e cards, pretended to shuffle them, and
gave them to the first comer to cut. She had the pleasure of seeing her
bank broken at the first deal, and indeed this result was to be expected,
as anybody not an absolute idiot could see how the cards were going. The
next day the empress set out for Mitau, where triumphal arches were
erected in her honour. They were made of wood, as stone is scarce in
Poland, and indeed there would not have been time to build stone arches.

The day after her arrival great alarm prevailed, for news came that a
revolution was ready to burst out at St. Petersburg, and some even said
that it had begun. The rebels wished to have forth from his prison the
hapless Ivan Ivanovitz, who had been proclaimed emperor in his cradle,
and dethroned by Elizabeth Petrovna. Two officers to whom the
guardianship of the prince had been confided had killed the poor innocent
monarch when they saw that they would be overpowered.

The assassination of the innocent prince created such a sensation that
the wary Panin, fearing for the results, sent courier after courier to
the empress urging her to return to St. Petersburg and shew herself to
the people.

Catherine was thus obliged to leave Mitau twenty-four hours after she had
entered it, and after hastening back to the capital she arrived only to
find that the excitement had entirely subsided. For politic reasons the
assassins of the wretched Ivan were rewarded, and the bold man who had
endeavoured to rise by her fall was beheaded.

The report ran that Catherine had concerted the whole affair with the
assassins, but this was speedily set down as a calumny. The czarina was
strong-minded, but neither cruel nor perfidious. When I saw her at Riga
she was thirty-five, and had reigned two years. She was not precisely
handsome, but nevertheless her appearance was pleasing, her expression
kindly, and there was about her an air of calm and tranquillity which
never left her.

At about the same time a friend of Baron de St. Heleine arrived from St.
Petersburg on his way to Warsaw. His name was Marquis Dragon, but he
called himself d'Aragon. He came from Naples, was a great gamester, a
skilled swordsman, and was always ready to extract himself from a
difficulty by a duel. He had left St. Petersburg because the Orloffs had
persuaded the empress to prohibit games of chance. It was thought strange
that the prohibition should come from the Orloffs, as gaming had been
their principa