arded courtiers, and this entirely reconciled me to a change of
scene which, indeed, under any other circumstances, my somewhat morbid
love for action and variety would have induced me rather to relish than
dislike.

Within thirty-six hours from the time of dismissal, I had turned my back
upon the French capital.

CHAPTER VI.

A LONG INTERVAL OF YEARS.--A CHANGE OF MIND AND ITS CAUSES.

THE last accounts received of the Czar reported him to be at Dantzic. He
had, however, quitted that place when I arrived there. I lost no time
in following him, and presented myself to his Majesty one day after
his dinner, when he was sitting with one leg in the Czarina's lap and a
bottle of the best _eau de vie_ before him. I had chosen my time well;
he received me most graciously, read my letter from the Regent--about
which, remembering the fate of Bellerophon, I had had certain
apprehensions, but which proved to be in the highest degree
complimentary--and then declared himself extremely happy to see me
again. However parsimonious Peter generally was towards foreigners, I
never had ground for personal complaint on that score. The very next day
I was appointed to a post of honour and profit about the royal person;
from this I was transferred to a military station, in which I rose
with great rapidity; and I was only occasionally called from my
warlike duties to be intrusted with diplomatic missions of the highest
confidence and importance.

It is this portion of my life--a portion of nine years to the time of
the Czar's death--that I shall, in this history, the most concentrate
and condense. In truth, were I to dwell upon it at length, I should make
little more than a mere record of political events; differing, in some
respects, it is true, from the received histories of the time, but
containing nothing to compensate in utility for the want of interest.
That this was the exact age for adventurers, Alberoni and Dubois are
sufficient proofs. Never was there a more stirring, active, restless
period; never one in which the genius of intrigue was so pervadingly at
work. I was not less fortunate than my brethren. Although scarcely four
and twenty when I entered the Czar's service, my habits of intimacy with
men much older; my customary gravity, reserve, and thought; my freedom,
since Isora's death, from youthful levity or excess; my early entrance
into the world; and a countenance prematurely marked with the lines of
reflection and s