fter having therefore seriously reflected
thereon, I declare, without constraint, and in the most solemn manner,
to the Russian empire and to the whole universe, that I for ever
renounce the government of the said empire, never desiring hereafter
to reign therein, either as an absolute sovereign, or under any other
form of government; never wishing to aspire thereto, or to use any
means, of any sort, for that purpose. As a pledge of which I swear
sincerely before God and all the world to this present renunciation,
written and signed this 29th day of June, O.S. 1762."[18]

[Footnote 18: By the Gregorian Calendar or New Style, adopted by Pope
Gregory XIII. in 1582, ten days were dropped after the 4th of October,
and the 5th was reckoned as the 15th. Thus the 29th of June, O.S.
would be July 8, N.S.]

Peter III., having placed this abdication in the hands of Count Panin,
seemed quite serene, fancying himself safe, at least from bodily harm.
In the evening, however, an officer, with a strong escort, came and
conveyed him a prisoner to Ropscha, a small imperial palace about
fifteen miles from Peterhof. Peter, after his disgraceful reign of six
months, was now imprisoned in a palace; and his wife, whom he had
intended to repudiate and probably to behead, was now sovereign
Empress of Russia. In the evening, the thunderings of the cannon upon
the ramparts of St. Petersburg announced the victory of Catharine. She
however slept that night at Peterhof, and in the morning received the
homage of the nobility, who from all quarters flocked around her to
give in their adhesion to her reign.

Field Marshal Munich, who with true fealty had stood by Peter III. to
the last, urging him to unfurl the banner of the tzar and fight
heroically for his crown, appeared with the rest. The noble old man
with an unblushing brow entered the presence of Catharine. As soon as
she perceived him she called aloud,

"Field marshal, it was you, then, who wanted to fight me?"

"Yes, madam," Munich answered, in a manly tone; "could I do less for
the prince who delivered me from captivity? But it is henceforth my
duty to fight for you, and you will find in me a fidelity equal to
that with which I had devoted my services to him."[19]

[Footnote 19: Marshal Munich was eighty-two years of age. Elizabeth
had sent him to Siberian exile. Peter liberated him. Upon his return
to Moscow, after twenty years of exile, he found one son living, and
twenty-two grandc