United States or French Polynesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And so the summer passed away. A winter campaign became inevitable, and the abyss which Peter's unerring eye had scanned began to gape. It was not till June that Charles XII left Radoshkovitse, and marched eastward to Borisov, where he crossed the Berezina. Menshikoff and Sheremetief made an attempt to stop him, on July 3d, as he was crossing a small river called the Bibitch, near Holovtchin.
All Rehnskold did was to rage and swear at everyone. Peter, meanwhile, neglected nothing likely to insure success. This stratagem, however, completely failed. In the very beginning of the battle, Rehnskold fell on the regiment, and cut it to pieces. The Russian centre was confided to Sheremetief, the right wing to General Ronne, the left to Menshikoff.
He described his impressions in a letter to Menshikoff, dated from "Paradise," and declared it was "extremely amusing." It may be doubted whether he found many persons to share his delight. Communications with the town, now rendered easy by railways, were in those days not only difficult, but dangerous. Campredon, when he went from Moscow to St.
Already in November, 1703, a longed-for guest had appeared in the mouth of the Neva, a foreign trading-vessel laden with brandy and salt. Menshikoff, the Governor of Piterburg, entertained the captain at a banquet, and presented him with five hundred florins for himself, and thirty crowns for each of his sailors.
Then a door opened, and a woman entered with a little child on her arm. When the child saw its father prostrate with his neck stretched out, it began to scream. The Czar paused, quieted down, went to the woman, and accosted her. "Be easy, mother; no mischief is going on; we are only playing at sailors." Then he turned to the landlord: "Send the account to Prince Menshikoff; he will pay.
Luebecker slackened his activity, and Mazeppa began to play his double game again: prudently preparing his Cossacks to revolt, in the name of the ancient customs, national privileges, and church laws, which Peter's reforms had infringed; fortifying his own residence at Batourin, and accumulating immense stores there, but still continuing to pay court to the Czar, wearing the German dress, flattering the sovereign's despotic taste by suggesting plans which would have annihilated the last vestiges of local independence, and accepting gifts sent him by Menshikoff.
The wedding, we are told, was performed in a little chapel belonging to Prince Menshikoff, and was preceded by an interview with the Dowager-Empress and his Princess sisters, in which Peter declared his intention to make Catherine his wife and commanded them to pay her the respect due to her new rank.
The Czar put on his coat, drew the belt which held the sabre some holes tighter, and sprang at one bound from the platform. "Now it will come off," whispered Menshikoff to Katherine. "You have not been lying, Alexander?" "A few lies adorn one's speech. The chief point is gained. To-morrow, Katherine, you can sleep quietly in the nursery with the heirs to the throne."
All Mazeppa could reckon upon was a body of two thousand faithful troops; not enough even to defend Batourin, which Menshikoff snatched from him a few days later thus depriving the Swedish army of its last chance of revictualling.
At any rate we find Menshikoff, when he was spending the Easter of 1706 at Witebsk, writing to his sister to send her to him. But a greater than Menshikoff was soon to appear on the scene none other than the Emperor Peter himself. One day the Tsar, calling on his favourite, was astonished to see the cleanliness of his surroundings and his person.
Word Of The Day