observations on the state of Poland, that agreeable, fruitful, but unhappy country' he had just left, and gives some curious anecdotes and illustrations of the people and country he had now made his own. Their ignorance and suspicious character appear in several occurrences. A Lithuanian general called Ganseroski, a prisoner of war, being ill, was recommended by his physician, an Italian, to sprinkle cream of tartar on his bread or meat at his meals. They spoke to each other in Latin. The Russian captain, who had orders to watch, and report the conversation of the prisoners under his charge, reported that the two had been talking of state affairs. The physician narrowly escaped being put to the torture, when it appeared that the 'cremor tartari,' which he had recommended to his patient, had been understood by the Russian spy to refer to Crim Tartary. The corruption of all classes in the Russian service was notorious, and Gordon himself appears to have had no scruple about using corrupt means to attain his ends. A boyard, Feodor Milotawski, was appointed ambassador to Persia, and Gordon and Captain Menzies wished to go there in his suite. They gave the boyard 100 ducats, and his majordomo or steward, a saddle and bridle worth 20 ducats, to be included in the attendance on the embassy; but, after many promises, they were disappointed. Gordon was too useful to be parted with. He was employed in drilling men and officers in their military duties, and as soon as they were made soldiers, they were draughted into other regiments to discipline them in the same way. All foreigners, of every rank and class, were quartered in a distinct suburb of the city called the Sloboda. appears that, in the earliest times, Slobodi, which seems to mean free places, were set apart in very small towns, and even villages, and within these Slobodi the town or village authorities had no jurisdiction. They were under the charge of a special department of government, as they formed a distinct town within the town, with their own privileges, and foreigners could only reside, or build, and inhabit houses within the Sloboda. The inhabitants, also, formed a distinct circle of society from the natives, and much of Gordon's Diary is occupied with accounts of entertainments given or received in the Sloboda. A shadow of the same arrangement may still be traced at St. Petersburg, where the English merchants, from custom or convenience, live together in particular streets.

In 1662, Gordon attained the rank of Lieutenant-colonel, married the daughter of a German colonel in the Russian service, and soon afterwards obtained the rank of Colonel. In 1665, he heard of the death of his elder brother Alexander in

Aberdeenshire, and, being now heir of the estate of Auchluichries, he petitioned the Russian Government for leave of absence to return home to settle his affairs. This was refused, but, in the following year, Gordon was appointed to carry a letter from the Czar to Charles II., though not in a diplomatic character. Some difference had arisen between the English ambassador, Lord Carlisle, and the Russian court, about matters of form, and the Russian envoy Daschkow, who had been sent to the Court of St. James to remonstrate and ask satisfaction, returned to Moscow displeased with his reception. Α Russian envoy could not be sent again to the English court, but Colonel Gordon, returning home on a visit to his family, might be employed, without any diplomatic character, to convey the sentiments of the Russian government to the cabinet of Charles II. It was to avoid giving umbrage to the Dutch government that Gordon's mission was strictly private, and not acknowledged as diplomatic.

Gordon, on arriving in London, took lodgings in the Strand, at an apothecary's, the corner house of Ivy Lane. The entries in the General's journal at this time are curious.

'On the 1st October, 1666, Gordon landed at Dover, and, after having taken breakfast, journeyed with his suite to Canterbury, Sittingbourne, Rochester, and Gravesend.

On the 2nd, they hired a boat and rowed up the Thames to Deptford, where Gordon landed. He had his baggage conveyed to Peckham by one who knew the road, and was very friendly received by Sir John Hebden and his family.

'On the 9th, Gordon begged Sir John Hebden to go to the Earl of Lauderdale to inform his Lordship of his arrival, and to inquire in what manner Gordon would have the honour to kiss His Majesty's hand. Sir John brought back word that the Earl had informed the King of Gordon's arrival and commission, and that Gordon might be presented to his Majesty the same evening. At six o'clock in the evening, Gordon was sent for, and conveyed to the house of Lord Lauderdale, Sir John Hebden and Mr. James Mettellane (?), my Lord's secretary, accompanying him.

Lord Lauderdale received Gordon very courteously, and after he had made himself better acquainted with the object of his journey, his Lordship conducted him to the King, who had just been to see a French ship which had been taken. Gordon found the King standing, uncovered, under a baldaquin, with several of his great nobles about him. When Gordon had entered the room, and made the customary obeisances, he took the Czar's letter from the hands of his brother-inlaw, and after he had made a short speech, His Majesty was pleased to take the same with his own hands from Gordon, and immediately handed it to those who stood about him. The King asked after the Czar's health, which Gordon answered in the usual manner; upon

which His Majesty was pleased to say that this message was the more agreeable to him, as one of his own subjects had so far deserved the confidence of the Czar as to be the bearer of it. The King further caused Gordon to be told that he was welcome to appear at Court at any time.

'On the 11th, Gordon learned that Mr. George Gordon, brother of my Lord Haddo, was in London, whereupon he caused him to be sought out, and begged to see him. George Gordon came the same evening, with Mr. James Mettellane and John Kirkwood; and they made merry over their wine till midnight.

'The King's doorkeeper brought Gordon, by command, a key which opened the gates of the Park, the galleries, and other entrances to Court. Gordon's name was engraved upon it. Gordon gave the doorkeeper twenty shillings, and his attendant five shillings. As Gordon was not very well served in the Strand, he removed his quarters to the Haymarket, in the house of one Robert Raynes, at the Two Blue Balls, where he was uncommon well attended. On the 16th, he had an interview with the Lord Chancellor at his house, for he was sick of the gout; the nature of this conversation being recorded in the other book of this relation. On Sunday, 21st, he hired a coach and drove to Highgate, where he dined with my Lord Lauderdale.

He went with Lady Hebden and her daughters to the New Exchange, and bought them gloves and such like things for the value of 21. 10s. On the 13th November, Gordon had his third conference with the Lord Chancellor and the Secretaries of State, wherein his proposals and the privileges of the English in Russia were warmly discussed. On the 10th December he had his last conference with the Lord Chancellor, at his house. The Chancellor told Gordon the decision of the King and his Council, and said that an answer would be sent to the Czar's letter; and, by the King's order, that two hundred pounds would be given to Gordon for his expenses, and also a present.'

On the 18th of December, 1667, he had his audience of the King to take leave, and received a letter from His Majesty to the Czar. On returning to his lodgings, he observed that the superscription of the royal letter was Illustrissimo, instead of Serenissimo, and he hastened to his friend Sir John Hebden, requesting him to represent the mistake to the Secretary of State, as it would cost him his head to deliver a letter with 'such an address to the Czar at Moscow.' It was about this very word that the quarrel arose between the Russian court and the English ambassador, Lord Carlisle. The Secretary of State made no objection to alter the address of the letter.

On his return to Moscow, Gordon appears to have been ill received at the Russian court. He had probably taken upon imself too openly a diplomatic character. He was ordered to remain at the Sloboda, was refused an audience of the Czar,

and could not even obtain repayment of the expenses of his mission. He was allowed to retain his regiment, but was quartered in the Ukraine, where he remained for ten or twelve years, apparently in disgrace at Moscow, and engaged in obscure military duty or in the studies of mechanical sciences, fortification, and strategy, which he afterwards turned to such great account. In 1678, he was sent with his regiment of dragoons and a Strelitzer regiment to the defence of Tsigirin, a town on the Dnieper, and on the frontier of the Russian dominions in those times, which was threatened by a powerful army of Turks and Tartars. Gordon was chief engineer, and after sustaining a siege of four weeks, with every prospect of repelling the enemy, an order was received from Moscow to evacuate the place. This was done without loss, and when the last man of the garrison was in safety, Gordon returned into the town, and set fire to a train he had laid, by which the magazine, the fortress, and 4000 of the enemy were blown into the air. He then rejoined his own troops after much personal danger. For this exploit he was promoted to the rank of Majorgeneral, and, in 1683, he was made Lieutenant-general, and Commander of the troops in the Ukraine, with his headquarters at Kiew. Here he became acquainted with Le Fort, then a captain and engineer in the Russian service.

Those

two men were destined to become, under Peter the Great, the prime movers and agents of the gigantic plans for the aggrandisement of the Russian empire at the expense of Turkey, which have been steadily pursued down to the present time by the successors of that remarkable sovereign.

In this interval Gordon repeatedly applied for leave of absence to return home, or for permission to retire altogether from the Russian service. It was not however until 1686, that he obtained leave for six months, on condition of his wife and children remaining at Kiew, as hostages for his return. Twenty years had elapsed since his mission to the Court of Charles II., and he now returned to his native land to find James II. on the throne. Gordon arrived in London in April 1686, having travelled by land from Dantzig, through Berlin, to Amsterdam, and from Holland by the packet-boat to Margate.

Nothing can be more curious than this portion of his adventures, and we are perpetually led to deplore the absence of the language of the original by the occasional Scottish expressions which the German translators have allowed here and there to creep into the text. On the occasion of this visit it is evident that Gordon's high position in Russia was at once acknowledged by his kinsmen in the great Scottish houses: he was no longer

the mere soldier of fortune, the younger son of a younger son, but the energetic officer of a powerful prince, and he was everywhere received with the highest distinction. Probably his warm and constant attachment to the Roman Catholic Church increased the interest and favour with which he was received at the Popish Court of James II. On the 16th of April, about eight o'clock, General Drummond came for Gordon, and they drove to court, and went to Lord Melfort's apartments, where Gordon was introduced to the King, who had much conversation with him concerning Russia, and his service in that country. He was invited to accompany the King to Sheerness, surveyed Tilbury Fort and Chatham, and, in reply to the King's inquiries, expressed his surprise that the Dutch should have come so far up the river, with such fortresses as Sheerness and Tilbury in the way. The King assured him the fortresses were by no means in the same state then as they were now. Gordon went to high mass at St. James's. He was invited to Windsor, where he had another long conversation with King James.

On his first audience the King had received Gordon with peculiar affability, and asked him numberless questions about the Czar, the affairs of Russia, the military resources of that empire, and the sieges he had conducted against the Turks. At Windsor—

'One evening after sunset, the King was sitting in one of the great chambers of the castle, when he caused Gordon to be summoned to one of the corners of the room, and then he entered upon a long discourse. He again asked where and how long he had served abroad, and other things of the same kind, especially such as related to military affairs. Gordon answered everything as well as he was able, and His Majesty told him to come home as soon as he could, and that His Majesty would do for him all that was possible. This conversation lasted half an hour; and soon afterwards the King himself introduced Gordon to the Queen's apartments, who gave him her hand to kiss.' (Vol. ii. p. 138.)

It may not unfairly be suspected that James thought he had found in Gordon precisely such an instrument as he most required for the execution of his designs a Papist ardently attached to the Roman Church,-a Scottish gentleman of good family, but trained by long service to the despotism of the Russian court - a soldier, who, as Gordon showed by the massacre of the Strelitz, would stick at no act of violence in the discharge of his military duty. The letter he took back from James to the Czar was an urgent and express request for leave to 'enable the said Gordon to quit the Russian territory and return 'to England with his wife, children, and all effects, in order to