It was at this time I first became intimate with a certain young lion
cub destined before many years were passed--though few guessed it as
yet--to become a very great and uncouth beast, and to startle the world
with very loud roarings. Let me draw a picture of the said beast, whose
name was Peter Alexeyevitch, the younger son of the Tsar Alexis.
‘You shall come and show my fellows how to ride,’ he had said to me, and
to Preobrajensky I went, little dreaming how curious and suggestive a
state of affairs I should find there. At Preobrajensky, but a few miles
from Moscow, the younger Tsar lived with his mother, the Tsaritsa
Nathalia, whose authority, since the Streltsi insurrection, had declined
to zero, having given place to that of the Regent Sophia and her lover,
Vassili Galitsin.
In this retreat mother and son lived almost undisturbed by the duties of
young Peter’s high position, for it was the policy of Sophia to keep
the Tsar in the background, causing him to visit Moscow only on those
rare occasions of ceremony when the presence of the nominal heads of the
realm was absolutely necessary. Peter was allowed to live as he
would--his vices to have free run, his follies to remain unchecked, in
the hope that his subjects might thus behold him develop into an
unworthy prince, on whose behalf it would be foolish to overturn a
better if less legitimate order of things.
And, indeed, there were few at this time who watched the growth of this
prince with any particular interest, as of one destined to great things.
Whether he himself guessed his own greatness or no I cannot tell, though
it is certain that it was possible to gather from an occasional remark
from his lips that he was at least awake, and that the present position
of politics and its possible development in his favour had not
altogether escaped him.
I found him among grooms and cook boys, a motley company of his chosen
companions, the base lump being leavened by the presence of a few sons
of well-known Boyars. These were one and all members of the ‘Pleasure
Regiment’ which it was Peter’s delight at this time to keep and to
train: an odd assortment indeed of young moujiks, servants upon the
estate, young Boyars and _dvoryanins_, and every lad with a taste for
soldiering or for wild living who had happened to hear of and be
attracted by the half-serious, all-boyish activity of the young Tsar at
Preobrajensky.
I found him drinking beer among the stable lads and moujiks who formed
his chosen circle of friends and officers, and though assuredly Peter
Alexeyevitch gave at that time scarcely a hint of the greatness that was
in him, being as yet but in his sixteenth or seventeenth year, and with
apparently little seriousness of thought about him, yet I felt
marvellously attracted by the youth, believing that I saw in him more
than I had been taught at Moscow to credit him withal, where it was the
fashion to cry him down as a prince of little promise, given to excess
of every kind, but possessing no solidity of character, no ambition, no
sense of the responsibility of his position and of its duties. ‘He is a
fool!’ Galitsin had said in my hearing, ‘a fool with many vices; one
who, without the wisdom of the Regent to restrain him, might be a danger
to the State.’
As to his personal appearance, this was most striking. Tall beyond
belief, lanky, somewhat round in the shoulder, long-armed, dark-haired,
large-eyed, round-faced, pleasant in expression until the moment when
some word or action of his companion’s or even some thought of his own
aroused a feeling of anger, when at once his eyes became harsh and cruel
like a savage beast’s, and his brow would knit and his mouth scowl. At
such a moment too, his head would turn with a spasmodic jerk over his
shoulder as though he would look at his heel, and sometimes he would
grasp the nearest object with his hands--whether a man or a piece of
furniture--as if to steady himself.
During these paroxysms Peter Alexeyevitch was a dangerous neighbour,
having little control over himself. I have heard it said at the Russian
Court that he is not to be blamed for such attacks, which were the
simple result of those scenes of horror and carnage to which he was
condemned at the age of ten by the excesses of the Streltsi, when his
young feet were dragged by them through the blood of his uncles, his
mother’s brothers, the Naryshkins, and when he was a personal witness of
the murders of Dolgorouki, Matveyeff, and other victims.
For myself I have rarely seen him in a fit of passion, for it happened
that he was pleased to take a fancy for me from our first acquaintance,
and was ever kind and gracious towards me.
‘Sit, Chelminsky, and drink with us,’ he now cried, as I entered the
large and dirty barrack room in which the company were assembled. ‘You
are welcome; brothers, this is the prince of Cossacks, Chelminsky, who
shall teach us all to ride presently. Meanwhile, give him the biggest
tankard, and stand, all, while he drinks. There is beer and mead,
Chelminsky; choose your stuff and drink till you’re drunk--it is our
rule.’
‘Then I must ride before I drink,’ I laughed, ‘or I shall only teach
your fellows how to fall off.’
I was allowed to postpone my drinking upon this plea, for which I must
thank the youth of the Tsar, for assuredly but a year or two later, and
ever afterwards, he would have listened to no excuse from any whom it
pleased him to bid drink with him. To drink with the Tsar meant certain
intoxication--for the guest, at least, if not for the Tsar also; but,
being liberally gifted by nature in this as in most other respects,
Peter was sometimes able to withstand when all around had succumbed.
Yet, so robust was he that, however late he may have lingered over his
wine cups by night, he was invariably able and ready to begin a long
day’s work so soon as morning arrived, and to go through with it as no
other man in the realm could have done.
I rode for an hour before this motley crew, showing them many Cossack
tricks, to the great delight of the Tsar himself and of his
companions--such as picking up a sword from the ground while passing at
full gallop; vaulting into the saddle as the horse flew round in a
circle; standing, kneeling, lying when in full career, and so forth.
Both the Tsar himself and many of his half-drunken companions must needs
emulate my performances, one of the fellows breaking an arm and another
his head, and the Tsar himself twisting his ankle in a fashion that
caused him to walk lamely for several days afterwards. Meanwhile Peter
expressed to me his satisfaction after his own manner. He smote me
violently upon the shoulder:
‘By the saints, Chelminsky, a troop of horsemen like yourself should
make themselves felt in a battle; one day, maybe, we shall fight
together. Why should I not add fifty Cossacks to this regiment of mine?
I will speak with you again of the matter, when I am sober.’
But since the Tsar was far from sober at this time, and for the rest of
the day, I had no opportunity to discuss the matter.
But I met young Boutourlin in Moscow a day or two later, and spoke with
him. The young Tsar was delighted with me, he said: ‘And that may prove
a wonderful thing for you, Chelminsky; for, believe me, this lion cub
that yawns to-day and plays with bones shall hunt for himself to-morrow;
and those who are his playmates now will presently become his princes
and ministers.’
‘What! these grooms and moujiks?’ I laughed.
But Boutourlin wagged his head solemnly. ‘Both they and we,’ he said.
‘As, for instance, why should you not become Hetman of the Cossacks?’
‘Peter has first to become somebody before I can become anybody,’ I
said; ‘the Regent and Galitsin have taken a good grip, and are not
likely to let go.’
‘The deadliest grip can be loosened if you press tightly enough upon the
gripper’s throat,’ said Boutourlin, laughing. ‘Our man is scarcely yet
sixteen. Let him grow and think quietly, and big things may yet come of
his thinking and growing. You, too, go home and think, but do not talk.
Remember that we shall want the Cossacks, and when the Government
changes in Moscow a new Hetman will have to be found at Batourin.
Remember also that we others are wide awake, even though the lion cub
should yawn. All this drilling is not for nothing.’
These words caused me to reflect, as they were meant to do, and I
decided that, since Mazeppa was already the Regent’s man, I would be
Peter’s; for I could lose nothing and might gain much by entering into
an understanding with the young Tsar. If he should come to the front I
should certainly profit; in any case, I should be no worse off.
I therefore rode daily to Preobrajensky, and became each day more
familiar with the young lion who, as Boutourlin expressed it, lay and
yawned there, waiting upon time and opportunity.
Certainly the Tsar could not be said to hold himself timidly towards the
Regent, his sister, as some declare that he was too much wont to do; for
during the short while that I was in Moscow at this time I saw him twice
defy her authority, taking the law into his own hands after a fashion
that a timid youth could not have imitated.
The first time that this happened was in consequence of a freak which
originated upon the parade ground when I was myself present.
The ‘Pleasure Regiment’ marched past in silence, and someone remarked
that there should be a band of drums and whistles (or fifes) to play the
men into good step. This would make the parade more lively.
‘The Poutyátine regiment of Streltsi has them,’ laughed one of those who
stood by.
‘Oh, oh!’ cried Peter, ‘we will raid them. Come, volunteers! who will
help carry off these fifes and drums?’
There were many offers of assistance, and that evening the entire set of
drums and fifes used by the Poutyátine regiment of Streltsi found their
way in some mysterious fashion to the barracks of the ‘Pleasure
Regiment’ at Preobrajensky.