Folio 64: MacKenzie to Townshend. Last Saturday the vice-governor of this capital...

Folio 64: MacKenzie to Townshend. Last Saturday the vice-governor of this capital and province of Ingria, Jacob Nikitivitz Kortzykow was put to torture by order of the Czar and confessed. At the same time the Senator Prince Gregory Janowitz Wallchonstoy was also put to torture and made a similar confession. Alexander Vassylowitz Kyken, one of the principal commissioners of the Admiralty, was also arrested. Oellan Zynavin, supervisor of materials for the Czar's buildings, one of the first to be arrested, is not yet interrogated; he says the first exposure of the whole affair was made to him by a clerk. Yesterday, the Admiral, who came back here at midday, had on his arrival a general Salvo of all the artillery at the Fortress, and the vessels in the river. He went to Prince Menshikoff, where the Czar met him. Fireworks at night. Seven Commissars were interrogated today. It is said about contracts of flour furnished for the Czar's army and fleet last year; not so much about the exorbitant price, as for the insufficiency of those commodities for the soldiers and sailors. Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Andrew the Patron Saint of the Czar's Order. Dated St Petersburg, 29 Nov 1714. French.