The timid and treacherous conduct of Augustus and the deliberate cruelty

of Charles drew from Peter expressions of unbounded indignation. He laid

a statement of the whole circumstances before the principal potentates

of Europe, and declared his determination to use all the means in his

power to drive Stanislaus from the throne of Poland. The first measure

he adopted was the holding of a conference with several of the Polish

grandees, whom he completely gained over to his side by the suavity of

his manners. At a subsequent meeting it was agreed that the throne of

Poland was in fact vacant, and that a diet should be summoned for the

purpose of electing a king. When the diet assembled, Peter urged upon

their attention the peculiar circumstances in which the country was

placed, and the impossibility of effecting any substantial resistance

against the ambitious intrigues of Charles, unless a new king were placed

upon the throne. His views were confirmed by the voice of the assembly,

who agreed to the public declaration of an interregnum, and to the

investiture of the primate in the office of regent until the election

should have taken place.

CHARLES XII INVADES RUSSIA (1707 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1707 A.D.]]

But while these proceedings were going forward at Lublin, King

Stanislaus, who had been previously acknowledged by most of the

sovereigns of Europe, was advancing into Poland at the head of sixteen

Swedish regiments, and was received with regal honours in all the places

through which he passed. Nor was this the only danger that threatened

to arrest the course of the proposed arrangements for the settlement

of the troubles of Poland. Charles, whose campaign in Saxony had

considerably enriched his treasury, was now prepared to take the field

with a well-disciplined army of forty-five thousand men, besides the

force commanded by General Lewenhaupt; and he did not affect to conceal

his intention to make Russia the theatre of war, in which purpose he

was strengthened by an offer on the part of the Porte to enter into an

offensive alliance with him against Peter, whose interference in the

affairs of Poland excited great jealousy and alarm in Turkey. Charles

calculated in some degree upon the support he might receive from the

Russians themselves, who, he believed, would be easily induced to revolt

against Peter, in consequence of the innovations he had introduced and

the expenses that he would be likely to entail upon them by a protracted

war.

But the people of Russia were well aware that mere personal ambition did

not enter into the scheme of Peter, and that, although he had broken

through many antiquated and revered customs, yet that he had conferred

such permanent benefits upon the empire as entitled him to their lasting

gratitude. Whatever prospects of success, therefore, Charles might

have flattered himself upon deriving from the dissatisfaction of the

great mass of the community were evidently vague and visionary. But

the argument was sufficient for all his purposes in helping to inspire

his soldiers with confidence. About this time the French envoy at the

court of Saxony attempted to effect a reconciliation between Charles and

the czar, when the former made his memorable reply that he would treat

with Peter in Moscow; which answer being conveyed to Peter produced his

equally memorable commentary--“My brother Charles wishes to play the part

of Alexander, but he shall not find a Darius in me.”

Rapid preparations were made on both sides for the war which had now

become inevitable. In the autumn of 1707 Charles commenced his march

from Altranstadt, paying a visit to Augustus at Dresden as he passed

through that city, and hastening onwards through Poland, where his

soldiers committed such devastations that the peasantry rose in arms

against them. He finally fixed his winter quarters in Lithuania. During

the time occupied by these movements Peter was wintering at Moscow,

where, after an absence of two years, he had been received with universal

demonstrations of affection. He was busily occupied in inspecting the new

manufactories that had been established in the capital, when news reached

him of the operations of the Swedish army. He immediately departed, and,

with six hundred of the guards established his headquarters in the city

of Grodno. Charles no sooner heard of his arrival at that place than,

with his usual impetuosity, he hastened forwards with only eight hundred

men to besiege the town.

By a mistake, the life of Peter was nearly sacrificed. A German officer,

who commanded the gate towards which Charles approached, imagining that

the whole Swedish army was advancing, fled from his post and left the

passage open to the enemy. General consternation prevailed throughout the

city as the rumour spread; and the victorious Charles, cutting in pieces

the few Russians who ventured to contest his progress, made himself

master of the town. The czar, impressed with the belief that the report

was true, retreated behind the ramparts, and effected his escape through

a gate at which Charles had placed a guard. Some Jesuits, whose house,

being the best in the town, was taken for the use of Charles, contrived

in the course of the night to inform Peter of the real circumstances;

upon which the czar re-entered the city, forced the Swedish guard, and

contended for possession in the streets. But the approach of the Swedish

army compelled him at last to retire, and to leave Grodno in the hands of

the conqueror.

The advance of the Swedes was now marked by a succession of triumphs;

and Peter, finding that Charles was resolved to pursue him, and that

the invader had but five hundred miles to traverse to the capital, an

interval unprotected by any places of consequence, with the exception of

Smolensk, conceived a masterly plan for drawing him into a part of the

country where he could obtain neither magazines nor subsistence for his

army, nor, in case of necessity, secure a safe retreat. With this design

he withdrew to the right bank of the Dnieper,[40] where he established

himself behind sheltered lines, from which he might attack the enemy at

an advantage, preserving to himself a free communication with Smolensk,

and abundant means of retreat over a country that yielded plentiful

resources for his troops.

In order to render this measure the more certain, he despatched General

Goltz at the head of fifteen thousand men to join a body of twelve

thousand Cossacks, with strict orders to lay waste the whole province for

a circle of thirty miles, and then to rejoin the czar at the position he

had taken up on the bank of the Dnieper. This bold movement was executed

as swiftly as it was planned; and the Swedes, reduced to immediate

extremity for want of forage, were compelled to canton their army until

the following May. Accustomed, however, to the reverses of war, they were

not daunted by danger or fatigue, but it was no longer doubtful that both

parties were on the eve of decisive events. They regarded the future,

however, with very different hopes. Charles, heated with victories, and

panting for further acquisitions, surveyed the vast empire, upon the

borders of which he now hung like a cloud, as if it were already within

his grasp; while Peter, more wary and self-possessed, conscious of the

magnitude of the stake for which he fought, and aware of the great

difficulties of his situation, occupied himself in making provision

against the worst.[c]

REVOLT OF THE COSSACKS OF THE DON; MAZEPPA

Meantime there were foes at home that had demanded the attention of he

czar.[a] The strelitz were not the only military body belonging to old

Russia whose existence had become incompatible with the requirements of

a modern state. The undisciplined Cossack armies, which had hitherto

formed a rampart for Russia against barbarian hordes, were also to

undergo transformation. The empire had many causes of complaint against

the Cossacks, particularly those of the Ukraine and the Don who had

formerly sustained the usurper, Dmitri, and from whose ranks had issued

the terrible Stenka Radzin.

In 1706 the Cossacks of the Don had revolted against the government

of the czar because they were forbidden to give asylum in their camp

to refugee peasants or taxpayers. The ataman Boulavine and his aids,

Nekrassov, Frolov, and Dranyi, called them to arms. They murdered Prince

George Dolgoruki, defeated the Russians on the Liskovata, took Tcherkask,

and menaced Azov, all the while proclaiming their fidelity to the czar

and accusing the voyevods of having acted without orders. They were

in turn defeated by Vasili Dolgoruki, Bulavin was murdered by his own

soldiers and Nekrassov with only two thousand men took refuge in the

Kuban. After clearing out the rebel camps Dolgoruki wrote: “The chief

traitors and mutineers have been hung, together with one out of ten of

the others; and all the bodies have been placed on rafts and allowed to

drift with the current that the Dontsi may be stricken with terror and

moved to repent.”

Since the disgrace of Samoilovitch, Mazeppa had been the hetman of the

Little Russian Cossacks in Ukraine. Formerly a page of John Casimir, king

of Poland, he had in his youth experienced the adventure made famous

by the poem of Lord Byron and the pictures of Horace Vernet. Loosened

from the back of the untamed horse that fled with him to the deserts of

Ukraine, he at once took rank in the Cossack army, and rose by means of

treachery, practised against all the chiefs in turn, to fill the highest

posts in the military service. His good fortune created for him numerous

enemies; but the czar, who admired him for his intelligence and had faith

in his fidelity, invariably delivered over to him his detractors. He put

to death the monk Solomon for revealing his intrigues with Sophia and the

king of Poland, and later denunciators shared the same fate.

Ukraine, meanwhile, was being undermined by various factions. In the

Cossack army there was always a Russian party, a party that wished to

restore the Polish domination, and a party which designed to deliver

over the country to the Turks. In 1693 Petrik, a Turkish chief, invaded

Ukraine but failed in his attempts at subjugation. Moreover, profound

dissent existed between the army and the sedentary populations of

Ukraine. The hetman was constantly scheming to make himself independent,

the officers of the army objected to rendering an account of their

actions to others, and the soldiers wished to live at the country’s

expense without working or paying taxes. The farmers, who had founded

the agricultural prosperity of the country, the citizens in towns who

were not secure in the pursuit of their avocations, the whole peaceful

and laborious population, in fact, longed to be free from this turbulent

military oligarchy and called upon the czar at Moscow to liberate them.

Mazeppa represented the military element in Ukraine and knew that he was

odious to the quiet classes. The czar showered proofs of confidence upon

him, but Mazeppa had reason to fear the consolidation of the Russian

state. The burdens that the empire imposed upon the vassal state were

day by day becoming heavier, and the war against Charles XII served to

increase them still more. There was everything to fear from the imperious

humour and autocratic pretensions of the czar, and the imminent invasion

of the Swedes was certain to precipitate a crisis; either Little Russia

would become independent with the aid of strangers, or their defeat

on her soil would deal the death-blow to her prosperity and hopes for

the future. Knowing that the hour was approaching when he should be

obliged to obey the white czar Mazeppa allowed himself to be drawn into

communication with Stanislaus Leszczynski, the king of Poland elected

by the Swedish party. The witty princess Dolskaia gave him an alphabet

in cipher. Hitherto Mazeppa had given over to the czar all letters

containing propositions of betrayal, just as the czar had surrendered to

him his accusers. On receiving the letters of the princess he remarked

with a smile: “Wicked woman, she wishes to draw me away from the czar.”

When, however, the hand of the sister of Menshikov was refused to one

of his cousins, when the Swedish war and the passage of Muscovite

troops limited his authority and increased taxation in his territory,

when the czar sent urgent injunctions for the equipment of troops

after the European fashion, and he could feel the spirit of rebellion

against Moscow constantly growing around him, he wrote to Leszczynski

that though the Polish army was weak in numbers it had his entire good

will. His confidant Orlik was in the secret of all these manœuvres, and

several of his subordinates who had divined them undertook to denounce

him to the czar. The denunciation was very precise and revealed all

the secret negotiations with the emissaries of the king and of the

princess Dolskaia; but it failed before the blind confidence of the

czar. Palei, one of the denunciators, was exiled to Siberia; Iskra and

Kotchonbei, the remaining two, were forced by torture to avow themselves

calumniators, and were then delivered over to the hetman and beheaded.

Mazeppa realised that good fortune such as his could not long endure, and

the malcontents urged upon him the consideration of the common safety.

At this juncture Charles XII arrived in the neighbourhood of Little

Russia. “It is the devil who brings him here!” cried Mazeppa, and placed

between his two powerful enemies he exerted all his craft to preserve

the independence of his little state without giving himself into the

hands of either Charles XII or Peter the Great. When the latter invited

him to join the army he feigned illness; but Menshikov approaching

simultaneously with Charles XII, it was necessary to make a choice.

Mazeppa left his bed, rallied his most devoted Cossacks about him, and

crossed the Desna for the purpose of effecting a junction with the Polish

army. At this the czar issued a proclamation denouncing the treason of

Mazeppa, his alliance with the heretics, his plots to bring Ukraine once

more under vassalage to Poland and to restore the temples of God and the

holy monasteries to the uniates. Mazeppa’s capital, Baturin, was taken by

Menshikov and rased to the ground, his accomplices perished on the wheel

or the scaffold.[g]

MAZEPPA JOINS CHARLES XII; PULTOWA

[Sidenote: [1708-1709 A.D.]]

Mazeppa with his army passed over the Desna; his followers, however,

believed they were being led against Charles, and deserted their hetman

as soon as his views were known, because they had more to fear from

Peter than to hope from Charles. The hetman joined the Swedes with only

seven thousand men, but Charles prosecuted his march and despised every

warning. He passed the Desna; the country on the farther side became more

and more desolate, and appearances more melancholy, for the winter was

one of the most severe; hundreds of brave Swedes were frozen to death

because Charles insisted upon pursuing his march even in December and

January. The civil war in Poland in the mean time raged more violently

than ever, and Peter sent divisions of his Russians to harass and

persecute the partisans of Stanislaus. The three men who stood in most

immediate relation to the Swedish king, Piper, Rehnskold, and Levenhaupt,

belonged, indeed, among the greatest men of their century; but they

were sometimes disunited in their opinions, and sometimes incensed and

harassed by the obstinacy of the king.

Mazeppa fell a sacrifice to his connection with Charles, his residence

(Baturin) was destroyed by Menshikov, and his faithful Cossacks, upon

Peter’s demand, were obliged to choose another hetman (November, 1708).

Neither Piper nor Mazeppa could move the obstinate king to relinquish his

march towards the ill-fortified city of Pultowa. Mazeppa represented to

him in vain that, by an attack upon Pultowa he would excite the Cossacks

of the Falls (Zaparogians) against him; and Piper entreated him, to no

purpose, to draw nearer to the Poles, who were favourable to his cause,

and to march towards the Dnieper; he continued, however, to sacrifice his

men by his march, till, in February (1709), a thaw set in.

He was successful in gaining the favour of the Zaparogians through their

hetman, Horodenski; but fortune had altogether forsaken the Swedes since

January. In that month they were in possession of Moprik; in February,

the battles at Goronodek and Rashevka were decided in favour of the

Russians; in March, Sheremetrev took Gaditch, which was occupied by the

Swedes, and thereby gave a position to the Russian army which could not

but prove destructive to the Swedes, who were obliged to besiege Pultowa

without the necessary means, because their intractable king insisted

upon the siege. In April and May, the Swedes exerted themselves in vain

in throwing up trenches before the miserable fortifications of Pultowa,

whilst the Russians were enclosing them in a net. One part of the

Russians had already passed the Vorskla in May, and Peter had no sooner

arrived, in the middle of June, than the whole army passed the river, in

order to offer a decisive engagement to the invaders.

Rehnskold acted as commander-in-chief at the battle of Pultowa; for

Charles had received a dangerous wound in his foot ten days before, and

was unable to mount his horse. The Swedes on this day performed miracles

of bravery, but everything was against them, for the Russians fought this

time at least for their country, and had at length gained experience

in the field. The defeat of the Swedes is easily explained, when it is

known that they were in want of all the munitions of war, even powder

and lead, that they were obliged to storm the enemy’s fortifications

in opposition to an overwhelming numerical force, and that Levenhaupt

and Rehnskold were so much disunited in opinion that the former, in his

report of the engagement at Pultowa, makes the bitterest complaints

against the commander-in-chief, which have since that time been usually

adopted by all historians. Of the whole Swedish army, only fourteen

or fifteen thousand under Levenhaupt and Kreuz succeeded in erecting

an ill-fortified camp on the Dnieper, where they were shut up by the

Russians and the river.

This small force might possibly have succeeded in fighting its way into

Poland, and Charles had at first adopted this determination; he was,

however, with great trouble, induced to pass the Dnieper, and accompanied

by a small guard, to take refuge in Turkey. His plan was to reach the Bug

over the pasture lands which then belonged to the Tatars on the Black

Sea, and, aided by the Turks and the Tatars, to make his way first to

Otchakov and then to Bender, whence he hoped to persuade the Turks to

take part in the Polish affairs. As soon as the king had escaped (July

10th, 1709), Levenhaupt, mourning over the sacrifice which the wilfulness

of Charles had brought upon his Swedes, concluded a capitulation, in

virtue of which all the baggage and artillery were surrendered to

the Russians, together with the remnant of the Swedish army, which,

calculating those who had been taken prisoners in the battle, amounted in

all to about eighteen thousand men.

Charles’ flight to Bender, and his long residence of five years in

Turkey, were the most favourable events which could have occurred for

the accomplishment of Peter’s great plans. He was now master in Poland.

In the Swedish, German, and French adventurers who had been in Charles’

army, he received the very best instructors of his people. Among

those who entered into his service, there were experienced officers,

artillerymen, architects, and engineers.

The Swedes, who for thirteen long years were neither set at liberty nor

accorded by their impoverished country the usual support of prisoners

of war, were distributed over the whole of Russia, and sent far into

Siberia. They founded schools and institutions, in order to get a

livelihood, and used their knowledge and experience against their will

for the promotion of Peter’s designs. This was the more important, as

there was not a man among those many thousand prisoners who was not in a

condition to teach the Russians to whom he came something of immediate

utility, drawn from his experience in his native land. Many never

returned to their homes, because they had raised up institutions and

commenced undertakings which were as advantageous to themselves as to the

Russian Empire.[e]

[Illustration: PETER THE GREAT AT THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA

(Painted for THE HISTORIANS’ HISTORY OF THE WORLD by Thure de

Thulstrup)]

PETER AND THE POWERS

[Sidenote: [1711 A.D.]]

A treaty was entered into by Poland, Prussia, and Denmark, which restored

to those states the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus, and to Russia her

sovereignty over her ancient possessions of Livonia, Ingria, and a part

of Finland. When these preliminaries were settled, Peter went in person

to make a defensive treaty with the elector of Brandenburg, the first

king of Prussia; a mode of negotiation unusual amongst sovereigns,

but which was perfectly consistent with the individual character and

promptitude of the czar. Having concluded these important plans, he

proceeded to reduce some Swedish fortresses, and to bombard the town of

Riga, the capital of Livonia, where he lost between nine and ten thousand

men by a pestilence that was then raging in that place. The garrison,

struck down by two enemies--the plague and the Russians, and scarcely

able to decide which was the more fatal--speedily capitulated; and

Livonia was once more rendered tributary to Muscovy.

In the meanwhile Charles was employing all his interest at Constantinople

to prevail upon the sultan to undertake a war against Russia, which the

sultan was easily induced to embrace, in consequence of the ravages

committed by the Muscovite troops on the frontiers of Turkey, and the

rapidly extending power of the czar on the sea of Azov and the Black

Sea. The khan of the Crimean Tatars naturally regarded with apprehension

the Russian establishment at Azov, which the Turks had been forced

to surrender a few years before; and he, therefore, strengthened the

arguments that were submitted to the Divan to persuade them into a

declaration of hostilities against the common enemy. A statement setting

forth the formidable advances that Russia was making in her navy on the

Don and in the harbour of Taganrog, and of the spirit of acquisition she

was constantly exhibiting in her encroachments upon the border lands, was

laid before the council by Poniatowski, the active friend of the Swedish

king, and was immediately assented to by the mufti. In order to render

the views of the sultan still more impressive, Count Tolstoi, the czar’s

ambassador at Constantinople, was arrested in the public streets, and

committed to the castle of the Seven Towers.

The indignity offered to Peter in the person of his minister was scarcely

necessary to inflame his irritable temper. Within a short space of

time his plenipotentiary in Saxony was broken on the wheel, and his

ambassador in London imprisoned for debt; but these events had taken

place before the battle of Pultowa, which suddenly elevated him to the

highest consideration amongst contemporary sovereigns. The insult,

therefore, which the sultan cast upon him by the arrest of Count Tolstoi

was the more acutely felt, as it appeared to treat him with contempt

in the very hour of victory. He soon made the necessary arrangements

for the approaching war, sending one division of his army to Moldavia,

another to Livonia; and fleets to Azov, the Baltic, and the Black Sea.

It was necessary, however, to return to Moscow to make provision for

the government during his absence, and while he was there he issued a

conscription for the purpose of recruiting his army.

CATHERINE ACKNOWLEDGED AS PETER’S WIFE (1711 A.D.)

The time was now arrived for acknowledging before his subjects his

marriage with Catherine, which had taken place privately in 1707; and

accordingly, on the 6th of March, 1711, the czarina Catherine Alexievna

was solemnly declared to be his legitimate wife. The ascendency which

Catherine had acquired over him was not more extraordinary than it

was propitious. Peter’s disposition was naturally impatient and cruel,

and when he was excited to acts of severity he could not be restrained

by any appeal to his reason or his humanity. The only influence that

possessed any permanent power over him was that of female society; and

the remarkably sweet temper of Catherine, who was never known to be out

of humour, invariably tranquillised him, even in his most angry moods, so

complete was the fascination she exercised over his mind that the agony

of those spasmodic fits to which he was subject yielded to her soothing

presence. Without forgetting the low condition from which she sprang, she

maintained the pomp of majesty with irreproachable propriety, and united

an air of ease and authority that excited the admiration of those by

whom she was surrounded. She was not distinguished by that lofty beauty

which would seem to sympathise with these august qualities; nor was she

either very brilliant in conversation or of a very quick imagination, but

she was graceful and animated; her features were pretty and expressive,

and a tone of good sense and kindness always pervaded her actions. She

was admirably formed for the sphere she embellished, and, above all,

for the peculiar necessities of the era that called her to the throne.

Her devotion to Peter was boundless. She constantly attended him, even

upon occasions of the utmost danger, and especially upon this eventful

expedition, when she accompanied him upon his campaign into Turkey.

WAR WITH TURKEY

The whole body of troops which the precautions of the czar had enabled

him to collect amounted to 130,000 men; but, being distributed in

different quarters, and failing to join the czar on the Pruth, as he

expected, he was obliged to proceed with an army that fell short of

40,000 men. The perils of the enterprise were so apparent that Peter

issued orders requiring the women who followed in the train of the army

to return; but Catherine, who insisted upon remaining with the czar,

prevailed upon him to retract his determination. This slight circumstance

eventually proved to be the salvation of the czar and his empire.

From Sorokat the army proceeded to Jassy, where Peter was led to expect

supplies from the prince of Wallachia, with whom he had entered into

a secret negotiation; but the sultan, warned of the prince’s intended

revolt, suddenly deposed him, and appointed Cantemir in his place. But

Cantemir, who was a Christian prince, was no less inclined to assist the

czar, and proffered him such aid as he could command; admitting very

candidly, however, that his subjects were attached to the Porte,[41]

and firm in their allegiance. In this extremity Peter found himself at

the head of a very inadequate force in the heart of a wild and rugged

country, where the herbage was destroyed by swarms of locusts, and where

it was impossible to procure provisions for the troops. The dangers of

his situation, however, offered a valuable test of the fidelity and

endurance of the soldiers, who, although they suffered the most severe

privation, never uttered a single complaint.

In this state of things, intelligence was received that the Turkish

army had crossed the Danube, and was marching along the Pruth. Peter

called a council of war, and declared his intention of advancing at

once to meet the enemy; in which measure all the generals, except one,

expressed their concurrence. The dissentient officer reminded the czar

of the misfortunes of the king of Sweden in the Ukraine, and suggested

to him the possibility that Cantemir might disappoint him; but Peter was

resolved, and, after a fatiguing march for three nights over a desert

heath, the troops arrived on the 18th of June at the river Pruth. Here

they were joined by Prince Cantemir, with a few followers, and they

continued their march until the 27th, when they discovered the enemy,

to the number of 200,000 men, already crossing the river. There was no

alternative left but to form the lines of battle; and Peter, perceiving

that the enemy was endeavouring to surround him with cavalry, extended

his lines a considerable way along the right bank.

The situation of the army at this juncture was extremely unfortunate. The

great body of the Turkish soldiers were before the Russians on one side

of the river, and on the other the hostile Tatars of the Crimea. The czar

was thus completely surrounded, his means of escape by the river were cut

off, and the great numbers of the Turks rendered a flight in the opposite

direction impossible. He was placed in more critical circumstances

than Charles at Pultowa, and he had been misled, like that unfortunate

prince, by an ally who did not possess the power of fulfilling his

promise. But his presence of mind and indomitable courage never forsook

him. He formed his army, which consisted in detail of 31,554 infantry,

and only 6,692 cavalry, into a hollow square, placing the women in the

centre, and prepared to receive the disorderly but furious onslaught

of the Turks. It is evident that, if the forces of the sultan had been

commanded by skilful officers, the contest must have been speedily

terminated. But the superior discipline of the Russians was shown in the

steadiness with which they met the charge, and maintained themselves

against such great odds. The Turks injudiciously confined their attack

to one side of the square, by which, although the loss sustained by the

Russians was immense, the czar was enabled constantly to relieve the

troops, and supply the front with fresh men. The fight continued for

three days. Their ammunition was at last exhausted, and there remained

no choice between surrendering and making a desperate attempt to cut

their way through the enemy. This latter proposition is said to have

been entertained by Peter, who proposed to force a passage in the night,

accompanied by his officers and a few select men; but it is extremely

unlikely that he should have contemplated a step that must inevitably

have sacrificed the czarina and the remnant of his brave army.

_Catherine’s Heroism; the Peace of Pruth_

It is not improbable, however, that Peter may have conceived some heroic

design for forcing a passage; but the certainty of failure must have

overruled such an intention almost as soon as it was formed. After the

agitation of that eventful day, he surrendered himself to the anxiety by

which he was oppressed, and, retiring to his tent on the third night,

gave strict orders that he should be left undisturbed. It was on this

occasion that the genius and influence of the czarina preserved the

empire, her consort, and the army. She who had accompanied him through

so many dangers, who had shared in the toils of the field without

murmuring, and partaken in the fatigues consequent upon his reforms

and improvements, had a right to be heard at a moment of such critical

importance. In despite, therefore, of his prohibition she entered his

tent, and representing to him the perils by which they were on all sides

environed, urged upon him the necessity of seeking to negotiate a peace.

She not only suggested this measure, which was probably the very last

that might have occurred to Peter, but she undertook to carry it into

effect herself. It is the immemorial custom in the East to approach all

sovereigns, or their representatives, with presents, and Catherine, aware

of that usage, collected all her own jewels and trinkets, and those of

the women who had accompanied the expedition, giving a receipt for their

value to be discharged on their return to Moscow, and dispatched the

vice chancellor, accompanied by an officer, with a letter from Marshal

Sheremetrev to the grand vizir, proposing negotiations for a treaty of

peace.[42]

Some hours elapsed, and no answer was returned. It was supposed that the

bearers of the letter were put to death, or placed under arrest, when

a second officer was despatched with a duplicate of the letter, and it

was determined in a council of war, that, should the vizir refuse to

accept the proffered terms, an attempt should be made to break through

the enemy’s ranks. With this view an intrenchment was rapidly formed,

and the Russians advanced within a hundred paces of the Turkish lines. A

suspension of arms, however, was immediately proclaimed by the enemy, and

negotiations were opened for a treaty.

It would appear strange that the vizir should have consented to a

cessation of hostilities under such circumstances, when the Russians were

completely at his mercy; but he was aware that the Russian troops in

Moldavia had advanced to the Danube after reducing the town of Brabilow,

and that another division of the general army was on its march from the

frontiers of Poland. He, therefore, considered it advisable to avail

himself of that opportunity to dictate to Peter the terms upon which

he wished to terminate the campaign, knowing that if he postponed the

treaty he would be compelled to renew the war against the whole force of

the empire. The conditions he proposed were sufficiently humiliating.

He demanded the restitution of Azov, the demolition of the harbour of

Taganrog, the renouncement of all further interference in the affairs

of Poland and the Cossacks, a free passage for Charles back to his own

country, and the withdrawal from the sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Peter

subscribed to all these conditions, but refused to deliver up Prince

Cantemir to the sultan, declaring that he would rather cede to the Turks

the whole country as far as Kursk than violate his word.

This treaty, however, did not satisfy the expectations of Charles; and,

indeed, obtained for him scarcely any advantage. The only passage it

contained which directly related to him was that which bound Peter to

give him a safe return home, and to conclude a peace with him, if the

terms could be agreed upon. He never ceased to importune the sultan to

dismiss the vizir and make war upon Russia, until the Porte, wearied

by his ungrateful and frantic complaints, at last recalled the pension

allowed him, and sent him an order to leave the Turkish dominions. The

sequel of that monarch’s career presents a series of acts that abundantly

justify the suspicion that his mind was shattered by the reverses of

fortune he had undergone; for, after remaining five years in Turkey, and

venturing with a band of grooms and valets, secretaries and cooks to

make a stand against an army of janissaries, spahis, and Tatars he fled

in the disguise of a courier to his own kingdom, where he had not been

seen during that long interval and where his death had for some time been

currently believed in.

The battle of the Pruth, so fatal in its results to Peter, was a very

destructive engagement. If the statements of the czar be correct, his

army, on the first day of the engagement, consisted of 31,554 infantry,

and 6,692 cavalry, and was reduced on the last day to 22,000 men, which

would make his loss amount to 16,246. The loss sustained by the Turks was

still greater in consequence of their irregular and scattered method of

attack. But numerical details cannot always be relied upon, since they

are frequently modified to suit the views of one party or the other.

There can be no doubt, however, that the czar fought at an extraordinary

disadvantage, and that the losses on both sides were dreadful.

When the treaty was concluded, Peter returned into Russia, causing

the fortresses of Samara and Kamenka to be demolished; but, as some

unavoidable delay occurred in the surrender of Azov and Taganrog, the

sultan became dissatisfied, and Peter entered into a fresh treaty,

by which he pledged himself to evacuate Poland within three months;

stipulating, however, that Charles, who was still intriguing with the

Divan, should be required immediately to withdraw from Turkey. The

fatigues of the campaign required repose; and Peter, who had suffered

considerably by ill health, rested for some time at Carlsbad for the

benefit of the waters.

When Peter returned to St. Petersburg, he again solemnised his wedding

with the czarina, and held a festival in that city which was remarkable

for its pomp and the expression it drew forth of the popular confidence.

But this was only the prelude to fresh labours. He renewed his plans

for the improvement of the country, laid down a number of new roads,

cut several canals, enlarged his navy, and encouraged the erection of

more substantial dwellings in the new city. His ultimate design of

establishing St. Petersburg as the capital of the empire now gradually

developed itself; and the first open measure he adopted towards the

accomplishment of that object was the removal of the senate from Moscow.

The commercial advantages the people had already gained through their

communication with the Baltic had reconciled them to the change, and

the opposition with which the return had been originally received was

now considerably relaxed. But much remained yet to be done before the

prosperity of the new capital could be secured. Resistance from without

was more to be apprehended than remonstrances at home; and Peter was not

slow to act upon the necessity of circumstances.

WAR WITH SWEDEN (1714 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1714 A.D.]]

The possession of Pomerania, the most northerly of the German provinces,

was necessary to the projects of the czar, who desired as much to

humiliate the king of Sweden as to secure the safety of his establishment

on the embouchure of the Neva. Pomerania, which lies north and south

between the Baltic and Mecklenburg, had passed through the hands of

several masters, and had at last been ceded to Gustavus Adolphus in the

Thirty Years’ War. In order to render his design more certain, Peter

entered into a league with the electors of Brandenburg and Hanover, and

the king of Denmark, drawing up the articles himself, and the details of

the necessary operations. Stralsund was first blockaded, and the allied

forces proceeded along the Wismar road, followed at a distance by the

Swedish troops under the command of Count Stenbock, who, coming up with

the Danish and Saxon divisions before the Russians had time to join

them, completely routed them in a few hours. This slight check to their

progress was soon repaired by a victory obtained by Peter over Stenbock

(whose march was signalised by disgraceful excesses), in the little town

of Altona, close to Hamburg, which he reduced to ashes.

The Russian army went into quarters for the winter, and the campaign

was again renewed with vigour in the following year, when Stenbock was

compelled to abandon the town of Tenningen, into which he had obtained

entrance by the intrigues of Baron Görtz, one of the most crafty and

unprincipled diplomatists of his age. Stenbock and eleven thousand Swedes

surrendered themselves prisoners of war, and although the ransom demanded

for the liberation of that general was only 8,000 imperial crowns, he was

suffered to linger in the dungeons of Copenhagen until the day of his

death. Nearly the whole of Pomerania was overrun and partitioned amongst

the allies, scarcely a place remaining in the possession of Sweden

except Stralsund, the siege of which Peter confided to Menshikov, while

he returned to St. Petersburg to make preparations for a descent upon

Helsingfors in the gulf of Finland. His operations along the whole line

of that coast were equally successful. He soon mastered Bergo and Åbo,

the capital; and, transferring to St. Petersburg from the latter town a

magnificent library, he raised a building for its reception, which still

remains a witness to his enterprise and the spirit of improvement which

seemed to preside over all his actions.

_A Naval Victory; Peter’s Triumph_

But the Swedes, viewing the encroachments of the czar in Finland with

terror, and resolving to spare no means to arrest his progress, fitted

out a considerable squadron to cruise in the gulf. The czar, however,

was ready to meet them; and, setting sail from Kronstadt, fell in with

them close to the island of Åland, where, after a severe engagement, he

destroyed several of their ships, and took the admiral prisoner. The

consternation which the news of this victory spread over Sweden was so

great that even Stockholm trembled for its safety.

His return to St. Petersburg on this occasion was an ovation of more

than ordinary magnificence. The czarina had just given birth to a

daughter; and, upon his triumphal entry, Peter instituted the order of

St. Catherine to commemorate his sense of her devotion and magnanimity.

The galleys of the conquerors and the conquered sailed up the Neva in

procession, and the czar, in his capacity of rear-admiral, presented

to the senate a report of the battle, and was immediately created

vice-admiral, amidst the rejoicings of the people. It was not the least

remarkable feature in the character of this great man that he set the

example, in his own person, of ascending through the different grades of

the service by the force of his individual claims. At Pultowa he served

as major-general, and in the action in the gulf of Finland he acted as

rear-admiral, under the command of Admiral Apraxin. This precedent could

not fail to have due weight with a people who had been so long accustomed

to oppression and the right of the strong hand. It had more effect in

generating a spirit of emulation, and in eradicating the prejudices

and vices of feudal slavery, than a code of the wisest laws could have

accomplished.

St. Petersburg presented a scene of festivity such as had never been

known in Russia before. The intercourse of the people with other nations

had in a few years changed the whole character of society. Balls and

entertainments, upon a large scale, diffused amongst the inhabitants

a taste for pleasures that had been hitherto unknown to them. Public

dinners were given in the palace of the czar, to which all classes of

persons were invited, and at which the different ranks were appropriately

divided at separate tables, the czar passing from table to table, freely

conversing with his subjects on matters connected with their particular

trade or occupations. Civilisation was thus promoted in detail, and

insinuated in the most agreeable shape into the domestic usages of the

citizens.

PETER AT THE HEIGHT OF POWER

But while amusements occupied a part of the czar’s time, he was not

forgetful of the more important affairs that demanded consideration. The

necessity of establishing a naval force had always been apparent, and his

recent victories over the Swedes sufficiently testified the facility with

which it might be rendered available for the ulterior projects which the

extension and security of the empire required. He accordingly devoted

much care to the subject, and in an incredibly short period was master

of so large a fleet that he contemplated a descent upon Sweden, and even

calculated upon the possibility of entering Stockholm. Besides a variety

of galleys and other vessels, he built fifty ships of war, which were all

ready for sea within a twelvemonth.

The discovery of some large peculations amongst the ministers and several

favourites of the court just at this juncture directed the czar’s

proceedings, for a short time, into an unexpected channel. It appeared

that Menshikov, Apraxin, and others who held high offices of trust and

responsibility had, either by themselves or through their servants,

embezzled a part of the finances of the empire; that the revenues were

consequently in a state of confusion, that trade was greatly deranged,

and that the payments to the army had been made very irregularly. The

ministers, availing themselves of the new outlet for commerce, had

monopolised its chief advantages; and the Dutch merchants complained

bitterly of a system by which they were deprived of the greater part

of their profits. Peter at once established an inquisition into the

facts, and proceeded to act with the utmost rigour. He felt that the

prosperity of his new capital depended mainly upon the justice with

which its affairs were administered, and that its geographical position,

which afforded it so complete a command of maritime resources, must

cease to attract a foreign trade unless its fiscal officers possessed

the confidence of the merchants. Menshikov and the rest pleaded that

they had been engaged abroad in the service of the country, and could

not be aware of the malpractices of their servants. The czar admitted

that their plea was in some measure founded in justice; but, resolved

to make an example, he confiscated the greater part of the property of

those whose agents were proved to be guilty. The estates of the remainder

were wholly forfeited; some individuals were sentenced to the knout, and

others were banished to Siberia. This measure was loudly called for by

the necessities of the case, and the inflexible honesty of the sovereign

was never exercised with a more beneficial result.

The unhappy wife of Alexis, who had been treated by her husband with the

most cruel neglect, expired in a few days after having given birth to a

son, whose fortunes she committed to the guardianship of the czar. The

court was plunged into deep affliction by this melancholy circumstance,

and the czar in particular exhibited profound grief. But the birth of a

prince to the czarina converted their mourning into congratulations, and

the most extravagant festivities were held in honour of the event.

St. Petersburg had now gradually become the capital of Russia. Foreign

merchandise imported at Archangel was prohibited from being sent to

Moscow, and was consequently transmitted to St. Petersburg, which was

the residence of the court, of the principal nobility, and of all the

ambassadors from other powers, including at this period two from the

East. The rapidity with which its prosperity advanced was unparalleled.

Its manufactures increased with its external trade, and it soon assumed

a rank equal to that of some of the most important cities in Europe. The

fame and power of Peter were attaining their utmost height. Livonia,

Esthonia, Karelia, Ingria, and nearly the whole of Finland were now

annexed to the Russian Empire. He had established outlets to the sea by

which he could communicate in security with civilised Europe; and within

his own territories he had created new establishments adapted to the

various departments of industry, to the army, the navy, and the laws.

Prince Galitzin occupied Finland with a disciplined army; generals Bruce

and Bauer had the command of thirty thousand Russians, who were scattered

through Poland; Marshal Sheremetrev lay in Pomerania with a large

force; Weimar had surrendered by capitulation, and all the sovereigns

of the north were either his allies or his instruments. The dream of

Russian aggrandisement appeared now to be realised almost in full by the

sleepless activity and fertile genius of the czar. It was not surprising,

therefore, that the people of Stockholm daily expected that he would

appear before their gates, and, taking advantage of the disasters of

their fugitive monarch, reduce Sweden to subjection, as he had previously

laid waste the provinces that separated him from the coast of the Baltic

Sea on the one side, and the Black Sea on the other. He was master of

both shores of the gulf of Finland, and the possession of Sweden would

have given him the entire command of the Baltic and the gulf of Bothnia,

over which, even as it was, his flag ranged in freedom. But Peter was too

politic to attempt at this juncture so enormous an extension of power. He

was aware of the jealousies which such a disposition must have excited in

Germany and Poland, and he wisely contented himself with the acquisitions

he had already secured; suffering the headstrong Charles to bring his

kingdom into greater jeopardy, in the hope, probably, that it might

ultimately fall to pieces by its own weakness.

At this crisis of affairs the unprincipled Görtz endeavoured to effect

a union between the two monarchs; and negotiations, having that object

in view, were actually commenced, and might have been carried to a more

decisive conclusion but for events which diverted the attention of both

sovereigns into other channels. Görtz has been blamed for projecting this

treaty of reconciliation, and accused of desiring to accomplish through

its means a variety of results, such as the restoration of Pomerania to

Sweden and the crown of Poland to Stanislaus, the dethronement of the

king of England, and, by a conspiracy against the duke of Orléans, the

reduction of France under a Spanish regency. It is very probable that

the subtle minister might have contemplated some of these projects, that

he might have anticipated from the combined armies of the two northern

heroes the rescue of Spain and the advancement of Alberoni, and that

he might have even calculated upon the cession of Pomerania and the

recognition of Stanislaus. But, as the adviser of Charles XII, he was

justified in seeking an alliance which must in any case have greatly

benefited his master and protected his country against those imminent

dangers that appeared to be impending over it at the moment; and if he

looked beyond immediate advantages, to remote contingencies, the design

was not, on that account, the less worthy of applause. As it was, it

had the effect of openly confirming the dispositions of Peter towards

Sweden, the czar declaring that he did not enter into war for the sake

of glory, but for the good of the empire, and that he had no desire to

exhibit any feelings of animosity against an enemy whom he had deprived

of the power of doing mischief. Whatever faults may be charged upon

Görtz--and there is no doubt that they were numerous enough--history

must pronounce his conduct upon this occasion to have been guided by a

sagacious policy.

PETER’S SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR (1717 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1717 A.D.]]

Satisfied with the circumstances of the empire, and anxious to improve

his knowledge of other nations, Peter now resolved to undertake a second

tour through Europe. His first tour had been limited to practical

inquiries into the useful arts; but his second was mainly addressed to

an examination of the political systems of the European cabinets. When

he first left his own country to acquire information abroad, he was

young, ardent, uninstructed, and undistinguished; but now he had achieved

a name that was famous all over the world, and he was regarded, with

justice, as one of the most extraordinary persons of the age. During the

nineteen years that had elapsed, in the interval, he had strengthened and

enlarged his dominions, had traversed and subjugated many provinces, had

succeeded in accomplishing the great purposes of his wise ambition, and

had experienced amidst the splendid triumphs of his career some serious

reverses, from which such a mind as his could not fail to extract useful

admonitions. He went forth, followed by the gratitude of Russia, to

improve his knowledge of the means by which he could contribute still

more largely to her prosperity. The czarina accompanied him upon this

journey, but being in her third pregnancy she rested for a short time at

Schwerin, whence she soon afterwards set out to rejoin her husband at

Holland. On her way, however, she was again taken ill, and delivered at

Wesel of a prince, who died on the following day. This event, it appears,

did not delay her intention of meeting her husband in Holland, as we find

that in ten days afterwards she arrived in Amsterdam.

In the meantime Peter had visited Stralsund, Mecklenburg, Hamburg, and

Pyrmont, and subsequently proceeded to Copenhagen, where he was received

with great distinction by the king of Denmark. On this occasion, a

squadron of British ships, under the command of Sir John Norris, and a

squadron of Dutch ships, commanded by Rear-Admiral Grave, arrived at

Copenhagen; and, it being understood that a Swedish fleet was out at sea,

the four armaments, Russian, Danish, Dutch, and English, united under the

standard of the czar, and put out to sea. Not falling in with the Swedes,

who had secured their safety in Karlskrona, the fleets separated, and

Peter, taking leave of the court of Denmark, proceeded to Hamburg. This

incident was always referred to by Peter as one of the most gratifying

circumstances of his life, and even his proudest victories appeared to

afford him less pleasure than the recollection of the moment when he

raised his flag as commander-in-chief of the united fleets.

From Hamburg he continued his route to Lubeck, and had a private

interview with the king of Prussia at Havelberg, whence he returned

by the Elbe to Hamburg. The anecdotes of his journey that have been

preserved in a variety of personal memoirs are all calculated to show

the simplicity of his manners and his natural aversion to parade and

ceremony. At Nimeguen, where he arrived late at night in a common

postchaise, accompanied by only two attendants, he is said to have supped

upon poached eggs and a little bread and cheese, for which the landlord

charged 100 ducats the next morning. Peter remonstrated against the

demand, and inquired if eggs were so very scarce in that place. “No,”

replied the landlord, “but emperors are.” Peter paid the bill, and was

well satisfied to have purchased such a hint of European tactics at so

small a rate.

At Amsterdam he was received with a feeling of delight almost approaching

idolatry. The people regarded him as their pupil in the arts of commerce

and ship-building; and shared in the glories of the victor of Pultowa, as

if he were one of themselves. Nor did Peter hesitate in putting them as

much at their ease in his presence as he had done when he had formerly

lived amongst them, working like themselves and participating in their

hard labour and rude fare. The cottage in which he had resided when he

was learning the art of ship-building he now found just as he had left

it, but distinguished by the name of the Prince’s House, and preserved in

order by the affectionate people with unabated interest. Upon entering

this humble scene, he was deeply affected, and desired to be left alone.

The recollections that pressed upon him at that moment were not amongst

the least impressive of his busy life.

His residence in Holland, where he remained for three months, exhibited

a succession of trivial incidents connected with his former associates,

all of whom were recognised by the czar with the greatest cordiality;

but while he was thus engaged in revisiting the dockyards, in examining

models, and receiving small tokens of popular attachment, he was not

indifferent to matters of higher importance. The Hague, from the time of

the Peace of Nimeguen, had acquired the reputation of being the centre of

the negotiations of Europe, and was crowded with travellers and foreign

ministers. The foundations of a European revolution were then being laid

in the diplomatic circles of that place; and the czar prolonged his stay

in the Netherlands, with a view to assure himself more clearly of the

state of parties in the south and in the north, and to prepare for the

side which, in the course of time, it might become advisable for him to

take.

Keeping himself aloof from the intrigues by which he was surrounded, and

availing himself of all the opportunities within his reach of improving

his information respecting the state of Europe, he proceeded to fulfil

his intention of visiting France, after he had satisfied his curiosity

in Holland. Vast preparations, worthy of the occasion, were made in

France for his reception; but Peter, with his accustomed contempt of

splendour, desired to avoid the display as much as possible. Accompanied

by four gentlemen, he outstripped the escorts, and entered Paris without

ostentation. His journey was a succession of fêtes; wherever he appeared

he was treated with magnificence. His fame had penetrated the haunts of

art and science, as well as the halls of palaces; portraits of himself

and the czarina, medals with flattering inscriptions, and the most

ingenious devices, representing some of the events of his life, started

up before him in places where he least expected to meet such evidences of

his greatness. He stepped in the midst of triumphs, and renewed, in his

ovation at the French capital, the whole history of his glories as a hero

and a legislator. But he could not be flattered out of his simplicity.

Declining the offers of the court, he retired to a private hotel in

a remote quarter of the town, in order that he might employ his time

agreeably to his own wishes, instead of being trammelled by the fatiguing

and idle ceremonies of the Louvre.

He left Catherine behind him in Holland on this occasion, apprehending

that the witty court of France, with its sarcasms and its ceremonials,

might possibly wound by neglect the delicacy of a woman whose greatness

of soul elevated her above the conventions of the palace. The marriage

of Louis XIV with Madame de Maintenon bore some resemblance, it is

true, to his own union with Catherine; but Madame de Maintenon was an

accomplished person, and Catherine’s merits were of a different order.

Catherine was a heroine, Madame de Maintenon a fascinating woman.

Catherine had perilled life by the side of her husband, from the Pruth

to the Baltic, upon land and sea; Madame de Maintenon, retreating from

political display, was content to attest her devotion, and preserve

her supremacy, in retirement. Catherine was of obscure origin, Madame

de Maintenon was of noble birth; and while the czarina was publicly

acknowledged by Peter, Madame de Maintenon became the wife of Louis XIV

in private. Yet, although Peter determined not to risk the feelings of

the czarina in the French court, especially as the death of Louis XIV had

removed Madame de Maintenon from the position which she had previously

held, the last wish he expressed on leaving Paris was to see that

celebrated woman, the widow of the king.

Peter was not only a practical artist, but was well acquainted with

those sciences upon which the practical arts are based. He possessed

a mathematical mind and a skilful hand. The rapidity with which he

accumulated knowledge could be paralleled only by the tenacity with

which he retained it, and the facility with which he could employ it as

the occasion served. At the Academy of Sciences they placed before him,

amongst other curiosities, a map of Russia, which he instantly discovered

to be full of errors, and pointed out to the exhibitors the mistakes

they had made in the geography of his dominions, and of the tracts on

the borders of the Caspian Sea. He afterwards accepted at their hands

the honour of being admitted as a member of their body. He visited the

manufactories and mercantile depots, and carried away all the information

he could glean from them; had several private conferences with the French

ministers in relation to the subsisting peace between the northern

powers; and drew up the minutes of a treaty of commerce, which he caused

to be shaped into regular form, and negotiated on his return to St.

Petersburg.

Every moment was filled with business. He visited the tapestry of

the Gobelins, the carpets of the Savonnerie, the residences of the

goldsmiths, painters, sculptors, and mathematical instrument makers; and

so far overcame his scruples against appearing in public that he went to

see the French parliament, and attended public worship on two occasions

in state. Amongst the objects that extracted unbounded admiration from

him was the tomb of Cardinal Richelieu, one of the richest specimens

of sculpture in Paris. But it was not on account of the glories of the

chisel that it occupied his attention. He is said to have exclaimed, upon

seeing it, “Great man! I would have given half of my empire to learn of

thee how to govern the other half!”

Having satisfied his curiosity in France, he took his leave of that

country, carrying with him several artisans for the purpose of

establishing their different crafts in Russia. During the period of

his short residence in the French capital he inspired a universal

sentiment of respect. Although he did not hesitate to protest against

the luxurious extravagance of the court, and even carried the expression

of his opinions so far as to say that he “grieved for France and its

infant king, and believed that the latter was on the point of losing his

kingdom through luxury and superfluities”; yet the witty and satirical

courtiers, who observed him closely, were compelled to bear testimony

to the magnanimity of his nature. Contemporary criticism is of so much

value in the attempt to determine historical character that the opinions

which were pronounced concerning him at this period cannot be excluded

from the estimate which posterity will make of his faults and merits.

Louville,[l] who was attached to the court, describes him thus:

“His deportment is full of dignity and confidence, as becomes an absolute

master. He has large and bright eyes, with a penetrating and occasionally

stern glance. His motions, which are abrupt and hasty, betray the

violence of his passions and the impetuosity of his disposition; his

orders succeed each other rapidly and imperiously; he dismisses with

a word, with a sign, without allowing himself to be thwarted by time,

place, or circumstance, now and then forgetting even the rules of

decorum; yet with the regent and the young king he maintains his state,

and regulates all his movements according to the points of a strict and

proud etiquette. For the rest, the court discovered in him more great

qualities than bad ones; it considered his faults to be merely trivial

and superficial. It remarked that he was usually sober, and that he

gave way only now and then to excessive intemperance; that, regular in

his habits of living, he always went to bed at nine o’clock, rose at

four, and was never for a moment unemployed; and, accordingly, that

he was well-informed, and seemed to have a better knowledge of naval

affairs and fortification than any man in France.” The writers of that

period, who possessed the best opportunities of becoming acquainted

with his movements, speak in terms of admiration of the experienced

glance and skilful hand with which he selected the objects most worthy

of admiration, and of the avidity with which he examined the studios of

the artists, the manufactories, and the museums. The searching questions

which he put to learned men afforded sufficient proof, they observe,

of the sagacity of a capacious mind, which was as prompt to acquire

knowledge as it was eager to learn.

The journey of the czar through France, to rejoin the czarina at

Amsterdam, was distinguished by the same insatiable love of inquiry.

Sometimes he used to alight from his carriage, and wander into the fields

to converse with the husbandmen, taking notes of their observations,

which he treasured up for future use. The improvement of his empire was

always present to his thoughts, and he never suffered an occasion to pass

away, however trivial, from which he could extract a practical hint,

without turning it to account. His activity appeared to be incapable

of fatigue. From Amsterdam, accompanied by Catherine, he passed on to

Prussia. Upon his arrival at Berlin he went at once to a private lodging;

but the king sending his master of the ceremonies to attend upon him, the

czar informed that officer that he would wait upon his majesty the next

day at noon. Two hours before the time, a magnificent cortège of royal

carriages appeared before the door of the czar’s lodging; but when noon

arrived, they were informed that the czar was already with the king.

He had gone out by a private way, to avoid the magnificence which he

regarded as an impediment to action.

The character of Frederick of Prussia was distinguished by the same

blunt, persevering, military qualities which belonged to that of

Peter. He lived plainly, dressed like a common soldier, was extremely

abstemious, and exhibited in his habits even a needless severity of

discipline. The meeting, therefore, between sovereigns who so closely

resembled each other in their tastes, who were equally self-devoted

to the good of their people, and equally uncorrupted by the pomp and

temptations of power, was a spectacle such as history rarely presents.

The czarina was worthy of entering into the scene, for she was the only

female sovereign in Europe who could share, without shrinking, the toils

and difficulties of their career. Voltaire remarks that if Charles XII

had been admitted to the group, four crowned heads would have been seen

together, surrounded by less luxury than a German bishop or a Roman

cardinal.

But, while Peter, Catherine, and Frederick entertained an utter contempt

for ostentatious display, the fashion of the court, which was probably

directed by the queen, rendered it necessary that the illustrious

visitors should be treated with a show of grandeur and parade which

they despised. They were entertained in a costly style at the palace;

and their manners did not fail to excite the sarcasms and gossip of the

courtiers, who were incapable of comprehending the real dignity of their

character, and who were disappointed to find in the czar and czarina

of Russia a couple of plain, rough, and, agreeably to their notions,

vulgar persons. The particulars of this visit to the court of Prussia

are minutely commemorated in the loose and satirical memoirs of the day;

while the visits to Paris, Amsterdam, and London are recorded, without

a single exception, in a spirit of grave admiration, that exhibits a

curious contrast to the flippant tracasseries of Berlin.

Amongst the most pert and lively writers who chronicled the visit and

caricatured the czar and his simple train of followers, is the markgräfin

von Bayreuth. She gives a very amusing account in her memoirs of the

reception at court; and says that when Peter approached to embrace the

queen, her majesty looked as if she would rather be excused. Their

majesties were attended, she informs us, 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,

cook-maids, and washerwomen; almost every one of whom had a richly

clothed child in her arms. The queen, it is added, refused to salute

these creatures. At table the czar was seized with one of his convulsive

fits, at a moment when he happened to have a knife in his hand, and the

queen was so frightened that she attempted to leave the table; but Peter

told her not to be uneasy, assuring her that he would do her no harm. On

another occasion, he caught her by the hand with such force that she was

obliged to desire him to be more respectful; on which he burst out into a

loud fit of laughter, and said that she was much more delicate than his

Catherine. But the most entertaining part of the whole is a sketch of the

personal appearance of the uncultivated sovereigns. “The czarina,” says

the markgräfin, “is short and lusty, remarkably coarse, and without grace

or animation. One needs 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 bedecked with silver and tinsel. She was decorated with a dozen

orders, portraits of saints, and relics, which occasioned such a clatter

that when she walked one would suppose an ass with bells was approaching.

The czar, on the contrary, is tall and well made. His countenance is

handsome; but there is something in it so rude that it inspires one

with dread. He was dressed like a seaman, in a frock, without lace or

ornament.” The spirit of the tiring-woman shines through the whole of

this saucy and superficial description. The markgräfin took the measure

of the illustrious visitors as she would of her lady’s robe--colour,

spangles, and shape. It never occurred to her that, in the little coarse

woman who looked so like a German actress, she saw the heroine of the

Pruth; and that the rude seaman who frightened the queen was the man

who, amidst ignorant wonder and superstitious resistance, laid the

foundations of the most gigantic empire that the world has ever seen! But

the circumstances under which the markgräfin obtained her impressions

were unfavourable to the formation of a just opinion, or, indeed, of any

opinion at all. She was only eight years of age when she saw Peter and

Catherine, although she had arrived at a mature age when she wrote her

memoirs. She retained no more than the silly whispers and jests of the

ante-chamber. She noted down what she heard rather than what she thought;

but it serves to show very clearly the sort of atmosphere in which the

eccentric Frederick moved, and the courtly weaknesses against which,

in his own person, he must have been compelled to sustain a continual

warfare.

On Peter’s return through Holland, he purchased a variety of pictures of

the Dutch and Flemish schools, several zoölogical, entomological, and

anatomical cabinets, and a large collection of books. With the treasures

thus accumulated he laid the foundation of the imperial Academy of

Sciences, the plan of which he drew up himself. He would probably have

lingered longer in those countries, but for the intelligence which he

received concerning the conduct of his son Alexis, which induced him to

hasten to St. Petersburg under the agitation of bitter feelings, in which

the natural dispositions of the father were drawn into direct collision

with the duty of the sovereign.[c]

THE CZAREVITCH ALEXIS DISINHERITED (1718 A.D.)

The czar arrived at St. Petersburg from his foreign tour on the 21st of

October, 1717. Twenty years before he had signalised his return from

a first visit to civilised countries by the inhuman butchery of the

strelitz, and now he was about to give still more appalling evidence of

the deep depravity of his heart.

Peter’s early aversion to Eudoxia had a most deplorable influence on

Alexis, the son she bore him in 1690. The dissensions between the

father and the mother speedily diminished the father’s affection for

Alexis. Moreover, as Peter’s vast labours prevented him from paying much

attention to the education of his son, Alexis at first grew up under

female tuition, and then fell into the hands of some of the clergy, under

whose guidance he daily conceived a greater abhorrence for his father.

This being observed by Peter, he put an end to the spiritual education,

and appointed Menshikov superintendent of the prince’s preceptors.

Menshikov was no friend to Alexis, and the latter had been early inspired

by his mother with contempt and aversion for the favourite of his

father. The tutors who were now placed about the prince were not able

to eradicate the prejudices impressed on his mind from his infancy,

and now grown inveterate; besides, he had an unconquerable dislike to

them as foreigners. The future sovereign of so vast an empire that was

now reformed in all its parts, and by prosperous wars still further

enlarged; the heir of a throne whose possessor ruled over many millions

of people, had been brought up from his birth as if designed for a

Russian bishop; theology continued to be his favourite study. With a

capacity for those sciences which are useful in government, he discovered

no inclination to them. Moreover, he addicted himself early in life to

drunkenness and other excesses. There were not wanting such as flattered

his perverse dispositions, by representing to him that the Russian nation

was dissatisfied with his father, that it was impossible for him to be

suffered long in his career of innovation, that even his life was not

likely to hold out against so many fatigues, with many other things of a

like nature.

The conduct of Alexis, particularly his indolence and sloth, were highly

displeasing to Peter. Menshikov, from political motives, to preserve

himself and Catherine, was constantly employed in fanning the czar’s

resentment, while the adherents of Alexis, on the other hand, seized

every opportunity to increase the aversion of the prince, who, from his

very cradle, had never known what it was to love, and had only dreaded

his father. Alexis at times even gave plain intimations that he would

hereafter undo all that his father was so sedulously bringing about. Nay,

when the latter, in 1711, appointed the prince regent during his absence,

in the campaign of the Pruth, Alexis made it his first business to alter

many things in behalf of the clergy, so as clearly to evince in what

school he had been brought up.

The czar was in hopes of reforming his son by uniting him with a

worthy consort; but even this attempt proved fruitless. The princess

of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who was selected for his bride, and to

whom Alexis was married at Torgau, in 1711, notwithstanding all her

eminent qualities of mind and heart and her great beauty, could make no

impression on him, and sank under the load of grief brought on by this

unhappy connection, soon after giving birth to a prince, who was called

by the name of his grandfather, Peter (1715). By a continuance in his

dissolute mode of life, by his bad behaviour towards his spouse, and his

intercourse with persons who were notorious for their hatred of Peter and

his reforms, Alexis seemed bent upon augmenting his father’s displeasure.

After the death of the princess, Peter wrote his son a letter, the

conclusion of which ran thus: “I will still wait awhile, to see if you

will amend; if not, know that I will deprive you of the succession, as a

useless limb is cut off. Do not imagine I am only frightening you; nor

would I have you rely on the title of being my eldest son; for since I

do not spare my own life for the good of my country and the prosperity

of my people, why should I spare yours? I shall rather commit them to a

stranger deserving such a trust than to my own undeserving offspring.”

At this very juncture the empress Catherine was delivered of a prince,

who died in 1719. Whether the above letter disheartened Alexis, or

whether it was imprudence or bad advice, he wrote to his father that he

renounced the crown, and all hopes of reigning. “God is my witness,” said

he, “and I swear upon my soul, that I will never claim the succession;

I commit my children into your hands, and for myself desire only a

subsistence during life.”

His father wrote to him a second time. “I observe,” says he, “that all

you speak of in the letter is the succession, as if I stood in need

of your consent. I have represented to you what grief your behaviour

has given me for so many years, and not a word do you say of it; the

exhortations of a father make no impression on you. I have brought

myself to write to you once more; but for the last time. If you despise

my counsels now I am living, what regard will be paid to them after my

death? Though you may now mean not to violate your promises, yet those

bushy beards will be able to wind you as they please, and force you to

break your word. It is you those people rely on. You have no gratitude to

him who gave you life. Since you have been of proper age, did you ever

assist him in his labours? Do you not find fault with, do you not detest

everything I do for the good of my people? I have all the reason in the

world to believe that, if you survive me, you will overthrow all that I

have been doing. Amend, make yourself worthy of the succession, or turn

monk. Let me have your answer either in writing, or personally, or I will

deal with you as a malefactor.”

Though this letter was harsh, the prince might easily have answered

that he would alter his behaviour; but he only acquainted his father,

in a few lines, that he would turn monk. This assurance did not appear

natural; and it is something strange that the czar, going to travel,

should leave behind him a son so obstinate, but this very journey proves

that the czar was in no manner of apprehension of a conspiracy from

his son. He went to see him before he set out for Germany and France;

the prince being ill, or feigning to be so, received him in bed, and

confirmed to him, by the most solemn oaths, that he would retire into a

convent. The czar gave him six months for deliberation, and set out with

his consort.

He had scarcely reached Copenhagen when he received advice (which was no

more than he might well expect) that Alexis admitted into his presence

only evil-minded persons, who humoured his discontent; on this the czar

wrote to him that he must choose the convent or the throne, and, if he

valued the succession, to come to him at Copenhagen.

The prince’s confidants instilled into him a suspicion that it would be

dangerous for him to put himself into the hands of a provoked father

and a mother-in-law, without so much as one friend to advise with. He

therefore feigned that he was going to wait on his father at Copenhagen,

but took the road to Vienna, and threw himself on the protection of the

emperor Charles VI, his brother-in-law, intending to continue at his

court till the czar’s death.

This was an adventure something like that of Louis XI, who, whilst he was

dauphin, withdrew from the court of Charles VII, his father, to the duke

of Burgundy. Louis was, indeed, much more culpable than the czarevitch,

by marrying in direct opposition to his father, raising troops, and

seeking refuge with a prince, his father’s natural enemy, and never

returning to court, not even at the king’s repeated entreaties.

Alexis, on the contrary, had married purely in obedience to the czar’s

order, and had not revolted nor raised troops; neither, indeed, had he

withdrawn to a prince in anywise his father’s enemy; and, on the first

letter he received from his father, he went and threw himself at his

feet. For Peter, on receiving advice that his son had been at Vienna, and

had removed thence to Naples, then belonging to the emperor Charles VI,

sent Romanzov, a captain of the guards, and Tolstoi, a privy-councillor,

with a letter in his own hand, dated from Spa, the 21st of July, N.S.

1717. They found the prince at Naples, in the castle of St. Elmo, and

delivered him the letter, which was as follows:

“I now write to you, and for the last time, to let you know that you had

best comply with my will, which Tolstoi and Romanzov will make known to

you. On your obedience, I assure you, and promise before God, that I will

not punish you; so far from it, that if you return I will love you better

than ever. But if you do not, by virtue of the power I have received from

God as your father, I pronounce against you my eternal curse; and as your

sovereign, I assure you I shall find ways to punish you; in which I hope,

as my cause is just, God will take it in hand, and assist me in revenging

it. Remember further that I never used compulsion with you. Was I under

any obligation to leave you to your own option? Had I been for forcing

you, was not the power in my hand? At a word, I should have been obeyed.”

Relying on the faith thus solemnly given by a father and a sovereign,

Alexis returned to Russia. On the 11th of February, 1717, N.S., he

reached Moscow, where the czar then was, and had a long conference in

private with his father. A report immediately was spread through the city

that a reconciliation had taken place between the father and son, and

that everything was forgotten; but the very next day the regiments of

guards were ordered under arms, and the great bell of Moscow tolled. The

boyars and privy-councillors were summoned to the castle: the bishops,

the archimandrites, and two monks of the order of St. Basil, professors

of divinity, met in the cathedral. Alexis was carried into the castle

before his father without a sword, and as a prisoner; he immediately

prostrated himself, and with a flood of tears delivered to his father a

writing, in which he acknowledged his crimes, declared himself unworthy

of the succession, and asked only his life. The czar, raising him up, led

him to a closet, where he put several questions to him, declaring, that

if he concealed anything relating to his escape, his head should answer

for it. Afterwards the prince was brought back into the council-chamber,

where the czar’s declaration, which had been drawn up beforehand, was

publicly read.

The father in this piece reproached his son with his manifold vices, his

remissness in improving himself, his intimacy with the sticklers for

ancient customs, his misbehaviour towards his consort: “He has,” says

he, “violated conjugal faith, taking up with a low-born wench whilst his

wife was living.” Alexis might fairly have pleaded that in this kind

of debauchery he came immeasurably short of his father’s example. He

afterwards reproaches him with going to Vienna, and putting himself under

the emperor’s protection. He says that Alexis had slandered his father,

intimating to the emperor Charles VI that he was persecuted; and that a

longer stay in Muscovy was dangerous, unless he renounced the succession;

nay, that he went so far as to desire the emperor openly to defend him by

force of arms.[e]

_Death of the Czarevitch Alexis_

[Sidenote: [1718 A.D.]]

The proceedings against the czarevitch and his friends lasted for about

half a year: they were begun in Moscow and continued in St. Petersburg;

the cells of the fortress of the latter place were filled with prisoners,

amongst whom were two members of the royal family--the czarevitch

and Marie Alexievna; fresh persons were continually added to their

number, denounced under the pressure of unbearable tortures. One of the

differences between the legal proceedings of that period and the present

consists in the fact that, when we now have the evidence of a crime

before us, we endeavour to discover the persons guilty of it, whereas

then they sought to find out whether someone had not done something

criminal.

In May a “declaration” or manifesto was issued setting forth the

czarevitch’s crimes. His whole life was related in the manifesto;

mention was made of his idleness in studying, his disobedience to his

father’s will, his ill treatment of his wife, and finally his flight and

his apparent solicitation of the help of the German emperor and “the

protection of an armed hand,”--which was not at all clearly proved by the

evidence. There was, however, no mention in the manifesto of the fact

that he had been promised an unconditional pardon and the permission to

live at a distance with his beloved Euphrosyne. For all these offences,

for his disobedience to his father, his treachery and dissimulation, the

czarevitch and his “accomplices” were delivered up for judgment to the

tribunal; but this tribunal was not an ordinary one: it was a special

one, composed of persons named by Peter himself. Why was such a departure

made from the usual order of things? In matters of peculiar importance,

when it happened that persons in proximity to the throne were to be

judged, it was not unfrequent in western Europe that special, so-called

supreme tribunals were named. But this custom always gave reason to

suppose that the members of those supreme tribunals were only chosen

from amongst those who would be ready to fulfil the will of him who had

named them.

The committee appointed to judge the czarevitch consisted of 127 members

of the clergy and laity; in the instructions given by the czar to the

first it was enjoined that they should act “without any hypocrisy or

partiality”; in the instructions given to the laity the following was

signified: “I ask you in order that this matter may be truthfully

accomplished, without seeking to flatter me; without any respect for

persons, to act righteously, and not to destroy your souls and mine, so

that our consciences may be pure at the terrible day of judgment, and

our country secure.” Such were the words that the czar addressed to the

tribunal; they were fine in themselves, but their signification could not

have been great, because the judges were not independent. The conceptions

of the present time require that judges should not be afraid of being

dismissed from their functions, of being deprived of the salaries

accompanying these functions, and so on--then only can a judge be

entirely impartial; but were the judges of the czarevitch and in general

all the judges of that time in such a position? They were all persons in

the government service and entirely dependent on their chiefs; in the

present case whom was it they risked displeasing? The czar himself! It

was natural that they should try and read the czar’s will in the eyes of

Menshikov, Tolstoi, and others of his intimates.

On the 24th of June, 1718, the sentence of the supreme tribunal was

pronounced. The clergy refused to pronounce sentence, but the laity

unanimously decreed the penalty of death against the czarevitch.

Execution, however, did not follow, but something far more terrible than

a public death on the scaffold did--the czarevitch was tortured on the

rack. In fact, during the last days of the sitting of the tribunal, he

had been several times subjected to it and, he was even tortured after

sentence had been passed upon him! All this was more than the feeble

organism of the czarevitch could bear, and on the 26th of June he died

in a cell of the Petersburg fortress. Amongst the number of his friends

and sharers in his flight many were executed, others banished to distant

places, to monasteries and fortresses; amongst the latter was also the

czarevna Marie Alexievna, who was sent to Schlüsselburg.

Such is one of the darkest episodes of the reign of Peter. The czarevitch

Alexis could not have continued the work commenced by his father; he

could not have succeeded him; he might have been judged, even condemned,

if the tribunal (but an impartial tribunal) had found him guilty, and

his head might have fallen at the hands of the public executioner like

that of a criminal. But he was promised pardon if he would return, and

having returned he was delivered up to the tribunal, he was judged by

persons in whose impartiality it is impossible to believe; finally he

was tortured after sentence was pronounced, when everywhere, even to the

most insignificant of men and the greatest of criminals, time is given

to prepare for death. For these things history cannot forgive the czar.

Upon contemporaries the judgment and death of the czarevitch produced

a deep impression. There were persons who admired the czar’s decision

to sacrifice his son to the welfare of the country and his great plans;

they compared him to Brutus. But there were but few such persons and they

for the greater part were foreigners and not Russians. The greatness of

Brutus and civic virtues in general did not powerfully move the hearts of

our forefathers; but each of them felt that it was unnatural for a father

to take away his son’s life!

Terrible rumours as to the details of the czarevitch’s death began to

be current amongst the people; some said that he had been secretly

poisoned, others that he had been strangled, and yet others that the

czar himself had cut off his head in the cell. All these were fables,

but fables which, however, may even now be met with in the works of many

foreign authors and which also prove how powerfully the imagination of

contemporaries was affected by this event and how much it was talked

of. That noble quality of human nature--sympathy with sufferings even

when they are deserved--made the czarevitch dearer still to his numerous

partisans. The idea that Peter had indeed been “changed” became stronger.

The common people, the merchants, the clergy, even distinguished persons,

when they were not afraid of being overheard, said: “Would such a thing

have been possible if he were the rightful czar--would he have killed his

son and made the czarevna take the veil?” In some more fanatical minds

the idea became confirmed that the czarevitch was alive and the name of

the unfortunate young man became, as did in previous times the name of

the czarevitch Dmitri, an ensign for impostors and pretenders.[h]

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

The appalling episode we have just related was so far from engrossing

the thoughts of the czar that it hardly interrupted the course of his

ordinary occupations. Nay, as if to darken still more the tragic horrors

of the year 1718, by mingling with them the coarsest and most disgusting

buffoonery, it was in that very year he instituted the crapulous

burlesque of the Conclave. The occasion of it was this: During the czar’s

visit to Paris, the doctors of the Sorbonne addressed him with the view

of effecting a union between the Russo-Greek church and that of Rome, and

they presented to him a memorial full of learned arguments against the

schismatical tenets of his co-religionists. This memorial only gave great

offence to the court of Rome, without pleasing either the emperor or the

church of Russia.

“In this plan of reunion,” says Voltaire, “there were some political

matters which they did not understand, and some points of controversy

which they said they understood and which each party explained according

to its humour. There was a question about the Holy Ghost, who, according

to the Latins, proceeds from the Father and the Son; and according to

the Greeks, at present, proceeds from the Father, through the Son, after

having, for a long time, proceeded from the Father only. They quoted

St. Epiphanius, who says that ‘the Holy Ghost is not the Son’s brother,

nor the Father’s grandson.’ But the czar, at leaving Paris, had other

business than to explain passages from St. Epiphanius; however, he

received the Sorbonne’s memorial with great affability. They also wrote

to some Russian bishops, who returned a polite answer; but the greater

number received the overture with indignation.” It was to dissipate the

apprehensions of this reunion that, after expelling the Jesuits from his

dominions, he instituted the mock conclave, as he had previously set on

foot other burlesque exhibitions, for the purpose of turning the office

of patriarch into ridicule.

There was at his court an old man named Sotov, an enormous drunkard,

and a court-fool of long standing; he had taught the czar to write, and

by this service imagined that he deserved the highest dignities. Peter

promised to confer on him one of the most eminent in the known world: he

created him _kniaz papa_, that is to say, prince-pope, with a salary of

2,000 roubles, and a palace at St. Petersburg, in the Tatar ward. Sotov

was enthroned by buffoons; four fellows, who stammered, were appointed

to harangue him on his exaltation; his mock holiness created a number of

cardinals, and rode in procession at the head of them, sitting astride

on a cask of brandy, which was laid on a sledge drawn by four oxen. They

were followed by other sledges loaded with food and drink; and the march

was accompanied by the rough music of drums, trumpets, horns, hautboys,

and fiddles, all playing out of tune; and the clattering of pots and

pans, brandished by a troop of cooks and scullions. The train was swelled

by a number of men dressed as monks of various Romish orders, and each

carrying a bottle and glass. The czar and his courtiers brought up the

rear, the former in the garb of a Dutch skipper, the latter in various

comic disguises.

When the procession arrived at the place where the conclave was to be

held the cardinals were led into a long gallery, part of which had been

boarded off into a range of closets in each of which a cardinal was

shut up with plenty of food and intoxicating liquors. To every one of

their eminences were attached two conclavists--cunning young fellows,

whose business it was to ply their principals well with drink, carry

real or pretended messages to and fro between the members of the sacred

college, and provoke them to bawl out all sorts of abuse of each other

and of their respective families. The czar listened eagerly to all

this ribaldry, not forgetting in the midst of his glee to note down on

his tablets any hints of which it might be possible for him to make a

vindictive use. The cardinals were not released from confinement until

they were all agreed upon a number of farcical questions submitted to

them by the _kniaz papa_.

The orgie lasted three days and three nights. The doors of the conclave

were at last thrown open in the middle of the day, and the pope and his

cardinals were carried home dead drunk on sledges--that is to say, such

of them as survived; for some had actually died during the debauch, and

others never recovered from its effects. This stupid farce was repeated

three times; and on the last occasion especially it was accompanied with

other abominations, which admit of no description. Peter himself had his

death accelerated by his excesses in the last conclave.

From 1714 to 1717 Peter published ninety-two ordinances or regulations;

in 1718 alone, in that year of crime, thirty-six ukases, or regulations,

were promulgated, and twenty-seven in 1719. The majority of them related

directly to his new establishments. The council of mines dates in its

origin from that period, as do also the uniformity of weights and

measures, the institution of schools for teaching arithmetic in all the

towns of the empire; that of orphan-houses and foundling-hospitals,

of workshops for the poor, and of manufactories of tapestry, silks,

linens, and cloths for soldiers’ clothing; the founding of the city of

Ladoga; the canal of the same name, which he began with his own hands;

that of Kronstadt; the plan of another, which now unites the Baltic to

the Caspian by the intermedium of the Volga; besides numerous measures

of detail, including the police, the health of towns, lighting and

cleansing, founded upon what he had remarked during the previous year in

the great cities of Europe.

At this sanguinary epoch it was that, by this multitude of establishments

for the promotion of all kinds of industry, he gave the most rapid

impulse to the knowledge, commerce, and civilisation to which he

sacrificed his son; as though, by thus redoubling his activity, he had

sought to escape from himself, or to palliate, by the importance of the

result, the horror of the sacrifice. In several of these ordinances it

is remarkable that, either from the inconsistency which is inherent in

our nature or from the pride of a despot, which believes itself to be

detached from and above everything, he required respect to be paid to

religion, at the very moment when, with such cruelty, he was paying

no respect to the sanctity of his own oath; and yet the importance

of keeping sworn faith must have been well known to a prince who one

day said, “The irreligious cannot be tolerated because, by sapping

religion, they turn into ridicule the sacredness of an oath, which is the

foundation of all society.”

It is true that, on this occasion, pushing right into wrong, as he too

often did, he mutilated and banished to Siberia a miserable creature

who, when drunk, had been guilty of blasphemy. So intolerant was he

against intolerance. The raskolniks were, and still are, the blind and

uncompromising enemies of all innovation. One of them, at that period,

even believed that he might avenge heaven by an assassination. Under the

guise of a suppliant, this fanatic had easily penetrated into the chamber

of the prince; he was already within reach of him, and, while he feigned

to implore him, his hand was seeking for the dagger under his clothes,

when, fortunately, it dropped and betrayed the assassin, by falling at

the feet of the czar.