sufficient to render an emperor a bankrupt. Wherever he went he had in his suite a seraglio, a company of players, a band of musicians, a society of sorcerers, an almost incredible number of cooks, packs of dogs of various kinds, and above 200 led horses.

Mezerai, an author of the highest repute, says that he encouraged and maintained men who called themselves sorcerers, to discover hidden treasures, and corrupted young persons of both sexes to attach themselves to him for the sake of their blood, which was requisite to form his charms and incantations. These horrid excesses may be believed when we reflect on the age of ignorance and barbarity in which they were certainly but too often practised. He was at length, for a state crime against the Duke of Brittany, sentenced to be burnt alive in a field at Nantes, A. D. 1440, but the Duke of Brittany, who was present at his execution, so far mitigated the sentence, that he was first strangled, then burnt, and his ashes buried. Though he was descended from one of the most illustrious families in France, he declared previous to his death, that all his horrid excesses were owing to his wretched education.

RUSE-DE-GUERRE.

The fatal duel between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun, is well known. Macartney, the second to Lord Mohun, was suspected of having stabbed the duke treacherously; a reward was offered for apprehending him. About that time, a gentleman was set upon by highwaymen, and with a happy presence of mind, told them he was Macartney. On this, they brought him to a justice of the peace, in hopes of the reward, when he gave charge against them for the robbery, and they were sent to jail.

MASSACRE OF RUSSIANS.

No fewer than eight thousand Russians were massacred in 1720, on occasion of the order of Peter I. that people should shave their beards. They were conducted into a vast inclosure, where numbers of blocks, &c. had been previously arranged, when Peter himself, with the axe in his hand, gave the example to the executioners how they should chop off the heads of their victims.

RETALIATION.

Some years ago, a commander of one of his majesty's ships of war, having been stationed for some time at Boston, received orders to cruise for the joint purpose of protecting our trade, and watching the notions of the enemy; and, after an absence of two or three months, unluckily returned on the sabbathday.

The moment this gentleman's wife was informed that the ship was in harbour, she hastened down to the beach; when her husband, delighted with this proof of her affection, sprang from the boat, caught her in his arms, and, in the presence of many witnesses, repeatedly embraced, and pressed her to

his heart.

This interesting scene of conjugal felicity was beheld by the superstitious inhabitants with horror and disgust, who conceived it an absolute profanation

of all religious decorum, to have testified such emotions on a day dedicated to God. The next day he was summoned to appear before the magistrates, who severely reprimanded him for the indecency of the act: and, after having given him many pious admonitions, ordered a certain number of stripes to be inflicted upon his back.

As flagellation is a very common punishment in that country, the inflicting it was not considered as any particular mark of disgrace; and the captain was just as well received in every society after the degrading circumstance as before it had taken place. Notwithstanding this behaviour on the part of the inhabitants, the son of Neptune's pride had received a wound not easily to be cured; and though he stifled the indignation that glowed within his bosom, be was determined to have ample revenge for the deed.

As soon as he had received orders to return to England, he waited upon the principal inhabitants at whose houses he had been entertained, and particularly upon the magistrates, who had taken so much pains to instruct him in the decorum that was due to the sabbath-day.

After expressing the sense he retained of their kindness and civility, he invited them to spend the last day on board his ship, that he might have an opportunity of testifying his gratitude for the numerous and friendly attentions. he had received. The polite invitation was readily accepted; the day was spent with the utmost conviviality and glee; and the party resolved to stay till the very moment that the ship was getting under sail. At length it arrived; the anchor was a-peak, the sails were unfurled, and the boat was in waiting to convey them from the ship, when the captain, after taking an affectionate leave of them, kindly followed them to the deck. There the boatswain stood ready to receive them, with the cat-of-nine-tails in his hand; and the crew were all placed in order for the purpose of witnessing the ludicrous scene. captain again repeated his gratitude for their kindnesses, a just sense of which, he added, he should ever entertain; and only wished he had possessed the ability of making them a more ample return. "One point of civility, however," continued he, "I trust I can now recompense," and immediately reminded them of the disgraceful manner in which he had been used; and giving the signal to the crew, they were instantly pinioned, and the boatswain commanded to take his revenge; when, after each receiving three dozen of lashes, they were put into the boat amidst three hearty cheers. The ship instantly set sail for England, and was very soon out of sight.

The

TURKISH JUSTICE.

A Turk, who had filled the office of treasurer to the late Grand Vizir, was arrested the instant the seal was placed, as well as an Armenian, who had always been that minister's banker; these two unfortunate men, chained in the prisons of the seraglio, suffered every moment the terror of that death with which it pleased their keepers to inspire them. They were obliged to pay for their food its weight in gold; and the smallest accommodations, the most trifling comforts were sold to them at the most exorbitant prices. At length they gave in their accounts, and the examination which the Grand Signior took the pains to make himself, only served to evince their innocence; but rapaciousness, deceived by this inquiry, had recourse to tortures to obtain the avowal of a supposed secret trust which never had existed.

The Bostandgy Bachi was charged with this horrible persecution; the most

scandalous calumnies of informers were listened to; enormous sums were supposed to have passed secretly through their hands, and the most cruel torture was employed, in vain, as to the discovery of any thing, but with great effect for the avarice of the prince, who swallowed up the greatest part of the riches which the Armenian derived from his father's commerce. The treasurer underwent the same fate, and was compelled to purchase his life at the price of his whole fortune, after having suffered the most dreadful torments.

DEATH OF THE RUSSIAN EMPEROR PAUL.

The emperor, from an aversion he had taken to those palaces, which formed the favourite residence of Catharine, resolved upon building a palace for himself. The gorgeous magnificence of Zarsco Zelo, and of the Winter palace, and all the Oriental voluptuousness of the Hermitage, were hateful to him; indeed, to such an elevation had his abhorrence to these palaces attained, that he had determined to reduce them to the dust, that only "the blackness of ashes should mark where they stood." His fate, which was fast approaching, prevented the accomplishment of this irretrievable act of delirium. The emperor and his family resided, at the time when the confederacy had resolved upon his removal, in the new palace of Saint Michael. It is an enormous quadrangular pile, of red Dutch brick, rising from a massy basement of hewn granite; it stands at the bottom of the Summer Gardens, and the lofty spire of its Greek chapel, richly covered with ducat gold, rising above the trees, has a beautiful appearance.

As Paul was anxious to inhabit this palace as soon after he was crowned as possible, the masons, carpenters, and various artificers, toiled with incredible labour by day and by torch-light, under the sultry sun of the summer, and in all the severity of a polar winter, and in three years this enormous and magnificent fabric was completed. The whole is moated round, and when the stranger surveys its bastions of granite, and numerous draw-bridges, he is naturally led to conclude, that it was intended for the last asylum of a prince at war with his subjects. Those who have seen its massy walls, and the capaciousness and variety of its chambers, will easily admit, that an act of violence might be committed in one room, and not be heard by those who occupy the adjoining one: and that a massacre might be perpetrated at one end, and not known at the other. Paul took possession of this palace as a place of strength, and beheld it with rapture, because his Imperial mother had never even seen it. Whilst his family were here, by every act of tenderness endeavouring to soothe the terrible perturbation of his mind, there were not wanting those who exerted every stratagem to enflame and encrease it. These people were constantly insinuating, that every hand was armed against him. With this impression, which added fuel to his burning brain, he ordered a secret stair-case to be constructed, which, leading from his own chamber, passed under a false stove in the anti-room, and led by a small door to the

terrace.

It was the custom of the emperor to sleep in an outer apartment next to the empress's, upon a sopha, in his regimentals and boots, whilst the grand duke and duchess, and the rest of the Imperial family, were lodged at various distances, in apartments below the story which he occupied. On the tenth day of March, O. S. 1801, the day preceding the fatal night, whether Paul's apprehension, or anonymous information, suggested the idea, is not known, but

conceiving that a storm was ready to burst upon him, he sent to Count P. the governor of the city, one of the noblemen who had resolved on his destruction : "I am informed, P." said the emperor," that there is a conspiracy on foot against me; do you think it necessary to take any precaution?" The count, without betraying the least emotion, replied, "Sire, do not suffer such ap prehensions to haunt your mind; if there were any combinations forming against your majesty's person, I am sure I should be acquainted with it." "Then I am satisfied," said the emperor, and the governor withdrew. Before Paul retired to rest, he unexpectedly expressed the most tender solicitude for the empress and his children, kissed them with all the warmth of farewell fondness, and remained with them longer than usual and after he had visited the sentinels at their different posts, he retired to his chamber, where he had not long remained, before, under some colourable pretext, that satisfied the men, the guard was changed by the officers who had the command for the night, and were engaged in the confederacy. An hussar, whom the emperor had particularly honoured by his notice and attention, always at night slept at his bed-room door, in the anti-room. It was impossible to remove this faithful soldier by any fair means. At this momentous period, silence reigned throughout the palace, except where it was disturbed by the pacing of the sentinels, or at a distance by the murmurs of the Neva, and only a few lights were to be seen distantly and irregularly gleaming through the windows of this dark colossal abode. In the dead of the night, Z. and his friends, amounting to eight or nine persons, passed the draw-bridge, easily ascended the stair-case which led to Paul's chamber, and met with no resistance till they reached the anti-room, when the faithful hussar, awakened by the noise, challenged them, and presented his fusee much as they must have all admired the brave fidelity of the guard, neither time nor circumstances would admit of an act of generosity, which might have endangered the whole plan. Z. drew his sabre and cut the poor fellow down. Paul, awakened by the noise, sprung from his sofa: at this moment the whole party rushed into his room; the unhappy sovereign, anticipating their design, at first endeavoured to entrench himself in the chairs and tables, then recovering, he assumed a high tone, told them they were his prisoners, and called upon them to surrender. finding that they fixed their eyes steadily and fiercely upon him, and continued advancing towards him, he implored them to spare his life, declared his consent instantly to relinquish the sceptre, and to accept of any terms which they would dictate. In his raving, he offered to make them princes, and to give them estates, titles, and orders without end. They now began to press upon him, when he made a convulsive effort to reach the window; in the attempt he failed, and indeed so high was it from the ground, that had he succeeded, the expedient would only have put a more instantaneous period to his misery. In the effort he very severely cut his hand with the glass; and as they drew him back he grasped a chair, with which he felled one of the assailants, and a desperate resistance took place. So great was the noise, that notwithstanding the massy walls, and thick double folding doors, which divided the apartments, the empress was disturbed and cried for help, when a voice whispered in her ear, and imperatively told her to remain quiet, otherwise, if she uttered another word, she should be put to instant death. Whilst the emperor was thus making a last struggle, Prince Y. struck him on one of his temples with his fist, and laid him upon the floor; Paul, recovering from the blow, again implored his life; at this moment the heart of P. relented, and upon being observed to tremble and hesitate, a young Hanoverian resolutely

1

exclaimed, "We have passed the Rubicon; if we spare his life, before the setting of to-morrow's sun, we shall be his victims !" Upon which he took off his sash, turned it twice round the naked neck of the emperor, and giving one end to Z. and holding the other himself they pulled for a considerable time with all their force, until their miserable sovereign was no more; they then retired from the palace, without the least molestation, and returned to their respective homes. What occurred after their departure can be better conceived than depicted; medical aid was resorted to, but in vain, and upon the breathless body of the emperor, fell the tears of his widowed empress and children, and domestics: nor was the genuine grief ever more forcibly or feelingly displayed than by him on whose brow this melancholy event had planted the crown. So passed away this night of horror, and thus perished a prince, to whom nature was severely bountiful. The acuteness and pungency of his feelings were incompatible with happiness: unnatural prejudice pressed upon the fibre, too finely spun, and snapped it.

The sun shone upon a new order of things. At seven o'clock the intelligence of the demise of Paul spread through the capital. The interval of time from its first communication to its diffusion over every part of Petersburg, was scarcely perceptible. At the parade Alexander presented himself on horseback, when the troops, with tears rolling down their rugged and sunbrowned faces, hailed him with loud and cordial acclamation. The young emperor was overwhelmed, and at the moment of mounting the throne of the most extensive empire under heaven, he was seen to turn from the grand and affecting spectacle, and weep.

What followed is of very subordinate consideration: but perhaps it will be eagerly asked, to what extremity did the avenging arm of Justice pursue the perpetrators of the deed? Mercy, the brightest jewel of every crown, and a forlorn and melancholy conviction, that the reigning motive was the salvation of the empire, prevented her from being vindictive. Never upon the theatre of life was there presented a scene of more affecting magnanimity; decency, not revenge, governed the sacrifice. P. Z. was ordered not to approach the imperial residence, and the governor of the city was transferred to Riga. As soon as Madame Chevalier was informed of the demise of her imperial patron, she prepared, under the protection of her brother, a dancer, for flight, with a booty of nearly a million of rubles. A police officer was sent to inspect and report upon her property: amongst a pile of valuable articles, he discovered a diamond cross of no great intrinsic value, which had been given by Peter I. to a branch of the imperial family, and on that account much esteemed; it was to recover this that the officer was sent, who obtained it, after the most indecent and unprincipled resistance on her part. Passports were then granted to Madame Chevalier and her brother. Thus terminated this extraordinary and impressive tragedy.

LIEUTENANT CAMPBELL.

In the year 1762, Lieutenant Campbell, of the Middlesex militia, condemned for forgery, on the eve of his exit sent invitation cards to many of his brother-officers. "Lieutenant Campbell's compliments to

he requests the pleasure of his company to morrow morning, to take a cup of chocolate, and to do him the honour to accompany him to Tyburn to be present at his execution.”