Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/242

228 A coolness, however, is said to have happened between them a little before his deaths occasioned by the emperor's suspicions, on conviction, of a secret connection between Catherine and her first chamberlain, whose name was Mons. The emperor, who was suspicious of this, by a feigned absence surprized her in an arbour in the garden with him, whose sister, first lady of the bed-chamber, in company with a page, stood on the outside. Peter was so enraged, that he is reported to have struck Catherine with his cane, and Mons, with his sister, &c. were taken into custody. They were accused of having received bribes, and making their influence over the empress subservient to their own mercenary views. Mons being threatened with the torture, confessed the corruption laid to his charge, and was beheaded. His sister received five strokes of the knout, and was banished into Siberia, from whence the empress afterwards recalled her. On the day after the execution of the former sentence, Peter conveyed Catherine in an open carriage under the gallows, to which was nailed the head of Mons. The empress, without changing colour, exclaimed—"What a pity it is there is so much corruption among courtiers!"

This event happened in the latter end of the year 1724. Peter's last sickness came on soon after; and while he was laying in the agonies of death, several opposite parties were caballing to dispose of the crown. At a considerable meeting of many among the principal nobility, it was secretly determined, on the moment of his dissolution, to arrest Catherine, and place Peter Alexievitch, his grandson, on the throne. Bassevitz, apprized of this resolution, repaired in person to the empress, although it was already night. "My grief and consternation," replied Catherine, "render me