Unhappily, the best scheme of education depends for its result upon the co-operation of the pupil, and Peter was a bad pupil. He liked Ostermann, but he disliked lessons; and the consciousness that he was now a monarch did not dispose his lively imagination to submit to prosy toil6. There was a strain of nervous instability in nearly the whole of the Romanoffs at this stage, Peter liked sport and riding and play. His sister Natalia, two years older than he, was a good playmate; even better was Aunt Elizabeth, the younger daughter of the late Empress. Elizabeth was now a very sprightly7 and pretty young lady of sixteen, the exact opposite of what a Russian princess ought to be on the old standards. She shunned8 books, but took like a boy to riding and hunting and fencing. Her lively tongue and merry blue eyes attracted young officers; and she was the daughter of Catherine and Peter in such matters.
Menshikoff did not like the intimacy9 and he carried Peter off to one of his palaces and put trusted servants and the sober Ostermann about him. He also introduced the young Tsar to the charm of his own domestic circle, and he presently announced to the Privy10 Council that Peter had honoured him by asking the hand of his daughter Maria. The ceremony of betrothal11 was, in fact, publicly celebrated12. Inconvenient13 or critical people were humanely14 removed by appointments abroad. Even the Duke of Holstein was induced to return to his native land and take his Duchess with him; and they were treated very generously in the matter of provision. Honours and offices were distributed with such generosity16 as was consistent with the supreme17 power and increasing wealth of the former premier18. Members of old noble families, like the Dolgorukis and Golitzuins, were promoted.
With the aid of Ostermann for foreign affairs Menshikoff ruled the country advantageously. There was, fortunately, no stress at home or abroad, for he had no ability as a statesman, but he passed a number of measures which promoted trade or tranquillity20. The Cossacks were more than pacified21 by the concessions22 he made to them. Eudoxia was liberated23 from the rigorous and dismal24 confinement25 to which Peter the Great had condemned26 her; which greatly pleased the orthodox. The tariff27 was lowered. The ghastly poles and spikes28 on which it had been customary to fix the heads or limbs of criminals were abolished.
But in the world which the Romanoffs had created, or suffered to develop, the supreme concern was the fortune of the individual. I do not mean, of course, that this selfishness was unknown at the court of Louis XV or of George I, but the sequel will show how far Russia lagged behind even the primitive29 morality of those elegant courts. There were few who did not look with green eyes upon the princely fortune of the adventurer, and there were some who felt it an outrage30 upon the nobility. Russia was prosperous; but could a land prosper31 indefinitely when the national genius was mocked by foreign innovations and the sacred traditions of Moscow were scouted32? The nobles gave an idealist complexion33 to their discontent, and whispers reached the ear of the growing prince.
Menshikoff was imprudent in meeting Peter’s first movements of resentment35. One day the young Tsar received what appears to have been a personal payment of nine thousand ducats, and he sent it to his sister Natalia. Menshikoff met the messenger and took away the money. Peter, he said, did not yet understand the value of money. Peter sent for him and gave him, to his amazement36, an imperial scolding. He might have recognised a bit of his old master in the stamping and raging boy, but he did not take the lesson. Soon afterwards Peter sent to Natalia a fine service of plate which had been presented to him, and Menshikoff tried to make her restore it. The First Minister was then compelled to take to his bed for some weeks. When he recovered, he found that Peter had gone to the palace at Peterhof, some miles away, and was wildly enjoying himself with Natalia and Aunt Elizabeth. Ostermann and the Dolgorukis also were there. Menshikoff, as an offset37, demanded the accounts of the palace, and discharged a servant for some item he found; and the boy-Tsar, in a fiery38 interview, told him to mind his own business.
This was in August. Menshikoff, now seriously concerned, thought that the influence of Ostermann was mischievous39, and he got up a violent quarrel with him and threatened to send him to Siberia. From a loyal colleague Ostermann became one more enemy of the First Minister, and the story of his fall ran rapidly. On September 6th Menshikoff went out to Peterhof to pay respectful homage40 to the Tsar. Peter not only turned his back upon him, but drew the attention of his smiling courtiers to the fact that he did. The minister prepared a festival, and, when the Tsar scouted his invitation, he nervously41 begged an interview. The answer was a troop of soldiers such as he himself had sent to darken many a home, and he fell to the ground in a swoon.
Room of the Tsar Mikhailovitch, Moscow
A few days later the fallen man appeared before the Privy Council and received sentence. He was fined, for conspiracy42 against the throne, 375,000 dollars, stripped of all his honours and offices, and ordered to retire to the dreary43 waste of the steppes. But his wife Daria—we remember Peter the Great forcing him to marry that merry lady—appealed passionately45 against the brutal46 sentence, and he was suffered to retire, instead, to a beautiful estate he had in the Ukraine. Few wept when, one morning in September, a long caravan47 bore Menshikoff and his wife and daughter out of the life of Russia. But his enemies were not satisfied. The Dolgorukis, who came to power, trumped48 up a charge of conspiracy in the following year, and, on the miserable word of tortured witnesses, which in Russia was still admitted, banished49 the broken-hearted adventurer to the frozen shores of the Arctic. There for two years, until death set him free and ended one of the great romances of that stirring period, Menshikoff supported by the labour of his own hands his devoted50 wife and the unlucky girl who had thought to become an Empress.
Ostermann remained the most important and most useful statesman, but the Golitzuins, Dolgorukis, and other families of the old nobility now came to power and they made an effort to drag Russia back to the ruts from which Peter the Great had violently shifted it. They were of what came to be called in the nineteenth century the “Russophile school”: narrow-minded conservatives who railed at all innovation and foreign influence, and persuaded themselves that the genius of Russia was different from that of other European nations. St. Petersburg was to them the hated symbol of the new order, and they induced Peter to return to Moscow. He was crowned there on February 25th (1728) with all the archaic51 ceremonies of Russian tradition, and they took care to impress him with the contrast between the comparatively bright and healthy air of Moscow and the dank climate of the northern metropolis52. This court remained at Moscow, and the departments of State were presently transferred to it.
To complete the transformation53 from the ideals of Peter the Great to those of Alexis the aged54 Eudoxia was appointed Regent, and a court of the old type gathered about her. Ostermann was alarmed, and the reactionaries55 tried to remove him. Peter, fortunately for Russia, would not hear of the dismissal of his old director, but he allowed the conservative nobles to act much as they pleased and he was encouraged by them to spend his time in hunting and laborious56 idleness. The fleet was suffered to rot in harbour, and only the steady effect of such internal reforms as Peter the Great had introduced kept the country in some degree of prosperity. The old indolence returned. Since there were now no costly57 schemes to be realised, and the favourable58 turn of foreign relations brought no war, the taxes were not enforced, and the country enjoyed a fallacious happiness.
In December Natalia died of consumption. Through her Ostermann had at times got a warning word to the ear of his pupil, and the levity59 of the Tsar now increased. He spent his days with Elizabeth, and the Dolgorukis feared that what Ostermann had once recommended—the marriage of the aunt and nephew—would come to pass. As it was their aim, in spite of all the warnings of Russian history, to marry him to a girl of their own family, Elizabeth must go; and the frivolity60 of that precocious61 lady gave them ample opportunities. She was scarcely out of her teens, yet her amours were notorious, and her lovers were not of noble rank. A word was whispered to Peter, who was a sober and strict-living youth, and Aunt Elizabeth ceased to be his constant companion.
Austria, Russia’s ally, looked with concern upon this reaction and indolence, and its representatives joined with Ostermann in pressing Peter to return to St. Petersburg and attend to his military resources. A tense, if more or less veiled, struggle for the guidance of the Tsar set in. For the moment the ambitious Dolgorukis won. They carried Peter a hundred miles away for a grand and prolonged hunt and series of entertainments. The entire family surrounded him and kept him for weeks in a state of febrile exhilaration. When they returned to Moscow, Alexis Dolgoruki announced that the Tsar was to wed2 his daughter Catherine, and the ceremony of betrothal was pompously62 conducted. The Dolgorukis now closed round the youthful Tsar, kept their angry rivals away, and began a premature63 plunder64 of the court and treasury65 as confidently as if such things had never before left their awful monuments in Russian history.
The wedding was fixed67 for January 30th, 1730. Peter would then be only fourteen years old, but the Dolgorukis were anxious. Already the Tsar was peevish68 and moody69, and he gave at times alarmingly sharp replies. One day as the favoured family gathered round him and amused him with a game of forfeits70, it fell to him, as a forfeit71, to kiss his betrothed72. To their consternation73 he walked out of the room. About the middle of the month a worse cloud than ever came over their hour of sunshine. Peter fell ill and—it was whispered among the pale-faced family—the malady74 was the dreaded75 small-pox. Frantic76 conferences were held, and some of the family, in their sordid77 greed and selfishness, actually proposed to wed the semi-conscious boy and put the girl abed with him. But Ostermann guarded the chamber78, and on January 30th, the day appointed for the wedding, Peter II ended his brief reign19.
The succession to the throne was now so open that Moscow teemed79 with melodramatic conspiracies80. The young bloods of the Dolgoruki party are said to have forged a will in which Peter left the crown to his betrothed, but the older men ridiculed81 the proposal, and the document does not seem to have been produced. On the other hand, the physician of the Tsarevna Elizabeth, a born conspirator82, roused that young lady from her sleep and urged her to seize the throne. Elizabeth fluttered over the romantic proposal, then turned over in bed and deferred83 it to the morrow. On the morrow it was too late, for the Privy Council had held an all-night sitting and come to a singular decision.
Prince Demetrius Golitzuin, one of the older nobles who had never enjoyed what he regarded as his full share of wealth and power, felt that it was his turn to make a monarch and enjoy the reward. He decked his plan with a plausible84 air of reform. This recent concentration of power in the hands of an autocrat85 was the root of all evil, since one monarch usually meant one favourite. Let them choose a ruler who would promise in advance—promise on paper—to resign the power to the Privy Council. He drew up a scheme in which the future sovereign pledged himself or herself to take no important action—to declare war, or levy86 taxes, or punish a noble, or marry, and so on—without their consent. What candidate would be likely to sign and respect such a promise? Elizabeth could not be relied upon; in fact, Golitzuin, a proud and arrogant87 noble of the old school, detested88 Peter the Great and regarded his marriage as void and his daughters as illegitimate. But Peter’s elder brother, the weak-minded Ivan V, had left three daughters, and the second of these, Anne, Duchess of Courland, would, it was thought, agree to almost any conditions if she were offered the crown.
Anne, who was then thirty-seven years old, had had a dull and vexatious life. Peter had made her and her mother, Prascovia, move to St. Petersburg, and he had compelled Anne, in her eighteenth year, to marry the Duke of Courland, for political reasons. The Duke, however, had found Russian hospitality so overpowering that he had died on the way home, and the young princess, childless and isolated90, had been compelled to continue the journey and settle at Mitau, the capital of the Duchy. To control her purse and administer her affairs Peter had sent Count Besthuzeff, and he laughed heartily91 when he heard that Anne had made a lover of him. Presently there came along the familiar type of handsome and unscrupulous adventurer. The grandson of a groom92 of an earlier Duke, named Biren, had a sister in a modest office at court. She was, however, also a mistress of the Count, and she got a place for her brother. Biren was clever and ambitious, and it was not long before he supplanted93 Besthuzeff in the affection of the Duchess and got him dismissed. Biren married after a time, and it is claimed that Anne’s very intimate relations to him after his marriage were purely94 Platonic95. In any case he remained master of her court, and he would no doubt be consulted on the strange new problem that confronted her. She had costly tastes and little money, and glittering Moscow suddenly and unexpectedly rose on her horizon.
The Privy Councillors had decided96 that Anne was the most likely of the surviving Romanoffs—Peter was the last male of the family—to accept the crown at a reduced price. They had sent a deputation to Mitau, and a courier presently came hack97 with the news that she had signed the conditions. Yaguzhinsky, the drunken and turbulent general who had often given trouble, had tried a little intrigue98 of his own. He had sent a disguised messenger to Mitau to warn Anne, but his messenger had been caught by Golitzuin’s watchful99 servants on the return journey. A general meeting of the great officials and nobles was called, and the Privy Councillors announced to them that Anne had accepted, and resigned all power to the Council. It is quaint100 to read, in letters of the time, that the once democratic Russians now trembled with anger at this surrender of the sacred autocracy101. The announcement was received in ominous102 silence. Golitzuin turned fiercely upon Yaguzhinsky and forced him to avow103 his plot; and the general and his associates were arrested and disgraced. The malcontents were cowed, and Anne came to Moscow.
There can be very little doubt that Anne, who was intelligent, perfectly104 understood the situation and was ready, on any pretext105, to disavow her oath. Although Golitzuin set a close guard of servants and soldiers about her, she soon learned that there was a powerful party in opposition106 to the Privy Council, and she entered into correspondence with it. Count Biren’s baby was her godchild, and she insisted that it be brought to her chamber every morning to be fondled. A baby and nurse could do little harm, the sentries107 thought; but there were notes from the conspirators108 pinned underneath109 the baby’s bib. Letters were smuggled110 in presents to the sovereign. Another of the older nobles, Prince Tcherkasky, was aiming at power, on the approved lines of Russian tradition (the invariable ghastly ends of which no one seemed to study), and was organising the conspiracy.
On the morning of May 8th, ten weeks after Anne’s arrival, about eight hundred of the nobles and gentry111 assembled in the courtyard of the Kreml, and, with a select body of officers of the guard, trooped to Anne’s apartments and asked a hearing. The comedy was gravely enacted112. Anne, surrounded by her court, graciously received the petitioners113, and heard with astonishment114 that there was dissatisfaction at her surrender of the autocracy. The Privy Councillors were summoned, and Tcherkasky and Dolgoruki fought for the lead. Anne hesitated, but her elder sister, the Duchess of Mecklenburg, turned the scale against the Privy Council. She would reconsider her act. In the afternoon the parties returned, and Anne turned severely115 upon the Councillors. “Were not those articles you submitted to me framed with the consent of my subjects?” she asked. It was boisterously116 affirmed by the crowd that they were not. “Then you lied,” she said to the great nobles; and the autocracy was restored, and the roll of drums and roar of guns and clangour of bells announced with what joy Moscow took the yoke117 on its shoulders once more.
For a time it seemed as if the new ruler was too humane15 to exact the usual penalties. The Privy Council was abolished, but the Senate was reorganised and the Golitzuins and Dolgorukis were, to their surprise, included in the new body. Their wives were welcomed at court, their relatives promoted. But either Anne awaited the advice of Biren, who had remained at Mitau for a time, or she prudently118 ascertained119 her strength. In April a flash of the brutal Romanoff temper lit Moscow once more. Alexis Dolgoruki and his family were arrested and convicted of causing the death of the late Tsar. The aged father went to Siberia, the younger men were knouted and exiled, and the young Catherine, the betrothed of Peter II, was, with a refinement120 of cruelty, sent to the very spot in the frozen north where Menshikoff’s daughter, the earlier aspirant121 to the crown, had lamented122 her bitter disappointment. The great proud family was shattered to atoms.
And the power that their fellow-nobles had snatched from them now passed mainly to foreigners. Biren established himself in the palace, close to Anne’s apartments, and became the real autocrat. Anne was too intelligent to part with the old and experienced ministers. Indeed an inner cabinet, consisting of Ostermann, Tcherkasky, and Golovkin, was formed, and the affairs of the State were conscientiously123 administered. But the bulk of the lucrative124 offices fell to Germans and Courlanders. Russians grumbled125, and were snubbed. The fiery Yaguzhinsky was dissatisfied with his promotion126 and, in his cups, he spoke127 freely about the foreigners. One day, at table, he insulted and drew his sword upon Biren. He was appointed minister at Berlin. Other nobles were punished for criticising, and Count Biren settled down to his reign.
The external fortune of the country may be briefly128 sketched129. In the eternal rise and fall of nations Poland had now sunk to almost its lowest depth; Sweden was sinking; France was at its zenith, and was in deadly antagonism130 to Austria; Prussia was watching and preparing astutely131, and snatching every advantage it could from the quarrels of its neighbours. The obvious policy of Russia was to remain on good terms with the nearer of the great Powers, Austria, and it was just as obviously the policy of France to detach Russia and weaken Austria. The diplomatic battle rose to a furious pitch over the succession to the throne of Poland, which Augustus II would soon quit. He naturally wished to leave the crown to his son, and the French king wished to secure it for his Polish father-in-law, Lesczynski. Both sides offered bribes132 to Biren, and he looked lovingly at the magnificent French offer of half a million ducats and the Duchy of Courland, but so violent and dangerous a change of Russian policy was not to be contemplated133.
Augustus died, and the Poles were induced to accept Lesczynski. Poland was now “the sick man of Europe,” as every aspirant to its throne was ready to barter134 away some portion of its territory to the greedy Powers. But Russia would not endure the French candidate, and in the summer of 1733 a Russian army invaded and subdued135 the Poles. The French retorted, in the manner of the time, by spurring the Swedes and the Turks to draw off the Russians, and a long war (1736-1739) with Turkey followed. Azoff was retaken, and the Russian generals had a hope of annexing136 the northern coast of the Black Sea. Anne, however, watched the progress of the long and costly operations with feminine emotion, and the withdrawal137 of Austria from the war gave her and her Council an opportunity to end it. It had cost the lives of a hundred thousand men and had strained the Russian treasury; and all that the grumbling138 country gained was the city of Azoff and a small area of the surrounding region. It should be added, however, that, cumbrous as the Russian army was, its prestige rose in the mind of Europe. Its German commanders and engineers counted for something.
To the people at large, when the last fireworks had been discharged, the burden of the war was a new grievance139. Anne was not without shrewdness. She contrived140 to wring141 from the impoverished142 people even the arrears143 of taxes, which the frivolity of the late administration had allowed to accumulate, without ever confronting a serious threat to her rule. But her careful and generally intelligent government was guilty of one extravagance which further angered the people. She loved pomp and display, and she gradually impressed upon her court and aristocracy a standard of living, especially of dressing144, which threatened many with ruin.
The court returned in 1732 to St. Petersburg, and Biren and she attempted to give it the elegance145 and splendour of the first courts of Europe. Neither had at first much refinement of taste, and foreign visitors described with amused disdain146 the veneer147 of display on the lingering barbarism of Russia. New uniforms of the most gaudy148 character were supplied to the guard and the servants of the court. The nobles were compelled to spend what seemed to Russians colossal149 sums in bringing themselves up to the new standard, and a bewigged and bepowdered crowd, in dazzling blue or green or pink silks and satins, replaced the sober-clad boyars of earlier years. Banquets and balls followed each other in rapid succession, and new dresses must adorn150 each occasion; while it is said that the demand for the services of the elaborate hair-dressers was such that ladies had at times to have their hair dressed two or three days in advance and carefully preserve the structure until the evening of the ball.
In her later years Anne, perhaps taught by the pungent151 criticisms of foreign guests, developed a sober taste. She was a very tall woman, of large and not ungraceful build, with grave dark blue eyes and black hair. In her later years she exchanged her bright blues152 and greens for gold brocade or brown silk, her diamonds for pearls; and her officers had black and yellow liveries, embroidered153 with silver braid. She did much to raise the taste of Russia. Although champagne154 was now introduced into Russia, she frowned upon the ancient daily habit of intoxication155. Only on one day of the year—the anniversary of her coronation—did she tolerate heavy drinking. She introduced also a certain lightness and elegance into open-air feasts, which had in Peter’s day been orgies of drink and roughness, and she insisted on better manners at table. It was not long since, at a Russian dinner, one plate had had to serve a guest through the long and varied156 series of courses—the punctilious157 man wiped his plate with his finger or napkin, or poured the gravy158 on to the floor—and a servant had torn scraps159 of linen160 or calico off a roll for the use of those who desired napkins. Into the state of such rooms when the doors were locked for many hours, as they often were, the polite modern must not inquire too closely. A good deal of this grossness lingered in Russia, and Anne set her face against it.
She—the earlier lover of Besthuzeff and Biren—was not less warmly opposed to laxity of morals. Moderate gambling161 she herself introduced and encouraged, but the young folk whom she liked to have about her had to be careful. When Elizabeth did not reform her free ways, after a few lovers had been sent to Siberia, she was threatened with a convent. Anne’s favourite was a niece. Princess Anne of Mecklenburg, an insipid162, good-natured girl whom she was preparing for the throne. The Saxon envoy163, Count Lynar, was discovered in too close a relation to this young lady, and was sent back to Saxony; whence we shall find him return as soon as the Tsarina is dead and his lover is on the throne.
In other respects the character of Anne was at the lowest Romanoff level. She not only delighted in the dwarfs164 and buffoons165, and the rough knock-about comedies, which had always been popular at the court, but she found pleasure in refinements166 of cruelty which Peter would have thought unchivalrous. She would rock with laughter when her dwarfs got to bloody167 noses in their cock-fights, and she sank to the depth of compelling noble men and women who incurred168 her anger to enter these vulgar troops and provide the most puerile169 amusement. A noble of merit was condemned to this disgraceful service because Anne hated his wife; another because he joined the Roman Church. But the most curious and brutal of all her whims170 was her treatment of a noble of the great Golitzuin family.
The man had travelled in Italy and married a Roman Catholic. He was forty years old and of high birth, yet he was compelled to enter the company of Anne’s pages and buffoons. When his wife at length died, Anne said that she would choose a second for him, and she selected a coarse and ugly Kalmuck woman from the uncivilised fringe of her Empire. The wedding must be not merely public, but of a nature to attract the attention of the whole of Russia to his disgrace, and specimens171 of all the backward peoples of the Empire were summoned to it. A long procession of Finns, Lapps, Samoyedes, etc., riding in carts drawn172 by pigs or reindeer173 or other unusual animals, preceded the miserable groom and his bride, who rode on an elephant, to the church. All St. Petersburg turned out to see it. In the evening a large banquet was served to the guests, and the wedded174 pair then went to the house which had been made for them. It was the month of February, and a house had been cut out of solid ice. Cannons175 of ice exploded at the door, all the furniture was of ice, and the unfortunate noble and his hideous176 companion were enclosed for the night in a room, and upon a bed, of naked ice. This was in the very year of the Empress’s death.
Anne was scarcely less to blame for the conduct of her favourite. While Russia groaned177 under her taxes, his wealth grew to a colossal fortune. His wife’s diamonds alone were valued at three million rubles. His stables, his plate, his palaces, were amongst the most superb in Europe. This wealth was notoriously amassed178 by corruption179 and protected by a system of spies and bullies180. In his Duchy of Courland, which he obtained in 1737 by bribing181 the electors, his name spelt terror to the poor folk from whom he had sprung. In Russia itself he ruled by the knout and the executioner. In 1739 he felt that the Dolgorukis were not quite beyond the power of making mischief182, if the Empress died, and he dragged them from their exiles and had a fresh trial. One was broken on the wheel, two were beheaded, and others were imprisoned183 for life. In the following year he was insulted in the Council by a certain Voluinsky, whom he had adopted, but who had turned against him. The man must be broken or he would himself leave the country, he told the Empress. She sadly consented, and the man was taken to a scaffold which bore instruments so horrible that his robust184 nerve gave way. At the last moment the Empress benevolently185 commuted186 his sentence; he merely lost his right hand and his head. His companions lost their heads or their tongues, or joined the melancholy187 colony in Siberia.
In the summer of 1740 the Princess Anne, who had married Prince Anthony of Brunswick-Bevern, bore a son, and, as Anne’s health failed, the feverish188 dispute about the succession reopened. It was understood that this infant was to be nominated Tsar, and the natural course would be to make his parents the Regents. Biren, however, took care to have himself nominated for the Regency, and he pressed the Empress, whose end was in sight, to endorse189 the arrangement. She refused for some days, but on October 26th she signed the document, and two days later she died.
Another, and still stranger romance, was now to be added to the weird190 chronicle of the court of the Romanoffs. Anne of Mecklenburg was the daughter of the late Empress’s elder sister, who had, we saw, been a daughter of Peter the Great’s elder brother. She seems to have been very unlike the other members of the family, though her mother had been a quiet and temperate191 princess. Anne herself was a blonde, good-natured nonentity192; a pawn193 in the game played by her elders. Prince Anthony, who had even less intelligence and character than she, had been brought young from Austria, and trained for his marital194 and royal duties under the eye of the late Empress. His wife disdained195 him, and Biren, seeing her dislike before they were married, suggested that she should marry instead his fifteen-year-old son. This proposal she rejected even more vehemently196, and in the summer of 1739 she had coldly given her hand to Anthony.
Biren perceived the delicacy197 of his position, and he tried, by concessions to the troops and a reduction of the extravagance which the late Empress had imposed, to conciliate the country. But from the first day of his Regency a sullen198 murmur199 rose about him and gathered volume. Prince Anthony was the first to rebel. It was, he said, infamous200 to exclude him from the Regency when his son was Tsar; but when Biren brought him before an assembly of the nobles he saw the shadow of the scaffold and broke into hysterical201 tears. He was relieved of his appointments and ordered to confine himself to his wife’s apartments. Anne herself then murmured, and Biren threatened to retain the babe, and send her and her husband to Mecklenburg.
In the group of dignitaries was a German military engineer, Münnich, who had never yet gambled in the intrigue of making a ruler of the Russian Empire, and chance and spite now offered him an opportunity. On November 19th, a few weeks after the death of the late Empress, he had some business at the chamber of the Princess Anne, and the young mother tearfully confided202 to him her humiliations. She and her husband, she sobbed203, would take their child and quit Russia for ever. Münnich was sympathetic: as she may have been forewarned. Biren had not given him the post of Commander in Chief, which he coveted204. He told Anne to confide66 entirely205 in him, and went off to dine, jovially206 enough, with Biren. He was back afterwards at Anne’s chamber, telling her to be ready for action at three the next morning; and, in order the better to mask his intrigue, he returned to sup and crack a bottle with the Regent.
Münnich was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Guard, and at two in the morning he told his plan to the awakened207 officers, and they led a picked body of troops to the Summer Palace. Bluffing208 the guards with a statement that he was conducting the Princess Anne to see Biren on some important business, he took his men to the room in which Biren and his wife slept. One glance at the massed uniforms behind the Colonel told the amazing adventurer that his hour had come. He fought like a madman, but was overpowered and carried off in a quilt. Before the day broke his brothers and reliable supporters were under arrest, and St. Petersburg awoke to find that another revolution had been successfully accomplished209 at the palace. The hated Courlander was stripped of all his possessions, and he took that dreary route to Siberia that had been trodden by thousands of his victims.
But this last romance—of this particular series—had only begun with the pretty adventure of the German engineer. Münnich inherited Biren’s vanity and corruption, as well as his power and wealth, but not his astuteness210. In two months he is said to have heaped up a fortune hardly less than that of Biren, and it was at the grave cost of the State. The War of the Austrian Succession had opened, and Frederick of Prussia heavily bribed211 Münnich to put Russia on his side instead of that of Maria Theresa. This was too much for the sagacious Ostermann, who secured a redistribution of power and responsibility. His conceited212 fellow-countryman, overestimating213 the stupidity of the Regents, tendered his resignation, and it was accepted. Ostermann now resumed the control of foreign policy, but such matters concern us little here. It is enough to say that Sweden was spurred by France to a new attack upon Russia, and was defeated.
In the meantime the new romance was rapidly developing in the court. A young German woman named Julia Mengden secured, not merely the favours, but the passionate44 attachment214, of the Regent Anne, and the court was filled afresh with disgust. Anne, an idle and insipid creature, would spend almost the whole day playing cards with Julia. She was often too lazy or too listless to dress, and courtiers found her scantily215 draped in Julia’s room at all hours. Other Mengdens were attracted from the depths of Germany. A new brood of thick-tongued foreigners swarmed216 about the court.
Then Count Lynar, the Saxon envoy whom the late Empress had thought it prudent34 to remove, returned to St. Petersburg, and to the palace. Julia married him, but there seems no room for doubt that she was chiefly concerned to mask her royal friend’s liaison217 with the Count. Anne had a second legitimate89 child, but within a few weeks Julia was holding her door while Lynar was within. As Anne had no redeeming218 charm or grace of character, the court looked on with disdain. Lynar, it was feared, would succeed to the place of Münnich, Biren, and Menshikoff, and few had a word for Anne. To her court she presented always a dull and bored look, and her husband she openly despised.
In the circumstances a fresh intrigue was almost inevitable219, and the only other surviving Romanoff was the Princess Elizabeth. There was, moreover, a French envoy at St. Petersburg who had the romantic imagination in its liveliest form, and who concluded that Elizabeth was precisely220 the ruler who would best suit the interests of his country. To obtain power she would, he thought, desert St. Petersburg for Moscow and surrender the Baltic provinces to the Swedes. He got into touch with Elizabeth and proposed that she should do this, if he arranged, simultaneously221, a rising in St. Petersburg and an invasion by the Swedes. Elizabeth refused to yield territory, but she continued the negotiations222. In December Anne detected her correspondence and warmly scolded her, but the quarrel ended in embraces. That was on December 4th; and in the early morning of December 6th, as Anne slept with her beloved Julia, a troop of grenadiers, with Princess Elizabeth at their head, entered the room and made an end of the reign of little Ivan VI and the Regency of his parents. How that was done belongs to the romance of the romantic Empress Elizabeth.
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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2
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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3
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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4
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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5
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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6
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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8
shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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11
betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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12
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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13
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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14
humanely
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| adv.仁慈地；人道地；富人情地；慈悲地 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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16
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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17
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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18
premier
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| adj.首要的；n.总理，首相 | |
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19
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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20
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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21
pacified
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| 使（某人）安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平 | |
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22
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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23
liberated
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| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
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24
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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25
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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26
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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27
tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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28
spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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29
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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30
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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31
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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32
scouted
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| 寻找，侦察( scout的过去式和过去分词 )； 物色（优秀运动员、演员、音乐家等） | |
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33
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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34
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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35
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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36
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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37
offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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38
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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39
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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40
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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41
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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42
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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43
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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44
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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45
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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46
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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47
caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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48
trumped
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| v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去分词 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造 | |
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49
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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51
archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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52
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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53
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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54
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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55
reactionaries
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| n.反动分子，反动派( reactionary的名词复数 ) | |
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56
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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57
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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58
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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59
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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60
frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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61
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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62
pompously
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| adv.傲慢地，盛大壮观地；大模大样 | |
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63
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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64
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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65
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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66
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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67
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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68
peevish
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| adj.易怒的，坏脾气的 | |
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69
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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70
forfeits
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| 罚物游戏 | |
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71
forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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72
betrothed
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| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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73
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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74
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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75
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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76
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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77
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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78
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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79
teemed
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| v.充满( teem的过去式和过去分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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80
conspiracies
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| n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
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81
ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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82
conspirator
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| n.阴谋者，谋叛者 | |
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83
deferred
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|
| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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84
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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85
autocrat
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| n.独裁者；专横的人 | |
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86
levy
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| n.征收税或其他款项，征收额 | |
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87
arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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88
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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90
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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91
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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92
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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93
supplanted
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| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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94
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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95
platonic
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| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
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96
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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97
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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98
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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99
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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100
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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101
autocracy
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| n.独裁政治，独裁政府 | |
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102
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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103
avow
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| v.承认，公开宣称 | |
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104
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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105
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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106
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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107
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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108
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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109
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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110
smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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111
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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112
enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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113
petitioners
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| n.请求人，请愿人( petitioner的名词复数 )；离婚案原告 | |
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114
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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115
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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116
boisterously
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| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
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117
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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118
prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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119
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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120
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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121
aspirant
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| n.热望者；adj.渴望的 | |
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122
lamented
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|
| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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123
conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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124
lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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125
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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126
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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127
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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128
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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129
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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130
antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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131
astutely
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| adv.敏锐地；精明地；敏捷地；伶俐地 | |
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132
bribes
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| n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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133
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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134
barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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135
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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136
annexing
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| 并吞( annex的现在分词 )； 兼并； 强占； 并吞（国家、地区等） | |
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137
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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138
grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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139
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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140
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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141
wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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142
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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143
arrears
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| n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作 | |
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144
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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145
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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146
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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147
veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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148
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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149
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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150
adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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151
pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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152
blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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153
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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154
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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155
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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156
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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157
punctilious
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| adj.谨慎的，谨小慎微的 | |
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158
gravy
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| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
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159
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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160
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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161
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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162
insipid
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| adj.无味的，枯燥乏味的，单调的 | |
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163
envoy
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| n.使节，使者，代表，公使 | |
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164
dwarfs
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| n.侏儒，矮子（dwarf的复数形式）vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的第三人称单数形式） | |
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165
buffoons
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| n.愚蠢的人( buffoon的名词复数 )；傻瓜；逗乐小丑；滑稽的人 | |
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166
refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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167
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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168
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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169
puerile
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| adj.幼稚的，儿童的 | |
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170
WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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171
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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172
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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173
reindeer
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| n.驯鹿 | |
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174
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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175
cannons
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| n.加农炮，大炮，火炮( cannon的名词复数 ) | |
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176
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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177
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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178
amassed
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| v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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179
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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180
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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181
bribing
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| 贿赂 | |
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182
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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183
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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184
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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185
benevolently
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| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
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186
commuted
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| 通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿 | |
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187
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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188
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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189
endorse
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| vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意 | |
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190
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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191
temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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192
nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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193
pawn
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| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
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194
marital
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| adj.婚姻的，夫妻的 | |
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195
disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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196
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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197
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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198
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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199
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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200
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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201
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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202
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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203
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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204
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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205
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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206
jovially
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| adv.愉快地，高兴地 | |
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207
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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208
bluffing
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| n. 威吓，唬人 动词bluff的现在分词形式 | |
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209
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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210
astuteness
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| n.敏锐；精明；机敏 | |
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211
bribed
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| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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212
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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213
overestimating
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| 对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的现在分词 ) | |
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214
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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215
scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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216
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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217
liaison
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| n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通 | |
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218
redeeming
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| 补偿的，弥补的 | |
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219
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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220
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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221
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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222
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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