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772 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA,
fund of interefting converfation, conciliated the favour of the fufpicious Elizabeth, who
treated her with complacency and affection. Even her hufband, though his general
behaviour to her was contemptuous and unmannerly, occafionally teftified great refpect
for her fuperior abilities, and ufually demanded her advice in every important emer-
gency. Whenever any mifunderftanding arofe between him and Elizabeth, Catharine
was employed as mediatrix; and Peter not unfrequently owed a favourable reception
at court to her influence. After his acceffion, though he gave public marks of deep-
rooted averfion, yet he would often behave to her with deference. By an unac-
countable act of imprudence, he, in a full court, invefted her with the exterior deco-
rations of fovereignty ; while, in the character of Colonel, he prefented to her the
officers of his regiment. At the blefling of the waters, when the Ruffian monarch
appears in all the pomp of majefty, the ceremony was left to the Emprefs, and he
mounted guard as Colonel, and faluted her with his pike. Under all thefe circum-
ftances, the dignity of her deportment was fo ftriking, that it was impoflible not to
contraft her behaviour with the trifling levity of her hufband’s condu€& ; and to give
the preference where it was fo evidently due. Thus this infatuated Prince, at the
very time he was fully determined to divorce and imprifon his wife, imprudently dif-
played to his fubjeéts her capacity for empire; and, while he proclaimed her forfeiture
of his own efteem, adopted every method to fecure to her that of the whole nation.
Meanwhile the breach was continually widened: he occafionally behaved to her with
the moft brutal contumely ; and once, in particular, at an entertainment he gave in
honour of the King of Pruflia, he publicly affronted her to fuch a degree, that fhe
burft into tears, and retired from table. Thus his infults, no lefs than his deference,
equally attra€ted odium to himfelf, and popularity to Catharine.
It is alfo a well-known fact, that he more than once avowed an intention of arrefting
both her and the Great-Duke, whom he propofed to exclude from the fucceflion, and
of marrying Elizabeth Countefs of Voronzof, his favourite miftrefs. Information of
this alarming meafure was immediately conveyed to Catharine, through the imprudence
of the Countefs. By the fame, or other means, as well as by the indifcretion of Peter
himfelf, the Emprefs obtained early intelligence of every refolution formed againft her
perfon. She was thus enabled to feize the decifive moment of enterprize, and fecure
her fafety by preventing the defigns of her hufband.
Indeed her danger became every day more and more imminent. and the moment of
her arreft feemed at hand. A brick houfe, confifting of eleven rooms, had, by the
Emperor’s order, been conftructed in the fortrefs of Schluflelburgh *, for a perfon of
very confiderable confequence, and with fuch expedition as to be almoft finifhed within
fix weeks. Peter went himfelf to Schluffelburgh with a view to examine it; and no
great depth of penetration was requifite to perceive that it was built for the Emprefs.
In this important crifis a meeting of her party was held at Peterfburgh. ‘This party
was extremely fmall, and, excepting the Princefs Dafhkof, and her particular adhe-
rents, confifted only of a few among the principal nobility. The moft confpicuous of
thefe were Prince Volkonfki, Count Panin, Governor of the Great-Duke, and Count
Razamofski, Hetman of the Ukraine. In the firft confultations for dethroning Peter,
it was propofed, according to the plan of Chancellor Beftuchef, to declare the Great-
Duke Emperor, and Catharine regent during his minority ; and this would have been
the meafure naturally followed in any country, wherein the order of fucceflion was
more fixed than in Ruflia. Only a few days before the revolution, the inconvenience
* Sce the defcription of this building in book iy. chap. 7.
10 attends
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