Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20




THE CZAR WEARS A PORTRAIT OF FRIEDRICH ON HIS FINGER. "Czar Peter
never disguised his Prussian predilections. One evening he said,
'Propose to your friend Keith [English Excellency here, whom we
know] to give me a supper at his house to-morrow night. The other
Foreign Ministers will perhaps be jealous; but I don't care!'
Supper at the English Embassy took place. Only ten or twelve
persons, of the Czar's choosing, were present. Czar very gay and in
fine spirits. Talked much of the King of Prussia. Showed me a
signet-ring on his finger, with Friedrich's Portrait in it;
ring was handed round the table." [Hordt, ii. 118, 124, 129.]
This is a signet-ring famous at Court in these months. One day
Peter had lost it (mislaid somewhere), and got into furious
explosion till it was found for him again. [Hermann, v. 258.]
Let us now hear Busching, our Geographical Friend, for a moment:--

HERR PASTOR BUSCHING DOES THE HOMAGING FOR SELF AND PEOPLE. ...
"In most Countries, it is Official or Military People that
administer the Oath of Homage, on a change of Sovereigns. But in
Petersburg, among the German population, it is the Pastors of their
respective Churches. At the accession of Peter III., I, for the
first time [being still a young hand rather than an old], took the
Oath from several thousands in my Church,"--and handed it over,
with my own, in the proper quarter.

"As to the Congratulatory Addresses, the new Czar received the
Congratulations of all classes, and also of the Pastors of the
Foreign Churches, in the following manner. He came walking slowly
through a suite of rooms, in each of which a body of Congratulators
were assembled. Court-officials preceded, State-officials followed
him. Then came the Czarina, attended in a similar way. And always
on entering a new room they received a new Congratulation from the
spokesman of the party there. The spokesman of us Protestant
Pastors was my colleague, Senior Trefurt; but the General-in-Chief
and Head-of-Police, Baron von Korf [Hordt's friend, known to us
above, German, we perceive, by creed and name], thinking it was I
that had to make the speech, and intending to present me at the
same time to the Czar, motioned to me from his place behind the
Czar to advance. But I did not push forward; thinking it
inopportune and of no importance to me."--"Neither did I share the
great expectations which Baron von Korf and everybody entertained
of this new reign. All people now promised themselves better times,
without reflecting [as they should have done!] that the better men
necessary to produce these were nowhere forthcoming!" [Busching's
Beitrage, vi. ("Author's own Biography") 462
et seq.]

For the first two or three months, Peter was the idol of all the
world: such generosities and magnanimities; Such zeal and
diligence, one magnanimous improvement following another! He had at
once abolished Torture in his Law-Courts: resolved to have a
regular Code of Laws,--and Judges to be depended on for doing
justice. He "destroyed monopolies;" "lowered the price of salt."
To the joy of everybody, he had hastened (January 18th, second week
of reign) to abolish the SECRET CHANCERY,--a horrid Spanish-
Inquisition engine of domestic politics. His Nobility he had
determined should be noble: January 28th (third week of reign just
beginning), he absolved the Nobility from all servile duties to
him: "You can travel when and where you please; you are not obliged
to serve in my Armies; you may serve in anybody's not at war with
me!" under plaudits loud and universal from that Order of men.
And was petitioned by a grateful Petersburg world: "Permit us,
magnanimous Czar, to raise a statue of your Majesty in solid Gold!"
"Don't at all!" answered Peter: "Ah, if by good governing I could
raise a memorial in my People's hearts; that would be the Statue
for me!" [Hermann, v. 248.] Poor headlong Peter!--It was a less
lucky step that of informing the Clergy (date not given), That in
the Czarship lay Spiritual Sovereignty as well as Temporal, and
that HE would henceforth administer their rich Abbey Lands and the
like:--this gave a sad shock to the upper strata of Priesthood,
extending gradually to the lower, and ultimately raising an ominous
general thought (perhaps worse than a general cry) of "Church in
Danger! Alas, is our Czar regardless of Holy Religion, then?
Perhaps, at heart still Lutheran, and has no Religion?" This, and
his too headlong Prussian tendencies, are counted to have done him
infinite mischief.

HERR BUSCHING SEES THE CZAR ON HORSEBACK. "When the Czar's own
Regiment of Cuirassiers came to Petersburg, the Czar, dressed in
the uniform of the regiment, rode out to meet it; and returning at
its head, rode repeatedly through certain quarters of the Town.
His helmet was buckled tight with leather straps under the chin;
he sat his horse as upright and stiff as a wooden image; held his
sabre in equally stiff manner; turned fixedly his eyes to the
right; and never by a hair's-breadth changed that posture. In such
attitude he twice passed my house with his regiment, without
changing a feature at sight of the many persons who crowded the
windows. To me [in my privately austere judgment] he seemed so
KLEINGEISTISCH, so small-minded a person, that I"--in fact, knew
not what to think of it. [Busching, Beitrage,
vi. 464.]

HORDT SEES THE DECEASED CZARINA LYING IN STATE. "One day, after
dining at Court, General Korf proposed that we should go and see
the LIT DE PARADE" (Parade-bed) of the late Czarina, which is in
another Palace, not far off. "Count Schuwalof [NOT her old lover,
who has DIED since her, poor old creature; but his Son, a
cultivated man, afterwards Voltaire's friend] accompanied us;
and, his rooms being contiguous to those of the dead Lady, he asked
us to take coffee with him afterwards. The Imperial Bier stood in
the Grand Saloon, which was hung all round with black, festooned
and garlanded with cloth-of-silver; the glare of wax-lights quite
blinding. Bier, covered with cloth-of-gold trimmed with silver
lace, was raised upon steps. A rich Crown was on the head of the
dead Czarina. Beside the bier stood Four Ladies, two on each hand,
in grand mourning; immense crape training on the ground behind
them. Two Officers of the Life-Guard occupied the lowest steps:
on the topmost, at the foot of the bier, was an Archimandrite
(superior kind of ABBOT), who had a Bible before him, from which he
read aloud,--continuously till relieved by another. This went on
day and night without interruption. All round the bier, on stools
(TABOURETS), were placed different Crowns, and the insignia of
various Orders,--those of Prussia, among others. It being
established usage, I had, to my great repugnance, to kiss the hand
of the corpse! We then talked a little to the Ladies in attendance
(with their crape trains), joking about the article of hand-
kissing; finally we adjourned for coffee to Count Schuwalof's
apartments, which were of an incredible magnificence." That same
evening, farther on,--

"I supped with the Czar in his PETIT APPARTEMENT, Private Rooms [a
fine free-and-easy nook of space!]. The company there consisted of
the Countess Woronzow, a creature without any graces, bodily or
mental, whom the Czar had chosen for his Mistress [snub-nosed,
pock-marked, fat, and with a pert tongue at times], whom I liked
the less, as there were one or two other very handsome women there.
Some Courtiers too; and no Foreigners but the English Envoy and
myself. The supper was very gay, and was prolonged late into the
night. These late orgies, however, did not prevent his Majesty from
attending to business in good time next morning. He would appear
unexpectedly, at an early hour, at the Senate, at the Synod [Head
CONSISTORY], making them stand to their duties,"--or pretend to do
it. His Majesty is not understood to have got much real work out of
either of these Governing Bodies; the former, the Senate, or
SECULAR one, which had fallen very torpid latterly, was, not long
after this, suffered to die out altogether. Peter himself was a
violently pushing man, and never shrank from labor; always in a
plunge of hurries, and of irregular hours. In his final time,
people whispered, "The Czar is killing himself; sits smoking,
tippling, talking till 2 in the morning; and is overhead in
business again by 7!"

CZARINA ELIZABETH'S FUNERAL, AS SEEN BY HORDT (much abridged).
"At 10 in the morning all the bells in Petersburg broke out;
and tolled incessantly [day or month not hinted at,--nor worth
seeking; grim darkness of universal frost perceptible enough;
clangor of bells; and procession seemingly of miles long,--on this
extremely high errand!]--Minute-guns were fired from the moment the
procession set out from the Castle till it arrived at the Citadel,
a distance of two English miles and a half. Planks were laid all
the way; forming a sort of bridge through the streets, and over the
ice of the Neva. All the soldiers of the Garrison were ranked in
espalier on each side. Three hundred grenadiers opened the march;
after them, three hundred priests, in sacerdotal costume;
walking two-and-two, singing hymns. All the Crowns and Orders,
above mentioned by me, were carried by high Dignitaries of the
Court, walking in single file, each a chamberlain behind him.
Hearse was followed by the Czar, skirt of his black cloak held up
by Twelve Chamberlains, each a lighted taper in the OTHER hand.
Prince George of Holstein [Czar's Uncle] came next, then Holstein-
Beck [Czar's Cousin]. Czarina Catharine followed, also on foot,
with a lighted taper; her cloak borne by all her Ladies.
Three hundred grenadiers closed the procession. Bells tolling,
minute-guns firing, seas of people crowding."--Thus the Russians
buried their Czarina. Day and its dusky frost-curtains sank;
and Bootes, looking down from the starry deeps, found one Telluric
Anomaly forever hidden from him. She had left of unworn Dresses,
the richest procurable in Nature (five a day her usual allowance,
and never or seldom worn twice), "15,000 and some hundreds."
[Hermann, v. 176.]

HORDT IS OF THE NEW CZARINA CATHARINE'S EVENING PARTIES.
"The Czarina received company every morning. She received everybody
with great affability and grace. But notwithstanding her efforts to
appear gay, one could perceive a deep background of sadness in her.
She knew better than anybody the violent (ARDENTE) character of her
husband; and perhaps she then already foresaw what would come.
She also had her circle every evening, and always asked the company
to stay supper. One evening, when I was of her party, a
confidential Equerry of the Czar came in, and whispered me That I
had been searched for all over Town, to come to supper at the
COUNTESS'S (that was the usual designation of the Sultana,"--DAS
FRAULEIN, spelt in Russian ways, is the more usual). "I begged to
be excused for this time, being engaged to sup with the Czarina, to
whom I could not well state the reason for which I was to leave.
The Equerry had not gone long, when suddenly a great noise was
heard, the two wings of the door were flung open, and the Czar
entered. He saluted politely the Czarina and her circle; called me
with that smiling and gracious air which he always had; took me by
the arm, and said to the Czarina: 'Excuse me, Madam, if to-night I
carry off one of your guests; it is this Prussian I had searched
for all over the Town.' The Czarina laughed; I made her a deep bow,
and went away with my conductor. Next morning I went to the
Czarina; who, without mentioning what had passed last night, said
smiling, 'Come and sup with me always when there is nothing to
prevent it.'"

FEBRUARY 21st, HORDT AT ZARSKOE-ZELOE. "On occasion of the Czar's
birthday [which gives us a date, for once], [Michaelis, ii. 627:
"Peter born, 21st February, 1728."] there were great festivities,
lasting a week. It began with a grand TE DEUM, at which the Czar
was present, but not the Czarina. She had, that morning, in
obedience to her husband's will, decorated 'the Countess' with the
cordon of the Order of St. Catharine. She was now detained in her
Apartment 'by indisposition;' and did not leave it during the eight
days the festivities lasted." This happened at the Country Palace,
Zarskoe-Zeloe; and is a turning-point in poor Peter's History.
[Hermann, p. 253.] From that day, his Czarina saw that, by the
medium of her Peter, it was not she that would ever come to be
Autocrat; not she, but a pock-marked, unbeautiful Person, with
Cordon of the Order of St. Catharine,--blessings on it! From that
day the Czarina sat brooding her wrongs and her perils,--wrongs
DOUE, very many, and now wrongs to be SUFFERED, who can say how
many! She perceives clearly that the Czar is gone from her, fixedly
sullen at her (not without cause);--and that Siberia, or worse, is
possible by and by. The Czarina was helplessly wretched for some
time; and by degrees entered on a Plot;--assisted by Princess
Dashkof (Sister of the Snub-nosed), by Panin (our Son's Tutor,
"a genuine Son, I will swear, whatever the Papa may think in his
wild moments!"), by Gregory Orlof (one's present Lover), and
others of less mark;--and it ripened exquisitely within the next
four months!--

HORDT HEARS THE PRAISES OF HIS KING. "Next day [nobody can guess
what DAY] I dined at Court. I sat opposite the Czar, who talked of
nothing but of his 'good friend the King of Prussia.' He knew all
the smallest details of his Campaigns; all his military
arrangements; the dress and strength of all his Regiments; and he
declared aloud that he would shortly put all his troops upon the
same footing [which he did shortly, to the great disgust of his
troops].--Rising from table, the Czar himself did me the honor to
say, 'Come to-morrow; dine with me EN PETIT APPARTEMENT [on the
SNUG, where we often play high-jinks, and go to great lengths in
liquor and tobacco]; I will show you something curious, which you
will like.' I went at the accustomed hour; I found--Lieutenant-
General Werner [hidden since his accident at Colberg last winter,
whom a beneficent Czar has summoned again into the light of noon]!
I made a great friendship with this distinguished General, who was
a charming man; and went constantly about with him, till he left me
here,"--Czarish kindness letting Werner home, and detaining me, to
my regret. [HORDT, i. 133-145, 151.]

The Prussian Treaties, first of Peace (May 5th), with all our
Conquests flung back, and then of Alliance, with yourself and
ourselves, as it were, flung into the bargain,--were by no means so
popular in Petersburg as in Berlin! From May 5th onwards, we can
suppose Peter to be, perhaps rather rapidly, on the declining hand.
Add the fatal element, "Church in Danger" (a Czar privately
Apostate); his very Guardsmen indignant at their tight-fitting
Prussian uniforms, and at their no less tight Prussian DRILL
(which the Czar is uncommonly urgent with); and a Czarina Plot
silently spreading on all sides, like subterranean mines filled
with gunpowder!--

HERR BUSCHING SEES THE CATASTROPHE (Friday, 9th July, 1762).
"This being the day before Peter-and-Paul, which is a great Holiday
in Petersburg, I drove out, between 9 and 10 in the morning, to
visit the sick. On my way from the first house where I had called,
I heard a distant noise like that of a rising thunder-storm, and
asked my people what it was. They did not know; but it appeared to
them like the Shouting of a Mob (VOLKSGESCHREI), and there were all
sorts of rumors afloat. Some said, 'The Czar had suddenly resolved
to get himself crowned at Petersburg, before setting out for the
War on Denmark.' Others said, 'He had named the Czarina to be
Regent during his absence, and that she was to be crowned for this
purpose.' These rumors were too silly: meanwhile the noise
perceptibly drew nearer; and I ordered my coachman to proceed no
farther, but to turn home.

"On getting home, I called my Wife; and told her, That something
extraordinary was then going on, but that I could not learn what;
that it appeared to me like some popular Tumult, which was coming
nearer to us every moment. We hurried to the corner room of our
house; threw open the window, which looks to the Church of St. Mary
of Casan [where an Act of Thanksgiving has just been consummated,
of a very peculiar kind!]--and we then saw, near this Church, an
innumerable crowd of people; dressed and half-dressed soldiers of
the foot-regiments of the Guards mixed with the populace.
We perceived that the crowd pressed round a common two-seated
Hackney Coach drawn by two horses; in which, after a few minutes, a
Lady dressed in black, and wearing the Order of St. Catharine,
coming out of the church, took a seat. Whereupon the church-bells
began ringing, and the priests, with their assistants carrying
crosses, got into procession, and walked before the Coach. We now
recognized that it was the Czarina Catharine saluting the multitude
to right and left, as she fared along." [ Beitrage, italic> vi. 465: compare RULHIERE, p. 95; HERMANN, v. 287.]

Yes, Doctor, that Lady in black is the Czarina; and has come a
drive of twenty miles this morning; and done a great deal of
business in Town,--one day before the set time. In her remote
Apartment at Peterhof, this morning, between 2 and 3, she awoke to
see Alexei Orlof, called oftener SCARRED Orlof (Lover GREGORY'S
Brother), kneeling at her bedside, with the words, "Madam, you must
come: there is not a moment to lose!"--who, seeing her awake,
vanished to get the vehicles ready. About 7, she, with the Scarred
and her maid and a valet or two, arrived at the Guards' Barracks
here,--Gregory Orlof, and others concerned, waiting to receive her,
in the fit temper for playing at sharps. She has spoken a little,
wept a little, to the Guards (still only half-dressed, many of
them): "Holy religion, Russian Empire thrown at the feet of
Prussia; my poor Son to be disinherited: Alack, ohoo!"
Whereupon the Guards (their Officers already gained by Orlof) have
indignantly blazed up into the fit Hurra-hurra-ing:--and here,
since about 9 A.M., we have just been in the "Church of St. Mary of
Casan" ("Oh, my friends, Orthodox Religion, first of all!") doing
TE-DEUMS and the other Divine Offices, for the thrice-happy
Revolution and Deliverance now vouchsafed us and you! And the Herr
Doctor, under outburst of the chimes of St. Mary, and of the
jubilant Soldieries and Populations, sees the Czarina saluting to
right and left; and Priests, with their assistants and crucifixes
("Behold them, ye Orthodox; is there anything equal to true
Religion?"), walking before her Hackney Coach.

"On the one step of her Coach," continues the Herr Doctor, "stood
Grigorei Grigorjewitsh Orlow," so he spells him, "and in front of
it, with drawn sword, rode the Field-marshal and Hetman Count
Kirila Grigorjewitsh Rasomowski, Colonel of the Ismailow Guard.
Lieutenant-General (soon to be General-Ordnance-Master) Villebois
came galloping up; leapt from his horse under our windows, and
placed himself on the other step of the Coach. The procession
passed before our house; going first to the New stone Palace, then
to the Old wooden Winter Palace. Common Russians shouted mockingly
up to us, 'Your god [meaning the Czar] is dead!' And others, 'He is
gone; we will have no more of him!'"--

About this hour of the day, at Oranienbaum (ORANGE-TREE, some
twenty miles from here, and from Peterhof guess ten or twelve),
Czar Peter is drilling zealously his brave Holsteiners (2,000 or
more, "the flower of all my troops"); and has not, for hours after,
the least inkling of all this. Catharine had been across to visit
him on Wednesday, no farther back; and had kindled Oranienbaum into
opera, into illumination and what not. Thursday (yesterday), Czar
and Czarina met at some Grandee's festivity, who lives between
their two Residences. This day the Czar is appointed for Peterhof;
to-morrow, July 10th (Peter-and-Paul's grand Holiday), Czar,
Czarina and united Court were to have done the Festivities together
there,--with Czarina's powder-mine of Plot laid under them;
which latter has exploded one day sooner, in the present happy
manner! The poor Czar, this day, on getting to Peterhof, and
finding Czarina vanished, understood too well; he saw "big smoke-
clouds rise suddenly over Petersburg region," withal,--"Ha, she has
cannon going for her yonder; salvoing and homaging!"--and rushed
back to Oranienbaum half mad. Old Munnich undertook to save him, by
one, by two or even three different methods, "Only order me, and
stand up to it with sword bare!"--but Peter's wits were all flying
miscellaneously about, and he could resolve on nothing.

Peter and his Czarina never met more. Saturday (to-morrow), he
abdicates; drives over to Peterhof, expecting, as per bargain,
interview with his Wife; freedom to retire to Holstein, and "every
sort of kindness compatible with his situation:" but is met there
instead, on the staircase, by brutal people, who tear the orders
off his coat, at length the very clothes off his back,--and pack
him away to Ropscha, a quiet Villa some miles off, to sit silent
there till Orlof and Company have considered. Consideration is:
"To Holstein? He has an Anti-Danish Russian Army just now in that
neighborhood; he will not be safe in Holstein;--where will he be
safe?" Saturday, 17th, Peter's seventh day in Ropscha, the Orlofs
(Scarred Orlof and Four other miscreants, one of them a Prince, one
a Play-actor) came over, and murdered poor Peter, in a treacherous,
and even bungling and disgusting, and altogether hideous manner.
"A glass of burgundy [poisoned burgundy], your Highness?" said
they, at dinner with his poor Highness. On the back of which, the
burgundy having failed and been found out, came grappling and
hauling, trampling, shrieking, and at last strangulation.
Surely the Devil will reward such a Five of his Elect?-- But we
detain Herr Busching: it is still only Friday morning, 9th of the
month; and the Czarina's Hackney Coach, in the manner of a comet
and tail, has just gone into other streets:--

"After this terrible uproar had left our quarter, I hastened to the
Danish Ambassador, Count Haxthausen, who lived near me, to bring
him the important news that the Czar was said to be dead. The Count
was just about to burn a mass of Papers, fearing the mob would
plunder his house; but he did not proceed with it now, and thanked
Heaven for saving his Country. His Secretary of Legation, my friend
Schumacher, gave me all the money he had in his pockets, to
distribute amongst the poor; and I returned home. Directly after,
there passed our house, at a rate as if the horses were running
away, a common two-horse coach, in which sat Head-Tutor (OBER-
HOFMEISTER) von Panin with the Grand Duke [famous Czar Paul that is
to be], who was still in his nightgown," poor frightened
little boy!--

"Not long after, I saw some of the Foot-guards, in the public
street near the Winter Palace, selling, at rates dog-cheap, their
new uniforms after the Prussian cut, which they had stript off;
whilst others, singing merrily, carried about, stuck on the top of
their muskets, or on their bayonets, their new grenadier caps of
Prussian fashion. [See in HERMANN (v. 291) the Saxon Ambassador's
Report.] I saw several soldiers,, out on errand or otherwise,
seizing the coaches they met in the streets, and driving on in
them. Others appropriated the eatables which hucksters carried
about in baskets. But in all this wild tumult, nobody was killed;
and only at Oranienbaum a few Holstein soldiers got wounded by some
low Russians, in their wantonness.

"July 11th, the disorder amongst the soldiers was at its height;
yet still much less than might have been expected. Many of them
entered the houses of Foreigners, and demanded money. Seeing a
number of them come into my house, I hastily put a quantity of
roubles and half-roubles in my pocket, and went out with a servant,
especially with a cheerful face, to meet them,"--and no harm
was done.

"SATURDAY, JULY 17th, was the day of the Czar's death; on the same
17th, the Empress was informed of it; and next day, his body was
brought from Ropscha to the Convent of St. Alexander Newski, near
Petersburg. Here it lay in state three days; nay, an Imperial
Manifesto even ordered that the last honors and duty be paid to it.
July 20th, I drove thither with my Wife; and to be able to view the
body more minutely, we passed twice through the room where it lay.
[An uncommonly broad neckcloth on it, did you observe?] Owing to
the rapid dissolution, it had to be interred on the following day:
--and it was a touching circumstance, that this happened to be the
very day on which the Czar had fixed to start from Petersburg on
his Campaign against Denmark." [Busching, vi. 464-467.]

Catharine, one must own with a shudder, has not attained the
Autocracy of All the Russias gratis. Let us hope she would once--
till driven upon a dire alternative--have herself shuddered to
purchase at such a price. A kind of horror haunts one's notion of
her red-handed brazen-faced Orlofs and her, which all the cosmetics
of the world will never quite cover. And yet, on the spot, in
Petersburg at the moment--! Read this Clipping from Smelfungus, on
a collateral topic:--

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