Memoir of Marshal Keith

2 INTRODUCTION.
account, better able to cope with the half-savage people of
Russia, and their still more savage master, Peter the Great.
Being a younger son, and a Roman Catholic, he had early
to seek his fortune •, and, after great hardships and strange
vicissitudes, found at last the work suited for him in the
new and rising empire of all the Russias. After securing
to its future great ruler the supreme power at a most
critical period, and governing the country in his absence,
this illustrious Scotchman died, leaving his impress on
Russia and Europe. Feeling the mighty loss he was
about to sustain, " the Czar, who had visited him four
times in his illness, and had been twice with him during
the night, stood weeping by his bed as he drew his last
breath ; and the eyes of him who had left Scotland a poor,
unbefriended wanderer, were closed by the hands of an
Emperor." The latter was James Francis Edward Keith,
Field-Marshal in the Prussian service. At bonnie Inver-
ugie, one of the hereditary seats of the family, the future
Marshal was born ; and from this place, with a sad heart
and light purse, went forth the last of the Marischals.
The elder, the representative of a noble race that had for
seven centuries held the foremost place in Scotland, left
his native land an exile, on account of his adherence to
the royal house of Stuart, in the unfortunate rising of
17 15, For the rest of his life, he wandered about the Con-
tinent, living at various courts, the intimate friend of princes
and the beloved of kings. His brother, a born soldier,
and of such military renown that his services were sought
after by the greatest powers of Europe, after fighting his