eatest state of alarm. But her courage did not, for
one moment, forsake her.

"Why are you alarmed?" said she. "Think you that I fear to face this
danger; or rather do you apprehend that I know not how to overcome it?
Recollect that you have seen me, in moments far more terrible than
these, in full possession of all the vigor of my mind; and that I can
support the most cruel reverses of fortune with as much serenity as I
have supported her favors. Think you that a few mutinous soldiers are
to deprive me of a crown that I accepted with reluctance, and only as
the means of delivering the Russian nation from their miseries? They
cause me no alarm. That Providence which has called me to reign, will
preserve me for the glory and the happiness of the empire. That
almighty arm which has hitherto been my defense will now confound my
foes!"

The revolt was speedily quelled. The celebrity of her administration
soon resounded from one end of Europe to the other. She presided over
the senate; assisted at all the deliberations of the council; read the
dispatches of the embassadors; wrote, with her own hand, or dictated
the answers, and watched carefully to see that all her orders were
faithfully executed. She studied the lives of the most distinguished
men, and was emulous of the renown of those who had been friends and
benefactors of the human race. There has seldom been a sovereign on
any throne more assiduously devoted to the cares of empire than was
Catharine II. In one of her first manifestoes, issued the 10th of
August of this year, she uttered the words, which her conduct proved
to be essentially true,

"Not only all that we have or may have, but also our life itself, we
have devoted to our dear country. We value nothing on our own account.
We serve not ourself. But we labor with all pains, with all diligence
and care for the glory and happiness of our people."

Catharine found corruption and bribery everywhere, and she engaged in
the work of reform with the energies of Hercules in cleansing the
Augean stables. She abolished, indignantly the custom, which had
existed for ages, of attempting to extort confession of crime by
torture. It is one of the marvels of human depravity that intelligent
minds could have been so imbruted as to tolerate, for a day, so
fiend-like a wrong. The whole system of inquisitorial investigations,
in both Church and State, was utterly abrogated. Foreigners were
invited to settle in the empire. T