mandant of their regiment, General Friedricks. Still the Emperor was loth to turn against their comrades the arms of his faithful troops, now joined by several other regiments, and particularly by the Grand-duke Michael, who had fled to the assistance of his Monarch with the remaining six companies of the same regiment of Moscow, after he had recalled them to their duties:-and mixing with the mutineers, whose numbers also had increased by the addition of the Grenadiers du Corps and the Marins de la Garde, again strove with words of peace to make them feel their error. When His Majesty first presented himself before a regiment placed near the Imperial Palace, he was received by three acclamations of "Hourra, Constantine!" the watch-word of the conspirators. Not in the least dismayed at this reception, Nicholas retorted: "If such be your disposition, this is not the proper place for your exploits; begone to the Senatesquare, there to join the rebels who are already in waiting for you. You shall soon find me there. En avant, marche!" and the revolted soldiers obeyed the command, filed off before him, and disappeared. In the meanwhile a report was brought to the Emperor that his own or the Ismailoffsky regiment was wavering. Nicholas instantly flew to them, and reminded them that Constantine had renounced the Imperial authority. He was received in gloomy silence. "Voyons," said the Emperor," jusqu'où ira votre révolte, me voila seul devant vous, chargez vos armes!"* These words produced an electric effect on the soldiers, and the men who were ready for rebellion but * I have been guided in my account of the events that marked this day, by the conversations which I had on the subject with persons who had been eye-witnesses to most of them, and on whom I could rely, particularly General who had been very active on that occasion, and two or three English gentlemen, one of whom remained a moment before, now followed the new Tzar with acclamations of Long live Nicholas, our Sovereign! Night was fast approaching, and the mutineers still maintained their sullen firmness of purpose, and were deaf to every entreaty and friendly remonstrance to the voice of reconciliation from their Sovereign, and the accents of religion from the metropolitan of St. Petersburgh; nor did the awful display of field artillery, which by this time had been arranged in front of the rebels, seem to influence them more than kind treatment had done. Nicholas had hitherto shown his personal courage; it now became necessary to exhibit his firmness, or to surrender that authority which he had just assumed, and thereby abandon his people to the horrors of a civil strife. I have heard more than one resident in St. Petersburgh affirm, (one or two of whom were on the spot on that eventful day,) that had the Emperor been less brave, or not so firm, the most awful consequences would have ensued; and an English gentleman who had witnessed the transaction from a short distance, expressed, in a simple yet forcible language, his opinion of the result of that dreaded mutiny, by assuring me, that had the Emperor" shown the white feather, all would have then been up." A few guns were at first directed to be fired over the heads of the rebels, but these had only the effect of exasperating them, and His Majesty saw no other alternative than that to which he had recourse at the close of the day. The artillery opened on the mutineers, the cavalry charged them when put to flight, and by six o'clock at night there were not two of them to be found together. Those who had escaped death dis on horseback near the rebels until the firing of musketry made it no longer a safe place. I have also consulted the short account given of the rebellion by Monsieur D'Ancelot, from which I have quoted one or two anecdotes; and I have made use of the official reports published on the following day at St. Petersburgh. persed all over the town, throwing down their arms and taking refuge in private houses, where, by ten o'clock at night five hundred of them, including most of the revolted officers, had been arrested. Nicholas, who had now been absent the whole day from the Imperial Palace, re-entered it at six o'clock in the evening, and was received by his Imperial Consort, whose feelings, as well as those of the Empress-mother, in the course of the whole of that awful day, and particularly after the report of the murder of Miloradowitch, and during the roaring of cannon, may be more easily conceived than expressed. On his entering his Imperial residence, the Emperor ordered that the Te Deum which was to have been performed in the morning to celebrate his accession to the throne, but which had been thus awfully interrupted, should be proceeded in that same night in his presence and that of the civil and military officers, as well as of those of his Court; at the conclusion of which an official report was received, that tranquillity had everywhere been restored in the capital. The 26th of December was not one of those accidental events which are to be met with in the pages of military history, as the ebullitions of the moment; but was connected with, and formed part of a deep-laid and long existing conspiracy, which had ramifications in many parts of the empire, under cover of secret societies, and which was afterwards fully detected and unravelled. Its authors to the number of one hundred and twenty, all persons of rank, were convicted and condemned, and the lives of five among them, who had in a more especial manner sworn the death of the late Emperor, and the massacre of the Imperial family, fell before the outraged shrine of public justice.* * The High Court of Judicature had condemned thirty-six of the conspirators to death, among whom five had the hereditary title of "Vous les avez repoussé avec effroi et indignation," says the Emperor Nicholas, in the proclamation which he addressed to the Russian armies after the consummation of the awful sentence, " ces fauteurs de troubles et d anarchie que vos rangs avaient eu le malheur de recéler. La justice vient de prononcer sur leur sort; la sentence qu'ils avaient merités a reçu son execution, et l'armée est purgée de la contagion qui la menaçait, ainsi que la Russie toute entière." Prince, and the rest were Colonels, Captains, and Lieutenants in the army; four only were Civilians. His Majesty, however, commuted the capital punishment awarded against thirty-one of them out of the total number, into banishment, degradation, and political disqualification; and left the law to take its awful course with regard to the rest. The names of the distinguished persons who composed the Court of Inquiry, (I have had occasion to ascertain,) are some amongst the most illustrious in Russian society for integrity, talent and stern impartiality. They were those of Tatistcheff, President, Minister at War. Michael (Grand-duke), Grand-master of the Artillery. G. Kotouzoff, Aid-de-camp-General and Military Governor Tchernycheff (since Count), Aid-de-camp-General. Benkendorff, Aid-de-camp-General. Levacheff, Aid-de-camp-General. Potapoff, Aid-de-camp-General. Bloudoff, Actual Counsellor of State. CHAPTER XVII. PICTURE OF ST. PETERSBURGH. Imperial Country Residences and Environs of St. Petersburgh. TCHESME.-Portraits of contemporary Sovereigns with Catherine. Sad coincidences and recollections. - The Caprice. -Theatrical Village. - Tropheal Column to Orloff. - La Tour des Heritiers. -Alexandrovsky. - Sophy. - The Palace of TZARSCO-ÇELO. Elizabeth and the French Ambassadors. — Catherine and the gold scrapers. Architecture of the Palace. - Fate of the great Architects, Rastrelli, Brenno, Dumot, Voronikhin, Cameron, and Guarenghi. -Apartments at Tzarsco-çelo. — The Amber and Lapislazuli Rooms.- Parks and Pleasure Grounds.- Ornamental Buildings, Temples, and Colonnades. - Peter the Great and a grateful Empress, or origin of Tzarsco-selo. PAULOVSKY. -Trip to GATCHINA. Baron de Meyendorff and General Stanger. - The Emperor Paul's Establishment. - Polypharmacy.—The School for Foundlings.-The Imperial Residence of GATCHINA. CATHERINHOFF. - STRELNA. Modern Russian Paintings. - PETERHOFF. - The Empress Alexandra's Cottage. Her taste, and that of the Emperor for Architecture, and real domestic comforts. Superb View of the Country. The Palace of Peterhoff. - Private Residence of the Emperor Nicholas. The Russian Versailles. - The MONPLASIR. The Independent Dining Table. MARLY.-The Water-works. - Peter's Sagacity. The Islands of YELAGUINE and KAMENNOÏ.- Pre- Empress ALEXANDRA. - Adieu to ST. PETERSBURGH. THE reader will now be pleased to accompany me and a friend or two, although a deep snow covers the ground, |
