ccount of her sufferings, in both
body and mind, on the occasion of the birth of her child.

"As for me," she writes, "I did nothing but weep and moan in my bed. I
neither could or would see anybody, I felt so miserable. I buried
myself in my bed, where I did nothing but grieve. When the forty days
of my confinement were over, the empress came a second time into my
chamber. My child was brought into my room; it was the first time I
had seen him since his birth."

One day Peter brought into his wife's room, for her amusement, a
letter which he had just received from one of his mistresses, Madame
Teploff. Showing the letter to Catharine, he said,

"Only think! she writes me a letter of four whole pages, and expects
that I should read it, and, what is more, answer it also; I, who have
to go to parade, then dine, then attend the rehearsal of an opera, and
the ballet which the cadets will dance at. I will tell her plainly
that I have not time, and, if she is vexed, I will quarrel with her
till next winter."

"That will certainly be the shortest way," Catharine coolly replied.
"These traits," she very truly adds in her narrative, "are
characteristic, and they will not therefore be out of place."

Such was the man and such the woman who succeeded to the throne of
Russia upon the death of the Empress Elizabeth. She had hardly emitted
her last breath, ere the courtiers, impatiently awaiting the event,
rushed to the apartments of the grand duke to congratulate him upon
his accession to the crown. He immediately mounted on horseback and
traversed the streets of St. Petersburg, scattering money among the
crowd. The soldiers gathered around him exclaiming, "Take care of us
and we will take care of you," Though the grand duke had been very
unpopular there was no outburst of opposition. The only claim Peter
III. had to the confidence of the nation was the fact that he was
grandson of Peter the Great. Conspiracies were, however, immediately
set on foot to eject him from the throne and give Catharine his seat.
Catharine had a high reputation for talent, and being very
affectionate in her disposition and cordial in her manners, had troops
of friends. Indeed, it is not strange that public sentiment should not
only have extenuated her faults, but should almost have applauded
them. Forgetting the commandments of God, and only remembering that
her brutal husband richly merited retaliation, the public almost
applauded the spirit with wh