Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

of its own dignity. The exhibition of tact did not pass unperceived.

' Always the same ! ' said the Grand-duke, as he turned away.

They had been children together; a difference of five years in age had not prevented them from often playing at the same games. Such familiarity is not forgotten, even at court. The silent scene which they now enacted together much amused me.

My peep into the interior of the imperial familv has interested me extremely. These princes must be nearly approached in order to be appreciated. They are made to be at the head of their country ; for they are in every respect superior to their people. The imperial family is the object the most worthy of exciting the admiration and the envy of foreigners that I have seen in Russia.

At the top of the house we found the cabinet of the emperor. It is a tolerably large and very simply ornamented library, opening on a balcony which overlooks the sea. Without leaving this watch-tower, the Emperor can give his orders to his fleet. For this purpose he has a spy-glass, a speaking-trumpet, and a little telegraph which he can work himself.

I should have liked to examine this room and all it contains in detail, and to have asked many questions, but I feared lest my curiosity might seem indiscreet, and I preferred making an imperfect survey, to appearing as if I had come to take an inventory.

Besides, I am more curious about the general appearance of things than about their minute details. I travel to observe, and to form an opinion of objects, but not to measure, catalogue, or sketch them. It ia

VOL. II.D

50CASTLE OF ORANIENBAUM.

a favour to be admitted into this cottage thus, as it were, in the presence of its occupants;—a favour the more rarely conceded as the house really offers no other interest beyond the curiosity which attaches to their habits and their private life. I therefore felt as though I ought to show myself worthy of the privilege by avoiding too minute an investigation.

After having explained this feeling to Madame

, who perfectly understood my delicacy, I

hastened to take leave of the empress and the grand-duke. We found them in the garden, where, after some further gracious words, they left me, satisfied with everytliing I had seen ; but, above all, grateful for their kindness, and charmed with the singular grace of their accessible manners.

After leaving the cottage, I proceeded to pay a hasty visit to Oranienbaum, the celebrated residence of Catherine II., built by Menzikoff. This unfortunate man was sent to Siberia before he had completed the wonders of a palace deemed too royal for a minister.

It now belongs to the Grand-duchess Helena, sister-in-law of the present emperor. Situated two or three leagues from Peterhoff, in sight of the sea, and on a continuation of the same ridge on which is built the imperial palace, the eastle of Oranienbaum, although constructed of wood, is an imposing edifice. Notwithstanding the imprudent luxury of the builder, and the greatness of the personages who have, after him, inhabited it, it is not remarkable for its extent. Terraces, flights of steps, and balconies covered with orange trees and flowering plants, connect the house with the park, and embellish both the one and the other; but the architecture itself is anything but

FORTRESS OF PETER THE THIRD.51

magnificent. The Grand-duchess Helena has shown here the taste which presides throughout all her arrangements, and which has made Oranienbaum a charming residence, notwithstanding the dulness of the landscape, and the besetting memories of the scenes formerly enacted there.

On leaving the palace, I asked permission to see the remains of the small but strong fortress, from whence they obliged Peter III. to come forth, and carried him to Ropscha, where he was assassinated. I was conducted to a retired hamlet, where are to be seen dry ditches, broken mounds, and heaps of stones, a modern ruin, in the production of which policy has had more to do than time. But the enforced silence, the purposely-created solitude which reigns around these accursed remains, summon up before the mind precisely that which is sought to be concealed; the official lie is annulled by the historic fact. History is a magical mirror, in which the people see, after the death of men who were influential in public affairs, the real, unmasked reflection of their faces. Those faces have passed away, but their images remain engraved on this inexorable crystal. Truth cannot be buried with the dead. It rises triumphant over the fear of princes and the flattery of people, always powerless when they endeavour to stifle the cry of blood ; and it finds its way through prisons, and even through the tomb, especially the tomb of the great, for obscure persons succeed better than princes in concealing the crimes which stain their memory. If I had not known that the fortress of Peter III. had been demolished, I should have guessed it; but what astonishes me, in seeing the wish here exhibited to D 2

52

ASSASSINATION OF

create oblivion of the past, is that anything connected with it should be preserved. The names ought to be destroyed, as well as the Avails. It was not sufficient to demolish the fortress, they should have also razed the palace, which is only a quarter of a league distant. Whoever visits Oranienbaum inquires with anxiety for the vestiges of the prison where Peter III. was compelled to sign his voluntary abdication, which became also his death-warrant, —for, the sacrifice once obtained, it was necessary to prevent his revoking it.

The following is the account of the assassination of this prince at Ropseha, taken from M. de Rulhiere's ' History of Poland.'

' The soldiers were astonished at their own deed. They could not conceive by what wicked enchantment they could have been induced to dethrone the grandson of Peter the Great, in order to place his crown upon a German. The greater number, without object or idea of their own, had been led on by others; and. each, after the pleasure of disposing of a crown had vanished, felt only remorse. The seamen, who had not been associated in the insurrection, publicly accused the guards in the taverns of having sold their emperor for beer. Pity, which excuses even the greatest criminals, began to plead in all hearts. One evening a troop of soldiers attached to the empress created much disturbance under a vague fear that their ' mother ' was in danger. She had to be roused up in order that they might see her. On the following night a new and more dangerous disturbance took place. So long as the life of the emperor left a pretext for disquietude, it was thought that there would be no tranquillity.

PETER THE THIRD.

53

' One of the Counts Orloff (for, on the first day of the troubles this title had been given them), the same soldier, surnamed le oalafre*, who had abstracted the note from the Princess d'Asehekof, and one Teplof, a person who had risen from the lowest employs by the singular art with which he had ruined his