Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/256

242 the people, and the imperial crown was placed upon her head, by the bishop of Novogorod. Every thing was favourable; no blood had been shed, and the czar was leaving his country house for Petershoff, whence he found the empress had escaped, before he was informed of the insurrection. Appalled and irresolute, he neglected the advice of the brave count Munich for that of his mistress, his courtiers, and his own imbecility, and returned to Oranienbaum, when boldness only could have saved him.

He wrote to the empress, who was on her march towards him; she returned no answer, but proceeded forward. Neglecting any measures of security, he ordered the place to be dismantled, as a sign of submission, and wrote a second letter, in the most humiliating terms, offering to resign the empire, if she would permit him to retire to Holstein; no answer was returned; but he was counselled to show his submission by proceeding forward to meet the empress. He went; and, after suffering a thousand indignities from her adherents, he wrote a formal renunciation of the empire, declaring his own incapacity, flattering himself with the idea that she would permit him to retire to Holstein, though during his captivity he was denied the solace of a violin and a few books. When, at the end of a week, it was thought unsafe, from the movements of compassion and remorse among the soldiers, to spare him longer, Alexis Orloff, brother of the favourite, with another officer, went to dine with the czar, to whom they contrived to administer a glass of poison; and, on his discovery of it and rejection of a second, pushed away a servant who had come into the room to succour him, and, after some struggles, strangled the unfortunate prince.

When CatherineCatharine [sic] was publicly informed of his death, she