Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
COxXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 783
The foldiers fent to arreft the young Emperor, were ordered to {teal foftly into his
apartments, and if afleep, not to difturb him. As he was flumbering by the fide of his
nurfe, they ftood round the cradel in refpeétful filence, at leaft an hour before the
Prince opened his eyes, then the foldiers difputing who fhould carry him, the child was
terrified, and cried; they immediately defilted, and permitted the nurfe to approach,
who covered him with a cloke, and accompanied him in a fledge to the palace. Eliza-
beth took the child, kiffed it, and while it was yet in her arms, a body of foldiers pafling
by, fhouted, « Long live Elizabeth!’ ‘The infant, pleafed with the acclamations,
ftretched out his little hand, and fmiling, tried to imitate the fhouts of the foldiers; on
which Elizabeth exclaimed, ‘Innocent creature! thou perceiveft not that thou art
endeavouring to {peak againft thyfelf*.”’
It is difficult to trace Ivan diftinGly from the time of his depofition to his imprifon-
ment at Schluffelburgh ; but the following account feems the moft probable. He and
his parents were firft confined in the fortrefs of Riga, a year and a half; removed from
thence to Dunamund f, and afterwards to Oranienburgh, a {mall town in the province
of Vorentz. Here they remained two years under the care of Baron Korf, who be-
haved to his’prifoners with great humanity. From Oranienburgh the whole family was
tranferred to Kolmogori; but Ivan was imprifoned there for feveral years feparately,
and unknown to his parents.
Bufching fays, that when his parents were fent to Kolmogori, Ivan, then in the eighth
year of his age, was left at Oranienburgh; and that fome time afterwards a certain
monk contrived to releafe him from prifon, and convey him as far as Smolen{fko, where
they were furprized and taken {. He was alfo confined in a convent fituated on an
ifland in the lake of Valdai, not far from the high road between Peterfburgh and Mof-
cow. The time of his imprifonment in this convent, and his fituation until his removal
to Schluffelburg, are circumftances which I was not able to afcertain: but it is not fur-
prizing, that there fhould be much obfcurity in the hiftory of a ftate prifoner immured:
from his infancy.. "
During the laft eight years of his life, Ivan was imprifoned in the fortrefS of Schluf-
felburgh, whither he was brought in. +756, in the fixteenth year of his age. ‘ In the
fame year he was fecretly conveyed, by Count Peter Shuvalof, grand mafter of the ar-
tillery, to the houfe of his coufin Ivan Shu¥alof, at Peterfburgh, where Elizabeth faw
and {poke to him without making herfelf known. It is faid that fhe burft into tears at
this interview. On the enfuing day the Prince was re-conduéted to his prifon.
When I vifited Schluffelburgh, I was admitted into the fortrefs, but was not fuffered
to enter the room in which he had been confined; yet as I examined one that was
fimilar, and have converfed with feveral perfons who have feen it, I am able to give the
following defcription ; it is fituated towards the fartheft extremity of the corridore, de-
feribed on a former occafion§; is about twenty-feet fquare, and vaulted; the walls are
of bare ftone, and the floor of brick. The window was not clofed, like thofe of the
adjacent cells, but glazed, and covered with a kind of plaifter, which, while it admitted
* Bof. Hif. Mag. vol. i. p. 374. + Manftein’s Memoirs, p. 315.”
$ Buf. Hif. Mag. vi. p. 529. There is an inaccuracy in Bufching’s account, probably only a falfe print,
viz. that he was in the eight year of his age when his parents were {ent to Kolomogori; for in March
1746, the time of Anne’s death, he was only fix years and feven months old: and fome time multe al-
lowed for conveying his parents from Oranienburgh to Kolmogori, Bufching was informed, by Baron
Korf, that they were all confined together at Oranienburgh; and I was told by an Englifh gentleman, who
had been at Kolmogori, that Ivan had been there imprifoned for a fhort time,
§ Chap. vii.
the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
