his
gray head was laid upon the block, his collar unbuttoned and gown drawn
back by the executioner--when a reprieve was announced. Her Gracious
Majesty was going to permit him to go to Siberia. He arose, bowed,
said: "I pray you give me back my wig," calmly put it on the head he
had not lost, buttoned his shirt, replaced his gown, and started to
join his company of friends--and of enemies--in exile.

Elizabeth was a vain voluptuary. If any glory attaches to her reign it
came from the stored energies left by her great father. The marvel is
that in this succession of vicious and aimless tyrannies by shameless
women and incompetent men, Russia did not fall into anarchy and
revolution. But nothing was undone. The dignity of Moscow was
preserved by the fact that the coronations must take place there. But
there was no longer a reactionary party scheming for a return to the
Ancient City. The seed scattered by Peter had everywhere taken hold
upon the soil, and now began to burst into flower. A university was
founded at Moscow. St. Petersburg was filled with French artists and
scholars, and had an Academy of Art and of Science, which the great
Voltaire asked permission to join, while conferring with Ivan Shuvalof
over the History of Peter the Great which he was then engaged in
writing. There were no more ugly German costumes; French dress,
manners and speech were the fashion. Russia was assimilating Europe:
it had tried Holland under Peter, then Germany under Empress Anna; but
found its true affinity with France under Elizabeth, when to write and
speak French like a Parisian became the badge of high station and
culture.

So of its own momentum Russia had moved on without one strong competent
personality at its head, and had become a tremendous force which must
be reckoned with by the nations of Europe. In every great political
combination the important question was, on which side she would throw
her immense weight; and Elizabeth was courted and flattered to her
heart's content by foreign diplomatists and their masters. Frederick
the Great had reason to regret that he had been witty at her expense.
It was almost his undoing by turning the scale against him at a
critical moment. Elizabeth did not forget it and had her revenge when
she joined Maria Theresa in the final struggle with Frederick in 1757.
And Frederick also remembered it in 1760, when, as he dramatically
expressed it, "The Barbarians were in Berlin e