Volume V Part 81 (2/2)
”The rascal won't let ?”
”Win a heavy sum, if I can, and escape into Poland
”The Baron de St Heleine will run away, too if he can, for he only lives on credit The prince is very useful to us, as we are able to play at his house; but if we get into difficulty he could not extricate us, as he is heavily in debt himself He always loses at play His reat deal of trouble by her ill-humour”
”Why is she so sour?”
”She wants hiet her th of this proive her two children The two years have passed by and the children are there, and she will no longer allow hi a third child”
”Can't the prince find her a husband?”
”He did find her a lieutenant, but she won't hear of anybody under the rank of ave a state dinner to General Woyakoff (for whom I had a letter), Baroness Korf, Mada to , who, and whootten to mention
All these friends made me spend three weeks very pleasantly, and I was especially pleased with old General Woyakoff This worthy man had been at Venice fifty years before, when the Russians were still called Muscovites, and the founder of St Petersburg was still alive He had grown old like an oak, without changing his horizons He thought the world was just the sa, and was eloquent in his praise of the Venetian Govern it to be still the salish merchant named Collins told iven al This ”baron” was a poor clerk, and the son of a small tradesman, and had left his desk in search of adventure, and thus he had ended May God havea Russian, on his way fro some commission for the Russian Court, called on the prince, played, and lost twenty thousand roubles on his word of honour Cae in pay he dishonoured his own bills, and declared theood faith The result of this piece of knavery was not only that his creditors were defrauded, but ga was henceforth strictly forbidden in the officers' quarters
This Russian was the same that betrayed the secrets of Elizabeth Petrovna, when she was at ith Prussia He communicated to Peter, the empress's nephew and heir-presuenerals, and Peter in his turn passed on the infor whom he worshi+pped
On the death of Elizabeth, Peter put this traitor at the head of the department for commerce, and the fellow actually made knoith the Czar's sanction, the service for which he had received such a reward, and thus, instead of looking upon his conduct as disgraceful, he gloried over it Peter could not have been aware of the fact that, though it is sometimes necessary to reward treachery, the traitor himself is always abhorred and despised
I have remarked that it was Campioni who dealt, but he dealt for the prince who held the bank I had certain clailadly sell my expectations for a hundred roubles, the prince took ave me the amount immediately Thus I was the only person who ht's play
Catherine II, wishi+ng to shew herself to her new subjects, over whohost of a king in the person of Stanislas Poniatowski, her fora, and it was then I saw this great sovereign for the first time I was a witness of the kindness and affability hich she treated the Livonian nobility, and of the way in which she kissed the young ladies, who had come to kiss her hand, upon the mouth She was surrounded by the Orloffs and by other nobles who had assisted in placing her on the throne For the coraciously expressed her intention of holding a bank at faro of ten thousand roubles
Instantly the table and the cards were brought forward, and the piles of gold placed in order She took the cards, pretended to shuffle theave the her bank broken at the first deal, and indeed this result was to be expected, as anybody not an absolute idiot could see how the cards were going The next day the empress set out for Mitau, where triumphal arches were erected in her honour They were made of wood, as stone is scarce in Poland, and indeed there would not have been tireat alarm prevailed, for news ca, and soun The rebels wished to have forth from his prison the hapless Ivan Ivanovitz, who had been proclaimed emperor in his cradle, and dethroned by Elizabeth Petrovna Two officers to whouardianshi+p of the prince had been confided had killed the poor innocent monarch when they saw that they would be overpowered
The assassination of the innocent prince created such a sensation that the wary Panin, fearing for the results, sent courier after courier to the e and shew herself to the people
Catherine was thus obliged to leave Mitau twenty-four hours after she had entered it, and after hastening back to the capital she arrived only to find that the excitement had entirely subsided For politic reasons the assassins of the wretched Ivan were rewarded, and the bold man who had endeavoured to rise by her fall was beheaded
The report ran that Catherine had concerted the whole affair with the assassins, but this was speedily set down as a calu-minded, but neither cruel nor perfidious When I saw her at Riga she was thirty-five, and had reigned two years She was not precisely handso, her expression kindly, and there was about her an air of calm and tranquillity which never left her
At about the same time a friend of Baron de St Heleine arrived fro on his way to Warsaw His naon He caamester, a skilled swordsman, and was always ready to extract hi because the Orloffs had persuaded the ee that the prohibition should co had been their principala livelihood before they entered on the erous and certainly not more honourable profession of conspiracy However, this aamesters are ue or conspiracy provided it assures thees of gaaood heart, and it is only just to say that this was the case with the Orloffs Alexis gained the slash which adorns his face in a tavern, and the e sum of money, and considered his opponent's success to be rather the result of dexterity than fortune
When Alexis beca himself, he hastened to on, whose first principle was always to turn up the best card, and whose second principle was never to shi+rk a duel, had gone to St