 CHAPTER XIV THE EMPERORS CATHRON 1709-1715 It was about the year 1690 that Peter the Great commenced his reign, and he died in 1725, as will appear more fully in the sequel of this volume. Thus the duration of the reign was thirty-five years. The wars between Russia and Sweden occupied principally the early part of the reign through a period of many years. The Battle of Poltoa, by which the Swedish invasion of the Russian territories was repelled, was fought in 1709, nearly twenty years after the Tsar ascended the throne. During the period while the Tsar was thus occupied in his mortal struggle with the King of Sweden, there appeared upon stage, in connection with him, a lady who afterward became one of the most celebrated personages of history. This lady was the Empress Catherine. The character of this lady, the wonderful and romantic incidents of her life, and the great fame of her exploits have made her one of the most celebrated personages of history. We can, however, hear only give a brief account of that portion of her life which was connected with the history of Peter. Catherine was born in a little village near the town of Marienberg in Livonia. Her parents were in very humble circumstances, and they both died when she was a little child, leaving her in a very destitute and friendless condition. The parish clerk, who was the teacher of a little school in which perhaps she had been a pupil, for she was then four or five years old, felt compassion for her and took her home with him to his own house. He was the more disposed to do this as Catherine was a bright child, full of life and activity, and at the same time amiable and docile in disposition so that she was easily governed. After Catherine had been some time at the house of the clerk, a certain Dr. Gluck, who was the Minister of Marienberg, happening to be on a visit to the clerk, saw her and heard her story. The Minister was very much pleased with the appearance and manners of the child, and he proposed that the clerk should give her up to him. This the clerk was willing to do, as his income was very small, and the addition, even of such a child to his family, of course somewhat increased his expenses. Besides, he knew that it would be much more advantageous for Catherine for the time being, and also much more conducive to her future success in life, to be brought up in the Minister's family at Marienberg than in his own humble home in the little village. So Catherine went to live with the Minister. Here she soon made herself a great favourite. She was very intelligent and active, and very ambitious to learn whatever the Minister's wife was willing to teach her. She also took great interest in making herself useful in every possible way, and displayed in her household avocations, and in all her other duties, a sort of womanly energy which was quite remarkable in one of her years. She learned to knit, to spin, and to sew, and she assisted the Minister's wife very much in these and similar occupations. She had learned to read in her native tongue at the clerk's school, but now she conceived the idea of learning the German language. She devoted herself to this task with great aciduity and success, and as soon as she had made such progress as to be able to read in that language, she spent all her leisure time in perusing the German books which she found in the Minister's library. Years passed away and Catherine grew up to be a young woman, and then a certain young man, a subaltern officer in the Swedish army, for this was at the time when Livonia was ill-possession of the Swedes, fell in love with her. The story was that Catherine, one day, in some way or other, fell into the hands of two Swedish soldiers, by whom she would probably have been greatly maltreated, but the officer, coming by at that time, rescued her and sent her safe to Dr. Gluck. The officer had lost one of his arms in some battle and was covered with the scars of other rooms, but he was a very generous and brave man and was highly regarded by all who knew him. When he offered Catherine his hand, she was strongly induced by her gratitude to him to accept it, but she said she must ask the Minister's approval of his proposal, for he had been a father to her, she said, and she would take no important step without his consent. The Minister, after suitable inquiry respecting the officer's character and prospects, readily gave his consent, and so it was said all that Catherine should be married. Now it happened that these occurrences took place not very long after the war broke out between Sweden and Russia, and almost immediately after Catherine's marriage, some writers say on the very same day of the wedding, and others on the day following, a Russian army came suddenly up to Mirrenberg, took possession of the town, and made a great many of the inhabitants' prisoners. Catherine herself was among the prisoners thus taken. The story was that in the confusion and alarm she hit herself with others in an oven and was found by the Russian soldiers there, and carried off as a valuable prize. What became of the bridegroom is not certainly known. He was doubtless called suddenly to his post when the alarm was given of the enemy's approach, and a great many different stories were told in respect to what afterward befell him. One thing is certain, and that is that his young bride never saw him again. Catherine, when she found herself separated from her husband and shut up a helpless prisoner with a crowd of other wretched and despairing captives, was overwhelmed with grief at the sad reverse of fortune that had befallen her. She had good reason not only to mourn for the happiness which she had lost, but also to experience very anxious and gloomy forebodings in respect to what was before her, for the main object of the Russians in making prisoners of the young and beautiful women which they found in the towns that they conquered was to send them to Turkey and to sell them their slaves. Catherine was, however, destined to escape this dreadful fate. One of the Russian generals, and looking over the prisoners, was struck with her appearance and with a singular expression of grief and despair which her countenance displayed. He called her to him and asked her some questions, and he was more impressed by the intelligence and good sense which her answers evinced than he had been by the beauty of her countenance. He bitter-quiet her fears, promising that he would himself take care of her. He immediately ordered some trusty men to take her to a tent where there were some women who would take charge of and protect her. These women were employed in various domestic occupations in the service of the general. Catherine began at once to interest herself in these employments and to do all in her power to assist in them, and at length, as one of the writers who gives an account of these transactions goes on to say, the general, finding Catherine very proper to manage his household affairs, gave her a sort of authority and inspection over these women and over the rest of the domestics by whom she soon came to be very much beloved by her manner of using them when she instructed them in their duty. The general said himself that he never had been so well-served as since Catherine had been with him. It happened one day that Prince Menzikov, who was the general's commanding officer and patron, saw Catherine and observing something very extraordinary in her air and behaviour, asked the general who she was and in what condition she served him. The general related to him her story, taking care at the same time, to do justice to the merit of Catherine. The Prince said that he was himself very ill-served and had occasion for just such a person about him. The general replied that he was under two great obligations to his Highness the Prince to refuse him anything that he asked. He immediately called Catherine into his presence and told her that that was Prince Menzikov and that he had occasion for a servant like herself, and that he was able to be a much better friend to her than he himself could be, and that he had too much kindness for her to prevent her receiving such a piece of honour and good fortune. Catherine answered only with a profound courtesy which showed, if not her consent to the charge proposed, at least her conviction that it was not then in her power to refuse the offer that was made to her. In short, Prince Menzikov took her with him, or she went to him the same day. Catherine remained in the service of the Prince for a year or two, and was then transferred from the household of the Prince to that of the Tsar, almost precisely in the same way in which she had been resigned to the Prince by the general. The Tsar saw her one day while he was at dinner with the Prince, and he was so much pleased with her appearance and with the account which the Prince had gave him of her character and history that he wished to have her himself, and however reluctant the Prince may have been to lose her, he knew very well that there was no alternative for him but to give his consent. So Catherine was transferred to the household of the Tsar. She soon acquired a great ascendancy over the Tsar, and in process of time she was privately married to him. This private marriage took place in 1707. For several years afterward the marriage was not publicly acknowledged, but still Catherine's position was well understood, and her power at court, as well as her personal influence over her husband, increased continually. Catherine sometimes accompanied the Emperor in his military campaigns, and at one time was the means at his thought of saving him from very imminent danger. It was in the year 1711. The Tsar was at that time at war with the Turks, and he had advanced into the Turkish territory with a small but very compact and well-organized army. The Turks sent out a large force to meet him, and at length, after various marchings and maneuverings, the Tsar found himself surrounded by a Turkish force three times as large as his own. The Russians fortified their camp, and the Turks attacked them. The latter attempted for two or three successive days to force the Russian lines, but without success, and at length the Grand Vizier, who was in command of the Turkish troops, finding that he could not force his enemy to quit their entrenchments, determined to starve them out, so he invested the place closely on all sides. The Tsar now gave himself up for lost, for he had only a very small stock of provisions, and there seemed no possible way of escape from the snare in which he found himself involved. Catherine was with her husband in the camp at this time, having had the courage to accompany him in the expedition, notwithstanding its extremely dangerous character, and the story is that she was the means of extricating him from his hazardous position by dexterously bribing the Vizier. The way in which she managed the affair was this. She arranged it with the Emperor that he was to propose terms of peace to the Vizier, by which on certain conditions he was to be allowed to retire with his army. Catherine then secretly made up a very valuable present for the Vizier, consisting of jewels, costly decorations, and other such valuables belonging to herself, which as was customary in those times, she had brought with her on the expedition, and also a large sum of money. This present she contrived to send to the Vizier at the same time with the proposals of peace made by the Emperor. The Vizier was extremely pleased with the present, and he at once agreed to the conditions of peace, and thus the Tsar and all his army escaped the destruction which threatened them. The Vizier was afterward called to account for having thus let off his enemies so easily when he had them so completely in his power, but he defended himself as well as he could by saying that the terms on which he had made the treaty were as good as could be obtained in any way, adding hypocritically that God commands us to pardon our enemies when they ask us to do so and humble themselves before us. In the meantime, years passed away and the Emperor and Catherine lived very happily together, though the connection which subsisted between them while it was universally known was not openly or publicly recognized. In process of time they had two or three children, and this together with the unassuming but yet faithful and efficient manner in which Catherine devoted herself to her duties as wife and mother, strengthened the bond which bound her to the Tsar, and at length, in the year 1712, Peter determined to place her before the world in the position to which he had already privately and unofficially raised her by a new and public marriage. It was not pretended, however, that the Tsar was to be married to Catherine now for the first time, but the celebration was to be in honor of the napchels long before performed. Accordingly, in the invitations that were sent out, the expression used to denote the occasion on which the company was to be convened was to celebrate his majesty's old wedding. The place where the ceremony was to be performed was St. Petersburg, for this was now many years after St. Petersburg had been built. Very curious arrangements were made for the performance of this extraordinary ceremony. The Tsar appeared in the dress and character of an admiral of the fleet, and the other officers of the fleet, instead of the ministers of state and great nobility, were made most prominent on the occasion and were appointed to the most honorable posts. This arrangement was made partly, no doubt, for the purpose of doing honor to the navy, which the Tsar was now forming, and increasing the consideration of those who were connected with it in the eyes of the country. As Catherine had no parents living, it was necessary to appoint persons to act in their stead to give away the bride. It was so the vice admiral and the rear admiral of the fleet, at the honor of acting in this capacity, was assigned. They represented the bride's father, while Peter's mother, the Empress Dowager, and the lady of the vice admiral of the fleet, represented her mother. Two of Catherine's own daughters were appointed bridesmaids. Their appointment was, however, not much more than an honorary one, for the children were very young, one of them being five and the other only three years old. They appeared for a little time pending the ceremony, and then becoming tired, they were taken away, and their places supplied by two young ladies of the court, nieces of the Tsar. The wedding ceremony itself was performed at seven o'clock in the morning, in a little chapel belonging to Prince Menzikov, and before a small company, no person being present at that time, except those who had some official part to perform. The great wedding party had been invited to meet at the Tsar's palace later in the day. After the ceremony had been performed in the chapel, the emperor and empress went from the chapel into Menzikov's palace, and remained there until the time arrived to repair to the palace of the Tsar. Then a grand procession was formed, and the married pair were conducted through the streets to their own palace with great parade. As it was winter, the bridal party were conveyed in sleighs instead of carriages. These sleighs, or sledges as they were called, were very elegantly decorated, and were drawn by six horses each. The procession was accompanied by a band of music consisting of trumpets, kettle drums, and other martial instruments. The entertainment at the palace was very splendid, and the festivities were concluded in the evening by a ball. The whole city, too, was lighted up that night with bonfires and illuminations. Three years after this public solemnization of the marriage, the empress gave birth to a son. Peter was perfectly overjoyed at this event. It is true that he had one son already, who was born of his first wife, who was called the Tsarwitz, and whose character, and melancholy history, will be the subject of the next chapter. But this was the first son among the children of Catherine. She had had only daughters before. It was in the very crisis of the difficulties which the Tsar had with his eldest son, and when he was on the point of finally abandoning all hope of ever reclaiming him from his vices and making him a fit inheritor of the crown, that this child of Catherine's was born. These circumstances, which will be explained more fully in the next chapter, gave great political importance to the birth of Catherine's son, and Peter caused the event to be celebrated with great public rejoicings. The rejoicings were continued for eight days, and at the baptism of the babe, two kings, those of Denmark and of Prussia, acted as godfathers. The name given to the child was Peter Petroits. The baptism was celebrated with the greatest pomp, and it was attended with banquettings and rejoicings of the most extraordinary character. Among other curious contrivances were two enormous pies, one served in the room of the gentleman and the other in that of the ladies. For, according to the ancient Russian custom on such occasions, the sexes were separated at the entertainments, tables being spread for the ladies and for the gentleman in different halls. From the ladies' pie there stepped out when it was opened, a young dwarf, very small and clothed in a very slight and very fantastic manner. The dwarf brought out with him from the pie some wine glasses and a bottle of wine. Taking these in his hand, he walked around the table drinking to the health of the ladies, who received him wherever he came with screams of mingled surprise and laughter. It was the same in the gentleman's apartment, except that the dwarf which appeared before the company there was a female. The birth of this son formed a new and very strong bond of attachment between Peter and Catherine, and it increased very much the influence which he had previously exerted over him. The influence which he thus exercised was very great, and it was also in the main very salutary. She alone could approach the Tsar in the fits of irritation and anger into which he often fell when anything displeased him, and sometimes when his rage and fury were such that no one else would have dared to come near, Catherine knew how to quiet and calm him and gradually bring him back again to reason. She had great power over him, too, in respect to the nervous affection, the convulsive twitchings of the head and face, to which he was subject. Indeed it was said that the soothing and mysterious influence of her gentle nursing in allaying these dreadful spasms and relieving the royal patient from the distress which they occasioned gave rise to the first feeling of attachment which he formed for her and which led him in the end to make her his wife. Catherine often exerted the power which she acquired over her husband for noble ends. A great many persons, who from time to time excited the displeasure of the Tsar, were rescued from undeserved death and sometimes were suffering still more terrible than death by her interposition. In many ways she softened the asperities of Peter's character and lightened the heavy burden of his imperial despotism. Everyone was astonished at the ascendancy which she acquired over the violent and cruel temper of her husband and equally pleased with the good use which she made of her power. There was not, however, always perfect peace between Catherine and her lord. Catherine was compelled sometimes to injure great trials. On one occasion the Tsar took it into his head, with or without cause, to feel jealous. The object of his jealousy was a certain officer of his court whose name was Delacroix. Peter had no certain evidence it would seem to justify his suspicions, for he said nothing openly on the subject, but he at once caught the officer to be beheaded on some other pretext and order his head to be set up on a pole in the great public square in Moscow. He then took Catherine out into the square and conveyed her to and fro in all directions across it in order that she might see the head in every point of view. Catherine understood perfectly well what it all meant, but though thunderstruck and overwhelmed with grief and horror at the terrible spectacle, she succeeded in maintaining a perfect self-control through the whole scene. Until at length she was released and allowed to return to her apartment when she burst into tears and for a long time could not be comforted or calmed. With the exception of an occasional outbreak like this, the Tsar evinced a very strong attachment to his consort, and she continued to live with him a faithful and devoted wife for nearly twenty years, from the period of her private marriage, in fact, to the death of her husband. During all this time she was continually associated with him not only in his personal and private, but also in his public avocations and cares. She accompanied him on his journeys, she aided him with her councils in all affairs of state. He relied a great deal on her judgment in all questions of policy, whether internal or external, and he took counsel with her in all matters connected with his negotiations with foreign states, with the sending and receiving of embassies, the making of treaties with them, and even when occasion occurred, and determining the question of peace or war. And yet notwithstanding the lofty qualities of statesmanship that Catherine thus displayed in the council and aid which she rendered her husband, the education which she had received while at the ministers in Marienburg was so imperfect that she never learned to write, and whenever, either during her husband's life or after his death, she had occasion to put her signature to letters or documents of any kind, she did not attempt to write the name herself, but always employed one of her daughters to do it for her. At length, to where the close of his reign, Peter, having at that time no son to whom he could entrust the government of his empire after he was gone, caused Catherine to be solemnly crowned as Empress, with a view of making her his successor on the throne. But before describing this coronation, it is necessary first to give an account of the circumstances which led to it, by relating the melancholy history of Alexis, Peter's oldest son. End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 of Peter the Great This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Anna Simon Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott Chapter 15 The Prince Alexis 1690 to 1716 The reader will perhaps recollect that Peter had a son by his first wife, an account of whose birth was given in the first part of this volume. The name of this son was Alexis, and he was destined to become the hero of a most dreadful tragedy. The narrative of it forms a very dark and melancholy chapter in the history of his father's reign. Alexis was born in the year 1690. In the early part of his life, his father took great interest in him, and made him the center of a great many ambitious hopes and projects. Of course, he expected that Alexis would be his successor on the imperial throne, and he took great interest in qualifying him for the duties that would devolve upon him in that exalted station. While he was a child, his father was proud of him as his son and heir, and as he grew up he hoped that he would inherit his own ambition and energy, and he took great pains to inspire him with the lofty sentiments appropriate to his position, and to train him to a knowledge of the art of war. But Alexis had no taste for these things, and his father could not, in any possible way, induce him to take any interest in them whatever. He was idle and spiritless, and nothing could arouse him to make any exertion. He spent his time in indolence and in vicious indulgences. These habits had the effect of undermining his health, and increasing more and more his distaste for the duties which his father wished him to perform. That Tsar tried every possible means to produce a change in the character of his son, and to awaken in him something like an honourable ambition. To this end, he took Alexis with him in his journeys to foreign countries, and introduced him to the reigning princes of Eastern Europe, showed him their capitals, explained to him the various military systems which were adopted by the different powers, and made him acquainted with the principal personages in their courts. But all was of no avail. Alexis could not be aroused to take an interest in anything but idle indulgences and vice. At length, when Alexis was about twenty years of age, that is in the year 1710, his father conceived the idea of trying the effect of marriage upon him. So he directed his son to make choice of a wife. It is not improbable that he himself really selected the lady. At any rate, he controlled the selection, for Alexis was quite indifferent in respect to the affair, and only acceded to the plan in obedience to his father's commands. The lady chosen for the bride was a Polish princess named Charlotta Cristina Sofia, Princess of Wolfenbutto, and a marriage contract binding the parties together was executed with all due formality. Two years after this marriage contract was formed, the marriage was celebrated. Alexis was then about twenty-two years of age, and the princess eighteen. The wedding, however, was by no means a joyful one. Alexis had not improved in character since he had been betrothed, and his father continued to be very much displeased with him. Peter was at one time so angry as to threaten that, if his son did not reform his evil habits and begin to show some interest in the performance of his duties, he would have his head shaved and send him to a convent, and so make a monk of him. How far the princess herself was acquainted with the facts in respect to the character of her husband, it is impossible to say, but everybody else knew them very well. The emperor was in very bad humor. The princess's father wished to arrange for a magnificent wedding, but the tsar would not permit it. The ceremony was accordingly performed in a very quiet and un ostentatious way, in one of the provincial towns of Poland, and after it was over, Alexis went home with his bride to her paternal domains. The marriage of Alexis to the Polish princess took place the year before his father's public marriage with his second wife, the Empress Catherine. As Peter had anticipated, the promises of reform which Alexis had made on the occasion of his marriage failed totally of accomplishment. After remaining a short time in Poland with his wife, conducting himself there tolerably well, he set out on his return to Russia, taking his wife with him. But no sooner had he got back among his old associates than he returned to his evil ways, and soon began to treat his wife with the greatest neglect and even cruelty. He provided a separate suite of apartments for her in one end of the palace, while he himself occupied the other end, where he could be at liberty to do what he pleased without restraint. Sometimes a week would elapse without his seeing his wife at all. He purchased a small slave named Afrosinia and brought her into his part of the palace, and lived with her there in the most shameless manner, while his neglected wife, far from all her friends, alone and almost brokenhearted, spent her time in bitterly lamenting her heart, fate, and gradually wearing away her life in sorrow and tears. She was not even properly provided with the necessary comforts of life. Her rooms were neglected and suffered to go out of repair. The roof led in the rain, and the cold wind in the winter penetrated through the ill-fitted windows and doors. Alexis paid no heed to these things, but, leaving his wife to suffer, spent his time in drinking and carousing with Afrosinia and his other companions in vice. During all this time, the attention of the Tsar was so much engaged with the affairs of the Empire that he could not interfere efficiently. Sometimes he would abrade Alexis for his unyutiful and wicked behaviour and threaten him severely, but the only effect of his remonstrances would be to cause Alexis to go into the apartment of his wife as soon as his father had left him, and assail her in the most abusive manner, overwhelming her with rude and violent reproaches for having, as he said, made complaints to his father, or told tales, as he called it, and so having occasioned his father to find fault with him. This the Princess would deny. She would solemnly declare that she had not made any complaints whatever. Alexis, however, would not believe her, but would repeat his denunciations and then go away in a rage. This state of things continued for three or four years. During that time the Princess had one child, a daughter, and at length the time arrived when she was to give birth to a son. But even the approach of such a time of trial did not awaken any feeling of kind regard or compassion on the part of her husband. His neglect still continued. No suitable arrangements were made for the Princess, and she received no proper attention during her confinement. The consequence was that in a few days after the birth of the child, Fyra said in, and the Princess sank so rapidly under it that her life was soon dispelled off. When she found that she was about to die, she asked that the Tsar might be sent for it to come and see her. Peter was sick at this time, and almost confined to his bed, but still, let it be remembered to his honor, he would not refuse this request. A bed or litter was placed for him on a sort of truck, and in this manner he was conveyed to the palace where the Princess was lying. She thanked him very earnestly for coming to see her, and then back to commit her children, and the servants who had come with her from her native land, and who had remained faithful to her through all her trials, to his protection and care. She kissed her children and took leave of them in the most affecting manner, and then placed them in the arms of the Tsar. The Tsar received them very kindly. He then bade the mother farewell, and went away, taking the children with him. All this time the room in which the Princess was lying, the antechamber, and all the approaches to the apartment were filled with the servants and friends of the Princess, who mourned her unhappy fate so deeply that they were unable to control their grief. They kneeled or lay prostrate on the ground, and offered unceasing petitions to heaven to save the life of their mistress, mingling their prayers with tears and sobs, and bitter lamentations. The physicians endeavored to persuade the Princess to take some medicines which they had brought, but she threw the vials away behind the bed, begging the physicians not to torment her any more, but to let her die in peace, as she had no wish to live. She lingered after this a few days, spending most of her time in prayer, and then died. At the time of her death the Princess was not much over twenty years of age. Her sad and sorrowful fate shows us once more what unfortunately we too often see exemplified, that something besides high worldly position in a husband is necessary to enable the bride to look forward with any degree of confidence to her prospects of happiness when receiving the congratulations of her friends on her wedding day. The death of his wife produced no good effect upon the mind of Alexis. At the funeral the Tsar's father addressed him in a very stern and severe manner in respect to his evil ways, and declared to him positively that, if he did not at once reform and thenceforth lead a life more in conformity with his position and his obligations, he would cut him off from the inheritance to the crown, even if it should be necessary on that account to call in some stranger to be his heir. The communication which the Tsar made to his son on this occasion was in writing, and the terms in which it was expressed were very severe. It commenced by reciting at length the long and fruitless efforts which the Tsar had made to awaken something like an honourable ambition in the mind of his son, and to lead him to reform his habits, and concluded substantially as follows. How often have I reproached you with the obscenity of your temper, and the perverseness of your disposition? How often even have I corrected you for them? And now, for how many years have I desisted from speaking any longer of them? But all has been to no purpose. My reproofs have been fruitless. I've only lost my time and beaten the air. You do not so much as strive to grow better, and all your satisfaction seems to consist in laziness and inactivity. Having, therefore, considered all these things and fully reflected upon them, as I see I have not been able to engage you by any motives to do as you ought, I've come to the conclusion to lay before you in writing this my last determination, resolving, however, to wait still a little longer before I come to a final execution of my purpose in order to give you one more trial to see whether you will meant or know. If you do not, I am fully resolved to cut you off from the succession. Do not think that because I have no other son I will not really do this, but only say it to frighten you. You may rely upon it that I will certainly do what I say. For, as I spare not my own life for the good of my country and the safety of my people, why should I spare you, who will not take the pains to make yourself worthy of them? I shall much prefer to transmit this trust to some worthy stranger than to an unworthy son, signed with His Majesty's own hand, Peter. The reader will observe from the fragilogy of these concluding paragraphs what is made still more evident by the perusal of the whole letter that the great ground of Peter's complaint against his son was not as immorality and wickedness, but as idleness and inefficiency. If he had shown himself an active and spirited young man, full of military ardour and of ambition to rule, he might probably in his private life have been as vicious and depraved as he pleased without exciting his father's displeasure. But Peter was himself so full of ambition and energy, and he had formed moreover such vast plans for the grandisement of the empire, many of which could only be commenced during his lifetime, and must depend for their full accomplishment on the vigor and talent of his successor, that he had set his heart very strongly on making his son one of the first military men of the age. And he now lost all patience with him when he saw him stupidly neglecting the glorious opportunity before him, and throwing away all his advantages in order to spend his time in ease and indulgence, thus thwarting and threatening to render abortive some of his father's favourite and most far-reaching plans. The excuse which Alexis made for his conduct was the same which bad boys often offer for idleness and delinquency, namely his ill health. His answer to his father's letter was as follows. It was not written until two or three weeks after his father's letter was received, and in that interim a son was born to the Empress Catherine, as related in the last chapter. It is to this infant son that Alexis eludes in his letter. My clement lord and father, I have read the writing your majesty gave me on the 27th of October 1715, after the interment of my late spouse. I have nothing to reply to it, but that if it is your majesty's pleasure to deprive me of the crown of Russia by reason of my inability, your will be done. I even earnestly request it at your majesty's hands, as I do not think myself fit for the government. My memory is much weakened, and without it there is no possibility of managing affairs. My mind and body are much decayed by the distempers to which I have been subject, which renders me incapable of governing so many people, who must necessarily require a more vigorous man at their head than I am. For which reason I should not aspire to the succession of the crown of Russia after you, whom God long preserve, even though I had no brother as I have at present, whom I pray God also to preserve? Nor will I ever hereafter lay claim to the succession, as I call God to witness by a solemn oath, in confirmation whereof I write and sign this letter with my own hand. I give my children into your hands, and for my part desire no more than a bare maintenance so long as I live, leaving all the rest to your consideration and good pleasure. Your most humble servant and son, Alexis. The tsar did not immediately make any rejoinder to the foregoing communication from his son. During the full and winter months of that year he was much occupied with public affairs, and his health, moreover, was quite infirm. At length, however, about the middle of June he wrote to his son as follows. My son, as my illness hitherto prevented me from letting you know the resolutions I have taken with reverence to the answer you returned to my former letter, I now send you my reply. I observe that you there speak of the succession, as though I had need of your consent to do in that respect what absolutely depends on my own will. But whence comes it that you make no mention of your voluntary indolence and inefficiency, and the aversion you constantly express to public affairs, which I spoke of in a more particular manner than of your ill health, though the letter is the only thing you take notice of? I also expressed my dissatisfaction with your whole conduct and mode of life for some years past, but of this you are wholly silent, though I strongly insist upon it. From these things I judge that my fatherly exhortations make no impression upon you. For this reason I have determined to write this letter to you and it shall be the last. I don't find that you make any acknowledgment of the obligation you owe to your father who gave you life. Have you assisted him, since you came to maturity of years, in his labours and pains? No, certainly. The world knows that you've not. On the other hand, you blame and uphold whatever of good I have been able to do at the expense of my health, for the love I've borne to my people and for their advantage, and I have all imaginable reason to believe that you will destroy it all in case you should survive me. I cannot let you continue in this way. Are there change your conduct and labour to make yourself worthy of the succession, or else take upon you the monastic vow? I cannot rest satisfied with your present behaviour, especially as I find that my health is declining. As soon therefore as you shall have received this my letter, let me have your answer in writing, or give it to me yourself in person. If you do not, I shall at once proceed against you as a malefactor. Signed, Peter. To this communication, Alexis the next day return the following reply. Most clement lord and father, I received yesterday in the morning your letter of the 19th of this month. My indisposition will not allow me to write a long answer. I shall enter upon a monastic life, and beg your gracious consent for so doing. Your most humble servant and son, Alexis. There is no doubt that there was some good ground for the complaints which Alexis made with respect to his health. His original constitution was not vigorous, and he had greatly impaired both his mental and physical powers by his vicious indulgences. Still, his excusing himself so much on this ground was chiefly a pretense, his object being to gain time, and prevent his father from coming to any positive decision, in order that he might continue his life of indolence and vice a little longer undisturbed. Indeed, it was said that the incapacity to attend to the studies and perform the duties which his father required of him was mainly due to his continual drunkenness, which kept him all the time in a sort of brutal stupor. Nor was the fault wholly on his side. His father was very harsh and severe in his treatment of him, and perhaps in the beginning made too little allowance for the feebleness of his constitution. Neither of the two were sincere in what they said about Alexis becoming a monk. Peter, in threatening to send him to a monastery, only meant to frighten him, and Alexis, in saying that he wished to go, intended only to circumvent his father, and save himself from being molested by him any more. He knew very well that his becoming a monk would be the last thing that his father would really desire. Besides, Alexis was surrounded by a number of companions and advisors, most of them lewd and dissolute fellows like himself, but among them were some much more cunning and farsighted than he, and it was another advice that he acted in all the measures that he took, and in everything that he said and did in the cause of this quarrel with his father. Among these men were several priests who liked the rest, though priests, were vile and dissolute men. These priests, and Alexis's other advisors, told him that it was perfectly safe in pretending to exceed his father's plan to send him to a monastery, for his father would never think of such a thing as putting the threat in execution. Besides, if he did, it would do no harm, for the vows that he would take, though so utterly irrevocable in the case of common man, would all cease to be a force in his case in the event of his father's death, and his succeeding to the throne. And, in the meantime, he could go on, they said, taking his ease and pleasure, and living as he had always done. Many of the persons who thus took sides with Alexis, and encouraged him in his opposition to his father, had very deep designs in its so-doing. They were of the party who opposed the improvements and innovations which Peter had introduced, and who had in former times made the Princess Sophia their head and rallying point in their opposition to Peter's policy. It almost always happens thus, that when, in a monarchical country, there is a party opposed to the policy which the sovereign pursues, the disaffected persons endeavor, if possible, to find a head or leader in some member of the royal family itself. And if they can gain to their side the one next in succession to the crown, so much the better. To this end, it is for their interest to ferment a quarrel in the royal family, or if the germ of a quarrel appears arising from some domestic or other cause, to widen the breach as much as possible, and avail themselves of the dissension to secure the name and the influence of the prince or princess thus alienated from the king as their rallying point and center of action. This was just the case in the present instance. The old Muscovite party, as it was called, that is, the party opposed to the reforms and changes which Peter had made, and to the foreign influences which he had introduced into the realm, gathered round Alexis. Some of them, it was said, began secretly to form conspiracies for deposing Peter, raising Alexis nominally to the throne and restoring the old order of things. Peter knew all this, and the fears which these rumours excited in his mind greatly increased his anxiety in respect to the cause which Alexis was pursuing, and the exasperation which he felt against his son. Indeed, there was reason to believe that Alexis himself, so far as he had any political opinions, had adopted the views of the malcontents. It was natural that he should do so, for the old order of things was much better adapted to the wishes and desires of a selfish and disillusioned despot, who only valued his exultation and power for the means of unlimited indulgence in sensuality and vice, which they afforded. It was this supposed bias of Alexis' mind against his father's policy of reform that Peter referred to in his letter, when he spoke of Alexis' desire to thwart him in his measures, and undo all that he had done. When he received Alexis' letter, informing him that he was ready to enter upon the monastic life whenever his father pleased, Peter was for a time at a loss what to do. He had no intention of taking Alexis at his word, for in threatening to make a monk of him, he had only meant to frighten him. For a time, therefore, after receiving this reply, he did nothing, but only vented his anger and useless implications and mutterings. Peter was engaged at this time in very important public affairs, arising out of the wars in which he was engaged with some foreign nations, and important negotiations which were going on with others. Not long after receiving this short letter from Alexis' last sighted, he was called upon to leave Russia for a time, to make a journey into Central Europe. Before he went away, he called to see Alexis in order to bid him adieu, and to state to him once more what he called his final determination. Alexis, when he heard that his father was coming, got into his bed and received him in that way, as if he were really quite sick. Peter asked him what conclusion he had come to. Alexis replied as before that he wished to enter a monastery, and that he was ready to do so at any time. His father remonstrated with him long and earnestly against this resolution. He represented in strong terms the folly of a young man like himself, in the prime of his years, and with such prospects before him, abandoning everything, and shutting himself up all his days to the gloomy austerities of a monastic life, and he endeavoured to convince him how much better it would be for him to change his cause of conduct, to enter vigorously upon the fulfilment of his duties as a son and as a prince, and prepare himself for the glorious destiny which awaited him on the Russian throne. Finally, the Tsar said that he would give him six months longer to consider of it, and then bidding him farewell went away. As soon as he was gone, Alexis rose from his bed, and went away to an entertainment with some of his companions. He doubtless amused them during the carousel by relating to them what had taken place during the interview with his father, and how earnestly the Tsar had argued against his doing what he had begun originally with threatening to make him do. The Tsar's business called him to Copenhagen. While there, he received one or two letters from Alexis, but there was nothing in them to denote any change in his intentions, and finally, toward the end of the summer, the Tsar wrote him again in the following very severe and decided manner. Copenhagen, August 26th, 1716 My son, your first letter of the 29th of June, and your next of the 30th of July, were brought to me. As in them you speak only of the condition of your health, I sent you the present letter to tell you that I demanded of you your resolution upon the affair of the succession, when I bade you farewell. You then answered me, in your usual manner, that you judged yourself incapable of it by reason of your infirmities, and that you should choose rather to retire into a convent. I bade you seriously consider of it again, and then sent me the resolution you should take. I have expected it for these seven months, and yet have heard nothing of you concerning it. You have had time enough for consideration, and therefore, as soon as you shall receive my letter, resolve on one side or on the other. If you determined to apply yourself to your duties, and qualify yourself for the succession, I wish you to leave Petersburg, and to come to me here within a week, so as to be here in time to be present at the opening of the campaign. But if, on the other hand, you resolve upon the monastic life, let me know when, where, and on what day, you will execute your resolution, so that my mind may be at rest, and that I may know what to expect of you. Send me back your final answer by the same courier that shall bring you my letter. Be particular to let me know the day when you will set out from Petersburg if you conclude to come to me, and if not, precisely when you will perform your vow. I again tell you that I absolutely insist that you shall determine upon something, otherwise I shall conclude that you are only seeking to gain time in order that you may spend it in your customary laziness. Peter. When we consider that Alexis was at this time a man nearly 30 years of age, and himself the father of family, we can easily imagine that language like this was more adapted to exasperate him, and make him worse than to win him to his duty. He was in fact driven to his pieces of desperation by it, and he so far aroused himself from his usual indolence and stupidity as the former plan, in connection with some of his evil advisers, to make his escape from his father's control entirely by secretly absconding from the country and seeking a retreat under the protection of some foreign power. The manner in which he executed this scheme, and the consequences which finally resulted from it, will be related in the next chapter. End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of Peter the Great This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott Chapter 16 The Flight of Alexis When Alexis received the letter from his father at Copenhagen, ordering him to proceed at once to that city and join his father there, or else come to a definite and final conclusion in respect to the convent that he would join, he at once determined, as intimated in the last chapter, that he would avail himself of the opportunity to escape from his father's control altogether. Under pretense of obeying his father's orders that he should go to Copenhagen, he could make all the necessary preparations for leaving the country without suspicion, and then, when once across the frontier, he could go where he pleased. He determined to make his escape to a foreign court, with a view of putting himself under the protection there of some prince or potentate who, from feelings of rivalry towards his father, or from some other motive, might be disposed, he thought, to espouse his cause. He immediately began to make arrangements for his flight. What the exact truth is, in respect to the arrangements which he made, could never be fully ascertained, for the chief source of information, in respect to them, is from confessions which Alexis made himself after he was brought back. But in these confessions he made such confusion, first confessing a little, then a little more, then contradicting himself, then admitting, when the thing had been proved against him, that he had before denied, that it was almost impossible to disentangle the truth from his confused and contradictory declarations. The substance of the case was, however, as follows. In the first place he determined, carefully to conceal his design, from all except the two or three intimate friends and advisers who originally counseled him to adopt it. He intended to take with him his concubine, Afrosinia, and also a number of domestic servants and other attendants, but he did not allow any of them to know where he was going. He gave them to understand that he was going to Copenhagen to join his father. He was afraid that, if any of those persons were to know his real design, it would, in some way or another, be divulged. As to Afrosinia, he was well aware that she would know that he could not intend to take her to Copenhagen into his father's presence. So he deceived her as to his real design, and induced her to set out with him, without suspicion, by telling her that he was only going to take her with him a part of the way. She was only to go, he said, as far as Riga, a town on the shores of the Baltic, on the way toward Copenhagen. Alexis was the less inclined to make a confident of Afrosinia from the fact that she had never been willingly his companion. She was a Finland girl, a captive, taken in war, and preserved to be sold as a slave on account of her beauty. When she came into the possession of Alexis, he forced her to submit to his will. She was a slave, and it was useless for her to resist or complain. It is said that Alexis only induced her to yield to him by drawing his knife and threatening to kill her on the spot if she made any difficulty. Thus, although he seems to have become in the end, strongly attached to her, he never felt that she was really and cordially on his side. He accordingly, in this case, concealed from her his real designs, and told her he was only going to take her with him a little way. He would then send her back, he said, to Petersburg. So Afrosinia made arrangements to accompany him without feeling any concern. Alexis obtained all the money that he required by borrowing considerable sums of different members of the government and friends of his father, under pretense that he was going to his father at Copenhagen. He showed them the letter which his father had written him, and this, they thought, was sufficient authority for them to furnish him with the money. He borrowed in his way various sums of different persons, and thus obtained an abundant supply. The largest sum which he obtained from any one person was two thousand dukats, which were lent him by the prince Menzikov, a noble who stood very high in Peter's confidence, and who had been left by him chief in command during his absence. The prince gave Alexis some advice, too, about the arrangements which he was to make for his journey, supposing all the time that he was really going to Copenhagen. The chief instigator and adviser of Alexis in this affair was a man named Alexander Kicken. This Kicken was an officer of high rank in the Navy department, under the government, and the Tsar had placed great confidence in him. But he was inclined to espouse the cause of the old Muscovite party, and to hope for a revolution that would bring that party again into power. He was not at this time in St. Petersburg, but had gone forward to provide a place of retreat for Alexis. Alexis was to meet him at the town of Lybu, which stands on the shores of the Baltic Sea, between St. Petersburg and Koningsburg, on the route which Alexis would have to take in going to Copenhagen. Alexis communicated with Kicken in writing, and Kicken arranged and directed all the details of the plan. He kept purposely at a distance from Alexis to avoid suspicion. At length, when all was ready, Alexis set out from St. Petersburg, taking with him Afrosynia, and several other attendants, and journeyed to Lybu. There he met Kicken, and each congratulated the other warmly on the success which had thus far attended their operations. Alexis asked Kicken what place he had provided for him, and Kicken replied that he had made arrangements for him to go to Vienna. He had been to Vienna himself, he said, under previous under pretense of public business, committed to his charge by the Tsar, and had seen and conferred with the Emperor of Germany there, and the Emperor agreed to receive and protect him, and not to deliver him up to his father until some permanent and satisfactory arrangement should have been made. So you must go on, continued Kicken, to Koningsburg and Danstek, and then, instead of going forward to Copenhagen, you will turn off the road to Vienna, and when you get there the Emperor will provide a safe place of retreat for you. When you arrive there, if your father should find out where you are, and send someone to try to persuade you to return home, you must not, on any account, listen to him. Four, as certain as your father gets you again in his power, after you're leaving the country in this way, he will have you beheaded. Kicken contrived a number of very cunning devices for averting suspicion from himself, and those really concerned in the plot, and throwing it upon innocent persons. Among other things he induced Alexis to write several letters to different individuals in St. Petersburg, Prince Menzikov among the rest, thanking them for the advice and assistance that they had rendered him in setting out upon his journey, which advice and assistance was given honestly on the supposition that he was really going to his father at Copenhagen. The letters of thanks, however, which Kicken dictated, were written in an ambiguous and mysterious manner, being adroitly contrived to awaken suspicion in Peter's mind, if he were to see them, that these persons were in the secret of Alexis's plans, and really intended to assist him in his escape. When the letters were written, Alexis delivered them to Kicken, who at some future time, in case of necessity, was to show them to Peter, and pretend that he had intercepted them. Thus he expected to avert suspicion from himself, and threw it upon innocent persons. Kicken also helped Alexis about writing a letter to his father from Labou, saying to him that he left St. Petersburg and had come so far on his way toward Copenhagen. This letter was, however, not dated at Labou, where Alexis then was but at Konensburg, which was some distance further on, and it was sent forward to be transmitted from that place. When Alexis had thus arranged everything with Kicken, he prepared to set out on his journey again. He was to go on first to Konensburg, then to Danstik, and there, instead of embarking on a board ship, to go to Copenhagen according to his father's plan, he was to turn off toward Vienna. It was at that point, accordingly, that his actual rebellion against his father's commands would begin. He had some misgivings about being able to reach that point. He asked Kicken what he should do in case his father should have sent somebody to meet him at Konensburg or Danstik. Why, you must join them there in the first instance, said Kicken, and pretend to be much pleased to meet them, and then you must contrive to make your escape from them in the night, either entirely alone, or only with one servant. You must abandon your baggage and everything else. Or, if you cannot manage to do this, continued Kicken, you must pretend to be sick, and if there are two persons sent to meet you, you can send one of them on before, with your baggage and attendance, promising yourself to come on quietly afterward with the other. And then you can contrive to bribe the other, or in some other way induce him to escape with you, and so go to Vienna. Alexis did not have occasion to resort to either of these expedients, for nobody was sent to meet him. He journeyed on without any interruption till he came to Konensburg, which was the place where the road turned off to Vienna. It was now necessary to say something to Afrocinia, and his other attendance to account for the new direction which his journey was to take. So he told them that he had received a letter from his father, ordering him, before proceeding to Copenhagen, to go to Vienna on some public business which was to be done there. Accordingly, when he turned off they accompanied him without any apparent suspicion. Alexis proceeded in this way to Vienna, and there he appealed to the emperor for protection. The emperor received him, listened to the complaints which he had made against the Tsar, for Alexis, as might have been expected, cast all the blame of the quarrel upon his father. And after entertaining him for a while in different places, he provided him with at last a secret retreat in a fortress in the Tyrol. Here Alexis concealed himself, and it was a long time before his father could ascertain what had become of him. At length the Tsar learned that he was in the emperor's dominions, and he wrote with his own hand a very urgent letter to the emperor, representing the misconduct of Alexis in its true light, and demanding that he should not harbour such an undutiful and rebellious son, but should send him home. He sent two envoys to act as the bearers of this letter, and to bring Alexis back to his father in case the emperor should conclude to surrender him. The emperor communicated the contents of this letter to Alexis, but Alexis begged him not to comply with his father's demand. He said that the difficulty was owing altogether to his father's harshness and cruelty, and that if he were to be sent back he should be in danger of his life from his father's violence. After long negotiations and delays the emperor allowed the envoys to go and visit Alexis in the place of his retreat, with a view of seeing whether they could not prevail upon him to return home with them. The envoys carried a letter to Alexis which his father had written in his own hand, representing to him in strong terms the impropriety and wickedness of his conduct, and the enormity of the crime which he had committed against his father by his open rebellion against his authority and denouncing against him, if he persisted in this wicked course the judgment of God who had threatened in his word to punish disobedient children with eternal death. But all these appeals had no effect upon the stubborn will of Alexis. He declared to the envoys that he would not return with them, and he said moreover that the emperor had promised to protect him, and that if his father continued to persecute him in this way he would resist by force, and with the aid which the emperor would render him he would make war upon his father, depose him from his power, and raise himself to the throne in his stead. After this there followed a long period of negotiation and delay, during which many events occurred which it would be interesting to relate if time and space permitted. Alexis was transferred from one place to another, with a view of eluding any attempts which his father might make to take possession of him again, either by violence or stratagem, and at length was conveyed to Naples and Italy, and was concealed in the castle of Saint Elmol there. In the meantime Peter grew more and more urgent in his demands upon the emperor to deliver up his son, and the emperor at last finding that the quarrel was really becoming serious, and being convinced moreover by the representations which Peter had caused to be made to him that Alexis had been much more to blame than he had supposed, seemed disposed to change his ground, and began now to advise Alexis to return home. Alexis was quite alarmed when he found that, after all, he was not to be supported in his rebellion by the emperor, and at length, after a great many negotiations, difficulties and delays, he determined to make a virtue of necessity and go home. His father had written him repeated letters, promising him a free pardon if he would return, and threatening him in the most severe and decided manner if he did not. To the last of these letters, when Alexis had finally resolved to go back, he wrote the following very meek and submissive reply. It was written from Naples in October 1717. My Clement, Lord, and Father. I have received your Majesty's most gracious letters by Monsieur's Tolstoy and Roman Row, in which, as also by word of mouth, I am most graciously assured of pardon for having fled without your permission in case I return. I give you most hearty thanks with tears in my eyes, and own myself unworthy of all favour. I throw myself at your feet, and implore your clemency, and beseech you to pardon my crimes, for which I acknowledge that I deserve the severest punishment. But I rely on your gracious assurances, and, submitting to your pleasure, shall set out immediately from Naples to attend your Majesty at St. Petersburg with those whom your Majesty has sent. Your most humble and unworthy servant who deserves not to be called your son, Alexis. After having written and dispatched this letter, Alexis surrendered himself to Tolstoy and Roman Row, and in their church set out on his return to Russia, there to be delivered into his father's hands, for Peter was now in Russia, having returned there as soon as he heard of Alexis' flight. CHAPTER XVII. THE TRIAL. 1717-17-17-18. As soon as Alexis arrived in the country, his father issued a manifesto, in which he gave a long and full account of his son's misdemeanours and crimes, and of the patient and persevering but fruitless efforts which he himself had made to reclaim him, and announced his determination to cut him off from the succession to the crown as wholly and hopelessly a reclaimable. This manifesto was one of the most remarkable documents that history records. It concluded with deposing Alexis from all his rights as his son and heir to his father, and appointing his younger brother Peter, the little son of Catherine, as inheritor in his stead, and finally laying the paternal curse upon Alexis if he ever thereafter pretended to, or in any way, claim the succession of which he had been deprived. This manifesto was issued as soon as Peter learned that Alexis had arrived in the country under the charge of the officers who had been appointed to bring him, and before the Tsar had seen him. Alexis continued his journey to Moscow where the Tsar then was. When he arrived he went that same night to the palace, and there had a long conference with his father. He was greatly alarmed and overawed by the anger which his father expressed, and he endeavored very earnestly by expressions of penitence and promises of amendment to appease him. But it was now too late. The ire of the Tsar was thoroughly aroused, and he could not be appeased. He declared that he was fully resolved on deposing his son, as he had announced in his manifesto, and that the necessary steps for making the act of deposition in a formal and solemn manner, so as to give it full legal validity as a measure of state, would be taken on the following day. It must be confessed that the agitation and anger which Peter now manifested were not wholly without excuse, for the course which Alexis had pursued had been the means of exposing his father to a great and terrible danger, to that, namely, of a rebellion among his subjects. Peter did not even know but that such a rebellion was already planned and was ripe for execution, and that it might not break out at any time, notwithstanding his having succeeded in recovering possession of the person of Alexis, and in bringing him home. Of such a rebellion, if one had been planned, the name of Alexis would have been, of course, the watchword and rallying point, and Peter had a great deal of ground for apprehension that such a one had been extensively organized and was ready to be carried into effect. He immediately set himself at work to ferret out the whole affair, resolving, however, in the first place to disable Alexis himself from doing any further mischief, by destroying finally and forever, all claims on his part to the inheritance of the crown. Accordingly, on the following morning, before daybreak, the garrison of the city were put under arms, and a regiment of the guards was posted around the palace, so as to secure all the gates and avenues, and orders were sent at the same time to the principal ministers, nobles, and councillors of state to repair to the great hall in the castle, and to the bishops and clergy to assemble in the cathedral. Everybody knew that the occasion on which they were convened was that they might witness the disinheriting of the prince imperial by his father, in consequence of his vices and crimes, and in coming together in obedience to the summons, the minds of all men were filled with solemn awe, like those of men assembling to witness an execution. When the appointed hour arrived, the great bell was told, and Alexis was brought into the hall of the castle, where the nobles were assembled, bound as a prisoner and deprived of his sword. The tsar himself stood at the upper end of the hall, surrounded by the chief officers of state. Alexis was brought before him. As he approached, he presented a writing to his father, and then fell down on his knees before him, apparently overwhelmed with grief and shame. The tsar handed the paper to one of his officers who stood near, and then asked Alexis what it was that he desired. Alexis, in reply, begged that his father would have mercy upon him and spare his life. The tsar said that he would spare his life and forgive him for all his treasonable and rebellious acts, on condition that he would make a full and complete confession, without any restriction or reserve, of everything connected with his late escape from the country, explaining fully all the details of the plan which he had formed, and reveal the names of all his advisors and accomplices. But if his confession was not full and complete, if he suppressed or concealed anything, or the name of any person concerned in the affair or privy to it, then this promise of pardon should be null and void. The tsar also said that Alexis must renounce the succession to the crown, and must confirm the renunciation by a solemn oath, and acknowledge it by signing a declaration in writing to that effect with his own hand. To all this, Alexis, who seemed overwhelmed with contrition and anguish, solemnly agreed, and declared that he was ready to make a full and complete confession. The tsar then asked his son, who it was that advised him and aided him in his late escape from the kingdom. Alexis seemed unwilling to reply to this question in the midst of such an assemblage, but said something to his father in a low voice, which the others could not hear. In consequence of what he thus said, his father took him into an adjoining room, and there conversed with him in private for a few minutes, and then both returned together into the public hall. It is supposed that while they were thus apart, Alexis gave his father the names of some of those who had aided and abetted him in his absconding, for immediately afterward three couriers were dispatched in three different directions, as if with orders to arrest the persons who were thus accused. As soon as Alexis and his father had returned into the hall, the document was produced, which the prince was to sign, renouncing the succession to the crown. The signature and seal of Alexis were affixed to this document with all due formality. Then a declaration was made on the part of the Tsar, stating the reasons which had induced his Majesty to depose his eldest son from the succession, and to appoint his younger son, Peter, in his place. This being done, all the officers present were required to make a solemn oath on the Gospels, and to sign a written declaration of which several copies had previously been prepared, importing that the Tsar, having excluded from the crown his son Alexis, and appointed his son Peter his successor in his stead. They owned the legality and binding force of the decree, acknowledged Peter as the true and rightful heir, and bound themselves to stand by him with their lives against any or all who should oppose him, and declared that they never would, under any pretense whatsoever, adhere to Alexis or a system in recovering the succession. The whole company then repaired to the cathedral, where the bishops and other ecclesiastics were assembled, and there the whole body of the clergy solemnly took the same oath and subscribed the same declaration. The same oath was also afterward administered to all the officers of the army, governors of the provinces, and other public functionaries throughout the empire. When these ceremonies at the palace and at the cathedral were concluded, the company dispersed. Alexis was placed in confinement in one of the palaces in Moscow, and none were allowed to have access to him, except those whom the Tsar appointed to keep him in charge. Immediately after this, the necessary proceedings for a full investigation of the whole affair were commenced in a formal and solemn manner. A series of questions were drawn up and given to Alexis that he might make out deliberate answers to them in writing. Grand courts of investigation and inquiry were convened in Moscow, the great dignitaries both of church and state, being summoned from all parts of the empire to attend them. These persons came to the capital in great state, and in going too in fro to attend at the halls of judgment from day to day, they moved through the streets with such a degree of pomp and parade as to attract great crowds of spectators. As fast as the names were discovered of persons who were implicated in Alexis's escape or who were suspected in complicity in it, officers were dispatched to arrest them. Some were taken from their beds at midnight without a moment's warning, and shut up in dungeons in a great fortress at Moscow. One questioned if they seemed inclined to return evasive answers or to withhold any information of which the judges thought they were possessed, they were taken into the torturing room and put to the torture. One of the first who was arrested was Alexander Kikin, who had been Alexis's chief confidant and advisor in all his proceedings. Kikin had taken extreme precautions to guard against having his agency in the affair found out, but Alexis, in the answers that he gave to the first series of questions that were put to him, betrayed him. Kikin was aware of the danger, and in order to secure for himself some chance of escape in case Alexis should make disclosures implicating him, had bribed a page, who was always in close attendance upon the Tsar, to let him know immediately in case of any movement to arrest him. The name of this page was Baklinovsky. He was in the apartment at the time that the Tsar was writing the orders for Kikin's arrest, standing as was his wand, behind the chair of the Tsar, so as to be ready at hand to convey messages or to wait upon his master. He looked over and saw the order which the Tsar was writing. He immediately contrived some excuse to leave the apartment, and hurrying away, he went to the post house and sent on an express by post to Kikin at Petersburg to warn him of the danger. But the Tsar, noticing his absence, sent someone off after him, and thus his errand at the post house was discovered, but not until after the express had gone. Another express was immediately sent off with the order for Kikin's arrest, and both the couriers arrived in Petersburg very nearly at the same time. The one, however, who brought the warning was a little too late. When he arrived, the house of the commissioner was surrounded by a guard of fifty grenadiers, and officers were then in Kikin's apartment taking him out of his bed. They put him at once in irons and took him away, scarcely allowing him time to bid his wife farewell. The page was, of course, arrested and sent to prison too. A number of other persons, many of whom were of very high rank, were arrested in a similar manner. The arrival of Alexis at Moscow took place early in February, and nearly all of February and March were occupied with these arrests and the proceedings of the court in trying the prisoners. At length, toward the end of March, a considerable number, Kikin himself being among them, were condemned to death and executed in the most dreadful manner in a great and public square in the center of Moscow. One was impaled alive, that is, a great stake was driven through his body into the ground, and he was left in that situation to die. Others were broken on the wheel. One, a bishop was burned. The heads of the principal offenders were afterward cut off and set up on poles at the four corners of a square enclosure made for the purpose, the impaled body lying in the middle. The page who had been bribed by Kikin was not put to death. His life was spared, perhaps, on account of his youth, but he was very severely punished by scourging. During all this time, Alexis continued to be confined to his prison, and he was subjected to repeated examinations and cross-examinations in order to draw from him not only the whole truth in respect to his own motives and designs in his flight, but also such information as might lead to the full development of the plans and designs of the party in Russia who were opposed to the government of Peter and who had designed to make use of the name and position of Alexis for the accomplishment of their schemes. Alexis had promised to make a full and complete confession, but he did not do so. In the answers to the series of questions which were first addressed to him, he confessed as much as he thought was already known and endeavored to conceal the rest. In a short time, however, many things that he had at first denied or evaded were fully proved by other testimony taking the trial of the prisoners who have already been referred to. Then Alexis was charged with the omissions or evasions in his confession, which had thus been made to appear, and asked for an explanation, and thereupon he made new confessions acknowledging the newly discovered facts and excusing himself for not having mentioned them before by saying that he had forgotten them or else that he was afraid to divulge them for fear of injuring the persons that would be implicated by them. Thus he went on contradicting and involving himself more and more by every fresh confession until, at last, his father and all the judges who had convened to investigate the case seized to place any confidence in anything that he said and lost almost all sympathy for him in his distress. The examination was protracted through many months. The result of it, on the whole, was that it was fully proved that there was a powerful party in Russia opposed to the reforms and improvements of the Tsar, and particularly to the introduction of the European civilization into the country, who were desirous of affecting revolution and who wished to avail themselves of the quarrel between Alexis and his father to promote their schemes. Alexis was too much stupefied by his continual drunkenness to take any very active or intelligent part in these schemes, but he was more or less distinctly aware of them, and in the offers which he had made to enter a monastery and renounce all claims to the crown he had been utterly insincere, his only object having been to blind his father by means of them and gain time. He acknowledged that he had hated his father and had wished for his death, and when he fled to Vienna it was his intention to remain until he could return and take possession of the empire in his father's place. He, however, solemnly declared that it was never his intention to take any steps himself toward that end during his father's lifetime, though he admitted at last, when the fact had been pretty well proved against him by other evidence, that in case an insurrection in his behalf had broken out in Russia, and he had been called upon, he should have joined the rebels. A great deal of information, throwing light upon the plans of Alexis and of the conspirators in Russia connected with him, was obtained from the disclosures made by Afrosenia. This has already been stated, she had been taken by Alexis as a slave and forced against her will to join herself to him and to follow his fortunes. He had never admitted her into his confidence, but had induced her from time to time to act as he desired by telling her any falsehood which would serve the purpose. She consequently was not bound to him by any ties of honour or affection, and felt herself at liberty to answer freely all questions which were put to her by the judges. Her testimony was of great value in many points, and contributed very essentially toward elucidating the whole affair. End of Chapter 17, Chapter 18 of Peter the Great. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott. The examinations and investigations described in the last chapter were protracted through a period of several months. They were commenced in February and were not concluded until June. During all this time, Alexis had been kept in close confinement, except when he had been brought out before his judges for the various examinations and cross examinations to which he had been subjected. And as the truth in respect to his designs became more and more fully developed, and the danger in respect to the result increased, he sank gradually into a state of distress and terror almost impossible to be conceived. The tribunals before whom he was tried were not the regular judicial tribunals of the country. They were, on the other hand, two grand convocations of all the great official dignitaries of the church and of the state that were summoned expressly for this purpose, not to decide the case, for according to the ancient custom of the Russian Empire, that was the sole and exclusive province of the Tsar, but to aid him in investigating it, and then, if called upon, to give him their counsel in respect to the decision of it. One of these assemblies consisted of the ecclesiastical authorities, the archbishops, the bishops, and other dignitaries of the church. The other was composed of nobles, ministers of state, officers of the army and navy in high command, and other great civil and military functionaries. These two assemblies met and deliberated in separate halls, and pursued their investigations in respect to the several persons implicated in the affair, as they were successively brought before them, under the direction of the Tsar, though the final disposal of each case rested, it was well understood, with him alone. At length, in the month of June, when all the other cases had been disposed of, and the proof in respect to Alexis was considered complete, the Tsar sent in a formal address to each of these conventions, asking for their opinion and advice in respect to what he ought to do with his son. In his address to the archbishops and bishops, he stated that, although he was well aware that he had himself absolute power to judge his son for his crimes, and to dispose of him, according to his own will and pleasure, without asking advice of anyone, still, as men were sometimes less discerning, he said, in their own affairs, than in those of others, so that even the most skillful physicians do not run the hazard of prescribing for themselves, but call in the assistance of others when they are indisposed. In the same manner, he, having in the fear of God before his eyes, and being afraid to offend him, had decided to bring the question at issue between himself and his son before them, that they might examine the word of God in relation to it, and give their opinion, in writing, what the will of God in such a case might be. He wished also, he said, that the opinion to which they should come should be signed by each one of them individually, with his own hand. He made a similar statement in his address to the Grand Council of Civil Authorities, calling upon them also to give their opinion in respect to what should be done with Alexis. I beg of you, he said, in the conclusion of his address, to consider of the affair, to examine it seriously and with attention, and see what it is that our son has deserved, without flattering me, or apprehending that, if in your judgment he deserves no more than slight punishment, it will be disagreeable to me, for I swear to you, by the great God and by his judgments, that you have nothing to fear for me on this account. Neither are you to allow the consideration that it is the son of your sovereign that you are to pass judgment upon, to have any effect upon you, but do justice without respect of persons, so that your conscience and mind may not reproach us at the great day of judgment. The convocation of clergy and deliberating upon the answer which they were to make to the Tsar deemed it advisable to proceed with great caution. They were not quite willing to recommend directly and openly that Alexis should be put to death, while at the same time they wished to give the sanction of their approval for any measures of severity which the Tsar might be inclined to take. So they forebored to express any positive opinion of their own, but contended themselves with looking out in the scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, the terrible denunciations which are therein contained against disobedient and rebellious children, and the accounts of fearful punishments which were inflicted upon them in Jewish history. They began their statement by formally acknowledging that Peter himself had absolute power to dispose of the case of his son, according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, that they had no jurisdiction in the case, and could not presume to pronounce judgment, or say anything which could in any way restrain or limit the Tsar in doing what he judged best. But nevertheless, as the Tsar had graciously asked them for their counsel as a means of instructing his own mind previously to come into a decision, they would proceed to quote from the holy scriptures such passages this might be considered to bear upon the subject, and to indicate the will of God in respect to the action of a sovereign and a father in such a case. They then proceeded to quote the texts and passages of scripture. Some of these texts were denunciations of rebellious and disobedient children, such as the eye that mocketh his father and that despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out, and the Jewish law providing that if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, nor the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not harken unto them, then shall his father and mother lay hold of him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place, and shall say unto the elders of his city, this or son is rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard, and all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die. There were other passages quoted relating to his actual cares which occurred in the Jewish history of sons being punished with death for crimes committed against their parents, such as that as Absalom and others. The bearing and tendency of all these extracts from the scriptures was to justify the severest possible treatment of the unhappy criminal. The bishops added, however, at the close of their communication, that they had made these extracts an obedience to the command of their sovereign, not by way of pronouncing sentence or making a decree, or in any other way giving any authoritative decision on the question at issue, but only to furnish to the Tsar himself such spiritual guidance and instruction in the cases the word of God afforded. It would be very far from their duty, they said, to condemn anyone to death, for Jesus Christ had taught his ministers not to be governed by a spirit of anger but by a spirit of meekness. They had no power to condemn anyone to death or to seek his blood. That, when necessary, was the province of the civil power. Theirs was to bring men to repentance of their sins and to offer them forgiveness of the same through Jesus Christ, their Saviour. They therefore, in submitting their communication to his Imperial Majesty, did it only that he might do what seemed right in his own eyes. If he concludes to punish his fallen son, they said, according to his deeds, and in a manner proportionate to the enormity of his crimes, he has before him the declarations and examples which we have herein drawn from the scriptures of the Old Testament. If, on the other hand, he is inclined to mercy, he has the example of Jesus Christ, who represented the prodigal son as received and forgiven when he returned and repented, who dismissed the woman taken in adultery when by law she deserved to be stoned, and who said that he would have mercy and not sacrifice. The document concluded by the words, the heart of the Tsar is in the hand of God, and may he choose the part to which the hand of God shall turn it. As for the other assembly, the one composed of the nobles and senators, and other great civil and military functionaries, before rendering their judgment, they caused Alexis to be brought before them again, in order to call for additional explanations, and to see if he still adhered to the confessions that he had made. At these audiences, Alexis confirmed what he had before said, and acknowledged more freely than he had done before the treasonable intentions of which he had been guilty. His spirit seems by this time to have been completely broken, and he appeared to have thought that the only hope for him of escape from death was in the most humble and abject confessions of earnest applications for pardon. In these his last confessions, too, he implicated some persons who had not before been accused. One was a certain priest named James. Alexis said that at one time he was confessing to this priest, and, among other sins which he mentioned, he said that he wished for the death of his father. The priest's reply to this was, as Alexis said, God will pardon you for that, my son, for we all, meaning the priest's, wish it too. The priest was immediately arrested, but on being questioned, he denied having made any such reply. The inquisitors then put him to the torture, and there forced from him the admission that he had spoken those words. Whether he had really spoken them or only admitted it to put an end to the torture, it is impossible to say. They asked him for the names of the persons whom he had heard express a desire that the Tsar should die, but he said he could not recollect. He had heard it from several persons, but he could not remember who they were. He said that Alexis was a great favourite among the people, and that they sometimes used to drink his health under the designation of the hope of Russia. The Tsar himself also obtained the final and general acknowledgement of guilt from his son, which he sent into the Senate on the day before their judgment was to be rendered. He obtained this confession by sending Tolstoy, an officer of the highest rank in his court, and the person who had been the chief medium of the intercourse and of the communications which he had held with his son during the whole course of the affair, with the following written instructions, to M. Tolstoy, privy counsellor, go to my son this afternoon and put down in writing the answers he shall give to the following questions. One, what is the reason why he has always been so disobedient to me, and has refused to do what I required of him, or to apply himself to any useful business, notwithstanding all the guilt and shame which he has incurred by so strange and unusual accords? Two, why is it that he has been so little afraid of me, and has not apprehended the consequences that must inevitably follow from his disobedience? Three, what induced him to desire to secure possession of the crown otherwise than by obedience to me, and following me in the natural order of succession, and examine him upon everything else that bears any relation to this affair? Tolstoy went to Alexis in the prison and read these questions to him. Alexis wrote out the following statement and replied to them, which Tolstoy carried to the Tsar. One, although I was well aware that to be disobedient as I was to my father, and refused to do what pleased him, was a very strange and unusual course, and both a sin and a shame, yet I was led into it in the first instance in consequence of having been brought up from my infancy with a governess and her maids, from whom I learned nothing but amusements and diversions and bigotry, to which I had naturally an inclination. The person to whom I was entrusted after I was removed from my governess gave me no better instructions. My father, afterward being anxious about my education and desirous that I should apply myself to what became the son of the Tsar, ordered me to learn the German language and other sciences, which I was very averse to. I applied myself to them in a very negligent manner and only pretended to study at all in order to gain time and without having any inclination to learn anything. And as my father, who was then frequently with the army, was absent from me a great deal, he ordered his serene highness, the prince Menzikov, to have an eye upon me. While he was with me I was obliged to apply myself, but as soon as I was out of his sight, the persons with whom I was left, observing that I was only bent on bigotry and idleness, on keeping company with priests and monks and drinking with them, they not only encouraged me to neglect my business, but took pleasure in doing as I did. As these persons had been about me from my infancy, I was accustomed to observe their direction, to fear them and to comply with their wishes and everything, and thus by degrees, they alienated my affections from my father by diverting me with pleasures of this nature, so that, by little and little, I came to have not only the military affairs and other actions of my father in horror, but also his person itself, which made me always wish to be at a distance from him. Alexander Kikin especially, when he was with me, took a great deal of pains to confirm me in this way of life. My father, having compassion on me and desiring still to make me worthy of the state to which I was called, sent me into foreign countries, but as I was already grown to man's estate, I made no alteration in my way of living. It is true, indeed, that my travels were of some advantage to me, but they were insufficient to erase the vicious habits which had taken such deep root in me. Two. It was this evil disposition which prevented my being apprehensive of my father's correction for my disobedience. I was really afraid of him, but it was not with a filial fear. I only sought for means to get away from him and was in no wise concern to do his will, but to avoid by every means in my power what he required of me. Of this I will now freely confess one plain instance. When I came back to Petersburg to my father from abroad, at the end of one of my journeys, he questioned me about my studies and, among other things, asked me if I had forgotten what I had learned and I told him no. He then asked me to bring him some of my drawings of plans. Then, fearing that he would order me to draw something in his presence which I could not do as I knew nothing of the matter, I set to work to devise a way to hurt my hand so that it should be impossible for me to do anything at all. So I charged the pistol with a ball and, taking it in my left hand, I let it off against the palm of my right with a design to have shot through it. The ball entered the wall of my room and it may be seen there still. My father, observing my hand to be wounded, asked me how it came. I told him an evasive story and kept the truth to myself. By these means you may see that I was afraid of my father, but not with a proper filial fear. 3. As to my having desire to obtain the crown otherwise than by obedience to my father and following him in regular order of succession, all the world may easily understand the reason. For when I was once out of the right way and resolved to imitate my father in nothing, I naturally sought to obtain the succession by any, even the most wrongful method. I confessed that I was even willing to come into possession of it by foreign assistance if it had been necessary. If the Emperor had been ready to fulfill the promise that he made me of procuring for me the crown of Russia, even with an armed force, I should have spared nothing to have obtained it. For instance, if the Emperor had demanded that I should afterward furnish him with Russian troops against any of his enemies in exchange for his service in aiding me or large sums of money, I should have done whatever he pleased. I would have given great presence to his ministers and generals over and above. In a word, I would have thought nothing too much to have obtained my desire. The confession, after it was brought to the Tsar by Tolstoy, to whom Alexis gave it, was sent by him to the great Council of State to aid them in forming their opinion. The Council were occupied for the space of a week in hearing the case, and then they drew up and signed their decision. The statement which they made began by acknowledging that they had not of themselves any original right to try such a question. The Tsar himself, according to the ancient constitution of the Empire, having soul and exclusive jurisdiction in all such affairs, without being beholden to his subjects in regard to them in any manner whatever. But nevertheless, as the Tsar had deemed it expedient to refer to them, they accepted the responsibility, and after having fully investigated the case, were now ready to pronounce judgment. They then proceeded to declare that after a full hearing and careful consideration of all the evidence, both oral and written, which had been laid before them, including the confessions of Alexis himself, they found that he had been guilty of treason and rebellion against his father in sovereign, and deserved to suffer death. And although, said the Council in continuation, although both before and since his return to Russia, the Tsar his father had promised him pardon on certain conditions, yet those conditions were particularly and expressly specified, especially the one which provided that he should make a full and complete confession of all his designs, and of the names of all the persons who had been privy to them, or concerned in the execution of them. With these conditions, and particularly the last, Alexis had not complied, but had returned insincere and evasive answers to the questions which had been put to him, and had concealed not only the names of a great many of the principal persons that were involved in the conspiracy, but also the most important designs and intentions of the conspirators, thus making it appear that he had determined to reserve to himself an opportunity hereafter, when a favorable occasion should present itself, of resuming his designs and putting his wicked enterprise into execution against his sovereign and father. He thus had rendered himself unworthy of the pardon which his father had promised him, and had forfeited all claim to it. The sentence of the council concluded in the following words. It is with hearts full of affliction and eyes streaming down with tears that we, as subjects and servants, pronounce the sentence considering that, being such, it does not belong to us to enter into a judgment of so great importance, and particularly to pronounce sentence against the son of the most mighty and merciful Tsar, our Lord. However, since it has been his will that we should enter into judgment, we herein declare our real opinion and pronounce this condemnation with a conscience so pure and Christian that we think we can answer for it at the terrible, just and impartial judgment of the great God. To conclude, we submit the sentence which we now give and the condemnation which we make to the sovereign power and will, and to the merciful review of historian majesty, our most merciful monarch. This document was signed in the most solemn manner by all the members of the council, nearly one hundred in number. Among the signatures are the names of a great number of ministers of state, councillors, senators, governors, generals, and other personages of high civil and military rank. The document, when thus formally authenticated, was sent with much Solomon imposing ceremony to the Tsar. The Tsar, after an interval of great suspense and solicitude during which he seems to have endured much mental suffering, confirmed the judgment of the council and a day was appointed on which Alexis was to be arraigned. An order that sentence of death in accordance with it might be solemnly pronounced upon him. The day appointed was the sixth of July, nearly a fortnight after the judgment of the court was rendered to the Tsar. The length of this delay indicates a severe struggle in the mind of the Tsar between his pride and honor of his sovereign, feelings which prompted him to act in the most determined and rigorous manner in punishing a rebel against his government, and what still remained of his parental affection for his son. He knew well that after what had passed there could never be any true and genuine reconciliation, and that as long as his son lived, his name would be the watchword of opposition and rebellion, and his very existence would act as a potent and perpetual stimulus to the treasonable designs which the foes of civilization and progress were always disposed to form. He finally, therefore, determined that the sentence of death should at least be pronounced. What his intention was in respect to the actual execution of it can never be known. When the appointed day arrived, the grand session of the council was convened, and Alexis was brought out from the fortress where he was imprisoned and arraigned before it for the last time. He was attended by a strong guard. On being placed at the bar of the tribunal, he was called upon to repeat the confessions which he had made, and then the sentence of death, as it had been sent to the tsar, was read to him. He was then taken back again to his prison as before. Alexis was overwhelmed with terror and distress at finding himself thus condemned, and the next morning intelligence was brought to the tsar that, after suffering convulsions at intervals through the night, he had fallen into an apoplectic fit. About noon another message was brought, saying that he had revived in some measures from the fit, yet his vital power seemed to be sinking away, and the physician thought that his life was in great danger. The tsar sent for the principal ministers of state to come to him, and he waited with them in great anxiety and agitation for further tidings. At length a third messenger came, and said that it was thought that Alexis could not possibly outlive the evening, and that he longed to see his father. The tsar immediately requested the ministers to accompany him, and set out from his palace to go to the fortress where Alexis was confined. On entering the room where his dying son was lying, he was greatly moved, and Alexis himself, bursting into tears, folded his hands and began to entreat his father's forgiveness for his sins against him. He said that he had grievously and heinously offended the majesty of God Almighty, and of the tsar, that he hoped he should not recover from his illness, for if he should recover, he should feel that he was unworthy to live. But he begged and implored his father, for God's sake, to take off the curse that he had pronounced against him, to forgive him for all the heinous crimes which he had committed, to bestow upon him his paternal blessing and to cause prayers to be put up for his soul. While Alexis was speaking thus, the tsar himself and all the ministers and officers who had come with him were melted in tears. The tsar replied kindly to him. He referred it as true to the sins and crimes of which Alexis had been guilty, but he gave him his forgiveness and his blessing, and then took his leave with tears and lamentations which rendered it impossible for him to speak, and in which all present joined. The scene was heart-rending. At five o'clock in the evening, a major of the guards came across the water from the fortress to the tsar's palace with a message that Alexis was extremely desirous to see his father once more. The tsar was at first unwilling to comply with this request. He could not bear he thought to renew the pain of such an interview, but his ministers advised him to go. They represented to him that it was hard to deny such a request from his dying son, who was probably tormented by the stings of a guilty conscience and felt relieved and comforted when his father was near. So Peter consented to go. But just as he was going on board the boat which was to take him over to the fortress, another messenger came saying that it was too late. Alexis had expired. On the next day after the death of his son, the tsar, in order to anticipate and preclude the false rumors in respect to the case which he knew that his enemies would endeavour to spread throughout the continent, caused a brief but full statement of his trial in condemnation, and of the circumstances of his death to be drawn up and sent to all his ministers abroad in order that they might communicate the facts in an authentic form to the courts to which they were respectfully accredited. The ninth day of July, the third day after the death of Alexis, was appointed for the funeral. The body was laid in a coffin covered with black velvet. A pall of rich gold tissue was spread over the coffin and in this way the body was conveyed to the church of the Holy Trinity where it was laid in state. It remained in this condition during the remainder of that day and all of the next and also on the third day until evening. It was visited by vast crowds of people who were permitted to come up and kiss the hands of the deceased. On the evening of the third day after the body was conveyed to the church, the funeral service was performed and the body was conveyed to the tomb. A large procession, headed by the Tsar, the Tsarina, and all the chief nobility of the court followed in the funeral train. The Tsar and all the other mourners carried in their hands a small waxed tape or burning. The ladies were all dressed in black silks. It was said by those who were near enough in the procession to observe the Tsar that he went weeping all the way. At the service in the church, a funeral sermon was pronounced by the priest from the very appropriate text, Oh, Absalon, my son, my son, Absalon. Thus ended this dreadful tragedy. The party who had been opposed to the reforms and improvements of the Tsar seems to have become completely disorganized after the death of Alexis and they never again attempted to organize any resistance to Peter's plans. Indeed, most of the principal leaders had been executed or banished to Siberia. As to Arakesa, the first wife of the Tsar and the mother of Alexis, who was proved to have been privy to his designs, she was sent away to a strong castle and shut up for the rest of her days in a dungeon. So close was her confinement that even her food was put into her through a hole in the wall. It remains only to say one word in conclusion in respect to Afrosinia. When Alexis was first arrested, it was supposed that she, having been the slave and companion of Alexis, was a party with him in his treasonable designs. But in the course of the examinations, it appeared very fully that whatever of connection with the affair or participation in it she may have had was involuntary and innocent and the testimony which she gave was of great service in unraveling the mystery of the whole transaction. In the end, the Tsar expressed a satisfaction with her conduct in strong terms. He gave her a full pardon for the involuntary age which she had rendered Alexis in carrying out his plans. He ordered everything which had been taken away from her to be restored, made her presence of handsome jewelry, and said that if she would like to be married, he would give her a handsome portion out of the royal treasury. But she promptly declined this proposal. I have been compelled, she said, to yield to one man's will by force. Henceforth, no other shall ever come near my side. End of Chapter 18