Six months passed in secret mourning on Feodorowna's part; and her father usually spent his evenings alone after his return from hunting. One night, as he sat half-dreaming over his solitary flaggon, he saw a man standing near his hearth wrapped in a dark red cloak, with a fur cap bordered with jewels, and black velvet mask over his face. The Boyar had as much good sense as any Russian nobleman of that age, and as much courage as any man alone, or with only his flask by his side, can reasonably shew. And probably he owed to his flask the firm ness of his voice when he asked this extraordinary visitor whence he came. The stranger familiarly replied, that he could not answer the question. "Have you no name?"" None, Boyar, fitting you to know!-You have a daughter, desire a wife; and you have only to name the price you claim for her."-The Muscovite blood of Mierenhoff rose at this insolent appeal, and be snatched up the silver whistle by which he usually summoned his attendants. "Sound it, if you will," said the strange visitor, 66 your ser vants will have no ears, and mine have more than an equal number of hands. Mierenhoff!-recollect this badge-" -and as he spoke, he raised his sleeve, and discovered the form of a poignard indented on his arm. At the sight of this brand, which he well knew to be the symbol of the Strelitz confederacy, Mierenhoff bowed his head in terror and silence. The unknown repeated his proposal for a wife, demanding an instant answer. The Boyar, full of astonishment and dismay, endeavoured to evade the demand, by alleging the impossibility of answering so promptly for his daughter. "I understand your fears, Mierenhoff;-your daughter herself shall determine, if I am allowed to speak with her alone one quarter of an hour."-Some more conversation passed which determined Mierenhoff's compliance. The Strelitz, for such he now considered his guest, rose suddenly from his chair. "I do not ask you," he said, "to conduct me to your daughter's apartment-I know where it is situated, and by what means to enter it. Neither do I ask you to wait here patiently till my return. You dare not follow me."-He spoke truth; and had the Boyar dared to follow him, his surprise would not have been lessened by the unhesitating boldness of his steps through the avenues of his house, and the intricate stair-cases that led to Feodorowna's chamber. The young Countess was alone in sorrowful thought when her extraordinary visitor entered. His proposal was made to her in terms nearly as concise as to her father. When she started up to claim help from her servants, he informed her that her father's life and reputation were at his mercy, not less than her own; adding—“ You are no stranger to the vengeance of a Strelitz." Feodorowna shuddered at this allusion to the fate of a man whose widow she considered herself, and his next words convinced her he not only knew the circumstances of Biron's death, but all the secrets of their interviews. In little more than the time he mentioned, he returned to the Boyar's presence, and announced his daughter's assent. It was agreed that the unknown bridegroom should not remove his bride from her father's roof, nor visit it oftener than once in every month, unless she voluntarily consented to accompany him. He farther conditioned, that the priest should be provided by himself, and the ceremony unwitnessed, except by the father of Feodorowna. To these and to any other conditions Mierenhoff would have acceded willingly, hoping to elude or resist them when the day arrived. When the stranger rose to depart, be pointed to a time. piece which ornamented the Boyar's table. I depend on your honour; and if I did not, I know my own power too well to doubt your obedience. Count twenty movements of this minute hand before you quit your seat after I am gone."-So saying, he disappeared, and the father-in-law-elect of this mysterious man remained stupid with consternation and amaze till the period expired. What passed between the father and daughter cannot be explained. If he was surprised at her ready acquiescence, she was no less indignant at his tame surrender of his only child to a ruffian who had demanded her, she supposed, as the seal of some guilty confederacy. But this supposition wronged her father. Cowardly yet not cruel, and ambitious without sufficient craft, the Boyar was only enough advanced into the mysteries of the StreJitz-faction to know that his own danger would be equally great, whether he betrayed the conspirators or the government. This man had passed unopposed among his servants, had learned all the secrets of his house, and must consequently possess means to purchase both. He felt himself surrounded by an invisible chain, and by a mist which magnified while it confused his fears. The Countess Feodorowna, from whom he had expected the most eager questions and piercing complaints, was silent, sullen, and entirely passive. When the next midnight arrived, she sat by her father's side, with her arms folded in her for pelisse, and her loose hair covered with a mourning veil, while the Strelitz entered with a Greek priest. The rites of the Muscovite church were performed without opposition; and the father, with a sudden pang of remorse and horror, as if till then he had believed the marriage would have been prevent. ed by some unknown power, resigned Feodorowna to her husband. She clung to the Boyar, earnestly insisting on his part of the contract, while this mysterious son-in-law professed his faithful respect for all his promises. "Depend on my word," he added; "you will never be removed from your father's house, except to take your seat on the throne of all the Russias." This was the first intimation ever given by him of his expectations or his rank; and certain flattering hopes which had always clung to the Boyar's fancy, seemed on the verge of probability. Perhaps this pretended Stre. litz was the Czar himself, whose fondness for adventure and skill in political intrigue bad induced him to assume the garb and stamp of the confederacy he meant to baffle. Feodorowna was not without ambition, and the diamond bracelet which her new husband placed on her wrist was worthy to bind an Empress's hand. Every month, on the second day of the new moon, he appeared at her father's supper table, and departed before daylight; but by what means he gained in gress and egress was not to be discovered. The servants of the Boyar professed entire ignorance, nor did he venture to prosecute his enquiries very strictly. But his daughter's curiosity was more acute; and notwithstanding the solemn oath imposed on her to for bear from questions, and to respect the mask which covered his face, she resolved on trying the effect of female blandishment. Gradually and by very cautious advances, she tempted the Strelitz to exceed his studied temperance at a supper prepared with unusual care. Her music and her smiles were not wholly without effect, and he suddenly said, "Do you know, Feodore, I had never seen or desired to see you if Biron had not taiked of your beauty with such passionate fondness among my guards? He piqued my fancy, for he seemed to act the part of the English Athelwold to the islandking Edgar, and his fate was not far unlike."-At this allusion to her first busband's affection and tragic end, Feodorowna shrunk in horror, scarcely sup pressed by the secret hope this speech justified. He spoke of his guards, and compared himself to a sovereign prince -The inference was natural, and the pride of her heart increased the beauty of her countenance. He filled another cup of cogniac to the brim, and holding it to her lips, bade her wish health to the Emperor of Russia at the same hour next night. There was a cold and stony dampness in his hand, which did not agree with the purple light in his eyes. He quitted her instantly, for the first cock had crown, and day was breaking: but she resolved that day should end her uncertainty. Dull in intellect and selfish in heart, her father had little claim to her confidence; but his life, perhaps her sovereign's, might be involved in the desperate plots of the Strelitz-faction. She covered herself in a common woollen garment, and a peasant's hood; determining to seek the Emperor in Moscow, and beg a pardon for her husband and her father as the price of her discovery. Thus resolved, and not without hope of a still higher price, she left her chamber unseen, and visited the hut of his Tartar-servant. She asked him whether he dared depart from her father's house, and accompany her to Moscow on foot. The old man answered by filling a wallet with provi sions; and digging up a square stone which lay under his pillow, took three roubles and the emerald ring from beneath it, and put them into his mistress's hand. This is all you have in the world, Usbeck!" said the young Countess, and I may never repay you."-" No, not all," he answered; I have still the axe which split the trees for you when you ate the wild bees' honey."-There needed no farther assurance of his faith to the child of his master. The travellers entered Moscow be fore noon, but the Emperor was absent from his palace. What is your business with him?" asked a man of meagre and muscular figure, who stood iu a plain mechanic's dress near one of the gates. Feodore answered, that she had a petition of great importance to present to him. The stranger pe rused her countenance, and advised her to wait till the captain of the guards appeared." That would avail nothing," said she; "I must see him, and deliver this paper into his own band."-" Why not into mine?" returned the questioner, rudely snatching the paper, and thrusting himself behind the gates: but not so rapidly as to escape a blow levelled at his head by Usbeck. "Keep that blow in mind, my good friend," said the thief, laugh ing—“I shall not forget my part of the debt." And slily twitching the long lock which hung behind Usbeck's ear in the Black Cossack's fashion, he dis appeared. Feodorowna stood resolutely at the gateway of the palace, still expecting to see the Emperor, and determining to communicate all that had happened to herself, her first husband, and her father. Presently the artisan returned again, and laying his hand familiarly on her arm, whispered "The Emperor is in the guard house, follow me!"-There was an expression, an ardent and full authority in his eye, which instantly announced his rank. She was going to kneel, but he prevented her. "Be of good cheer, Feodorowna!-your husband is greater and less than he appears. Return home, and drink the Emperor of Russia's health to-night, as he commanded." Usbeck stood listening anxiously near his mistress; and when she turned to him with a smiling countenance, beckoned her to follow him. But it was too late: a guard of twelve men had drawu up behind, and now surrounded them. They were forcibly separated, and each conveyed to prison, where sentinels, regularly changed, attended till about the eleventh hour of the next day, when two persons in the habit of Russian senators entered, and conducted Feodorowna to another room in the fortress. This room was filled with senators; and a bishop, whose face she recognized, stood near a couch on which a young man sat with silver fetters on his hands. His dress was slovenly and squalid, but his person tall and well-made; his complexion healthfully brown, and his eyes and hair of a brilliant black. Another man, whose form and countenance were entirely muffled, stood behind the groupe, but sufficiently near to direct and observe them. Count Tolstoi, the chief senator, obeyed a glance from his eye; and addressing himself to the manacled prisoner, said, in a low and respectful voice, "Does your highness know this woman?"-He answered in German, and the muffled man gave a signal to the bishop, who approached the couch, and joining the hands of Feodorowna to the prisoner, declared their marriage lawful from that hour, but from that only. Though the face of her husband had been concealed from her during their mysterious intercourse, Feodorowna knew the strong stern voice, the dark hair and eyes, and the perfect symmetry of this unknown prisoner; and her heart smote itself when the letter she had written to the Emperor was read aloud to him. He made no reply, and the witnesses of this strange ceremony laid before him another paper, stating, that finding himself unqualified for government, he disclaimed all right of succession to the crown, acknowledging his brother Peter its iawful heir. He signed it with the same unbending countenance ; and the standers by having each repeated an oath of allegiance to the chosen successor, departed one by one, solemnly bowing their heads to the bishop and the muffled man who stood at his right hand. They with Feodorowna were then left alone in the room until a signal-bell had sounded twice. A man whom she knew to be Field-Marshal Wreyde entered as it tolled the last time, bearing a silver cup and cover. His countenance was frightfully pale, and he staggered like one convulsed or intoxicated. The prisoner fixed his eyes sternly on Feodorowna, and bowing his head to the muffled stranger, took it with an unshaking hand, and emptied it to the last drop. While he held it to his lips, the Bishop opened a long official paper, but the prisoner interrupted him: I have already heard my sentence of death, and know this is its execution." Even as he spoke, the change in his complexion began, and Feodorowna, uttering dismal screams, was forced from his presence. Five days after, she was carried in a covered litter to the church of the Holy Trinity, where a coffin lay in state under a pall of rich gold tissue. Her condactor withdrew into the darkness of the outer aisle, leaving her to contemplate the terrible conclusion of her father's ambitious dreams, and the last scene of bunan greatness. But she was yet uncertain how far the guilt of the detected faction had extended, and whether he who lay under the splendid pall, and had once called himself her husband, was the treacherous Governor of Siberia, Prince Gagarin, or a still more illustrious criminal. There was no name upon the velvet covering of the coffin, no banner, no armorial bearing; and the attendant, seeing the silent and stony stupor of the miserable widow, conducted her compassionately back to the covered litter. It conveyed her to a convent, where, a few hours after her arrival, a white veil was presented to her, with this mandate, bearing the imperial signet of Peter the Great. rible office of his son's judge.+ But even Peter the Great had not hardihood enough to be a public executioner; and his unhappy son, though his senteace might have been justified by the baseness of his habits and associates, was never openly abandoned by his father. His death was ascribed to apoplexy, caused by shame and fear at the reading of his sentence; and the Czar with his Czarina Catherine attended the funeral. Feodorowna died in the convent of Susdale, of which the former Czarina, mother of the Czarowitz, was abbess when he perished; and Usbeck, her faithful servant, easily escaped from the prison of the Emperor, who did not forget his blow. Once on his way from Moscow to Novigorod, attended only by four servants, Peter was stopped by a party of Rasbonicks, and leaping from his sledge with a pistol cocked, demanded to know what they desired. One of the troop replied, he was their lord and master, and ought to supply the wants of his destitute subjects. The Emperor knew Usbeck's voice, and giving him an order for a thousand rubles on the Governor of Novogorod, bade him go and remember how Peter of Russia paid his debts either of honour or of justice, V. The widow of Alexis, Czarowitz of Russia, could enter no asylum less than the most sacred and distinguished convent of the empire. It is not her crime that he instigated foreign sovereigns and Russian renegades to assassinate his father, depose his mother-in-law, and expel his kindred. Neither is it her crime that her father was the dupe To the Editor of the European Magazine. of a faction whose only purpose was to elevate a man fond of the vices of the lowest herd, and therefore fit to be their leader. Nor can a woman bold enough to risk the life of her husband, blame a father whose justice required him to sacrifice his son. He spared him the shame of a public execution, and gave him a title to the tears of a lawful widow." Thus perished Alexis, heir-apparent of the widest empire and the most celebrated sovereign then existing in Europe. The decree that consigned him to death was passed in the senate house of Moscow by all the chief nobility and clergy, the high officers of the army and navy, the governors of provinces and others of interior degree, unanimously, but referring the mode to bis sovereign and father, whose extraordinary character, combining the sternness of a Junius Brutus with the romance of a Haroun Alraschid, enabled him to fulfil the ter SIR, TEW doctrines will be ever read with interest, though at the same time we may deem them incorrect, whilst we possess an inward knowledge of our own inability to confute them; for this alone pronounces a possibility of their being to the contrary. This was, perhaps, the cause of my receiving such pleasure from the "Essay on the Human Temper" in your last, although my ideas upon the subject were so widely *This unfortunate young prince abandoned himself to the lowest society and to brutal intemperance, notwithstanding the careful education bestowed on him. By the intrigues of the Chancellor, Count Golofkin, and his son, he married a princess of Wolfenbuttle, sister to the Emperor of Germany, whose aid he sought in hostilities against his father. She died some time before him, and his body was placed in the royal vault near her's. The trial lasted from the 25th of June till the 6th of July. Alexis expired in convulsions, as an eye * Vide Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, witness has recorded, about five o'clock the captain in Peter's service. next day, different. The human temper, or disposition, possesses such a contrast, and variety of form and feature, that I think we cannot have a better comparison than with the four elements; viz. earth, air, fire, and water. To each one of these I have no doubt but any man can inwardly suit his own disposition. We are all aware, that a meeting of either two of these opposites is sure to create a disagreement; it is evident, therefore, that (as comparison is so exact) the temper of man must act similar. Hatred and friendship are both put forth by will or disposition: it is will that gives man the power to act; without disposition or will there could be no volition. Now if we say disposi tion puts forth hatred to love friendship, we pronounce at once a contradiction; for by that action, hatred is not hatred: this therefore cannot be -two opposites cannot agree. Friendship, we shall also find, will exist where the powers or talents of each are known to be equal, with greater stability and earnestness than where they are contrasted; for the idea of equality des troys at once Envy of superiority or Emulation to gain the mastership, and by this insures peace and harmony: nay, I believe the disposition of man to be so formed, that real friendship cannot exist where the powers and talents are contrasted. This, however, I think, cannot be more clearly proved, than by noticing the first generation of friendship; when I doubt not 1 may venture to say, there are scarce two cases out of ten that do not proceed from a similarity of disposition or concurrence in sentiment. How naturally does the philosopher, astrologer, the theologisi, &c &c. enjoy the company of their respective fellow-students; and why? solely because they are both searching after the same subject, there is a similarity in their dispositions or desires; even so is it through all ranks and degrees of society: when do we find the calm serene mind enjoy the company of the boisterous overbearing dis. position? But you will perhaps say, I am rambling from the subject; the argument was, that " connubial felicity aepends more upon the contrast, than similarity of disposition;" my ideas, however, upon this state are equally the same as upon friendship. We are aware that there is a magnet in all oor actions, and that in the dispositions of two people coming in con tact, the weakest is sure to be led astray. For instance: a niggard and a spendthrift are brought together; it does not regularly follow that they would fall into a medium by seeing the folly of each other's actions: on the contrary, I am almost confident, the chance would be in favour of that disposition which was the most powerful (whether the niggard or spendthrift) attracting the other to its own vortex. Yet still there would be no happiness, for the attempt to gain that disposition (until the mind was entirely changed) would cause opposition, which is ever the source of trouble and uneasiness. But I perceive your ingenious Correspondent has only glanced over the dark side of the question; I would respectfully ask him, whether he supposes there would exist the greatest felicity, between a frugal pair whose dispositions were exactly similar, or between the same if contrasted. It is a generally received doctrine (and in my humble opinion a true one), that we consider our own dispositions the best, and that which we deem well in ourselves we shall love in others. And here I may observe, the answer to all argument upon connubial felicity is—a similarity of good disposition. Manchester, July 5, 1820. H. B. P. For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. A TALE FROM THE FRENCH. ADEMOISELLE --. Mout of the convent in which she had been educated from her infancy, and given in marriage to a young lawyer, a magistrate of the province of He was a man possessing much merit; and it being the first time Mademoiselle was ever addressed in the tender way, she loved him most pas sionately, and on the other hand was not sorry to find her passion returned with the utmost ardour, which was not a little strengthened by her filial attentions to her father, who being aged and infirm, was loth to part with her, till she bad closed his eyes. The old gentleman lived in his chateau about six miles from the city. Thither the young lawyer went daily; but as such short visits were inimical to the sentiments each felt for the other, she frequently returned them in town. |