 5 Commencement of the Rain 1691-1697 Alexander was now, not far from twenty years of age, and he was in full possession of power as vast, perhaps, if we consider both the extent of it and its absoluteness, as was ever claimed by any European sovereign. There was no written constitution to limit his prerogatives, and no legislature or parliament to control him by laws. In a certain sense, as Alexander Menzikov said when selling his cakes, everything belonged to him. His word was law. Life and death hung upon his decree. His dominions extended so far that, on an occasion when he wished to send an ambassador to one of his neighbours, the Emperor of China, it took the messenger more than eighteen months of constant and diligent travelling to go from the capital to the frontier. Such was Peter's position. As to character, he was talented, ambitious, far-seeing and resolute, but he was also violent and temper, merciless and implacable toward his enemies and possessed of an indomitable will. He began immediately to feel a strong interest in the improvement of his empire in order to increase his own power and grandeur as the monarch of it, just as a private citizen might wish to improve his estate in order to increase his wealth and importance as the owner of it. He sent the ambassador, above referred to, to China in order to make arrangements for increasing and improving the trade between the two countries. This mission was arranged in a very imposing manner. The ambassador was attended with a train of twenty-one persons who went with him in the capacity of secretaries, interpreters, legal counsellors and the like, besides a large number of servants and followers to wait upon the gentleman of the party and to convey and take care of the baggage. The baggage was born in a train of wagons which followed the carriages of the ambassador and his suite so that the expedition moved through the country quite like a little army on a march. It was nearly three years before the embassage returned. The measure, however, was eminently successful. It placed the relations of the two empires on a very satisfactory footing. The dominions of the Tsar extended then as now through all the northern portions of Europe and Asia to the shores of the ICC. A very important part of this region is the famous Siberia. The land here is not of much value for cultivation on account of the long and dreary winters and the consequent shortness of the summer season. But this very coldness of the climate causes it to produce a great number of fine fur-bearing animals such as the sable, the mink, the ermine and the otter. For nature has so arranged that the colder any climate is, the finer and the warmer is the fur which grows upon the animals that live there. The inhabitants of Siberia are employed, therefore, chiefly in hunting wild animals for their flesh or their fur and in working the mines. And from time immemorial it has been the custom to send criminals there in banishment and compel them to spend the remainder of their lives in these toilsome and dangerous occupations. Of course the cold, the exposure and the fatigue join to the mental distress and suffering which the thought of their hard fate and the recollections of home must occasion soon bring far the greater proportion of these unhappy outcasts to the grave. Peter interested himself very much in efforts to open communications with these retired and almost inaccessible regions and to improve and extend the working of the mines. But his thoughts were chiefly occupied with the condition of the European portion of his dominions and with schemes for introducing more and more fully the arts and improvements of Western Europe among his people. He was ready to seize upon every occasion which could furnish any hint or suggestion to this end. The manner in which his attention was first turned to the subject of shipbuilding illustrated this. In those days Holland was the great centre of commerce and navigation for the whole world, and the art of shipbuilding had made more progress in that nation than in any other. The Dutch held colonies in every quarter of the globe. Their men of war and their fleets of merchant men penetrated to every sea and their naval commanders were universally renowned for their enterprise, their bravery and their nautical skill. The Dutch not only built ships for themselves but orders were sent to their shipyards from all parts of the world and as much as in these yards all sorts of vessels whether for war commerce or pleasure could be built better and cheaper than in any other place. One of the chief centres in which these ship and boat building operations were carried on was the town of Sardam. This town lies near Amsterdam the great commercial capital of the country. It extends for a mile or two along the banks of a deep and still river which furnish most complete and extensive facilities for the docks and shipyards. Now what happened that one day when Peter was with the fort at one of his country palaces where there was a little lake and a canal connected with it which had been made for pleasure sailing on the grounds his attention was attracted to the form and construction of a yacht which was lying there. This yacht having been sent for from Holland at the time when the palace grounds were laid out the emperor fell into conversation with the fort in respect to it and this led to the subject of ships and ship building in general. The fort represented so strongly to his master the advantages which Holland and the other maritime powers of Europe derived from their ships of war that Peter began immediately to feel a strong desire to possess a navy himself. There were of course great difficulties in the way. Russia was almost entirely an inland country. There were no good seaports and Moscow the capital was situated very far in the interior. Then besides Peter not only had no ships but there were no mechanics or artisans in Russia that knew how to build them. The fort however when he perceived how deep was the interest which Peter felt in the subject made inquiries and that length succeeded in finding among the Dutch merchants that were in Moscow the means of procuring some ship builders to build him several small vessels which when they were completed were launched upon a lake not far from the city. Afterward other vessels were built in the same place in the form of frigates and these when they were launched were properly equipped and armed under the fort's direction and the emperor took great interest in sailing about in them on the lake and learning personally all the evolutions necessary for the management of them and in performing shamfights by setting one of them against another. He took command of one of the vessels as captain and thenceforward assumed that designation as one of his most honourable titles. All this took place when Peter was about 22 years old. Not very long after this the emperor had an opportunity to make a commencement in converting his nautical knowledge to actual use by engaging in something like a naval operation against an enemy. In conjunction with several other European powers he declared war anew against the Turks and Tartars and the chief object of the first campaign was the capture of the city of Vizoff which is situated on the shores of the sea of Vizoff near the mouth of the river Don. Peter not only approached and invested the city by land but he also took possession of the river leading to it by means of a great number of boats and vessels which he caused to be built along the banks. In this way he cut off all supplies from the city and pressed it so closely that he would have taken it it was said had it not been for the treachery of an officer of artillery who betrayed to the enemy the principal battery which had been raised against the town just as it was ready to be opened upon the walls. This artillery man who was not a native Russian but one of the foreigners whom the Tsar hadn't listed in his service became exasperated at some ill treatment which he received from the Russian nobleman who commanded his corps so he secretly drove nails into the touch holes of all the guns in the battery and then in the night went over to the Turks and informed them what he had done. Accordingly very early in the morning the Turks sallied forth and attacked the battery and the men who were charged with the defense of it on Russian to the guns found that they could not be fired the consequence was that the battery was taken the men put to flight and the guns destroyed. This defeat entirely disconcerted the Russian army and so effectually deranged their plans that they were obliged to raise the siege and withdraw with the expectation however of renewing the attempt in another campaign. Accordingly the next year the attempt was renewed and many more boats and vessels were built upon the river to cooperate with the besiegers. The Turks had ships of their own which they brought into the Sea of Vizoff for the protection of the town but Peter sent down a few of his smaller vessels and by means of them contrived to entice the Turkish commander up a little way into the river. Peter then came down upon him with all his fleet and the Turkish ships were overpowered and taken. Thus Peter gained his first naval victory almost as we might say on land. He conquered and captured a fleet of sea-going ships by enticing them among the boats and other small craft which he had built up country on the banks of a river. Soon after this Izzof was taken. One of the conditions of the surrender was that the treacherous artillery man should be delivered up to the Tsar. He was taken to Moscow and there put to death with tortures too horrible to be described. They did not deny that the man had been greatly injured by his Russian commander but they told him that what he ought to have done was to appeal to the emperor for redress and not to seek his revenge by treacherously giving up to the enemy the trust committed to his charge. The emperor acquired great fame throughout Europe by the success of his operations in the siege of Izzof. This success also greatly increased his interest in the building of ships especially as he now, since Izzof had fallen into his hand, had a port upon an open sea. In a word Peter was now very eager to begin at once the building ships of war. He was determined that he would have a fleet which would enable him to go out and meet the Turks in the Black Sea. The great difficulty was to provide the necessary funds. To accomplish this purpose Peter, who was never at all scrupulous in respect to the means which he adopted for attaining his ends, resorted at once to very decided measures. Besides the usual taxes which were laid upon the people to maintain the war, he ordained that a certain number of wealthy noblemen should each pay for one ship, which however, as some compensation for the cost which the noblemen was put to in building it, he was at liberty to call by his own name. The same decree was made in respect to a number of towns, monasteries, companies, and public institutions. The emperor also made arrangements for having a large number of workmen sent into Russia from Holland and from Venice and from other maritime countries. The emperor laid his plans in this way for the construction and equipment of a fleet of about 100 ships and vessels consisting of frigates, store ships, bomb vessels, galleys, and galeuses. These were all to be built, equipped, and made in all respects ready for sea in the space of three years, and if any person or party failed to have his ship ready at that time, the amount of tax which had been assessed to him was to be doubled. In all these proceedings, the Tsar's might have been expected from his youth and his headstrong character acted in a very summary and in many respects in an arbitrary and despotic manner. His decrees requiring the nobles to contribute such large sums for the building of his fleet occasioned a great deal of dissatisfaction and complaint, and very soon he resorted to some other measures which increased the general discontent exceedingly. He appointed a considerable number of the younger nobility and the sons of other persons of wealth and distinction to travel in the western countries of Europe while the fleet was preparing, giving them special instructions in respect to the objects of interest which they should severally examine and study. The purpose of this measure was to advance the general standard of intelligence in Russia by affording to these young men the advantages of foreign travel and enlarging their ideas in respect to future progress of their own country in the arts and appliances of civilized life. The general idea of the emperor in this was excellent and the effect of the measure would have been excellent too if it had been carried out in a more gentle and moderate way, but the fathers of the young men were incensed at having their sons ordered desperately out of the country, whether they liked to go or not, and however inconvenient it might be for the fathers to provide the large amounts of money which were required for such journeys. It is said that one young man was so angry at being thus sent away that he determined that his country should not derive any benefit from the measure so far as his case was concerned, and accordingly when he arrived at Venice, which was the place where he was sent, he shut himself up in his house and remained there all the time in order that he might not see or learn anything to make use of on his return. This seems almost incredible. Indeed, the story has more the air of a witticism invented to express the soul and humor with which many of the young men went away than the sober statement of a fact. Still, it is not impossible that such a thing may have actually occurred for the veneration of the old Russian families for their own country and the contempt with which they had been accustomed for many generations to look upon foreigners and upon everything connected with foreign manners and customs where such as might lead in extreme cases to almost any degree of fanaticism in resisting the emperor's measures. At any rate, in a short time, there was quite a powerful party formed in opposition to the foreign influences which Peter was introducing into the country. There was no one in the imperial family to whom this party could look for a leader in head except the Princess Sophia. The Tsar John, Peter's feeble brother, was dead, otherwise they might have made his name their rallying cry. Sophia was still shut up in the convent to which Peter had sent her on the discovery of her conspiracy against him. She was kept very closely guarded there. Still, the leaders of the opposition contrived to open a communication with her. They took every means to increase and extend the prevailing discontent. To people of wealth and rank, they represented the heavy taxes which they were obliged to pay to defray the expenses of the emperor's wild schemes, and the loss of their own proper influence and power in the government of the country. They themselves being displaced to make room for foreigners or favourites like Menzikov that were raised from the lowest grades of life to posts of honour and profit which ought to be bestowed upon the ancient nobility alone. To the poor and ignorant, they advanced other arguments which were addressed chiefly to their religious prejudices. The government were subverting all the ancient usages of the country, they said, and throwing everything into the hands of infidel or heretical foreigners. The course which the Tsar was pursuing was contrary to the laws of God, they said, who had forbidden the children of Israel to have any communion with the unbelieving nations around them in order that they might not be led away by them into idolatry. And so in Russia, they said, the extensive power of granting permission to any Russian subject to leave the country vested according to the ancient usages of the empire with the patriarch, the head of the church, and Peter had violated these usages and sending away so many of the sons of the nobility without the patriarch's consent. There were many other measures too which Peter had adopted, or which he had then in contemplation, that were equally obnoxious to the charge of impiety. For instance, he had formed a plan, and he had even employed engineers to take preliminary steps in reference to the execution of it, for making a canal from the river Woga to the river Don, thus presumptuously and impiously undertaking to turn the streams one way when Providence had designed them to flow in another. Absurd as many of these representations were, they had great influence with the mass of the common people. At length this opposition party became so extended and so strong that the leaders thought the time had arrived for them to act. They accordingly arranged the details of their plot and prepared to put it in execution. The scheme which they formed was this. They were to set fire to some houses in the night, not far from the royal palace, and when the emperor came out, as it is said was his custom to do in order to assist in extinguishing the flames, they were to set upon him and assassinate him. It may seem strange that it should be the custom of the emperor himself to go out and assist personally in extinguishing fires, but it so happened that the houses of Moscow at this time were almost all built of wood, and they were so combustible, and were moreover so much exposed, on account of the many fires required in the winter season in so cold the climate, that the city was subjected to dreadful conflagrations. So great was the danger that the inhabitants were continually in dread of it, and all classes vied with each other in efforts to avert the threatened calamity whenever a fire broke out. Besides this, there were in those days no engines for throwing water, and no organized department of firemen. All this, of course, is entirely different at the present day in modern cities, where houses are built of brick or stone, and the arrangements for extinguishing fires are so complete that an alarm of fire creates no sensation, but people go on with their business or saunter carelessly along the streets, while the firemen are gathering, without feeling the least concern. As soon as they had made sure of the death of the Tsar, the conspirators were to repair to the convent where Sophia was imprisoned, release her from her confinement, and proclaim her queen. They were then to reorganize the guards, restore all the officers who had been degraded at the time of Khufansky's rebellion, then massacre all the foreigners whom Peter had brought into the country, especially his particular favorites, and so put everything back upon its ancient footing. The time fixed for the execution of this plot was the night of the 2nd of February 1697, but the whole scheme was defeated by what the conspirators would probably call the treachery of two of their number. These were two officers of the guards who had been concerned in the plot, but whose hearts failed them when the hour arrived for putting it into execution. Falling into conversation with each other just before the time, and finding that they agreed in feeling on the subject, they resolved at once to go and make a full confession to the Tsar. So they went immediately to the house of Lefort, where the Tsar then was, and made a confession of the whole affair. They related all the details of the plot, and gave the names of the principal persons concerned in it. The emperor was at table with Lefort at the time that he received this communication. He listened to it very coolly, manifested no surprise, but simply rose from the table, ordered a small body of men to attend him, and, taking the names of the principal conspirators, he went at once to their several houses and arrested them on the spot. The leaders having been thus seized, the execution of the plot was defeated. The prisoners were soon afterward put to the torture in order to compel them to confess their crime and to reveal the names of all their confederates. Whether the names thus extorted from them by suffering were false or true would of course be wholly uncertain, but all whom they named were seized, and after a brief and very informal trial, all or nearly all were condemned to death. The sentence of death was executed on them in the most barbarous manner. A great column was erected in the marketplace in Moscow, and fitted with iron sparks and hooks, which were made to project from it on every side, from top to bottom. The criminals were then brought out one by one, and first their arms were cut off, then their legs, and finally their heads. The amputated limbs were then hung upon the column by the hooks, and the heads were fixed to the spikes. There they remained, a horrid spectacle intended to strike terror into all beholders, through February and March, as long as the weather continued cold enough to keep them frozen. When at length the spring came on, and the flesh of these dreadful trophies began to thaw, they were taken down and thrown together into a pit, among the bodies of common thieves and murderers. This was the end of the second conspiracy formed against the life of Peter the Great. The Emperor's Tour 1697 At the time when the Emperor issued his orders to so many of the sons of the nobility, requiring them to go and reside for a time in the cities of western Europe, he formed the design of going himself to make a tour in that part of the world, for the purposes of visiting the courts and capitals, and seeing with his own eyes what arts and improvements were to be found there, which might be advantageously introduced to his own dominions. In the spring of the year 1697 he thought that the time had come for carrying this idea into effect. The plan which he formed was not to travel openly in his own name, for he knew that in this case a great portion of his time and attention, in the different courts and capitals, would be wasted in the grand parades, processions, and ceremonies with which the different sovereigns would doubtless endeavor to honour his visit. He therefore determined to travel incognito, in the character of a private person, in the train of an embassy. An embassy could proceed more quietly from place to place than a monarch traveling in his own name, and then, besides, if the Emperor occupied only a subordinate place in the train of the embassy, he could slip away from it to pursue his own inquiries in a private manner whenever he pleased, leaving the ambassadors themselves and those of their train who enjoyed such scenes to go through all the public receptions and other pompous formalities, which would have been so tiresome to him. General Lefort, who had by this time been raised to a very high position under Peter's government, was placed at the head of this embassy. Two other great officers of state were associated with him. Then came secretaries, interpreters, and subordinates of all kinds, in great numbers, among whom Peter was himself enrolled under a fictitious name. Peter took with him several young men of about his own age. Two or three of these were particular friends of his, whom he wished to have accompany him for the sake of their companionship on the journey. There were some others whom he selected on account of the talent, which they had evinced for mechanical and mathematical studies. These young men he intended to have instructed in the art of shipbuilding in some of the countries which the embassy were to visit. Besides these arrangements, in respect to the embassy, provision was, of course, to be made by the Emperor for the government of the country during his absence. He left the administration in the hands of three great nobles, the first of whom was one of his uncles, his mother's brother. The name of this prince was Naraskin. The other two nobles were associated with Naraskin in the Regency. These commissioners were to have the whole charge of the government of the country during the Tsar's absence. Peter's little son, whose name was Alexis, and who was now about seven years old, was also committed to their keeping. Not having entire confidence in the fidelity of the old guards, Peter did not trust the defence of Moscow to them, but he garrisoned the fortifications in and around the capital with a force of about twelve thousand men that he had gradually brought together for that purpose. A great many of these troops, both officers and men, were foreigners. Peter placed greater reliance on them on that account, supposing that they would be less likely to sympathize with and join the people of the city in case of any popular discontent or disturbances. The guards were sent off into the interior and towards the frontiers, where they could do no great mischief, even if disposed. At length, when everything was ready, the Embassy set out from Moscow. The departure of the expedition from the gates of the city made quite an imposing scene. So numerous was the party which composed the ambassador's train. There were in all about three hundred men. The principal persons of the Embassy were, of course, splendidly mounted and equipped, and they were followed by a line of wagons conveying supplies of clothing, stores, presents for foreign courts, and other baggage. This baggage train was, of course, attended by a suitable escort. Vast multitudes of people assembled along the streets and at the gates of the city to see the grand procession commence its march. The first place of importance at which the Embassy stopped was the city of Riga, on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. Riga and the province in which it was situated, though now a part of the Russian Empire, then belonged to Sweden. It was the principal port on the Baltic in those days, and Peter felt a great interest in viewing it, as there was then no naval outlet in that direction from his dominions. The Governor of Riga was very polite to the Embassy, and gave them a very honourable reception in the city, but he refused to allow the ambassadors to examine the fortifications. It had been arranged beforehand between the ambassadors and Peter that two of them were to ask permission to see the fortifications, and that Peter himself was to go around with them as their attendant when they made their visit, in order that he might make his own observations in respect to the strength of the work and the mode of their construction. Peter was accordingly very much disappointed and vexed at the refusal of the Governor to allow the fortifications to be viewed, and he secretly resolved that he would seize the first opportunity after his return to open a quarrel with the King of Sweden and take this city away from him. Leaving Riga the Embassy moved on towards the southward and westward, until at length they entered the dominions of the King of Prussia. They came soon to the city of Konigsberg, which was at that time the capital. The reception of the Embassy at this city was attended with great pomp and display. The whole party halted at a small village at the distance of about a mile from the gates, in order to give time for completing the arrangements, and to await the arrival of a special messenger and an escort from the King to conduct them within the walls. At length, when all was ready, the procession formed about four o'clock in the afternoon. First came a troop of horses that belonged to the King. They were splendidly comparisoned, but were not mounted. They were led by grooms. Then came an escort of troops of the royal guards. They were dressed in splendid red uniform, and were preceded by kettledrums. Then a company of the Prussian nobility in beautifully decorated coaches, each drawn by six horses. Next came the state carriages of the King. The King himself was not in either of them. It had been etiquette for the King to remain in his palace, and receive the Embassy at a public audience there after their arrival. The royal carriages were sent out, however, as a special, though indirect token of respect, to the Tsar, who was known to be in the train. Then came a procession of pages consisting of those of the King and those of the impasseters marching together. These pages were all beautiful boys, elegantly dressed in characteristic liveries of red laced with gold. They marched three together, two of the King's pages, in each rank, with one of the impasseters between them. The spectators were very much interested in these boys, and the boys were likewise doubtless much interested in each other. But they could not hold any conversation with each other, for probably those of each set could speak only their own language. Next after the pages came the Embassy itself. First there was a line of thirty-six carriages, containing the principal officers and attendants of the three ambassadors. In one of these carriages, riding quietly, with the rest as a subordinate in the train, was Peter. There was doubtless some vague intimation circulating among the crowd that the Emperor of Russia was somewhere in the procession, concealed in his disguise. But there were no means of identifying him, and of course whatever curiosity the people felt on the subject remained ungratified. Next after these carriages came the military escort which the ambassadors had brought with them. The escort was headed by the ambassador's band of music, consisting of trumpets, kettle-drums, and other martial instruments. Then came a body of foot-guards. Their uniform was green, and they were armed with silver battle-axes. Then came a troop of horsemen, which completed the escort. Immediately after the escort there followed the grand state carriage of the Embassy, with the three ambassadors in it. The procession was closed by a long train of elegant carriages, conveying various personages of wealth and distinction, who had come from the city to join in doing honor to the strangers. As the procession entered the city they found the streets through which they were to pass, densely lined on each side by the citizens who had assembled to witness the spectacle. Through this vast concourse the ambassadors and their suite advanced, and were finally conducted to a splendid palace which had been prepared for them in the heart of the city. The garrison of the city was drawn up at the gates of the palace to receive them as they arrived. When the carriage reached the gate and the ambassadors began to alight, a grand salute was fired from the guns of the fortress. The ambassadors were immediately conducted to their several apartments in the palace by the officers who had led the procession, and then left to repose. When the officers were about to withdraw the ambassadors accompanied them to the head of the stairs and took leave of them there. The doors of the palace and the halls and entrances leading to the apartments of the ambassadors were guarded by twenty-four soldiers who were stationed there as sentinels to protect the precincts from all intrusion. Four days after this there was another display when the ambassadors were admitted to their first public audience with the king. There was again a grand procession through the streets with great crowds assembled to witness it and bands of music and splendid uniforms and gorgeous equipages, all more magnificent if possible than before. The ambassadors were conducted in this way to the royal palace. They entered the hall dressed in cloth of golden silver, richly embroidered and adorned with precious stones of great value. Here they found the king seated on a throne and attended by all the principal nobles of his court. The ambassadors advanced to pay their reverence to his majesty, bearing in their hands in a richly ornamented box, a letter from the czar, with which they had been entrusted for him. There were a number of attendants also who were loaded with rich and valuable presents which the ambassadors had brought to offer to the king. The presents consisted of the most costly furs, tissues of gold and silver, precious stones and the like, all productions of Russia and of very great value. The king received the ambassadors in a very honourable manner and made them an address of welcome and reply to the brief addresses of salutation and compliment which they first delivered to him. He received the letter from their hands and read it. The presents were deposited on tables which had been set up for the purpose. The letter stated that the czar had sent the embassy to assure him of his desire to improve the affection and good correspondence which had always existed, as well between his royal highness and himself as between their illustrious ancestors. It said also that, the same embassy being from thence to proceed to the court of Vienna, the czar requested the king to help them on their journey, and finally it expressed the thanks of the czar for the engineers and bombardiers which the king had sent him during the past year, and who had been so useful to him in the siege of Azov. The king, having read the letter, made a verbal reply to the ambassadors, asking them to thank the czar in his name for the friendly sentiments which his letter expressed, and for the splendid embassy which he had sent to him. All this time the czar himself, the author of the letter was standing by, a quiet spectator of the scene, undistinguishable from the other secretaries and attendants that formed the ambassador's train. After the ceremony of audience was completed the ambassadors withdrew. They were reconducted to their lodgings with the same ceremonies as were observed in their coming out, and then spent the evening at a grand banquet provided for them by the elector. All the principal nobility of Prussia were present at this banquet, and after it was concluded the town was illuminated with a great display of fireworks which continued until midnight. The sending of a grand embassage like this from one royal or imperial potentate to another was a very common occurrence in those times. The pomp and parade with which they were accompanied were intended equally for the purpose of illustrating the magnificence of the government that sent them, and of offering a splendid token of respect to the one to which they were sent. Of course the expense was enormous, both to the sovereign who sent and to the one who received the compliment. But such sovereigns as those were very willing to expend money and parades which exhibited before the world the evidences of their own grandeur and power, especially as the mass of the people, from whose toils the means of defraying the cost, was ultimately to come. We're so completely held in subjection by military power that they could not even complain. Far less could they take any effectual measures for calling their oppressors to account. In governments that are organized at the present day, either by the establishment of new constitutions, or by the remodeling and reforming of old ones, all this is changed. The people understand now that all the money which is expended by their governments is ultimately paid by themselves, and they are gradually devising means by which they can themselves exercise a greater and greater control over these expenditures. They retain a far greater portion of the avails of their labor in their own hands, and expend it in adorning and making comfortable their own habitations, and cultivating the minds of their children, while they require the government officials to live and travel and transact their business in a more quiet and unpretending way than was customary of your. Thus, in travelling over most parts of the United States, you will find people who cultivate the land living in comfortable, well-furnished houses, with separate rooms, appropriately arranged for the different uses of the family. There is a carpet on the parlor floor, and there are books in the bookcase, and good supplies of comfortable clothing in the closets. But then our ambassadors and ministers in foreign courts are obliged to content themselves with what they consider very modest salaries, which do not at all allow of their competing in style and splendor with the ambassadors sent from the old despotic monarchies of Europe, under which the people who tell the ground live in bare and wretched huts, and are supplied from year to year with only just enough food and clothing to keep them alive and enable them to continue their toil. But to return to Peter and his embassy, when the public reception was over, Peter introduced himself privately to the king in his own name, and the king in a quiet and unofficial manner paid him great attention. There were to be many more public ceremonies, banquets and parades for the embassy in the city during their stay. But Peter withdrew himself entirely from the scene, and went out to a certain bay, which extended about one hundred and fifty miles along the shore between Koningsburg and Danzig, and occupied himself in examining the vessels which were there, and in sailing to and fro in them. This bay you will find delineated on any map of Europe. It extends along the coast for a considerable distance between Koningsburg and Danzig, on the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. When the ambassadors and their train had finished their banquetings and celebrations in Koningsburg, Peter joined them again, and the expedition proceeded to Danzig. This was at that time, as it is now, a large commercial city, being one of the chief ports on the Baltic for the exportation of grain from Poland and other fertile countries in the interior. By this time it began to be everywhere well known that Peter himself was travelling with the embassy. Peter would not, however, allow himself to be recognized at all, or permit any public notice to be taken of his presence, but went about freely in all the places that he visited with his own companions, just as if he were a private person, leaving all the public parades and receptions and all the banquetings and other state and civic ceremonies to the three ambassadors and their immediate train. A great many elegant and expensive presents, however, were sent into him under pretense of sending them to the ambassadors. The expedition travelled on in this way along the coasts of the Baltic Sea on the way toward Holland, which was the country that Peter was most eager to see. At every city where they stopped Peter went about examining the shipping. He was often attended by some important official of the place, but in other respects he went without any ceremony whatever. He used to change his dress, putting on in the different places that he had visited, that which was worn by the common people of the town, so as not to attract any attention, and not even to be recognized as a foreigner. At one port, where there were a great many Dutch vessels that he wished to see, he wore the P-jacket and the other sailor-like dress of a common Dutch skipper. In order that he might ramble about at his ease along the docks and mingle freely with the seafaring men without attracting any notice at all. The people of Holland were aware that the embassy was coming into their country, and that Peter himself accompanied it, and they accordingly prepared to receive the party with the highest marks of honour. As the embassy, after crossing the frontier, moved on towards Amsterdam, salutes were fired from the ramparts of all the great towns that they passed. The soldiers were drawn out, and civic processions formed of magistrates and citizens met them at the gates to conduct them through the streets. The windows, too, and the roofs of all the houses were crowded with spectators. Wherever they stopped at night, bonfires and illuminations were made in honour of their arrival, and sometimes beautiful fireworks were played off in the evening before their palace windows. Of course, there was a great desire felt everywhere among the spectators to discover which of the personages who followed in the train of the embassy was the Tsar himself. They found it, however, impossible to determine this point, so completely had Peter disguised his person and merged himself with the rest. Indeed, in some cases, when the procession was moving forward with great ceremony, the object of the closest scrutiny in every part, for thousands of eyes, Peter himself was not in it at all. This was particularly the case on the occasion of the grand entry into Amsterdam. Peter left the party at a distance from the city in order to go in quietly the next day, in company with some merchants with whom he had become acquainted. And accordingly, while all Amsterdam had gathered into the streets, and were watching with the most intense curiosity every train as it passed in order to discover which one contained the great Tsar, the great Tsar himself was several miles away, sitting quietly with his friends, the merchants at a table in a common country inn. The government and the people of Holland took a very great interest in this embassy, not only on account of the splendour of it and the magnitude of the imperial power which it represented, but also on account of the business and pecuniary considerations which were involved. They wished very much to cultivate a good understanding with Russia, on account of the trade and commerce of that country which was already very great and was rapidly increasing. They determined therefore to show the embassy every mark of consideration and honour. Besides the measures which they adopted for giving the embassy itself a grand reception, the government set apart a spacious and splendid house in Amsterdam for the use of the Tsar during his stay. They did this in a somewhat private and informal manner it is true, for they knew that Peter did not wish that his presence with the embassy should be openly noticed in any way. They organised also a complete household for this palace, including servants, attendants and officers of all kinds, in a style corresponding to the dignity of the exalted personage who was expected to occupy it. But Peter, when he arrived, would not occupy the palace at all, but went into a quiet lodging among the shipping, where he could ramble a boat without constraint, and see all that was to be seen which could illustrate the art of navigation. The Dutch East India Company, which was then perhaps the greatest and most powerful association of merchants which had ever existed, had large shipyards where their vessels were built, at Sardam. Sardam was almost a suburb of Amsterdam, being situated on a deep river which empties into the Y, so called, which is the harbour of Amsterdam, and only a few miles from the town. Peter immediately made arrangements for going to these shipyards, and spending time while the embassy remained in that part of the country, in studying the construction of ships, and in becoming acquainted with the principal builders. Here, as the historians of the time say, he entered himself as a common shipcarpenter, being enrolled in the list of the company's workmen by the name Peter Michaelhoff, which was as nearly as possible his real name. He lived here several months, and devoted himself diligently to his work. He kept two or three of his companions with him, those whom he had brought from Moscow as his friends and associates on the tour, but they, it is said, did not take hold of the hard work with nearly as much zeal and energy as Peter displayed. Peter himself worked for the greatest part of every day among the other workmen, wearing also the same dress that they wore. When he was tired of work he would go out on the water and sail and row about in the different sorts of boats, so as to make himself practically acquainted with the comparative effects of the various modes of construction. The object which Peter had in view in all this was doubtless, in a great measure his own enjoyment for the time being. He was so much interested in the subject of ships and ship-building, and in everything connected with navigation, that it was a delight to him to be in the midst of such scenes as were to be witnessed in the company's yards. He was still but a young man, and, like a great many other young men, he liked boats and the water. It is not probable, notwithstanding what is said by historians about his performances with the Brodaks, that he really did much serious work. Still he was naturally fond of mechanical occupations as the fact of his making a wheel-barrel with which to construct a fortification in his schoolboy days sufficiently indicates. Then again his being in the ship-yard so long, nominally, as one of the workmen, gave him undoubtedly great facilities for observing everything which it was important that he should know. Of course he could not have seriously intended to make himself an actual and practical ship carpenter, for in the first place the time was too short. A trade like that of a ship carpenter requires years of apprenticeship to make a really good workman. Then in the second place the mechanical part of the work was not the part which it devolved upon him as a sovereign intent on building up a navy for the protection of his empire even to superintend. He could not therefore have seriously intended to learn to build ships himself, but only to make himself nominally a workman, partly for the pleasure which it gave him to place himself so wholly at home among the shipping and partly for the sake of the increased opportunities which he thereby obtained of learning many things which it was important that he should know. Travellers visiting Holland at the present day often go to Sardam to see the little building that is still shown as the shop which Peter occupied while he was there. It is a small wooden building, leaning and bent with age and decrepitude and darkened by exposure and time. Within the last half-century, however, in order to save so curious a relic from further decay, the proprietors of the place have constructed around it and over it an outer building of brick which encloses the hut itself like a case. The sides of the outer building are formed of large open arches which allow the hut within to be seen. The ground on which the hut stands has also been laid out prettily as a garden and is enclosed by a wall. Within this wall and near the gate is a very neat and pretty Dutch cottage in which the custodian lives who shows the place to strangers. While Peter was in the shipyards the workman knew who he was, but all persons were forbidden to gather around or gaze at him or to interfere with him in any way by their notice or their attentions. They were to allow him to go and come as he pleased, without any molestation. These orders they observed as well as they could, as everyone was desirous of treating their visitor in a manner as agreeable to him as possible, so as to prolong his stay. Peter varied his amusements while he thus resided in Sardam by making occasional visits in a quiet and private way to certain friends in Amsterdam. He very seldom attended any of the great parades and celebrations which were continually taking place in honor of the Embassy, but went only to the houses of men eminent in private life for their attainments in particular branches of knowledge or for their experience or success as merchants or navigators. There was one person in particular that Peter became acquainted with in Amsterdam whose company and conversation pleased him very much, and whom he frequently visited. This was a certain wealthy merchant whose operations were on so vast a scale that he was accustomed to send off special expeditions at his own expense all over the world to explore new regions and discover new fields for his commercial enterprise. In order also to improve the accuracy of the methods employed by his shipmasters for ascertaining the latitude and longitude in navigating their ships, he built an observatory and furnished it with the telescopes, quadrants, and other costly instruments necessary for making the observations, all at his own expense. With this gentleman and with the other persons in Amsterdam that Peter took a fancy to, he lived on very friendly and familiar terms. He often came in from Sardam to visit them and would sometimes spend a considerable portion of the night in drinking and making merry with them. He assumed with these friends none of the reserve and dignity of demeanor that we should naturally associate with the idea of a king. Indeed he was very blunt and often rough and overbearing in his manners, not unfrequently doing and saying things which would scarcely be pardoned in a person of inferior station. When thwarted or opposed in any way he was irritable and violent, and he evinced continually a temper that was very far from being amiable. In a word, though his society was eagerly sought by all whom he was willing to associate with, he seems to have made no real friends. Those who knew him admired his intelligence and his energy, and they respected his power, but he was not a man that any one could love. Amsterdam, though it was the great commercial centre of Holland, and indeed at that time of the world, was not the capital of the country. The seat of government was then, as now, at the Hague. Accordingly, after remaining as long at Amsterdam as Peter wished to amuse himself in the shipyards, the Embassy moved on to the Hague, where it was received in a very formal and honourable manner by the King and the government. The presence of Peter could not be openly referred to, but very special and unusual honours were paid to the Embassy in tacit recognition of it. At the Hague were resident ministers from all the great powers of Europe, and these all, with one exception, came to pay visits of ceremony to the ambassadors, which visits were, of course, duly returned with great pomp and parade. The exception was the Minister of France. There was a coolness existing at this time between the Russian and the French governments on account of something Peter had done in respect to the election of a King of Poland, which displeased the French King, and on this account the French Minister declined taking part in the special honours paid to the Embassy. The Hague was at this time, perhaps, the most influential and powerful capital of Europe. It was the centre, in fact, of all important political movements and intrigues for the whole Continent. The Embassy accordingly paused here to take some rest from the fatigues and excitements of their long journey, and to allow Peter time to form and mature plans for further movements and operations. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Peter the Great This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 7 of Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott Conclusion of the Tour, 1697 While the Embassy itself was occupied with the parades and ceremonies at the Hague and at Utrecht, where they had a grand interview with the State's General and at other great political centres, Peter travelled to and fro about Holland, visiting the different ports and examining the shipping that he founded them with the view of comparing the different models. For there were vessels in these ports from almost all the maritime countries of Europe. His attention was at last turned to some English ships, which pleased him very much. He liked the form of them better than that of the Dutch ships that he had seen. He soon made the acquaintance of a number of English shipmasters and shipcarpenters, and obtained from them, through an interpreter of course, a great deal of information in respect to the state of the art of shipbuilding in their country. He heard that in England naval carpentry had been reduced to a regular science, and that the forms and models of the vessels built there were determined by fixed mathematical principles, which every skillful and intelligent workman was expected to understand and to practice upon. Whereas in Holland the carpenters worked by rote, each new set following their predecessors by a sort of mechanical imitation, without being governed by any principles or theory at all. Peter immediately determined that he would go to England and study the English methods himself on the spot, as he had already studied those of Holland. The political relations between England and Holland were at this time of a very intimate character, the King of England being William Prince of Orange. The King, when he heard of Peter's intention, was much pleased and determined to do all in his power to promote his views in making the journey. He immediately provided the Tsar with a number of English attendants to accompany him on his voyage, and to remain with him in England during his stay. Among these were interpreters, secretaries, valets, and a number of cooks and other domestic servants. These persons were paid by the King of England himself, and were ordered to accompany Peter to England to remain with him all the time that he was there, and then to return with him to Holland, so that during the whole period of his absence he should have no trouble whatever in respect to his personal comforts or wants. These preparations, having been all made, the Tsar left the Embassy, and taking with him the company of servants which the King had provided, and also the few private friends who had been with him all the time since leaving Moscow, he sailed from a certain port in the southwestern part of Holland called Halford Slouse, about the middle of the month of January. He arrived without any incident at London. Here he at first took up his abode in a handsome house which the King had ordered to be provided and furnished for him. This house was in a genteel part of town where the nobleman and other persons belonging to the court resided. It was very pleasantly situated near the river, and the grounds pertaining to it extended down to the water side. Still it was far away from the part of the city which was devoted to commerce and the shipping, and Peter was not very well satisfied with it on that account. He however went to it at first, and continued to occupy it for some time. In this house the Tsar was visited by a great number of the nobility, and he visited them in return. He also received particular attentions from such members of the royal family as were then in London. But the person whose society pleased him most was one of the nobility, who like himself took a great interest in maritime affairs. This was the Duke of Leeds. The Duke kept a number of boats at the foot of his gardens in London, and he and Peter used often to go out together in the river and row and sail in them. Among other attentions which were paid to Peter by the government during his stay in London, one was the appointment of a person to attend upon him for the purpose of giving him, at any time, such explanations or such information as he might desire in respect to the various institutions of England, whether those relating to government, to education, or to religion. The person thus appointed was Bishop Burnett, a very distinguished dignitary of the church. The bishop could of course only converse with Peter through interpreters. But the practice of conversing in that way was very common in those days, and persons were specially trained and educated to translate the language of one person to another in an easy and agreeable manner. In this way Bishop Burnett held from time to time various interviews with the Tsar, but it seems that he did not form a very favourable opinion of his temper and character. The bishop, in an account of these interviews which he subsequently wrote, said that Peter was a man of strong capacity and of much better general education than might have been expected from the manner of life which he had led, but that he was of a very hot and violent temper, and that he was very brutal in his language and demeanour when he was in a passion. The bishop expressed himself quite strongly on this point, saying that he could not but adore the depth of the providence of God that had raised such a furious man to sow absolute an authority over so greater part of the world. It was seen in the end how wise was the arrangement of providence in the selection of this instrument for the accomplishment of its designs, for the reforms which, not withstanding the violence of his personal character, and the unjust and cruel deeds which he sometimes performed, Peter was the means of introducing, and those to which the changes he made afterward led have advanced and are still advancing more and more every year the whole moral, political and social condition of all the populations of northern Europe and Asia, and have instituted a course of progress and improvement which will perhaps go on without being again arrested to the end of time. The bishop says that he found Peter somewhat curious to learn what the political and religious institutions of England were, but that he did not manifest any intention or desire to introduce them into his own country. The chief topic which interested him, even in talking with the bishop, was that of his purposes and plans in respect to ships and shipping. He gave the bishop an account of what he had done and of what he intended to do for the elevation and improvement of his people. But all his plans of this kind were confined to such improvements as would tend to the extension and a grandestment of his own power. In other words the ultimate object of the reforms which he was desirous of introducing was not the comfort and happiness of the people themselves, but his own exaltation and glory among the potentates of the earth as their hereditary and despotic sovereign. After remaining some time in the residence which the king had provided for him at the court end of the town, Peter contrived to have a house set apart for him below bridge as the phrase was, that is, among the shipping. There was but one bridge across the Thames in those days and the position of that one, of course, determined the limit of that part of the river and town that could be devoted to the purposes of commerce and navigation, for ships, of course, could not go above it. The house which was now provided for Peter was near the royal shipyard. There was a back gate which opened from the yard of the house into the shipyard so that Peter could go and come when he pleased. Peter remained in this new lodging for some time. He often went into the shipyard to watch the men at their operations and while there would often take up the tools and work with them. At other times he would ramble about the streets of London in company with his two or three particular friends, examining everything which was new or strange to him and talking with his companions in respect to the expediency or feasibility of introducing the article or the usage, whatever it might be, as an improvement into his own dominions. In these excursions Peter was sometimes dressed in the English citizens dress and sometimes he wore the dress of a common sailor. In the latter costume he found that he could walk about more freely on the walls and along the docks without attracting observation. But not withstanding all that he could do to disguise himself he was often discovered. Some person perhaps who had seen him and his friends in the shipyard would recognise him and point him out. Then it would be whispered from one to another among the bystanders that that was the Russian Emperor and people would follow him where he went or gather around him where he was standing. In such cases as this as soon as Peter found that he was recognised and was beginning to attract tension he always went immediately away. Among other objects of interest which attracted Peter's attention in London was the tower where there was kept then as now an immense collection of arms of all kinds. This collection consists not only of a vast store of the weapons in use at the present day laid up there to be ready for service whenever they may be required but also a great number and variety of specimens of those which were employed in former ages but are now superseded by new inventions. Peter as might naturally have been expected took a great deal of interest in examining these collections. In respect to all the more ordinary objects of interest for strangers in London the shops the theatres the parks the gay parties given by the nobility at the west end and other such spectacles Peter saw them all but he paid very little attention to them. His thoughts were almost entirely engrossed by subjects connected with his navy. He found as he had expected from what he heard in Holland that the English ship carpenters had reduced their business quite to a system being accustomed to determine the proportions of the model by fixed principles and to work in the construction of the ship from drafts made by rule. When he was in the shipyard he studied this subject very attentively. Although it was of course impossible that in so short a time he should make himself fully master of it he was still able to obtain such a general insight into the nature of the method as would very much assist him in making arrangements for introducing it into his own country. There was another measure which he took that was even more important still. He availed himself of every opportunity which was afforded him while engaged in the shipyards and docks to become acquainted with the workmen especially the head workmen of the yards and he engaged a number of them to go to Russia and enter into his service there in the work of building his navy. In a word the Tsar was much better pleased with the manner in which the work of shipbuilding was carried on in England than with anything that he had seen in Holland. So much so that he said he wished that he had come directly to England at first in as much as now since he had seen how much superior were the English methods he considered the long stay which he had made in Holland as pretty nearly lost time. After remaining as long and learning as much in the dockyards in and below London as he thought the time at his command would allow Peter went to Portsmouth to visit the Royal Navy at anchor there. The arrangement which nature has made of the southern coast of England seems almost as if expressly intended for the accommodation of a great national and mercantile marine. In the first place at the town of Portsmouth there is a deep and spacious harbour entirely surrounded and protected by land. Then at a few miles distant off the coast lies the Isle of Wight which brings under shelter a sheet of water not less than five miles wide and 20 miles long where all the fleets and navies of the world might lie at anchor in safety. There is an open access to this sound both from the east and from the west and yet the shores curve in such a manner that both entrances are well protected from the ingress of storms. Directly opposite to Portsmouth and within this enclosed sea is a place where the water is just of the right depth and the bottom of just the right conformation for the convenient anchoring of ships of war. This place is called Spithead and it forms one of the most famous anchoring grounds in the world. It is here that the vast fleets of the English Navy assemble and here the ships come to anchor when returning home from their distant voyages. The view of these grim looking sea monsters with their double and triple rows of guns lying quietly at their moorings as seen by the spectator from the deck of the steamer which glides through and among them on the way from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight is extremely imposing. Indeed when considered by a mind capable of understanding in some degree the vast magnitude and extension of the power which lies thus reposing there the spectacle becomes truly sublime. In order to give Peter a favorable opportunity to see the fleet at Spithead the King of England commissioned the Admiral in command of the Navy to accompany him to Portsmouth and to put the fleet to sea with a view of exhibiting a mock naval engagement in the channel. Nothing could exceed the pleasure which this spectacle afforded to the Tsar. He expressed his admiration of it in the most glowing terms and said that he verily believed that an Admiral of the English fleet was a happier man than the Tsar of Muscovy. At length when the time arrived for Peter to set out on his return to his own dominions the King of England made him a present of a beautiful yacht which had been built for his own use in his voyages between England and Holland. The name of the yacht was the Royal Transport. It was an armed vessel carrying 24 guns and was well built and richly finished and furnished in every respect. The Tsar set sail from England in this yacht taking with him the companions that he had brought with him into England and also a considerable number of the persons whom he had engaged to enter into his service in Russia. Some of these persons were to be employed in the building of ships and others in the construction of a canal to connect the river Don with the river Volga. The Don flows into the Black and the Volga into the Caspian Sea and the object of the canal was to allow Peter's vessels to pass from one sea into the other at pleasure. As soon as the canal should be opened ships could be built on either river for use in either sea. The persons who had been engaged for these various purposes were promised of course very large rewards to induce them to leave their country. Many of them afterward had occasion bitterly to regret their having entered the service of such a master. They complained that after their arrival in Russia Peter treated them in a very unjust and arbitrary manner. They were held as prisoners more than a salaried workman, being very closely watched and guarded to prevent their making their escape and going back to their own country before finishing what Peter wished them to do. Then a large portion of their pay was kept back on the plea that it was necessary for the emperor to have security in his own hands for their fidelity in the performance of their work and for their remaining at their posts until their work was done. There was one gentleman in particular a scotch mathematician and engineer who had been educated at the University of Aberdeen that complained of the treatment which he received in a full and formal protest which he addressed to Peter in writing and which is still on record. He makes out a very strong case in respect of the injustice with which he was treated. But however disappointed these gentlemen may have been in the end they left England in the emperor's beautiful yacht much elated with the honor they had received in being selected by such a potentate for the execution of important trusts in a distant land and with high anticipations of the fame and fortune which they expected to acquire before the time should arrive for them to return to their own country. From England the yacht sailed to Holland where Peter disembarked in order to join the embassy and accompany them in their visits to some other courts in central Europe before returning home. He first went to Vienna. He still nominally preserved his incognito but the Emperor Leopold who was at that time the Emperor of Germany gave him a very peculiar sort of reception. He came out to the door of his anti-chamber to meet Peter at the head of a certain back staircase communicating with the apartment which was intended for his own private use. Peter was accompanied by a General Lefort, the chief ambassador at this interview, and he was conducted up the staircase by two grand officers of the Austrian court, the Grand Chamberlain and the Grand Equity. After the two potentates had been introduced to each other, the Emperor who had taken off his hat to bow to the Tsar put it on again, but Peter remained uncovered on the ground that he was not at that time acting in his own character as Tsar. The Emperor seeing this took off his hat again and both remained uncovered during the interview. After this a great many parades and celebrations took place in Vienna all ostensibly in honor of the embassy but really and truly in honor of Peter himself who still preserved his incognito. At many of these festivities Peter attended, taking his place with the rest of the subordinates in the train of the embassy, but he never appeared in his own true character. Still he was known and he was the object of a great many indirect but very marked attentions. On one occasion for example there was a masked ball in the place of the Emperor. Peter appeared there dressed as a peasant of West Friesland, which is a part of North Holland where the costumes worn by the common people were then, as indeed they are at the present day, very marked and peculiar. The Emperor of Germany appeared also at this ball in a feigned character, that of a host at an entertainment, and he had thirty-two pages in attendance upon him all dressed as butlers. In the course of the evening one of the pages brought out to the Emperor a very curious and costly glass which he filled with wine and presented to the Emperor who then approached Peter and drank to the health of the peasant of West Friesland, saying at the same time, with a meaning look, that he was well aware of the inviolable affection which the peasant felt for the Tsar of Muscovy. Peter in return drank to the health of the host, saying he was aware of the inviolable affection he felt for the Emperor of Germany. These toasts were received by the whole company with great applause, and after they were drunk the Emperor gave Peter the curious glass from which he had drunk, desiring him to keep it as a souvenir of the occasion. These festivities in honor of the Embassy at Vienna were at length suddenly interrupted by the arrival of tidings from Muscovy that a rebellion had broken out there against Peter's government. This intelligence changed at once all Peter's plans. He had intended to go to Venice and to Rome, but he now at once abandoned these designs and setting out abruptly from Vienna with General Lefort and the train of about thirty persons. He traveled with the utmost possible dispatch to Moscow. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 The Rebellion It will be recollected by the reader that Peter, before he set out on his tour, took every possible precaution to guard against the danger of disturbances in his dominions during his absence. The Princess Sophia was closely confined in her convent. All that portion of the old Russian guards that he thought most likely to be dissatisfied with his proposed reforms and, to take part with Sophia, he removed two fortresses at great distance from Moscow. Moscow itself was garrisoned with troops selected expressly with reference to their supposed fidelity to his interests and the men who were to command them, as well as the great civil officers to whom the administration of the government was committed during his absence, were appointed on the same principle. But notwithstanding all these precautions, Peter did not feel entirely safe. He was well aware of Sophia's ambition and of her skill in intrigue, and during the whole progress of his tour he anxiously watched the tidings which he received from Moscow, ready to return at a moment's warning in case of necessity. He often spoke on this subject to those with whom he was on terms of familiar intercourse. On such occasions he would get into a great rage in denouncing his enemies and in threatening vengeance against them, in case they made any movement to resist his authority while he was away. At such times he would utter most dreadful implications against those who should dare to oppose him and would work himself up into such a fury as to give those who conversed with him an exceedingly unfavorable opinion of his temper and character. The ugly aspect which his countenance and demeanor exhibited at such times was greatly aggravated by a nervous affection of the head and face which attacked him, particularly when he was in a passion, and which produced convulsive twitches of the muscles that drew his head by jerks to one side and distorted his face in a manner that was dreadful to behold. It was said that this disorder was first induced in his childhood by some of the terrible frights through which he had passed. However this may have been the affection seemed to increase as he grew older and as the attacks of it were most decided and violent when he was in a passion they had the effect in connection with his course and dreadful language and violent demeanor to make him appear at such times more like some ugly monster of fiction than like a man. The result in respect to the conduct of his enemies during his absence was what he feared. After he had been gone away for some months they began to conspire against him, the means of communication between different countries were quite imperfect in those days so that very little exact information came back to Russia in respect to the emperor's movements. The nobles who were opposed to him began to represent to the people that he had gone nobody knew where and that it was wholly uncertain whether he would ever return. Besides if he did return they said it would only be to bring with him a fresh importation of foreign favorites and foreign manners and to proceed more vigorously than ever in his work of superseding and subverting all the good old customs of the land and displacing the ancient native families from all places of consideration and honor in order to make room for the swarms of miserable foreign adventurers that he would bring home with him in his train. By these and similar representations the opposition so far increased and strengthened their party that at length they matured their arrangements for an open outbreak. Their plan was first to take possession of the city by means of the guards who were to be recalled for this purpose from their distant posts and by their assistance to murder all the foreigners. They were then to issue a proclamation declaring that Peter by leaving the country and remaining so long away had virtually abdicated the government and also a formal address to the Princess Sophia calling upon her to ascend to the throne instead. In executing this plan negotiations were first cautiously opened with the guards and they readily acceded to the proposals made to them. A committee of three persons was appointed to draw up the address to Sophia and the precise details of the movements which were to take place on the arrival of the guards at the gates of Moscow were all arranged. The guards of course required some pretext for leaving their posts and coming toward the city independent of the real cause for the conspirators within the city were not prepared to rise and declare the throne vacant until the guards had actually arrived. Accordingly while the conspirators remained quiet the guards began to complain of various grievances under which they suffered particularly that they were not paid their wages regularly and they declared their determination to march to Moscow and obtain redress. The government that is the regency that Peter had left in charge sent out deputies who attempted to pacify them but could not succeed. The guards insisted that they would go with their complaints to Moscow. They commenced their march. The number of men was about ten thousand. They pretended that they were only going to the city to represent their case themselves directly to the government and then to march back again in a peaceable manner. They wished to know to they said what had become of the Tsar. They could not depend upon the rumors which came to them at so great a distance and they were determined to inform themselves on the spot whether he were alive or dead and when he was coming home. The deputies returned with all speed to Moscow and reported that the guards were on their march in full strength toward the city. The whole city was thrown into a state of consternation. Many of the leading families anticipating serious trouble moved away. Others packed up and concealed their valuables. The government too, though not yet suspecting the real design of the guards in the movement which they were making, were greatly alarmed. They immediately ordered a large armed force to go and meet the insurgents. This force was commanded by General Gordon, the officer whom Peter had made general in chief of the army before he set out on his tour. General Gordon came up with the rebels about 40 miles from Moscow. As soon as he came near to them he halted and sent forward a deputation from his camp to confer with the leaders in the hope of coming to some amicable settlement of the difficulty. This deputation consisted of Russian nobles of ancient and established rank and consideration in the country who had volunteered to accompany the general in his expedition. General Gordon himself was one of the hated foreigners and of course his appearance if he had gone himself to negotiate with the rebels would have perhaps only exasperated and inflamed them even more. The deputation held a conference with the leaders of the guards and made them very conciliatory offers. They promised that if they would return to their duty the government would not only overlook the serious offense which they had committed in leaving their posts and marching upon Moscow but would inquire into and redress all their grievances. But the guards refused to be satisfied. They were determined, they said, to march to Moscow. They wished to ascertain for themselves whether Peter was dead or alive and if alive what had become of him. They therefore were going on and if general Gordon and his troops attempted to oppose them they would fight it out and see which was the strongest. In civil commotions of this kind occurring in any of the ancient non- protestant countries in Europe it is always a question of the utmost moment which side the church and the clergy espouse. It is true that the church and the clergy do not fight themselves and so do not add anything to the physical strength of the party which they befriend but they add enormously to its moral strength that is to its confidence and courage. Men have a sort of instinctive respect and fear for constituted authorities of any kind and though often willing to plot against them they are still very apt to falter and fall back when the time comes for the actual collision. The feeling that after all they are in the wrong in fighting against the government of their country weakens them extremely and makes them ready to abandon the struggle in panic and dismay on the first unfavorable turn of fortune. But if they have the church and the clergy on their side this state of things is quite changed. The sanction of religion the thought that they are fighting in the cause of God and of duty nerves their arms and gives them that confidence in the result which is almost essential to victory. It was so in this case there was no class in the community more opposed to the czar's proposed improvements and reforms than the church. Indeed it is always so. The church and the clergy are always found in these countries on the side of opposition to progress and improvement. It is not that they are really opposed to improvement itself for its own sake but that they are so afraid of change. They call themselves conservatives and wish to preserve everything as it is. They hate the process of pulling down. Now if a thing is good it is better of course to preserve it but on the other hand if it is bad it is better that it should be pulled down. When therefore you are asked whether you are a conservative or not reply that that depends on the character of the institution or the usage which is attacked. If it is good let it stand. If it is bad let it be destroyed. In the case of Peter's proposed improvements and reforms the church and the clergy were conservatives of the most determined character. Of course the plotters of the conspiracy in Moscow were in communication with the patriarch and the leading ecclesiastics in forming their plans and in arranging for the marching of the guards to the capital they took care to have priests with them to encourage them in the movement and to assure them in opposing the present government and restoring Sophia to power. They were serving the cause of God and religion by promoting the expulsion from the country of the infidel foreigners that were coming in in such numbers and subverting all the good old usages and customs of the realm. It was this sympathy on the part of the clergy which gave the officers and soldiers of the guards their courage and confidence in daring to persist in their march to Moscow in defiance of the army of general Gordon brought out to oppose them. The two armies approached each other. General Gordon as is usual in such cases ordered a battery of artillery which he had brought up in the road before the guards to fire but he directed that the guns should be pointed so high that the ball should go over the heads of the enemy. His object was to intimidate them but the effect was the contrary the priests who had come into the army of the insurgents to encourage them in the fight told them that a miracle had been performed. God had averted the balls from them they said they were fighting for the honor of his cause and for the defense of his holy religion and they might rely upon it that he would not suffer them to be harmed but these assurances of the priests proved unfortunately for the poor guards to be entirely unfounded when general Gordon found that firing over the heads of the rebels did no good he gave up at once all hope of any adjustment of the difficulty and he determined to restrain himself no longer but to put forth the whole of his strength and kill and destroy all before him in the most determined and merciless manner a furious battle followed in which the guards were entirely defeated two or three thousand of them were killed and all the rest were surrounded and made prisoners the first step taken by general Gordon with the advice of the Russian nobles who had accompanied him was to count off the prisoners and hang every tenth man the next was to put the officers to the torture in order to compel them to confess what their real object was in marching on Moscow after enduring their tortures as long as human nature could bear them they confessed that the movement was a concerted one made in connection with the conspiracy within the city and that the object was to subvert the present government and to liberate the princess Sophia and place her upon the throne they also gave the names of a number of prominent persons in Moscow who they said were the leaders of the conspiracy it was in this state of the affair that the tidings of what had occurred reached Peter in Vienna as is related in the last chapter he immediately set out on his return to Moscow in a state of rage and fury against the rebels that it would be impossible to describe as he arrived at the capital he commenced an inquisition into the affair by putting everybody to the torture whom he supposed to be implicated as a leader in it from the agony of these sufferers he extorted the names of innumerable victims who as fast as they were named were seized and put to death there were a great many of the ancient nobles thus condemned a great many ladies of high rank and large numbers of priests these persons were all executed or rather massacred in the most reckless and merciless manner some were beheaded some were broken on the wheel and then left to die in horrible agonies many were buried alive their heads only being left above the ground it is said that Peter took such a savage delight in these punishments that he executed many of the victims with his own hands at one time when half intoxicated at a banquet he ordered 20 of his prisoners to be brought in and then with his brandy before him which was his favorite drink and which he often drank to excess he caused them to be led one after the other to the block that he might cut off their heads himself he took a drink of brandy after each execution while the officers were bringing forward the next man he was just an hour it was said in cutting off the 20 heads which allows an average of three minutes to each man this story is almost too horrible to be believed but unfortunately it comports too well with the general character which peter has always sustained in the opinion of mankind in respect to the desperate and reckless cruelty to which he could be aroused under the influence of intoxication and anger about 2000 of the guards were beheaded the bodies of these men were laid upon the ground in a public place arranged in rows with their heads lying beside them they covered more than an acre of ground here they were allowed to lie all the remainder of the winter is long in fact as the flesh continued frozen and then when the spring came on they were thrown together into a deep ditch dug to receive them and thus were buried there were also a great number of gibbets set up on the roads leading to Moscow and upon these gibbets men were hung and the bodies allowed to remain there like the beheaded guards upon the ground until the spring as for the princess Sophia she was still in the convent where peter had placed her the conspirators not having reached the point of liberating her before their plot was discovered peter however caused the three authors of the address which was to have been made to Sophia calling upon her to assume the crown to be sent to the convent and there hung before Sophia's windows and then by his orders the arm of the principal man among them was cut off and the address was put into his hand and when the fingers had stiffened around it the limb was fixed to the wall in Sophia's chamber as if in the act of offering her the address and ordered to remain so until the address should drop of itself upon the floor such with a horrible means by which peter attempted to strike terror into his subjects and to put down the spirit of conspiracy and rebellion he doubtless thought that it was only by such severities as these that the end could be effectually attained at all events the end was attained the rebellion was completely suppressed and all open opposition to the progress of the czars proposed improvements and reforms ceased the few leading nobles who adhered to the old customs and usages of the realm retired from all connection with public affairs and lived thence forth in seclusion morning like good conservatives the triumph of the spirit of radicalism and innovation which was leading the country as they thought it was leading it to certain ruin the old guards whom it had been proved so utterly impossible to bring over to peter's views were disbanded and other troops organized on a different system were embodied in their stead by this time the english ship builders and the other mechanics and artisans that peter had engaged began to arrive in the country and the way was open for the emperor to go on vigorously in the in the accomplishment of his favorite and long cherished plans the princess sofia worn out with the agitations and dangers through which she had passed and crushed in spirit by the dreadful scenes to which her brother had exposed her now determined to withdraw wholly from the scene she took the veil in the convent where she was confined and went as a nun into the cloisters with the other sisters the name that she assumed was marfa of course all her ambitions aspirations were now forever extinguished and the last gleam of earthly hope faded away from her mind she pined away under the influences of disappointment hopeless vexation and bitter grief for about six years and then the nuns of the convent followed the body of sister morphe to the tomb end of chapter eight recorded by russ lemker