building ftuccoed, with
four windows in front, and contains eight {mall rooms. It remains exactly in the fame
{tate 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 not
the leat proof. We muit diftinguifh between thofe parts of Gordon’s hiftory, which relate to events while
he was in Ruffia, and the others which he wrote after he quitted that country in 1711. He {peaks worfe
of Prince Mentchikof than he feems to deferve, and particularly arraigns his courage.
+ Munic gives, amongft others, the following inftances of his arrogance, ‘* Lorfqu’il écrivoit au jeune
Empereur ille traitoit de fils et fous-fignoit la lettre; Votre Pere Menfchikow. Aux eglifes il fe mettoit 2
la tribune de ’Empereur,”’ &c, Ebauche, &c. p..67. : sain
DP. gato p.. 63. § Mantftein, p, to. || See Schmidt Materialien, p. 248.
4U 2 he
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