Petersburgh Jan y 20 th 1784 O.S.

No time was as yet fixed for the departure of the English Courier who

has been here some months and by whom I have given you to expect

news from me, but as another is just arrived with the news of the change

in the ministry M r Fitzherbert dispatches one of them as soon as

possible. A small part only of what I had written in readiness for the

opportunity will be to be sent now as my circumstances of late

are entirely changed.

First I have to tell you that my love

affair is entirely put an end to. Gen: Landskoy [The Empress's favourite] immediately on

the death of the Uncle without any application on my part to him

had interested himself so much in the affair as to let the aunt

& mother know that the Empress thought they did wrong to oppose

the young Countess's inclinations and promised that her

Majesty would promote me and do anything to give them

satisfaction. This only irritated the Aunt the more. When the

Uncle & father came the girl was watched more closely than ever:

yet she found means to write to me frequently and every body

seemed to be in our interests. She was ill, kept her room, and

her bed, and allarmed her friends, but could not soften them.

she offered to make her escape with me, or take any steps which

I would point out, could She but escape the vigilance of her keepers.

She offered money & diamonds to one of her chambermaids,

but could not gain her assistance. When things were in this situation

the parents summoned all this force against her, and at length

after having her Mother at her feet foaming at the mouth

through despair, She, after half an hour's reflection sat down

and wrote to me a renounce. telling me that all had been tried

and that a sense of the unhappiness She caused in her family