E° ° K and Boris Galitzin, were notorious for their intemperance.
— Le Fort,” fays a writer, who was in Livonia when the tzar
and his fuite paffed through that country in his firft journey
to Holland, “ is a man of a good underftanding ; very per-
“ fonable, engaging, and entertaining; a true Swifs for pro-
“ bity and bravery, but chiefly fo r drinking.. Open tables
“ are kept every where with trumpets and mufick, attended
•“ with feafting and exceffive drinking, as if his tzarifh ma-
“ jefty had been another Bacchus. I have not yet feen fuch
“ hard drinkers; it is not poffible to exprels it, and they
“ boaft of it as a mighty qualification
Thus then it appears that Peter had examples of intemperance
in his own houihold, and it will hardly be fuppofed
that Le Fort was the creature of Sophia. The evident falfe-
hood of fuch virulent accufations ihould induce us not to
give credit to other calumnies, and particularly to the charge
that file attempted to deftroy Peter by poifon, which, though
it failed of its intended effedt, difordered his conftitution, and
occafionally produced a fpecies of melancholy and defpair
that bordered upon madnefs. This report took its rife
from his pronenefs to epileptic fits, a diforder common in his
family, to which he was fubjedt from his infancy, which
gradually diminifhed as he grew ftronger, but never entirely
forfook him. Previous to an attack, the natural vehemence
and favagenefs of his temper broke out with redoubled violence,
and rendered him the terror of all who approached
him. The rancour with which the enemies of Sophia have
calumniated her memory, is from no inlfance more evident
than from this abfurd imputation, that the brutal ferocity
* Account o f Livonia, p . 293.
and
and fanguinary difpofition of Peter was owing to the effedts c h a p .
•of .poifon adminiitered by her *. r . YItI- .
But it is time to trace the principal caufes which contributed
to the fall and imprifonment of Sophia. That prin-
•cefs, to whom Ivan had furrendered the abfolute diredtion
■of affairs, affumed fome exterior marks of homage, which
feem to have been hitherto appropriated only to the fove-
reigns of Ruflia. While the heads of her two brothers were
impreffed on one fide of the coins, her image, arrayed with
the crown, foeptre, and imperial robes, was damped upon
the reverfe,; -in all the public adts her name was added to
the fignature of the two tzars f, and fire appeared in procédions
decorated with all the enfigns of royalty % : circum-
ftances which naturally gave umbrage to the rival family,
and afforded a fpecious pretence for inveighing againft her
ambitious.defigns.
Peter, as he advanced in years and felt himfelf born for
empire, could not, without great diffatisfadiion behold all
- “ Il prerioit quelquefois ties actes £t chaient, aïant caufé dit on quelques ma1-
d humeur chagrine, ou il femblait frappé - h e u r s , et -étant fuivi de maux Je the
r de 1 idée noire qu’on voulait attenter à fa “ affreux, qui Juraient Jet journées entières '; '
■perfonne,-et nu fes amis les plus familiers Baflevitz iu Buf. H. M .’IX .p . 294.
^craignaient fes einportemens. C e s a c c è s • Strange eftefts o f poifon given in his iq. -
E t a i e n t h r e s t e f a t a l d u p o i s o n , f h n e y . ' Th'ofe w h o have been ufed to fée
“ ‘Qj i i l r e ç u t d e s o n a m b i t i e u s e s o e u r perfons in epileptic fits, will eafily difcover
“ S o p h i e . On en connaiifait l ’approche à all the effedts o f that diforder from the
| ‘ certains mouveniens c o n v id ffs tie J'a io v ch e . words in Italics, Bifliop Burnet fays, “ that
* L Impératrice était avertie. Elle venait “ he was fubjèét to convulfive motions all
“ lui parler j le fon de cette voix le calm.iit «.over his body, and that his head feemed
“ à I’ inftant. Elle le.faïlaït afleoir, et s’éra- ♦« to be afte&ed with thefe-.”
^ parait en le cajolant de fa tête, qu’elle . f She did not fign her name in the pub-
J grattait doucement. ' C ’ était comme' un 'lie decrees until 16S7. Buf. 'Hilï JNÏàg.
“ 'oharme, qui -fajfoupijfak en pep 'de mi- V.. I. p. 9. - ;■ :
^ nutes. Pour ne pas troubler ion j'otn/nei'l, | Thefe circumftances cadnot imply a
(( e^e £°ufcnait fa tête fur Ion fein, fans fe de fign o f ufurping the fctvereign authority--;
u ^müer Jeux ou trois heures* Alors for ihe was only accufed even by her ene-
'H rl fe/éveillait, entièrement raffis et rémis mies -of feCretly confpiring againft Peter
^ au lieu qu’avant qu’elle eût étudié cette and not o f an open attempt to ïeize tfrê
manière fi fimple de le foulager, ces accès crown-,
étaient la-terreur de ceux qui l ’ appro