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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 729
indeed affords a ftronger proof of the contrary, than the manifefto of Catharine’s accef-
fion, in which fhe refts her right folely on her coronation at Mofcow, and on the refo-
lutions of the fenate, the clergy, and the body of the generals *. Her influence continued
undiminifhed until a fhort time before the death of Peter; when fome circumftances oc-
eafioned a mifunderftanding, which might have ended ina total rupture, if his death had
not intervened. ‘Lhe original caufe of this mifunderftanding arofe from the difcovery
of a fecret connetion between Catharine and Mons, her firft chamberlain. The Em-
peror, fufpicious of the connection, quitted Peterfburgh, under pretence of removing to
a villa for a few days ;_ but privately returned to his winter palace in the capital. From
whence he occafionally fent a confidential page with a complimentary meflage to the
Emprefs, as if he was in the country, with fecret orders to obferve her motions. From
his information, the Emperor, on the third night, furprifed Catharine in an arbour of
the garden with her favourite Mons; while his fiter, Madame Balke, who was firlt
lady of the bed-chamber, was in company with a page, upon the watch without the
arbour.
Peter t ftruck Catharine with his cane, as well as the page who endeavoured to pre-
vent him from entering the arbour, and then retired without uttering a fingle word.
Mons and his fifter were taken into cuftody, and a report was circulated, that they were
imprifoned for receiving bribes, and making their influence over the Emprelfs fubfervi-
ent to their own mercenary views. Mons was carried to the winter palace, where no
one had admiffion to him but Peter, who himfelf brought his provifions ; being exa-
mined in the prefence of Major General Ufchakof, and threatened with the torture, he
confeffed the corruption laid to his charge, and was beheaded. His fifter received five
ftrokes of the knoot, and was banifhed into Siberia ; two of her fons, who were cham-
berlains, were alfo degraded, and fent as common foldiers among the Ruffian troops in
Perfia. On the day jubfequent to the execution of the fentence, Peter conveyed Catha-
rine in an open carriage under the gallows, to which was nailed the head of Mons; the
Emprefs, without changing colour at this dreadful object, exclaimed, “ What a pity it
is, that there is fo much corruption among courtiers f.””
As this event was followed by Peter’s death, and as Catharine recalled Madame Balke,
fhe was fufpeéted of fhortening the days of her hufband by poifon. But notwithftand-
ing the critical fituation of Catharine at the time of his deceafe, and her fubfequent ele-
vation, this charge is deftitute of proof; for the nature of the diforder with which Peter
had been long afflicted, and the peculiar fymptoms § of his laft illnefs, fufficiently account
for his death, without recurring to poifon.
Peter
® See Dumont, Corps Diplom. vol. viii. part 2. p. 104.
+ Baffevitz and Voltaire relate this ganfaction in a different manner, but neither of them would repre=
fent any circumitance tending in the lea{t to criminate Catharine. The Auttrian envoy, from whom the
above relation is chiefly extracted, fays that he received information of the whole affair from the page fent
by Peter, whofe name was Drevenich. Bufch. Hift. Mag. xi. p. 49. Baffevitz himfelf mentions the anec-
dote of his driving her under the gallows, which feems io imply, that Peter certainly thought Catharine
guilty of an intrigue with Mons. ;
+ Baffevitz in Bufch. Hilt. Mag. ix. p. 372. ;
§ “ Peter,” fays the Auttrian envoy, ‘had formerly contracted from one of his miftreffes a complaint,
which on account of his excefles, was never completely eradicated ; and drinking at the ridiculous eleGion
of the mock-patriarch ||, an enormous quantity of wine, beer, mead, and brandy, it increafed to fuch a
degree as to become incurable ; but as there appeared no external fymptoms, the phyficians conceived the
diforder to be the ftone, and treated it accordingly. By thefe means the virus at length gradually gained
Sach a height as to form an abfcefs in the bladder, which, in his lalt illnefs, brought on a {trangury, that
|| See an account of this in Bruce’s Memoirs.
foon
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