ich she conducted her intrigues. The same
sentiment pervaded England when the miserable George IV. goaded his
wife to frenzy, and led her, in uncontrollable exasperation, to pay
him back in his own coin.

Fortunately for the imbecile Peter, he had enough sense to appreciate
the abilities of Catharine; and a sort of maudlin idea of justice, if
it were not, perhaps, utter stupidity, dissuaded him from resenting
her freedom in the choice of favorites. Upon commencing his reign, he
yielded himself to the guidance of her imperial mind, hoping to obtain
some dignity by the renown which her measures might reflect upon him.
Catharine advised him very wisely. She caused seventeen thousand
exiles to be recalled from Siberia, and abolished the odious secret
court of chancery--that court of political inquisition which, for
years, had kept all Russia trembling.

For a time, Russia resounded with the praises of the new sovereign,
and when Peter III. entered the senate and read an act permitting the
nobility to bear arms, or not, at their own discretion, and to visit
foreign countries whenever they pleased, a privilege which they had
not enjoyed before, the gratitude of the nobles was unbounded. It
should, however, be recorded that this edict proved to be but a dead
letter. It was expected that the nobles, as a matter of courtesy,
should always ask permission to leave, and this request was frequently
not granted. The secret tribunal, to which we have referred, exposed
persons of all ranks and both sexes to be arrested upon the slightest
suspicion. The accused was exposed to the most horrible tortures to
compel a confession. When every bone was broken and every joint
dislocated, and his body was mangled by the crushing wheel, if he
still had endurance to persist in his denial, the accuser was, in his
turn, placed upon the wheel, and every nerve of agony was tortured to
force a recantation of the charge.

Though Peter III. promulgated the wise edicts which were placed in his
hands, he had become so thoroughly imbruted by his dissolute life that
he made no attempt to tear himself away from his mistresses and his
drunken orgies.

Peter III. was quite infatuated in his admiration of Frederic of
Prussia. One of his first acts upon attaining the reins of government
was to dispatch an order forbidding the Russian armies any longer to
cooeperate with Austria against Prussia. This command was speedily
followed by another, directing the Rus