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792 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
daunted during trial; nor any malefaétor every met death with fizmnefs and even. in-
difference.
3. With refpeA to the third argument, which refts on the previous orders to the
officers Vlafief and Tchekin, their execution of thofe orders, and promotion in confe-
quence, I clearly and decifively reply, that fuch orders were not peculiar to the guards
of Ivan; they are always given to thofe who are appointed to fecure ftate-prifoners of
any confequence in Rufiia. During the whole reign of Elizabeth, this precaution had
always been taken; and the orders were renewed whenever the perfons entrulted with
the care of Ivan were changed.
But, in fupport of this argument, it is further alleged, that the officers were too pre-
cipitate in difpatching the Prince; they might have conveyed him to fome place of
greater fecurity, when the confpirators had been repulfed in their firft onfet. But whi-
ther could they convey him? ‘They could not conceal him in the fortrefs, or remove
him from the ifland. There could be no apartment more fecure than that in which he
was confined ; and even if they had attempted to remove him, the fhortnefs of the in-
terval between the firlt and fecond affault would have prevented them. The affailants
inftantly returned as foon as the forged order was read to them, and they returned
with a loaded cannon. It follows, therefore, that the officers and centinels found them.
felves incapable of refiftance, and that Ivan muft have fallen into the hands of Miro-
vitch ; they had, therefore, no other alternative than to put him to death. Dreadful
alternative indeed! but which they were obliged to embrace, for the prefervation of the
public tranquillity. If they performed their duty in this emergency, the approbation of
their fovereign, and their fubfequent promotion, were the natural, and I even add, the
juft confequences. ar
But furely the whole condu& of Mirovitch, his affociation with Ufhakof, their oath of
fidelity, the viclent manifefto againft the Emprefs, together with his treafonable inter-
courfe with Cafatkin and Tchevaridfef, are evident proofs that his defign was not feign-
ed, that it originated from himfelf, and had been planned fome time before an opportu-
nity offered for its execution. To fuppofe that the Emprefs had formed the project of
deftroying Ivan, that fhe employed Mirovitch as the inftrument, that fhe fecretly pro-
mifed him his pardon, that fhe fuffered him to go to the place of execution fully fecure
of a reprieve, that fhe there deceived him, that fhe punifhed his aflociates, of whofe
criminality fhe was herfelf the immediate caufe, imply fuch an abfurd complication of
the bafeft fraud and horrid barbarity, that we ought not to liften to the imputation,
were it founded even on fome degree of probable conjecture; whereas the arguments
alleged amount only to mere furmifes and vague fuppofitions ; and are totally refuted by
the moft valid arguments and indifputable teftimony.
{ cannot clofe this hiftory without annexing a fhort account of Ivan’s family. His
father Anthony Ulric was fon of Ferdinand Albert, by Antonietta Amelia, fifter of
Charlotte Chriftina, who efpoufed the Tzarovitch Alexéy. He was brother of Charles
Duke of Brunfwick, and of that diftinguifhed general Prince Ferdinand. Anthony
Ulric was born in 17143 in 1733 was betrothed, on his arrival at Peterfburgh, to the
Princefs Anne of Mecklenburgh, the prefumptive heirefs of the Ruffian throne. He
ferved in the campaign again{t the Turks, under General Munic, affifted at the fiege of
Otchakof, and was a true Brunfwick for valour and fpirit of enterprize. On the 14th
of July 1739, his nuptials with the Princefs Anne were celebrated with great magnifi-
cence. On the day of that ceremony, ‘ * who would have imagined that their union
* Manttein’s Memoirs, p. 248,
would
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