286

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

very moment that he thought he was establishing his
power on firmer ground than ever. This came like a
thunderbolt upon him: however, after a moment's re-
flection, he put a good face on it, thanked the grand-
duchess for the favour she did him, and in a few days
retired to his palace on the other side of the Neva, having
while he was prime-minister occupied the house in the im-
mediate vicinity of the court, that he had been obliged by
the duke of Courland to quit eight years before.* This
house has been ominous to the family of Munich; for his
son, who lived in it after him, was seized there the very next
year, when the Empress Elizabeth ascended the throne.

What greatly contributed to the acceptance of Munich's
resignation, was the charge against him by the duke of
Courland, who on his examination declared, " that he never
would have accepted the regency, if count Munich had not
used such urgency towards him; he having gone so far as
even to try to throw himself at his feet; that he advised
the grand-duchess not to trust him, as he was the most
dangerous man she had in her whole empire; and that if
her imperial highness was to refuse him any the least thing
he asked, she must not think herself secure on her throne."

The princess, naturally timid, was extremely perplexed;
and the prince her husband, and count Osterman, seized
this moment to determine her to his dismissal, which she
at last unwillingly agreed to. Others would have had her
go farther, and send him to Siberia; and they would have
prevailed too, if it had not been for mademoiselle de
Mengden†, the favourite of the grand-duchess, who inter-
ceded for him. In the meanwhile, the horse-guards were
doubled at the palace, [and frequently patrolled the streets

* See p. 64.

† She was sister of the wife of the young count Munich, son of the
marshal.

DREAD INSPIRED BY HIM.

287

day and night.] The marshal had spies set upon him, who followed him everywhere, and watched the least action or step of his. The prince and princess did not sleep in their usual bed, but changed their rooms every night till the marshal Munich had removed to his palace over the Neva, being every moment afraid of a new revolution.

A thing which did Munich much mischief in the minds of many, was the renewal of the treaty of alliance with the court of Berlin, —a treaty most prejudicial to Austria, as it put a stop to the march of the auxiliary forces which these two courts* had reciprocally agreed upon furnishing in the event of either being attacked.

When the King of Prussia learnt that the duke of Courland had been arrested, and that Munich had all the power in his hands, he sent his aide-de-camp major Winterfeld, who had married madame Munich's daughter by her first husband, to Petersburg. He was ordered to use all means for detaching the marshal from the interests of the court of Vienna, and for conciliating him to those of Prussia. Success was the more easy in this negotiation, from the circumstance that Munich had never been attached to the house of Austria.† The king too continued so to flatter him by the confidence he showed him, in asking his advice on several matters of great importance, that he got all he wished. As the marquis de Botta had been recalled some time before the death of the Empress Anne, the Queen of Hungary had not at the time a minister at Petersburg, which prevented many obstacles being thrown in the way. Baron Mardefeld, the Prussian minister, and major Winterfeld, made good use of this chance.

* Manstein doubtless means Russia and Austria. See pp. 213, 214.

† See above, p. 195.

288

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

Madame Munich received from the King of Prussia a ring set with a large diamond worth 6000 rubles, and the marshal's son got 15,000 crowns in ready money, besides being invested with the jurisdiction of a bailiwick in the march of Brandenburg, named Bugen. King Frederic William had given this bailiwick to prince Menzikoff; after him it went to the duke of Courland; and on his fall the king complimented count Munich with it. When he was arrested, the king put it into sequestration, in order to restore it to the Munichs if they should ever return from exile.*

The grand-duchess continued to marshal Munich an annual pension of 15,000 rubles, or 30,000 German florins, which together with the fine estates he possessed in several parts of Russia and in Germany, made up an income to him of 70,000 rubles, or 140,000 florins. The regiment of cuirassiers, which he had, was given to count Löwendal, but it continued to bear the name of Munich till the Empress Elizabeth's accession to the throne.

It was in the month of March 1741, that the marshal retired from court. In the preceding month of December he had had a fit of illness, which it was generally imagined would carry him off. The grand-duchess one day said, "that it would be happy for him to die of it, as he would then end his days in the fulness of glory, and at a time when he saw himself raised to the summit of honour." From these words one might infer that the court would soon be comforted for the loss of him, and that even the grand-duchess was jealous of his power.

A few days after the revolution, the grand-duchess caused an edict to be published, by which it was ordered to give the prince her husband, as father of the emperor,

* The last three paragraphs are found only in the French edition.

BIRON SENT TO SIBERÍA.

289

the title of His Imperial Highness. A little while after
that, he was declared co-regent.

The arrangements for the interment and funeral obsequies of the empress could not be finished before the latter end of December. At length everything being ready, she was interred in the church within the citadel of Petersburg, with the usual ceremonies and all the pomp imaginable.

It has been mentioned above, that the duke of Courland was, on the same day that he was seized, transferred to Schlüsselburg. A commission composed of several senators proceeded there to try him, and condemned him to death. He had his pardon. The Princess Anne had from the first moment of the revolution resolved to banish him to Siberia. An engineer had been sent there to direct the building of a house, expressly designed for his prison. Marshal Munich made the first sketch of it with a pencil, little imagining then that it was for himself he was taking the pains. In the month of May the duke of Courland was transferred, with his family, from Schlüsselburg to his new habitation. His brothers, and also general Bismark, had already, some months before, been sent to different places in Siberia.

The marquis de Botta had been recalled from Petersburg a few months before the death of the empress, and resided at the court of Berlin. He was sent back to Russia after it was known at Vienna that the grandduchess had been declared regent, in order to press this princess to succour the Queen of Hungary. But there were new reasons that hindered the march of the troops, several regiments of which had already had orders to leave their quarters, and take the route towards Riga.

On the one hand, the Diet extraordinary convened in Sweden towards the end of the preceding year, gave room for

U

290

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

apprehending that the result of it would be a declaration of
war against Russia. On the other, the King of Poland,
who was on the point of declaring himself against the
house of Austria, caused a solemn protest to be made in
the name of the republic, against the passage of the troops
that Russia proposed to send to Silesia; and the count de
Lynar, who was the minister of Saxony, knew too well
how to avail himself of the terms of favour on which he
stood with the grand-duchess and her favourite, not to
thwart everything that might be contrary to the interests
of his master.*

The court of Petersburg had not failed to notify to the
states of Courland that their duke was seized; that he had
had his trial, and been found guilty of high-treason; and
that he and all his family were sent to Siberia, where he
was to pass the remainder of his days. Russia, at the
same time, took possession of several bailiwicks, to which
she was setting up a claim. These districts had been
mortgaged by the duke Frederic, predecessor of Biron, and
husband of the Empress Anne. Peter I. had lent him
500,000 roubles upon certain districts; others had been
mortgaged to private individuals. Biron had cleared them
all off: the empress had made him a present of the debt
owing to Russia; and by means of the liberalities he re-
ceived from time to time from that princess, he was enabled
to pay off the rest: for which reasons the court of Peters-
burg, alleging it to have been Russian money that was thus
applied, sequestered the security.

The Courland nobility was then exhorted to proceed to
the election of a new duke; and the grand-duchess gave
them to understand, that if their choice fell on Prince

* Lynar had been minister from the court of Saxony, several years before, but was compelled to leave. See p. 89. above, and the note.

ELECTION OF A DUKE OF COURLAND.

291

Lewis of Brunswick, her husband's brother, it would be the most agreeable to the regent, and that they might depend on the protection of Russia.

The count of Saxe *, natural son to the King of Poland, Augustus II., also put in specious pretensions to Courland. He had been already unanimously elected by the whole nobility in 1727. So early then as the month of February, he sent the baron Dieskau to Petersburg to solicit in his favour; but he met with nothing but refusals, and set out on his return thence the very day that Prince Lewis was to arrive at Mittau. On the 23rd of June, the nobility there assembled proceeded to the election, when baron Dieskau, who was by this time got to Mittau, interrupted the proceedings by a solemn protest, which he personally entered vivá voce, in the name of the count of Saxe. He added a kind of manifesto in writing, of which he distributed a number of copies. But this did not hinder the Prince Lewis from being elected by the whole nobility, who stood too much in fear of the Russians to pay any regard to the rights of the count of Saxe.

The affair was not, however, terminated: the republic of Poland protested against this election, undertaken without its participation. Prince Lewis was unable to obtain investiture from the king†; and the revolution that happened some months afterwards annulled everything.

* This is the natural son of Augustus, by Aurora von Koenigsmarck, more familiarly known under the name of marshal Saxe. He was a man whose strong natural talents were only less remarkable than the extreme deficiency of his education. He could scarcely write, and his spelling was unparalleled by anything ever seen. Nevertheless, the compliment was paid him of wishing to elect him a member of the Academy at Paris, upon which he wrote to a correspondent, "Ils veule me fere de la Cadémie; sela miret com une bage a un chas." (Ils veulent me faire de l'Académie; cela m'iroit comme une bague à un chat.)

† Augustus III., elector of Saxony, and half-brother of the count Saxe.

ii 2

292

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

In the beginning of July, Prince Lewis arrived at Peters-
burg, where he was received with all possible demonstra-
tions of tenderness and friendship. He was immediately
lodged in the summer-palace, and served by the officers of
the court. In a little while afterwards, he had an apart-
ment given him in the winter-palace. This prince soon
gained the heart of every one, by the affable and engaging
manner with which he treated all those who approached
him; and people thought it a pledge of happiness for the
Courlanders to have him for their duke.

The project of the grand-duchess and her ministry, in
sending for Prince Lewis to Petersburg was, to make a
match between him and the Princess Elizabeth, as soon
as he should have been acknowledged duke of Courland.
The princess made some difficulties; but she would at
length have been obliged to marry him, if she had not
taken other measures.

It was, also, in this month of July, that the Turkish
ambassador arrived at Petersburg. The court had, for a
long time, caused his journey to be retarded, in order to
gain previous information of the manner in which the
Russian ambassador had been received at Constantinople,
that it might regulate its own conduct accordingly.
When the satisfactory news for which they had waited
was received, the Turkish ambassador made his public
entry into Petersburg on horseback. He was treated
with great distinction. It had been stipulated at the
peace of Belgrade, that the ambassador of Russia should
be received at Constantinople with the same distinction
and the same ceremonial as were observed towards the
ambassador of the emperor of the Romans (of Germany)
which had not been hitherto the practice. And accord-
ingly, on the occasion of this embassy, the court of
Petersburg employed all imaginable magnificence to
render its reception splendid.

EMBASSY FROM PERSIA.

293

A little while afterwards, there also arrived at Peters-
burg a Persian ambassador. This was, perhaps, the most
extraordinary embassy that ever was seen. Thomas
Kouli Khan (Shah Nadir), after his conquest of Mogul-
istan, had, in the beginning of the year 1740, sent a
notification of his victories to the empress, by an am-
bassador, at the head of a retinue of 16,000 men and twenty
pieces of cannon. The court had timely advice of this,
and sent a body of troops towards Astrakhan, to form a
camp there, on the frontiers of Persia.* When the am-
bassador was come to near the river of Kisliar†, major-
general Apraxin, who commanded five regiments of foot
and six of dragoons, sent to meet him, and to acquaint
him, that as he had a great desert to cross to go from
Astrakhan to Moscow, it would be impossible to furnish
him with provisions and forage for such numbers; so that
he desired him to take at most 3000 persons with him, and
to leave the rest behind. This representation stopped the
ambassador short. He sent a courier to his master, who
ordered him to settle with the Russian commissaries the
number of persons that should accompany him to court,
where he could not arrive till July 1741. He, also, made
his entry on horseback; and it was one of the most mag-
nificent and the most extraordinary ever seen. His
retinue consisted of 3000 men, and of fourteen elephants,
which the shah sent as a present to the emperor, and to

* These troops to the number of 18,000 were despatched in the winter from Zaritzin, and perished at the rate of eighty daily from the inclemency of the weather. The great cause of the loss was said to be a deficiency of brandy, and an excess of indulgence in it when it was to be bad. (Han-way, vol. i. p. 68.) The frontiers of Persia alluded to in the text, are those of the Persian province of Daghestan. See p. 58. above, and the note. The Russian troops were sent to Kisliar, on the Terek, as well as to Astrakhan.

† The Terek.

vi 3

294

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

the principal lords of Russia. The other presents were
also considerable.

The ambassador said, in the harangue which he made
to the grand-duchess on the day of his audience, that his
master had wished to share the spoils of the Mogul with
so good an ally as the emperor of Russia. There was a
considerable quantity of large diamonds and precious
stones, which however were not polished.

Some of the Russian ministers had been afraid that the
designs of the Shah Nadir in sending so numerous an
embassy was, to seize the kingdom of Astrakhan, and even
to make greater conquests, if they had found the Russian
frontier undefended. But the true design appears to
have been to ask the Princess Elizabeth, since empress, in
marriage, with the offer to introduce the Christian religion
into his whole dominions.* The regent would have been
glad to have concluded this match, but judging the step
rather rash, she determined to refuse. The ambassador
was a near relation of Shah Nadir, and master of the
horse to him.

Hitherto the French ambassador had not had his audience. He would not deliver his credentials to the grand-duchess, unless in presence of the emperor himself; and as in Russia the children of sovereigns are never shown in public till after they have passed the first year, this created a difficulty on both sides. At length, La Chetardie, waving the character of ambassador, had a private audience of the grand-duchess in the emperor's apartment.

* This will not sound incredible to those who consider that, by his own authority, he changed the Persian sect of religion for the Turkish; and often talked of giving to his dominions a religion of his own framing (Note of the author.) By the idea being entertained at all, it would seem that the project of a marriage with Prince Louis of Brunswick was already abandoned. Perhaps the match with Nadir Shah was intended as a punishment of Elizabeth for rejecting the Brunswick alliance.

ACCOUNT OF THE MENGDENS.

295

Everything was quiet in the empire; and indeed no one had any cause of complaint, Russia never having been governed with more mildness than in the year of the grand-duchess's regency. She took a pleasure in conferring favours, and was an enemy to all severity. She might have been happy, if her conduct in domestic life had been as good as that she observed towards the public; and if she would have made more use of the advice of persons of sense, and not given herself over without reserve to her favourite.

Mademoiselle Julia de Mengden had received nothing better than the common education given in Livonia to young gentlewomen. Bred in the country, they are generally designed to be married to some good plain country gentleman, and to superintend the management of his property. In the time of the Empress Anne, there was a kind of preference shown to the Livonian young women for maids of honour, and the family of baron Mengden was one of the most ancient of the country. He was in great credit with the duke of Courland, and took advantage of the circumstance to introduce his daughters. Three of them came to court at once; the eldest sister, named Dorothea, was married to count Munich, son of the marshal; the second, Julia, became the favourite of the grand-duchess, and came to play the most important part of the three; the third, Jacobina, followed her sister the favourite and the grand-duchess into exile. A fourth sister, named Aurora, was also placed at court in the time of the regent; she afterwards married the count of Lestock, and was involved in his misfortune, which she bore with much fortitude. It will easily be conceived, that these ladies knew but little of the world, and had nothing of the kind of talent fit for the cabals of a court: nor, indeed, did three of the number at all concern themselves with them. But

296

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

Julia, favourite of a regent, who herself was mother to the emperor, took it into her head to intermeddle in affairs, or rather, being naturally indolent, tried to infect her mistress with that vice. She succeeded only too well. The princess often suffered the most important affairs to languish, while remaining for days together shut up in her chamber, seeing as few persons as she possibly could. Without any other dress than a petticoat and short cloak, and a nightcap made out of a handkerchief*, she admitted none to see her but such as were friends or relations to the favourite, or else some of the foreign ministers, who were invited to make up her party at cards. So odd a conduct could not but annoy the grandees of the empire. The Prince Anthony Ulric saw with concern the ascendant that mademoiselle Mengden had gained over his wife. He made representations to her on that head; but these only produced altercations between them, and gave the Princess Elizabeth time to carry on at her ease the necessary intrigues for seating herself on the throne.

There were often great misunderstandings between their imperial highnesses, which lasted whole weeks; and the favourite, instead of endeavouring to reconcile them, had the imprudence to inflame the grand-duchess the more against her husband. She made it her principal business to assist her mistress in her amour with the count Lynar, minister of the king of Poland, elector of Saxony. The count had made this illustrious conquest some years before, but was not allowed at that time to remain in quiet possession of it. The duke of Courland and the Empress Anne, on receiving information of the intrigue, induced the King of Poland to recall his minister.† But when the

* The French edition has in general terms "dans un déshabille très simple."

† See above, p. 89.

DISSECTIONS IN THE RUSSIAN CABINET. 297

grand-duchess got the supreme authority into her own
hands, she had nothing more to fear. Mademoiselle
Mengden, for the better concealment of the intrigue,
determined to marry M. Lynar herself, and the grand-
duchess made her a present of a fine property in
Livonia and also of the palace of Gustavus Biron. The
contract of marriage having been made, the count was able
frequently to visit the favourite, and in her apartments
to have interviews with the princess without any umbrage
being taken. Some time afterwards he went to Saxony
to settle his affairs; as he was to return, and to enter the
service of Russia as grand-chamberlain. Happily for
himself, he did not come back immediately, or he would
have been sent to Siberia, like the rest of the persons who
were arrested when the Princess Elizabeth declared herself
sovereign.*

There was no more harmony among the ministers of
the cabinet than between the prince and princess. Count
Osterman, who had contributed the most to the removal
of Munich, because he was jealous of his power as prime-
minister, found a new rival in the count Golofkin, vice-
chancellor of the empire, who could not see, without envy,
Prince Anthony Ulric giving his confidence wholly to
count Osterman, and following no counsels but his. By
way of counterpoise, he attached himself solely to the grand-
duchess, and entirely appropriated her confidence. She
had several affairs of the greatest consequence dispatched
by him without acquainting either her husband or Oster-
man. It was also the count Golofkin who was the first to
advise the grand-duchess to declare herself empress; but this

* This paragraph, after the first sentence, varies very much in the
English edition. The grand-duchess is represented as neglecting affairs of
state, from an excessive desire to marry her attendant to count Lynar, but
there is no hint of any ulterior design on her part.

298

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

project, of which I shall speak in another place, was never executed, on account of the revolution which occurred.

While all these matters were passing at Petersburg, the Diet extraordinary continued its sessions at Stockholm, and all advices from thence were full of nothing but of an approaching rupture with Russia.

It was a long while before the government at Petersburg could believe that Sweden would declare war. France, as I have already said, had offered her mediation the preceding year*, and both parties had accepted it; so that the court of Russia flattered itself that the court of Stockholm would, at the end of the diet, make some proposals; and count Osterman was of opinion, in that case, to give up to Sweden the town of Kexholm and its district. Peter I. had already consented to a cession of that place, with its territory, to the Swedes, if they should persist in the desire of having back some part of Finland. This time, however, the Swedes preferred war to negotiation. Monsieur de Nolcken, their minister at Petersburg, left in the month of July, alleging as a pretext that his private affairs called him to Pomerania, where he possessed estates. At that time it was already known at court that war was resolved on in Sweden, and that consequently Nolcken would not return.

As Sweden was rent by various factions, count Bectucheff, minister of Russia at Stockholm, found it no great difficulty to get informed of everything that was transacted in the diet. He knew all their resolutions as well as if he had been of the secret committee; and it was on intelligence the court had received from him, that the grandduchess sent for the generals Lacy and Keith to Petersburg. Councils of war were held, and it was resolved to

* See p. 269, above.

WAR WITH SWEDEN.

299

assemble, for that campaign, the troops in different
bodies; of which the most considerable was to be under
the orders of marshal Lacy and general Keith, in Fin-
land, and was to act offensively as soon as ever they
should learn that a declaration of war had been made.
The second, which was to be commanded by the Prince
of Hesse-Homburg, was to stay in Ingria: his camp was
marked out near a place called Krasna Gorka (red
mountain) at about six or seven leagues from Petersburg,
to hinder the descents which the enemy might attempt on
this side. It was also decided, that there should be other
small bodies of troops assembled in Livonia and Estho-
nia, the whole of which were to be under the orders of
Löwendal, in order to protect the coasts of that country:
for the Russian fleet was in so bad a condition that it
could not be got out of the ports that year.

On the 22nd of July, the first camp was begun to be
formed, under the orders of general Keith, four leagues off
Petersburg, on the side of Wyburg, near a village called
Ossinoua Rostchtsche. It consisted of five regiments of
foot, three of dragoons, and some companies of grenadiers
detached.

On the 26th, the generalissimo, accompanied by his
brother Prince Lewis, and marshal Lacy, arrived in camp
to review these troops. While they were inspecting the
manœuvres of the dragoons, they heard the cannon of
Petersburg fire, which was for the happy delivery of the
grand-duchess of a daughter, who was named Catherine;
upon which the prince and all his retinue returned imme-
diately to Petersburg.

Keith, with the body of troops under his command,
advanced to within eight miles of Wyburg, near a village
called Moola Muisa; where, observing that the roads
divide, and that one may march as far as that village along

300

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

the sea-shore, then turn Wyburg, and so penetrate as far
as Petersburg, he caused the construction of a strong en-
trenchment to be set about. This body of troops, which
had arrived at Moola Muisa on the 6th of August, staid
there till the 25th of that month. On the 24th, being the
emperor's birthday, Keith put the troops under arms, and
caused the declaration of war against Sweden to be pro-
claimed. They received it with great demonstrations of
joy. The general made a short harangue at the head of
each battalion, exhorting the soldiers to do their duty, and
to endeavour not only to preserve the glory which the
Russian arms had already acquired, but to augment it.

But before entering upon the operations of the Russian
army, it will be proper to give some details of the previous
conduct of the Swedes. I have already mentioned the
political divisions of Sweden, and that the party called the
Hats was determined on war, [and that ever since the
year 1737, they had been labouring to bring it on,] but
that, instead of declaring it in the year 1737, at a time
when Russia was engaged with other powers, and her
forces were at a great distance from the frontiers of
Sweden, they remained with their arms crossed, leaving
the Russians to make a peace; nor did they break with
them, till they were enjoying a profound tranquillity on all
sides. All the rest of the Swedish measures were as ill
concerted. On the eve of declaring a war against a power
like Russia, they had but few troops in Finland, which
must be the theatre of war; they had no magazines, nor
provisions enough in their whole country to form any;
consequently, even the troops that were maintained for the
defence of Finland, could not be assembled in one camp.

Several sensible persons, who had the honour of their
country at heart, represented these difficulties to the diet;
but as they were of the Nightcap party, their advice was

BUDDENBROG'S FALSE REPORT.

301

rejected. Lieutenant-general Buddenbrog was, however, sent to Finland, to examine everything upon the spot. He, who desired nothing so much as war, instead of reporting the truth, notified to the senate that everything was in a very good condition; that the troops might be assembled without delay; and that there were provisions sufficient. On the other hand, France, whose interest it was that Russia should not take part in the contest which she and her allies were carrying on against the house of Austria, had made great remittances of money to Sweden, while exhorting the nation to declare war. In short, the Hats, a party made up of blockheads, were so persuaded that the Russian army had been entirely ruined by the campaign against the Turks, and that all the regiments were only patched up with raw recruits, that they declared everywhere, that one Swede was enough to drive ten Russians before him; and that their army, to be victorious, would have nothing to do but to show itself.

The senate had taken some precautions that this news should reach the court of Petersburg as late as possible, to give the more time to general Buddenbrog to make some further arrangements for assembling his troops, and enable Count Loewenhaupt (who, from marshal of the diet, had been chosen commander-in-chief of all the forces that were to be employed against Russia) to reach the army; so that all the posts were forbidden to furnish horses to any courier or express. Orders had also been given at all the seaports not to suffer any vessel to sail; but a Courlander, that was at anchor in the road of Sandham when the declaration of war was published, slipped away, and carried the news to Liebau, whence it was immediately sent to the court of Russia, who thus got information of it fifteen days after the declaration had been

302

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

made at Stockholm. General Keith had orders upon this,
as I have before related, to proclaim the war at the
head of the troops under his command, and to approach the
frontier.

Sweden had alleged for the principal reasons that
incited her to this war: " The assassination of Sinclair;
— the Russian prohibition of exports of grain from
Livonia; — the exclusion of the Princess Elizabeth and
the duke of Holstein from the throne of Russia *; — and
the extravagant power that the foreigners in Russia had
usurped over the nation."

I return now to the military operations. General
Keith, the very next day after the publication of the war,
marched with the regiments under his orders.

On August 26th, the troops passed through the town
of Wyburg, and encamped on the bridge of Abo. Major-
general Uxkul was detached with 1000 dragoons to ap-
proach the frontier of Sweden, and to get news of the
enemy. The regiments were ordered to take bread for
fifteen days from the magazines of Wyburg. Six re-
giments of foot, which had encamped under that place,
and had worked at the fortifications, joined the body of
troops under general Keith; as did general Stoffeln and
major-general Fermor, who had commanded there. Major-
general Schipow was appointed commandant of the town,
and was left with the usual garrison of three regiments of
foot.

On the 28th, the army began its march, and approached
the frontier; but the ground being extremely confined in
those parts, the troops could not find space enough for a
camp to contain all, so that the dragoons and a part of the

* The duke who was afterwards Peter III. of Russia, son of Anne, the elder sister of Elizabeth. The exclusion of the two from the throne of Russia seemed certain when the duke of Brunswick's son was born.

RUSSIANS ADVANCE ON WILMANSTRAND.

303

infantry encamped at a village called Cananoia, a league
from the frontiers, and the rest about half a league behind.
The same night, a Swedish subaltern officer (accompanied
by a drum) having some letters to deliver to the general,
came so near an advanced guard as to be within pistol-
shot, and not having beat the call till he was just upon
the sentinels; these, not being able to distinguish objects,
and afraid of a surprise, imagining that it might be a
party of the enemy, fired, and killed the subaltern's
horse; upon which the officer got off the ground as fast
as he could, with his drum, and without delivering his
letters.

On the 31st, marshal Lacy arrived at the army, and
took the command of it.

It was ascertained from some deserters, that the gar-
rison of Wilmanstrand did not consist of above 500 or 600
men; that the Swedes had not as yet assembled above
two bodies, each of 4000 men, the first under the orders
of major-general Wrangel, in camp about three Swedish
miles * from Wilmanstrand, and the other under general
Buddenbrog, about six; that the other troops, just come
out of quarters, were on the march; that a part of those
transported from Sweden were not as yet landed, so that
the whole of the enemy's army could scarcely be assembled
within three weeks more; that count Loewenhaupt was
still in Sweden, and was not likely to come soon to the
army. This information was confirmed by several spies,
who could the more easily gain certain intelligence, from
their being inhabitants of Wyburg, and having friends
and relations in all the towns of Swedish Finland.

 Marshal Lacy, with a view to take advantage of the
unprepared state of the enemy, resolved to enter into

* Ten Swedish miles make a degree of latitude.

304

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

Swedish Finland, and seize on the town of Wilmanstrand; and for this purpose he assembled the chief officers of the regiments, and gave them their orders in person. On September 1st, at break of day, the army began its march. All the baggage and tents remained in the camp. The soldiers took bread with them for five days. Two staff-officers were left in charge of the camp; for the guard of which each regiment furnished three of its officers, and 100 of its men; and every brigade a captain. The regiment of Nitschegorod, which was that day to join the army, had also orders to remain in the camp, in guard of the baggage. The army could only march in one column: for in that country there is no practicable way but the high road. On each side there are thick woods, marshes, and rocks. In all Finland there is scarce a plain to be found large enough to encamp with four regiments in front.*

The army made a march of two Swedish miles in the enemy's country, without seeing any one but a few peasants, who escaped into the woods as soon as they perceived the Russian vanguard, and ran to carry to Wilmanstrand the first news of the approach of the enemy.

Towards nightfall, the army drew up in three lines along the high road; the dragoons close to the wood on one side of the road, and the infantry in two lines behind them, without more interval than of about thirty or forty paces. The troops lay on their arms. At eleven at night, there was a great alarm. Colonel Wilbrand, commandant of Wilmanstrand, having learnt the march of the Russians, had detached four men, who, under favour of the night and of the wood, were to get as near as possible to the enemy's army, and to reconnoitre it. One of

* "En front de bandière."

SINGULAR FALSE ALARM.

305

the sentinels of the advanced guard in the wood, having
perceived them, fired upon them. Scarce had the guns
gone off, before some regiments of the second line started
up on a sudden, stood to their arms, and, as if they had
been all in concert, began to pour a most brisk fire upon
the first line, without its being possible, for half an hour
together, to make them cease; some cannon even were
fired. The regiments that lay in their way had an officer
and seventeen men killed and wounded.

The generals Lacy and Keith had a narrow escape
of being killed in this false alarm: they had small tents
pitched for them to lie in between the lines; and several
balls went quite through these.

About 200 of the dragoons horses, taking fright at the
fire, broke loose from the pickets, and ran away on
the high road to Wilmanstrand. An advanced guard
of the Swedes, that was posted about half a league from
the Russians, hearing the firing, and at the same time the
trampling of the horses that were coming straight towards
them, imagined it was a detachment of the enemy, and
fled at full speed to the town; the horses following them
so close, that they entered it *pêle mêle*, with the Swedish
guards, before the bridge could be drawn up.

It was through this false alarm that general Wrangel
had the first notice of the approach of the Russians.
Hearing the firing in the night-time, and imagining that
Wilmanstrand was attacked, he immediately sent advice of
it to general Buddenbrog, and, by break of day, got
under march to come to the relief of the town.

On the 2nd, the army resumed its march as soon as it
was day. After having proceeded about a French league,
they came to a small river, which it was necessary to pass.
The bottom was muddy; and the Swedes had broken down
the bridge [upon the last night's alarm]. Here then they

X

306

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

were obliged to halt some hours till the bridge was repaired. [This much retarded their march.] Colonel Rezanof, with the regiment of Kiev dragoons, was ordered to guard this pass, and the army resumed its march. Towards noon, a detachment of a hundred of the enemy's dragoons approached the Russian vanguard, and could not retreat quick enough to escape an attack and having a prisoner taken. About four in the afternoon, the army arrived under Wilmanstrand, and took up a position about a quarter of a league off, near a small village called Armila.

 Marshal Lacy and general Keith proceeded directly to reconnoitre the town, under the escort of a battalion of foot, and 200 mounted grenadiers. They approached to within a good musket-shot of the covered-way. Scarce were the generals returned to the camp, when they got intelligence that a body of the enemy, some thousands strong, was coming up in the neighbourhood of the town. The marshal instantly moved all his troops forward, and posted them on the eminences opposite to the Swedes. An engagement would have ensued that very evening, if night coming on had not prevented it. The Russians returned into their camp near Armila, and the troops again lay on their arms.

But before I proceed in this narrative, I will give an idea of what the town of Wilmanstrand was, and of its situation.

It is a little town, at the distance of full four German miles from the frontier of Russia, situate on the side of a great lake; this covered it behind, so that there was no attacking it but in front, where it was fortified with a covered-way, a dry ditch palisaded, and a staked rampart; the whole made of earth and fascines. The town, though itself situated on an eminence, has hills all round, which

SITE OF WILMANSTRAND.

307

command it. The highest is on its proper right, where there was a windmill. The Swedes had posted a detachment there, to hinder the Russians from occupying it. The rest of the ground is extremely broken and intersected; there is nothing but woods, marshes, bushes, rocks, and ravines; so that it is very difficult to approach the town except by the high road. Here and there only one may find little bits of fields, cultivated and enclosed. Whoever considers this description must allow it to be very difficult for troops to act upon such ground, and that a small body of men, that understood how to defend themselves, would easily defeat a greater one attacking them.

The next day, the 3rd of September, it was observed that the enemy had encamped between the hill of the windmill and the glacis. Towards ten in the morning, a party of Swedes advanced near to the Russian army to reconnoitre it, and immediately withdrew. The marshal was not as yet exactly apprised of the force of the enemy. He imagined that the two bodies under Buddenbrog and Wrangel had joined, for the relief of Wilmanstrand; and accordingly judged it would be difficult to attack and defeat them both in the advantageous post they had taken up. He had, in the night, sent back the heavy artillery, under an escort, to the bridge where Rezanof was posted with his regiment; and had even given orders to the quarter-masters to go and mark out a camp behind it, when intelligence was brought, that it was nothing more than the body of troops under major-general Wrangel that had arrived, which, together with the garrison of the town, might make up about 5000 or 6000 men. Upon this, the marshal assembled the generals and all the colonels, and acquainting them with the situation of things, asked their advice. Their voices were unanimous for attacking the enemy.

x 2

308

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the army got under
march in several columns, without any special disposition
being made for attacking.

The dragoons were placed in the wings, but those of
the right being absolutely useless on account of the wood,
which was much thicker there than on the left, they were
withdrawn. Two regiments of foot grenadiers, of ten
companies each, commanded by the colonels Lohmann and
count Balmaine*, composed the van of the Russian army.

The enemy having notice that they were marching
upon him, had got into order of battle on the declivity
of the Windmill-hill, having a battery of cannon in front
of his centre, and his left resting on a ravine about a
musket-shot from the glacis of the town; his dragoons
on the right were posted in a small plain on the other
side of the same hill, near a small village.

The Russians being arrived on a rising ground opposite
to the Swedish battery, placed there two 6-pounders, and
some 3-pounders, and the action began with a cannonade
on each side. The Swedish artillery did some mischief
among the grenadiers. Upon this general Keith ordered
two regiments of grenadiers to attack the enemy's battery,
and the regiments of Ingermanland and Astrakhan, com-
manded by colonel Manstein, to support them. But the
ground was so extremely narrow, that there was no
issuing out of the wood which the Russians had in front of
them except by marching in a front of two companies;
and then they had to descend a steep ravine, and again
climb a hill, in the face of the enemy, and under a fire
of cannon and small arms, which was exceedingly severe;
so that the two regiments were thrown into disorder

* Ramsay, who had left the Turkish service in 1735. See above, p. 88.

THE TOWN IS STORMED.

309

and gave way. To hinder these runaways from communicating their confusion to the two regiments that were following them, general Keith ordered Manstein to débouche by his right, and to attack the left wing of the enemy, who were quitting the ravine on which they had encamped, for the purpose of advancing. This was instantly executed, and so successfully that after the first volley which the Swedes received, [at sixty paces distance,] they wheeled about and ran straight towards the town, where the two regiments followed them to the foot of the glacis, which they began to attack. While this was passing on the left wing of the enemy, the generals ordered an attack on the right wing of the Swedes, who, having remarked the confusion into which the Russian grenadiers had been thrown, descended from their eminence, and lost, by this means, both the advantage of the ground and that which they derived from their battery; so that they were soon routed, and the hill carried by 5 o'clock in the evening. The cannon of the enemy were turned against the town, and the marshal sent a drum to summon it; but the soldiers of the enemy, continuing to fire from the rampart, killed the messenger. The Russians, extremely provoked at this incident, renewed the assault with fury, and carried the town towards seven that evening.

The Swedes had hoisted the white flag on the side of the gate, at the time that the Russians were actually in the fosse; but as, in the confusion, the commandant had forgotten to send orders to all the posts to cease from firing, they continued it, and thereby occasioned the town to be taken by storm.

Most of the Swedes, who had been in this action, were killed or made prisoners. Not 500 men escaped. Colonel Lieven, with the dragoons, went in pursuit of them,

x 3

310

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

without being able to overtake the Swedish cavalry; and
the few foot that got off hid themselves in the woods
and marshes. Major-general Wrangel, who had received
a gun-shot wound in the arm, 2 colonels, 3 lieutenant-
colonels, 1 major, 12 captains, 1 quarter-master, 6 lieu-
tenants, 8 ensigns, 2 adjutants, 3 surgeons, 62 sergeants,
and 1250 corporals and private soldiers, were made pri-
soners. There were also taken 4 standards, 12 colours,
12 cannon, 1 mortar, and the military chest, in which
there were not 6000 crowns. The soldiers got a consi-
derable booty in the town, which was plundered.

In the Russian army, there had been killed, major-
general Uxkul, the colonels Lohman and count de Balmaine;
1 major, 3 captains, and 8 lieutenants; 514 non-commis-
sioned officers and soldiers. Of wounded, there were lieu-
tenant-general Stoffeln, and major-general Albrecht; the
colonels Manstein and Lewaschew; 2 lieutenant-colonels,
3 majors, 17 captains, 31 lieutenants, 15 ensigns, and 1765
subalterns and soldiers. The Russian army was, on the
day of action, 9900 strong; the cavalry being composed of
2 regiments of dragoons, the infantry of 2 regiments of
grenadiers, of 10 companies each, and 9 regiments of
fusileers, of 8 companies each.

The generals, who commanded these troops, were
marshal Lacy, general Keith; the lieutenant generals
Stoffeln and Bachmetew; the major-generals Lieven,
Fermor, Albrecht, and Uxkul.

The Swedes, including the garrison of Wilmanstrand,
were 5256 strong, according to the roll of the regiments,
which major-general Wrangel received on the very day of
the action. I insert here a specification of the regiments,
and of the number of men in each, because the Swedes
have always maintained that they had not above 3500
men.

BLUNDERS OF GENERAL WRANGEL.

311

<table><tbody><tr><td>Infantry, regiment</td><td>Dalecarlia,</td><td>-</td><td>623</td></tr><tr><td>” ”</td><td>Surmaland,</td><td>-</td><td>681</td></tr><tr><td>” ”</td><td>Wester Bothnia,</td><td>-</td><td>594</td></tr><tr><td>” ”</td><td>Savalax,</td><td>-</td><td>876</td></tr><tr><td>” ”</td><td>Tavasthouse,</td><td>-</td><td>955</td></tr><tr><td>” ”</td><td>Wilbrand,</td><td>-</td><td>432</td></tr><tr><td>” ”</td><td>Kiminogor,</td><td>-</td><td>476</td></tr><tr><td>Artillery,</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>113</td></tr><tr><td>Dragoons of Carelia,</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>506</td></tr></tbody></table>

Total, 5256

If the strength of the post which the Swedes occupied, and the disadvantage of the ground for the Russians, be considered, it is really astonishing that the former were beaten; it must, however, be owned, that they themselves contributed greatly to it by their own fault, in quitting the advantageous position they had taken up. The resistance they made was extremely obstinate, and served to augment their loss; for there remained of them above 3300 men dead on the field of battle. The fire, which was very fierce on both sides, lasted above four hours.

It was this action that was the ruin of lieutenant-general Buddenbrog, who two years afterwards lost his head. The heaviest article of his accusation, and that for which he was condemned to die, was his not having succoured general Wrangel. But if either of the generals ought to have been punished, it was Wrangel. For he, though nearest to the frontier, had sent out no reconnoitring parties, nor taken the least step to obtain intelligence of the march of the Russians; and but for the false alarm above-mentioned, which was a thing of mere chance, the capture of Wilmanstrand would have been simultaneous with the Swedish general receiving information of the Russians' arrival: whereas, had he but taken any the least precautions, he might have known twelve hours sooner that the

312

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

enemy was marching against Wilmanstrand, and consequently could have sent earlier notice to Buddenbrog, who then would have come to his succour before the Russians could have had time to beat him. Instead of which, he quitted his post to march to Wilmanstrand, without waiting the orders of his general. He got himself beaten, lost his army, was made prisoner, and was rewarded for these exploits with the admiration of the whole Swedish nation.* As for Buddenbrog, it was impossible for him to arrive at Wilmanstrand before the battle, his camp being at the distance of six Swedish miles, which are eighteen French leagues, from it. Wrangel, who was but three of those long miles off, and who, on the second of September, got under march at break of day, was yet not able to reach the town till the evening at sunset, with his troops greatly fatigued; so that Buddenbrog, who had double the way to go, could not by any possibility have come up to join him before the evening of the day of battle. If Wrangel could have avoided coming to action that day, the Russian army would have undoubtedly retreated the next. Marshal Lacy would never have hazarded an engagement with both those bodies of troops united.†

The night after the action, there was a very extraordinary accident in Buddenbrog's camp. The few dragoons who made their escape from the field had fled at full speed as far as his advanced guard. On the vidette challenging and receiving no answer he fired, when the whole guard, taking horse, fled to the camp; the fugitives

* This sentence is only found in the French edition.

† The true reason for which the senate took off Buddenbrog's head, and which was never given to the public, was his having engaged Sweden in the war, by the false report he made, when sent to Finland to examine the state of affairs there, as I have related above. (Note of the author.)

CIVILITY TO SWEDISH PRISONERS.

313

followed them and threw everything into such confusion, that the troops dispersed, leaving Buddenbrog alone with his officers in the camp; and they had a great difficulty to get their men together again by next day at noon.

In the evening, marshal Lacy put two regiments of foot into Wilmanstrand, under the command of major-general Fermor. The next day, the 4th of September, all the wounded prisoners were sent under an escort of dragoons, to Wyburg. The town of Wilmanstrand was then razed to the ground, and the inhabitants transported into Russia. This operation being finished, the army repassed the frontiers, and resumed the same camp which it had left to go against the enemy.

Great rejoicings were made for this victory at Petersburg, as so auspicious a beginning promised a happy progress in the war. The sequel will show that people were not mistaken; for this is the only battle the Swedes fought during the whole course of the war, in which they showed any courage.

The prisoners of war were transferred from Wyburg to Petersburg, where all imaginable civility was shown them. The officers at first were entertained at court, and, after that, distributed among the chief of the nobility; each of whom was obliged to take charge of one officer, to lodge him in his house, and provide for his wants. One foolish person spoilt all this. Count Wasabourg, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of Surmaland, a man of small wit and restless tongue, not only indulged in abusive talk of the Russian army, but of the court itself. As soon as this was known, he and all the other prisoners were sent into the interior of the country, where they were distributed in the towns. But for this imprudence, they might have staid all the time of their captivity at Petersburg; where, as it was, none of them remained, except

314

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

general Wrangel and a captain Didron, who was his aide-de-camp.

The court had not been pleased that Lacy returned; they would have had him go on to Fredericsham, and defeat the Swedish troops in detail, the whole of them not being as yet assembled. But these things were not so easy to execute as was imagined at Petersburg. Lacy showed that he could not have undertaken more, without hazarding the loss of the whole corps under his command. The regiments were diminished, by death and wounds, to the extent of more than 2000 men. There were strong escorts necessary to bring away the prisoners, which weakened him still more; the other regiments, who were on their march to join the army, had not yet arrived; [any more than the three battalions of guards which had been detached from Petersburg;] besides, the troops had not bread left for above six days; [nor could the horses employed in carrying the wounded to Wyburg have well time to return soon enough;] so that the court was obliged to approve all that had been done. While at Petersburg, Lacy left the command of the army to general Keith.

The war, for the rest of the campaign, was entirely one of outposts, and the Russians had, in all encounters, the advantage of the Swedes. The Calmucks and Cossacks of the Don, who joined the army in September, made several incursions into the territory of the enemy, and there burned a great number of villages.

Count Loewenhaupt arrived in Finland about the middle of September, and having assembled the Swedish army, he reviewed it, and found it muster 23,700 men. Sweden had bought up a great quantity of grain in Holland, Prussia, and Pomerania, and the magazines were at length so well stored, that they might have served to supply, for some years together, an army much more

ANNE DESIGNS TO BECOME EMPRESS.

315

numerous than that of Sweden, if it only had been able to
keep them. [But all these provisions were burnt, or fell
into the hands of the Russians, as will hereafter be shown.]
Several movements were made on both sides, but nothing
considerable undertaken. The Russian army kept the
field till the 8th of November, when general Keith sent
the troops into winter-quarters, after being satisfied that
the Swedish army had separated.

It was about this time that a part of the ministry
advised the grand-duchess to declare herself empress, to
prevent the inconveniences that might arise in case of the
emperor's dying in early years, and before there were
other princes born to succeed him. At first, nothing
more had been intended than to put forth an edict, by
which it should be provided, that daughters from the
marriage of Prince Anthony Ulric with the grand-duchess
should, in default of male issue, equally succeed to the
empire of Russia; but the vice-chancellor Golofkin, and
some others, were of opinion that the grand-duchess should
herself, and in her own right, ascend the throne; as
this would put an end to all cabals. The proposal was
generally relished, and all the arrangements were ready
for this declaration, which was to be made on the 18th of
December, the birth-day of the grand-duchess; [but
Princess Elizabeth disconcerted the whole project.] About
this time died the Queen of Sweden, Ulrica Eleanora.
Her death added yet more to the confusion in the country,
and was one of the causes of the misfortunes which oc-
curred during the campaign of 1742.*

General Keith came to Petersburg towards the end of
November, to assist in the deliberations of the council of

* The last two sentences are only found in the French edition.

316

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

war, which assembled every day at the house of Count Osterman, in presence of the generalissimo.

Advices came to general Keith from Wyburg, that the Swedish army was reassembled; that count Loewen-haupt not having been able to do anything during the campaign, was designing to attempt an irruption into Russian Finland during the winter; that he had advanced as far as the frontier, and that his head-quarters were at Sekyerwy*; and, also, that he had published a manifesto, of which several copies were sent to general Keith. This manifesto set forth, that the intention of Sweden was by no means to make war against the Russian nation, but only to deliver it from the oppression and tyranny of foreigners, and to procure liberty for the Russians to choose any sovereign they might think eligible for them, &c.

The manifesto would not have produced any the least effect, had it not been for the measures which the Princess Elizabeth had already taken. At count Osterman's there were several arrangements agreed upon for preventing the progress of the enemy. All the regiments had orders to be in readiness for marching; general Keith left Petersburg on the 5th of December; and on the night between the 5th and 6th, the grand revolution took place, which put the Princess Elizabeth upon the throne.

I propose to relate this in detail, it being the most extraordinary event that happened during the whole time I was in Russia. But in order to give a clear conception of the circumstances of the revolution, I must go back to the very beginning.

The Princess Elizabeth, though far from satisfied during

* Sekijervi is on the coast road, about 80 miles west of Wyburg.

PLOT OF THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH.

317

the whole reign of the Empress Anne, had remained quiet till the marriage of the Prince Anthony Ulric with the Princess Anne was concluded: then, indeed, she began to take some steps towards forming a party; in all which, however, there was such secrecy maintained that nothing transpired while the empress lived. After her death, and the arrest of Biron, when the Princess Anne had declared herself grand-duchess and regent, she thought more seriously on the subject. Nevertheless, the first months passed in the most perfect harmony between the two princesses. They visited one another without ceremony, and lived together upon terms of familiarity. This did not last long. Ill-intentioned persons soon inspired both parties with reciprocal mistrust. The Princess Elizabeth became more reserved, and no longer went to the grand-duchess's unless upon days of ceremony, or occasions when she could not by any means avoid paying her a visit. The marriage which the court wanted to force her to contract with Prince Lewis of Brunswick was altogether against her inclination; and on this occasion those about her person pressed her much to deliver herself from the subjection in which she was held. Naturally prone to indolence and self-indulgence, she had too much dislike of business, and too much love of pleasure, to undertake willingly the least affair requiring any effort of mind. Had the court not tried to force her to marry Prince Lewis, she would probably have remained perfectly quiet. Acquainted with the value of liberty, and accustomed to indulge her caprices, the idea of subjection to a husband was intolerable to her.*

Her surgeon, Lestock, was of all her establishment the man that most strongly exhorted her to place herself on

* The last three sentences are only found in the French edition.

318

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

the throne; the marquis de la Chetardie, too, who had orders from his court to endeavour to excite intestine troubles in Russia, in order to hinder her from intermeddling with the rest of Europe, did not fail to labour at it with all possible assiduity. The princess being in want of money, (and it was not a little that would serve for the forming a party,) La Chetardie supplied her with as much as she required. He often had secret conferences with Lestock, to whom he gave useful counsels for conducting an affair of this consequence. Once engaged in this enterprise, the princess entered into a correspondence with Sweden, and it was partly upon the measures concerted with her that the court of Stockholm undertook the war.

At Petersburg the princess began with gaining over some soldiers of the Preobraschensky regiment of guards. The principal of them was one Grünstein, who from a bankrupt-merchant had taken on to be a soldier. This man engaged others, so that little by little there were as many as thirty grenadiers of the guards got to take part in the plot.

Count Osterman, who had spies everywhere, was informed that the Princess Elizabeth was hatching something against the regency. Lestock, the most giddy man alive and the least capable of keeping a secret, had often said in a coffee-house, before a number of people, that there would soon be seen great changes in Petersburg. The minister did not fail to give notice of all this to the grand-duchess, who only laughed at him, and attached not the least credit to all he said to her upon the subject. At length, information coming from various quarters, and even being sent from other countries, the matter grew to give the Princess Anne some uneasiness. She began to apprehend she might be in danger, but took no

IS ACCELERATED BY CIRCUMSTANCES.

319

measures to avoid it, which she might have done the more
easily, as the Princess Elizabeth, whether from timidity or
indolence, gave her time to frustrate her measures;
for, though the latter was determined to venture for the
throne, still, instead of hastening the execution of her
design, she was always finding some pretext or other for
deferring it from time to time. Her last resolution had
been, not to undertake anything till the 6th of January,
(old style) which is twelfth-day, when all the regiments
that are in garrison at Petersburg are drawn up in parade
on the ice of the Neva. She proposed then to go there, and
at the head of the Preobraschensky regiment, to harangue
it; and as there were some in it devoted to her, she hoped
the rest would not fail of joining them; and that then,
when the whole regiment should have declared for her,
the other troops would make no difficulty of following
their example.

This project would certainly have failed, or at least
have caused a great effusion of blood. Fortunately for
her, she was obliged to hasten the enterprise; several cir-
cumstances determining her to a final resolution sooner
than she had intended. In the first place, she had learnt
that the grand-duchess had resolved to declare herself em-
press; upon which, all those who were attached to her
advised her not to wait for the execution of that design,
representing to her that she would then find more, even if
not insuperable, difficulties. Secondly, upon the notice
which the court had received of the march of count
Loewenhaupt, three battalions of the guards had orders to
hold themselves in readiness for marching to Wyburg,
to join the army. Now, many of those who were in the
interest of the princess, were to make part of that detach-
ment. They went to her, and told her, that it was
absolutely necessary for her to hasten the execution of

320

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

her project, for that those who were the most devoted to her would be gone upon service in the campaign, and that those who remained might be stricken with fear, which would drive them to inform the government of the whole affair.

Besides all this, an imprudence which induced the regent Anne to tax the Princess Elizabeth with her secret conferences with the marquis de la Chetardie, greatly contributed to confirm her resolution. It was on the 4th of December, a court-day, that the grand-duchess took the Princess Elizabeth aside, and told her, that she had received several intimations concerning her conduct, and that her surgeon had frequent conferences with the French minister, and was concocting treasonable designs against the reigning family; that hitherto, she (the grand-duchess) had not chosen to give credit to these informations; but that, if they continued, she should be obliged to have Lestock arrested, and that means would be used to force him to confess the truth. The princess stood out this conversation very well. She protested to the grand-duchess, that she had never had a thought of undertaking any the least thing against her or her son; that she had too much religion to break the oath she had taken; that all these calumnies proceeded from enemies, who wanted to make her unhappy; that Lestock had never set his foot in M. de la Chetardie's house, (which was true, for there had been always a third place chosen for their interviews); that however, the grand-duchess might, if she pleased, have Lestock arrested, which would but serve the more to prove her guiltless. She shed abundance of tears at the time of this protestation, and succeeded so well in establishing the opinion of her innocence, that the grand-duchess (who also wept much) believed her to have been altogether wrongfully accused.

SHE TAKES A DECISIVE STEP.

521

As soon as the princess was returned home, she informed Lestock of her conversation with the grand-duchess. This confidant of hers would fain have proceeded that very night to the prevention of the imminent danger that hung over the heads both of the princess and himself. But as all the soldiers who were concerned in the plot were dispersed in their quarters, and had no previous notice of anything, the affair was deferred till the following night.

The next morning, when Lestock waited as usual upon the princess, he presented a card to her; on one side of which there was drawn with a pencil, the princess Elizabeth with an imperial crown on her head; and on the reverse of it, the same princess, with a nun's veil, surrounded by racks and gibbets; with this he said to her: "Your highness must now absolutely choose one of these two things, to be empress, or to be put into a convent, and to see your faithful servants perish under tortures." He exhorted her then not to delay a moment; and, accordingly, the resolution was taken to proceed to extremities that very night. Lestock did not fail to acquaint with the fact all who were of their party. At midnight, the princess, accompanied by Woronzow and Lestock, re-paired to the barracks of the grenadiers of the Preobra-chenski regiment, thirty of whom were, as has been observed, personally in the plot. These assembled others to the number of 300, non-commissioned officers and privates. The princess, in a few words, declared her intention to them, and asked their assistance. They all, to a man, consented to devote themselves to her. Their first step was to seize the officer of the grenadiers, who lay in the barracks; — his name was Grews, and he was a Scotchman; — after which they took an oath of fidelity to the princess. She then put herself at their head,

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and marching straight to the winter-palace, entered, with part of those that followed her, into the guard-rooms, without meeting any the least resistance. There she told the officers the reason of her coming. They made no show of opposition, and left her to act as she pleased. Sentinels were then posted at all the doors and avenues. Lestock and Woronzow penetrated with a detachment of grenadiers into the apartments of the grand-duchess, and made prisoners of her and her husband, her children, and the favourite, that was lodged near them.* As soon as this was done, several detachments were sent to seize marshal Munich, his son, who was lord steward of the

* In the place of the last sentence the editor of the French edition gives the following account, as from other sources than Manstein.

"Lestock and Woronzow remained with the princess, while thirty grenadiers were ordered to go up stairs to the apartments of the ducal family, and arrest them. The soldiers entering tumultuously into the chamber where the duke and grand-duchess were in bed, ordered the latter, in the name of Elizabeth, to get up and follow them. The princess, seized with terror, hastily covered herself with some articles of dress to keep off the cold, and while they carried her off, asked for permission to speak to her aunt. This was refused her. All this time the Prince Antony Ulric, sitting up in bed, abandoned to all the horror of his lot, saw his wife dragged off by common soldiers. Two grenadiers pulled him out, rolled him up in the coverlid, with his feet hanging out, and carried him in this condition down stairs. There they put him into a sledge and covered him with a pelisse. After this the soldiers passed into the room where the infant Iwan was sleeping. Having orders not to wake him, they waited in silence around the cradle. At the end of an hour he woke, and each tried to be the one to seize him. The poor child cried at the sight of the soldiers, and his nurse, who slept near, ran on hearing his screams, and took him trembling with terror in her arms; and the grenadiers carried off nurse and child together. The little Princess Catherine, and mademoiselle de Mengden, were also arrested and carried off. All these prisoners, escorted by soldiers, were carried in sledges to the palace of the Princess Elizabeth, and kept in separate rooms. That princess returning home about three in the morning, at once sent word of the success of her attempt to M. de la Chetardie, who, not knowing anything of it, was at the same time surprised and delighted."

AND ENTIRELY SUCCEEDS.

323

household to the grand-duchess, count Osterman, count Golofkin, count Loewenwolde, baron Mengden, and some other persons of less consequence. All these prisoners were carried to the palace of the princess. She sent Lestock to marshal Lacy, to acquaint him with what she had done, and to tell him that he had nothing to fear; ordering him at the same time to come to her directly.

The senate, and all the grandees of the empire, were convened at the palace of the new empress; and, at break of day, all the troops were assembled before it, where, after the declaration to them that the Princess Elizabeth had seated herself on the throne of her father, the oath of fidelity was tendered to them, and taken without any difficulty being made, so that everything was presently in as great tranquillity as before.

The same day, the empress quitted the house in which she had resided till then, and took possession of the imperial palace.

After the revolution by which the duke of Courland fell, every one was delighted; not a sound but of joy was heard in the streets. Very different was it upon this occasion; upon every face might be seen consternation depicted; every one was in fear either for himself or some member of his family, and complete confidence was not restored till some days afterwards. It is certain that if in the course of the first forty-eight hours, a man of resolution had been found to put himself at the head of some troops, he might have dethroned the new empress.*

There can hardly be any one who, in reading the account of this event, will fail to be astonished at the mistakes committed on both sides. Without the total blindness of the grand-duchess, the attempt must have miscarried.

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I have mentioned, that she had repeated information sent her even from foreign countries. Count Osterman one day had himself carried to her, and acquainted her with the secret conferences of La Chetardie and Lestock. Instead of an answer to the purpose of what he was telling her, she showed him a new frock she had just had made for the little emperor. The very same evening that she had the explanation above related with the Princess Elizabeth, the marquis de Botta spoke to her as follows: "Your "imperial highness has neglected assisting the queen my "mistress, notwithstanding the alliance between the two "courts; but as there is now no remedy for that*, I hope "that, with the assistance of God, and of our other allies, "we shall get out of our difficulties: but at least, madam, "do not at this moment neglect taking care of yourself. "You are on the brink of a precipice. In the name of "God! save yourself! save the emperor! save your "husband!"

All these exhortations did not produce any effect, nor did the grand-duchess make the least move to secure her throne. Her imprudence went still farther. Her husband told her, the night before the revolution, that he had certain information concerning the conduct of the Princess Elizabeth; that he was going to give orders to post picquets in the streets, and to have Lestock taken up; but the grand-duchess hindered him, by her answer, that she would vouch for the innocence of the princess. Her reasons were, that when she spoke to her of her conferences with La Chetardie, she had not in the least changed countenance, but had wept bitterly. She has had time to repent of her credulity.†

* This seems to be an allusion to the effect of the treaty with Prussia mentioned in p. 287.

† The last sentence is only found in the French edition.

FATE OF THE REGENT.

325

The false steps on the side of the Princess Elizabeth were not less numerous. Lestock had talked in several places, and before different people, of a great change that was soon to take place. The rest of her party were not more trustworthy; the most of them were but soldiers of the guard, and consequently of the lower classes,—men of little power of reticence in an affair of this importance. Even the princess herself did many things for which she would have been arrested under the reign of the Empress Anne. She often took a walk in the barracks of the guards; nay, she suffered some of the common soldiers to get behind her open sledge, and talk familiarly to her as she was drawn along in it through the streets of Petersburg. She had every day some grenadiers in her palace, and upon all occasions affected to make herself popular. But a fatal blindness prevailed with Anne and her party, Providence having decided that this attempt should succeed.

On the day of the revolution, the new empress declared by a manifesto, that she had ascended her father's throne, in virtue of her hereditary right, and, as the lawful sovereign, had caused the usurpers to be seized.

Three days afterwards, another manifesto was published, intended to prove her having an unquestionable title to the imperial crown. It was also specified therein, that as neither the Princess Anne nor her husband had any right to the throne of Russia, they should be sent back, with their family, to Germany. They were made to leave Petersburg with all their domestics, under an escort of guards commanded by general Soltikoff, who had been at the head of the police in the time of the Empress Anne; but they got no farther than Riga, where they were arrested and imprisoned in the citadel for a year and a half. From thence they were transferred to the

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fort of Dünamunde; and at length, instead of being permitted to go to Germany, they were brought back into Russia, and imprisoned, first at Oranienburg, a town built by prince Menzikoff, afterwards at Kolmogori, a place situated in one of the islands of the Dwina, eighty versts from Archangel. This is the town in which * the grand-duchess died in childbed, in the month of March, 1746. Her body was brought to Petersburg, and buried in the convent of St. Alexander Newsky.

The place where the Prince Anthony Ulric and the young emperor are now detained prisoners is not known. Some say that the father and son are in the same place, and that by order of the court a good education is given to the young prince.† Others will have

* The words “and imprisoned . . . in which” are only found in the French edition.

† This unfortunate youth, whose only crime was his birth and title to the imperial throne, was murdered at Schlüsselburg in the year 1764, in consequence of an attempt in his favour by one Mirawitz, a Russian officer, to which he was neither accused nor suspected of being privy. (Note of the first English editor.)

The following account is given by Tannenberg, a professed apologist of the Russian court, in his life of Catherine II. The Empress Elizabeth had, with *tears in her eyes*, signed a state paper, by which the custody of the prince Iwan at Schlüsselburg was made over to two staff-officers, with the peremptory order, that if any revolt should take place with a view to set the prince on the throne of Russia, they should on no account relinquish their hold upon his person, but retain possession of him alive or dead. Whether before or after the signature of this document Tannenberg does not say, but, before the death of Elizabeth, some of her friends advised her to make the young prince her husband, and thus preclude all possibility of an adverse claim. His education had been entirely neglected, and, as appeared on the occasion of a visit which Peter III. paid him subsequently, in manners and appearance he was undistinguishable from the lowest of the people. He was brought up from Schlüsselburg to Petersburg,—himself entirely ignorant of the reason,— to give Elizabeth an opportunity of deciding whether to follow the advice of her friends. She decided not to do so, and accordingly the poor creature was sent back to his prison. Peter

FATE OF THE YOUNG EMPEROR.

327

it, that he is separated from his father, and in a convent,
where he is ill enough brought up. Notwithstanding,
there is no reason he should not some day or other
ascend the throne, to which he has as much right as the
reigning empress, in virtue of a law of Peter I., passed
in the year 1722, with the concurrence of the States,
which provides that the reigning sovereign should have
the power of naming as his successor the individual he
should judge most worthy of the throne. This power of
course belonged equally to the Princess Anne.*

From all that I have said of the Princess Anne,
it will not be difficult to define her character. She
was extremely capricious, passionate, and indolent;
[hating business and] irresolute in trifles, as well as in
affairs of the greatest importance. She had a great deal
of the humour of her father, the duke Charles Leopold
of Mecklenburg, except that she was not inclined to
cruelty. During the year of her regency, she governed
with mildness. She loved to do good, but did not know
how to do it properly. Her favourite † possessed her
whole confidence, and regulated her manner of life just as
she pleased. Her ministers and the men of parts were

III., after the death of Elizabeth, determined to release Iwan from his close
custody, give him an education, and altogether improve his condition, but
his own catastrophe prevented the execution of the design. Soon after-
wards, an officer of the regiment quartered at Schlüsselburg, named Basilius
Mirawitz, entered into a conspiracy, with about 100 others, to obtain pos-
session of Iwan's person, and set him on the throne; and they succeeded in
bursting into the chamber where he was. On this, the two grenadiers,
fearing that they should not be able to secure the prince, stabbed him. Im-
mediately afterwards, the governor of the fortress brought up an over-
whelming force, and crushed the rioters. Mirawitz was executed, and
met his end with great fortitude.

† i. e. Mademoiselle de Mengden.

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hardly listened to. In short, she possessed none of the requisite qualities for governing so great an empire in a time of difficulty. She had always a melancholy and rather a fretful air, which might proceed from the vexations she had suffered from the duke of Courland during the reign of the Empress Anne. She was handsome, had a very pretty figure, and spoke several languages with fluency.

As to the prince, her husband, he united the best heart imaginable, with all the courage that could have been wished in military affairs; but he was too timid and too embarrassed in affairs of state. He had come very young into Russia, where he had undergone a thousand vexations at the hands of the duke of Courland, who did not like him, and who often treated him very harshly. This hatred of the duke's proceeded from his considering him as the only obstacle to the elevation of his own family; for as soon as he was elected duke of Courland, he formed the project of making the Princess Anne marry his eldest son. However, notwithstanding all the ascendance he had over the empress, he never could bring her to consent to that.

Unhappily for Prince Ulric his education was not finished when he came to Petersburg; and there were placed immediately about his person two individuals, than whom no worse could have been selected. His first tutor was a Courlander, M. Keyseling. Although of the meanest capacity, intrigue was his passion; and he was suspected of having acted for some time in the capacity of a spy for the duke of Courland. The second was M. de Homburg, a lieutenant-colonel in the Brunswick army. Brought up in the camp, he would have made an excellent dragoon officer, but he had not suitable qualities for a court. He was tiresome, awkward, reserved, and inclined

PROSCRIPTION OF THE LATE GOVERNMENT. 329

to suspect persons, without possessing sufficient discernment to satisfy himself whether his suspicions were well or ill founded. No one will believe that such men were capable of inspiring a young prince with elevated sentiments.*

Prince Lewis of Brunswick, who was still at Petersburg at the time of the revolution, and who had an apartment in the palace, was also arrested in his chamber. Some hours afterwards, the empress withdrew the guard; and he had a lodging assigned him in the house which the grand-duchess had given to her favourite, [where there had been building going on for the whole preceding summer and autumn. There was but one room in it that could be warmed, which he was obliged to occupy, and to rest contented with it.] He remained at Petersburg till March 1742, when he returned to Germany. He had a guard allowed him by way of honour, but in reality to observe who came to see him. The foreign ministers visited him. It is very likely that if this prince, who was of an active and resolute spirit, had been in his brother's place, things would have gone differently.†

Before I proceed to speak of other affairs that came on after the revolution, I will first mention what happened with regard to the principal prisoners on that occasion. There was a commission appointed which was constituted of several senators, and others of the Russian nobility, to prepare and conduct their trial. They were accused of various crimes which were pure inventions. Among others, it was imputed to count Osterman, that he had contributed, by his cabals, to the election of the Empress Anne, and that he had suppressed the will of the

* This paragraph is only found in the French edition.

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

Empress Catherine, — two charges equally false; for at that time Osterman acted the sick man, and never appeared at the council, for fear of compromising himself by giving his opinion. It was notorious that the Princess Elizabeth had been excluded by the senate, composed of all the grandees of the nation. Besides, the will of the Empress Catherine was known to all the world. It had been published at her death, and printed among the public documents at the time. Count Munich also was charged with having told the soldiers, at the time of his seizing on the duke of Courland, that it was in order to place the Princess Elizabeth on the throne. Both the one and the other could easily have disproved these accusations, had their defence been listened to; but their condemnation was determined on. As for Munich, care had been taken to suborn witnesses from among the common soldiers who had been employed, and to abstain from asking any questions of the officers who had been on guard, or of his first aide-de-camp. Seeing the way things were going, the marshal told the attorney-general to draw up such replies as he wished to elicit from him, and that he would sign them. They took him at his word; and that was the kind of trial he had.

The true crime of all these prisoners was, the having incurred the displeasure of the new empress, and too faithfully served the Princess Anne. Besides, Elizabeth had promised those who assisted her to the throne, that she would deliver them from the foreigners, and enrich them with their spoils; so that she was obliged to condemn those who had been the highest promoted, and were richest.

The sentence came to was, that count Osterman should be broken alive upon the wheel; that marshal Munich should be quartered; that count Golofkin, count Loe-

CHARACTER OF MARSHAL MUNICH.

331

wenwolde, and baron Mengden should be beheaded. The empress pardoned them all, as to their lives; but they were banished into different parts of Siberia. Count Osterman did not receive his pardon till he was on the scaffold, with his head on the block. The court on this occasion caused a manifesto to be published in which all the crimes of which they were accused were specified.* The gravest of them, even had they been made out, did not deserve punishments of that nature. Munich, Osterman, and Loewenwolde bore their misfortunes with fortitude, but the others exhibited much weakness. Some of these persons played so important a part on the world's stage, that I feel I ought to say something of their characters, and give a short notice of the principal events of their lives.

Burckardt Christopher count Munich offers a real contrast of good and bad qualities within himself. In turn refined and rude, polished and passionate, nothing is so easy for him as to gain the hearts of all who have any thing to do with him; but often, a minute afterwards, he will treat them in so harsh a way, as to compel them, so to speak, to hate him. On some occasions he has exhibited an extreme generosity; on others, a sordid ayarice. There is not another man in the world of so high a soul, and yet he has been guilty of paltry acts. His dominating vice is pride. Devoured by an ambition beyond all bounds, he sacrifices everything in the world to gratify it. What he best loves is his own interest; when that is safe, any one who understands how to enter into his views and flatter him, is sure to be well received. One of the best engineers in Europe, he is at the same time one of

* From here to the words "in a single sitting," (page 337.) is only found in the French edition. The same is the case with the passage: "two charges equally false . . . at the time," (p. 330.) and that: "but their condemnation . . . . kind of trial he had," (p. 330.)

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

the greatest generals of his age. His enterprises have often been rash, but he has not the more for that been taught the limits of possibility; for everything that he undertook, however difficult, has always succeeded. Of a tall and imposing figure, and a robust and vigorous constitution, he looks born a general; no labours have ever been able to check his course. For a civil minister he had few natural qualifications; yet he left no stone unturned to get into the cabinet, and by dint of intrigue succeeded. His success in this was the source of his misfortunes. To extract the greatest secrets from him, it was only necessary to thwart him and put him in a passion.

As for his origin, he was a gentleman of ancient family, originally of Oldenburg. He was born on the 9th of May 1683. His father, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the service of Denmark, gave him a good education. After having sent him to travel in France, he placed him in the year 1700 in the service of Hesse, as captain of infantry. During the war of the Succession, he went through all the campaigns of Italy and Flanders with those troops, and after the battle of Malplaquet, in which he highly distinguished himself, was made lieutenant-colonel. At the affair of Denain he was made prisoner and taken to Cambray, where he made the acquaintance of the celebrated Fenelon, archbishop of that city. He was very fond of talking of that time, and of expressing his veneration for that distinguished prelate, of whom he had several characteristic anecdotes. Peace having been made with France in 1713, he entered the service of Augustus II. king of Poland, with the rank of colonel, and soon afterwards received the step of major-general, with the command of the Polish guards. The king, who appreciated his merits, was very fond of him; but count Fleming, who would allow no infringement of his own

AND OF HIS SON.

333

monopoly of the royal favour, became so jealous of Munich, and did him so many ill turns, that he found it best to tender his resignation in the year 1718. His intention was to enter the service of Sweden; but Charles XII. having been killed in Norway, he went into that of Russia, by the recommendation of prince Dolgorouki. He soon gained the favour of Peter I., and kept it until the death of that monarch. During the reigns of Catherine and Peter II. he was much crossed by prince Menzikoff, who had no love whatever for him. With the favourite's disgrace his fortunes rose. Always accustomed to an active and laborious life, he could not remain idle, even in his exile; but during that time has drawn up and submitted to the senate several plans for the improvement of the provinces of Russia. His amusement is to teach mathematics to some children, that have been put into his hands. The governors of the towns in Siberia are as much afraid of him as if he were governor-general of the province. As soon as ever he hears of any malversation on their part, he writes to them and threatens them to give information on the subject to the court. To sum up his character, it may be said with truth that everything about him is great. His virtues and his vices equally tend to produce an extraordinary man.

The only son of count Munich was involved in his father's disgrace. All possible pains was taken to find something in him to punish; but his enemies were denied this satisfaction. His judges were compelled to acquit him; but as they were determined to put him in the wrong somehow or other, his sentence set forth that as he had been aware of the intention of the Princess Anne to declare herself empress, he should be deprived of the riband of St. Alexander, and his property in Livonia be exchanged for

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another situated within the limits of Russia. This other
came down at last to a money pension of 1200 roubles from
the court, with orders to settle himself at Wologda,
a town about eighty leagues from Moscow, where
there are a great number of Dutch merchants settled.
He has none of his father's brilliant genius, but in other
respects he possesses every one of his good qualities
without a single one of the bad. With a sound under-
standing and mild temper, he unites an honesty which
nothing can shake, and he possesses capacity enough
to distinguish himself as the member of a government.
He would unquestionably have been employed, if the
reign of the Princess Anne had continued. He entered
the public service as secretary to the embassy at the con-
gress of Soisson. On his return to Petersburg, he got a
place at court as gentleman of the chamber to the empress,
some years afterwards was made chamberlain, and upon
the grand-duchess taking upon herself the regency, he
became steward of the household.

Count Osterman was beyond question one of the
greatest ministers of his age. He thoroughly fathomed
the interests of all the courts of Europe. Ready in con-
ception, and of unclouded understanding, he is withal
extremely industrious and extremely rapid, and so in-
corruptible, that he never accepted the least present from
any foreign court, without being absolutely commanded
by his own to do so. On the other hand, he was ex-
tremely distrustful, often carrying suspicion to an excess.
In the place which he occupied, he would neither endure
superior nor equal, unless their abilities were palpably
inferior to his own. His colleagues in the cabinet were
never satisfied with him: he wanted to be the master
mind in everything, while the rest were only to approve
and sign. In perilous matters, where his office made it

CHARACTER OF COUNT OSTERMAN.

335

incumbent that he should give his opinion, he pretended
to be ill, that he might avoid compromising himself; and
by means of this artifice, he kept his position during six
reigns. He had so strange a way of talking, that very
few persons could ever boast they had succeeded in com-
prehending him. Very often foreign ministers, after a
conversation of two hours with him, found on leaving his
room that they knew nothing more than when they
entered. All that he said, and all that he wrote, could
be taken two ways. A master in subtlety and dissimu-
lation, he had perfect command over his passions, and
could even shed tears when the occasion required so great
a display of feeling. He never looked any one in the
face, and lest his eyes should betray him, he had acquired
the art of rendering them immovable.

His domestic life was likewise most extraordinary. He
carried the filthy habits of the Russians and the Poles one
stage further. His apartments were abominably fur-
nished, and his servants dressed like beggars. The plate
he used every day looked like lead, it was so dull; and
his table was never decently furnished, except on state
occasions. The clothes he wore, especially in the last
years when he never left his room except to sit down to
dinner, were positively disgusting from their dirty condition.

He was son of John Conrad Osterman, pastor of
Bockum, in Westphalia. Cornelius Cruys, the admiral
of Peter I., took him into his service at Amsterdam in
the capacity of secretary, and brought him to Russia
about the year 1704. Some years afterwards, Peter I.,
being on board the admiral's ship, and wishing to dispatch
some business, asked Cruys if he had any trustworthy
person to draw up despatches. The admiral presented
young Osterman to him, who had made himself so
thoroughly master of Russian, that he spoke it like his

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

mother-tongue; and the emperor, pleased with the way he did his work, and observing his talents, took him to be about his own person, made him his private secretary, and treated him confidentially. He made use of him in the most important matters, and raised him in the course of a few years to the highest posts in the empire. That prince, who had so consummate a knowledge of men, said of Osterman, that he never made a single mistake in the business of the cabinet. After the fall of baron Schafirow, he was made vice-chancellor, and kept this post until the disgrace of the duke of Courland, when he was made high-admiral. Peter I. made him marry a Russian lady of the family of Streschnef, one of the most ancient in the country; and his wife brought him a large fortune, although in other respects a very worthless woman. He had two sons and a daughter by her. The sons, who had been captains in the guards in the time of the Princess Anne,— a position which gave them the rank of lieutenant-colonel,—were made simple captains in infantry regiments of the line; and the daughter, some time after her father's disgrace, married M. Tolstoi, a lieutenant-colonel in the artillery.*

The family from which count Loewenwolde derives his origin, is one of the first in Livonia. During the lifetime of Peter I., he entered the service of the Empress Catharine as gentleman of the chamber. After the death of the emperor, he was made chamberlain; and as he was young, and had a handsome face and fine figure, the favour of that princess for him knew no limits. The Empress Anne made him grand marshal of the court, and

* Nothing more is known of count Osterman, than that he died in exile about the year 1747, at Berosowa, a little town in Siberia, the same place where prince Menzikoff also died. After his death, his widow was allowed to return, and her husband's property restored to her. (Note of the French editor.)

CHARACTER OF COUNT LOEWENWOLDE.

337

inspector of the revenues of the salt mines. She was only
cognisant of his good qualities; and he appeared to have
been expressly made for the post he filled. Full of
sweetness and courtesy, he prepossessed every one in his
favour, by his engaging manners. Under the Empress
Anne he never mixed himself up in any public matter
which was not his special business. It would have been
well for him had he pursued the same course under the
regency; but he was drawn in against his will. The
princess having consulted him on several political matters,
he was obliged to give his advice. As his opinion had
been that the grand-duchess should declare herself empress,
he was involved in her misfortune, and will probably end
his life in exile. His worst fault was his addiction to play;
by which he came to grief, having at times lost very large
sums at lansquenet in a single sitting.

Of a great number of other exiles, I will say nothing
else than that all their fortunes, except what their wives
had brought them, were confiscated to the profit of the
court, which bestowed them upon others; who will in
all probability, like their predecessors, live to lose them
again.* One thing which must not be omitted, is, that
the option had been given to these ladies of going to
settle upon their own estates, and not following their
husbands into banishment; but not one of them would
avail herself of the liberty.

The first care of the empress, after getting possession of
the imperial power, was to reward those who had served
her in this revolution. She began with her favourite,
Rasoumowsky, who was declared chamberlain at her coro-
nation some months after. She raised him to the post of
grand-master of the hunt, made him a count, and gave

* The last clause is only found in the French edition.

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

him the blue riband. Woronzow, the two brothers Schowalow, and Balck, who had served the princess in quality of gentlemen of the chamber, were also made chamberlains.

She gazetted Lestock actual privy-counsellor, first court-physician, and president of the college of physicians. The whole company of grenadiers of the Preobraschensky regiment were ennobled and promoted. The private men had the rank of lieutenants, the corporals that of majors, the armourers and quarter-masters* that of lieutenant-colonels, and the sergeants that of colonels of the army. It was called the company of the bodyguard. Her majesty declared herself the captain of it; the prince of Hesse Homburg lieutenant-captain; Rasumowsky and Woronzow first lieutenants, with the rank of lieutenant-generals; and the Schowalows lieutenants, with the rank of major-generals. Grünstein was made adjutant of this company, with the title of brigadier. He did not long keep his ground; for being accustomed to the life of a private soldier, his head was too weak to bear a higher fortune, and growing giddy with his preferment, he was guilty of all kind of insolence, broke out into disrespect to the empress herself and her favourite, and ended with undergoing the knout, and being banished to the estate which the empress had given him when she promoted him.

This company of the body-guard committed all imaginable excesses for the first few months that the empress remained at Petersburg. The newly promoted officers frequented all the lowest public-houses, got drunk every day, and wallowed in the streets. They entered the houses of the highest of the nobility, demanding money with threats, and took away whatever they liked without ceremony. There was no keeping within bounds men

* Les capitaines d'armes et les fouriers.

ACCOUNT OF RASOUMOWSKI.

339

who having been all their lifetime used to a discipline of
blows, were unable at once to familiarise themselves to a
milder treatment. It must be the work of much time to
reduce them to good manners. I do not know whether
the success is complete; but the most unruly of them
were removed from the corps, and placed as officers in
other regiments of the army, where there were many va-
cancies. An admirable expedient this for procuring su-
perior officers.

There were also several other promotions, and a great
number of blue ribbons bestowed. Bestuchef had one.
He had, as I have above observed, been arrested at the
same time with the duke of Courland. Having cleared
himself before the commissioners, he was released, but
had no employment during the regency of the Princess
Anne. The Empress gave him the place of vice-chan-
cellor.

As the names of the other great men who were the re-
cipients of her favour are mostly unknown to the world, I
shall dispense with speaking of them, and confine myself
to a few who for some time played an important part at the
court of Petersburg, such as a Rasoumowski, a Bestuchef,
a Woronzow, a Lestock, and a prince of Hesse Hom-
burg.

Count Rasoumowski must have little thought, when he
first came to Petersburg, that he should one day rise to
the rank he did. He is the son of a peasant near the
town of Izioum in the Ukraine, and when a boy at
school was distinguished for his fine voice. As in the
Russian religious system, every church is provided with
a choir to sing the mass, Rasoumowski was placed
among the children so employed in one of the churches.
A colonel, named Wischnowski, thinking well of his physio-
gnomy and attracted by his sweet voice, took him into

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

his service, and having brought him to Petersburg, recom-
mended him to count Loewenwolde, who made him a
chorister in the imperial chapel. He remained some
years in the service of the court. The Princess Elizabeth
having been struck by his good looks, begged him from
M. Loewenwolde, who accordingly allowed him to leave.
The princess made him superintendent over one of her
estates, and very soon he became the favourite officer of
her whole establishment. When she mounted the throne
she raised him to the highest places in the empire, and
having become scrupulous with advancing years, she
secretly married him, under the influence of the clergy
about her person, whom Rasoumowski contrived to win
over to his interests.

Alexis count Bestuchef Riumin is sprung from an
ancient Russian family. On his entrance into the service
of the court, he was made gentleman of the chamber to
the Princess Anne, duchess of Courland; and she, on be-
coming empress, sent him as resident to Hamburg.
After this, he was sent with the rank of minister to
different courts, and finally to that of Copenhagen.
While he was about the person of the duchess of Courland,
he formed a close friendship with M. Biron, who in spite
of some just right to complain of Bestuchef, always
favoured his interests. On the fall of Walinski, he was
made a cabinet minister; but after the revolution which
was fatal to the duke of Courland, he was arrested.
On clearing himself he was released, without however
being employed. When the Empress Elizabeth ascended
the throne, she gave him the place of vice-chancellor in
the room of count Golofkin, and after the death of
Prince Czerkaski named him high-chancellor. He does
not want for perception, and by the help of long routine
has come to understand business very well, being withal

ACCOUNT OF BESTCHEF.

341

very industrious. But, on the other hand, he is of an
arrogant, avaricious, dissolute, and treacherous character;
and so vindictive that he never forgave a single person
who ever hurt his pride, or trenched on his interest.
This is the man who for eleven years has been the
despotic governor of Russia. The empress, who is to the
last degree lazy, is very glad to find any one willing to
take upon himself the burden of public business.
Moreover she has so high an idea of the capacity of
this minister, that she cannot conceive the possibility of
finding a human being to succeed him. At the same
time, his imperious temper has raised him up many
enemies, who do not let slip any opportunity of blackening
him in her opinion. Up to the present time they have
not succeeded, although several times he has been on the
brink of ruin; and perhaps they will, in the end, find the
favourable moment.*

* M. Manstein, knowing Russia so well as he did, might well predict the fall of such a minister as Bestuchef. He was the open enemy of the house of Brandenburg, the principal author of the treaty of alliance between the courts of Vienna and Petersburg, and one of the prime movers of the last war against the king of Prussia, that ruinous contest, which cost Russia more than 300,000 men, and 30,000,000 roubles. Aware that the grand-duke Peter Feodorowitz disliked him, and was a great partisan of the king of Prussia, he formed the idea of excluding him from the succession in order to place on the throne his son, the prince Paul Petrowitz, under the guardianship of his mother (the present Catherine II.). This false step hastened his fall. Every one knows that the Russian army under count Apraxin, after defeating that of Prussia commanded by general Lewald, returned to Russia. The empress, on her recovery from a dangerous malady, asked after the condition of her army, and learnt that her general had retreated. On enquiry into the matter, it appeared that Apraxin had returned in consequence of a letter from Bestuchef, who believing the empress to be at the point of death, wanted the army to assist him in the execution of his project. Being accused before the empress by the chamberlain Brockdorf, on the strength of these facts, he was arrested and dismissed from his post in the month of February 1758. The follow-

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

Count Woronzow is also of a good Russian family. He entered the service of the Princess Elizabeth as gentleman of the chamber; and a short time before the revolution married the countess Skavronski, a cousin-german of the princess, about whose person she was as a maid of honour. He was made a count at the coronation of the empress. He is a very excellent person, but not having been well educated, he does not possess the least knowledge of political matters. Nevertheless after the death of Prince Czerkaski he was made vice-chancellor. Time will decide whether he will be able to keep his position; for he has now for several years been on bad terms with the high-chancellor.

Armand, Count Lestock, was born at Hanover on the 29th of April, 1692, of a French refugee family. He came to Russia in the year 1713, and entered into the service of the Emperor Peter I. The Empress Catherine I. appointed him surgeon to her daughter the Princess Elizabeth, who, delighted with his frank and open manner, soon accorded her favour and confidence to him. He showed himself worthy of it by the most ardent zeal for her interests; for it was not his fault that she was not empress on the death of Peter II. In the revolution which placed Elizabeth on the throne, his ardour and his success procured oblivion for his folly and rashness. Immediately on the princess being declared empress, he petitioned her to reward his service by a sum of money,

ing year he was sent in exile to Goretowo, a small town 120 versts from Moscow, where, after a good deal of difficulty being made, he was allowed to build himself a house. In the ukase which condemns him, he is spoken of in general terms as a rogue, a traitor, and hardened offender. He remained in exile until the present empress ascended the throne; but she recalled him on July 3rd, 1762, and restored him to all his honours. He died April 10th, 1766. (Note of the French editor.)

ACCOUNT OF LESTOCK.

343

and let him retire out of the country. This the empress
absolutely refused; she told him his services were above
all reward, but that she could not deny herself the
pleasure of raising him to high rank. "That is exactly
what I fear madam," replied Lestock. "My elevation will
be sure to bring numbers of enemies about me, who will
do me evil turns with your majesty; and the end of it
will be that I shall be banished." The empress protested
that it was impossible that any one should ever blacken
him in her eyes, and that she was too well acquainted
with his zeal and attachment to believe the least thing
against him. Accordingly Lestock allowed himself to be
persuaded. The empress made him her first physician,
and an actual privy councillor, with the title of Excellency.
In 1744 he was made a count of the Roman empire by
the Emperor Charles VII. At first he would not mix
himself up with anything foreign to his profession; but
the empress having often talked to him on very important
matters, he imbibed a taste for politics, and would always
give his opinion on them. He even claimed to be admitted
to the grand council of state in virtue of his rank of actual
privy-councillor; but in this attempt he failed. It was
he who solicited the empress in favour of count Bestuchef,
to induce her to give him the place of vice-chancellor.
She granted his request, but said "Lestock, I am afraid
you are providing a rod for your own back." In fact
Bestuchef soon became a mortal enemy of Lestock, a
result to which the latter contributed a great deal by his
acts of thoughtlessness, and by his attachment to France
and the allies of France. The chancellor did everything
he could to remove him from the court, but was several
years before he succeeded. At last Lestock having driven
the other to extremities by his jests and outrageous talk,
even in the imperial presence, found that he had

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

exhausted the favour of his mistress. The very day he was arrested, he had a long explanation with the empress, and she assured him afresh of her favour and protection; but a few hours afterwards count Apraxin, at the head of a detachment, arrested him in his own hotel on the 13th of November 1748. The same count Apraxin, a creature of Bestuchef's, and the accuser of Lestock, was president of the commission appointed to try him, and the person who had the greatest share of his spoils. After all the trouble which was taken to find him guilty, that end was not attained. He is, however, still detained in prison, and apparently is not likely soon to be released.*

Prince Louis of Hesse Homburg, as well as his younger brother, entered the service of Russia with the rank of colonel in the year 1724. The younger brother,

* Count Lestock, after having been shut up for four years in the fortress of Petersburg, was banished to Ustiuk-Veliki, in the government of Archangel. His wife, Marie Aurora de Mungden, was allowed the choice either to follow her husband into exile, or to retire to any place she liked, and selected the former. The count and countess lived in that town until the death of Elizabeth; and although they had three roubles a day to spend, they often wanted the necessaries of life, because their allowance, like that of the other prisoners, was under the control of their guards. Peter III., on his accession, recalled Lestock, and restored him to his former position. In virtue of the decree of the emperor, he endeavoured to recover his property; but it was dispersed in all directions, and he only got back a very small portion. Of 40,000 roubles which he had in ready money when first imprisoned, there were restored only 11,000, and in accounting for the rest, they sent him in a bill of charges incurred, among which the articles of pen, ink, and paper, were put at 800 roubles. The Empress Catherine II. gave him a pension of 7000 roubles, and a fine estate in Livenia, which his wife enjoys at this day. Count Lestock came back from his exile sadly afflicted with the stone. In the intervals of his sufferings he gave himself up to his usual gaiety and liveliness, and the freedom with which he spoke of those who had been enriched by plundering him often made his friends anxious for him. He died, after protracted suffering, on the 12th of June, 1767. (Note of the French editor.)

ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCE OF HESSE.

345

of whom report spoke very favourably, died some years
afterwards. The intention of Peter I. in bringing him to
Russia, was to marry him to the Princess Elizabeth.
The death of that prince was the first obstacle to her
marrying, and afterwards the matter was never entertained.*
As for Prince Louis, he had not a single good
point: without education, manners, or judgment, he was
a mischief maker, a coward, and above no meanness of
any kind. Nevertheless, he was rapidly advanced in
military charges. Under the reigns of Catherine and
Peter II. he rose to the rank of lieutenant-general, and
under Anne he was appointed master of the ordnance, —
an office which he discharged so ill, that he threw every
branch of the department into the greatest confusion.
After the year 1737 he was not again employed in the
war against the Porte. At the beginning of that against
Sweden, he was put in command of the troops encamped
near Krasna Gorka, because it was quite certain there
would be nothing to do there. After the Empress Elizabeth
had ascended the throne, she gave him the title of
general field-marchal. He was in great favour during the
first few months of that princess's reign; but he soon betrayed
his real character, and fell into as little repute at
court as under the preceding reigns. Despised by the
army, and the object of ridicule at court, the title by
which he was known was that of "the stage field-marchal."
† Being on bad terms with every one at Petersburg,
he formed the wish to go to Hamburg, to reside in
his principality, and he died at Berlin about the end of
the year 1745.

* i. e. by herself. There were several matches proposed for her, from
which she escaped with difficulty. See pp. 292, 294.

† Le maréchal des comediens.

346

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

After so long a digression, it is time to resume the
thread of the story.*

The empress, who wished to begin her reign by the
conclusion of a peace with Sweden on the very day she
mounted the throne, restored to liberty Didron, the
Swedish captain before mentioned, who was then prisoner
of war at Petersburg. She despatched him to count
Loewenhaupt, to notify to him her accession to the throne,
and to declare that she would readily come into terms
of accommodation with Sweden. The Marquis de la
Chetardie wrote at the same time to the Swedish general;
and it was agreed there should be a truce, to endeavour to
procure a peace.

The Swedes, who imagined that by their diversion
they had greatly contributed to the placing the empress
on the throne, set up great claims, hoping to obtain
nothing less than all Finland, with the town of Wyburg.
But the empress would not consent to give up an inch of
the conquests made by her father. She offered to indemnify, and even recompense Sweden with money, but the
court of Sweden refused the offer; so that the term of the
truce had scarce expired when, on the 1st of March, the
war began again.

The empress recalled from Siberia a number of the
banished families, of which several had been sent thither
in the time of the Empress Catherine. All the posts
which they had occupied before their imprisonment were
restored to them. It was reckoned, that since the commencement of the Empress Anne's reign, there had

* The last six paragraphs are only found in the French edition. Instead of them, the English one has merely the words: "in the room of Golofkin; and after the death of the Prince Czerkaski she named him high-chancellor," following the word "vice-chancellor" (p. 339, line 16.). The additions can scarcely all proceed from Manstein's own hand.

RECAL OF EXILES FROM SIBERIA.

347

been above twenty thousand sent to Siberia. There were
five thousand of these, of which not the least trace could
be discovered. But as the empress recalled all that could
be found, not a day passed but there were seen at court
some new faces of persons who had passed several years
successively in the most horrible prisons.

Among the number of these was M. Schoubin. Origi-
nally a common soldier, he became a non-commissioned
officer, and finally an ensign in the Preobraschensky regi-
ment of guards. While holding this rank, he attracted
the attention of the Princess Elizabeth by his handsome
face, and she set no limits to the favour with which she
treated him. The Empress Anne arrested him and sent
him to Siberia, without any formal trial. On Elizabeth
ascending the throne, she remembered her old favourite.
A courier was despatched express to Siberia for him, and
he was found after much trouble. For it should be ob-
served that whenever any one is sent into banishment
without the place of exile being specified in the order of
arrest, his name is altered as in the Spanish inquisition.
Sometimes the court itself orders the change without re-
gistration of the fact in the secret chancery; and hence the
difficulty of recovering prisoners.

The empress gave Schoubin some fine estates, and
made him a major-general and major in the guards. But
his imprisonment had so injured his health, as after a short
time to render the attendance at court onerous to him;
and accordingly he wisely requested permission to re-
tire, and went to live on his estates.*

The duke of Courland was also recalled, together with
all those who had been involved in his disgrace; and
Sherhal Munich was sent to occupy the very house in

* The last two paragraphs are only found in the French edition.

348

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

which the other had lived at Pelim, the place of his exile
in Siberia. As to the duke, the empress made him an
establishment in the town of Jaroslaw, where he is very
well treated. He is allowed the liberty of hunting for
eight miles * round; he sees company there, and has per-
mission to write to his friends. Gustavus Biron was to
re-enter the service, but he died at Petersburg before he
could be settled in his post. His elder brother asked
leave to retire, and, obtaining it, returned to Courland,
where he died on his estate. General Bismark was sent
to the Ukraine, where he was appointed to the command
of the troops.

In the month of January the duke of Holstein arrived
at Petersburg. The empress had invited him there as
soon as she was on the throne; and was greatly rejoiced
at seeing her nephew and successor.† Some months after-
wards this prince made his abjuration of the protestant
faith, and embraced the Greek religion in the cathedral
church of Moscow. He was declared grand-duke of
Russia, and lawful heir of the empress. On this occasion
all the people took a new oath of allegiance: time will
show whether it will be better kept than former ones.‡

Towards the end of February the court repaired to
Moscow to celebrate the coronation of the empress, which
took place on the 25th of April. There were on this oc-
casion many festivities, and some great promotions. The
marquis de la Chetardie had the blue ribbon of St. Andrew,
and some months afterwards returned to France loaded
with presents.

In the beginning of this reign, every one imagined that

* No doubt *German* miles are meant.

† This prince is the unfortunate Peter III., the husband of Catherine II.

‡ The last clause of the sentence is only found in the French edition.

AUSTRIAN AND ENGLISH CABALS.

349

the empress would not fail to contract a close alliance
with France. There were all appearances of it. La
Chetardie had, by order of his court, assisted this princess
with money and advice, which had much contributed to
the success of the revolution. Her majesty had great
reason to be dissatisfied with the courts of Vienna and
London; their ministers had watched her conduct, and
given several intimations of it to the regent; nay, even
after she was seated on the throne, they had sent orders
to their ministers to endeavour to get up a new party.
La Chetardie continued in great favour all the time he
staid in Russia; indeed, there did not pass a day without his
having long conferences with the empress. And yet, for
all this, the aspect of everything soon changed. The first
cause of it was the great pretensions of Sweden, which
France seconded as strenuously as she could. The count
Bestuchef did the rest. As soon as La Chetardie was
gone, he had a clear stage. Having a greater partiality
for the house of Austria than that of Bourbon*, he ap-
plied himself to restore a good understanding between
his court and that of Vienna. He succeeded to the
utmost of his wishes. Monsieur d'Allion, who had suc-
ceeded to La Chetardie, had not the capacity to hinder
him, and the English court found means to overcome all
the difficulties.

A little while after the court's arrival at Moscow, the
count of Saxe came there. He was just come from
France to solicit the duchy of Courland. (I have above
explained the pretensions he had to this duchy.†) But
as the court of Russia draws revenues from that country,

* The English edition has, "In the belief that a connection with the house of Austria and its allies was now more advantageous to Russia than an alliance with France."

† See above, page 291.

350

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

having taken possession of a number of districts or baili-
 wicks there, which it will try to keep as long as possible,
the count of Saxe met with no success, and went back
without in the least improving his prospects.

I forgot to mention that the empress annulled every-
thing that was done during the regency. Those who had
been promoted were obliged to lay down all the employ-
ments which they had held from the grand-duchess; and
all the lands and pensions the latter had granted were
confiscated. Some little time after the empress recon-
firmed the posts, but the lands and pensions were given
back only to very few.

The cabinet-council which the Empress Anne had es-
tablished was also abolished. Elizabeth restored to the
senate all the power which it had enjoyed under the reign
of Peter I. All causes are decided there finally, and
in accordance with the institution of this emperor. The
empress proposed to preside there often in person, and at
the beginning of her reign did so occasionally; but being
soon weary of the work, she has never for many years
entered the assembly, and leaves all to the discretion of
her ministers.* This tribunal had, in former times, the
power of capital punishment; but Elizabeth, having made
a vow never to have any one executed during her reign,
has reserved to herself the confirmation of its sentences.
Her resolution being made public, has greatly augmented
the licentiousness of the people. I have before observed
that the empress promised those who assisted her in the
revolution, that she would deliver the Russian nation
frem the oppression of the foreigners. She kept her word.
But the gentlemen of the company of body-guards did
not think that quite sufficient; and they presented a

MUTINOUS STATE OF THE GUARDS.

351

memorial, in which they desired that all the foreigners then in the service of Russia might be massacred, or at least sent out of the country. The empress, not thinking fit to consent to so horrid a project, succeeded in appeasing the clamour by a largesse, [and declared, at the same time, that she took all the foreigners under her special protection]. Notwithstanding which, after the court had gone to Moscow, a report was spread at Petersburg among the people, that the troops which were in that capital would have permission to massacre and plunder all the foreigners.

The soldiers of the guards, and especially those of the old regiments, being the most insolent and the least disciplined of all the troops of the empire, committed innumerable disorders, attacked the townspeople they met in the street, and plundered them. On Easter-day this unbridled licentiousness went still farther. A soldier of the guards picked a quarrel with a grenadier of one of the country regiments, then in quarters at Petersburg. From words they came to blows. An officer of the grenadiers happened to pass that way, who, unfortunately, was a German. Going to part them, he pushed away the guardsman, who immediately began to cry out that he was insulted, and to call his comrades that were in the neighbourhood. In an instant, there was a crowd gathered, all of soldiers of the guards. The officer, who could not by himself oppose a whole mob, retired into a house hard by, in which several foreign officers, who knew nothing of what had passed in the street, were assembled. The crowd followed and broke open the door, which had been barricaded as well as could be done in such a hurry. They attacked the officers, who, finding themselves unable to resist such an enraged multitude, retired from room to room, till they got at last into the

352

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

garret, where they were still closely pursued. Some were lucky enough to make their escape over the roof; others were unmercifully beaten nearly to death. Sautron, an aide-de-camp of Marshal Lacy, and Browne, a captain, were the worst used, being for some days so ill from their wounds, that it was thought they would die. At length, the tumult was appeased by some picquets that were sent there, and the most mutinous were seized.

The marshal sent advice of this outrage to court. The guilty were punished, but slightly; and the insolence of the guards grew to such a pitch, that some time afterwards they began a fresh mutiny even in the camp itself, as will be seen in its place.

To prevent farther disorders of this kind, marshal Lacy had picquets of the country regiments posted in all the streets, and ordered frequent patrols by night and by day; notwithstanding which, the whole town of Petersburg was in great terror, the inhabitants did not think themselves safe in their houses, nor did any one venture out in the streets after dark. Meanwhile the greatest precautions were taken for keeping the gates carefully shut, both by night and day. Most certain it is, that had it not been for the good arrangements made by marshal Lacy, the disorders would have gone to greater lengths, and much blood have been shed.

On the 1st of March the hostilities between the Russians and the Swedes began afresh. The season, which is at that time very severe in that climate, prevented their making war in any way but in small parties. Three hundred hussars, supported by 300 fusiliers, made an inroad into the enemy's country, and laid waste a number of villages; after which they retreated.

 Marshal Lacy in the mean time formed a project for actually employing the cold as a means for striking a home

LACY'S PLAN FOR ATTACKING SWEDEN.

353

blow at Sweden. His idea was to surprise Frederics-
ham, where he knew the garrison was weak and off their
guard. All the regiments which were to take part in
this expedition had already received their orders, and
everything appeared so well arranged that failure was
scarcely possible. Part of the troops were to pass the
gulf of Finland on the ice, push on to the right of Narva
upon Fredericsham, and attack the town on the side of
the sea; a proceeding which would have disconcerted the
enemy the more, as it could not be supposed he would
expect to be attacked from that side. The other troops
were to take the Wyburg road along the sea. The day for
marching was fixed, and the marshal was going to leave
Petersburg, when the thaw came and spoilt the whole
scheme.*

Nevertheless Lacy, who wanted to open the campaign
as early as possible, sent orders to the regiments to as-
semble near Wyburg by the end of April; but the bad-
ness of the season and the excessive cold continued till
the middle of May; nor could the cavalry take the field
before the end of that month, for want of grass; the
Russian horses eating only green food during the whole
of the summer.†

Meanwhile, the court of Petersburg caused a manifesto
to be circulated in Finland, in which the Finlanders were
exhorted to detach themselves from Sweden. This mani-
festo, which made a strong impression on a great part of
the Finlanders, was the cause of their being much dis-
trusted in the Swedish army throughout the campaign.

The same reasons which had prevented the Russian
army from taking the field, had also prevented the Swedes.

† The last clause is only found in the French edition.

A A

354

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

But, besides that, count Loewenhaupt had made some egregious mistakes. On the agreement for a suspension of arms, he had sent his army into winter-quarters at places much too distant from the frontier; not having kept at Fredericsham and its neighbourhood above 5000 or 6000 men, whereas a great part of the Russian army had its quarters very near the boundary. Loewenhaupt had been so fully pursuaded that peace would be made, that he had neglected several necessary dispositions for the ensuing campaign. He had, at the beginning of March, learnt that some Russian regiments had orders to march; and the inroads of the hussars had made him believe that the enemy's army would begin its operations in the winter; upon which he burnt one of his own magazines, which he had established near a village called Quarenby, in the direction of Fredericsham, and at the same time sent orders to the troops to assemble near that town, obliging them thereby to make forced marches, which extremely fatigued them, and put them into a very bad plight against the ensuing campaign. He afterwards, on finding it to be a false alarm, sent them back to their old quarters, where most of them were still remaining very quietly when the Russians began their operations.

The Russian army had assembled at Wyburg by the latter end of May. Marshal Lacy came there, and reviewed his troops. The cavalry consisted of three regiments of cuirassiers, in all 1640 men; a detachment of the horse-guards, 300; six regiments of dragoons, 4200; three regiments of hussars, 1786; and 2500 Cossacks. The infantry consisted of three battalions of the foot-guards, and of twenty-eight battalions of the country regiments; of which each battalion might have 500 men. There had been 10,000 men embarked in forty-

COWARDICE OF THE RUSSIAN ADMIRAL.

355

three galleys; so that the Russian army might amount to
35,000 or 36,000 fighting men.

The generals who commanded under marshal Lacy were, the general Lewaschew on board the galleys; Keith and Loewendal in the land army; the lieutenant-generals Brilly on board the galleys; Stoffeln, count Soltikoff, and the prince of Holstein, in the land army; the major-generals Bratke, George Lieven, Bruce, Wedel, count Lacy, Browne, Lapouchin and Tscherntzow, in the land army; Caraoulow and Kindermann on board the galleys. Major-general Tamilow had the direction of the artillery.

The Russian fleet had not gone out of port during the preceding campaign; this year it was resolved that it should act. The admiralty had orders to send as many ships to sea as it possibly could, and actually accomplished the fitting out of twelve ships of the line and some frigates. The vice-admiral Mischakow had the command of them. He did nothing great,— in fact he did nothing; for he dared not attack the Swedish fleet, though much weaker than his own, [and though he had repeated orders from the court to attack it]. The war against the Turks had destroyed the old sailors and the best officers of the navy. There were not at this time men to be got for the crews of the ships; so that the empress was obliged to break up a regiment of foot, and put the soldiers on board the fleet to help to man it. Though these new sailors were not worth much, some service was obtained from them by mixing them with the old on board the men-of-war. As it was feared that the Swedes might this year make descents in Livonia, some regiments were left there, under the command of major-general Butler, to guard the coasts near Revel.

I have spoken above of the mutiny of the guards at the

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

beginning of the campaign: it happened in the following manner.

While the army was encamped under Wyburg, the Swedes sent a subaltern officer and a drum with letters for marshal Lacy. Lieven, who was the major-general of the day, was at the advanced posts when they came, and as the marshal was then in the town, Lieven had the messengers conducted to his own tent, took the letters, and carried them to the marshal himself. Lieven being at the same time colonel of the horse-guards, had his quarters in the rear of the guards, so that some of the soldiers of the foot-guards, having seen him return with the Swedes, went directly to tell their comrades that the foreigners were conspiring against the state; that they received messages and letters from the enemy; that general Lieven had some Swedes concealed in his tent; that the being commanded by foreign officers was no longer to be borne; and that the best thing they could do would be to massacre them all together and begin with Lieven. Instantly 300 or 400 soldiers and subalterns of the foot-guards, the most part of them of the regiments of Preobraschensky and Semeonowsky, having got together, went straight to Lieven's tent, and not finding him, entered the secretary's office, where the Swedes had been put, seized them, together with the general's aide-de-camp, and used them extremely ill. The general's guard, en-deavouring to oppose this violence, met with no better treatment than the Swedes, the general's aide-de-camp, and his domestics. The officers ran to appease this disorder, but the soldiers showed them no respect, nor made them any other answer, than "that the foreign officers in the army should all be massacred; and that done, they would obey those of their own nation."

There was not an officer of these mutinous corps that

MUTINY IN THE RUSSIAN CAMP.

357

would come near them; some, for fear of ill-usage; others not to hinder the execution of a thing they had long wished. Meantime general Keith, who had been informed of the disorder, arrived; threw himself without the least hesitation into the thickest of the rebellious troops; seized with his own hand one of the mutineers, and ordered a priest to be called to confess him, saying, he would have him shot on the spot; commanding, withal, his aides-de-camp and officers to lay hold of some others. Scarce had he pronounced those words with that firmness which is so natural to him, when the whole band of them dispersed, and ran each to hide himself in his tent. Keith then ordered the roll-call to be made at the head of the camp, the absent to be taken into custody, and informations to be laid against all that were present at the mutiny. As neither the horse-guards nor country regiments were concerned in this rising, they had all taken arms to repress by force the insolence of the two regiments of foot-guards. This, after the first, was superfluous; but it is certain that, if it had not been for the spirited resolution of general Keith, the revolt would have spread far and wide, as no Russian officer would have undertaken to oppose himself to the rage of the soldiery.

The forwardest in the mutiny were all seized; and the court ordered a commission to examine into the affair, of which general Romanzow was the president. The ring-leader, who was a subaltern of the guards, had his right hand cut off, and was sent to Siberia; the rest had the knout, and were disposed of in the same way.

The inveterate hatred which the Russian nobility had conceived against foreigners is not altogether without excuse. They had not only been compelled by the ordinances of Peter I. to change a great part of their ancient customs, but under the reign of the Empress

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Anne all the first posts of the empire were given to strangers, who regulated everything according to their fancy, and by their harshness made the Russians feel only too sensibly the power they had, treating even members of the first families of the empire with haughtiness and contempt; add to this the promise made by the empress, at her accession to the throne, that she would deliver Russia from dependence on foreigners, and which she had not quite fulfilled (at least according to the idea of her guards), and the outrage just related will appear less strange.

On the 18th of June marshal Lacy began his march with the army, taking his course along the sea-side, that he might keep up a free communication with the galleys, which carried the greatest part of the army's provisions.

Major-general Wedel was detached with 600 dragoons, 1000 hussars, and most of the Cossacks, on the high road to Wilmanstrand, to alarm the enemy on that side; and he had orders to advance within six leagues of Fredericsham.

The Russian army during this campaign observed the following order in its marches, when at a tolerable distance from the enemy. The light cavalry, followed by the cuirassiers and half the dragoons, composed the van; the artillery came next, followed by the infantry; the other half of the dragoons formed the rear-guard. But as often as the marshal judged there was the least likelihood of coming to an engagement he put part of the infantry at the head. For, as the country of Finland is extremely hemmed in, there is always a necessity to defile on a very small front, and there is no marching except in one column; nor is any way practicable but along the high road, with rocks, woods, and marshes on each side. As, in so broken a country, there is not room for en-

EMBARRASSMENT OF THE SWEDES.

359

camping an army all together, there was always a flying camp of four regiments of foot and some dragoons of the rear-guard, separated by the distance of one or two leagues from the main camp.

Count Loewenhaupt, who had not as yet assembled the Swedish army, was terribly embarrassed when he heard that the Russians were marching. He sent colonel Lagencrantz to marshal Lacy to treat for a peace; but, as the marshal had no instructions on this head from the court, he persuaded him to go on to Moscow, and did not the less continue his own march against the enemy.

On the 24th of June the Russian army entered into Swedish Finland; the villages on the frontiers of which had been burnt the winter before by the Cossacks, to deprive the Swedish troops of means of subsistence. The inhabitants had retreated into the innermost parts of the country, so that all thereabouts was a desert.

General Wedel sent several prisoners into camp, from whom it was learnt that the enemy were hard at work making an entrenchment near the village of Mendolax, situate at four leagues' distance from Fredericsham, on the Russian side; that their army was not as yet entirely assembled, but that repeated orders had been sent to the regiments to repair, with all possible expedition, to the camp, which was pitched on the other side of Fredericsham; that their army consisted of four regiments of cavalry, three of dragoons, and nineteen of infantry; and that the regiments had suffered greatly in the winter, by the long marches they had been obliged to make to Seckyerwy and elsewhere.*

The Russian army continued its march, without having any news of the enemy, through the closest country.

* See above, page 316. and also page 354.

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and on the worst roads in the universe. There were some places of such a nature, that 2000 men behind a good entrenchment and an abatis of felled trees might have stopped the whole army. On June 30th it encamped on the river of Vereyocky*, the bridge over which the Swedes had destroyed, and set hard to work to make a new one. A Swedish deserter came to the camp, and brought advice that count Loewenhaupt was come to Mendolax to forward the works by his presence, and that the whole Swedish army was to assemble there and dispute the pass with the Russians. The spies having confirmed this intelligence, the marshal ordered the heavy baggage to be left at Vereyocky, with 800 regulars and 200 Cossacks to guard it, under general Kindermann. The sick of the army were embarked on board the galleys that had brought provisions for the army, and sent back to Wyburg. The troops had orders to take with them biscuits for ten days. The bridge being finished, and the whole army passed over on the 1st of July, the marshal reinforced the land army with two regiments of grenadiers and 3000 fusiliers, whom he took out of the galleys, together with general Lewaschew. General Wedel also returned to camp with his detachment, having met with only one party of the enemy, of whom he killed thirty and took fourteen prisoners.

On July 2nd Wedel was detached anew to observe the movements of the enemy. From the spies it was ascertained that there were not above 4000 Swedes arrived at Mendolax, but that their galleys were at anchor on the right of the entrenchment, from whence they might draw as many reinforcements as they required. Upon this advice the marshal gave an order to lieutenant-general

* Probably Wyrajorkij.

STRONG SWEDISH ENTRENCHMENT.

361

Brilly to advance with a part of the Russian galleys, and to try to force those of the enemy to abandon this position.

On July 3rd the Russian army advanced as far as Ravayocky *, a village situate within three leagues of the entrenchment. On the 5th a Swedish detachment of 300 foot and 50 dragoons sallied out of the entrenchment with a design to cut off the advanced guard of the Russians; but the hussars alighting, attacked them so briskly, that they obliged them to retreat in a hurry, leaving an officer and fifteen men dead on the spot. The Russians took ten of them prisoners, and had not on their own side more than two hussars killed and forty wounded.

The army having now advanced to within half a mile of the entrenchment, the marshal went to reconnoitre it with his generals. They found it extremely strong, both in its situation and from the abatis of trees, which had been felled. The guides were examined, to get from them whether there was any way of turning it. These showed the impossibility of such a step; as the right rested on the sea and the left on a great lake, which not only reached a long way into a wood that was excessively thick, but had a marshy impracticable bottom. Nevertheless, after having examined all these things, the marshal resolved to attack the entrenchment. It was defended in front by a deep and very steep ravine, that seemed cut as it were into the rock. This ravine was at the bottom, where there ran a small rivulet, about 100 feet wide. The ground was marshy and covered with a thick wood, all the trees of which being felled, were laid across the morass, so as to form an abatis which it was scarcely possible to pass. To

* Rawajorkij.

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

come at this entrenchment, which had 250 fathoms* of front, there was a wood to go through, which hid everything till one came within length of a short musket-shot.

It was designed to make several simultaneous attacks upon the position; but there were only two ways to be found that led to it,— the one the high road near the right of the enemy, the other a pathway leading towards their left. General Lewaschew, at the head of six regiments of foot and two of dragoons, went along the pathway. The marshal, with the rest of the army, took the high road.

The march was much retarded by the way being so extremely narrow, that they were obliged every now and then to halt, to make it broader, by cutting down the trees on both side to let the cannon pass. At length the marshal caused the entrenchment to be again reconnoitred, when the officer employed reported that he had approached very near to the barrier without perceiving any one. At the very same time general Lewaschew sent word to the marshal that some of his hussars had penetrated into the entrenchment itself, and found it abandoned by the enemy. Some light troops were at once detached in pursuit of them, but could not come up with them, they having fled in the night-time to Fredericsham, where they arrived before their retreat was so much as known. The Russian army passed the entrenchment, and took possession of the camp the Swedes had just quitted.

The more this post was examined the more astonishing it appeared that the enemy should have abandoned it. It

* The French edition has 2500, but this extent seems so great, that I have retained the numbers of the English edition.

SITE OF FREDERICSHAM.

363

was found extremely strong, both from its situation and
from the works that had been made there. It was
universally agreed, that if they had manned it with 7000
of their troops, and planted in it twenty pieces of cannon,
for which they had actually prepared batteries and plat-
forms, it would have been extremely difficult, if not impos-
sible, to force it. The Russians must have lost in the
attempt great part of their infantry, and would probably
have been obliged to abandon the enterprise. Some
grenadiers were, for the experiment's sake, sent to try to
clamber up the front of the retrenchment, and they took
above an hour before they could get to the top of the
parapet. What then must it have been if they had
attempted it under a brisk fire of cannon and small arms?

On the 6th the marshal and the generals went to re-
connoitre Fredericsham. This town is situated upon an
eminence, having the sea on one side, and a great lake on
the other; the space between both is fortified: the works
indeed were only of earth and fascines, ill enough kept in
repair; but there is no investing the town entirely, on
account of the lake, which is near five leagues in circuit.
The garrison had the communication open with the army,
which was encamped behind it, and could reinforce it with
supplies of men as often as it should need them. A siege
of it appeared difficult to all the generals. Even the
ground seemed to forbid it, being nothing but rocks,
which promised to make it very hard to open trenches;
besides, what with the marshes and the woods, they could
scarce find room for pitching a camp. All these difficulties
did not discourage the marshal,—he was determined to
attack the place.

The enemy had brought up three galleys to bear on the
left flank of the Russians, which rested on the sea, and
upon which these kept a great fire from their guns; but

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

the Russians having returned it with the same vivacity, and damaged one of the galleys, they sheered off. On the 7th the army moved up to Frederiesham. The camp it occupied was so uneven and so full of rocks, that there was not a place in which they could draw up a single regiment in order of battle. A part of the dragoons was even obliged to encamp so near the enemies' works, that they were not above a cannon-shot distance from them.

The marshal having a second time reconnoitred the works of the town, gave the direction of the siege to count Loewendal; and the army being in want of battering pieces, some galleys were sent to Wyburg to bring them. The regiments were set to make fascines, and the artillery-men to prepare planks for gun platforms; and as the whole country is full of wood, the work went on with sufficient expedition.

It was resolved to open the trenches on the night between the 9th and 10th of the month (July). Count Loewendal had reconnoitred an eminence on which he designed to place the first battery. In short, all the dispositions were made for beginning the siege, when the Swedes rendered them needless by abandoning the town. At eleven at night it was seen to be all on fire. At first it was imagined that the commandant was ordering the suburbs to be burnt. Some hussars therefore were sent to reconnoitre, and these brought back word that the fire was in the body of the town itself, and that the enemy had abandoned it. The Swedes had, on their retreat, filled several houses with powder, bomb-shells, grenades, and loaded muskets, which went off one after another in the air. This hindered the Russians from entering and putting out the fire. A party of the light troops ventured, however, through the flames to pursue

SWEDES ABANDON FREDERICSHAM.

365

the enemy; but could only catch and bring away a few of the sick, who could not follow their own people fast enough, the bulk of the army having had time enough to get to a distance.

Three-fourths of the houses of Fredericsham were reduced to ashes. There were found in the place ten brass cannon, eighteen and twenty-four pounders, and a hundred and twenty iron cannon, of different sizes. A!-most all the magazines had been consumed by the flames, so that there was but little found of provisions and ammunition. One magazine of powder had not exploded. It contained 400 quintals of powder, and some thousands of barrels of pitch. One may judge of the precipitation with which the enemy made their retreat, from the fact that the regiment of East Bothnia left one of its colours behind.

It must be owned that the fortifications themselves were very indifferent, all the works being of nothing but earth; however, as the place had a free communication with the sea; as the army was encamped behind the town, able to pour in reinforcements without its being in the power of the Russians to hinder them; as there was in the place a sufficiency both of victuals and munitions of war; and as the ground itself rendered the works of the besiegers extremely difficult,—there is no being enough astonished at the circumstance of the Swedes abandoning the place without the least resistance. The garrison had consisted of eight regiments; viz. Bousquet, Wilbrand, Abo, East Bothnia, Savalax, Kiminogor, Nyland and Tawasthouse.

The fault committed by Loewenhaupt in abandoning Fredericsham was the greater, as he had there established the grand magazine of the army, while the troops had not, after their retreat thence, bread enough for ten days;

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA

and he had not even provided the means of drawing pro-
visions from Helsingfors, the other magazine; so that he
was consequently obliged to abandon the whole country
and to approach that town. In fact, in the ten months'
time during which he had commanded in Finland he
had not so much as made it an object of consideration
whether he should defend or abandon Fredericsham.

The marshal ordered 2000 workmen to clear the town
and the galleys to enter the port. On the 10th, the
festival of St. Peter, the name-day of the grand-duke, the
*Te Deum* was sung in thanksgiving, on the ground that
the Russian army had taken Fredericsham, the only
fortified town in all Swedish Finland, without losing a
single man. A detachment of hussars, that had been
engaged in an affair of outposts, brought in with them some
prisoners, who gave the intelligence that the army of the
enemies had passed the river Soma, and was encamped
on the other side.

July 11th: the Russian army marched ten versts, or
near three French leagues, passed the river Soma, and
encamped on the spot which the enemies had just quitted.
The hussars, who kept close at the heels of the Swedes
in their march, brought word that their army was passing
the Kymen, and that the greatest part of them was al-
ready on the other side.

July 12th: the Russians advanced to the Kymen. The
whole Swedish army had crossed that river, nothing re-
maining on the hither side but a guard, that retreated as
soon as they saw the Russian army approach. Lacy en-
camped along the side of the river. Nothing was seen of
the enemy but a few platoons, posted upon the eminences
on the other side. There they stayed quietly enough till
the Russians had entered their camp and the cavalry had
taken off the saddles and bridles of their horses; but then

RUSSIANS PASS THE KYMEN.

367

they opened a fierce fire upon them from cannon, which they had planted on those eminences, and which were masked by those platoons of infantry. They more especially galled the quarter of the cuirassiers, who were encamped the nearest to the village. The marshal ordered them to change their place, and stationed them in the rear of a wood, where they were sheltered from the enemy's guns. Some cannon were then brought up on the Russian side of the river, which soon silenced those of the Swedes, having at the first fire dismounted two of their pieces.

On the 13th the Swedish army quitted the banks of the Kymen. The marshal at once made all the necessary dispositions for crossing that river. The bridges had been made, and the army was beginning to cross the next morning,—the greater part was already over,—when the marshal received a dispatch from the court, bringing him a positive order to put an end to the operations of this campaign as soon as he should have forced the Swedes to pass the Kymen; to establish that river as a frontier; to build along the bank of it small forts, at convenient distances; and to encamp with his army near Fredericsham, till it should be time to put his army into winter-quarters. The marshal immediately assembled all the generals and held a council of war on the banks of the river itself. All the Russian generals were to a man of the opinion, to repass the river and follow the orders of the court; but the foreigners represented that the court would never have given such, if it could have been imagined that the enemy would so easily abandon their position. Their counsel was, that, since they had passed the river, it would be best to improve the advantage they had over the Swedes, and drive them, if possible, to Helsingfors; take that town; and terminate by that stroke the operations

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

of the campaign. The marshal preferred this opinion. The army pursued its way, and after some marches came to encamp near Pernokirk, where they found the Swedes encamped over against them, in a very advantageous post. But, after having for some days stood the presence of their enemies, they began to be afraid of being turned by the Russian galleys, which made them decamp and retreat to Borgo. The Russians followed them thither, and the armies remained again for some days in face of each other, the Russians on one side of the river, the Swedes on the other. At length the Swedes retreated as far as Helsingkirk, where they took up a position of great strength, with their right resting on the sea; they had in front a deep morass, of a quarter of a league (French) broad, where there was but one little way for scarce more than eight or ten men to pass abreast; while a river that rose near the morass covered their right\* wing and rear. But even this post, where they might have remained several months without fear of attack, did not appear strong enough for them, and when they heard that Stoffeln had been detached with some regiments, they were afraid of being taken in the rear and cut off from their magazines, so that they retreated as far as Helsingfors.

The marshal and all the generals had often been out to reconnoitre the enemy's camp, and try to discover if there was no way to make an impression on it, but in vain; they did not find it possible. They were therefore extremely pleased when they saw him decamp. Some light troops were sent to harass him in his march, and the Russian army immediately followed them.

Near Helsingfors the Swedes had a well-entrenched camp [which had been preparing for them before they

\* Their right as seen from the Russian camp, but their proper left.

LACY CUTS OFF THE SWEDES FROM ABO. 369

arrived there]; notwithstanding which, the resolution was
taken to abandon that likewise, and to retreat upon Abo.

The same evening that the Russian army arrived in the
neighbourhood of Helsingfors, a Finland peasant desired
to speak with the marshal, and told him that the Swedes
designed to march the next day in the direction of Abo;
but that it would be no difficult matter to hinder them,
there being across the wood a road which Peter I. had
caused to be made in the preceding war. This, he assured
him, might be easily rendered practicable, by clearing away
the brushwood that had been growing for the thirty
years it had been made; and this road terminated on
the other side of the wood in the highway from Helsing-
fors to Abo.

Upon this advice two engineer officers were sent to
reconnoitre the ground, and reported the thing practicable.
General Loewendal was at once detached with sixty-four
companies of grenadiers and four battalions. Before the
night was over they sent word that the way was cleared,
and that they had posted themselves on the road to Abo.

By four in the morning the whole army was under
march, and joined Loewendal by six. Scarce was the
junction made when they saw the van of the Swedish
army. The Swedes, terribly surprised at discovering the
Russians in a post where they had by no means expected
them, returned as fast as possible into their camp at Hel-
singfors, which they continued to fortify and strengthen
with a number of pieces of cannon.

The marshal, by occupying the road to Abo, had at
the same time cut off all communications of the Swedes on
the land-side; they had, however, for some time the sea
open to them: but at length the Russian fleet appeared
in the offing; and as that of Sweden had suffered ex-
tremely by sickness, finding itself in no condition to act,

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

it retired into Crona. Admiral Mischakow, who had remained inactive up to that time, availed himself of this retreat, and shut up the Swedish army on the side of the sea. In this situation the Swedes remained fifteen days longer. They took time to fortify their post well, and then entered into negotiation.

Count Loewenhaupt and lieutenant-general Buddenbrog had been put under arrest, by order of their court, and carried to Stockholm, where they were tried. Major-general Bousquet, as senior, had the command of the army. He concluded with general Loewendal, whom the marshal had commissioned to treat with him, the following capitulation:—

1st. That the ten Finland regiments that were in the Swedish army should lay down their arms; the regiments of dragoons give up their horses to Russian commissaries, and the men return each to his respective village; 2nd. That all the magazines, field-pieces, and whatever arms were at Helsingfors should be similarly delivered to Russian commissaries; and that the Swedes should not be allowed to take any more provisions out of the magazines there than would be required for their subsistence upon their way back to Sweden,—the battering-pieces to be left to the Swedes; 3rd. That the Swedish infantry should be embarked on board their galleys and transports, to be conveyed to Sweden, and that the marshal Lacy should give them *passports* for their safety on the passage; 4th. That the cavalry should take the road by Torno to return to Sweden, under the escort of a Russian captain and sixty hussars.

All the articles of this capitulation were faithfully executed. The Finlanders, after delivering up their horses and arms, returned home, very well satisfied at not being obliged to serve longer in a war in which for them there had been hitherto nothing but misfortune.

RUINOUS EFFECT OF SWEDISH FACTIONS. 371

When the Swedish army capitulated it was near 17,000 strong, and all the Russian forces that Lacy had at that time under his command did not outnumber the enemy by 500. The garrisons of Fredericsham and Borgo, the various detachments they had been obliged to make, and sickness, had reduced the Russian army by one-half; so that the odds were two to one, that if the Swedes had refused to submit to those ignominious conditions, and thereupon the marshal had attacked them, the Russians would have been beaten, considering the situation of the enemy's camp, which they had had full time to fortify. In short, the whole tenor of the Swedish conduct during the war was so singular, and so contrary to usual practice, that posterity will hardly credit it.

When the states had resolved on the war, count Loewenhaupt was chosen for the command of the army, with all the power necessary for a commander-in-chief. But scarce was the queen dead, when a council of war was established, in which all colonels of regiments had a seat, and all affairs were debated and decided by a majority; nor had the commander-in-chief any more than his own single vote like the rest. It was even often found necessary to send the minutes of the council of war to Sweden, and to wait the decision of the king and the senate on the objects of reference. The dissensions among the generals of the army were so great, that it was enough, if one was of any opinion, for another to be of a contrary one. To all this was added another untoward incident; a diet being called at Stockholm to elect a successor to the crown, a number of officers quitted their corps to assist at it, and to attend to their own affairs, or rather to increase the power of their respective parties and neutralise that of their opponents. In short, so great was the confusion in the Swedish army,

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

that the ablest general in the world could scarcely have effected the least thing with it.

After the departure of the Swedes all Finland remained subject to the Russian empire, and the army had nothing more to do than to go into winter-quarters. General Keith was sent to Abo, the capital of Finland, in quality of governor of the whole country. A sufficient body of troops was left with him to secure this conquest. Sixteen galleys and two prahms were ordered to remain at Helsingfors and five galleys at Fredericsham, to guard the coasts the next spring, till the arrival of the fleet. The rest of the army returned home, and marshal Lacy repaired to the court, which had come back to Petersburg a few days before.

While the Russian army was making this successful campaign in Finland the court had been at Moscow, where the empress was crowned. Sweden had made several proposals of peace before the commencement of warlike operations. Loewenhaupt had caused colonel Lagercrantz to make a journey to Moscow, as I have before noted. He had accepted all the proposals that were made to him; but, as these were too hard upon the Swedes, their ratification was refused, and Lagercrantz put under arrest. The states of Sweden sent the baron de Nolcken in his room with fresh proposals; but he did not succeed better in his negotiation than his predecessor. The empress, piqued at the exorbitant pretensions set up by the Swedes at the beginning of her reign, would not grant them a peace except on the condition of their ceding a part of Finland to her. And as, besides, she learnt that Nolcken had been somewhat too free in his talk about herself, and had even said that there ought to be a new revolution in favour of the duke of Holstein, he had orders to leave the country forthwith.

SWEDISH EFFORTS FOR PEACE.

373

The duke of Holstein, who had been declared grand-duke of Russia, and lawful heir of that vast empire, was also elected successor to the kingdom of Sweden, by the states assembled at Stockholm to hold a diet. They were in hopes of obtaining a peace the sooner by this step. Three deputies were sent to the court of Russia to notify this election, and to request of the duke to visit the kingdom. Those in charge of this commission were, the count Bond, who had formerly resided at Petersburg as minister of the duke of Holstein, baron Hamilton, and baron Scheffer. They had their audience of the grand-duke after the court was returned from Petersburg; but his imperial highness, preferring the empire of Russia to the kingdom of Sweden, declined, thanking them for their good-will; and after they had remained some days at Petersburg they returned to Sweden.

It was in the month of December that the court returned to Petersburg. At length they began to think seriously of a peace, and the congress was fixed at Abo. The court of Russia sent the generals Romanzow and Louberas in quality of plenipotentiaries: those on the part of Sweden were the senator baron de Kederkreutz, and baron Nolcken, secretary of state. The conferences began in March, 1743, but the peace was not concluded till five months after, as will be seen in its place.

M. Loewendal quitted Russia towards the end of this year. The principal cause of his discontent was the suppression of the allowances, which he drew in his capacity of colonel of cuirassiers, and which might amount to 2500 roubles, or 5000 florins a year. When the empress ascended the throne she cut off the double pay which officers had been in the habit of receiving in virtue of different appointments. Loewendal being a general and likewise colonel of the cuirassiers, got therefore only

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

a general's pay. He wanted to have the blue riband, and he did not get it. Moreover, he did not live on the best of terms with marshal Lacy. In a letter which he wrote to count Lestock he blamed that general's proceedings, and did not paint him in the brightest colours. Lestock showed this letter to the empress, and she sent it to the marshal; and hence much bitterness of feeling arose between the two generals. Finally, the warning example of the misfortunes which had befallen several foreign officers, the revolt of the guards near Wyburg, and the spirit of disorder which began to show itself among the troops, all combined to determine him to ask leave to go to Poland to arrange his private affairs. Shortly afterwards he asked for his dismissal, and sent his wife to Petersburg to press his suit, which was granted, after a great many difficulties had been thrown in her way.

At the same time Keith likewise begged to be allowed to quit the Russian service; but the empress not choosing to lose at once the two best generals she then had, spared no pains to induce him to change his resolution. She wrote him the most gracious letters, sent him the blue riband, increased his pay, and succeeded so well, that she persuaded him to remain. She might have secured him for ever, if the high-chancellor had behaved well to him, and if an establishment in Russia had been offered to his brother, the lord marshal of Scotland; but the bad treatment of Bestucheff subsequently determined him again to tender the resignation of his services, and then all the promises which could be made him failed in inducing him to stay. He and his brother are settled in a country where real merit has a better chance of being appreciated and rewarded.*

* The two last paragraphs are only found in the French edition.

VIGOROUS EFFORTS OF RUSSIA.

375

After the court of Petersburg had taken its measures for restoring internal tranquillity, its next care was to make the necessary arrangements for continuing the war with more vigour than ever, and for compelling Sweden, sword in hand, to receive such a peace as Russia should please to give her.

All the regiments had orders to prepare their field-equipage betimes, and to hold themselves in readiness for marching at the first warning; and as, after the late prosperous campaign, there was no longer reason to be afraid of any descents the Swedes could make on the coasts, it was resolved that the fleet should act with more vigour, and that there should be as much infantry as possible embarked in the galleys. To augment the marine force there was the greatest diligence used in the dockyards.

The regiments the most distant from Petersburg, and which had passed the preceding campaign in Livonia, had orders towards the latter end of March, (it being then determined to begin the campaign early,) to repair to the capital, to be embarked there. This embarkation could not, however, be completed before the 14th of May, when all the forces designed for embarkation were on board the galleys. They had received two months' provisions, one-half in biscuit, the other in flour.

The empress went on board marshal Lacy's galley, where she assisted at divine service according to the Greek ritual; after which she made the marshal a present of a ring of great value, and of a small golden cross inclosing some relics, and embracing him, wished him a prosperous campaign. She then went to her palace, from the windows of which she saw the galleys move off in a line, each giving her a royal salute as they passed.

On May 15th this squadron arrived at Cronstadt,

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MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

and found the fleet of men-of-war in the roads. The galleys entered the port, and stayed there the 16th and 17th, on account of the contrary winds.

On the 18th, the wind having changed, they came out of port into the road, where they formed in line of battle, and anchored. The empress arrived from Petersburg, and went on board the admiral's ship, where she had a long conversation with marshal Lacy and the admiral Gollowin; after which she landed and dined at Cronstadt, and returned the same day to Peterhof.

The fleet of men-of-war with which the Russians put to sea this year consisted of seventeen ships of the line and six frigates; it was commanded by the admiral count Gollowin, who hoisted his flag on board the Great Anne, which carried 110 guns. The empress had again been obliged to break up three regiments of infantry, for the same purpose as before, to make up the complement of the ships' crews.

The fleet of galleys that went out of Cronstadt consisted of thirty-six galleys, and seventy cantschibasses; a kind of small Turkish craft, which may each be reckoned to contain a crew of fourscore men and a month's provisions for them.

The generals who commanded this squadron under the marshal Lacy were the general Lewaschew, the lieutenant-generals Brilly and count Soltikoff, and the major-generals Wedel, Lapouchin, and Stuart. There were embarked on board of it nine regiments of infantry and eight companies of grenadiers of the regiments in garrison at Wyburg, Petersburg, and Cronstadt. There were also put on board 200 Cossacks of the Don, with their horses, to serve occasionally upon incursions into the enemy's country.

SWEDISH FLEET EARLY AT SEA.

377

The marshal divided his fleet into three squadrons. The van, which hoisted a blue flag, was commanded by general Lewaschew, lieutenant-general Brilly, and major-general Wedel, and consisted of three regiments of foot and three companies of grenadiers. Marshal Lacy, in the centre, carried a white flag, having with him major-general Lapouchin, three regiments of foot, and two companies of grenadiers. The rear-division, commanded by count Soltikoff and major-general Stuart, carried the red flag, and had on board three regiments of foot, and three companies of grenadiers.

It was this fleet that marshal Lacy put in motion on the 19th of May, to advance towards the Swedish provinces; but as Russia meant, in this campaign, to act with all the maritime forces she could muster, they continued at Petersburg to build more galleys; and when these were finished, more troops were embarked in them, which joined the army, as will be shown in its place.

On the side of Sweden there were also some preparatory arrangements made. A body of troops was assembled at Torno, with which it was intended to invade Finland. Lieutenant-general Stoffeln was opposed to them with a large body of dragoons and Cossacks, who could not be taken on board the galleys. He managed to keep the enemy so well in check, that during the whole campaign they could not attempt any considerable operation.

The Swedish fleet can get out of its ports a month sooner than that of Russia, and had accordingly by the beginning of April already put to sea. The Swedes made several little descents on the coasts of Finland and on the isle of Aland, where they carried off some Russian guards and escorts, and burnt part of the timber which general Keith had caused to be collected for the building some galleys. He had already had six put on the stocks at

378

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

Abo, which were all of them finished in the month of
July.

General Keith, wishing to hinder the enemy from making
any progress, sent an order to lieutenant-general Chrous-
scheff and to major-general Bratke to embark as soon as
possible, with the regiments they had at Helsingfors and
at Fredericsham, on board the twenty-one galleys which
had been left there the preceding year.

I shall speak elsewhere of what Keith executed with
the troops under his orders, and now relate without inter-
ruption what passed most worthy of note in the squadron
of marshal Lacy till its junction with that of Keith.

Contrary winds had hindered Lacy from advancing as
quickly as he could have wished; and the sea in the vici-
nity of the shore being still covered with ice in several
places, the troops suffered a great deal by the cold.

On the 27th the galleys had got near to Fredericsham,
where there had been established a large magazine of
ammunition and forage. Two regiments were in garrison
there, under the command of colonel Karkettel. The
marshal ordered the sick to be sent ashore, and took in
their room 100 grenadiers of the regiments in garrison.
The fleet was stopped there till the 31st by contrary
winds, and the marshal was the more vexed at this delay,
as he had received advices from General Keith that the
enemy was very near him, and that not improbably he
might at any hour come to an engagement with the
Swedish squadron.

On June 2nd Lacy's squadron arrived at Helsingfors.
The channel between this town and that of Fredericsham
is in some parts extremely narrow, not wider than eight
or ten fathoms, between rocks, so that the galleys can only
proceed in a line one after another, and require excellent
piloting to avoid striking every moment on the sands or

HELSINGFORS AN EXCELLENT PORT.

379

rocks. It is impossible to wonder enough at the Swedes having abandoned these channels the last year without making the least resistance; the more especially as they held the whole coast, and the Russians had no pilots. If they had merely sunk a few old ships, it would have stopped the Russian army for several days.* To return: Helsingfors had no kind of fortifications, and then was not even walled. The whole town consists of about 300 houses, tolerably well built in the manner of that country. But the port is the very best in Finland; it can very conveniently hold as many as 150 ships, which may be got out and in with any wind. Before the Russians took Helsingfors there were not so much as batteries to defend the entrances of the port. They erected four, which they demolished when they restored the town.

The marshal took 200 men of the garrison, and embarked them in the galleries, in place of the sick he left behind. Colonel Breven commanded there, having two regiments of foot under his orders.

The troops received flour here for fifteen days more, so that the army was provided with bread till the 15th of July. Advice came that general Keith had had an action with the Swedish galleys, and obtained the victory. This news was the more agreeable, as in the army the contrary result had been apprehended. The marshal thereupon caused the *Te Deum* to be sung on the 5th in the morning, and in the afternoon proceeded with his fleet.

On leaving the port of Helsingfors there was established, for the first time in this campaign, an advanced guard of two galleys and four cantschibasses. The wind was very fair, and the fleet ran above sixteen French leagues in less than six hours' time. Towards the evening the galleys

380

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

got to a place called Parkala, where there is a good
natural port, that might very well contain as many as
100 galleys.

On the 6th the fleet, in the course of the morning,
made twelve French leagues, as far as Barrasound. In
the way to it there is a channel of about 1500 paces in
length, so extremely narrow, that in several parts it is
with great difficulty a single galley can be got through
without striking upon the rocks. In the afternoon they
advanced ten leagues farther to Swart-ouva, where the
marshal had intelligence that the Swedish fleet, consisting
of eighteen sail, ships of the line and frigates, were
stationed near Hangouth, to hinder his galleys from
passing on and joining those of Keith. Lacy, how-
ever, kept on his course with his fleet for five leagues
farther, to Tweermunde, which is but four leagues dis-
tant from Hangouth, and from which they could distinctly
see the Swedish fleet at anchor there.

 Marshal Lacy, accompanied by all the generals, went
to reconnoitre the fleet. They observed that two of the
ships were lying exactly in the line which would be taken
by the galleys, if they held on their course. The sea
near Hangouth has depth enough for ships of the greatest
burthen to lie close to the shore.

On the 8th a grand council of war was held, to con-
sider all possible expedients for obliging the enemy to
abandon the advantageous position he was occupying,
but in vain. At length it was resolved to wait for the
Russian fleet, and see whether it could not by an engage-
ment force the Swedes to leave the channel free. To-
wards the evening M. de Gollowin, a captain in the fleet,
arrived, and brought advice to the marshal that the
admiral Gollowin, with the Russian fleet, was not at
above ten leagues' distance from the enemy, and was

381

making dispositions to attack him as soon as circum-
stances would permit and a good occasion should offer.
But this good occasion never came, and the galleys re-
mained in the same place till the 18th of June. The
marshal grew terribly tired of this uneasy situation.
He sent repeated orders to count Gollowin to attack the
Swedes, but without inducing the other to obey him. The
admiral continually found new excuses to avoid coming
to an engagement. One of the reasons he alleged was,
that in the regulations of the naval service by Peter I. it
was ordered, that the Russian fleet should not give battle
to the Swedes, unless with three Russian ships to two of
the Swedes; and as they had not at present more than
seventeen against twelve, there was one short of the
number prescribed. Councils of war were frequently
held; the generals went every day to the neighbouring
islands to reconnoitre the enemy, but without being any the
forwarder for it. The two fleets of ships-of-war were at
anchor at the distance of two leagues from each other.
That of Sweden lay between the Russian ships and the
galleys. The marshal from time to time made some
movements with his galleys, but all to no purpose.

During the stay that the galleys made at Tweermunde
the army received a reinforcement of five regiments of
foot, which major-general Karaoulow brought, on board
14 galleys and 18 cantschibasses, newly built at Peters-
burg. So that after this junction, the flotilla under the
marshal consisted of 48 galleys and 98 cantschibasses.
The new comers were distributed among the three
squadrons.

On June 18th, in the morning, the marshal, at the re-
quisition of admiral Gollowin, sent 14 cantschibasses to
the Russian fleet. The admiral wanted, it seems, to take
the soldiers out of them, to strengthen the crews of his

382

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

ships, after which, as he said, he should attack the enemy. As soon as the Swedish fleet saw this movement of the cant-schibasses it weighed anchor and got under sail, to hinder the cantschibasses from joining the ships. The Russian fleet did the same. Both stood off to sea, and there seemed good hopes of a naval engagement; but neither party had any mind for fighting. There were only a few guns fired on each side, and night coming on, both fleets separated without either having any cause to boast the least ad-vantage. That of the Russians set sail for Hochland, an island not far from Revel, where it remained quiet till the conclusion of the peace, and that of the Swedes sailed for Carlscrona, where it rested from all the labours it had undergone.

Meanwhile Lacy, seeing that the two ships which had been stationed precisely athwart the channel near Han-gouth had quitted that position, did not let a moment escape in taking advantage of the enemy's removal; and, having given the signal for advancing the instant he saw the enemy begin to move, he doubled the cape of Hangouth with his galleys. Towards evening there was a great fog, that entirely concealed his movements from the enemies' ships [which the Russians could no longer have seen but at a great distance]. On the 23rd the marshal arrived with the fleet at Soutonga, where he found general Keith with his squadron most advantage-ously posted.

Keith gave the marshal a narrative of the operations of his squadron, of which I here subjoin an abstract.

On May 16th general Keith received advice from lieutenant-general Chrutscheff that he had embarked with his men on board the sixteen galleys at Helsingfors, and was arrived with his squadron and the two prahms off Hangouth. Upon this the general immediately left Abo, and on the 17th joined those galleys to the north of Han-

OPERATIONS OF KEITH’S SQUADRON.

383

gouth. The same day he held a council of war, at which were present the principal officers of the navy and the commanding officers of regiments. It was there unanimously resolved, that since they had a force equal to that of the enemy, they should seek him out and give him battle as soon as possible, without waiting for major-general Bratke, who had not as yet joined with the five galleys from Fredericsham. The order was thereon given to prepare for action, and to be ready for advancing as soon as the signal should be made. West-north-west of them they heard the evening gun of the enemy, who might be about four leagues distant. On the 18th Keith left Hangouth with his galleys, in calm weather, so that he did not get on much, being obliged to have the prahms towed by the galleys; besides which, it was necessary to proceed constantly with great caution, on account of the rocks and shallows in several places off that coast. One of the prahms struck upon a rock, and it took a great deal of time to get her off. Towards the evening the squadron came to an anchor out at sea, not having advanced that day above a Swedish mile.*

In the evening there was heard the report of two guns; and a Swedish brigantine was seen cruising about a mile off the Russian galleys.

May 19th: the squadron proceeded in the morning with a fair wind, but as they were still obliged to tow the prahms, it did not forward them much. At eight the galley of the vanguard made a signal of seeing the enemy. The general in his galley went to reconnoitre them. He viewed them at anchor about a mile's distance from him, and made a signal for the whole squadron to advance; but

* The English edition adds "or much about two French leagues." This is an error, and probably an interpolation of the translator. See above, p. 303.

384

MEMOIRS OF RUSSIA.

when he had got to half a mile off them, they made sail, and passed between two islands, by a channel in which there was not water enough for the prahms, so that he was obliged to steer to the left and turn the island to come at the enemy. But the wind having suddenly shifted to the north-west, blew so hard, that there was no towing the prahms; and the general came to an anchor near Hitischapel.

May 20th: the contrary wind continued till noon, when it fell calm. The squadron weighed anchor; but had scarce made a league of way, when the wind came on again directly in their teeth. This obliged the general to close in with the land. A detachment of a hundred men in six shallops was sent to get positive intelligence of the enemy, and to seek for pilots; those whom they had hitherto had having come to the end of their knowledge of the course; and it is nearly impossible to proceed a foot among those rocks without the hazard of running aground every moment, if one has not on board people of the country acquainted with the coast.

May 21st: the squadron weighed anchor at three in the morning, the weather being calm, and at noon arrived at Jungfern sound, which is an extremely narrow passage between two islands. The shallops rejoined the fleet there, but without having found any pilots, all the villages having been deserted by the inhabitants. The men brought word, that on coming out of Jungfern sound, they had seen a Swedish sail, which had retreated on their approach. Towards the evening a shallop of the enemy's was seen cruising about a mile from the vanguard.

May 22nd: the squadron was under way very early in the morning, the weather being calm, and before noon had got on three miles; but a contrary wind springing up obliged them to come to an anchor. Some shallops

OPERATIONS OF KEITH'S SQUADRON.

385

were again sent to look for pilots. One of them brought off a Swedish gunner, who had been by neglect left upon an island. He declared that the enemy's squadron consisted of fifteen galleys and as many *arpins* (light vessels that carry ten small guns), and a double shallop; that they expected in a few days a reinforcement of two galleys and one prahm; moreover, that there were fitting out in Sweden eight more galleys, which might be on their way. The other boats, which returned towards the evening, brought advice that they had found a galley of the enemy's a mile from the fleet, but that it retreated on their approach.

On the 23rd the general gave a fresh order for the galleys to get everything clear for engaging. In the morning six long-boats and a cantschibass were sent on to reconnoitre the enemy and sound the channel. At noon the squadron got under way, and had scarce made half a league before they saw the enemy giving chase to the boats with a galley and two double shallops. The galleys of the advanced guard made all sail and plied their oars to come up in support; which the enemy seeing, retreated behind a small island. The main squadron could not make much way, the wind being contrary.

They discovered the Swedish rear-guard, consisting of three galleys and some small boats. The general detached against them four galleys and all the shallops, and as soon as they saw these make towards them, they bore away, firing three guns for a signal to their fleet, which was at anchor about a league and a half from them. On this the Russian galleys took up the station that the Swedes had just quitted, and gave notice to the general that the enemy was retreating.

On the 24th advice came that the Swedes were at Corpo, where they had been joined by their prahms; and the next

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