(a) RIMNIEZKI (Count Alexander), was a man so eminent in his profession, that, if war be an art founded on science, it would be improper not to give some account of his life in a Work of this nature. Various accounts of him, indeed, are already in the hands of the public; but they differ so much from one another in the pictures which they present of the man, that it is not easy, if it be always possible, to distinguish truth from falsehood. With respect to the talents of the General, there is not room for the same difference of representation; because a train of military successes, almost unrivalled, has rendered these conspicuous to all Europe. In the short detail that our limits permit us to give of the life of this singular man, we shall avail ourselves of all the information, public and private, which we have been able to obtain, and believe to be authentic; and we hope to make our readers acquainted with some particulars respecting his person and domestic habits which are not yet generally known.

The family of Suworow is said to have been from Sweden, and of a noble descent. The first of this name settled in Russia about the latter end of the last century; and having engaged in the wars against the Tartars and the Poles, were rewarded by the Czars of that period with lands and peasants. Basil, the father of our hero, is said to have been the godson of Peter the Great; to have been held in high estimation for his political knowledge and extensive erudition; and to have enjoyed, at his death, the two-fold rank of General and Senator.

As this account is given by a man who professes to have formed an intimate acquaintance with Suworow himself, it ought to be correct; and yet we cannot help raising entertainments some doubts of its truth, or at least of its accuracy. It is well known, that extensive erudition, was in no esteem in Russia at the period when Basil Frederich Suworow is here said to have been so learned; and it is likewise known, that if, by erudition, be meant a knowledge of ancient literature, it was even despised, at a much later period, by all who were at once noble, and possessed of lands and peasants (See Russia, Encyc.). The truth is, as we have learned from unquestionable authority, that the family of Suworow was ancient and respectable; but being far from affluent, and their little property lying at the very extremity of the empire, we have reason to believe, that the subject of this memoir was the first of the family that ever was at court. Basil, however, if his ancestors were from Sweden, may have been free from the Russian prejudices against Greek and Latin; and this is the more probable, that he certainly gave a learned education to his son.

That son, Alexander Basiliowitch Suworow, was, according to the author already quoted, born in the year 1730;

(A) This name is spelled sometimes as we have spelled it, sometimes Suwarsowy, and sometimes Suvoroff. This last is according to the pronunciation; but we have adopted the orthography of the General himself, in his letter to Charette, the hero of Vendee. we have some reason to believe, that he was not born before 1732. His father had destined him, we are told, for the robe; but his early inclinations impelled him to the profession of a soldier; and in 1742 he was enrolled as a fusilier in the guards of Semonow. He was afterwards a corporal, then a sergeant, and, in 1754, he quitted the guards with the brevet of Lieutenant in the army. He made his first campaign in the seven years war against the Prussians, in the year 1759, entering upon actual service under Prince Wolkoniski. As senior officer on duty, he attended on the commander-in-chief Count Fermor, who, admiring the consummate resolution which he appeared to possess, favoured him with his particular confidence. In 1761, he was ordered on service in the light troops under General Berg; and with the rank of a field-officer (we think that of Lieutenant-colonel) he performed prodigies of valour, and exhibited much of that character which was afterwards so fully developed and displayed. Even then he seems to have formed the resolution of dying on the field of battle rather than suffer himself to be taken prisoner; for when, with a handful of troops, he was once surrounded by a large detachment of Prussians, he determined to cut his way through them, or perish in the attempt. In this daring enterprise he was not only successful, but contrived to carry off with him twenty prisoners, though he was obliged to abandon two field-pieces, which he had a little before taken from a smaller detachment.

At the peace of 1762, he received from the Empress a colonel's commission, written with her own hand; and being advanced, in 1768, to the rank of brigadier, he was, in the month of November, ordered to repair, with all possible speed, to the frontiers of Poland. At that unfavourable season, he crossed rivers and morasses, whose passage was rendered more difficult by slight frosts; and, in the course of a month, traversed 500 English miles, with the loss of only a few men in the environs of Smolensk.

The object of the Empress, at this time, was to subdue the Polish confederates, and to possess herself of certain provinces of that ill-fated kingdom. How completely she and her two allies, the Emperor of Germany and the King of Prussia, succeeded in their enterprise, has been related elsewhere (see POLAND, Entry.). It is sufficient, in this memoir, to observe, that the successes of the Russians were chiefly owing to the military skill and intrepidity of Suworow, who was their only active General, and was indeed, for four years, almost constantly employed in offensive operations against the confederates. Not to mention the numerous actions and skirmishes of an inferior kind, in which his conduct and courage were always displayed, the victory at Staloviz, over a superior force, ably commanded, and the capture of Cracow, were alone sufficient to entitle him to the character which he ever afterwards so well supported. The former of these drew the highest encomiums from the great Frederick of Prussia; and the latter decided the fate of Poland. It is proper to add, that Suworow, on these occasions, did not tarnish his laurels by unnecessary cruelty. When a French officer, who surrendered at Cracow, offered him his sword, according to the custom of war, he refused it, saying, that he would not take the sword of a brave man, whose master was not at war with his sovereign; and, even to the leaders of the confederates, he granted better terms of capitulation than they had the presumption to ask.

In the year 1770, he had been promoted to the rank of Major-general; and for his exploits in the Polish war, the Empress conferred upon him, at different times, the orders of St Ann, St George, and Alexander Nevsky.

After performing some important services on the frontiers of Sweden, Suworow received orders, in the beginning of 1773, to join the army in Moldavia, under the command of Field-marshal Romanzow; and there he began that glorious career, which soon made his name a terror to the Turks. His first exploit was the taking of Turtukey, of which he wrote the following laconic account to the commander-in-chief:

"Honour and glory to God! Glory to you, Romanzow! We are in possession of Turtukey, and I am in it."

During the remainder of the war, which was of short continuance, Suworow was constantly engaged, and constantly successful. In the beginning of the year 1774, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-general; and on the 11th of June of the same year, he defeated the Turks in a great battle, in which they lost 3000 men killed, some hundreds of prisoners, 40 pieces of artillery, and 80 standards, with their superb camp. Soon after this victory, peace was concluded between the two courts; and Lieutenant-general Suworow was ordered to proceed with all possible haste to Moscow, to assist in appeasing the interior troubles of that part of the empire.

These troubles were occasioned by a Cossack rebel, of the name of Pugatchew, or Pugatcheff, who, at the head of a party of his discontented countrymen, had long eluded the vigilance of Count Panin, the commander-in-chief in Mucovo, and frequently cut off detachments of the army which were sent out in quest of him. The chace of Pugatcheff, for such it may be called, was now wholly entrusted to the well-known activity of Suworow; and that General, after pursuing the rebel with inconceivable rapidity, through woods and deserts, came up with him at a place called Urlafk, and carried him prisoner to Count Panin, who sent him to Moscow, where he suffered the punishment due to his crimes. This insurgent, it is said, had at one time collected such a force, and was followed with such enthusiasm, that, if his understanding had been equal to his courage, and his moderation had kept pace with his power, he might have possessed himself of Moscow, and made the Imperial Catharine tremble on her throne.

For several years after the taking of Pugatcheff, Suworow was employed in the Crimea, on the Cuban, and against the Nogay Tartars, in a kind of service which, though it was of the utmost importance to the Empress, and required all the address of the Lieutenant-general, furnished no opportunities for that wonderful display of promptitude and resource which had characterized his more active campaigns. One incident, however, must be mentioned; even in this short memoir, because it shows the natural disposition of the man. During the winter that Suworow passed among the Tartars, he was frequently visited by the chiefs of that nation; and at one of these visits, Mechtched Bay, the chief of the Gedissens, often joked with Muffa Bay, another chief, on his inclination to marry. Muffa Bay worow, was so extremely old, that Suworow thought the conversation ridiculous; and one day asked him, What ground Mehemed could have for such idle talk? Mufsa replied, that Mehemed Bey was right; that he wished to marry; and that he hoped the General would make him a present of a beautiful Tartar girl of fifteen! Suworow immediately bought a young Tartar slave of a Cossack for 100 rubles, and sent her to Muffa Bey; who married her, lived with her a very few years, and died at the age of one hundred and eight! regretted, we are told, by the Lieutenant-general, who regarded him with great esteem and attachment.

In the end of the year 1786, Suworow was promoted to the rank of General in Chief; and, at the breaking out of the war with the Turks in 1787, he showed how well he was intitled to that rank, by his masterly defense of Kinburn; a place of no strength, but of great importance, as it is situated at the mouth of the Dnieper, opposite to Oczakow. For the zeal and abilities which he displayed on this occasion, the Empress decorated him with the order of St Andrew; gave him five crosses of the order of St George, to be distributed, according to his judgment, among such of his officers as had most distinguished themselves; and, in a very flattering letter, regretted the wounds which he had received in defending the place.

At the siege of Oczakow, Suworow, who commanded the left wing of the army under Prince Potemkin, received a dangerous wound in the nape of the neck, which was followed by so smart a fever, that, for some time, his life was despaired of; but he persevered in his long accustomed practice of preferring regimen to medicine, and his health was gradually re-established. In the year 1789, he was appointed to the command of the army which was to co-operate with the Prince of Saxe Cobourg in Walachia; and, by marches of inconceivable rapidity, he twice, in the space of two months, preserved the army of that Prince from inevitable destruction. Putting himself at the head of 8000 Russians, and literally running to the aid of his ally, he came up with the Turks in time to change the fate of the day at the battle of Porhanski, which was fought on the 21st of July; and again at Rymnik, which, with 7000 men, he had reached with equal celerity, he gained, on the 22d of September, in conjunction with the Prince, one of the greatest victories that have ever been achieved. According to the least exaggerated account, the Turkish army, commanded by the Grand Vizier in person, amounted to 90,000 or 100,000 men; of which 70,000 were chosen troops; whilst the army of the allies exceeded not 25,000. At the commencement of the attack, Suworow, who had reconnoitered the country, and formed the plan of the battle, called out to his Russians, "My friends, look not at the eyes of your enemies, but at their breasts; it is there that you must thrust your bayonets." No quarter was given to the Turks; and on this account the Russian General has been charged with savage ferocity; but the charge, if not groundless, must be shared equally between him and the Prince of Cobourg. The commanders of the allied army, aware of the immense superiority of their enemies, had resolved, before the engagement, not to encumber themselves with prisoners, whom they could not secure without more than hazarding the fate of the day: And where is the man, who admits the lawfulness of war, that will condemn such conduct in such critical circumstances?

The taking of Bender and Belgrade were the immediate consequences of the victory of Rymnik; and so sensible was the Emperor Joseph how much the rapid movements and military skill of Suworow had contributed to that victory, that he immediately created him a Count of the Roman empire, and accompanied the diploma with a very flattering letter. Similar honours were conferred upon him by his own sovereign, who sent him the diploma of Count of the empire of Russia, with the title of Rymnikski, and the order of St Andrew of the first class.

In the autumn of 1790, Prince Potemkin wrote to Count Suworow, requesting a particular conference. The General, who conjectured the object of it, sent him the following answer: "The flotilla of row-boats will get possession of the mouths of the Danube; Tulcia and Ilaceia will fall into our power; our troops, supported by the vessels, will take Izmialow and Brailow, and make Tchistow tremble." He was perfectly right in his conjecture: it was to concert with him measures for the taking of Izmialow that the Prince had requested the conference. He did not, however, receive orders to undertake that desperate enterprise till the beginning of November, when he rapidly approached towards that fortress. His army, by sea and land, consisted of 23,000 men; of whom one-half were Cossacks, and of these many were sick. The troops of the garrison, which were under the orders of seven Sultans, amounted to 43,000 men, of whom nearly one half were Janissaries; the fortress was by much the strongest of any on the Turkish frontier: it was under the command of an old warrior, who had twice refused the dignity of Grand Vizier, and had displayed against the Austrians considerable abilities, as well as the most intrepid courage; and the Grand Seignior had published a firman, forbidding the garrison, on pain of death without trial, to surrender on any terms whatever.

Potemkin, knowing that Suworow had with him no battering cannon, and dreading the consequences of a repulse, wrote to the General, that if he was not certain of success, he would do well not to risk an assault. The laconic reply was; "My plan is fixed. The Russian army has already been twice at the gates of Izmialow; and it would be shameful to retreat from them the third time without entering the place." To spare the effusion of blood, however, if possible, he sent a note to the Seraskier who commanded in Izmialow, to assure him, upon Count Suworow's word of honour, that if he did not hang out a white flag that very day, the place would be taken by assault, and all the garrison put to the sword. The Seraskier returned no answer to the note; but another commander was pleased to say, that "The Danube would cease to flow, or the heavens bow down to the earth, before Izmialow would surrender to the Russians!"

Having concerted with the Admiral proper measures for the assault, Suworow passed the night, with some officers of his suite, in impatient vigilance for the appointed hour when the signals were to be given. There were the firing of a musket at three, four, and five in the morning, when the army rushed upon the place; and notwithstanding the desperate opposition of the Turks, the depth of the moat, and the height of the ramparts, ramparts, they were completely masters of Imsillow by four o'clock P.M. In this one dreadful day the Ottomans lost 33,000 men killed or dangerously wounded; 10,000 who were taken prisoners; besides 6000 women and children, and 2000 Christians of Moldavia, who fell in the general massacre. The place was given up to plunder for three days, according to agreement with the army before the assault; but we have authority to say, that no person was murdered in cold blood, who did not prefer his property to his life.

The Russians found in Imsillow 232 pieces of cannon, many large and small magazines of gunpowder, an immense quantity of bombs and balls, 74 standards almost all stained with blood, provisions for the Turkish army for six months, and about 10,000 horses, of which many were extremely beautiful. Suworow, who was inaccessible to any views of private interest, did not appropriate to himself a single article, not so much as a horse; but having, according to his custom, rendered solemn thanks to God for his victory, wrote to Prince Potemkin the following Spartan letter: "The Russian colours wave on the ramparts of Imsillow."

Peace being concluded with the Turks in December 1791, no political events occurred from that period to call forth the military talents of Suworow till 1794. In the beginning of that year mutinies having broken out among the Polish troops in the service of Russia, and the Empress, with her two potent allies, having dictated the plan for the partition of Poland, Count Suworow received orders, in the month of May, to proceed, by forced marches, into Red Russia, with a corps of 15,000 men, and to disarm all the Polish troops in that province. This service he performed without the effusion of blood, disarming in less than a fortnight 8000 men, dispersed over a country of 150 miles in circuit. Soon afterwards he was ordered to march into the interior of Poland; the King of Prussia having been obliged to raise the siege of Warsaw, and the Empress perceiving that more vigorous measures than had hitherto been pursued, were necessary to accomplish her designs.

To give a detailed account of his route to Warsaw, would be to write the history of the Polish war, and not the memoirs of Count Suworow. It has been rashly supposed, that he had to contend only with raw troops, commanded by inexperienced leaders, who were not cordially united among themselves; but the fact is otherwise, and Suworow never displayed greater resource in the day of danger, than in the numerous battles and skirmishes in which he was engaged on his march to the capital of Poland. At last, after surmounting every obstacle, he sat down, on the 2nd of October, before Praga, a strongly fortified suburb of Warsaw, defended by a formidable artillery, and a garrison of 30,000 men, rendered desperate by their situation. The Russian army exceeded not 22,000; and with that comparatively small force he resolved to storm Praga, as he had stormed Imsillow. Having erected some batteries to deceive the garrison into a belief that they were to be regularly besieged, he concerted with the other Generals the mode of assault; and when everything was ready, he gave his orders in these words: "Storm, and take the batteries, and cut down all who resist; but spare the inhabitants, unarmed persons, and all who shall ask for quarter."

There are but few examples of a military operation so boldly conceived, so skilfully performed, or so important in its consequences, as the taking of Praga. The assault was made at once in seven different places at five in the morning; and at nine the Russians were masters of the place, having penetrated by pure force a triple entrenchment. Of the Poles 13,000 lay dead on the field of battle, one-third of whom were the flower of the youth of Warsaw; above 2000 were drowned in the Vistula; and 14,680 were taken prisoners, of whom 8000 were disarmed and immediately set at liberty, and the remainder the next day. We mention these circumstances, because they completely refute the tales of those Jacobin scribblers, who have so strenuously endeavoured to tarnish the laurels of the Russian hero, by representing him as having ordered a general massacre of men, women, and children. The artillery taken from the enemy consisted of 104 pieces of cannon and mortars, chiefly of large calibre. The Russians had 580 men killed, of whom eight were superior and staff-officers, and 900 wounded, of whom 23 were officers.

Soon after the storming of Praga, Warsaw capitulated, and Suworow was received into the city by the magistrates in a body, and in their ceremonial habits. When the president presented to him the keys of the city, he pressed them to his lips, and then, holding them up towards heaven, he said, "Almighty God, I render thee thanks, that I have not been compelled to purchase the keys of this place as dear as . . . ." Turning his face towards Praga, his voice failed him, and his cheeks were instantly bathed with tears. As he rode through the streets, the windows were filled with spectators, who were delighted with the return of order, and the assurance of peace; and the air resounded with the exulting exclamations of "Long live Catherine! Long live Suworow!"

Thus did Count Suworow, in the course of a very few months, overturn the kingdom and republic of Poland. It is not our business, in this article, to decide on the justice of the cause in which he was embarked. Of the Polish revolution, which gave rise to the war that subverted the republic, and swept it from the number of sovereign states, the reader will find some account under the title Poland in the Encyclopaedia; but it is here proper to acknowledge, that we do not now think so favourably, as when we wrote that article, of the views and principles of those who framed the constitution, which brought upon them the Russian and Prussian arms. Subsequent events seem to have proved completely, that if Poland had not been conquered by the allied powers, it would soon have been involved, under Kościuszko and his Jacobinical adherents, in all the horrors of revolutionary France; and the unhappy king, instead of being carried captive into Russia, would probably have finished his course on a scaffold. Suworow, who never concerned himself with the intrigues of courts, and expressed on all occasions the most sovereign contempt of those Generals who affected to possess the secrets of statecraft, probably never enquired into the final object of the war; but thought it his duty to execute, in his own sphere, the orders of his Imperial mistress. So sensible was Catherine of the propriety of this conduct, and of the zeal and abilities which he had displayed in the Polish campaign, that immediately on receiving accounts of the storming of Praga were Praga and the submission of Warsaw, the announced to him, in a letter written with her own hand, his well-earned advancement to the rank of Field-marshal General. Nor did her munificence stop there: She loaded him with jewels, and presented him with an estate of 7000 peasants, in the district of Kubin, which had been the scene of his first battle in the course of the campaign.

From the subjugation of Poland we hear little more of Field-marshal Suworow till he entered upon his glorious career in Italy. He is said, indeed, to have given offence to the present Emperor soon after his accession to the throne, by affording protection to some meritorious officers, whom his Majesty had in an arbitrary manner dismissed from the service; but that offence was overlooked, and Suworow called again into action, when Paul joined the coalition against France.

Of the exploits of the Field-marshal in Italy, where, to use his own words, he destroyed armies and overturned states, we have given a full account under the title Revolution in this Supplement. In his former campaigns, the wisdom of his measures, the distribution of Suworow's forces, the undaunted character of his operations, and the progressive continuance of his successes, furnish proofs of the superiority of his talents hardly to be paralleled in the annals of modern war; but, animated by the nobleness of his cause, and confiding, as he said, in the God of battles, he seems in his last campaign to have surpassed himself (n). It would appear, however, that his own Sovereign thought otherwise; and if he did, he was certainly as singular in that opinion as he is said to be in many others. Considering the Field-marshal as the conqueror of Italy, he had indeed created him a Prince by the style and title of Prince Suworow-Italykiss, but how did he receive him, when he returned into the Russian dominions at the head of his veteran and victorious bands?

Though the old warrior thought himself almost betrayed at the end of the campaign by the crooked policy of the court of Vienna, he doubtless hoped to be received at the court of St Petersburgh, if not with triumphal arches, at least with the most public testimonials.

(n) Were any other proof than a simple narrative of his success necessary to evince the abilities displayed by Marshal Suworow in the last campaign, that proof might be found in the sad reverses of the present. At the opening of the campaign of 1800, the allies possessed infinitely greater advantages over the enemy than at the beginning of the campaign of 1799; and we ventured to say, towards the end of the article Revolution, in this Supplement, that the affairs of the French seemed in Italy to be desperate. But how egregiously have we been mistaken? By the most unaccountable infatuation, the Austrian commander in Italy would not believe that the French army of reserve, which was advancing upon him with the usual celerity of the First Consul's movements, consisted of more than six thousand men! Instead therefore of marching rapidly to meet them before they could be wholly disentangled from the passes over the Alps, he waited patiently for them in the plains of Marengo. If we may judge of the future by the past, we may surely say that such would not have been the conduct of Suworow. Even after the two hostile armies met, and fought, on the 10th of July, one of the bloodiest battles of the present war, the success of the French was not such as to entitle them to the acquisitions which were the consequence of their dear-bought victory. The fate of the day was long doubtful; and it was at last decided, not by any extraordinary exertions of the Consul, but partly by the provident conduct of General Dessaix, who, with the aid of fresh troops, erected a new battery at a critical point, and at a critical period; and still more by the situation of General Melas, whose faculties, though frequently supported by wine and spirits, are said to have wholly forsaken him in the latter part of the day. When he was in this state, one false movement, which weakened his centre, afforded an opportunity to Dessaix to make a vigorous and successful charge with a body of cavalry that had not yet been engaged.

But even after this defeat, what was the fate of the two armies? The Austrians had lost 9000 men, and the French from 12,000 to 14,000: the former, enraged at having had the victory so wrested out of their hands, were eager to renew the contest on the following day; and the latter had obtained only the barren advantage of keeping possession of the field of battle. In such a situation, Suworow would certainly have encouraged the ardour of his men; but the Austrian commander, who complained last year of the Field-marshal for being too little sparing of blood, instead of following the example which he had set him at the battle of Trebia, concluded a capitulation unparalleled, we believe, in the annals of war; a capitulation by which he voluntarily surrendered into the hands of the enemy nearly all the fruits of one of the most glorious campaigns recorded in history. We will not to throw any undue asperion upon the character of General Melas: We believe him to be a brave man, and such he has been represented to us in various accounts which we have had directly from Germany; but all these accounts agree in representing him likewise as fit, not to have the supreme command of a great army, but only to execute the orders of a superior mind.

In Germany, the gallant Kray has been obliged to retreat before the equally gallant Moreau; but he has wisely not hazarded the consequences of a general action. We say wisely; because we have learned from authority which we cannot question, that his army is in a state little better than that of mutiny. To his officers he is in a great measure a stranger; and therefore these gentlemen think themselves at liberty to disobey his orders! What the consequence of all this will be, it becomes not us to conjecture. An armistice has in the mean time taken place both in Italy and in Germany; and it is not impossible that the Allied Council, aided by the mobber the 4th of Vienna, may induce the Emperor to make a separate peace.—We need hardly make an apology for the length of this note, which our readers will consider as a continuation, the latest that we shall have an opportunity to give, of the progress of the French revolution, which we once flattered ourselves would, by this time, have taken a very different turn; and a different turn it would have taken if another Suworow had commanded in Italy. It is said, that he expected to be sent back at the head of a large army, with full powers to act as he should judge proper for bringing the war to a happy termination, and restoring peace and order to Europe; and he certainly expressed, in letters to different correspondents, his earnest wish to conclude his military career with contributing to the accomplishment of so desirable an object. What then must have been his disappointment, when the Russian Emperor would not see him, and positively forbade his appearance at court? To the messenger who brought the order, the Field-marshal gave a purse of money, turned his carriage another way, and drove to a wooden house, at a distance from the court, and from his former friends, where buried his mighty heart; and the conqueror of the Turks, the Poles, and the French republicans, died almost unattended, on the 18th of May 1800.

The sovereign, who thus disgraced him at the end of his life, gave him a magnificent funeral!

In his person Suworow was tall, considerably exceeding six feet, and full chelten. His countenance was stern; but among his friends his manners were pleasant, and his dispositions were kind. His temper was naturally violent; but that violence he constantly laboured to moderate, though he was never able completely to extinguish it. According to M. Anthing, an effervescent spirit of impatience predominated in his character; and it perhaps never happened (says that author) that the execution of his orders equalled the rapidity of his wishes. Though he disliked all public entertainments, yet when circumstances led him to any of them, he appeared to partake, and endeavoured to promote the general pleasure. Sometimes he condescended even to dance and play at cards, though very rarely, and merely that he might not interrupt the etiquette of public manners, to which, when not in the field, he was very attentive. In the field he may be said to have spent the whole of his life from the period at which he first joined the army in the seven years war; for during the time that he was not engaged in actual warfare, and that time, taken altogether, did not exceed twelve years, he was always placed at the head of armies stationed on the frontier of some enemy's country. He was therefore a mere warrior, and as such had no fixed habitation. With respect to his table and lodging, he contented himself with whatever he found, requiring nothing but what absolute necessity demands, and what might be transported with ease from one place to another. His couch consisted of a heap of fresh hay sufficiently elevated, and scattered into considerable breadth, with a white sheet spread over it, with a cushion for his pillow, and with a cloak for his coverlid. He has been represented as dirty (c); but the representation is false. M. Anthing affirms, that he was clean in his person, and that, when not on actual service, he washed himself frequently during the course of the day. It is among the singular, though unimportant circumstances of his life (says the same author), that, for the last twenty years, he had not made use of a looking-glass, or incumbered his person with either watch or money.

He was sincerely religious; took every opportunity of attending the offices of public devotion; and has been known, on Sundays and festivals, to deliver lectures on piety to those whom duty called to attend on him. We are told by an anonymous writer, in a miscellany not very forward to praise such men as Suworow, or indeed to praise piety in men of any description, that chancing one evening to overhear a captain abridge the prayer which his duty required him to repeat at the guard, the Field-marshal called out to him, "Thou unconfessional, abominable, impious man, thou wouldst cheat Heaven!" Thou wouldest, no doubt, cheat likewise the Empress and me! I shall dismiss thee." His regard for sacred things is indeed very apparent in the elegant letter which, on the 11th of October 1795, he wrote to Charette, the hero of Vendee, whom he congratulates upon taking up arms to restore the temple of God of his fathers. Alluding to this trait of his character, and to his detestation of Jacobinism under every form, a late writer in a most respectable miscellany has well characterized him as the

"Foe to religion's foe; of Russia's throne 'The prop, th' avenger, and the pride in one; Whole conquering arms, in bold defiance hurl'd, Crushed the rude monster of the western world."

We have already, when we thought not that we should so soon be called upon to write his life, observed, that he was a scholar, a man of science, and a poet. M. Anthing affirms us, that from his earliest years he was enamoured of the sciences, and improved himself in them; but that as the military science was the sole object of his regard, those authors of every nation who investigate, illustrate, or improve it, engrossed his literary leisure. Hence Cornelius Nepos was with him a favourite classic; and he read, with great avidity and attention, the histories of Montecucculi and Turenne. Caesar, however, and Charles XII. (says the same author) were the heroes whom he most admired, and whose activity and courage became the favourite objects of his imitation.

With respect to his moral character, we have every reason to believe that he was a man of the most incorruptible probity, immovable in his purposes, and inviolate in his promises; that the cruelties of which he has been accused were the cruelties of Potemkin, and that by those who knew him he was considered as a man of unquestionable humanity. The love of his country, and the ambition to contend in arms for its glory, were the predominant passions of his active life; and to them, like the ancient Romans, he sacrificed every inferior sentiment, and consecrated, without reserve, all the powers of his body and mind. His military career was one long and uniform course of success and triumph, produced by his enterprising courage and extraordinary prescience of mind; by his personal intrepidity and promptitude of execution; by the rapid and unparalleled movements of his armies; and by their perfect assurance of victory when fighting under his banners. Such was Alexander Beniovitch Count Suworow. In the year 1774 he married a daughter of the General Prince Iwan Proforowki, by whom he had two children, now living: Natalia, married to General Count Nicolai Zubow; and Arcadius Count Suworow,

(c) By the anonymous author of the life of Catharine II. a youth of great promise, who accompanied his father in his unparalleled march from Italy to Switzerland.