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

birth or person, in order that the country might not be wronged.' It is true that he added to this perspicuous and fearful order, the palpably insidious instruction, that the judges were to decide without flattering him or fearing his disgrace, if it was concluded that his son only merited a light punishment.

" The slaves understood their master. * * * The grandees of the state, to the number of one hundred and eighty, obeyed. They pronounced sentence of death unanimously and without hesitation. * * *

"' Nothing could deter the emperor from his design, — neither the time that his wrath had had to cool, nor remorse, nor yet the repentance, the submissiveness, and the trembling weakness of the suppliant. Things that appease and disarm even foreign enemies were without effect on the heart of a father. On the contrary, as he had been his son's accuser and judge, so also he resolved to be his executioner. On the 7th July. 1718, the very day following the sentence, he repaired, followed by his nobles, to receive the last tears of his son, and to mingle with them his own ; and when at length it was imagined that his heart had melted, he sent for a strong potion, which he had previously caused to be prepared. Growing impatient, he hastened its arrival by a second message ; he had it presented as a wholesome remedy, and did not retire—'profoundly sorrowful, it is true* — until he had poisoned the hapless young man, who still continued to implore his pardon. He then attributed the death of his victim, who expired some hours after in frightful convulsions, to the terror with which the announcement of his sentence had struck him. This gross pretence was the only cover he deemed necessary for the brutal minds of his dependants : but he eommended to them silence; which commendation was so well obeyed, that, except for the memoirs of a foreigner, a witness, and even an actor in the horrible drama, history would never have known these fearful and final details."

* To weep over its victim is one of the traits of Russian character. —Note by the Author of the Travels.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.