THE CONDEMNATION AND DEATH OF ALEXIS.
1718
Condition of Alexis--The two tribunals--Their powers--The Czar calls
for a decision--His addresses to the two councils--Deliberation of the
clergy--Their answer--Their quotations from Scripture--Cautious
language used by the bishops--They suggest clemency and
mercy--Additional confessions made by Alexis--The priest--Tolstoi sent
to Alexis--The Czar's three final questions--Alexis's three
answers--His account of the manner in which he had been educated--His
feelings toward his father--His attempts to maim himself--His
treasonable designs--Alexis's confession sent to the council--Decision
of the council--The promise of pardon--Forfeiture of it--Conclusion of
the sentence--The signatures--The 6th of July--The Czar's mental
struggles--Alexis brought out to hear his sentence--Overwhelmed with
dismay--Visit of his father--Sorrowful scene--Alexis sends a second
time for his father--His death--Czar's circular--The body laid in
state--Rumors circulated--Funeral ceremonies--The opposition broken
up--The mother of Alexis--Afrosinia--The Czar pardons her
The examinations and investigations described in the last chapter were
protracted through a period of several months. They were commenced in
February, and were not concluded until June. During all this time
Alexis had been kept in close confinement, except when he had been
brought out before his judges for the various examinations and
cross-examinations to which he had been subjected; and as the truth in
respect to his designs became more and more fully developed, and the
danger in respect to the result increased, he sank gradually into a
state of distress and terror almost impossible to be conceived.
The tribunals before whom he was tried were not the regular judicial
tribunals of the country. They were, on the other hand, two grand
convocations of all the great official dignitaries of the Church and of
the state, that were summoned expressly for this purpose--not to
_decide_ the case, for, according to the ancient customs of the Russian
empire, that was the sole and exclusive province of the Czar, but to
aid him in investigating it, and then, if called upon, to give him
their counsel in respect to the decision of it. One of these
assemblies consisted of the ecclesiastical authorities, the
archbishops, the bishops, and other dignitaries of the Church. The
other was composed of nobles, ministers of state, officers of the army
and navy in high command, and other great civil and military
functionaries. These two assemblies met and deliberated in separate
halls, and pursued their investigations in respect to the several
persons implicated in the affair, as they were successively brought
before them, under the direction of the Czar, though the final disposal
of each case rested, it was well understood, with him alone.
At length, in the month of June, when all the other cases had been
disposed of, and the proof in respect to Alexis was considered
complete, the Czar sent in a formal address to each of these
conventions, asking their opinion and advice in respect to what he
ought to do with his son.
In his address to the archbishops and bishops, he stated that, although
he was well aware that he had himself absolute power to judge his son
for his crimes, and to dispose of him according to his own will and
pleasure, without asking advice of any one, still, "as men were
sometimes less discerning," he said, "in their own affairs than in
those of others, so that even the most skillful physicians do not run
the hazard of prescribing for themselves, but call in the assistance of
others when they are indisposed," in the same manner he, having the
fear of God before his eyes, and being afraid to offend him, had
decided to bring the question at issue between himself and his son
before them, that they might examine the Word of God in relation to it,
and give their opinion, in writing, what the will of God in such a case
might be. He wished also, he said, that the opinion to which they
should come should be signed by each one of them individually, with his
own hand.
He made a similar statement in his address to the grand council of
civil authorities, calling upon them also to give their opinion in
respect to what should be done with Alexis. "I beg of you," he said,
in the conclusion of his address, "to consider of the affair, to
examine it seriously and with attention, and see what it is that our
son has deserved, without flattering me, or apprehending that, if in
your judgment he deserves no more than slight punishment, it will be
disagreeable to me; for I swear to you, by the Great God and by his
judgments, that you have nothing to fear from me on this account.
"Neither are you to allow the consideration that it is the son of your
sovereign that you are to pass judgment upon to have any effect upon
you. But do justice without respect of persons, so that your
conscience and mine may not reproach us at the great day of judgment."
The convocation of clergy, in deliberating upon the answer which they
were to make to the Czar, deemed it advisable to proceed with great
caution. They were not quite willing to recommend directly and openly
that Alexis should be put to death, while, at the same time, they
wished to give the sanction of their approval for any measures of
severity which the Czar might be inclined to take. So they forbore to
express any positive opinion of their own, but contented themselves
with looking out in the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament,
the terrible denunciations which are therein contained against
disobedient and rebellious children, and the accounts of fearful
punishments which were inflicted upon them in Jewish history. They
began their statement by formally acknowledging that Peter himself had
absolute power to dispose of the case of his son according to his own
sovereign will and pleasure; that they had no jurisdiction in the case,
and could not presume to pronounce judgment, or say any thing which
could in any way restrain or limit the Czar in doing what he judged
best. But nevertheless, as the Czar had graciously asked them for
their counsel as a means of instructing his own mind previously to
coming to a decision, they would proceed to quote from the Holy
Scriptures such passages as might be considered to bear upon the
subject, and to indicate the will of God in respect to the action of a
sovereign and father in such a case.
They then proceeded to quote the texts and passages of Scripture. Some
of these texts were denunciations of rebellious and disobedient
children, such as, "The eye that mocketh his father and that despiseth
to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out," and
the Jewish law providing that, "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious
son, who will not obey the voice of his father nor the voice of his
mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto
them, then shall his father and mother lay hold of him, and bring him
out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place, and
shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is rebellious: he
will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the
men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die."
There were other passages quoted relating to actual cases which
occurred in the Jewish history of sons being punished with death for
crimes committed against their parents, such as that of Absalom, and
others.
The bearing and tendency of all these extracts from the Scriptures was
to justify the severest possible treatment of the unhappy criminal.
The bishops added, however, at the close of their communication, that
they had made these extracts in obedience to the command of their
sovereign, not by way of pronouncing sentence, or making a decree, or
in any other way giving any authoritative decision on the question at
issue, but only to furnish to the Czar himself such spiritual guidance
and instruction in the case as the word of God afforded. It would be
very far from their duty, they said, to condemn any one to death, for
Jesus Christ had taught his ministers not to be governed by a spirit of
anger, but by a spirit of meekness. They had no power to condemn any
one to death, or to seek his blood. That, when necessary, was the
province of the civil power. Theirs was to bring men to repentance of
their sins, and to offer them forgiveness of the same through Jesus
Christ their Savior.
They therefore, in submitting their communication to his imperial
majesty, did it only that he might do what seemed right in his own
eyes. "If he concludes to punish his fallen son," they said,
"according to his deeds, and in a manner proportionate to the enormity
of his crimes, he has before him the declarations and examples which we
have herein drawn from the Scriptures of the Old Testament. If, on the
other hand, he is inclined to mercy, he has the example of Jesus
Christ, who represented the prodigal son as received and forgiven when
he returned and repented, who dismissed the woman taken in adultery,
when by the law she deserved to be stoned, and who said that he would
have mercy and not sacrifice."
The document concluded by the words,
"The heart of the Czar is in the hand of God, and may he choose the
part to which the hand of God shall turn it."
As for the other assembly, the one composed of the nobles and senators,
and other great civil and military functionaries, before rendering
their judgment they caused Alexis to be brought before them again, in
order to call for additional explanations, and to see if he still
adhered to the confessions that he had made. At these audiences Alexis
confirmed what he had before said, and acknowledged more freely than he
had done before the treasonable intentions of which he had been guilty.
His spirit seems by this time to have been completely broken, and he
appeared to have thought that the only hope for him of escape from
death was in the most humble and abject confessions and earnest
supplications for pardon. In these his last confessions, too, he
implicated some persons who had not before been accused. One was a
certain priest named James. Alexis said that at one time he was
confessing to this priest, and, among other sins which he mentioned, he
said "that he wished for the death of his father." The priest's reply
to this was, as Alexis said, "God will pardon you for that, my son, for
we all," meaning the priests, "wish it too." The priest was
immediately arrested, but, on being questioned, he denied having made
any such reply. The inquisitors then put him to the torture, and there
forced from him the admission that he had spoken those words. Whether
he had really spoken them, or only admitted it to put an end to the
torture, it is impossible to say.
They asked him for the names of the persons whom he had heard express a
desire that the Czar should die, but he said he could not recollect.
He had heard it from several persons, but he could not remember who
they were. He said that Alexis was a great favorite among the people,
and that they sometimes used to drink his health under the designation
of the Hope of Russia.
The Czar himself also obtained a final and general acknowledgment of
guilt from his son, which he sent in to the senate on the day before
their judgment was to be rendered. He obtained this confession by
sending Tolstoi, an officer of the highest rank in his court, and the
person who had been the chief medium of the intercourse and of the
communications which he had held with his son during the whole course
of the affair, with the following written instructions:
"To M. TOLSTOI, PRIVY COUNSELOR:
"Go to my son this afternoon, and put down in writing the answers he
shall give to the following questions:
"I. What is the reason why he has always been so disobedient to me, and
has refused to do what I required of him, or to apply himself to any
useful business, notwithstanding all the guilt and shame which he has
incurred by so strange and unusual a course?
"II. Why is it that he has been so little afraid of me, and has not
apprehended the consequences that must inevitably follow from his
disobedience?
"III. What induced him to desire to secure possession of the crown
otherwise than by obedience to me, and following me in the natural
order of succession? And examine him upon every thing else that bears
any relation to this affair."
Tolstoi went to Alexis in the prison, and read these questions to him.
Alexis wrote out the following statement in reply to them, which
Tolstoi carried to the Czar:
"I. Although I was well aware that to be disobedient as I was to my
father, and refuse to do what please him, was a very strange and
unusual course, and both a sin and a shame, yet I was led into it, in
the first instance, in consequence of having been brought up from my
infancy with a governess and her maids, from whom I learned nothing but
amusements, and diversions, and bigotry, to which I had naturally an
inclination.
"The person to whom I was intrusted after I was removed from my
governess gave me no better instructions.
"My father, afterward being anxious about my education, and desirous
that I should apply myself to what became the son of the Czar, ordered
me to learn the German language and other sciences, which I was very
averse to. I applied myself to them in a very negligent manner, and
only pretended to study at all in order to gain time, and without
having any inclination to learn any thing.
"And as my father, who was then frequently with the army, was absent
from me a great deal, he ordered his serene highness, the Prince
Menzikoff, to have an eye upon me. While he was with me I was obliged
to apply myself, but, as soon as I was out of his sight, the persons
with whom I was left, observing that I was only bent on bigotry and
idleness, on keeping company with priests and monks, and drinking with
them, they not only encouraged me to neglect my business, but took
pleasure in doing as I did. As these persons had been about me from my
infancy, I was accustomed to observe their directions, to fear them,
and to comply with their wishes in every thing, and thus, by degrees,
they alienated my affections from my father by diverting me with
pleasures of this nature; so that, by little and little, I came to have
not only the military affairs and other actions of my father in horror,
but also his person itself, which made me always wish to be at a
distance from him. Alexander Kikin especially, when he was with me,
took a great deal of pains to confirm me in this way of life.
"My father, having compassion on me, and desiring still to make me
worthy of the state to which I was called, sent me into foreign
countries; but, as I was already grown to man's estate, I made no
alteration in my way of living.
"It is true, indeed, that my travels were of some advantage to me, but
they were insufficient to erase the vicious habits which had taken such
deep root in me.
"II. It was this evil disposition which prevented my being apprehensive
of my father's correction for my disobedience. I was really afraid of
him, but it was not with a filial fear. I only sought for means to get
away from him, and was in no wise concerned to do his will, but to
avoid, by every means in my power, what he required of me. Of this I
will now freely confess one plain instance.
"When I came back to Petersburg to my father from abroad, at the end of
one of my journeys, he questioned me about my studies, and, among other
things, asked me if I had forgotten what I had learned, and I told him
no. He then asked me to bring him some of my drawings of plans. Then,
fearing that he would order me to draw something in his presence, which
I could not do, as I knew nothing of the matter, I set to work to
devise a way to hurt my hand so that it should be impossible for me to
do any thing at all. So I charged a pistol with ball, and, taking it
in my left hand, I let it off against the palm of my right, with a
design to have shot through it. The ball, however, missed my hand,
though the powder burned it sufficiently to wound it. The ball entered
the wall of my room, and it may be seen there still.
"My father, observing my hand to be wounded, asked me how it came. I
told him an evasive story, and kept the truth to myself. By this means
you may see that I was afraid of my father, but not with a proper
filial fear.[1]
"III. As to my having desired to obtain the crown otherwise than by
obedience to my father, and following him in regular order of
succession, all the world may easily understand the reason; for, when I
was once out of the right way, and resolved to imitate my father in
nothing, I naturally sought to obtain the succession by any, even the
most wrongful method. I confess that I was even willing to come into
possession of it by foreign assistance, if it had been necessary. If
the emperor had been ready to fulfill the promise that he made me of
procuring for me the crown of Russia, even with an armed force, I
should have spared nothing to have obtained it.
"For instance, if the emperor had demanded that I should afterward
furnish him with Russian troops against any of his enemies, in exchange
for his service in aiding me, or large sums of money, I should have
done whatever he pleased. I would have given great presents to his
ministers and generals over and above. In a word, I would have thought
nothing too much to have obtained my desire."
This confession, after it was brought to the Czar by Tolstoi, to whom
Alexis gave it, was sent by him to the great council of state, to aid
them in forming their opinion.
The council were occupied for the space of a week in hearing the case,
and then they drew up and signed their decision.
The statement which they made began by acknowledging that they had not
of themselves any original right to try such a question, the Czar
himself, according to the ancient constitution of the empire, having
sole and exclusive jurisdiction in all such affairs, without being
beholden to his subjects in regard to them in any manner whatever; but,
nevertheless, as the Czar had deemed it expedient to refer it to them,
they accepted the responsibility, and, after having fully investigated
the case, were now ready to pronounce judgment.
They then proceeded to declare that, after a full hearing and careful
consideration of all the evidence, both oral and written, which had
been laid before them, including the confessions of Alexis himself,
they found that he had been guilty of treason and rebellion against his
father and sovereign, and deserved to suffer death.
"And although," said the council, in continuation, "although, both
before and since his return to Russia, the Czar his father had promised
him pardon on certain conditions, yet those conditions were
particularly and expressly specified, especially the one which provided
that he should make a full and complete confession of all his designs,
and of the names of all the persons who had been privy to them or
concerned in the execution of them. With these conditions, and
particularly the last, Alexis had not complied, but had returned
insincere and evasive answers to the questions which had been put to
him, and had concealed not only the names of a great many of the
principal persons that were involved in the conspiracy, but also the
most important designs and intentions of the conspirators, thus making
it appear that he had determined to reserve to himself an opportunity
hereafter, when a favorable occasion should present itself, of resuming
his designs and putting his wicked enterprise into execution against
his sovereign and father. He thus had rendered himself unworthy of the
pardon which his father had promised him, and had forfeited all claim
to it."
The sentence of the council concluded in the following words:
"It is with hearts full of affliction and eyes streaming down with
tears that we, as subjects and servants, pronounce this sentence,
considering that, being such, it does not belong to us to enter into a
judgment of so great importance, and particularly to pronounce sentence
against the son of the most mighty and merciful Czar our lord.
However, since it has been his will that we should enter into judgment,
we herein declare our real opinion, and pronounce this condemnation,
with a conscience so pure and Christian that we think we can answer for
it at the terrible, just, and impartial judgment of the Great God.
"To conclude, we submit this sentence which we now give, and the
condemnation which we make, to the sovereign power and will, and to the
merciful review of his Czarian majesty, our most merciful monarch."
This document was signed in the most solemn manner by all the members
of the council, nearly one hundred in number. Among the signatures are
the names of a great number of ministers of state, counselors,
senators, governors, generals, and other personages of high civil and
military rank. The document, when thus formally authenticated, was
sent, with much solemn and imposing ceremony, to the Czar.
The Czar, after an interval of great suspense and solicitude, during
which he seems to have endured much mental suffering, confirmed the
judgment of the council, and a day was appointed on which Alexis was to
be arraigned, in order that sentence of death, in accordance with it,
might be solemnly pronounced upon him.
The day appointed was the 6th of July, nearly a fortnight after the
judgment of the court was rendered to the Czar. The length of this
delay indicates a severe struggle in the mind of the Czar between his
pride and honor as a sovereign, feelings which prompted him to act in
the most determined and rigorous manner in punishing a rebel against
his government, and what still remained of his parental affection for
his son. He knew well that after what had passed there could never be
any true and genuine reconciliation, and that, as long as his son
lived, his name would be the watchword of opposition and rebellion, and
his very existence would act as a potent and perpetual stimulus to the
treasonable designs which the foes of civilization and progress were
always disposed to form. He finally, therefore, determined that the
sentence of death should at least be pronounced. What his intention
was in respect to the actual execution of it can never be known.
When the appointed day arrived a grand session of the council was
convened, and Alexis was brought out from the fortress where he was
imprisoned, and arraigned before it for the last time. He was attended
by a strong guard. On being placed at the bar of the tribunal, he was
called upon to repeat the confessions which he had made, and then the
sentence of death, as it had been sent to the Czar, was read to him.
He was then taken back again to his prison as before.
Alexis was overwhelmed with terror and distress at finding himself thus
condemned; and the next morning intelligence was brought to the Czar
that, after suffering convulsions at intervals through the night, he
had fallen into an apoplectic fit. About noon another message was
brought, saying that he had revived in some measure from the fit, yet
his vital powers seemed to be sinking away, and the physician thought
that his life was in great danger.
The Czar sent for the principal ministers of state to come to him, and
he waited with them in great anxiety and agitation for farther tidings.
At length a third messenger came, and said that it was thought that
Alexis could not possibly outlive the evening, and that he longed to
see his father. The Czar immediately requested the ministers to
accompany him, and set out from his palace to go to the fortress where
Alexis was confined. On entering the room where his dying son was
lying, he was greatly moved, and Alexis himself, bursting into tears,
folded his hands and began to entreat his father's forgiveness for his
sins against him. He said that he had grievously and heinously
offended the majesty of God Almighty and of the Czar; that he hoped he
should not recover from his illness, for if he should recover he should
feel that he was unworthy to live. But he begged and implored his
father, for God's sake, to take off the curse that he had pronounced
against him, to forgive him for all the heinous crimes which he had
committed, to bestow upon him his paternal blessing, and to cause
prayers to be put up for his soul.
While Alexis was speaking thus, the Czar himself, and all the ministers
and officers who had come with him, were melted in tears. The Czar
replied kindly to him. He referred, it is true, to the sins and crimes
of which Alexis had been guilty, but he gave him his forgiveness and
his blessing, and then took his leave with tears and lamentations which
rendered it impossible for him to speak, and in which all present
joined. The scene was heart-rending.
[Illustration: The Czar's visit to Alexis in prison.]
At five o'clock in the evening a major of the Guards came across the
water from the fortress to the Czar's palace with a message that Alexis
was extremely desirous to see his father once more. The Czar was at
first unwilling to comply with this request. He could not bear, he
thought, to renew the pain of such an interview. But his ministers
advised him to go. They represented to him that it was hard to deny
such a request from his dying son, who was probably tormented by the
stings of a guilty conscience, and felt relieved and comforted when his
father was near. So Peter consented to go. But just as he was going
on board the boat which was to take him over to the fortress, another
messenger came saying that it was too late. Alexis had expired.
On the next day after the death of his son, the Czar, in order to
anticipate and preclude the false rumors in respect to the case which
he knew that his enemies would endeavor to spread throughout the
Continent, caused a brief but full statement of his trial and
condemnation, and of the circumstances of his death, to be drawn up and
sent to all his ministers abroad, in order that they might communicate
the facts in an authentic form to the courts to which they were
respectfully accredited.[2]
The ninth day of July, the third day after the death of Alexis, was
appointed for the funeral. The body was laid in a coffin covered with
black velvet. A pall of rich gold tissue was spread over the coffin,
and in this way the body was conveyed to the church of the Holy
Trinity, where it was laid in state. It remained in this condition
during the remainder of that day and all of the next, and also on the
third day until evening. It was visited by vast crowds of people, who
were permitted to come up and kiss the hands of the deceased.
On the evening of the third day after the body was conveyed to the
church, the funeral service was performed, and the body was conveyed to
the tomb. A large procession, headed by the Czar, the Czarina, and all
the chief nobility of the court, followed in the funeral train. The
Czar and all the other mourners carried in their hands a small wax
taper burning. The ladies were all dressed in black silks. It was
said by those who were near enough in the procession to observe the
Czar that he went weeping all the way.
At the service in the church a funeral sermon was pronounced by the
priest from the very appropriate text, "O Absalom! my son! my son
Absalom!"
Thus ended this dreadful tragedy. The party who had been opposed to
the reforms and improvements of the Czar seems to have become
completely disorganized after the death of Alexis, and they never again
attempted to organize any resistance to Peter's plans. Indeed, most of
the principal leaders had been executed or banished to Siberia. As to
Ottokesa, the first wife of the Czar, and the mother of Alexis, who was
proved to have been privy to his designs, she was sent away to a strong
castle, and shut up for the rest of her days in a dungeon. So close
was her confinement that even her food was put in to her through a hole
in the wall.
It remains only to say one word in conclusion in respect to Afrosinia.
When Alexis was first arrested, it was supposed that she, having been
the slave and companion of Alexis, was a party with him in his
treasonable designs; but in the course of the examinations it appeared
very fully that whatever of connection with the affair, or
participation in it, she may have had, was involuntary and innocent,
and the testimony which she gave was of great service in unraveling the
mystery of the whole transaction. In the end, the Czar expressed his
satisfaction with her conduct in strong terms. He gave her a full
pardon for the involuntary aid which she had rendered Alexis in
carrying out his plans. He ordered every thing which had been taken
away from her to be restored, made her presents of handsome jewelry,
and said that if she would like to be married he would give her a
handsome portion out of the royal treasury. But she promptly declined
this proposal. "I have been compelled," she said, "to yield to one
man's will by force; henceforth no other shall ever come near my side."
[1] This incident shows to what a reckless and brutal state of
desperation Alexis had been reduced by the obstinacy of his opposition
to his father, and by the harshness of his father's treatment of him.
He confessed, on another occasion, that he had often taken medicine to
produce an apparent sickness, in order to have an excuse for not
attending to duties which his father required of him.
[2] There were, in fact, a great many rumors put in circulation, and
they spread very far, and were continued in circulation a long time.
One story was that Alexis was poisoned. Another, that his father
killed him with his own hands in the prison. It was said in London
that he beat him to death with an iron chain. The extent to which
these and similar stories received currency indicates pretty clearly
what ideas prevailed in men's minds at that time in respect to the
savage ferocity of Peter's character.