MAJOR SEMPLE LISLE. II 



appointed to command in the Black Sea : he 

 therefore immediately repaired to St. Peterf- 

 burgh, and foon afterwards to his ftation. 



I continued with the Duchefs. In her com- 

 pany were a French lady Mad. de Porquet, 

 iifter to Monf. de Cocove, and a French Secre- 

 tary, whofe name I do not recoiled. At my 

 arrival, I found they had all quarrelled, and 

 were not upon fpeaking terms. Mad. de Por- 

 quet was in fad fo much chagrined, fhe kept 

 her room. On which the Duchefs, in all the 

 native violence of her difpofition, locked her />, 

 and adually detained her a prifoner in that 

 Itate for fome days, in fpite of all my remon- 

 ftrances. 



The poor French Secretary was fo much , 

 terrified at thefe tyrannical procedings, that 

 he ran away the fame night, without even 

 venturing to take a great coat with him. In 

 an almoft defolate country, in the dead of 

 ■winter, and without the fmallefl: knowledge of 

 the language, he had to travel twenty miles to 

 the Baron Rofen's, who, in that dreary fpot, is 

 called a neighbour. He luckily overtook a 

 peafant with a fledge by the way, to whom, 

 by repeating the name of Rofen^ he fortunately 

 made known his wilhes ; and being placed in 

 the vehicle, and covered with a fheep fl^in, he, 



at 



