TULA. 
240 
chap. Already every trace of her brilliant reign had 
■ ‘ disappeared. The Russians, on the acces- 
sion of Paul, fell back into the barbarism 
which characterized the empire before the age 
of their First Peter. The polished nations of 
Europe will be surprised to learn, that immortal 
as the name of Catherine appears in their 
annals, it was almost forgotten in Russia within 
four years after her death : it remained among 
the number of privations enjoined by the long 
list of public proscriptions, and was heard only 
in the howling of the wind that drifted the 
snows of Siberia. At the same time, her 
favourites were displaced; her ministers re- 
jected ; her officers dismissed ; her monuments 
overthrown: even the verst-posts, which bore 
some marks of her taste, were demolished , 
and near to their ruins stood a series ol wooden 
Harlequinades, chequered to suit the foolish 
fancy of the Imperial ideot upon the throne. 
The Reader will find them strikingly pourtraycd in the “ Secret 
Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg a work attributed to the 
Count De Segur. Vet, who shall relate the butcheries of the Orlofs, 
the Fossicks, and liaratinshies, of Russia ? All that Sl.akspeare has 
fabled of the cruelties of Richard the Third seem to have been 
realized under the reign of Catherine ; whether with or without her 
connivance, has not been ascertained. The “quick conveyance" of 
her husband, of the Holstein Guards, or Prince Ivan, might be the 
work of her favourites; but can we believe that Alexius Orlof was 
alone implicated in the fate of the innocent daughter of the Empress 
Elizabeth ? 
v 
