THE ECCENTRICITIES OF PETER 111 OF RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 50

THE ECCENTRICITIES OF PETER 111 OF RUSSIA.

It is January 1744, and the Commandant j of Stettin, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst zu Darn- j burg, is keeping New Year festivities at bis castle o£ Z^rb&t, when suddenly couriers from Barlic, courier* from Sc. Petersburg, throw everyone into wild commotion. For the Tsarina Elizabeth, casting' about for a wife for her nephew, the young Grand Duke Peter t>% Holstein, nominated heir-presumptive to all tho Boeaias, has accepted advice from Frederick, soon to become " tha Great." She is formally desirous of a visit from the Princess of Zerbst and her daughter, SophieJJredorika, now 15 years of age, and already noticeable for her good looks and good sense. Not a moment is to be lost. So eastward, northward, the sleighs hurry them through the whita leagues of snow, to arrive within felx weeks at the Russian Court, cow established in Moscow. With little state or ceremoney, nevertheless, for the princely house of Zerbst is poor as it is ancient ; Sophie's wardrobe, she informs us herself, consists just of three, or it may be four, dresses, with 12 chemises. For here begins that singular autobiography — an unauthentioated fragment, it is trua, but a Belf- portraiture convincing as any in literature. At Moscow they made the best of impressions; the Tsarina was graciousness itself, and within 18 months the 'young Princess had been received into the Greek Church as Catharine, and married to the Grand Duke, himself only 17 years old. Bat already she had learnt s not to expeot happiness. Ha was, it we believe the Recounts of him, senseless and boorish in the extreme. Certainly be did not pretend to the least affection for Catharine. A few days after her arrival he had confided to her, " as his cousin," that he wat ardently In love with one of the maids of honour; since, however, the Empress desired It, he had resigned himself, and was willing to marry her instead. She was forced, acoording to her assertion, to listen to confidences of a like nature during m&uy years. His puerilities and eccentricities we are told, amounted almoat to xuadneM. aw was fond

of drilling dogs and tin soldiers, together with his disgusted suite. But; like everyone else about the Court;, he lived in terror of the strong-willed, strongdrinking Tsarina. His kennel must be kept a secret, and was accordingly located in his wife's bedroom. He would spend hours indoors, cracking whips or emitting weird sounds on musical instruments. At night, after Madame Tchoglokof, who was charged with the surveillance of the grand ducal menage, had retired, under the Impression that she had looked everyone up safely, he would call for lights again, like a schoolboy, and make Catharine and her attendants play with marionettes on the counterpane till 1, 2, 3 o'clook in the morning. He had been more or less drunk, to credit' his enemies, since the age of 10 ; and Catharine declares be had a mortal aversion to the bath, which it seems was then a Russian, not a German observance. When ordered by the Empress to take one as penance during Lent, he replied that it waa repugnant to his moral nature and unsuited to his physical constitution : nothing, he said, but the moßt vital considerations could induce him to risk the Empress's displeasure, but he was not prepared to die ; and life was dearer to him than her Majesty's approbation. Both were obstinate, and the dispute led to the most; terrific outburst of rage on tbe part of the Tsarina that Catharine had yet witnessed. On another occasion his wife discovered him presiding over a court-martial in full regimentals, with a large rat in the centre of the room, wbich had just been suspended with all the formalities of a military execution. It appeared that the unfortunate beast had transgressed the laws of war; it had climbed the ramparts of a cardboard fortress, and had actually eaten two pith sentries on duty at the bastions. IS was to be exposed to the public view as an example during ' thr«e days following 1

Catharine, unluckily, wa> so lost to the fitness of things as to betray open merriment. The Grand Duke was furious ; and she had to retire, excusing herself with difficulty on account of her ignorance of military discipline. The affair sensibly aggravated the estrangement between them. — Extract from " The Emprcs* Catharine II," by W. Knox Johnson, in the Fortnisrhtlv Raview.