The Empire of Russia Part 31

The empress set out on her triumphal journey to the Crimea, on the 18th of January, 1787, accompanied by a magnificent suite. The sledges, large, commodious and so lined with furs as to furnish luxurious couches for repose, traveled night and day. Relays of horses were collected at all the stations and immense bonfires blazed at night all along the road. Twenty-one days were occupied in the journey to Kief, where the empress was met by all the n.o.bles of that portion of the empire. Here fifty magnificent galleys, upon the ice of the Dnieper, awaited the arrival of the empress and the opening of the river. On the 6th of May the ice was gone, the barges were afloat, and the empress with her suite embarked. The King of Poland, who had now a.s.sumed his old name of Count Poniatowski, here met, in the barge of the empress, his rival, Stanislaus Augustus.

The pa.s.sage down the river, in this lovely month of spring, was like a fairy scene. The banks of the Dnieper were lined with villages constructed for the occasion. Peasants, in the most picturesque costumes, tended their flocks, or attended to various industrial arts as the flotilla drifted by. The Emperor of Germany, Joseph II., met the empress at Kaidak, from whence they proceeded together, by land, to Kherson. Here Catharine lodged in a palace where a throne had been erected for the occasion which cost fourteen thousand dollars. The whole expense of this one journey exceeded seven millions of dollars.

From Kherson the empress proceeded to the inland part of the Crimean peninsula. Her body guard consisted of an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men, stationed at but a short distance from her. The entertainments in the Crimea were of the most gorgeous character, and were arranged without any regard to expense. On the return of the empress she reached St. Petersburg the end of July, having been absent six months and four days. All Europe was surprised at the supineness which the sultan had manifested in allowing Catharine to prosecute her journey un.o.bstructed; but Turkey was not then prepared for the commencement of hostilities.

A squadron of thirty s.h.i.+ps of war soon sailed from Constantinople and entered the Euxine. The Turks were apprehensive that the Greeks might rise and disarmed them all before commencing the campaign. The empress had equipped, at Azof and Kherson, eight s.h.i.+ps of the line, twelve frigates, and two hundred gun-boats. She had, in addition, a large squadron at Cronstadt, ready to sail for the Mediterranean. Eighty thousand soldiers were also on the march from Germany to Moldavia.

Every thing indicated that the entire overthrow of the Ottoman empire was at hand.

The thunders of battle soon commenced on the sea and on the land. Both parties fought with desperation. Russia and Austria endeavored to unite France with them, in the attempt to dismember the Turkish empire as Poland had been part.i.tioned, but France now stood in dread of the gigantic growth both of Russia and of Austria, and was by no means disposed to strengthen those powers. England was also secretly aiding the Turks and sending them supplies. Influenced by the same jealousy against Russia, Sweden ventured to enter into an alliance with the Turks, while Prussia, from the same motive, secretly lent Gustavus III. money, and England sent him a fleet. Thus, all of a sudden, new and appalling dangers blazed upon Russia. So many troops had been sent to the Crimea that Catharine was quite unprepared for an attack from the Swedish frontier.

The Grand Duke Paul begged permission of his mother that he might join the army against the Turks. The empress refused her consent.

"My intention," wrote again the grand duke, "of going to fight against the Ottomans is publicly known. What will Europe say, in seeing that I do not carry it into effect?"

"Europe will say," Catharine replied, "that the grand duke of Russia is a dutiful son."

The appearance of the powerful Swedish fleet in the Baltic rendered it necessary for Catharine to recall the order for the squadron at Cronstadt to sail for the Mediterranean. The roar of artillery now reverberated alike along the sh.o.r.es of the Baltic and over the waves of the Euxine. Denmark and Norway were brought into the conflict, and all Europe was again the theater of intrigues and battles. It would be a weary story to relate the numerous conflicts, defeats and victories which ensued. Famine and pestilence desolated the regions where the Turkish and Russian armies were struggling. Army after army was destroyed until men began to grow scarce in the Russian empire. Even the wilds of Siberia were ransacked for exiles, and many of them were brought back to replenish the armies of the empress. At length, after a warfare of two years, with about equal success on both sides, Catharine and Gustavus came to terms, both equally glad to escape the blows which each gave the other. This peace enabled Russia to concentrate her energies upon Turkey.

The Turks now fell like gra.s.s before the scythe. But the Russian generals and soldiers were often as brutal as demons. Nominal Christianity was no more merciful than was paganism. Count Potemkin, the leader of the Russian army, was one of the worst specimens of the old aristocracy, which now, in many parts of Europe, have gone down into a grave whence, it is to be hoped, there can be no resurrection.

The Turkish town of Ismael was taken in September, 1790, after enormous slaughter. The French Revolution was at this time in rapid progress, and several Frenchmen were in the Russian army. To one of these, Colonel Langeron, Potemkin said,

"Colonel, your countrymen are a pack of madmen. I would require only my grooms to stand by me, and we should soon bring them to their senses."

Langeron replied, "Prince, I do not think you would be able to do it with all your army!"

These words so exasperated the Russian general that he rose in a rage, and threatened to send Langeron to Siberia. Conscious of his peril the French colonel fled, and entered into the service of the Austrians.

Emissaries of Catharine were sent through all the Greek isles, to urge the Greeks to rise against the enemies of the cross and restore their country to independence. Many of the Greeks rose, and Constantinople was in consternation. A Grecian emba.s.sage waited upon Catharine, imploring her aid for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of their country, and that she would give them her grandson Constantine for a sovereign.

On the 20th of February, 1790, Joseph II., Emperor of Austria, died, and was succeeded by Leopold II., who, yielding to the influence of Prussia, concluded a separate peace with the Porte, and left Catharine to contend alone with the Ottomans. The empress now saw that, notwithstanding her victories, Russia was exhausted, and that she could not hope for the immediate accomplishment of her ambitious projects, and she became desirous of peace. Through the mediation of England terms of peace were proposed, and acceded to in January, 1792.

In this war it is estimated that Russia lost two hundred thousand men, Austria one hundred and thirty thousand, and Turkey three hundred and thirty thousand. Russia expended in this war, beneficial to none and ruinous alike to all, two hundred millions of dollars.

The empress, thwarted in her designs upon Turkey, now turned to Poland. War was soon declared, and her armies were soon sweeping over that ill-fated territory. Kosciusko fought like a hero for his country, but his troops were mercilessly butchered by Russian and Prussian armies. In triumph the allies entered the gory streets of Warsaw, sent the king, Stanislaus Augustus, to exile on a small pension, and divided the remainder of Poland between them. Catharine now entered into the coalition of the European powers against republican France. She consented to a treaty with England and Austria, by which she engaged to furnish an army of eighty thousand men to crush the spirit of French liberty, on condition that those two powers should consent to her driving Turks out of Europe. Catharine was highly elated with this treaty. It was drawn up and was to be signed on the 6th of November, 1796.

On the morning of that day the empress, in her usual health and spirits, rose from the breakfast table, and retired to her closet. Not returning as soon as usual, some of her attendants entered and found her on the floor senseless. She had fallen in a fit of apoplexy, and died at ten o'clock in the evening of the next day without regaining consciousness or uttering a word, in the sixty-seventh year of her age, and after a reign of thirty-five years.

Paul, who was at his country palace, being informed of his mother's death, and of his accession to the throne, hastened to St. Petersburg.

He ordered the tomb of Peter III. to be opened and placed the coffin by the side of that of the empress, with a true love knot reaching from one to the other, containing the inscription, under the circ.u.mstances supremely ridiculous, "divided in life--united in death." They were both buried together with the most sumptuous funeral honors.

The character of Catharine II. is sufficiently portrayed in her marvelous history. The annals of past ages may be searched in vain for her parallel. Two pa.s.sions were ever predominant with her, love and ambition. Her mind seemed incapable of exhaustion, and notwithstanding the number of her successive favorites, with whom she entered into the most guilty connections, no monarch ever reigned with more dignity or with a more undisputed sway. Under her reign, notwithstanding the desolating wars, Russia made rapid advances in power and civilization.

She protected commerce, excited industry, cultivated the arts, encouraged learning, promoted manufactures, founded cities, dug ca.n.a.ls, and developed in a thousand ways the wealth and resources of the country. She had so many vices that some have consigned her name to infamy, and so many virtues, that others have advocated her canonization.

By the most careful calculation it is estimated that during the thirty five years of the reign of Catharine, she added over four hundred thousand square miles to the territory of Russia, and six millions of inhabitants. It would be difficult to estimate the mult.i.tude of lives and the amount of treasure expended in her ambitious wars. We know of no more affecting comment to be made upon the history of our world, than that it presents such a b.l.o.o.d.y tragedy, that even the career of Catharine does not stand out in any peculiar prominence of atrocity. G.o.d made man but little lower than the angels.

He is indeed fallen.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE REIGN OF PAUL I.

From 1796 to 1801.

Accession of Paul I. to the Throne.--Influence of the Hereditary Transmission of Power.--Extravagance of Paul.--His Despotism.--The Horse Court Martialed.--Progress of the French Revolution.--Fears and Violence of Paul I.--Hostility to Foreigners.--Russia Joins the Coalition against France.--March of Suwarrow.--Character of Suwarrow.--Battle on the Adda.--Battle of Novi.--Suwarrow Marches to the Rhine.--His Defeat and Death.--Paul Abandons the Coalition and Joins France.--Conspiracies at St. Petersburg.

Few sovereigns have ever ascended the throne more ignorant of affairs of state than was Paul I. Catharine had endeavored to protract his childhood, entrusting him with no responsibilities, and regulating herself minutely all his domestic and private concerns. He was carefully excluded from any partic.i.p.ation in national affairs and was not permitted to superintend even his own household. Catharine took his children under her own protection as soon as they were born, and the parents were seldom allowed to see them. Paul I. had experienced, in his own person, all the burden of despotism ere he ascended Russia's despotic throne. Naturally desirous to secure popularity, he commenced his reign with acts which were much applauded. He introduced economy into the expenditures of the court, forbade the depreciation of the currency and the further issue of paper money, and withdrew the army which Catharine had sent to Persia on a career of conquest.

Paul I. did not love his mother. He did not believe that he was her legitimate child. Still, as his only t.i.tle to the throne was founded on his being the reputed child of Peter III., he did what he could to rescue the memory of that prince from the infamy to which it had been very properly consigned. He had felt so humiliated by the domineering spirit of Catharine, that he resolved that Russia should not again fall under the reign of a woman, and issued a decree that henceforth the crown should descend in the male line only, and from father to son. The new emperor manifested his hostility to his mother, by endeavoring in various ways to undo what she had done.

The history of Europe is but a continued comment upon the folly of the law of the hereditary descent of power, a law which is more likely to place the crown upon the brow of a knave, a fool or a madman, than upon that of one qualified to govern. Russia soon awoke to the consciousness that the destinies of thirty millions of people were in the hands of a maniac, whose conduct seemed to prove that his only proper place was in one of the wards of Bedlam. The grossest contradictions followed each other in constant succession. Today he would caress his wife, to-morrow place her under military arrest. At one hour he would load his children with favors, and the next endeavor to expose them publicly to shame.

Though Paul severely blamed his mother for the vast sums she lavished upon her court, these complaints did not prevent him from surpa.s.sing her in extravagance. The innumerable palaces she had reared and embellished with more than oriental splendor, were not sufficient for him. Neither the Winter palace, nor the Summer palace, nor the palace of Anitschkoff, nor the Marble palace, nor the Hermitage, whose fairy-like gorgeousness amazed all beholders, nor a crowd of other royal residences, too numerous to mention, and nearly all world-renowned, were deemed worthy of the residence of the new monarch. Pretending that he had received a celestial injunction to construct a new palace, he built, reckless of expense, the chateau of St. Michael.

The crown of Catharine was the wonder of Europe, but it was not rich enough for the brow of Paul. A new one was constructed, and his coronation at Moscow was attended with freaks of expenditure which impoverished provinces. Boundless gifts were lavished upon his favorites. But that he might enrich a single n.o.ble, ten thousand peasants were robbed. The crown peasants were va.s.sals, enjoying very considerable freedom and many privileges. The peasantry of the n.o.bles were slaves, nearly as much so as those on a Cuban plantation, with the single exception that custom prevented their being sold except with the land. Like the buildings, the oaks and the elms, they were inseparably attached to the soil. The emperor, at his coronation, gave away eighty thousand families to his favorites. Their labor henceforth, for life, was all to go to enrich their masters. These courtiers, reveling in boundless luxury, surrendered their slaves to overseers, whose reputation depended upon extorting as much as possible from the miserable boors.

The extravagance of Catharine II. had rendered it necessary for her to triple the capitation, or, as we should call it, the poll-tax, imposed upon the peasants. Paul now doubled this tax, which his mother had already tripled. The King of Prussia had issued a decree that no subject should fall upon his knees before him, but that every man should maintain in his presence and in that of the law the dignity of humanity. Paul, on the contrary, reestablished, in all its rigor, the oriental etiquette, which Peter I. and Catharine had allowed to pa.s.s into disuse, which required every individual, whether a citizen or a stranger, to fall instantly upon his knees whenever the tzar made his appearance. Thus, when Paul pa.s.sed along the streets on horseback or in his carriage, every man, woman and child, within sight of the royal cortege, was compelled to kneel, whether in mud or snow, until the cortege had pa.s.sed. No one was exempted from the rule. Strangers and citizens, n.o.bles and peasants, were compelled to the degrading homage.

Those on horseback or in carriages were required instantly to dismount and prostrate themselves before the despot.

A n.o.ble lady who came to St. Petersburg in her carriage, in great haste, to seek medical aid for her husband, who had been suddenly taken sick, in her trouble not having recognized the imperial livery, was dragged from her carriage and thrust into prison. Her four servants, who accompanied her, were seized and sent to the army, although they plead earnestly that, coming from a distance, they were ignorant of the law, the infraction of which was attributed to them as a crime. The unhappy lady, thus separated from her sick husband, and plunged into a dungeon, was so overwhelmed with anguish that she was thrown into a fever. Reason was dethroned, and she became a hopeless maniac. The husband died, being deprived of the succor his wife had attempted to obtain.

The son of a rich merchant, pa.s.sing rapidly in his sleigh, m.u.f.fled in furs, did not perceive the carriage of the emperor which he met, until it had pa.s.sed. The police seized him; his sleigh and horses were confiscated. He was placed in close confinement for a month, and then, after receiving fifty blows from the terrible knout, was delivered to his friends a mangled form, barely alive.

A young lady, by some accident, had not thrown herself upon her knees quick enough at the appearance of the imperial carriage in the streets of Moscow. She was an orphan and resided with an aunt. They were both imprisoned for a month and fed upon bread and water; the young lady for failing in respect to the emperor, and the aunt for not having better instructed her niece. How strange is this power of despotism, by which one madman compels forty millions of people to tremble before him!

One of the freaks of this crazy prince was to court-martial his horse.

The n.o.ble steed had tripped beneath his rider. A council was convened, composed of the equerries of the palace. The horse was proved guilty of failing in respect to his majesty, and was condemned to receive fifty blows from a heavy whip. Paul stood by, as the sentence was executed, counting off the blows.[24]

[Footnote 24: Memoires Secret, tome i., page 334.]

Twelve Polish gentlemen were condemned, for being "wanting in respect to his majesty," to have their noses and ears cut off, and were then sent to perpetual Siberian exile. When any one was admitted to an audience with the tzar, it was necessary for him to fall upon his knees so suddenly and heavily that his bones would ring upon the floor like the b.u.t.t of a musket. No gentle genuflexion satisfied the tzar. A prince Gallatin was imprisoned for "kneeling and kissing the emperor's hand too negligently." This contempt for humanity soon rendered Paul very unpopular. He well knew that his legitimacy was doubted, and that if an illegitimate child he had no right whatever to the throne. He seemed to wish to prove that he was the son of Peter III. by imitating all the silly and cruel caprices of that most contemptible prince.

The French Revolution was now in progress, the crushed people of that kingdom endeavoring to throw off the yoke of intolerable oppression.

All the despots in Europe were alarmed lest popular liberty in France should undermine their thrones. None were more alarmed than Paul. He was so fearful that democratic ideas might enter his kingdom that he forbade the introduction into his realms of any French journal or pamphlet. All Frenchmen in his kingdom were also ordered immediately to depart. All s.h.i.+ps arriving were searched and if any French subjects were on board, men or women, they were not permitted to land, but were immediately sent out of the kingdom. Merchants, who had left their families and their business for a temporary absence, were not permitted again to set foot in the kingdom. The suffering which this cruel edict occasioned was very great.

Day after day new decrees were issued, of ever increasing violence.

The tzar became suspicious of all strangers of whatever nation, and endeavored to rear a wall of separation around his whole kingdom which should exclude it from all intercourse with other parts of Europe. The German universities were all declared to be tainted with superst.i.tion, and all Russians were prohibited, under penalty of the confiscation of their estates, from sending their sons to those inst.i.tutions. No foreigner, of whatever nation, was allowed to take part in any civil or ecclesiastical service. The young Russians who were already in the German universities, were commanded immediately to return to their homes.

Apprehensive that knowledge itself, by whomsoever communicated, might make the people restless under their enormous wrongs, Paul suppressed nearly all the schools which had been founded by Catharine II., reserving only a few to communicate instruction in the military art.

All books, but those issued under the surveillance of the government, were interdicted. The greatest efforts were made to draw a broad line of distinction between the people and the n.o.bles, and to place a barrier there which no plebeian could pa.s.s. Some one informed Paul that in France the revolutionists wore the chapeau, or three-cornered hat, with one of the corners in front. The tzar immediately issued a decree that in Russia the hat should be worn with the corner behind.

We have said that Paul was bitterly hostile to all foreigners. The emigrants, however, who fled from France, with arms in their hands, imploring the courts of Europe to crush republican liberty in France, he welcomed with the greatest cordiality and loaded with favors. The princes and n.o.bles of the French court received from Paul large pensions, while, at the same time, he ign.o.bly made them feel that he was their master and they were his slaves. His dread of French liberty was so great, that with all his soul he entered into the wide-spread European coalition which the genius of Pitt had organized against France, and which embraced even Turkey. And now for the first time the spectacle was seen of the Russian and Turkish squadrons combining against a common foe. Paul sent an army of one hundred thousand men to cooperate with the allies. Republican France gathered up her energies to resist Europe in arms. The young Napoleon, heading a heroic band of half-famished soldiers, turned the Alps and fell like a thunderbolt into the Austrian camp upon the plains of Italy. In a series of victories which astounded the world he swept the foe before him, and compelled the Austrians to sue for peace. The emba.s.sadors of France and Germany met at Rastadt, in congress, and after spending many months in negotiations, the congress was dissolved by the Emperor of Germany, in April, 1799. The French emba.s.sadors set out to return, and were less than a quarter of a mile from the city, when a troop of Austrian hussars fell upon them, and two of their number, Roberjeot and Bonnier, were treacherously a.s.sa.s.sinated. The third, Delry, though left for dead, revived so far as to be able, covered with wounds and blood, to crawl back to Rastadt.[25]

[Footnote 25: "Our plenipotentiaries were ma.s.sacred at Rastadt, and notwithstanding the indignation expressed by all France at that atrocity, vengeance was still very tardy in overtaking the a.s.sa.s.sins.

The two Councils were the first to render a melancholy tribute of honor to the victims. Who that saw that ceremony ever forgot its solemnity? Who can recollect without emotion the religious silence which reigned throughout the hall and galleries when the vote was put?

The president then turned towards the curule chairs of the victims, on which lay the official costume of the a.s.sa.s.sinated representatives, covered with black c.r.a.pe, bent over them, p.r.o.nounced the names of Roberjeot and Bonnier, and added, in a voice, the tone of which was always thrilling, _a.s.sa.s.sinated at the Congress of Rastadt_.

Immediately all the representatives responded, _May their blood be upon the heads of their murderers_."--_d.u.c.h.ess of Abrantes_, p. 206.]

Napoleon was at this time in Egypt, endeavoring to a.s.sail England, the most formidable foe of France, in India, the only vulnerable point which could be reached. Fifty thousand Russians, in a single band, were marching through Germany to cooperate with the Austrians on the French frontiers. The more polished Germans were astonished at the barbaric character of their allies. A Russian officer, in a freak of pa.s.sion, shot an Austrian postilion, and then took out his purse and enquired of the employer of the postilion what damage was to be paid, as coolly as if he had merely killed a horse or a cow. Even German law was compelled to wink at such outrages, for an ally so essential as Russia it was needful to conciliate at all hazards. Paul deemed himself the most ill.u.s.trious monarch of Europe, and resolved that none but a Russian general should lead the allied armies. The Germans, on the contrary, regarded the Russians as barbarians of wolfish courage and gigantic strength, but far too ignorant of military science to be entrusted with the plan of a campaign. After much contention the Emperor of Austria was compelled to yield, and an old Russian general, Suwarrow, was placed in command of the armies of the two most powerful empires then on the globe.