Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/243

Rh of acting myself: do you and prince Menzikof consult together, and I will embrace the measures which you shall approve in my name." Bassevitz, finding Menzikof asleep, awakened and informed him of the pressing danger which threatened the empress and her party. As no time remained for long deliberation, the prince instantly seized the treasure, secured the fortress, gained the officers of the guards by bribes and promises, also a few of the nobility, and principal clergy. These partizans being convened in the palace, Catherine made her appearance. She claimed the throne in right of her coronation at Moscow: she exposed the ill effects of a minority; and promised, that "so far from depriving the grand-duke of the crown, she would receive it only as a sacred deposit, to be restored to him, when she should be united, in another world, to an adored husband, whom she was now upon the point of losing." The pathetic manner in which she uttered this address, and the tears which accompanied it, added to the previous distribution of money, produced the desired effect, and the remainder of the night was employed in making the necessary preparations to ensure her succession in case of the emperor's death.

Peter at length expired in the morning of the 28th of January, O. S. 1725. This event being made known, the senate, the generals, the principal nobility and clergy, hastened to the palace to proclaim the new sovereign. The adherents of the great-duke seemed secure of success, and the friends of Catherine were avoided as persons doomed to destruction. At this juncture, Bassevitz whispered one of the opposite party, "The empress is mistress of the treasures and the fortress; she has gained over the guards and the synod, and many of the chief nobility, and even here she has more followers than