MAJOR SEMPLE LISLE, 11 



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, 

 filter 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, Ihe kept 

 her room. On which the Duchefs, in all the 

 native violence of her difpolition, locked her /;/, 

 and adlually detained her a prifoner in that 

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

 llrances. 



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 almofl: defolate country, in the dead of 

 winter, and without the fmallell 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 Rojen^ he fortunately 

 made known his wilhes ; and being placed in 

 the vehicle, and covered with a fheep fkin, he^ 



at 



