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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. Fy
and principal nobility were aflembled, and fhe was declared abfolute Sovereign. Within
the fpace of a few months, Biron was appointed gentleman of the bed-chamber, knight
of the order of St. Andrew, lord high-chamberlain, and, as Manftein fays, was omnipo-
tent in the government.
On the death of Ferdinand Ketler, in 1737, the Emprefs difpatched General Bif-
marck, governor of Riga, to Mittau, at the head of a confiderable army. The nobles
having affembled in the cathedral, Bifmarck furrounded the church with troops, and
compelled them to elect for their Sovereign the fame Biron whom they had refufed to
admit into their corps. But his new dignity did not prevent him from keeping his poft
of high chamberlain, and his wife that of the firft lady of the bed-chamber. Biron ruled
Courland with the fame arbitrary fpirit with which he governed Ruffia, and the nobles
who ventured to oppofe his will, or to fpeak with their ufual freedom, were privately
feized by perfons in mafks, forced into Kibitkas, and conveyed to Siberia. ‘The cruel-
ties alfo which he exercifed upon the moft illuftrious perfons of Ruflia almoft exceed
belief ; and Manftein conjectures, that ‘* during the ten years in which Biron’s power
continued, above twenty thoufand perfons were fent to Siberia, of whom fearcely five
thoufand were ever more heard of.”
The arrogance of his temper often broke forth in a manner highly difrefpecful to
the Emprefs. Once in particular, while fhe gave an audience to the Duke of Bevern,
Biron burft into the apartment, complained that he was tormented by her fervants,
threatened, with horrid imprecations, to retire into Courland, and again rufhing out of
the room, fhut the door with great violence. The Emprefs, in the higheft confterna-
tion, lifted up her hands to heaven, then clafped them together, and being almolt ready
to faint, opened the window for air. While fhe continued in this agitation, the Duchefs
of Courland, accompanied by her children, entered the room, kneeled down, and en-
treated the Emprefs to forgive the paffionate behaviour of her hufband. Anne in this,
as in every other inftance, relented, and patiently. endured his infolence*. During the
fitting of the cabinet council, fhe frequently repaired to an adjoining room, in which
her favourite remained, to receive his advice, or rather his orders. She even kept no
table, but dined with his family.
Acquainted only with the German and his native jargon, he governed the extenfive
empire of Ruffia without underftanding the language. He even piqued himfelf on his
ignorance, and declared, in the prefence of the Emprefs, that he would not learn the
Ruffian, becaufe he could not bear to read all the reports and memorials which were
daily tranfmitted to him.
Biron was undoubtedly a man of great capacity; during his whole adminiltration,
the external fplendour, and internal tranquillity of the Ruffian empire, announced the
vigour and wifdom of his meafures, and he fhewed his judgment in employing fuch a
ftatefman as Ofterman, and fuch a general as Munich. He was a fincere friend and an
implacable enemy ; and it was juftly faid of him, that he feldom forgot a benefit, and
always remembered an injury. He amafled an enormous fortune in money and jewels,
and on public occafions his magnificence + far exceeded that of the Emprefs.
* Bufching’s Wochentiliche Nachrichten, 1774, p. 316.
In his vifit of ceremony to the Marquis de la Chetardie, the French Ambaffador, he was preceded by
the folloving proceflion:. 1. An officer of his court on horfeback. 2. Two fervants on horfeback.
3. Three carriages drawn by fix horfes, containing fix cavaliers. 4. Twenty-four feryants on horfeback,
5. Six running footmen. 6. T’wo blacks. 7. ‘Thirty lacquies on foot. §.’Pwelve pages. 9. Nine hey-
ducs. 10. His mafter of the horfe. Laftly, the Duke himfelf in a fplendid carriage drawn by fix horfes ;
behind, two fervants in Turkith drefles, :
Having
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