discreet and unpretending in his manners and
demeanor, if the accounts which have come down to us respecting him are
correct, that the high favor in which he was held by the emperor did not
awaken in the hearts of the native nobles of the land any considerable
degree of that jealousy and ill-will which they might have been expected
to excite. Le Fort was of a very self-sacrificing and disinterested
disposition. He was generous in his dealings with all, and he often
exerted the ascendency which he had acquired over the mind of the emperor
to save other officers from undeserved or excessive punishment when they
displeased their august master; for it must be confessed that Peter,
notwithstanding all the excellences of his character, had the reputation
at this period of his life of being hasty and passionate. He was very
impatient of contradiction, and he could not tolerate any species of
opposition to his wishes. Being possessed himself of great decision of
character, and delighting, as he did, in promptness and energy of action,
he lost all patience sometimes, when annoyed by the delays, or the
hesitation, or the inefficiency of others, who were not so richly endowed
by nature as himself. In these cases he was often unreasonable, and
sometimes violent; and he would in many instances have acted in an
ungenerous and cruel manner if Le Fort had not always been at hand to
restrain and appease him.

Le Fort always acted as intercessor in cases of difficulty of this sort;
so that the Russian noblemen, or boyars as they were called, in the end
looked upon him as their father. It is said that he actually saved the
lives of great numbers of them, whom Peter, without his intercession,
would have sentenced to death. Others he saved from the knout, and
others from banishment. At one time, when the emperor in a passion, was
going to cause one of his officers to be scourged, although, as Le Fort
thought, he had been guilty of no wrong which could deserve such a
punishment, Le Fort, after all other means had failed, bared his own
breast and shoulders, and bade the angry emperor to strike or cut there
if he would, but to spare the innocent person. The Czar was entirely
overcome by this noble generosity, and, clasping Le Fort in his arms,
thanked him for his interposition, at the same time allowing the
trembling prisoner to depart in peace, with his heart full of gratitude
toward the friend who had so nobly saved him.

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