212 LETTER FROM THE EMPRESS. with Prince Potemkin. He is a most amiable man, and none can be more noble-minded. For the Empress, fame has never yet done her justice. I am sure that no stranger who has not known that illustrious character, ever conceived how much her Majesty is made to reign over a great empire, to make people happy, and to attach grateful and susceptible minds. Is not the present a happy moment for France to declare for Russia?" Such were the extraordinary lights that had suddenly dawned upon the former champion of liberty and asserter of the "dignity of human nature." A few weeks before the above letter was despatched to La Fayette, the Empress, with her own hand, had written to the Rear-Admiral, enclosing a letter from M. de Simolin, regarding his affairs. Though disappointed of sole command, as will appear in the subjoined narrative, he still continued to be dazzled with his prospects. The letter of her Imperial Majesty, who spared no pains in carrying a favourite point, as well as its enclosure, deserves to be preserved :— From the Empress Catherine to Rear-Admiral Paul Jones. "SIR,-A courier from Paris has just brought from my Envoy in France, M. de Simolin, the enclosed letter to Count Besborodko. As I believe that this letter may help to confirm to you what I have already told you verbally, I have sent it, and beg you to return it, as I have not even made a copy be taken, so anxious am I that you should see it. I hope that it will efface all doubts from your mind, and prove to you that you are to be connected only with those who are most favourably disposed towards you. I have no doubt but that on your side you will fully justify the opinion which we have formed of you, and apply yourself with zeal to support the reputation and the name you have acquired for valour and skill on the element in which you are to serve. Adieu, I wish you happiness and health, LETTER OF M. DE SIMOLIN. 213 Extract of the Letter from M. de Simolin to Count de Besborodko, enclosed in the above. "The letter with which your Excellency favoured me on the 16th February, was delivered by Mr. Poliranoff. By it I was informed of the resolution of her Imperial Majesty, on the subject of the engagement with the Chevalier Paul Jones; and the same day Lieutenant-Colonel de Baner, who was despatched from,St. Elizabeth, by Prince Potemkin on the 9th March, brought me two letters, the subject of one of which was the said Chevalier Jones, whom he requested me to induce to repair to his head-quarters as quickly as possible, that he might employ his talents at the opening of the campaign; and assure him that in entering the service, he, (Potemkin,) would do all that depended on him to make his situation pleasant and advantageous, and certainly procure for him occasions in which he might display his skill and valour." "Has he kept his word?" says Jones in a note long afterwards affixed to this letter, which at the moment must have given him so much pleasure. Such were the flattering auspices under which Paul Jones entered the service of Russia. From this point his history will be continued for some time by the most interesting portion of his remaining papers-his Journal of the Campaign of the Liman. 214 LETTER TO JEFFERSON. CHAPTER IX. HIS narrative is now arrived at a period in which it can be for some time continued in the most desirable way, namely, by the Journal of the Rear-Admiral, kept by himself on the scene of action during his memorable campaign against the Turks, afterwards extended at St. Petersburgh and Warsaw, and prepared for publication at Paris. Had he acted with his usual promptitude and decision in openly withdrawing from the service which had been to him one of misery and bondage, in which all the better qualities and higher energies of his mind were converted into the means of self-torture, he would unquestionably have published this Journal himself, if not in France, either in England or America. He long contemplated the necessity of both these steps, and all along felt that his leave of absence for two years was in fact a virtual dismission; but, by the strange fatality, which often appears to enchain a man's will in spite of the suggestions of his reason, he lingered on till death closed the scene. In a letter written to Mr. Jefferson, twenty months after he had been exiled from Russia, and when his last remaining hopes in life began to turn to America, his first country, he says, "As it has been and still is my first wish, and my highest ambition, to show myself worthy of the flattering marks of esteem with which I have been honoured by my country, I think it my duty to lay before you, both as my particular LETTER TO JEFFERSON. 215 friend and as a public minister, the papers I now enclose relative to my connexion with Russia, viz., three pieces dated St. Petersburgh, and signed by the Count de Segur; a letter from me dated at Paris last summer, and sent to the Prince de Potemkin; and a letter from me to the Empress, dated a few days afterwards, enclosing eleven pieces as numbered in the margin. I have selected those testimonies from a great variety of perhaps still stronger proofs in my hands; but, though the Baron de Grimm* has undertaken to transmit to her Imperial Majesty's own hands my last packet, I shall not be surprised if I should find myself obliged to withdraw from the service of Russia, and to publish my Journal of the Campaign (in which) I commanded. In that case I hope to prove to the world that my operations not only saved Cherson and the Crimea, but decided the fate of the war." The Journal is written in disjointed portions, and in a spirit of alternate bitterness and boasting, which the indulgent reader must attribute to the personal feelings from which the work arose. The injustice, mortification, and persecution endured by the man and the officer must plead the apology of the author. To the historian this Journal is of considerable value. It places in an entirely new aspect one of the most memorable of the campaigns between Russia and the Porte; and affords a clue, were that any longer needed, to the crooked and debasing spirit of intrigue by which the domestic policy of Russia was conducted, even under the auspices of the great Catherine. * Baron Grimm was a sort of man-of-all-work for the Empress Catherine II., whose business was to despatch, as frequently as possible, all the scandal, literary gossip, and political intelligence, his peculiar industry could pick up in Paris, for the information or amusement of the Empress and her Court. The German had too much tact to be the means of transmitting anything disagreeable. 216 INTRODUCTION TO JOURNAL. "Introduction to the Journal of Rear-Admiral Paul Jones's Campaign in the Liman in 1788. "The United States of America having charged me with a mission of a political nature to the Court of Denmark, and having at the same time given me a letter to deliver personally to his Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVI., I embarked at New York on the 11th November, 1787, in an American vessel bound for Holland, the captain of which agreed to land me in France. "After a voyage of a month, I landed at Dover, in England, not being able to get ashore in France. From Dover I went to London, where I saw the minister of the United States. I passed some days with my friends there, and went to Covent Garden Theatre. I afterwards set out for Paris, where I arrived on the 20th December. "Mr. Jefferson, the Ambassador of the United States, visited me on the night of my arrival, and informed me that M. de Simolin, minister plenipotentiary of her Imperial Majesty of all the Russias, had often spoken of me while I was in America, and appeared anxious that I should agree to go to Russia, to command the fleet against the Turks in the Black Sea. I regarded this proposal as a castle in the air; and as I did not wish to be employed in foreign service, I avoided meeting M. de Simolin, for whose character I had, at the same time, the highest respect. "As the letter, of which I was the bearer to the King of France, concerned myself alone, my friends advised me not to seek an interview with his Majesty, till after my return from Denmark. In that letter the United States requested his Majesty to permit me to embark in his fleet of evolution, to complete my knowledge of naval tactics, and of military and maritime operations upon the great scale. "Speaking to a man of very high rank at Paris, I informed him of the proposal communicated to me by Mr. Jefferson. |