The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia — Voltaire — John Shaqi
The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia
Voltaire · en
cruelties prevail in all countries in times of anarchy and confusion.
The mutineers began the tragedy with throwing the two knez, or princes,
Dolgorouki and Matheof, out of the palace-windows; whom the strelitzes
received upon the points of their spears, then stripped them, and
dragged their dead bodies into the great square; after this they rushed
into the palace, where meeting with Athanasius Nariskin, a brother of
the young czarina, and one of the uncles of czar Peter, they murdered
him in like manner; then breaking open the door of a neighbouring
church, where three of the proscribed persons had taken refuge, they
drag them from the altar, strip them naked, and stab them to death with
knives.
They were so blinded with their fury, that seeing a young nobleman of
the family of Soltikoff, a great favourite of theirs, and who was not
included in the list of the proscribed, and some of them mistaking him
for John Nariskin, whom they were in search of, they murdered him upon
the spot; and what plainly shews the manners of those times, after
having discovered their error, they carried the body of young Soltikoff,
to his father to bury it; and the wretched parent, far from daring to
complain, gave them a considerable reward for bringing him the mangled
body of his son. Being reproached by his wife, his daughters, and the
widow of the deceased, for his weakness, 'Let us wait for an opportunity
of being revenged,' said the old man. These words being overheard by
some of the soldiers, they returned furiously back into the room,
dragged the aged parent by the hair, and cut his throat at his own door.
Another party of the strelitzes, who were scouring the city in search
of the Dutch physician, Vongad, met with his son, of whom they inquired
for his father; the youth trembling, replied, he did not know where he
was, upon which they immediately dispatched him. Soon after, a German
physician falling in their way, 'You are a doctor,' said they, 'and if
you did not poison our master, Theodore, you have poisoned others, and
therefore merit death;' and thereupon killed him.