LEFORT, FRANgOIS, was the son of Jacques Lefort, member of the Grand Council of Geneva, in which city he was born in 1656. After having served as a cadet iu the Swiss Guards in the service of France, and subeeqnently iu a regiment belonging to the Duke of Courland, in the pay of the Dutch, he was induced to try his fortune as a military man in Russia, and obtained a captain's commission from the czar Feeder or Theodore Alexiwich, and greatly distinguished himself in the wars with the Turks and the Tartars. Having in 1678 married Mademoiselle Souhai, whose father, a native of France, held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Russian service, he revisited his native country in 1682, but staying only for a few weeks, got back to Russia in time to be in readiness for the crisis which occurred on the death of Theodore. His abilities being well-known, he was appointed by the Prince Galitzin, who governed the country under the Princess Sophia, in the name of her two brothers Ivan and Peter, one of the captains of a new body of troops raised to counteract the domination of the Strelitzes, or old national militia. In this capacity he first attracted the attention of tho young czar Peter, in the early part of the year 1683 ; and on the 29th of June in that year he was raised by him to the rank of major. When, in 1689, Peter took refuge in the
Troiteki convent, Lefort was one of those who joined him there, and on the overthrow of the usurpation of Sophia, which followed, he became the chief minister of emancipated emperor. Many of Peter's greatest plans are believed to have been suggested by Lefort ; all the czar'e measures for civilisiug and elevating his country found in him, at least, the most able and zealous of seconders and promoters. Holding at once the rank of general and of admiral, Lefort was always equally ready for service by land or by sea ; and his active and versa tile faculties shone as much iu civil affairs as in military. At List Peter lost this inestimable servant by his death at Moscow on the 12th of March 1699: his health had been for some time declining, and a fever following upon the breaking out of an old wound carried him oft Peter lamented him as if he had been a brother. Lefort'a moral nature appears to have been as admirable as was his capacity; considerations of self-interest were always postponed by him to the public good and the glory of his sovereign, and a noble contempt of everything mean or mercenary marked the whole of his career. Ho left a son, but he died at an early age.