1718.

These Proceedings of the Czar to stifle the Rumours of the Publick, and his going fo far as to infringe the Law of Nations on that Account, was not quite agreeable to that Greatnefs of Mind which he had for the moft Part fhewn on other Occafions; but we are to confider how tender an Affair this was, and how much more it concerned him to justify his Conduct with regard to a Son and Heir to his Crown than any other Subject. It will not be abfolutely neceffary to enter into a particular Detail of all the Proceedings against every Accomplice in this Confpiracy; but the Difcovery being made by Steps from one to the other, at length appeared a large and frightful Lift of thofe who had engaged in the horrid Design of deftroying the great Peter, and in an Inftant overthrowing the glorious Labours of his whole Reign. Perfons were embarked in it of all Degrees, of every Age and Sex; and the Czar gave them all up to the Severity of the Law; fome were rack'd, fome beheaded, others hanged, and many were impaled alive. Those who were not condemned to Death, received the Knout, and the Batoags; and not a few were banifhed into Siberia for the miserable Remainder of their Days. The Prince and General Dolgoruki having been deprived of the Order of the Elephant, it was remitted back to the Court of Denmark, and he himself fent into Exile to Cafan; but before he departed, he obtained an Audience from the Czarina to take his Leave of her, and endeavoured, in a very moving Speech, to juftify himself from the Crimes laid to his Charge; and at the fame Time told her, he had nothing left in the World but the

Clothes

Clothes upon his Back. Her Majefty gave him a favourable Hearing, and afterwards fent him a Prefent of two hundred Ducats. He left Petersburgh in a fhabby black Coat, with a long Beard, and every Way in a mean Condition, to end his Days on the Estate of the rich Stroginof near Cafan, from which Province, about the fame Time, returned Count Renchild, the Swedish General, after having been nine Years a Prisoner of War, being taken at the famous Battle of Pultowa. He was conducted to Abo in Finland, there to be exchanged for the two Ruffian Generals, Gollowin and Trubetskoy, taken Prifoners in the Battle of Narva, in the Year 1702.

As to the divorced Czarina, Mother of the unhappy Czarewitz, and the Princess Mary Alexowna, his Majefty's half Sifter, they were both clofely confined; the firft in the Caftle of Sleutelbourg, formerly Notebourg, where no one was permitted to speak to her, and even her Food was conveyed to her thro' a Hole in the Wall. And the other was fhut up in a Monastery on the Banks of the Lake Ladoga.

The End of the First Book.

1718.

THE

THE

HISTORY

OF

PETER I.

CZAR of Muscovy.

BOOK II.

The CONTENTS.

The Negotiations of the Congress of Aland. The Death of the King of Sweden. The Execution of Baron Gortz. The Czar expoftulates with the King of Poland for entering into a Treaty with the Emperor and the King of Great-Britain. King Auguftus's Answer. The Alterations

made in the Affairs of the North by the Death of the King of Sweden. The Lord Carteret's Memorial delivered to the Queen of Sweden. Sir John Norris arrives in the Baltick. The VOL. III.

K

Czar's

1718.

Czar's Defcent into Sweden. Commits great Hoftilities there. His Minifter's Memorial to the King of Great Britain. The Anfwer to it. Banishes the Jefuits his Dominions. Sets up Affemblies at Petersburgh. Falls dangerously ill, and recovers.

T

HE Grand Inquifition being finished, which related to the Disorders within his own Dominions, his Czarish Majefty had now Leisure to pursue what was proper to be done with regard to his foreign Affairs, and to attend to the Conferences which his Minifters and thofe of Sweden had begun at Abo, but which, as was faid before, had been transferred to the Island of Aland, where the King of Sweden had ordered commodious Apartments to be built for the Plenipotentiaries. Baron Gortz, leaving Count Gyllembourg here, went to the King of Sweden to know his laft Intentions, and returned to Aland, in the Month of August.

His Czarish Majefty was then with his Fleet at Hangoe, from whence he went to Abo, to be nearer to the Negotiations, and to influence them the more. The Minifters of the Northern Allies, who had followed the Czar to Revel, were obliged to remain there; only Baron Mardefeld, his Pruffian Majefty's Envoy, was permitted to go to Abo. All the Inftances made by their Britannick, Danish, and Polish Majefties Minifters, for obtaining the fame Permiffion, were in vain.

It was agreed that Baron Gortz, should return once more to the King of Sweden, to procure his Approbation of the Plans of Peace pre

pared