FROM -THE- LIBRARY- OF- 
 A. W. Ryder 
 
COPV ADDED 
 ORIGINAL TO BE 
 
 RETAIMED 
 
 
 21£95 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 PETER THE GREAT 
 
 By JOHN BARROW, Esa 
 
 WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES 
 
 By henry KETCHAM 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ** Blush, Art! this hero owed thee nothing; 
 Exult, Nature ! for this prodigy is all thy own V* 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY, jt ^ ^ ^ 
 J' J' J' PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK 
 
iqo3 
 
 Copyright, 1903, 
 By a. L. BURT COMPANY. 
 
 • ••••"•••••• ••••••*• •• \_j ^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author or compiler of the following Bio- 
 graphical Memoir has done little more than bring 
 together and arrange the scattered fragments of his- 
 tories, lives, anecdotes, and notices, in manuscript 
 or in print, of one of the most extraordinary char- 
 acters that ever appeared on the great theater of 
 the world, in any age or country : a being full of 
 contradictions, yet consistent in all that he did ; a 
 promoter of literature, a^its,^ and sciences, yet with- 
 out education himself^ the civilizer of his people, 
 " he gave a polish;" s^ys Yixlt,a'ir8^' ^i^okis nation, 
 and was himself a savage ; " he taught his people 
 the art of war, of which he was himself ignorant ; 
 from the first glance of a small cock-boat, at the 
 distance of five hundred miles from the nearest sea, 
 he became an expert ship-builder, created a power- 
 ful fleet, partly constructed with his own hands, 
 made himself an active and expert sailor, a skilful 
 pilot, a great captain : in short, he changed the 
 manners, the habits, the laws of the people, and the 
 ver}^ face of the country. 
 
 A modern French writer has given a catalogue of 
 iii 
 
iV PREFACE. 
 
 no less than ninety-five authors who have treated of 
 Peter the Great, and concludes it with three &c.'s. 
 About one-fourth of that number may have been con- 
 sulted on the present occasion, of which the princi- 
 pal ones are the following : — 
 
 Journal de Pierre le Grand, depuis Vannee 1698 
 jusqu'd la Conclusion de la Paix de Neustadt. 
 Ecritpar Lui-meme. — This remarkable work was 
 intended to be published after the death of Peter, 
 by his surviving spouse, the Empress Catharine; 
 but it is supposed her short reign put a stop to it. 
 Her namesake, Catharine II. , however, caused it 
 to be published at Petersburg in the year 1770, and 
 it was translated and published at Berlin in 1773. 
 It contains a journal of all his military movements, 
 battles, si'efgeS^ distfiibution' of his forces, triumphs, 
 promotions^— and,' i'n^ sHoft, ajl, the principal trans- 
 actions iti '^i^biph he 'W^s engaged during the period 
 mejitioned in the title-page. The simplicity of the 
 narrative, the frank avowal of the mistakes he com- 
 mitted, the gratitude he constantly expresses to the 
 Supreme Disposer of events, in his reverses, as well 
 as in his successes — all prove the perfect sincerity as 
 well as the truth of the narrative. To the historian 
 of his military progress and conquests this journal of 
 the Emperor must always be invaluable. 
 
 The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Rus- 
 sia. By Alexander Gordon of Achintoul, several 
 years a Major- General in the Czar'^s service, — Gen- 
 eral Gordon was personally acquainted with many 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 of the exploits of the Czar Peter narrated in his his- 
 tory. He received a commission from him as major 
 about the year 1693 or 1694, was speedily promoted 
 to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was present at 
 the taking of Asoph in 1698. He was taken prison- 
 er at the battle of ISTarva, and sent into Sweden, 
 where he was detained for several years. On his 
 return, he was advanced to the rank of major-gen- 
 eral, and sent into Poland ; but on hearing of his 
 father's death, he obtained permission in 1711 to 
 quit the Kussian service and return to his native 
 country, Scotland. That portion only of his work, 
 therefore, which relates to the period when he was 
 actually in service can be considered as valuable ; 
 the rest is founded on authorities already published 
 at the time of his writing. 
 
 Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to various 
 parts of Asia. By John Bell^ of Antermony. — 
 Honest John Bell is almost proverbially known as 
 the most faithful of travelers. In the year 1719 
 he was attached, in a medical capacity, to an em- 
 bassy sent by Peter the Great to Kang-hee, Em- 
 peror of China, and published a very interesting 
 account of the journey and the transactions of the 
 mission in Pekin. In the year 1722 he accompanied 
 the army of Russia, under the immediate command 
 of the Czar Peter, to the shores of the Caspian, of 
 which journey he published a '' Succinct Relation," 
 containing some curious and interesting incidents, 
 relating to that campaign, connected with the 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 manners and character of Peter and Catharine, who 
 accompanied him. 
 
 Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce^ Esq. , a milita/ry 
 officer in the services of Prussia^ Pussia^ and Great 
 Britain y containing an account of his travels^ c&c. / 
 as also several very interesting jprivate anecdotes of 
 the Czar Peter I. of Russia. — Mr. Bruce tells us 
 his Journal was originally written in German, his 
 native language,* and that in the year 1755, on his 
 retirement, he translated it into English. In 1782 
 it was published for the benefit of his widow. Cap- 
 tain Bruce had many opportunities of seeing and 
 knowing a great deal of the Czar and his family. 
 He served as military instructor to the son of the 
 unfortunate Czarovitz Alexis, was aid-de-camp to 
 General Weyde, and accompanied the Czar on his 
 expedition to the shores of the Caspian, which sea 
 he circumnavigated, and surveyed its coasts. His 
 narrative is written with great simplicity, if not 
 with scrupulous accuracy — the language being some- 
 what loose, and the dates not always correct. 
 There are several passages in his book which must 
 have been transcribed, either by himself or his 
 publisher, from preceding authors ; but those portions 
 which describe what he witnessed in his own person 
 are highly interesting, and worthy of all credit. 
 
 Memoires du Regne de Pierre le Grand., Em- 
 pereur de Bussie, Pere de la Patrie, dbc. Par le 
 
 * His father was in the service of Prussia, where he was 
 borUf 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 Boyar Iwan Nestesuranoi. 4 vols. Amsterdam, 
 1726. — Though this work bears a fictitious name, 
 it is, notwithstanding, perfectly genuine and au- 
 thentic ; and being published in the year after the 
 death of Peter the Great, and while Catharine and 
 Menzikoff were still living, it may be considered the 
 very first History of Peter the Great, with the ex- 
 ception of some brief notices by Webber. Neste- 
 suranoi is meant as the anagram of Jean Rousset, 
 his real name. This gentleman fled from France to 
 Amsterdam, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantz. 
 He was a most indefatigable compiler, journalist, 
 historian, politician, and controversialist. For his 
 History of the Life of Peter, he was made by the 
 court of Russia a counsellor of the imperial chan- 
 cery ; and for taking up the cause of the Prince of 
 Orange, was created counsellor extraordinary and 
 historiographer to the stadtholder. 
 
 The History of the Life of Peter I. , Emperor of 
 Russia. By John Mottley^ JEsq. — John Mottley 
 was the son of Colonel Mottley, who followed the 
 fortunes of King James II. into France ; from writ- 
 ing miscellaneous and dramatic pieces for his amuse- 
 ment, he was, in consequence of his father's misfor- 
 tunes, compelled to use his pen for a maintenance ; 
 and his productions met with the patronage of Queen 
 Caroline and the court. His Life of Peter the Great 
 is, in many parts of it, a translation of the work of 
 l^estesuranoi, with the addition of several incidents 
 and anecdotes, and also of many official and other 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 documents, compiled from the journals of the day. 
 It went through two editions, — the first, a folio, in 
 one volume ; the second, a small octavo, in three 
 volumes. 
 
 History of the Russian Empire under Peter the 
 Great, ByM.de Voltaire. — This celebrated writer 
 would appear to have been unjustly censured with 
 regard to this history : it has been called a romance, 
 a tissue of idle stories and anecdotes not founded in 
 fact, and a systematic suppression of the truth. In 
 the perusal of a multitude of authors, the compiler 
 can safely assert that, as far as concerns the facts 
 stated by Yoltaire, he has authority for all of them ; 
 his opinions are, of course, his own. But he is ac- 
 cused by the Russians of not having made use of 
 half the manuscripts he received by order of the 
 Empress Catharine. The chamberlain, Schowalof, 
 demanded of him by letter, — 1st. Why he had only 
 made use of so small a portion of the rich materials 
 sent to him? — 2d. Why he had mutilated the facts 
 stated in the manuscripts; and why he had not 
 made use of the anecdotes (Staehlin's) in his posses- 
 sion? And, 3d. Why he had omitted the names 
 of several great persons, and so disfigured those he 
 had been pleased to name, that they were scarcely 
 to be distinguished as the persons intended? 
 
 To the first question Yoltaire answered, that it 
 was not his custom to copy implicitly any manu- 
 scripts that might be sent to him. To the second, 
 that he must be governed by the best information 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 he could procure ; that the private life of Peter did 
 not come within, the limits of his plan, and conse- 
 quently the anecdotes were not available ; and, as 
 to the third reproach, he sarcastically observes, ' ' as 
 far as relates to the disfiguring of the proper names, 
 I suppose it is a German who reproaches me with 
 it. — I wi^h him more wit and fewer consonants. " 
 
 The Journal of Peter the Great was sent to Yol- 
 taire in manuscript, and whenever he has made use 
 of it he has done so faithfully and accurately. But 
 he is highly blameable in casting a stigma on what 
 he calls ' ' pretended histories of Peter the Great, 
 most of which have been compiled from gazettes; " 
 and his designating ' ' that which was printed at 
 Amsterdam, in four volumes, under the name of the 
 Boyar [N'estesuranoi, " as ^'one of those impositions 
 too frequently practised by booksellers. ' ' The name 
 is certainly an imposition, as we have noticed ; but 
 all the documents it contains, and the history con- 
 nected with, and drawn from, those documents, are 
 authentic. But that which renders Yoltaire the 
 more blameable in his censure is, that the founda- 
 tion of his own history, the arrangement, and in 
 many places the language, are drawn from this said 
 work of IS'estesuranoi, and his copyist Colonel John 
 Mottley. This is disingenuous, and unworthy the 
 high character of Yoltaire. 
 
 Ruslcmd en de Nederla/nden Beschoud in dersel/ver 
 Wederheerige Betrekkingen door Mr. Jacobus Schel- 
 tema, 4 vols. — These volumes contain chiefly an 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 historical account of the commercial intercourse be- 
 tween Holland and Russia, from its commencement 
 to the death of Peter the Great. This work is chiefly 
 interesting from the details given of the conduct and 
 proceedings of this extraordinary man during his 
 residence in Holland, taken from authentic docu- 
 ments, and particularly from NoomeTh^s Diary of the 
 Residence of the Czar Peter at Zaandam. It does 
 not appear to have been translated either intq 
 French or English. 
 
 Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great^ collected 
 from the conversation of several persons of distinction 
 at Petersburg and Moscow. By M. Stwhlin^ meniber 
 of the Imperial Academy at Petersburg. — About ten 
 years after the death of Peter the Great, that is in 
 the year 1735, M. Stashlin was invited to fill a seat 
 in the Academy of Sciences at Petersburg. He 
 lived at the house of the Count of Lynar, envoy- 
 extraordinary from King Augustus of Poland to 
 the court of Russia, where he tells us he became ac- 
 quainted with many persons of distinction, as well 
 foreigners as Russians, several of whom had not only 
 served in the fleet and army, or held civil employ- 
 ments under Peter the Great, but had also been 
 much about his person. He was likewise honored 
 with the appointment of tutor, and afterward libra- 
 rian, to the Great Duke Peter Feodorovitz. These 
 situations afforded him opportunities of collecting 
 anecdotes concerning the manners, character, and 
 actions, both as regarded the public and private 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 life of the Czar Peter ; they amount in number to 
 more than one hundred, many of which are highly 
 interesting, and well vouched for by most respect- 
 able authorities. 
 
 In addition to these were consulted, the Trowels 
 of Mr. Coxe / the History of Russia hy Toohe / La 
 Biographie Universelle ; the works of Le General 
 Compte de Segur^ La Combe^ Fontenelle^ Levesque 
 &c. ; from which such passages only were selected 
 as tended to confirm the statements made by other 
 authorities. It will be obvious that, out of such a 
 mass of materials, and in so small a volume, the 
 great leading points only of the life and transactions 
 of such a personage as Peter the Great could be 
 comprehended, and of these few it is hoped, will be 
 found to have been omitted. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Birth of the Czar Peter I.— The Intrigues of his 
 Family — Revolt of the Strelitzes or Russian Janizaries 
 — ^The Regency of Sophia — The Czar ascends the Throne. 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 The Czar creates a Navy, and new-models his Army — Le 
 Fort — Menzikoff — Gordon — First Attack on Azof fails — 
 The second succeeds — Conspiracy discovered and de- 
 feated 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Czar Peter travels into Holland — His Residence at 
 Zaandam 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Czar Peter visits England 77 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Czar inflicts dreadful Punishment on the Conspirators 
 — Commences his System of Reform — Death of Le Fort 
 — Prepares a large Fleet at Voronitz, on the Don — Com- 
 mences a War with Sweden 118 
 
 xiii 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Battle of Narva — Peter's Success against the Swedes 
 
 —History of Catharine 142 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Continued Successes over the Swedes— Peter lays the 
 Foundation of St. Petersburg— His Saxon Ally deprived 
 of the Crown of Poland — Takes Dorpt, and Narva, and 
 Mittau — Augustus makes Peace with Charles — Disgrace- 
 ful Conduct of the former — Seizure and inhuman Death 
 of Patkul — Masterly Maneuver of Peter — Position of 
 the Russian and Swedish Armies 169 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Battle of Poltava 200 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Battle of the Pruth 224 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Czar's Naval Victory over the Swedes — Rejoicings — 
 
 A Russian Entertainment — Death of the Consort of 
 
 Alexis — The Czarina Catharine brings Peter a Son — 
 
 Strange Rejoicings — Progressive Improvements at St. 
 
 Petersburg 252 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Charles XII. returns to Sweden — The Czar visits Holland, 
 France, and Prussia 287 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Trial, Condemnation, and Death of the Czarovitz 
 Alexis 307 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Peace of Neustadt— Peter entreated to accept the 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Titles of Emperor, Great, and Father of his Country — 
 Several new Institutions and Manufactories established 
 — An Embassy sent to China — Assemblies, or Soirees, 
 instituted — Peter's Mode of Living — Provides for the 
 Succession 338 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Peter directs his views towards Persia — Failure of the 
 Expedition — Trial and Punishment of certain Delin- 
 quents — Celebration of the " Little Grandsire," the first 
 germ of the Russian Navy 358 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Coronation of Catharine — Sickness and Death of Peter 
 the Great — His Character and Epitaph 379 
 
 Note on the alleged will of Peter the Great 402 
 
THE LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Birth of the Czar Peter I.— The Intrigues of his Family — 
 Revolt of the Strelitzes or Russian Janizaries — The Regency 
 of Sophia — The Czar ascends the Throne. 
 
 We shall certainly not err in pronouncing the 
 Czar Peter I. of Russia to have been one of the 
 most extraordinary men that ever appeared in any 
 age or country ; but whether he merited the title of 
 Great, which his own countrymen have bestowed 
 on hhn, and the rest of Europe has sanctioned, it 
 would seem to be necessary to know, in the first 
 place, something of the state of the country to which 
 he was by universal admission a benefactor, when 
 he first began to govern it, and the state in which 
 he left it ; and, in the second place, what were the 
 means employed, and the resources at his command, 
 by which he was enabled to extend its limits, to 
 secure its peace, and to improve the condition and 
 raise the moral qualities of his subjects. 
 
 In the review which is now proposed to be taken 
 of the life of this extraordinary man, the latter 
 
 1 
 
2 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 point will be fully explained by the acts he per- 
 formed and the regulations he established. The 
 means he employed to attain his ends were some- 
 times severe and unsparing enough, but, in general, 
 only where severity appeared to be necessary. If, 
 however, heroic exploits, chivalrous adventures, and 
 hazardous enterprises, undertaken with the view of 
 gratifying personal vanity or ambition, or of excit- 
 ing mere admiration, be thought essential to the 
 composition of a great character, Peter I. will have 
 no chance of competing, in these respects, with 
 ''the Macedonian madman or the Swede." In 
 him we neither find the boundless but barren am- 
 bition of the one, nor the desperate and fatal ob- 
 stinacy of the other. " It has been settled in men's 
 minds," says Yoltaire, ''that Charles XII. was 
 worthy of having the first post in the army under 
 Peter the Great — the one has left nothing behind 
 him but ruins — the other is, in every respect, the 
 founder of an empire." In fact, the ambition of 
 Peter extended not beyond the improvement and 
 prosperity of his country, for which he labored in- 
 cessantly through a life of restless activity. Russia 
 was to him all in aU ; her welfare and her glory 
 engaged his daily thoughts ; and those excesses and 
 little eccentricities which appear childish and friv- 
 olous, as well as those more serious and opposite 
 acts of severity, which all must condemn, had each 
 of them a motive pointing to some end, and that 
 generally a benevolent one. In the execution of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 3 
 
 his great designs for the improvement of his country, 
 no diificulties nor dangers ever stood in his way ; 
 his indefatigable activity — the perseverance and in- 
 trepidity which enabled him to overcome all obsta- 
 cles, and brave the most imminent perils — and all 
 for the love of country — are the proud qualifications 
 that entitle him to the name of Great. 
 
 With regard to the state of Eussia, before and at 
 the time of Peter, it will only be necessary to turn 
 to the pages of every writer, from Hakluyt down to 
 that period, to be satisfied of the extreme ignorance 
 and barbarism of Muscovy. A glimmering of light 
 may be said to have broken in during the reign of 
 Alexis Michaelovitz (the father of Peter the Great) 
 who died in 1677. He was one of the best princes 
 that had sat on the throne of Muscovy. The estab- 
 lishment of some of the principal manufactures was 
 begun during his reign ; he added the fine provinces 
 of Pskov and Smolensk to his dominions; he re- 
 formed the laws, and reduced them to something 
 like a code ; he curbed the ambition of the patri- 
 arch, who arrogantly claimed to have the highest 
 seat in council ; and he opposed the usurpations of 
 the church. He endeavored to introduce a regular 
 system of military tactics and discipline into the 
 army through the means of the foreign generals Gor- 
 don, Leslie, and Dalziel. He was fully sensible of 
 the benefits to be derived from the superior knowl- 
 edge of foreign ofiicers and artificers. Among the 
 latter were some Dutch ship-builders, who met with 
 
4 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 great encouragement; for he cherished the ambition 
 of making Russia a maritime power, and of forming 
 fleets on the Black Sea and the Caspian. 
 
 Thus then Alexis may be said to have laid the 
 foundation on which Peter erected his own and his 
 country's glory. Most of his schemes however 
 failed, from the opposition they met with from the 
 barbarous natives, who had an inveterate dislike to 
 foreigners and foreign institutions. By means of 
 some Germans and Italians, he made an attempt to 
 establish silk and cotton manufactories, which also 
 failed; but he was more successful in sending 
 several Polish, Swedish, and Tartar prisoners of 
 war to cultivate lands on the banks of the Yolga. 
 This prince was twice married ; first to a daughter 
 of the Boyar Milovslanski, and secondly to a beauti- 
 ful young lady of the family of Nariskin, who be- 
 came the mother of Peter, the subject of this 
 memoir, and of a daughter. The circumstances 
 which led to this marriage, and the manner in 
 Avhich candidates for becoming brides were at that 
 time exhibited for selection, will show the low state 
 in which the female part of society was then held 
 by the Muscovites. 
 
 The Boyar Matveief , minister for foreign affairs, 
 was honored with the particular confidence of 
 Alexis. The latter going one evening to his house 
 without attendants, as was frequently his custom, 
 found the table covered, and said to Matveief in a 
 familiar way, *' Your supper looks so inviting that 
 
LIFE OF PETEU THE GREAT. 5 
 
 it tempts me to partake of it, but' it must be on con- 
 dition that nothing be altered on my account. ' ' He 
 was scarcely seated when the wife of Matveief made 
 her appearance, followed by her only son and a 
 young lady. The Czar insisted on their sitting 
 down, though contrary to the usual custom, and the 
 young lady was placed opposite the royal guest. 
 He observed her with great attention, and then said, 
 ' <■ I thought your son was your only child. ' ' — 
 ' ' Your majesty, ' ' said the minister, ' ' is right ; this 
 young lady is the daughter of Kyrilla Kariskin, a 
 relation and friend, who lives on his own estate ; my 
 wife has undertaken her education, and, with the 
 blessing of God, we hope to settle her honorably in 
 the world. ' ' 
 
 The family having retired, the Czar observed to 
 the minister that he ought to think of a suitable 
 match for the young lady. The minister replied, 
 that although endowed with good and amiable 
 qualities, she was far from being rich, and that his 
 own circumstances would not allow him to give her 
 any considerable portion. Some days after this, 
 the Czar returned to the subject of the young lady, 
 and told Matveief he had found a gentleman who 
 might probably be agreeable to her ; one not desti- 
 tute of merit, and who, besides, needed no fortune 
 with his wife; "one," he added, ''who is already 
 in love with your ward, and wishes to marry and 
 make her happy. ' ' Matveief, of course, was anx- 
 ious to know who this suitor was ; and after some 
 
6 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 further discourse on the subject, the Czar said 
 '' Well, Matveief, you may tell the young lady it is 
 I who am in love with her, and am determined to 
 make her my wife. ' ' 
 
 The minister, thunderstruck at so unexpected a 
 declaration, fell at the feet of Czar, and entreated 
 his majesty, for the love of God, not to think of it ; 
 said that he had many enemies at court, who al- 
 ready beheld with envious eyes the particular marks 
 of kindness with which his majesty deigned to honor 
 him ; that their jealousy would be evinced if, to the 
 mortification of all the noble families, his majesty 
 should condescend to marry so humble a girl, who 
 was under his care. The Czar told him he had 
 nothing to fear ; that his determination was taken, 
 and would not be altered. ' ' Since then it is so, ' ' 
 said Matveief, ' ' I have one favor to beg, as ;\vell 
 for the sake of Natalia as for myself ; which is, that 
 you will not carry your wishes into execution with- 
 out conforming to the usual custom of the country, 
 and thus saving appearances; assemble at your 
 court the daughters of the most distinguished fami- 
 lies, among whom JSTatalia will be present, and let 
 your majesty's choice be made in public." The 
 Czar approved his minister's advice, and promised 
 to follow it. 
 
 A few weeks after this, Alexis declared, before 
 his assembled ministers, and to the heads of the 
 clergy, his intention of making a second marriage, 
 and ordered them to call together the unmarried 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 7 
 
 daughters of the principal nobility, in order that he 
 might make his choice."^ About sixty young ladies 
 of high birth and great beauty were assembled, 
 adorned, as may well be supposed, in all the splen- 
 dor of dress and decoration, but Natalia JN^ariskin 
 was the lady selected, and raised at once to the 
 throne. This selection took place at Moscow in 
 September, 1670, f but the marriage was deferred 
 for nine months, and was not solemnized until Feb- 
 ruary 1, 1671. 
 
 The Czar Alexis, at his death, in 1676, left two 
 
 * As soon as it was known , or suspected , in the palace that 
 Alexis had informally chosen his wife, there was an outbreak 
 of jealousy and intrigue. The marriage of the comparatively 
 obscure Natalia would be followed by the ennobling of her 
 relations, and that in turn would cause the retirement of the 
 nobles who were at that time in power. Moreover, the 
 daughters of Alexis, some of whom were older than Natalia, 
 were naturally opposed to any remarriage of their father, 
 and especially to his marriage with that lady. 
 
 The subsequent developments were in the line of these 
 jealousies. Immediately upon the death of Alexis, Natalia 
 and her young son Peter were retired to a villa three miles 
 from the center of Moscow. This, which was intended as a 
 humiliation, turned out for the advantage of young Peter, 
 for it gave him a free and healthy life in the country, with 
 educational surroundings far superior to those of the palace. 
 Poor Matveief was persecuted ; he was charged with witch- 
 craft, the evidence of which was a "black book filled with 
 ciphers " — in other words, an algebra. He was condemned 
 without trial, his property was confiscated, and he was 
 banished. Natalia's brothers and other relations and friends 
 suffered proportionately from these court intrigues. 
 
 t Staehlin's Original Anecdotes. Communicated by the 
 Countess Roumanzoff , granddaughter to Matveief, 
 
8 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 sons, Theodore and John, and four daughters, 
 Sophia, Catharine, Mary, and Sediassa, by his first 
 wife; and one son and one daughter, Peter and 
 Natalia Alexowna, by the second, above mentioned. 
 Theodore, his eldest son, succeeded to the throne ; 
 but being of a weak constitution and subject to dis- 
 ease, his life was considered likely to be of short 
 duration. It was the general custom, at that time, 
 to send the female issue to pass their lives in a con- 
 vent ; but the Princess Sophia, a lady of a mascu- 
 line spirit and great penetration, foreseeing what 
 might happen, and that her brother John, being 
 afflicted with epileptic fits and other infirmities, was 
 Avholly unfit to assume the reins of government, 
 in the event of the demise of Theodore, conceived a 
 plan to escape from the convent. In order to secure 
 a better opportunity of carrying her scheme into 
 effect, she represented to the ministers the unhappy 
 condition of her brother Theodore, and the cruelty 
 of being shut up at a distance from one whom she 
 so tenderly loved, when suffering on a bed of sick- 
 ness. Under this pretense of sisterly affection and 
 zeal she was permitted to leave the convent ; and 
 by her unremitting attention to her brother, her in- 
 sinuating manners, and affable behavior to the per- 
 sons about the court, she became a universal favor- 
 ite ; in short, being, as Gordon says, ' ' of a superior 
 but dangerous genius, ' ' she soon found herself in a 
 fair way to the assumption, in her own person, of 
 the supreme authority. As the most certain means 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 9 
 
 of forwarding her views, she selected Prince Galit- 
 zin for the head of her party, — a man of great abil- 
 ity, and as artful and intriguing as his protectress. 
 Supported by her influence, he found means to carry 
 on the affairs of government, during the reign 
 of Theodore, which closed by his death, in 1682, 
 in the twenty-second year of his age. Leav- 
 ing no issue behind him, and deeming his own 
 brother Ivan, on account of his many infirmities, 
 wholly unfit for the responsibilities of empire, he 
 had been advised to name for his successor on the 
 throne his half-brother Peter, who, though only ten 
 years of age, had already given indication of his 
 masculine character. 
 
 Sophia, enraged at her own brother being thus 
 set aside, formed a bold design, at the head of 
 which she engaged in her service Couvanski, the 
 general of the Strelitzes. This corps, if a turbulent 
 and undisciplined gang of armed men deserve to be 
 so called, bore a. close resemblance to the janizaries 
 of the Turks, or the Praetorian guards of Eome; 
 and, like them, could create or depose a sovereign 
 according to their good -will and pleasure. With a 
 view to exasperate the people, and the Strelitzes in 
 particular, a rumor was industriously spread abroad, 
 by the satellites of Galitzin and Couvanski, that 
 the Czar Theodore had been poisoned. The Stre- 
 litzes, being called together, were addressed by 
 Couvanski, whose speech excited these rabble 
 troops to the highest pitch of fury. They forth- 
 
10 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 with murdered the two physicians who had attended 
 the deceased Czar; and having accomplished this, 
 the next step was to mark out several of the chief 
 officers of the crown for destruction ; some of whom 
 were actually thrown over the balustrade of the 
 imperial palace, and received on the pikes of the 
 soldiers. The Princes Dolgorouki and Matveief, 
 Nariskin, the brother of the young Czarina, Prince 
 Soltikoff , and many other persons of distinction, that 
 had made themselves obnoxious to the Strelitzes, or 
 to Sophia, were put to death by them ; several even 
 of their own colonels and other officers, who were 
 not in favor with the rabble, fell by their hands. 
 It is stated by General Alexander Gordon, and 
 other writers, that this affair originated in the 
 colonels having refused the pay due to these troops, 
 and that, on this account, they inflicted the hat- 
 togues * on nine of these officers, a punishment which 
 
 * The knout was an instrument of punishment introduced 
 into Russia under Ivan III. (1462-1505). It was a whip with 
 a handle 9 inches long, and one complex lash, compris- 
 ing a lash 16 inches long, with a metal ring ; a continuation 
 with another ring ; and finally, a flat lash of hard leather, 21 
 inches long, and ending in a beak-like hook. The offender 
 was tied to two stakes, stripped, and in that condition he 
 received on the back the specified number of lashes ; 100 to 
 120 were equivalent to sentence of death, but in many cases 
 the victim died under the operation long before this number 
 was completed. The whipping was inflicted by a criminal. 
 For this knout, Nicholas I. substituted a three-thonged lash, 
 and this was disused, save in certain penal settlements, by 
 Alexander I. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. H 
 
 is precisely the hmnbooing of the Chinese ; and the 
 sufferers, in both of them, are obliged to thank their 
 executioners. 
 
 It was suggested as the only means of arresting 
 this bloody tumult, that the unfortunate Prince 
 Ivan so grievously incapacitated for a throne — 
 (since he was nearly blind, could hardly articulate 
 and had been from infancy subject to epileptic fits) 
 — should, nevertheless, be proclaimed Czar con- 
 jointly with his brother Peter. As soon as the 
 horrible massacre had terminated, the two young 
 princes were proclaimed joint sovereigns, and 
 Sophia as regent; and this ambitious lady seated 
 herself between the two mock sovereigns, — an idiot 
 and a child. Yoltaire says she approved of these 
 outrages, conferred rewards on the officers of the 
 Strelitzes, by bestowing on the murderers the 
 estates of the murdered and proscribed; that she 
 allowed them to erect a monument, on which an in- 
 scription recorded the names of those they had mas- 
 sacred, who were represented thereon as traitors to 
 their country ; and that she caused a ukase to be pub- 
 lished, in which these murderous wretches were 
 thanked for their zeal and fidelity. 
 
 General Alexander Gordon, a decided partisan of 
 Peter, is the principal accuser of Sophia in this af- 
 fair, in which there are some grounds for inferring 
 she had no concern, at least in its commencent, and 
 that the revolt of the Strelitzes was chiefly occa- 
 sioned, as he himself states, by large arrears of pay 
 
12 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 due, as well as by their hatred of many of their 
 superior officers.* When the terror and dismay 
 had subsided, a council was assembled, at which 
 most of the nobles were present, when it was deter- 
 mined to punish the authors of this daring rebellion ; 
 the result of which was, that the most active among 
 the officers and their abetters, and near two thou- 
 sand of the soldiers, who had been decimated, Avere 
 put to death. 
 
 When these horrors first burst forth, the two 
 Princes, Ivan and Peter, fled with their mother 
 and sister, and the family of the ]S[ariskins, to the 
 Troitski or Trinity Convent, about fifteen leagues 
 from Moscow, where some German officers and 
 soldiers were sent for their protection. It is stated 
 by several authors that two of the Strelitzes dashed 
 after the fugitives into the convent, and that one of 
 them, with uplifted sword, was about to smite young 
 Peter, who with his mother had taken refuge by the 
 altar; but his companion exclaimed, " Comrade, not 
 before the altar ! " This merciful man would ap- 
 pear to have been actuated less by feelings of 
 humanity than of early prejudice, which had taught 
 him to respect the sanctity of the place. 
 
 Sophia all this time kept quiet, and managed 
 matters so well as to escape detection, if not sus- 
 picion. She had now, indeed, nearly reached the 
 height of her ambition, by being placed in the en- 
 
 * Gordon's Hist, of Peter the Great. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 13 
 
 joyment of all the honor and the power of sover- 
 eignty ; her bust was stamped on the public coin ; 
 her hand was put to all despatches ; she had the first 
 seat in council ; and her sway might be said to be 
 without control. She procured a wife for her 
 brother Ivan, from the house of Soltikoff , one of the 
 family of him who was murdered. The marriage 
 took place at Moscow in 1684. Scarcely had this 
 ceremony been concluded, when another conspiracy 
 was formed by Couvanski, who, as in lili:e cases not 
 unfrequently happens, found himself neglected by 
 Sophia, from the moment she had attained her pres- 
 ent elevation, to which he had in so essential a 
 manner contributed. It was even said that he aimed 
 at nothing less than her hand, as the first step to 
 the imperial dignity ; and that, in order the more 
 surely to accomplish these ends, his design was to 
 massacre the two Czars, the princesses, with the 
 exception of Sophia, and all those of the nobility 
 who were attached to the court. This horrible plot 
 being discovered, all the royal family again fled to 
 the Troitski monastery, which was at the same time 
 a fortress and a place of sanctity. From this place 
 Sophia pretended to negotiate with Couvanski, and 
 managed matters so well as to decoy him within the 
 lines ; when he was seized and instantly beheaded, 
 with the whole of his officers who accompanied 
 him. Some say the plot was laid for seizing him 
 by Galitzin, and that he was waylaid by 200 horse- 
 men in the road to the Troitski monastery. This ia 
 
14 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 not improbable, as the princess had taken Prince 
 Basil Galitzin as her first counsellor in all affairs of 
 state. The regiments of the Strelitzes, being ap- 
 prized of the fate of their leader, again flew to 
 arms ; but on the boyars assembling their vassals, 
 and the other troops of the empire being put in 
 march for the convent, about four thousand of these 
 turbulent men laid down their arms, and received 
 a pardon from the triumvirate. Gordon, who was 
 present, states that the young Czar Peter with great 
 difficulty was prevailed on to assent to the execu- 
 tions that took place, until the patriarch had suc- 
 ceeded in persuading him of the necessity ; and by 
 his account, this rebellion was not accompanied by 
 those barbarities which various writers have ascribed 
 to it.* 
 
 All this happened in 1685, when Peter was but 
 thirteen years of age. As to his education, in such 
 troublesome times, and associated with such persons, 
 it is not likely to have been of the best description. 
 His father on his death-bed, when Peter was 
 scarcely five years of age, appointed as his governor 
 
 * General Patrick Gordon, here mentioned, must not be 
 confounded with General Alexander Gordon, who has pub- 
 lished a Life of Peter the Great. The former kept a very 
 voluminous diary, which has never yet been published. It is 
 mentioned by Coxe as being shut up in the archives of 
 Moscow ; but it was in England not long ago, and probably 
 will be again. It commences with January, 1684, and con- 
 tinues to 1698. He was a great friend and adviser of the Czar 
 Alexis, and also of young Peter, who sat by his death-bed and 
 closed his eyes. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 15 
 
 a general officer called Menesius, a native of Scot- 
 land ; probably Menzies, that name being generally 
 pronounced Meensie. He is represented as a per- 
 son well qualified for that situation, being thoroughly 
 acquainted with all the affairs of Europe, and speak- 
 ing most of the European languages : but when the 
 princess Sophia conspired against her infant brother, 
 finding she was unable to prevail on Menesius to 
 abandon the interests of Peter, she compelled him 
 to give up the trust which her father had reposed in 
 him. 
 
 It is rather remarkable that so little is known of 
 the history of this gentleman. In the reign of 
 Alexis, in the year 1672, Menesius was sent by that 
 Czar as ambassador to Rome, to negotiate for the 
 re-union of the Greek and Romish churches, but on 
 conditions that were deemed inadmissible. The 
 pope indeed refused to acknowledge the title of 
 Czar, as having too near an affinity to that of Cesar ; 
 his holiness being ignorant, it would seem, that it 
 is a borrowed title from that held by the petty 
 princes of the East, descended from the house of 
 Gengis-Khan. 
 
 It does not appear that an}^ governor was ap- 
 pointed to succeed Menesius, nor is any account 
 given of the plan of Peter's education; but it is 
 more than probable that the general belief, of its 
 being entirely and purposely neglected, is true, and 
 that he was mainly indebted to the strength of his 
 own natural genius for those transcendent abilities 
 
16 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 which he displayed in after-life. His sister Sophia 
 is accused of having placed about him a set of de- 
 bauched young men, who led him into every kind 
 of excess, by which she hoped to destroy his health 
 and impair his intellect, but it is difficult to give 
 credit to such baseness. In point of fact, it could 
 not be so, as Peter was placed under the immediate 
 guardianship of his mother ; and Sophia contented 
 herself by undertaking the education of Ivan, for 
 which she was well qualified, being an accomplished 
 and elegant scholar. Scheltema observes that the 
 masters and teachers of the young prince remain 
 unknown, but that a countryman of his, of the 
 name of Francis Timmerman, was his first instruc- 
 ter in arithmetic, mathematics, and fortification. 
 It is also said that several other Dutchmen, among 
 whom was Andreas Winius, and the Dane, Ys- 
 brands Ides, were in the service of the two Czars, 
 and held in great esteem at court, both of whom 
 were very capable of giving instruction to young 
 Peter.* 
 
 After Moscow and the state had once more re- 
 gained their usual tranquillity, Sophia continued to 
 possess and to exercise the chief authority, Peter 
 being yet too young, or too diffident, to take any 
 active share, and Ivan utterly incapable of acting. 
 She thought it necessary, however, to share her 
 power with Prince Basil Galitzin, a man of superior 
 
 * Rusland en de Nederlandem beschouwd, &c., door Jaco- 
 bus Scheltema. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 17 
 
 education and first rate abilities, of an active, enter- 
 prising spirit, and indefatigable application. His 
 first step was to distribute the mutinous Strelitzes 
 among the regiments in the distant provinces of the 
 empire. His attention was next drawn towards 
 the Crimea, the khan of which had insolently de- 
 manded of Eussia an annual tribute of sixty thou- 
 sand rubles, in imitation of that which the Turk had 
 imposed on Poland. Galitzin and Sophia were de- 
 termined to wipe off the insult of such a proposal. 
 For this purpose they ordered preparations to be 
 made for a vigorous war against the Tartars of the 
 Crimea, to which they were further urged by the 
 Poles, who had surrendered to Russia the duchy of 
 Smolensk, the Ukraine, and some other territories 
 (which she had, in fact, conquered from them), on 
 the condition of her opposing the incursions of these 
 people into Poland. 
 
 Galitzin reluctantly undertook the command of 
 this expedition ; and when all was ready, he marched, 
 in 168T, with a considerable army, which was fur- 
 ther augmented by the junction of a body of Cos- 
 sacks, towards the Crimea. His troops were for the 
 most part undisciplined, badly armed, and worse 
 clothed, and but little inured to the hardships of a 
 campaign. Having failed to reach Perecop, on ac- 
 count of the great plains being burnt up, and no 
 water to be had, he returned to the river Samara, 
 which falls into the Yolga in about the 53d degree 
 of latitude, where he employed his men in building 
 
18 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 a town of wooden houses, and erecting and storing 
 magazines for the next campaign. Galitzin laid the 
 blame of his failure on his ally, the Cossack chief, 
 whom, with his son, the council banished into Si- 
 beria, where they perished in great misery. 
 
 In 1689 it was determined to send another and 
 more considerable army against the Crimea, and 
 Galitzin was again appointed to the command. The 
 hetman, or chief of the Cossacks, who had succeeded 
 the unfortunate man, was Mazeppa, the very man 
 whom Lord Byron has immortalized in verse, and 
 Astley caricatured on the stage. Galitzin again 
 failed of making any impression on the Tartars, or 
 of compelling them to forego their demand of trib- 
 ute. The result of these unsuccessful campaigns 
 tended, among other things, to the ruin of the fa- 
 vorite minister. 
 
 During his absence, the party opposed to him 
 and to Sophia had brought about the marriage of 
 the Czar Peter, then about seventeen, to a young 
 lady named Ottokesa Federowna Lapouchin, daugh- 
 ter of the boyar Feodor Abrahamavitz. This step, 
 taken without consulting the Princess Sophia, was 
 highly resented by her but approved by all the first 
 families in Moscow. Galitzin, on his return, found 
 all his plans destroyed by this marriage, and all his 
 hopes utterly blasted, on its being announced that 
 the new Czarina was pregnant. Voltaire states, on 
 the authority of Neuville, the Polish envoy, who 
 resided at Moscow, and was eyewitness to what 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 19 
 
 passed, that Sophia and Galitzin engaged the new 
 chief of the Strelitzes to sacrifice the young Czar to 
 their ambition ; that at least six hundred of these 
 soldiers were ordered to seize on the person of the 
 prince; and he adds, 'Hhe secret memoirs with 
 which I have been intrusted by the court of Eussia 
 affirm that a scheme had been laid to murder Peter 
 the First." The Czar was once more obliged to 
 save himself in the Convent of the Trinity, where 
 he assembled the boyars of his party, and a large 
 body of soldiers, and all that he knew to be at- 
 tached to his person. The accomplices were all 
 seized, and punished with great severity, by the 
 knout or the hattogues^ and then beheaded. Teki- 
 lavetof , the chief of the Strelitzes, was put to the 
 torture, confessed the whole, and was then be- 
 headed. Prince Galitzin escaped with life by the 
 intercession of a namesake and relation, who was a 
 favorite of Peter, but his immense estate was for- 
 feited, and he was banished to the neighborhood of 
 Archangel. His sentence, according to JSTeuville, 
 was expressed in the following terms, which agrees 
 with what is stated by I^estesuranoi : * — " Thou art 
 commanded by the most merciful Czar to retire to 
 Karga, a town under the pole, and there to pass the 
 remainder of thy days. His majesty, out of his ex- 
 cessive benevolence, allows thee for subsistence three 
 copecks per day. His justice ordains that all thy 
 property be confiscated to the treasury. ' ' On this 
 * Mem, du Regne de Pierre le Grand, 
 
20 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Yoltaire observes, " There is no town under the 
 pole, and the person who dictated this sentence 
 must have been a very bad geographer ; but, ' ' he 
 adds, ' ' it is said Neuville was imposed upon by a 
 false account. ' ' * Galitzin survived his fall twenty- 
 four years; he was recalled from banishment in 
 1711, and died on his own estate two years after his 
 liberation. The Princess Sophia was confined to a 
 convent in Moscow, where she remained till her 
 death, which happened in the year 1704, fifteen 
 years afterward. Peter was now the real and only 
 sovereign, for his brother Ivan had no other share 
 of the government than that of lending his name to 
 the public acts. His short life was spent in retire- 
 ment, and he died in 1696. 
 
 * This is hypercriticism ; but Neuville, in fact, is generally- 
 very little deserving of credit. He was one of those diplo- 
 matic characters who endeavor to pick up all the gossip they 
 can, to fill a despatch for their employers, at their respective 
 courts. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The Czar creates a Navy, and new- models his Army — Le Fort 
 — Menzikoff — Gordon — First Attack on Azof fails — The sec- 
 ond succeeds — Conspiracy discovered and defeated. 
 
 Hitherto the young Czar Peter had taken no 
 prominent part in any of these turbulent proceed- 
 ings. It would appear that he advisedly kept him- 
 self aloof, in the midst of the commotions that dis- 
 tracted the capital and its neighborhood. It is 
 probable enough, that possessing only a divided au- 
 thority, and considering his youth, it might have 
 been deemed prudent by his friends and advisers to 
 prevent any interference, on his part, with one 
 party or the other. It is not likely, however, that a 
 young man of his active and restless disposition 
 should have spent his time in idleness, between the 
 Kremlin and the Trinity Convent, or that he was 
 unobservant of what was passing around him. 
 Neither does there appear to be any ground for the 
 accusation, which has been preferred against the 
 party of Sophia, that either she or they were base 
 enough to encourage an inclination, which he is 
 said to have early discovered, for indulging in 
 , brandy and other strong liquors, or that they had con- 
 
 21 
 
22 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 trived to put upon him companions well suited to 
 train him up in every species of intemperance and 
 debauchery.* Yoltaire, who copies Nestesuranoi, 
 says, ' ' His education was far from being worthy of 
 his genius ; it had been spoiled chiefly by the Prin- 
 cess Sophia, whose interest it was to leave him in 
 ignorance, and to indulge him in those excesses 
 which in persons of his rank, age, and circumstances 
 it had been but too much the custom to overlook. 
 From his feasting and conversing with foreigners, 
 who had been invited to Moscow by Prince Galit- 
 zin, no one could have suspected that he was to be 
 one day the reformer of his country, "f There is, 
 however, every reason to believe that the statement 
 of his time being spent in idleness and debauchery is 
 much exaggerated, but that a considerable portion 
 of it must have been dedicated to the acquirement 
 of the mechanical arts and handicraft works ; and 
 this is the more probable, as, on his arrival at Zaan- 
 dam, :j: in Holland, it was observed that he was not 
 unacquainted with the use of the adze, the plane, 
 and the lathe. 
 
 Be this as it may, the moment he became invested 
 with sole and supreme authority, — for his brother 
 Ivan never interfered, — his genius shone forth with 
 a lustre that dazzled all eyes, and the development 
 of the vigorous powers of his mind was a subject of 
 
 * MemoireB du R^gne de Pierre le Grand. 
 
 f History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great. 
 
 X Generally, but improperly, written Saardam. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 23 
 
 universal wonder and admiration. He was now in 
 his eighteenth year, tall, stout, well-made, and 
 handsome ; the features of his countenance regular, 
 but indicating, when displeased or thoughtful, a 
 degree of severity that was far from agjPeeable ; but 
 when his passions were not excited he was lively, 
 cheerful, and sociable. Full of energy and activity, 
 he found nothing too arduous for his conception ; 
 and as a proof that his youth had not been wasted 
 in thoughtlessness, he commenced at once the vast 
 project, which he must have previously revolved in 
 his mind, of changing the whole system of the 
 government, and of reforming the manners of his 
 people. The first object to which he directed his 
 attention, as being the most important, was the ref- 
 ormation of the army, and of the establishments for 
 conducting military affairs. He next instituted an 
 inquiry into the state of the civil government, and 
 the principles on which it was administered. To 
 assist him in his various plans, he encouraged the 
 introduction of Germans into the empire, some of 
 whom had already established themselves in Mos- 
 cow, where they exercised their various trades and 
 manufactures; and the Dutch, who were in con- 
 siderable numbers, were held in especial favor, 
 particularly for their skill in ship-building and 
 navigation. 
 
 It is remarked by most of Peter's biographers, 
 that from his infancy he had such a dread of water 
 as amounted absolutely to hydrophobia; that he 
 
24 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 could not pass a brook without being thrown into a 
 cold sweat and convulsions. The cause of this 
 dread of water is ascribed to his being one day, 
 when about four or five years old, lying asleep on 
 his mother's lap in a carriage, and suddenly awak- 
 ened by the approach to a waterfall or cataract, the 
 rushing noise of which had such an effect on his 
 nerves as to bring on a fever. It is not uncommon 
 to invent, or exaggerate, juvenile accidents in order 
 to account for personal defects or eccentricities, 
 which are, for the most part, hereditary or consti- 
 tutional. If, however, he had this aversion, he de- 
 termined to conquer it; and, by practising in a 
 small boat on the river which passes through Mos- 
 cow, he not only succeeded, but became so passion- 
 ately fond of the water, and took such delight in 
 managing this little boat, that it may be said, and 
 in fact he himself considered it to have been, the 
 germ of the Russian navy. It had been built, in 
 the reign of Peter's father, by a Dutchman of the 
 name of Brandt, whom that sovereign had invited 
 into Russia. Peter, having accidentally seen this 
 small bark, and noticed it to be different from the 
 flat pontoons he had been accustomed to look at, 
 inquired of Timmerman who taught him fortifica- 
 tion, " Why it was made so unlike other vessels ? " 
 the reply was, that it was constructed to sail 
 against the wind. There was something new in 
 this, and therefore sufficient to excite his curiosity ; 
 Brandt was immediately summoned, and having, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 25 
 
 at Peter's desire, masted, rigged, and repaired her, 
 showed him how to sail her on the Yausa, to the 
 surprise and delight of the young Czar, who from 
 that time undertook, and very soon succeeded in, 
 the management of the vessel himself.* 
 
 Brandt was now engaged to build for him a sort 
 of small yacht, and when finished, a Dutch sea- 
 man was procured to assist him in navigating her. 
 By degrees he learned to manage this little vessel 
 as skilfully as his master ; and became so delighted 
 with sailing, and no doubt so well satisfied of its 
 importance, that he engaged the Hollanders to 
 build him no less than five vessels at Plescow, or, 
 as the charts have it, Pscow on the great lake 
 Peipus. t 
 
 As soon as these vessels were ready and manned, 
 Peter took with him his friend General Patrick 
 
 * " The boat which Peter found at Ismailovo is thought by 
 many to have been constructed in Russia by Dutch carpen- 
 ters, in 1688, during the reign of Czar Alexis, at a place called 
 Dedinovo, at the confluence of the rivers Moskva and Oka. 
 By others it is thought to be a boat sent by Queen Elizabeth 
 to the Czar Ivan the Terrible. Ever since Peter's time it has 
 borne the name of the ' Grandsire of the Russian Fleet,' and 
 is preserved with the greatest care in a small brick building 
 near the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, within the fort- 
 ress at St. Petersburg. In 1870, on the celebration of the 
 200th anniversary of Peter's birth, it was one of the chief 
 objects of interest in the great parade at St. Petersburg ; and 
 again, in 1872, it was conveyed with much pomp and solem- 
 nity to Moscow, where, for a time, it formed a part of the 
 Polytechnic Exposition."— Eugene Schuyler. 
 
 f Scheltema Rusland en de Nederlanden. 
 
ge LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Gordon, who embarked with him, and kept a log 
 of their proceedings. But the limits of a lake, 
 though sixty leagues in circumference, were too 
 confined for the rising ambition of the Czar, who 
 now resolved to see what a ship could do on the 
 wide ocean; and for this purpose he set out for 
 Archangel, where he purchased a trading vessel 
 from a Dutch merchant there, to which he gave 
 the name of Peter. Having engaged a crew from 
 the trading vessels at that port, he, accompanied by 
 a Dutch ship of war and some Dutch and English 
 merchantmen, proceeded as far as Ponoi on the 
 coast of Lapland, about 150 miles from Archangel; 
 and thus for the first time, says the Dutch author, 
 ' ' the Frozen Ocean had the honor of bearing a mon- 
 arch on its bosom. ' ' His taste for navigation had 
 now grown into a kind of passion; and he car- 
 ried it so far as often to expose himself to imminent 
 danger. His confidence in his knowledge as a nav- 
 igator and pilot rendered him intrepid in the high- 
 est degree. When overtaken by a storm, and the 
 sea broke over his vessel, he was so far from feeling 
 anything like fear, that he used to encourage his 
 frightened crew with words like these, "Never 
 fear, the Czar Peter cannot be drowned : did you 
 ever hear of a Russian Czar having perished on the 
 water ? " Like Csesar, he trusted to his fortunes. — 
 ''I always am the Czar." And might say, with 
 that great commander, — 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 27 
 
 " Danger knows full well, 
 That Peter is more dangerous than he : 
 We were two lions littered in one day, 
 And I the elder and more terrible."' 
 
 Peter, some time after this, visited Archangel 
 again, and remained from three to four months, in 
 the course of which he contracted an intimacy with 
 a Dutch skipper of the name of Musch, a native of 
 Zaandam, and frequently went to sea in his vessel. 
 One day he told Musch that, as he had regularly ad- 
 vanced in his new army from a drummer to his 
 present rank, which was yet only that of a subaltern, 
 he was likewise desirous of going through all the 
 steps that were considered necessary to make a per- 
 fect seaman. Musch thought the Czar was in jest, 
 but his majesty soon convinced him to the contrary, 
 by saying that he would go to sea with him the 
 next day, and dedicate that day to his passing through 
 all the gradations of a seaman's servitude, and actu- 
 ally performing the duties of each. He first served 
 as a zwabher^ or common drudge, who swept the 
 cabin and swabbed the decks ; this done, he was ap- 
 pointed knecht^ or servant, whose duty was to light 
 and keep up the fire in a little stove, to prime the 
 skipper's pipe, brush his jacket, &c. ; he then be- 
 came kajuitwachter^ or cabin boy, whose duty was 
 to wait at table, serve out brandy or gin, and to 
 make grog. He was now prepared to commence 
 seamanship, and the next step of advancement was 
 to the situation of yong matroos^ or young sailor, 
 
28 LIJ'E OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 and by orders of his captain, to go aloft, hand or 
 loose the sails, &c. Here Musch began to be greatly 
 alarmed, on seeing Peter run up the shrouds to the 
 masthead, lest he should fall down and break his 
 neck. All this may appear trifling, but Peter had 
 an object in it. He had resolved that, both in the 
 sea and land service, the officers should commence 
 with the very lowest rank, and that his own example 
 should prevent all murmuring. The skipper Musch 
 died shortly after this, and Peter sent a gratuity to 
 his widow at Zaandam of five hundred guilders. 
 Another amiable trait in his character while at 
 Archangel deserves to be recorded. Overtaken one 
 day, when out at sea, in a storm, Peter, more than 
 usually anxious, was instructing the helmsman how 
 to steer, and having, at the same time, taken hold 
 of the tiller, ''Stand out of my way," called out 
 the impatient seaman ; ' ' I must know better than 
 you how to steer the vessel. ' ' Having brought her 
 through a dangerous passage among the rocks to a 
 safe anchorage, the poor fellow, recollecting what 
 had passed, fell at the feet of the Czar, and prayed 
 forgiveness for his rudeness. Peter took him up, 
 and, as usual when pleased, kissed his forehead — 
 ' ' There is nothing to forgive, ' ' said he ; ' ' I owe 
 you my thanks, not alone for our rescue from dan- 
 ger, but also for the proper rebuke you gave me. ' ' 
 He then made him a present of his drenched clothes, 
 and settled on him a small pension.* 
 
 * Scheltema, on the authority of Van Halem, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 29 
 
 This passion for sailing continued through life, 
 but he indulged it as well through policy as inclin- 
 ation ; having, at a very early period of his reign, 
 seen the expediency, and indeed the necessity, of 
 establishing a fleet on the Yolga, to keep the Turks 
 and Tartars in awe ; and another on Lake Ladoga 
 and the Gulf of Finland, to protect his territories 
 against his powerful neighbors the Swedes. Having 
 one day, at a much later period of his life, invited 
 all the foreign ministers to accompany him in his 
 yacht on a water-party to Cronstadt, to see his fleet, 
 then ready for sea, a sudden thunder-storm arose ; 
 the sea rose and the waves, dashing furiously 
 against the little vessel, threatened her with mo- 
 mentary destruction. The ministers were dread- 
 fully alarmed, while Peter and his crew appeared 
 to be wholly unconcerned. They entreated him to 
 put back to St. Petersburg,* or to land them, if 
 possible, at Peterhoff ; but, attentive to the steer- 
 ing of the vessel, he calmly said, " Don't be alarmed, 
 gentlemen, ' ' and continued to direct the helmsman, 
 and to work the ship. At length, one of the minis- 
 
 * The name St. Petersburg is here used, although that 
 city was not founded until a later date. The main portion of 
 the city is on the south side of the river Neva, while part of 
 it is on the islands within the river, and a small portion — 
 about one-eighth of the whole— is on the north, or " Peters- 
 burg side," as it is called. Before Peter founded the present 
 cit}^ there was on the north side a hamlet called Petersburg, 
 which, however, was so small that it was entirely without 
 significance except as a geographical location or a name. 
 
30 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ters approached him, with a grave and fearful coun- 
 tenance : — ''I beseech your majesty," said he, 
 ''for the love of God to return to St. Petersburg, 
 or to Peterhoff, which is still nearer, and not to 
 forget that my court did not send me to Russia to 
 be drowned : if I should perish here, as in all like- 
 lihood I shall, your majesty will have to answer to 
 the king my master. ' ' On hearing this, the Czar 
 could not help smiling, notwithstanding the vessel 
 was in some danger. " Sir," said he, ''if you are 
 drowned, we shall all share the same fate, and no- 
 body will be left to answer for your excellency."* 
 
 But the army, as we have said, was the first 
 great object of his attention. In his childhood he 
 was particularly delighted with beating the drum, 
 and ' ' playing at soldiers ; ' ' and the taste for a mil- 
 itary life, as he advanced in years, is supposed to 
 have accompanied him to his obscure retirement in 
 the Trinity convent. In his first attempt to form a 
 body of disciplined troops, he was ably assisted by 
 a foreigner, for whom he had conceived the strong- 
 est attachment, and who never left him till he was 
 taken away by death. To this excellent man Russia 
 may truly be said to stand indebted for the able ad- 
 vice and assistance he gave to Peter, in laying the 
 solid foundation of that true grandeur and prosper- 
 ity to which, in later times, she has advanced. 
 
 * Staehlin. Authority Mr. Bruyns, master-attendant-gen^ 
 eral. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^1 
 
 This remarkable man, Mr. Francis Le Fort, the son 
 of a respectable merchant of Geneva, had imbibed 
 from his childhood a strong inclination for the army ; 
 but, at the particular request of his father, consented 
 to be placed, at an early period of his life, in the 
 counting-house of Mr. Franconis, an eminent mer- 
 chant in Amsterdam.^ According to Yoltaire, 
 who gives as his authority " General Le Fort's 
 manuscripts," he quitted his father's house at the 
 age of fourteen, and was four years a cadet in the 
 citadel of Marseilles ; from whence he went to Hol- 
 land, and, serving as a volunteer, was wounded at 
 the siege of Grave, upon the Meuse. The historian 
 adds, that, in expectation of further preferment, he 
 embarked in 1675, in company with a German col- 
 onel of the name of Verstin, who had obtained a 
 commission from Peter's father, the Czar Alexis, to 
 raise a few troops in the Netherlands, and to trans- 
 port them to Archangel ; that on their arrival, after 
 a perilous voyage, the Czar Alexis was no more ; 
 the government had undergone a change, and Mus- 
 covy was in an unsettled state ; that the Governor 
 of Archangel suffered them all, for a long time, to 
 languish with want, and even threatened to send 
 them to the extremity of Siberia ; that then, each 
 shifting for himself, Le Fort, in great necessity, 
 made his way to Moscow, where he offered his ser- 
 vices to M. de Hoorn, the Danish resident, who 
 
 * John Mottley's History of the Life of Peter I. 
 
32 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 made him his secretary. This was in 1690, when 
 Peter was eighteen years of age.* 
 
 The resident was one of those foreigners whom 
 the Czar honored by dining at his table — and there 
 he first took notice of Le Fort. He inquired after 
 his character from M. de Hoorn, and finding that- 
 he was a young man of great ability, of modest de- 
 meanor, and had made himself acquainted with the 
 Russian language, he asked the resident if he would 
 be willing to part with him. The resident replied 
 that the exchange was too flattering and advan- 
 tageous to Le Fort, and that he had too much re- 
 gard for his welfare, and too high a respect for the 
 commands of his majesty, not to consent to it. 
 
 The cheerful, 3^et modest and unassuming, man- 
 ners of Le Fort, the fund of information he pos- 
 sessed respecting the customs and manners of the 
 European courts, at which he had resided, — but, 
 above all, the general knowledge he possessed of 
 military affairs, so delighted the Czar that he soon 
 became his constant companion and favorite, and 
 was always sent for to accompany him wherever he 
 went. The first mark of his favor was a commis- 
 sion as captain of infantry. It has been said that 
 Le Fort had no great proficiency in the military 
 service, — neither was he a man of literature, nor 
 much conversant in the abstract sciences, — but that 
 he had seen a great deal, and was capable of form- 
 
 * Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire under Peter the 
 Great. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 33 
 
 ing a right judgment of what he did see.* Such a 
 man, indebted, as the Czar himself was, to his own 
 genius for the knowledge he had acquired, was per- 
 haps better suited to be the companion and adviser 
 of Peter, than one more deeply skilled in the arts 
 and sciences, but less agreeable in his manners. 
 
 Peter had great reason, from past experience, to 
 place no confidence in those of his generals who 
 were chosen from among the corps of Strelitzes; 
 and had determined to replace them by regular and 
 well-disciplined officers — such as Le Fort had told 
 him were to be found in the armies of Europe, and 
 especially at the courts of Austria and Denmark. 
 With this view, he one day sounded Le Fort as to 
 his opinion with regard to his present guards, and 
 desired he would give it freely. In reply, he said 
 he thought the same of them as of the rest of his 
 soldiers — that they were a fine body of well-made 
 men, who required only to be well officered, dis- 
 ciplined, and properly accoutred, to make excellent 
 soldiers ; but that, in the first place, their long coats 
 must be laid aside, being unbecoming, inconvenient, 
 and troublesome ; that their beards must be shaved ; 
 their hair properly dressed ; and concluded his ob- 
 servations by proposing that he would make a trial 
 of the changes he should recommend, on a small 
 scale. Peter resolved on this, as he did on most 
 occasions, at once. He immediately took Le Fort 
 to his country residence of Preobrazenski, where a 
 
 * Voltaire — in which General Gordon pretty nearly agrees. 
 
 3 
 
34 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 company of fifty men were selected from among the 
 sons of the neighboring boyars and the younger part 
 of the domestics, whom he clothed and accoutred 
 en militaire ; and having chosen a few of the 
 youths, sons of the boyars, to be the oiScers, the 
 work of training the little corps according to the 
 European tactics of the day immediately began. It 
 is unlikely that the Czar should not have taken an 
 active part in the training ; and the story is not very 
 probable that Le Fort took the Avhole on himself, 
 without consulting the Czar. When all was ready, 
 Peter however was highly pleased with their ap- 
 pearance and manoeuvers, and desired that he might 
 be instantly enrolled in the company as a private 
 soldier. He directed also that the young boyars, 
 following his example, should all become privates, 
 and serve in succession in that capacity, rising grad- 
 ually to the rank of corporal, sergeant, ensign, be- 
 fore they obtained a commission as lieutenant. 
 Such is stated to have been the origin of that cele- 
 brated regiment, known afterward by the name of 
 the Preobrazenski Guards. 
 
 The Czar was thus enabled, from this small begin- 
 ning, to raise, in a very short time, a corps of five 
 thousand disciplined troops in whom he could con- 
 fide; trained, mostly, by General Patrick Gordon, 
 and composed, for the most part, of foreigners. Le 
 Fort himself undertook to raise another corps of 
 twelve thousand men, from foreigners, natives, and 
 chiefly from the Strelitzes, which he accomplished j 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 35 
 
 and for which the Czar created him their general. 
 Yoltaire says, on the authority of Le Fort's manu- 
 scripts, that one-third of this army, which was called 
 only a reghnent^ consisted of French refugees ; and 
 this, he observes, confounds the impertinence of 
 those who pretend that France lost very few inhab- 
 itants by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.* 
 Peter would not suffer this newly-raised army to re- 
 main inactive in time of peace, and thus relax in its 
 discipline. He caused them to be frequently exer- 
 cised in mock sieges and sham engagements ; and, 
 it is said, such was their ardor and desire of dis- 
 tinction, that sometimes, when only a sham fight 
 was intended, they fought a real battle, in which 
 several of the men were killed and wounded ; and 
 that in one of these Le Fort himself received a con- 
 siderable wound, f 
 
 In the midst of these military sports, if they may 
 be so called, the Czar was not unmindful of his navy. 
 His Dutch and Venetian ship-builders were em- 
 ployed in building gun-boats and sloops of war, at 
 the mouth of a small deep river near Yoronitz, 
 which discharges its waters into the Don, or Tanais. 
 These vessels were to be held in readiness to drop 
 down before Azof, which he was resolved to attack, 
 and, if possible, to secure as a most important post, 
 in the event of a war, which he foresaw would 
 speedily break out, with the Tartars of the Crimea. 
 He frequently inspected the progress of their equip- 
 
 * Voltaire, Histoire, &c. f Nestesuranoi, Mottley, &c. 
 
36 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ment, and on one occasion raised Le Fort to the 
 rank of admiral, in addition to that of general. 
 The advantages to be derived from encouraging 
 foreigners of all descriptions to flock into the country 
 were felt and acknowledged by the sensible portion 
 of the community ; but the strangers were regarded 
 with something more than jealousy by the priests 
 and many of the boyars, who considered all innova- 
 tion as subversive of their ancient constitution, 
 which of course was, in their estimation, the best of 
 all possible constitutions. 
 
 An army and a navy, however, were not to be 
 formed and kept up without money; and Peter's 
 finances were in a state of as great disorder as his 
 troops had been. He was therefore honestly ap- 
 prized by Le Fort that his revenues were not in a 
 condition to bear the expenses of what he was de- 
 signing, with regard to the building and equipment 
 of a navy, and the feeding, clothing, and payment 
 of his army, to say nothing of the pay that was due 
 to the numerous foreign artisans and workmen that 
 were employed about the court, and on the great 
 works that were projected or actually in progress ; 
 but, at the same time, assured him that his revenues 
 were improvable. He pointed out to him, in the 
 first place, the impolicy of exacting such heavy duties 
 on all kinds of merchandise that were imported into 
 Russia, and the equally heavy imposts that were ex- 
 acted on the exports of its own produce ; that, in 
 consequence of these charges, the merchants were 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 37 
 
 compelled to conspire together how to avoid them, 
 by introducing and sending away articles of com- 
 merce in a clandestine manner, either by craft or 
 by bribing the custom-house officers ; and that, by 
 such means, the revenue was defrauded to a great 
 extent. Convinced of the truth of this representa- 
 tion, he immediately ordered the duties to be re- 
 duced from ten to five per cent. , and ordained severe 
 penalties on such as should be detected in commit- 
 ting frauds ; the consequence of which was, that, in 
 the very first year of the new regulations, the reve- 
 nue of the customs was augmented by nearly two 
 millions of rubles.* 
 
 ^Nor did the benefits bestowed on Eussia by Le 
 Fort rest here. The greatest and most important 
 of all was that conferred personally on the Czar him- 
 self. The influence which he had gained over him 
 was employed in softening the asperity of his tem- 
 per, and curbing the violence of his passions, to 
 which he was frequently subject. Many a blow 
 was turned aside, and many a life saved, by his 
 timely interference. When a boyar or noble (for 
 they more than others were liable to the knout, or 
 to lose their heads) was ordered for punishment, as 
 often happened on very trifling occasions, Le Fort 
 would interpose, and desire him to suspend his judg- 
 ment till he became cool; and not succeeding, as 
 was sometimes the case, he would entreat him to 
 
 * These rubles were presumably of gold and the sum would 
 amount to $1,540,000, 
 
38 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 deal the blow upon himself, rather than on the in- 
 nocent subject of his wrath ; and this generally pro- 
 duced a suspension of his anger, and saved the in- 
 tended victim. By such generosity Le Fort became 
 a universal favorite among all classes of Eussians, 
 who seemed to forget he was a foreigner, and were 
 willing to consider him as one of their own coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 Another piece of service rendered to the Czar 
 Peter by M. Le Fort was, the casual introduction of 
 a very remarkable personage, who, from one of the 
 lowest stations in life, became the leading character 
 in all the affairs of state ; — a general, a governor, 
 and ultimately raised to the princely dignity. This 
 was no other than Prince Alexander Menzikoff. It 
 is said by M. de la Motraye, that his parents were 
 in so miserable a condition, in one of the villages on 
 the banks of the Yolga, that they could not afford to 
 give to their son the common education of reading 
 and writing ; that he left them at the age of thirteen 
 or fourteen, Avithout saying a word, to seek service 
 in Moscow, Avliere he was taken into that of a pas- 
 try-cook. The daily business of this young lad Avas 
 to traverse the streets of Moscoav, with a little 
 basket of cakes and patties to sell ; having a clear 
 and sweet voice, he was in the habit of offering his 
 patties in a song or tune of his own composing ; and 
 the patties and cakes being Avell made, while the 
 boy was neatly clad, and of a prepossessing face, 
 crowds generally gathered round him, and his 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 39 
 
 basket was soon emptied. It happened one day 
 that this boy caught the attention of General Le 
 Fort,^* who called him into the house, and asked 
 him if he would sell his pies and his basket. The 
 boy replied that it was his business to sell his pies, 
 — but as to the basket, he must ask his master's 
 leave to dispose of that. The general was so struck 
 with his manner and appearance that he asked if he 
 should like to enter his service. In short, he took 
 him into his house, and observing that he was a fine, 
 handsome, and engaging young man, thought the 
 Czar would not be displeased to have him in his ser- 
 vice ; and in this he was not mistaken. He saw 
 him, heard his history, and took him as his page. 
 He soon became a great favorite, and accompanied 
 the Czar in all his travels ; the Czar employed hun 
 on aU his secret commissions and confidential busi- 
 ness. E"ever was an instance of so sudden a rise, 
 from the lowest state of poverty, to riches, honors, 
 power, and magnificence, as that of Menzikoif. 
 The subsequent history of this remarkable person is 
 intimately interwoven with that of the Czar Peter. 
 It was said, indeed, that the Czar owed his life to 
 Menzikoif, when a cake-boy, and that this was the 
 cause of his sudden elevation. Peter, indeed, said 
 on one occasion, when pleading for his favorite 
 under a criminal prosecution, that he owed his life 
 to him. The circumstance is not likely to have 
 
 * Memoires, &c., parLe B. Iwan Nestesuranoi. M. Voltaire 
 says it was the Czar who called him. 
 
4:0 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 happened, but the narrator was employed in both 
 the court and the army, and it was probably the 
 gossip of the day. Peter, according to this story, 
 dined one day with a boyar of the discontented fac- 
 tion, who had determined to get rid of him by poi- 
 son; Menzikoff, being in the kitchen, observed 
 some white powder put into a particular dish ; the 
 Czar was apprized of it, pressed the boyar to eat of 
 it, who declined, saying it did not become the serv- 
 ant to eat with his master ; the plate was set down 
 to a dog, which, having devoured it, died in convul- 
 sions ; the boyar was taken into custody, but was 
 found dead in his bed, — and thus the matter dropped. * 
 It would appear that Peter was far from being at 
 ease in his domestic circle. The marriages of sov- 
 ereigns, seldom made by the choice of either party, 
 but from political expediency, can hardly be ex- 
 pected to turn out happy. Peter had a wife forced 
 upon him at the age of seventeen ; before he at- 
 tained that of twenty, he found cause to put her 
 away, and confine her strictly to a convent. This 
 proceeding has been accounted for in various ways. 
 Some pretend she was disloyal to him — others that 
 she had reproached Menzikoff for taking her hus- 
 band to visit low resorts, and that it was he who 
 advised the Czar to divorce her. The real cause, 
 however, is generally supposed to have been the en- 
 couragement she gave to the powerful party that 
 
 * Memoirs of Capt. Bruce, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 41 
 
 was hostile to every innovation which he either had 
 introduced, or was intending to introduce, into the 
 affairs of the nation ; for the fact was well known 
 that the greatest opposition he met with, in his 
 grand design of regenerating his country, and out 
 of savages forming men, came from his wife and her 
 connections. She was taught by her confessor to 
 regard all innovations as so many sacrileges, and 
 every foreigner as a corrupter of her husband. 
 Such conduct encouraged the factious boyars and 
 the priests to use all endeavors to thwart his designs 
 for the improvement and prosperity of the country. 
 His son, Alexis, being an infant, was placed under 
 the guardianship of his repudiated mother, which 
 turned out to be the principal cause of all his mis- 
 fortunes. * 
 
 The way in which General Alexander Gordon got 
 his first commission in the Eussian service, just at 
 this time, was entirely owing to this illiberal hatred 
 of foreigners, and is highly creditable to the discern- 
 ment and firmness of the Czar. Being introduced 
 to Peter, on his arrival in Moscow, by his namesake 
 Patrick Gordon, and also to many of the first fami- 
 lies, he received an invitation to a wedding. Sev- 
 eral young Russians were present ; and when the 
 bottle had freely circulated, they began to speak 
 
 * It is also a fact that she (Eudoxia by name) was extreme- 
 ly jealous of the friendships of Peter, not for women only, 
 but also for men. Especially did she manifest a violent an- 
 tipathy against Le Fort. She was certainly a great trial to 
 her husband, 
 
42 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 very disrespectfully of foreigners in general, and of 
 the Scots in particular ; and this kind of conversa- 
 tion went on so long, and was so pointed, that Gor- 
 don became irritated, and laid the one next him 
 sprawling on the floor by a blow with his fist. 
 Five others immediately set upon him ; but the use 
 he made of his large brawny arms drove them off, 
 and he remained master of the field. An event of 
 this kind was sure to be carried to the Czar, espe- 
 cially as the youths were of the first families. Gor- 
 don was ordered the next day to appear before 
 him, and expected nothing less than the knout 
 or to be sent to Siberia ; but the modest manner 
 in which he stated the case to the Czar, and the 
 sorrow he expressed for having unintentionally 
 given him displeasure, gained at once the good 
 opinion of Peter, who, always acting on the im- 
 pulse of the moment, said, ' ' Well, sir, your accus- 
 ers have done you justice by admitting that you 
 beat six of them, — I will also do you justice." On 
 saying this he withdrew, and in a few minutes re- 
 turned with a major's commission, which he pre- 
 sented to Gordon with his own hand. Peter knew 
 that he had received a captain's commission from 
 Louis XIY. , after serving in the wars in Catalonia. 
 Gordon's biographer adds, " This anecdote of our 
 author's history he once told, and we believe never 
 but once."* 
 
 * Life of Major-general Gordon, prefixed to his History of 
 Peter the Great. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 43 
 
 The appointment of Le Fort to the rank of admi- 
 ral was no empty title ; he was despatched to hasten 
 the ships building at Yoronitz, and prepare them 
 with all expedition to drop down the Don prepara- 
 tory to an attack on Azof, which the Czar was 
 determined to get possession of, as the key to the 
 sovereignty of the Black Sea. General Patrick 
 Gordon received directions to march at the head of 
 five thousand men along the line of the Don ; Le 
 Fort was to follow with the twelve thousand men 
 which he had raised; a corps of Strelitzes was 
 placed under the command of Generals Scherematof 
 and Shein ; and to all these was joined a body of 
 Cossacks. The Czar was determined to proceed to 
 the attack in person, but in the capacity only of a 
 volunteer. Azof was a strong place and well gar- 
 risoned, and could only be successfully bombarded 
 from the water ; but it unfortunately happened that, 
 with every exertion, some Venetian galleys and 
 two large Dutch frigates, were not able to get down 
 the river in time. The Eussians, impatient, would 
 not wait their arrival ; they laid siege to the place 
 and miscarried, chiefly, as was reported, through the 
 treachery of an inferior officer in the Czar's army. 
 
 The name of this man was Jacob, a native of 
 Dantzic, and an artillery officer under General 
 Shein. The general for some fault or other had 
 bambooed Jacob, who, not bearing this disgrace- 
 ful punishment so composedly as a Eussian would 
 have done, determined on revenge. During the 
 
44 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 night he spiked the cannon of the invaders, deserted 
 to the enemy, and the same man, who had directed 
 the approaches to the fortress, was now the best 
 defender of it. The Russians made an attempt to 
 storm, but, after losing a great number of men, 
 were repulsed, and obliged to raise the siege. Thus^ 
 ended the first campaign of the Czar Peter. 
 
 Though completely beaten, the Czar showed him- 
 self a man not to be disheartened by one stroke of 
 adverse fortune. He resolved, on the spot, to make 
 a second attempt ; and accordingly, in the early part 
 of the spring of 1796, he put his forces in motion, 
 and with increased means proceeded to the attack 
 of the town. His fleet was now completely equipped 
 and properly commanded. The siege was con- 
 ducted with systematic regularity, and the Czar was 
 constantly in the trenches or on board some of the 
 ships of the squadron ; but he soon began to grow 
 impatient at the protracted siege ; called a council of 
 war, and requested the opinions of the several oflicers. 
 All of these advised to delay,-^until it came to the 
 turn of the old General Patrick Gordon, who rec- 
 ommended a most extraordinary plan, such as one 
 might expect to find practised in the days of Homer. 
 He said ; that, in his opinion, the safest and most 
 expeditious way to become masters of the place 
 would be to carry on before them a whole rampart 
 of earth along the front of the town, which, as 
 they advanced, would hourly increase. ' ' By hav- 
 ing ten or twelve thousand men night and day, we 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 45 
 
 shall," said he, ^' roll as much earth before us, as 
 will not only be sufficient to fill up the fosse, but 
 will, over and above, more than exceed the height 
 of the town walls ; by which means, in a few 
 weeks, we shall oblige the enemy to surrender, or 
 we shall bury them alive." The Czar preferred 
 this opinion, and ordered them to do as he had 
 proposed. So to work they went, and with such 
 cheerfulness, that, within the space of five weeks, 
 the fosse was actually full, and the earth above the 
 height of the ramparts, rolling in over them, which 
 obliged the governor to put out the white flag. 
 The younger Gordon, who was present, adds, that 
 twelve thousand men were constantly at work, who 
 threw the earth from hand to hand, like so many 
 steps of a stair. "^ 
 
 After this extraordinary operation of taking a 
 fortified town, Peter granted to the governor a cap- 
 itulation, and had the satisfaction to witness the 
 surrender of the garrison on the 28 th of July ; and 
 that which gave him more pleasure than anything 
 besides was to find that the traitor Jacob was still 
 there, and that the governor made no difiiculty in 
 delivering him up to the besiegers among the rest 
 of the prisoners. 
 
 The Kussians had no sooner got possession of the 
 
 town than Peter issued his orders, for improving 
 
 and strengthening the fortifications, enlarging the 
 
 harbor, and for increasing his fleet, both in number 
 
 * Gordon's History of Peter the Great. 
 
46 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 and size : some of the ships ordered to be built be- 
 ing intended to carry from thirty to sixty pieces of 
 cannon. On his return to Moscow, a contribution 
 was directed to be levied on the boyars, or land 
 proprietors, in aid of the expense of building and 
 fitting out this fleet; and conceiving that the es- 
 tates of the clergy ought to bear their proportion in 
 the service of the common cause, orders were sent 
 forth that the patriarch, the bishops, and the su- 
 perior clerg}^ contribute to the fitting out of an in- 
 tended expedition, in which the honor and the glory 
 of their country were concerned, and which was 
 for the general good of Christendom.* This pow- 
 erful armament was intended to give to Russia the 
 command of the Palus Moeotis, f as the best and 
 most practicable means of driving the Tartars out 
 of the Crimea ; and also of opening a free commu- 
 nication with Circassia and Georgia by the Couban 
 and through these countries to establish a commer- 
 cial intercourse with Persia. Such were the grand 
 designs which the Czar resolved in his mind on the 
 fall of Azof, and which, in later times, have been 
 fully accomplished. 
 
 In order to impress the people of the capital, the 
 boyars, and the clergy with the great importance of 
 the victory gained by the army and navy of his own 
 creating, and to give encouragement to his troops to 
 engage heartily in daring enterprises of a similar 
 
 * Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire, 
 f The ancient name of the Sea of Azof. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 47 
 
 kind, he caused the officers of both services to enter 
 the ancient capital under triumphal arches, amid 
 the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells ; and 
 feasts, entertainments, fireworks, illuminations, and 
 every demonstration of joy continued for several 
 days. Admiral Le Fort, the generals, and all the 
 officers of the army and navy, marched in proces- 
 sion, and took precedence of the Czar Peter, who 
 disdained all rank, being desirous of convincing his 
 subjects that the only road to military preferment 
 was by meritorious conduct. On this occasion the 
 triumphal entry was followed by the captives taken 
 at Azof ; and Jacob the traitor was placed in a cart, 
 with an executioner on each side, and a gallows 
 above his head, on which he was afterward sus- 
 pended, having first been broken on the wheel.* 
 He had a label on his breast, purporting that ' ' this 
 
 * Breaking on the wheel was one of the most cruel and in- 
 human methods of torture ever known. The victim was 
 placed on a wheel, with his arms and legs extended along the 
 spokes, and the wheel being turned round, the executioner 
 fractured his limbs by successive blows with an iron bar, 
 which were repeated till death ensued. There was consider- 
 able variety in the mode in which this punishment was in- 
 flicted, at different times and in different places. By way of 
 terminating sooner the sufferings of the victim, the execu- 
 tioner was sometimes permitted to deal two or three severe 
 blows on the chest or stomach, known as coups de grace; 
 and occasionally, in France at least, the sentence contained a 
 provision that the criminal was to be strangled after the first 
 or second blow. Mercy of this kind was, however, not always 
 allowed to be shown to the victims of the wheel, — Chambers' 
 ENQYCLOPjaDIA, 
 
4:8 LIFE OF PETER THE GEEAT. 
 
 wretch had five times changed his religion, and was 
 a traitor to God and man ; that at first he was a 
 Roman Catholic, then a Protestant, afterward a 
 Greek, and, lastly, a Mohammedan." 
 
 The laurels which had thus crowned his newly- 
 formed army, the honors that were conferred on 
 foreigners serving as oflicers in that army, and the 
 contributions about to be levied for the support of 
 his land and sea forces, together with the many 
 changes which the Czar was making in their ancient 
 usages, gave great offence to the adverse party, and 
 particularly to the oflicers of the Strelitzes, who 
 foresaw that his measures tended to a speedy dis- 
 solution of that corps. Instigated by this reflection, 
 a certain number of these misguided men entered 
 into a conspiracy to put the Czar to death. The 
 plan was to set fire to a building in the Kremlin, at 
 midnight ; and as it was quite certain that Peter 
 would be instantly on the spot, one of them was to 
 stab him privately, when in the midst of the crowd. 
 They met together at one of their houses on the 
 night fixed on to carry this diabolical plot into exe- 
 cution ; but two of the conspirators, either from fear 
 of detection and failure, or from feelings of com- 
 punction, went to the Czar and laid open the whole 
 plot. He was at that time at the house of Admiral 
 Le Fort. With a few followers he proceeded to the 
 house where the conspirators were assembled, and 
 took them all into custody. This happened on the 
 2d of February, 1697, and on the 5th of March they 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 49 
 
 were executed in the grand square before the Krem- 
 lin, and their heads fixed on spikes of iron, as, not 
 very many years ago, those of traitors were fixed 
 on Temple Bar ; * with this difference, that the spikes 
 for the heads of the Strelitzes were driven into a 
 lofty column, erected for the purpose on the spot ; 
 their arms and legs bound round the column, and 
 their trunks thrown on the ground for the dogs to 
 devour. The principal conspirators are said to have 
 been three boyars, a colonel of the Don Cossacks, 
 and four captains of the Strelitzes. f 
 
 * Temple Bar, at the point where Fleet Street now passes 
 into the Strand, was formerly a gateway of the City of 
 London. It was erected in 1670 by Sir Christopher Wren, 
 and was massive enough to bear the weight of the very heavy 
 oaken gates or doors that were in use in those days. The 
 heads of criminals were stuck on spikes on the Bar and thus 
 exposed to public view for the moral and spiritual edification 
 of the beholders. In 1878 the Bar was removed to Theobald's 
 Park, near Waltham Cross, Herts. The spot where it for- 
 merly stood is now marked by the Temple Bar Memorial. 
 
 f Nestesuranoi. Lacombe. John Mottley. 
 4 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 The Czar Peter travels into Holland— His Residence at 
 Zaandam. 
 
 The conquest of Azof being accomplished chiefly 
 by the odd plan of attack proposed by General Pat- 
 rick Gordon and the assistance rendered by the 
 ships built by foreigners, and manned chiefly with 
 them, the Czar was now more than ever convinced 
 of the pre-eminence of the natives of Western Eu- 
 rope over his own barbarous subjects. This con- 
 sideration created in him a strong desire to give to 
 the latter every facility and encouragement for en- 
 larging their minds, and improving themselves in 
 every species of useful knowledge, and more particu- 
 larly in the art of war, and the construction of large 
 ships on sound principles of naval architecture. In- 
 fluenced by these motives, he despatched, in 1697 
 sixty young Russians, selected by Le Fort out of 
 his regiment, to Yenice and Leghorn, in order that 
 they might make themselves acquainted with every- 
 thing pertaining to the art of ship -building and navi- 
 gation, and particularly with the construction of 
 row -galleys ; and forty more were sent to Holland 
 for the same purpose. A large number were des- 
 
 50 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 51 
 
 patched to Germany, to inform themselves in the 
 military discipline and tactics of that nation. Not 
 satisfied with this, he resolved to go himself into 
 Holland, Germany, and Italy, to procure knovrledge 
 by his own observation and experience. He was 
 particularly anxious to make himself perfect in 
 every branch of nautical science, and the several 
 arts connected with it. ''It was a thing," says 
 Yoltaire, ' ' unparalleled in history, either ancient 
 or modern, for a sovereign of five-and-twenty years 
 of age to withdraw from his kingdom, for the 
 sole purpose of learning the art of govern- 
 ment. ' ' 
 
 The time seemed favorable for such an under- 
 taking. His success before Azof, the gratification 
 that his army had received by their triumphal entry 
 into Moscow, the increased size and improved dis- 
 cipline of that army, the death of his brother Ivan, 
 and the confinement of his sister Sophia, all con- 
 spired to assure him of a continuance of the internal 
 tranquillity of his extensive dominions ; and though 
 the clergy were clamorous against his sending Kus- 
 sians out of the country, and going himself into 
 foreign, and therefore barbarous, parts, which they 
 said was an abomination before the Lord, and had 
 been so ever since the days of Moses, and therefore 
 contrary to their holy religion ; yet as Peter, since 
 his successful campaign, and the death of his brother, 
 found himself treated with the most profound re- 
 spect by the generality of his subjects, he did not 
 
52 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 much regard the anathemas of the church, or the 
 few discontented boyars, but adhered steadfastly to 
 his resolution; and in the same year 1697, set out 
 on his travels. He took the precaution, however, 
 of ordering General Gordon, in whom he placed the 
 highest confidence, to remain at the capital with 
 four thousand of his guards until his return, which, 
 as matters turned out, proved to be the salvation of 
 the government as well as that of the Czar and the 
 whole of his family.* 
 
 As yet Peter was not represented, in his charac- 
 ter of sovereign, at any of the courts of Europe, of 
 the propriety, and indeed the necessity, of which 
 he would, no doubt, have been apprized by his friend 
 and mentor. General Le Fort. Having therefore 
 determined, as already stated, to visit in person the 
 several countries mentioned, he appointed an em- 
 bassy extraordinary on a grand scale to proceed, in 
 the first instance, to the States- General of Holland, 
 and resolved to accompany it himself, incognito^ in 
 the character of a private gentleman, attached to 
 the embassy. The three persons selected as am- 
 bassadors were General Le Fort, Alexis Golownin, 
 governor of Siberia, and Yoristzin, secretary of state 
 for foreign affairs. The retinue consisted of four 
 principal secretaries, twelve noblemen and gentle- 
 men, six pages, and a company of fifty of the Preo- 
 brazenski guards f with their officers, the whole 
 
 * Gordon's Hist, of Peter the Great, 
 t See above, pp, 33, 34, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 53 
 
 consisting of two hundred persons. The retinue of 
 the Czar was a valet, a livery servant, and a dwarf, 
 the latter being invariably a part of the royal es- 
 tablishment of Muscovy. It appears also, from 
 documents kept in the dock-yard of Zaandam, that 
 his favorite Menzikoif was one of the twelve atten- 
 dants. 
 
 The ambassadors commenced their journey in 
 April, 1697, proceeding through Esthoniaand Livo- 
 nia. They visited Riga, and the Czar, being desir- 
 ous of seeing the fortifications of that town, was 
 peremptorily refused by the governor. Count 
 D'Alberg. This want of courtesy was not forgot- 
 ten by Peter in his future war with the Swedes.* 
 At Konigsberg the embassy was received with royal 
 munificence by the King of Prussia. While in Ger- 
 many there was nothing but feasting and carousing. 
 Mr. Coxe, on anonymous authority, cites the fol- 
 lowing passage : ' ' Le Fort is a man of good under- 
 standing ; very companionable, engaging, and enter- 
 taining ; a true Swiss for probity and bravery, but 
 chiefly for drinking. Open tables are kept every- 
 where, with trumpets and music, attended with 
 feasting and excessive drinking, as if his Czarish 
 majesty had been another Bacchus. I have not yet 
 seen such hard drinkers ; it is not possible to express 
 it, and they boast of it as a mighty qualification. ' ' 
 The description may be just, but the writer may 
 also be suspected of having mistaken Menzikoff for 
 
 * Voltaire. Nestesuranoi. Journal de Pierre le Grand, 
 
54 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Le Fort. At one of these bacchanalian debauches, 
 the Czar took such violent offense at something said 
 by Le Fort, that he instantly drew his s\Yord, and 
 desired him to defend himself. ' ' Far be it from 
 me, ' ' said Le Fort, ' ' rather let me perish by the hand 
 of my master. ' ' Peter had raised his sword, but one 
 of the retinue, of the name of Yon Prinsen, had 
 presence of mind to catch hold of his arm, and 
 saved, probably, the life of Le Fort. He expressed, 
 says Yoltaire, the same concern for this short trans- 
 port of passion as Alexander showed for the murder 
 of Clytus : for he immediately asked that gentle- 
 man's pardon; and with composure observed, that 
 his great desire was to reform his subjects ; but he 
 Avas ashamed to say he had not yet been able to re- 
 form himself. * 
 
 Having reached Emmeric on the Phine, the Czar, 
 impatient to arrive at his destination, left the em- 
 bassy, and, having hired a small boat, proceeded to 
 Amsterdam, through which, says Nestesuranoi, he 
 fiew like lightning, and never once stopped till he 
 arrived at Zaandam, fifteen days before the embassy 
 reached Amsterdam! The first person seen by the 
 Russian party in the boat was a man fishing in a 
 small skiff, of the name of Kist, who had worked 
 as a smith in Russia, and was immediately recog- 
 nized by one of the six persons who were with the 
 Czar. This person called over to him to come to 
 them, which he did. The man's astonishment may 
 * Voltaire — referring to MS. Memoirs of Le Fort. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 55 
 
 be conceived on seeing the Czar of Russia sailing in 
 a little boat, dressed like a Dutch skipper in a red 
 jacket and white linen trousers. Peter told Kist 
 he wanted lodgings, and should like to take them 
 with him. Kist was but in poor circumstances, and 
 would have excused himself, but Peter persisted ; 
 and a poor widow, who had a small house behind 
 his, consented to move to a little adjoining hut, in 
 order to accommodate the royal stranger. Peter's 
 lodgings consisted of two small rooms, with a loft 
 over them, and an adjoinining shed.* Kist received 
 strict injunctions on no account whatever to let it be 
 known who his lodger was, as he did not wish to 
 be discovered. To the questions which the crowd, 
 collected to see the strangers, put to them, the Czar 
 replied (for he could speak the Dutch fluently), that 
 they were all carpenters and laborers from a foreign 
 country, who had come to Zaandam in search of 
 work. But no one believed this ; indeed, the rich 
 clothes of his companions, who had kept on their 
 proper Russian dresses, suflftciently contradicted any 
 such idea. 
 
 The first business, after landing, which Peter set 
 about, and which showed a favorable trait in his 
 character, was to inquire after and visit the families 
 and the widows of several Dutch seamen and ship- 
 carpenters with whom he had associated at Archangel 
 and, Pskov representing himself to each as a brother 
 ship-builder of their relatives. Among others, he 
 * Scheltema. 
 
56 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 paid a visit to the widow of the deceased skipper 
 Musch, to whom he had sent from Archangel a 
 gratuity of five hundred guilders. This poor woman 
 said ' ' she was afraid she never could be sufficiently 
 thankful to the Czar for his great kindness, but en- 
 treated him, if he ever might be permitted to come 
 into the presence of his Czarish majesty, to tell him 
 how very welcome the gift was in her widowed 
 state, and that she was most humbly and cordially 
 thankful for his kind consideration. ' ' He assured 
 the poor woman she might rely on the Czar being 
 made acquainted with all she had said.* 
 
 Having made all his inquiries after the families 
 of his Dutch friends in Russia, Peter next proceeded 
 to visit the shops of Zaandam, to purchase carpen- 
 ter's tools for himself and companions, whom he had 
 directed to clothe themselves in the common dress 
 of the dock-yards. Among these, as it afterward 
 turned out, were his youthful companions and fa- 
 vorites Menzikoff and Galitzin, who were directed to 
 handle the tools and work at ship-building as well 
 as himself. 
 
 The day following their arrival being Sunday, all 
 the workmen of this then busy and populous town, 
 and whole crowds from Amsterdam, hearing of the 
 passage of the strangers to Zaandam, and guessing 
 from the report of those who had seen them that 
 they were the forerunners of the expected embassy, 
 assembled before the small lodgings of Peter and 
   Scheltema. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 57 
 
 those of his companions, very much to the annoy- 
 ance of the former, who had an unconquerable an- 
 tipathy against a crowd, and more especially of 
 strangers assembled to look at him. Besides, the 
 secret of his real character was, as might be ex- 
 pected, very soon divulged. A Dutch resident at 
 Archangel had written home to his friends, an- 
 nouncing the preparations making for the embassy, 
 and the intention of the Czar to accompany it in 
 disguise, enclosing, at the same time, a description 
 of his person, and a portrait print. Among the 
 crowd which curiosity had attracted was a barber 
 from Amsterdam, to whom the letter and print had 
 been shown ; and, as it would seem that, from the 
 time when the unsuccessful experiment was made by 
 the barber of Midas, ^ none of these gossiping gentle- 
 men have made a second attempt to hury a secret, 
 the shaver of Amsterdam, on seeing Peter called 
 out '^Dat is den Czar ! " — ''That is the Czar! " f 
 
 * King Midas, being called on to judge in a musical contest 
 between Pan, who played on the flute, and Apollo, who 
 played on the lyre, gave his decision in favor of the former. 
 Thereupon Apollo in revenge changed the king's ears into 
 ass's ears. Midas deftly concealed this monstrosity under his 
 Phrygian cap, but his servant, who was also his barber, so 
 cut his hair as to display the ears. This servant was so much 
 irritated by the knowledge of this secret that, to relieve him- 
 self, he dug a hole in the earth, whispered into it the words, 
 "King Midas has ass's ears," and then filled it up again. 
 Later a reed grew upon the very spot and the whispering of 
 that reed in the wind betrayed the secret. For a secret can- 
 not be suppressed even by being buried. 
 
 f Scheltema. 
 
58 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Indeed no one could mistake him who had ever 
 heard his person described. ^'The Czar," says a 
 Zaandammer, <' is very tall and robust, quick and 
 nimble of foot, dexterous and rapid in all his ac- 
 tions ; his face is plump and round ; fierce in his 
 look, with brown eyebrows, and short curling hair 
 of a brownish color. His gait quick, swinging his 
 arms, and holding in one of them a cane." The 
 character of this extraordinary personage was devel- 
 oped much more in Holland than at home. He was 
 here free from all restraint, and subject only to par- 
 tial annoyance ; the natural bent of his mind had, 
 therefore, free scope. Little of his time was passed 
 with the ambassadors; it was almost wholly em- 
 ployed among the ship-builders of Amsterdam, and 
 of Zaandam ; and in sailing on the Y, the Pampus, 
 and the Zuy-der-Zee ; so much interested were the 
 Dutch in all that he said and did, that regular 
 entries were made in the da'g -register^ or diary kept 
 at Zaandam ; and all those inhabitants with whom 
 he was in daily intercourse made memoranda of 
 what occurred, as far as their knowledge extended. 
 Many of these little notices have been collected by 
 Noomen, Calf, Yan Halem, Meerman, and several 
 others, who are referred to by Scheltema, in his 
 Rusland en de Nederlanden heschouwd. 
 
 The cane which Peter carried in his hand was 
 sometimes freely used, Avhen anyone attempted 
 to thwart his movements. His first exploit in the 
 dock-yard of Mynheer Calf, a wealthy merchant 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 59 
 
 and ship-builder, with whom he was prevailed on 
 to lodge, after quitting his first cabin, was to pur- 
 chase a small yacht, and to fit her with a new bow- 
 sprit, made entirely with his own hands, to the 
 astonishment of all the shipwrights ; they could not 
 conceive how a person of his high rank could sub- 
 mit to work till the sweat ran down his face, or 
 where he could have learned to handle the tools so 
 dexterously. When this little vessel was ready 
 for sea, he appointed Gerrit Musch, the brother of 
 his friend who died at Archangel, as his captain; 
 and both he and his wife, and the widow of the 
 brother, had access to him at all times during his 
 stay, and received from him many tokens of his re- 
 gard in little presents of different kinds, all of which 
 show that, notwithstanding his rude and violent 
 temper, he was, in the main, a kind-hearted man. 
 He was frequently on the water, sometimes sev- 
 eral hours in the day. His extraordinary rapidity 
 of movement in landing or embarking used to 
 astonish and amuse the Dutch, who had never be- 
 fore witnessed such "loopen, springen, en klauteren 
 over de schepen," — " running, jumping, and clam- 
 bering over the shipping. ' ' The curiosity of the 
 Dutch to see this extraordinary character brought 
 whole swarms from the capital, on Sundaj^s and 
 holydays, so that all the windows and the house- 
 tops in the street where he lodged were crowded 
 with people ; but he confined himself closely to the 
 house at such times, and would not suffer him- 
 
60 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 self to be seen. The bailiff (schoui), two burgo- 
 masters, and three members of the council waited 
 on him one day to request he would honor them 
 by being present at the winding up, or dragging 
 a ship over the dam : his answer, in a hurried man- 
 ner, on seeing a great crowd, was, " Straks-straks " 
 — ^'By-and-by ; " but observing the multitude to 
 have increased, he was visibly annoyed, and de- 
 clined going, and with evident anxiety said, ''Te 
 veel volks, te veel volks" — '* Too many people, 
 too many people ; " at the same time, throwing 
 himseK into a great passion, he shut the door. 
 
 The following day the crowds that beset his door 
 were greater than ever, which again threw him 
 into such a violent rage that he became convulsed. 
 Peter had been subject to such fits from his early 
 youth ; they are said to have been first occasioned 
 by the fright he received, when some of the Stre- 
 litzes forced themselves into the Trinity convent, 
 and one of them held a naked sabre over his head, 
 when b}" his mother's side before the altar. He 
 was then ten years of age ; but it is much more 
 probable they were an original and constitutional 
 disease, to which other members of his family were 
 subject ; and though they diminished in frequency 
 and violence with years, they continued to afflict 
 him occasionally till his death. The convulsive 
 spasms generally came upon him when agitated or 
 much excited, and he remained in them, sometimes, 
 for whole hours. These paroxysms, it seems, al- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 61 
 
 ways gave warning of their approach by a contor- 
 tion of the neck towards the left side, and by a 
 twitching or contraction of the muscles of the face ; 
 and, as these fits had never been observed during 
 his childhood, it is not to be wondered at that some 
 cause should be assigned for their production. Bas- 
 sevitz, the Holstein envo}^, ascribes them to the 
 effects of the poison supposed to have been given 
 him by his ambitious sister Sophia, which is Avholly 
 unsupported by any other authority, and is in it- 
 self an absurdity. That they were constitutional 
 may be inferred from the fact that all the male 
 children of Alexis were more or less subject to fits, 
 though none so violent as those with which Peter 
 was affected ; they differed from epileptic, and were 
 more like those to which Bonaparte was subject, 
 when thrown into a sudden gust of passion, and 
 which, in his case, were called cataleptic. 
 
 On the present occasion, the Dutch gentlemen 
 who had waited on him were exceedingly alarmed, 
 but his companions, who had been accustomed to 
 see him in paroxysms of this kind, sought out and 
 placed before him a handsome young woman, whose 
 presence speedily led to his recovery.* Count Paul 
 Jagouchinsky is said to have made the discovery by 
 accident, when he was page to the Czar. He al- 
 ways brought to him either the Czarina Catharine 
 or, in her absence, the first young woman he met 
 with, and left her alone with him ; whether, he ob- 
 ^ Scheltema, 
 
62 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 serves, the unexpected appearance of a young and 
 beautiful woman, or the pleasing sound of her voice, 
 exerted the powerful influence on his frame, it is 
 difficult to say ; but it is a fact that it had the tran- 
 quillizing effect of subduing his passion and abating 
 the convulsions. * It is well known that the sight 
 of a caracan^ or black beetle, had the effect of throAV- 
 ing him into convulsions ; and why then should not 
 a beautiful object produce the contrary effect of 
 relieving him from them? 
 
 Subject, however, asL he was to these bursis of 
 passion, Peter had so far command over himself as 
 to act and speak with all humility and perfect obe- 
 dience, when he conceived it necessary to set an 
 example for others to follow. Thus, in entering 
 himself as a ship-carpenter in the dock-yard, he 
 strictly adhered to the regulations under which his 
 fellow-laborers worked, and was known, at his own 
 request, by the name of Pieter Timmerman van 
 Zaandam; sometimes as Pieter Baas, or Master 
 Peter ; and generally, when in Amsterdam, as Peter 
 Michaelhoff . It is stated in the diary of Cornelius 
 Calf, that he was an early riser, made his own fire, 
 and frequently cooked his own meals. Mr. Titsingh, 
 a most respectable gentleman, who died in 1812, at 
 the age of eighty, was told by a sea-officer, worthy 
 of all belief, who was living in the year 1754, that 
 he had seen Peter at his work, clad as a common 
 workman, and that, when anyone wished to speak 
 
 * Staehlin ; authority Count Paul Jagouchinsky, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 63 
 
 to him, he would go with his adze in his hand and 
 sit down on a rough log of timber for a short time, 
 but seemed always anxious to resume and finish the 
 work on which he had been employed. 
 
 One day either the great Duke of Marlborough 
 or the Earl of Portland (the narrator is doubtful 
 which, as both are known to have been at Zaan- 
 dam), came to the yard, and asked the master to 
 point out to him, unnoticed, the Czar among the 
 workmen, as he wished much to see him at work. 
 A number of the men were just then carrying a 
 large beam of wood, close by the spot where Peter 
 happened to be sitting at the time. Having shown 
 the stranger the object of his curiosity, the master 
 called out, "Peter Timmerman, why don't you 
 assist these men? " Peter immediately rose up and 
 obeyed, placed his shoulder under the log, and 
 helped to carry it to its proper place. When at 
 work in the East India Company's dock-yard at 
 Amsterdam, he received a letter from the patriarch 
 of Russia, in answer to which he took the oppor- 
 tunity of observing to him, among other things, 
 that ' ' in Amsterdam he was obedient to the com- 
 mands of God, which were spoken to father Adam, 
 ' in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread. ' ' ' 
 
 It was observed that Peter would lend a helping 
 hand at everything connected with ship-building, 
 such as rope-making, sail-making, smiths' work, &c. 
 On his return from his Archangel expedition, he 
 gave proof of what he could do in forging iron. 
 
04 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 On visiting MuUer's manufactory atlstia, he forged 
 several bars of iron, and put his own mark on each 
 of them; he made the companions of his journey 
 blow the bellows, stir the fire, carry coals, and do 
 all the laboring work of journeymen blacksmiths. 
 The Czar demanded payment from MuUer for his 
 work, at the same rate as he paid the other work- 
 men. Having received eighteen altins^^ '' This 
 will serve, ' ' said he, ' ' to buy me a pair of shoes, 
 of Avhich I stand in great need, ' ' at the same time 
 showing those he wore, which had already been 
 soled. He then went to a neighboring shop, bought 
 a pair of shoes, and took great pleasure in showing 
 them, saying to his companions, ' ' I have earned 
 them well, by the sweat of my brow, with hammer 
 and anvil. " A bar of iron forged and marked, with 
 his own hand is still in the cabinet of the Academy 
 of Sciences at St, Petersburg, but this was forged 
 at a later date at Olonetz. f 
 
 Not satisfied with working himself in the dock- 
 yard, he insisted that Menzikoff and Golownin, and 
 a third person, whose name the Dutch builders were 
 not able to discover, should make themselves ac- 
 quainted with boat-building and mast-making ; but 
 the third, who was of a sickly habit, got leave very 
 soon to return to Kussia. Menzikotf made some 
 progress, but complained bitterly of his sore hands. 
 
 * The altin was equal to three copecks, or about 2^ cents, 
 f Nestesuranoi. Staehlin ; on the authority of Peter Mul- 
 ler son of the above-mentioned blacksmith. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 65 
 
 It would seem, however, that they all, except 
 Peter, affected to consider their labor as amusement 
 only. Latterly they hired a large house, and lived 
 all together merrily and frolicksome, with a pro- 
 fessed cook, a skilful physician, and a priest. 
 
 On the public entry of the ambassadors into Am- 
 sterdam, Peter deemed it right he should take a 
 part in the procession, which was got up with all 
 the magnificence that their high -mightinesses in 
 those days were able and accustomed to display. 
 The three ambassadors went first, followed by a 
 long train of carriages, with richly-dressed livery 
 servants on foot ; but Peter, in the simple habit of 
 a gentleman, was in one of the last carriages ; such, 
 indeed, according to our custom, was his proper 
 place, as here on all such occasions the tail is pushed 
 forward while the head remains behind. But in 
 Holland it is different ; and in this situation he was 
 not recognized, and therefore escaped the stare of 
 the vulgar, which he seemed on all occasions anx- 
 ious to avoid. The ceremony being ended, Peter 
 was too happy to return to his favorite residence at 
 Zaandam. He was, however, interrupted in his 
 labors a second time, by a private visit he thought 
 it right to pay to William HI. King of England, 
 and Stadtholder of the United Provinces, who was 
 then at Utrecht, and afterward at his private resi- 
 dence at Loo. The speech he made to King William 
 on this occasion could not have been written by 
 himself, but by one of his scribes, being full of 
 5 
 
66 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 bombast and fulsome adulation. He thus begins : 
 * ' Most renowned Emperor ! It was not the desire 
 of seeing the celebrated cities of the German em- 
 pire, or the most powerful republic of the universe, 
 that made me leave my throne and my victorious 
 armies, to come into a distant country; it was 
 solely the ardent desire of paying my respects to the 
 most brave and generous hero of the day, ' ' &c. 
 
 Having made a sufficient progress in ship-carpen- 
 try to satisfy himself, he now determined on seeing 
 everything that was new to him in Holland, and 
 among other things to visit the Greenland fishing- 
 ships. "With this view he proceeded to the Texel 
 where upwards of a hundred of these ships had ar- 
 rived from the fishery. He went on board several 
 of them, inquired into the manner of catching the 
 whales, how the blubber was cut off, the oil boiled, 
 the whalebone cut out, and, in short, everything 
 pertaining to the whale-fishery. J^othing was con- 
 sidered by hum too troublesome, nothing about the 
 fishing-ships too filthy, while acquiring some knowl- 
 edge of that lucrative species of commercial enter- 
 prise. It was the same in all other matters: he 
 visited all the manufactories, all the windmills for 
 grinding corn, pressing out oil, cutting plank, 
 pumping water, making paper, and examined the 
 principles on which they were constructed. On 
 seeing any new object he instantly inquired, " Wat 
 is dat ? " and being told, he used to exclaim, ^* Dat 
 wil ik zien" — ''I shall see that." Ten times a 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 67 
 
 day, while accompanying his friend Calf and others 
 over different parts of the neighborhood, were the 
 words repeated — '' Wat is dat," and ''Dat wil ik 
 zien." His curiosity was unbounded, and the 
 gratification of it not always free from personal 
 danger. He was one day nearly entangled in the 
 machinery of a windmill. On another occasion he 
 mounted to the top of one of the large cranes on the 
 admiralty wharf in Amsterdam, when his foot 
 slipped, and down he fell on the pavement and in- 
 jured his leg ; and he was in the habit of carrying 
 so much sail in his little boat as to occasion constant 
 alarm lest she should be overset.* 
 
 Peter's curiosity was by no means of that idle 
 kind which leads to no profit ; with him it was the 
 inquisitive daughter of ignorance and the prolific 
 mother of knowledge. J^fothing came amiss to him. 
 He frequented the markets, and was particularly 
 amused with the mountebanks and venders of quack 
 medicines. It might be said he was somewhat 
 of a quack himself; he learned to draw teeth, and 
 became skilful by a little practice in that operation. 
 He attended dissections in the hospital, and learned 
 to bleed ; and these useful operations he followed 
 Avith great zeal after his return to Russia, and 
 practised them with advantage frequently among 
 his workmen and in the army, particularly blood- 
 letting. Sta3hlin says he had acquired sufiicient 
 skill to dissect according to the rules of art, to bleed, 
 * Scheltema. 
 
68 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 draw teeth, and perform other operations as well as 
 one of the faculty, — that is to say, the Russian fac- 
 ulty, among whom surgery may be supposed, at that 
 time, to have been at a very low ebb. He tapped 
 the wife of a Dutch merchant who had the dropsy, 
 but the operation having been too long deferred, 
 the poor woman died, as the regular practitioners 
 said she would : and by way of consoling the hus- 
 band for his loss, the Czar attended the funeral. 
 
 Peter, it would seem, was always ready to perform 
 his good offices in the surgical way, and for that 
 purpose always carried about with him a small case 
 of surgical, as well as a case of mathematical, in- 
 struments. Perceiving one day a valet of his, named 
 Balboiarof , sitting with a sad and pensive counte- 
 nance, he inquired what was the matter with him. 
 ' ' Nothing, sire, ' ' answered Balboiarof, ' ' except 
 that my wife has got the toothache, and refuses to 
 have it out." — ''Does she! " said the Czar; ''let 
 me see her, and I warrant I '11 cure her." He made 
 her sit down that he might examine her mouth, 
 though the poor woman protested and insisted that 
 nothing was the matter with her. ' ' Ay, ' ' said the 
 disconsolate husband, ' ' so she always says that she 
 suffers nothing, while the doctor is present." — 
 ' ' "Well, well, ' ' said the Czar, ' ' she shall not suffer 
 long; do you hold her head and arms." Peter 
 caught hold of a tooth with the instrument, which 
 he supposed to be the bad one, and drew it out with 
 great expertness. A few days after this, Peter 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 69 
 
 learned, from some of the household, that the poor 
 woman's tooth ailed nothing, and that the whole 
 was a trick of the husband to be revenged of his 
 wife's supposed gallantries. Peter was not to be 
 trifled with; his own sagacity was impugned by 
 drawing out a sound tooth — the poor woman was 
 pained unnecessarily, and a trick was put upon him ; 
 he called his valet and gave him a severe chastise- 
 ment with his own hands. ^' 
 
 Peter finished his labors at ship-carpentry by as- 
 sisting to put together a yacht, which, at the sugges- 
 tion of the Burgomaster Witsen, was to be present- 
 ed to him as a gift in the name of the States- Gene- 
 ral. Mr. "Witsen was a wealthy ship-owner, a great 
 patron of science, having sent several persons at his 
 own expense to make discoveries in Northern and 
 Eastern Tartary ; an account of which was published 
 by him. Peter was constant in his attendance at 
 the putting together of this ship, from the laying 
 down the keel to her completion for launching. He 
 gave her the name of Amsterdam^ where she was 
 built, and when ready, appointed the son of his 
 deceased friend Musch to command her. 
 
 The Jews had been driven out of Eussia since the 
 time of the Czar Ivan Yasilovitz. They now applied 
 to this kind-hearted and liberal burgomaster to repre- 
 sent to the Czar Peter their hard lot, and to pray 
 they might be admitted to reside there on the same 
 
 * Staehlin ; authority Mr. Velton (Felton), chief cook to the 
 Czar. 
 
70 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 footing with other foreigners ; and their petition was 
 accompanied with the offer of one hundred thousand 
 florins * as the first mark of their gratitude, should 
 it prove successful. The Czar heard patiently what 
 he had to say in their favor, and then replied, " My 
 good friend Witsen, you know the Jews, and my 
 countrymen's opinion of them ; I also know both. 
 In the light in which they are held by the latter, 
 this is no time for them to think of settling in my 
 dominions. You may therefore tell them from me, 
 that I thank them for their offer, and that I should 
 most truly feel compassion for them, were they to 
 come and fix their abode in Kussia ; for, though 
 they have the reputation of knowing how to cheat 
 the whole world, I apprehend my countrymen would 
 prove more than a match for them."* 
 
 By M. Witsen, Peter was introduced to all the 
 learned men of Holland, and those who had in any 
 way distinguished themselves in the arts and sci- 
 ences. He attended regularly Professor Ruych's 
 lectures in the dissecting-room, and his extensive 
 museum of anatomical preparations. At lectures 
 he used to sit on the lower bench close to the table, 
 and one day, as the professor was explaining the 
 connection and the functions of the different parts 
 of the human body, Peter, having heard and seen 
 
 * The florin of the Netherlands was valued at about forty 
 cents. 
 
 f Staehlin ; authority M. Hofy, a Dutch surgeon, who fol- 
 lowed Peter into Russia. Scheltema. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 71 
 
 '' how fearfully and wonderfully we are made," be- 
 came so excited and anxious, that he jumped from 
 his seat, and appeared as if he was about to snatch 
 the scalpel from the hands of the dissector. He 
 visited all the museums of natural history and cabi- 
 nets of coins and medals in Amsterdam ; the houses 
 of artists, engravers, and architects. He paid a 
 visit to Leuwenhoeck, and was much delighted with 
 his microscopes. He invited Bynkershok, the learned 
 writer on international law, to enter his service and 
 go with him to Russia. At The Hague, the Baron 
 Yan Coehorn, the celebrated engineer, was intro- 
 duced to him. Among other things he wished to 
 see, was an execution of a condemned criminal ; and 
 he requested the Dutch government would let him 
 know when such an event might take place. He 
 accordingly attended the trial of two criminals, and 
 was particularly observant of all that took place in 
 the court, at the passing of the sentence, and after- 
 ward at the execution. But it would appear he 
 thought the process too long, at least he profited not 
 much by the careful and attentive examination, with 
 which the documentary evidence was considered 
 by the judges, before the sentence of death was 
 passed on the criminals. For it so happened shortly 
 after, that an affair occurred in his own household, 
 which induced him to send two of the offending 
 party to prison in irons, with a full determination of 
 ordering them to be put to death. The burgomas- 
 ters, however, gave him to understand that such a 
 
72 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 thing in that country, and in their city, neither 
 must, nor could, nor should take place ; they en- 
 deavored with great earnestness to divert him from 
 the point, and prevail on him to release the prisoners ; 
 but all they could obtain from him was, that they 
 might be released, on condition that the one should 
 be sent on a voyage to Batavia, and the other to 
 Surinam, as very slender punishments for the 
 offence. 
 
 Whatever irregularities Peter might sometimes be 
 guilty of himself, he never overlooked them in any 
 of his followers. One of the priests of the embassy 
 had been in the habit of indulging too freely in the 
 use of gin. Peter one day saw him very much in- 
 toxicated, and immediately sentenced him, as a pun- 
 ishment, to turn the wheel in the rope-yard. He 
 prayed forgiveness, showing his hands how wofully 
 disfigured they were by this unaccustomed work; 
 but all in vain. The only answer he got was, 
 *' Quick, quick to your work."^ 
 
 To one little creature that he brought in his suite 
 he was particularly kind ; and this was his dwarf, 
 who accompanied him on all occasions of festivity, 
 and stood at the table close to his elbow. One day, 
 when M. Witsen and some others were going in a 
 carriage, and some one observed that the dwarf had 
 better go in another, as the Czar might be incom- 
 moded, he said, "By no means," and took the 
 Lilliputian on his knee. It is remarkable that even 
 
 * Scheltema, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^3 
 
 to this day, these little creatures, whom nature has 
 abridged of their fair proportions, are to be found 
 in most of the palaces of the great, in Russia, gayly 
 dressed in a uniform, or livery, of the most costly 
 materials. It would appear, however, that royal 
 and noble personages, in more countries than Rus- 
 sia, are not indisposed to have some butt, be he 
 dwarf, or jester, or fool, against whom they may 
 hurl their cutting sarcasms and coarse jokes, and 
 without intending it, sometimes inflict wounds that 
 cannot be retaliated. 
 
 It may not be out of place here to give an exam- 
 ple of the grotesque and barbarous kind of exhibi- 
 tions from which the royal family and the court 
 nobles could derive amusement. JS'atalia, the sister 
 of the Czar, once took the whimsical fancy to marry 
 two of her dwarfs. She had several little coaches 
 made for the occasion, and little ponies (Shetland, 
 Capt. Bruce calls them) were provided to draw 
 them ; and all the dwarfs that could be got together, 
 to the number of ninety -three, Avere summoned to 
 celebrate the nuptials. A grand procession was 
 marched through all the streets of Moscow. First 
 went a large open wagon, drawn by six horses, 
 with kettle-drums, trumpets, horns, and hautboys; 
 next followed the marshal and his attendants, two 
 and two, on horseback ; then the bridegroom and 
 bride, in a coach and six, attended by their bride- 
 man and maid, and they were followed by fifteen 
 small coaches, each drawn by six ponies, and each 
 
74: LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 containing four dwarfs. ' ' It was somewhat surpris- 
 ing," says Bruce, " to see such a number of little 
 creatures in one company together; especially as 
 they were furnished with an equipage conformable 
 to their statures." Two troops of dragoons, and 
 many persons of fashion, in their carriages, joined 
 in the procession. A grand entertainment, after the 
 ceremony was over, was given by the princess, and 
 the dwarfs dined together at two long tables, the 
 princess with her nieces, Anne and Elizabeth, the 
 Czar's daughters, seeing them all seated and well 
 attended before they sat down at their own table. 
 ' ' At night the princess, attended by the nobility, 
 conducted the married couple to bed in grand state, 
 and the other dwarfs concluded the entertainment 
 with a ball, which lasted till daylight."* 
 
 While the Czar was in Holland he received the 
 agreeable intelligence of his army having obtained 
 a victory over the Turks and Tartars, in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Crimea, in which vast slaughter was 
 occasioned among the troops of the enemy, in cross- 
 ing a river in their flight, when great numbers 
 were drowned and others taken prisoners. An at- 
 tempt was made by the Tartar galleys to seize upon 
 Azof, but the Russian vessels made an attack upon 
 them, and drove them back, taking several of them, 
 and sinking and destroying others. The Russian 
 forces were commanded by Prince Dolgorouki and 
 General Shein. 
 
 * Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 
 
LIFE OB' PETER THE GREAT. 75 
 
 On the news of this important victory, Peter and 
 his ambassadors received the congratulations of the 
 plenipotentiaries of the Emperor of Germany, of 
 Sweden, Denmark, and Brandenburg; but the 
 French ambassador, offended at the Czar having so 
 warmly espoused the interests of Augustus, who 
 had been elected King of Poland against the pre- 
 tensions of the Prince de Conti, withheld this piece 
 of civility which the occasion and common courtesy 
 would seem to have required. The only revenge 
 taken by the Czar was a determination not to visit 
 France in the course of his travels. In celebration 
 of this event, Peter gave a grand entertainment, to 
 which all the officers of government, and the prin- 
 cipal merchants of Amsterdam, with their wives and 
 daughters, were invited. The sumptuous dinner 
 was accompanied and followed by a band of music, 
 and in the evening were plays, dancing, masque- 
 rades, illuminations, and fireworks. His respectable 
 friend Witsen told him he had entertained his coun- 
 trymen like an emperor. ''It was," says Schel- 
 tema, ' ' a most agreeable surprise to behold at Am- 
 sterdam the followers of the embassy, a hundred 
 hours (500 miles) from their birthplace, joining in 
 their own country dances. ' ' The cheerfulness and 
 good-humor of the Czar were particularly noticed 
 by the Hollanders. 
 
 Peter having at last fully satisfied his curiosity in 
 Holland, where he had spent nearly nine months, 
 went for the last time to take an affectionate leave 
 
76 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 of his friends and fellow -laborers of Zaandam, with 
 whom he had been so closely and intimately con- 
 nected for a great part of the time, and from whom 
 he parted with a regret in which they fully recip- 
 rocated. He proceeded to the Hague along with 
 General Le Fort, and they had an interview with 
 King William, when it was arranged that two or 
 three ships of war, and one of the royal yachts 
 should be sent over to Helvoetsluys, in the early 
 part of the month of January, to convey the Czar 
 and his suite to England. 
 
CHAPTEE TV, 
 
 The Czar Peter visits England. 
 
 Two ships of war and a yacht, under the orders 
 of Admiral Mitchell, were despatched to Helvoet- 
 sluys to bring over the Czar, who, with his suite, 
 consisting of Menzikoff and some others, whose 
 names are not mentioned, embarked at that port on 
 the 18th of January, 1698, and on the 21st reached 
 London. Here he made no secret [of his rank], 
 but requested to be treated as only a private gentle- 
 man ; and it is remarkable enough that, though he 
 paid frequent visits to the king, and attended his 
 court, his name never once appears in the only oflSi- 
 cial paper which then, as indeed now, was in exist- 
 ence, the London Gazette. Lord Shrewsbury, at 
 this time, was secretary of state for foreign affairs ; 
 but as the Czar came not in any public character, 
 he appears to have been placed under the especial 
 charge of the Marquis Caermarthen, who was made 
 lord-president of the council in the following year. 
 Between this nobleman and Peter a close intimacy 
 grew up, which was uninterrupted during the Czar's ^ 
 abode in England. A large house was hired for 
 him and his suite at the bottom of York Buildings, 
 
 77 
 
78 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 where it is stated in a private letter, the marquis 
 and he used to spend their evenings together fre- 
 quently in drinking ' ' hot pepper and brandy. ' ' The 
 great failing of Peter, indeed, was his love of strong 
 liquors. We find in one of the papers of the day, 
 that he took a particular fancy to the nectar am- 
 hrosia^ ^'the new cordial so called, which the au- 
 thor, or compounder, of it presented him with, and 
 that his majesty sent for more of it. ' ' 
 
 Of the proceedings of the Czar, during the four 
 months he remained in England, very little is re- 
 corded in the few journals or other publications of 
 that day ; the former consisting chiefly of the Post- 
 master^ the Postman and the Postboy. The Post- 
 man open the subject of the Czar's arrival to his 
 countrymen with the following just and judicious 
 remarks : — " The Czar of Muscovy, desiring to raise 
 the glory of his nation, and avenge the Christians 
 of all the injuries they have received from the Turks, 
 has abrogated the wild manners of his predecessors, 
 and having concluded from the behavior of his en- 
 gineers and oflicers, who were sent him by the 
 Elector of Brandenburg, that the western nations 
 of Europe understood the art of war better than 
 others, he resolved to take a journey thither, and 
 not wholly to rely upon the relations that his am- 
 bassadors might give him ; and at the same time, to 
 send a great number of his nobility into those parts 
 through which he did not intend to travel, that he 
 might have a complete idea of the affairs of Europe, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^9 
 
 and enrich his subjects with the arts of all other 
 Christian nations; and as navigation is the most 
 useful invention that ever was yet found out, he 
 seems to have chosen it as his own part in the gen- 
 eral inquiry he is about. His design is certainly 
 very noble, and discovers the greatness of his genius ; 
 but the model he has proposed to himself to imitate 
 is a convincing proof of his extraordinary judg- 
 ment ; for what other prince in the world was a fit 
 pattern for the great Emperor of Muscovy than 
 Wniiam the Third, King of Great Britain ? ''* 
 
 In the Postboy it is stated, that, on the day after 
 his arrival, the Czar of Muscovy was at Kensington, 
 to see his majesty at dinner, as also the court ; but 
 he was all the while incognito. And on the Satur- 
 day following he was at the playhouse, to see the 
 opera ; that on the Friday night the revels ended at 
 the Temple, the same being concluded by a fine 
 masquerade, at which the Czar of Muscovy was 
 present ; that on the following Sunday he went in a 
 hackney-coach to Kensington, and returned at night 
 to his lodgings in ]^orfolk-street, where he was 
 attended by several of the king's servants. 
 
 His movements during the rest of the month, 
 were a journey to Woolwich and Deptford, to see 
 the docks and yards ; then to the theatre, to see the 
 Kival Queens, or Alexander the Great; to St. 
 James's, to be present at a fine ball ; and it is 
 further stated, that he was about to remove from 
 * Postman, No, 417. 
 
80 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Norfolk-street (York buildings) to Eeclriff, where a 
 ship was building for him ; that he was about to go 
 to Chatham, to see a man-of-war launched, which 
 he was to name; and that on the 15th of February, 
 accompanied by the Marquis of Caermarthen, he 
 went to Deptford, and having spent some time on 
 board the ' ' Koyal Transport, ' ' they were afterward 
 splendidly treated by Admiral Mitchell. These are 
 the principal notices concerning the Czar Peter con- 
 tained in the Postboy. 
 
 It is evident that London could not be very agree- 
 able to him, on two accounts; first, because his 
 great object in coming here was to see the dock- 
 yard establishments, and to profit also by observing 
 the English mode of making draughts of ships, and 
 laying them off in the mold-loft ; and to acquire 
 some knowledge in the theory of naval architecture 
 and navigation, which he had heard, when in Hol- 
 land, was superior to what he had seen or could 
 obtain in that country, though it was assumed that 
 the mechanical part of finishing and putting together 
 a ship was there fully equal, if not superior, to the 
 English. 
 
 In the next place he was equally annoyed by the 
 crowds he was continually meeting in the streets of 
 London, as he had been in Amsterdam, and this he 
 could not bear with becoming patience. It is said, 
 that as he was one day walking along the Strand 
 with his friend the Marquis of Caermarthen, a por- 
 ter, with a hod on his shoulder rudely rushed against 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 81 
 
 him and drove him into the kennel. He was ex- 
 tremely indignant, and ready to knock him down ; 
 but the marquis, interfering, asked the man what 
 he meant, and if he knew whom he had so rudely 
 run against, adding, ' ' that it was the Czar. ' ' The 
 porter, turning round, replied with a grin, '' Czar ! 
 we are all Czars here. ' ' But that which annoyed 
 him most of all was the intrusion of the citizens into 
 his lodgings, and into the room even where he was 
 eating, to which they gained access through the 
 king's servants. Disgusted at their impertinent 
 curiosity, he would sometimes rise from table, and 
 leave the room in a rage. To prevent this intrusion, 
 he strictly charged his domestics not to admit any 
 persons whatever, let their rank be what it might. 
 A kind of forced interview, however, was obtained 
 by two Quakers, the account of which, as given by 
 one of them, is singular and interesting : — 
 
 "Anno 1697. At this time Peter the Great, 
 Czar of Muscovy, being in London, incog, , and Gil- 
 hert Molly son {Robert Barclay'' s wife's brother) hav- 
 ing heard that a kinsman of his was in the Czar's 
 service, and being desirous to increase the knowl- 
 edge of the truth, requested me to go with him, in 
 quest of his kinsman, to the Czar's residence, a large 
 house at the bottom of Yorh Buildings, in order to 
 present him with some of Robert Barclay'' s Apolo- 
 gies, in Latin; hoping that, by that means, they 
 might fall under the Czar's notice, and be sub- 
 servient to the end proposed. And accordingly we 
 6 
 
82 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 went one morning ; and when we came to the place, 
 Gilbert inquired of the porter after his cousin, but 
 could not hear anything of him in the lower apart- 
 ments, but was desired to stay till further inquiry 
 was made in the house ; and a servant went up-stairs 
 to that end, and when returned invited us up. The 
 head of the staircase, on the first floor, brought us 
 to the entrance of a long passage, which went 
 through the middle of the house, and there stood a 
 single man at a large window, at the further end, 
 next the river Thames^ to whom we were directed 
 for intelligence ; and as we passed along, we ob- 
 served two tall men walking in a large room on the 
 right hand, but we did not stop to look at them, only 
 transiently as we moved; for, supposing one of 
 them to be the Czar, of whom I had heard that he 
 was not willing to be looked upon, and careful not 
 to offend him, we behaved with caution, and went 
 directly to the persou standing at the window, of 
 whom Gilbert Molly son inquired after his kinsman ; 
 and he told us that such a person had been in the 
 Czar's service, but was dead. 
 
 '* In the mean time came the Czar and the other 
 to us ; the other, I suppose was Prince Menzikoff , 
 his general. Our backs were towards them, and 
 our hats on ; and when they approached, the person 
 with whom we had conversed looked down upon 
 the floor with profound respect and silence ; but we 
 stood in our first posture, with our faces towards 
 the window, as if we had not taken any notice of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 83 
 
 them. The person we had conversed with was an 
 Englishman^ a Muscovy merchant, known to the 
 Czar in his own country, who understood his lan- 
 guage, and was his interpreter. Then the Czar 
 spoke something to him which we did not under- 
 stand; upon which he asked us, 'Why do you not 
 pay respect to great persons, when you are in their 
 presence ? ' I answered, ' So we do, when we are 
 fully sensible of it, especially to kings and princes. 
 For though we have laid aside and decline all vain 
 and empty shows of respect and duty, and flattering 
 titles, whereby they are generally deceived by in- 
 sincere and designing men, who seem to admire 
 them for their own ends, yet we yield all due and 
 sincere respect and duty to such, and all in author- 
 ity under them, by giving ready obedience to all 
 their lawful commands ; but when at any time any 
 of them, either through tyranny or ignorance, or ill 
 counsel, happens to command any thing contrary to 
 our duty to tbe Almighty, or his Son Christ our 
 Lord, then we offer our prayers and tears to God, 
 and humble addresses unto such rulers, that their 
 understandings may be opened and their minds 
 changed towards us. ' 
 
 ' ' The Czar gave no reply to this, but talked with 
 his interpreter again, who then asked, ' Of what use 
 can you be in any kingdom or government, seeing 
 you will not bear arms and fight ? ' * To this I re- 
 
 * It is whimsical enough to see how different minds jump 
 to different conclusions. When it was told that those ami- 
 
84 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 plied, ' That many of us had borne arms in times 
 past, and been in many battles, and fought with 
 courage and magnanimity, and thought it lawful 
 and a duty then, in days of ignorance ; and I myself 
 have worn a sword and other arms, and know how 
 to use them : but when it pleased God to reveal in 
 our hearts the life and power of Jesus Christ, his 
 Son, our Lord, who is the Prince of righteousness 
 and peace, whose commandment is love, we were 
 then reconciled unto God, one unto another, unto 
 our enemies, and unto all mankind. ' ' ' 
 
 Thomas Storey goes on at great length, and ac- 
 tually preaches a sermon on this text, the Czar 
 patiently listening to what he could not understand. 
 
 '' Upon this," he continues, " the Czar took sev- 
 eral turnskin the gallery, or passage, and then came 
 and looked steadfastly upon us, though we did not 
 seem to mind hun, or know that it was he. Then 
 I said to the interpreter, ' That we understood that 
 there was a person of great dignity and distinction 
 in that place, a stranger, very inspections into the 
 state of affairs and things in general ; and, no doubt, 
 might be also inquisitive into the state of religion ; 
 and we (being a people differing in some points from 
 
 able creatures of Loo-Choo had no arms and no money — 
 " What ! " exclaims Bonaparte, " no arms ! how do they con- 
 quer other countries, or defend their own ? " — " No money ! " 
 says a kind-hearted chancellor of the exchequer, "how do 
 they carry on the government?" And "Of what use," says 
 Peter to the Quakers, " can you be in any kingdom, si^ce you 
 ^U not bear arms and fight ? " 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 85 
 
 all others, and so much misunderstood and misrepre- 
 sented in our own country, that even our neighbors 
 themselves did not know us), lest that great prince 
 should be misinformed, and imposed upon concern- 
 ing us and our religion, had brought him some 
 books, dedicated to the sovereign of our native coun- 
 try, by which he might please to see a full account 
 of our principles. ' We then produced two of the 
 ' Apologies' in Latin. 
 
 '' Then the Czar talked again with his interpreter, 
 who asked us, ' Were not these books writ by a 
 Jesuit? It is said there are Jesuits among you.'* 
 — To which Gilbert Mollyson replied, ' That is a 
 calumny, and proves the necessity of our endeavors, 
 in that respect, at this time. We have no Jesuits 
 among us. Our religion and theirs differ very 
 widely. This book was writ by a near relation of 
 mine, who was not a Jesuit, but sincerely of those 
 principles asserted and maintained in the book, as 
 our whole community is. ' 
 
 ' ' And then the Czar and interpreter talked to- 
 gether ; after which the latter took some gold out of 
 his pocket, and offered us for the books. But I told 
 them, ' We were no such men as to want anything 
 for the books, or otherwise. They were a present 
 
 * It was not without reason that Peter put this question. 
 Just at this time a correspondence was passing between 
 Bishop Tillotson and William Penn, the former having charged 
 the latter with keeping up a communication with the Jesuits 
 at Rome. 
 
86 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 to that great prince, and given freely : and all that 
 we desired was that they might be acceptable ; and 
 that in case any of our friends should, at any time 
 hereafter, come into his country, and preach those 
 principles contained in the books, and if they should 
 meet with opposition, and be persecuted, by any 
 officers or persons in power under him, for the same, 
 he would please to afford them protection and relief. ' 
 — Then they talked together again, and the inter- 
 preter kept the books; and the Czar and Prince 
 Menzikoff retired into the room from whence they 
 came. 
 
 '' They being gone, we asked the interpreter, ^ If 
 that was the Czar? ' He said he was. Then we 
 asked him if he had told the Czar the substance of 
 what we had said? And he said he had. Then we 
 desired that if he asked him any more questions 
 about us and our religion, not to mention to him 
 any of those rude calumnies thrown upon us by 
 ignorant and malicious persons, but the truth, to 
 the best of his observation and information ; and he 
 promised he would. Then he told us that the Czar 
 did not understand the Latin tongue ; but onl}^ his 
 own language and Dutch. Then Gilbert MoUyson 
 gave one of the ' Apologies ' to the interpreter (for 
 he had several with him), and so we departed in 
 peace and satisfaction. 
 
 ^ ' This was about the beginning of the week, and 
 the next first day the Czar, the prince, and a great 
 company of his other attendants came in the morn- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 87 
 
 ing to our meeting in Grace Church Street^ all in 
 English habits, like English gentlemen, and the 
 same interpreter with him. I happened to be there 
 in the gallery, and the first I knew was Menzikoff. 
 Robert Haddock had begun to preach a little before 
 they came in, upon the subject of ^ Naaman^ the 
 captain-general of the host of the Assyrians^ going 
 to the prophet for cure of his leprosy, etc. [Here 
 follows the substance of Robert Haddock's ser- 
 mon.] 
 
 ' ' And the Czar and the interpreter were often 
 whispering together in the time, though Eobert 
 Haddock knew nothing of his being in the meeting ; 
 and thus he staid very sociably, till observing the 
 people crowd up before him to gaze (which he could 
 not endure), he retired on a sudden, along with his 
 company, before the meeting was quite over ; for 
 some people in the streets had seen him as he came, 
 and, by some means, had discovered who he was, 
 and crowded after him to see him more perfectly. 
 
 ' ' After this he went incognito to Deptfm^d^ to 
 improve himself in the art of ship-building, and 
 there wrought at it with his own hands ; and Gil- 
 hert Mollyson and I acquainting some Friends^ how 
 we happened to see him, and had given him some 
 books, and that he understood the Dutch^ William 
 Penn, George Whitehead, and some other friends 
 went to Dejptford, and waited on him privately, and 
 presented him with more of the same books in that 
 language, which he received very graciously. A 
 
88 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 conversation ensued between them in the same lan- 
 guage, which William Penn spoke fluently. The 
 Czar appeared to be much interested by it, so that 
 the visit was satisfactory to both parties. Indeed, 
 he was so much impressed by it that afterward, 
 while he was at Deptford, he occasionally attended 
 the meeting of the Quakers there, where he con- 
 ducted himself with great decorum and condescen- 
 sion, changing seats, and sitting doAvn, and standing 
 up, as he could best accommodate others. E'or was 
 this impression of short duration, for in the year 
 1712, that is, sixteen years afterward, when he was 
 at Frederickstadt, in Holstein, with five thousand 
 men to assist the Danes against the Swedes, one of 
 his first inquiries was, whether there were any 
 Quakers in the place ; and being told there were, he 
 signified his intention of 'attending one of their 
 meetings. A meeting was accordingly appointed, 
 to which he went, accompanied by Prince Menzikoff 
 and General Dolgorouky, and several dukes and 
 great men. Soon after they were seated the wor- 
 ship began ; Philip Defair, a Quaker, rose up and 
 preached. The Muscovite lords showed their re- 
 spect by their silence, but they understood nothing 
 of what was said. To remedy this, the Czar him- 
 self occasionally interpreted as the words were 
 spoken, and when the discourse was over, he com- 
 mended it by saying, that whoever could live ac- 
 cording to such doctrines would be happy."* 
 * Life of Thomas Storey, and Clarkson's Life of Wm. Penn, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 89 
 
 Storey further states that the ' ' Friends ' ' of 
 Frederickstadt related many things of a good ten- 
 dency concerning the Czar, one of which was this, 
 " That he used quite another way with his officers, 
 and others, than had been reported of him, when 
 in his own country ; for he was so familiar, that he 
 Avould have them call him sometimes by his name, 
 and seemed better pleased with that way than his 
 former distance : only in times of their worship, 
 which they sometimes held in the market-place, he 
 would then, as is usual at home, resume great dig- 
 nity on him ; and one time, being rainy weather 
 when they were at it, he wearing his own hair, 
 pulled off the great Avig from one of his dukes, and 
 put it on himself, to cover him from the rain, mak- 
 ing the owner stand bareheaded the while : for it 
 seems he is so absolute, that there must be no grum- 
 bling at what he does, life and estate being wholly 
 at his discretion. ' ' 
 
 The practice here mentioned would seem to have 
 been not unusual with the Czar. One Sunday, 
 being at Dantzic, on his second journey to Holland, 
 he attended divine service, and was conducted by 
 the burgomaster to his seat. Peter made the bur- 
 gomaster sit down by him; he listened to the 
 preacher with the greatest attention, keeping his 
 eyes constantly turned towards the pulpit, while 
 those of the whole congregation were fixed upon 
 himself. Feeling his head grow cold, Peter, appa- 
 rently unconscious of what he was doing, took the 
 
90 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 large wig which flowed over the shoulders of the 
 burgomaster off his head, and put it on his own, to 
 the astonishment of the good people of Dantzic. 
 When the sermon was ended, Peter restored the 
 wig, and thanked the burgomaster by an inclination 
 of the head. One of his nobles told the burgo- 
 master that the Czar was unmindful of such matters, 
 and that it was a common custom with him when at 
 church, as often as he felt his head cold, to take 
 Menzikoff's wig, or that of any other who happened 
 to be within his reach. ^ 
 
 One month's residence having satisfied Peter as 
 to what was to be seen in London, and having ex- 
 pressed a strong desire to be near some of the king's 
 dockyards, it was arranged that a suitable residence 
 should be found near one of the river establish- 
 ments ; and the house of the celebrated Mr. Evelyn, 
 close to Deptford dockyard, being about to become 
 vacant, by the removal of Admiral Benbow, who 
 was then its tenant, it was immediately taken for 
 the residence of the Czar and his suite ; and a door- 
 way was broken through the boundary wall of the 
 dockyard, to afford a direct communication between 
 it and the dwelling-house. This place had then the 
 name of Saye's Court. It was the delight of Eve- 
 lyn, and the wonder and admiration of all men of 
 taste at that time. The grounds are described, in 
 the life of the Lord-keeper Guilford, as "most bos- 
 caresque, being, as it were, an exemplary of his 
 
 * Staehlin : authority of Mr. Wahl, syndic of Dantzic, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 91 
 
 (Evelyn's) book of forest trees." Admiral Benbow 
 had given great dissatisfaction to the proprietor as 
 a tenant, for he observes in his " Diary " — ''I have 
 the mortification of seeing, every day, much of my 
 labor and expense there impairing from want of a 
 more polite tenant." It appears, however, that 
 the princely occupier was not a more * ^ polite tenant ' ' 
 than the rough sailor had been, for Mr. Evelyn's 
 servant thus writes to him, — '<■ There is a house full 
 of people right nasty. "^ The Czar lies next your 
 library, and dines in the parlor next your study. 
 He dines at ten o'clock and six at night ; is very 
 seldom at home a whole day ; very often in the 
 king's yard, or by water, dressed in several dresses. 
 The king is expected there this day ; the best parlor 
 is pretty clean for him to be entertained in. The 
 king pays for all he has."t But this was not all : 
 Mr. Evelyn had a favorite holly hedge, through 
 which, it is said, the Czar, by way of exercise, used 
 to be in the habit, every morning, of trundling a 
 wheel-barrow. Mr. Evelyn probably alludes to this 
 in the folio Aving passage, wherein he asks, ' ' Is 
 there, under the heavens, a more glorious and re- 
 freshing object, of the kind, than an impregnable 
 hedge of about four hundred feet in length, nine 
 feet high, and five in diameter, which I can still 
 show in my ruined garden at Saye's Court (thanks 
 
 * In England the word "nasty" is used in the sense of 
 " disagreeable." 
 f Memoirs of J. Evelyn. 
 
03 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 to the Czar of Muscovy), at any time of the year, 
 glittering with its armed and variegated leaves ; the 
 taller standards, at orderly distances, blushing with 
 their natural coral ? It mocks the rudest assaults 
 of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers, — et ilium 
 nemo impune lacessit" (''and no one can injure 
 that with impunity").* 
 
 Alas! for the glory of the glittering hollies, 
 trimmed hedges, and long avenues of Saye's Court; 
 Time, that great innovator, has demolished them 
 all, and Evelyn's favorite haunts and enchanting 
 grounds have been transformed into cabbage-gar- 
 dens; that portion of the victualling-yard where 
 oxen and hogs are slaughtered and salted for the use 
 of the navy, now occupies the place of the shady 
 walks and the trimmed hedges, which the good old 
 Evelyn so much delighted in ; and on the site of the 
 ancient mansion now stands the common parish 
 workhouse of Deptford Stroud. 
 
 We have little evidence that the Czar, during his 
 residence here, ever worked as a shipwright; it 
 would seem that he was employed rather in acquir- 
 ing information on matters connected with naval 
 architecture, from that intelligent commissioner of 
 the navy and surveyor. Sir Anthony Deane, who 
 after the Marquis of Caermarthen, was his most in- 
 timate English acquaintance. His fondness for sail- 
 ing and managing boats, however, was as eager here 
 as in Holland ; and these gentlemen were almost 
 
 * Evelyn's Sylva. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 93 
 
 daily with him on the Thames, sometimes in a sail- 
 ing yacht, and at others rowing in boats, — an exer- 
 cise in which both the Czar and the marquis are 
 said to have excelled. The Kavy Board received 
 directions from the Admiralty to hire two vessels, 
 to be at the command of the Czar, whenever he 
 should think proper to sail on the Thames, to im- 
 prove himself in seamanship. In addition to these, 
 the king made him a present of the " Eoyal Tran- 
 sport," with orders to have such alterations and 
 accommodations made in her as his Czarish majesty 
 might desire, and also to change her masts, rigging, 
 sails, &c. in any such way as he might think proper 
 for improving her sailing qualities. But his great 
 delight was to get into a small decked boat, belong- 
 ing to the dockyard, and taking only Menzikoff 
 and three or four others of his suite, to work the 
 vessel with them, he being the helmsman ; by this 
 practice he said he should be able to teach them 
 how to command ships when they got home. Hav- 
 ing finished their day's work, they used to resort to 
 a public-house in Great Tower-street, close to Tower- 
 hill, to smoke their pipes and drink beer and brandy. 
 The landlord had the Czar of Muscovy's head painted 
 and put up for his sign, which continued till the 
 year 1808, when a person of the name of Waxel 
 took a fancy to the old sign, and offered the then 
 occupier of the house to paint hun a new one for it. 
 A copy was accordingly made from the original, 
 which maintains its station to the present day, as 
 
94 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 the sign of the ' ' Czar of Muscovy, ' ' looking like a 
 true Tartar. 
 
 His attention was forcibly attracted to the mag- 
 nificent building of GreeuAvich Hospital, which, 
 until he had visited it, and seen the old pensioners, 
 he had some difiiculty in believing to be anything 
 but a royal palace. King William, having one day 
 asked him how he liked his hospital for decayed 
 seamen, he answered, " If I were the adviser of 
 your majesty, I should counsel you to remove your 
 court to Greenwich, and convert St. James's into 
 an hospital."* 
 
 It being term time while the Czar was in London, 
 he was taken into Westminster Hall ; he inquired 
 who all those busy people in black gowns and flow- 
 ing wigs were, and what they were about? Being 
 answered, " They are lawyers, sir," — '' Lawyers! " 
 said he, with marks of astonishment, — ''why, I 
 have but two in my whole dominions, and I believe 
 I shall hang one of them the moment I get home."t 
 
 In the first week of March, Yice-admiral Mitchell 
 was ordered to repair forthwith to Spithead, and, 
 taking several ships (eleven in number) under his 
 command, hoist the blue flag at the fore-topmast 
 head of one of them. It is not stated for what pur- 
 pose these vessels were put under his command, nor 
 was any public order given. But the ' ' Postman, ' ' :j: 
 
 * Staehlin. Authority, Mr. Rondeau, English resident at 
 Moscow, 
 t Gentleman's Mag. vol. vii. X Postman, No. 441, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 95 
 
 under date of 26th March, says, " On Tuesday the 
 Czar of Muscovy went on board Admiral Mitchell, 
 in his majesty's ship the Humber, who presently 
 hoisted sail and put to sea from Spithead, as did 
 also his majesty's ships the Kestauration, Chichester, 
 Defiance, Swiftsure, York, Monmouth, Dover, 
 Kingston, Coventry, Seaforth, and Swan." And 
 the Flyingpost, or Postmaster,^ has the following 
 intelligence : ' ' The representation of a sea engage- 
 ment was excellently performed before the Czar of 
 Muscovy, and continued a considerable time, each 
 ship having twelve pounds of powder allowed ; but 
 all their bullets were locked up in the hold, for fear 
 the sailors should mistake. " It is stated in the logs 
 of the Humber and the Kingston that they had two 
 sham-fights ; that the ships were divided into two 
 squadrons, and every ship took her opposite and 
 fired three broadsides aloft and one alow^ without 
 shot. The Czar was extremely pleased with the 
 performance. It is said, indeed, he was so much 
 delighted with everything he saw in the British 
 navy, that he told Admiral Mitchell he considered 
 the condition of an English admiral happier than 
 that of a Czar of Russia, f 
 
 On returning from Portsmouth, Peter and his 
 party stopped at Godalming for the night ; Avhere, 
 it would appear from the bill of fare, they feasted 
 lustily. Among the papers of Ballard's Collection, 
 in the Bodleian Library, is one from Mr. Humphrey 
 
 * Postmaster, No 449. f Nestesuranoi. Mottley. 
 
90 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Wanley^ to Dr. Charlett,t which contains the fol- 
 lowing passage : — "I cannot vouch for the follow- 
 ing bill of fare, which the Czar and his company, 
 thirteen at table, and twenty-one in all, ate up at 
 Godalming (or Godiiming), in Surrey, in their way 
 home, — but it is averred for truth by an eyewitness, 
 who saw them eating, and had this bill from the 
 landlord. At breakfast — half a sheep, a quarter of 
 lamb, ten pullets, twelve chickens, three quarts of 
 brandy, six quarts of mulled Tvine, seven dozen of 
 eggs, with salad in proportion.:!: At dinner — five 
 ribs of beef, weight three stone ; one sheep, fifty- 
 six pounds ; three quarters of lamb, a shoulder and 
 loin of veal boiled, eight pullets, eight rabbits, two 
 dozen and a half of sack, one dozen of claret. § 
 
 It would appear, indeed, from all accounts, that 
 the Czar was a prodigiously hard drinker in his 
 younger days. In a letter from Mr. A. Bertie to 
 Dr. Charlett, and in the same collection, he says, 
 ''The Czar lay the other night at Mr. James Her- 
 
 * Author of " Wonders of the little World." 
 
 f Master of University College. 
 
 X The butcher's stone is eight pounds. 
 
 § There are among our countrymen those who are scarcely 
 outdone by the Czar of Russia and his companions. At the 
 same place, and probably at the same house, long known as 
 Moon's, two noble dukes, the one dead, the other yet living, 
 stopped, as they intended, for a moment, while sitting in their 
 carriages, to eat a mutton chop, which they found so good 
 that they each of them devoured eighteen, and drank five 
 bottles of claret. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 97 
 
 bert's, being come from Deptford to see the 
 Eedoubt,* which the justices have suppressed, by 
 placing six constables at the door. Upon that dis- 
 appointment, he fell to drinking hard at one Mr. 
 Morley's; and the Marquis of Caermarthen, it being 
 late, resolved to lodge him at his brother-in-law's, 
 where he dined the next day — drank a pint of 
 brandy and a bottle of sherry for his morning 
 draught ; and, after that, about eight more bottles 
 of sack, and so went to the playhouse, "f 
 
 The Marquis of Caermarthen acted as his guide to 
 all public places of amusement; for which, how- 
 ever, it does not appear Peter had any great relish, 
 probably from not being sufficiently acquainted with 
 our language to comprehend what was going on ; 
 twice or thrice only he went to the theatre, — but 
 the only object there that particularly struck his 
 fancy was an actress of the name of Cross, who was 
 afterward, — so the gossip of the day had it, — intro- 
 duced to him ; and this is the only amour, if it was 
 one, that is recorded of the Czar while in England. 
 With the Tower of London he appeared to be highly 
 pleased, more particularly with the beautiful arrange- 
 ment of the armory. 
 
 The king having given a grand ball at St. James's, 
 in honor of the princess's birthday, Peter was in- 
 vited ; but. instead of mixing with the company, he 
 
 * It is presumed some notorious place of ill-fame, 
 t Ballard's Collection. Bodleian, 
 
 7 
 
98 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 was put into a small room, from whence he could 
 see all that passed without being himself seen. This 
 extraordinary aversion for a crowd kept him away 
 from all great assemblies. Once, indeed, he at- 
 tempted to subdue it, from a desire to hear the 
 debates in the House of Commons, but even then 
 the Marquis of Caermarthen could not prevail on 
 him to go into the body of the House. He there- 
 fore placed him in some situation where he could 
 hear and see what was going on without being him- 
 self noticed ; perhaps he was on the brink of that 
 hole in the ceiling which is now, on great occasions, 
 frequented by certain ladies who dabble in politics, 
 and by others from mere curiosity to listen to de- 
 bates, from which, by custom and common consent, 
 females have been excluded ; paying the penalty of 
 their defiance, by inhaling a neither pleasant nor 
 wholesome atmosphere. 
 
 Having dined with the king at Kensington, he 
 was prevailed on to see the ceremony of his majesty 
 passing four bills; but it appears from a note of 
 Lord Dartmouth, that here, as in the Commons, he 
 avoided going into the House. His lordship says, 
 < ' He had a great dislike to being looked at, but 
 had a mind to see the king in parliament ; in order 
 to which he was placed in a gutter upon the house- 
 top, to peep in at the window, where he made so 
 ridiculous a figure, that neither king nor people 
 could forbear laughing, which obliged him to retire 
 sooner than he intended. ' ' 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 99 
 
 From the same authority we learn that Peter was, 
 at another time, placed in an awkward situation. 
 " The king made the Czar a visit, in which an odd 
 incident happened. The Czar had a favorite mon- 
 key, which sat upon the back of his chair ; as soon 
 as the king was sat down, the monkey jumped upon 
 him, in some wrath, which discomposed the whole 
 ceremonial, and most of the time was afterward 
 spent in apologies for the monkey's misbe- 
 havior."* 
 
 The Czar is said to have paid a visit to the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford ; but not a trace appears on any 
 of the records of that university of his having ever 
 done so. His body physician, Posnikof, who staid 
 in England some months behind his master, is, how- 
 ever, known to have been there. Mr. Wanley 
 writes thus, from London, to Dr. Charlett: — ^^I 
 will wait on the doctor (Posnikoff), and if you had 
 been pleased to have given me orders, I would have 
 been at Oxford before now, for his sake, and re- 
 turned hither with him again. His master (the 
 Czar) gave the king's servants, at his departure, one 
 hundred and twenty guineas, which was more than 
 they deserved, they being very rude to him ; but to 
 the king he presented a rough ruby, which the 
 greatest jewellers of Amsterdam (as well Jews as 
 Christians) valued at ten thousand pounds sterling. 
 
 * Lord Dartmouth.— Note on Burnet's History of his own 
 Times. 
 
100 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 'Tis bored through, and when it is cut and polished, 
 it must be set upon the top of the imperial crown of 
 England."* 
 
 He was introduced to the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, at his palace of Lambeth, and having ex- 
 pressed a desire to see the different churches of the 
 capital, and to observe the mode in which the serv- 
 ice was conducted, the Archbishop recommended 
 Bishop Burnet to gratify his curiosity in this respect ; 
 and to give him all the information (of which none 
 was more capable) that he might require on ecclesi- 
 astical matters. From this dignitary of the church 
 we have some information respecting the manner 
 and appearance of this extraordinary character. 
 He says, he waited on him frequently, having been 
 ordered, both by the king and the archbishop, to 
 attend upon him, and to offer him such information 
 as to our religion and constitution as he might be 
 willing to receive. ' ' I had good interpreters, ' ' 
 continues the bishop, " so I had much free discourse 
 with him. He is a man of very hot temper, soon 
 influenced, and very brutal in his passion ; he raises 
 his natural heat by drinking much brandy, which 
 he rectifies himself, with great application : he is 
 subject to convulsive motions all over his body, and 
 his head seems to be affected with these. He wants 
 
 * Ballard's Collection. Bodleian. With plain downright 
 Bimplicity, and free from all ostentation, Peter carried this 
 valuable ruby to the king in his waistcoat pocket, and pre- 
 sented it wrapped up in a piece of brown paper. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. IQI 
 
 not capacity, and has a larger measure of knowledge 
 than might be expected from his education, which 
 was very indifferent ; a want of judgment, with an 
 instability of temper, appears in him too often and 
 too evidently. He is mechanically turned, and 
 seems designed by nature rather to be a ship-car- 
 penter than a great prince. This was his chief 
 study and exercise while he staid here. He wrought 
 much with his own hands, and made all about him 
 work, at the models of ships. He told me he de- 
 signed a great fleet at Azov, and with it to attack 
 the Turkish empire ; but he did not seem capable of 
 conducting so great a design, though his conduct in 
 his wars, since this, has discovered a greater genius 
 in him than appeared at that time. He was desirous 
 to understand our doctrine, but he did not seem dis- 
 posed to mend matters in Muscovy. He was, indeed, 
 resolved to encourage learning, and to polish his 
 people, by sending some of them to travel in other 
 countries, and to draw strangers to come and live 
 among them. He seemed apprehensive still of his 
 sister's intrigues. There is a mixture both of pas- 
 sion and severity in his temper. He is resolute, but 
 understands little of war, and seemed not at all in- 
 quisitive in that way.* After I had seen him often, 
 and had conversed much with him, I could not but 
 adore the depth of the providence of God, that had 
 
 * [There is something incongruous in the idea of this church- 
 man criticising Peter' s military capacity ; especially when 
 the monarch's subsequent career is considered.] 
 
102 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 raised up such, a furious man to so absolute an au- 
 thority over so great a part of the world."* 
 
 He goes on to say, ' ' David, considering the great 
 things God had made for the use of man, broke out 
 into the meditation, ' What is man, that thou art so 
 mindful of him? ' But here there is occasion for 
 reversing these words, since man seems a very con- 
 temptible thing in the sight of God, while such a 
 person as the Czar has such multitudes put, as it 
 were, under his feet, exposed to his restless jealousy 
 and savage temper. He went from hence to the 
 court of Yienna, where he proposed to have staid 
 some time, but he was called home sooner than he 
 intended, upon a discovery, or a suspicion, of in- 
 trigues, managed by his sister; the strangers to 
 whom he trusted most had been so true to him that 
 those dangers were crushed before he came back ; 
 but on this occasion he let loose his fury on all 
 whom he suspected ; some hundreds of them were 
 hanged all round Moscow, and it was said that he 
 cut off many heads with his own hands ; and so far 
 was he from relenting, or showing any sort of ten- 
 derness, that he seemed delighted with it. How 
 long he is to be the scourge of that nation or his 
 neighbors, God only knows! "f 
 
 It is always hazardous to prophesy, and the bishop 
 was particularly unfortunate in this estimation of 
 
 * Burnet's History of his own Times. 
 \ Ibid, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 103 
 
 some part of the Czar's character. Had he been 
 able to converse with him without the medium of 
 an interpreter, he might perhaps have come to a 
 different conclusion in some respects; though, at 
 the same time, it must be owned, Peter had not 
 then evinced much capacity, or even ambition, to 
 take his place among the great statesmen and legis- 
 lators of the world. Burnet thought that in mat- 
 ters of religious doctrine ' ' he did not seem disposed 
 to mend them in Muscovy. ' ' An incident, however, 
 occurred, which proved that he had already intended 
 on his return to his own country, wholly to reform 
 and amend the state of the clergy and the church of 
 Eussia. It was this : — 
 
 Some of the principal merchants of London, 
 through the intervention of the Marquis of Caermar- 
 then, had prevailed on Menzikoff and Golownin to 
 propose a treaty with the Czar to allow a free im- 
 portation of tobacco into Russia, Avhich was pro- 
 hibited or admitted only on payment of such high 
 duties as amounted to a prohibition. The Czar as- 
 sented, but on condition only of their paying down 
 to him twelve or, as some say, fifteen thousand 
 pounds, for this exclusive privilege; stipulating at 
 the same time that none should be imported into his 
 dominions without the special license of the Mar- 
 quis of Caermarthen, who, it is said, was to receive 
 five shillings for every hogshead so licensed. Now 
 the use of tobacco was abhorred by the priesthood, 
 as an unclean thing and an abomination before the 
 
104 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Lord ; and this was stated by the chairman of the 
 merchants, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, as a prejudice 
 that might render the contract, as far as regarded 
 them, of no effect; on which the Czar observed, 
 '*He knew very well how to deal with the priests 
 when he got home ; " or, as Sir Gilbert himself told 
 it, ' ' When I return to my own country, you will 
 find I shall make my priests preach and do what I 
 please ; "* — and it will be seen that he did so. 
 
 The bishop says he wrought much with his own 
 hands, and made all about him work, at the models 
 of ships. Whom he had with him, besides Menzi- 
 koff and Golownin, does not anywhere appear, but 
 the Postmanf of the 29th March says, ''The Czar 
 of Muscovy is returned from Portsmouth to Dept- 
 ford, where his second ambassador is arrived from 
 Holland." The two principal Eussian workmen in 
 Holland, of rank, were Menzikoff and the Prince 
 Siberski, the latter of whom is said to have been 
 able to rig a ship from top to bottom. The chief 
 object in remaining at Deptford appeared to be, as 
 before stated, to gain instruction how to lay off the 
 lines of ships and cut out the molds ; though it is 
 said, on the testimony of an old man, a workman 
 at Deptford yard some forty years ago, that he had 
 beard his father:): say, the Czar of Muscovy worked 
 
 * Mottley. t No. 442. 
 
 X Mr. James Sibbon, who was a journeymen shipwright in 
 Deptford yard when the Czar was there ; he died in 1769, aged 
 
 105 jea.Ts,—Anmuil Register for 1769, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 105 
 
 with his own hands as hard as any man in the yard. 
 If so, it could only have been for a very short time, 
 and probably for no other purpose than to show the 
 builders that he knew how to handle the adze as 
 well as themselves, or else for the sake of exercise. 
 
 When residing at Deptford he requested to see 
 the celebrated Dr. Halley, to whom he communi- 
 cated his plans of building a fleet, and in general of 
 introducing the arts and sciences into his country, 
 and asked his opinion and advice on various subjects ; 
 the doctor spoke German fluently, and the Czar was 
 so much pleased with the philosopher's conversation 
 and remarks, that he had him frequently to dine 
 with him ; and in his company he visited the royal 
 observatory in Greenwich Park. 
 
 As in Amsterdam, so also in London, he visited 
 the manufactories and workshops of various artifi- 
 cers, and purchased whatever he deemed either 
 curious or useful ; and among other things ' ' he 
 bought the famous geographical clock made by Mr. 
 John Carte, watchmaker, at the sign of the dial and 
 croAvn, near Essex-street, in the Strand, which clock 
 tells what o'clock it is in any part of the world, 
 whether it is day or night, the sun rising and setting 
 throughout the year, its entrance into the signs of 
 the zodiac; the arch which they and the sun in 
 them makes above or below the horizon, with 
 several other curious motions."* He was very 
 curious in examining the mechanism of a watch, and 
 
 * Postman, No. 136. 
 
i06 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 it is said he could take one of these ingenious 
 machines to pieces, and put it together again, before 
 he left London. 
 
 The king had promised Peter that there should 
 be no impediment in his way of engaging, and tak- 
 ing with him to Russia, such English artificers and 
 scientific men as he might desire, with such instru- 
 ments as their trade or profession required. For 
 this purpose he entered into an engagement with 
 Mr. Ferguson, a native of Scotland and an excel- 
 lent mathematician; and, at his recommendation, 
 two young students from the school of Christchurch 
 Hospital accompanied him. To these persons the 
 Muscovite exchequer was indebted for the change 
 from balls strung on a wire, the suanpan of the 
 Chinese, to the simple Arabic numerals: so tardy 
 was the introduction into Russia of one of the most 
 useful and important inventions that ever benefited 
 mankind. 
 
 The Czar engaged also Perry, the engineer, for 
 the purpose of superintending the construction of 
 harbors, sluices, and bridges, which he had in con- 
 templation ; and more particularly to carry into ex- 
 ecution the grand scheme of opening a communi- 
 cation, by means of canals, between the Baltic, the 
 Caspian, and the Black Sea. He engaged also vari- 
 ous workmen who had been accustomed to labor in 
 the several branches of civil, military, and naval 
 architecture. The fair promises, however, and 
 even actual agreements, to which many of these 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 107 
 
 persons had trusted, were broken not long after 
 their arrival in Russia. The Czar, or his officers, 
 refused to let those who were dissatisfied return to 
 their own country — ^they could neither obtain their 
 arrears of pay nor passports. Perry complains that 
 every obstruction was thrown in his way ; that he 
 could neither procure materials nor workmen, and 
 that, at the end of six years, they deducted the 
 monthly subsistence, which was agreed to be given 
 him, from his salary, and paid him the remainder 
 in depreciated coin. Ferguson's case was still 
 harder; one part of his agreement was, that for 
 every scholar whom he taught navigation, and 
 who was sent into the navy, he should receive one 
 hundred rubles,* and when Captain Perry left Russia 
 he had so sent out seventy scholars, but had not been 
 able to get one penny of the money. One of the 
 young men from Christ's Hospital was murdered in 
 the street, and the other never could get one-half 
 of the allowance that was promised. In short, the 
 natives did all in their power to annoy and disgust 
 foreigners. Peter, however, was less to blame for 
 this neglect and injustice than his official servants. 
 In the army, which was under his immediate eye, 
 foreigners met with every encouragement, at least 
 from the Czar, and many of them were domiciled 
 in Russia. A Scotchman named Best, a lieutenant 
 in the army, was among those who went with Peter 
 from this country. The word hest^ it seems, signi- 
 
 * Seventy-seven dollars. 
 
 p — " 
 
108 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 fies, in the Russian language, heast^ which so 
 annoyed the northern lad that he complained of it 
 to the Czar, who told him he would soon put him 
 at ease on that score — "You shall be called Bestu- 
 chef and then you will be as good a Russian as my- 
 self. ' ' The son of this lieutenant was the celebrated 
 Alexey Bestuchef , grand chancellor to the Empress 
 Elizabeth.* 
 
 The number of all descriptions of persons that 
 finally left England when the Czar returned to Hol- 
 land, is stated to have been nearly as follows : — Three 
 captains of ships of war, twenty-five captains of 
 merchant-ships, thirty pilots, thirty surgeons, two 
 hundred gunners, four mast-makers, four boat- 
 builders, two master sail-makers and twenty work- 
 men, two compass-makers, two carvers, two anchor- 
 smiths, two locksmiths, two coppersmiths, and two 
 tinmen ; making, with some others, not much less than 
 five hundred persons. However uncouth the man- 
 ners of Peter may have been, he was a great favor- 
 ite with King William, and the Czar had also a 
 high opinion of his majesty, whom he visited fre- 
 quently, and consulted on all important occasions. 
 The king engaged him to sit for his portrait to Sir 
 Godfrey Kneller, who painted a very good picture, 
 said to be a strong likeness. 
 
 To convey the Czar and persons above mentioned 
 to Holland, the Admiralty, on the 18th April, 
 directed Yice-admiral Mitchell to take under his 
 
 * Tooke's Life of Catherine II. 
 
IJFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 109 
 
 orders his majesty's ships Greenwich and Yorke, 
 together with the Fubbs, Henrietta, Catharine, and 
 Mary, yachts, and to convey him, his ambassadors, 
 and suite to Holland ; and to consult the conveni- 
 ence of his majesty as to the arrangement of his 
 company, and the port to which he might be desi- 
 rous of proceeding. He remained but a short time 
 in Holland, from whence he proceeded to Vienna, 
 where he and his ambassadors were received with 
 great pomp and splendor by the Emperor Leopold, 
 and were entertained during their stay with dinners, 
 balls, and concerts, in a style of magnificent hospi- 
 tality. But entertainments of this kind were not 
 exactly suited to the taste of the Czar. His grand 
 object in visiting Vienna was to make himself ac- 
 quainted with the dress and accoutrements, the 
 discipline, and tactics of the emperor's army, con- 
 sidered at that time to be composed of the best 
 troops in Europe. 
 
 During his residence at the emperor's court, 
 Peter received accounts from the young nobles 
 whom he had despatched to Italy under General 
 Scherematof, stating the preparations which the 
 senate of Venice was making for the reception of 
 so great a monarch ; and the desire which his holi- 
 ness the pope had expressed to receive him in a 
 manner suited to his high station, indulging a hope 
 that his visit might have the effect, so long wished 
 for, of reuniting the Greek and Latin churches. 
 One of the young persons sent to Venice was of the 
 
110 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 family of Golownin, a favorite of the Czar; his 
 instructions were to make himself acquainted with 
 the construction of their galleys, and with the Ital- 
 ian language. This is the person probably who is 
 said never to have quitted his room, that he might 
 not have to reproach himself with seeing any other 
 country than his own, which was considered by the 
 Muscovite priests as a horrible crime. When, at 
 the expiration of four years, he returned, and Peter 
 took him to Yoronitz, that he might there judge of 
 the progress he had made, he soon discovered that 
 he knew nothing of naval architecture. The Czar 
 good-naturedly observed, he supposed he had passed 
 his time in studying the language and literature : 
 he said no, he knew nothing of either. ' ' Then 
 what the devil have you been doing at Venice ? ' ' 
 asked the Czar. ^'Sire," he replied, ''I smoked 
 my pipe, I drank brandy, and very rarely stirred 
 out of my room." Peter, half -angry and half- 
 laughing, told him to get out of his sight, for that 
 he was only fit to be made one of his fools. 
 
 At the moment, however, that Peter was prepar- 
 ing to set out on his journey to Italy, he received 
 intelligence from Moscow that demanded his imme- 
 diate presence in that capital. This was nothing 
 less than an account of a rebellion which had broken 
 out among the Strelitzes, fomented, as most of the 
 accounts stated, by the priests and the party of 
 Sophia, who had infused into the minds of the peo- 
 ple that the object of the Czar's travels was to sub- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. HI 
 
 vert their holy religion ; to bring a host of foreign- 
 ers among them ; and to change the ancient man- 
 ners and customs of his subjects ; and that the first 
 thing would be to cashier the whole corps of the 
 Strelitzes. Thus abetted, these people, to the num- 
 ber of about 8000, marched from the borders of 
 Lithuania toward Moscow, but were opposed by 
 General Patrick Gordon. He first began to parley 
 with them, and told them if they had any grievances 
 he would see them redressed ; but they would listen 
 to no terms, and persisted in forcing their way to 
 Moscow. A battle ensued, in which a great num- 
 ber of these infatuated men were slain, and the rest 
 surrendered themselves prisoners, and were marched 
 to the capital. Several examinations were made in 
 order to detect the real abetters, and the object of 
 the rebellion ; and nmnbers were thrown into prison 
 to await the decision of the Czar, who would un- 
 doubtedly return with all speed, on being made ac- 
 quainted with the disagreeable intelligence. 
 
CHAPTEE y. 
 
 The Czar inflicts dreadful Punishment on the Conspirators 
 — Commences his System of Reform — Death of Le Fort — 
 Prepares a large Fleet at Voronitz, on the Don — Com- 
 mences a War with Sweden. 
 
 We have yet seen nothing of the character and 
 actions of the Czar Peter which could convey any 
 impression but that of his being a lively, bustling, 
 well-conditioned man; kind-hearted and grateful 
 for any little attention bestowed on him ; and that 
 his errors or deficiencies were those of education 
 only. He must now, however, be exliibited in a 
 different point of view. He had now seen a little 
 of the world beyond the confines of Russia : he had 
 now witnessed the comforts of that civilized and 
 social life which he found the people generally to 
 enjoy under a free government, where commerce 
 flourished, and the arts and sciences were cultivated 
 and encouraged ; and it can hardly be supposed that, 
 amid all his extravagant freaks and frolicsome man- 
 ners, not always quite becoming the high destiny to 
 which he had been called, he had been regardless 
 of the importance of the situation he was about to 
 fulfil, and of the duties that would be required of 
 him. On the contrary, he gave many proofs that, 
 
 112 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 113 
 
 without ostentation, he was employed in treasuring 
 up lessons of experience, collected in both Holland 
 and England. He had, besides, now attained a 
 period of life when thoughtless levity may be ex- 
 pected to give way to sober reflection. He had a 
 son, too, whose advancing years claimed a father's 
 attention, in preparing for him an education more 
 suitable than his own had been, for the heir-ap- 
 parent to a throne, which, as far as human fore- 
 sight could determine, he was destined to fill. 
 
 ''During seventeen months," sa^^s a modern 
 writer, '' Germany, Holland, England, Austria, 
 had their eyes on a young barbarian of five and- 
 twenty, whom a perfidious sister had delivered up, 
 from the most tender age, to the most violent pas- 
 sions ; who, delighting in wine, in women, in com- 
 mand — had left his absolute throne, a war success- 
 fully commenced, and all the seductions which be- 
 siege power — to visit, with the compass, the hatchet, 
 the scalpel, in his hand, their manufactories, their 
 workshops, their hospitals, and to study practically 
 those sciences which alone, in the midst of his sub- 
 jects, he had judged indispensable to their prosperity, 
 to their glory, to their independence. This example, ' ' 
 he adds, ' ' unique in history, is, without doubt, 
 the example of a despot — a despot by birth, a des- 
 pot by condition, by necessity, by the ascendency of 
 genius, by temperament, and because slaves must, 
 of necessity, have a master — but, what is most irre- 
 concilable, a despot more patriotic, more constantly 
 8 
 
114 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 and entirely devoted to the welfare of his country, 
 than any republican citizen, whether ancient or 
 modern."* 
 
 Never, perhaps, in the history of the world, was 
 a young monarch possessed of supreme and undi- 
 vided authority, ' ' a despot by condition and neces- 
 sity, ' ' placed in a more trying situation than that of 
 Peter on his arrival at Moscow. A third rebellion, 
 fomented by the same instruments as the former, 
 had broken forth in his absence, whose object was 
 to subvert the government and deprive him of the 
 throne. It is true, it had been quelled by the exer- 
 tions and able measures taken by General Patrick 
 Gordon ; but the chiefs of the conspirators and the 
 numerous prisoners had not been disposed of. It 
 was, besides, the general belief that the members of 
 his own family would be found among the agents 
 and instigators of the undisciplined and lawless rab- 
 ble ; and that the trial and the punishment of the 
 principal offenders should be left, till the arrival of 
 him who was most deeply interested in the issue. 
 It was admitted by all who were not blinded by 
 prejudice, that nothing Avas left to the Czar but to 
 destroy his enemies, or to become their victim ; and 
 such was, undoubtedly, the opinion they impressed 
 on his mind. 
 
 Peter, therefore, at once determined, by an ex- 
 treme severity of punishment, to prevent any future 
 
 * Histoire de Russie, &c., par M. Le General Comte de 
 Segur. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. II5 
 
 attempt in the quarter from which he had every 
 reason to believe the disturbances had proceeded. 
 Accordingly, on the day after his arrival, he com- 
 menced his proceedings by ordering rich rewards to 
 be bestowed on the soldiers who had distinguished 
 themselves against the rebels : all the agents, known 
 or suspected to have been concerned in the revolt, 
 were examined before the assembled senators, boy- 
 ars, and military officers, in his presence, and many 
 of them sentenced to death. Some were first bro- 
 ken on the wheel, and then beheaded. Many were 
 hung on gibbets, erected near the gates of the city. 
 Numerous dead bodies of the first class of citizens 
 were laid by the sides of the highway, with their 
 heads near them, where they were suffered to re- 
 main in a frozen state the whole winter, as a terror 
 and example to all passengers. Stone pillars were 
 erected along the roads, on which were recorded the 
 crime and punishment of the rebels. It is stated, in 
 some accounts, that two thousand of the Strelitzes 
 were put to death, but Gordon ^ mentions nothing 
 of this ; indeed, such wholesale murder is highly 
 improbable. About four thousand had been put in 
 prison ; they perhaps were decimated, and the rest 
 
 * This is the author, Alexander, not Patrick ; as the latter 
 was the general who vanquished the rebels, it is much to be 
 wished that his manuscript journal had not been sent back 
 to Russia : there is every likelihood that its publication would 
 at least lighten the stain which foreign writers have endeav- 
 ored to jBx on the character of Peter in this transaction. 
 
116 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 dispersed through the distant provinces of the em- 
 pire.* 
 
 The details of these executions, if true to their 
 
 * " The execution of the first batch of Streletzes examined 
 (341 men) took place on October 10th. Only 201 were actually 
 put to death — five were beheaded at Preobrazensky, 196 were 
 hanged along the walls of Moscow and at the gates — a hun- 
 dred who were under twenty years of age were branded in the 
 right cheek and sent into exile, and the remaining fortj-- 
 were detained for further examination. These executions 
 took place, at least in part, in the presence of the Czar him- 
 self and of most of the foreign ministers and ambassadors, 
 who were specially invited to be present. Of the second 
 batch, 770 men were executed — some hanged, some beheaded, 
 and others broken on the wheel. Of tliis number, 195 were 
 hanged on a large square gallows in front of the cell of 
 Sophia at the Novodevitchy convent, and three remained 
 hanging all the winter under her very window, one of them 
 holding in his hand a folded paper to represent a petition. 
 Long files of carts carried the Streletzes to the place of execu- 
 tion. Each cart contained two men, seated back to back, 
 with lighted candles in their hands. Their wives and chil- 
 dren ran weeping and shrieking alongside ; the populace 
 stood silent, cursing the Czar under their breath ; except the 
 nobles and the foreigners, every one sympathized with the 
 criminals. In general the Streletzes met their death with 
 great stolidity — ' there was a kind of order among the 
 unfortunate wretches ; they all followed one another in 
 turn without any sadness on their features, or any horror of 
 their imminent death ' . . . 
 
 "Further executions took place during the winter, and 
 some of the trials were actually prolonged for several years 
 without great result. One execution was delayed until 1707. 
 The heads of many were placed on spikes and their bodies re- 
 mained heaped up at the place of execution, while others 
 stayed nearly the whole winter hanging to the gallows and to 
 the beams put through the battlements of the walls, About 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 117 
 
 full extent, are horrible — and for the severity of 
 them it is difficult to find apology or palliation :^ 
 they appear to have been more than was necessary, 
 even in Kussia, and under the very worst view that 
 can be taken of the circumstances of the case. It is 
 true that, in the time of Peter, heads were taken 
 off with as little ceremony in Muscovy as in Mo- 
 rocco ; but the Czar had never yet shown himself a 
 vengeful character, or that his mind was steeled 
 against the sympathies of human nature. He 
 might have thought, with Hamlet, that, on the 
 present occasion, ' ' he must be cruel only to be 
 kind ' ' ; and that a terrible example was necessary to 
 prevent the recurrence of such a revolt. It is not to 
 be credited, however, that he was such a monster as 
 some of the foreign ministers at his court have rep- 
 resented; such as, in particular, a person of the 
 name of Korb, secretary to the Austrian envoy, has 
 described, in a journal written in Latin, filled with 
 all manner of falsehoods and absurdities. This 
 man says, that the Czar ordered each of the judges 
 to be the executioner of his own sentence; that 
 Peter himself struck off the heads of eighty persons, 
 the boy ar Plescow holding the criminals by the hair, 
 that his majesty might have a fair stroke; that 
 Prince Boris Galitzin took off five-and-twenty heads, 
 
 the middle of March 1,068 bodies were taken down and heaped 
 up outside the town along the roads. Here they remained 
 two weeks more before they were buried, and commemora- 
 tive pillars with heads spiked on top were erected on the 
 spot."— Eugene Schuyler, Peter the Great, i : 328, f. 
 
118 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 but SO clumsily that the criminals suffered greatly ; 
 that Prince Rodomonowski performed no better: 
 that not less than two hundred of the Strelitzes 
 were roasted on piles of wood; and he further 
 states, that M. Le Fort and Baron de Plumberg 
 begged to be excused from taking upon them the 
 office of executioners, alleging it was not the cus- 
 tom of their country ; that the excuse was admitted, 
 but, at the same time, the Czar observed, ''there 
 was no sacrifice more agreeable to the Deity than 
 the blood of a criminal. ' ' 
 
 Another of these diplomatic gentlemen, from the 
 court of Prussia, of the name of Printz, has stated 
 in his private memoirs, said to be deposited in the 
 archives of Berlin, that, at a great entertainment 
 given by Peter I., this sovereign caused to be 
 brought from their prisons about twenty of the 
 Strelitzes ; that, at each glass which he emptied, he 
 struck off one of their heads with his own hand ; 
 and that he proposed to this envoy to try his skill in 
 this business. An account of this exhibition, it 
 seems, was sent by Frederick II. to Yoltaire, who, 
 however, had sufficient grounds, in the documents 
 sent to him from Eussia, for refusing all credit to 
 the absurd tale of an envoy. It has been observed, 
 indeed, that, in his history of Charles XII. , he h^ 
 credited the story. This is true, but, at that time, 
 he had only the reports of those diplomatists. 
 From them he there says, ' ' He (the Czar) has been 
 known to execute, with his own hands, his o^vn. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 119 
 
 sentences against criminals ; and, at a table debauch, 
 display his dexterity at cutting off heads. ' ' 
 
 These monstrous stories have, however, at a much 
 later period, been copied by a respectable writer,* 
 who ought to have considered the degree of credit 
 that was due to the Austrian secretar}^, who pro- 
 fesses his only authority to have been derived from 
 some German officers in the service of Peter ; who, 
 in all likelihood, were quizzing the secretary, or 
 cramming him with food for a despatch to his em- 
 ployers. The statement that Le Fort was present 
 at these pretended orgies is quite sufficient to prove 
 the falsehood of such a story, but has not prevented 
 a repetition of it by a modern author, whose im- 
 aginative genius and theatrical style are exercised to 
 produce effect rather than to state fact. ''The 
 cruel Czar, ' ' he says, ' ' from the height of his 
 throne, assists with a dry eye at these executions; 
 he does more ; he mingles with the joys of the table 
 the horrors of the punishment. Drunk with wine 
 and with blood, the glass in one hand, the hatchet 
 in the other, in one single hour twenty successive 
 libations mark the fall of twenty heads of the 
 Strelitz."t 
 
 The same Korb, whose authority even Mr. Coxe 
 says is to be depended on, talks of two hundred and 
 thirty Strelitzes being hung up close to the windows 
 of the nunnery in which Sophia was confined. 
 
 * Levesque, Histoire de Russie, published in 1785. 
 f Histoire de Russie, par M. Le Segur. 
 
120 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Gordon, it is true, says, Peter caused a gallows to 
 be set up opposite to the windows of her apartments, 
 whereon he ordered three Strelitzes to be hung up, 
 holding petitions towards her in their hands. This 
 was a cruel and brutal act, even if Sophia, which 
 was not proved, had any share in the conspiracy. 
 
 These executions being ended, and the whole 
 body of the Strelitzes dispersed and drafted into the 
 different regiments recently formed, the attention 
 of Peter was immediately directed to a more pleas- 
 ing, and, it is to be hoped, a more congenial sub- 
 ject, — the regeneration of his country, and the aug- 
 mentation and better organization of the regular 
 army. The dress of the Russian soldier was on the 
 Tartar model — a long coat reaching to the heels and 
 belted round the waist, loose drawers not unlike a 
 petticoat, a conical helmet or cap on the head, and 
 a face covered with a long bushy beard — all which, 
 besides the awkward appearance, was highly incon- 
 venient, and served only as a cover for indolence, 
 inactivity, and filth. The objection to such a dress 
 was equally applicable in civil as in military life ; 
 but he knew well enough the odium he would ex- 
 cite by shortening the skirts and shaving the beards 
 of his subjects, and that some risk would be in- 
 curred, by attacking the ancient prejudices, the 
 fixed habits, and the barbarous manners of a whole 
 nation. He was aware that he would have to com- 
 bat with thousands that Avere enemies to all reform, 
 and to himself personally ; and that the millions of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 121 
 
 serfs and slaves even would resent, if not resist, such 
 an attack on their deep-rooted prejudices. Even 
 those who were most friendly disposed grew 
 frightened at the sweeping reform which they knew 
 he had in contemplation ; some from a general dis- 
 like of innovation; others, because their interests 
 were likely to be affected ; and others, again, for no 
 better reason than a desire that things should re- 
 main as they were, and had so long been, thinking 
 probably, with the simple Ophelia, ''We know 
 what we are, but know not what we may be." 
 These considerations did not escape the Czar, but he 
 deemed it worth the trial, at some hazard, to re- 
 move the exterior emblems of barbarism, and to 
 substitute the more decent and commodious garb of 
 civilization — and thus to remove the visible bar of 
 separation between the Russian and the Western 
 European. 
 
 He ordained, therefore, that not the army alone, 
 but all ranks of citizens, should shave their beards, 
 and dock the skirts of their coats ; and that on all 
 those, who after a given time should disobey the 
 order, a tax should be levied of one hundred rubles, 
 which soon became a productive source of revenue, 
 such Avas the pertinacity in preserving their beards, 
 as a distinguishing mark from foreigners, for whom 
 they entertained an inveterate hatred. The priests 
 and the peasantry were only required to pay a co- 
 peck every time they passed the gate of a city. 
 The collectors of this tax gave a small copper coin 
 
122 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 as a receipt, on one side of which was stamped the 
 figure of a nose, mouth, mustachios, and a long 
 bushy beard, Avith the words '' token of payment," 
 and on the reverse the date of the year. * 
 
 We have Peter's own account of the reform 
 which he commenced in the year 1699. He says, 
 he regulated the printing-press — caused translations 
 to be made and printed of different books on engi- 
 neering, artillery, mechanics, and other arts, as 
 well as books of history and chronology. He 
 founded a school for the marine, and by degrees 
 those for other sciences and arts ; schools also for 
 the Latin, German, and other languages. He per- 
 mitted his subjects to trade in foreign countries, 
 which before they could not do on pain of death ; 
 and not only gave them permission, but obliged 
 them to go. He instituted the order of St. Andrew, 
 the apostle of Eussia.f He signed with his own 
 hand, which his predecessors had rarely done, all 
 
 * Parmi les monnaies fiappees sous le regne de L'Empereur 
 Pierre le Grand, on remarque une piece nommee " borodovaia "' 
 (barbue) ; elle portait en effigie un profil, avec une barbe. 
 Elle se distribuoit aux schismatiques qui payaient un impot 
 pour conserver le droit de porter la barbe. — Le Compte de 
 Laveau. 
 
 f Peter founded this order in 1698. ** The badge is the 
 double eagle of Russia in black enamel, upon the breast of 
 which is the crucifix of St. Andrew, with saltier-shaped cross, 
 the whole surmounted by an imperial crown. Tlie ribbon is 
 blue ; but on state occasions this badge is worn pendent to a 
 collar composed of similar crowned eagles, of ovals bearing 
 saltiers, and of shields with flags and crowns." 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 1^3 
 
 despatches, manifestoes, and treaties with Christian 
 powers. * 
 
 Peter had soon seen the folly and inconvenience 
 of preserving a calendar different from that of all 
 other European nations. The Kussians began their 
 year on the first of September. Peter gave out an 
 order that an alteration should be made, and that 
 the year 1700 should commence, as among all other 
 Christian nations, on the first of January, which 
 day was to be celebrated by a general jubilee, and 
 other great solemnities. This innovation, in the 
 minds of the refractory priests, was even worse than 
 antichrist ; for, according to them, as God created 
 the world in the month of September, he meant 
 that the creation of it should be dated from that 
 period. The great bulk of the people were puzzled 
 to find out how the Czar would be able to change 
 the course of the sun. It required some time to rec- 
 oncile the Russians to the change, and many of 
 them continued to observe the old era ; but when 
 all the public offices, the courts of justice, and the 
 £trmy and navy had adopted the new style, it very 
 soon became general. 
 
 It had been the custom for ladies not to associate 
 with the other sex at feasts or entertainments, or, if 
 admitted into the same apartment, they had always 
 a separate table. When a young girl was about to 
 be married, she was not allowed to see her betrothed 
 till the day of the ceremony; and, among the 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
124 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 nobility, when one of their sons was to take a wife, 
 the usual practice was, as already mentioned in the 
 case of the Czar Alexis, to assemble all the young 
 ladies of rank in some large room ; and the young 
 gentleman who was in search of a wife, after ex- 
 amining the group, pitched upon the lady that 
 struck his fancy most, and she became his bride. 
 Peter not only abolished this absurd oriental custom, 
 but, by inviting both sexes, whether married or un- 
 married, to his assemblies, the fashion of mixing 
 together at their own houses became general, and 
 he thus rescued the female part of the nation 
 from a state of abasement little short of absolute 
 slavery. 
 
 Peter had not been unmindful, when he instituted 
 the order of St. Andrew, of the good effect pro- 
 duced by the distribution of honors and orders for 
 meritorious services, in the armies of the sovereigns 
 of Europe, whose courts he had visited ; and that 
 these decorations gave a brilliancy which was want- 
 ing in his own ; and as these marks of distinction 
 cost nothing to the country, and flattered the vanity 
 of those who obtained them, while they added noth- 
 ing to their influence, he not only instituted the 
 order above mentioned, but appointed his favorite, 
 Golownin, whom he had raised to the dignity of 
 admiral, as the first knight of that order, thereby 
 marking his predilection for the naval service. 
 
 As the example which Peter had himself set 
 could not well be refused by his subjects, he had 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 125 
 
 less difficulty, in the formation of his new troops, in 
 obliging the sons of the boyars and the kneezes (or 
 princes) to serve in the capacity of common soldiers, 
 before they could hold commissions as officers. 
 Other young men, on the same principle, were sent 
 to serve in his fleet at Yoronitz, on the Don, and 
 before Azof, as common sailors, from which situation 
 they Avere to rise to commands through the several 
 gradations. He was particularly attentive to the 
 building, repairing, and equipping a large fleet on 
 the Don, in which he was assisted by the English 
 officers that he had carried out with him, and those 
 that had been sent from Holland. His grand 
 scheme of joining the Don and the Yolga, in which 
 Brakel the German engineer had failed, was now 
 resumed, under Captain Perry, who had also the 
 direction of constructing basins, sluices, and careen- 
 ing- wharves for his squadron. 
 
 The Czar, having made his arrangements for giv- 
 ing official effect to these and some other innova- 
 tions, set off for Yoronitz to inspect the naval works 
 carrying on at that place, but had not been long 
 absent when the intelligence of the sudden death of 
 his much -esteemed and valued friend Le Fort 
 reached him. This unlooked-for event over- 
 Avhelmed him with deep distress. It was, in fact, 
 the most severe loss that he could have sustained at 
 this time, as it deprived him of that valuable assist- 
 ance he had calculated upon, in bringing all his 
 projects into successful operation. This excellent 
 
126 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 man was snatched away by an untimely fate at the 
 age of forty-six, in the month of March, 1699. 
 His remains were honored by a public funeral, 
 which vied with the magnificence of the most splen- 
 did obsequies that sovereigns are accustomed to re- 
 ceive. The Czar hastened back to Moscow to assist 
 in person in the funeral procession ; and as this ex- 
 traordinary monarch never acted without a motive, 
 he took his station behind all the captains, as a lieu- 
 tenant, the rank he bore in General Le Fort's regi- 
 ment ; in order that the nobility and his courtiers 
 might see, that on no occasion did he lose sight of 
 that respect Avhich was due to merit and to military 
 subordination. The remains were deposited in the 
 Dutch Reformed church in Moscow, where a monu- 
 ment was erected to his memory, bearing a long in- 
 scription in the Latin and Dutch languages. Thus 
 the name of Le Fort will go down to posterity, 
 along with that of his master, as a benefactor to the 
 whole Russian nation. 
 
 It has been said that the extravagant proceedings 
 of Peter, when on his travels in Holland and Eng- 
 land, and his affected laboring as a common ship- 
 wright, Avere the mere freaks of a wild and unsteady 
 young man, and tended to no useful purpose. The 
 following letter, written by Mr. Deane, a brother of 
 Sir Anthony Deane, commissioner and surveyor of 
 the navy, dated Moscow, in March, 1699, soon after 
 the Czar's return, will prove that such was by no 
 , means the case : — 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 127 
 
 Moscow, March 8, 169|, O.S. 
 
 '' My Lord, — I have deferred writing, till I could 
 be able to give your lordship a true account (from 
 my own knowledge) of the Czar (our master's) navy, 
 which, being a new thing in the world as yet, I 
 believe, is variously talked of in England, &c. First, 
 at Voronize there are already in the water and 
 rigged thirty-six, and to be launched in the spring 
 twenty more stout ships, from thirty to sixty guns. 
 JSText, eighteen very large galleys (built after the 
 Venetian manner by Italian masters) are already 
 completed; and one hundred smaller galleys or 
 brigantines are equipped for the sea : seven bomb- 
 ships are launched and rigged, and four fire-ships 
 are building against the spring, when they are all 
 to go down to Azof. The ships are chiefly built by 
 the Dutch and Danes. 
 
 ' ' At my arrival in Moscoic, I fell very ill of the 
 bloody-flux, which made me be in Moscow when his 
 majesty came home : about the latter end of October 
 I was somewhat recovered ; his majesty then carried 
 me down to Voronize with him. Voronize is about 
 400 English miles south-east from Moscow. There 
 the Czar immediately set up a ship of sixty guns, 
 where he is both foreman and master-builder ; and, 
 not to flatter him, I'll assure your lordship it will be 
 the best ship among them, and it is all from his own 
 draught : how he framed her together, and how he 
 made the mould, and in so short a time as he did, is 
 really wonderful. But he is able, at this day, to 
 
128 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 put his own notions into practice, and laugh at his 
 Dutch and Italian builders for their ignorance. 
 There are several pieces of workmanship, as in the 
 keel, stern, and post, which are purely his own inven- 
 tion, and sound good work, and would be approved 
 by all the shipwrights of England^ if they saw it. 
 She has a round tuck, and a narrow floor, a good 
 tumbling-home, and circular side : none are to ex- 
 ceed eleven Dutch feet draught of Avater. He has 
 not run into any extreme, but taken the mediums of 
 all good sailing properties which seem best. One 
 may, methinks, call her an abstract of his own pri- 
 vate observations while abroad, strengthened by 
 your lordship's improving discourses to him on that 
 subject, and his own extraordinary notion of sailing. 
 One thing as to her keel is, that should it wholly be 
 beat out, yet it is so ordered that the ship will be 
 tight and safe, and may continue so at sea after- 
 ward. * 
 
 ' ' I likewise made a suit of moulds for a ship of 
 sixty guns, but after some time fell sick again : and 
 at Ghristimas^ when his majesty came to Moscow^ 
 he brought me back again for recovery of my 
 health, where I am at present ; notwithstanding both 
 our ships go forward, having put things in such a 
 posture, as that a GrecioM (who has been in England) 
 
 * This alludes to her bottom being one solid mass — a mode 
 of building practised in Holland centuries ago, and on the 
 west coast of India centuries before that, but which is a re- 
 cent invention in England. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 129 
 
 carries on the business. Mr. Ney * is building a 
 sixty-gLin ship there too ; besides, there are four of 
 that size (near built) upon the Don^ two of forty 
 guns already at Azof^ carried down some time since, 
 and a great many galleys, &c. 
 
 ^ ' The river Yoronob^ at Yoronize^ when I was 
 there, was hardly so broad as the ships are long : 
 but in the spring, about the latter end of Ajpril^ or 
 beginning of May^ when the snow melts, there is 
 sixteen feet of water in that little river, which con- 
 tinues this height about twelve or fourteen days, 
 with a rapid torrent, with that force, that though it 
 be 1000 miles down to Azof^ yet the ships will 
 easily be there in nine or ten days. 
 
 ' ' His majesty was at my chamber two days of 
 last week, with Mr. Styles^ as interpreter (w^ho gives 
 his humble duty to your lordship). You may guess 
 what his majesty came to be informed in, while he 
 was there. I showed him a model of a machine to 
 bring up the Royal Transjyort to the Yolga^ at 
 seventeen inches draught of water ; he was pleased 
 to like it, but gave no orders for putting it in exe- 
 cution, so, I believe, she will lie where she is now, 
 and perish. Here are three envoys, viz. the ^m- 
 peror^s^ the Danes\ and Brandenhurg^s^ in this 
 Slabodo (as it is called), which lies from Moscow as 
 Lamleth does from London. The whole place is in- 
 habited by the Dutch; I believe there may be four 
 hundred families. Last Sunday and Monday the 
 * Another English shipwright, 
 
 9 
 
130 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 strangers were invited to the consecration of Gen- 
 eral Le Forfs new house, which is the noblest build- 
 ing in Eussia, and finely furnished. There were all 
 the envoys, and, as near as I could guess, two hun- 
 dred gentlemen, English^ French^ and Dutch, and 
 about as many ladies ; each day were dancing and 
 music. — All the envoys and all the lords (but three, 
 in Moscow) are going to Yoronize, to see the fleet, I 
 suppose. 
 
 ''His majesty went, last Sunday , to Yoronize, 
 with Prince Alexander, and I am to go down (being 
 somewhat recovered) with the vice-admiral, about 
 six days hence. This day was a muster of all the 
 seamen and officers of his majesty's service, three- 
 fourths of which are discharged. They are to go 
 home by the way of Narva. Captain Perry, who 
 was sent to make a communication between the 
 rivers Volga and Don, near Astracan, is returned 
 from surveying the same ; he makes it appear fea- 
 sible enough to be done ; accordingly his majesty has 
 ordered forty thousand men to be raised, and mate- 
 rials provided for doing the same; which he has 
 promised to finish in five years, though I believe it 
 may be done in less. When that is performed, 
 then the Czar may carry his ships from the Black 
 Sea into the Caspian Sea, and extend his conquest 
 that way. 
 
 ' ' My lord, what I have writ, I wish it may be 
 any satisfaction to your lordship, and I have my 
 ^iid^ who am^ &c, John Deane, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 131 
 
 '' Postscript. — Since my writing this, General Ze 
 Fort is dead of a high fever; and we expect his 
 majesty up this night from Yoronitz. " * 
 
 This letter affords abundant proof how much this 
 extraordinary young monarch had profited by his 
 travels. Indeed there is no parallel, in ancient or 
 modern history, of a powerful and absolute sover- 
 eign, in the undisputed possession of the throne of 
 a most extensive empire, ruling with unlimited 
 sway, uncontrolled by any other authority — of a 
 prince, in the full vigor of life, with the most ample 
 means of indulging in the gratification of every 
 luxury and pleasure that fancy, or caprice, or pas- 
 sion could suggest — of a youth of five-and-twenty, 
 relinquishing all the enjoyments and all the fascina- 
 tions that are supposed to court the high and palmy 
 state of a throne, abandoning them all — and for 
 what? — to travel in foreign countries, as an obscure 
 individual, for the sake of acquiring personal and 
 practical information and instruction; sacrificing 
 every luxury and every pomp which wealth and re- 
 gal power could command, and submitting himself 
 to undergo the daily drudgery, the mean clothing, 
 and frugal diet of a common working shipwright. 
 
 The Czar, having performed the last obsequies to 
 
 * A letter from Moscow to the Marquis of Caermarthen re- 
 lating to the Czar of Muscovy's forwardness in his great navy, 
 &c, since his return home. By John Veane, This gentleman 
 clied at Moscow the same year. 
 
132 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 his friend, returned to his favorite dockyard, at 
 Yoronitz, where a vast number of foreigners, of all 
 descriptions, had been collected, consisting gener- 
 ally of English, Dutch, German, and Italian arti- 
 ficers. Peter mixed with these without ceremony, 
 dressed generally like the workmen, in a round hat, 
 jacket, and trousers, paying great attention to every 
 thing that was going on, conversing freely with the 
 Dutch more especially, whose language he perfectly 
 understood. If he happened to see some poor fel- 
 low struggling with his loaded wheelbarrow, he 
 would put him aside, and seizing hold of the handles, 
 trundle it away to the required spot. Sometimes he 
 would take a spade and show the people how to use 
 it to the best advantage. When an accident hap- 
 pened to any of the workmen, he was always the 
 first to afford them relief, to dress their wounds, 
 and, if necessary, to bleed them, at which he was 
 particularly expert. 
 
 While thus superintending the workmen, and 
 bustling about the whole day, he Avas always placid 
 and in good-humor, appearing quite a different per- 
 son from the stern sovereign who had so recently 
 dealt out those terrible punishments at Moscow, 
 from the judgment-seat of which it would seem as 
 if he fled hither to calm and relieve his exasperated 
 feelings. Peter was, in truth, cruel from circum- 
 stances, and not by nature ; a thousand little traits 
 proved the kindness of his disposition, more par- 
 ticularly to those who stood most in need of expe- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 133 
 
 riencing it. It was his custom frequently to visit, in 
 their humble abodes, his subjects of the lower 
 classes; and he never refused to hold their little 
 ones at the baptismal font; a condescension for 
 which he had perpetual calls from one class or 
 another of his subjects. To the first-born of the 
 ofiicers and soldiers of his own regiment of guards 
 he almost always was called upon to stand god- 
 father ; and contented himself with giving a kiss to 
 the mother, and putting a ruble, and sometimes a 
 ducat,* under the pillow. The Empress Elizabeth 
 told Stsehlin that young Peter, son of the unfortu- 
 nate Alexis, having one day mentioned to her that 
 he had sent a hundred ducats to the wife of an 
 officer of the guards, to whose child he had stood 
 godfather, she told him that, if he acted so magnifi- 
 cently, he must be provided with a heavy purse. 
 ' ' My father, ' ' said the empress, ' ' who stood 
 sponsor to as many as wished it, and who refused 
 none, did not do so— -a kiss to the mother, and a 
 ducat under the pillow, were all, and the parents 
 were well satisfied." 
 
 On his return to, and short residence at, Moscow, 
 he mixed more .familiarly than before with the re- 
 spectable part of the inhabitants, and made frequent 
 visits to the foreign ministers and foreign merchants 
 settled there. These visits, indeed, were not al- 
 ways quite convenient to those who received them, 
 as he was sometimes accompanied by a train of fifty 
 
   The ruble was worth about 77 cents, and the ducat $2.38, 
 
134 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 or sixty persons. The Dutch envoy requested the 
 States- General to make him an allowance, to meet 
 the extraordinary expense. The visits of sovereigns, 
 however flattering to the vanity of those individ- 
 uals whom they are pleased to honor, are fre- 
 quently attended with so much inconvenience, that 
 they should be ' ' like angel visits, sho7'f and far 
 between. ' ' 
 
 We have a specimen in that honest Dutch travel- 
 er, Cornelius Le Bruyn, of the familiar and easy 
 manner in which Peter conversed with strangers. 
 Le Bruyn happened to be present at one of those 
 visits made by the Czar at the house of a Dutch 
 merchant of the name of Brandt, and this, the travel- 
 er conceived, gave him the privilege of making 
 his profound respects to his majesty, the next time 
 he came into his presence. Peter looked at him, 
 and asked him, in Dutch, ' ' Hoe wiet zy wie ik ben, 
 en hoe komt zy my te kennen ? " — How know you 
 who I am, and how came you to know me? "I 
 answered, ' ' says Le Bruyn, ' ' that I had seen his por- 
 trait in London, and that it had made too strong an 
 impression on my mind not to recollect it." This 
 not appearing satisfactory to the Czar, Le Bruyn 
 added that he had seen his majesty at his friend 
 Brandt's. He then overwhelmed him with a whole 
 volley of those questions which would appear to 
 form a kind of royal catechism for all nations. 
 '' He asked me of what city I was — who my par- 
 ents were — if they were still living — if I had any 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I35 
 
 brothers or sisters ? He then inquired as to my 
 former travels — in what year I had undertaken 
 them — how long I had been about them — in what 
 manner I made them, and how I returned from 
 them — and a multitude of questions of this kind. ' ' 
 
 Le Bruyn, one day after this, met the Czar at the 
 palace of Menzikoff , making experiments with some 
 fire-engines. On seeing him, he desired that he 
 would go with him into the house, saying, * ' You 
 have seen a great number of things, but I doubt 
 whether you ever met with what I am going to 
 show you ; " at the same time ordering a poor mis- 
 erable object to be brought before him, and that his 
 clothes should be taken off. This unfortunate man had 
 an indescribably horrible fistula near the middle of 
 his diaphragm, and he had been in this condition for 
 nine years. The Czar, he says, appeared to take a 
 great interest in the sufferings of this unhappy 
 Russian. * 
 
 The immediate object of the fleet of gunboats 
 and other vessels which the Czar was building and 
 preparing on the Don was the protection of Azof ; 
 but the ultimate view was, no doubt, as already ob- 
 served, to push his conquests to the shores of the 
 Black Sea. JSTor was the accomplishment of this 
 great point, which might afford him the free navi- 
 gation of that inland sea, sufficient to satisfy his 
 ardent desire for the prosperity and improvement of 
 his country. From the great ocean he would still be 
 * Voyage de Cornelius Le Bruyn, 
 
136 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 excluded ; and he was fully aware that the naviga- 
 tion of this alone could afford him a free communi- 
 cation with the maritime states of Europe. He had 
 seen enough on his travels to convince him that un- 
 fettered commerce was the great source of civiliza- 
 tion and wealth. The forest of masts that met 
 his eye everywhere on the Thames, the number of 
 ships that crowded the ports and canals of Amster- 
 dam and Rotterdam, could not fail to convince a 
 person of his penetration, that Russia, to be great, 
 must have some other port, connected with the 
 great ocean, than the only one she then possessed, 
 at the northern extremity of his dominions, which 
 was accessible for shipping only six months in the 
 year, by a sea that was frozen up the other six, and 
 at all times dangerous ; and removed to a great dis- 
 tance, too, both from the maritime nations of west- 
 ern Europe and from his own capital. But the bar- 
 barous people whom it was his destiny to enlighten 
 were averse to any extension of commercial inter- 
 course. What, indeed, could be hoped from a 
 people so immersed in ignorance as to persuade 
 themselves that the foreign ships which came to 
 Archangel for their corn and timber, their hemp, 
 hides, and tallow, resorted thither as to a country 
 which was the granary and storehouse of all Europe? 
 The Chinese say, that Heaven has conferred on the 
 celestial empire a plant which it has refused to all 
 other nations of the earth ; but that their heavenly 
 emperor, in his great benevolence, has kindly per^ 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I37 
 
 mitted the Fan-quei^ or barbarous brutes of other 
 countries, to participate in the enjoyment of this 
 precious blessing. Thus also the Kussians, like the 
 Chinese with their tea, were pleased to think it a 
 great indulgence to let foreign traders take away 
 the precious products of their soil, \vhich nature had 
 denied to other countries, and without which the 
 natives of those countries Avould be in danger of 
 perishing through cold and famine. 
 
 It was no easy matter for the Czar, all powerful 
 as he was, to convince such barbarians that, to make 
 them a great and flourishing people, they must have 
 what another great captain so fiercely thirsted for, 
 ^ ' ships, colonies, and commerce. ' ' These were the 
 objects on w^hich it was apparent he constantly kept 
 his eye. The encouragement which he gave to 
 learned men to traverse the untrodden regions of 
 Siberia — the mission of Ysbrant Ides to China — the 
 attempts to open a commerce with India by the 
 Caspian Sea, through Bucharia — the expedition of 
 Behring to discover a north-east passage, with in- 
 structions written with his own hand — all tended to 
 one and the same object — that of making Russia a 
 great commercial nation. 
 
 Still, however, something was considered to be 
 wanting to complete his views in this respect — and 
 that was a free and uninterrupted communication 
 with the great ocean — an object which, it appeared 
 to him, could only be obtained by having the com- 
 mand of the one or the other coast of that part ol 
 
138 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 the Baltic called the Gulf of Finland ; and both of 
 these had long been, and still Avere, in the possession 
 of the Swedes, who had also the two banks of the 
 Neva, up to the Lake of Ladoga. Thus he found 
 himself hemmed in on every side, in the only quar- 
 ter where his ardent wishes could be accomplished. 
 He had seen Riga on his travels, and met there with 
 a blunt refusal to be admitted into the citadel : he 
 said little at the time, except that he should prob- 
 ably meet with more civility at his next visit, — for 
 he hoped to see the day when he should have the 
 honor to refuse the same piece of civility to the 
 King of Sweden himself. Something more than is 
 stated by authors must here have occurred; for 
 Peter, in his journal, asks Augustus King of Poland 
 to avenge the insult which D'Alberg had offered 
 him, " od il put a peine sauver sa vie. " * f The 
 fine position of Riga at the bottom of the Gulf of 
 Livonia, opening into the Baltic, and the recollec- 
 tion of its having once belonged to Russia, were 
 not lost to his penetrating mind. An opening now 
 presented itself on which he was but too ready to 
 seize ; it was that of a combined offensive alliance 
 of three powers against Sweden, which promised a 
 fair chance of putting him in possession of the grand 
 object of his wishes ; and without such assistance, 
 considering the recent formation of his army, he 
 could not hope to obtain it single-handed against 
 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
 f "Where he cau scarcely save his life." 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 139 
 
 the old and well-disciplined troops of that na- 
 tion. 
 
 The greater part of Livonia and Esthonia had 
 been ceded by Poland to Charles the Eleventh of 
 Sweden. Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, having 
 been called by choice to the throne of Poland, con- 
 ceived the design of recovering these provinces. 
 Peter, at the same time, was meditating his grand 
 scheme of national improvement, and had resolved 
 to begin by endeavoring to make himself master of 
 Ingria and Carelia. The King of Denmark, who 
 had suffered greatly from the Swedish arms, 
 hastened to conclude a league with the Czar and 
 Augustus against the young King of Sweden, 
 Charles XII., who was now (1700) only eighteen 
 years of age. The objects then of the war to be 
 undertaken by these confederates were threefold — 
 for Kussia, the reunion of Ingria and Carelia — for 
 Poland, the recovery of Livonia and Esthonia — and, 
 for Denmark, the provinces of Holstein and Sles- 
 wig. The Czar was the more ready to enter into 
 this confederacy, as he had just succeeded in con- 
 cluding a truce for twenty- five years with the 
 Turks, and, therefore, was not likely to have occa- 
 sion to draw off his forces towards the southward. 
 
 Sweden became alarmed at the report of the prep- 
 arations that were making against her, and had 
 little confidence in the young king, who had hither- 
 to shown no inclination for public business, nor 
 evinced any ardor for military pursuits. It was 
 
140 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 therefore proposed in council, at which Charles sat, 
 to avert the storm bj negotiation ; Avhen the young 
 prince, with great gravity, and a resolute tone, 
 said, ' ' I am resolved never to enter upon an unjust 
 war, nor to end a just one but by the destruction of 
 my enemies. I will attack the first who shall de- 
 clare against me, and when I have conquered him, I 
 may hope to strike terror into the rest."^ From 
 that moment he renounced all his former habits and 
 amusements. Eight thousand men were immedi- 
 ately marched into Pomerania, and he embarked 
 hunself with his prime minister, Count Piper, and 
 General Penschild, in a ship of a hundred and 
 twenty guns ; and, Avith a fleet of upwards of forty 
 sail, offered battle to the Danish fleet, which was 
 declined : he then steadily pursued his course, and 
 prepared to lay siege to Copenhagen — but obtained 
 400,000 rix-dollarsf from the deputies who were 
 sent to him to negotiate, as the condition for his ab- 
 staining from the bombardment of the city. In 
 short, he compelled the King of Denmark, within 
 six weeks, to sign a peace, which restored Ilolstein 
 to the duke, its lawful sovereign, and indemnified 
 him for all the expenses of the war. 
 
 The King of Poland was not more successful. 
 He laid siege to Kiga, the capital of Livonia, — and 
 received notice that the Czar was on the march with 
 a hundred thousand men to join him. Count Flem- 
 
 * Voltaire's Hist, of Charles XII. 
 
 j The rix-doUar was worth about 54 cents. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 141 
 
 ing commanded the Polish forces, — but the experience 
 of the old Count D'Alberg, the same who refused 
 Peter leave to enter the citadel rendered all the 
 efforts of the besiegers fruitless, and the King of 
 Poland, despairing of success, availed himself of a 
 plausible pretext for raising the siege. Eiga was at 
 that time full of merchandise belonging to the Dutch. 
 The States- General ordered their ambassador to the 
 King Augustus to make proper representations to 
 him on the subject. " The King of Poland," says 
 Voltaire, " did not stand in need of much entreaty. 
 He consented to raise the siege rather than occasion 
 the least injury to his allies ; who were not immod- 
 erately surprised at his excessive complaisance, as 
 they knew the real cause of it. ' ' Thus the young 
 King of Sweden, relieved entirely from one of the 
 confederates, and having defeated the object and 
 dispersed the army of the second, was now left to 
 prepare a force to oppose the designs of the third ; 
 whom, though by far the most powerful, confident 
 in the discipline of his troops, he affected to de- 
 spise. 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 The Battle of Narva — Peter's Success against the Swedes — 
 History of Catharine. 
 
 If experience in the art of war and success in mil- 
 itary operations are to be the test of an able gen- 
 eral, Peter had as yet but slender claims to that 
 title. He had behaved most gallantly at the siege 
 of Azof, and his efforts Avere crowned with triumph ; 
 but, on engaging in a war with Sweden, he had a 
 far other enemy to encounter than Turks or Tar- 
 tars. Charles, it is true, was but a boy, as inex- 
 perienced as Peter could be in the art of war : but 
 he had able generals and a well-disciplined army, 
 which the other had not ; with the exception of a 
 very small portion of either. Charles had, besides, 
 an army frequently flushed with victory. The die, 
 however, was cast, and Peter lost no time in invad- 
 ing Ingria with a force of 60,000 men, the march 
 of whom was preceded by a manifesto, which did 
 his cause no good ; as the chief complaint he had to 
 make therein against Sweden was, the indignity he 
 conceived to have been put upon him at Riga, and 
 the enormous prices which his ambassadors, who 
 were then traveling with him, had been charged 
 for provisions at that place. Such were the frivo- 
 
 142 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 143 
 
 lous reasons which the Czar avowed as determining 
 him to plunge into what, nevertheless, he, no doubt, 
 considered a just and necessary war against the 
 young King of Sweden. 
 
 Peter's first hostile operation was to lay siege to 
 ]N'arva, a place of considerable strength on the river 
 Narowa, which flowed through a part of his own 
 dominions, out of the lake Peipus into the Baltic. 
 The first division took up their ground before the 
 place on the 20th September, and the siege con- 
 tinued to the 19th J^ovember, — on which day the 
 Russians were attacked, and, after a short but furi- 
 ous conflict, were under the necessity of asking for 
 a suspension of arms. 
 
 On the preceding day, as appears from the Czar's 
 own journal, or history of his campaigns, Peter had 
 left the army and gone to Novogorod, to hasten 
 some regiments which were on their march to join 
 the forces before IST arva ; but this, it would appear, 
 was not the only cause of his departure from the 
 camp. It was necessary he should have an inter- 
 view with the King of Poland, in consequence of 
 his having raised the siege of Riga, in order that 
 they might deliberate together concerning the com- 
 mon measures most expedient to be pursued. For 
 this purpose he took with him the Marshal Count 
 Golownin, minister of foreign affairs (not Menzikoff, 
 as Voltaire says), leaving the command of the army 
 with the Duke De Croi, a Flemish oflicer, and the 
 qommissary-general, Prince Dolgorouki, 
 
144 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Charles lost no time in passing over about 9000 
 men into Livonia ; he himself marched northward 
 towards Revel, driving from the neighborhood of 
 that place an advanced body of Russians. On ap- 
 proaching I^arva, he found the Russian army in 
 their intrenchments, lined with more than a hundred 
 and forty pieces of cannon, and, as various writers 
 have it, mustering from eighty to a hundred thou- 
 sand men. Peter himself, however, does not make 
 them amount to half that number; and General 
 Gordon says that the whole of the Czar's army did 
 not exceed 50,000 men, of whom 12,000 were at 
 Novogorod. * Whatever the aggregate number of the 
 Czar's army might have been, it consisted chiefly of 
 the old Strelitzes and the corps of twelve thousand 
 men that were regularly disciplined under Le Fort ; 
 the rest were raw recruits and serfs, drawn from the 
 woods and wilds, clothed in skins, and armed with 
 clubs and pikes, who knew not the use of firearms, 
 and had never seen either battle or siege, f General 
 Gordon (who was in the battle) says, ' ' Being all 
 new-raised troops, except the regiment of guards, 
 which was of a piece with the rest, in having never 
 been engaged before with disciplined troops, and few 
 good officers as yet among them, it was no miracle 
 to see an army of inexperienced raw troops, con- 
 sisting of about thirty-four thousand men, in- 
 trenched, beat by a body of about nine thousand 
 
 * Gordon's Hist. Journal de Pierre le Grand, 
 f JohnMottley, 
 
IJFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I45 
 
 veterans, as good troops and as well commanded as 
 any in Europe, with so resolute a prince at their 
 head."* 
 
 General Gordon considers the intrenched position 
 of the Kussians as having been the source of a fatal 
 security and neglect. Charles, nothing dismayed 
 by these superior numbers, having driven in all the 
 Kussian outposts, and availing himself of a violent 
 storm of wind and snow, which blew directly in the 
 face of the enemy, attacked their intrenchments with 
 his few pieces of cannon; and, falling upon the 
 Russians before they had time to recover them- 
 selves, a panic seized them, which diffused itself 
 throughout the whole army. Every man quitted his 
 post, and the Swedes had nothing more to do than 
 to kill and destroy a mass of men who impeded each 
 other in their endeavors to escape, — just as a hand- 
 ful of English troops, in storming a Burmese stock- 
 ade, crowded with the enemy's troops, hacked and 
 slew the undisciplined rabble that blocked up the 
 only passage by which they attempted to escape. 
 Many of the Russian fugitives threw themselves into 
 the river, and were drowned; others flung away 
 their arms and begged, on their knees, for quarter. 
 The Duke De Croi, General AUard, and almost all 
 the German officers in the service, more afraid of 
 their own mutinous Russians than of the Swedes, 
 surrendered themselves at once to Count Steinbok. 
 All their artillery fell into the hands of the King of 
 
 * Gordon's Hist, of Peter the Great. 
 10 
 
146 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Sweden. The Czar, in his journal, says it was sur- 
 rendered by convention, in which it was stipulated 
 that six regimental pieces were to be kept — but that 
 the Swedes broke faith, and did not restore these. 
 He says, also, that it was agreed the troops were to 
 retire with their arms and colors, which was allowed 
 to the division of General Golownin, — but that, 
 when the division of General Weyde marched off, 
 the Swedes not only began to take from them their 
 muskets and colors, but stripped them of their 
 clothes. The officers, sent as prisoners to Stock- 
 holm were, one field-marshal, and six generals, 
 eight colonels, four lieutenant-colonels, six majors, 
 fourteen captains, besides subalterns ; and two gen- 
 erals and four field officers of the Saxon auxil- 
 iaries. Peter estimates the number of his men 
 killed to amount from 5800 to 6000, and that of the 
 Swedes, by report, to 3000, — and states that the 
 number of his troops that returned to Novogorod 
 was 22,967. 
 
 " Thus," says the Czar, "it is indisputable that 
 the Swedes obtained a victory over our troops, 
 which as yet were but an ill-disciplined militia ; for 
 in this action there was no other old regiment than 
 that which is called Lefortowsky, and two regiments 
 of guards, who had only been at the two sieges of 
 Azof, who had never seen an action in the open 
 field, and still less with regular troops. It is not 
 surprising, therefore, that old, exercised, and ex- 
 perienced troops should have had the advantage 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I47 
 
 over such as ours. It is true, notwithstanding, 
 that this victory caused us a sensible mortification, 
 and made us despair of more favorable success in 
 future; it was even regarded as a mark of the 
 extreme wrath of God; but, in diving into the 
 views of Heaven, one sees that they were rather 
 favorable than otherwise to us ; for if we had then 
 obtained a victory over the Swedes, being, as we 
 were, so little instructed in the art of war and of 
 policy, into what an abyss might not this good 
 fortune have sunk us ! On the contrary, this suc- 
 cess of the Swedes cost them very dear afterward at 
 Pultava, although they possessed so much skill and 
 reputation that the French called them the scourge 
 of the Germans. We, after this disastrous check, — 
 which has been a real good fortune for us, — have 
 been obliged to redouble our activity, and to make 
 the utmost efforts to supply, by our circumspection, 
 the want of experience ; and it is thus that the war 
 has been continued, as we shall see in the course of 
 this history."* 
 
 With such feelings it is the less surprising that he 
 bore his ill success with calmness and resignation: 
 so far was he from being dispirited when first told 
 of the decisive victory gained by the Swedes, that 
 he showed a philosophic firmness which the intre- 
 pidity and valor of Charles XII. himself could not 
 have surpassed. ' ' I know very well, ' ' said he, 
 ''that the Swedes will have the advantage of us 
 * Joui'Dal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
148 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 for a considerable time ; but they will teach us at 
 length to beat them. ' ' His first object was to pre- 
 vent Charles from following up the blow ; and for 
 this purpose he despatched forthwith the troops 
 which had rendezvoused at I^ovogorod to Pscov, 
 situated on the lake Peipus, by way of securing that 
 frontier against any attempt that the enemy might 
 make to invade the country. He then repaired to 
 Moscow with his two regiments of guards, and issued 
 immediate orders that a certain proportion of the 
 bells of the churches and convents of all the cities in 
 the empire should be forthwith cast into cannon and 
 mortars. This was effected in the course of the 
 winter accordingly, and one hundred pieces of can- 
 non for sieges, and one hundred and forty-two field- 
 pieces, with twelve mortars and thirteen howitzers, 
 were ready to be sent off to l^ovogorod in the 
 spring of 1701.* He also caused six infantry regi- 
 ments, of one thousand men each, to be raised, and 
 several regiments of dragoons, which were to be 
 trained and disciplined with as little delay as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Notwithstanding the inveteracy of the clergy 
 against the innovations of Peter, which they consid- 
 ered the cause of his defeat, and as a judgment of 
 God, one bishop was found who undertook to com- 
 pose a prayer, addressed, not to the Deity, but to 
 St. Nicholas, the patron of Muscovy, which was 
 read in all the churches. In this prayer the bishop 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I49 
 
 accuses the saint of having abandoned the Kussians 
 to the furious and terrible Swedes, who were de- 
 nounced as infidels and sorcerers. This singular 
 document is too illustrative of the ignorance and 
 superstition of the Muscovites to be omitted. It is 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Oh thou who art our perpetual comforter, in all 
 our adversities, great St. Nicholas ! infinitely pow- 
 erful, by what sin have we offended thee, in our 
 sacrifices, genuflexions, reverence, and thanksgiv- 
 iugs, that thou hast thus forsaken us ? We have 
 implored thy assistance against these terrible, inso- 
 lent, enraged, dreadful, insuperable destroyers, when, 
 like lions and bears, and other savage beasts, which 
 have lost their young, they have attacked us, terri-, 
 fied, wounded, slain by thousands, us, who are thy 
 people. But, as it is impossible this could have 
 happened without witchcraft and enchantment, see- 
 ing the great care that we had taken to fortify our- 
 selves in an inaccessible manner, for the defense and 
 security of thy name; we beseech thee, O great 
 Nicholas ! to be our champion and standard-bearer, 
 to be with us, as well in peace as in war, in all our 
 necessities, and in the time of our death ; to pro- 
 tect us against this terrible and tyrannical crowd of 
 sorcerers, and drive them far from our frontiers, 
 with the reward which they deserve. ' ' * 
 
 The Czar, however, disregarding both St. Nicho- 
 las and the priests, pursued steadily the course he 
 * Nestesuranoi. Voltaire, &o. 
 
150 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 had marked out. He had an inter\dew with King 
 Augustus at Birzen, on the frontier of Courland, for 
 the purpose of conlirming that prince in his resolu- 
 tion of maintaining the war against Charles XII. 
 and to prevail on the Polish diet to engage in the 
 quarrel. However disposed Augustus might be to 
 continue the war, he could not be unmindful that 
 the King of Poland was but the head of the republic 
 and that it was necessary he should treat with his 
 subjects. The Poles were in no haste to enter into 
 the quarrel ; they dreaded any infringement on their 
 liberties by the armies of the Saxons, and they 
 dreaded also the quartering of the Russians in their 
 country ; but they dreaded still more the displeas- 
 ure of Charles. The majority of the diet deter- 
 mined, therefore, not to support the views of Au- 
 gustus, in whom Peter now discovered he had but a 
 weak ally, and that he had to depend solely on his 
 own resources. General Patkul, of whom more will 
 be said hereafter, had been the life and soul of the 
 conferences at Birzen, and he exerted all his zeal in 
 procuring German officers, and in disciplining the 
 raw recruits ; he was, in fact, another Le Fort. He 
 took care that all who entered the service, whether 
 officers or men, should be well provided with arms, 
 clothes, and subsistence. 
 
 The Czar next proceeded to the lake Peipus, on 
 which, in the course of the year 1701, he had built, 
 and fully equipped, a fleet of one hundred and fifty 
 galleys, each manned with fifty men. He inspected 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 151 
 
 in his own person, the building, equipping, and man- 
 ning of this flotilla, destined to prevent the Swed- 
 ish vessels on this side of the lake from harassing 
 the province of Novogorod. In like manner, he or- 
 dered up the seamen from the Don, to man his rising 
 fleet, on the lake Ladoga. In the midst of all 
 these preparations, he made frequent excursions to 
 Moscow, to see that the progress of improvements 
 and his new regulations were not neglected or 
 infringed. " Princes," says Yoltaire, " who have 
 employed their peaceful days in public foundations, 
 are mentioned in history with honor; but that 
 Peter, just after the unfortunate battle of Narva, 
 should undertake the junction of the Baltic, Caspian, 
 and Euxine seas, is what crowns him with more real 
 glory than he could ever have derived from the most 
 signal victory. ' ' * 
 
 It has always been a subject of surprise that, after 
 the victory of Narva, when Charles might have car- 
 ried everything before him in Russia, he should 
 have directed his sole attention to Poland, treating 
 the former as if unworthy of his notice; while 
 Peter was left at full liberty, not only to recruit and 
 discipline a new army, but also to design and carry 
 into execution many great and important improve- 
 ments : such as introducing from Saxony flocks of 
 sheep, and shepherds to attend them, for the sake of 
 their wool ; erecting linen and paper manufactories ; 
 building hospitals; inviting from abroad braziers, 
 
 * History of the Russian Empire, &c. 
 
152 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 blacksmiths, armorers, and other artisans of every 
 description ; and, in fact, cultivating, in the midst 
 of war, all the arts of peace. But for pursuits of 
 this kind Charles XII. himself had no taste ; he ap- 
 peared not to bestow a thought either on the wel- 
 fare of his own country, or on the proceedings of 
 Peter, whom he left unmolested and quite at his 
 ease during the whole year 1702 ; having made up 
 his mind not to quit Poland until he had driven from 
 the throne the new^ly-elected sovereign and ally of 
 the Czar, Augustus, the Elector of Saxony. 
 
 The Russian army was, in the mean time, far 
 from being idle; on the contrary, it was gaining 
 experience and confidence by the frequent skirmishes 
 the several detachments had with the Swedes, 
 particularly in Ingria and Livonia. Peter himself 
 was moving about in all directions ; one week he 
 was at Pscov, the next he made his appearance at 
 Moscow, and the third at Archangel, to which place 
 he had proceeded on a report that the Swedes were 
 intending to destroy the small establishment which 
 w^as kept up at that port. On coming thither, he 
 drew the plan of a new fortress, for its better secu- 
 rity, to which he gave the name of the New Dwina, 
 and of which he himself laid the first stone. His 
 General Scherematof succeeded in capturing what 
 is called a Swedish frigate, on the lake Peipus. He 
 was also successful against the Swedes in the neigh- 
 borhood of Dorpt, or Dorpat, on the frontiers of 
 Livonia, in an action with the Major-general Schlip- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I53 
 
 penbach in which the Russians took a great number 
 of prisoners, and some colors. On the 1st of Janu- 
 ary, 1702, this officer fell in with the main body of 
 the enemy, near a village named Eresfort. "As 
 our troops," says the Czar, ''were new, and but 
 little exercised, and our artillery had not arrived, 
 the enemy threw a great part of our men into con- 
 fusion, and obliged them to fall back ; but on being 
 joined by our artillery, their retreat was stopped ; 
 our men being again formed in order of battle, at- 
 tacked with so much vigor that, after an action of 
 four hours, the Swedes were compelled to yield, to 
 abandon their artillery, and to fly. The enemy 
 lost in this action the greater part of his troops, as 
 three thousand lay dead on the field of battle. Of 
 our men about one thousand were killed." * 
 
 In consequence of this important success, General 
 Scherematof was made field-marshal, and received 
 the order of St. Andrew, which was carried to him 
 by Menzikoff. Thanks were publicly returned to 
 God for this victory, and salutes, and fireworks, 
 and other rejoicings took place. It was on this oc- 
 casion that Peter observed, ' ' Well, we have at last 
 beaten the Swedes, when we were two to one 
 against them ; we shall, by-and-by, be able to face 
 them man to man. ' ' 
 
 On the 17th of July, the marshal was again en- 
 gaged with the enemy, near the village of Humo- 
 lowa, where he attacked them in front and in flank, 
 
 ♦Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
154 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ^« and," says the Czar, '' with the assistance of God, 
 we compelled them to fly from the field of battle ; 
 having not only retaken the artillery, the colors, 
 and the equipage, which they had taken from us, 
 but also killed so many of them that the few re- 
 mains of the cavalry were obliged to fly towards the 
 city of Pernow. The marshal having left behind 
 the infantry, pursued them with the regiments of 
 dragoons ; he overtook them a few miles from the 
 city, and routed them afresh. On this occasion we 
 took fifteen pieces of cannon, and sixteen colors, 
 and a great number of prisoners. Our loss was ten 
 officers, and about four hundred soldiers killed. ' ' * 
 
 After this second decisive action, Marshal Schere- 
 matof continued his march, driving from their posts 
 the small parties of Swedes, and laying the whole 
 country under contribution, till he arrived before 
 Marienburg, on the confines of Livonia and Ingria. 
 This small town is situated on a lake, w^hich it was 
 necessary to cross on floating bridges, to enable the 
 besiegers to take it by assault; but the enemy 
 agreed to capitulate, on condition of letting the in- 
 habitants leave the place, which was granted ; and 
 the major commanding, with two captains, came to 
 the camp to give up the place, according to capitula- 
 tion. In the meantime, a Captain Woolf, and an 
 ensign of artillery, the latter dragging his wife by 
 force, entered the powder magazine and set fire to 
 it, by which numbers, both of Russians and Swedes, 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I55 
 
 were blown into the air. In consequence of this, 
 the whole of the inhabitants, being very few, were 
 made prisoners, and the town was utterly destroyed. 
 Among the prisoners that were thus taken cap- 
 tive was one so intimately connected with the future 
 fortunes of the Czar — one to whom he was so much 
 indebted for his health and peace of mind, and, 
 probably, for his life and throne, as to have en- 
 titled her to that esteem and gratitude which he 
 owned, and never ceased to feel, to the end of his 
 life. The oiScer before whom the prisoners of war 
 were to file off was General Bauer, a man of great 
 mildness and humanity, who had risen from the 
 ranks to his present station. He observed among 
 the prisoners who passed before him a very young 
 girl, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and 
 apparently in the greatest distress. There was 
 something in her countenance and manner which 
 made so strong an impression upon him as to create 
 a desire to know her history ; and, with this view, 
 he ordered her to be taken care of till he had time 
 to question her. Her modest deportment, her great 
 diffidence, and her whole demeanor pleased him. 
 He assured her she had nothing to fear, as he would 
 take care she should be well treated. Her story 
 was simply this : — She was born at Eingen, a small 
 village on the banks of a lake near Dorpt, in 
 Livonia. Her mother had been a poor woman, sup- 
 ported chiefly by Count Eosen, an officer in the 
 Swedish service, the owner of the village ; but she 
 
156 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 had lost her mother when she was three years old, 
 and the count having died about the same time, 
 she could give no further account of what happened, 
 except that she was taken into the house of the 
 clerk of the village. This parish clerk kept a 
 school, and intended to instruct her with the rest of 
 the children; but Doctor Gluck, the Lutheran 
 minister of Marienburg, happening one day to come 
 to the village, and observing the child, took a great 
 fancy to her, and on learning her history, asked the 
 clerk, who was but a poor man, if he had any ob- 
 jection to part with her. In short, he took her 
 home with him, and treated her like one of his own 
 young family. Here she made herself useful, and 
 soon became a great favorite. She employed her- 
 self in the usual kind of work required in a family. 
 At first she knew no other language than Livonian, 
 which is a dialect of the Sclavonian, but at M. 
 Gluck' s she learned the German, of which she very 
 soon became a perfect mistress. 
 
 As Martha, for so it appears Catherine was then 
 called, advanced in years, her beauty attracted 
 many admirers ; and one in particular, a Livonian 
 sergeant in the Swedish army, fell passionately in 
 love with her; but, though the attachment was 
 mutual, she refused to marry him unless he obtained 
 the consent of M. Gluck. This worthy man, whose 
 circumstances were but moderate, thought he could 
 not do better, either for the young woman or for 
 himself, than to agree to the sergeant's proposal, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 157 
 
 more especially as his family was known to be re- 
 spectable, as he had a small property of his own, 
 and was in a fair way towards preferment, being a 
 sober and steady man, and a favorite in his regi- 
 ment. The marriage wsls performed by M. Gluck, 
 and the following day Marienburg surrendered, as 
 we have seen, to the Eussians. It was when in 
 extreme grief for the loss of her husband, who, as 
 he was never heard of afterward, must be supposed 
 to have perished on that day, that General Bauer 
 saw her : he was moved with compassion, and at 
 the same time, no doubt, with a stronger feeling; 
 and, smitten with her beauty, took her to his 
 house, where he appointed her to superintend his 
 domestic affairs. M. Wurmb, who was tutor in M. 
 Gluck' s family, assured M. Weber, the Hanoverian 
 minister at St. Petersburg, that during her residence 
 at Marienburg she was a pattern of virtue and good 
 conduct ; and while with the general, she was greatly 
 beloved by all his domestics, over whom she was 
 placed. 
 
 One day Menzikoff happened to call at the gen- 
 eral's house, and seeing Martha, was struck with 
 her beauty and manner, and, having learned her 
 history, asked the general if he would part with 
 her, as he was very much in want of such a person 
 to superintend the female part of his establishment. 
 The general would willingly have refused ; but as he 
 was indebted for his rise in some manner to the prince, 
 and owed him, on that account, a debt of gratitude, 
 
158 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 he called the young woman before them, and asked 
 her if she had any objection to enter the service of 
 Prince Menzikoff, who would have it in his power 
 to be of more use to her than he could possibly be, 
 adding that he had too much regard for her future 
 welfare to stand in the way of what was likely to 
 lead to her advantage. Martha make a profound 
 courtesy, and retired without speaking a word, and 
 the next day saw her in the palace of Menzikoff . 
 Gordon, who, however, was then a prisoner at 
 Stockholm, says that Menzikoff took her home and 
 presented her to his princess. She continued to 
 make her home in the family of this prince till the 
 year 1704, when in the seventeenth year of her age, 
 she became attached to Peter, and won so much 
 upon his affections, that he, first privately, and 
 afterward publicly, married her. 
 
 Such was the rise of this extraordinary woman, 
 who, after the death of Peter, succeeded to the 
 throne of Russia. ' ' There have been instances, ' ' 
 says Voltaire, ' ' before this, of private persons be- 
 ing raised to the throne ; nothing was more common 
 in Russia, and in all the Asiatic kingdoms, than 
 marriages between sovereigns and their subjects; 
 but that a poor stranger, who had been discovered 
 amid the ruins of a plundered town, should become 
 the absolute sovereign of that very empire into 
 which she was led captive, is an incident which for- 
 tune and merit have never before produced in the 
 annals of the world." 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I59 
 
 The arms of the Czar, in the course of this cam- 
 paign of 1702, were equally successful in Ingria as 
 in Livonia. His galleys on the lake Ladoga drove 
 those of the Swedes to take shelter on the opposite 
 side of the lake. From the lower extremity of this 
 fine sheet of water issues the river IS'eva, whose 
 branches, now flowing through the noble city of 
 St. Petersburg, which then had no existence, re- 
 unite and are discharged into the Baltic. The im- 
 portance of such a communication could not pass 
 unobserved by the Czar. Near the exit of this 
 river, on an island of the lake, was situated the 
 strong fortified town of Kotteburg, which Peter was 
 determined to wrest, if possible, from the Swedes; 
 and for this purpose the siege of it was ordered to 
 be undertaken by the Field-marshal Scherematof. 
 Peter himself, as captain . of the Preobazinki's 
 guards, with the princes Repnin, Galitzin, and Men- 
 zikoff , the last then only a lieutenant, was present 
 at the siege, which lasted from the 18th September 
 to the 12th October, when three several breaches 
 being made, the place was carried by assault. A 
 prodigious quantity of stores and ammunition fell 
 into the hands of the Russians. " The same day," 
 says the Czar, ' ' the marshal and the generals went 
 into the town, after returning thanks to God; and 
 having fired three volleys of cannon and musketry, 
 they changed the name of the fortress, and gave it 
 that of Schltlsselburg : " * " because, ' ' he adds, ' ' it is 
 
 * i. e. Key-town. 
 
160 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 by this Itey that the gates of the enemy's country 
 are opened to ns, and this name, by the grace of 
 God, is effectually secured to it." 
 
 Honors, and promotions, and rewards were 
 largely distributed. Menzikoff, lieutenant of bom- 
 bardiers, was appointed governor of Schliisselburg. 
 Prince Galitzin, lieutenant-colonel of the guards, 
 was promoted to the rank of colonel ; the rest of the 
 officers were gratified in one way or another, most- 
 ly with gold medals ; and rewards were also distrib- 
 uted to all the common soldiers; but Peter him- 
 self took no promotion, though he had been captain 
 of a storming party, and actually mounted one of the 
 breaches. On the 6th December he niade his tri- 
 umphal entry into Moscow, and the prisoners, their 
 colors, their cannon, and twenty wagon -loads of 
 ammunition and stores, taken from the enemy, were 
 marched in the procession, passing through three 
 triumphal arches. His majesty, on entering the 
 city, was harangued by the clergy and the chief 
 authorities, and greeted with the discharge of artil- 
 lery and the ringing of bells ; and the day was cel- 
 ebrated with every demonstration of joy. The 
 Czar himself was known to have no taste for these 
 kmd of exhibitions, but he thought them necessary, 
 not only to inspire his new troops with a noble em- 
 ulation, but also to give confidence by his successes 
 to his subjects, — a large portion of whom, judging 
 from former reverses, were averse to the war in 
 which he had involved the country. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 161 
 
 In the course of this year the Patriarch Adrian 
 died ; and as these dignitaries of the church had, at 
 all times, not only interfered with the temporal con- 
 cerns of the Czars, but assumed a superior and inde- 
 pendent authority, and even arrogated to themselves 
 the power of life and death, Peter determined to 
 abolish the office altogether, letting it to be under- 
 stood that Ke was to be considered as the head of 
 the church ; having profited, perhaps, by the lessons 
 he received from Bishop Burnet. At the same time 
 he appointed the metropolitan of Rezan to take upon 
 himself the chief administration of ecclesiastical af- 
 fairs, until a regular synod should be established, 
 which, however, did not take place till the year 
 1721. At that synod, when Peter was presiding, 
 a petition was read from some of the superior clergy, 
 which contained the names of several members of 
 the synod, praying him to appoint a patriarch. The 
 secretary having finished the reading, Peter rose up, 
 struck his breast with great violence, and called out 
 vehemently, ' ' Here is your patriarch, ' ' and im- 
 mediately left the meeting. The Czar's private 
 secretary, who was present, told Staehlin that Peter 
 smote his breast with one hand, and drew his hanger 
 with the other, and striking the table with the flat 
 of it, called out, ''Here is your patriarch."* 
 
 It was not consistent with the character of Peter 
 to pay that homage to any one which, in his estima- 
 
 * staehlin : authority Great-chancellor Bestouchef and Sec- 
 retary Tcherkassof, 
 \\ 
 
162 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 tion, was due only to God an4 St. Nicholas ; to 
 submit to walk on foot, in a procession, leading by 
 the bridle the horse or the ass on which an insolent 
 and arrogant priest was seated ; or to suffer an}^ in- 
 dividual, except himself, to pronounce sentence of 
 death, or inflict the punishment of the rack or the 
 wheel, as was done, and without appeal, by the ec- 
 clesiastical tribunal. The monks and the priests 
 were of course dissatisfied with the loss of the 
 patriarch. They libeled the Czar, and ridiculed his 
 innovations through the very press which he had 
 himself been the means of introducing. One priest 
 declared him to be antichrist, as no evil being of 
 less power could have dared to abolish the holy 
 office ; but another contended that the Czar could 
 not be antichrist, because the number Q6Q was not 
 in his name, neither had he the sign of the beast. 
 Peter, as it would appear, paid very little attention 
 to these idle disputes ; though Yoltaire in his his- 
 tory of Charles the Twelfth, sa^^s, " the author of 
 the libel was racked on the wheel, and the respon- 
 dent made bishop of Eezan. ' ' 
 
 Abating the displeasure which the clergy felt at 
 the abolition of the office of ]Datriarch, the Czar 
 omitted nothing, during his short stay at Moscow, 
 that he conceived might afford amusement to the 
 people, and keep them in good-humor; rightly 
 judging this to be the readiest way to facilitate the 
 progress of his new regulations. He ventured, how- 
 ever, on a bold experiment. By making their old 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 163 
 
 customs appear ridiculous, he hoped to induce his 
 subjects to think lightly of their loss. With this 
 view, he gave a grand entertainment, at which all 
 the guests were ordered to be dressed in the ancient 
 costume of Muscovy. At the same time one of his 
 fools was to be married, by which he would have 
 an opportunity of exhibiting to the guests how very 
 absurd the ancient customs were on such occasions ; 
 one of which forbade any fire being lighted on a 
 wedding-day, even in the depth of winter, which it 
 now was, the warmth of the affection of the new- 
 married couple being thought sufficient without any 
 other fuel. He prohibited the use of wine to his 
 guests, and made them drink mead and brandy ; 
 telling them, in a jocular manner, ' ' Your ancestors 
 did so ; and surely ancient customs are always the 
 best to be observed. ' ' The report of this entertain- 
 ment, being spread over Moscow, gave great amuse- 
 ment to the people, who observed to one another, 
 what a comical man their Czar was. 
 
 Since Peter's return from his travels, he had not 
 only become much more social, but had lost his for- 
 mer shyness and dislike to mix in large societies ; 
 he now visited, in a familiar way, the most respect- 
 able merchants' families, and explained to them his 
 views for improving the trade of the country. One 
 day, when dining with a foreign merchant, he was 
 so much taken with the beauty and manners of his 
 daughter, that he made proposals to the father that 
 she should live at his court, on what terms is not 
 
164: LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 mentioned. The story is romantic, but the truth of 
 it well vouched. This virtuous young lady rejected, 
 with indignation, the offer; but, dreading what 
 might be the effect of a refusal on the all-powerful 
 autocrat, she took the resolution of leaving Moscow 
 that very night, without communicating her design 
 even to her parents. Having provided herself with 
 a little money, she repaired on foot to a small vil- 
 lage, several miles off, where her old nurse lived, 
 with her husband and their daughter — told her 
 story, and entreated them to conceal her from any 
 pursuit that might be made. There was a wood 
 near the village, into which she insisted on proceed- 
 ing that very night. The husband being a wood- 
 cutter by trade, conducted her to a little dry island 
 in the midst of a morass, where he constructed a 
 log-hut for her habitation, and here she remained 
 for more than twelve months, her nurse providing 
 little necessaries for her support, which were care- 
 fully conveyed to her by one of the three, and 
 either the mother or the daughter attending her by 
 night. 
 
 The Czar, calling at the house of the merchant 
 the next day, and learning what had happened, flew 
 into a great rage, and threatened him with the effect 
 of his utmost displeasure, if his daughter was not 
 immediately produced. Both father and mother 
 protested most solemnly, with tears of grief for the 
 loss of their child, that they were alike ignorant as 
 innocent of what had occurred, and expressed their 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 165 
 
 fears, as nothing belonging to her was missing, that 
 some dreadful disaster had befallen her. The Czar 
 was at length satisfied ; rewards were publicly ad- 
 vertised for her recovery, but to no purpose ; and 
 the parents and relations went into mourning, 
 considering she was no more. 
 
 It happened that a colonel in the army was shoot- 
 ing in the wood where the young lady was concealed, 
 and, following his game, came upon the hut, and 
 saw a young and beautiful girl in a peasant's dress. 
 He soon discovered by her conversation that she 
 was not the person she appeared to be, and a sus- 
 picion crossed his mind that she might be the lost 
 lady, whose disappearance had made so great a 
 noise. In the utmost confusion and distress, she 
 entreated him, on her knees, not to betray her. He 
 told her that all danger was now past, the Czar was 
 then otherwise engaged, and that she might with 
 safety discover herself, at least, to her parents. It 
 will readily be supposed that an interesting adven- 
 ture of this kind, between two young persons, laid 
 the seeds of a mutual attachment. The colonel pro- 
 ceeded to make the happy discovery to her friends, 
 who, however, had still their apprehensions of the 
 Czar' s anger. The colonel proposed to lay the whole 
 story before Catharine, whose influence over Peter 
 was already known ; he waited on her, who agreed 
 to introduce him, the following morning, to the 
 Czar ; and, in the mean time, she put him in posses- 
 sion of the young lady's unfortunate case, and qj 
 
166 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 the sufferings she must have undergone in so dismal 
 a place. The Czar showed a great deal of contrition, 
 and declared himself ready to make all the amends 
 in his power. Catharine, who probably was better 
 acquainted with human nature than the Czar, sug- 
 gested that the best amends his majesty could make 
 was to give the lady a handsome fortune, and the 
 colonel for a husband. Peter at once agreed, and 
 took upon himself the direction and expense of the 
 marriage, and gave away the bride, saying, he was 
 happy to present him with one of the most virtuous 
 of women ; he also made the colonel a present, be- 
 sides settling on her a pension of three thousand 
 rubles a year. Captain Bruce says, ' ' I had this 
 her story from her own mouth.'' ^"^ 
 
 Mrs. Yigors, in one of her letters to a friend in 
 England, thus relates the circumstance of the break- 
 ing of his attachment with one Mademoiselle 
 Moens : 
 
 " I have been visited by several of Mr. W 's f 
 
 old acquaintance, one of whom was a courtier in 
 your hero's time. She is a sensible Avoman, and 
 entertains me with many of his private adventures. 
 The following one I will relate, though long, as I 
 think it shows he was not so savage as some have 
 represented him. He had a violent passion for an 
 officer's daughter, named Munce (Moens), and used 
 more assiduous means to gain her than monarchs 
 
 * Mem. of P. H. Bruce, Esq. 
 
 \ Mr. Ward, her former husband. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 167 
 
 generally are forced to ; at last she yielded, and be- 
 came his public mistress, and for many years he 
 loved her with a fondness rarely found. One fatal 
 day he went to see a castle he had built in the sea, 
 attended by his own and foreign ministers. At 
 their return, the Polish minister, by some accident, 
 fell over the drawbridge and was drowned, notwith- 
 standing all endeavors to save him. The emperor 
 ordered all the papers in his pockets to be taken out 
 and sealed up, before all the company. On search- 
 ing his pockets, a picture dropped, which the em- 
 peror took up, and judge his surprise when he found 
 it was the portrait of the lady. In a sudden gust of 
 passion he tore open some of the papers, and found 
 several letters from her to the deceased in the ten- 
 derest style. He left the company that instant, 
 came alone to the apartment of my informant, and 
 ordered her to send for the lady thither : when she 
 entered, he locked the door on them three, and 
 asked her how she came to write to such a person? 
 She denied she had ; he then produced the picture 
 and letters, and when he told her of his death, she 
 burst into tears, while he reproached her with in- 
 gratitude in such a storm of passion, that my author 
 expected to see her murdered ; but on a sudden, he 
 also melted into tears, and said he forgave her, 
 since he so severely felt how impossible it was to 
 conquer inclination ; ' for, ' he added, ' notwith- 
 standing you have returned my fondness with false- 
 hood, I find I cannot hate you, though I do myself 
 
168 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 for the meanness of spirit I am guilty of ; but it 
 would be quite despicable in me to continue to live 
 with you ; therefore begone, while I can keep my 
 passion within the bounds of humanity. You shall 
 never want, but I will never see you more. ' He 
 kept his word, and soon after married her to one 
 who had an employment at a distance, and was 
 always kind to them in point of fortune. ' ' ^ 
 
 Mrs. Yigors is right. Peter was not such a 
 ' ' savage as some have represented him. ' ' From 
 the silence of his biographers, it may be inferred 
 that this was the last of his youthful indiscretions, 
 for had more existed, they would have been 
 blazoned forth in every variety of shape ; the whole 
 course of his life being minutely watched by the 
 foreign residents, their secretaries and clerks, and 
 reported to their employers — 
 
 " all his faults observed, 
 
 Set in a note-book, learned and conned by rote." 
 
 It seems, indeed, to have been the general belief, 
 that his attachment to the fair sex was hencefor- 
 ward confined solely to Catharine, whose good con- 
 duct, affection, and unremitting attention fully en- 
 titled her to his undivided confidence, love, and 
 esteem. 
 
 * Letters from a lady who resided some years in Russia. 
 
CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 Continued Successes over the Swedes — Peter lays the Founda- 
 tion of St. Petersburg— His Saxon Ally deprived of the 
 Crown of Poland— Takes Dorpt, and Narva, and Mittau — 
 Augustus makes Peace with Charles — Disgraceful Conduct 
 of the former — Seizure and inhuman Death of Patkul — 
 Masterly Maneuver of Peter — Position of the Russian and 
 Swedish Armies. 
 
 The presence of the Czar was soon deemed neces- 
 sary on the northeastern frontier of Sweden. He 
 first hastened to Olonetz, where he had established 
 a dockyard, and a manufactory of small-arms. 
 This place, situated on the eastern shore of Ladoga, 
 was a spot of great importance for his future opera- 
 tions in that quarter. Near this lake, and not far 
 from the Neva, was situated another important 
 fortress, held by the Swedes, to which he laid siege 
 both by land and water; and it surrendered to 
 Scherematof immediately after the capture of two 
 Swedish vessels, that should have come to its relief, 
 but which Avere both taken by the Czar in person, 
 who had assumed the command of the boats on the 
 lake. On this occasion, as captain of bombardiers, 
 he received the Order of St. Andrew as a reward 
 for his gallant conduct. In his journal he modestly 
 observes, '^ On the 30th May, we returned thanks 
 
 169 
 
170 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 to God for this naval victory, being the first ; and, 
 after this, those who had held commands on this 
 service, namely, the captain of bombardiers, and the 
 Lieutenant Menzikoff, received the Order of St. 
 Andrew, conferred on them by the Admiral Count 
 de Golownin, the most ancient knight of that 
 Order."* 
 
 It was the great importance which the Czar at- 
 tached to the expulsion of the enemy from the two 
 shores of the Neva, and the occupation or destruc- 
 tion of all the Swedish posts which they held in 
 CareHa and Iiigria, that had hastened his departure 
 from Moscow. In the mean time, Menzikoff had 
 not been idle. Having proceeded to the mouth of 
 the Neva, he obtained some success over the Swed- 
 ish gunboats that were hovering in that quarter ; at 
 the same time Peter advanced against a Swedish 
 fortress named Nianshantz, or, as he calls it, Kantzi, 
 on the Carelian side of the Neva, near to the spot 
 where Petersburg now stands. The Czar, having 
 made himself master of this fortress, called a coun- 
 cil of war, in order to have its opinion, before he 
 determined whether they should strengthen the 
 fortifications of this new conquest, or look out for 
 another position more spacious and less distant from 
 the sea, the latter idea was adopted, and, after some 
 days, they fixed upon a spot on an island near the 
 mouth of the Neva, called Lust Eland^ or Pleasure 
 Island, where, on the 16th May, they laid the 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
LIB^E OF PETER THE GREAT. I7I 
 
 foundation of a new fortress. Here, in fact, the 
 Neva divided itself into four or five branches, form- 
 ing a flat delta of islands, covered with brushwood 
 and swamps, on which were a few miserable huts 
 of some poor fishermen. The fortress thus founded 
 was named St. Petersburg ; and from this beginning 
 has risen up in the course of a hundred and thirty 
 years, one of the most magnificent cities in the 
 world. 
 
 A few months after this, Menzikoff was sent 
 down to the mouth of the river, to fix upon a 
 spot on which to erect a fortress for the protection 
 of the entrance. A low sandy island, close to that 
 called Retusari, which commanded the deep and 
 narrow channel of the N^eva, appeared to him in 
 every respect suitable for the purpose; and his 
 majesty, having examined and approved the position, 
 named a day to go down and lay the foundation of 
 a fort, which should command and protect the 
 channel, and to which he gave the name of Cron- 
 slot, and the town and buildings which subsequently 
 arose on the adjacent island, and, indeed, the first 
 fortress, received the name they now bear of Cron- 
 stadt. The model of the fortress was made by the 
 Czar himself, in wood, and he left Menzikoff to 
 carry it into execution. He then returned to super- 
 intend the works carrying on at his projected new 
 city of St. Petersburg, taking up his lodging in a 
 small wooden house, which he caused to be erected 
 for himself, and which is still preserved by a sur- 
 
172 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 rounding wall, as a memorial of this extraordinary 
 man. 
 
 In erecting the fortress of St. Petersburg, he 
 availed himself of the ruins of the works at Nian- 
 shantz, which served for the foundation stones. 
 This citadel was situated nearly about the center of 
 the intended city, and occupied the spot which is 
 now the Academy of Sciences. The command of it 
 was given to Yassali Demetrievitz, and hence it 
 took, and still retains, the name of Yassali na Ost- 
 rof — ''Yassali upon the island." The whole sur- 
 rounding country Avas a morass, in which not a stone 
 of any description could be found, — the people em- 
 ployed had little or no experience, — according to 
 Captain Perry, the laborers were not furnished with 
 the necessary tools, such as pick-axes, spades, 
 shovels, planks, and the like : ' ' Notwithstanding 
 which, ' ' the same author observes, ' ' the work went 
 on with such expedition, that it was surprising to 
 see the fortress raised within less than five months, 
 though the earth, which is very scarce thereabouts, 
 was, for the greater part, carried by the laborers in 
 the skirts of their clothes, and in bags made of rags 
 and old mats, the use of wheelbarrows being then 
 unknown to them." ^" Under such untoward cir- 
 cumstances, in such a country, and amid such diffi- 
 culties, it is indeed surprising that a town should have 
 arisen, in the course of a twelvemonth, said then 
 to contain houses and huts, of one description or 
 * Perry, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I73 
 
 another, amounting to the number of thirty thou- 
 sand. * 
 
 Peter, however, was a man not to be diverted 
 from his purpose by difficulties ; nor was he deterred 
 from the attempt to make up, by sheer human 
 labor, what might be wanting in skill and imple- 
 ments. For this purpose he collected together many 
 thousand persons, from all parts of the empire, — 
 Kussians, Cossacks, Tartars, Calmucks, Finlanders, 
 and Ingrians, these people he employed in deepen- 
 ing the channels of the several branches, digging 
 canals, and heaping up the earth, in order to raise 
 the general level of the islands, which were so low 
 as to be frequently overflowed. This severe labor, 
 without shelter from the inclemency of the weather, 
 in a climate of sixty degrees of latitude, with scanty 
 fare of the worst kind, and frequently without any 
 for a day or two together, caused such a mortality 
 among them, that it is asserted not less than a hun- 
 dred thousand men perished in the course of the 
 first year. 
 
 Though Peter, as has been seen, had no great 
 affection for the priesthood, he always paid a high 
 regard to religious duties, and constantly attended 
 divine service, wherever he was resident and the 
 means were afforded, without regarding what the 
 particular tenets of the community were. One of 
 the first buildings, after the citadel, was a church ; 
 and he ordered a proper number of priests to be 
 
 • * Mottley. Nestesuranoi, 
 
171 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 sent from Moscow, to perform the duties of their 
 office. Pie directed, also, several merchants and 
 tradespeople to repair to his new city, and exercise 
 there their several trades and professions. The next 
 public building erected, was a large hotel for the 
 accommodation of the foreign ministers; and, as 
 Menzikoff undertook the management of the Czar's 
 public entertainments, a large house was among the 
 first to be constructed, to enable him to receive his 
 sovereign's guests. In the mean time, the officers 
 and private individuals Avere engaged in erecting 
 houses, shops, and warehouses, all of wood, so that 
 St. Petersburg soon exhibited the appearance of a 
 large and respectable town. 
 
 Matters, however, did not go on smoothly. 
 Those who had been forced to a residence among 
 the swampy islands of the J^eva, as well as the nu- 
 merous workmen, who had suffered dreadfully from 
 disease and privations of every kind, at length be- 
 came clamorous, gave vent to their murmurings, 
 and a general dissatisfaction manifested itself in a 
 singular manner. Peter was absent in the neigh- 
 borhood of Ladoga, having left Count Golofkin to 
 superintend the works. One day the people set off 
 in crowds to the church. The count repaired 
 thither, but the crowd was so dense that he was 
 obliged to return. He was told that the image of 
 the blessed Virgin had shed tears, to show the peo- 
 ple her affliction for their sufferings, and at being 
 obliged to remain and witness them in that inhospi- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 175 
 
 table part of the country. With such an omen be- 
 fore their eyes, they stated their conviction that 
 some dreadful convulsion threatened the new estab- 
 lishment. Golof kin thought this story, ridiculous as 
 it was, of sufficient importance to authorize him to 
 send off an express for the Czar, who made his ap- 
 pearance the following day ; proceeded immediately 
 to the church ; summoned the people to attend ; and 
 ordered the priests to show him the miraculous signs 
 exhibited by the holy Virgin. Having examined it 
 attentively, and perceiving something oozing out of 
 the eyes, he ordered one of the priests to take down 
 the image ; when, stripping off the covering behind, 
 he discovered a small cavity close to the eyes, in 
 which was deposited a little oil, that gradually oozed 
 out, and trickled down her cheeks ; and, having ex- 
 posed this piece of priestly imposture to the public, 
 he ordered the image to be taken to his house, telling 
 the people he meant to deposit it in his cabinet of 
 curiosities.* Another account says, the heads of 
 the saints were sometimes made hollow, to hold 
 water, in which, when it was necessary to make 
 them weep, two or three little fishes were put, 
 whose motions caused the water to overflow through 
 the eyes. 
 
 It may well be supposed that the intention of 
 building a second capital, and of forcing the inhab- 
 itants of the old one to migrate to the bleak regions 
 
 * Stsehlin. Authority, M. Corruedon, Intendant of the 
 Court, 
 
176 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 of the north, met with great opposition from the 
 boyars and superior classes; and, in fact, nothing 
 short of despotic authority could have established 
 Petersburg as the new residence of the Czar. But 
 Peter, more enlightened than his subjects, was fully 
 aware of the importance of the situation. As a 
 modern writer justly observes, ''The internal im- 
 provement of the Russian empire, the great object 
 of Peter's reign, was considerably advanced by ap- 
 proaching the capital to the more civilized parts of 
 Europe : by this means he drew the nobility from 
 their rude magnificence and feudal dignity at Mos- 
 cow, to a more immediate dependence on the sove- 
 reign, to more polished manners, to a greater degree 
 of social intercourse. Nor did any other cause, 
 perhaps, so much tend to promote his plans for the 
 civilization of his subjects, as the removal of the 
 imperial seat from the inland provinces to the Gulf 
 of Finland."* 
 
 The Czar had, evidently, and indeed he avowed it, 
 Amsterdam in his eye, when he planned and marked 
 out St. Petersburg. The wharves of the river, the 
 canals, the bridges, the straight-lined streets planted 
 with trees, were all after the Dutch model. He had 
 taken with him, from Yoronitz and other places, 
 several Dutch architects, shipbuilders, masons, and 
 artisans well versed in securing foundations on 
 swampy ground, similar to that on which Amster- 
 dam is built ; in short, the earliest part of the city, 
 * Coxe's Travels in Russia. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 17f 
 
 which stands on the Yassali Ostrof , is entirely after 
 the Dutch taste ; and to a small island, on which 
 vast quantities of timber are usually collected and 
 stowed, he gave the name of New- Holland. 
 
 Five months had scarcely elapsed from laying the 
 first stone of St. Petersburg, Avhen a report was 
 brought to the Czar that a large ship, under Dutch 
 colors, was standing into the river. It may be sup- 
 posed that this was a joyful piece of intelligence 
 for the founder. It was nothing short of realizing 
 the wish, nearest his heart, to open the Baltic for 
 the nations of Europe to trade with his dominions ; 
 it constituted them his neighbors ; and he at once 
 anticipated the day when his ships would also float 
 on his OAvn waters, would beat the Swedish navy, 
 and drive them from a sea on which they had long 
 floated triumphant with undivided sway. When 
 Peter was employed in building his fleet at Yor- 
 onitz, Patrick Gordon one day asked him, ''Of 
 what use do you expect all the vessels you are build- 
 ing to be, seeing you have no seaports?" ''My 
 vessels shall make ports for themselves," replied 
 Peter, in a determined tone; a declaration which 
 was now on the eve of being accomplished. 
 
 ]^o sooner was the communication made, than 
 the Czar, with his usual rapidity, set off to meet this 
 welcome stranger. The skipper was invited to the 
 house of Menzikoff ; he sat down at table; and, to 
 his great astonishment, found that he was placed 
 next the Czar, and had actually been served by him. 
 J2 
 
178 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 But not less astonished and delighted was Peter, on 
 learning that the ship belonged to, and had been 
 freighted by, his old Zaandam friend with whom he 
 had resided, Cornelius Calf. Permission was im- 
 mediately given to the skipper to land his cargo, 
 consisting of salt, wine, and other articles of pro- 
 visions, free of all duties. Nothing could be more 
 acceptable to the inhabitants of the new city than 
 this cargo, the whole of which was purchased by 
 Peter, Menzikoff, and the several officers; so that 
 Auke Wihes, the skipper, made a most profitable ad- 
 venture. On his departure he received a present of 
 five hundred ducats, and each man of the crew one 
 hundred rix- dollars, as a premium for the first ship 
 that had entered the port of St. Petersburg. In the 
 same year another Dutch ship arrived, with a cargo 
 of hams, cheese, butter, gin, &c., and received the 
 same premium ; and the third was given to an Eng- 
 lish ship, which entered the port in the first year of 
 the building of the city. * 
 
 While Peter was thus busily employed in creating 
 a new capital, the King of Sweden was making his 
 way with the diet of Poland, and endeavoring to 
 prevail on them to dethrone Augustus. He was 
 fully aware of the Czar's proceedings, and of the 
 rapid progress that he was making in building a city 
 on the banks of the Neva. But when this was once 
 mentioned to Charles, he is reported to have said, 
 ^' Let him amuse himself as he thinks fit in building 
 * Scheltema's Russia and Netherlands. 
 
lilFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 1Y9 
 
 his city ; I shall soon find time to take it from him, 
 and to put his wooden houses into a blaze. " As to 
 Augustus, he had lost entirely the affections of the 
 Poles ; so that the cardinal-primate, who had long 
 flattered and deceived him, at last threw off the 
 mask, and declared, at an assembly held at Warsaw, 
 the 14th of February, 1704, that Augustus, Elector 
 of Saxony, was incapable of wearing the crown of 
 Poland any longer. It was, therefore, agreed that 
 the throne was vacant, and that a new election 
 must be made. The Czar addressed an indignant 
 letter to the cardinal-primate, and to the ''most 
 illustrious, generous, and magnificent lords, ' ' which, 
 however, produced no effect on the confederated 
 nobility. 
 
 They proceeded to elect Prince James Sobieski, 
 recommended by the King of Sweden ; but intelli- 
 gence was just then brought from his brother Alex- 
 ander, stating, that, as his brothers, James and Con- 
 stantine were hunting near Breslau, a party of 
 about thirty horse, sent by Augustus for the purpose, 
 had seized and forcibly carried them off to Leipsic 
 where they were kept in close confinement. Charles 
 then proposed Alexander for the crown, which his 
 father had w^orn before him, but he absolutely re- 
 fused to accept it while his elder brother was alive. 
 The King of Sweden next named Stanislaus Les- 
 cinsky,"^ a young nobleman endowed with great 
 
 * The Polish spelling of this word is " Leszczynski." The 
 simpler form is here retained as a matter of convenience. 
 
180 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 virtues and accomplishments, who was then, by the 
 voice of the diet, declared King of Poland and 
 Grand-duke of Lithuania. 
 
 Augustus, having heard of the election of Stanis- 
 laus, assembled a council at Sendomir, and there 
 caused him to be declared a rebel and a traitor. 
 But while the Elector of Saxony was abusing his 
 successful rival, in idle declamations, Charles was 
 everywhere routing his Saxon troops. Thus cir- 
 cumstanced, the Czar had not much hope of assist- 
 ance from the deposed monarch. He himself was, 
 however, growing every day more formidable ; his 
 troops were now in a high state of discipline, and 
 fit to meet the SAvedes man to man; his officers 
 were well trained in their military duties ; he had 
 several fine regiments of cavalry, good engineers, 
 and a serviceable artillery ; and such was now the 
 strength of his army, that, in virtue of a treaty he 
 had made with Augustus, he was able to send him a 
 reinforcement of twelve thousand men into Lithu- 
 ania, to support him in that province, which had, 
 as yet, declared for neither party. In the mean- 
 time the Czar disposed his forces, in the spring of 
 1704, into two divisions : the one, under Field-mar- 
 shal Scherematof , he destined to lay siege to Dorpt ; 
 the other, under his immediate orders, to proceed 
 to the attack of Narva, where he had formerly sus- 
 tained so destructive a defeat. 
 
 To besiege Dorpt, it was necessary to be master 
 of the navigation of the lake Peipus, For thi^ pur- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 181 
 
 pose, a flotilla was placed at the mouth of the Em- 
 bach, and the infantry, with some field-pieces, lined 
 the banks. The Swedish squadron advanced down 
 the river, to attack the Kussian flotilla ; a battle 
 ensued, the result of which was the capture or de- 
 struction of all the Swedish vessels. The vessel of 
 the commander, Loscher, was blown up, and the 
 victory was so complete, that the Russians sat down, 
 without molestation, before Dorpt. The brave 
 commandant of this place held out for more than 
 six weeks, when a breach was made, and one thou- 
 sand men were prepared for the assault. A great 
 slaughter ensued ; and the commandant, to prevent 
 the remainder of the garrison being put to the sword, 
 proposed, and was granted, an honorable capitula- 
 tion. 
 
 Though Peter had assisted in the siege of this 
 place, and was constantly passing to and from 
 Xarva, the siege of the latter was under his im- 
 mediate direction, and matters were now ready for 
 an assault. It was necessary, in the first place, to 
 get possession of three bastions, which bore the re- 
 nowned names of victory^ honor ^ and glory. The 
 Czar carried all three, with sword in hand ; the be- 
 siegers rushed forward into the town, and fell im- 
 mediately to plunder. The most horrid barbarities 
 ensued, and all those outrages against decency and 
 humanity which are but too common on the sacking 
 of a town, and which both Russians and Swedes 
 were in the habit of practising to the greatest excess, 
 
182 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 were committed in this unfortunate place. But 
 Peter, barbarian as he has been supposed, on seeing 
 his men intent on slaughter and pillage, ran from 
 place to place to stay their fury, rescuing women 
 and children from the hands of a savage soldiery, and 
 slaying, without compunction, several of the barba- 
 rous brutes who would not listen to his orders. He 
 then proceeded to the Hotel de Yille, where great 
 numbers of the unfortunate citizens had taken ref- 
 uge ; he there threw down his sword, reeking with 
 blood, upon the table, saying, '' My sword is not 
 stained with the blood of the inhabitants of this city, 
 but with that of my own soldiers, which I have 
 not hesitated to spill to save your lives. ' ' 
 
 Thus, with the acquisition of Dorpt and ]S"arva, 
 the year 1704 saw Peter in possession of all Ingria 
 the government of which he conferred on his fa- 
 vorite Menzikoff, creating him, at the same time, 
 a prince of the empire and major-general in the 
 army. ' ' The pride and prejudice of other coun- 
 tries," says Voltaire, " might find fault with a sove- 
 reign for raising a pastry-cook's boy to. the post of 
 general, and governor, and to princely dignity ; but 
 Peter had accustomed his subjects not to be sur- 
 prised at seeing him prefer men of abilities to per- 
 sons who had nothing to recommend them but their 
 high birth. ' ' Menzikoff had, unquestionably, very 
 splendid abilities, though Gordon will not allow 
 his military talent. While in the Czar's family he 
 had made himself perfect in several languages ; he 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 183 
 
 became an officer, at least, of considerable talent, 
 and was of great assistance to his master both in 
 the cabinet and the field; and, by his insinuating 
 manners and lively good-hmnor, he gained over a 
 great many of the nobles, who for some time had 
 shown a decided hostility both to him and to the in- 
 novations of his master. Such a man was deemed 
 most fit to govern and protect the important prov- 
 ince, which opened to Russia a lucrative commerce, 
 and speedy intercourse with the rest of Europe. 
 Some few demonstrations had been made, in the 
 course of the year, on the part of the Swedes, to 
 interrupt the operations on the Neva, but they all 
 failed. The only formidable attempt occurred when 
 Peter was in Poland, in June, 1705. A Swedish 
 squadron of twenty-two ships of war, with a num- 
 ber of transports, landed a numerous body of men 
 on the island of Kitin, when the Russian troops, 
 who had laid themselves down flat on the ground, 
 suddenly started up, and falling on the Swedes un- 
 awares, obliged them to retreat, in the utmost con- 
 fusion, to their ships, abandoning their dead, and 
 leaving behind three hundred prisoners. 
 
 Peter, therefore, deeming himself secure in this 
 quarter directed a more particular attention to the 
 proceedings of Charles XII. in Poland. He first 
 made an offer to the dethroned king Augustus, to 
 supply huTi with a fresh body of troops, in addition 
 to the twelve thousand men which he had already 
 sent him; and General Repnin was accordingly 
 
184 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ordered to march from the frontiers of Lithuania 
 with six thousand horse and six thousand foot. 
 This being done, after first paying a visit to Yoro- 
 nitz, to be present at the launching of the first ship 
 of eighty guns, built from a draft of his own, 
 Peter hastened to join the confederated army in 
 Poland, in order to open the first campaign of the 
 year 1705, in support of his old ally Augustus. He 
 proceeded to Yilna in Lithuania, while Marshal 
 Scherematof was advancing upon Mittau, the capital 
 of Courland. In his way he fell in with the Swed- 
 ish general Lewenhaupt, at a place called Gemauers, 
 where an obstinate battle was fought, in which the 
 Kussians were defeated, with the loss of five to six 
 thousand men, and the field-marshal was wounded ; 
 but the victory was dearly purchased by the Swedes, 
 who had two generals and several other ofiicers killed, 
 and two thousand men left on the field. Lewen- 
 haupt, in his report of this battle to the King of 
 Sweden, observes, that the Eussians had through- 
 out behaved like brave soldiers. 
 
 Notwithstanding this check, Peter ordered his 
 army to march into Courland. General Kepnin laid 
 siege to the citadel of Mittau, after making himself 
 master of the town ; and, after a short resistance, it 
 surrendered by capitulation ; but while this was carry- 
 ing into execution, it was discovered by Kepnin that 
 the Swedes had pillaged the palace and archives of 
 the dukes of Courland, and had even entered the 
 vaults, where their dead were deposited, to rob 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 1^5 
 
 their bodies of certain jewels which they had on 
 their necks and fingers. To the honor of the Eus- 
 sian soldiers appointed to guard the vaults of the 
 castle, on finding the bodies dragged from the 
 tombs, and stripped of their ornaments, they re- 
 fused to take charge until a Swedish colonel had 
 examined the place, and given them a certificate that 
 his own countrymen had committed this sacrilege. * 
 
 The Czar being now in possession of the greatest 
 part of Courland, and Charles too much occupied in 
 crowning the successor of the king whom he had 
 been the means of dethroning, his majesty deter- 
 mined to pass the remainder of the winter at Mos- 
 cow, in order, by his presence, to give vigor to his 
 new regulations for the encouragement of his sub- 
 jects in the arts and sciences. 
 
 Scarcely had the year 1706 commenced, when in- 
 telligence was brought to Moscow that Charles XII. 
 was advancing towards Grodno, in order to attack 
 the Russian and Saxon forces ; and that Augustus 
 had been obliged to retire precipitately towards Sax- 
 ony, with four regiments of Russian dragoons. The 
 Czar immediately set out to his relief, but found all 
 the avenues to Grodno occupied by the Swedish 
 troops, and his own dispersed. Peter was not to be 
 dispirited by a check of this kind : he immediately 
 set about collecting his scattered forces ; and Gen- 
 eral Schullemberg, in whom Augustus had placed 
 
 * Nestesuranoi. Voltaire. Mottley. Journal de Pierre le 
 Grand. 
 
186 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 his last hopes, was in full march, with twelve thou- 
 sand Saxons and six thousand Russians, a part of 
 those which the Czar had furnished to the deposed 
 sovereign. The Swedish Field-marshal Eenschild 
 interrupted his march with a body of ten thousand 
 Swedes. The two armies met near the little town 
 of Frauenstadt; a battle ensued, and the Saxons 
 were defeated with great slaughter ; a few battalions 
 only escaped, and almost every man was wounded. 
 The Czar, in his manifesto, says that many of his 
 troops, both Russians and Cossacks, were slaughtered 
 in cold blood, three days after the battle. It is 
 stated by Yoltaire, in his History of Charles XII., 
 and repeated in that of Peter I. , that there was a 
 French regiment in the Saxon army, who had been 
 taken prisoners in the celebrated battle of Rochstedt, 
 and who had the care of the artillery ; that they, 
 dissatisfied with their Saxon masters, and admirers 
 of the heroism of Charles XII., laid down their 
 arms as soon as they saw the enemy. The Journal 
 of Peter does not mention this circumstance; he 
 merely states that the cavalry attacked the enemy 
 Avith great impetuosity, and drove the infantry into 
 a wood, but that the artillery had not been brought 
 up. 
 
 Yoltaire further states, on the authority of King 
 Stanislaus himself, that such were the barbarous 
 cruelties practised by officers of both armies, that 
 in one of the skirmishes, which frequently happened 
 in Poland, a Russian officer, who had been his 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GHEAT. 187 
 
 friend, came, after the defeat of the corps under his 
 command, to place himself under his protection; 
 and that Steinbok, the Swedish general, shot 
 him dead with a pistol, while he held him in his arms. 
 
 Augustus had got together an army of twenty 
 thousand men, with which he was prevailed on by 
 General Patkul, ambassador from the Czar, to march 
 into Poland to join the forces of Peter. These two 
 sovereigns met a second time at Grodno, where Au- 
 gustus instituted the order of the White Eagle, with 
 which he invested the Czar, and some of the Rus- 
 sian generals, as well as several of the grandees of 
 Poland; and to complete the farce, as M. Fonte- 
 nelle is pleased to call it, he gave the commission 
 of colonel to the Czar and Menzikoff. Ridiculous 
 as it might appear, the farce had both point and 
 plot in it. In fact, it was the renovation of an an- 
 cient Polish order, created many centuries ago, and 
 the object of restoring it was to conciliate the Polish 
 prelates and nobles, and by their means to regain 
 the crown, which Peter never despaired of, and at 
 last accomplished for his wavering ally. 
 
 Peter, being suddenly called away to quell a re- 
 bellion, that had broken out in Astrakhan, left his 
 army, amounting to twenty thousand men, with his 
 faithful ally, commanded by Menzikoff. Charles 
 XII. was at this time overrunning Saxony, and had 
 proceeded to the very heart of the electorate of Au- 
 gustus. Whether it Avas the fear that Charles 
 would ruin his country, or admiration of his glorious 
 
188 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 career, like that of the French regiment which laid 
 down their arms, or some jealousy created by the 
 grandees of Lithuania, or the operation of all these, 
 Augustus determined to seek for peace, cost Avhat 
 it might ; and for this purpose sent Imhoff and 
 Pfingsten, secretly and confidentially, with full 
 powers, to treat with Charles. At the same time, 
 he sent an order for the arrest of Patkul, who was 
 then at Dresden, as the Czar's ambassador, and 
 threw him into prison. The two plenipotentiaries 
 went privately by night to the camp of Charles XII. 
 at Alt-Eanstadt, and delivered their credentials to 
 him ; he desired them to wait, retired to his closet, 
 and in a short time returned with a paper contain- 
 ing four articles, in which it was declared in writing 
 that he would not make the least alteration. First ^ 
 That King Augustus renounce forever the crown 
 of Poland, and that he acknowledge Stanislaus as 
 lawful king. Second^ That he renounce all treaties 
 he may have made with the Czar of Muscovy. 
 Thirds That he send back immediately the two So- 
 bieskis and all the Swedish prisoners. Fourth^ That 
 all Swedish deserters, and especially John Patkul, 
 be delivered up. 
 
 Just at this moment, and while the plenipoten- 
 tiaries were negotiating this shameful treaty at Alt- 
 Ranstadt, Prince Menzikoff, generalissimo of the 
 Russian army, joined the forces of xlugustus, near 
 Calishe, with thirty thousand men. The deposed 
 monarch was in the utmost state of confusion, and 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 189 
 
 under dreadful apprehension lest Menzikoif should 
 discover his defection ; but what added greatly to 
 his chagrin was the sudden appearance of ten thou- 
 sand Swedes under the command of General Meyer- 
 feldt. What was Augustus to do in this awkAvard 
 dilemma in which he was thus placed? — He did the 
 very thing that he ought not to have done — he sent 
 a confidential officer to acquaint Meyerfeldt with 
 the negotiation that was going on ; but that general, 
 as might have been foreseen, treated the message with 
 contempt, as "a weak invention of the enemy " ; 
 and immediately offered battle, which, whether 
 won or lost, would be alike fatal to Augustus. The 
 Kussians obtained a complete victory ; the Swedes 
 having lost about three thousand men killed, and 
 Meyerfeldt, and several officers of distinction, and 
 four thousand men taken prisoners. The victors 
 entered Warsaw in triumph, and there Pfingsten 
 presented Augustus with the treaty of peace he had 
 just concluded, which deprived him forever of his 
 crown. 
 
 Augustus had previously written, from the field 
 of battle, a letter to his plenipotentiaries, more dis- 
 graceful even than the treaty itself, which was in- 
 tended to be shown to Charles, and in which he 
 begged pardon for having obtained a victory, pro- 
 testing that the battle was fought against his will ; 
 that the Russians had obliged him to it ; that he 
 had intended to abandon Menzikoif; that Meyer- 
 feldt ought to have beaten him, had he made a 
 
190 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 proper use of the opportunity ; that he would deliver 
 up all the Swedish prisoners, or break with the Rus- 
 sians, in short, that he would give the King of 
 Sweden all proper satisfaction, for having dared to 
 beat his troops.* 
 
 But the humiliation of Augustus was not yet com- 
 plete. Leaving Menzikolf with the victorious army, 
 he proceeded to Saxony, to place himself at the dis- 
 cretion of the Swedish king. Charles was not gifted 
 with the milk of human kindness; the great fea- 
 tures of his character were obstinacy, severity, and 
 cruelty. Augustus found him determined to exact 
 compliance with every article of the treaty ; and as 
 a further punishment for having dared to give battle 
 to his general at Calishe, he forced upon him the 
 ungrateful and humiliating task of writing a con- 
 gratulatory letter to Stanislaus, on his accession to 
 the crown of Poland. Nor was this all ; he was 
 peremptorily ordered to give up the unfortunate 
 Patkul to the vengeance of the King of Sweden. 
 I^ever Avas a sovereign prince placed in a more em- 
 barrassing situation, owing to his vacillating con- 
 duct ; for while Charles was heaping upon him all 
 manner of indignities, the Czar was loading him 
 with bitter reproaches, and loudly demanded from 
 him, the restoration of his ambassador ; but Charles 
 threatened what terrible things he would do, if he 
 was not delivered up to him according to the treaty 
 of Alt-Ranstadt. 
 
 * Voltaire. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 191 
 
 The melancholy story of this unfortunate Livo- 
 nian has left a stain on the character of Charles 
 XII. that must forever cast a cloud over his stern 
 virtues and heroic actions. Charles XI. had ex- 
 ercised great severity against the privileges of the 
 Livonians, and abridged many of them. Patkul, 
 with six of his countrymen, was deputed by the 
 nobility of Livonia to carry their grievances to the 
 king, whom he addressed with great force and 
 eloquence. Charles, so far from being displeased, 
 laid his hand on Patkul' s shoulder, and told him, 
 ' ' He had spoken for his country like a brave man, 
 and that he loved him for it ; " yet, within a few 
 days after this, the same Charles read his public 
 accusation as a traitor. Patkul made his escape to 
 Augustus, from whose service he passed into that 
 of the Czar, till he was thrown into confinement in 
 the castle of Konigstein. It is said that, on the 
 threats of Peter, Augustus, in order to pacify the 
 Czar and evade the wrath of Charles, secretly con- 
 sented to the prisoner's escape, but that Patkul re- 
 fused to pay to the mercenary governor the sum he 
 demanded for his liberty, relying on the law of 
 nations, and, as he supposed, the friendly intentions 
 of Augustus. In the meantime a party of Swedes 
 came up, and forced the victim out of the hands of 
 his jailer. He was carried to headquarters at Alt- 
 Ranstadt, and kept in chains for three months be- 
 fore his execution. 
 
 It is said that Charles with his own hand, wrote 
 
192 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 out bis sentence which Avas, to be broken alive on 
 the wheel and quartered. He was at that time 
 under an engagement of marriage to a Saxon lady 
 of great beaut3^ birth, and merit : he desired the 
 chaplain to wait on her, comfort her, and assure 
 her that he died full of the tenderest love and 
 affection for her. When led ta the place of exe- 
 cution, a Swedish officer read aloud from a paper as 
 follows: — ''This is to declare that the express 
 order of his majesty, our most merciful lord, is, 
 that this man, who is a traitor to his country, be 
 broke upon the Avheel and quartered, for the rep- 
 aration of his crimes, and for an example to others ; 
 that every one may take care of treason, and faith- 
 fully serve his king." At the words, ''most 
 merciful lord," Patkul cried out, " "What mercy ! " 
 — and at those of ' ' traitor to his country, ' ' 
 "Alas!" he said, "I have served it too well." 
 He received sixteen blows, and endured a long and 
 dreadful torture. Thus died the unhappy John 
 Eenold Patkul, ambassador and general of the 
 Czar of Russia.* 
 
 Yoltaire's observations on this murder are not 
 more forcible than just. " There is not a civilian," 
 he says, ' ' in Europe, nay, there is not a slave, . but 
 must shudder with horror at this barbarous act of 
 injustice. The first crime of this unfortunate man 
 was his having made an humble representation of 
 the rights and privileges of his country, at the head 
 
 *Harleian Miscellany. Voltaire. John Mottley, &c. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 193 
 
 of six Livonian gentlemen, who had been deputed 
 by the whole state ; he was condemned for fulfilling 
 the first of duties,, that of serving his country accord- 
 ing to her laws. So unjust a sentence fully restored 
 him to a right which all mankind derive from 
 nature, that of choosing his country. As he was 
 the ambassador of one of the greatest monarchs in the 
 whole world, his person ought to have been sacred. 
 The laws of nature and nations were violated on 
 this occasion, by the law of the longest sword. 
 The splendor of high achievements used formerly to 
 cover such cruelties ; but now they are an indelible 
 stain to military glory."* 
 
 The Czar was highly incensed at this barbarous 
 outrage on the part of the King of Sweden. He 
 wrote letters to several of the potentates of Europe, 
 complaining of the cowardice and treachery, as he 
 deemed it to be, of his ally Augustus, and of the 
 violation of the law of nations by Charles XII. 
 Some of his counsellors proposed to him, while in 
 this state of exasperation, that he should retaliate 
 on the Swedish officers who were prisoners at 
 Moscow ; but Peter rebuked them severely for such 
 a suggestion. If Charles was so dead to the feelings 
 of humanity, and to his own honor and reputation, 
 that nothing but glutting his revenge in blood 
 would satisfy him, Peter, with aU his severity and 
 irascible temper, was seldom, if ever, actuated in 
 his punishments by feelings of that character. The 
 
 * Voltaire, 
 13 
 
194: LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 revenge which he resolved to take, on the present 
 occasion, was of a nobler and more honorable 
 nature. He determined to follow up, from that 
 moment, the project agreed upon at Grodno by 
 Augustus and himself — to use every means in his 
 power to defeat the views of Charles on Poland, by 
 driving Stanislaus from the throne. He held a con- 
 ference at Zolkiaw, where Prince Menzikoff had 
 taken up his quarters, with several of the Polish 
 grandees, who came there to pay their court to him, 
 before they met at a general assembly to be held at 
 Leopol ; and the gracious manner in which he re- 
 ceived them entirely gained him their affection. 
 
 In the first assembly, composed of the primate, 
 several bishops, palatines, and senators, it was re- 
 solved to renew the confederation of Sendomir, — 
 and the grand question was, ' ' Whether they had 
 any king or not? " which, passing in the negative, 
 they talked of declaring the throne vacant, and 
 agreed to summon a diet, to meet at Lublin in the 
 following May. Peter attended this meeting with 
 his son Alexis, then seventeen years of age. Prince 
 Menzikoff, and some others of his ministers. In 
 June they met again, when, after many debates, the 
 throne was declared vacant, and thereupon a diet 
 was summoned for a third election. A report being 
 spread that the Czar intended to propose his > son as 
 a candidate for the throne of Poland, to prevent 
 any suspicion of that kind he sent away the Czar- 
 ovitz to Moscow, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 195 
 
 r 
 
 Peter urged to the diet the strong necessity there 
 was not to delay choosing a new sovereign, as the 
 only way to reconcile the divided members of the 
 republic, and to show that they looked upon Stanis- 
 laus in no other light than as Palatine of Posnania. 
 He wrote to the primate and chief ministers of the 
 crown, that he could not take any solid measure 
 against Charles, and for the benefit of the republic, 
 unless they chose a new king ; stating that, if they 
 would not do so, he could not forbear suspecting that 
 they were not acting sincerely towards him. It was 
 finally agreed that an interregnum should be pub- 
 licly declared, and that the primate should be in- 
 vested with the office of regent till the election had 
 taken place. But in the meantime King Stanislaus 
 had been acknowledged by most of the sovereigns 
 of Europe ; and, having left Charles in Saxony, was 
 advancing into Poland with General Kenschild at 
 the head of sixteen Swedish regiments, and received 
 as lawful king at every place through which he had 
 passed. 
 
 The Czar was also informed that the King of 
 Sweden, having replenished his military chest by 
 the contributions he had levied in Saxony, and aug- 
 mented his army to 50,000 men, in addition to the 
 force under General Lewenhaupt, was meditating 
 how he should bring the Czar to an engagement. 
 He was also informed that the Porte had made 
 propositions to Charles and to Stanislaus to join with 
 them in an offensive alliance against Kussia, with the 
 
196 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 view of forcing him to abstain from all interference 
 in Polish affairs ; and that, in consequence, Charles 
 had openly declared his intention of making Russia 
 the theater of war, — where he had no doubt of find- 
 ing support from the people, dissatisfied w4th the 
 expenses of the contest, and more so with the nu- 
 merous innovations made in the manners and cus- 
 toms of their forefathers. The better part of the 
 Czar's subjects knew, however, that, unlike Charles, 
 he made no war for personal ambition. Economical 
 and simple in his tastes and habits, never was there 
 a prince less prodigal of the revenues of the state. 
 It may be truly said of him, that after an arduous 
 and troublesome reign — after numerous grand de- 
 signs and operations — after the construction and 
 equipment of a powerful fleet, and a numerous and 
 well-appointed army, both of his own creation — he 
 left to his successor the finances of the country in a 
 flourishing condition, and his subjects unburdened 
 by any public debt. 
 
 The French envoy to the court of Saxony 
 made an attempt about this time to bring about a 
 reconciliation between the Czar and the King of 
 Sweden ; but Charles made answer that he would 
 treat with the Czar in the city of Moscow. It was 
 on this occasion that Peter said, *'My brother 
 Charles wishes to act the part of Alexander, but he 
 shall not find in me a Darius. ' ' 
 
 In August, 1707, Charles began his march from 
 Alt-Ranstadt with his army above mentioned. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. I97 
 
 While his troops were passing the walls of Dresden, 
 Charles paid an extraordinary visit to King Augus- 
 tus, which, Voltaire observes, was running a great 
 risk, to trust himself in the hands of a prince whom 
 he had stripped of his kingdom. Charles, however, 
 had nothing to fear with 50,000 good troops at his 
 heels. In passing through Poland the Swedes com- 
 mitted such horrid ravages that the peasantry rose 
 in arms and destroyed several of his soldiers from 
 ambuscade, which the Swedes retaliated by murder- 
 ing all that fell in their way, and reducing their 
 habitations to ashes. The army went into winter- 
 quarters in Lithuania. The Russian army was 
 quartered in the provinces of Grodno and Minsk. 
 
 While the two armies were thus taking up their 
 winter-quarters, the Czar repaired to Moscow, 
 where he had not been the last two years, and was 
 received with every possible demonstration of joy. 
 He witnessed with pleasure the completion of a 
 large hospital, a dispensary, a cloth manufactory, 
 and glass-house, which he had planned when last in 
 the city. Some other manufactories, of private in- 
 dividuals, were in progress; and, among others, 
 that of pinmaking, which Yoltaire considers an un- 
 answerable proof of the ignorance of the people, 
 that this should be among the first they attempted ; 
 and he had the satisfaction to find that the com- 
 plaints and murmuring of the citizens at his new 
 regulations had nearly subsided. But a courier hav- 
 ing arrived from Menzikoff^ on the first day of thq 
 
198 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 new year, 1708, which his Czarish majesty was just 
 celebrating, bringing an account of the movements 
 of the King of Sweden, he immediately set out, and 
 fixed his headquarters, with six hundred of the 
 guards, in the city of Grodno, on the 6th February, 
 — where, by a tnistake of one of his officers, he 
 very narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the 
 Swedish king : for Charles, having heard of his ar- 
 rival there, hurried away w^ith onl}^ eight hundred 
 of his guards, and marched directly to Grodno. A 
 German officer, who commanded one of the gates of 
 the town, on seeing the approach of the king, and 
 supposing he was followed by his whole army, in- 
 stead of disputing his passage, left it open. An 
 alarm was immediately spread all over the town ; 
 the cry was, the enemy's whole force had entered ; 
 the few Kussians who attempted to oppose the 
 Swedish guards were cut in pieces ; and the Czar, 
 being assured that the Swedes were masters of the 
 town, retreated behind the ramparts, and Charles 
 placed a guard at the very gate through which Peter 
 had retired. 
 
 The Czar now collected his forces in the palati- 
 nate of Minsk, and, finding that Charles was pursu- 
 ing him from the neighborhood of Grodno, con- 
 ceived the plan of drawing him on towards a part 
 of the country from which he could obtain little or 
 no subsistence — Avhere he would have no magazines 
 nor safe retreat — and where, after establishing his 
 own army behind secure lines, he might attack with 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GI^EAT. 199 
 
 advantage his fatigued troops. This was a masterly 
 piece of generalship on the part of Peter, — and the 
 more so, since he could so place his own army as to 
 leave open to it a retreat, if necessary, over a tract 
 of country which would afford him plenty of sub- 
 sistence. He marched, therefore, to the right bank 
 of the Dnieper, and intrenched himself between 
 Mohilow, or Moghile, and Orsha, — a position which 
 secured him an open and free communication with 
 Smolensk. Having abundance of provisions for the 
 main army, fifteen thousand men were sent under 
 General Goltz to join twelve thousand Cossacks, 
 with orders to lay waste and destroy the country for 
 thirty miles round, and then to rejoin the Czar be- 
 yond the Dnieper. This measure obliged the 
 Swedes to canton their army, and to encamp for 
 want of forage, till the month of May. Such was 
 the position of the two armies in the spring of 1708. 
 
CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 The Battle of Poltava. 
 
 The day was now approaching when the two 
 heroes were, for the first and last time, to be 
 brought into personal conflict at the head of their 
 respective armies; to measure their strength, to 
 show their skill in military movements, and to fight 
 the decisive battle. 
 
 The Russian army consisted at this time of about 
 100,000 effective men, of which 38,000 were infan- 
 try, about the same number of cavalry, 20,000 Cos- 
 sacks, and 6000 Calmucks. The Swedes had 79 
 squadrons, 61 battalions of dragoons, and 101 bat- 
 talions of infantry, making in the whole about 88,- 
 000 men ; but inferiority in point of numbers was 
 more than compensated by the superior skill of the 
 oflBcers and the higher quality of the troops. 
 
 It was not till the 25th of June that any affair of 
 importance took place, when the King of Sweden 
 came up with the division of 15,000 Russians, under 
 General Goltz, who had encamped on the river Be- 
 rezina, and was just joined by the two corps under 
 Prince Repnin and the Field-marshal Scherematof. 
 The King of Sweden made an attack on the three 
 
 200 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 201 
 
 corps with the whole of his cavalry, which was gal- 
 lantly received and vigorously resisted by the Rus- 
 sians. The action lasted four hours, with great 
 slaughter and great bravery on both sides. The 
 Swedes lost a number of officers and 5000 men. 
 The loss of the Russians was a major-general, six- 
 teen captains, three lieutenants, and about 2000 men 
 killed.* Charles was on horseback until Captain 
 Gyllenstiern, a young Swede for whom he had a 
 great esteem, was wounded and unable to march, 
 when the king gave him his own horse, and fought, 
 during the rest of the battle, on foot, at the head of 
 his guards, t The Czar did not arrive at this de- 
 tachment of his army till two days after the battle. 
 A report being spread that Charles had threatened 
 to push on direct for Moscow, there to dictate to 
 Peter such conditions of peace as he might think 
 proper, the latter employed the corps under Goltz 
 to lay waste the whole country between the Dnieper 
 and the frontiers of Smolensk, which was the direct 
 line the Swedes would probably take, provided the 
 king should attempt to carry his threat into execu- 
 tion; and this having been accomplished by the 
 Russian general, nothing short of an act of madness 
 could induce so large an army to take that route. 
 
 Charles, however, showed an indication of lead- 
 ing his forces into the Russian territories by cross- 
 ing the Dnieper. The Czar observed his movements, 
 but remained quietly in his position ; not at all dis- 
 
 * Nestesuranoi. f Mottley, 
 
202 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 pleased to see the whole force of the enemy on that 
 side of the river, where, in case of disaster, he could 
 neither hope for succors nor a safe retreat, and where 
 a decisive victory only could save him. Peter, how- 
 ever, judged it advisable not to hazard, if it could be 
 avoided, a general engagement, by which, if unsuc- 
 cessful, an entrance would be laid open to the en- 
 emy into the very heart of his dominions. He re- 
 solved, therefore, after the manner of the Cossacks, 
 to send out from his army several small corps, at- 
 tacking, retreating, and wasting the country, so as 
 to divert the enemy, and to make it difficult, if not 
 impossible, for him to follow them. In the several 
 skirmishes that took place, in some of which Charles 
 exposed himself so as narrowly to escape with life, 
 the Russians generally gave Avay, but left a waste 
 behind them. Charles, however, still pushed on, 
 in spite of all obstacles, almost to Smolensk, in the 
 direct road to the capital of Russia. But at length, 
 his army becoming grievously exhausted by fatigue 
 and famine, and perpetually harassed by the constant 
 attacks of the Russian skirmishers and Cossacks, — 
 and finding, moreover, that the adherents he had 
 flattered himself he should meet with, on entering 
 Russia, entirely failed him, — he gave up all hope of 
 reaching Moscow^ where he had fondly flattered 
 himself to treat of peace with his brother Peter, and 
 turned suddenly towards the Ukraine. This false 
 step proved the ruin of Charles and his army. 
 Peter under whose orders the King of Sweden had 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^03 
 
 been thus harassed, was at a loss to comprehend 
 what could possibly be the intentions of Charles 
 in making this desperate movement towards the 
 Ukraine, which appeared to him nothing less than 
 the road to certain destruction, as that country was 
 well defended by 30,000 Cossacks, under the com- 
 mand of the Hetman Mazeppa, on whose fidelity he 
 placed the utmost confidence. The mystery, how- 
 ever, of this movement was soon explained. Ma- 
 zeppa, from some real or fancied slight he had 
 received from the Czar, had turned traitor, and sent 
 a favorite officer to Charles to say, that the people 
 of the Ukraine regarded him as their liberator, and 
 that they would receive him with open arms. Se- 
 duced by this proffered support, Charles was pre- 
 vailed on to take a step which, among other disad- 
 vantages, had that of separating himself from his 
 best general, Lewenhaupt. This able officer did all 
 he could to form a junction with the army under the 
 king, but he had to traverse a ruined country, and 
 was continually pursued and harassed in his march 
 by General Bauer, who never for a moment lost 
 sight of him. This general passed the Dnieper 
 on the 6th October at Mohilow, where he joined 
 the Czar, the Prince Menzikoff, and General Goltz, 
 so that Lewenhaupt found himself surrounded by 
 fifty or sixty thousand Russians, commanded by the 
 Czar in person. 
 
 The Swedish general made a charge on the out- 
 posts of .the Russians, near the village of Lesno, and 
 
204 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 killed some four or five hundred men, when, after 
 the first volley, the Kussian infantry gave way and 
 took to flight. Peter, on hearing this, was highly 
 incensed, and gave immediate orders that a number 
 of Cossacks and Calmucks should be placed behind 
 the line, with positive directions to sabre every man 
 who should attempt to quit the ranks, without re- 
 gard to persons, even himself, if he should be guilty 
 of such cowardly conduct. 
 
 Lewenhaupt, after this affair, continued his march 
 towards Propoisk, over roads nearly impracticable, 
 intersected by woods and marshes, and pursued by a 
 Eussian army, which had been reinforced by three 
 or four thousand dragoons, close to his heels. Lew- 
 enhaupt soon saw that the only chance left for 
 safety was on the issue of a battle. For this pur- 
 pose he made the best possible disposition to receive 
 the Russians ; he placed two battalions in advance, 
 which were furiously attacked by Colonel Zambol 
 with four battalions of the Czar's guards ; the re- 
 sult was, that at least half of the battalion of the 
 Swedes were left on the field. This affair brought 
 on a general action, in which the Czar, amid a most 
 tremendous fire, passed from one part of the line to 
 the other, and was everywhere animating, by his val- 
 or and his presence, both officers and soldiers. The 
 battle continued with the greatest obstinacy the 
 whole day, when the Swedes retired behind their 
 baggage-wagons, and the fire began to slacken. 
 
 The night having come on, and the difl&culty of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 205 
 
 dislodging the enemy from behind his wagons being 
 apparent, Peter forbade his officers, on pain of being 
 cashiered, and his soldiers on the penalty of death, 
 to go out for the plunder of the dead bodies ; and 
 also ordered the whole army to remain under arms. 
 It was observed that the Swedes kept up, during 
 the night, great fires around the wagons. At dawn 
 of day the Czar had ordered that an attack should be 
 made upon the Swedes, but it was discovered that 
 Lewenhaupt had gone off in the course of the night, 
 leaving behind him the wounded to the discretion of 
 the Russians, and also the 7000 wagons intended to 
 relieve the wants of the army under the king his 
 master. Lewenhaupt swam the river Sissa with 
 the remains of his army, and escaped with about 
 four thousand men to join the King of Sweden at 
 Starudub upon the Desna. The prisoners taken by 
 the Russians were — 103 officers, 2673 men, 47 
 colors, 10 standards, 16 pieces of cannon, 7000 
 wagons, and all the arms, ammunition, and bag- 
 gage. The loss of the Russians was 70 officers 
 killed or dangerously wounded, and 1200 soldiers 
 killed or wounded. Among the wounded officers 
 were his highness of Darmstadt, General Bauer, and 
 Colonel Weyde. This was the first great battle in 
 which the Czar was present in person, and the first 
 pitched battle gained by the Russians against an 
 enemy who had gained so many victories over 
 them. It was estimated that the total loss of the 
 Swedes, under Lewenhaupt, amounted to eight 
 
206 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 thousand men, seventeen pieces of cannon, and 
 forty-four colors, and the whole convoy of pro- 
 visions intended for that part of the army under 
 Charles, of which it stood in the greatest need. 
 
 In the mean time, Charles was very uneasy at the 
 non-arrival of Lewenhaupt on the expected day, and 
 equally so on hearing nothing from Mazeppa, by 
 whom he now began to suspect he was betrayed. 
 Just, however, as he was preparing to pass the 
 Desna, Mazeppa made his appearance — not indeed 
 with a reinforcement of 20,000 men, and a large 
 supply of provisions, as he had promised, but with 
 two regiments only, and rather as a fugitive, who 
 was in need of succors himself, than as a powerful 
 prince bringing assistance to an ally placed in dif- 
 ficult circumstances. He reported to the king that 
 he had begun his march with sixteen thousand men 
 intended to be led, as he had made them believe, 
 against the King of Sweden, who was desolating 
 their country, and promising them that, after ob- 
 taining the honor of obstructing his progress, they 
 would, for this piece of service, lay the powerful 
 Czar of Eussia under eternal obligation, and be re- 
 warded accordingly. 
 
 Mazeppa further stated that, on approaching the 
 Desna, he had thought it right to undeceive his men, 
 and therefore, made them acquainted with his real 
 design : that they received the proposed act of revolt 
 with indignation, and positively refused to betray a 
 monarch against whom they had no grounds of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 207 
 
 complaint, and that too for the sake of a Swede, 
 who was marching an army into the heart of their 
 country, and who, having laid it waste, would after- 
 ward leave them to the mercy of the powerful Czar, 
 whom they had outraged. The result was that, 
 with the exception of the few men he had brought 
 with him, all the rest deserted him and returned to 
 their homes. 
 
 This intelligence was a severe blow to Charles in 
 the present reduced state of his army, and the un- 
 fortunate position in which he was placed. Mazeppa 
 informed him that he had still possession of some 
 fortresses in the Ukraine, and particularly that of 
 Bathurin, which was his place of residence and the 
 capital of the Cossacks. This place, situated near 
 the forests of the Desna, was not of suiRcient 
 strength to stand a siege, but might serve to impede 
 the Russians, and cause them to divide their forces. 
 He ordered, therefore, a reinforcement to strengthen 
 its garrison. The Czar, however, had already sent 
 Menzikoff and Galitzin, by a circuitous route, to at- 
 tack this fortress, and on their appearing before it, 
 the town was taken almost without resistance, 
 plundered, and reduced to ashes. 
 
 A council of war was now held at the Russian 
 headquarters, when sentence of excommunication 
 was passed on Mazeppa by the Archbishop of Kief, 
 assisted by two other prelates; after which the 
 traitor was hanged in effigy, and some of his accom- 
 plices, taken in Bathurin, were broken on the wheel. 
 
208 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 The principal men of the Cossacks then repaired to 
 the church, and, after divine service, assembled in a 
 large body to elect a new hetman : when the choice 
 having fallen on Ivan Skoropatsky, he was declared 
 their general amid the acclamations of the people. 
 This new general, attended by Menzikoff and Golof- 
 kin, and by a great number of officers, went imme- 
 diately to the quarters of the Czar, who confirmed 
 his election. 
 
 All this happened in the month of November, 
 at which inclement season Charles had to march 
 through a country that was quite desolate, all the 
 villages having been burnt or destroyed ; nor did it 
 appear that he had any definite object in view; 
 while the defeat of Lewenhaupt and the disappoint- 
 ment of Mazeppa's reinforcement, and the setting in 
 of winter, appeared to render his situation hopeless. 
 In the month of December the cold became so ex- 
 tremely intense, that, in one of the marches, an 
 enormous number of men are stated to have dropped 
 down, either dying at once on the spot, or being left 
 behind to perish. The Eussians had their o^vn 
 country open to them in their rear, and received all 
 manner of supplies; but the poor Swedes, being 
 nearly naked, and half-famished, were unable to 
 resist the inclemency of the weather. The effect- 
 ive force of the Swedish army was now reduced to 
 about five-and-twenty thousand men, besides the 
 shattered remains of Lewenhaupt 's corps, which 
 could not exceed five thousand, and those brought 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 209 
 
 with Mazeppa, which might be about two thousand 
 more. 
 
 Reduced to this deplorable situation, the Swedish 
 chancellor, Count Piper, the able and prudent adviser 
 of the king, entreated him to halt in a small toAvn of 
 the Ukraine, called Romira, Avhere he might in- 
 trench his fatigued and dispirited army, and, in all 
 probability, be supplied with provisions by means 
 of Mazeppa. Every rational consideration ought to 
 have prevailed on the king to listen to this advice, 
 especially as the Russians were gone into winter- 
 quarters, and not disposed to molest him; but 
 Charles, with his habitual obstinacy, said it was 
 beneath his dignity to shut himself up in a town. 
 Piper then endeavored to prevail on him to repass 
 the Desna and the Dnieper, and to retrace his steps 
 into Poland ; there to put his troops into quarters, 
 and to obtain those refreshments of which they 
 stood so greatly in need. He represented to him 
 the absolute necessity there was, independent of 
 their own deplorable condition, to support King 
 Stanislaus, whom he himself had raised to the 
 throne of Poland, and to defeat the views which 
 the adverse party had of a new election, which 
 would probably be carried in favor of his enemy, 
 the late King Augustus. But this proposal had no 
 better success. Charles replied, that if he did this, 
 it would be considered the same thing as flying be- 
 fore the Czar ; that as to the season, it might be 
 expected soon to grow milder ; that he was deter- 
 
210 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 mined to subdue the Ukraine, and then to march 
 straight forward to Moscow : such was the infatua- 
 tion that had got possession of the mind of Charles. 
 
 Both armies, however, were compelled, from the 
 intense cold of December and January, to remain in 
 a state of inactivity. Charles first broke ground, 
 by sending out detachments, as soon as the men 
 were able to handle their arms, to attack and drive 
 in the several small posts which had been placed by 
 the Russians to obstruct his movements. This, in 
 fact, was absolutely necessary, to enable him to ob- 
 tain subsistence, the army being driven to the last 
 extremity. For twenty leagues round, the peas- 
 antry of the Ukraine were robbed and pillaged by 
 the Swedes ; nor does it appear that the latter were 
 at all obstructed by the Russians, who remained 
 quietly in their winter-quarters, Peter having, in all 
 probability, deemed it the best policy to leave the 
 Swedish army unmolested, knowing that it was 
 rapidly mouldering away. 
 
 The senseless obstinacy of Charles was the ruin 
 of himself and his whole army. In February he 
 began his march across the Ukraine, to the south- 
 east, burning all the villages and peasants' houses as 
 he passed along, till he reached the sandy deserts 
 to the westward of the river Donetz, which passes 
 through the country of the Don Cossacks. What 
 bis object could have been in taking this direction it 
 is not easy to conjecture ; but it is quite clear he 
 was wholly unacquainted with the nature of the 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 211 
 
 country. He was, therefore, compelled to retrace 
 his steps, and return across that very territory which 
 he had just laid waste. His army, destitute of pro- 
 visions, swept away the few remaining cattle from 
 the peasantry, who, in their turn, murdered the 
 soldiers, whenever they were strong enough to con- 
 tend with them. This marching and counter- 
 marching by which his army was daily wasting in 
 numbers, continued nearly three months, without 
 answering any other purpose than that of harassing 
 and weakening his forces. In the month of May he 
 reached the river Yorskla, on which is situated the 
 small fortified town of Poltava, a place that had 
 been garrisoned by the Kussians, under the com- 
 mand of General AUart, an experienced engineer 
 ofiicer. This place the Czar had taken care to sup- 
 ply with abundance of provisions and ammunition, 
 considering it as a point of the greatest importance 
 that it should not be occupied by the Swedes. It is 
 so situated, that several passes lead from it through 
 the mountains, in a northerly direction, all of which 
 communicate with the great road to Moscow ; and 
 as Charles seemed to have made up his mind not to 
 relinquish his proud vision of dictating a peace to 
 the Czar in the Kremlin, he conceived the first step 
 towards it would be the possession of Poltava. 
 
 Charles, accordingly, laid siege to this fortified 
 place, with about eighteen thousand men, the re- 
 mains of an army consisting of at least forty thou- 
 sand when he left Saxony the year before. Peter 
 
212 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 was fully prepared for its defense; and while 
 Charles had been employed in wasting his army, the 
 Czar had availed himself of the winter months in 
 visiting his establishments on the Don, from Yoro- 
 nitz to Azof; had given orders for improving the 
 harbors, for constructing an additional number of 
 ships, a,nd for repairing and strengthening the for- 
 tress of Taganrog. On his return he was made fully 
 acquainted with the proceedings of Charles ; and on 
 the 15th of June, 1709, he appeared before Poltava, 
 with an army from fifty to sixty thousand strong. 
 He forthwith detached Menzikoff, with a corps, to 
 make a feint, as if he was about to offer battle to 
 the besiegers, who came out of their trenches to ac- 
 cept the challenge, and by this diversion Menzikoff 
 succeeded in throwing into the place a reinforce- 
 ment of troops, which increased the garrison to 
 about two thousand men. When Charles discovered 
 this maneuver, he could not forbear saying, ' ' I see 
 well that we have taught the Muscovites the art of 
 war. ' ' 
 
 Peter, having now determined to bring on a gen- 
 eral action, disposed his army in two long lines, be- 
 tween the Dnieper and the Yorskla, which falls into 
 the former, forming, at the junction, rather an 
 acute angle, into which the Swedes would be driven, 
 in the event of a defeat. He covered these lines by 
 several redoubts, hastily thrown up, behind which 
 he placed his cavalry and artillery. Several skir- 
 jnishes had taken place before Poltava, in one of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 213 
 
 which Charles received a wound from a shot, which 
 shattered the bone of his heel, and obliged him to 
 keep his bed for a few days, after undergoing a 
 painful surgical operation. While in this situation, 
 he received intelligence that Peter appeared to be 
 meditating a general attack; upon which he or- 
 dered his whole army to be drawn out from the in- 
 trenchments, to receive the enemy, and caused him- 
 self to be carried in a litter. The Swedes com-' 
 menced the battle, and made so vigorous an attack 
 on the Russian redoubts, behind which the cavalry 
 was posted, that, in spite of a heavy and continual 
 fire from the artillery, they carried two of them 
 sword in hand. The Russians acted with great 
 steadiness; and the Czar, as major-general, drew 
 up his army in a regular and masterly style. 
 
 The troops were now everyAvhere engaged, and 
 the battle became general. The right wing of the 
 Russians was commanded by General Bauer, the left 
 by Prince Menzikoff, and the center by Field-mar- 
 shal Scherematof. The action lasted two hours. 
 The two sovereigns seemed to feel that they were 
 engaged in a battle which was to decide the fate of 
 Bussia or Sweden. They were everywhere in the 
 front of their respective armies, exposing themselves 
 to the very hottest of the fire. Charles, with a 
 pistol in his hand, Avas carried in his litter from 
 rank to rank ; one of its bearers was killed by a 
 cannon-ball, which shattered the litter in pieces. 
 Another conveyance was instantly provided ; or, as 
 
214 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Yoltaire says, he then ordered his men to carry him 
 upon their pikes. Peter received several shots in 
 his clothes, one through his hat, and several pierced 
 his saddle. Menzikoff had three horses shot under 
 him. 
 
 At length the Swedes gave way on every part, 
 and fell into confusion. " The invincible Swedes," 
 says Peter, ' ' turned their backs, and their whole 
 army, cavalry as well as infantry, was overthrown, 
 with very little loss on our part. ' ' * The rout now 
 became general, and the slaughter dreadful. There 
 remained on the field of battle, and near the re- 
 doubts, nine thousand two hundred and twenty-four 
 of the enemy, besides two or three thousand pris- 
 oners, chiefly cavalry, that were taken in the ac- 
 tion. Among them were Major-generals Stackel- 
 berg and Hamilton, Marshal Renschild, the Prince of 
 Wirtemberg, and many other officers. 
 
 *'Thus," continues the Czar's journal, '' by the 
 favor of the Almighty, this victory, to which there 
 are few to be compared, was obtained with little 
 trouble and little blood, over the proud King of 
 Sweden, by the prudent and gallant conduct of his 
 majesty in person, and by the valor of his chiefs 
 and soldiers : for, in this affair of such great impor- 
 tance, his majesty exposed himself, for his subjects 
 and his country, without sparing his own person, like 
 a true and great captain. It may be added, that in 
 this great combat, our first line only was engaged ; 
 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
IJFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^15 
 
 the second was not brought up till the action was 
 over." * 
 
 On the evening of this proud day, Peter dined 
 under his tent, in company with all his general and 
 field-officers, and invited, also, the Swedish general 
 officers who had been made prisoners in the battle, 
 Count Piper, the Swedish minister, and the two 
 secretaries of the king, Cederholm and Diben, who 
 had all surrendered themselves. In the course of 
 the entertainment, Peter took occasion to drink a 
 health ' ' to his masters in the art of war. ' ' Kens- 
 child inquired whom his majesty was pleased to 
 honor with such a title ? " Yourselves, gentlemen, 
 the brave Swedish generals," replied the Czar. 
 " Then," asked the general, '' has not your majes- 
 ty been somewhat ungrateful in dealing so hardly 
 with your masters ? ' ' Peter was not displeased at 
 the compliment, and, turning to the general, inquired 
 what number of men the King of Sweden might 
 actually have had in the field on that memorable 
 day ; and, on being told by Kenschild that he had 
 about nineteen thousand Swedes, and ten or eleven 
 thousand Cossacks, — ''How is it possible," said 
 the Czar, ' ' that a prince so prudent as the King of 
 Sweden could have thought of leading such a hand- 
 ful of men into a country unknown to him, and es- 
 pecially into such a country as this ? " To which 
 Kenschild replied, ' ' It was not always that he and 
 his brother officers were consulted respecting the 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
216 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 operations of the war, but as faithful subjects they 
 all felt it was their duty not to oppose, but to obey, 
 their king. ' ' The Czar was so much pleased with 
 this reply, that he took his own sword from his side, 
 and, presenting it to Eenschild, requested he would 
 wear it as a token of esteem, not alone for his valor, 
 but also for his fidelity to his sovereign.* 
 
 He made many anxious inquiries after the fate of 
 Charles ; and, as none of the prisoners could give 
 any information of what had befallen him, he or- 
 dered a strict search to be made among the slain, to 
 ascertain whether this unfortunate prince had not 
 fallen in the battle, more particularly as he had 
 been told that his litter was found shattered in pieces. 
 
 Charles, however, having perceived that the day 
 was lost, and that his only chance of safety was to 
 retire with the utmost precipitation, suffered himself 
 to be mounted on horseback, though some say in 
 Meyerfeldt's carriage with twelve horses, and with 
 the remains of his army under Marshal Lewenhaupt, 
 fled to the southward, to a place called Perewolochna, 
 situated in the very angle formed by the junction of 
 the Yorskla with the Dnieper, — the exact point to 
 which the Czar had supposed he would retreat in 
 the event of a defeat. Plere, accompanied by the 
 traitor Mazeppa, and a few hundred of his followers, 
 Charles swam the latter great river, and proceeding 
 over a desolate country, in danger of perishing with 
 hunger, at length reached the Bog, where he was 
 
 * Voltaire. Nestesuranoi. Mottley, &c. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^17 
 
 kindly received by the Turkish pasha, who afforded 
 him refreshments and boats to pass that river. The 
 Czar says, however, that the king and the traitor 
 Mazeppa, having presented themselves at Otchakow, 
 near the mouth of that river, the pasha could not 
 permit them to enter the city, for fear of displeasing 
 the sultan ; and that they therefore continued their 
 march till they reached Bender on tlie Dniester. 
 Here, as Voltaire observes, Charles gave a proof of 
 that unreasonable obstinacy which occasioned all 
 his misfortunes in Turkey, and led to a series of ad- 
 ventures more becoming an Orlando Furioso * than 
 a wise prince — of which this lively writer has given 
 a narrative that appears to partake more of romance 
 than of truth. The proof he gave of his obstinacy 
 at Bender was this, that when advised to Avrite to 
 the grand vizier, according to the custom of the Turks, 
 he said it was beneath his dignity. The same ob- 
 stinacy placed him successively at variance with all 
 the ministers of the Porte ; in short, says Yoltaire, 
 "he knew not how to accommodate himself either 
 to time or place, "f 
 
 But, to return to the shattered remains of the 
 Swedish army, left at Perewolochna, under General 
 Lewenhaupt, and which are stated, in the Czar's 
 
 * Orlando Furioso (the mad) was the leading character in 
 the great work of Ariosto (1474-1533). It treated of fabulous, 
 absurd, and frivolous adventures of the paladins of the age of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 \ Yoltaire, &c. 
 
218 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 journal, to amount to about fourteen thousand men. 
 On the evening of the day of battle, Lieutenant- 
 general Prince Galitzin, at the head of the regi- 
 ments of guards, and Lieutenant-general Bauer, with 
 the dragoons, amounting together to about ten 
 thousand men, were sent in pursuit. On the 30th, 
 that is, three days after the battle, Menzikoff, with 
 about nine hundred men, came in sight of the enemy, 
 posted at the foot of the mountains on the right 
 bank of the Dnieper, near Perewolochna, and sent 
 immediately to summon Lewenhaupt to surrender, 
 representing to him that all retreat and hope of 
 safety were cut off. . The Swedish general, sensible 
 that this was the case, did not hesitate to conclude 
 and sign a treaty the same day, by which his whole 
 army were declared to be prisoners of war, and all 
 the artillery, with the military chest, the chancellory, 
 and the standards, were surrendered to the victors. 
 The generals here taken were Lewenhaupt, Schlip- 
 penbach, Eosen, Stakelberg, and Creutz. '' Thus," 
 says the Czar, "by the favor of God, all this 
 famous army of the enemy, which, during its stay 
 in Saxony, had been the terror of Europe, fell into 
 the hands of his majesty ; for not a man of it es- 
 caped — all but a few hundreds, which passed the 
 Dnieper with the king, having surrendered them- 
 selves to the victorious arms of Russia." ^ 
 
 Though Peter, greatly admired the gallant spirit 
 of his brother Charles, as he used to call him, yet, 
 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. gift 
 
 when he looked upon the Swedish prisoners, the fate 
 of so many unhappy men touched him sensibly, and 
 he more than once spoke of the indignation he felt 
 at the conduct of a prince who could sacrifice, in so 
 wanton and useless a manner, to his ambition, so 
 many brave and faithful subjects, of whom he ought 
 to have been the father and protector. At the same 
 time, whatever Peter's feelings may have been at 
 the sight of so many gallant men, reduced to such a 
 deplorable condition, they did not prevent him from 
 giving orders that the greater part of them should 
 be sent to Siberia, then a wild, uninhabited, and 
 barren country. To this measure we must mainly 
 ascribe those improvements which have now made 
 a large portion of Siberia, not only habitable, but a 
 desirable place of residence ; but it is melancholy to 
 reflect that, for the mere gratification of the per- 
 sonal vanity of one man, so many thousand lives 
 should have been wantonly sacrificed, and that of 
 the 80, 000 brave fellows who marched in full health 
 and vigor to the slaughter, not one in one thousand, 
 probably, was destined ever to return to his country 
 and his friends. Charles had not even the plea of 
 state necessity or expediency to urge for this Quixo- 
 tic expedition ; he would seem, indeed, to have for- 
 gotten that he had a country : Glory was the mis- 
 tress he courted and fought for — but she deserted 
 him, and fled to his more fortunate and more deserv- 
 ing rival ; for Peter, to say the least, had his coun- 
 try's weal at heart. 
 
220 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 All Europe felt the effects of the battle of Pol- 
 tava. The Saxons called out loudly for revenge on 
 a prince who had pillaged and plundered their coun- 
 try. Their elector, Augustus, issued his protest 
 against an extorted abdication, and was impatient 
 to reascend the Polish throne. The Poles were now 
 ready to assist him, and King Stanislaus declared 
 himself equally ready to abdicate, if required to do 
 so. Sweden was in a state of the greatest conster- 
 nation, supposing for a long time her king to be 
 dead, and under this uncertainty was incapable of 
 coming to any resolution. The influence of this 
 great battle, if we were to believe Voltaire, ex- 
 tended even to England ; but here he is under a 
 mistake as to facts. 
 
 In 1708 it happened that the Russian ambassador 
 Matveief was arrested in London for debt, and, after 
 a long correspondence between the two courts, the 
 parliament passed an act to prevent in future the 
 arrest of an ambassador for debt ; and Queen Anne 
 sent Mr. (afterward Lord) Whitworth to Russia, in 
 the character of an ambassador extraordinary, with 
 an explanatory and apologetical letter to the Czar, 
 solely on that occasion ; but, says Yoltaire, after the 
 battle of Poltava it became necessary to give a more 
 public satisfaction to the Czar ; and Mr. Whitworth 
 opened his speech with the following words, * ' ' Most 
 high and most mighty emjperor ! ' — the acknowl- 
 edgment was sufficient, and the title of emperor^ 
 which the Queen had not given him hefore the hattU 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 221 
 
 of Poltava^ plainly showed the degree of estimation 
 to which he was now raised in Europe." l^ow, 
 Yoltaire must have known, when he wrote this, 
 that Queen Anne neither did nor could know w^hat 
 had happened at Poltava when Mr. Whit worth was 
 despatched from England. Her letter to the Czar 
 is dated in the early part of August ; the battle was 
 fought on the 9th July, and intelligence, at that 
 time was not conveyed from the lowest part of the 
 Ukraine to Moscow, and from Moscow to England, 
 in something less than a month. Besides, the 
 Czars, before Peter's time, had been not unfrequent- 
 ly addressed by the title of emperor. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Peter gained a de- 
 gree of reputation from the victory of Poltava which 
 greatly facilitated the conquests that immediately 
 followed it. The first w^as that of Elbing, the Swe- 
 dish garrison of which surrendered themselves, and 
 an immense quantity of guns, mortars, and ammu- 
 nition, into the hands of the besiegers. The Czar, 
 before the winter was over, had invested Wyberg, 
 the chief town of Carelia, on the northern shore of 
 the Gulf of Finland. Kiga was next besieged ; but 
 a dreadful pestilence was then raging in this part 
 of Livonia, which is said to have swept away from 
 eight to nine thousand Kussians; the Czar makes 
 his loss amount to 9800 men ; and on this account 
 they turned the siege into a blockade. About the 
 middle of July, 1710, the garrison capitulated, on 
 condition that all the Livonian officers and soldiers 
 
222 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 should remain in the service of the Czar, as na- 
 tives of a country that had once belonged to Russia, 
 but had been wrested from her by the predecessors 
 of Charles XII., and stripped of its ancient privi- 
 leges. The surrender of Pernau and Revel com- 
 pleted the conquest of Livonia. Count Stremberg, 
 the governor of Riga, stated that the pestilence 
 had destroyed little short of 60,000 persons among 
 the huddled population of that city and its suburbs. 
 But the most striking and immediate effect of this 
 victory was that which it produced on the Poles, 
 whose great anxiety seemed to be the speedy re- 
 moval of King Stanislaus, to make room for the 
 reinstatement of King Augustus, who was equally 
 ready to resume the throne he had been compelled 
 to abdicate. With this view he hastened to Thorn, 
 to make his reconciliation with Peter for his former 
 defection, where the meeting took place privately 
 in the king's yacht. Irritable as the temper of the 
 Czar generally was, his disposition was very far 
 from being implacable ; in the present instance he 
 had the gratification of restoring a monarch to his 
 crown, and the political motive of including Poland 
 with the kings of Denmark and Prussia in a treaty 
 against Sweden, the object of which was to recover 
 from Charles all the conquests of Gustavus Adol- 
 phus — Russia setting up pretensions to her ancient 
 possessions of Livonia, Ingria, and a part of Fin- 
 land ; Denmark laying claim to Scania ; and Prussia/ 
 to Pomerania. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 223 
 
 After this interview the Czar proceeded to Prus- 
 sia, where he had a meeting with the king, at Mari- 
 enwerder, and completed a treaty with him, in his 
 own person ; for Peter had seldom occasion for the 
 assistance of an ambassador in his negotiations. 
 "With his usual activity he then turned to Riga, to 
 give directions respecting the future government of 
 that place ; thence to St. Petersburg, to inspect the 
 progress of, and give the necessary orders respect- 
 ing, the buildings and arrangements of his new and 
 favorite capital, which he never lost sight of. A 
 letter in his own hand appeared among the family 
 papers of Apraxin, dated from the camp at Poltava, 
 at nine in the evening of the day of battle, which 
 has this paragraph: ''At length, thank God, the 
 foundation-stone of St. Petersburg is laid. ' ' While 
 at St. Petersburg he laid down the keel of a large ship 
 of war, and then set off for Moscow, where he found 
 preparations making for the exhibition of a splendid 
 triumph, by which the grateful citizens meant to 
 express their sense of the distinguished and impor- 
 tant services rendered by him to his country. 
 
CHAPTEE IX, 
 
 The Battle of the Pruth. 
 
 Charles XII. had no sooner reached Bender, and 
 experienced the hospitality of the Turks, than he 
 despatched Poniatowski, to Constantinople, with in- 
 structions to use all the means he could devise to 
 induce the vizier to prevail on his master to com- 
 mence hostilities against the Russians, taking care 
 to impress strongly on his mind a conviction that 
 their next object would be to invade some part of 
 the grand seignior's dominions. He conceived that 
 such a representation would produce its effect on 
 the Turks ; and accordingly he was soon informed 
 by his ambassador, that he had succeeded so well 
 with the vizier as to leave no doubt of his forthwith 
 publishing a declaration of war against Russia, for 
 that this minister had told him, ' ' he would take 
 him (Charles) in one hand, and his sword in the 
 other, and conduct him to Moscow, at the head of 
 200,000 men." This piece of gasconade, however, 
 whether of Poniatowski or the vizier, did not avail 
 the King of Sweden, who learned, with great morti- 
 fication, that CouDt Tolstoy, the Czar's envoy, was 
 
 224 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 225 
 
 in such high favor at the Sublime Porte, that he 
 had demanded, and was all but promised, that the 
 traitor Mazeppa should be delivered up to Peter, as 
 Charles had demanded, and obtained possession of, 
 the unfortunate Patkul ; but the old hetman of the 
 Cossacks escaped this fate by taking a disease which 
 hastened his death. 
 
 But the object which the King of Sweden was 
 unable to effect through the means of one vizier 
 was brought about by a new one, in conjunction 
 with the khan of the Crimean Tartars, the latter of 
 whom had become apprehensive, and not without 
 reason, of so formidable a neighbor as had now got 
 possession of Azof. The Porte, too, had taken 
 umbrage at the appearance of Russian ships on the 
 Sea of Azof and the Black Sea, and was alarmed 
 at the building of so many ships on the Don, and at 
 the extensive works carrying on in the harbor of 
 Taganrog. It seems this khan of the Crimea had 
 paid a visit to Charles at Bender, where such a 
 statement of complaints and grievances was con- 
 cocted between them as, on being presented by 
 Poniatowski, tended greatly to awaken the sultan's 
 jealousy of the intentions of the Russians. The 
 khan proceeded to Constantinople, and demanded 
 an audience of the sultan. ' He confirmed all that 
 was stated in the memorial, and added that the 
 Russians were committing all kinds of ravages on 
 the frontiers of the Turkish provinces, murdering 
 innocent believers, and plundering them of their 
 15 
 
226 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 property; and concluded with a request that the 
 great council should forthwith be called together, 
 in order to ascertain their sentiments on the immi- 
 nent dangers that threatened the whole Ottoman em- 
 pire. The council met accordingly, and, without 
 examining the question, decided that war was ad- 
 visable, and the sooner it was declared the better. 
 The question was then put to the mufti, whether it 
 was lawful to go to war, according to the Koran. 
 The reply of the mufti was short and pithy, — " The 
 law answers, it is necessary." Upon this Count 
 Tolstoy, the Czar's ambassador, was arrested in the 
 public streets of Constantinople, and committed, 
 together with his domestics, to the castle of the 
 Seven Towers. 
 
 ' ' Never, ' ' says Yoltaire, ' ' was sovereign more 
 offended in the person of his ministers than the 
 Czar of Muscovy. Within the space of a few 
 years, his ambassador at the court of London was 
 imprisoned for debt ; his plenipotentiary in Poland 
 and Saxony was broken on the wheel by order of the 
 King of Sweden ; and his minister to the Porte was 
 seized and imprisoned at Constantinople, like a com- 
 mon malefactor. ' ' 
 
 The Czar lost not a moment in making prepara- 
 tions for a Turkish campaign, by ordering a division 
 of his army to advance from Poland to Moldavia. 
 The Field-marshal Scherematof was directed to 
 march from Livonia with another body of troops 
 towards the same quarter. Admiral Apraxin was 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 227 
 
 to take command of the fleet at Azof and on the 
 Black Sea; Admiral Cruys, a Dutchman, to guard 
 the coasts of Livonia in the Baltic; and Prince 
 Menzikofi! was left at the head of affairs in St. 
 Petersburg. Peter, having made these dispositions, 
 set out for Moscow to arrange matters for the ad- 
 ministration of the government during his absence 
 in the approaching campaign. He appointed a re- 
 gency of eight senators, among whom were Prince P. 
 Galitzin and Prince M. Dolgorouki, who proceeded 
 to the church of the Assumption, and there, in pres- 
 ence of his majesty, the senate, and the principal 
 authorities, took an oath to fulfil their duties 
 with honor, integrity, and activity ; to be faithful 
 to the sovereign and the state, to observe strict 
 justice in all matters public and private, and lastly, 
 to act with good faith as well with regard to the 
 levying of money and men as in all other things re- 
 lating to the interests of the state. At the same 
 time, as some inconvenience was felt in the army, 
 from the necessity of raising persons of low descrip- 
 tion to the rank of officers, while the sons of the 
 nobility studiously avoided the service, Peter sent 
 an ordinance to the senate, directing them to as- 
 semble all those of a certain age, and to enrol them 
 among the conscripts. He gave orders, also, that 
 the army of Livonia, which had suffered so much 
 from the plague, should be forthwith completed by 
 recruits, to be sent to the frontier of Wallachia.* 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand, 
 
228 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Having completed his arrangements at Moscow, 
 he caused it to be declared solemnly in public, on 
 the 6th March, 1711, that her majesty the Czarjna 
 Catharine Alexiuna, was the true and legitimate 
 wife of the Emperor Peter I.* Yoltaire says he 
 had privately married the young captive of Marien- 
 burg in 1707, but that the marriage was only made 
 public the same day on which he set out with his 
 consort, in order to measure his strength with the 
 Ottoman Porte. It is frequently difficult to recon- 
 cile the different dates given by different writers of 
 the Czar's story. Captain Bruce, who was himself 
 present on the spot, says, " On the 17th (May) we 
 arrived at Warsaw, and at Jaweroff on the 29th, 
 where we found the Czar and Czarina, and there 
 they were privately married, at which ceremony 
 the general (Bruce) was present, and upon this oc- 
 casion he was made master-general of the ordnance, 
 in the room of the Prince of Melita, who died a 
 prisoner in Sweden. General Bruce was at this 
 time knight of four orders, namely, St. Andrew, the 
 White Eagle, the Black Eagle, and the Elephant; " 
 and here he adds, ' ' I received my commission as 
 captain in the artillery, and engineer. ' ' f Peter I. 
 will probably be considered to know more correctly 
 than Peter Bruce the day on which, and the place 
 where, he was married. It is possible, however, 
 that having here joined the army, he may have 
 
 * Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 
 t Ibid, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^20 
 
 thought it right to repeat the declaration before 
 made in Moscow. 
 
 Be that as it may, Catharine accompanied her 
 august husband to the war in Turkey. This extra- 
 ordinary woman proved herself in all respects, and 
 under all circumstances, superior to her sex, as well 
 as to her birth and her early misfortunes. To the 
 Czar she was all in all ; she stood in the same rela- 
 tion to him that the kind-hearted Josephine did to 
 Napoleon ; both had been the mistresses of the men 
 they married, and also of others before them ; both 
 possessed the art, or rather the natural and persua- 
 sive manners, to smooth down the asperity, assuage 
 the anger, and allay the excitements to which their 
 respective husbands were but too prone ; they both 
 ascended an imperial throne ; but here the parallel 
 ends — the one was most undeservedly cast aside, 
 on the pretense of political expediency ; the other 
 maintained her high station, and succeeded as sole 
 autocratrix of all the Kussias. The cheerfulness 
 and liveliness of Catharine's temper, the sweetness 
 and complacency of her disposition, her mild and 
 affable behavior, her unremitting attention and un- 
 wearied assiduity, her agreeable manners and con- 
 versation, had acquired such an ascendency over 
 the mind of Peter, that he was never so happy as 
 when she was near his person. It has been men- 
 tioned that the Czar was subject to that particular 
 species of spasmodic disorder which has been called 
 catalepsy : whenever this happened, and CatharinQ 
 
^30 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 was Avithin call, she was always sent for ; and such 
 was the fascination of her presence, that, from the 
 moment his eye caught her smiling face and his ear 
 was greeted with the soft accents of her voice, the 
 muscles began to relax, his agony was composed, 
 his mind became tranquil, and in a short time 
 '-^ Peter was himself again;" just as the sweet 
 tones of David's harp had the power to draw out 
 from Saul the evil spirit that tormented him. She 
 attended him in all his travels and his most hazard- 
 ous expeditions, sharing his fatigues and soothing 
 his cares, — in fact, she became necessary to his 
 health, his comfort, and even to his existence. 
 
 General Gordon says, ' ' She was a very pretty, 
 well-lookt woman, of good sense, but not of that 
 sublimity of wit, or rather that quickness of imag- 
 ination, which some people have believed. The 
 great reason why the Czar was so fond of her w^as 
 her exceeding good temper; she never was seen 
 peevish or out of humor ; obliging and civil to all, 
 and never forgetful of her former condition ; withal 
 mighty grateful."* Many a wretch escaped the 
 effects of the Czar's wrath by her interposition. 
 ''Catharine," says Voltaire, "saved more backs 
 from the knout, and more heads from the block, 
 than General Le Fort had ever done." Great in- 
 deed must have been the merit of this woman, who, 
 having risen to the most elevated station from an 
 obscure and almost unknown origin, maintained her 
 
 * Gordon's History of Peter the Great. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 231 
 
 lofty position without incurring the envy, hatred, 
 or even jealousy of those over whom it washer des- 
 tiny to rule. 
 
 ' ' Catharine, ' ' says Coxe, who cites from compe- 
 tent authorities, ^'maintained the pomp of majesty 
 united with an air of ease and grandeur ; and Peter 
 frequently expressed his admiration at the propriety 
 with which she supported her high station, without 
 forgetting that she was not born to that dignity. 
 She bore her elevation meekly, and was never, as 
 Gordon asserts, forgetful of her former condition. 
 When Wurmb, who had been tutor to Gluck's chil- 
 dren, at the time that Catharine was a domestic in 
 the same family, presented himself before her, after 
 the public solemnization of her marriage with Peter, 
 she said, ' What ! thou good man, art thou still 
 alive ? I will provide for thee ; ' and gave him a 
 pension. She was also no less attentive to the 
 family of her benefactor Gluck, who died a prisoner 
 at Moscow : she pensioned his widow, made his son 
 a page, portioned the two eldest daughters, and ap- 
 pointed the youngest a maid of honor."* 
 
 At Sorokat the Czar joined the main body of the 
 army, which is described by Bruce to have consisted 
 of five divisions of 6000 men each, commanded by 
 Marshal Scherematof ; the first was the Czar's own 
 division, the second General Weyde's, the third 
 Prince Kepnin's, the fourth General liallard's (or 
 Allard's), and the fifth General EeutzePs; in all 
 * Coxe's Travels in Russia. 
 
232 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 30,000 foot, attended by a very numerous train of 
 artillery. Thirty thousand dragoons had been de- 
 tached to destroy a fortress and magazine, erected 
 by the Turks upon the Dniester, a little above Ben- 
 der; besides these, 50,000 Calmuck Tartars and 
 20,000 Cossacks were on their march to join the 
 army, which would then amount to 130, 000. * None 
 of these, however, arrived, and the whole of the 
 Eussian army on the Pruth did not exceed, but 
 rather fell short of, 40,000 men, — a considerable 
 corps under General Renne having crossed to the 
 eastern side of Moldavia, upon the river Sireth. 
 
 His majesty, being now resolved to march with- 
 out waiting for the rest of his forces to join, issued 
 a general order for all the women who attended the 
 army to be sent away : the Czarina, however, was not 
 thus to be disposed of ; she insisted on accompany- 
 ing his majesty, and she knew well she would not 
 be refused. Her husband, apprehensive of exposing 
 her to a danger which every day became more men- 
 acing, wished her to return ; but Catharine consid- 
 ered this solicitude of Peter as an affront to her affec- 
 tion and her courage. She urged her husband in 
 such strong terms that Peter found it impossible to 
 deprive himself of her company, f The soldiers with 
 joy beheld her on horseback at the head of the army, 
 for she rarely used a carriage. Her presence gave 
 encouragement and diffused alacrity among the 
 
 * Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 
 \ Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 233 
 
 troops ; she was always ready to send refreshments 
 and assistance to the sick, whether officers or private 
 soldiers. The general officers, knowing her influence 
 with the Czar, petitioned her to obtain the same 
 liberty for their wives that they might attend her 
 majesty, which was also granted. After this, the 
 wives of the other officers, conceiving themselves 
 equally entitled to the indulgence, prevailed on the 
 good-natured Catharine to intercede for them, which 
 she readily undertook to do, and the result was that 
 they all went, notwithstanding the prohibitory or- 
 der. '' This circumstance," says Bruce, "although 
 it considerably augmented the train of our baggage, 
 proved in the end a very fortunate one. ' ' He might 
 well say so — it proved the salvation of the Czar, his 
 army, and perhaps of Eussia — all of which were 
 placed in imminent peril by the misplaced confidence 
 of Peter and the incautious rapidity of his move- 
 ments. 
 
 Peter proceeded from Sorokat towards Jassy, the 
 capital of Moldavia, having entered into a secret en- 
 gagement with Brancovan, Prince of Wallachia, 
 who not only undertook to join the Czar with his 
 whole force, but to provide his army abundantly 
 with provisions and forage. Whether he was a 
 traitor, or meant to act with good faith, was never 
 brought to the test ; for the sultan, having been in- 
 formed of his intended revolt, had deprived him of 
 his principality : and having some suspicion of the 
 fidelity of Mavrocordato, who was the Hospodar of 
 
234 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Moldavia, the sultan deposed him too, and appointed 
 Cantimir Prince or Hospodar of Wallachia, who 
 was directed to proceed forthwith, with orders to 
 seize Brancovan, under color of friendship, or on 
 any other pretense, and send him, dead or alive, to 
 Constantinople ; and, at the same time, to throw a 
 bridge over the Dniester, to facilitate the passage of 
 his army to oppose the Russians. Cantimir, being 
 a Christian, had experienced how little faith was to 
 be expected from the Turk, and as a Christian 
 prince, he felt bound in honor, and for the cause of 
 the Christian religion, to forsake that of the infidel, 
 and make an offer of himself and his principality to 
 the Czar. Peter, however, having been deceived 
 by Brancovan, was not disposed to place much con- 
 fidence in the sincerity of Cantimir. He had waited 
 three days at Jassy for the expected supplies of men 
 and provisions promised by Brancovan ; but finding 
 that the envoy of that Hospodar only answered him 
 with unceasing compliments and ceremonies, and 
 having reason to suspect the honesty of his master, 
 he began to think that he had placed himself pretty 
 much in the same condition with his brother Charles, 
 when invited into the Ukraine by Mazeppa. 
 
 Something, however, was necessary to be done. 
 His army had been brought into a wild and barren 
 country, destitute of provisions and forage. The 
 swarms of locusts that obscure the face of the sun 
 when in flight, and cover the whole surface of the 
 ground when at rest, had eaten up every blade of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 235 
 
 grass, and every green herb ; there was no water 
 but what the river afforded ; their magazines were 
 nearly exhausted, and the army considered itself be- 
 trayed and surrounded by enemies; and, though 
 Cantimir had proffered to join him, he honestly ad- 
 mitted that his Moldavian subjects were attached to 
 the Porte, and hostile to the Eussians. In this dis- 
 astrous situation, Peter had, at least, the satisfaction 
 to find that not a man deserted nor a murmur es- 
 caped from his army. 
 
 The Russian soldier has always sustained the 
 character which was formed under Peter. '^He 
 will not, ' ' says a writer, who knew them well, ' ' fall 
 back one step while his commander bravely keeps 
 his ground; he contents himself with extremely 
 little pay, and with very slender diet, and is always 
 cheerful ; hungry and thirsty, he traverses the heavy 
 sands of the deserts under the load of his accoutre- 
 ments without murmur or complaint; executes 
 every command ; reckons nothing impossible or too 
 difficult ; does everything that he is ordered, with- 
 out shunning any danger; and is inventive of a 
 thousand means for accomplishing his design." * 
 
 With such men the Czar was on the eve of en- 
 countering an immensely superior force in point of 
 numbers. The enemy was close at hand, for the 
 grand vizier, Baltaji Mehemet, having understood 
 that the Russian army had arrived at Jassy, imme- 
 diately put his troops in march, and crossed the Dan- 
 * Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, 
 
^36 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ube at the head of 100, 000 men. In marching along 
 the Pruth he deputed the Count Poniatowski to 
 wait on the King of Sweden at Bender, and invite 
 him to pay him a visit and inspect his army ; but 
 Charles would not condescend to such a step, but 
 insisted upon the grand vizier visiting him first. On 
 Poniatowski apologizing for Charles, the vizier, 
 turning to the Khan of the Tartars, observed, 
 " This is just what I expected, that the proud 
 infidel would behave in this manner. ' ' 
 
 Peter was about the same time passing the Dnies- 
 ter, where a council of war was held in General 
 Bruce's tent, and Prince Cantimir's letter was 
 read. The Czar declared his intention to march 
 forward to meet the enemy, without Avaiting the 
 junction of the rest of the troops ; all the generals 
 expressed their approbation of the measure, except 
 General Hallard, who said nothing. The Czar, 
 observing his silence, ordered him to declare his 
 sentiments, and to give his opinion freely; the 
 general replied, that as the council were so unan- 
 imous, he never would have made any objection, had 
 not his majesty insisted on his declaring his senti- 
 ments ; he then frankly told the Czar he was very 
 much surprised that the King of Sweden's misfor- 
 tune did not serve as a sufficient warning ; for that 
 prince had been misled by the advice of the traitor 
 Mazeppa, and he could not help thinking their 
 present state was a similar one. The Prince of 
 Moldavia, he said, has already disappointed us; 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 237 
 
 and, for any security we have, the Prince of Wal- 
 lachia may do the same ; although he should mean 
 well himself, yet he may want the power to serve 
 us; for it is to be feared that his troops, who have 
 long been used to the Turkish government, will not 
 enter into his sentiments.^ 
 
 The general was but too good a prophet. The 
 march, however, was resolved on; ''and we set 
 out," says Captain Bruce, " the same night, to 
 avoid the intense heat of the day, and continued to 
 march for three nights through a barren, desert 
 heath, without a drop of water all the way, which 
 was severely felt both by man and beast. On the 
 18th June, we arrived at the river Pruth, where 
 we lost a number of our baggage-horses by their 
 drinking too plentifully of the water. We passed 
 the river on the 19th, near Jassy, the capital and 
 residence of the Prince of Moldavia. At this place 
 Prince Cantimir joined us in person, with very few 
 attendants, both the Wallachian and Moldavian 
 troops having left him, for fear of the Turks. We 
 continued our march down the Pruth till the 21st, 
 when we met a prodigious swarm of locusts, which, 
 at their rising, overshadowed the whole army, like 
 a cloud ; they had not only destroyed the grass of 
 the fields, but also the tender bark and leaves of 
 the trees : here again we lost a number of our car- 
 riage-cattle for want of forage. It was very re- 
 markable that the locusts never left our army, and 
 
 * Bruce's Memoirs, 
 
238 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 we no sooner pitched our tents than they came 
 down and covered the whole camp. We tried, by 
 firing of cannon and small arms, and burning trains 
 of powder on the ground, to drive them away, but 
 all in vain ; they attended us on our march along 
 the river, till the 27th, when we discovered the 
 Turkish army crossing the Pruth. Upon this Gen- 
 eral Janus was detached, with a body of troops 
 and twelve pieces of cannon, to dispute their pas- 
 sage ; but he was too late, for half their army had 
 passed before he could get up to them, so that he 
 found it prudent to retreat to the main body of the 
 army. It was very surprising that we had not the 
 least intelligence of so numerous an army, which 
 consisted of not less than 200,000 men, till they 
 were actually within sight of us."* 
 
 This bold maneuver of the Turks made it neces- 
 sary for the Czar to form his line of battle, and 
 bring them to an immediate engagement ; but they 
 kept without the range of cannon-shot, endeavoring 
 with their numerous cavalry to surround the Kus- 
 sians, and cut them off from the river : but in this 
 they failed ; for Peter, seeing what their intention 
 was, ordered his troops to fall back, so as to extend 
 along the right bank of the Pruth. The different 
 corps of the army were all separated in the dark, 
 and as a great number of their horses had perished, 
 it was found expedient to burn many of their bag- 
 gage-wagons, to prevent their falling into the en- 
 * Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 239 
 
 emy's hands. These fires sufficiently indicated to 
 the Turks the state of confusion in which the army 
 of their opponents was, ' ' which, ' ' says Bruce, 
 ' ' afforded them a fine opportunity to destroy our 
 whole army, and they might easily have done it 
 with a small part of theirs ; ' ' but it seems they were 
 busily employed in intrenching themselves. At 
 daybreak the Czar collected his army, and formed 
 it into a hollow square, the river serving for the 
 fourth side, and the wagons were formed into an 
 enclosure within for the protection of the ladies. 
 
 Opposite to the Russians, on the other side of the 
 river, the Tartars of the Crimea had taken up their 
 ground, who annoyed them so much, that whenever 
 a party attempted to water at the river a few pieces 
 of cannon were constantly playing upon them. 
 Thus the Russian army was completely surrounded 
 by Turks on one side and Tartars on the other, with 
 the river Pruth between them and the latter, which 
 operated both ways ; first, as an advantage, to en- 
 able them to extend their square, and prevent a 
 junction of the two enemies' armies, and secondly, 
 as a disadvantage, in preventing a safe retreat for 
 the Russians, a measure to which it was but too 
 likely they must be driven. Peter was now, in 
 fact, in a more critical situation than that of Charles 
 XII. at Poltava, being hemmed in, as that prince 
 was, by a superior army, more distressed for want 
 of provisions, and deceived, like him, by the prom- 
 ises of an ally who had not the power to fulfil them. 
 
240 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Thus surrounded, the Turkish army attacked 
 them for three days and three nights successively. 
 ' ' The Turkish infantry, ' ' says the Czar, ' ' although 
 in disorder, fought with great ardor ; and, numer- 
 ous as it was, if it had attacked our front and flanks, 
 we should no doubt have been in a dangerous posi- 
 tion; for the enemy's army infinitely surpassed in 
 numbers our troops, Avhich consisted only of 31,554 
 infantry, and 6,692 cavalry, of which the greater 
 part was dismounted. But as they attacked us only 
 on one side, Ave were able to sustain this by fresh 
 troops. Besides, having eight eight-pound guns, 
 and some field-pieces, which kept up a rapid fire 
 in aid of our musketry, a dreadful slaughter was 
 made in this dense mass of the enemy; for the 
 Turks since admitted that there perished in this ac- 
 tion seven thousand men."* Bruce says nearly the 
 same thing ; that, fortunately, the enemy attacked 
 only one side of their square at a time, which en- 
 abled them to relieve their wearied troops from time 
 to time as they became harassed with fatigue, and 
 it also enabled them to make use of their large train 
 of artillery, which did great execution ; and the 
 more so as the Turks had not been able to bring up 
 their artillery, except the few pieces on the oppo- 
 site side of the Pruth. The Russians, however, 
 were placed in a desperate condition; no longer 
 able to exist in so dangerous and destructive a posi- 
 tion, all retreat entirely cut off, the Czar saw that 
 
 * Journal de Pierre 1© Grand, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 241 
 
 nothing was left but either by engaging in an un- 
 equal combat, to obtain a victory, to fight to the 
 very last man, or, lastly, to surrender to the Turks. 
 The last alternative seemed, indeed, to be the 
 only resource; for, on the fourth day, the Czar 
 v^as informed that all their ammunition was 
 spent to a few charges. On receiving this intelli- 
 gence, Bruce says, Peter ordered all the officers of 
 the army, with a number of select men, to mount on 
 horseback and attend his person ; his intention being 
 to force his way through the Turkish army in the 
 night, and to go through Transylvania and Hungary. 
 Bruce is an honest but a loose writer, and what he 
 here states is highly improbable. It would be 
 utterly inconsistent with Peter's character to have 
 entertained, for a moment, the idea of leaving his 
 brave soldiers, his beloved Catharine, and the rest 
 of the ladies, to the mercies of the Turks, which 
 must have been the case had such a plan been 
 adopted. Bruce, no doubt, refers to a resolution of 
 the generals at a council of war. Voltaire's ac- 
 count of his behavior at this critical period is much 
 more consistent : — 
 
 ' 'All the relations, ' ' says this historian, ' 'and mem- 
 oirs of the times unanimously agree that the Czar, 
 fluctuating in his mind whether he should renew the 
 engagement the next day with the enemy, and ex- 
 pose his wife, his army, and his empire, and the 
 fruit of all his labors, to a danger which seemed 
 almost insuperable, returned to his tent oppressed 
 i6 
 
242 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 with anxiety, and laboring under convulsions, to 
 which he was sometimes subject, and which his 
 present solicitude contributed to increase. Thus 
 resigning himself a prey to the most torturing dis- 
 quietude, and unwilling that his distracted condition 
 should be known, he gave orders that nobody should 
 be permitted to enter his tent. Then it was that he 
 experienced the good effect of having permitted his 
 wife to accompany him in this expedition. Cath- 
 arine entered his tent, notwithstanding his prohibi- 
 tion." 
 
 Whether the resolution taken by this true heroine, 
 who had faced death during all these engagements, 
 and had rarely left the side of her husband, was 
 with that husband's consent, as Yoltaire would in- 
 timate, — or whether Bruce, who agrees in what 
 most writers previous to the appearance of his mem- 
 oirs have stated, be right in supposing it to have 
 been taken unknown to her husband, and in conse- 
 quence of the hopeless condition of the Russian 
 army, — is not very material. It is agreed, on all 
 hands, that Catharine, foreseeing the hazard that 
 would attend any further attempt or delay, and the 
 loss and disgrace that were likely to fall on her hus- 
 band's arms and army, hit on an expedient Avhich 
 saved the honor of the one, and averted the inevi- 
 table destruction of the other. She knew that an 
 oriental prince or his representative never grants an 
 audience without the offer of a present. She there- 
 fore got together the few jewels and trinkets she had 
 
IJFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 243 
 
 brought with her in this expedition, and went round 
 the camp to collect all the money, plate, and jewels, 
 in addition to her own, for which she gave her own 
 receipt, and obligation to pay the respective owners 
 on her return to Moscow ; and, having thus acquired 
 a valuable present, she despatched the Yice-chan- 
 cellor Shaffiroff and an officer with a letter from 
 Marshal Scherematof to the grand vizier ; and the 
 result was, after some negotiation, the concluding 
 a treaty of peace. 
 
 Peter, in his journal, takes notice of the letter, 
 but makes no mention of Catharine's negotiation; 
 but there can be no doubt of the fact, which indeed 
 is alluded to in his own declaration, when, in 1723, 
 he caused the Empress Catharine to be crowned. 
 «' She has been," he then said, " of great assistance 
 to us in all times of danger, but particularly at the 
 battle of the Pruth, where our army was reduced to 
 two-and-twenty thousand men." If there be no 
 error in the Czar's estimate, the battle of the Pruth 
 must have been one of the most destructive on rec- 
 ord. He tells us that on the first day of the en- 
 gagement his army consisted of 31, 554 infantry, and 
 6,692 cavalry; he must therefore have lost on the 
 Pruth 16,246 fighting men. In the same journal 
 we are assured that the loss of the Turks exceeded 
 his ; for as their attacks were made in a confused 
 and tumultuous manner, and his men stood firm, all 
 their shot told.* 
 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
244 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 The overture for peace was not, however, imme- 
 diately accepted. No answer being received from 
 the grand vizier for some hours, it was apprehended 
 that the bearers of the letter had been killed or de- 
 tained by the Turks ; a second officer was therefore 
 despatched with a duplicate of the letter, and in the 
 meantime a council of war was held, at which 
 Catharine assisted; the result was as follows, and 
 signed by ten general officers : — 
 
 " Should the vizier not accept the considerations 
 offered ; should he insist on our laying down our 
 arms, and surrendering at discretion; it is the 
 unanimous opinion of all the generals and ministers 
 that an attempt be made for breaking through the 
 enemy." In consequence of this resolution a trench 
 was thrown up round the baggage, and the Eussians 
 had advanced within a hundred paces of the Turkish 
 army, when at length the grand vizier proclaimed a 
 suspension of arms. 
 
 It was not altogether the precarious position of 
 the Eussians army on the Pruth that determined the 
 vizier's assent to a cessation of arms ; he had re- 
 ceived intelligence just then that the corps com- 
 manded by General Eenne on the river Sireth, in 
 Moldavia, had advanced close to the Danube, where 
 he had taken the town and castle of Brahilow, and 
 laid them in ashes ; he knew, too, that the Czar had 
 also another body of troops advancing from the 
 frontiers of Poland. The object of the vizier was 
 therefore to send back to Eussia the victorious troops 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 245 
 
 on the Danube, to recover Azof, to exclude the 
 Czar from all entrance into the Sea of Azof, 
 and the Black Sea, and to demolish the harbor of 
 Taganrog ; to prevent the Czar, in future, from con- 
 cerning himself with the Poles and the Cossacks, 
 and to obtain for the King of Sweden a free and un- 
 disturbed passage home to his own kingdom. These 
 were the terms he proposed, to all of which the 
 Czar agreed ; and the Yice-chancellor Shafiiroff and 
 Major-general Scherematoff, son of the marshal, 
 were sent to Constantinople as hostages for the ful- 
 filment of the treaty. After which the whole army 
 were supplied by the Turks with abundance of pro- 
 visions. 
 
 The vizier pressed very much that Prince Canti- 
 mir should be delivered up to him, as Patkul had 
 been by Augustus to the King of Sweden, but this 
 was disdainfully rejected by the Czar. In his letter 
 to Yice-chancellor Shaffiroif he thus expresses him- 
 self : ' ' I will rather cede to the Turks all the coun- 
 try as far as Cursk ; I shall still have some hopes 
 of recovering it ; but my word once forfeited, is ir- 
 recoverable — it must not be violated. Honor is all 
 we have peculiar to ourselves ; renouncing that is 
 ceasing to be a monarch. ' ' 
 
 Peter, in his journal, admits that this expedition 
 against the Turks was very rashly undertaken ; that 
 he first set about it for the honor of Christianity, 
 and on the promises of the faithless Hospodar of 
 Moldavia, — ^promises that were only the words of 
 
246 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Judas — a man who betrayed him to the Turks, and 
 laid a snare for his destruction; ''but," says he, 
 ''divine justice most certainly performed a miracle 
 on the occasion, in saving us from that inevitable 
 danger ; ' ' and he adds that, ' ' b}^ the effect of this 
 same divine justice, all the traitors came to an un- 
 happy end. ' ' * 
 
 "The King of Sweden," says Yoltaire, "was 
 now reduced to the mean shift of caballing at the 
 Ottoman court. A king who had made kings is 
 busied in contriving means that memoirs and peti- 
 tions, which the ministry would not receive, might 
 be delivered to the sultan. All the artifices and in- 
 trigues which a subject would make use of to sup- 
 plant a minister in his sovereign's esteem, Charles 
 practised against the vizier Mehemet and all his 
 successors. Sometimes application was made to the 
 Sultan Yalide by a Jewess; sometimes a eunuch 
 was the messenger ; at last was found a wretch who, 
 mingling himself among the grand seignior's guards, 
 acted the madman with the view that, by drawing 
 the notice of the sultan, he might give him a memo- 
 rial from the king. But the result of all these in- 
 trigues was, that Charles had the mortification to 
 see himself deprived of his thaim^ or pension, which 
 he daily received from the Porte's generosity, 
 amounting to fifteen hundred livres, French. The 
 grand vizier, instead of the thaim^ transmitted him 
 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 247 
 
 an order, in the softened form of advice, to quit 
 Turke}^" 
 
 ' ' Charles, ' ' he continues, ' ' was more determined 
 than ever to stay, still flattering himself that he 
 should lead an Ottoman army into Poland and Rus- 
 sia. The issue of his obstinacy, in the year 1714, 
 is known to all the world ; how with his secretaries, 
 valets, cooks, and grooms, he fought against an 
 army of janizaries, spahis, and Tartars ; how he 
 was a prisoner in the country where he had enjoyed 
 the most generous hospitality; and how, after a 
 stay of five years in Turkey, he returned to his own 
 kingdom in the disguise of a courier. If there was 
 any rationality in his conduct, it must be owned to 
 have been of a different kind from that of other 
 men." * ''I see," said Peter, with a deep sigh, on 
 hearing of his conduct towards the Turks, ' ' I see 
 that God has abandoned him, since he carries his 
 ingratitude so far as to attack his benefactors. ' ' f 
 In plain truth, the whole conduct of Charles, after 
 the battle of Poltava, was that of a madman. 
 
 The spot, where Peter was engaged in this de- 
 structive battle, was not more than sixty or seventy 
 miles from Bender, Avhere his rival brother, Charles 
 XII. had taken up his abode ; and it is well authen- 
 ticated that there were in the Ottoman army, in the 
 midst of the battle, two of the king of Sweden's 
 officers, Count Poniatowski and General Sparre; 
 
 • * Voltaire. Life of Charles XII. 
 * Life of Peter the Great, 
 
248 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 that these generals strongly urged the grand vizier 
 not to fight, but continually to harass the Rus- 
 sians ; to cut them off from all water and supplies 
 of provisions, and thus oblige them either to sur- 
 render or to perish ; but that the vizier was deter- 
 mined to bring the war to the issue of a battle, the 
 result of which he could not doubt, from the vast 
 superiority of his numbers ; that they still pressed 
 him not to hazard a general action with troops, 
 however inferior in numbers, which were so supe- 
 rior to his in discipline; and that the vizier got 
 angry, which was the chief cause of his attacking 
 the Russians the first day in the rear, under Gen- 
 eral Allard, who, with 8000 men, stood his ground 
 for three hours against, 150,000 Turks, and obliged 
 them to retire, with the loss of 7000 men. Such 
 was the effect of discipline acquired since the battle 
 of I^arva, where the Russian soldiers were no 
 better than, and probably not so good as those of 
 the Turks.* 
 
 As soon as the treaty was concluded, Charles 
 hastened to the vizier, who, recollecting his haughti- 
 ness at Bender, t sent two pashas to meet him, but 
 received him himself near the door of his tent. 
 Charles commenced the conversation by upbraiding 
 him for not taking the Czar prisoner, when he had 
 him in his power; but the vizier coolly asked, 
 " Had I taken the Czar, who would have governed 
 his empire? " adding, '' All kings should not leave 
 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. f Ibid, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 249 
 
 their homes. ' ' This, if true, would have been suflfi- 
 eiently mortifying to Charles ; but the conversation 
 that passed is more probably stated by Bruce. 
 After reproaching the vizier for not taking the Czar 
 a prisoner to Constantinople, Charles said that, if he 
 would now give him 20,000 of his troops, he would 
 yet recover the opportunity. " God preserve us," 
 said the vizier, ^ ' from breaking a treaty of peace 
 without any reason, as I have already accepted 
 hostages for the performances of it. ' ' Poniatowski 
 being present, repeated the same thing, but the 
 vizier was inflexible, and observed it would be a 
 violation of that part of the treaty which provides, 
 ' ' that the king of Sweden may return into his own 
 dominions, through the Czar's territories, with a 
 strong convoy of Turks, after which, if he pleases, 
 he may make peace with the Czar. The king, on 
 hearing this, looked full at the grand vizier and 
 laughed in his face, without making any answer, 
 and turned short on his heel, tore the vizier's robe 
 with his spur ; mounted his horse, and rode off highly 
 displeased with the interview. " "^^ 
 
 ' ' Thus, ' ' says Yoltaire, ' ' all the satisfaction 
 Charles reaped from his long journey was, to tear 
 the grand vizier's robe with one of his spurs; 
 whereas the vizier, who might have made him re- 
 pent of this indignity, overlooked it, and herein 
 showed himself much greater than Charles. If amid 
 the blaze and tumult of this monarch's life, any- 
 
 * Bruce's Memoirs. 
 
250 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 thing could have brought him to see how much 
 grandeur is subject to the reverse of fortune, it is, 
 that at Poltava a pastrycook had made his whole 
 army lay down their arms ; and that at the Pruth, 
 both the Czar's fate and his own had been decided 
 by a wood-cleaver — this Yizier Baltagi Mehemet 
 having been a wood-cleaver in the seraglio, as his 
 name signifies ; and, instead of being ashamed of it, 
 he accounted it an honor. So different are the 
 Eastern manners from ours. ' ' * 
 
 Bruce, who was sent express to Constantinople, 
 relates the following melancholy story : "At our 
 setting out (from the Pruth) Colonel Pitt had the 
 misfortune to lose both his wife and daughter, beau- 
 tiful women, by the breaking of their coach wheel ; 
 by this accident they were left so far in the rear, 
 that the Tartars seized and carried them off. The 
 colonel addressed himself to the grand vizier, who 
 ordered a strict inquiry to be made, but to no pur- 
 pose. The colonel, being afterward informed that 
 they were both carried to Constantinople, and pre- 
 sented to the grand seignior, obtained a pass, and 
 went thither in search of them; and, getting ac- 
 quainted with a Jew doctor, who was physician to 
 the seraglio, the doctor told him there had been two 
 such ladies as he described lately presented to the 
 sultan ; but that when any of the sex were once 
 taken into the seraglio, they were never suffered to 
 come out again. The colonel, nevertheless, tried 
 * Voltaire's Hist. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 251 
 
 every expedient he could devise to recover his wife, 
 if he could not get both, till becoming outrageous 
 by repeated disappointment, and very clamorous, 
 they shut him up in a dungeon ; and it was with 
 great difficulty he got released, by the intercession 
 of some of the foreign ambassadors at the Porte ; 
 and he was afterward told, by the Jew doctor, that 
 they had both died of the plague." * 
 
 These barbarians had too long been suffered to act 
 as the scourge of Southern Europe, but Russia was 
 the power destined, at no distant time, to wipe out 
 the disgrace by the most ample vengeance. 
 
 * Bruce's Memoirs. 
 
CHAPTEK X. 
 
 The Czar's Naval Victory over the Swedes — Rejoicings — A 
 Russian Entertainment — Death of the Consort of Alexis — 
 The Czarina Catharine brings Peter a Son — Strange Re- 
 joicings — Progressive Improvements at St. Petersbmg. 
 
 As soon as intelligence of the treaty with Kussia 
 had reached Constantinople, the vizier's conduct was 
 highly applauded, and great rejoicings, by order of 
 the sultan, took place. Tolstoy, the Eussian am- 
 bassador, was immediately released from the Seven 
 Towers, and Shaffiroff and Scherematoff, the two 
 hostages, were received with such honors as the 
 Turk ever condescends to bestow upon infidels, and 
 a guard of Janizaries was given for their protec- 
 tion. 
 
 Peter, on his part, lost no time in ordering his 
 army to march back by the way of Jassy, followed 
 by a large body of Turkish troops, which were sent 
 by the vizier, most probably to watch the motions 
 of the Muscovites, though ostensibly to hinder the 
 roving Tartars from molesting them. Conformably 
 to the terms of the treaty, Peter caused, without 
 delay, the fortresses of Samara and Kamienska to 
 be demolished ; but it required a considerable time 
 to prepare for the surrender of Azof and Taganrog, 
 
 252 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 253 
 
 owing to the separation of the stores and vessels be- 
 longing to the Turks, and those that had been sent 
 thither by the Kussians subsequent to the capture. 
 The sultan grew impatient at delay, and dismissed 
 the vizier. The party of Charles, supported by the 
 Khan of the Tartars, and by the French ambas- 
 sador, once more gained the ascendant, and there 
 seemed to be every likelihood of a renewal of hos- 
 tilities. Azof however was at length restored, and 
 the fortresses were demolished; yet the grand 
 seignior was persuaded that he ought not to be sat- 
 isfied with the treaty. Peter therefore thought it 
 most politic, under present circumstances, to author- 
 ize his ambassadors to sign another treaty, by 
 which he consented to withdraw his troops from 
 Poland within three months ; but at the same time 
 he stipulated that Charles should be required im- 
 mediately to withdraw from Turkey and return to 
 his own dominions, instead of remaining there to 
 foment broils among Christian powers. 
 
 Peter, on his return from this unfortunate cam- 
 paign, found his health so much impaired, that he 
 thought it necessary to proceed to Carlsbad, to 
 drink the waters; and from hence he issued his 
 orders for attacking the Swedish province of Pome- 
 rania, and to blockade Stralsund ; being determined 
 to leave no part of Germany in the possession of the 
 crown of Sweden. From Carlsbad he proceeded to 
 Dresden, where his son, the Czarovitz Alexis Petro- 
 vitz, at this time in his twenty-second year was 
 
254: LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 waiting his arrival. They went together to Tar- 
 gow, where preparations had been made for the 
 marriage of Alexis with the Princess of Wolfenbut- 
 tel, sister to the Empress of Germany, consort of 
 Charles YI. , an accomplished young lady of eight- 
 een years of age. The marriage was celebrated in 
 the palace of the Queen of Poland. ^ The object 
 which Peter would seem to have had in view, in 
 promoting this alliance, was the hope of bringing 
 back this unfortunate son to a sense of what he 
 owed to himself, as the legitimate successor to the 
 throne, and to his father, to whom he had been 
 guilty of every species of disobedience. '^ Captain 
 Bruce says that the Czarovitz was entirely given 
 up to low sensual' pleasures and mean vicious com- 
 pany, and had no desire at all to marry ; nor had 
 any other view at present than an endeavor to shun 
 the danger he was in of forfeiting his succession to 
 the crown ; and the princess, whose amiable man- 
 ners and engaging accomplishments deserved a bet- 
 ter fate, entirely missed her road to happiness.* 
 
 Catharine was not at the marriage, having been 
 left at Thorn. Though considered fully as the legi- 
 timate Czarina, she had not been formally acknowl- 
 edged as such, and German pride, or the German 
 ceremonial, might not have allowed her a place 
 suitable to her dignity as the spouse of Peter ; and 
 as his majesty was exceedingly punctilious on this 
 point, he deemed it most expedient to avoid any 
 
 * Memoir of P. H. Bruoe. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 255 
 
 question being mooted on the subject, and that the 
 Czarina should not be present. After the ceremony 
 he joined Catharine at Thorn, and they then pro- 
 ceeded, by the way of Elbing, Koningsberg, Mit- 
 taw, and Riga, to St. Petersburg, where they arrived 
 on the 29th of December, 1711. One of the first 
 steps which Peter took after his arrival at his new 
 capital, was to declare his intention to celebrate 
 anew his own marriage, which he had publicly an- 
 nounced at Moscow and to the army. Accordingly, 
 on the 26th of February, 1712, his majesty^ s old 
 wedding was solemnized with great splendor and 
 rejoicing, with fireworks and illuminations. 
 
 These rejoicings being concluded, Peter, with his 
 usual activity, employed himself in forwarding his 
 various plans and improvements; new ships were 
 launched, and others laid down ; the admiralty was 
 extended; the foundry for casting cannon was 
 finished; canals were planned and ordered to be 
 dug; new roads were opened; warehouses were 
 built; an exchange planned; and encouragement 
 held out for the building of dwelling-houses of a 
 more substantial kind than those hitherto con- 
 structed. He directed that the senate should be 
 removed from Moscow to St. Petersburg ; and it be- 
 came obvious that his design was to make the latter 
 the capital of the empire. 
 
 But as the prosperity and permanent security of 
 this new city would mainly depend on still further 
 humbling Sweden, he determined to carry the war 
 
256 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 into that country, with the view of stripping her of 
 every possession that could annoy or endanger St. 
 Petersburg ; while Charles, with his habitual pride 
 and obstinacy, was quarreling with the Turks at 
 Bender, on whose charity he was subsisting. Peter 
 had formed a league with Denmark and Saxony, and 
 their united armies entered Pomerania. Menzikoff , 
 with 30,000 men, was ordered to join the allied army, 
 and Peter set out with the Czarina, and proceeded 
 to Stralsund, which he blockaded with a large force ; 
 having left also 10,000 men before Stettin. Count 
 Steinbock, who now commanded the SAvedish army 
 of 11,000 or 12,000 men, marched along the Wis- 
 mar road, following the combined troops of Russia, 
 Saxony, and Denmark. He soon came up with the 
 Danish and Saxon armies, the Russians being three 
 leagues behind. The Czar despatched couriers to 
 the King of Denmark, desiring him, on no account, 
 to engage the Swedes until his troops could be 
 brought up ; but the Dane, not willing to share the 
 honor of a victory, of which he had made himself 
 secure, attacked them near a place called Gade- 
 busch, and was completely beaten before the Russians 
 could reach the field of battle. 
 
 Steinbock was a brave and intelligent officer, but 
 a man totally destitute of feeling, and as obstinate and 
 obdurate as his master. Fresh from his victory at 
 Gadebusch, he proceeded to the little town of Altona, 
 situated close to the city of Hamburg, a place 
 inhabited by a peaceable people, who obtained a 
 
IJFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 257 
 
 livelihood generally by the exercise of different 
 branches of trade and manufacture, and who had 
 never taken up arms on one side or the other ; not- 
 withstanding which, he set fire to the town in the 
 night, and reduced it to a heap of ashes. Many of 
 the innocent inhabitants perished in the flames, and 
 others, especially the aged, the infirm, and the 
 children, who had fled from the conflagration, died 
 with fatigue and cold at the gates of Hamburg. 
 The Czar pursued Steinbock closely, and having 
 witnessed the wretched condition of the poor people, 
 whose town had been wantonly destroyed, he or- 
 dered some thousand rubles to be distributed among 
 them. Steinbock had halted his army at Freder- 
 ickstadt ; but the Czar, putting himself at the head 
 of five battalions of his guards and some cavalry, 
 attacked him so vigorously that he retreated with 
 the main body of his army to Tonningen. After 
 this the Kussian army went into winter-quarters, 
 and the Czar returned to St. Petersburg. 
 
 The whole of the year 1713 was spent in battles 
 and sieges of various places in Pomerania, and in the 
 intrigues of the most cunning and unprincipled self- 
 created diplomatist and negotiator that ever existed 
 — the famous Baron Goertz, whom Yoltaire desig- 
 nates as the most crafty and most enterprising of 
 men. This man, never at a loss for resources, 
 thought nothing too bold, nothing too diificult ; in- 
 sinuating in negotiations and daring in his schemes 
 — indifferent as to truth or falsehood — he had th^ 
 17 
 
258 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 address to impose on Peter, on Charles, on the kmgs 
 of Denmark, Saxony, and Prussia. It was by his 
 advice that Tonningen had opened its gates to the 
 Swedish army, while at the same time he assured 
 the King of Demnark it was done contrary to his 
 advice ; but this did not save the Swedish general, 
 Steinbock, from being obliged to surrender himself 
 prisoner of war, with eleven thousand men. It was 
 agreed that Steinbock, with his officers and men, 
 might be ransomed or exchanged. His ransom Avas 
 settled at eight thousand imperial crowns ; * yet, in- 
 considerable as this sum was, that general, for want 
 of it, remained a prisoner at Copenhagen until his 
 death. 
 
 Before the close of the year 1713, the Elector of 
 Hanover had secured Bremen and Yerden, of which 
 the Swedes had been dispossessed ; the Saxons had 
 sat down before their city of Wismar ; Stettin had 
 passed into the hands of the King of Prussia; 
 finally, the Saxons were in possession of the Island 
 of Eugen, preparatory to the Russians besieging 
 Stralsund, almost the only spot in Pomerania now 
 left to Charles XII. In the midst of these negoti- 
 ations and partitions, the Czar, having himself dic- 
 tated the plan of the siege of Stralsund, left the rest 
 to Menzikoff and the confederates, and returned to 
 St. Petersburg, where he embarked on board of a 
 ship of 50 guns, built from a model of his own, and 
 
 * The crown of tlie Netherlands was valued at about forty 
 pents, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 259 
 
 made sail for Helsingfors, in the Gulf of Finland, 
 followed by 93 galleys, 60 brigantines, and 50 large 
 flat boats, with sixteen thousand land forces."^ 
 Great difficulty and no little danger, on account of 
 rocks and shoals, were experienced ; but the Czar, 
 in the capacity of rear-admiral, overcame them all. 
 He caused a diversion to be made on one part, while 
 the troops landed on the other and captured the 
 town. From hence the Czar pushed on and made 
 himself master of Borgo and Abo, and the whole 
 line of coast. Abo, the capital of Finland, had a 
 university and a considerable library, which Peter 
 took possession of and sent to St. Petersburg, where 
 a suitable building was put in preparation for its 
 reception ; and this was the foundation of the pres- 
 ent library at St. Petersburg. The Czar returned 
 to the northern capital, leaving the command of his 
 troops with Prince Galitzin, who advanced against 
 the Swedes, drove them from Tavarthus, and pur- 
 sued them to the neighborhood of the lake Palkane, 
 forcing them to abandon their cannon and baggage. 
 Peter did not remain long at his new capital. 
 Finding that the Swedes were making great efforts 
 to arrest his progress in the Gulf of Finland, and 
 that a considerable squadron was fitting out under 
 the orders of Admiral Watrang and Yice-admiral 
 Ehrenschild, he lost not a moment in assembling his 
 fleet at Cronstadt. It consisted of thirty stout ships, 
 most of them built in England or Holland, which 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand. 
 
260 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 he ordered from Eevel to join the squadron of 
 galleys and prames, so called by the Czar, which 
 amounted to 70 or 80. Admiral Apraxin was ap- 
 pointed commander-in-chief, and Peter served under 
 him as rear-admiral. They set sail from Cronstadt, 
 and after cruising about and collecting the fleet, 
 they fell in with that of Sweden, consisting of 
 eighteen or twenty large ships of the line, under 
 the orders of Admiral Ehrenschild. Peter, being 
 aware that the large ships of the Swedes could not 
 approach near enough to the island of Aland, on 
 account of the numerous rocks and shoals, and being 
 superior to the enemy in small vessels, determined 
 on landing in the island, which he effected in sight 
 of the Swedish fleet, and under fire of their cannon. 
 Ehrenschild, in a frigate, led on his galleys to at- 
 tack those of Peter, who was prepared to receive 
 them, and poured in upon them so destructive a fire, 
 as to cause a dreadful slaughter among the crews. 
 The Elephant, a small frigate of 18 guns, which 
 bore the flag of the Swedish admiral, was taken, 
 after a gallant action, which lasted two hours, by 
 boarding, together with nine large galleys and sev- 
 eral prames, carrying altogether 116 guns. The 
 Swedish admiral jumped into a boat and endeavored 
 to escape, but he was pursued, and, being wounded, 
 was obliged to surrender. He was brought on 
 board the galley which the Czar himself commanded 
 in the action. The number of killed was 352, and 
 of prisoners 950 ; the number of killed and wounded 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 261 
 
 on the side of the Russians was 342. The large 
 ships escaped to Sweden ; but such was the conster- 
 nation, that even Stockholm was alarmed for its 
 safety.* 
 
 This action was glorious to Peter and his navy. 
 To have himself thus triumphed over the old and 
 skilful Swedish officers, and made that fleet, which 
 for so long a time had scoured the whole Baltic sea, 
 flee before him, could not fail to gratify his most 
 ardent hopes, while it raised his reputation for skill 
 in naval affairs, and made him more than ever re- 
 spected by his allies. He returned to St. Peters- 
 burg, where an addition to his joy awaited his ar- 
 rival, by the Czarina's safe delivery of a princess, 
 who died, however, about a year after. He cele- 
 brated the birth of his daughter by a triumphal en- 
 try into his new capital, and instituted a new order 
 in honor of his consort, called the Order of St. 
 Catharine, to perpetuate the memory of that love 
 and fidelity which she had always manifested for 
 him, and more especially in his distressed and criti- 
 cal situation when his army was surrounded by the 
 Turks and Tartars on the banks of the Pruth. The 
 decoration of the order is a medal, encircled Avith 
 precious stones, surrounding the picture of St. 
 Catharine, with the motto ''For Love and Fi- 
 delity. ' ' The Czarina could alone bestow it on such 
 of her own sex as she might think proper ; and the 
 first who had it were her own two daughters, the 
 * Journal de Pierre le Grand, 
 
262 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Princess Anne, afterward married to the Duke of 
 Holstein, and the Princess Elizabeth, afterward 
 Empress of Russia ; shortly after she bestowed it on 
 the Czar's three nieces, — Anne, Catharine, and 
 Paskovia, the daughters of his brother Ivan, and 
 also on the Princess Menzikoff . 
 
 All the galleys of the conquerors and conquered 
 came up the Neva, opposite the senate-house and 
 the fort, amid the roar of cannon ; after which the 
 men came ashore and marched in grand procession 
 to the senate-house. When his majesty reached a 
 triumphal arch, all the grandees, senators, and for- 
 eign ministers congratulated him on his victory. 
 The governor of Moscow, in the name of the coun- 
 try, complimented his majesty on his gallant con- 
 duct, and thanked him for his great and eminent 
 services. Among the emblematical representations 
 which adorned the magnificent arch was the Rus- 
 sian eagle seizing an elephant (in allusion to Ehrens- 
 child's ship), with this inscription, ''- Aqidla non 
 capit muscas.^'"^ The procession proceeded in the 
 same order to the fort, where the Yice-Czar, Ro- 
 manonofsky, seated on a throne and surrounded by 
 the senate, caused Rear-admiral Peter to be called 
 before the assembly, and received from him a report 
 in writing of the gallant action he had fought ; and 
 this being read and considered, he was unanimous^ly 
 declared Vice-admiral of Russia, which being pro- 
 claimed in the assembly, the whole house resounded 
 * " An eagle does not catch flies." 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 263 
 
 with ^ ' Health to the vice-admiral. " Peter, having 
 returned thanks, immediately went on board his 
 galley and hoisted the flag of the vice-admiral. 
 
 After this his majesty, attended by numbers of 
 the nobility and officers, went to the palace of 
 Prince Menzikoff , where a grand entertainment was 
 provided. When the dinner was ended the Czar, 
 who had showed a marked attention to Yice-admiral 
 Ehrenschild, addressing the company, said, '' Gen- 
 tlemen, you here see a brave and a faithful servant 
 of his master, who has made himself worthy of the 
 highest rewards at his hands, and who shall always 
 have my favor while he is with me, although he 
 has killed me many a brave man. I forgive you," 
 said he, turning to the Swede with a smile, ''and 
 you may always depend on my good will. ' ' Ehrens- 
 child, having thanked the Czar, replied, " However 
 honorably I may have acted with regard to my 
 master, I did no more than my duty : I sought death, 
 but did not meet it ; and it is no small comfort to 
 me, in my misfortune, to be a prisoner of your maj- 
 esty, and to be treated so favorably, and with so 
 much distinction by so great a sea-officer, and now, 
 worthily, vice-admiral." 
 
 The Czar, on this occasion, addressed the follow- 
 ing speech to the assembled senators, many of 
 whom had not been very favorable to his views of 
 reform, nor to the great expense occasioned by 
 maintaining a fleet : — 
 
 '' My brethren, where is the man among you who, 
 
264 tlF^E OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 twenty years ago, would have conceived the idea of 
 being engaged along with myself in building ships 
 here on the Baltic, and in settling in these regions 
 conquered by our fatigues and bravery ? — of living 
 to see so many brave and victorious soldiers and 
 seamen sprung from Russian blood, — and to see our 
 sons returning home accomplished men from foreign 
 countries ? Historians place the seat of all sciences 
 in Greece ; whence being expelled by the fatality 
 of the times, they spread into Ital}^, and thence 
 were dispersed all over Europe ; but by the perverse- 
 ness of our ancestors, they stoj)ped short in Poland. 
 The Poles as well as the Germans formerly groped 
 in the same darkness in which we have hitherto 
 lived, — but the indefatigable care of their governors 
 at length opened their eyes, and they made them- 
 selves masters of those arts, sciences, and social im- 
 provements which Greece once boasted of. It is 
 now our turn, if you will only seriously second my 
 designs, and add to your obedience voluntary knowl- 
 edge. I can compare this transmigration of the 
 sciences to nothing better than the circulation of the 
 blood in the human body; and my mind almost 
 prognosticates that they will, some time or other, 
 quit their abode in Britain, Prance, and Germany, 
 to come and settle, for some centuries, among us ; 
 and afterward perhaps return to their original home 
 in Greece. In the meantime I earnestly recom- 
 mend to your practice the Latin saying, Ora et la- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 265 
 
 hora ; * and in that case, be persuaded, you may 
 chance, even in your own lifetime, to put other civ- 
 ilized nations to the blush, and raise the glory of 
 the Kussian name to the highest pitch, "f 
 
 The senators and the whole assembly applauded 
 this speech. ^ round of entertainments was now 
 given by the superior officers of the government ; 
 from all which the Czarovitz thought fit to absent 
 himself, though regularly invited by General Bruce, 
 ' ' who, ' ' says Captain Bruce, ' ' sent me several 
 times to inform him of his majesty's displeasure at 
 liis non-appearance ; but the old excuse, — want of 
 health, — served on every occasion." It seems that 
 this wayward young man, to avoid appearing in 
 public, either took physic or let blood, — always 
 making an excuse that his want of health would not 
 allow him to attend; '' when, at the same time," 
 says Bruce, ' ' it was notoriously known that he got 
 drunk in very bad company, where he used con- 
 stantly to condemn all his father's actions. On the 
 present occasion, by way of punishment, the Czar 
 ordered him, being only a sergeant of grenadiers, 
 to take his place on the right, with his halbert on 
 his shoulder, when a company of that regiment 
 was ordered to attend one of these entertain- 
 ments. The princess, his consort, happening to see 
 him from a window march past, as she thought, in 
 
 * " Pray and work." The play upon the syllable ora can- 
 not be reproduced in English, 
 f Voltaire. Nestesuranoi, Mottley, &c. 
 
266 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 a degraded situation, was taken ill and fainted. 
 The Czar, on hearing this, immediately went to her, 
 explained to her that he himself had gone through 
 the lowest ranks of both land and sea service, till 
 he reached what he now was, a general in the one 
 and a vice-admiral in the other ; but he told her, 
 with his usual good-nature, that he had just pro- 
 cured for him from the Yice-Czar, an ensign's com- 
 mission in the guards, and that he came to give her 
 joy on her husband's promotion./ 
 
 The Czar was so delighted with his sea victory, 
 and so fully satisfied of the great importance of es- 
 tablishing a naval force on a grand scale, that he 
 ordered several ships of the line to be laid down im- 
 mediately, so that, in the spring of the year 1715, 
 he might have a fleet of fifty large ships, with an 
 increased number of galleys and other vessels, to 
 enable him to make a descent on Sweden, and even 
 flattered himself he should be able to take Stock- 
 holm. It is incredible with what rapidity a ship of 
 the line, from a thousand to twelve hundred tons, 
 was run up and completed for launching; several of 
 them were fully equipped in the course of a twelve- 
 month. 
 
 St. Petersburg now began to assume the conse- 
 quence as well as the appearance of a great capital ; 
 and vast numbers flocked thither from Moscow and 
 other interior towns, seeing that the seat of com- 
 merce would eventually be established there. The 
 Czar had now become almost universally popular. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^67 
 
 Desirous of assimilating the manners of his subjects, 
 as he had already done their dress, to those of other 
 European nations, he encouraged frequent social 
 assemblies: he even ordered his senators and his 
 generals alternately to open their houses twice a 
 week for these assemblies, at which conversation, 
 cards, and dancing might be resorted to ; they were 
 to commence at eight and end at eleven o'clock; 
 they were open to all of the rank of gentlemen, for- 
 eigners as well as natives, and equally so for their 
 wives and daughters. This was a great step gained 
 in civilization ; and the ladies gladly profited by the 
 indulgence, and rapidly improved in their manners, 
 conversation, and dress. 
 
 The balls and entertainments of the Czar had 
 hitherto always been given at Prince Menzikoff's 
 palace, — ^but his own summer and winter palaces 
 being finished in the course of the year 1715, he now 
 entertained his guests at one or other of these ; ex- 
 cept on grand festivals and extraordinary^ occasions, 
 when the entertainments were held at the senate- 
 house. At these public dinners several tables were 
 laid out, appropriated to the several classes of per- 
 sons, as senators, clergymen, ofiicers of the army 
 and navy, merchants, ship-builders, and others ; the 
 Czarina and the ladies at a separate table, and gener- 
 ally above stairs. These entertainments commonly 
 ended with hard drinking. After dinner the Czar 
 used to go from one room and table to another, con- 
 yersing with every set according to their different 
 
<2,Q^ LIFE OP PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 professions or employments, — more particularly with 
 the masters of foreign trading vessels, making 
 minute inquiries into the several branches of their 
 traffic, and marking down in his pocket-book, as 
 usual, whatever occurred to him as worthy of notice. 
 '' At these dinners," says Bruce, '' I have seen the 
 Dutch skippers treat him Avith much familiarity, 
 calling him 8kij}per Peter^ with which he seemed 
 to be highly delighted." * 
 
 But the most extraordinary account of the manner 
 in which the Czar entertained is given in a manu- 
 script, in the handwriting of Dr. Birch, among the 
 Sloane papers in the British Museum : — 
 
 "There are twenty-four cooks belonging to the 
 kitchen of the Russian court, who are all Russians ; 
 and as the people of that nation use a great deal of 
 onion, garlic, and train-oil in dressing their meat, 
 and employ linseed and walnut oil for their pro- 
 visions, there is such an intolerable stink in their 
 kitchen that no stranger is able to bear it, — especi- 
 ally the cooks being such nasty fellows that the 
 very sight of them is enough to turn one's stomach. 
 These are the men who in great festivals dress about 
 70 or 80 or more dishes. But the fowls which are 
 for the Czar's own eating, are very often dressed by 
 his grand Marskal Alseffiof, who is running up and 
 down with his apron before him among the other 
 cooks till it is time to take up dinner, when he puts 
 
 * Memoir of P. H. Bruce, Esq. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 269 
 
 on his fine clothes and his full-bottomed wig, and 
 helps to serve up the dishes. 
 
 ' « The number of the persons invited is commonly 
 tAvo or three hundred, though there is room for no 
 more than about a hundred, at four or five tables. 
 But as there is no place assigned to anybody, and 
 none of the Russians are willing to go home with an 
 empty stomach, everybody is obliged to seize his 
 chair and hold it with all his force, if he will not 
 have it snatched from him. 
 
 '' The Czar, being come in and having chosen a 
 place for himself, there is such scuffling and fighting 
 for chairs that nothing more scandalous can be seen 
 in any country. Though the Czar does not mind in 
 the least, nor take care for putting a stop to such 
 disorder, pretending that a ceremony and the for- 
 mal regulations of a inarskal make company eat 
 uneasy, and spoil the pleasure of conversation. 
 Several foreign ministers have complained of this 
 to the Czar, and refused to dine any more at court. 
 But all the answer they got was, that it was not the 
 Czar's business to turn master of the ceremonies and 
 please foreigners, nor was it his intention to abolish 
 the freedom once introduced. This obliged stran- 
 gers for the future to follow the Russian fashion, in 
 defending the possession of their chairs by cufiing 
 and boxing their opposer. 
 
 '' The company thus sitting down to table with- 
 out any manner of grace, they all sit so crowded 
 together that they have much ado to lift their hands 
 
270 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 to their mouths. And if a stranger happens to sit 
 between two Eussians, which is commonly the case, 
 he is sm*e of losing his stomach, though he should 
 have happened to have ate nothing for two days 
 before. Carpenters and shipwrights sit next to 
 the Czar, but senators, ministers, generals, priests, 
 sailors, buffoons of all kinds, sit pell-mell without 
 any distinction. 
 
 ''The first course consists of nothing but cold 
 meats, among which are hams, dried tongues, and 
 the like, which not being liable to such tricks as 
 shall be mentioned hereafter, strangers ordinarily 
 make their whole meal of them, without tasting 
 anything else, though, generally speaking, every 
 one takes his dinner beforehand at home. 
 
 " Soups and roasted meats make the second 
 course, and pastry the third. 
 
 " As soon as one sits down, one is obliged to 
 drink a cup of brandy ; after which they ply you 
 with great glasses full of adulterated tookay^ and 
 other vitiated wines, and between whiles a bumper 
 of the strongest English beer, by which mixture of 
 liquors every one of the guests is fuddled before the 
 soup is served up. 
 
 ' ' The company being in this condition, make such 
 a noise, racket, and holloing, that it is impossible 
 to hear one another, or even to hear the music 
 which is playing in the next room, consisting of a 
 sort of trumpets and corpets (for the Czar hates 
 violins), and with this reveling noise and uproar the 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 271 
 
 Czar is extremely diverted, particularly if the 
 guests fall to boxing and get bloody noses. 
 
 ' ' Formerly the company had no napkins given 
 them ; but instead of it, they had a piece of very 
 coarse linen given them by a servant, who brought 
 in the whole piece under his arm, and cut off half 
 an ell for every person, which they were at liberty 
 to carry home with them ; for it had been observed 
 that these pilfering guests used constantly to pocket 
 the napkins. But at present two or three Kussians 
 must make shift with but one napkin, which they 
 pull and haul for like hungry dogs for a bone. 
 
 ^' Each person of the company has but one plate 
 during dinner ; so if some Kussian does not care to 
 mix the sauces of the different dishes together, he 
 pours the soup that is left in his plate either into 
 the dish, or into his neighbor's plate, or even under 
 the table ; after which he licks his plate clean with 
 his finger, and last of all wipes it with the table- 
 cloth. 
 
 ' ' The tables are each 30 or 40 feet long, and but 
 two and a half broad. Three or four messes of one 
 and the same course are served up to each table. 
 The dessert consists of divers sorts of pastry and 
 fruits, but the Czarina's table is furnished with 
 sweetmeats. However, it is to be observed, that 
 these sweetmeats are set out only on great festivals, 
 for a show, and that the Kussians of the best fash- 
 ion have nothing for their dessert but the produce 
 of the kitchen garden (as pease, beans, &c.), all raw, 
 
272 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ' ' At great entertainments it frequently happens 
 that nobody is allowed to go out of the room from 
 noon till midnight. Hence it is easy to imagine 
 what a pickle a room must be in that is full of peo- 
 ple who drink like beasts, and none of them escape 
 being dead drunk. 
 
 ' ' They often tie eight or ten young mice on a 
 string, and hide them under green pease, or in such 
 soups as the Eussians have the greatest appetites 
 to ; which sets them a heching and vomiting in a 
 most beastly manner, when they come to the bot- 
 tom and discover the trick. They often bake cats, 
 wolves, ravens, and the like in their pastries, and 
 when the company have ate them up, they tell 
 them what stuff they have been devouring. 
 
 '^ The present butler is one of the Czar's buffoons, 
 to whom he has given the name of Wiaschi^ with 
 this privilege, that if anybody else calls him by that 
 name, he has leave to drub them with his wooden 
 sword. If therefore anybody, upon the Czar's set- 
 ting them on, calls out Wiaschi^ as the fellow does 
 not know exactly who it was, he falls a beating 
 them all round, beginning with Prince Menzikoff, 
 and ending with the last of the company, without 
 excepting even the ladies, whom he strips of their 
 head clothes, as he does the old Eussians with their 
 wigs, which he tramples upon. On which occasion 
 it is pleasant enough to see the variety of their bald 
 pates. 
 
 *< Beside^ this employment at the entertainments, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 273 
 
 the said Wiaschi is also surveyor of the ice^ and ex- 
 ecutioner for torturing people : on which occasion 
 he gives them the knout himself, and his dexterity 
 in this business has already procured him above 
 thirty thousand thalers,* the sixth part of the confis- 
 cated estates of the sufferers being his perquisite. " f 
 At what time these extraordinary scenes occurred, 
 there are no means of ascertaining, as the paper is 
 without date; but the mention of the Czarina's 
 name points to a period subsequent to the marriage 
 of Catharine. It is well known that Peter, simple 
 and abstemious in his diet as he became towards 
 the latter part of his life, as well as in the use 
 of wine and strong liquors, never ceased to take 
 pleasure in seeing his guests enjoy themselves, and 
 encouraging them to drink frequently, even until 
 they became intoxicated, and was amused with their 
 noise and revels. When alone with his Czarina, he 
 was equally moderate in his eating and drinking. 
 When only his own family was present, his usual 
 dinner hour was twelve o'clock. His table was 
 frugal, and he ate only of plain dishes, — such as 
 soup with vegetables in it, water-gruel, cold roast 
 meat, ham, and cheese ; a little aniseed- water be- 
 fore dinner, and a cup of quass, or Kussian beer, or 
 in lieu of this, a glass of wine. One dish only was 
 served up at a time, and in order to have it hot, the 
 dining-room was contiguous to the kitchen, from 
 
 * The thaler was valued at about 71 cents, 
 f In Dr. Birch's handwriting. Sloane's MSS. British Museum. 
 I8 
 
274 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 whence the dish was received from the cook through 
 a small window. At one, he was accustomed to lie 
 down and sleep for about an hour : the rest of the 
 afternoon and evening were spent in some amuse- 
 ment or other, till ten o'clock, when he went to bed, 
 and he always got up at four in the morning, sum- 
 mer and winter. Between this hour and twelve he 
 transacted all his business with his ministers. Al- 
 though he never supped, he generally sat down 
 with the empress and his daughters at table ; and, 
 though now grown sober and serious, he still pre- 
 served in company the gaiety of his disposition, his 
 familiarity with his inferiors, and his dislike of cere- 
 mony. Peter never restrained himself through life 
 in putting in practise, whenever he thought it nec- 
 essary, any of his oddities and eccentricities, most of 
 which, absurd and puerile as they might appear to 
 be, had each of them an aim at some particular end ; 
 each of them had its place on the surface of his 
 sphere of action ; and all of them converged to one 
 central point, and that point was Eussia. 
 
 Besides the coarse and boisterous parties that 
 have been described, he had others of a more ra- 
 tional nature. He had a garden in St. Petersburg 
 laid out on an island, in which was built a large 
 banqueting-room. When an entertainment was to 
 be given in this garden, it was necessary that the 
 company should come in boats ; and in order to ac- 
 commodate the different ranks of his guests, he 
 presented them accordingly with yachts, small sail- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 275 
 
 ing- vessels, barges of ten or twelve oars, and smaller 
 boats ; and these means of conveyance were given 
 to them on this condition : — that each should keep 
 his vessel in repair, and when worn out, build an- 
 other at his own expense. Nor were these vessels to 
 be kept up for pleasure alone, or suffered to remain 
 useless ; for on a given signal being made for sail- 
 ing or rowing, the proprietors, with their respec- 
 tive crews, were obliged to attend, whether to row 
 on the broad Neva, or sail down to Cronstadt. In 
 the latter case, all the maneuvers of a fleet were 
 put in practise by signals, such as making or short- 
 ening sail, forming the line, furling sails, &c. , by 
 which the young nobles and gentry acquired a taste 
 for the naval service, while they were enjoying the 
 trip as an amusement. 
 
 Peter, however, in the midst of all these feasts 
 and entertainments, conceived that he had an act of 
 justice to perform. The Dutch admiral Kruys, had, 
 unfortunately, the preceding year, lost two of his 
 vessels, the Eiga and the Wyberg, on the rocks, 
 when chasing three Swedish vessels, and had been 
 compelled to set fire to the Riga. The Czar ordered 
 him and the captain of the other ship to be tried by 
 court-martial, which sentenced him to be shot for 
 neglect of duty and cowardice. Kruys complained 
 of the extreme severity of this doom, alleging that 
 no other nation, conversant in naval jurisdiction, 
 would have passed such a sentence. Some of the 
 accounts state that the Czar, on hearing this, ordered 
 
276 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 copies of the trial to be sent to his minister in Hol- 
 land, the admiral's native country, in order to col- 
 lect the opinions of the naval officers of that coun- 
 try ; and that they pronounced the sentence to be a 
 severe, but in strict justice a proper one. The Czar, 
 however, considering his officer more unfortunate 
 than culpable, commuted the sentence into banish- 
 ment to Olonnetz ; but before he had traveled one 
 day's journey towards the place of his exile, his maj- 
 esty not only recalled him, but appointed him one 
 of the commissioners of the admiralty; and thus 
 intrusted him with the administration of the civil 
 affairs of that navy, the ships of which he did not 
 think fit any longer to place under his command. 
 Accordingly, he was never employed at sea again, 
 but continued to manage the affairs of the navy on 
 shore, which he did with great ability for the 
 remainder of his days. 
 
 Soon after this a discovery was made, which 
 occasioned a very considerable degree of annoyance 
 to the Czar. His majesty having inquired of the 
 Dutch merchants whether the trade of his new 
 capital was in a flourishing state, one of them an- 
 swered, it would do very well if his majesty's min- 
 isters did not monopolize nearly the whole of it. 
 This led to further inquiries, when it appeared that 
 not only had trade decayed, but that the finances 
 had been embezzled, the army ill paid, that the 
 revenues were in great confusion, and that his prin- 
 cipal servants, and among others, his favorite Men- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 277 
 
 zikoff, were deeply involved. Determined to in- 
 vestigate the whole matter, he established a grand 
 inquisition, at the head of which was placed Gen- 
 eral Basil Dolgorouki. Menzikoff , Admiral Apraxin, 
 Kersakof, vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Kijkin 
 the president, and Siniavin, first commissioner of 
 the admiralty. General Bruce, master of the ord- 
 nance, with a great number of inferior officers, were 
 implicated in the charges. Apraxin, Menzikoff, 
 and Bruce, alleged their absence from St. Peters- 
 burg in the field abroad, or at sea, so that they 
 could not possibly be aware of the ill practises of 
 their faithless servants, or prevent them. This 
 appeal was in part admitted ; but the greater part 
 of their property was confiscated. Many others 
 forfeited their estates, and some of these suffered in 
 addition the knout, and those who had no property 
 were sent to Siberia. 
 
 Another circumstance occurred shortly after this, 
 Avhich occasioned no little grief to the Czar. The 
 unfortunate princess, consort of the Czarovitz, was 
 brought to bed of a son, and died a few days after, 
 in the twenty-first year of her age, deeply and sin- 
 cerely lamented by the whole court. By the gentle- 
 ness of her manners, and the sweetness of her tem- 
 per, this amiable princess had endeared herself to all 
 who knew her ; but her life had been imbittered by 
 the brutal conduct of her husband, who not only 
 totally neglected her, but indulged in revelries and 
 •debaucheries of the most sensual and beastly sort, 
 
278 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 in his own home as well as elsewhere. The poor 
 princess refused all nourishment and medicine, and 
 entreated the physician not to force it upon her, as 
 she had no other wish than to die in quiet. Both 
 the Czar and Czarina were greatly afflicted at her 
 loss. Their little grandson was named Peter, with 
 the addition of Alexiovitz, and became, on the 
 demise of the Empress Catharine, Peter II. of Eussia. 
 
 The Czar was busil}^ employed on his works at 
 Schlusselburg, when the intelligence of his daughter- 
 in-law's confinement reached him : he set out in- 
 stantly for his capital, where he was seized with a 
 sudden illness, which confined him to his chamber ; 
 but on hearing of her alarming state, caused him- 
 self to be placed on a chair, moving on wheels, and 
 conve3^ed to her apartment. The interview was 
 most affecting. As she took leave of him, recom- 
 mending her children to his care and her servants to 
 his protection, this stern hero burst into tears, and, 
 in an agony of grief, gave her the strongest assur- 
 ances, which were faithfully fulfilled, that every 
 wish of hers should be accomplished. At midnight 
 this amiable sufferer expired. 
 
 An idle report, scarcely deserving of notice, except 
 for that which it obtained in France, was circulated, 
 and printed in numerous publications, that by the 
 connivance of her attendants, this unfortunate prin- 
 cess made her escape to Louisiana, married a French 
 sergeant, returned with him to Paris, and was dis- 
 covered by Marshal Saxe, who procured for her 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^79 
 
 husband a commission in the Isle of Bourbon. The 
 story included many other adventures, equally and 
 utterly destitute of truth. It gave rise, however, 
 to two or three impostors, who feigned themselves 
 to be the unfortunate Princess of Wolfenbuttel, and 
 one of them is supposed to have visited Eng- 
 land. * 
 
 The grief of the court for the death of the prin- 
 cess was speedily converted into joy ; for the next 
 day after the interment, the Czarina Catharine gave 
 birth to a son, to the unspeakable delight of the 
 parents. This young prince was also baptized by 
 the name of Peter, with the adjunct of Petrovitz, 
 the kings of Denmark and Prussia being his god- 
 fathers. On this joyous occasion, a kind of carnival 
 was held, which lasted ten days. Splendid enter- 
 tainments, balls, and fireworks, followed one another 
 in constant succession. At one of the grand din- 
 ners, a device of so singular a kind is mentioned by 
 several writers, that rude and barbarous as the sub- 
 jects of Peter still were, it requires the utmost stretch 
 of belief, that such an exhibition could have taken 
 place. On opening a large pie, which graced the 
 center of the gentlemen's table, a well-shaped dwarf 
 w^oman stepped out of it ; she made a speech to the 
 company, drank their health in a glass of wine, and 
 was then removed from the table. On the ladies' 
 table, a man-dwarf was served up in the same 
 
 * Annual Register for 1766. Original in Gentleman's Mag- 
 azine. 
 
280 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 manner. Mr. Bruce adds a third ''dainty dish," out 
 of which sprung a covey of twelve partridges. 
 
 Peter also took this opportunity of general rejoic- 
 ing, to render ridiculous the office of the patriarch, 
 which he had long determined to abolish, and had 
 for some years held in a state of abeyance ; and 
 this he did from having repeatedly received hints 
 from the bishops and others, of the wish of the peo- 
 ple to have a patriarch, which he knew was not the 
 case. For this purpose he appointed Sotof, his 
 jester, or, more properly, his court fool, to perform 
 what Yoltaire colls the farce of the conclave. This 
 '' motley," who was in his eighty-fourth year, was 
 created mock-patriarch ; the bride (for he was to be 
 married) was a buxom widow of thirty ; the guests 
 were invited by four stutterers, who could barely 
 utter a word ; four fat, bulky, and unwieldy fellows 
 were selected for running footmen, so gouty as to 
 be led by others ; the bridesmen and waiters were 
 all lame ; these were meant as so many cardinals ; 
 and every member of this sacred college, according 
 to Yoltaire, was first made drunk with brandy. 
 The happy couple were dragged to church by four 
 bears harnessed to a sledge ; and in this way, with 
 music playing, drums beating, bears roaring, and 
 the populace hurraing, the well-matched couple were 
 brought to the altar, where they were joined in holy 
 wedlock by a priest a hundred years old, deaf and 
 blind, who was prompted in the ceremony. Yol- 
 taire observes, that Moscow and St. Petersburg 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 281 
 
 witnessed three times the renewal of this ludicrous 
 ceremony, which appeared to have no sort of mean- 
 ing, while in reality it confirmed the people in their 
 aversion to a church that pretended to a supreme 
 power, and the head of which had anathematized so 
 many potentates. ' ' Thus the Czar, ' ' says he, ' ' by 
 way of jest, revenged the cause of twenty emperors 
 of Germany, ten kings of France, and a multitude of 
 sovereigns.""^ 
 
 During this festival the principal inhabitants of St. 
 Petersburg kept open house, their tables spread with 
 cold meat and strong liquors, so that there was 
 scarcely a sober person to be found in the whole 
 feity. On the tenth day the Czar gave a grand 
 entertainment at the senate-house, at the conclusion 
 of which each guest was required to drink off a 
 large glass called the double-eagle, containing a full 
 bottle of wine. ' ' To avoid this, ' ' says Captain 
 Bruce, '' I made my escape, pretending to the offi- 
 cer on guard that I was going on a message from 
 the Czar, which he believing, let me pass ; I went 
 to the house of a Mr. Kelderman, Avho had formerly 
 been one of the Czar's tutors, and was still in great 
 favor with him. Mr. Kelderman followed me very 
 soon, but not before he had drank off his double- 
 eagle, and coming into his own house, he com- 
 plained thlt he was sick with drinking ; and sitting 
 down by the table, laid his head on it, appearing as 
 if fallen asleep. This being a common custom with 
 * History of the Russian Empire, &c. 
 
282 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 him, his wife and daughters took no notice of it ; till 
 after some time observing him neither to move nor 
 breathe, and coming close up to him, we found he 
 was dead, which threw the family into great con- 
 fusion. Knowing the esteem in which he stood 
 with the Czar, I went and informed him of the sud- 
 den death of Mr. Kelderman. His majesty's con- 
 cern at the event brought him immediately to the 
 house, where he condoled with the widow for the 
 loss of her husband, ordered an honorable burial of 
 the deceased at his own expense, and settled on her 
 an annuity for life. ' ' 
 
 If we were to draw a conclusion, as to the man- 
 ners and character of a nation, from the riotous and 
 disgusting scenes that are exhibited by the unre- 
 strained licentiousness that prevails in such festivi- 
 ties as carnivals, when full scope is given to the in- 
 dulgence of the passions, Ave should certainly arrive 
 at a very unfavorable one with regard to the Eus- 
 sians at the time of the Czar Peter. He has been 
 blamed indeed for not having put a stop to such 
 scenes as these ; but it should be recollected, that 
 he had already offended the nobles and the whole 
 hierarchy by the many important changes he had 
 made and was still making ; he had offended also 
 the great mass of the peasantry by forcing them to 
 part with their beards, or to pay a tax for the privi- 
 lege of retaining them. He might think it there- 
 fore not quite prudent to forbid the use of spirituous 
 liquors, in a climate too where, taken in moderation, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. ^8^ 
 
 they were considered conducive to the preservation 
 of health. May he not besides have supposed that, 
 by inflicting as a punishment what was before re- 
 garded as a pleasure, he might hope to lessen the 
 abuse? 
 
 By the public exhibition of the mock patriarch, 
 and the ridicule meant thereby to be thrown on the 
 office, the Czar was accused of intending to bring 
 religion into contempt, — but Peter had no such in- 
 tention. 'No man had a higher sense of the duties 
 which religion required — no man more regularly 
 performed those duties, — no man had a greater ven- 
 eration for the Deity than Peter I. of Kussia. He 
 never gajned or lost a battle that he did not take 
 the first opportunity of returning thanks to God ; if 
 for victory, ascribing the honor and glory to him 
 alone to whom it was due ; if defeat, to express his 
 thanks for an escape from the hands of the enemy. 
 In all his travels he never failed to attend divine 
 service, whether Catholic, Lutheran, or Protestant, 
 — even the Quakers' meeting-houses, as we have 
 seen. A little trait on his second visit to Holland 
 will shortly be noticed, to prove that his devotion 
 was not mere ceremony or ostentation : it occurred 
 on a visit he made to the mean lodging he had occu- 
 pied eighteen years before at Zaandam. Whatever 
 faults, therefore, he might have, and they were 
 many and great, a neglect or contempt of religious 
 duties was not one of them. 
 
 During his stay at St. Petersburg in the year 
 
284 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 1714, and the early part of 1715, he saw his favorite 
 new capital flourishing in a high degree. The pro- 
 hibition of goods, imported at Archangel, being 
 sent as heretofore to Moscow, drove the merchants 
 and traders of that capital to St. Petersburg ; the 
 whole court also removed to the latter. Most of the 
 houses had been built of wood, but an order was now 
 given that all buildings should be of brick and covered 
 with tiles. The superb palace of Peterhoff was in 
 progress. He employed about 40,000 people, Eus- 
 sians, Swedish, and Finland prisoners, in finishing 
 his dockyard, erecting wharves, building ships, rais- 
 ing fortifications, and other works. Many of these 
 poor people fell victims to disease, to cold, and 
 nakedness; but the humane Catharine distributed 
 winter clothing and money to such as were most in 
 need of them. He built an academy, under the 
 direction of a Frenchman named St. Hilaire, in 
 which languages, mathematics, fencing, riding, and 
 other matters suited to the education of a gentle- 
 man were taught. He caused the great globe of 
 Gottorp, which was given to him as a present by 
 the King of Denmark, to be moved on rollers over 
 the snow to Riga, and from thence by sea to St. 
 Petersburg. It was made by order of the Duke of 
 Holstein, from a design found among the papers of 
 the celebrated Tycho Brah6, by one Andrew Bush, 
 under the direction of Olearius. It is a large hollow 
 sphere eleven feet in diameter, containing a table 
 and seats for twelve persons. The stars are distin- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 285 
 
 guished, according to their magnitudes, by gilded 
 nails; the outside represents the terrestrial globe. '^ 
 Peter also held out encouragement for foreign artifi- 
 cers and men of science to come to his capital on 
 promise of supplying them with houses rent free, 
 and exemption from all taxes for ten years. 
 He despatched Lange, on commercial objects, 
 over Siberia to China; his engineers were em- 
 ployed in laying down maps throughout the whole 
 empire. 
 
 At this time St. Petersburg was visited by two 
 ambassadors from the East ; the one from Persia, 
 bringing with him an elephant and five lions as 
 presents for the Czar; the other from Mehemet 
 Bahadar, Khan of the Usbeks, to solicit his protec- 
 tion against the Tartars ; such was the renown which 
 Peter had acquired in these distant countries by his 
 great exploits. About the same time the Dpnski 
 Cossacks, who had revolted with Mazeppa, sent an 
 embassy to make their submission and implore par- 
 don, which was readily granted. There were also 
 at this time four unfortunate refugees in the new 
 capital, — Cantimir, the Hospodar of Moldavia, the 
 two sons of Cantecusena, late Hospodar of Wal- 
 lachia, and Miletetski, Prince of Georgia, who had 
 been stripped of his dominions by the Shah of Per- 
 sia. All these strangers, together with the native 
 
 * Dr. Long, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, caused a 
 globe of this kind to be made of eighteen feet diameter, and 
 capable of containing thirty persons. 
 
286 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 and foreign merchants, who flock to the new capital, 
 with the shipping and the dock-yards on the Neva, 
 contributed to make St. Petersburg a busy, bustling, 
 lively city. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Charles XII. returns to Sweden — The Czar visits Holland, 
 France, and Prussia. 
 
 In the midst of the festivities of St. Petersburg, 
 Charles XII. made his sudden appearance at Stral- 
 sund. His strange and outrageous conduct had 
 wearied out the patience of the Turk ; and after his 
 last mad exploit at Bender,* not surpassed in ab- 
 surdity by the most absurd adventure that the fer- 
 tile imagination of Cervantes conceived for Don 
 Quixote, the Knight of the Woful Countenance, he 
 was no longer left at liberty, neither had he the 
 means to repeat this or any other of his mad freaks. 
 He wisely, therefore, for once, consented to leave 
 the country, and on the 14th November, 1714, made 
 his appearance, in disguise, at the gates of Stral- 
 sund. 
 
 The first unwise thing he did, after his return, was 
 to take Goertz into his confidence, who, to his mis- 
 fortune, obtained a greater sway over his mind than 
 Piper ever had ; the second was to ask money from 
 the citizens of Stockholm to raise and support an 
 
 * Voltaire's Charles XII, 
 
 287 
 
288 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 army of 25,000 men; and the third, to quarrel with 
 the King of Prussia, in particular, and to reject all 
 propositions for a negotiation on the part of the 
 allies, — of whom, from the Elbe to the Baltic, Peter 
 was the head and support. These allies either 
 wished to retain portions of the Swedish dominions 
 which they had acquired during the war, or to get 
 possession of others, most of which had been con- 
 quests of the great Gustavus, and which they natur- 
 ally wished to win back. These allies of the Czar 
 were the King of Prussia, the King of Denmark, 
 the King of Poland, and the King of England, 
 Elector of Hanover. 
 
 Formidable as this host of claimants was, Charles 
 succeeded in getting the money from his exhausted 
 subjects. "What little they had," says Yoltaire, 
 ' ' they freely parted with ; there was no refusing 
 anything to a prince who only asked to give ; who 
 lived as hard as the soldiery, and exposed his life no 
 less than the}^ : his misfortunes, his distresses, his 
 captivity, his return, affected both his subjects and 
 foreigners; he was blamed, admired, and assisted." 
 The same author's estimate of his qualities is very 
 just: — '^ The glory of Charles was quite of an op- 
 posite kind to that of Peter : it had not the least 
 affinity with the establishment of arts, with legisla- 
 tion, policy, and commerce ; it was limited to his 
 person : his principal merit was a very extraordinary 
 valor ; he defended his dominions with a fortitude 
 equal to his bravery, which could not but strike 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 289 
 
 nations with respect for him : he had more well- 
 wishers than allies."* 
 
 In April, 1715, the Prussians, Danes, and Saxons 
 united their forces before Stralsund; and thus 
 Charles, besieged on the shores of the Baltic, had 
 only escaped from a foreign prison to be confined in 
 one of his own. Towards the end of the year, 
 Stralsund, reduced to a heap of ruins, surrendered 
 to the King of Prussia ; but Charles, at the risk of 
 his life, escaped in a small boat, with ten persons 
 only, his officers having actually forced him to quit 
 the place. He landed at Carlscrona, where he re- 
 mained the whole winter, ordering new levies, and 
 drawing plans for his future conquests. When his 
 friend Decker, who had delivered up the place, 
 came before him, the king reproached him for hav- 
 ing capitulated with his enemies : "I had your 
 glory too much at heart, ' ' answered Decker, ' ' to 
 hold out in a town which your majesty had 
 quitted." 
 
 The Czar, in the meantime, had conquered all 
 Finland, and left an army there under Prince Galit- 
 zin. Marshal Scherematof was in Pomerania, with 
 14,000 or 15,000 men. Weimar had surrendered 
 on capitulation. In Poland were distributed 30,000 
 Pussians, under Generals Bruce and Bauer. Peter 
 had conquered the provinces of Livonia and Estho- 
 nia, on the eastern shores of the Baltic, and the 
 whole of both the coasts of the Gulf of Finland 
 * History of the Russiau Empire, 
 
 19 
 
290 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 were in his possession. Having, therefore, nothing 
 to apprehend on the part of Sweden, he now under- 
 took a second tour through Europe, in which he 
 was accompanied by his beloved Catharine. He 
 visited in succession Stralsund, Mecklenburg, Ham- 
 burg, Pyrmont, and returned to Schwerin. From 
 thence he went to Rostock, where forty-five of his 
 large galleys had arrived, to carry troops to the 
 island of Rugen, which being landed, he hoisted his 
 flag, and took the command of the galleys, proceed- 
 ing with them to Copenhagen. Here he remained 
 from two to three months, visiting, with his con- 
 sort, all the places that were deemed worth seeing ; 
 and, during this time, the royal guests Avere splen- 
 didly entertained by the King of Denmark. 
 
 While the Czar was on this visit, a British squad- 
 ron of ships, under Sir John Korris, and a squadron 
 of Dutch ships, commanded by Rear-admiral Grave, 
 arrived in Copenhagen roads, each with convoys of 
 several hundred vessels. The Swedes had a large 
 force at sea, and Peter proposed to Sir John Norris 
 to join the Russian and Danish fleets with the other 
 two, and putting to sea, proceed to look out for the 
 Swedish fleet. After some discussion, it was agreed 
 that the Czar should hoist his standard on board his 
 largest galley, which was manned with 500 men, as 
 commander-in-chief of the united fleets : he was ac- 
 cordingly saluted, on hoisting his flag, by the flag- 
 ships of the other three admirals. They had very 
 §Qon intelligence of the Swedes having put into 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 291 
 
 Carlscrona; and therefore the English and Dutch 
 admirals each proceeded with their respective con- 
 voys, and the Czar and the Danes returned to Copen- 
 hagen. Peter made no scruple to declare that he 
 felt it to be the proudest moment of his life when 
 he hoisted his flag to command these four united 
 fleets. * 
 
 Having taken leave of the court of Denmark, the 
 Czar and Czarina set out for Hamburg ; from thence 
 Peter proceeded alone to Lubeck, and on to Havel- 
 berg, where he had a private interview with the 
 King of Prussia. He then returned, by the Elbe, 
 to Hamburg, but stopped a night at ISTymagen, 
 where he arrived late, with only two attendants, in 
 a common post-chaise. Having taken some poached 
 eggs and a little bread and cheese, he retired to 
 rest, and his companions had a bottle of wine. 
 When starting, at an early hour in the morning, 
 one of the gentlemen asked the landlord what was 
 to pay ? ' * One hundred ducats, ' ' f was the answer. 
 ' ' What ! ' ' cried the astonished Russian. ' ' One 
 hundred ducats, ' ' repeated mine host ; ' ' for my 
 
 * Sir John Norris, in one of his despatches, describes the 
 Czar's visit to his ship : " He is pleased to be very curious in 
 his inquiries ; and there is not a part of the ship he is not 
 desirous of examining. The improvements he has made, by the 
 help of English builders, are such as a seaman would think 
 almost impossible for a nation so lately used to the sea. Tliey 
 have built three sixty-gun ships, which are every way equal 
 to the best of that rank in our country." 
 
 f The ducat was valued at about $2.28. 
 
292 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 part I should be glad to give a thousand, if I was 
 the Czar of Russia. ' ' Peter asked the man if eggs 
 were so very scarce in that place. '' IS^o," said 
 Boniface, ' ' but emperors are. ' ' 
 
 He arrived at Amsterdam about the middle of 
 December, where he was received with every pos- 
 sible mark of respect and attention. The Earl of 
 Albemarle (Yan Keppel) and three of the burgo- 
 masters met him on his entry, and the earl addressed 
 him in a pompous, flowery speech, in the Dutch 
 language. ' ' I thank you heartily, ' ' said Peter, 
 '' though I don't understand much of what you say. 
 I learned my Dutch among ship-builders, but the 
 sort of language you have spoken I am sure I never 
 learned. ' ' Peter had a great dislike to all kind of 
 ceremony. Being invited to dine with some mer- 
 chants and builders, they addressed him " your maj- 
 esty," and in speaking made use of ceremonious 
 and courtly language. Peter cut short their dis- 
 course with, ' ' Come, brothers, let us converse like 
 plain and honest ship-carpenters. ' ' A servant was 
 pouring out a glass of beer for him — '' Give me the 
 can^ ' ' said he, laughing ; "I can now drink out of 
 this jug as much as I like, and nobody can tell how 
 much. ' ' In this way did he put his old friends at 
 their ease. 
 
 The Czarina had remained at Schwerin, indis- 
 posed, but finding herself soon able to travel, she 
 preceeded towards Holland, to join her husband. 
 She got no farther, however, than Wesel, where 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 she was delivered of a prince, who died the next 
 day. It was intended she should pass her confine- 
 ment in Holland, and the Czar's old associates per- 
 suaded themselves it would be most highly gratifying 
 to him if his consort should produce a young Pieter 
 van Zaandam^ in the midst of his early and honest 
 friends and fellow-laborers. It may be imagined 
 with what joy and fondness he was received by 
 the tradesmen, and seamen, and ship-carpenters of 
 Zaandam, among whom he had lived so long as their 
 companion. It was no sooner known that his yacht 
 was arrived than the whole quay was crowded, and 
 '' WelJcom, welkom^ Pieter Baas^'''' resounded from 
 a thousand mouths. A respectable female rushed 
 forward to greet him, as he stepped on shore. 
 << My good lady," he says, ^'how do you know 
 who I am? " '' By your majesty being, some nine- 
 teen years ago, so frequently at our house and 
 table ; I am the wife of Baas Pool. ' ' He immediately 
 recognized, embraced, and kissed her on the fore- 
 head, and invited himself to dine with her that very 
 day. So little difference did his old companions find 
 in his manners and conduct after a lapse of nineteen 
 years, and the various scenes and situations through 
 which he had passed! The only change they 
 noticed was his now being able to endure a crowd, 
 and to be stared at. His movements were as rapid 
 as before, and his eye as piercing as ever. 
 
 One of his first visits was to the little cottage in 
 which, some nineteen years before, he had dwelt. 
 
294 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 when learning the art of ship- building ; he. found it 
 kept up in neat order, and dignified with the name 
 of the Princess House. This little cottage is still 
 carefully preserved. It is surrounded by a neat 
 building with large arched windows, having the ap- 
 pearance of a conservatory or green-house, which 
 was erected, in 1823, by order of the present Prin- 
 cess of Orange, sister to the late Emperor Alexan- 
 der, who purchased it to secure its preservation. 
 In the first room you still see the little oak table 
 and three chairs which constituted its furniture when 
 Peter occupied it. Over the chimney-piece is in- 
 scribed, 
 
 Petro Magno 
 
 Alexander, 
 and in the Russian and Dutch, 
 
 '-^ To a Great Man nothing is little. ' ' 
 
 The ladder to the loft still remains, and in the 
 second little room below are some models and 
 several of his Avorking- tools. Thousands of names 
 are scribbled over every part of this once humble 
 residence of Peter the Great. 
 
 On entering this cottage, Peter is said to have 
 been evidently affected. Eecovering himself, he 
 ascended the loft, where was a small closet, in 
 which he had been accustomed to perform his devo- 
 tions, and remained there alone a full half-hour; 
 with what various emotions his mind must have 
 been affected while in this situation could be knowu 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 205 
 
 only to himself, but may easily be imagined. It 
 could hardly fail to recall to his recollection the 
 happy period when he ' ' communed with his own 
 heart ' ' in this sacred little chamber, and ' ' remem- 
 bered his Creator in the days of his youth," — days 
 which he might naturally enough be led to compare 
 and contrast with those of the last nineteen years of 
 his life, filled up as they had been with many and 
 varied incidents, painful, hazardous, disastrous, and 
 glorious. 
 
 Every one was anxious to bring to his recollection 
 any little circumstance in which he had been con- 
 cerned, — among others, a beautiful boat was brought 
 to him as a present, in the building of which he 
 himself had done ' ' yeoman service. ' ' He was de- 
 lighted to see that this ancient piece of the work- 
 manship of his own hands had been preserved with 
 such care. He caused it to be put on board a ship 
 bound for St. Petersburg, but she was unfortunately 
 captured by the Swedes ; and the boat is still kept 
 in the arsenal of Stockholm. 
 
 With his old acquaintance Kist, the blacksmith, 
 he visited the smithy, which was so dirty that the 
 gentleman of his suite who attended him was re- 
 treating, but Peter stopped him, to blow the bel- 
 lows and heat a piece of iron, which, when so done, 
 he beat out with the great hammer. Kist was still 
 but a journeyman blacksmith, and the Czar, out of 
 compassion for his old acquaintance, made him a 
 handsome present. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 The emperor was noAV determined to visit the 
 capital of France, taking with him the princes 
 Kourakin and Dolgorouki, the vice-chancellor Baron 
 Shaffiroff, and the ambassador Tolstoy. Peter at 
 first had some reluctance to take this journey, on 
 account of his ignorance of the French language, 
 but he overcame this : he determined, however, 
 that Catharine should not on any account accompany 
 him, but remain in Holland till his return. It was 
 not from any dread that the encumbrances of cere- 
 mony or the curiosity of a court might be irksome 
 to her, nor that the French were incapable of esti- 
 mating the merit of a woman who, from the banks 
 of the Pruth to the shores of Finland, had, by her 
 husband's side, faced death, both by sea and land, 
 — the French were of all other nations the most 
 likely to appreciate heroic qualities like these in a 
 female : no, it was to prevent the possibility of her 
 delicacy being wounded by the affected squeamish- 
 ness of a court which might not assign to her that 
 place, or pay her that respect, to which her situa- 
 tion entitled her. There was, it is true, some simi- 
 larity between the marriage of the deceased Louis 
 XI Y. and Peter, — with this difference, Avhich Yol- 
 taire admits, that Peter had pullicly married a 
 heroine, Louis, privately^ a clever and agreeable 
 woman. 
 
 Great preparations were made at Paris for the 
 reception of the Czar. Coaches, attended with a 
 squadron of guards, had been sent out to meet him, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 297 
 
 but, with his usual rapidity and dislike of ceremony, 
 he outstripped his intended escort. It had been 
 arranged that he and his court should be splendidly 
 lodged and entertained at the Louvre, but Peter's 
 object being to avoid as much as possible all the idle 
 ceremonies which would interfere with his pursuits, 
 he went that very evening to lodge at the Hotel de 
 Lesdiguieres at the other end of the town, where he 
 might be master of his own time and at his ease. 
 His reply to the servants of the sovereign was, ' ' I 
 am a soldier ; a little bread and beer satisfy me ; I 
 prefer small apartments to l^rge ones. I have no 
 desire to be attended with pomp and ceremony, nor 
 to give trouble to so many people." 
 
 If Peter had been open to flattery, he found an 
 ample store in Paris to gratify any avidity he might 
 possess on that score. Happening to dine with the 
 Duke d'Autin, he perceived in the dining-room his 
 portrait fresh painted. On visiting the mint, a 
 medal was struck which was purposely suffered to 
 fall from the die just at his feet ; on taking it up he 
 found it to be a medal of himself, on the obverse 
 of which was a Fame, with this motto, Vires ac- 
 quirit eimdo.'^ Wherever he went, the portraits 
 of the Czar and Czarina stared him in the face. On 
 visiting the artists, whatever picture he most ad- 
 mired he was requested to accept, in the king's 
 name. He went to see the tapestry of the Gob- 
 elins, the carpets of the Savonnerie, the different 
 **' She acquires strength in her progress," 
 
S98 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 apartments of the king's sculptors, painters, gold- 
 smiths, and mathematical instrument makers; and 
 whatever seemed most to attract his regards was 
 offered to him in the same style. He visited the 
 Academy of Sciences, and his name Avas enrolled 
 among the number of its members. In short, he 
 made a point of seeing all that was curious for mag- 
 nificence, ingenuity, or utility. He had so far got 
 the better of his shyness since the period of his visit 
 to England, that he went to see the French parlia- 
 ment when sitting, and attended in state the ser- 
 vice of several of the churches. 
 
 Paris no doubt offered a variety of objects to de- 
 light and astonish the northern hero ; but nothing 
 perhaps gave him a higher degree of pleasure and 
 admiration, than to see an operation performed on 
 a man perfectly blind, whom Mr. Wallace, an Eng- 
 lish oculist, restored to sight. He was brought to 
 the Hotel Lesdiguieres for the purpose of perform- 
 ing the operation in presence of the Czar. It was 
 observed that his majesty, when the needle was first 
 put to the eye, turned away his head for a moment. 
 The operation was successful; and Peter was so 
 much delighted, that he engaged Mr. Wallace to 
 receive and instruct a pupil whom he designed to 
 send to him on his return to Eussia. 
 
 Peter paid a visit to the splendid tomb of Cardi- 
 nal Richelieu, one of the finest pieces of sculpture 
 in Paris : he contemplated the statue of that cele- 
 brated minister, to whom France owed so much of 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GllEAT. ^99 
 
 her glory and prosperity, with fixed attention for 
 some time, and at last is said to have exclaimed, 
 ''Thou great man! I would have given thee one 
 half of my dominions, to learn of thee how to 
 govern the other. ' ' 
 
 He also showed himself at the Sorbonne, where 
 the doctors had the bad taste to thrust into his hands 
 a memorial, in which they expressed their anxiety 
 for the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches, 
 about which the Czar probably never had troubled 
 himself, or, if he did, it was very unlikely that he, 
 the patriarch, or at least the head, of the Greek 
 church would submit to acknowledge either the 
 temporal or spiritual sovereignty of the Pope. He 
 received this pedantic memorial with great affabil- 
 ity, but told its authors he was a soldier and had not 
 much attended to controversial matters, which he 
 supposed were contained in their paper, and that his 
 bishops were better versed in them than himself. 
 The Kussian bishops, however, were indignant at 
 the proposal. Yoltaire says it was to dissipate the 
 apprehensions of such a reunion that, some time 
 after, when, in 1718, he had expelled the Jesuits 
 out of his dominions, he renewed the farce already 
 described under the name of the Conclave. 
 
 As when in England, so now in France, Peter en- 
 gaged and carried back with him artists and mechan- 
 ics of various kinds, in procuring whom he met with 
 no difficulty. He had seen all the trades and man- 
 ufactories of the capital and its neighborhood, and 
 
300 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 knew what would best suit his own country. His 
 visit, however, was not confined to matters of this 
 kind. He drew up with his own hand the minutes 
 of a treaty of commerce, which his ministers nego- 
 tiated after his departure. He had also several 
 communications with the French ministers relating 
 to the peace between the northern powers. 
 
 Having taken leave of France, he hastened to 
 Amsterdam to rejoin Catharine, who, during his ab- 
 sence, had been treated with every mark of kind- 
 ness and attention by the Dutch authorities, and 
 amused on the water with sailing parties and sham- 
 fights. 
 
 It was the invariable custom of Peter, when trav- 
 eling, to inquire at every city, town, or even vil- 
 lage, if there was anything remarkable or extraor- 
 dinary to be seen ; and whenever it happened that 
 something was mentioned, no matter what, he im- 
 mediately uttered his old Dutch expression, " Dat 
 vnl ilc zien " — "I shall see that; " so eager was he 
 to obtain knowledge of every description. In pass- 
 ing through Wittemberg, in Saxony, on his way to 
 Berlin, he asked the innkeeper if there was nothing 
 particular to be seen in that place. '' Not much," 
 was the answer, ' ' except, perhaps, the old palace 
 of the elector, wherein are the apartment and the 
 study occupied by Luther, and his monument in the 
 church. " — " Dat wil ik zien ; ' ' and while dinner was 
 preparing he hurried away to the church, where he 
 saw placed on the tomb of Luther a statue in bronze 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 301 
 
 as large as life. " This is not too much," said the 
 Czar, ' ' for so great a man. " On entering the 
 apartment where Luther lived and died, the conduc- 
 tor pointed out a large spot of ink on the wall, and 
 said that the devil having appeared one day to 
 Luther while he was writing, and teased and an- 
 noyed him beyond all patience, he took up his ink- 
 stand and hurled it at the head of the " foul fiend," 
 but it struck the wall, and every attempt to efface 
 the mark has failed. Peter laughed at so ridiculous 
 a story, not believing that so learned a man could 
 possibly imagine that he saw the devil. Perceiving 
 the smoky walls covered with the names of visitors, 
 ' ' 1 must add mine, ' ' said Peter ; and taking from 
 his pocket a bit of chalk, wrote his name in Russian 
 characters close to the spot of ink. As a memorial 
 of the handwriting of this great man, a small box 
 with a grating in front of it was placed over the 
 name. '' I saw it," says Stsehlin, ''in my way to 
 Russia in the year 1735." 
 
 In proceeding to Berlin the Czar traveled post, 
 leaving the Czarina and the court to follow at their 
 leisure. He entered Berlin at a late hour, and 
 alighted at a lodging which his ambassador had pre- 
 pared for him. Frederick sent his grand master of 
 the ceremonies to wait on him and to compliment 
 him on his arrival. The Czar gave them to under- 
 stand his stay would be very short, and that, if the 
 king pleased, he would wait upon him the next day 
 at noon, Accoi^dingly, two hours before the time. 
 
302 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 six of the most splendid court-carriages came to the 
 Czar's lodging, in each of which was a young Rus- 
 sian nobleman whom the Czar had sent to study at 
 Berlin. The carriages and the retinue waited till 
 noon, when they were informed that the Czar was 
 already with the king. He had slipped out of the 
 back-door and walked to the palace. The king was 
 greatly surprised ; but the Czar, thanking him for 
 his polite attention, said, "I am not accustomed 
 to such magnificence — I dislike parade, and always 
 Avalk whenever I can. 1 frequently walk five times 
 the distance I have done to-day." 
 
 Two days after this the Czarina and the whole 
 court arrived, and Avere escorted to a beautiful house 
 and garden, belonging to the Queen of Prussia, situ- 
 ated on the banks of the river, named Mon Bijou. 
 Yoltaire is pleased to say that the new King of 
 Prussia was not less an enemy to the vanities of 
 ceremony and magnificence than the Russian mon- 
 arch; that a king, in a wooden arm-chair, and 
 clothed like a common soldier, denying himself all 
 the delicacies of the table, and all the conveniences 
 of life, was a rebuke to the etiquette of Vienna and 
 Spain, the punctilio of Italy, and the predominant 
 fondness for luxury in France : he observes that the 
 manner of living of the Czar and Czarina was in 
 like plainness and severity ; and that had Charles 
 XII. been with them, four crowned heads would 
 have been seen together with less haughty pomp 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 303 
 
 about them than a German bishop, or a Eoman 
 cardinal.* 
 
 This may be true as regards the private habits of 
 the King and Queen of Prussia ; but the Czar and 
 Czarina were treated with more of pride and pomp 
 in the manner of living than plainness and severity. 
 Their reception at this court, as described by an eye- 
 witness, is curious and interesting ; but the writer 
 at a mature age describes what her impressions 
 were when she was a child of eight years 
 old :— t 
 
 '^The Czar and Czarina with all their attendants 
 came by water to Mon Bijou. The king and queen 
 received them on the shore. The king handed the 
 Czarina out of the boat. The Czar, taking the king 
 by the hand, said, 'I am overjoyed to see you, 
 brother Frederick ; ' he then approached the queen 
 to embrace her, but she looked as if she would have 
 rather been excused. They were attended," the 
 writer says, '^ by a whole train of what were called 
 ladies as part of their suite, consisting chiefly of 
 young German women, who performed the part of 
 ladies' maids, chamber-maids, cooks, and washer- 
 women; almost all of whom had a richly-clothed 
 child in their arms. The queen," she says, ''re- 
 fused to salute these creatures. 
 
 ''The Czarina is short and lusty, remarkably 
 coarse, without grace and animation. One need 
 
 * Voltaire. 
 
 t Memoires de la Margrave de Bareith. 
 
304: LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 only see her to be satisfied of her low birth. At 
 the first blush one would take her for a German 
 actress. Her clothes looked as if bought at a doll- 
 shop ; everything was so old-fashioned, and so be- 
 decked with silver and tinsel. She was decorated 
 with a dozen orders, portraits of saints, and relics, 
 which occasioned such a clatter {geklinh Mank)^ that 
 when she Avalked one would suppose an ass with 
 bells was approaching. The Czar, on the contrary, 
 was tall and well made. His countenance is hand- 
 some, but there is something in it so rude that it in- 
 spires one with dread ; he was dressed like a sea- 
 man, in a frock without lace or ornament." 
 
 At table the Czar was placed next to the queen. 
 ''It is well known," this lady says, "that in his 
 youth the Czar was once poisoned ; the subtle venom 
 fell upon his nerves, whence he is still subject to a 
 kind of convulsive twitching which he cannot over- 
 come. He had one of these while at table, and at 
 the moment he happened to have a knife in his 
 hand, with which he made such stra,nge gesticula- 
 tions, and on the side next the queen, that she be- 
 came frightened and Avished to leave the table ; but 
 the Czar told her to make herself easy, assuring her 
 he would do her no harm; once he caught her 
 hand, and held it with such force that the queen 
 desired him to be more respectful. On this he burst 
 out into a fit of laughter, and said that she was of a 
 much more delicate frame than his Catharine. ' ' 
 
 This lady then relates how the Czar begged some 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 305 
 
 statues and pieces of sculpture from the king, which 
 he dared not to refuse, and a cabinet inlaid with am- 
 ber, unique in its kind, which cost Frederick I. a 
 large sum of money. It was packed up and sent 
 with the rest to St. Petersburg, to the great regret 
 of the whole court. The strangers departed on the 
 third day, when the queen betook herself immedi- 
 ately to Mon Bijou / and here, it is observed, she 
 found the destruction of Jerusalem — ' ' Never, ' ' says 
 the writer, ' ' did I see the like ; all was so com- 
 pletely ruined that the queen was obliged to renew 
 everything in the house. ' ' 
 
 On Peter's return to Holland, the short time he 
 remained there was almost wholly occupied in ex- 
 amining and purchasing whatever appeared to him 
 most rare or valuable ; and among other things, sev- 
 eral of the most valuable specimens of pictures of 
 the Dutch and Flemish schools, more particularly 
 of Backhuysen and Yan der Yeldt, with a consid- 
 erable collection of those by Eubens, Eembrandt, 
 Teniers, Ostade, Jansteen, and Wouvermans. He 
 also purchased several cabinets of great value; 
 among others, that of animals and insects of Al- 
 bertus Seba. He also bought the highly esteemed 
 anatomical cabinet of Professor Ruysch (which he 
 was fifty years in collecting), for 30,000 florins.* 
 At that time it was considered particularly valuable 
 and curious, as containing a regular succession of the 
 
 * The florin of the Netherlands was valued at about forty 
 cents. 
 20 
 
306 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 young foetus, from the earliest period of conception 
 to the birth of the infant, and for the exquisitely 
 delicate injections of the brain and the eye. He 
 also made a collection of the best books which 
 treated of fortification, engineering, and navigation, 
 the works of Erasmus, and a great variety of arti- 
 cles, which formed a part of the collection that laid 
 the foundation of the Imperial Academ}^ of Sciences : 
 an institution of which he drew the plan himself. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 The Trial, Condemnation, and Death of the Czarovitz Alexis. 
 
 The fate of the unfortunate, but unworthy, son of 
 Peter was fast approaching its crisis. A tragical 
 scene was to be acted, which required on the part 
 of the sovereign all the sternness and severity of 
 Roman virtue. For a long time it had occasioned 
 great anxiety and grief to the Czar, to find his son 
 Alexis, not only disinclined to second his views for 
 the regeneration and improvement of his country, 
 but ready to disobey every admonition ; to connect 
 himself with a party whose object was to destroy all 
 that his father had created, to listen to the coun- 
 sels of the malcontents, among whom were several 
 priests, who had persuaded him that it was his duty 
 to hold in abhorrence his father's innovations; and, 
 at his death, which was represented as an event at 
 no great distance, to abolish the whole of them, 
 and revert to the ancient and wholesome customs 
 of the country. This weak young prince, abetted 
 by his mother and family, readily listened to all the 
 suggestions of his base advisers, and, thus encour- 
 aged, gave himself up to every species of licentious- 
 ness and debauchery. 
 
 The death of his neglected and insulted wife, who 
 307 
 
308 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 fell, as has been seen, a victim to his brutal con- 
 duct, was a sore affliction to Peter's mind, and de- 
 termined him at once to come to a clear under- 
 standing with a son so utterly unworthy to succeed 
 to the government of a country which, by his talent 
 and laborious exertions and perseverance, through 
 good report and ill report, had been raised to its 
 proper standard in the scale of civilized nations. It 
 was but too evident, that, unless a total change 
 could be effected in the conduct and opinions of 
 this unworthy son, Eussia at the death of the Czar 
 would very soon be plunged into its former state 
 of barbarism. Peter, therefore, while yet grieving 
 for the death of the princess, addressed a letter to 
 Alexis, in which, after taking a view of his faults 
 and his follies, and bestowing on him fatherly ad- 
 monition, he concludes by telling him, that he will 
 still wait to see if he be disposed to amend; but 
 if not, that he may rest assured he will cut him off 
 from the succession, as a useless limb : that he 
 must not imagine this menace is used merely to 
 intimidate, nor must he place any reliance on the 
 title he possesses of being his eldest son ; for that, 
 since he has never spared his own life for, the good 
 of his country, and the prosperity of his people, 
 he sees no reason why he should spare that of a 
 son who is careless of both. " I would rather," 
 says he, ' ' commit them to an entire stranger, who 
 may be worthy of such a trust, than to my own 
 offspring undeserving it, ' ' 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 309 
 
 In reply to this letter, the misguided young man 
 briefly told his father that he was ready to renounce 
 the crown; that he called God to witness, and 
 swore upon his soul, he never would lay claim to 
 the succession ; that he committed his children into 
 his father's hands; and that, for himself, he desired 
 no more than a subsistence during life. 
 
 His father once more addressed him, in these 
 words: -7^" I observe in your letter that you speak 
 only of the succession, as if I stood in need of your 
 consent ; and you say not a word of the affliction 
 which I told you your conduct had given me for so 
 many years ; the admonitions of a father appear to 
 make no impression on you. I have prevailed on 
 myself to write to you once more, and for the last 
 time. Though you may not now mean to violate 
 your promises, yet those husky heards will bind you 
 to their purpose, and compel you to break your 
 word. These are the persons who place their hopes 
 on you ; and you have no gratitude to him who gave 
 you life. Since the time of your coming of age, 
 have you ever assisted him in his labors? have you 
 not found fault with, do you not detest, everything 
 I do for the good of my people? have I not every 
 reason to believe that, should you survive me, you 
 will destroy all that I have been doing? Amend 
 your life — make yourself worthy of the succession, 
 or turn monk. I desire your answer personally or 
 in writing, or I must deal with you as a criminal."/ 
 
 The reply of the prince was as follows : — " Your 
 
310 LI^E OF PETER THE GREAT, 
 
 letter of the 19th of this month I received yesterday 
 morning ; my illness prevents me from writing at 
 length. I intend to embrace the monastic life, and 
 I request your gracious consent to that effect. ' ' 
 
 Thus matters stood till the departure of the Czar 
 for France and Germany was at hand. He then 
 paid a visit to his son, and found him ill, or feigning 
 to be so, and in bed ; but he confirmed to him, by 
 the most solemn oaths, that he would retire into a 
 convent. Peter, with the feeling of a father, hav- 
 ing compassion for his youth, laid before him all the 
 difficulties of that kind of life, and advised him to 
 do nothing lightly, but reflect on it well, and take 
 six months to consider of it. After this he set out 
 with his consort. That very night was spent by 
 Alexis with his dissolute associates in drunkenness 
 and debauchery. 
 
 Seven months passed away, and the Czar heard 
 nothing from his son. He wrote to him, therefore, 
 from Copenhagen, reproaching him for his silence ; 
 desiring him, if he had applied himself to the task 
 of making himself fit for the succession, not to de- 
 lay beyond a week to join him at Copenhagen, 
 where he would arrive in time to be present at the 
 operations of the ensuing campaign ; but, if he took 
 the other part he desired to know by the return of 
 the courier, at what time he was prepared to carry 
 his plan into execution. On the receipt of this 
 letter, which called for his immediate determin- 
 ation, he consulted his evil-minded advisers, who 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 311 
 
 told him how dangerous it would be to put himself 
 into the power of a provoked father and a mother- 
 in-law, at a distance from all his friends. He pre- 
 tended, however, to the regency that he should set 
 out for Copenhagen, and obtained money to a con- 
 siderable amount from Menzikoff for the expenses 
 of the journey; but on reaching the borders of 
 Livonia, he took the road to Vienna, and threw 
 himself on the protection of the emperor, intending, 
 if permitted, to continue at his court till the death 
 of his father. Charles, hoAvever, Avas in no disposi- 
 tion to give offense to the Czar of Russia, and after 
 some time the Czarovitz removed himself to Naples, 
 i "When the Czar heard of his proceedings, he sent 
 away Captain Romanzoff, of the guards, and M. 
 Tolstoi, a privy-counsellor, with a letter dated from 
 Spa, the 10th July, 1717, of which the following is 
 the substance : ' ' That Tolstoi and Romanzoff will 
 make known to him his will ; that on his obedience 
 he gave him his assurance and promise before God 
 that he would not inflict punishment on him, but, 
 on his return, would love him better than ever. 
 But, ' ' said he, ' ' if you do not, by virtue of the 
 power I have received from God as your father, I 
 pronounce against you my everlasting curse ; and, 
 as your sovereign, I can assure you I shall find 
 ways to punish you ; which I hope, as my cause is 
 just, God will take it in hand, and assist me in 
 avenging it. " j 
 
 It required much persuasion and promises, and 
 
312 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 even menace, before the envoys could prevail on 
 Alexis to return with them to his father. They 
 dwelt on the solemn asseveration in the letter, that 
 the Czar would not only pardon, but would love 
 him better than ever. On this assurance the Czaro- 
 vitz, with his mistress, set out with the two envoys. 
 They arrived at Moscow on the 13th February, 1718, 
 and on that very day the prince had a private inter- 
 view with his father. 
 
 A general belief now prevailed that a reconcilia- 
 tion had taken place, and that everything was to 
 be forgotten ; but the very next day the regiments 
 of guards were ordered under arms, and the great 
 bell of Moscow was tolled. The senate, the boyars, 
 the privy-counsellors were summoned to the castle ; 
 the bishops, the archimandrites, the superior clergy, 
 the professors of divinity, assembled in the cathe- 
 dral. Alexis was brought into the castle as a pris- 
 oner; he fell on his knees before his father, and 
 delivered to him a paper, in which he acknowledged 
 his crimes, declared himself unworthy of the succes- 
 sion, and entreated that his life might be spared. 
 The Czar, raising him up, took him into a closet, 
 but what passed therein is conjecture only. When 
 brought back into the council-chamber, a declara- 
 tion of the Czar was publicly read. It commenced 
 by reproaching his son with indolence and remiss- 
 ness in improving himself, in associating with disso- 
 lute companions, his hatred of all improvements, his 
 violation of conjugal faith by taking up Avith a low- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 313 
 
 born woman, by placing himself under the protec- 
 tion of the Emperor of Germany, slandering his 
 father, and asking the emperor to defend him by 
 force of arms, telling him (what turned out to be 
 too true) that his life was not safe if he returned to 
 Russia. The declaration then proceeds : — 
 
 ' ' Such was the manner in which our son has re- 
 turned ; and though his flight and his calumnies de- 
 serve death, those crimes our fatherly aifection has 
 forgiven. But his notorious unworthiness and im- 
 morality will not allow us, in conscience, to leave 
 to him the succession to the empire ; it being too 
 manifest that by his ill conduct the glory of the 
 nation would be overturned, and a loss occasioned 
 of all the provinces recovered by our arms. To 
 place our subjects under such a successor, would be 
 to plunge them into a condition much worse than 
 they have at any time experienced. Accordingly, 
 by our paternal power, in virtue of which, agreeably 
 with the laws of our empire, every subject even can 
 at pleasure disinherit a son, — and in pursuance of 
 our prerogative as sovereign prince, and in consid- 
 eration of the welfare of our dominions, — we de- 
 prive our said son Alexis of the succession after us 
 to the throne of Russia, on account of his crimes 
 and his unworthiness, even though there should not 
 exist a single person of our family at the time of our 
 decease. 
 
 '' And we constitute and declare, in default of a 
 successor of a more advanced age, our second son 
 
314 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Peter, young though he be, as successor to the said 
 throne after us. 
 
 ' ' May our paternal malediction fall on our above- 
 mentioned son Alexis, if ever at any time he shall 
 set up such pretensions to the said succession, or 
 take measures for procuring it. 
 
 ^' We also require our faithful subjects, ecclesias- 
 tics and seculars, as well as every other state, and 
 the whole Russian nation, that, in pursuance of this 
 ordinance and our will, they acknowledge and con- 
 sider our said son Peter, nominated by us to the 
 succession, as the lawful successor, and that, con- 
 formably with this present ordinance, they confirm 
 every part of it by oath before the holy altar, on 
 the holy gospels, kissing the cross. 
 
 " And all those who shall at any time whatso- 
 ever oppose this our will, and who, from and after 
 the date hereof, shall dare to consider our son Alexis 
 as successor, or assist him to that end, we declare 
 them traitors to us and their country ; and we have 
 ordered this present ordinance to be published, that 
 no person may plead ignorance. Given, &c. 14th 
 February, 1718. Signed with our hand, and sealed 
 with our seal. ' ' 
 
 After which was read the ' ' Act of Renunciation, ' ' 
 on the part of the Czarovitz, which he had placed 
 in the hands of his majesty : — 
 
 ' ' I, the undersigned, declare before the holy 
 Evangelists, that I acknowledge and avow this ex- 
 clusion to be just, as having deserved it by my 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 315 
 
 crimes and un worthiness : and I bind myself and 
 swear, in the name of the sacred and almighty 
 Trinity, to submit myself wholly to this my father's 
 will ; never to seek after this succession, never to 
 lay claim to it, never to accept it, under any pre- 
 tense whatever ; and I acknowledge as lawful suc- 
 cessor my brother, the Czarovitz Peter Pietrovitz, 
 on which I kiss the holy cross, and sign these pres- 
 ents with my own hand. — Alexis." 
 
 The same instruments were then taken by the 
 Czar to the cathedral, where they went through a 
 second reading, and all the ecclesiastics testified 
 their approbation, and signed their names. 
 ' ' Never, ' ' says Yoltaire, ' ' was prince disinherited 
 in so authentic a manner. There are many states 
 in which such an act would be of no validity ; but 
 in Russia, as among the ancient Romans, every 
 father could disinherit his son; and this is much 
 stronger in a sovereign than in a subject, and es- 
 pecially in such a sovereign as Peter. ' ' This sover- 
 eign, however, has been much censured for break- 
 ing faith with his son, after the solemn promise, 
 amounting to an oath, that if he returned from 
 Naples, he would not only forgive him, but love 
 him more than ever. The same writer finds an 
 apology, by saying, that '^ perhaps the father, in 
 the conflict between paternal affection and reasons 
 of state, meant only to confer that love on his son 
 as a recluse ; that perhaps he might still hope to re- 
 claim him ; and by bringing him to a due sense of 
 
316 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 the loss of the crown, render him worthy of the 
 succession/' 
 
 The apology appears but a weak one ; still it must 
 be admitted the Czar was placed in a critical and 
 most painful situation. He knew that this son was 
 by nature of a very weak order of intellect, and that 
 he had long been beset by a mischievous party, who 
 instilled into his mind a hatred of his father and of 
 every step he took for the improvement of his coun- 
 try ; who had advised his elopement, and who would, 
 undoubtedly, set aside a renunciation which had 
 been thrust upon him ; and use every endeavor to 
 restore to him the crown which, he would be told, 
 had been illegally transferred to a younger and a 
 half-brother. He knew, and all sensible men Avho 
 had any regard for themselves and their country 
 knew, that in such a case, the certain consequence 
 would be a civil war, and the end of it a total loss 
 of all his glorious conquests, and the ruin of all his 
 useful establishments, in laying the foundations of 
 which he had spent the whole of a laborious life. 
 The question, as Yoltaire says, lay between the 
 welfare of eighteen millions of men and one single 
 person, and that person wholly incapable of gov- 
 erning. These were the considerations, probably, 
 which determined the Czar to knoAV the names of 
 the disaffected, to what extent their numbers 
 amounted, and who had been his principal ill-ad- 
 visers ; and this was considered to be of such impor- 
 tance, that the Czar threatened his son with capital 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 317 
 
 punishment should he conceal anything from him. 
 Alexis promised to declare the whole and pure truth, 
 as before God, and without disguise ; and swore, on 
 the holy Evangelists, before the altar, to discover 
 everything. 
 
 The next day the Czar sent him a number of 
 questions, which he was to answer in writing. One 
 of them related to a letter from M. Beyer, the em- 
 peror's resident at St. Petersburg, written after the 
 prince's elopement, the substance of which was, 
 that the Russian army in Mecklenburg had mutinied ; 
 that several of the officers talked of sending the new 
 Czarina (Catharine) and her son to the prison where 
 the repudiated Czarina was confined, and of placing 
 Alexis on the throne. To this gossiping letter of 
 one of those gentlemen who, residing at foreign 
 courts, think it a part of their duty to send to their 
 employers the news of the day, whether true or 
 false, the young prince might have pleaded igno- 
 rance : what had he to do with Beyer's letter ? He 
 Avas asked, however, the following question : — 
 
 ''When you saw, by Beyer's letter, that there 
 w^as a revolt in the Mecklenburg army, you was 
 glad of it ; I apprehend you had some view, and 
 that you would have declared for the rebels, even in 
 my lifetime ? " 
 
 Such a question among a civilized people, and in 
 England in particular, would not have been suffered 
 to be put ; or, if put, the judge would have cautioned 
 the prisoner not to answer. But Russia was yet 
 
318 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 barbarous as well as despotic ; and a person there 
 might be condemned to death for a secret sentiment 
 on a prospective event which never happened. 
 Alexis, however, ansAvered the question in writing : 
 '' Had the rebels invited me in your lifetime, I 
 should probably have joined them, had they been 
 strong enough. ' * 
 
 Another charge was of a much more serious na- 
 ture. Rough drafts of two letters, written from 
 Yienna, were found in his own hand, — one to the 
 senators, and the other to the archbishops of Eussia ; 
 in the latter of which he says, '' The continual in- 
 juries which I have undeservedly suffered have 
 obliged me to quit my country : I had a narrow es- 
 cape from being shut up in a convent : they who 
 have confined my mother were about to use me in 
 the same manner. I am under the protection of a 
 great prince. It is my desire you will not forsake 
 me at present. ' ' 
 
 The words at present had been drawn through 
 with a pen, and afterward replaced with his own 
 hand, — and again a second time effaced. The let- 
 ters themselves were stopped by the court of 
 Yienna. 
 
 A person of the name of Afanassief deposed that 
 he had heard Alexis say, ' ' I will say something to 
 the bishops, and they will tell it among the priests, 
 and the priests to their parishioners, and I shall be 
 placed on the throne, even though it were against 
 my will. ' ' His mistress Aphrosine deposed against 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 319 
 
 him, as complaining of his father, and wishing for 
 his death. The prince was also accused of consult- 
 ing his mother, the late Czarina, and his sister, the 
 Princess Mary, with regard to his elopement ; and 
 the Bishop of Kostof deposed that, being in their 
 confidence, he knew that these two princesses en- 
 tertained hopes of a change that would release them 
 from confinement ; and that they instigated Alexis 
 to fly into Germany, instead of going to his father 
 at Copenhagen. A priest of the name of Jaques, 
 being put to the torture, owned that the prince, in 
 confession, had accused himself before God that he 
 had wished his father's death; and that he, the 
 confessor, made answer, ' ' God will forgive you ; it 
 is no more than what we all wish." 
 
 It is not necessary to go through all the proceed- 
 ings of this lamentable story. The most extraor- 
 dinary part of it is the eagerness with which Alexis 
 strove, as it were, to make himself appear guilty, 
 and even the falsehoods which he uttered, to give 
 a stronger color to his guilt : for instance, in an- 
 swer to his father's sixth question, he owns he did 
 not see the emperor; that he applied to Count 
 Schonborn, who said to him, ^^ The emperor will 
 not forsake you ; and at a proper season, after your 
 father's demise, he Avill assist you with an armed 
 force to ascend the throne." — "My answer was," 
 added the accused prince, that is not what I ask : 
 all I desire is, that the emperor will be pleased to 
 grant me his protection." This was in the month 
 
320 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 of February, at Moscow. But after the execution of 
 the accomplices named by the prince, and a lapse of 
 four months, and when the proceedings were re- 
 newed against this unfortunate young man at St. 
 Petersburg, being again interrogated on this point, 
 he says, in writing, ' ' Being resolved to imitate my 
 father in nothing, I endeavored to arrive at the suc- 
 cession at any rate, even by foreign assistance ; and 
 if I had succeeded in my object, and the emperor 
 had done what he promised m<?, — that he would ob- 
 tain for me the crown of Hussia, even by open force, 
 — I would have spared nothing to secure myself in 
 the succession. I would, at my own cost, have 
 maintained the auxiliary troops with which he would 
 have supplied me, to put me in possession of the 
 crown of Russia ; and, in short, I would have stuck 
 at nothing to carry my point. ' ' 
 
 This gratuitous falsehood looks very much as if it 
 had been extorted from him ; unless, indeed, it was 
 intended as a defiance to the proceedings which his 
 father was instituting against him. • The Czar prom- 
 ised him pardon on making a general confession ; 
 but he did not desire him to state what was not 
 true. He was asked, as a condition of that pardon, 
 to declare the accomplices of his elopement; he 
 concealed several of them ; the answers he gave to 
 several of his father's interrogatories in February 
 Avere at variance with those he delivered in July. 
 When, therefore, Peter came to the final resolution 
 of trying him by the great officers of state, the 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 321 
 
 judges, and the bishops, he yielded to a distressing 
 case of state necessity, which he considered as re- 
 quiring the exercise of rigid justice, on the broad 
 principle, that it is better a delinquent should be 
 punished than a whole empire be endangered ; and 
 that reasons of state must be held as paramount even 
 to the ties of nature and of blood, which, in the pres- 
 ent case, had long been severed hy the unnatural 
 conduct of the son against the father. In truth, 
 his conduct had been such from his boyhood as to 
 efface every feeling of natural affection from his 
 father's heart. In judging of this case, we should 
 bear in mind what were the circumstances, the con- 
 dition, the manners, and the laws of Russia. Even 
 now, in that despotic government, the summary re- 
 moval from life of the sovereign, or members of the 
 imperial family, is tacitly claimed as a sort of right.* 
 Here, however, a solemn assembly was openly held, 
 the charges were promulgated, the sentence of the 
 judges, and every document connected with the 
 proceedings, published to the whole world, that both 
 Russia and the surrounding nations might have the 
 means of forming a judgment between the father 
 an(i the son. 
 
 It has been said that Peter instituted these pro- 
 ceedings from a wish to secure the throne for his 
 younger son, to the exclusion of Alexis ; but there 
 is proof on record that, many years before the 
 birth of this boy, he had determined to disinherit 
 
 * Quarterly Review, vol. xxxv, 
 21 
 
322 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Alexis, and gave him notice he should do so, if 
 he did not amend. As far back indeed as 1711, 
 he had in his own mind set him aside. In that 
 disastrous affair on the Pruth, in acquainting the 
 senate with the perilous situation into which he had 
 been led by false information, all his resources cut 
 off, his army surrounded by an enemy four times 
 more numerous than his own, he concludes his 
 letter by saying, ' ' If I am doomed to perish here, 
 and you should receive an authenticated account of 
 my death, you will then proceed to choose, as my 
 successor, the most worthy among you. ' ' 
 
 The law of Russia, which conferred the fatal right 
 on the Czar to punish his son with death, merely 
 for his elopement, independent of any other crime, 
 left this, or any other punishment, in the sovereign's 
 hands ; but he thought it more proper to submit the 
 case for the decision of the judges of the land, the 
 nobles, and the ecclesiastics, before whom he thus 
 declared his sentiments : — 
 
 "^ Though by all divine and human laws, and es- 
 pecially by those of Eussia, which exclude all inter- 
 position of the civil power between father and son, 
 even among private persons, we have a sufficient 
 and absolute power of sentencing our son according 
 to his crimes and our will, without consulting any- 
 one; yet men not being so clearsighted in their 
 own affairs as in those of others, and as the most 
 skilful physicians, instead of prescribing for them- 
 selves, have recourse to others when sick ; so, fear- 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 323 
 
 ing lest I should bring some sin on my conscience, 
 I state my case to you, and require a remedy. For 
 if, ignorant of the name of my distemper, I should 
 go about to cure it by my own ability, the conse- 
 quence may be eternal death, seeing that I have 
 sworn on the judgments of God, and have, in writ- 
 ing, promised my son his pardon, provided he tells 
 me the truth, and afterward confirms that promise 
 with his mouth. 
 
 ' ' Though my son has broken his promise, yet 
 that I may not, in anything, depart from my ob- 
 ligations, I desire you will think on this affair, and 
 examine it with the greatest attention, to see what 
 he has deserved. Do not flatter me; be neither in 
 the least afraid that, should he deserve only a slight 
 punishment, and you deliver your opinion accord- 
 ingly, it will offend me ; for I swear to you, by the 
 great God, and by his judgments, that you have 
 absolutely nothing at all to apprehend. 
 
 " Let it give you no uneasiness that you have to 
 try your sovereign's son; but, without any respect 
 of persons, do justice, and destroy not both your 
 souls and mine. Lastly, let not our conscience have 
 anj^thing to reproach us with on the terrible day 
 of judgment, and let not our country be hurt.'^ 
 
 The clergy were the first to deliver their opinion, 
 which they did by stating that the affair does not in 
 any way belong to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; 
 that the absolute prerogative is vested in the sov- 
 ereign, and does not depend on the judgment of the 
 
324 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 subjects. They quote cases from the Old Testa- 
 ment, in which it is said that ' ' Whoever curseth his 
 father or mother shall be punished with death;" 
 and having cited various other passages, they thus 
 conclude: — '* If his majesty is inclined to punish 
 the delinquent according to his actions and the 
 measure of his guilt, he has before him examples 
 from the Old Testament : if he be inclined to spare, 
 he has the pattern of Christ himself, kindly receiv- 
 ing the penitent prodigal, dismissing the woman 
 taken in adultery, who, by the law, was to be 
 stoned ; and delighting in mercy more than sacrifice. 
 He has the example of David, who is solicitous for 
 the safety of Absalom his son, though an open 
 rebel, recommending him to the commanders of his 
 army, who insisted on giving him battle; " jSpare 
 my son Absalom " — the father was for showing him 
 mercy, but Divine justice did not spare him. The 
 Czar's heart is in the hands of God; let him choose 
 that to which God shall incline him." 
 
 This opinion, which does great credit to the clergy 
 of Kussia, was signed by the metropolitan of Eezan, 
 eight bishops, four archimandrites and two profes- 
 sors, and delivered to the Czar : it manifestly was 
 inclined to clemency. But more interrogation is, 
 and more confessions followed this ; and, on the 5th 
 July, the ministers, the senators, and generals, to 
 the number of one hundred and twenty-four, un- 
 animously condemned Alexis to death, but without 
 specifying the manner of his execution; ''submit^ 
 
Life of peter the great. 325 
 
 ting this sentence which we deliver, and this con- 
 demnation which we declare, to the supreme honor, 
 the will, and the merciful revision of his majesty, 
 oux most merciful sovereign. ' ' 
 
 There can be but one opinion as to the harshness 
 and barbarity of the whole proceeding ; and better 
 far would it have been for the father, in virtue of 
 his prerogative, to have put to death his disobedi- 
 ent son, than to have worried him night and day 
 for nearly five months, extorting from him con- 
 fessions — not, however, as has been said, by a^ctual 
 torture, at least this does not appear — but only sur- 
 mised on the ground that nothing short of corporeal 
 agony could have created in the young man a mani- 
 fest desire to criminate himself, even as to his secret 
 thoughts, and to represent himself as a person of a 
 malignant mind and evil disposition. The Czar, 
 however, thought he was acting right, in referring 
 to the judgment of the representatives of the nation 
 in a case in which the fate of that nation was so deeply 
 concerned ; and not doubting the equity of his pro- 
 ceedings, he caused the whole trial to be printed 
 and translated, and thus submitted himself to the 
 judgment of the world.* 
 
 A foreign writer, of the name of Lamberti, has 
 accused Catharine of inducing the Czar to bring 
 Alexis to trial, and cause him to be sentenced to 
 death ; asserts that the Czar Tcnouted his son, and then 
 
 * Nestesuranoi. Mottley's book contains the whole of the 
 yoluminous documents that were made public. 
 
326 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 with his own hands cut off his head ; but that, when 
 publicly exposed, it was so cleverly fitted to the 
 body, that it did not appear to have ever been 
 severed ; that Peter contracted a sourness after this, 
 and entertained a thought of having the Czarina 
 shaved and shut up in a convent ; that she and Men- 
 zikoff poisoned the Czar ; with much more of such 
 absurd trash, which the writer procured from a man 
 who was not in Kussia at the time, and who, Yoltaire 
 says, owned to him ' ' that all he had talked about 
 with Lamberti was only the report of those times : ' ' 
 and this is history ! As to the sourness of Peter, 
 and the shaving and shutting up of Catharine, it may 
 be charitably supposed that Lamberti had never 
 heard of her accompanying him, long after this, to 
 Persia, nor of her coronation, nor of the reasons as- 
 signed by Peter for conferring that honor on his 
 faithful spouse. Yoltaire very properly exposes the 
 absurdity of the whole story ; and further says, with 
 regard to Catharine, on the authority of a public 
 minister, that the Czar told the Duke of Ilolstein 
 that Catharine had entreated him to hinder the sen- 
 tence being pronounced against the Czarovitz ; and 
 that he should be satisfied by compelling him to be- 
 come a monk, as the disgrace of a sentence of death 
 would reflect on his grandson.* The Czar, how- 
 ever, could not be prevailed on to yield to the en- 
 treaties of his consort, but thought it proper that 
 the sentence should at least be publicly pronounced ; 
 
 * Voltaire's Hist, de Russie. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. S27 
 
 that by this solemn act being publicly made known, 
 and rendering Alexis civilly dead, he would be for 
 ever disqualified from afterward pretending even to 
 the crown. By this it would seem the Czar had no 
 intention whatever of carrying the sentence into 
 execution. In his letter to the several courts of 
 Europe, assigning his reasons for the public trial of 
 his son, he says, after stating the nature of the sen- 
 tence, " and while Ave were debating in our mind 
 between the natural motions of paternal clemency 
 on one side, and the regard we ought to pay to the 
 preservation and the future security of our kingdom 
 on the other, and pondering on what resolution to 
 take, in an affair of so great difficulty and impor- 
 tance, it pleased the Almighty God, by his especial 
 will and his just judgment, and by his mercy, to 
 deliver us out of that embarrassment, and to save 
 our family and kingdom from the shame and the 
 dangers, by abridging yesterday the life of our said 
 son Alexis, after an illness with which he was seized, 
 as soon as he had heard the sentence of death pro- 
 nounced against him. That illness appeared at first 
 like an apoplexy ; but he afterward recovered his 
 senses, and received the holy sacraments as a Chris- 
 tian ; and having desired to see us, we went to him 
 immediately, with all our counsellors and senators ; 
 and then he acknowledged and sincerely confessed 
 all his said faults and crimes committed against us, 
 with tears, and all the marks of a true penitent, and 
 begged our pardon, which, according to Christian 
 
3^8 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 and paternal duty, we granted him: after which, 
 on the Tth July, at six in the evening, he surren- 
 dered his soul to God." * 
 
 This account, according to most of the historians, 
 is strictly true, and certainly argues no intention on 
 the part of the Czar to carry the sentence into exe- 
 cution ; and yet various reports were spread over 
 Europe, giving a very different interpretation to the 
 manner of the prince's death, most of which may be 
 traced to the different foreign residents at the court 
 of St. Petersburg at the time. One wrote home a 
 report that the Czar had poisoned him; another that 
 he had whipped or knouted him to death ; and a 
 third that he had cut off his head with his own 
 hands. At what particular time he could have done 
 all or any of these it would be difficult to discover. 
 The Czarovitz was taken out of the court in the 
 evening of the 6th July ; on the morning of the Tth, 
 messengers came to the Czar to report the illness of 
 his son, with his request to see him. He went ac- 
 cordingly, attended by all the great officers of his 
 court, among whom were foreigners, both Scotch 
 and Germans; he took an affectionate leave; but 
 the illness of the prince increasing, he was sent 
 for again in the evening, and was on the point of 
 going when he was stopped by intelligence of his 
 son's death. Here, therefore, there could be no 
 knouting nor cutting the head off, unless it was 
 done in the presence of the senators, the bishops, the 
 
 *Mottley. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 329 
 
 generals, and courtiers, all of whom accompanied 
 the Czar; and yet, one of our most intelligent 
 travelers, a master of arts, a fellow of the Royal 
 and Antiquarian Societies, and a dignitary of the 
 church, states his belief that Alexis ' ' was secretly 
 executed in prison." * 
 
 Mr. Coxe places his faith on Busching, the com- 
 piler of an historical magazine, — a receptacle for all 
 that was sent to it, in which it is positively afl&rmed 
 that he was beheaded by order of his father, and 
 that Marshal Weyde performed the office of execu- 
 tioner. This, at any rate, exonerates the Czar from 
 having done it himself. And on what ground is 
 this bold assertion made? — on a conversation of a 
 second person with a certain Madame Cramer, a 
 lady at St. Petersburg, who was in high confidence 
 both with Peter and Catharine ; and who, it is bold- 
 ly asserted, was employed in sewing the prince's 
 head to the body before it lay in state. Why the 
 head of a poor man, sick in his bed, should be pri- 
 vately taken off, for no other purpose than sewing 
 it on again, is quite inconceivable. Still Mr. Coxe 
 is disposed to believe that such was the case : he 
 met with an intimate acquaintance of the above- 
 mentioned lady, who assured him that he always 
 found her extremely averse to hold any discourse 
 on the death of Alexis; that she seemed exceed- 
 ingly shocked (and well she might) whenever the 
 
 * Travels in Poland, Russia, &c., by W. Coxe, A.M., F.R.S. 
 F.A.S. Rector of Bemerton, 
 
330 LIP^E OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 topic was introduced, and nothing fuviker could he 
 extorted from her than that she was the jperson who 
 prepared the hody for the ceremony of lying in state. 
 Would the intimate acquaintance have '' extorted " 
 from Madame Cramer a direct falsehood? Was 
 she to confess to an operation which she never per- 
 formed, and which was much fitter for a surgeon 
 than a delicate lady? Yet, strange to say, this 
 very unAvillingness of Madame Cramer to enter upon 
 the subject, and her declaration that she only pre- 
 pared the body for the funeral, adds, in Mr. Coxe's 
 mind, a great degree of confirmation. 
 
 But Mr. Coxe has ' ' an additional proof in favor 
 of this fact, ' ' and from an English gentleman of 
 undoubted veracity, a Mr. Eiest, who had it from 
 Prince Cantimir's secretary, who was eighty years 
 of age, and the said prince was in high favor with 
 Peter, as he undoubtedly must have been to get 
 from him such a secret. Mr. Coxe adds, that this 
 fact (of beheading) appears so well attested, that 
 many German historians have adopted it without 
 reserve (and many of them are ready to adopt 
 stranger things than this), and that in several of the 
 genealogical tables of the imperial family, Alexis is 
 inserted as beheaded. "* It is surprising that a man 
 of Mr. Coxe's sagacity should suffer himself to be 
 so far led astray as to ground his belief on such 
 inconclusive evidence. He admits, indeed, that 
 a passage in Bruce' s Memoirs seems to invalidate 
 
 * Coxe. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. S31 
 
 what he calls ' ' this concurrent evidence, ' ' and to 
 prove that he was poisoned. Brace's story is singu- 
 larly curious, but it affords no such proof. It is as 
 folio Avs : — 
 
 '' On the next day (after the trial), his majesty, 
 attended by all the senators and bishops, with several 
 others of high rank, went to the fort, and entered 
 the apartments where the Czarovitz was kept pris- 
 oner. Some little time thereafter Marshal Weyde 
 came out, and ordered me to go to Mr. Bear's the 
 druggist, whose shop was hard-by, and tell him to 
 make the potion strong which he had bespoke, as the 
 prince was then very ill. When I delivered this 
 message to Mr. Bear, he turned quite pale, and fell 
 a shaking and trembling, and appeared in the utmost 
 confusion, which surprised me so much, that I asked 
 him what was the matter with him, but he was un- 
 able to return me any answer. In the meantime, 
 the marshal himself came in, much in the same con- 
 dition with the druggist, saying he ought to have 
 been more expeditious, as the prince was very ill of 
 an apoplectic fit : upon this the druggist delivered 
 him a silver cup with a cover, which the marshal 
 himself carried into the prince's apartments, stag- 
 gering all the way as he went like one drunk. 
 About half an hour after, the Czar with all his at- 
 tendants withdrew with very dismal countenances, 
 and when they went, the marshal ordered me to at- 
 tend at the prince's apartment, and in case of any 
 alteration, to inform him immediately thereof : therQ 
 
332 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 were at that time two physicians and two surgeons 
 in waiting, with whom, and the officer on guard, I 
 dined on what had been dressed for the prince's 
 dinner. The physicians were called in immediately 
 after to attend the prince, who was struggling out 
 of one convulsion into another, and, after great 
 agonies, expired at five o'clock in the afternoon." 
 
 Mr. Coxe, however, is so much prepossessed with 
 the story of the decapitation as to say, "it by no 
 means follows, even from this state of the case, 
 that the Czarovitz was poisoned." For he asks, 
 '* Can we suppose that Peter would order a dose of 
 poison to be prepared for his son at a chymist's 
 shop, and that Marshal Weyde would openly send 
 for it, without the least mystery ? May we not 
 rather infer that the potion was a medicine similar 
 to those which had been already prescribed for the 
 prince, who had for some time" been extremely in- 
 disposed ? The fright of the chymist," he argues, 
 ' ' might arise from thinking his own safety involved 
 in the catastrophe ; ' ' and he arrives at this most 
 singular conclusion, that ' ' the agitation of Marshal 
 Weyde will be still more satisfactorily accounted 
 for, if, according to Busching, he was preparing to 
 perform, or had already performed, the execution." 
 Mr. Coxe is here evidently in a dilemma — if pre- 
 paring for the operation, where was the need of the 
 poison? — if already performed, what was the use of 
 the potion? If he was already poisoned, it could 
 not be necessary to strike off his head — if beheaded, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 333 
 
 still less necessary to administer poison — if it was 
 deemed necessary to behead him, why was it further 
 necessary to sew the head on again, and so neatly 
 that no one could know whether the head had ever 
 been off ? 
 
 With regard to the poison, it should be repeated 
 that Bruce is a very loose writer. If he had said 
 draught instead of potion^ a soothing draught or 
 opiate to stay his convulsions (to which the family 
 were subject), he would have been intelligible. One 
 thing at least is certain, that between the poisoning 
 and the beheading, the undetermined state of Mr. 
 Coxe's opinion is quite sufficient to neutralize both. 
 
 Yoltaire took a very different and probably a 
 sounder view of the idle reports circulating at the 
 time in Europe. ^ ^ How could the Czar, ' ' says he, 
 " have cut off the head of his son, when extreme 
 unction was administered to him in the presence of 
 all the court ? Had he no head when the oil was 
 poured on it? At what time might this head have 
 been stitched on again to his body? The prince, 
 from the reading of the sentence to his death, was 
 not left alone one moment. The anecdote of his 
 father's making use of the axe overthrows the story 
 of his having been despatched by poison. If the 
 Czar had poisoned his son, this would have deprived 
 him of the advantage of all he had been doing dur- 
 ing the course of this extraordinary trial, to con- 
 vince Europe of the right he had to punish : it would 
 have brought a suspicion on the motives of the sen- 
 
834 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 tence, and would have been to condemn himself. 
 If he had resolved on Alexis' death, he would have 
 caused the sentence to be executed ; was it not en- 
 tirely in his power? Could a prudent person, a 
 monarch who had attracted the eyes of all the world, 
 bring himself basely to poison one whom he had a 
 right to cut off with the sword of justice? Would 
 he suffer his name to be transmitted to posterity in 
 the heinous colors of a parricide, when he might 
 so easily have brought himself off only as a rigorous 
 judge? 
 
 The conclusion to which this shrewd writer comes 
 is this, ^ that Peter had more of the king than the 
 father in him ; and that he sacrificed his own son 
 to his views as founder and legislator, and to the 
 interest of his nation, which, without this unhappy 
 rigor, would have relapsed into the condition from 
 which he had raised it ; that the sacrifice was not 
 made to a mother-in-law, and the male child he had 
 by her ; for that he had often threatened to disin- 
 herit him before Catharine had brought forth that 
 son, the infirmities of whose infancy bespoke him 
 to be short-lived, and who accordingly died soon 
 after ; that he was not that weak, timorous prince, 
 as to run such a length purely to humor his wife. 
 '' In fine," he says, '' on maturely considering this 
 catastrophe, the humane shudder, and the severe 
 approve." * 
 
 * Voltaire, in his History of Charles XII., written thirty- 
 eight years before, says, " The death of a son, who deserved 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 335 
 
 If Alexis had honestly declared to his father, 
 on his return from Naples, who his advisers were, 
 the Czar would, in all probability, have kept his 
 solemn but conditional promise ; he did not do this, 
 but prevaricated, and stated what was not the truth. 
 It was, perhaps, not to be expected, that he should 
 involve his mother and his sister in the list of those 
 who were sure to undergo the most rigorous punish- 
 ment, though their conduct was • highly reprehensi- 
 ble. Among the ' ' bushy beards ' ' was one Dozi- 
 theus, bishop of Eostof, who had a revelation from 
 God that Peter had not three months to live ; and he 
 persuaded the weak woman Eudoxia,* who with 
 Mary was in the convent of Leesdal, that she should, 
 jointly with the Prince Alexis, ascend the throne. 
 She had assumed the name of Helena on entering 
 the convent, but she now reassumed her proper 
 name, laid aside her religious habit, caused herself 
 to be styled Majesty, and the name of Catharine to 
 be expunged from the liturgy, and adopted the cere- 
 monial dress of the Czarinas. The bursar of the 
 convent remonstrated with her on these proceed- 
 ings, but Eudoxia haughtily answered, '<^ Peter 
 chastised the Strelitzes for affronting his mother, 
 and my son Alexis will not suffer his to be insulted, ' ' 
 
 correction or disinheritance, would render Peter's memory 
 odious, if the benefits derived from him by his subjects had 
 not almost made cruelty towards his own nature pardonable." 
 * Eudoxia was the divorced wife of Peter. See above, p. 
 41. The placing her in a convent was one of the customary 
 forms of divorce in that country. 
 
336 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 — ^and immediately she confined the bursar to his 
 cell. Three months had elapsed, and the Czar was 
 still living, and Eudoxia expostulated with the 
 bishop; ''Madam," said he, "this is owing to my 
 father's sins ; he is in purgatory, and has signified 
 this to me. ' ' Thus did this artful priest contrive to 
 put off the predicted event from month to month, 
 and to extort money for thousands of requiems to. 
 be said to extract his father, piece by piece, out of 
 purgatory. One Gleboff, an officer, who had an 
 intrigue with the repudiated Czarina, was employed 
 to circulate the prediction, on which, it is said, 
 Alexis went abroad to wait for his father's death. 
 The whole now transpired. The bishop and Gleboff 
 were taken into custody. The princess Mary's let- 
 ters to Dozitheus, and those of Helena to Gleboff, 
 were publicly read before the senate. The princess 
 was confined in the fortress of Schlusselburg, and 
 Eudoxia removed to another convent, where she 
 was kept a close prisoner. The priest and Gleboff, 
 with all the accomplices in this fruitless and super- 
 stitious intrigue, with others who were privy to 
 Alexis' escape, — his confessor, governor, and mar- 
 shal of his court, were put to the torture, and 
 several of them expired under it.* 
 
 '' Thus," says Yoltaire, " we see at what a dear 
 rate did Peter the Great purchase the happiness 
 which he procured to his people ; how many public 
 and private impediments he had to surmount, in the 
 
 * Voltaire, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 337 
 
 midst of a long and diflBcult war; with enemies 
 abroad, rebels at home; half his family plotting 
 against him ; the majority of his priests obstinately 
 declaring against his schemes; almost the whole 
 nation, for a long time, execrating its own happi- 
 ness, of which it had not then a proper sense ; preju- 
 dices to overcome; discontents to allay; till, at 
 length, a new generation, formed by his care, 
 should close with those ideas of glory and prosperity 
 which their fathers could not bear." 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Peace of Neustadt — Peter entreated to accept the Titles 
 of Emperor, Great and Father of his Country— Several 
 new Institutions and Manufactories established — An Em- 
 bassy sent to China— Assemblies, or Soirees, instituted — 
 Peter's Mode of Living — Provides for the Succession. 
 
 The long-continued war between Russia and Swe- 
 den appeared, at length, to be drawing to a close. 
 That arch-intriguer Goertz had concerted a grand 
 plan, which was to reconcile Peter and Charles, 
 drive George I. from the throne of England, and 
 set the Pretender upon it, and to restore Stanislaus 
 to that of Poland. The first hint of this project is 
 supposed to have been suggested to Peter when he 
 was last in Holland. Goertz knew that the Czar 
 had tak6n offense at Wismar being left to the King 
 of Denmark, which, of right, belonged to the Duke 
 of Mecklenburg who had married his niece ; and of 
 this feeling he availed himself. It was supposed 
 that the Czar had an interview with him at the 
 Hague, and the king of England remonstrated with 
 him, but Peter satisfied him that it was not true. 
 The plot, however, was laid, and discovered by in- 
 tercepted letters of Goertz in Holland, and Gj^llem- 
 berg the Swedish minister in London, both of 
 
 338 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 339 
 
 whom, as well as their papers, were seized, one in 
 London the other at Arnheim, and both were kept 
 in confinement, like two criminals, for nearly six 
 months. 
 
 The Czar was supposed to have listened to his 
 projects, but without appearing to give them much 
 encouragement. He was, however, so far prevailed 
 on as to send General Bruce and Osterman as pleni- 
 potentiaries to the island of Aland, where the con- 
 ditions of peace were to be negotiated. In the 
 meantime, the Czar kept a fleet at sea, which cap- 
 tured the Swedish ships and committed depredations 
 along the whole coast ; but he evinced a willing- 
 ness to listen to pacific overtures, by assenting to 
 an exchange of certain oiRcers of high rank, who 
 had long been detained in the two countries as 
 prisoners of war. To the complete success of 
 Goertz's plan, which is not necessary here to be 
 developed, Peter and Charles were required to enter 
 into an offensive alliance, and a large combined 
 army was to be landed in Scotland. Charles was 
 to have the command of this invading force, destined 
 to place the Pretender on the throne of England. 
 
 Just at this moment, when Goertz and his confed- 
 erates were, as Yoltaire says, on the wished-for eve 
 of throwing all Europe into universal confusion, a 
 random shot from the works of Fredrikstadt, in 
 Norway, quashed all their projects : Charles the 
 XII. was killed, and Goertz beheaded at Stock- 
 holm. The crown of Sweden was transferred to 
 
340 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Ulrica Elenora, sister of Charles XII., who was 
 married a short time before to the hereditary Prince 
 of Hesse. It is said that when Peter heard of the 
 death of Charles, he could not refrain from tears, — 
 that he retired to conceal his weakness, and that, 
 on rejoining the company, he said, in a mournful 
 tone, '^ My dear Charles, how much I lament 
 you." * 
 
 Shortly after the conclusion of these proceedings, 
 on the 6th May, 1719, the Czar's only remaining 
 son, Peter Petrovitz, who had been declared hered- 
 itary prince of Muscovy, departed this life, at the 
 age of five years, to the great grief of his parents, 
 though his sickly constitution held out little or no 
 hope that he would ever arrive at manhood. 
 
 The affairs of Sweden underwent a complete 
 change by the death of Charles ; instead of uniting 
 with the Czar against England, the new government 
 was most glad to unite its forces to England against 
 the Czar. The Swedes were desirous of peace, and 
 hoped that the appearance of a British fleet in the 
 Baltic might be the means of procuring for them a 
 more advantageous one. In the meantime the Czar 
 kept the sea with a fleet of twelve sail of the line, 
 several frigates and large galleys, of which he was 
 second in command, as vice-admiral under Admiral 
 Apraxin. A smart engagement took place with a 
 Swedish squadron, which ended in the Kussians driv- 
 ing them into port, and taking one ship of the line 
 
 *Staehlin authority; Wasselowski, privy counsellor. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 34I 
 
 and two frigates. Just at this moment an English 
 fleet, under Sir John Norris, made its appearance 
 in the Baltic for the protection of Sweden. Peter, 
 nothing intimidated, determined to keep the sea; 
 and sent a message to the English admiral, demand- 
 ing, in a peremptory manner, whether he had come 
 merely as a friend to Sweden or as an enemy to 
 Russia. The ansAver of the admiral was, that he 
 had not yet received any orders to act for or against 
 either power. The fact was, he was sent for no 
 other purpose than to give confidence to Sweden, 
 and thus to enable her probably to secure more ad- 
 vantageous terms of peace. This, however, had not 
 the desired eifect. Though the English fleet com- 
 mitted no act of hostility, yet its junction with that 
 of Sweden exasperated the Russians, who made 
 dreadful havoc on the coasts of that unfortunate 
 country, burning many thousand houses, and destroy- 
 ing copper and iron-foundries, and other manufactur- 
 ing buildings. On a descent made by them near 
 Yasa, they burnt and destroyed forty villages, con- 
 sisting of above a thousand houses, and spread deso- 
 lation over the whole of that part of the country ; 
 one account states, two towns, twenty-one castles 
 or noblemen's houses, five hundred and thirty-five 
 villages and hamlets, forty wells, sixteen magazines, 
 and nine mines of iron. They destroyed corn and 
 forage, and slew all the cattle and horses that they 
 could not carry off ; and to complete the misfortunes 
 of the Swedes, Prince Galitzin attacked and carried 
 
342 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 four Swedish frigates. The destruction of the Swe- 
 dish copper and iron-works, and the breaking down 
 the mounds that preserved the mines from inunda- 
 tion, making the ruin irretrievable, entailed misery 
 and want on thousands that^had subsisted by them. 
 
 These devastations induced Sweden to demand a 
 suspension of arms, and through the mediation of 
 the Duke of Orleans, regent of France, the long- 
 negotiated reconciliation was brought about ; a con- 
 gress was held at Neustadt or Nystadt, in Finland, 
 and the peace was concluded by ceding forever to 
 the Czar all his conquests : thus leaving him sov- 
 ereign over Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, Wy- 
 burg, and the adjacent islands, and securing to him 
 the dominion of the sea of Finland, which, with the 
 surrounding coasts, he had purchased with the toils 
 and perils of twenty years. The peace of ISTeustadt 
 was signed by his minister Osterman and General 
 Bruce, on the 10th September, 1721. 
 
 By this peace Peter had now attained the summit 
 of his glory. Nothing could surpass the joy which 
 this event shed over the whole of Russia, the intel- 
 ligence of which was forthwith despatched from one 
 end of the empire to the other. Orders at the same 
 time were sent to set at liberty all the Swedish pris- 
 oners in Siberia, and other remote provinces, offer- 
 ing those who might choose to remain the same 
 rank in his army that they held in their own ; re- 
 quiring them only to make their voluntary declar- 
 ation in presence of the chief Swedish officers, about 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 343 
 
 to return, that it might not afterward be said he 
 had detained them contrary to their will, and the 
 terms of the treaty. The generosity of Peter went 
 so far as to give the strongest testimony and recom- 
 mendation to those Swedish officers of whose valor 
 and fidelity to their king and country he had been 
 witness ; and the new King of Sweden attended to 
 these testimonials, promoting, among others. Rear- 
 admiral Ehrenschild to the rank of full admiral ; and 
 Peter, on the departure of that gallant officer, with 
 whom he had been personally engaged in combat, 
 made him a present of his picture set with dia- 
 monds. To the reformed Protestants of Pio:a he 
 granted a church for the public exercise of their 
 religion, which they could never obtain from the 
 Swedish government ; conferring other privileges 
 for the encouragement of foreigners of that com- 
 munion to settle there. He restored to the Livo- 
 nians the privileges they had been deprived of in 
 the two last reigns, for the defense of w^hich the 
 unhappy Patkul may be said to have died a martyr. 
 The Czar appointed a day of public thanksgiving 
 for the peace, a few days before which he made a 
 communication to the following effect to the senate, 
 ' ' That since it had pleased God to heap on him so 
 many blessings, during the late burdensome and 
 protracted war, and to grant a peace so glorious and 
 so advantageous for the whole empire, it was in- 
 cumbent on him, as an act of justice, and in ac- 
 knowledgment of the great mercies he had received, 
 
344 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 to confer some favor on the nation ; he therefore 
 thought it right to direct that a general amnesty 
 throughout the empire should be declared, not only 
 for such whose crimes had deserved punishment, 
 but to those who were under sentence ; that all pub- 
 lic debts owing by those who were unable to pay be 
 remitted ; that all poor subjects be absolved from 
 all arrears of taxes and imposts due to the treasury, 
 up to the day of the proclamation of the peace. ' ' 
 The senate, having hereupon most humbly thanked 
 his Czarish majesty, in the name of the whole na- 
 tion, for his paternal clemency and tenderness 
 towards his subjects, orders were immediately des- 
 patched to set at liberty all persons in confinement 
 in the prisons and the galleys, whether for debts or 
 misdemeanors, or crimes of high-treason ; those of 
 robbery and murder only excepted. 
 
 The senate, after much deliberation with the 
 heads of the church, came to a resolution that his 
 majesty, having acquired for the nation so much 
 glory in the eyes of the whole world, should be en- 
 treated, as a token of acknowledgment on the part 
 of his subjects, and after the example of other 
 sovereigns, to accept and adopt the titles of ' « Peter 
 the Great ^ Einjperor of all the Russias^ and father of 
 his Country; " praying him, in the name of all the 
 states in the Eussian empire, to permit them to 
 make an offering of these titles for his acceptance, 
 on the day of the celebration of the peace in the 
 great cathedral. His majesty, after a considerable 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. US 
 
 hesitation, at last consented ; and, on the day in 
 question, after divine service, the Archbishop of 
 Pscov delivered a speech, in which he enumerated 
 all the glorious exploits of his majesty, and the 
 favors he had heaped on the nation and his subjects 
 during his reign. Then the great chancellor, Count 
 Golofkin, delivered a similar speech, in which, in 
 the name of all the states of the empire, he hmnbly 
 entreated the Czar to accept the above-mentioned 
 titles — stating that the title of Emperor was granted 
 some ages ago to his majesty's illustrious ancestor 
 by the great Roman emperor Maximilian I.* That 
 the title of Great his majesty had acquired by his 
 heroic deeds ; and, said he, as for the title of Father 
 OF HIS Country, we have thought fit to give it to 
 your majesty, as being our Father^ whom God has 
 been pleased to grant us, in his great goodness, 
 without any merit of our own. 
 
 Then the whole senate thrice repeated, ^^ Long 
 live Peter the Great^ Emjperor of all the Bttssias^ 
 and Father of his Country ! ' ' and the w^hole assem- 
 bly testified their applause, by the sound of trumpets 
 and kettle-drums, and the roar of cannon from the 
 ramparts, the admiralty, and one hundred and 
 twenty-five galleys, which had arrived the same 
 day, and brought upwards of twenty thousand men 
 
 * In the archives of Russia is a despatch, of the date 1514, 
 ratified with the seal of the Golden Bull, in which Maximilian 
 addresses Vassili Ivanovitch as Kayser und Herrscher aUer 
 Eussien— Emperor and Ruler of all the Russias. — Coxe, 
 
346 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 who had been serving in Finland. In going out of 
 the cathedral, their imperial majesties were saluted 
 with the acclamations of the people. They pro- 
 ceeded to the hall of the senate-house, where Prince 
 Menzikoff and Count Apraxin declared the promo- 
 tions of several military and naval officers, after 
 which the assembly sat down to table, when more 
 than a thousand persons of both sexes were enter- 
 tained. The conduits in the street ran with wine ; 
 an ox was roasted whole and stuffed with fowls for 
 the populace, and the night concluded with illumina- 
 tions and fireworks. The rejoicing continued for 
 fifteen days, during which were held five or six grand 
 masquerades, in which the whole court bore a part. 
 The emperor had now leisure to look over those 
 institutions and establishments which he had set on 
 foot since the year 1718. In that year he entirely 
 new-modeled a general police for the empire; he 
 commenced several projects for uniting rivers by 
 means of canals; he prohibited games of chance 
 which might be called gambling ; he instituted or- 
 phan-houses and a foundling-hospital ; he established 
 a uniformity of weights and measures ; and endeav- 
 ored to settle, contrary to every principle of political 
 economy, the prices of provisions, and a maximum 
 to the luxury of dress: he caused the streets of 
 St. Petersburg and Moscow to be paved, and cleared 
 of swarms of beggars ; and made several regulations 
 for safety, order, and cleanliness. He took off the 
 restriction of his subjects traveling abroad, but 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 347 
 
 ordered all the young nobility to take their wives 
 with them, to learn and bring back the manners 
 and deportment of the more civilized courts of Eu- 
 rope; and not only proclaimed certain privileges 
 for strangers settling in the country, but gave as- 
 surances against any abuse on the part of the 
 natives of such privileges. 
 
 He established a manufactory of small arms, 
 which he attended frequently in person ; and he en- 
 couraged the erection of corn, powder, and sawmills. 
 He gave bounties to those who undertook the manu- 
 facture of woolen and linen cloth; and by this 
 liberality he was soon enabled to clothe his army 
 with home manufactures instead of purchasing them 
 from Berlin and other places in Germany. He 
 erected a board of mines, of which there were 
 abundance, of iron, copper, gold, and silver, in his 
 dominions, the duties of which board were chiefly 
 to ascertain whether the produce would exceed the 
 expense of working them. 
 
 The foreign trade of Eussia Avith Europe, which 
 had hitherto been carried on at Archangel, was now 
 mostly transferred to St. Petersburg and Riga ; that 
 with Persia, consisting chiefly of silk, centered at 
 Astrakhan, and was conducted by the Armenians, 
 whom Peter encouraged to settle there. A trade 
 between Siberia and China had existed, long before 
 the time of Peter the Great, by means of caravans, 
 but it had more than once been interrupted ; the 
 last time in consequence of some insult committed 
 
04S LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 by the people of the caravans against one of the 
 vicars of the Lama, and even against the Chinese. 
 It was, however, renewed; and the Emperor Kang- 
 hee, finding his health decline, and imagining that 
 European physicians might be as much superior to 
 the Chinese as he had proved European astronomers 
 to be, desired the conductor of the caravan to re- 
 quest the Czar would send him a physician. Mr. 
 Bell of Antermony, who happened to be at that 
 time at St. Petersburg, volunteered to go in that 
 capacity, and to accompany Mr. Lange, both of 
 whom have published accounts of their travels. 
 The ambassador was well received; the surgeon 
 found the emperor in good health ; but the caravan, 
 on its return, committed fresh outrages ; which gave 
 such umbrage to the emperor, that Lange, the Rus- 
 sian resident, was sent away from Pekin, together 
 with all the Russian merchants. Peter succeeded 
 in recovering this branch of trade, which was, how- 
 ever, to be confined to the frontiers of the two em- 
 pires, and none but a certain number of Russians 
 were to be admitted into Pekin. That trade still 
 exists; and young Russians are sent to Pekin to 
 study the language, the better to conduct the trade 
 on the frontiers ; but while in the capital, they are 
 confined within the walls of their residence. 
 
 On the Czar's return to Moscow, he appointed a 
 commission, of which Marshal Weyde was presi- 
 dent, to inquire into certain abuses which had crept 
 in during his absence. Among others was a charge 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 349 
 
 against Prince Gagarin, governor of Siberia, of 
 having, by means of Tartars, waylaid and robbed 
 his majesty's caravan, coming from China, and kill- 
 ing several of the persons conducting it ; by which 
 Gagarin had accumulated immense wealth. The 
 proofs produced so clearly established his guilt, that 
 he was committed to the fortress till his majesty's 
 pleasure should be known. The Czar visited him in 
 prison, and told him if he would make a fair con- 
 fession of the whole, he would, on the faith of his 
 royal word, grant him a pardon. He pleaded 
 guilty, and signed a confession which he made in 
 writing. It was read before the senate, in the 
 presence of Gagarin, who, on being asked if he 
 acknowledged the act, said he was innocent of the 
 crime, but that the Czar had frightened him so much 
 that he was forced to write and sign it against his 
 will. The Czar, who was present, was confounded, 
 and the senators amazed. The Czar at last said he 
 should have fair play for his life, and ordered the 
 witnesses against him to be produced, at the head 
 of whom appeared his own secretary, who proved 
 the validity of the charges brought against him. 
 The prince fell on his knees, and confessed he was 
 unworthy of the royal clemency. The Czar ordered 
 a gallows, as high as Haman's, fifty cubits, to be 
 erected before the senate-house, on which he was 
 hanged, in the presence of the whole of the sena- 
 tors, to many of whom he was related.* 
 
 * Bruce, Mottley, &c, 
 
850 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 In the midst of the weighty matters which fell 
 under his consideration, he was not unmindful of 
 cultivating among his subjects a taste for literature 
 and the fine arts. He sent several young Russians 
 to Holland and Italy, some to be instructed in paint- 
 ing, and others in architecture. On their return 
 the painters embellished several churches, both at 
 St. Petersburg and Moscow; and the architects 
 were employed in building churches, and palaces, 
 and other public edifices. Of martial music he was 
 particularly fond ; and he attempted to introduce the 
 Italian opera, but that, however, appears to have 
 failed. Scenes like those exhibited on the marriage 
 of his jester, Sotof, seemed, as yet, to be more con- 
 genial with the taste of the rude Muscovite. 
 
 The emperor had frequently endeavored to bring 
 the two sexes more frequently and publicly to- 
 gether, and had in some degree succeeded. He now 
 instituted a regulation by which he should more ef- 
 fectually ensure this intercourse, by soirees or con- 
 versaziones, which he wisely judged was the first 
 step to smooth down the roughness of, and give a 
 polish to, his untutored countrymen. The regula- 
 tions themselves show, in some degree, what the 
 state of society was at that time. 1. A public no- 
 tice was to be hung out at the house of assembly. 
 2. The company to assemble not sooner than five, 
 nor continue later than ten. 3. The master of the 
 house to find chairs, candles, liquors, and all neces- 
 saries that might be required ; materials, as cards, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 351 
 
 &G. , for gaming ; but not obliged to attend to or 
 wait on his guests. 4. Every one to come and go 
 when he pleases, Avithin the prescribed hours. 5. 
 Every one to sit, walk, play, or converse, just as it 
 suits him ; any breach of etiquette to be punished, 
 by the person committing it emptying the great 
 eagle. 6. Noblemen, officers of state, of the army, 
 and navy, respectable merchants, and ship-builders, 
 with their wives and children, to have liberty to 
 frequent these assemblies. A particular place to be 
 assigned to the servants. 
 
 These soirees are said to have been attended with 
 the happiest effects, though the admission of such 
 a mixed company was sometimes productive of 
 rather awkward situations. The great propensity 
 which the Eussians generally had for strong liquors, 
 the ladies as well as gentlemen, was occasionally 
 indulged in to excess, and scenes occurred that 
 would not be tolerated in civilized society. It re- 
 quired time to get rid of this gross indulgence, if it 
 has yet been entirely eradicated ; for it is stated on 
 very competent authority that ' ' intoxication is not 
 disgraceful, — and, even among people of good con- 
 dition, if a lady be overtaken in liquor, it is no sub- 
 ject of reproach; " they are said to be '' friendly, 
 jovial, and courteous ; boast of their friendship, and 
 those that are not able to stand find ready assistance 
 from those who can. ' ' * 
 
 Peter in his youth was strongly addicted to the 
 * Tooke's Russian Empire, 
 
S52 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 vice of drinking ; but he had, for some years past, 
 given it entirely up. He generally dined alone with 
 Catharine, being waited on by a single page and a 
 lady's maid. He would suffer no footman to remain 
 in the room, except when he entertained company. 
 He is reported to have said to the old Baron Mard- 
 felt, the Prussian envoy, one day at table, " Hire- 
 lings and lackeys never lose sight of their master's 
 mouth : they are spies on all, he says, — misconstrue 
 everything, and consequently report everything 
 erroneously. ' ' ^ 
 
 The emperor deemed it right to give the inhabit- 
 ants of the ancient capital a repetition of the enter- 
 tainment which had taken place at St. Petersburg, 
 in celebration of the glorious peace. As introduc- 
 tory to this, he made his triumphal entry into Mos- 
 cow, at the head of his guards, and passed through 
 four triumphal arches, at each of which he wais 
 complimented by the several authorities. And as 
 Alexander has recorded in the hut where Peter re- 
 sided at Zaandam, '' To a great man nothing is 
 little, ' ' the emperor exhibited here many things that 
 to a refined people would appear very trifling ; but 
 he had an object in view and an end to attain in 
 everything he did. Thus, among the fetes, the 
 balls, the masquerades, and other diversions, which 
 lasted six weeks, was exhibited a little yacht com- 
 pletely rigged, of beautiful workmanship, splendidly 
 gilt and painted, mounted with twelve small brass 
 
 * Staehlin ; authority, Baron Mardfelat's nephew. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 353 
 
 guns ; it was placed on a sledge drawn by horses, 
 in which the emperor, the Duke of Holstein, and 
 distinguished officers of the army and navy, to the 
 number of twenty, dressed as seamen, drove for 
 several days through the streets of Moscow, with 
 colors flying, and a band of martial music ; and on 
 stopping at the house of some one of the great offi- 
 cers of state, where they were to dine, a salute was 
 fired from the brass guns. The inhabitants, who 
 had never seen the sea, were delighted with this 
 show, which gave them a much better idea of what 
 a ship of war was than otherwise they could have 
 conceived, — and so far the emperor's object was 
 answered.* 
 
 Honest John Bell, whose testimony no one will 
 doubt, and who was present, says, that after the 
 galley came a frigate of sixteen small brass guns, 
 completely rigged, manned with twelve youths, 
 habited like Dutch skippers, in black velvet, who 
 trimmed the sails and performed all the maneuvers 
 as of a ship at sea. Then followed richly-decorated 
 barges, wherein sat the empress and the ladies of 
 the court. There were also pilot-boats heaving the 
 lead, and above thirty other vessels, pinnaces, wher- 
 ries, &c., each filled with masqueraders in the 
 dresses of different nations. All this was in the 
 month of February, when the ground was covered 
 with snow. The sledge on which the large ship 
 was required above forty horses to draw it. Thus 
 * Bruce's Memoirs, 
 
 23 
 
354 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 did this extraordinary man endeavor to apprize hiis 
 inland subjects of Moscow, who had an aversion to 
 maritime affairs, in what a marine consisted, from 
 which they had derived such great advantages.* 
 
 As Moscow was the residence of great numbers 
 of the ancient boyars, and the headquarters of the 
 clergy, who had not as yet reconciled themselves 
 to the bold church reforms of the emperor, Peter 
 thought it expedient to repeat, among the various 
 diversions, one of those masquerades, or carnivals, 
 which, by a farcical exaggeration, turned into ridi- 
 cule the bushy-beards, and long coats, and rude 
 customs and ceremonies, to which many of the people 
 were still attached. The emperor knew enough 
 of human nature to be convinced that raillery might 
 succeed where severity failed to correct slight abuses 
 and unseemly habits, and that they may be 
 
 '' Touch'd and shamed by ridicule alone." 
 
 He found it absolutely necessary to restrain the 
 clergy, who, by inculcating old usages and supersti- 
 tious notions, carried the bulk of the people along 
 with them, in opposition to his measures of reform. 
 Russia had long been deluged with priests, monks, 
 and nuns. From the first introduction of the Greek 
 church, Muscovy had been a fertile soil for these 
 unproductive drones. In Hackluyt's Collection of 
 Voyages is a descriptive account of this country in 
 verse, by Master George Turbervile, long before 
 * Bell's Travels in Russia. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 355 
 
 the time of Peter, pithy if not poetic, in which the 
 writer says, — 
 
 "The cold is rare, the people rude, the prince so full of pride, 
 The realm so stor'd with monks, and nunnes, and priests on 
 
 every side, — 
 The manners are so Turkie like, the men so full of guile, 
 The women wanton, temples stufft with idols that defile, 
 The seats that sacred ought to be, the customs are so quaint. 
 As if I would describe the whole, I feare my pen would faint. "* 
 
 In the thinly peopled state of Kussia, Peter 
 thought it bad policy to encourage the celibacy of 
 monks and nuns ; and, therefore, to put a stop to 
 young men and women cloistering themselves, in 
 order to live in idleness at the public expense, and 
 contribute nothing to the public good, he ordained 
 that none of either sex should be admitted to a mon- 
 astic life at a less age than fifty — declaring, as the 
 groundwork of his reformation, that ' ' he should 
 think himself guilty of ingratitude to the Most High 
 if, after having reformed the civil and military or- 
 ders, he neglected the spiritual." But in appoint- 
 ing himself Head of the church, he did not think it 
 necessary to commence deacon, and go through all 
 the gradations of church preferments, as he had done 
 in the army and navy : these required encourage- 
 ment and example ; but those were considered to 
 want the curb rather than the spur. 
 
 Having lost his last remaining son and heir, Peter, 
 with the advice of his council, thought it expedient 
 * Hackluyt's Voyages. 
 
356 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 to settle the question of succession ; as the future 
 prosperity of the great empire, which he may be 
 said to have created, depended on the choice of a sov- 
 ereign who should tread in his steps, and perfect the 
 vast designs which he had commenced, — the main 
 objects of which were, to rescue his people from the 
 barbarous ignorance in which he found them, and 
 to place the Kussian empire on an equality with 
 other European nations, in all the acquirements of a 
 civilized society. Public notice was therefore given 
 by sound of trumpet, that all officers, civil and mili- 
 tary, and all natural-born subjects inhabiting the 
 capital, should repair to the Kremlin ; and here his 
 majesty's pleasure was signified, that each and every 
 man should swear to bear firm allegiance to the 
 person whom it might please his imperial majesty to 
 declare his successor, and acknowledge that person 
 as emperor and sovereign of all the Kussias. It 
 was not in the least known on whom the succession 
 was meant to be conferred ; but Bruce, who had to 
 administer the oath throughout one of the parishes, 
 says, '' The order struck a damp on the spirits of 
 everybody, when they reflected on the undoubted 
 title of the young Prince Peter, his majesty's grand- 
 son, and only remaining male heir of the imperial 
 family ; who was as promising and hopeful a young 
 prince as any of his age could possibly be. This 
 duty," he says, ^' took me no less than five weeks' 
 close attendance from daylight in the morning till 
 late at night by candles: this," he adds, 'Mvas to 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 357 
 
 me the most disagreeable service I ever performed 
 in Russia, as I was so well acquainted with the ex- 
 cellent temper and genius of the young prince, hav- 
 ing had the honor to teach him the military exer- 
 cises and fortification, and to whose prejudice this 
 oath was certainly administered."* 
 
 This, it will be admitted, was a proper feeling on 
 the part of Bruce, who was the young prince's drill- 
 master ; but the views of Peter, and the situation 
 in which the country would be placed, in the event 
 of his death, demanded that he should put himself 
 above all family considerations. By the death of 
 Alexis, who was as weak in intellect as wicked in 
 disposition, the progressive regeneration of Russia 
 was in some degree secured : no focal point was now 
 left for the ' ' bushy beards ' ' and disaffected boyars 
 to rally round ; but Peter knew very well that he 
 had only 
 
 scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it 
 
 and that, without a firm hand to guide the reins, 
 and to watch attentively the movements of the 
 wounded animal, she would ' ' close and be herself 
 again." The same sentiment might occur to him as 
 to a great master of human nature, — " Wo unto the 
 land that is governed by a child ! " or, as the Scrip- 
 ture has it, ' ' whose princes are children. ' ' 
 * Brace's Memoirs. 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 Peter directs his views towards Persia— Failure of the Expedi- 
 tion—Trial and Punishment of certain Delinquents— Cele- 
 bration of the " Little Grandsire," the first germ of the 
 Russian Navy. 
 
 By the treaty which the Emperor of all the Riis- 
 sias had concluded with the Sublime Porte, and by 
 which he had agreed to abandon Azof and his estab- 
 lishments on the Sea of Azof, he found himself com- 
 pletely shut out from the navigation and commerce 
 of the Black Sea ; which, however, at that time, con- 
 sidering the jealousy and the great power of the 
 Turk, and that he held possession of the whole of the 
 coasts of that sea, could not have been of much im- 
 portance to the advancement of his commercial pros- 
 pects. His fleet, therefore, at Veronitz and on the 
 Don, on which he had expended so much money, had 
 now become of little use. It was not likely, however, 
 that a mind like his, ever on the stretch in looking 
 out for something new, and constantly employed on 
 one scheme or another for the aggrandizement of his 
 empire and the benefit of his subjects, could long re- 
 main at rest, now that the country was restored to a 
 state of profound peace. It was very natural, there- 
 
 358 
 
LIFE OP PETER THE GREAT. 359 
 
 fore, that his attention should be drawn towards the 
 Caspian Sea, on which the Russians, under his father, 
 Alexis Miehaelovitch, had followed, for a time, with 
 some perseverance, the steps first pursued by the 
 English adventurous merchants. This trade of the 
 Russians, however, had been ere long annihilated by 
 a rebellion of the Cossacks of the Don ; after which 
 the Persian commerce was chiefly carried on at As- 
 trakhan by Armenian merchants. 
 
 An opportunity now offered, which the emperor 
 was not disposed to neglect, of renewing the inter- 
 course with the coasts of the Caspian Sea. The 
 Shah of Persia, Hussein, who succeeded to the throne 
 in the year 1694, was an indolent and effeminate 
 prince, who spent the greater part of his time in 
 the seclusion of the harem, while the Tartars, the 
 Monguls, and Afghans were laying waste his prov- 
 inces. At length the Afghan prince, Meer Mah- 
 moud, invaded Persia on one side, with an immense 
 army, while the Lesgians, on the other, descended 
 from the mountains of the Caucasus, entered Shir- 
 van, one of its most valuable provinces; they pil- 
 laged the whole country, and took possession of the 
 city of Shamaka, putting the inhabitants to the 
 sword, among whom were about three hundred Rus- 
 sians, settled there in trade. Mahmoud' carried his 
 conquests to Ispahan, and compelled the Shah to 
 declare him his prime minister, and the protector of 
 Persia. 
 
 Peter had therefore two powerful motives for 
 
360 Ll^E OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 turning bis attention towards Persia. The first was 
 to inflict vengeance on the Lesgians for the pillage 
 and massacre of his subjects on the western shores 
 of the Caspian, and also to demand satisfaction of 
 the usurper Mahmoud, as the ally of the Usbecks, 
 who had plundered his caravan from China ; and the 
 second was to see how matters stood between Shah 
 Hussein and Mahmoud. But the real and ultimate 
 object of his intended expedition was the establish- 
 ment of an advantageous commerce, the aim and 
 end of all his enterprises. Peter sought not for any 
 extent of dominion. On this very occasion he said 
 to Prince Cantimir, who was talking with him on 
 the ease with which conquests were to be made in 
 Persia, " It is not land that I want, but sea." 
 
 The Caspian was not unknown to Peter. He had 
 more than once sent expeditions to sound its waters 
 and survey its coasts; and he had forwarded to the 
 Poyal Academy of Sciences, at Paris, a copy of a 
 chart of these, made under his directions. The 
 avowed object of the first expedition was to dis- 
 cover the mouth of the River Amu-Darya, a branch 
 of the Oxus, which now falls into the Sea of Aral, 
 but which it is intimated then fell into the Caspian, 
 its current having been since turned by the Usbecks. 
 Later discoveries have not confirmed this, though it 
 has been thought probable that the shifting of the 
 sandy surface may have given new directions to the 
 streams that now fall into the Sea of Aral. Be that 
 as it may, the Russians had orders to go up towards 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 361 
 
 the source of this river, in order to discover the 
 mines of gold said to exist on its shores. It is stated 
 that those who were sent not only brought back speci- 
 mens of gold, but found, at a considerable distance 
 in the interior, a large stone building, half buried in 
 sand, within which were presses of a hard black 
 wood, containing nearly three thousand volumes of 
 books, of which, with great difficulty, they were al- 
 loAved to bring away three, the people considering 
 both the building and the books as sacred monu- 
 ments. The sheets are stated to resemble the bark 
 of trees, the characters were in horizontal lines, but 
 whether they were to be read from right to left, or 
 from left to right no one could tell. They were sup- 
 posed to be Calmuck or Mongul. The Czar, it seems, 
 considered them as a precious treasure. They found 
 also, in the burying-places of the Calmucks, several 
 vSmall brass statues, among which were one of a Ro- 
 man general crowned with laurel, two figures of men 
 on horseback, with armor similar to that worn in the 
 West in the twelfth century, and several Indian and 
 Chinese idols, all of which the Czar placed in his 
 cabinet. This description applies, no doubt, to the 
 ruins of Ourgantz, situated on an ancient branch of 
 the Oxus. 
 
 John Bell, of Antermony, who accompanied Dr. 
 Blumentrost, the emperor's chief physician, on the 
 present Persian expedition, mentions a similar build- 
 ing on the banks of the Irtish, called Sedmy-palatz, 
 or Seven Palaces, several of the rooms of which 
 
362 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 were filled with scrolls of glazed paper, some black, 
 but mostly white, written in the Calmuck language. 
 Some of these Tartars stated that the building was 
 erected by Tamerlane, others by Gengis-Khan. The 
 Czar followed up the inquiry as to the ruins of Our- 
 gantz, by sending Prince Bekewitz, with a consider- 
 able number of troops, to visit the eastern shores 
 of the Caspian, and to open a communication with 
 the inhabitants of the intermediate country and 
 Bokhara. The prince, after building a fort, pro- 
 ceeded into the interior, where he was arrested by the 
 natives. They carried him to the encampment of the 
 khan of the Turcomans, who received him kindly; 
 and having suffered greatly on his way thither for 
 want of water, he was persuaded, on his return, to 
 divide his escort into small parties. When they had 
 all departed except the last, with whom was Beke- 
 witz, the Turcomans fell upon them and cut them 
 all to pieces. The rest were murdered in detail, 
 with the exception of a few who had been left to 
 take charge of the fort. 
 
 The emperor had now, therefore, abundant mo- 
 tives for an expedition to the Caspian, of which he 
 resolved to take the command in person. He had 
 besides received an insulting message from Mah- 
 moud, to whom he had sent an ambassador, and had 
 received, about the same time, repeated entreaties 
 from Shah Hussein, the deposed monarch, implor- 
 ing his majesty's aid against the usurper. His first 
 object was to send down the Volga to Astrakhan as 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 3^3 
 
 many galleys and transports as would carry 30,000 
 men. 
 
 John Bell relates that, when the emperor reached 
 Saratoff on the Volga, he appointed an interview 
 with Ayuka-Khan, king of the Calmucks, who had 
 pitched his tents on the east bank of that river. 
 Ayuka and his queen were invited to dine on board 
 the emperor's galley. He came on horseback, at- 
 tended by his two sons and a troop of about fifty of 
 his officers, all exceedingly well mounted. As he 
 advanced, the emperor went on shore, saluted him, 
 and taking him by the hand, conducted him on board 
 the galley where he introduced him to the empress, 
 who was seated under an awning on the quarter- 
 deck. The queen soon followed in a covered wheel- 
 machine, attended by her daughter and two ladies 
 and a troop of horsemen. The emperor went through 
 the same ceremony as with the khan, and introduced 
 her to the empress. The khan was a hearty and 
 cheerful old man about seventy ; his queen fifty, — of 
 a decent and cheerful deportment. The emperor inti- 
 mated that he wished for ten thousand of his troops 
 to accompany him into Persia. The khan replied 
 that ten thousand were at his service, but thought five 
 thousand would be quite enough and less inconve- 
 nient ; and he not only gave orders for their march, 
 but they joined the emperor on the shores of the 
 Caspian, at the time and place appointed. " Thus," 
 says John Bell, " this treaty between two mighty 
 monarchs was begun, carried on, and concluded, hi 
 
364 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 less time than is usually employed by the pleni- 
 potentiaries of our western European monarchs in 
 taking dinner." The empress gave the queen a gold 
 repeating-watch set with diamonds, besides some 
 pieces of brocade and other silks of value.* The 
 preparations being all ready at Astrakhan, the expe- 
 dition was joined by the emperor and his consort, 
 and on the 18th of July, the army, consisting of 
 33,000 men of those warlike veterans, who had been 
 engaged so long with the Swedes, embarked on board 
 two hundred and fifty galleys, attended by thirty- 
 five store and hospital ships, under the command of 
 Admiral Apraxim. On sailing down the western 
 coast, one of the divisions lost sight of the admiral, 
 and was obliged to anchor, having, as Bruce says, 
 " neither pilot nor compass on board ; '' an inconve- 
 nience, it seems, under which the greater part of the 
 fleet labored. While at Bustroff, his majesty re- 
 ceived intelligence from General Waterung that he 
 had burnt and destroyed the capital city of the prov- 
 ince, laid waste the whole country, and carried off 
 all the inhabitants that he could meet with, old and 
 young, of both sexes, amounting to many thousands. 
 Having passed the island of Trenzini, the high 
 mountains of the Caucasus opened out, appearing to 
 hide their heads in the clouds. On the 28th the 
 whole army landed at the mouth of the River Agre- 
 
 * Bell's Travels in Russia. — It is somewhat remarkable that 
 Bruce never once mentions this highly respectable author and 
 countryman as having formed a part of this expedition, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 365 
 
 chan, and after much difficulty hauled their galleys 
 up on the shore. Here the Circassian and Daghis- 
 tan Tartars brought their little wagons, horses, 
 camels, and oxen for sale, and knowing the necessity 
 the Russians had for them, they demanded six times 
 their value. In their march to the Sulak, the heat 
 was so intolerable that many of the men dropped by 
 the way. ]^or was this all ; Mr. Bell says, " that he 
 observed, among the abundance of grass, great 
 quantities of a certain herb, called Roman worm- 
 wood, which the hungry horses greedily devoured; 
 and next morning they found about five hundred of 
 them dead, on which the Calmucks, who had just 
 joined them, feasted for several days." Here the 
 chief of the Daghistan Tartars welcomed his impe- 
 rial majesty into his territories, and promised him 
 all kinds of assistance and refreshments for the army. 
 Such quantities of grapes, melons, pomegranates, and 
 other fruits were brought to the camp, and devoured 
 by the men so voraciously, as to bring on fevers 
 and fluxes. General Waterung here joined the 
 army, bringing with him the chief of Andreof, whom 
 the emperor ordered to be hanged the same day. 
 This gave such offence to the people of Daghistan, 
 that they determined to make reprisals on the Rus- 
 sians. 
 
 Accordingly, numbers of armed men on horseback 
 were now seen moving along the skirts of the moun- 
 tains. The Czar, riding along the guards, asked the 
 men if their muskets were loaded; being answered 
 
CCG LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 in the negative, lie gave orders to load and sum- 
 moned the officers of his division to assemble at the 
 head of the grenadier company, '"'' where," says 
 Bruce, " he reprimanded us severely for neglect of 
 duty; our svt^ords vi^ere taken from us and put into a 
 wagon; the field officers were ordered to march on 
 foot in one rank, the captains formed in three ranks 
 behind them, and every officer was loaded with four 
 heavy muskets on his shoulders. In this posture we 
 marched nearly two hours, in the most intolerable 
 heat, when the empress, being informed of our 
 miserable situation, came up in her chariot with the 
 utmost haste, and pleaded so effectually in our fa- 
 vor, that we were released from our heavy burdens, 
 had our swords restored, and were admitted to kiss 
 his majesty's hand; who told us that he had only 
 punished the officers of his own guards, because they 
 ought to give a good example to all the rest of the 
 army." * 
 
 It is admitted that Peter never spared himself in 
 this campaign. During the march, he rode generally 
 an English pad, about fourteen hands high, for which 
 he had a particular liking, as it was very tractable 
 and easy to mount; but he very often walked. His 
 dress, when on a march, was a white nightcap, with 
 a plain flapped hat over it, and a short dimity waist- 
 coat; but when any deputation or chieftain waited 
 on him, he always received them in his regimentals, 
 
 * Bruce's Memoirs. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 367 
 
 as colonel of the guards. His abstemiousness was 
 proverbial. Mr. Bell says, " about midnight, after 
 a harassing day among the hostile mountaineers, I 
 went into the tent of Mr. Felt on, his majesty's 
 principal cook, where he was alone with a large 
 saucepan of warm grout before him, made of buck- 
 wheat with butter, which he told me was the re- 
 mains of their majesties' supper, who ate of nothing 
 else that evening, and who were just gone to bed."" 
 
 At Tarku, the principal city of Daghistan, Captain 
 Bruce says, " the ladies are incomparably beautiful, 
 both in feature and shape. A great number of those 
 of the highest rank and fashion paid a visit to her 
 majesty in her tent, where they squatted themselves 
 down on their Persian carpets cross-legged. Cath- 
 arine, with her usual kindness, desired that the offi- 
 cers should be admitted to see the ladies, so that 
 when one set had gratified their curiosity they should 
 retire and make way for others. The visit was pro- 
 longed till late, when these fair females got into their 
 close carriages, and were escorted back by torch- 
 light." 
 
 At Baku and Derbent his majesty was greeted by 
 the governors and the principal citizens, the latter 
 of whom presented him with the keys of their city, 
 offering to admit his troops into the citadel to gar- 
 rison it for the protection of the place, which had 
 long defended itself against the arms of the usurper 
 
 * Bell's Travels. 
 
368 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Mahmoud. Thirteen provision-ships from Astrakhan 
 arrived at a place ten or twelve miles to the south- 
 ward of Derbent, when a furious storm arose, which 
 drove ashore and beat to pieces the whole of them, 
 burying them entirely in the sand ; but the men were 
 all saved. 
 
 While the Czar remained at Derbent he received 
 several messages, — some from the Sophi of Persia, 
 some from the Georgians, and others from the 
 inhabitants of Shamaka, Baku, and Resht, all 
 imploring him to march with his army against the 
 usurper, and offering to give up their several cities 
 to him. Just, however, as the army was on the 
 point of marching to the south, a Turkish envoy 
 arrived at the camp, giving information that the 
 Grand Seignior, his master, had taken possession 
 of Shamaka, and that the Porte was surprised his 
 majesty should invade his territories while peace 
 subsisted between them; the preservation of which 
 rendered it absolutely necessary that he should im- 
 mediately withdraw his army from that district. 
 There was some justice in this; and the emperor, 
 who appears not to have weighed well this matter 
 when he undertook the expedition, now saw and 
 admitted tliat the Turk had reason to complain ; and 
 what was perhaps of greater moment to himself, he 
 considered how rash and impolitic it would be to 
 commence a war with this powerful neighbor, at a 
 moment when he was at so great a distance from 
 his own country with the flower of his army: he 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 369 
 
 resolved therefore to trace backward his steps forth- 
 with, recommending the provinces oppressed by the 
 usurper to put themselves under the protection of 
 the Turks. 
 
 He was unwilling, however, that this costly expe- 
 dition- should be thought nugatory ; and, therefore, 
 on the return of the army, he ordered a strong 
 fortress and town to be erected at a point where 
 the Agrechan and Sulak divide their waters, to 
 which he gave the name of Swetago-Krest, or Holy 
 Cross; and this fortress laid the foundation of the 
 future progress of the Russians on the northern side 
 of the Caucasian mountains. 
 
 'Nor did the failure of this expedition induce P6ter 
 the Great to give up his views on the Caspian. 
 Bruce, who had wintered at Tzaritzee on the Volga, 
 Avas ordered, in April, 1723, to proceed with a 
 small force down the eastern shore of the Caspian, 
 and to survey the gulfs, harbors, and rivers. They 
 circumnavigated the whole of the Caspian; and on 
 their return by the western coast Bruce visited the 
 new works and town of Holy Cross, which had 
 increased in wooden houses to such an extent as to 
 afford quarters for the whole of their little army. 
 In the spring of 1724, Bruce arrived at Moscow, and 
 laid his chart of the Caspian before his Majesty, who 
 appeared to be much pleased with what had been 
 done.* 
 
 * Bruce's Memoirs. 
 
 24 
 
370 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Whenever the emperor had occasion to be absent 
 from either of his two capitals for any length of 
 time, it would seem to have been his fate, that on 
 his return, the congratulations and rejoicings of his 
 subjects should be mixed up with some dreadful act 
 of severity on his part. Indeed the whole course of 
 his life may be said to have been a series of sudden 
 transitions from the opposite extremes of mirth and 
 sorrow; a constant round of vicissitudes, ^vhich, not 
 always " happily,^' compelled him 
 
 " To steer 
 From grave to gay, from lively to severe." 
 
 But, with a vigor of mind and body seldom equaled, 
 and never perhaps exceeded, he seems to have set 
 out, from the moment he had sole possession of the 
 throne, with a fixed determination, per fas et nefas* 
 to accomplish one great point, — the regeneration of 
 his country; and this may be considered, under all 
 the circumstances, as one of the noblest designs that 
 ever entered the head or heart of man. For this he 
 submitted to toil through every condition of life, 
 however laborious; exposed himself to every hard- 
 ship that the lowest of mankind are subject to, 
 whether by sea or land; and, invested as he was 
 with supreme and arbitrary power, contented him- 
 self to rise by degrees through every subordinate 
 rank, for the sake of example to others. It is not 
 
 # " 
 
 Through right and wron^. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 371 
 
 surprising, then, however much it is to be lamented, 
 that he was sometimes driven to acts of great se- 
 verity. 
 
 On the present occasion of his return to Moscow, 
 several offenders of high rank, in official situations, 
 were brought to trial before a competent tribunal, 
 and were sentenced to undergo various punishments, 
 — the knout, the battogues, fine, and imprisonment. 
 Among the delinquents was one whom the emperor 
 could have least suspected, and whose conduct gave 
 him the greatest pain ; a man whom his majesty had 
 raised, for his merit and superior talent, from the 
 humble situation of a clerk in chancery, to be his 
 vice-chancellor and prime minister,— the Baron 
 Schaffiroff. Five different charges were exhibited 
 against him. — 1. That he had conferred on his 
 brother a title and appointment, unknown to the em- 
 peror and the senate. 2. That he had signed and 
 issued certain orders and instruments unknown 
 to the senate, and without having them registered. 
 3. That in his capacity of the posts, he had, of his 
 own authority, increased the postage of letters, and 
 kept the money to himself. 4. That he had con- 
 cealed two hundred thousand ducats in specie, and 
 to the value of seventy thousand more in jewels, 
 belonging to Prince Gagarin, although he himself 
 had signed the order of the emperor, commanding 
 every one who knew anything of the effects of that 
 criminal to make discovery of them. 5. That he 
 had used opprobrious language to some of the sen- 
 
872 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ators, in full senate, which was forbidden on pain of 
 death. 
 
 Being found guilty of these charges, he was sen- 
 tenced to be beheaded. On the evening preceding 
 the day of execution, public notice of it w^as pro- 
 claimed by sound of trumpet; in consequence of 
 which an immense crowd was assembled the follow- 
 ing morning before the senate-house, when Baron 
 Schaffiroff was led to the scaffold, accompanied by 
 two priests, who had been preparing him for death. 
 His sentence was read aloud, which he heard with 
 great resignation ; and having laid his head on the 
 block, the instant the executioner lifted up the axe, 
 a herald cried out, ^' Mercy to the criminal for his 
 life, by command of his imperial majesty." On 
 this he was removed from the scaffold and taken 
 back to the prison of Preobrazenski. The emperor, 
 in consideration of his past services, commuted his 
 sentence of death for that of perpetual banishment 
 into Siberia, with confiscation of all his property. 
 
 Delinquencies of this kind, ccmimitted by his 
 trusty servants, occasioned great annoyance to the 
 emperor, who, however, rarely interfered with the 
 sentence of the proper tribunal. In the present in- 
 stance, the punishment was understood to have been 
 commuted at the solicitation of Catharine, who en- 
 tertained a high respect for Schaffiroff, a strong proof 
 of which she gave by recalling him from banishment 
 after the death of the emperor. He was, in fact, 
 her principal agent in the business of the Pruth, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 373 
 
 Mr. Bell, who claims for himself, what has uni- 
 versally been ceded to him, the right of being be- 
 lieved, on the ground that he shall say nothing of 
 fact but what is true, nor anything of opinion but 
 what is sincere — Mr. Bell says, that ^^ several foreign 
 writers have misrepresented and traduced the real 
 character of Peter the Great, by relating mean 
 stories, most of them without the least ground of 
 truth, whereby many people of good understanding 
 have been misled, and even to this present time look 
 on him to have been a vicious man, and a cruel 
 tyrant, than which nothing could be more the reverse 
 of his true character." He adds that, many years 
 after his death, he has heard officers talk of their 
 old father Peter the Great, yet he never heard one 
 of them produce a single instance of his having pun- 
 ished an honest man, or practised severity on any 
 one that had not deserved it.* 
 
 In the month of March, 1723, the emperor set out 
 for St. Petersburg, whither the empress and the 
 whole court followed. He had sent notice to the 
 clergy there, previous to his setting out, that he had 
 heard of their treatment of, and disputes with, the 
 members of the reformed church who had been en- 
 couraged to settle in that capital. He told them that 
 he expected not to be troubled with any grievances 
 or complaints on that score after his arrival; and 
 that they must know he considered all the Protestant 
 
 * Bell's travels. 
 
374 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 families equally entitled to his protection and benev- 
 olence with themselves. 
 
 The emperor had just now a double motive for 
 visiting St. Petersburg : the one was to found an Im- 
 perial Academy of Sciences; the other to erect a 
 memorial to the Russian people of the benefits which 
 the nation had acquired by the establishment of a 
 navy. Peter had, no doubt, during his travels, ob- 
 served the advantage of public societies for the pro- 
 motion of literature, and more particularly had in 
 his mind the Academic des Sciences of Paris, of 
 which he was a member. He drew^ the plan of it 
 himself, which was signed in February, 1724, but 
 did not live to carry it into execution. His decease, 
 however, did not prevent its completion; which was 
 left to the Empress Catharine, who, on the 1st of 
 August, 1726, honored the meeting with her pres- 
 ence, when Professor Bulfinger, an eminent Ger- 
 man naturalist, pronounced an oration on the ad- 
 vances made by means of the loadstone and needle 
 for the discovery of the longitude. The empress set- 
 tled an annual fund of $25,000 for the support of 
 the academy; and fifteen members, eminent for 
 learning and talents, were admitted and pensioned 
 under the title of " professors " in the various 
 branches of literature and science. It w^as strongly 
 patronized in the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth, and 
 Catharine II. fixed it on a durable basis. Expedi- 
 tions were sent out to every part of the world, but 
 to Asia in particular. " In consequence of which," 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 375 
 
 says a recent writer, " perhaps no conntry can boast, 
 within the period of a few years, such a number of 
 excellent publications on its internal state, natural 
 productions, topography, geography, and history, — 
 on the manners, customs, and languages of the dif- 
 ferent people, — as have issued from the press of 
 the academy." * 
 
 The next object that engaged the emperor's atten- 
 tion, as may be readily conceived, was the state of 
 the dock-yards and his ships of war; and, after 
 selecting a certain number to be kept in commis- 
 sion for practising his seamen in the summer months, 
 as well as to awe the Danes and Swedes, he laid down 
 regulations for preserving the rest of his fleet in a 
 state of ordinary. After this he went down to Cron- 
 stadt, hoisted his flag, and set sail, with the osten- 
 sible view of threatening Denmark, who had refused 
 to acknowledge his title of emperor, and to compel 
 her to relinquish the 8ound duties on Russian ves- 
 sels, and also to restore to the Duke of Holstein his 
 possessions, which had been seized in the course of the 
 war; but the real object was nothing more than that 
 of exercising his fleet in the Gulf of Finland, from 
 which service he returned to St. Petersburg on the 
 8th August. 
 
 " Nothing is too little to a great man." In any 
 other sovereign than Peter the Great, several of his 
 actions would be set do^\ra as frivolous whims, child- 
 
 * Coxe's Travels. 
 
376 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAt. 
 
 ish diversions, and ludicrous absurdities; and even 
 in him they might so be considered, if the whole 
 tenor of his life did not prove that he had a salutary 
 motive in every thing of this kind which he put 
 in practise. Of this he now gave a striking in- 
 stance. 
 
 It may be recollected, as mentioned in the early 
 part of this Memoir, that the first boat in which 
 Peter set his foot was a little skiff he had accident- 
 ally cast his eye upon, in the river Yausa at Mos- 
 cow, and the first of the kind that was built in Rus- 
 sia, by a Dutch shipwright of the name of Brandt; 
 that, having acquired the management of this boat, 
 he ordered Brandt to build him a larger, and thus 
 proceeding from step to step, he went on building 
 larger and larger until he had acquired a formidable 
 navy of ships of the line. This first little boat was 
 cherished with great care at Moscow, and was named 
 by Peter the " Little Grandsire." It was now trans- 
 ported from Moscow to his new capital, as the more 
 appropriate place for its future preservation. And 
 in order to signalize the event of laying it up, as 
 a monument. to posterity, which might remind the 
 Russian people from what a small beginning great 
 things were capable of being accomplished, even in 
 the short space of one man's life, he availed himself 
 of the occasion to give a grand public entertainment, 
 to which all the court and foreign ministers were 
 invited and to be present at The consecration of the 
 Little Grandsire. This little skiff, decorated for the 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 'S71 
 
 occasion, was sent down to Cronstadt on the deck of 
 one of the emperor's galleys. Twenty-seven sail of 
 ships of war being anchored in the form of a cres- 
 cent, the emperor embarked in this boat, as steers- 
 man, while Prince Menzikoff and three admirals per- 
 formed the office of rowers. It was first towed out by 
 two yachts, and made a small circuit in the gulf ; and 
 on returning to the view of the fleet, all the ships 
 saluted with all their guns, to the number, as stated 
 in one account, of three thousand; and on rowing 
 along the ccHicave line of the fleet, every ship in suc- 
 cession struck its colors and fired a salute, which was 
 answered by the little skiff by firing three small brass 
 guns to each ship. It was then rowed into the har- 
 bor and a few days afterward was sent up to St. 
 Petersburg, where its arrival w^as solemnized by a 
 grant fete and masquerade upon the water. 
 
 This memorable little boat of four oars is still held 
 in great veneration, and carefully preserved in* a 
 small brick building within the fortress, as a me- 
 morial to future ages of its being the origin of the 
 Russian navy. The consecration of the Little 
 Grandsire, and the solemn procession by which it 
 was afterward conveyed to the fortress, were well 
 calculated to excite the admiration of the people; 
 and by its being carefully kept, but always exposed 
 to view, to remind them of the condition in which 
 Peter found their marine, and the proud state in 
 which he left it. At this time the fleet, which Peter 
 may be said to have left as a legacy to the Russian 
 
378 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 nation, consisted, according to the returns of the ad- 
 miralty, of forty-one ships of the line, in a condi- 
 tion for service at sea, carrying two thousand one 
 hundred and six guns, manned with fourteen thou- 
 sand nine hundred seamen, besides a proportionate 
 number of frigates, galleys, and other smaller craft.* 
 
 * Scheltema, 
 
CHAPTEE XY. 
 
 The Coronation of Catharine — Sickness and Death of Peter 
 the Great — His Character and Epitaph. 
 
 Peter the Great, being now at peace with all the 
 world, determined to give to his people a signal 
 proof of his affection and gratitude for his beloved 
 consort Catharine, by causing her to be solemnly 
 crowned as empress, in the ancient city of Moscow 
 — a public mark of esteem, which the whole nation 
 was ready to acknowledge as her due : for what- 
 ever opinions many of the old nobility and the 
 clergy, who adhered to ancient usages, might enter- 
 tain of the emperor's innovations, the conduct of 
 Catharine, under every circumstance of her life, had 
 gained for her universal esteem. It was the custom 
 of Peter, whenever he was about to undertake any 
 great measure, to assign his reasons for it in a 
 public manifesto. That which he issued on the pres- 
 ent occasion sets out with stating, what he observes 
 no one can be ignorant of, that the custom of crown- 
 ing their spouses was common among many Chris- 
 tian monarchs of the true Greek religion for ages 
 past ; and he cites several instances in which it was 
 done. He then observes, it is well known how 
 much he has exposed his own person and faced the 
 
 379 
 
380 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 most imminent dangers for the sake of his clear 
 country, in the course of a war of twenty years' 
 duration, which, by the help of God, had now ter- 
 minated in a manner honorable, glorious, and ad- 
 vantageous for the Russian empire. And he then 
 goes on to say, '' the empress Catharine, our dearest 
 consort, was an important help to us in all these 
 dangers, not in war alone, but in other expeditions, 
 in which she voluntarily accompanied us, serving us 
 with her able counsel, notwithstanding the natural 
 weakness of her sex ; more particularly at the battle 
 of the Pruth, where our army was reduced to 
 twenty- two thousand men, while the Turks were 
 two hundred and twenty thousand strong. It was 
 in this desperate circumstance, above all others, 
 that she signalized her zeal, by a courage superior 
 to her sex, as is well known to the whole army 
 throughout the empire. For these reasons, and in 
 virtue of that power which God has given us, we 
 are resolved to honor our spouse with the imperial 
 crown, in acknowledgment for all her services and 
 fatigues. ' ' 
 
 Magnilicent preparations were ordered to be made 
 at Moscow for this grand and imposing ceremony. 
 The foreign ministers were all invited to be present ; 
 and orders were given that all necessary prepara- 
 tions should be made for the conveyance of them- 
 selves and their establishments from St. Petersburg 
 to Moscow. The Duchess of Courland, daughter of 
 Peter's elder brother, and the Duke of Holstein, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 381 
 
 his intended son-in-law, were present at the cere- 
 mony. 
 
 From the descriptions that are given in detail, by 
 various writers, nothing could exceed the magnifi- 
 cence and splendor that appeared in the two cathe- 
 drals, and the richness of the dresses and the whole 
 paraphernalia that were exhibited in the proces- 
 sions. When the assembly were all in their places 
 in the grand cathedral, the Archbishop of InTovo- 
 gorod, advancing towards the empress, requested 
 her to repeat aloud the creed of the orthodox faith, in 
 the presence of her loyal subjects, which being done, 
 she knelt on a cushion, and received the archbishop's 
 benediction, who consecrated her with the sign of the 
 cross, and laying his hands on her, recited a prayer 
 in which he says, ' ' Look down from thy holy dwell- 
 ing-place on high, and render worthy of thy sacred 
 unction our great and orthodox Empress Catharine 
 Alexowna, whom thou hast chosen to be the sov- 
 ereign lady and ruler over thy j)eople, and whom 
 thou hast redeemed by the precious blood of thy 
 only Son. Invest her with power ; crown her with 
 a precious diadem; grant her long life; put the 
 scepter of salvation into her hands ; place her on 
 the throne of justice ; defend her with the armor of 
 the Holy Spirit ; make her arm strong ; put all in- 
 fidel nations under her dominion ; let her heart be 
 always inclined to fear thee, and her will be always 
 obedient to thine ; let her judge thy people right- 
 eously, do justice to the afflicted, relieve the chil- 
 
382 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 dren of the poor ; and let her at last obtain thy 
 heavenly kingdom." 
 
 In the course of the ceremony, Peter himself 
 robed Catharine in the imperial mantle, and placed 
 the crown on her head ; and when she would have 
 fallen on her knees he raised her ; and at the con- 
 clusion the scepter and globe were carried before 
 her. In the procession to the cathedral the emperor 
 walked before her on foot, as captain of a new com- 
 pany, which he expressly created on that occasion, 
 with the name of the Knights of the Empress. The 
 dresses of this comj)any of knights are described by 
 Bruce as most splendid. In proceeding to the second 
 cathedral, Prince Menzikoff walked immediately be- 
 hind the empress, supported by two officers of state, 
 each carrying a splendid purse containing medals of 
 gold and silver, which the prince scattered among 
 the people. At the conclusion of the ceremony a 
 grand entertainment was served up ; and balls, mas- 
 querades, fireworks and illuminations were continued 
 for three days. 
 
 In commemoration of this event, the emperor re- 
 solved on a promotion in the army and navy ; and 
 though his selection had hitherto always been made 
 solely for merit, and had answered well, on this oc- 
 casion, for the first time^ he wished to have the opin- 
 ion of the officers on the subjects of his choice, to 
 be declared by a species of ballot. The first on his 
 list was Brigadier Knees Usupof, a major in the 
 guards, for promotion to the rank of major-general. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 383 
 
 The officers of his regiment entitled to ballot were 
 84 ; each had three balls, one for or deserving, the 
 second against or undeserving, and the third indi- 
 cating incapacity. The result was, for the first, 23 ; 
 for the second, 32 ; and for the third, 29. His 
 majesty was utterly confounded, as everybody knew 
 the major to be a most able and gallant officer ; but 
 the result determined him to think no more of that 
 hypocritical system of balloting, being satisfied, no 
 doubt, as every honest man must be, that it only af- 
 fords the covert and cowardly means of gratifying, 
 and carrying into practical effect, feelings of envy, 
 hatred, and malice, without the risk of detection. 
 
 In the same year was celebrated the marriage of 
 the emperor's eldest daughter Anne Petrowna with 
 the Duke of Holstein Gottorp, — a ' ' princess, ' ' says 
 Coxe, citing Bassewitz, ' ' of majestic form and ex- 
 pressive features, of an excellent and improved un- 
 derstanding, and of irreproachable morals. — While 
 she was very young. Count Apraxin, a Russian no- 
 bleman, paid his addresses to her, but was rejected 
 with scorn. Not daunted with this repulse, he con- 
 tinued his courtship, and, finding her one day alone, 
 threw himself at her feet, offered his sword, and 
 entreated her to put an end to his life and misery. 
 ' Give me the sword, ' said the princess, stretching 
 out her hand, ' you shall see that the daughter of 
 your emperor has strength and spirit sufficient to rid 
 herself of a wretch who insults her. ' The count, 
 apprehending that she might execute her threat, 
 
384 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 withdrew the sword, and demanded instant pardon; 
 and as the princess told the story with great humor, 
 he became the derision of the court."* 
 
 The rejoicings being finished which took place on 
 this occasion, the emperor and court repaired to St, 
 Petersburg. The emperor's health had for some 
 time been giving way : he had a strangury in the 
 neck of the bladder, which he concealed from his 
 medical attendants, till in the summer of 1724 the 
 symptoms became dangerous and attended with 
 insupportable pain. When at length Dr. Bloumen- 
 trost was made acquainted with the case, he saw at 
 once the danger, and sent express for Dr. Bedloo, 
 a celebrated physician of Moscow ; and Mr. Horn, 
 an English surgeon, was called in to make use of 
 the catheter. Peter, in this condition, was pre- 
 vailed on to keep his room for nearly four months, 
 after which, finding the pain abated and his strength 
 increased, he gave orders for his yacht to be made 
 ready and brought up the Keva opposite to his 
 palace. He then acquainted Dr. Bloumentrost that 
 he meant to go up to Schlusselburg, and visit the 
 works on lake Ladoga, and ordered him to attend 
 him. The doctor remonstrated in the strongest 
 terms against such an imprudent step, but Peter was 
 resolved; and the doctor, with Mr. Paulson the 
 surgeon, and Liphold the apothecary, embarked to 
 attend him. The voyage commenced the beginning 
 of October, and continued till the 5th of November, 
 
   Coxe's Travels in Russia. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 386 
 
 not without occasional symptoms of his complaint 
 returning. 
 
 Feeling himself well enough to remain on the 
 water, and the weather continuing fine, instead of 
 landing, he proceeded to Lachta, on the Gulf of 
 Finland. He had scarcely anchored in port, when 
 a boat full of soldiers and sailors was seen to be 
 dashed on the rocks by the violence of the weaves. 
 Peter ordered out one of the small vessels to their 
 assistance ; but, with that ardor and impatience in- 
 herent in his character, thinking the men sent did 
 not sufficiently exert themselves, he took to his 
 own boat, but not being able to advance near 
 enough on account of a sand-bank, he waded up to 
 the knees in water to get at the boat that was 
 aground, and by his able assistance effected the 
 safety of the poor people. At night he was seized 
 with a fever and painful inflammation of the abdo- 
 men. He was immediately conveyed to St. Peters- 
 burg, was pronounced dangerously ill, and from 
 that time his old complaint made hasty progress 
 from day to day. In the beginning of December 
 his situation was so alarming, and the symptoms of 
 an inflammation in the intestines and bladder so evi- 
 dent, that a gangrene was apprehended. Acute 
 and continual pain indicated the emperor's approach- 
 ing death, to which he resigned himself with heroic 
 firmness, and expired on the 28th January, 1725.* 
 
 * This account is given by Stgehlin, on the authority of 
 25 
 
386 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 Yoltaire says, " The burning heat within him 
 kept him almost in a continual delirium. He was 
 once for availing himself of a short interval of ease, 
 by writing; but the letters were so confused and 
 out of shape that, after much difficulty, only these 
 words in the Russian language could be deciphered. 
 
 Restore all to . He called for the princess Anne 
 
 Petrowna to dictate to her ; but when she presented 
 herself before his bed, he had lost the use of his 
 speech, and soon after fell into an agony, which 
 lasted sixteen hours." 
 
 This account is taken from the Memoirs of Count 
 Bassewitz, the minister of the Duke of Holstein, 
 which is not the only improbable story he has 
 amused the world with on the subject of Peter the 
 Great and his family. This in particular is obvi- 
 ously told, in order to insinuate that the emperor's 
 intention was to nominate his daughter Anne, the 
 count's mistress, as his successor — Restore all to — 
 Anne. Indeed, this Holstein minister positively as- 
 serts that Peter the Great had formed the resolution 
 of raising her to the throne. In all this there can 
 be no great harm; it may be true or it may be 
 otherwise ; but the object of Count Bassewitz was 
 to vilify Catharine, and to trump up a story to 
 
 Paulson, surgeon to the court, who died in 1780, aged up- 
 wards of 80 years, and may therefore be considered correct ; 
 though it is said in some accounts that he caught his death 
 by attending the ceremony of the " Benediction of the 
 waters of the Neva," 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 387 
 
 prove that Peter's affections were entirely alienated 
 from the empress some time before his death. 
 
 The story, as told by Bassewitz and the Austrian 
 envoy, is at variance in many points. Catharine, 
 we are assured, had a handsome young chamber- 
 lain of the name of Moens or Moens de la Croix, 
 whose sister Madame de Bale, or Madame Balke 
 (for they are not agreed even as to her name) was 
 first lady of the bedchamber according to one, and 
 dresser according to the other, to the empress. The 
 emperor, being suspicious of a secret connection be- 
 tween Catharine and Moens, left St. Petersburg on 
 pretense of visiting a villa for a few days, but pri- 
 vately returned to his winter palace in the capital ; 
 from hence, as the story goes, he occasionally sent 
 a confidential page with a complimentary message 
 to the empress, as if he was in the country, with 
 secret orders to observe her motions. From this 
 page's information, the emperor discovered her 
 keeping a tryst with Moens. Peter struck Cath- 
 arine with his cane, and then retired without utter- 
 ing a single word. 
 
 The story would of itself be utterly undeserving 
 o:^ credit, even if every act of Peter's life, and 
 every trait in his character, did not give it the lie. 
 That Peter the Great should appoint a page to be 
 a spy on his wife, and satisfy himself by tapping 
 her on the shoulder with his cane, would be to con- 
 vert the most determined man in the empire into a 
 mere Jerry Sneak. Then indeed might it with 
 
3S8 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 sorrow be said, '' How are the mighty fallen ! " 
 Had any such discovery taken place, it will scarcely 
 be doubted that, judging from his hasty and pas- 
 sionate character operating on his infirmities, he 
 would either have been thrown into a fit of cata- 
 lepsy, or have run all concerned through the body 
 in as many seconds. Yoltaire's account of the only 
 transaction which could have given the slightest 
 color to the calumny, is as follows ; ' ' These two 
 persons ' ' (the Moenses), he says, ' ' might be said 
 to govern the empress's household; an accusation 
 was brought against them for receiving presents, 
 and they were imprisoned and brought to trial ; ' ' 
 he adds that " a prohibition had been issued, so 
 long ago as 1714, forbidding all persons in public 
 employments to take presents, under penalty of in- 
 famy and death ; and that this prohibition had been 
 several times renewed. The brother and sister 
 were convicted ; and all who had either purchased 
 or rewarded their services, were named in the sen- 
 tence, except the Duke of Ilolstein and his minister 
 Count Bassewitz ! ^^ ''Perhaps," observes Vol- 
 taire, " the presents which this prince made to those 
 who had contributed to bring about his marriage 
 were not looked on as criminal. ' ' Moens Avas sen- 
 tenced to be beheaded, and his sister to receive 
 eleven strokes with the knout: her two sons, a 
 chamberlain, and a page, were degraded and sent to 
 the army in Persia, as common soldiers.* 
 * When Mods was examined by Peter, and threatened with 
 
LIFE OP PETER THE GREAT. 38^ 
 
 Voltaire adds, ' ' However shocking these severi- 
 ties appear to us, they were perhaps necessary in a 
 country where the support of the laws seems to re- 
 quire a tremendous rigor. The empress interceded 
 for the lady's pardon, which the emperor refused, 
 and was so offended at the request, that, striking a 
 Venetian pier glass, he said to his consort, ^ Thou 
 seest that one blow of my hand can reduce that 
 glass to the dust whence it came. ' Catharine, with 
 a look of submissive grief, said, ' Well, you have 
 broken one of the most valuable ornaments of your 
 palace, and do you think it will make it the finer ? ' 
 and these words, with the air which accompanied 
 them, appeased the emperor. Yet all the favor 
 which his consort could obtain was, that her dresser 
 should receive only five strokes instead of eleven." 
 Now who is it from whom this story originates ? — 
 M. Basse witz ; and Voltaire adds, ' ' This is a fact 
 which I should not relate were it not attested by a 
 minister, who was an eyewitness, and who, by his 
 presents to the brother and sister, perhaps contrib- 
 uted chiefly to their misfortune. " ^ It would be 
 
 torture, he confessed that he had embezzled the revenues of 
 several of the estates of Catharine, and that he had taken a 
 bribe from a person for whom he promised to secure the 
 position of a groom of the empress. When the Czar issued 
 a proclamation ordering every one who had ever given Mons 
 a bribe, or knew of a bribe being given to him, there was a 
 surprisingly large number of answers. The sister of Mons, 
 Madame Balke, was also deeply involved in these financial 
 corruptions. 
 * "Voltaire. 
 
390 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 useless now to inquire into the truth of a story so 
 highly improbable ; but Yoltaire seems to believe it, 
 because it is told by one who says he was an eye- 
 witness ; but, supposing it to be true, what would 
 be the inference ? why, that the whole story was a 
 malicious and ' ' viperous slander, ' ' and that Cathar- 
 ine was not only wholly innocent, but utterly uncon- 
 scious of the breath of suspicion having soiled her 
 fair fame. It would prove, first, that a hmid fide 
 trial had taken place of the two delinquents belong- 
 ing to her household, on a charge of taking bribes 
 for some unlawful purpose, and that Catharine, with 
 her accustomed benevolence and humanity, was 
 pleading for a mitigation of the punishment of the 
 female ; and secondly, which is more important, it 
 would prove her innocence, — for no human being 
 can possibly imagine that, if guilty, or even accused 
 of infidelity, she would have had the hardihood to 
 plead before her injured husband in behalf of a per- 
 son who had acted the part of " the pander to her 
 dishonor. ' ' The calumnious story of the garden may 
 therefore be considered to fall to the ground, and as 
 the malicious invention of Count Bassewitz, or of 
 the person from whom he had it. 
 
 But Count Bassewitz has not done yet. It does 
 not appear, on what day this exhibition of demolish- 
 ing the glass took place ; but, according to this min- 
 ister, on the day subsequent to the execution of the 
 sentence, Peter conveyed Catharine, in an open car- 
 riage, under the gallows to which Avas nailed the head 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GHEAT. 391 
 
 of Moens : the empress, without changing color at 
 this dreadful object, exclaimed, ' ' What a pity it is 
 that there is so much corruption among courtiers ! ' ' 
 Coxe, who relates this, observes that, ' ' as this event 
 was followed by Peter's death, and as Catharine re- 
 called Madame Balke, she was suspected of shorten- 
 ing the days of her husband by poison. But not- 
 withstanding the critical situation of Catharine at 
 the time of his decease, and her subsequent eleva- 
 tion, this charge is destitute of proof." Mr. Coxe 
 might have added — and of all probability. Yoltaire 
 avers that ' ' Catherine had not left his bolster for 
 three nights, and in her arms he expired on the 28th 
 January, about four o'clock in the morning." 
 
 There is something in the history of this family 
 of Moens which is not very clear. Whether the 
 story told by Mrs. Yigors, the wife of the British 
 resident, confirmed by Bruce, and also by General 
 Gordon, respecting Mademoiselle Moens,* has any 
 connection with the Moenses concerned in this trans- 
 action, which dates nearly thirty years from the 
 former, there are now no means of knowing ; but 
 it may be remarked that, while it is told in three or 
 four different ways by as many different writers, 
 others who lived at the time, and therefore most 
 likely to be acquainted with what occurred, are 
 wholly silent as to any such transaction, — I^estesu- 
 ranoi, Mottley, Lacombe, Staehlin. It has been re- 
 vived, however, by a French general, and told in a 
 * See above p. 166. 
 
392 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 style so theatrical, and Peter is made to perform the 
 character of Othello in a manner so superlatively 
 ludicrous, as to divest the story of all possible chance 
 of obtaining belief. * 
 
 It may be supposed that, as soon as the breath 
 was out of the body of Peter, the party, and they 
 who composed it were both numerous and respect- 
 able, which favored the son of the unfortunate 
 Czarovitz, would stand forward to urge his claim to 
 the succession, in opposition to Catharine, whose 
 friends loudly declared that the very act of corona- 
 tion established her claim. In this short conflict it 
 may be remarked that not a syllable was uttered by 
 the opposite party against her loyalty and fidelity to 
 her deceased husband, which they would have been 
 most eager to bring forward on such an occasion, had 
 there existed the slightest suspicion of any improper 
 conduct on her part. There were, indeed, thrown 
 out some vague insinuations, after she mounted the 
 throne, of her having, as Coxe has observed, ''short- 
 ened the life of Peter by poison ; ' ' but those re- 
 ports, says Voltaire, ' ' which were scattered abroad, 
 were the mere opinions of some superficial for- 
 eigners ' ' (he might have added, of the secretaries 
 and hangers-on of the corps diplomatique), ''who 
 without any grounds, wantonly indulged the wretch- 
 ed pleasure of imputing the worst of crimes to 
 those whose interests they suppose it is to commit 
 them." But, as this author very justly adds, " so 
 
 * Histoire de Russia, &c., par Segur, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. $9S 
 
 far was it from being Catharine's interest that the 
 emperor should be sent out of the world, that his 
 preservation was, of all things, most necessary to 
 her. ' ' Catharine in fact had no reason to suppose, 
 at least no public reason could be assigned, that 
 Peter ever intended her for the succession ; it was 
 contended indeed that the very act of coronation 
 implied this, and more particularly as Peter placed 
 the crown himself on her head ; but it does not ap- 
 pear that he ever signified any such intention, or 
 that the coronation conveyed any right to the suc- 
 cession. There were, besides, two heirs to the suc- 
 cession living, his daughter Anne Petrowna, wife to 
 the Duke of Holstein, and his grandson Peter, son 
 of the unfortunate Alexis, both of whom had their 
 partisans, and either of whom had a priority of claim 
 to Catharine. It is plain, therefore, that the life, 
 and not the death of Peter, would be the object of 
 her care and preservation. 
 
 Menzikoff, who was well aware that no time was 
 to be lost, assembled the friends of Catharine, while 
 Peter was on the eve of expiring, removed the treas- 
 ure to the citadel, secured the generals of the 
 guards, and gained over the archbishop of l^ovo- 
 gorod. The empress was summoned from the couch 
 of her dying consort, whose last sighs were breathed 
 in her arms, to appear before the senators, the great 
 officers of state, the bishops, and the officers of the 
 army and navy, and delivered a speech before them, 
 after which the air resounded with " Lono^ live the 
 
394 LIFE OF PETFR THE GREAT. 
 
 Empress Catharine ! " — a proclamation was im- 
 mediately issued announcing her accession : and 
 thus Catharine succeeded to the throne on the very 
 day of her husband's demise. 
 
 The body was removed into the great hall of the 
 palace, folloAved by the imperial family, the senate, 
 all persons of distinction, and an innumerable train 
 of citizens ; it was then laid on a bed of state, and 
 everybody admitted to kiss the hand of the deceased 
 till the day of his interment, which was on the 21st 
 March, 1725. On the 15th of the same month died 
 the princess Natalia Petrovvna, the emperor's third 
 daughter by Catharine. The funeral obsequies of 
 the father and daughter were performed together 
 with great pomp and solemnity. 
 
 The CHARACTEB of Pctcr the Great, as has been 
 shown in the course of this Memoir, was a strange 
 compound of contradictions. Owing to the circum- 
 stances in which he was placed, and the determina- 
 tion to execute the plan he had conceived of re- 
 modeling the customs and institutions of his coun- 
 try, he had to maintain a constant struggle between 
 his good and evil genius. Nothing was too great, 
 nothing too little for his comprehensive mind. The 
 noblest undertakings were mixed with the most 
 farcical amusements ; and the most laudable institu- 
 tions for the benefit and improvement of his sub- 
 jects were followed by shaving their beards and 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GHEAt. 3^5 
 
 docking their skirts ; — kind-hearted, benevolent, and 
 
 humane, he set no value on human life. Owing to 
 
 these, and many other incongruities, his character 
 
 has necessarily been represented in various points of 
 
 view and in various colors by his biographers. Of 
 
 him, however, it can scarcely be said, that 
 
 " The evil which men do, lives after them, 
 The good is oft interred with their bones." 
 
 With the exception of a few foreign writers, who 
 have generally compiled their memoirs from pol- 
 luted sources, the reverse of the aphorism may be 
 applied to Peter. His niemory, among his country- 
 men, who ought to be the best judges, and of whom 
 he was at once the scourge and the benefactor, is 
 held in the highest veneration, and is consecrated 
 in their history and their public monuments to ever- 
 lasting fame. The magnificent equestrian statue, 
 erected by Catharine II. ; the waxen figure of 
 Peter in the museum of the academy founded by 
 himself ; the dress, the sword, and the hat which 
 he wore at the battle of Poltava, the last pierced 
 through with a ball ; the horse that he rode in that 
 battle ; the trousers, worsted stockings, shoes, and 
 cap, which he wore at Zaandam, all in the same 
 apartment ; his two favorite dogs, his turning-lathe 
 and tools, with specimens of his workmanship ; the 
 iron bar which he forged with his own hand at 
 Olonitz ; the Little Grandsire, so carefully preserved 
 as the first germ of the Russian navy; and the 
 wooden hut in which he lived while superintending 
 
396 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 the first foundation of St. Petersburg ; — these, and a 
 thousand other tangible memorials, all preserved 
 with the utmost care, speak in most intelligible 
 language the opinion which the Russians hold of 
 the Father of his Country. , 
 
 The following is transcribed from the History of 
 Peter the Great, by Major-general Gordon, who 
 had many opportunities of knowing personally, and 
 hearing from others, the leading features of his char- 
 acter : — 
 
 '' Thus died Peter I. Emperor of Russia, who 
 certainly deserved the epithet Great as much as any 
 prince that ever lived. When we consider the 
 method he took to reform his empire ; his drawing 
 the natives, by degrees, into a taste for military 
 affairs, beginning. himself at the lowest degree to 
 show example to others ; his traveling into foreign 
 countries to observe the customs and manners of 
 the inhabitants; his raising, disciplining, and sup- 
 porting such great armies and fleets ; his introduc- 
 ing learning, manufactures, and handicrafts of all 
 kinds ; with the great length to which he brought 
 commerce and navigation, things altogether un- 
 known to that people; the prudent measures he 
 took to weaken and reduce his enemies ; in short, 
 the reforming his country in every particular, as 
 well the ecclesiastical state as the civil, is so extra- 
 ordinary, that I do not believe, since the creation 
 of the world, ever monarch was at so great pains, 
 or did the like ; and all within the space of thirty 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 397 
 
 years. The great fatigue he underwent, together 
 with his other excesses, shortened his days. He 
 was severe rather than cruel, never pardoned a 
 malefactor, except those of his own blood, and some 
 few of his greatest favorites. He looked upon 
 some things as crimes, which in other countries are 
 not treated with the severity they deserve, — such as 
 concussion and taking of bribes. His leaving the 
 empire to that once mean woman, Catharine, was a 
 surprise, not only to Eussia, but the whole world : 
 yet, considering the great affection and esteem he 
 always had for her, his confidence in her prudence 
 and justice, and the many eminent services she had 
 done him, it was the most prudent step he could 
 take, and nothing less than what he ought to have 
 done ; for if he had left the empire to his grandson, 
 Prince Peter, who succeeded her, she and her 
 children had been sent to Siberia, or some worse 
 place, where she would have ended her days in 
 misery ; the leaving her in possession of the whole 
 was the only means to insure her safety. 
 
 ' ' He Avas at little or no expense about his person ; 
 and by living rather like a private gentleman than 
 a prince, he saved wholly that great expense which 
 other monarchs are at in supporting the grandeur of 
 their courts. He was a lover of company and a 
 man of much humor and pleasantry, exceedingly 
 facetious, and of vast natural parts. He took his 
 bottle heartily, so must all the company ; for when 
 be ^vas merry himself j he loved to see everybody 
 
398 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 SO ; though at the same time he could not endure 
 habitual drinkers. He never kept guards about his 
 person, nor was ever accompanied by above five or 
 six persons, at most. He never could abide cere- 
 mony, but loved to be spoken to frankly and with- 
 out reserve. To sum up all, his fellow never sat 
 upon that throne; and I question very much, if 
 ever another of so great abilities will succeed 
 him! "* 
 
 ''I viewed," says Coxe, "not without peculiar 
 veneration and awe, the sepulchre which contains 
 the body of Peter I. ; the sternness, or rather the 
 ferocity of whose disposition neither spared age, nor 
 sex, nor the dearest connections : and who yet, with 
 a strong degree of compunction, was accustomed to 
 say, ' I can reform my people, but I cannot reform 
 myself. ' A royal historian has justly observed of 
 Peter, that he redeemed the cruelties of a tyrant by 
 the virtues of a legislator. We must readily allow 
 that he considerably reformed and civilized his sub- 
 jects ; that he created a navy, and new-modeled his 
 army; that he encouraged the arts and sciences, 
 promoted agriculture and commerce, and laid the 
 foundation of Russian grandeur. But, insteaxl of 
 exclaiming in the language of panegyric 
 
 Erubesce, ars ! Hie vir maximus tibi nihil debuit ; 
 Exulta, Natura I Hoc stupendium tuum est \ — 
 
 * Gordon's Historj"^ of Peter the Great, 
 f Blush, Art ! this liero owed thee nothing ; 
 Exult, Nature ! for this prodigy is all thy own. 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 399 
 
 we may, on the contrary, venture to regret that he 
 was not taught the lessons of humanity ; that his 
 sublime but unruly genius was not controlled and 
 improved by proper culture; nor his savage nature 
 corrected and softened by the refinements of art. 
 And if Peter failed in enlightening the mass of his 
 subjects to the full measure of his wishes, the failure 
 was occasioned by his own precipitate temper, by 
 the chimerical idea of introducing the arts and sci- 
 ences by force, and of performing in a moment what 
 can only be the gradual work of time, by violating 
 the established customs of his people, and, in con- 
 tradiction to the dictates of sound policy, requiring 
 an immediate sacrifice of prejudices sanctioned by 
 ages. In a word, his failure was the failure of a 
 superior genius wandering without a guide ; and the 
 greatest eulogium we can justly offer to his extra- 
 ordinary character is, to allow that his virtues were 
 his own, and his defects those of education and 
 country.* 
 
 Eugene Schuyler says : * ^ Among the higher 
 classes it is the fashion to speak of him as a demi- 
 god, and writers scarcely mention his name without 
 adding, ' that man of genius. ' Even those who 
 blame the way in which he forcibly warped the cur- 
 rent of Kussian history, render homage to his great 
 qualities. As Kostomarof says : ' He loved Eussia, 
 loved the Russian people — loved it not in the sense 
 of the mass of Russians contemporary with and sub- 
 * Travels in Pgland, Russia, &c., by W. Coxe, A. M. 
 
400 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 ject to him, but in the sense of that ideal to which 
 he wished to bring the people. For that reason, 
 this love constitutes that great quality in him \vhich 
 causes us, even against our will, to love him per- 
 sonally, leaving out of view his bloody tribunals 
 and all his demoralizing despotism, which has ex- 
 ercised a baneful influence even on posterity. On 
 account of Peter's love of the ideal of the Russian 
 people, a Russian will love Peter as long as he does 
 not himself lose this national ideal, and for this love 
 will pardon in him all that lies Avith such heavy 
 weight on his memory." 
 
 Among all the summaries of the character and 
 achievements of Peter the Great, none is more judi- 
 cious than the following by John Lord : ' ' Peter be- 
 queathed to his successors a centralized empire, a 
 large and disciplined army, a respectable navy, and 
 many improvements in agriculture, manufacture, 
 commerce, and the arts, — yea, schools and universi- 
 ties for the education of the higher classes. 
 
 ' ' Whatever may have been the faults of Peter, 
 history cannot accuse him of ingratitude, or insin- 
 cerity, or weak affections, — nothing of which is 
 seen in his treatment of the honest Dutchman, in 
 whose yard he worked as a common laborer ; of Le 
 Fort, whom he made admiral of his fleet; or of 
 Mentchikof , whom he elevated to the second place 
 in his empire. Peter was not a great warrior, but 
 he created armies. He had traits in common with 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 401 
 
 barbarians, but he bequeathed a new civilization, 
 and dispelled the hereditary darkness. He owed 
 nothing to art ; he looms up as a prodigy of Nature. 
 He cared nothing for public opinion ; he left the 
 moral influence of a great example. He began with 
 no particular aim except to join his country to the 
 sea ; he bequeathed a policy of indefinite expansion. 
 He did not leave free institutions, for his country 
 was not prepared for them ; but he animated thirty 
 millions with an intense and religious loyalty. He 
 did not emancipate serfs ; but he bequeathed a 
 power which enabled his successors to loosen fetters 
 with safety. He degraded nobles ; but his nobles 
 would have prevented, if they could, the emancipa- 
 tion of the people. He may have wasted his ener- 
 gies in condescending to mean details, and insisting 
 on doing everything with his own hands, from drum- 
 mer to general, and from cabin boy to admiral, win- 
 ning battles with his own sword, and singing in the 
 choir as head of the Church ; but in so doing he 
 made the mistake of Charlemagne, whom he strik- 
 ingly resembles in his iron will, his herculean ener- 
 gies, and his enlightened mind. He could not con- 
 vert his subjects from cattle into men, even had he 
 wished, for civilization is a long and tedious pro- 
 cess ; but he made them the subjects of a great em- 
 pire, destined to spread from sea to sea. Certainly 
 he was in advance of his people ; he broke away 
 from the ideas which enslaved them. He may 
 
 26 
 
402 LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 have been despotic, and inexorable, and hard- 
 hearted ; but that was just such a man as his coun- 
 try needed for a ruler. Mr. Motley likens him to 
 ' a huge engine placed upon the earth to effect a 
 certain task, working its mighty arms night and 
 day with ceaseless and untiring energy, crashing 
 through all obstacles, and annihilating everything 
 in its path with the unfeeling precision of gigantic 
 mechanism. ' I should say he was an instrument of 
 Almighty power to bring good out of evil, and pre- 
 pare the way for a civilization the higher elements 
 of which he did not understand, and with which he 
 would not probably have sympathized. ' ' 
 
 NOTE ON THE ALLEGED WILL OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 In this biography there is no mention of a remarkable doc- 
 ument, known as the will, or testament, of Peter the Great. 
 Though that testament is now conceded to be a forgery, yet 
 for many years it was generally accepted as genuine and it 
 had no slight influence in forming the political opinions of 
 both English and French people in reference to Russia. It is 
 probable that Barrow's silence on the subject is due to the 
 fact that he was not aware that such a document was in ex- 
 istence, for it did not come under the notice of the general 
 public until the Crimean war. In the year 1854 one J. Cor- 
 reard published a map of the territorial accessions of Russia 
 from Peter I. to that time, and on the margin he quoted the 
 will of Peter the Great, saying : " This political testament 
 was sketched out by Peter I. in 1710, after the battle of Pol- 
 tava, revised by him in 1722 after the peace of Mystad, and 
 put into definite form by Chancellor Osterman." It is plain 
 that the act of publishing the testament, whether genuine or 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 403 
 
 a forgery, at that particular time was intended as a means of 
 rousing a public sentiment hostile to Russia. 
 
 To go back now to the beginning of the history of this sub- 
 ject, it was in the year 1812 that Charles Louis Lesur wrote, 
 at the command of Napoleon, a volume entitled : *' Progress 
 of the Russian Power, from its Origin to the Beginning of 
 the Nineteenth Centurj^." The purpose of this book was to 
 create a hostile feeling against Russia, and to justify Napoleon 
 in his intended campaign against that country. In pursu- 
 ance of this purpose this document was inserted in the book ; 
 but whether it was the creation of Lesur, or whether he 
 obtained a copy of it from some other source, true or false, 
 cannot now be known. It sufficiently answered its purpose 
 by showing that the steady and relentless aggressions of 
 Russia are a menace to European civilization. This *' plan 
 for encompassing Europe " advocated ' ' approach as near as 
 possible to Constantinople and towards the Indies ; wars with 
 Turkey and Persia ; possession of the shores of the Black Sea 
 and the Baltic," etc. It may here be said that these aggres- 
 sions are a fact, and that they seem to indicate a settled and 
 unchanging line of policy, whether Peter I. left any will or 
 not ; and under the circumstances it is not surprising that 
 the reference to the will made a deep impression, and that 
 there was not just then, nor at the time of the Crimean war, 
 any effort to determine the real existence of such a will. It 
 was naturally accepted without question, because it fitted 
 the circumstances. 
 
 In 1836 Frederic Gaillard published the Memoirs of the 
 Chevalier d'Eon, in which he quoted the will. Thirty years 
 later the same author, who had in the meantime come to the 
 United States to edit a French paper, published a new edition 
 of the Memoirs. In this he freely admitted that the first edi- 
 tion contained many falsehoods, but he gravely insisted that 
 the new edition was entirely trustworthy and based on au- 
 thentic documents I It is true that the Chevalier d'Eon was 
 favorably received in St. Petersburg, and it is entirely cred- 
 ible that he may have received favors not accorded to other 
 visitors. But the claim that he, who by the way was not a 
 Russian scholar, had access to the "secret archives," is alto 
 
404: LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 gether too vague to command serious consideration. It is 
 not stated where these secret archives were kept, nor what 
 they were, nor how it came about that so great a favor was 
 conferred on him alone. That story rests upon the baseless 
 fabric of a vision. 
 
 It was late in the nineteenth century before the genuine- 
 ness of this alleged will was disputed by students of history. 
 In 1863 Dr. Berkholz, of Riga, asserted that the will was a 
 forgery, probably dictated by Napoleon I. The Czars have 
 always denied the existence of any such will. The original 
 document has never been produced nor satisfactorily ac- 
 counted for. There are a few antiquarians, including W. J. 
 Thoms, who still hold to the belief of its genuineness, but 
 the number of such is so few that they are hardly worth 
 counting, even if their votes are worth weighing. Excepting 
 in large libraries, it is difficult to find to day a copy of this 
 document, while the subject is omitted from nearly all the 
 cyclopedias. It may thus be seen that the subject is con- 
 sidered as closed. It is practically certain that Peter died 
 without making a will. No Russian, either scholar or official, 
 believes that he made one. 
 
 One further suggestion may be made here. If the will was 
 a fabrication produced in 1812 by Lesur at the command of 
 Napoleon, then it was virtually the work of Napoleon himself. 
 He may have sketched the main outlines for Lesur to com- 
 plete. If this were so, it affords an explanation of the fitness 
 of the document. No man was better able than Napoleon to 
 understand Peter the Great. Peter's plans may not have 
 reached out into the future ; but if he had planned for future 
 centuries, if he had laid down a policy for the subsequent 
 growth of liis country, that plan and that policy would not 
 have differed essentially from the document published by 
 order of Napoleon under the name of the last will of Peter. 
 Napoleon understood the mind of the great Muscovite. Nor 
 is it less strange that the ideas of national expansion have 
 been, without the aid of a written document, unchangeably 
 fixed in the minds of all the Russian powers since Peter's day. 
 The unwritten will of Peter of Russia may, in its steadfast- 
 »es8, be compared to the unwritten constitution of England, 
 
LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT. 405 
 
 Nearly a century has passed since Napoleon ordered the writ- 
 ing of the will, and nearly two centuries since the death of 
 Peter ; but the Russian policy has not swerved, the same ideas 
 are more persistent and urgent as the centuries pass. 
 
 Henry Ketcham. 
 
 THE END. 
 
BURT'S HOME LIBRARY* 
 
 Comprising four hundred and fourteen titles of 
 standard works, embracing fiction, essays, poetry, 
 history, travel, etc., selected from the world's best 
 literature, written by authors of world-wide reputa- 
 tion. Printed from large type on good paper, and 
 hound In handsome uniform cloth binding. 
 
 Uniform Cloth Bindinsr. Gilt Tops. Price* $1.00. 
 
 'Abbe Constantin. By L. Halevy. 
 
 Abbot. By Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 ,ddam Bede. By George Eliot. 
 
 Aesop's Fables. 
 
 .Alhambra. Washington Irving. 
 
 lAlice in Wonderland, and Through 
 the Looking Glass. By Lewis 
 Carroll. 
 
 Alice Lorraine. R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 All Sorts and Conditions of Men. 
 By Besant and Rice. 
 
 Amiel's Journal. Translated by 
 Mrs. Humphrey Ward, 
 
 Andersen's Fairy Tales. 
 
 Anne of Geiersteln. By Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 
 Antiquary. Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Arabian Nights' Entertainments. 
 
 Ardath. By Marie Corelli. 
 
 Armadale. By Wilkie Collins. 
 
 A^rmorel of Lyonesse. W. Besant. 
 
 Arnold's Poems. Matthew Arnold. 
 
 Around the World in the Yacht 
 Sunbeam. By Mrs. Brassey. 
 
 Arundel Motto. Mary Cecil Hay. 
 
 At the Back of the North Wind. 
 By George Macdonald. 
 
 Attic Philosopher. E. Souvestre. 
 
 Auld Llcht Idyls. J. M. Barrie. 
 
 Aunt Diana. By Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Aurellan. By William Ware. 
 
 Autobiography of B. Franklin. 
 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. 
 By O. W. Holmes. 
 
 Averil. By Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Bacon's Essays. Francis Bacon. 
 
 Barbara Heathcote's Trial. Rosa 
 N. Carey. 
 
 Barnaby Rudge. Charles Dickens. 
 
 Barrack-Room Ballads. Rudyard 
 
 Kipling. 
 , Betrothed. Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Beulah. By Augusta J. Evans. 
 
 Black Beauty. By Anna Sewell. 
 
 Black Dwarf. Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Black Rock. By Ralph Connor. 
 
 Bleak House. Charles Dickens. 
 
 Bondman, The. By Hall Calne. 
 
 Bride of Lammermoor. Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 
 Bride of the Nile, The. George 
 
 ^ Ebers. 
 
 Browning's Poems. Elizabeth Bar- 
 rett Browning. 
 
 Browning's Poems. (Robert.) 
 
 Bryant's Poems. W. C. Bryant. 
 
 Burgomaster's Wife. Geo. fibers. 
 
 Burns' Poems. By Robert Burns. 
 
 By Order of the King. V. Hugo. 
 
 Byron's Poems. By Lord Byron. 
 
 California and Oregon Trail. By, 
 Francis Parkman, Jr- 
 
 Carey's Poems. By Alice and 
 Phoebe Carey. 
 
 Cast Up by the Sea. By Sir Sam- 
 uel Baker. 
 
 Caxtons. Bulwer-Lytton. 
 
 Chandos. By "Oulda." 
 
 Charles Auchester. B. Berger. 
 
 Character. By Samuel Smiles. 
 
 Charle/' O'Malley. Charles Lever. 
 
 Chevalier de Maison Rouge. By 
 Alexandre Dumas. 
 
 Chicot the Jester. Alex. Dumas. 
 
 Children of the Abbey. By Regiua 
 Maria Roche. 
 
 Children of Gibeon. W. Besant. 
 
 Child's History of England. By 
 
 Charles Dickens- 
 Christmas Stories. Chas. Dickens. 
 
 Clara Vaughan R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Cloister and the Hearth. Charles 
 Reade. 
 
 Coleridge's Poems. Samuel Taylor 
 Coleridge. 
 
 Complete Angler. Walton & Cot- 
 ton. 
 
 Confessions of an Opium Eater. 
 By Thomas De Quincey. 
 
 Conquest of Granada. Washing- 
 ton Irving. 
 
 Consuelo. By George Sand. 
 
 Corinne. By Madame De Stael. 
 
 Countess de Charny. A. Dumas. 
 
 Countess Gisela. E. Marlitt. 
 
 Countess of Rudolstadt. By Geo, 
 Sand. 
 
 Count Robert of Paris. W. Scott 
 
 Courtship of Miles Standish. B; 
 H. W. Longfellow. 
 
 Cousin Pons. By H. de Balzac. * 
 
 Cradock Nowell. By R. D. Black- 
 more. 
 
 Cranford. By Mrs. Gaskell. 
 
 Cripps the Carrier. R. D. Black 
 more. 
 
 Crown of Wild Olive: a. Ruskln 
 
 Daniel Derocia. George Eliot. 
 
 Data of iithics. H. Spencer. 
 
 Daughter of an Empress. B| 
 Louisa Mablbacb. 
 
BtntT'S HOME LIBRARY— Continued. Price Sl.OO per Copy* 
 
 Daughter of Heth. Wm. Black. 
 
 Pavid Coppei-field. Chas. Dickens. 
 
 Days of Bruce. Grace Aguilar. 
 
 Deemster, The. By Hall Caine. 
 
 Deerslayer. By J. F. Cooper. 
 
 Descent of Man. Charles Darwin. 
 
 Dick Sand. By Jules Verne. 
 
 Discourses of Epictetus. Trans- 
 . lated by George Long. 
 'Pivine Comedy. (Dante.) Trans- 
 lated by Rev. H. F. Carey. 
 
 Dombey & Son. Charles Dickens. 
 
 Donal Grant. Geo. Macdonald. 
 
 Donovan. By Edna Lyall. 
 
 Dora Deane. Mary J. Holmes. 
 
 Dove in the Eagle's Nest. By 
 Charlotte M. Yonge. 
 
 Dream Life. By Ik Marvel. 
 
 Duty. By Samuel Smiles. 
 
 Barly Days of Christianity. By 
 F. W. Farrar. 
 
 East Lynne. Mrs. Henry Wood. 
 
 Education. By Herbert Spencer. 
 
 Egoist. By George Meredith. 
 
 Egyptian Princess. Geo. Ebers. 
 
 Eight Hundred Leagues on the 
 Amazon. By Jules Verne. 
 
 Eliot's Poems. By George Eliot. 
 
 Emerson's Essays. (Complete.) 
 
 Emerson's Poems. Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson. 
 
 Emperor, The. By George Ebers. 
 
 English Orphans. M. J. Holmes, 
 
 Essays of Elia. Charles Lamb. 
 
 Esther. By Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Evangeline. H. W. Longfellow. 
 
 Executor. Mrs. Alexander. 
 
 Ir Maid of Perth. By Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 
 Fairy Land of Science. By Ara- 
 bella B. Buckley. 
 
 Far From the Madding Crowd. By 
 Thomas Hardy. 
 
 Paust. (Goethe.) Translated by 
 Anna Swanwick. 
 
 Felix Holt. By George Eliot. 
 
 Fifteen Decisive Battles of the 
 World. By E. S. Creasy. 
 
 File No. 113. EraiUi Gaboriau. 
 
 Firm of Girdlestone. By A. Conan 
 Doyle. 
 
 First Principles. H. Spencer. 
 
 First Violin. Jerjsie Fothergill. 
 
 For Faith and i^reedom. Walter 
 Besant. 
 
 Fortunes of ^^gel. Walter Scott. 
 
 Forty-Five Guardsmen. Alexandre 
 Dumas. 
 
 Fragments of Science. J. TyndaU. 
 
 Frederick the Great and His 
 Court. Louisa Mublbach. 
 
 French Revolution. T. Carlyle. 
 
 From the Earth to the Moon. By 
 Jules Verne. 
 
 Goethe and Schiller. By Louisa 
 Muhlbach. 
 
 Gold Bug. By Edgar A. Foe. 
 
 Gold Elsie. By E. Marlltt. 
 Golden Treasury, The. FraDcis T. 
 Palgrave. 
 
 Goldsmith's Poems. 
 
 Oood Lnck. By B. Werner. 
 
 Grandfather's Chair. Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 Qn^'9 FoeisB. Tbomaa Gray. 
 
 Great Expectations. By Dickens. 
 Greek Heroes. Charles Kingsley. 
 Green Mountain Boys, The. Bj 
 
 D. P. Thompson. 
 Grimm's Household Tales. 
 Grimm's Popular Tales. 
 Gulliver's Travels. Dean Swift. 
 Guy Mannering. Walter Scott. 
 Handy Andy. By Samuel Lover, 
 Hardy Norseman. Edna Lyall. 
 Harold. By Bulwer-Lytton. 
 Harry Lorrequer. Charles Lever. 
 Heart of Midlothian. By Scott. 
 Heir of Redclyfte. By Charlotte 
 
 M. Yonge. 
 Hemans' Poems. By Mrs. Felicia 
 
 Hemans. 
 Henry Esmond. W. M. Thaoit* 
 
 eray. ' 
 
 Her Dearest Foe. Mrs. Alexaiw 
 
 der. ' 
 
 Heriot's Choice. Rosa N. Carey 
 Heroes and Hero Worship. Thos 
 
 Carlyle. 
 Hiawatha. H. W. Longfellow. 
 History of a Crime. Victor Hugo 
 History of Civilization in Europe 
 
 By Guizot. 
 Holmes' Poems. O. W. Holmes. 
 Holy Roman Empire. Jas. Brycf^ 
 Homo Sum. By George Ebers. 
 Hood's Poems. Thomas Hood. 
 House of the Seven Gables, fly 
 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 House of the Wolf. By Stanley 
 
 J. Weyman. 
 Hunchback of Notre Dame. By 
 
 Victor Hugo. 
 Hypatia. By Charles Kingsley. 
 Iceland Fisherman. Pierre Loti. 
 Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. 
 
 By Jerome K. Jerome. 
 Iliad, The. Pope's Translation. 
 Ingelow's Poems. 
 Initials. Baroness Tautphoeus. 
 Intellectual Life. By Philip G. 
 
 Hamerton. 
 In the Counselor's House. By B 
 
 Marlitt. 
 In the Golden Days. Edna Lyall, 
 In the Schillingscourt. B. Mar- 
 litt. 
 It Is Never Too Late to Mend 
 
 By Charles Reade. 
 Ivanhoe. By Sir Walter Scott. 
 Jack's Courtship. W. C. Russell. 
 Jack Hinton. By Charles Lever. 
 Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontg. 
 John Halifax. By Miss Mulock. 
 Joshua. By George Ebers. 
 Joseph Balsamo. Alex. Dumas. 
 Keats' Poems. By John Keats. 
 Kenilworth. By Sir Walter Scott 
 Kidnapped. By R. L. Stevenson, i 
 Kit and Kitty. R. D. Blackmore. ' 
 Knickerbocker's History of New 
 
 York. Washington Irving. 
 Kith and Kin. Jessie FotherglU. 
 Knight Errant. By Edna LyaU. 
 Koran. Sale's Translation. 
 Lady of the Lake. Sir W. Scott. 
 Lady with the Pubies. E. Marlltt. 
 Lalla Rookfa. Thomas Moore. 
 Last Days of Pompeii. By BoIp 
 wer-Lytton. 
 
BURT'S HOME L,IBRART— Continued. Price @1.00 per Copy. 
 
 Lamplighter. Maria S. Cummins. 
 
 Last of the Barons. Bulwer-Lyt- 
 ton. 
 
 Last of the Mohicans. By James 
 Fenlmore Cooper. 
 
 Lay of the Last MinstreL By Sir 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 Lena Rivers. Mary J. Holmes. 
 
 Life of Christ. By F. W. Farrar. 
 
 Light of Asia. Edwin Arnold. 
 
 Light that flailed, The. Rudyard 
 Kipling. 
 
 Little Dorrit. Charles Dickens. 
 
 Longfellow's Poems. (Early.) 
 
 Lorna Dooue. R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Louise de la Valliere. Alexandre 
 Dumas. 
 
 Ix)ve Me Little, Love Me Long. 
 By Charles Reade. 
 
 Lover or Friend. Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Lowell's Poems. (Early.) 
 
 Lucile. By Owen Meredith. 
 
 Macaulay's Poems. 
 
 Maid of Sker. By E. D. Black- 
 more. 
 
 Makers of Florence. By Mrs. 011- 
 phant. 
 
 Makers of Venice. By Mrs. 011- 
 phant. 
 
 Man and Wife. Wilkle Collins. 
 
 Man in Black. Stanley Weyman. 
 
 Man in the Iron Mask. By Alex- 
 andre Dumas. > 
 
 Marguerite de Valols. By Alex- 
 andre Dumas. 
 
 Marmion. Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Marquis of Lossie. George Mac- 
 donald. 
 
 Martin Chuzzlewlt. By Charles 
 Dickens. 
 
 Mary Anerley. R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Mary St. John. Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Master of Ballantrae. By R. L. 
 Stevenson. 
 
 Masterman Ready , By Captain 
 Marryat. 
 
 Meadow Brook. Mary J. Holmes. 
 
 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. 
 Translated by George Long. 
 
 Memoirs of a Physician. Alexan- 
 dre Dumas. 
 
 Merle's Crusade. Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Micah Clarke. A. Conan Doyle. 
 
 Michael StrogofC. Jules Verne. 
 
 Middlemarch. By George Eliot. 
 
 Midshipman Easy. By Captain 
 Marryat. 
 
 Mill on the Floss. George Eliot. 
 
 Milton's Poems. 
 
 Mine Own People. R. Kipling. 
 
 Molly Bawn. "The Duchess." 
 
 Monastery. Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Moonstone. By Wilkie Collins. 
 
 Moore's Poems. Thomas Moore. 
 
 Mosses from an Old Manse. By 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 Mysterious Island. Jules Verne. 
 
 Natural Law in the Spiritual 
 World. Henry Drummond. 
 
 Nellie's Memories. Rosa N. Carey. 
 
 Newcomes. By W. M. Thackeray. 
 
 Nicholas Nickleby. Chas. Dickens. 
 
 Ninety-Three.- By Victor Hugo. 
 
 Not Like Other Girls. By Eo8a 
 N. Carey. 
 
 No Name. By Wilkie Collins. 
 Odyssey. Pope's Translation. 
 Old Curiosity Shop. By Charles 
 
 Dickens. 
 Old Mam'selle's Secret. By B. 
 
 Marlitt. 
 Old Mortality. Sir Walter Scott- 
 Old Myddleton's Money. By Mary 
 
 Cecil Hay. 
 Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens. 
 Only a Word. By George Ebers. 
 Only the Governess. By Rosa N. 
 
 Carey. 
 On the Heights. B. Auerbach. 
 Origin of Species. Chas. Darwin. 
 Other Worlds than Ours. Richard 
 
 Proctor. 
 Our Bessie. By Rosa N. Carey, t 
 Our Mutual Friend. By Charles^ 
 
 Dickens. 
 Pair of Blue Eyes. Thos. Hardy., 
 Past and Present. Thos. Carlyle. 
 Pathfinder. James F. Cooper. 
 Pendennis. W. M. Thackeray. 
 Pere Goriot. H. de Balzac. 
 Peveril of the Peak. By Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 Phantom Rickshaw, The. End* 
 
 yard Kipling. 
 Phra, The Phoenician. By Edwin 
 
 L. Arnold. 
 Picciola. By X. B. Salntine. 
 Pickwick Papers. Chas. Dickens, 
 Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan. 
 Pillar of Fire. By Rev. J. H. 
 
 Ingraham. 
 Pilot, The. By James F. Cooper. 
 Pioneers. By James F. Cooper. 
 Pirate. By Sir Walter Scott. 
 Plain Tales from the Hills. By 
 
 Rudyard Kipling. 
 Poe's Poems. By Edgar A. Foe. 
 Pope's Poems. Alexander Pope. , 
 Prairie. By James F. Cooper. 
 Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen. 
 Prince of the House of David. 
 
 By Rev. J. H. Ingraham. 
 Princess of the Moor. E. Marlitt. 
 Princess of Thule. Wm. Black. 
 Procter's Poems. By Adelaide 
 
 Procter. 
 Professor. Charlotte Brontg. 
 Prue and I. By Geo. Wm. Curtis 
 Queen Hortense. Louisa Muhl < 
 
 bach. 
 Queenle's Whim. Rosa N. Carey. 
 Queen's Necklace. Alex. Dumas 
 Quentin Durward. Walter Scott. 
 Redgauntlet. Sir Walter Scott. 
 Red Rover. By James F. Cooper. 
 Reign of Law. Duke of Argyla 
 Reveries of a Bachelor. By It 
 
 Marvel. 
 Reynard the FoXo Joseph JacobO- 
 Rhoda Fleming. By George Me^ 
 
 edith. 
 Rienzi. By Bulwer-Lytton. 
 Robert Ord's Atonement. By Eo8« 
 
 N. Carey. 
 Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe. 
 Rob Roy. By Sir Walter Scott. 
 Romance of Two Worlds. Marl© 
 
 Core Hi. 
 Romola. By George Eliot. 
 Eery O'More. By Sai^ael Lover* 
 
HOBT'S HOME lilBR ART -Continued. Price Sl.OO per Copy. 
 
 Bossettl's Poems. Gabriel Dante 
 
 Rossettl. 
 Royal Edinburgh. Mrs. Ollphant. 
 Saint Michael. By E. Werner. 
 Schonberg-Cotta Family. By Mrs. 
 
 Andrew Charles. 
 Sartor Resartus. Thos. Carlyle. 
 Scarlet Letter, The. Nathaniel 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 Schopenhauer's Essays. Trans- 
 lated by T. B. Saunders. 
 Scottish Chiefs. By Jane Porter. 
 Scott's Poems. Walter Scott. 
 Search for Basil Lyndhurst. By 
 
 Rosa N. Carey. 
 Second Wife. By B. Marlitt. 
 Seekers after God. F. W. Farrar. 
 Self-Help. By Samuel Smiles. 
 Sense and Sensibility. By Jane 
 
 Austen. 
 Sesame and Lilies. John Buskin. 
 Seven Lamps of Architecture. By 
 
 John Ruskln. 
 Shadow of a Crime. Hall Caine. 
 Shelley's Poems. 
 Shirley. By Charlotte BrontS. 
 Sign of the Four, The. By A. 
 
 Gonan Doyle. 
 Silas Marner. By George Eliot. 
 Silence of Dean Maitland. By 
 
 Maxwell Grey. 
 Sin of Joost Avelingh. Maarten 
 
 Maartens. 
 Sir Gibbie. George Macdonald. 
 Sketch Book. Washington Irving. 
 Social Departure, A. By Sarah 
 
 Jeannette Duncan. 
 Soldiers Three. Rudyard Kipling. 
 Son of Hagar. By Hall Caine. 
 Springhaven. R. D. Blackmore. 
 Spy, The. By James F. Cooper. 
 Story of an African Farm. By 
 
 Olive Schrelner. 
 Story of John G. Paton. By Rev. 
 
 Jas. Paton. 
 Strathmore. By "Guida." 
 St. Ronan's Well. Walter Scott. 
 Study in Scarlet, A. By A. Conan 
 
 Doyle. 
 Surgeon's Daughter. By Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 Swinburne's Poems. 
 Swiss Family Robinson. By Jean 
 
 Rudolph Wyss. 
 Taking the Bastile. Alex. Damab. 
 Tale of Two Cities. By Charles 
 
 Dickens, 
 ffales from Shakespeare. Charles 
 
 and Mary Lamb. 
 Tales of a Traveller. By Wash- 
 ington Irving. 
 Talisman. Sir Walter Scott. 
 Tanglewood Tales. By Nathaniel 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 Tempest and Sunshine. By Mary 
 
 J. Holmes. 
 Ten Nights In a Bar Boom. By 
 
 T. S. Arthur. 
 Tennyson's Poems. 
 Ten Years Later. Alex. Dumas. 
 Terrible Temptation. By Charles 
 
 Reade. 
 Tbaddeus of Warsaw. By Jane 
 
 Porter. 
 Bbelnw. By Marie CoceUU 
 
 Thirty Years' War. By Frederick 
 
 Schiller. 
 Thousand Miles Dp the Nile. By 
 
 Amelia B. Edwards. 
 Three Guardsmen. Alex. Dumas. 
 Three Men in a Boat. By J. K. 
 
 Jerome. 
 Thrift. By Samuel Smiles. 
 Toilers of the Sea. Victor Hugo. 
 Tom Brown at Oxford. By Thos. 
 
 Hughes. 
 Tom Brown's School Days. By 
 
 Thomas Hughes. 
 Tom Burke of "Ours." By Ghas. 
 
 Lever. 
 Tour of the World In Eighty' 
 
 Days. By Jules Verne. 
 Treasure Island. By R. LouiS 
 
 Stevenson. 
 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under 
 
 the Sea. By Jules Verne. 
 Twenty Years After. By Alex- 
 andre Dumas. 
 Twice Told Tales. By Nathaniel 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 Two Admirals. J. F. Cooper. 
 Two Years Before the Mast. Bj 
 
 R. H. Dana, Jr. 
 Darda. By George Ebers. 
 Uncle Max. By Rosa N. Carey. 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin. By Harriet 
 
 Beecher Stowe. 
 Under Two Flags. "Ouida." 
 Undine. De La Motte Fouque. 
 Unity of Nature. By Duke of 
 
 Argyle. 
 Vanity Fair. W. M. Thackeray. 
 Vendetta. By Marie Corelll. 
 Vicar of Wakefield. By Olive. 
 
 Goldsmith, 
 Vlcomte de Bragelonne. Alexan- 
 dre Dumas. 
 Villette. By Charlotte Bronte. 
 Virginians. W. M. Thackeray. 
 Water Babies. Charles Kingsley. 
 Water Witch. James F. Cooper. 
 Waverley. By Sir Walter Scott. 
 Wee Wifle. By Rosa N. Carey. 
 Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley. 
 We Two. By Edna Lyall. 
 What's Mine's Mine. By George 
 
 Macdonald. 
 When a Man's Single. By J. M.' 
 
 Barrie. i 
 
 White Company. By A. Doyle. 
 Whittler's Poems. 
 Wide, Wide World. By SusaO 
 
 Warner. 
 Window In Thrums. J. M. Barrie« 
 Wing and Wing. J. F. Cooper. 
 Woman in White. Wilkie Collins* 
 Won by Waiting. Edna Lyall. 
 Wonder Book, A. For Boys and 
 
 Girls. By N. Hawthorne. 
 Woodstock. By Sir Walter Scott. 
 Wooed and Married. By Rosa N. 
 
 Carey. 
 Wooing O't. By Mrs. Alexander. 
 Wordsworth's Poems. 
 World Went Very Well then. By 
 
 Walter Besant. 
 Wormwood. By Marie Corelll. 
 Wreck of the Grosvenor. By W, 
 
 Clark Russell. 
 «eDob)a. By William Ware. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 fi\jGl3t 9 67 g O 
 
 -Wb" 14 '67 -8 AM 
 
 APR 2 8 1969 9 
 
 MAY^O'69-12AV 
 
 l-0>»knii PEPT. 
 
 ICLF f N ) 
 
 LD 21A-60m-2,'67 
 (H241slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
(jr ^ .* "-y^'-Y ^ yg 55922 
 
 
 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 •J^-^- ;x>Jc 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 M291 
 
 JTg^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 \ 
 
 ' » ■' 
 
 4. 
 
 
 ! THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY