gone hard with their countrymen. They soon had further proof of it, when the victorious Aztecs, returning from the pursuit of Cortés, joined their forces to those engaged with Sandoval and Alvarado, and fell on them with redoubled fury. At the same time they rolled on the ground two or three of the bloody heads of the Spaniards, shouting the name of "Malinche." The captains, struck with horror at the spectacle, though they gave little credit to the words of the enemy,-instantly ordered a retreat. Indeed, it was not in their power to maintain their ground against the furious assaults of the besieged, who poured on them, swarm after swarm, with a desperation, of which, says one who was there, "although it seems as if it were now present to my eyes, I can give but a faint idea to the reader. God alone could have brought us off safe from the perils of that day." The fierce barbarians followed up the Spaniards to their very intrenchments. But here they were met, first by the cross fire of the brigantines, which, dashing through the palisades planted to obstruct their movements, completely enfiladed the causeway, and next by that of the small battery erected in front of the camp, which, under the management of a skillful engineer, named Medrano, swept the whole length of the defile. Thus galled in front and on flank, the shattered columns of the Aztecs were compelled to give way and take shelter under the defences of the city.

The greatest anxiety now prevailed in the camp, regarding the fate of Cortés; for Tapia had been detained on the road by scattered parties of the enemy, whom Guatemozin had stationed there to interrupt the communication between the camps. He arrived, at length, however, though bleeding from several wounds. His intelligence, while it reassured the Spaniards as to the general's personal safety, was not calculated to allay their uneasiness in other respects.

Sandoval, in particular, was desirous to acquaint himself with the actual state of things, and the further intentions of Cortés. Suffering as he was from three wounds, which he had received in that day's fight, he resolved to visit in person the quarters of the commander-in-chief. It was mid-day,for the busy scenes of the morning had occupied but a few

steed, on whose

On the way he

hours,-when Sandoval remounted the good strength and speed he knew he could rely. fell in with Guatemozin's scouts, who gave him chase, and showered around him volleys of missiles, which fortunately found no vulnerable point in his own harness, or that of his well-barbed charger.

On arriving at the camp, he found the troops there much worn and dispirited by the disaster of the morning. They had good reason to be so. Besides the killed, and a long file of wounded, sixty-two Spaniards, with a multitude of allies, had fallen alive into the hands of the enemy,-an enemy who was never known to spare a captive. The loss of two fieldpieces and seven horses crowned their own disgrace and the triumphs of the Aztecs. This loss, so insignificant in European warfare, was a great one here, where both horse and artillery, the most powerful arms of war against the barbarians, were not to be procured without the greatest cost and difficulty.

Cortés, it was observed, had borne himself throughout this trying day with his usual intrepidity and coolness. The only time he was seen to falter was when the Mexicans threw down before him the heads of several Spaniards, shouting at the same time, "Sandoval," "Tonatiuh," the well-known epithet of Alvarado. At the sight of the gory trophies, he grew deadly pale; but, in a moment recovering his usual confidence, he endeavored to cheer up the drooping spirits of his followers. It was with a cheerful countenance, that he now received his lieutenant; but a shade of sadness was visible through this outward composure, showing how the catastrophe of the puente cuidada, "the sorrowful bridge," as he mournfully called it, lay heavy at his heart.

CATHERINE II., Empress of Russia, has been called the Semiramis of the North, since she more than realized the deeds and conquests of the mythical Queen of ancient Nineveh, as related by the Greek historians of the East. Catherine, raised by a series of accidents to the throne made illustrious by Peter the Great, carried on the work and enlarged the dominions of that extraordinary sovereign. She was born on the 2d of May, 1729, the daughter of Christian Augustus, Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, Governor of Stettin in Prussian Pomerania. Her name was then Sophia Augusta von Anhalt. She received a severe training from her peevish and pedantic mother. On the 1st of September, 1745, she was married to her cousin, Charles Frederic, Duke of Holstein Gottorp, whom his aunt, the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, had chosen for her successor. On embracing the Greek religion he took the name of Peter, and his consort changed her name to Catherina Alexiewna, which she rendered so illustrious. It was an ill-sorted and unhappy match. Catherine was handsome, fond of pleasure, and at the same time clever, ambitious and bold. Peter was deformed, and his countenance was disfigured by traces of small-pox. He was, moreover, greatly inferior to his wife in abilities, was sensual, irresolute, imprudent and given to excess in drink. The life led both by the Duke and Grandduchess was disgraceful in the extreme; especially was the conduct of the latter reprehensible, she playing the mistress to one favorite after the other.

On the fifth of January, 1762, the Empress Elizabeth expired, and the Grand Duke ascended the throne under the

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name of Peter III. The first days of his reign were marked with various traits of extravagant beneficence, which excited the utmost astonishment in the minds of all who knew him, and who believed only in his evil qualities. The Grand Duke, who had been inconsistent, headstrong, capricious, debauched, now as Czar freed the nobility and gentry from all slavish vassalage, recalled many unhappy exiles from Siberia, and relieved the poor by lessening the taxes upon certain necessaries of life. His intention, however, of commencing war with Denmark, for the recovery of his Holstein dominions, soon diminished his short-lived popularity. At heart a Lutheran, he imprudently expressed his contempt for the Greek communion, which, added to his undisguised partiality for Holstein, provoked the Russians. Catherine, on the other hand, expressed the utmost zeal for the Greek church, and conformed assiduously to the manners and language of the Russians. While she thus endeavored to court the favor of the Russians, her husband observed no rules of prudence or moderation either in his public proceedings or in his private conduct.

Peter, in consequence of many disagreements with his wife, as soon as he came to the throne, began to talk of repudiating Catherine in favor of his mistress, the Countess de Woronzoff. Peter, however, resolved to clothe this act of despotism with an appearance of justice; and he believed, that by producing complete evidence of Catherine's infidelities, his proceedings against her would meet with approval, not only among his own subjects, but all over Europe. Catherine at this time was living in retirement at Petershoff, a country residence near St. Petersburg. She, on her part, determined to anticipate him by a bolder movement. A confederacy was formed in which several noblemen, officers and ladies joined; the regiments of the garrison were gained over by bribes and promises; and Catherine sent a strong guard to Oranienbaum, where the Emperor The officer who commanded this detachment was commissioned to ask him, "Whether or not he would abdicate the Empire by a solemn deed signed by his own hand?" At first he hesitated; but seeing himself abandoned on all sides, he proceeded to Petershoff, where he gave up his sword and all

was.

his dominions to Catherine. That it might not be known where the deposed Czar was confined, several covered wagons were dispatched on different roads at the same time. Alexis Orloff and Teploff, two of the conspirators, repaired, five days after the deposition, to Mopsa, a small country house, in which Peter really was a prisoner. They drank together brandy, and by mixing poison in the ex-Czar's glass, they commenced their diabolical design of murder. Peter was at once seized with agonizing spasms, and was finally strangled to death with a table napkin. It does not appear that Catherine ordered the murder; yet after the cruel deed was accomplished, she showed no sorrow, and she continued her favor to her husband's murderers. In a proclamation which she issued, it is said that Peter died of colic. Catherine was solemnly crowned at Moscow in 1762. The Archbishop of Novogorod placed the imperial crown upon her head, and proclaimed her aloud "Sovereign of all the Russias," by the title of Catherine II., and at the same time declared her illegitimate son, Paul Petrowitz, her successor.

In 1763, on the death of the weak and indolent Augustus III., King of Poland, that country being in a state of exhaustion and confusion, Catherine, by bribing part of the electors and terrifying the rest, procured the election of one of her past paramours, Poniatowski, who was chosen King under the name of Stanislaus Augustus. Having accomplished this, she began to interfere in the internal concerns of that kingdom, whose wretched Constitution, with its elective crown, turbulent nobility, serf population, and intolerant clergy, afforded her ample opportunities. In fact some of the parties in Poland courted her support, as they had been in the habit of courting that of her predecessors and of the other neighboring states for ages before.

The Dissidents of Poland, which was the name given to those who did not follow the Roman Catholic religion, including both Protestants and followers of the Greek Church, were placed upon an equal footing with the Catholics by the "Pacta Conventa " of 1573, confirmed by the treaty of peace of Oliva in 1660. Since this last epoch, however, the Catholics, being the majority among the high nobility, had gradu