Fortunately for the imbecile Peter, he had enough sense to appreciate the abilities of Catharine; and a sort of maudlin idea of justice, if it were not, perhaps, utter stupidity, dissuaded him from resenting her freedom in the choice of favorites.  Upon commencing his reign, he yielded himself to the guidance of her imperial mind, hoping to obtain some dignity by the renown which her measures might reflect upon him.  Catharine advised him very wisely.  She caused seventeen thousand exiles to be recalled from Siberia, and abolished the odious secret court of chancery—­that court of political inquisition which, for years, had kept all Russia trembling.

For a time, Russia resounded with the praises of the new sovereign, and when Peter III. entered the senate and read an act permitting the nobility to bear arms, or not, at their own discretion, and to visit foreign countries whenever they pleased, a privilege which they had not enjoyed before, the gratitude of the nobles was unbounded.  It should, however, be recorded that this edict proved to be but a dead letter.  It was expected that the nobles, as a matter of courtesy, should always ask permission to leave, and this request was frequently not granted.  The secret tribunal, to which we have referred, exposed persons of all ranks and both sexes to be arrested upon the slightest suspicion.  The accused was exposed to the most horrible tortures to compel a confession.  When every bone was broken and every joint dislocated, and his body was mangled by the crushing wheel, if he still had endurance to persist in his denial, the accuser was, in his turn, placed upon the wheel, and every nerve of agony was tortured to force a recantation of the charge.

Though Peter III. promulgated the wise edicts which were placed in his hands, he had become so thoroughly imbruted by his dissolute life that he made no attempt to tear himself away from his mistresses and his drunken orgies.

Peter III. was quite infatuated in his admiration of Frederic of Prussia.  One of his first acts upon attaining the reins of government was to dispatch an order forbidding the Russian armies any longer to cooeperate with Austria against Prussia.  This command was speedily followed by another, directing the Russian generals to hold themselves and their troops obedient to the instructions of Frederic, and to cooeperate in every way with him to repel their former allies, the Austrians.  It was the caprice of a drunken semi-idiot which thus rescued Frederic the Great from disgrace and utter ruin.  The Emperor of Prussia had sufficient sagacity to foresee that Peter III. would not long maintain his seat upon the throne.  He accordingly directed his minister at St. Petersburg, while continuing to live in great intimacy with the tzar, to pay the most deferential attention to the empress.