LE FORT AND MENZIKOFF.
1689-1691
Conditions of success in life--The selection of agents--Building a
house--Secret of success--Peter's youth--Le Fort and Menzikoff--Merchants
of Amsterdam--Le Fort in the counting-house--He goes to Copenhagen--He
becomes acquainted with military life--The ambassador--Le Fort an
interpreter--He attracts the attention of the emperor--His judicious
answers--Gratification of the emperor--The embassador's opinion--The
glass of wine--Le Fort given up to the emperor--His appointment at
court--His subsequent career--Uniforms--Le Fort's suggestion--An
embassador's train--Surprise and pleasure of the Czar--Le Fort undertakes
a commission--Making of the uniforms--He enlists a company--The company
appears before the emperor--The result--New improvements
proposed--Changes--Remodeling of the tariff--Effects of the change--The
finances--Carpenters and masons brought in--New palace--Le Fort's
increasing influence--His generosity--Peter's violent temper--Le Fort an
intercessor--Prince Menzikoff--His early history--He sets off to seek his
fortune--His pies and cakes--Negotiations with the emperor--Menzikoff in
Le Fort's company--Menzikoff's real character--Quarrel between Peter and
his wife--Cause of the quarrel--Ottokesa's cruel fate--Grave faults in
Peter's character
Whatever may be a person's situation in life, his success in his
undertakings depends not more, after all, upon his own personal ability
to do what is required to be done, than it does upon his sagacity and the
soundness of his judgment in selecting the proper persons to co-operate
with him and assist him in doing it. In all great enterprises undertaken
by men, it is only a very small part which they can execute with their
own hands, and multitudes of most excellently contrived plans fail for
want of wisdom in the choice of the men who are depended upon for the
accomplishment of them.
This is true in all things, small as well as great. A man may form a
very wise scheme for building a house. He may choose an excellent place
for the location of it, and draw up a good plan, and make ample
arrangements for the supply of funds, but if he does not know how to
choose, or where to find good builders, his scheme will come to a
miserable end. He may choose builders that are competent but dishonest,
or they may be honest but incompetent, or they may be subject to some
other radical defect; in either of which cases the house will be badly
built, and the scheme will be a failure.
Many men say, when such a misfortune as this happens to them, "Ah! it was
not my fault. It was the fault of the builders;" to which the proper
reply would be, "It _was_ your fault. You should not have undertaken to
build a house unless, in addition to being able to form the general plan
and arrangements wisely, you had also had the sagacity to discern the
characters of the men whom you were to employ to execute the work." This
latter quality is as important to success in all undertakings as the
former. Indeed, it is far more important, for good _men_ may correct or
avoid the evils of a bad plan, but a good plan can never afford security
against the evil action of bad men.
The sovereigns and great military commanders that have acquired the
highest celebrity in history have always been remarkable for their tact
and sagacity in discovering and bringing forward the right kind of talent
for the successful accomplishment of their various designs.
When Peter first found himself nominally in possession of the supreme
power, after the fall of the Princess Sophia, he was very young, and the
administration of the government was really in the hands of different
nobles and officers of state, who managed affairs in his name. From time
to time there were great dissensions among these men. They formed
themselves into cliques and coteries, each of which was jealous of the
influence of the others. As Peter gradually grew older, and felt
stronger and stronger in his position, he took a greater part in the
direction and control of the public policy, and the persons whom he first
made choice of to aid him in his plans were two very able men, whom he
afterward raised to positions of great responsibility and honor. These
men became, indeed, in the end, highly distinguished as statesmen, and
were very prominent and very efficient instruments in the development and
realization of Peter's plans. The name of the first of these statesmen
was Le Fort; that of the second was Menzikoff. The story which is told
by the old historians of both of these men is quite romantic.
Le Fort was the son of a merchant of Geneva. He had a strong desire from
his childhood to be a soldier, but his father, considering the hardships
and dangers to which a military life would expose him, preferred to make
him a merchant, and so he provided him with a place in the counting-house
of one of the great merchants of Amsterdam. The city of Amsterdam was in
those days one of the greatest and wealthiest marts of commerce in the
world.
Very many young men, in being thus restrained by their fathers from
pursuing the profession which they themselves chose, and placed, instead,
in a situation which they did not like, would have gone to their duty in
a discontented and sullen manner, and would have made no effort to
succeed in the business or to please their employers; but Le Fort, it
seems, was a boy of a different mould from this. He went to his work in
the counting-house at Amsterdam with a good heart, and devoted himself to
his business with so much industry and steadiness, and evinced withal so
much amiableness of disposition in his intercourse with all around him,
that before long, as the accounts say, the merchant "loved him as his own
child." After some considerable time had elapsed, the merchant, who was
constantly sending vessels to different parts of the world, was on one
occasion about dispatching a ship to Copenhagen, and Le Fort asked
permission to go in her. The merchant was not only willing that he
should go, but also gave him the whole charge of the cargo, with
instructions to attend to the sale of it, and the remittance of the
proceeds on the arrival of the ship in port. Le Fort accordingly sailed
in the ship, and on his arrival at Copenhagen he transacted the business
of selling the cargo and sending back the money so skillfully and well
that the merchant was very well pleased with him.
Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, and the Danes were at that time
quite a powerful and warlike nation. Le Fort, in walking about the
streets of the town while his ship was lying there, often saw the Danish
soldiers marching to and fro, and performing their evolutions, and the
sight revived in his mind his former interest in being a soldier. He
soon made acquaintance with some of the officers, and, in hearing them
talk of their various adventures, and of the details of their mode of
life, he became very eager to join them. They liked him, too, very much.
He had made great progress in learning the different languages spoken in
that part of the world, and the officers found, moreover, that he was
very quick in understanding the military principles which they explained
to him, and in learning evolutions of all kinds.
About this time it happened that an embassador was to be sent from
Denmark to Russia, and Le Fort, who had a great inclination to see the
world as well as to be a soldier, was seized with a strong desire to
accompany the expedition in the embassador's train. He already knew
something of the Russian language, and he set himself at work with all
diligence to study it more. He also obtained recommendations from those
who had known him--probably, among others, from the merchant in
Amsterdam, and he secured the influence in his favor of the officers in
Copenhagen with whom he had become acquainted. When these preliminary
steps had been taken, he made application for the post of interpreter to
the embassy; and after a proper examination had been made in respect to
his character and his qualifications, he received the appointment. Thus,
instead of going back to Amsterdam after his cargo was sold, he went to
Russia in the suite of the embassador.
The embassador soon formed a very strong friendship for his young
interpreter, and employed him confidentially, when he arrived in Moscow,
in many important services. The embassador himself soon acquired great
influence at Moscow, and was admitted to quite familiar intercourse, not
only with the leading Russian noblemen, but also with Peter himself. On
one occasion, when Peter was dining at the embassador's--as it seems he
was sometimes accustomed to do--he took notice of Le Fort, who was
present as one of the party, on account of his prepossessing appearance
and agreeable manners. He also observed that, for a foreigner, he spoke
the Russian language remarkably well. The emperor asked Le Fort some
questions concerning his origin and history, and, being very much pleased
with his answers, and with his general air and demeanor, he asked him
whether he should be willing to enter into his service. Le Fort replied
in a very respectful manner, "That, whatever ambition he might have to
serve so great a monarch, yet the duty and gratitude which he owed to his
present master, the embassador, would not allow him to promise any thing
without first asking his consent."
"Very well," replied the Czar; "_I_ will ask your master's consent."
"But I hope," said Le Fort, "that your majesty will make use of some
other interpreter than myself in asking the question."
Peter was very much pleased with both these answers of Le Fort--the one
showing his scrupulous fidelity to his engagements in not being willing
to leave one service for another, however advantageous to himself the
change might be, until he was honorably released by his first employer,
and the other marking the delicacy of mind which prompted him to wish not
to take any part in the conversation between the emperor and the
embassador respecting himself, as his office of interpreter would
naturally lead him to do, but to prefer that the communication should be
made through an indifferent person, in order that the embassador might be
perfectly free to express his real opinion without any reserve.
Accordingly, the Czar, taking another interpreter with him, went to the
embassador and began to ask him about Le Fort.
"He speaks very good Russian," said Peter.
"Yes, please your majesty," said the embassador, "he has a genius for
learning any thing that he pleases. When he came to me four months ago
he knew very little of German, but now he speaks it very well. I have
two German interpreters in my train, and he speaks the language as well
as either of them. He did not know a word of Russian when he came to my
country, but your majesty can judge yourself how well he speaks it now."
In the mean time, while Peter and the embassador were talking thus about
Le Fort, he himself had withdrawn to another part of the room. The Czar
was very much pleased with the modesty of the young gentleman's behavior;
and, after finishing the conversation with the embassador, without,
however, having asked him to release Le Fort from his service, he
returned to the part of the room where Le Fort was, and presently asked
him to bring him a glass of wine. He said no more to him at that time in
respect to entering his service, but Le Fort understood very well from
his countenance, and from the manner in which he asked him for the wine,
that nothing had occurred in his conversation with the embassador to lead
him to change his mind.
The next day Peter, having probably in the mean time made some farther
inquiries about Le Fort, introduced the subject again in conversation
with the embassador. He told the embassador that he had a desire to have
the young man Le Fort about him, and asked if he should be willing to
part with him. The embassador replied that, notwithstanding any desire
he might feel to retain so agreeable and promising a man in his own
service, still the exchange was too advantageous to Le Fort, and he
wished him too well to make any objection to it; and besides, he added,
he knew too well his duty to his majesty not to consent readily to any
arrangement of that kind that his majesty might desire.
The next day Peter sent for Le Fort, and formally appointed him his first
interpreter. The duties of this office required Le Fort to be a great
deal in the emperor's presence, and Peter soon became extremely attached
to him. Le Fort, although we have called him a young man, was now about
thirty-five years of age, while Peter himself was yet not twenty. It was
natural, therefore, that Peter should soon learn to place great
confidence in him, and often look to him for information, and this the
more readily on account of Le Fort's having been brought up in the heart
of Europe, where all the arts of civilization, both those connected with
peace and war, were in a much more advanced state than they were at this
time in Russia.
Le Fort continued in the service of the emperor until the day of his
death, which happened about ten years after this time; and during this
period he rose to great distinction, and exercised a very important part
in the management of public affairs, and more particularly in aiding
Peter to understand and to introduce into his own dominions the arts and
improvements of western Europe.
The first improvement which Le Fort was the means of introducing in the
affairs of the Czar related to the dress and equipment of the troops.
The Guards had before that time been accustomed to wear an old-fashioned
Russian uniform, which was far from being convenient. The outside
garment was a sort of long coat or gown, which considerably impeded the
motion of the limbs. One day, not long after Le Fort entered the service
of the emperor, Peter, being engaged in conversation with him, asked him
what he thought of his soldiers.
"The men themselves are very well," replied Le Port, "but it seems to me
that the dress which they wear is not so convenient for military use as
the style of dress now usually adopted among the western nations."
Peter asked what this style was, and Le Fort replied that if his majesty
would permit him to do so, he would take measures for affording him an
opportunity to see.
Accordingly, Le Fort repaired immediately to the tailor of the Danish
embassador. This tailor the embassador had brought with him from
Copenhagen, for it was the custom in those days for personages of high
rank and station, like the embassador, to take with them, in their train,
persons of all the trades and professions which they might require, so
that, wherever they might be, they could have the means of supplying all
their wants within themselves, and without at all depending upon the
people whom they visited. Le Fort employed the tailor to make him two
military suits, in the style worn by the royal guards at Copenhagen--one
for an officer, and another for a soldier of the ranks. The tailor
finished the first suit in two days. Le Fort put the dress on, and in
the morning, at the time when, according to his usual custom, he was to
wait upon the emperor in his chamber, he went in wearing the new uniform.
The Czar was surprised at the unexpected spectacle. At first he did not
know Le Fort in his new garb; and when at length he recognized him, and
began to understand the case, he was exceedingly pleased. He examined
the uniform in every part, and praised not only the dress itself, but
also Le Fort's ingenuity and diligence in procuring him so good an
opportunity to know what the military style of the western nations really
was.
Soon after this Le Fort appeared again in the emperor's presence wearing
the uniform of a common soldier. The emperor examined this dress too,
and saw the superiority of it in respect to its convenience, and its
adaptedness to the wants and emergencies of military life. He said at
once that he should like to have a company of guards dressed and equipped
in that manner, and should be also very much pleased to have them
disciplined and drilled according to the western style. Le Fort said
that if his majesty was pleased to intrust him with the commission, he
would endeavor to organize such a company.
The emperor requested him to do so, and Le Port immediately undertook the
task. He went about Moscow to all the different merchants to procure the
materials necessary--for many of these materials were such as were not
much in use in Moscow, and so it was not easy to procure them in
sufficient quantities to make the number of suits that Le Fort required.
He also sought out all the tailors that he could find at the houses of
the different embassadors, or of the great merchants who came from
western Europe, and were consequently acquainted with the mode of cutting
and making the dresses in the proper manner. Of course, a considerable
number of tailors would be necessary to make up so many uniforms in the
short space of time which Le Fort wished to allot to the work.
Le Fort then went about among the strangers and foreigners at Moscow,
both those connected with the embassadors and others, to find men that
were in some degree acquainted with the drill and tactics of the western
armies, who were willing to serve in the company that he was about to
organize. He soon made up a company of fifty men. When this company was
completed, and clothed in the new uniform, and had been properly drilled,
Le Fort put himself at the head of them one morning, and marched them,
with drums beating and colors flying, before the palace gate. The Czar
came to the window to see them as they passed. He was much surprised at
the spectacle, and very much pleased. He came down to look at the men
more closely; he stood by while they went through the exercises in which
Le Fort had drilled them. The emperor was so much pleased that he said
he would join the company himself. He wished to learn to perform the
exercise personally, so as to know in a practical manner precisely how
others ought to perform it. He accordingly caused a dress to be made for
himself, and he took his place afterward in the ranks as a common
soldier, and was drilled with the rest in all the exercises.
From this beginning the change went on until the style of dress and the
system of tactics for the whole imperial army was reformed by the
introduction of the compact and scientific system of western Europe, in
the place of the old-fashioned and cumbrous usages which had previously
prevailed.
The emperor having experienced the immense advantages which resulted from
the adoption of western improvements in his army, wished now to make an
experiment of introducing, in the same way, the elements of western
civilization into the ordinary branches of industry and art. He proposed
to Le Fort to make arrangements for bringing into the country a great
number of mechanics and artisans from Denmark, Germany, France, and other
European countries, in order that their improved methods and processes
might be introduced into Russia. Le Fort readily entered into this
proposal, but he explained to the emperor that, in order to render such a
measure successful on the scale necessary for the accomplishment of any
important good, it would be first requisite to make some considerable
changes in the general laws of the land, especially in relation to
intercourse with foreign nations. On his making known fully and in
detail what these changes would be, the emperor readily acceded to them,
and the proposed modifications of the laws were made. The tariff of
duties on the products and manufactures of foreign countries was greatly
reduced. This produced a two-fold effect.
In the first place, it greatly increased the importations of goods from
foreign countries, and thus promoted the intercourse of the Russians with
foreign merchants, manufacturers, and artisans, and gradually accustomed
the people to a better style of living, and to improved fashions in
dress, furniture, and equipage, and thus prepared the country to furnish
an extensive market for the encouragement of Russian arts and
manufactures as fast as they could be introduced.
In the second place, the new system greatly increased the revenues of the
empire. It is true that the tariff was reduced, so that the articles
that were imported paid only about half as much in proportion after the
change as before. But then the new laws increased the importations so
much, that the loss was very much more than made up to the treasury, and
the emperor found in a very short time that the state of his finances was
greatly improved. This enabled him to take measures for introducing into
the country great numbers of foreign manufacturers and artisans from
Germany, France, Scotland, and other countries of western Europe. These
men were brought into the country by the emperor, and sustained there at
the public expense, until they had become so far established in their
several professions and trades that they could maintain themselves.
Among others, he brought in a great many carpenters and masons to teach
the Russians to build better habitations than those which they had been
accustomed to content themselves with, which were, in general, wooden
huts of very rude and inconvenient construction. One of the first
undertakings in which the masons were employed was the building of a
handsome palace of hewn stone in Moscow for the emperor himself, the
first edifice of that kind which had ever been built in that city. The
sight of a palace formed of so elegant and durable a material excited the
emulation of all the wealthy noblemen, so that, as soon as the masons
were released from their engagement with the emperor, they found plenty
of employment in building new houses and palaces for these noblemen.
These and a great many other similar measures were devised by Le Fort
during the time that he continued in the service of the Czar, and the
success which attended all his plans and proposals gave him, in the end,
great influence, and was the means of acquiring for him great credit and
renown. And yet he was so discreet and unpretending in his manners and
demeanor, if the accounts which have come down to us respecting him are
correct, that the high favor in which he was held by the emperor did not
awaken in the hearts of the native nobles of the land any considerable
degree of that jealousy and ill-will which they might have been expected
to excite. Le Fort was of a very self-sacrificing and disinterested
disposition. He was generous in his dealings with all, and he often
exerted the ascendency which he had acquired over the mind of the emperor
to save other officers from undeserved or excessive punishment when they
displeased their august master; for it must be confessed that Peter,
notwithstanding all the excellences of his character, had the reputation
at this period of his life of being hasty and passionate. He was very
impatient of contradiction, and he could not tolerate any species of
opposition to his wishes. Being possessed himself of great decision of
character, and delighting, as he did, in promptness and energy of action,
he lost all patience sometimes, when annoyed by the delays, or the
hesitation, or the inefficiency of others, who were not so richly endowed
by nature as himself. In these cases he was often unreasonable, and
sometimes violent; and he would in many instances have acted in an
ungenerous and cruel manner if Le Fort had not always been at hand to
restrain and appease him.
Le Fort always acted as intercessor in cases of difficulty of this sort;
so that the Russian noblemen, or boyars as they were called, in the end
looked upon him as their father. It is said that he actually saved the
lives of great numbers of them, whom Peter, without his intercession,
would have sentenced to death. Others he saved from the knout, and
others from banishment. At one time, when the emperor in a passion, was
going to cause one of his officers to be scourged, although, as Le Fort
thought, he had been guilty of no wrong which could deserve such a
punishment, Le Fort, after all other means had failed, bared his own
breast and shoulders, and bade the angry emperor to strike or cut there
if he would, but to spare the innocent person. The Czar was entirely
overcome by this noble generosity, and, clasping Le Fort in his arms,
thanked him for his interposition, at the same time allowing the
trembling prisoner to depart in peace, with his heart full of gratitude
toward the friend who had so nobly saved him.
Another of the chief officers in Peter's service during the early part of
his reign was the Prince Menzikoff. His origin was very humble. His
Christian name was Alexander, and his father was a laboring man in the
service of a monastery on the banks of the Volga. The monasteries of
those times were endowed with large tracts of valuable land, which were
cultivated by servants or vassals, and from the proceeds of this
cultivation the monks were supported, and the monastery buildings kept in
repair or enlarged.
Alexander spent the early years of his life in working with his father on
the monastery lands; but, being a lad of great spirit and energy, he
gradually became dissatisfied with this mode of life; for the peasants of
those days, such as his father, who tilled the lands of the nobles or of
the monks, were little better than slaves. Alexander, then, when he
arrived at the age of thirteen or fourteen, finding his situation and
prospects at home very gloomy and discouraging, concluded to go out into
the world and seek his fortune.
So he left his father's hut and set out for Moscow. After meeting with
various adventures on the way and in the city, he finally found a place
in a pastry-cook's shop; but, instead of being employed in making and
baking the pies and tarts, he was sent out into the streets to sell them.
In order to attract customers to his merchandise, he used to sing songs
and tell stories in the streets. Indeed, it was the talent which he
evinced in these arts, doubtless, which led his master to employ him in
this way, instead of keeping him at work at home in the baking.
The story which is told of the manner in which the emperor's attention
was first attracted to young Menzikoff is very curious, but, as is the
case with all other such personal anecdotes related of great sovereigns,
it is very doubtful how far it is to be believed. It is said that Peter,
passing along the street one day, stopped to listen to Menzikoff as he
was singing a song or telling a story to a crowd of listeners. He was
much diverted by one of the songs that he heard, and at the close of it
he spoke to the boy, and finally asked him what he would take for his
whole stock of cakes and pies, basket and all. The boy named the sum for
which he would sell all the cakes and pies, but as for the basket he said
that belonged to his master, and he had no power to sell it.
[Illustration: Menzikoff selling his cakes.]
"Still," he added, "every thing belongs to your majesty, and your majesty
has, therefore, only to give me the command, and I shall deliver it up to
you."
This reply pleased the Czar so much that he sent for the boy to come to
him, and on conversing with him farther, and after making additional
inquiries respecting him, he was so well satisfied that he took him at
once into his service.
All this took place before Le Fort's plan was formed for organizing a
company to exhibit to the emperor the style of uniform and the system of
military discipline adopted in western Europe, as has already been
described. Menzikoff joined this company, and he took so much interest
in the exercises and evolutions, and evinced so great a degree of
intelligence, and so much readiness in comprehending and in practicing
the various manoeuvres, that he attracted Le Fort's special attention.
He was soon promoted to office in the company, and ultimately he became
Le Fort's principal co-operator in his various measures and plans. From
this he rose by degrees, until in process of time he became one of the
most distinguished generals in Peter's army, and took a very important
part in some of his most celebrated campaigns.
In reading stories like these, we are naturally led to feel a strong
interest in the persons who are the subjects of them, and we sometimes
insensibly form opinions of their characters which are far too favorable.
This Menzikoff, for example, notwithstanding the enterprising spirit
which he displayed in his boyhood, in setting off alone to Moscow to seek
his fortune, and his talent for telling stories and singing songs, and
the interest which he felt, and the success that he met with, in learning
Le Fort's military manoeuvres, and the great distinction which he
subsequently acquired as a military commander, may have been, after all,
in relation to any just and proper standards of moral duty, a very bad
man. Indeed, there is much reason to suppose that he was so. At all
events, he became subsequently implicated in a dreadful quarrel which
took place between Peter and his wife, under circumstances which appear
very much against him. This quarrel occurred after Peter had been
married only about two years, and when he was yet not quite twenty years
old. As usual in such cases, very different stories are told by the
friends respectively of the husband and the wife. On the part of the
empress it was said that the difficulty arose from Peter's having been
drawn away into bad company, and especially the company of bad women,
through the instrumentality of Menzikoff when he first came into Peter's
service. Menzikoff was a dissolute young man, it was said, while he was
in the service of the pastry-cook, and was accustomed to frequent the
haunts of the vicious and depraved about the town; and after he entered
into Peter's service, Peter himself began to go with him to these places,
disguised, of course, so as not to be known. This troubled Ottokesa, and
made her jealous; and when she remonstrated with her husband he was
angry, and by way of recrimination accused her of being unfaithful to
him. Menzikoff too was naturally filled with resentment at the empress's
accusations against him, and he took Peter's part against his wife.
Whatever may have been the truth in regard to the grounds of the
complaints made by the parties against each other, the power was on
Peter's side. He repudiated his wife, and then shut her up in a place of
seclusion, where he kept her confined all the remainder of her days.
Besides the unfavorable inferences which we might justly draw from this
case, there are unfortunately other indications that Peter,
notwithstanding the many and great excellences of his character, was at
this period of his life violent and passionate in temper, very impatient
of contradiction or opposition, and often unreasonable and unjust in his
treatment of those who for any reason became the objects of his suspicion
or dislike. Various incidents and occurrences illustrating these traits
in his character will appear in the subsequent chapters of his history.