"Nevertheless the executioners continued to strike, | behold Muscovite nobles, of high rank and descent, and the hundred blows were counted, without a cringing under the wanton torments inflicted on complaint from the sufferer. The unfortunate them by their oppressor, and submitting to degra

Daniloff had not even fainted; he got up alone,* when untied, and asked to have his wounds carefully dressed.

dations to which death, one would imagine, were, to any free-spirited man, fifty times preferable. As an example, we will cite the conduct of a

"I have need to live a short time longer,' he Prince Galitzin, who, after long exile in Geradded."

many, where he had become a convert to the Romish church, solicited and obtained permission to return to his country. This was in 1740, under the reign of the dissolute and cruel Czarina Anne. The paramours and flatterers who composed the court of that licentious princess, urged her to in

"The same day, Galatzin, although upwards of forty years old, was ordered to take his place amongst the pages; a few days later he received a

Meanwhile Ivanowa was brought before the senate, and accused of high treason and of trying to discover state secrets-a charge of Peter's invention. The supple senate, created by the czar, condemned her to receive twenty-two blows of the knout in the presence of her accomplice Daniloff,flict on the new-made papist the same punishment already punished by the emperor's order. On the that had been suffered by the noble named Vonitday appointed for the execution, Peter stood upon zin, who had turned Jew, and had been burned the balcony of his winter-palace. Several bat- alive, or rather roasted at a slow fire. Anne talions of infantry marched past, escorting the un-refused, but promised the courtiers they should fortunate Demetrius, who, in spite of the frightful not be deprived of their sport. sufferings he still endured, walked with a steady step, and with a firm and even joyful countenance. Surrounded by another escort, was seen the young and lovely Ivanowa, half dead with terror, sup-notification, that the empress, contented with his ported on one side by a priest and on the other by a soldier, and letting her beautiful head fall from one shoulder to the other, according to the impulse given it by her painful progress. Even Peter's heart melted at the sight. Reëntering his apartment, he put on the ribbon of the order of St. Andrew, threw a cloak over his shoulders, left the palace, sprang into a boat, and reached the opposite side of the river at the same time as the mournful procession which had crossed the bridge. Making his way through the crowd, he dropped his cloak, took Ivanowa in his arms, and imprinted a kiss upon her brow. A murmur arose amongst the people, and suddenly cries of 66 pardon" were heard.

"The knights of St. Andrew then enjoyed the singular privilege that a kiss given by them to a condemned person, deprived the executioner of his victim. This privilege has endured even to our day, but not without some modification.

"Daniloff had recognized Peter. He approached the czar, whose every movement he had anxiously watched, stripped off his coat, and rent the bloody shirt that covered his shoulders.

"The man who could suffer thus,' he said, knows how to die. Czar, thy repentance comes too late! Ivanowa, I go to wait for thee!' And drawing a concealed poniard, he stabbed himself twice. His death was instantaneous. Peter hurried back to his palace, and the stupefied crowd slowly dispersed. Ivanowa died shortly after wards in the convent to which she had been permitted to retire."

services, had been pleased to raise him to the dignity of her third buffoon. 'The custom of buffoons,' says an historian, was then in full force in Russia; the empress had six, three of whom were of very high birth, and when they did not lend themselves with a good grace to the tomfooleries required of them by her or her favorites, she had them punished with the battogues.' The empress appeared well-satisfied with the manner in which the priest fulfilled his new duties; and as he was a widower, she declared she would find him a wife, that so valuable a subject might not die without posterity. They selected, for the poor wretch's bride, the most hideous and disgusting creature that could be found in the lowest ranks of the populace. Anne herself arranged the ceremonial of the wedding. It was in the depth of one of the severest winters of the century; and, at great expense, the empress had a palace built of ice. Not only was the building entirely constructed of that material, but all the furniture, including the nuptial bed, was also of ice. In front of the palace were ice cannons, mounted on ice carriages.

"Anne and all her court conducted the newlymarried pair to this palace, their destined habitation. The guests were in sledges drawn by dogs and reindeer; the husband and wife, enclosed in a cage, were carried on an elephant. When, the procession arrived near the palace, the ice-cannons were fired, and not one of them burst, so intense was the cold. Several of them were even loaded with bullets, which pierced thick planks at a conIf we are frequently shocked, in the course of siderable distance. When everybody had entered M. Blanc's third volume, by the tyrannical and the singular edifice, the ball began. It probably brutal cruelty of the Russian sovereigns, we are did not last long. On its conclusion, Anne inalso repeatedly disgusted by the servility and pa-sisted on the bride and bridegroom being put to tient meanness of those who suffered from it. We

* The victim is placed upon his belly (and tied down so that he cannot change his position) to receive this terrible punishment, in severity inferior only to the knout.

bed in her presence; they were undressed, with the exception of their under garments, and were compelled to lie down upon the bed of ice, without covering of any kind. Then the company

went away, and sentinels were placed at the door III., my master, were not dead, I should think I of the nuptial chamber, to prevent the couple from now stood before him.' The hermits paid little leaving it before the next day! But when the attention to this tale; but some time afterwards next day came, they had to be carried out; the one of their number, who had not yet met Pugatspoor creatures were in a deplorable state, and sur-cheff, exclaimed, on beholding him, Is not that vived their torture but a few days."

This patient submission to a long series of indignities on the part of a man of Galitzin's rank and blood is incomprehensible, and pity for his cruel death is mingled with contempt for the elderly prince who could tamely play the page, and caper in the garb of a court-jester. But the Russian noble of that day-and even of a later period-united the soul of a slave with the heart of a tyrant. To the feeble a relentless tiger, before the despot or the despot's favorite he grovelled like a spiritless cur. The memoirs of the eighteenth century abound in examples of this base servility. We cite one, out of many which we find recorded in an interesting Life of Catherine II. of Russia, published at Paris in 1797. Plato Zouboff, one of Catherine's favorite lovers, had a little monkey, a restless, troublesome beast, which everybody detested, but which everybody caressed, by way of paying court to its master. Amongst the host of ministers, military men, and ambassadors, who sedulously attended the levees of the powerful favorite, was a general officer, remarkable for the perfection and care with which his hair was dressed. One day the monkey climbed upon his head, and after completely destroying the symmetry of his hyacinthine locks, deliberately defiled them. The officer dared not show the

the emperor, Peter III.?' The monks then induced him to attempt an imposture they had planned." M. Blanc's account differs from this, inasmuch as it asserts the resemblance to the defunct czar to have been very slight. Whatever the degree of likeness, Pugatscheff declared himself the husband of Catherine II., (murdered some time previously, by Prince Bariatinski and by Alexis Orloff, the brother of Catherine's lover,) and thousands credited his pretensions. The Cossacks of the river Yaik (afterwards changed to the Ural by Catherine, who desired to obliterate the memory of this revolt) were just then in exceedingly bad humor. After patiently submitting to a great deal of oppression and ill usage, they had received orders to cut off their beards. This they would not do. They had relinquished, grumbling but passive, many a fair acre of pasturage; they had furnished men for a new regiment of hussars; but they rebelled outright when ordered to use a razor. The Livonian general, Traubenberg, repaired to Yaitsk with a strong staff of barbers, and began shaving the refractory Cossacks on the public market-place. The patients rose in arms, massacred general, barbers, and aide-de-camps; recognized Pugatscheff as Peter III., and swore to replace him on his throne, and to die in his defence. The adventurer was near being as successful as the monk Otrepief. Catherine herself was very uneasy, although she published contemptuous proclamations, and jested, in her letters to Voltaire, on the Marquis of Pugatscheff, as she called him. It was rather a serious subject to joke about. The impostor defeated Russian ar

slightest discontent. There are not wanting, however, in the history of the eighteenth century, instances of heroism and courage to contrast with the far more numerous ones of vileness afforded by the aristocracy of Russia. The dignity and fortitude of Menzikoff-that pastry-cook's boy who became a great minister-during his terrible ex-mies, and slew their generals; took towns, whose ile in Siberia, are an oft-told tale. Prince Dol- governors he impaled; burned upwards of two gorouki, the same to whom Anne owed her crown, hundred and fifty villages; destroyed the commerce and whom she requited by a barbarous death, be- of Siberia; stopped the working of the Orenberg held his son, brother and nephew broken on the mines; and poured out the blood of thirty thouwheel. When his turn came, and the execution-sand Russian subjects. At last he was taken. On ers were arranging him suitably upon the instru- his trial he showed great firmness; and, although ment of torture: "Do as you please with me," unable to read or write, he answered the questions he said, "and without fear of loading your con- of the tribunal with wonderful ability and intelsciences, for it is not in human power to increase ligence. He was condemned to death. Accordmy sufferings." And he died without uttering a❘ing to the sentence, his hands were to be cut off complaint. first, then his feet, then his head, and finally the But perhaps the most extraordinary instance of trunk was to be quartered. When brought upon coolness and self-command, at the moment of a the scaffold, and whilst the imperial ukase enumerviolent and cruel death, to be found in the annals ating his crimes was read, he undressed quickly of executions, is that of Pugatscheff, who, how- and in silence; but when they began to read the ever, was no nobleman, but a Cossack of humble sentence, he dexterously prevented the executioner birth, who deserted from the Russian army after from attending to it, by asking him all manner of the siege and capture of Bender by General Panim, questions-whether his axe was in good order, and fled to Poland, where he was concealed for a whether the block was not of a less size than pretime by hermits of the Greek Church. "Con-scribed by law, and whether he, the executioner, versing one day with his protectors," says a had not, by chance, drank more brandy than usual, French writer already referred to," he told them, which might make his hand unsteady. that once, during his service in General Panim's army, a Russian officer said to him, after staring him very hard in the face, 'If the emperor Peter

"The sentence read, the magistrate and his assistant left the scaffold.

“Now, then,' said Pugatscheff to the execu

tioner, let us have no mistakes; the prescribed knew, capable of any villainy that might serve his order must be strictly observed. So you will first ambition. Gold unlimited was placed at his discut off my head

"The head first!' cried the executioner. "So runs the sentence. Have a care! have friends would make you dearly expiate an error to my prejudice.'

posal, and promise of high reward if he discovered the retreat of the princess, and lured her within I Catherine's reach. Orloff set out for Italy; and on his arriving there he took into his employ a Neapolitan named Ribas, a sort of spy, styling "It was too late to call back the magistrate; himself a naval officer, who pledged himself to and the executioner, who doubted, at last said to find out the princess, but stipulated for rank in the himself that the important affair, after all, was the Russian navy as his reward. M. Blanc asserts death of the criminal, and that there was little that he demanded to be made admiral at once; and difference whether it took place rather sooner or that Orloff, afraid, notwithstanding the extensive rather later. He grasped his axe; Pugatscheff powers given him, to bestow so high a grade, laid his head on the block, and the next moment or compelled by the suspicions of Ribas to produce it rebounded upon the scaffold. The feet and the commission itself, wrote to Catherine, who at hands were cut off after death; the culprit escap-once sent the required document. Whether this ing torture by his great presence of mind.”

It has been asserted that an order from the empress thus humanized the cruel sentence; but this is exceedingly improbable, for she was bitter against Pugatscheff, who, ignorant Cossack as he was, had made the modern Semiramis tremble on her throne; besides, it is a matter of history that, after his execution, the headsman had his tongue cut out, and was sent to Siberia. Catherine, who had affected to laugh at Pugatscheff during his life, was so ungenerous as to calumniate him after death. "This brigand," she said, in one of her letters quoted by M. Blanc, "showed himself so pusillanimous in his prison, that it was necessary to prepare him with caution to hear his sentence read, lest he should die of fear." It is quite certain, M. Blanc observes, that to his dying hour Pugatscheff inspired more fear than he felt.

be exact or not, more than one historian mentions that Ribas subsequently commanded in the Black Sea as a Russian vice-admiral. When certain of his reward, Ribas, who then had spent two months in researches, revealed the retreat of the unfortunate princess. With some abridgment we will follow M. Blanc, whose narrative agrees, in all the main points, with the most authentic versions of this touching and romantic history.

The princess was at Rome. Abandoned by Rad zivil, she was reduced to the greatest penury, existing only by the aid of a woman who had been her servant, and who now served other masters. Alexis Orloff visited her in her miserable abode, and spoke at first in the tone of a devoted slave addressing his sovereign; he told her she was the legitimate Empress of Russia; that the entire population of that great empire anxiously longed for her accession; The misfortunes of the unhappy young Princess that if Catherine still occupied the throne, it was Tarrakanoff supply M. Blanc with material for the only because nobody knew where she (the princess) most interesting chapter in this volume of his was hidden; and that her appearance amongst her work. The Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter faithful subjects would be a signal for the instant the Great, and predecessor of Peter III.-whose downfall of the usurper. Notwithstanding her marriage with the Princess of Anhalt Zerbest, af- youth, the princess mistrusted these dazzling assurterwards Catherine the Great, was brought about ances; she was even alarmed by them, and held by her had had three children by her secret mar- herself upon her guard. Then Orloff, one of the riage with Alexis Razumoffski. The youngest of handsomest men of his time, joined the seductions these was a daughter, who was brought up in of love to those of ambition; he feigned a violent Russia under the name of the Princess Tarrakanoff. passion for the young girl, and swore that his life When Catherine trampled the rights of Poland un- depended on his obtaining her heart and hand. The der foot, the Polish prince, Charles Radzivil, car- poor isolated girl fell unresistingly into the infamous ried off the young princess, and took her to Italy, snare spread for her inexperience; she believed and thinking to set her up at some future day as a pre-loved him. The infamous Orloff persuaded her tender to the Russian throne. Informed of this, that their marriage must be strictly private, lest Catherine confiscated his estates; and, in order to Catherine should hear of it and take precautions. live, he was compelled to sell the diamonds and In the night he brought to her house a party of other valuables he had taken with him to Italy. mercenaries, some wearing the costumes of priests These resources exhausted, Radzivil set out for of the Greek church, others magnificently attired to Poland to seek others, leaving the young princess, act as witnesses. The mockery of a marriage then in her sixteenth year, at Rome, under the enacted, the princess willingly accompanied Alexis care of a sort of governess or duenna. On reach- Orloff, whom she believed her husband, to Leghorn, ing his native country he was offered the restora- where entertainments of all sorts were given to her. tion of his property if he would bring back his The Russian squadron, at anchor off the port, was ward to Russia. He refused; but he was so base commanded by the English Admiral Greig. This as to promise that he would take no further trouble officer, either the dupe or the accomplice of Orloff, about her, and leave her to her fate. Catherine invited the princess to visit the vessels that were pardoned him, and forthwith put Alexis Orloff on soon to be commanded in her name. She accepted, the scent. He was a keen bloodhound, she well and embarked after a banquet, amidst the acclama

But we shall be drowned!" "That is pretty certain. But without special

"Good God! the water rises. I cannot sustain myself."

tions of an immense crowd; the cannon thundered, the sky was bright, every circumstance conspired to give her visit the appearance of a brilliant festi-orders I am not to let you leave this dungeon, under val. From her flag-bedecked galley she was hoisted pain of death. In cases of unforeseen danger I am in a splendid arm-chair on board the admiral's ves- to remain with you, and to kill you should rescue sel, where she was received with the honors due to be attempted." a crowned head. Until then Orloff had never left her side for an instant. Suddenly the scene changed. Orloff disappeared; in place of the gay and smiling The Neva, overflowing its banks, floated enorofficers who an instant previously had obsequiously mous blocks of ice, upsetting everything in its pasbowed before her, the unfortunate victim saw her- sage, and inundating the adjacent country. The self surrounded by men of sinister aspect, one of water now plashed furiously against the prison whom announced to her that she was prisoner by doors; the sentinels had been carried away by the order of the Empress Catherine, and that soon she torrent, and the other soldiers on guard had taken would be brought to trial for the treason she had refuge on the upper floors. Lifted off her feet by attempted. The princess thought herself in a the icy flood which still rose higher, the unfortudream. With loud cries she summoned her hus-nate captive fell and disappeared; the jailer, who band to her aid; her guardians laughed in her face, and told her she had had a lover, but no husband, and that her marriage was a farce. Her despair at these terrible revelations amounted to frenzy; she burst into sobs and reproaches, and at last swooned away. They took advantage of her insensibility to put fetters on her feet and hands, and lower her into the hold. A few hours later the squadron sailed for Russia. Notwithstanding her helplessness and entreaties, the poor girl was kept in irons until her arrival at St. Petersburg, when she was taken before the empress, who wished to see and question her.

had water to his breast, hung his lamp against the wall, and tried to succor his prisoner; but when he succeeded in raising her up, she was dead! The possibility anticipated by his employers was realized; there had been stress of circumstances, and the princess being dead, he was at liberty to leave the dungeon. Bearing the corpse in his arms. he succeeded in reaching the upper part of the prison.

If we may offer a hint to authors, it is our opinion that this tragical anecdote will be a god-. send to some romance-writer of costive invention, and on the outlook for a plot. Very little ingenuity will suffice to spread over the prescribed quantity of foolscap the incidents we have packed into a page. They will dilute very handsomely into three volumes. As to characters, the novelist's work is done to his hand. Here we have the Empress Catherine, vindictive and dissolute, per

Catherine was old; the Princess Tarrakanoff was but sixteen, and of surpassing beauty; the disparity destroyed her last chance of mercy. But as there was in reality no charge against her, and as her trial might have made too much noise, Catherine, after a long and secret interview with her un-secuting that "fair girl" the Princess Tarrakafortunate prisoner, gave orders she should be kept in the most rigorous captivity. She was confined in one of the dungeons of a prison near the Neva. Five years elapsed. The victim of the heartless Catherine and the villain Orloff awaited death as the only relief she could expect; but youth, and a good constitution struggled energetically against torture and privations. One night, reclining on the straw that served her as a bed, she prayed to God to terminate her sufferings by taking her to himself, when her attention was attracted by a low rumbling noise like the roll of distant thunder. She listened. The noise redoubled; it became an incessant roar, which each moment augmented in power. The poor captive desired death, and yet she felt terror; she called aloud, and implored not to be left alone. A jailer came at her cries; she asked the cause of the noise she heard.

noff, with the assistance of Orloff, the smooth villain, and of the sullen ruffian Ribas. The latter will work up into a sort of Italian Varney, and may be dispersed to the elements by an intentional accident, on board the ship blown up by Orloff's order, for the enlightenment of the painter Hackert. With the exception of the dungeon-scene, we have given but a meagre outline of M. Blanc's narrative; and there are a number of minor characters that may be advantageously brought in and expanded. "This event," says M. Blanc, referring to the kidnapping of the princess, "caused a strong sensation at Leghorn. Prince Leopold, Grand-duke of Tuscany, complained bitterly of it, and would have had Alexis Orloff arrested; but this vile assassin of Peter III. maintained that he had only executed the orders of his sovereign, who would well know how to justify

""Tis nothing," replied the stupid slave; "the him. He was supported in this circumstance, by Neva overflowing."

"But cannot the water reach us here?"

"It is here already."

the English consul, who was his accomplice; and
the grand-duke, seeing he was not likely to be the
strongest, suffered the matter to drop."
"Some
Englishmen," another French writer asserts,

At that moment the flood, making its way under the door, poured into the dungeon, and in an instant" had been so base as to participate in Alexis captive and jailer were over the ankles in water. "For heaven's sake, let us leave this!" cried the young princess.

"Not without orders; and I have received none."

Orloff's plot; but others were far from approving it. They even blushed to serve under him, and sent in their resignations. Admiral Elphinstone was one of these. Greig was promoted in his

place." An Italian prince, indignant, but timid; | great combined army of Italy. Poland is let a foreign consul, sold to Russian interests; a Brit- loose. Holland probably will be neutral, and ish sailor, spurning the service of a tyrant. We Belgium if she is wise. What will Denmark do? need say no more; for we are quite sure that be--Sweden and Norway ?-nay, ultra-pacific Engfore we get thus far, the corps of historical nov- land? The ardor of war gains upon Europe like elists will be handling their goose-quills. the fire on the prairie.

Now what is the state of the field-that is Europe to be occupied by these two leading forces? Germany is in a state of chaos. If France make her sincerity apparent, the German peoples will side with her. Hungary will accept her alliance, Turkey, Italy. France has an army at Rome, which all but mutinies rather than assail her Roman "brethren;" she will gladly march against THE FUTURE.-Party-spirit has run high in Radetzky and Russia, and be the nucleus of a this country, and the manner of it still so far pre