separated them for ever, and Ivan was left under the superintendance of an amiable monk, who, attached from early years to the family of Antonovitch, and compassionating his fate, made an attempt to escape with him to Oranienburg, and thence into Germany, with a view to his ultimate reestablishment on the throne of his ancestors. In this object, however, the worthy man was defeated. Their flight was betrayed, and they were overtaken at Smolensko, whence they were conveyed to a monastery in the Valdai, not far from the road that leads from Petersburg to Moscow. Here they were detained for ten years; at the end of which time, the youthful Ivan, then sixteen years of age, was brought back to Schlusselburg for greater security, and there lodged in the casemate of the fortress, the very loop-hole of which was immediately bricked up. He was never let out into the open air, and no ray of heaven ever visited his eyes. In the subterranean vault which had been thus appropriated for his prison, it was necessary to keep a lamp always burning; and as no clock was to be seen or heard, Ivan knew no difference between day and night. The persons employed to guard him, a captain and lieutenant in the Russian army, were prohibited, under the severest penalties, from speaking to him, or answering him the simplest ques tion. About two years after his confinement in the tower of Schlusselburg, Elizabeth expressed a desire to have a personal interview with the noble youth. Ivan was accordingly conveyed in a covered cart to Petersburg, where, in the house of Peter Shuvaloff, the Empress had a long conversation with him, but without making herself known. He was then about eighteen years of age, of a graceful figure, and commanding deportment. His countenance is represented as having been particularly expressive, and his voice sweet and har imonious. These graces, however, arailed him but little. Some of the Historians of her time have talked of the tears she shed on this occasion! However this may have been, her mpathy was not of long duration. The unfortunate youth was once more led back to his dungeon at Schlusselburg, where, he remained until the 23 death of Elizabeth, and the accession of Peter the Third. The brief reign and sudden death of that unfortunate Emperor, are well known. No longer able to endure the conduct of his consort Catherine, he determined to repudiate her. Accordingly, in the year 1762, he looked around him for a successor to the throne, and at length determined to adopt Ivan, and constitute him his successor. Still further, to promote this view, he resolved to marry the captive to the young princess of Holstein Beck, who was then at Petersburg, and whom he cherished as a daughter. Having arranged his plans, Peter resolved to visit, in as private a manner as possible, the fortress of Schlusselburg, and have an interview with Ivan, without acquainting him with his rank, attended only by his grand ecuzer, one of his aides de camp, Baron Korff, master of the police at Petersburg, and the Counsellor of State Volkeff. Desiring to remain incognito, he furnished himself with an order signed by his own hand, in which he enjoined the commandant to give the bearers free leave to walk about the whole fortress, without even excepting the place where Ivan was confined, and to leave them to converse with that prince alone. Taking care to conceal the ensigns of his dignity, Peter entered the cell of Ivan, who, after contemplating him for some time, threw himself all at once at the feet of the Czar. "Czar (said the unhappy youth), you are the master here. I shall not trouble you with a long petition, but let me entreat you to mitigate the severity of my lot. I have been languishing for a number of years in this gloomy dungeon. The only favour I implore is, that I may occasionally be permitted to breathe a purer air.' Peter was moved at these words. "Rise, Prince," said he to Ivan, tapping him upon the shoulder, "be under no uneasiness for the future, I will employ all the means in my power to render your situation more tolerable. But tell me, have you any remembrance of the misfortunes you have experienced from your earlier youth?" "I have scarcely any idea of those that befel my infancy (rejoined Ivan), but from the moment that I began to feel my misery, the unhappiness of my parents has been my first cause cause of concern; and my principal and greatest distress arose out of the treatment they received as we were transported from one place of security to another." The Czar expressed a wish to know who the parties were. "The officers who conducted us," said Ivan," who were always the most inhuman of their kind." "Do you recollect the names of those persons?" said Peter. "Alas!" replied the young Prince, "we were not very curious to learn them. We were content to return thanks to heaven, on our bended knees, when these monsters were relieved by one of a more gentle disposition, one whose generous attentions have given me good cause to remember his name, he was called Korff." It was the very man who was then in the presence of the Emperor, and who seemed much affected by this ingenuous recital. Peter was no less so, and turning to Korff, remarked in a voice choked with emotion, "you see, Baron, that a good action is never lost!" On leaving Ivan's dungeon, Peter made the circuit of the tower for the purpose of fixing upon a spot to erect a new and more commodious prison for Ivan; after which, he gave orders to that effect. "When the building is finished," remarked the Czar, "I will come myself and put the prince in possession." It seems probable, that this order was given as a blind, to prevent the commandant of Schlusselburg from surmising his real intention. He had no need of a prison who was about to be elevated to a throne. The Czar's visit to Ivan did not long remain a secret. To avoid giving rise to suspicions which might have proved dangerous to Peter, his uncle the Prince of Holstein advised him to remove Ivan into Germany, together with Duke Anthony his father, and the rest of the family. This recommendation was not attended to, but suggested to the Czar the propriety of placing Ivan in the fortress of Kezholm, on the lake of Ladoga; a situation much nearer the Russian metropolis than Schlusselburg. In his way thither the hapless youth had a narrow escape from death. The frequency and suddenness of tempests on this lake, from its peculiar situation, is proverbial. The boat in which the prince was rowed, to get on board the galleot, capsized amid this fathomless abyss of [Jan. waters, and it was with great difficulty he was saved. Happy would it have been for this glorious youth, had his miseries met with an easy termination beneath the mountainous waves of the stormy Ladoga. But he was reserved for severer trials. On his arrival at Kexholm, the Czar caused him to be secretly conveyed to Petersburg, where he was put in the house of a person of consequence, and visited, during the night, once more by Peter, whose plan for the restoration of Ivan to the throne was now ripe, and about to be carried into execution, when another revolution suddenly broke out, which removed Peter from his empire and the world, and exalted Catharine to the throne of Russia. As a still further security, until Peter should be presented with an opportunity of finally accomplishing his design against the jealousy of Catharine or her adherents, Ivan was kept in great secrecy and retirement during his stay at Petersburg. His presence in that city nevertheless began to be bruited abroad, and a great deal of sympathy was excited for him, when the circumstances coming to the ears of the Empress, she had him taken back to his former prison. Fearing, however, lest he should be recalled and crowned, she lodged him in a monastery at Kolmogor, near Archangel, whence he was a third time carried back to Schlusselburg, where he remained in close confinement until the year 1764, about which time the crisis of his fate approached. Anxious to preserve popular opinion, Catharine, after the death of her husband, was desirous of removing Ivan; but, until the means offered to effect this with some semblance of expediency, she resolved to prejudice the Russian people against him, and persuade them, if possible, of his total incapacity ever to reign over them. Soon after the commencement of her reign, therefore, she published a manifesto of a conversation supposed to have been held with the captive prince, in which she describes him as utterly deficient both in talents and understanding. This statement was, however, received with the credulity it deserved. From this period the wrongs of the Prince formed the pivot upon which continual conspiracies against Catharine revolved. His just title to the crown, his long and cruel sufferings, his youth and his innocence, afforded abundant materials for working upon the minds of the populace. The grossest calumnies were circulated, with respect to Ivan. Some described him as an idiot, others as a drunkard, and not a few as a ferocious savage thirsting for the blood of his fellow-creatures. Of course the young Prince's opportunities of acquiring intellectual knowledge were very confined. He was taught to read by a German officer who had the custody of him, and this formed the sum total of his attainments. But his mind was of a very superior order, and susceptible of the most refined polish, had the means occurred. An instrument was soon found to release the Empress Catharine from this clog upon her future prospects. The regiment of Smolensko was in garrison in the town of Schlusselburg, and a company of about a hundred men guarded the fortress in which Prince Ivan was confined. In this regiment, as second lieutenant, was an officer named Vassily Mirovitch, whose grandfather had been implicated in the rebellion of the Cossack Maseppa, and had fought under Charles XII. against Peter the Great. The estates of the family of Merovitch had accordingly been forfeited to the crown. This young man, whose ambition was considerable, preferred with warmth his pretensions to have them restored; and this it was that introduced him to the court. The family estates were not restored; but he was continually flattered with the hopes of their recovery, if he would show himself active in securing the tranquillity of the empire. The inner guard over the imperial prisoner consisted at this time of two officers, who slept with him in his cell. These persons had a discretionary order by which they were instructed to put Ivan to death, on any insurrection that might be made in his favour, on the presumption that it could not other wise be quelled. The entrance to Ivan's prison opened under a sort of low arcade, which, together with it, formed the thickness of the castle wall, within the ramparts; in this arcade or corridor eight soldiers Usually kept guard, as well on his account, as because the several vaults on a line with his, contained stores of various kinds for the use of the fortress. The other soldiers were in the guard GENT. MAG. January, 1822. 85 house, at the gate of the castle, and at their proper stations. The detachment had for its commander an officer who, himself, was under the orders of the governor. Some time before the execution of his project, Merovitch had opened himself to a Lieutenant of the regiment of Veliki Luke, nained Uschakoff, who bound himself by an oath which he took at the altar of the Church of St. Mary of Kuson, in Petersburg, to aid him in the enterprize to the best of his power. Already had he performed a week's duty at the fortress without venturing an attempt; but tormented by the anxieties arising from suspense, and condemning his own irresolution, he asked permission to be continued on guard a week longer. This step does not seem to have excited any surprize; the request was granted, and Merovitch having admitted to his confidence a man named Jacob Pishkoff, they took the earliest opportunity of tampering with the soldiers who guarded the fortress. But why need we prolong this melancholy tale? After he had collected about fifty soldiers, who had promised to obey his orders, he marched straight to the door of Ivan's prison, where a desperate struggle took place, during which the unfortunate Ivan was most barbarously murdered within. Hearing the noise without, and expecting every instant that the prisondoor would have been broken open, the two officers resolved to destroy their prisoner, and accordingly attacked him with the most murderous ferocity. He defended himself for some time, having his right hand pierced through, and his body covered with wounds; he seized the sword of one of these wretches and broke it, but whilst he was attempting to wrench the piece out of his hands, the other stabbed him in the back and threw him down. He was, before he could rise from the ground, stabbed several times with a bayonet, and thus released from life and captivity together. It was at this moment that Merovitch entered the prison, and cut to pieces the two ruthians by whom the young prince had been slain. He was not in time to prevent his death, but he was soon enough to avenge it. Thus perished a prince who was raised to the Imperial throne without hie 26 Unknown British Trackway discovered. his own knowledge and consent, and doomed to linger out' his existence in a gloomy dungeon; and thus doomed to atone for a few fleeting months of imposed authority, by long years of imprisonment and a cruel death, the crown of his persecution. Mr. URBAN, MR Jan. 10. R. FOSBROKE'S interesting work, entitled "Ariconensia"," having introduced a conversation concerning the Roman Roads in Herefordshire, a gentleman communicated the following account of a fine British Trackway, improved by the Romans, hitherto, I believe, unknown, at least unnoticed in print; for Herefordshire contains British and Roman antiquities hitherto unexplored. This Trackway commences at Magna or Magnis (Kenchester, no longer misnomered Ariconium), and proceeds from thence to the Wear, where it crosses the Wye, and so on to Madley and Madeley, a well-known British village, the antientry of which is displayed by Mr. Fosbroke (Ariconensia, p. 42), from the Life of S. Dubricius. From Madley it runs to Stoney Street, and so on to New Street. The meaning of these appellations is still conspicuous. The part of the road between the two places last named, is distinguished by a Roman causeway, the other parts being mostly hollow, but characterized, like the Via Julia, by a ruined pavement of large stones. From New Street it goes to Moorhampton Park, beyond which at New Court, a place situate between the Old Court Dowlas and the Golden Vale, it is a deep hollow. Moor-hampton signifies Marsh-camp-town, and the circumstance of the causeway being thrown up before it, and the deep hollow behind it, leads to an inference that here was one of the marshy fortifications of the Britons, so usual in their tacticks, the military defence of which was purposely destroyed, according to the Roman practice, by founding the causeway, a favourite custom with Severus in particular. From Moor-hampton it proceeds to Buckton, a village near Brampton Brian, and from thence to LongTown, under the Black Mountains, or Hatterell Hills. The communicator traced it no further. The whole Reviewed in our present Number, p. 43. [Jan. distance is about seventeen miles. It is straight all the way. This Trackway, at one end, seems to have originally communicated, as being a work of the Britons, with their camp at Credenhill, justly presumed to have been one of the grand posts of Caractacus; and, from its size, to have given the name of Magna Castra to the adjoining subsequent station of Kenchester. At the other end, by Buckton and Brampton Brian, it is not far distant from Coxall Hill, or the Gaer dykes, where the British hero was finally defeated. Thus an additional particular is gained by this road to Mr. Fosbroke's elaborate illustration of the campaigns of Caractacus and Ostorius. Ariconensia, pp. 14— 16. Considerable difficulties attend the sites of certain Roman stations in this vicinity. Caerleon (Isca Silurum), Caer-went (Venta Silurum), and Abergavenny (Gobannium, evidently derived from the river Gavenny), seem to be unquestionable. That Blestium was situated at Monmouth, and Burrium at the town of Usk, cannot be so readily admitted. First, as to Blestium. Some writers have placed Blestium at Long-Town, which is quite inconsiderate, for the thirteenth Iter of Antoninus from Caerleon to Silchester, shows that Blestium lay between the former place and Gloucester, in a direction quite different. The route is from Caerleon (Isca Silurum) to Burrium, called Usk (nine miles, only 7), to Blestium, placed by Horsley at or near Monmouth, eleven miles, and so to Ariconium, the Bollatree, near Ross, eleven miles, from whence to Glevum, Gloucester, fifteen miles. No village of any appellation approaching to the prefix syllable Bles, in Blestium (as the Celtic term was Romanized with the Latin termination ium) occurs at or near Monmouth, according to the Gazetteer. But in Domesday Book is the hundred of Blacheslawe, in which is the village of Stanton, Gloucestershire, not far from Monmouth. Archdeacon Coxe says, "The only road bearing positive marks of Roman origin is that which leads from the left bank of the Wye up the Kymin, passes by Stanton, and was part of the old way from Monmouth to Gloucester." He also admits that there are several indications there 1822.] The Stations Blestium and Burrinm discussed. there of a Roman settlement. Indeed, there is a place called Bury Hill, where four roads cross at right angles, considerable entrenchments, a Druidical rocking stone, a sepulchral cippus, &c.; and the distance from Stanton to the Bollatree, turning to the North in the vicinity of Michel Dean, is not more than the eleven miles in the Itinerary from Blestium to Ariconium. If so, the Roman road did not run from Monmouth by Trewarn, &c. as Mr. Fosbroke diffidently surmises ( Ariconensia, p. 23), though there might be a British Trackway in that direction. If, therefore, Blacheslawe suggested Blestium, and Stanton, from its remains, has the best local title to having been that station, its distance from the town of Usk, if that be Burrium, is far too great for the eleven miles in the Itinerary. But it is to be recollected that the town of Usk, tho' undoubtedly of Roman occupation, is a mile and a half (if the road be not modern) less from Caerleon than the distance in the Itinerary; and that Usk or Isca appears to have been a loose term, taken from the river, not limited to the town, but to a large extent of fine British posts and earthworks; and that Burrium ought to lie somewhere beyond Pencamaur, where the Roman or British road to Blestium commences, and is in a straight line from Caerleon by Pencamaur to Ariconium. The interesting compendium of Usk, given by Nicholson (Cambrian Traveller, col. 1313), corrob6rates the above hypothesis: "In the vicinity of Usk are antient encampments. Craeg y Gaeryd, supposed to have been a Roman camp, is two miles N. W. from Usk, to the South of Pont-ypool Road, upon the brow of a precipice, over-hanging the East bank of the Usk; the site is overgrown, with thickets and brambles, and the entrenchments are in many places 30 feet deep. Several tumuli are within the area, from 15 to 20 feet in beight. Mr. Coxe, in visiting this encampment, passed the small torrent called Berdden, from which some writers have derived the name of Burrium, as being placed at its confluence with the Usk. Two other camps are upon the opposite side of the river, to the East of the high road, leading from Usk to Abergavenny. Campwood, two miles from the town, above the wild and sequestered common of Gwhelwg, is of an oval stape, enclosed by a single foss and vallem, 700 yards in circumference, wholly OFFICIOWD by wood. [Either a British pace of worship, or Roman amphitheatre.] The encampment of Coed-y-Bunedd is form 97 ed upon the summit of a commanding emi- Thus Nicholson. That these earth works were originally, in the main, Usk, and its whole vicinity, was occupied by the Roman military. It subsequently formed, as it were, the suburbs of Caerleon, and there is in the maps a straight line of road from Usk, through Strignil and Pencamaur, to Sudbrook or Portskeurd, the great port at the mouth of the Severn from the earliest æras to the reign of Char'e |