her, in the fit temper for playing at sharps. She has spoken a
little, wept a little, to the Guards (still only half-dressed, many of
them): "Holy religion, Russian Empire thrown at the feet of Prussia; my
poor Son to be disinherited: Alack, ohoo!" Whereupon the Guards (their
Officers already gained by Orlof) have indignantly blazed up into the
fit Hurra-hurra-ing:--and here, since about 9 A.M., we have just been in
the "Church of St. Mary of Casan" ("Oh, my friends, Orthodox Religion,
first of all!") doing TE-DEUMS and the other Divine Offices, for the
thrice-happy Revolution and Deliverance now vouchsafed us and you! And
the Herr Doctor, under outburst of the chimes of St. Mary, and of the
jubilant Soldieries and Populations, sees the Czarina saluting to right
and left; and Priests, with their assistants and crucifixes ("Behold
them, ye Orthodox; is there anything equal to true Religion?"), walking
before her Hackney Coach.

"On the one step of her Coach," continues the Herr Doctor, "stood
Grigorei Grigorjewitsh Orlow," so he spells him, "and in front of
it, with drawn sword, rode the Field-marshal and Hetman Count
Kirila Grigorjewitsh Rasomowski, Colonel of the Ismailow Guard.
Lieutenant-General (soon to be General-Ordnance-Master) Villebois came
galloping up; leapt from his horse under our windows, and placed himself
on the other step of the Coach. The procession passed before our house;
going first to the New stone Palace, then to the Old wooden Winter
Palace. Common Russians shouted mockingly up to us, 'Your god [meaning
the Czar] is dead!' And others, 'He is gone; we will have no more of
him!'"--

About this hour of the day, at Oranienbaum (ORANGE-TREE, some twenty
miles from here, and from Peterhof guess ten or twelve), Czar Peter is
drilling zealously his brave Holsteiners (2,000 or more, "the flower of
all my troops"); and has not, for hours after, the least inkling of all
this. Catharine had been across to visit him on Wednesday, no farther
back; and had kindled Oranienbaum into opera, into illumination and
what not. Thursday (yesterday), Czar and Czarina met at some Grandee's
festivity, who lives between their two Residences. This day the Czar
is appointed for Peterhof; to-morrow, July 10th (Peter-and-Paul's
grand Holiday), Czar, Czarina and united Court were to have done the
Festivities together there,--with Czarina's powder-mine of Plot laid
under them; which latter has exploded one day sooner, in the pre