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736 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
tary, with whom he was intimately acquainted abroad, that Alexéy was beheaded in
prifon. As Prince Cantemir was in*high favour with Peter, the intelligence of his con-
fidential fecretary muft carry great weight. This fact appears fo well attefted, that many
German hiorians have adopted it without referve, and in feveral genealogical tables of
the imperial family, Alexéy is inferted as beheaded. A paflage, however, in Bruce’s
Memoirs, feems at firft fight to invalidate this concurrent evidence, and to prove that
he was poifoned.
«<The trial { was begun on the 25th of June, and continued to the 6th of July, when
this fupreme court, with unanimous confent, paffed fentence of death upon the Prince,
but left the manner of it to His Majelty’s determination : the Prince was brought before
the court, his fentence was read to him, and he was reconveyed to the fortrefs. On
the next day, His Maje(ty, attended by all the fenators and bifhops, with feveral others
of high rank, went to the fort, and entered the apartments where the Tzarovitch was
kept prifoner. Some little time thereafter, Marfhal Weyde came out, and ordered me
to go to Mr. Bear’s the druggift, whofe fhop was hard-by, and tel! him to make the po-
tion {trong which he had befpoke, as the Prince was then very ill: when I delivered
this meflage to Mr. Bear, he turned quite pale, and ‘ell a fhiking and trembling, and
appeared in the utmoft confufion; which furprized me fo much, that I afked him what
was the matter with him, but he was unable to return me any anfwer: in the mean time
the Marfhal himfelf came in, much in the fame condition with the drugeift, faying, he
ought to have been more expeditious, as the Prince was very ill of an apoplectic fit;
upon this the druggift delivered him a filver cup with a cover, which the Marfhal him-
felf carried into the Prince’s apartment, ftaggering all the way as he went like one
drunk. About half an hour after, the Tzar, with all his attendants withdrew, with
very difmal countenances ; and when they went, the Marfhal ordered me to attend at
the Prince’s apartment, and in cafe of any alteration, to inform him immediately thereof.
There were at that time two phyficians and two furgeons in waiting, with whom, and
the officer on guard, I dined on what had been dreffed for the Prince’s dinner. The
phyficians were called in immediately after to attend the Prince, who was ftruggling
out of one convulfion into another, and after great agonies, expired at five o’clock in
the afternoon. I went directly to inform the Marfhal, and he went that moment to ac-
quaint His Majefty, who ordered the corpfe to be embowelled, after which it was laid
in a coffin, covered with black velvet, and pall of rich gold tiffue fpread over it; it was
then carried out of the fort to the church of-the Holy Trinity, where the corpfe lay in
ftate till the 11th in the evening, when it was carried back to the fort, and depofited
in the royal burying vault, next the coffin of the Princefs his late confort, on which
occafion the Tzar and Tzarina, and the chief of the nobility, followed in proceffion.
Various were the reports that were fpread concerning his death ; it was given out pub-
licly, that on hearing his fentence of death pronounced, the dread thereof threw him
into an apopleétic fit, of which he died: very few believed he died a natural death, but it
was dangerous for people to [peak as they thought. The minifters of the Emperor, and the
ftates of Holland, were forbid the court for fpeaking their minds too freely on this
occafion, and upon ccmplaint againft them, were both recalled.” ~
From this account it appears that the Prince was {till alive when Peter, with the
nobles and bifhops, remained in the fortrefs ; and that he died in the interval between
their departure end the afternoon; but it by no means follows, even from this ftate of
the cafe, that the Tzarovitch was poifoned. For can we fuppofe that Peter would order
* Bruce’s Memoirs, p. 185—187.
a dofe
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