THE REBELLION.
1698
Precautions taken by the Czar--His uneasiness--His fury against his
enemies--His revolting appearance--Imperfect
communication--Conspiracy--Arguments used--Details of the plot--Pretext
of the guards--They commence their march--Alarm in Moscow--General
Gordon--A parley with the rebels--Influence of the Church--The clergy on
the side of the rebels--Conservatism--The Russian clergy--The armies
prepare for battle--The insurgents defeated--Massacre of
prisoners--Confession--Peter's arrival at Moscow--His terrible
severity--Peter becomes himself an executioner--The Guards--Gibbets--The
writer of the address to Sophia--The old Russian nobility--Arrival of
artisans--Retirement of Sophia--Her death
It will be recollected by the reader that Peter, before he set out on his
tour, took every possible precaution to guard against the danger of
disturbances in his dominions during his absence. The Princess Sophia
was closely confined in her convent. All that portion of the old Russian
Guards that he thought most likely to be dissatisfied with his proposed
reforms, and to take part with Sophia, he removed to fortresses at a
great distance from Moscow. Moscow itself was garrisoned with troops
selected expressly with reference to their supposed fidelity to his
interests, and the men who were to command them, as well as the great
civil officers to whom the administration of the government was committed
during his absence, were appointed on the same principle.
But, notwithstanding all these precautions, Peter did not feel entirely
safe. He was well aware of Sophia's ambition, and of her skill in
intrigue, and during the whole progress of his tour he anxiously watched
the tidings which he received from Moscow, ready to return at a moment's
warning in case of necessity. He often spoke on this subject to those
with whom he was on terms of familiar intercourse. On such occasions he
would get into a great rage in denouncing his enemies, and in threatening
vengeance against them in case they made any movement to resist his
authority while he was away. At such times he would utter most dreadful
imprecations against those who should dare to oppose him, and would work
himself up into such a fury as to give those who conversed with him an
exceedingly unfavorable opinion of his temper and character. The ugly
aspect which his countenance and demeanor exhibited at such times was
greatly aggravated by a nervous affection of the head and face which
attacked him, particularly when he was in a passion, and which produced
convulsive twitches of the muscles that drew his head by jerks to one
side, and distorted his face in a manner that was dreadful to behold. It
was said that this disorder was first induced in his childhood by some
one of the terrible frights through which he passed. However this may
have been, the affection seemed to increase as he grew older, and as the
attacks of it were most decided and violent when he was in a passion,
they had the effect, in connection with his coarse and dreadful language
and violent demeanor, to make him appear at such times more like some
ugly monster of fiction than like a man.
The result, in respect to the conduct of his enemies during his absence,
was what he feared. After he had been gone away for some months they
began to conspire against him. The means of communication between
different countries were quite imperfect in those days, so that very
little exact information came back to Russia in respect to the emperor's
movements. The nobles who were opposed to him began to represent to the
people that he had gone nobody knew where, and that it was wholly
uncertain whether he would ever return. Besides, if he did return, they
said it would only be to bring with him a fresh importation of foreign
favorites and foreign manners, and to proceed more vigorously than ever
in his work of superseding and subverting all the good old customs of the
land, and displacing the ancient native families from all places of
consideration and honor, in order to make room for the swarms of
miserable foreign adventurers that he would bring home with him in his
train.
By these and similar representations the opposition so far increased and
strengthened their party that, at length, they matured their arrangements
for an open outbreak. Their plan was, first, to take possession of the
city by means of the Guards, who were to be recalled for this purpose
from their distant posts, and by their assistance to murder all the
foreigners. They were then to issue a proclamation declaring that Peter,
by leaving the country and remaining so long away, had virtually
abdicated the government; and also a formal address to the Princess
Sophia, calling upon her to ascend the throne in his stead.
In executing this plan, negotiations were first cautiously opened with
the Guards, and they readily acceded to the proposals made to them. A
committee of three persons was appointed to draw up the address to
Sophia, and the precise details of the movements which were to take place
on the arrival of the Guards at the gates of Moscow were all arranged.
The Guards, of course, required some pretext for leaving their posts and
coming toward the city, independent of the real cause, for the
conspirators within the city were not prepared to rise and declare the
throne vacant until the Guards had actually arrived. Accordingly, while
the conspirators remained quiet, the Guards began to complain of various
grievances under which they suffered, particularly that they were not
paid their wages regularly, and they declared their determination to
march to Moscow and obtain redress. The government--that is, the regency
that Peter had left in charge--sent out deputies, who attempted to pacify
them, but could not succeed. The Guards insisted that they would go with
their complaints to Moscow. They commenced their march. The number of
men was about ten thousand. They pretended that they were only going to
the city to represent their case themselves directly to the government,
and then to march back again in a peaceable manner. They wished to know,
too, they said, what had become of the Czar. They could not depend upon
the rumors which came to them at so great a distance, and they were
determined to inform themselves on the spot whether he were alive or
dead, and when he was coming home.
The deputies returned with all speed to Moscow, and reported that the
Guards were on their march in full strength toward the city. The whole
city was thrown into a state of consternation. Many of the leading
families, anticipating serious trouble, moved away. Others packed up and
concealed their valuables. The government, too, though not yet
suspecting the real design of the Guards in the movement which they were
making, were greatly alarmed. They immediately ordered a large armed
force to go and meet the insurgents. This force was commanded by General
Gordon, the officer whom Peter had made general-in-chief of the army
before he set out on his tour.
General Gordon came up with the rebels about forty miles from Moscow. As
soon as he came near to them he halted, and sent forward a deputation
from his camp to confer with the leaders, in the hope of coming to some
amicable settlement of the difficulty. This deputation consisted of
Russian nobles of ancient and established rank and consideration in the
country, who had volunteered to accompany the general in his expedition.
General Gordon himself was one of the hated foreigners, and of course his
appearance, if he had gone himself to negotiate with the rebels, would
have perhaps only exasperated and inflamed them more than ever.
The deputation held a conference with the leaders of the Guards, and made
them very conciliatory offers. They promised that if they would return
to their duty the government would not only overlook the serious offense
which they had committed in leaving their posts and marching upon Moscow,
but would inquire into and redress all their grievances. But the Guards
refused to be satisfied. They were determined, they said, to march to
Moscow. They wished to ascertain for themselves whether Peter was dead
or alive, and if alive, what had become of him. They therefore were
going on, and, if General Gordon and his troops attempted to oppose them,
they would fight it out and see which was the strongest.
In civil commotions of this kind occurring in any of the ancient
non-Protestant countries in Europe, it is always a question of the utmost
moment which side the Church and the clergy espouse. It is true that the
Church and the clergy do not fight themselves, and so do not add any
thing to the physical strength of the party which they befriend, but they
add enormously to its moral strength, that is, to its confidence and
courage. Men have a sort of instinctive respect and fear for constituted
authorities of any kind, and, though often willing to plot against them,
are still very apt to falter and fall back when the time comes for the
actual collision. The feeling that, after all, they are in the wrong in
fighting against the government of their country, weakens them extremely,
and makes them ready to abandon the struggle in panic and dismay on the
first unfavorable turn of fortune. But if they have the Church and the
clergy on their side, this state of things is quite changed. The
sanction of religion--the thought that they are fighting in the cause of
God and of duty, nerves their arms, and gives them that confidence in the
result which is almost essential to victory.
It was so in this case. There was no class in the community more opposed
to the Czar's proposed improvements and reforms than the Church. Indeed,
it is always so. The Church and the clergy are always found in these
countries on the side of opposition to progress and improvement. It is
not that they are really opposed to improvement itself for its own sake,
but that they are so afraid of change. They call themselves
Conservatives, and wish to preserve every thing as it is. They hate the
process of pulling down. Now, if a thing is good, it is better, of
course, to preserve it; but, on the other hand, if it is bad, it is
better that it should be pulled down. When, therefore, you are asked
whether you are a Conservative or not, reply that that depends upon the
character of the institution or the usage which is attacked. If it is
good, let it stand. If it is bad, let it be destroyed.
In the case of Peter's proposed improvements and reforms the Church and
the clergy were Conservatives of the most determined character. Of
course, the plotters of the conspiracy in Moscow were in communication
with the patriarch and the leading ecclesiastics in forming their plans;
and in arranging for the marching of the Guards to the capital they took
care to have priests with them to encourage them in the movement, and to
assure them that in opposing the present government and restoring Sophia
to power they were serving the cause of God and religion by promoting the
expulsion from the country of the infidel foreigners that were coming in
in such numbers, and subverting all the good old usages and customs of
the realm.
It was this sympathy on the part of the clergy which gave the officers
and soldiers of the Guards their courage and confidence in daring to
persist in their march to Moscow in defiance of the army of General
Gordon, brought out to oppose them.
The two armies approached each other. General Gordon, as is usual in
such cases, ordered a battery of artillery which he had brought up in the
road before the Guards to fire, but he directed that the guns should be
pointed so high that the balls should go over the heads of the enemy.
His object was to intimidate them. But the effect was the contrary. The
priests, who had come into the army of the insurgents to encourage them
in the fight, told them that a miracle had been performed. God had
averted the balls from them, they said. They were fighting for the honor
of his cause and for the defense of his holy religion, and they might
rely upon it that he would not suffer them to be harmed.
But these assurances of the priests proved, unfortunately for the poor
Guards, to be entirely unfounded. When General Gordon found that firing
over the heads of the rebels did no good, ho gave up at once all hope of
any adjustment of the difficulty, and he determined to restrain himself
no longer, but to put forth the whole of his strength, and kill and
destroy all before him in the most determined and merciless manner. A
furious battle followed, in which the Guards were entirely defeated. Two
or three thousand of them were killed, and all the rest were surrounded
and made prisoners.
The first step taken by General Gordon, with the advice of the Russian
nobles who had accompanied him, was to count off the prisoners and hang
every tenth man. The next was to put the officers to the torture, in
order to compel them to confess what their real object was in marching to
Moscow. After enduring their tortures as long as human nature could bear
them, they confessed that the movement was a concerted one, made in
connection with a conspiracy within the city, and that the object was to
subvert the present government, and to liberate the Princess Sophia and
place her upon the throne. They also gave the names of a number of
prominent persons in Moscow who, they said, were the leaders of the
conspiracy.
It was in this state of the affair that the tidings of what had occurred
reached Peter in Vienna, as is related in the last chapter. He
immediately set out on his return to Moscow in a state of rage and fury
against the rebels that it would be impossible to describe. As he
arrived at the capital, he commenced an inquisition into the affair by
putting every body to the torture whom he supposed to be implicated as a
leader in it. From the agony of these sufferers he extorted the names of
innumerable victims, who, as fast as they were named, were seized and put
to death. There were a great many of the ancient nobles thus condemned,
a great many ladies of high rank, and large numbers of priests. These
persons were all executed, or rather massacred, in the most reckless and
merciless manner. Some were beheaded; some were broken on the wheel, and
then left to die in horrible agonies. Many were buried alive, their
heads only being left above the ground. It is said that Peter took such
a savage delight in these punishments, that he executed many of the
victims with his own hands. At one time, when half intoxicated at a
banquet, he ordered twenty of his prisoners to be brought in, and then,
with his brandy before him, which was his favorite drink, and which he
often drank to excess, he caused them to be led, one after another, to
the block, that he might cut off their heads himself. He took a drink of
brandy after each execution while the officers were bringing forward the
next man. He was just an hour, it was said, in cutting off the twenty
heads, which allows of an average of three minutes to each man. This
story is almost too horrible to be believed, but, unfortunately, it
comports too well with the general character which Peter has always
sustained in the opinion of mankind in respect to the desperate and
reckless cruelty to which he could be aroused under the influence of
intoxication and anger.
[Illustration: Peter turning executioner.]
About two thousand of the Guards were beheaded. The bodies of these men
were laid upon the ground in a public place, arranged in rows, with their
heads lying beside them. They covered more than an acre of ground. Here
they were allowed to lie all the remainder of the winter, as long, in
fact, as the flesh continued frozen, and then, when the spring came on,
they were thrown together into a deep ditch, dug to receive them, and
thus were buried.
There were also a great number of gibbets set up on all the roads leading
to Moscow, and upon these gibbets men were hung, and the bodies allowed
to remain there, like the beheaded Guards upon the ground, until the
spring.
As for the Princess Sophia, she was still in the convent where Peter had
placed her, the conspirators not having reached the point of liberating
her before their plot was discovered. Peter, however, caused the three
authors of the address, which was to have been made to Sophia, calling
upon her to assume the crown, to be sent to the convent, and there hung
before Sophia's windows. And then, by his orders, the arm of the
principal man among them was cut off, the address was put into his hand,
and, when the fingers had stiffened around it, the limb was fixed to the
wall in Sophia's chamber, as if in the act of offering her the address,
and ordered to remain so until the address should drop, of itself, upon
the floor.
Such were the horrible means by which Peter attempted to strike terror
into his subjects, and to put down the spirit of conspiracy and
rebellion. He doubtless thought that it was only by such severities as
these that the end could be effectually attained. At all events, the end
was attained. The rebellion was completely suppressed, and all open
opposition to the progress of the Czar's proposed improvements and
reforms ceased. The few leading nobles who adhered to the old customs
and usages of the realm retired from all connection with public affairs,
and lived thenceforth in seclusion, mourning, like good Conservatives,
the triumph of the spirit of radicalism and innovation which was leading
the country, as they thought, to certain ruin. The old Guards, whom it
had been proved so utterly impossible to bring over to Peter's views,
were disbanded, and other troops, organized on a different system, were
embodied in their stead. By this time the English ship-builders, and the
other mechanics and artisans that Peter had engaged, began to arrive in
the country, and the way was open for the emperor to go on vigorously in
the accomplishment of his favorite and long-cherished plans.
The Princess Sophia, worn out with the agitations and dangers through
which she had passed, and crushed in spirit by the dreadful scenes to
which her brother had exposed her, now determined to withdraw wholly from
the scene. She took the veil in the convent where she was confined, and
went as a nun into the cloisters with the other sisters. The name that
she assumed was Marpha.
Of course, all her ambitious aspirations were now forever extinguished,
and the last gleam of earthly hope faded away from her mind. She pined
away under the influences of disappointment, hopeless vexation, and
bitter grief for about six years, and then the nuns of the convent
followed the body of sister Marpha to the tomb.