creditors were defrauded, but gaming was henceforth strictly forbidden in
the officers' quarters.

This Russian was the same that betrayed the secrets of Elizabeth
Petrovna, when she was at war with Prussia. He communicated to Peter, the
empress's nephew and heir-presumptive, all the orders she sent to her
generals, and Peter in his turn passed on the information to the Prussian
king whom he worshipped.

On the death of Elizabeth, Peter put this traitor at the head of the
department for commerce, and the fellow actually made known, with the
Czar's sanction, the service for which he had received such a reward, and
thus, instead of looking upon his conduct as disgraceful, he gloried over
it. Peter could not have been aware of the fact that, though it is
sometimes necessary to reward treachery, the traitor himself is always
abhorred and despised.

I have remarked that it was Campioni who dealt, but he dealt for the
prince who held the bank. I had certain claims, but as I remarked that I
expected nothing and would gladly sell my expectations for a hundred
roubles, the prince took me at my word and gave me the amount
immediately. Thus I was the only person who made any money by our night's
play.

Catherine II, wishing to shew herself to her new subjects, over whom she
was in reality supreme, though she had put the ghost of a king in the
person of Stanislas Poniatowski, her former favourite, on the throne of
Poland, came to Riga, and it was then I saw this great sovereign for the
first time. I was a witness of the kindness and affability with which she
treated the Livonian nobility, and of the way in which she kissed the