Peter the Great
by Jacob Abbott · English · Gutenberg #21889 · 445,932 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Peter the Great
Author: Jacob Abbott
Release date: June 21, 2007 [eBook #21889]
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Language: English
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Makers of History
PETER THE GREAT
by
JACOB ABBOTT
With Engravings
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PETER THE GREAT.]
New York and London
Harper & Brothers Publishers
1902
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of
New York.
Copyright, 1887, by Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Abbott, Lyman
Abbott, and Edward Abbott.
PREFACE.
There are very few persons who have not heard of the fame of Peter the
Great, the founder, as he is generally regarded by mankind, of Russian
civilization. The celebrity, however, of the great Muscovite sovereign
among young persons is due in a great measure to the circumstance of
his having repaired personally to Holland, in the course of his efforts
to introduce the industrial arts among his people, in order to study
himself the art and mystery of shipbuilding, and of his having worked
with his own hands in a ship-yard there. The little shop where Peter
pursued these practical studies still stands in Saardam, a
ship-building town not far from Amsterdam. The building is of wood,
and is now much decayed; but, to preserve it from farther injury, it
has been incased in a somewhat larger building of brick, and it is
visited annually by great numbers of curious travelers.
The whole history of Peter, as might be expected from the indications
of character developed by this incident, forms a narrative that is full
of interest and instruction for all.
[Transcriber's note: In the original book, each page had a header
summarizing the contents of that page. These headers have been
collected into introductory paragraphs at the start of each chapter.
The headers also contain the year in which the events on the page took
place. These dates have been placed between the chapter title and the
introductory paragraph, in the form of a date range, e.g., for Chapter
I, "1676-1684."]
CONTENTS.
Chapter
I. THE PRINCESS SOPHIA
II. THE PRINCESS'S DOWNFALL
III. THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PETER
IV. LE FORT AND MENZIKOFF
V. COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN
VI. THE EMPEROR'S TOUR
VII. CONCLUSION OF THE TOUR
VIII. THE REBELLION
IX. REFORMS
X. THE BATTLE OF NARVA
XI. THE BUILDING OF ST. PETERSBURG
XII. THE REVOLT OF MAZEPPA
XIII. THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA
XIV. THE EMPRESS CATHARINE
XV. THE PRINCE ALEXIS
XVI. THE FLIGHT OF ALEXIS
XVII. THE TRIAL
XVIII. THE CONDEMNATION AND DEATH OF ALEXIS
XIX. CONCLUSION
ENGRAVINGS.
PORTRAIT OF PETER . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_.
THE ESCAPE
MENZIKOFF SELLING HIS CAKES
PETER AMONG THE SHIPPING
PETER TURNING EXECUTIONER
MAP OF THE RUSSIAN AND SWEDISH FRONTIER
STRATAGEMS OF THE SWEDES
SITUATION OF ST. PETERSBURG
FLIGHT OF THE KING OF SWEDEN
THE EMPRESS CATHARINE
THE CZAR'S VISIT TO ALEXIS IN PRISON
PETER THE GREAT.
CHAPTER I.
THE PRINCESS SOPHIA.
1676-1684
Parentage of Peter--His father's double marriage--Death of his
father--The princesses--Their places of seclusion--Theodore and
John--Sophia uneasy in the convent--Her request--Her probable
motives--Her success--Increase of her influence--Jealousies--Parties
formed--The imperial guards--Their character and
influence--Dangers--Sophia and the soldiers--Sophia's continued
success--Death of Theodore--Peter proclaimed--Plots formed by
Sophia--Revolution--Means of exciting the people--Poisoning--Effect of
the stories that were circulating--Peter and his mother--The Monastery of
the Trinity--Natalia's flight--Narrow escape of Peter--Commotion in the
city--Sophia is unsuccessful--Couvansky's schemes--Sophia's attempt to
appease the soldiers--No effect produced--Couvansky's views--His plan of
a marriage for his son--Indignation of Sophia--A stratagem--Couvansky
falls into the snare--Excitement produced by his
death--Galitzin--Measures adopted by him--They are successful
The circumstances under which Peter the Great came to the throne form a
very remarkable--indeed, in some respects, quite a romantic story.
The name of his father, who reigned as Emperor of Russia from 1645 to
1676, was Alexis Michaelowitz. In the course of his life, this Emperor
Alexis was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, whose names
were Theodore and John,[1] and four daughters. The names of the
daughters were Sophia, Catharine, Mary, and Sediassa. By his second wife
he had two children--a son and a daughter. The name of the son was
Peter, and that of the daughter was Natalia Alexowna. Of all these
children, those with whom we have most to do are the two oldest sons,
Theodore and John, and the oldest daughter, Sophia, by the first wife;
and Peter, the oldest son by the second wife, the hero of this history.
The name of the second wife, Peter's mother, was Natalia.
Of course, Theodore, at his father's death, was heir to the throne. Next
to him in the line of succession came John; and next after John came
Peter, the son of the second wife; for, by the ancient laws and usages of
the Muscovite monarchy, the daughters were excluded from the succession
altogether. Indeed, not only were the daughters excluded themselves from
the throne, but special precautions were taken to prevent their ever
having sons to lay claim to it. They were forbidden to marry, and, in
order to make it impossible that they should ever violate this rule, they
were all placed in convents before they arrived at a marriageable age,
and were compelled to pass their lives there in seclusion. Of course,
the convents where these princesses were lodged were very richly and
splendidly endowed, and the royal inmates enjoyed within the walls every
comfort and luxury which could possibly be procured for them in such
retreats, and which could tend in any measure to reconcile them to being
forever debarred from all the pleasures of love and the sweets of
domestic life.
Now it so happened that both Theodore and John were feeble and sickly
children, while Peter was robust and strong. The law of descent was,
however, inexorable, and, on the death of Alexis, Theodore ascended to
the throne. Besides, even if it had been possible to choose among the
sons of Alexis, Peter was at this time altogether too young to reign, for
at his father's death he was only about four years old. He was born in
1672, and his father died in 1676.
Theodore was at this time about sixteen. Of course, however, being so
young, and his health being so infirm, he could not take any active part
in the administration of government, but was obliged to leave every thing
in the hands of his counselors and ministers of state, who managed
affairs as they thought proper, though they acted always in Theodore's
name.
There were a great many persons who were ambitious of having a share of
the power which the young Czar thus left in the hands of his
subordinates; and, among these, perhaps the most ambitious of all was the
Princess Sophia, Theodore's sister, who was all this time shut up in the
convent to which the rules and regulations of imperial etiquette
consigned her. She was very uneasy in this confinement, and wished very
much to get released, thinking that if she could do so she should be able
to make herself of considerable consequence in the management of public
affairs. So she made application to the authorities to be allowed to go
to the palace to see and take care of her brother in his sickness. This
application was at length complied with, and Sophia went to the palace.
Here she devoted herself with so much assiduity to the care of her
brother, watching constantly at his bedside, and suffering no one to
attend upon him or to give him medicines but herself, that she won not
only his heart, but the hearts of all the nobles of the court, by her
seemingly disinterested sisterly affection.
Indeed, it is not by any means impossible that Sophia might have been at
first disinterested and sincere in her desire to minister to the wants of
her brother, and to solace and comfort him in his sickness. But, however
this may have been at the outset, the result was that, after a time, she
acquired so much popularity and influence that she became quite an
important personage at court. She was a very talented and accomplished
young woman, and was possessed, moreover, of a strong and masculine
character. Yet she was very agreeable and insinuating in her manners;
and she conversed so affably, and at the same time so intelligently, with
all the grandees of the empire, as they came by turns to visit her
brother in his sick chamber, that they all formed a very high estimate of
her character.
She also obtained a great ascendency over the mind of Theodore himself,
and this, of itself, very much increased her importance in the eyes of
the courtiers. They all began to think that, if they wished to obtain
any favor of the emperor, it was essential that they should stand well
with the princess. Thus every one, finding how fast she was rising in
influence, wished to have the credit of being her earliest and most
devoted friend; so they all vied with each other in efforts to aid in
aggrandizing her.
Things went on in this way very prosperously for a time; but at length,
as might have been anticipated, suspicions and jealousies began to arise,
and, after a time, the elements of a party opposed to the princess began
to be developed. These consisted chiefly of the old nobles of the
empire, the heads of the great families who had been accustomed, under
the emperors, to wield the chief power of the state. These persons were
naturally jealous of the ascendency which they saw that the princess was
acquiring, and they began to plot together in order to devise means for
restricting or controlling it.
But, besides these nobles, there was another very important power at the
imperial court at this time, namely, the army. In all despotic
governments, it is necessary for the sovereign to have a powerful
military force under his command, to maintain him in his place; and it is
necessary for him to keep this force as separate and independent as
possible from the people. There was in Russia at this time a very
powerful body of troops, which had been organized by the emperors, and
was maintained by them as an imperial guard. The name of this body of
troops was the Strelitz; but, in order not to encumber the narrative
unnecessarily with foreign words, I shall call them simply the Guards.
Of course, a body of troops like these, organized and maintained by a
despotic dynasty for the express purpose, in a great measure, of
defending the sovereign against his subjects, becomes in time a very
important element of power in the state. The officers form a class by
themselves, separate from, and jealous of the nobles of the country; and
this state of things has often led to very serious collisions and
outbreaks. The guards have sometimes proved too strong for the dynasty
that created them, and have made their own generals the real monarchs of
the country. When such a state of things as this exists, the government
which results is called a military despotism. This happened in the days
of the Roman empire. The army, which was originally formed by the
regular authorities of the country, and kept for a time in strict
subjection to them, finally became too powerful to be held any longer
under control, and they made their own leading general emperor for many
successive reigns, thus wholly subverting the republic which originally
organized and maintained them.
It was such a military body as this which now possessed great influence
and power at Moscow. The Princess Sophia, knowing how important it would
be to her to secure the influence of such a power upon her side, paid
great attention to the officers, and omitted nothing in her power which
was calculated to increase her popularity with the whole corps. The
result was that the Guards became her friends, while a great many of the
old nobles were suspicious and jealous of her, and were beginning to
devise means to curtail her increasing influence.
But, notwithstanding all that they could do, the influence of Sophia
increased continually, until the course of public affairs came to be, in
fact, almost entirely under her direction. The chief minister of state
was a certain Prince Galitzin, who was almost wholly devoted to her
interests. Indeed, it was through her influence that he was appointed to
his office. Things continued in this state for about six years, and
then, at length, Theodore was taken suddenly sick. It soon became
evident that he could not live. On his dying bed he designated Peter as
his successor, passing over his brother John. The reason for this was
that John was so extremely feeble and infirm that he seemed to be wholly
unfit to reign over such an empire. Besides various other maladies under
which he suffered, he was afflicted with epilepsy, a disease which
rendered it wholly unsuitable that he should assume any burdens whatever
of responsibility and care.
It is probable that it was through the influence of some of the nobles
who were opposed to Sophia that Theodore was induced thus to designate
Peter as his successor. However this may be, Peter, though then only ten
years old, was proclaimed emperor by the nobles immediately after
Theodore's death. Sophia was much disappointed, and became greatly
indignant at these proceedings. John was her own brother, while Peter,
being a son of the second wife, was only her half-brother. John, too, on
account of his feeble health, would probably never be able to take any
charge of the government, and she thought that, if he had been allowed to
succeed Theodore, she herself might have retained the real power in her
hands, as regent, as long as she lived; whereas Peter promised to have
strength and vigor to govern the empire himself in a few years, and, in
the mean time, while he remained in his minority, it was natural to
expect that he would be under the influence of persons connected with his
own branch of the family, who would be hostile to her, and that thus her
empire would come to an end.
So she determined to resist the transfer of the supreme power to Peter.
She secretly engaged the Guards on her side. The commander-in-chief of
the Guards was an officer named Couvansky. He readily acceded to her
proposals, and, in conjunction with him, she planned and organized a
revolution.
In order to exasperate the people and the Guards, and excite them to the
proper pitch of violence, Sophia and Couvansky spread a report that the
late emperor had not died a natural death, but had been poisoned. This
murder had been committed, they said, by a party who hoped, by setting
Theodore and his brother John aside, to get the power into their hands in
the name of Peter, whom they intended to make emperor, in violation of
the rights of John, Theodore's true heir. There was a plan also formed,
they said, to poison all the principal officers of the Guards, who, the
conspirators knew, would oppose their wicked proceedings, and perhaps
prevent the fulfillment of them if they were not put out of the way. The
poison by which Theodore had been put to death was administered, they
said, by two physicians who attended upon him in his sickness, and who
had been bribed to give him poison with his medicine. The Guards were to
have been destroyed by means of poison, which was to have been mixed with
the brandy and the beer that was distributed to them on the occasion of
the funeral.
These stories produced a great excitement among the Guards, and also
among a considerable portion of the people of Moscow. The guards came
out into the streets and around the palaces in great force. They first
seized the two physicians who were accused of having poisoned the
emperor, and killed them on the spot. Then they took a number of nobles
of high rank, and officers of state, who were supposed to be the leaders
of the party in favor of Peter, and the instigators of the murder of
Theodore, and, dragging them out into the public squares, slew them
without mercy. Some they cut to pieces. Others they threw down from the
wall of the imperial palace upon the soldiers' pikes below, which the men
held up for the purpose of receiving them.
Peter was at this time with his mother in the palace. Natalia was
exceedingly alarmed, not for herself, but for her son. As soon as the
revolution broke out she made her escape from the palace, and set out
with Peter in her arms to fly to a celebrated family retreat of the
emperor's, called the Monastery of the Trinity. This monastery was a
sort of country palace of the Czar's, which, besides being a pleasant
rural retreat, was also, from its religious character, a sanctuary where
fugitives seeking refuge in it might, under all ordinary circumstances,
feel themselves beyond the reach of violence and of every species of
hostile molestation.
Natalia fled with Peter and a few attendants to this refuge, hotly
pursued, however, all the way by a body of the Guards. If the fugitives
had been overtaken on the way, both mother and son would doubtless have
been cut to pieces without mercy. As it was, they very narrowly escaped,
for when Natalia arrived at the convent the soldiers were close upon her.
Two of them followed her in before the doors could be closed. Natalia
rushed into the church, which formed the centre of the convent inclosure,
and took refuge with her child at the foot of the altar. The soldiers
pursued her there, brandishing their swords, and were apparently on the
point of striking the fatal blow; but the sacredness of the place seemed
to arrest them at the last moment, and, after pausing an instant with
their uplifted swords in their hands, and uttering imprecations against
their victims for having thus escaped them, they sullenly retired.
In the mean time the commotion in the city went on, and for several days
no one could foresee how it would end. At length a sort of compromise
was effected, and it was agreed by the two parties that John should be
proclaimed Czar, not alone, but in conjunction with his brother Peter,
the regency to remain for the present, as it had been, in the hands of
Sophia. Thus Sophia really gained all her ends; for the retaining of
Peter's name, as nominally Czar in conjunction with his brother, was of
no consequence, since her party had proved itself the strongest in the
struggle, and all the real power remained in her hands. She had obtained
this triumph mainly through Couvansky and the Guards; and now, having
accomplished her purposes by means of their military violence, she
wished, of course, that they should retire to their quarters, and resume
their habits of subordination, and of submission to the civil authority.
But this they would not do. Couvansky, having found how important a
personage he might become through the agency of the terrible organization
which was under his direction and control, was not disposed at once to
lay aside his power; and the soldiers, intoxicated with the delights of
riot and pillage, could not now be easily restrained. Sophia found, as a
great many other despotic rulers have done in similar cases, that she had
evoked a power which she could not now control. Couvansky and the troops
under his command continued their ravages in the city, plundering the
rich houses of every thing that could gratify their appetites and
passions, and murdering all whom they imagined to belong to the party
opposed to them.
Sophia first tried to appease them and reduce them to order by
conciliatory measures. From the Monastery of the Trinity, to which she
had herself now retreated for safety, she sent a message to Couvansky and
to the other chiefs of the army, thanking them for the zeal which they
had shown in revenging the death of her brother, the late emperor, and in
vindicating the rights of the true successor, John, and promising to
remember, and in due time to reward, the great services which they had
rendered to the state. She added that, now, since the end which they all
had in view in the movement which they had made had been entirely and
happily accomplished, the soldiers should be restrained from any farther
violence, and recalled to their quarters.
This message had no effect. Indeed, Couvansky, finding how great the
power was of the corps which he commanded, began to conceive the idea
that he might raise himself to the supreme command. He thought that the
Guards were all devoted to him, and would do whatever he required of
them. He held secret conferences with the principal officers under his
command, and endeavored to prepare their minds for the revolution which
he contemplated by representing to them that neither of the princes who
had been proclaimed were fit to reign. John, he said, was almost an
imbecile, on account of the numerous and hopeless bodily infirmities to
which he was subject. Peter was yet a mere boy; and then, besides, even
when he should become a man, he would very likely be subject to the same
diseases with his brother. These men would never have either the
intelligence to appreciate or the power to reward such services as the
Guards were capable of rendering to the state; whereas he, their
commander, and one of their own body, would be both able and disposed to
do them ample justice.
Couvansky also conceived the design of securing and perpetuating the
power which he hoped thus to acquire through the army by a marriage of
his son with one of the princesses of the imperial family. He selected
Catharine, who was Sophia's sister--the one next in age to her--for the
intended bride. He cautiously proposed this plan to Sophia, hoping that
she might be induced to approve and favor it, in which case he thought
that every obstacle would be removed from his way, and the ends of his
ambition would be easily and permanently attained.
But Sophia was perfectly indignant at such a proposal. It seemed to her
the height of presumption and audacity for a mere general in the army to
aspire to a connection by marriage with the imperial family, and to a
transfer, in consequence, of the supreme power to himself and to his
descendants forever. She resolved immediately to adopt vigorous measures
to defeat these schemes in the most effectual manner. She determined to
kill Couvansky. But, as the force which he commanded was so great that
she could not hope to accomplish any thing by an open contest, she
concluded to resort to stratagem. She accordingly pretended to favor
Couvansky's plans, and seemed to be revolving in her mind the means of
carrying them into effect. Among other things, she soon announced a
grand celebration of the Princess Catharine's fête-day, to be held at the
Monastery of the Trinity, and invited Couvansky to attend it.[2]
Couvansky joyfully accepted this invitation, supposing that the occasion
would afford him an admirable opportunity to advance his views in respect
to his son. So Couvansky, accompanied by his son, set out on the
appointed day from Moscow to proceed to the monastery. Not suspecting
any treachery, he was accompanied by only a small escort. On the road he
was waylaid by a body of two hundred horsemen, whom Galitzin, Sophia's
minister of state, had sent to the spot. Couvansky's guard was at once
overpowered, and both he and his son were taken prisoners. They were
hurried at once to a house, where preparations for receiving them had
already been made, and there, without any delay, sentence of death
against them both, on a charge of treason, was read to them, and their
heads were cut off on the spot.
The news of this execution spread with great rapidity, and it produced,
of course, an intense excitement and commotion among all the Guards as
fast as it became known to them. They threatened vengeance against the
government for having thus assassinated, as they expressed it, their
chief and father. They soon put themselves in motion, and began
murdering, plundering, and destroying more furiously than ever. The
violence which they displayed led to a reaction. A party was formed,
even among the Guards, of persons that were disposed to discountenance
these excesses, and even to submit to the government. The minister
Galitzin took advantage of these dissensions to open a communication with
those who were disposed to return to their duty. He managed the affair
so well that, in the end, the great body of the soldiers were brought
over, and, finally, they themselves, of their own accord, slew the
officers who had been most active in the revolt, and offered their heads
to the minister in token of their submission. They also implored pardon
of the government for the violence and excess into which they had been
led. Of course, this pardon was readily granted. The places of
Couvansky and of the other officers who had been slain were filled by new
appointments, who were in the interest of the Princess Sophia, and the
whole corps returned to their duty. Order was now soon fully restored in
Moscow, rendering it safe for Sophia and her court to leave the monastery
and return to the royal palace in the town. Galitzin was promoted to a
higher office, and invested with more extended powers than he had yet
held, and Sophia found herself finally established as the real sovereign
of the country, though, of course, she reigned, in the name of her
brothers.
[1] The Russian form of these names is Foedor [Transcriber's note:
Feodor?] and Ivan.
[2] These celebrations were somewhat similar to the birthday celebrations
of England and America, only the day on which they were held was not the
birth-day of the lady, but the fête-day, as it was called, of her patron
saint--that is, of the saint whose name she bore. All the names for
girls used in those countries where the Greek or the Catholic Church
prevails are names of saints, each one of whom has in the calendar a
certain day set apart as her fête-day. Each girl considers the saint
from whom she is named as her patron saint, and the fête-day of this
saint, instead of her own birth-day, is the anniversary which is
celebrated in honor of her.
CHAPTER II.
THE PRINCESS'S DOWNFALL.
1684-1869
Sophia at the height of her power--Military expeditions--The Cham of
Tartary--Mazeppa--Origin and history--His famous punishment--Subsequent
history--The war unsuccessful--Sophia's artful policy--Rewards and
honors to the army--The opposition--Their plans--Reasons for the
proposed marriage--The intended wife--Motives of politicians--Results
of Peter's marriage--Peter's country house--Return of Galitzin--The
princess's alarm--The Cossacks--Sophia's plot--The commander of the
Guards--Prince Galitzin--Details of the plot--Manner in which the plot
was discovered--Messengers dispatched--The sentinels--The detachment
arrives--Peter's place of refuge--Sophia's pretenses--The
Guards--Sophia attempts to secure them--They adhere to the cause of
Peter--Sophia's alarm--Her first deputation--Failure of the
deputation--Sophia appeals to the patriarch--His mission
fails--Sophia's despair--Her final plans--She is repulsed from the
monastery--The surrender of Thekelavitaw demanded--He is brought to
trial--He is put to the torture--His confessions--Value of them--Modes
of torture applied--Various punishments inflicted--Galitzin is
banished--His son shares his fate--Punishment of Thekelavitaw--Decision
in respect to Sophia--Peter's public entry into Moscow--He gains sole
power--Character and condition of John--Subsequent history of Sophia
The Princess Sophia was now in full possession of power, so that she
reigned supreme in the palaces and in the capital, while, of course,
the ordinary administration of the affairs of state, and the relations
of the empire with foreign nations, were left to Galitzin and the other
ministers. It was in 1684 that she secured possession of this power,
and in 1689 her regency came to an end, so that she was, in fact, the
ruler of the Russian empire for a period of about five years.
During this time one or two important military expeditions were set on
foot by her government. The principal was a campaign in the southern
part of the empire for the conquest of the Crimea, which country,
previous to that time, had belonged to the Turks. Poland was at that
period a very powerful kingdom, and the Poles, having become involved
in a war with the Turks, proposed to the Russians, or Muscovites, as
they were then generally called, to join them in an attempt to conquer
the Crimea. The Tartars who inhabited the Crimea and the country to
the northeastward of it were on the side of the Turks, so that the
Russians had two enemies to contend with.
The supreme ruler of the Tartars was a chieftain called a Cham. He was
a potentate of great power and dignity, superior, indeed, to the Czars
who ruled in Muscovy. In fact, there had been an ancient treaty by
which this superiority of the Cham was recognized and acknowledged in a
singular way--one which illustrates curiously the ideas and manners of
those times. The treaty stipulated, among other things, that whenever
the Czar and the Cham should chance to meet, the Czar should hold the
Cham's stirrup while he mounted his horse, and also feed the horse with
oats out of his cap.
In the war between the Muscovites and the Tartars for the possession of
the Crimea, a certain personage appeared, who has since been made very
famous by the poetry of Byron. It was Mazeppa, the unfortunate
chieftain whose frightful ride through the tangled thickets of an
uncultivated country, bound naked to a wild horse, was described with
so much graphic power by the poet, and has been so often represented in
paintings and engravings.
Mazeppa was a Polish gentleman. He was brought up as a page in the
family of the King of Poland. When he became a man he mortally
offended a certain Polish nobleman by some improprieties in which he
became involved with the nobleman's wife. The husband caused him to be
seized and cruelly scourged, and then to be bound upon the back of a
wild, ungovernable horse. When all was ready the horse was turned
loose upon the Ukrain, and, terrified with the extraordinary burden
which he felt upon his back, and uncontrolled by bit or rein, he rushed
madly on through the wildest recesses of the forest, until at length he
fell down exhausted with terror and fatigue. Some Cossack peasants
found and rescued Mazeppa, and took care of him in one of their huts
until he recovered from his wounds.
Mazeppa was a well-educated man, and highly accomplished in the arts of
war as they were practiced in those days. He soon acquired great
popularity among the Cossacks, and, in the end, rose to be a chieftain
among them, and he distinguished himself greatly in these very
campaigns in the Crimea, fought by the Muscovites against the Turks and
Tartars during the regency of the Princess Sophia.
If the war thus waged by the government of the empress had been
successful, it would have greatly strengthened the position of her
party in Moscow, and increased her own power; but it was not
successful. Prince Galitzin, who had the chief command of the
expedition, was obliged, after all, to withdraw his troops from the
country, and make a very unsatisfactory peace; but he did not dare to
allow the true result of the expedition to be known in Moscow, for fear
of the dissatisfaction which, he felt convinced, would be occasioned
there by such intelligence; and the distance was so great, and the
means of communication in those days were so few, that it was
comparatively easy to falsify the accounts. So, after he had made
peace with the Tartars, and began to draw off his army, he sent
couriers to Moscow to the Czars, and also to the King in Poland, with
news of great victories which he had obtained against the Tartars, of
conquests which he made in their territories, and of his finally having
compelled them to make peace on terms extremely favorable. The
Princess Sophia, as soon as this news reached her in Moscow, ordered
that arrangements should be made for great public rejoicings throughout
the empire on account of the victories which had been obtained.
According to the custom, too, of the Muscovite government, in cases
where great victories had been won, the council drew up a formal letter
of thanks and commendations to the officers and soldiers of the army,
and sent it to them by a special messenger, with promotions and other
honors for the chiefs, and rewards in money for the men. The princess
and her government hoped, by these means, to conceal the bad success of
their enterprise, and to gain, instead of losing, credit and strength
with the people.
But during all this time a party opposed to Sophia and her plans had
been gradually forming, and it was now increasing in numbers and
influence every day. The men of this party naturally gathered around
Peter, intending to make him their leader. Peter had now grown up to
be a young man. In the next chapter we shall give some account of the
manner in which his childhood and early youth were spent; but he was
now about eighteen years old, and the party who adhered to him formed
the plan of marrying him. So they proceeded to choose him a wife.
The reasons which led them to advocate this measure were, of course,
altogether political. They thought that if Peter were to be married,
and to have children, all the world would see that the crown must
necessarily descend in his family, since John had no children, and he
was so sickly and feeble that it was not probable that even he himself
would long survive. They knew very well, therefore, that the marriage
of Peter and the birth of an heir would turn all men's thoughts to him
as the real personage whose favor it behooved them to cultivate; and
this, they supposed, would greatly increase his importance, and so add
to the strength of the party that acted in his name.
It turned out just as they had anticipated. The wife whom the
councilors chose for Peter was a young lady of noble birth, the
daughter of one of the great boiars, as they were called, of the
empire. Her name was Ottokessa Federowna. The Princess Sophia did all
in her power to prevent the match, but her efforts were of no avail.
Peter was married, and the event greatly increased his importance among
the nobles and among the people, and augmented the power and influence
of his party. In all cases of this kind, where a contest is going on
between rival claimants to a throne, or rival dynasties, there are some
persons, though not many, who are governed in their conduct, in respect
to the side which they take, by principles of honor and duty, and of
faithful adherence to what they suppose to be the right. But a vast
majority of courtiers and politicians in all countries and in all ages
are only anxious to find out, not which side is right, but which is
likely to be successful. Accordingly, in this case, as the marriage of
Peter made it still more probable than it was before that he would in
the end secure to his branch of the family the supreme power, it
greatly increased the tendency among the nobles to pay their court to
him and to his friends. This tendency was still more strengthened by
the expectation which soon after arose, that Peter's wife was about to
give birth to a son. The probability of the appearance of a son and
heir on Peter's side, taken in connection with the hopeless
childlessness of John, seemed to turn the scales entirely in favor of
Peter's party. This was especially the case in respect to all the
young nobles as they successively arrived at an age to take an interest
in public affairs. All these young men seemed to despise the
imbecility, and the dark and uncertain prospects of John, and to be
greatly charmed with the talents and energy of Peter, and with the
brilliant future which seemed to be opening before him. Thus even the
nobles who still adhered to the cause of Sophia and of John had the
mortification to find that their sons, as fast as they came of age, all
went over to the other side.
Peter lived at this time with his young wife at a certain country
palace belonging to him, situated on the banks of a small river a few
miles from Moscow. The name of this country-seat was Obrogensko.
Such was the state of things at Moscow when Prince Galitzin returned
from his campaigns in the Crimea. The prince found that the power of
Sophia and her party was rapidly waning, and that Sophia herself was in
a state of great anxiety and excitement in respect to the future. The
princess gave Galitzin a very splendid reception, and publicly rewarded
him for his pretended success in the war by bestowing upon him great
and extraordinary honors. Still many people were very suspicious of
the truth of the accounts which were circulated. The partisans of
Peter called for proofs that the victories had really been won. Prince
Galitzin brought with him to the capital a considerable force of
Cossacks, with Mazeppa at their head. The Cossacks had never before
been allowed to come into Moscow; but now, Sophia having formed a
desperate plan to save herself from the dangers that surrounded her,
and knowing that these men would unscrupulously execute any commands
that were given to them by their leaders, directed Galitzin to bring
them within the walls, under pretense to do honor to Mazeppa for the
important services which he had rendered during the war. But this
measure was very unpopular with the people, and, although the Cossacks
were actually brought within the walls, they were subjected to such
restrictions there that, after all, Sophia could not employ them for
the purpose of executing her plot, but was obliged to rely on the
regular Muscovite troops of the imperial Guard.
The plot which she formed was nothing else than the assassination of
Peter. She saw no other way by which she could save herself from the
dangers which surrounded her, and make sure of retaining her power.
Her brother, the Czar John, was growing weaker and more insignificant
every day; while Peter and his party, who looked upon her, she knew,
with very unfriendly feelings, were growing stronger and stronger. If
Peter continued to live, her speedy downfall, she was convinced, was
sure. She accordingly determined that Peter should die.
The commander-in-chief of the Guards at this time was a man named
Theodore Thekelavitaw. He had been raised to this exalted post by
Sophia herself on the death of Couvansky. She had selected him for
this office with special reference to his subserviency to her
interests. She determined now, accordingly, to confide to him the
execution of her scheme for the assassination of Peter.
When Sophia proposed her plan to Prince Galitzin, he was at first
strongly opposed to it, on account of the desperate danger which would
attend such an undertaking. But she urged upon him so earnestly the
necessity of the case, representing to him that unless some very
decisive measures were adopted, not only would she herself soon be
deposed from power, but that he and all his family and friends would be
involved in the same common ruin, he at length reluctantly consented.
The plan was at last fully matured. Thekelavitaw, the commander of the
Guards, selected six hundred men to go with him to Obrogensko. They
were to go in the night, the plan being to seize Peter in his bed.
When the appointed night arrived, the commander marshaled his men and
gave them their instructions, and the whole body set out upon their
march to Obrogensko with every prospect of successfully accomplishing
the undertaking.
But the whole plan was defeated in a very remarkable manner. While the
commander was giving his instructions to the men, two of the soldiers,
shocked with the idea of being made the instruments of such a crime,
stole away unobserved in the darkness, and ran with all possible speed
to Obrogensko to warn Peter of his danger. Peter leaped from his bed
in consternation, and immediately sent to the apartments where his
uncles, the brothers of his mother, were lodging, to summon them to
come to him. When they came, a hurried consultation was held. There
was some doubt in the minds of Peter's uncles whether the story which
the soldiers told was to be believed. They thought it could not
possibly be true that so atrocious a crime could be contemplated by
Sophia. Accordingly, before taking any measures for sending Peter and
his family away, they determined to send messengers toward the city to
ascertain whether any detachment of Guards was really coming toward
Obrogensko.
These messengers set off at once; but, before they had reached half way
to Moscow, they met Thekelavitaw's detachment of Guards, with
Thekelavitaw himself at the head of them, stealing furtively along the
road. The messengers hid themselves by the wayside until the troop had
gone by. Then hurrying away round by a circuitous path, they got
before the troop again, and reached the palace before the assassins
arrived. Peter had just time to get into a coach, with his wife, his
sister, and one or two other members of his family, and to drive away
from the palace before Thekelavitaw, with his band, arrived. The
sentinels who were on duty at the gates of the palace had been much
surprised at the sudden departure of Peter and his family, and now they
were astonished beyond measure at the sudden appearance of so large a
body of their comrades arriving at midnight, without any warning, from
the barracks in Moscow.
[Illustration: The escape.]
Immediately on his arrival at the palace, Thekelavitaw's men searched
every where for Peter, but of course could not find him. They then
questioned the sentinels, and were told that Peter had left the palace
with his family in a very hurried manner but a very short time before.
No one knew where they had gone.
There was, of course, nothing now for Thekelavitaw to do but to return,
discomfited and alarmed, to the Princess Sophia, and report the failure
of their scheme.
In the mean time Peter had fled to the Monastery of the Trinity, the
common refuge of the family in all cases of desperate danger. The news
of the affair spread rapidly, and produced universal excitement.
Peter, from his retreat in the monastery, sent a message to Sophia,
charging her with having sent Thekelavitaw and his band to take his
life. Sophia was greatly alarmed at the turn which things had taken.
She, however, strenuously denied being guilty of the charge which Peter
made against her. She said that the soldiers under Thekelavitaw had
only gone out to Obrogensko for the purpose of relieving the guard.
This nobody believed. The idea of taking such a body of men a league
or more into the country at midnight for the purpose of relieving the
guard of a country palace was preposterous.
The excitement increased. The leading nobles of the country began to
flock to the monastery to declare their adhesion to Peter, and their
determination to sustain and protect him. Sophia, at the same time,
did all that she could do to rally her friends. Both sides endeavored
to gain the good-will of the Guards. The princess caused them to be
assembled before her palace in Moscow, and there she appeared on a
balcony before them, accompanied by the Czar John; and the Czar made
them a speech--one, doubtless, which Sophia had prepared for him. In
this speech John stated to the Guards that his brother Peter had
retired to the Monastery of the Trinity, though for what reason he knew
not. He had, however, too much reason to fear, he said, that he was
plotting some schemes against the state.
"We have heard," he added, "that he has summoned you to repair thither
and attend him, but we forbid your going on pain of death."
Sophia then herself addressed the Guards, confirming what John had
said, and endeavoring artfully to awaken an interest in their minds in
her favor. The Guards listened in silence; but it seems that very
little effect was produced upon them by these harangues, for they
immediately afterward marched in a body to the monastery, and there
publicly assured Peter of their adhesion to his cause.
Sophia was now greatly alarmed. She began to fear that all was lost.
She determined to send an embassage to Peter to deprecate his
displeasure, and, if possible, effect a reconciliation. She employed
on this commission two of her aunts, her father's sisters, who were, of
course, the aunts likewise of Peter, and the nearest family relatives,
who were equally the relatives of herself and of him. These ladies
were, of course, princesses of very high rank, and their age and family
connection were such as to lead Sophia to trust a great deal to their
intercession.
She charged these ladies to assure Peter that she was entirely innocent
of the crime of which she was suspected, and that the stories of her
having sent the soldiers to his palace with any evil design were
fabricated by her enemies, who wished to sow dissension between herself
and him. She assured him that there had been no necessity at all for
his flight, and that he might now at any time return to Moscow with
perfect safety.
Peter received his aunts in a very respectful manner, and listened
attentively to what they had to say; but, after they had concluded
their address to him, he assured them that his retreat to the monastery
was not without good cause: and he proceeded to state and explain all
the circumstances of the case, and to show so many and such conclusive
proofs that a conspiracy to destroy him had actually been formed, and
was on the eve of being executed, that the princesses could no longer
doubt that Sophia was really guilty. They were overwhelmed with grief
in coming to this conviction, and they declared, with tears in their
eyes, that they would not return to Moscow, but would remain at the
monastery and share the fortunes of their nephew.
When Sophia learned what had been the result of her deputation she was
more alarmed than ever. After spending some time in perplexity and
distress, she determined to apply to the patriarch, who was the head of
the Church, and, of course, the highest ecclesiastical dignitary in the
empire. She begged and implored him to act as mediator between her and
her brother, and he was at length so moved by her tears and entreaties
that he consented to go.
This embassage was no more successful than the other. Peter, it seems,
was provided with proof, which he offered to the patriarch, not only of
the reality of the conspiracy which had been formed, but also of the
fact that, if it had been successful, the patriarch himself was to have
been taken off, in order that another ecclesiastic more devoted to
Sophia's interests might be put in his place. The patriarch was
astonished and shocked at this intelligence, and was so much alarmed by
it that he did not dare to return to Sophia to make his report, and
decided, as the ladies had done before him, to take up his abode with
Peter in the monastery until the crisis should be passed.
The princess was now almost in a state of despair. Prince Galitzin, it
is true, still remained with her, and there were some others in the
palace who adhered to her cause. She called these few remaining
friends together, and with them held a sorrowful and anxious
consultation, in order to determine what should now be done. It was
resolved that Thekelavitaw and one or two others who were deeply
implicated in the plot for the assassination of Peter should be secured
in a place of close concealment in the palace, and then, that the
princess herself, accompanied by Galitzin and her other leading
friends, should proceed in a body to the Monastery of the Trinity, and
there make a personal appeal to Peter, in hopes of appeasing him, and
saving themselves, if possible, from their impending fate. This plan
they proceeded to carry into effect; but before Sophia, and those who
were with her, had reached half way to the palace, they were met by a
nobleman who had been sent from the monastery to intercept them, and
order them, in Peter's name, to return to Moscow. If the princess were
to go on, she would not be received at the monastery, the messenger
said, but would find the gates closed against her.
So Sophia and her train turned, and despairingly retraced their steps
to Moscow.
The next day an officer, at the head of a body of the Guards three
hundred in number, was dispatched from the monastery to demand of the
Princess Sophia, at her palace, that she should give up Thekelavitaw,
in order that he might be brought to trial on a charge of treason.
Sophia was extremely unwilling to comply with this demand. She may
naturally be supposed to have desired to save her instrument and agent
from suffering the penalties of the crime which she herself had planned
and had instigated him to attempt; but the chief source of her extreme
reluctance to surrender the prisoner was her fear of the revelations
which he would be likely to make implicating her. After hesitating for
a time, being in a state during the interval of great mental distress
and anguish, she concluded that she must obey, and so Thekelavitaw was
brought out from his retreat and surrendered. The soldiers immediately
took him and some other persons who were surrendered with him, and,
securing them safely with irons, they conveyed them rapidly to the
monastery.
Thekelavitaw was brought to trial in the great hall of the monastery,
where a court, consisting of the leading nobles, was organized to hear
his cause. He was questioned closely by his judges for a long time,
but his answers were evasive and unsatisfactory, and at length it was
determined to put him to torture, in order to compel him to confess his
crime, and to reveal the names of his confederates. This was a very
unjust and cruel mode of procedure, but it was in accordance with the
rude ideas which prevailed in those times.
The torture which was applied to Thekelavitaw was scourging with a
knout. The knout was a large and strong whip, the lash of which
consists of a tough, thick thong of leather, prepared in a particular
way, so as greatly to increase the intensity of the agony caused by the
blows inflicted with it. Thekelavitaw endured a few strokes from this
dreadful instrument, and then declared that he was ready to confess
all; so they took him back to prison and there heard what he had to
say. He made a full statement in respect to the plot. He said that
the design was to kill Peter himself, his mother, and several other
persons, near connections of Peter's branch of the family. The
Princess Sophia was the originator of the plot, he said, and he
specified many other persons who had taken a leading part in it.
These statements of the unhappy sufferer may have been true or they may
have been false. It is now well known that no reliance whatever can be
placed upon testimony that is extorted in this way, as men under such
circumstances will say any thing which they think will be received by
their tormentors, and be the means of bringing their sufferings to an
end.
However it may have been in fact in this case, the testimony of
Thekelavitaw was believed. On the faith of it many more arrests were
made, and many other persons were put to the torture to compel them to
reveal additional particulars of the plot. It is said that one of the
modes of torment of the sufferers in these trials consisted in first
shaving the head and tying it in a fixed position, and then causing
boiling water to be poured, drop by drop, upon it, which in a very
short time produced, it is said, an exquisite and dreadful agony which
no mortal heroism could long endure.
After all these extorted confessions had been received, and the persons
accused by the wretched witnesses had been secured, the court was
employed two days in determining the relative guilt of the different
criminals, and in deciding upon the punishments. Some of the prisoners
were beheaded; others were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; others
were banished. The punishment of Prince Galitzin was banishment for
life to Siberia. He was brought before the court to hear his sentence
pronounced by the judges in form. It was to this effect, namely, "That
he was ordered to go to Karga, a town under the pole, there to remain,
as long as he lived, in disgrace with his majesty, who had,
nevertheless, of his great goodness, allowed him threepence a day for
his subsistence; but that his justice had ordained all his goods to be
forfeited to his treasury."
Galitzin had a son who seems to have been implicated in some way with
his father in the conspiracy. At any rate, he was sentenced to share
his father's fate. Whether the companionship of his son on the long
and gloomy journey was a comfort to the prince, or whether it only
redoubled the bitterness of his calamity to see his son compelled to
endure it too, it would be difficult to say. The female members of the
family were sent with them too.
As soon as the prince had been sent away, officers were dispatched to
take possession of his palace, and to make an inventory of the property
contained in it. The officers found a vast amount of treasure. Among
other things, they discovered a strong box buried in a vault, which
contained an immense sum of money. There were four hundred vessels of
silver of great weight, and many other rich and costly articles. All
these things were confiscated, and the proceeds put into the imperial
treasury.
Thekelavitaw, the commander-in-chief of the Guards, had his head cut
off. The subordinate officer who had the immediate command of the
detachment which marched out to Obrogensko was punished by being first
scourged with the knout, then having his tongue cut out, and then being
sent to Siberia in perpetual banishment, with an allowance for his
subsistence of one third the pittance which had been granted to
Galitzin. Some of the private soldiers of the detachment were also
sentenced to have their tongues cut out, and then to be sent to Siberia
to earn their living there by hunting sables.
Peter was not willing that the Princess Sophia, being his sister,
should be publicly punished or openly disgraced in any way, so it was
decreed that she should retire to a certain convent, situated in a
solitary place a little way out of town, where she could be closely
watched and guarded. Sophia was extremely unwilling to obey this
decree, and she would not go to the convent of her own accord. The
commander of the Guards was thereupon directed to send a body of armed
men to convey her there, with orders to take her by force if she would
not go willingly; so Sophia was compelled to submit, and, when she was
lodged in the convent, soldiers were placed not only to keep sentinel
at the doors, but also to guard all the avenues leading to the place,
so as effectually to cut the poor prisoner off from all possible
communication with any who might be disposed to sympathize with her or
aid her. She remained in this condition, a close prisoner, for many
years.
Two days after this--every thing connected with the conspiracy having
been settled--it was determined that Peter should return to Moscow. He
made a grand triumphant entry into the city, attended by an armed
escort of eighteen thousand of the Guards. Peter himself rode
conspicuously at the head of the troops on horseback. His wife and his
mother followed in a coach.
On arriving at the royal palace, he was met on the staircase by his
brother John, who was not supposed to have taken any part in Sophia's
conspiracy. Peter greeted his brother kindly, and said he hoped that
they were friends. John replied in the same spirit, and so the two
brothers were reinstated again as joint possessors, nominally, of the
supreme power, but, now that Sophia was removed out of the way, and all
her leading friends and partisans were either beheaded or banished, the
whole control of the government fell, in fact, into the hands of Peter
and of his counselors and friends.
John, his brother Czar, was too feeble and inefficient to take any part
whatever in the management of public affairs. He was melancholy and
dejected in spirit, in consequence of his infirmities and sufferings,
and he spent most of his time in acts of devotion, according to the
rites and usages of the established church of the country, as the best
means within his knowledge of preparing himself for another and happier
world. He died about seven years after this time.
The Princess Sophia lived for fifteen years a prisoner. During this
period several efforts were made by those who still adhered to her
cause to effect her release and her restoration to power, but they were
all unsuccessful. She remained in close confinement as long as she
lived.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PETER.
1677-1688
Troublous times in the family--Peter's first governor--His
qualifications--Peter's earliest studies--His disposition and
character--Sophia's jealousy of him--Her plans for corrupting his
morals--The governor is dismissed--New system adopted--Sophia's
expectations--Peter's fifty playmates--The plot does not succeed--Peter
organizes a military school--Peter a practical mechanic--His ideas and
intentions--His drumming--His wheelbarrow--Progress of the
school--Results of Peter's energy of character
We must now go back a little in our narrative, in order to give some
account of the manner in which the childhood and early youth of Peter
were spent, and of the indications which appeared in this early period
of his life to mark his character. He was only eighteen years of age
at the time of his marriage, and, of course, all those contests and
dissensions which, for so many years after his father Alexis's death,
continued to distract the family, took place while he was very young.
He was only about nine years old when they began, at the time of the
death of his father.
The person whom Peter's father selected to take charge of his little
son's education, in the first instance, was a very accomplished general
named Menesius. General Menesius was a Scotchman by birth, and he had
been well educated in the literary seminaries of his native country, so
that, besides his knowledge and skill in every thing which pertained to
the art of war, he was well versed in all the European languages, and,
having traveled extensively in the different countries of Europe, he
was qualified to instruct Peter, when he should become old enough to
take an interest in such inquiries, in the arts and sciences of western
Europe, and in the character of the civilization of the various
countries, and the different degrees of progress which they had
respectively made.
At the time, however, when Peter was put under his governor's charge he
was only about five years old, and, consequently, none but the most
elementary studies were at that time suited to his years. Of course,
it was not the duty of General Menesius to attend personally to the
instruction of his little pupil in these things, but only to see to it
that the proper teachers were appointed, and that they attended to
their duties in a faithful manner.
Every thing went on prosperously and well under this arrangement as
long as the Czar Alexis, Peter's father, continued to live. General
Menesius resided in the palace with his charge, and he gradually began
to form a strong attachment to him. Indeed, Peter was so full of life
and spirit, and evinced so much intelligence in all that he did and
said, and learned what was proper to be taught him at that age with so
much readiness and facility, that he was a favorite with all who knew
him; that is, with all who belonged to or were connected with his
mother's branch of the family. With those who were connected with the
children of Alexis' first wife he was an object of continual jealousy
and suspicion, and the greater the proofs that he gave of talent and
capacity, the more jealous of him these his natural rivals became.
At length, when Alexis, his father, died, and his half-brother Theodore
succeeded to the throne, the division between the two branches of the
family became more decided than ever; and when Sophia obtained her
release from the convent, and managed to get the control of public
affairs, in consequence of Theodore's imbecility, as related in the
first chapter, one of the first sources of uneasiness for her, in
respect to the continuance of her power, was the probability that Peter
would grow up to be a talented and energetic young man, and would
sooner or later take the government into his own hands. She revolved
in her mind many plans for preventing this. The one which seemed to
her most feasible at first was to attempt to spoil the boy by
indulgence and luxury.
She accordingly, it is said, attempted to induce Menesius to alter the
arrangements which he had made for Peter, so as to release him from
restraint, and allow him to do as he pleased. Her plan was also to
supply him with means of pleasure and indulgence very freely, thinking
that a boy of his age would not have the good sense or the resolution
to resist these temptations. Thus she thought that his progress in
study would be effectually impeded, and that, perhaps, he would
undermine his health and destroy his constitution by eating and
drinking, or by other hurtful indulgences.
But Sophia found that she could not induce General Menesius to
co-operate with her in any such plans. He had set his heart on making
his pupil a virtuous and an accomplished man, and he knew very well
that the system of laxity and indulgence which Sophia recommended would
end in his ruin. After a considerable contest, Sophia, finding that
Menesius was inflexible, manoeuvred to cause him to be dismissed from
his office, and to have another arrangement made for the boy, by which
she thought her ends would be attained. So Menesius bade his young
charge farewell, not, however, without giving him, in parting, most
urgent counsels to persevere, as he had begun, in the faithful
performance of his duty, to resist every temptation to idleness or
excess, and to devote himself, while young, with patience,
perseverance, and industry to the work of storing his mind with useful
knowledge, and of acquiring every possible art and accomplishment which
could be of advantage to him when he became a man.
After General Menesius had been dismissed, Sophia adopted an entirely
new system for the management of Peter. Before this time Theodore had
died, and Peter, in conjunction with John, had been proclaimed emperor,
Sophia governing as regent in their names. The princess now made an
arrangement for establishing Peter in a household of his own, at a
palace situated in a small village at some distance from Moscow, and
she appointed fifty boys to live with him as his playmates and amusers.
These boys were provided with every possible means of indulgence, and
were subject to very little restraint. The intention of Sophia was
that they should do just as they pleased, and she had no doubt that
they would spend their time in such a manner that they would all grow
up idle, vicious, and good for nothing. There was even some hope that
Peter would impair his health to such an extent by excessive
indulgences as to bring him to an early grave.
Indeed, the plot was so well contrived that there are probably not many
boys who would not, under such circumstances, have fallen into the
snare so adroitly laid for them and been ruined; but Peter escaped it.
Whether it was from the influence of the counsels and instructions of
his former governor, or from his own native good sense, or from both
combined, he resisted the temptations that were laid before him, and,
instead of giving up his studies, and spending his time in indolence
and vice, he improved such privileges as he enjoyed to the best of his
ability. He even contrived to turn the hours of play, and the
companions who had been given to him as mere instruments of pleasure,
into means of improvement. He caused the boys to be organized into a
sort of military school, and learned with them all the evolutions, and
practiced all the discipline necessary in a camp. He himself began at
the very beginning. He caused himself to be taught to drum, not merely
as most boys do, just to make a noise for his amusement, but regularly
and scientifically, so as to enable him to understand and execute all
the beats and signals used in camp and on the field of battle. He
studied fortification, and set the boys at work, himself among them, in
constructing a battery in a regular and scientific manner. He learned
the use of tools, too, practically, in a shop which had been provided
for the boys as a place for play; and the wheelbarrow with which he
worked in making the fortification was one which he had constructed
with his own hands.
He did not assume any superiority over his companions in these
exercises, but took his place among them as an equal, obeying the
commands which were given to him, when it came to his turn to serve,
and taking his full share of all the hardest of the work which was to
be done.
Nor was this all mere boys' play, pursued for a little time as long as
the novelty lasted, and then thrown aside for something more amusing.
Peter knew that when he became a man he would be emperor of all Russia.
He knew that among the populations of that immense country there were a
great many wild and turbulent tribes, half savage in habits and
character, that would never be controlled but by military force, and
that the country, too, was surrounded by other nations that would
sometimes, unless he was well prepared for them, assume a hostile
attitude against his government, and perhaps make great aggressions
upon his territories. He wished, therefore, to prepare himself for the
emergencies that might in future arise by making himself thoroughly
acquainted with all the details of the military art. He did not
expect, it is true, that he should ever be called upon to serve in any
of his armies as an actual drummer, or to wheel earth and construct
fortifications with his own hands, still less to make the wheelbarrows
by which the work was to be done; but he was aware that he could
superintend these things far more intelligently and successfully if he
knew in detail precisely how every thing ought to be done, and that was
the reason why he took so much pains to learn himself how to do them.
As he grew older he contrived to introduce higher and higher branches
of military art into the school, and to improve and perfect the
organization of it in every way. After a while he adopted improved
uniforms and equipments for the pupils, such as were used at the
military schools of the different nations of Europe; and he established
professors of different branches of military science as fast as he
himself and his companions advanced in years and in power of
appreciating studies more and more elevated. The result was, that
when, at length, he was eighteen years of age, and the time arrived for
him to leave the place, the institution had become completely
established as a well-organized and well-appointed military school, and
it continued in successful operation as such for a long time afterward.
It was in a great measure in consequence of the energy and talent which
Peter thus displayed that so many of the leading nobles attached
themselves to his cause, by which means he was finally enabled to
depose Sophia from her regency, and take the power into his own hands,
even before he was of age, as related in the last chapter.
CHAPTER IV.
LE FORT AND MENZIKOFF.
1689-1691
Conditions of success in life--The selection of agents--Building a
house--Secret of success--Peter's youth--Le Fort and Menzikoff--Merchants
of Amsterdam--Le Fort in the counting-house--He goes to Copenhagen--He
becomes acquainted with military life--The ambassador--Le Fort an
interpreter--He attracts the attention of the emperor--His judicious
answers--Gratification of the emperor--The embassador's opinion--The
glass of wine--Le Fort given up to the emperor--His appointment at
court--His subsequent career--Uniforms--Le Fort's suggestion--An
embassador's train--Surprise and pleasure of the Czar--Le Fort undertakes
a commission--Making of the uniforms--He enlists a company--The company
appears before the emperor--The result--New improvements
proposed--Changes--Remodeling of the tariff--Effects of the change--The
finances--Carpenters and masons brought in--New palace--Le Fort's
increasing influence--His generosity--Peter's violent temper--Le Fort an
intercessor--Prince Menzikoff--His early history--He sets off to seek his
fortune--His pies and cakes--Negotiations with the emperor--Menzikoff in
Le Fort's company--Menzikoff's real character--Quarrel between Peter and
his wife--Cause of the quarrel--Ottokesa's cruel fate--Grave faults in
Peter's character
Whatever may be a person's situation in life, his success in his
undertakings depends not more, after all, upon his own personal ability
to do what is required to be done, than it does upon his sagacity and the
soundness of his judgment in selecting the proper persons to co-operate
with him and assist him in doing it. In all great enterprises undertaken
by men, it is only a very small part which they can execute with their
own hands, and multitudes of most excellently contrived plans fail for
want of wisdom in the choice of the men who are depended upon for the
accomplishment of them.
This is true in all things, small as well as great. A man may form a
very wise scheme for building a house. He may choose an excellent place
for the location of it, and draw up a good plan, and make ample
arrangements for the supply of funds, but if he does not know how to
choose, or where to find good builders, his scheme will come to a
miserable end. He may choose builders that are competent but dishonest,
or they may be honest but incompetent, or they may be subject to some
other radical defect; in either of which cases the house will be badly
built, and the scheme will be a failure.
Many men say, when such a misfortune as this happens to them, "Ah! it was
not my fault. It was the fault of the builders;" to which the proper
reply would be, "It _was_ your fault. You should not have undertaken to
build a house unless, in addition to being able to form the general plan
and arrangements wisely, you had also had the sagacity to discern the
characters of the men whom you were to employ to execute the work." This
latter quality is as important to success in all undertakings as the
former. Indeed, it is far more important, for good _men_ may correct or
avoid the evils of a bad plan, but a good plan can never afford security
against the evil action of bad men.
The sovereigns and great military commanders that have acquired the
highest celebrity in history have always been remarkable for their tact
and sagacity in discovering and bringing forward the right kind of talent
for the successful accomplishment of their various designs.
When Peter first found himself nominally in possession of the supreme
power, after the fall of the Princess Sophia, he was very young, and the
administration of the government was really in the hands of different
nobles and officers of state, who managed affairs in his name. From time
to time there were great dissensions among these men. They formed
themselves into cliques and coteries, each of which was jealous of the
influence of the others. As Peter gradually grew older, and felt
stronger and stronger in his position, he took a greater part in the
direction and control of the public policy, and the persons whom he first
made choice of to aid him in his plans were two very able men, whom he
afterward raised to positions of great responsibility and honor. These
men became, indeed, in the end, highly distinguished as statesmen, and
were very prominent and very efficient instruments in the development and
realization of Peter's plans. The name of the first of these statesmen
was Le Fort; that of the second was Menzikoff. The story which is told
by the old historians of both of these men is quite romantic.
Le Fort was the son of a merchant of Geneva. He had a strong desire from
his childhood to be a soldier, but his father, considering the hardships
and dangers to which a military life would expose him, preferred to make
him a merchant, and so he provided him with a place in the counting-house
of one of the great merchants of Amsterdam. The city of Amsterdam was in
those days one of the greatest and wealthiest marts of commerce in the
world.
Very many young men, in being thus restrained by their fathers from
pursuing the profession which they themselves chose, and placed, instead,
in a situation which they did not like, would have gone to their duty in
a discontented and sullen manner, and would have made no effort to
succeed in the business or to please their employers; but Le Fort, it
seems, was a boy of a different mould from this. He went to his work in
the counting-house at Amsterdam with a good heart, and devoted himself to
his business with so much industry and steadiness, and evinced withal so
much amiableness of disposition in his intercourse with all around him,
that before long, as the accounts say, the merchant "loved him as his own
child." After some considerable time had elapsed, the merchant, who was
constantly sending vessels to different parts of the world, was on one
occasion about dispatching a ship to Copenhagen, and Le Fort asked
permission to go in her. The merchant was not only willing that he
should go, but also gave him the whole charge of the cargo, with
instructions to attend to the sale of it, and the remittance of the
proceeds on the arrival of the ship in port. Le Fort accordingly sailed
in the ship, and on his arrival at Copenhagen he transacted the business
of selling the cargo and sending back the money so skillfully and well
that the merchant was very well pleased with him.
Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, and the Danes were at that time
quite a powerful and warlike nation. Le Fort, in walking about the
streets of the town while his ship was lying there, often saw the Danish
soldiers marching to and fro, and performing their evolutions, and the
sight revived in his mind his former interest in being a soldier. He
soon made acquaintance with some of the officers, and, in hearing them
talk of their various adventures, and of the details of their mode of
life, he became very eager to join them. They liked him, too, very much.
He had made great progress in learning the different languages spoken in
that part of the world, and the officers found, moreover, that he was
very quick in understanding the military principles which they explained
to him, and in learning evolutions of all kinds.
About this time it happened that an embassador was to be sent from
Denmark to Russia, and Le Fort, who had a great inclination to see the
world as well as to be a soldier, was seized with a strong desire to
accompany the expedition in the embassador's train. He already knew
something of the Russian language, and he set himself at work with all
diligence to study it more. He also obtained recommendations from those
who had known him--probably, among others, from the merchant in
Amsterdam, and he secured the influence in his favor of the officers in
Copenhagen with whom he had become acquainted. When these preliminary
steps had been taken, he made application for the post of interpreter to
the embassy; and after a proper examination had been made in respect to
his character and his qualifications, he received the appointment. Thus,
instead of going back to Amsterdam after his cargo was sold, he went to
Russia in the suite of the embassador.
The embassador soon formed a very strong friendship for his young
interpreter, and employed him confidentially, when he arrived in Moscow,
in many important services. The embassador himself soon acquired great
influence at Moscow, and was admitted to quite familiar intercourse, not
only with the leading Russian noblemen, but also with Peter himself. On
one occasion, when Peter was dining at the embassador's--as it seems he
was sometimes accustomed to do--he took notice of Le Fort, who was
present as one of the party, on account of his prepossessing appearance
and agreeable manners. He also observed that, for a foreigner, he spoke
the Russian language remarkably well. The emperor asked Le Fort some
questions concerning his origin and history, and, being very much pleased
with his answers, and with his general air and demeanor, he asked him
whether he should be willing to enter into his service. Le Fort replied
in a very respectful manner, "That, whatever ambition he might have to
serve so great a monarch, yet the duty and gratitude which he owed to his
present master, the embassador, would not allow him to promise any thing
without first asking his consent."
"Very well," replied the Czar; "_I_ will ask your master's consent."
"But I hope," said Le Fort, "that your majesty will make use of some
other interpreter than myself in asking the question."
Peter was very much pleased with both these answers of Le Fort--the one
showing his scrupulous fidelity to his engagements in not being willing
to leave one service for another, however advantageous to himself the
change might be, until he was honorably released by his first employer,
and the other marking the delicacy of mind which prompted him to wish not
to take any part in the conversation between the emperor and the
embassador respecting himself, as his office of interpreter would
naturally lead him to do, but to prefer that the communication should be
made through an indifferent person, in order that the embassador might be
perfectly free to express his real opinion without any reserve.
Accordingly, the Czar, taking another interpreter with him, went to the
embassador and began to ask him about Le Fort.
"He speaks very good Russian," said Peter.
"Yes, please your majesty," said the embassador, "he has a genius for
learning any thing that he pleases. When he came to me four months ago
he knew very little of German, but now he speaks it very well. I have
two German interpreters in my train, and he speaks the language as well
as either of them. He did not know a word of Russian when he came to my
country, but your majesty can judge yourself how well he speaks it now."
In the mean time, while Peter and the embassador were talking thus about
Le Fort, he himself had withdrawn to another part of the room. The Czar
was very much pleased with the modesty of the young gentleman's behavior;
and, after finishing the conversation with the embassador, without,
however, having asked him to release Le Fort from his service, he
returned to the part of the room where Le Fort was, and presently asked
him to bring him a glass of wine. He said no more to him at that time in
respect to entering his service, but Le Fort understood very well from
his countenance, and from the manner in which he asked him for the wine,
that nothing had occurred in his conversation with the embassador to lead
him to change his mind.
The next day Peter, having probably in the mean time made some farther
inquiries about Le Fort, introduced the subject again in conversation
with the embassador. He told the embassador that he had a desire to have
the young man Le Fort about him, and asked if he should be willing to
part with him. The embassador replied that, notwithstanding any desire
he might feel to retain so agreeable and promising a man in his own
service, still the exchange was too advantageous to Le Fort, and he
wished him too well to make any objection to it; and besides, he added,
he knew too well his duty to his majesty not to consent readily to any
arrangement of that kind that his majesty might desire.
The next day Peter sent for Le Fort, and formally appointed him his first
interpreter. The duties of this office required Le Fort to be a great
deal in the emperor's presence, and Peter soon became extremely attached
to him. Le Fort, although we have called him a young man, was now about
thirty-five years of age, while Peter himself was yet not twenty. It was
natural, therefore, that Peter should soon learn to place great
confidence in him, and often look to him for information, and this the
more readily on account of Le Fort's having been brought up in the heart
of Europe, where all the arts of civilization, both those connected with
peace and war, were in a much more advanced state than they were at this
time in Russia.
Le Fort continued in the service of the emperor until the day of his
death, which happened about ten years after this time; and during this
period he rose to great distinction, and exercised a very important part
in the management of public affairs, and more particularly in aiding
Peter to understand and to introduce into his own dominions the arts and
improvements of western Europe.
The first improvement which Le Fort was the means of introducing in the
affairs of the Czar related to the dress and equipment of the troops.
The Guards had before that time been accustomed to wear an old-fashioned
Russian uniform, which was far from being convenient. The outside
garment was a sort of long coat or gown, which considerably impeded the
motion of the limbs. One day, not long after Le Fort entered the service
of the emperor, Peter, being engaged in conversation with him, asked him
what he thought of his soldiers.
"The men themselves are very well," replied Le Port, "but it seems to me
that the dress which they wear is not so convenient for military use as
the style of dress now usually adopted among the western nations."
Peter asked what this style was, and Le Fort replied that if his majesty
would permit him to do so, he would take measures for affording him an
opportunity to see.
Accordingly, Le Fort repaired immediately to the tailor of the Danish
embassador. This tailor the embassador had brought with him from
Copenhagen, for it was the custom in those days for personages of high
rank and station, like the embassador, to take with them, in their train,
persons of all the trades and professions which they might require, so
that, wherever they might be, they could have the means of supplying all
their wants within themselves, and without at all depending upon the
people whom they visited. Le Fort employed the tailor to make him two
military suits, in the style worn by the royal guards at Copenhagen--one
for an officer, and another for a soldier of the ranks. The tailor
finished the first suit in two days. Le Fort put the dress on, and in
the morning, at the time when, according to his usual custom, he was to
wait upon the emperor in his chamber, he went in wearing the new uniform.
The Czar was surprised at the unexpected spectacle. At first he did not
know Le Fort in his new garb; and when at length he recognized him, and
began to understand the case, he was exceedingly pleased. He examined
the uniform in every part, and praised not only the dress itself, but
also Le Fort's ingenuity and diligence in procuring him so good an
opportunity to know what the military style of the western nations really
was.
Soon after this Le Fort appeared again in the emperor's presence wearing
the uniform of a common soldier. The emperor examined this dress too,
and saw the superiority of it in respect to its convenience, and its
adaptedness to the wants and emergencies of military life. He said at
once that he should like to have a company of guards dressed and equipped
in that manner, and should be also very much pleased to have them
disciplined and drilled according to the western style. Le Fort said
that if his majesty was pleased to intrust him with the commission, he
would endeavor to organize such a company.
The emperor requested him to do so, and Le Port immediately undertook the
task. He went about Moscow to all the different merchants to procure the
materials necessary--for many of these materials were such as were not
much in use in Moscow, and so it was not easy to procure them in
sufficient quantities to make the number of suits that Le Fort required.
He also sought out all the tailors that he could find at the houses of
the different embassadors, or of the great merchants who came from
western Europe, and were consequently acquainted with the mode of cutting
and making the dresses in the proper manner. Of course, a considerable
number of tailors would be necessary to make up so many uniforms in the
short space of time which Le Fort wished to allot to the work.
Le Fort then went about among the strangers and foreigners at Moscow,
both those connected with the embassadors and others, to find men that
were in some degree acquainted with the drill and tactics of the western
armies, who were willing to serve in the company that he was about to
organize. He soon made up a company of fifty men. When this company was
completed, and clothed in the new uniform, and had been properly drilled,
Le Fort put himself at the head of them one morning, and marched them,
with drums beating and colors flying, before the palace gate. The Czar
came to the window to see them as they passed. He was much surprised at
the spectacle, and very much pleased. He came down to look at the men
more closely; he stood by while they went through the exercises in which
Le Fort had drilled them. The emperor was so much pleased that he said
he would join the company himself. He wished to learn to perform the
exercise personally, so as to know in a practical manner precisely how
others ought to perform it. He accordingly caused a dress to be made for
himself, and he took his place afterward in the ranks as a common
soldier, and was drilled with the rest in all the exercises.
From this beginning the change went on until the style of dress and the
system of tactics for the whole imperial army was reformed by the
introduction of the compact and scientific system of western Europe, in
the place of the old-fashioned and cumbrous usages which had previously
prevailed.
The emperor having experienced the immense advantages which resulted from
the adoption of western improvements in his army, wished now to make an
experiment of introducing, in the same way, the elements of western
civilization into the ordinary branches of industry and art. He proposed
to Le Fort to make arrangements for bringing into the country a great
number of mechanics and artisans from Denmark, Germany, France, and other
European countries, in order that their improved methods and processes
might be introduced into Russia. Le Fort readily entered into this
proposal, but he explained to the emperor that, in order to render such a
measure successful on the scale necessary for the accomplishment of any
important good, it would be first requisite to make some considerable
changes in the general laws of the land, especially in relation to
intercourse with foreign nations. On his making known fully and in
detail what these changes would be, the emperor readily acceded to them,
and the proposed modifications of the laws were made. The tariff of
duties on the products and manufactures of foreign countries was greatly
reduced. This produced a two-fold effect.
In the first place, it greatly increased the importations of goods from
foreign countries, and thus promoted the intercourse of the Russians with
foreign merchants, manufacturers, and artisans, and gradually accustomed
the people to a better style of living, and to improved fashions in
dress, furniture, and equipage, and thus prepared the country to furnish
an extensive market for the encouragement of Russian arts and
manufactures as fast as they could be introduced.
In the second place, the new system greatly increased the revenues of the
empire. It is true that the tariff was reduced, so that the articles
that were imported paid only about half as much in proportion after the
change as before. But then the new laws increased the importations so
much, that the loss was very much more than made up to the treasury, and
the emperor found in a very short time that the state of his finances was
greatly improved. This enabled him to take measures for introducing into
the country great numbers of foreign manufacturers and artisans from
Germany, France, Scotland, and other countries of western Europe. These
men were brought into the country by the emperor, and sustained there at
the public expense, until they had become so far established in their
several professions and trades that they could maintain themselves.
Among others, he brought in a great many carpenters and masons to teach
the Russians to build better habitations than those which they had been
accustomed to content themselves with, which were, in general, wooden
huts of very rude and inconvenient construction. One of the first
undertakings in which the masons were employed was the building of a
handsome palace of hewn stone in Moscow for the emperor himself, the
first edifice of that kind which had ever been built in that city. The
sight of a palace formed of so elegant and durable a material excited the
emulation of all the wealthy noblemen, so that, as soon as the masons
were released from their engagement with the emperor, they found plenty
of employment in building new houses and palaces for these noblemen.
These and a great many other similar measures were devised by Le Fort
during the time that he continued in the service of the Czar, and the
success which attended all his plans and proposals gave him, in the end,
great influence, and was the means of acquiring for him great credit and
renown. And yet he was so discreet and unpretending in his manners and
demeanor, if the accounts which have come down to us respecting him are
correct, that the high favor in which he was held by the emperor did not
awaken in the hearts of the native nobles of the land any considerable
degree of that jealousy and ill-will which they might have been expected
to excite. Le Fort was of a very self-sacrificing and disinterested
disposition. He was generous in his dealings with all, and he often
exerted the ascendency which he had acquired over the mind of the emperor
to save other officers from undeserved or excessive punishment when they
displeased their august master; for it must be confessed that Peter,
notwithstanding all the excellences of his character, had the reputation
at this period of his life of being hasty and passionate. He was very
impatient of contradiction, and he could not tolerate any species of
opposition to his wishes. Being possessed himself of great decision of
character, and delighting, as he did, in promptness and energy of action,
he lost all patience sometimes, when annoyed by the delays, or the
hesitation, or the inefficiency of others, who were not so richly endowed
by nature as himself. In these cases he was often unreasonable, and
sometimes violent; and he would in many instances have acted in an
ungenerous and cruel manner if Le Fort had not always been at hand to
restrain and appease him.
Le Fort always acted as intercessor in cases of difficulty of this sort;
so that the Russian noblemen, or boyars as they were called, in the end
looked upon him as their father. It is said that he actually saved the
lives of great numbers of them, whom Peter, without his intercession,
would have sentenced to death. Others he saved from the knout, and
others from banishment. At one time, when the emperor in a passion, was
going to cause one of his officers to be scourged, although, as Le Fort
thought, he had been guilty of no wrong which could deserve such a
punishment, Le Fort, after all other means had failed, bared his own
breast and shoulders, and bade the angry emperor to strike or cut there
if he would, but to spare the innocent person. The Czar was entirely
overcome by this noble generosity, and, clasping Le Fort in his arms,
thanked him for his interposition, at the same time allowing the
trembling prisoner to depart in peace, with his heart full of gratitude
toward the friend who had so nobly saved him.
Another of the chief officers in Peter's service during the early part of
his reign was the Prince Menzikoff. His origin was very humble. His
Christian name was Alexander, and his father was a laboring man in the
service of a monastery on the banks of the Volga. The monasteries of
those times were endowed with large tracts of valuable land, which were
cultivated by servants or vassals, and from the proceeds of this
cultivation the monks were supported, and the monastery buildings kept in
repair or enlarged.
Alexander spent the early years of his life in working with his father on
the monastery lands; but, being a lad of great spirit and energy, he
gradually became dissatisfied with this mode of life; for the peasants of
those days, such as his father, who tilled the lands of the nobles or of
the monks, were little better than slaves. Alexander, then, when he
arrived at the age of thirteen or fourteen, finding his situation and
prospects at home very gloomy and discouraging, concluded to go out into
the world and seek his fortune.
So he left his father's hut and set out for Moscow. After meeting with
various adventures on the way and in the city, he finally found a place
in a pastry-cook's shop; but, instead of being employed in making and
baking the pies and tarts, he was sent out into the streets to sell them.
In order to attract customers to his merchandise, he used to sing songs
and tell stories in the streets. Indeed, it was the talent which he
evinced in these arts, doubtless, which led his master to employ him in
this way, instead of keeping him at work at home in the baking.
The story which is told of the manner in which the emperor's attention
was first attracted to young Menzikoff is very curious, but, as is the
case with all other such personal anecdotes related of great sovereigns,
it is very doubtful how far it is to be believed. It is said that Peter,
passing along the street one day, stopped to listen to Menzikoff as he
was singing a song or telling a story to a crowd of listeners. He was
much diverted by one of the songs that he heard, and at the close of it
he spoke to the boy, and finally asked him what he would take for his
whole stock of cakes and pies, basket and all. The boy named the sum for
which he would sell all the cakes and pies, but as for the basket he said
that belonged to his master, and he had no power to sell it.
[Illustration: Menzikoff selling his cakes.]
"Still," he added, "every thing belongs to your majesty, and your majesty
has, therefore, only to give me the command, and I shall deliver it up to
you."
This reply pleased the Czar so much that he sent for the boy to come to
him, and on conversing with him farther, and after making additional
inquiries respecting him, he was so well satisfied that he took him at
once into his service.
All this took place before Le Fort's plan was formed for organizing a
company to exhibit to the emperor the style of uniform and the system of
military discipline adopted in western Europe, as has already been
described. Menzikoff joined this company, and he took so much interest
in the exercises and evolutions, and evinced so great a degree of
intelligence, and so much readiness in comprehending and in practicing
the various manoeuvres, that he attracted Le Fort's special attention.
He was soon promoted to office in the company, and ultimately he became
Le Fort's principal co-operator in his various measures and plans. From
this he rose by degrees, until in process of time he became one of the
most distinguished generals in Peter's army, and took a very important
part in some of his most celebrated campaigns.
In reading stories like these, we are naturally led to feel a strong
interest in the persons who are the subjects of them, and we sometimes
insensibly form opinions of their characters which are far too favorable.
This Menzikoff, for example, notwithstanding the enterprising spirit
which he displayed in his boyhood, in setting off alone to Moscow to seek
his fortune, and his talent for telling stories and singing songs, and
the interest which he felt, and the success that he met with, in learning
Le Fort's military manoeuvres, and the great distinction which he
subsequently acquired as a military commander, may have been, after all,
in relation to any just and proper standards of moral duty, a very bad
man. Indeed, there is much reason to suppose that he was so. At all
events, he became subsequently implicated in a dreadful quarrel which
took place between Peter and his wife, under circumstances which appear
very much against him. This quarrel occurred after Peter had been
married only about two years, and when he was yet not quite twenty years
old. As usual in such cases, very different stories are told by the
friends respectively of the husband and the wife. On the part of the
empress it was said that the difficulty arose from Peter's having been
drawn away into bad company, and especially the company of bad women,
through the instrumentality of Menzikoff when he first came into Peter's
service. Menzikoff was a dissolute young man, it was said, while he was
in the service of the pastry-cook, and was accustomed to frequent the
haunts of the vicious and depraved about the town; and after he entered
into Peter's service, Peter himself began to go with him to these places,
disguised, of course, so as not to be known. This troubled Ottokesa, and
made her jealous; and when she remonstrated with her husband he was
angry, and by way of recrimination accused her of being unfaithful to
him. Menzikoff too was naturally filled with resentment at the empress's
accusations against him, and he took Peter's part against his wife.
Whatever may have been the truth in regard to the grounds of the
complaints made by the parties against each other, the power was on
Peter's side. He repudiated his wife, and then shut her up in a place of
seclusion, where he kept her confined all the remainder of her days.
Besides the unfavorable inferences which we might justly draw from this
case, there are unfortunately other indications that Peter,
notwithstanding the many and great excellences of his character, was at
this period of his life violent and passionate in temper, very impatient
of contradiction or opposition, and often unreasonable and unjust in his
treatment of those who for any reason became the objects of his suspicion
or dislike. Various incidents and occurrences illustrating these traits
in his character will appear in the subsequent chapters of his history.
CHAPTER V.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN.
1691-1697
Peter's unlimited power--Extent of his dominions--Character--His wishes
in respect to his dominion--Embassy to China--Siberia--Inhospitable
climate--The exiles--Western civilization--Ship-building--The Dutch
ship-yards--Saardam--The barge at the country palace--The emperor's
first vessels--Sham-fights--Azof--Naval operations against
Azof--Treachery of the artilleryman--Defeat--New attempt--The Turkish
fleet taken--Fall of Azof--Fame of the emperor--His plans for building
a fleet--Foreign workmen--Penalties--His arbitrary proceedings--He
sends the young nobility abroad--Opposition--Sullen mood of
mind--National prejudices offended--The opposition party--Arguments of
the disaffected--Religious feelings of the people--The patriarch--An
impious scheme--Plan of the conspirators--Fires--Dread of them in
Moscow--Modern cities--Plan for massacring the foreigners--The day--The
plot revealed--Measures taken by Peter--Torture--Punishment of the
conspirators--The column in the market-place
Peter was now not far from twenty years of age, and he was in full
possession of power as vast, perhaps--if we consider both the extent of
it and its absoluteness--as was ever claimed by any European sovereign.
There was no written constitution to limit his prerogatives, and no
Legislature or Parliament to control him by laws. In a certain sense,
as Alexander Menzikoff said when selling his cakes, every thing
belonged to him. His word was law. Life and death hung upon his
decree. His dominions extended so far that, on an occasion when he
wished to send an embassador to one of his neighbors--the Emperor of
China--it took the messenger more than _eighteen months_ of constant
and diligent traveling to go from the capital to the frontier.
Such was Peter's position. As to character, he was talented,
ambitious, far-seeing, and resolute; but he was also violent in temper,
merciless and implacable toward his enemies, and possessed of an
indomitable will.
He began immediately to feel a strong interest in the improvement of
his empire, in order to increase his own power and grandeur as the
monarch of it, just as a private citizen might wish to improve his
estate in order to increase his wealth and importance as the owner of
it. He sent the embassador above referred to to China in order to make
arrangements for increasing and improving the trade between the two
countries. This mission was arranged in a very imposing manner. The
embassador was attended with a train of twenty-one persons, who went
with him in the capacity of secretaries, interpreters, legal
councilors, and the like, besides a large number of servants and
followers to wait upon the gentlemen of the party, and to convey and
take care of the baggage. The baggage was borne in a train of wagons
which followed the carriages of the embassador and his suite, so that
the expedition moved through the country quite like a little army on a
march.
It was nearly three years before the embassage returned. The measure,
however, was eminently successful. It placed the relations of the two
empires on a very satisfactory footing.
The dominions of the Czar extended then, as now, through all the
northern portions of Europe and Asia, to the shores of the Icy Sea. A
very important part of this region is the famous Siberia. The land
here is not of much value for cultivation, on account of the long and
dreary winters and the consequent shortness of the summer season. But
this very coldness of the climate causes it to produce a great number
of fine fur-bearing animals, such as the sable, the mink, the ermine,
and the otter; for nature has so arranged it that, the colder any
climate is, the finer and the warmer is the fur which grows upon the
animals that live there.
The inhabitants of Siberia are employed, therefore, chiefly in hunting
wild animals for their flesh or their fur, and in working the mines;
and, from time immemorial, it has been the custom to send criminals
there in banishment, and compel them to spend the remainder of their
lives in these toilsome and dangerous occupations. Of course, the
cold, the exposure, and the fatigue, joined to the mental distress and
suffering which the thought of their hard fate and the recollections of
home must occasion, soon bring far the greater proportion of these
unhappy outcasts to the grave.
Peter interested himself very much in efforts to open communications
with these retired and almost inaccessible regions, and to improve and
extend the working of the mines. But his thoughts were chiefly
occupied with the condition of the European portion of his dominions,
and with schemes for introducing more and more fully the arts and
improvements of western Europe among his people. He was ready to seize
upon every occasion which could furnish any hint or suggestion to this
end.
The manner in which his attention was first turned to the subject of
ship-building illustrated this. In those days Holland was the great
centre of commerce and navigation for the whole world, and the art of
ship-building had made more progress in that nation than in any other.
The Dutch held colonies in every quarter of the globe. Their
men-of-war and their fleets of merchantmen penetrated to every sea, and
their naval commanders were universally renowned for their enterprise,
their bravery, and their nautical skill.
The Dutch not only built ships for themselves, but orders were sent to
their ship-yards from all parts of the world, inasmuch as in these
yards all sorts of vessels, whether for war, commerce, or pleasure,
could be built better and cheaper than in any other place.
One of the chief centres in which these ship and boat building
operations were carried on was the town of Saardam. This town lies
near Amsterdam, the great commercial capital of the country. It
extends for a mile or two along the banks of a deep and still river,
which furnish most complete and extensive facilities for the docks and
ship-yards.
Now it happened that, one day when Peter was with Le Fort at one of his
country palaces where there was a little lake, and a canal connected
with it, which had been made for pleasure-sailing on the grounds, his
attention was attracted to the form and construction of a yacht which
was lying there. This yacht having been sent for from Holland at the
time when the palace grounds were laid out, the emperor fell into
conversation with Le Fort in respect to it, and this led to the subject
of ships and ship-building in general. Le Fort represented so strongly
to his master the advantages which Holland and the other maritime
powers of Europe derived from their ships of war, that Peter began
immediately to feel a strong desire to possess a navy himself. There
were, of course, great difficulties in the way. Russia was almost
entirely an inland country. There were no good sea-ports, and Moscow,
the capital, was situated very far in the interior. Then, besides,
Peter not only had no ships, but there were no mechanics or artisans in
Russia that knew how to build them.
Le Fort, however, when he perceived how deep was the interest which
Peter felt in the subject, made inquiries, and at length succeeded in
finding among the Dutch merchants that were in Moscow the means of
procuring some ship-builders to build him several small vessels, which,
when they were completed, were launched upon a lake not far from the
city. Afterward other vessels were built in the same place, in the
form of frigates; and these, when they were launched, were properly
equipped and armed, under Le Fort's direction, and the emperor took
great interest in sailing about in them on the lake, in learning
personally all the evolutions necessary for the management of them, and
in performing sham-fights by setting one of them against another. He
took command of one of the vessels as captain, and thenceforward
assumed that designation as one of his most honorable titles. All this
took place when Peter was about twenty-two years old.
Not very long after this the emperor had an opportunity to make a
commencement in converting his nautical knowledge to actual use by
engaging in something like a naval operation against an enemy, in
conjunction with several other European powers, he declared war anew
against the Turks and Tartars, and the chief object of the first
campaign was the capture of the city of Azof, which is situated on the
shores of the Sea of Azof, near the mouth of the River Don. Peter not
only approached and invested the city by land, but he also took
possession of the river leading to it by means of a great number of
boats and vessels which he caused to be built along the banks. In this
way he cut off all supplies from the city, and pressed it so closely
that he would have taken it, it was said, had it not been for the
treachery of an officer of artillery, who betrayed to the enemy the
principal battery which had been raised against the town just as it was
ready to be opened upon the walls. This artilleryman, who was not a
native Russian, but one of the foreigners whom the Czar had enlisted in
his service, became exasperated at some ill treatment which he received
from the Russian nobleman who commanded his corps; so he secretly drove
nails into the touchholes of all the guns in the battery, and then, in
the night, went over to the Turks and informed them what he had done.
Accordingly, very early in the morning the Turks sallied forth and
attacked the battery, and the men who were charged with the defense of
it, on rushing to the guns, found that they could not be fired. The
consequence was that the battery was taken, the men put to flight, and
the guns destroyed. This defeat entirely disconcerted the Russian
army, and so effectually deranged their plans that they were obliged to
raise the siege and withdraw, with the expectation, however, of
renewing the attempt in another campaign.
Accordingly, the next year the attempt was renewed, and many more boats
and vessels were built upon the river to co-operate with the besiegers.
The Turks had ships of their own, which they brought into the Sea of
Azof for the protection of the town. But Peter sent down a few of his
smaller vessels, and by means of them contrived to entice the Turkish
commander up a little way into the river. Peter then came down upon
him with all his fleet, and the Turkish ships were overpowered and
taken. Thus Peter gained his first naval victory almost, as we might
say, on the land. He conquered and captured a fleet of sea-going ships
by enticing them among the boats and other small craft which he had
built up country on the banks of a river.
Soon after this Azof was taken. One of the conditions of the surrender
was that the treacherous artilleryman should be delivered up to the
Czar. He was taken to Moscow, and there put to death with tortures too
horrible to be described. They did not deny that the man had been
greatly injured by his Russian commander, but they told him that what
he ought to have done was to appeal to the emperor for redress, and not
to seek his revenge by traitorously giving up to the enemy the trust
committed to his charge.
The emperor acquired great fame throughout Europe by the success of his
operations in the siege of Azof. This success also greatly increased
his interest in the building of ships, especially as he now, since Azof
had fallen into his hands, had a port upon an open sea.
In a word, Peter was now very eager to begin at once the building ships
of war. He was determined that he would have a fleet which would
enable him to go out and meet the Turks in the Black Sea. The great
difficulty was to provide the necessary funds. To accomplish this
purpose, Peter, who was never at all scrupulous in respect to the means
which he adopted for attaining his ends, resorted at once to very
decided measures. Besides the usual taxes which were laid upon the
people to maintain the war, he ordained that a certain number of
wealthy noblemen should each pay for one ship, which, however, as some
compensation for the cost which the nobleman was put to in building it,
he was at liberty to call by his own name. The same decree was made in
respect to a number of towns, monasteries, companies, and public
institutions. The emperor also made arrangements for having a large
number of workmen sent into Russia from Holland, and from Venice, and
from other maritime countries. The emperor laid his plans in this way
for the construction and equipment of a fleet of about one hundred
ships and vessels, consisting of frigates, store-ships, bomb-vessels,
galleys, and galliasses. These were all to be built, equipped, and
made in all respects ready for sea in the space of three years; and if
any person or party failed to have his ship ready at that time, the
amount of the tax which had been assessed to him was to be doubled.
In all these proceedings, the Czar, as might have been expected from
his youth and his headstrong character, acted in a very summary, and in
many respects in an arbitrary and despotic manner. His decrees
requiring the nobles to contribute such large sums for the building of
his fleet occasioned a great deal of dissatisfaction and complaint.
And very soon he resorted to some other measures, which increased the
general discontent exceedingly.
He appointed a considerable number of the younger nobility, and the
sons of other persons of wealth and distinction, to travel in the
western countries of Europe while the fleet was preparing, giving them
special instructions in respect to the objects of interest which they
should severally examine and study. The purpose of this measure was to
advance the general standard of intelligence in Russia by affording to
these young men the advantages of foreign travel, and enlarging their
ideas in respect to the future progress of their own country in the
arts and appliances of civilized life. The general idea of the emperor
in this was excellent, and the effect of the measure would have been
excellent too if it had been carried out in a more gentle and moderate
way. But the fathers of the young men were incensed at having their
sons ordered thus peremptorily out of the country, whether they liked
to go or not, and however inconvenient it might be for the fathers to
provide the large amounts of money which were required for such
journeys. It is said that one young man was so angry at being thus
sent away that he determined that his country should not derive any
benefit from the measure, so far as his case was concerned, and
accordingly, when he arrived at Venice, which was the place where he
was sent, he shut himself up in his house, and remained there all the
time, in order that he might not see or learn any thing to make use of
on his return.
This seems almost incredible. Indeed, the story has more the air of a
witticism, invented to express the sullen humor with which many of the
young men went away, than the sober statement of a fact. Still, it is
not impossible that such a thing may have actually occurred; for the
veneration of the old Russian families for their own country, and the
contempt with which they had been accustomed for many generations to
look upon foreigners, and upon every thing connected with foreign
manners and customs, were such as might lead in extreme cases, to
almost any degree of fanaticism in resisting the emperor's measures.
At any rate, in a short time there was quite a powerful party formed in
opposition to the foreign influences which Peter was introducing into
the country.
There was no one in the imperial family to whom this party could look
for a leader and head except the Princess Sophia. The Czar John,
Peter's feeble brother, was dead, otherwise they might have made his
name their rallying cry. Sophia was still shut up in the convent to
which Peter had sent her on the discovery of her conspiracy against
him. She was kept very closely guarded there. Still, the leaders of
the opposition contrived to open a communication with her. They took
every means to increase and extend the prevailing discontent. To
people of wealth and rank they represented the heavy taxes which they
were obliged to pay to defray the expenses of the emperor's wild
schemes, and the loss of their own proper influence and power in the
government of the country, they themselves being displaced to make room
for foreigners, or favorites like Menzikoff, that were raised from the
lowest grades of life to posts of honor and profit which ought to be
bestowed upon the ancient nobility alone. To the poor and ignorant
they advanced other arguments, which were addressed chiefly to their
religious prejudices. The government were subverting all the ancient
usages of the country, they said, and throwing every thing into the
hands of infidel or heretical foreigners. The course which the Czar
was pursuing was contrary to the laws of God, they said, who had
forbidden the children of Israel to have any communion with the
unbelieving nations around them, in order that they might not be led
away by them into idolatry. And so in Russia, they said, the extensive
power of granting permission to any Russian subject to leave the
country vested, according to the ancient usages of the empire, with the
patriarch, the head of the Church--and Peter had violated these usages
in sending away so many of the sons of the nobility without the
patriarch's consent. There were many other measures, too, which Peter
had adopted, or which he had then in contemplation, that were equally
obnoxious to the charge of impiety. For instance, he had formed a
plan--and he had even employed engineers to take preliminary steps in
reference to the execution of it--for making a canal from the River
Wolga to the River Don, thus presumptuously and impiously undertaking
to turn the streams one way, when Providence had designed them to flow
in another! Absurd as many of these representations were, they had
great influence with the mass of the common people.
At length this opposition party became so extended and so strong that
the leaders thought the time had arrived for them to act. They
accordingly arranged the details of their plot, and prepared to put it
in execution.
The scheme which they formed was this: they were to set fire to some
houses in the night, not far from the royal palace, and when the
emperor came out, as it is said was his custom to do, in order to
assist in extinguishing the flames, they were to set upon him and
assassinate him.
It may seem strange that it should be the custom of the emperor himself
to go out and assist personally in extinguishing fires. But it so
happened that the houses of Moscow at this time were almost all built
of wood, and they were so combustible, and were, moreover, so much
exposed, on account of the many fires required in the winter season in
so cold a climate, that the city was subject to dreadful
conflagrations. So great was the danger, that the inhabitants were
continually in dread of it, and all classes vied with each other in
efforts to avert the threatened calamity whenever a fire broke out.
Besides this, there were in those days no engines for throwing water,
and no organized department of firemen. All this, of course, is
entirely different at the present day in modern cities, where houses
are built of brick or stone, and the arrangements for extinguishing
fires are so complete that an alarm of fire creates no sensation, but
people go on with their business or saunter carelessly along the
streets, while the firemen are gathering, without feeling the least
concern.
As soon as they had made sure of the death of the Czar, the
conspirators were to repair to the convent where Sophia was imprisoned,
release her from her confinement, and proclaim her queen. They were
then to reorganize the Guards, restore all the officers who had been
degraded at the time of Couvansky's rebellion, then massacre all the
foreigners whom Peter had brought into the country, especially his
particular favorites, and so put every thing back upon its ancient
footing.
The time fixed for the execution of this plot was the night of the 2d
of February, 1697; but the whole scheme was defeated by what the
conspirators would probably call the treachery of two of their number.
These were two officers of the Guards who had been concerned in the
plot, but whose hearts failed them when the hour arrived for putting it
into execution. Falling into conversation with each other just before
the time, and finding that they agreed in feeling on the subject, they
resolved at once to go and make a full confession to the Czar.
So they went immediately to the house of Le Fort, where the Czar then
was, and made a confession of the whole affair. They related all the
details of the plot, and gave the names of the principal persons
concerned in it.
The emperor was at table with Le Fort at the time that he received this
communication. He listened to it very coolly--manifested no
surprise--but simply rose from the table, ordered a small body of men
to attend him, and, taking the names of the principal conspirators, he
went at once to their several houses and arrested them on the spot.
The leaders having been thus seized, the execution of the plot was
defeated. The prisoners were soon afterward put to the torture, in
order to compel them to confess their crime, and to reveal the names of
all their confederates. Whether the names thus extorted from them by
suffering were false or true would of course be wholly uncertain, but
all whom they named were seized, and, after a brief and very informal
trial, all, or nearly all, were condemned to death. The sentence of
death was executed on them in the most barbarous manner. A great
column was erected in the market-place in Moscow, and fitted with iron
spikes and hooks, which were made to project from it on every side,
from top to bottom. The criminals were then brought out one by one,
and first their arms were cut off, then their legs, and finally their
heads. The amputated limbs were then hung up upon the column by the
hooks, and the heads were fixed to the spikes. There they remained--a
horrid spectacle, intended to strike terror into all beholders--through
February and March, as long as the weather continued cold enough to
keep them frozen. When at length the spring came on, and the flesh of
these dreadful trophies began to thaw, they were taken down and thrown
together into a pit, among the bodies of common thieves and murderers.
This was the end of the second conspiracy formed against the life of
Peter the Great.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EMPEROR'S TOUR.
1697
Objects of the tour--An embassy to be sent--The emperor to go
incognito--His associates--The regency--Disposition of the Guards--The
embassy leaves Moscow--Riga--Not allowed to see the
fortifications--Arrival at Konigsberg--Grand procession in entering the
city--The pages--Curiosity of the people--The escort--Crowds in the
streets--The embassy arrives at its lodgings--Audience of the
king--Presents--Delivery of the letter from the Czar--Its contents--The
king's reply--Grand banquet--Effects of such an embassy--The policy of
modern governments--The people now reserve their earnings for their own
use--How Peter occupied his time--Dantzic--Peter preserves his
incognito--Presents--His dress--His interest in the shipping--Grand
entrance into Holland--Curiosity of the people--Peter enters Amsterdam
privately--Views of the Hollanders--Residence of the Czar--The East India
Company--Peter goes to work--His real object in pursuing this course--His
taste for mechanics--The opportunities and facilities he enjoyed--His old
workshop--Mode of preserving it--The workmen in the yard--Peter's visits
to his friends in Amsterdam--The rich merchant--Peter's manners and
character--The Hague--The embassy at the Hague
At the time when the emperor issued his orders to so many of the sons of
the nobility, requiring them to go and reside for a time in the cities of
western Europe, he formed the design of going himself to make a tour in
that part of the world, for the purpose of visiting the courts and
capitals, and seeing with his own eyes what arts and improvements were to
be found there which might be advantageously introduced into his own
dominions. In the spring of the year 1697, he thought that the time had
come for carrying this idea into effect.
The plan which he formed was not to travel openly in his own name, for he
knew that in this case a great portion of his time and attention, in the
different courts and capitals, would be wasted in the grand parades,
processions, and ceremonies with which the different sovereigns would
doubtless endeavor to honor his visit. He therefore determined to travel
incognito, in the character of a private person in the train of an
embassy. An embassy could proceed more quietly from place to place than
a monarch traveling in his own name; and then besides, if the emperor
occupied only a subordinate place in the train of the embassy, he could
slip away from it to pursue his own inquiries in a private manner
whenever he pleased, leaving the embassadors themselves and those of
their train who enjoyed such scenes to go through all the public
receptions and other pompous formalities which would have been so
tiresome to him.
General Le Fort, who had by this time been raised to a very high position
under Peter's government, was placed at the head of this embassy. Two
other great officers of state were associated with him. Then came
secretaries, interpreters, and subordinates of all kinds, in great
numbers, among whom Peter was himself enrolled under a fictitious name.
Peter took with him several young men of about his own age. Two or three
of these were particular friends of his, whom he wished to have accompany
him for the sake of their companionship on the journey. There were some
others whom he selected on account of the talent which they had evinced
for mechanical and mathematical studies. These young men he intended to
have instructed in the art of ship-building in some of the countries
which the embassy were to visit.
Besides these arrangements in respect to the embassy, provision was, of
course, to be made by the emperor for the government of the country
during his absence. He left the administration in the hands of three
great nobles, the first of whom was one of his uncles, his mother's
brother. The name of this prince was Naraskin. The other two nobles
were associated with Naraskin in the regency. These commissioners were
to have the whole charge of the government of the country during the
Czar's absence. Peter's little son, whose name was Alexis, and who was
now about seven years old, was also committed to their keeping.
Not having entire confidence in the fidelity of the old Guards, Peter did
not trust the defense of Moscow to them, but he garrisoned the
fortifications in and around the capital with a force of about twelve
thousand men that he had gradually brought together for that purpose. A
great many of these troops, both officers and men, were foreigners.
Peter placed greater reliance on them on that account, supposing that
they would be less likely to sympathize with and join the people of the
city in case of any popular discontent or disturbances. The Guards were
sent off into the interior and toward the frontiers, where they could do
no great mischief; even if disposed.
At length, when every thing was ready, the embassy set out from Moscow.
The departure of the expedition from the gates of the city made quite an
imposing scene, so numerous was the party which composed the embassadors'
train. There were in all about three hundred men. The principal persons
of the embassy were, of course, splendidly mounted and equipped, and they
were followed by a line of wagons conveying supplies of clothing, stores,
presents for foreign courts, and other baggage. This baggage-train was,
of course, attended by a suitable escort. Vast multitudes of people
assembled along the streets and at the gates of the city to see the grand
procession commence its march.
The first place of importance at which the embassy stopped was the city
of Riga, on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, in the eastern part of the
Baltic Sea.[1] Riga and the province in which it was situated, though
now a part of the Russian empire, then belonged to Sweden. It was the
principal port on the Baltic in those days, and Peter felt a great
interest in viewing it, as there was then no naval outlet in that
direction from his dominions. The governor of Riga was very polite to
the embassy, and gave them a very honorable reception in the city, but he
refused to allow the embassadors to examine the fortifications. It had
been arranged beforehand between the embassadors and Peter that two of
them were to ask permission to see the fortifications, and that Peter
himself was to go around with them as their attendant when they made
their visit, in order that he might make his own observations in respect
to the strength of the works and the mode of their construction. Peter
was accordingly very much disappointed and vexed at the refusal of the
governor to allow the fortifications to be viewed, and he secretly
resolved that he would seize the first opportunity after his return to
open a quarrel with the King of Sweden, and take this city away from him.
Leaving Riga, the embassy moved on toward the southward and westward
until, at length, they entered the dominions of the King of Prussia.
They came soon to the city of Konigsberg, which was at that time the
capital. The reception of the embassy at this city was attended with
great pomp and display. The whole party halted at a small village at the
distance of about a mile from the gates, in order to give time for
completing the arrangements, and to await the arrival of a special
messenger and an escort from the king to conduct them within the walls.
At length, when all was ready, the procession formed about four o'clock
in the afternoon. First came a troop of horses that belonged to the
king. They were splendidly caparisoned, but were not mounted. They were
led by grooms. Then came an escort of troops of the Royal Guards. They
were dressed in splendid red uniform, and were preceded by kettle-drums.
Then a company of the Prussian nobility in beautifully-decorated coaches,
each drawn by six horses. Next came the state carriages of the king.
The king himself was not in either of them, it being etiquette for the
king to remain in his palace, and receive the embassy at a public
audience there after their arrival. The royal carriages were sent out,
however, as a special though indirect token of respect to the Czar, who
was known to be in the train.
Then came a precession of pages, consisting of those of the king and
those of the embassadors marching together. These pages were all
beautiful boys, elegantly dressed in characteristic liveries of red laced
with gold. They marched three together, two of the king's pages in each
rank, with one of the embassadors' between them. The spectators were
very much interested in these boys, and the boys were likewise doubtless
much interested in each other; but they could not hold any conversation
with each other, for probably those of each set could speak only their
own language.
Next after the pages came the embassy itself. First there was a line of
thirty-six carriages, containing the principal officers and attendants of
the three embassadors. In one of these carriages, riding quietly with
the rest as a subordinate in the train, was Peter. There was doubtless
some vague intimation circulating among the crowd that the Emperor of
Russia was somewhere in the procession, concealed in his disguise. But
there were no means of identifying him, and, of course, whatever
curiosity the people felt on the subject remained ungratified.
Next after these carriages came the military escort which the embassadors
had brought with them. The escort was headed by the embassadors' band of
music, consisting of trumpets, kettle-drums, and other martial
instruments. Then came a body of foot-guards: their uniform was green,
and they were armed with silver battle-axes. Then came a troop of
horsemen, which completed the escort. Immediately after the escort there
followed the grand state carriage of the embassy, with the three
embassadors in it.
The procession was closed by a long train of elegant carriages, conveying
various personages of wealth and distinction, who had come from the city
to join in doing honor to the strangers.
As the procession entered the city, they found the streets through which
they were to pass densely lined on each side by the citizens who had
assembled to witness the spectacle. Through this vast concourse the
embassadors and their suite advanced, and were finally conducted to a
splendid palace which had been prepared for them in the heart of the
city. The garrison of the city was drawn up at the gates of the palace,
to receive them as they arrived. When the carriage reached the gate and
the embassadors began to alight, a grand salute was fired from the guns
of the fortress. The embassadors were immediately conducted to their
several apartments in the palace by the officers who had led the
procession, and then left to repose. When the officers were about to
withdraw, the embassadors accompanied them to the head of the stairs and
took leave of them there. The doors of the palace and the halls and
entrances leading to the apartments of the embassadors were guarded by
twenty-four soldiers, who were stationed there as sentinels to protect
the precincts from all intrusion.
Four days after this there was another display, when the embassadors were
admitted to their first public audience with the king. There was again a
grand procession through the streets, with great crowds assembled to
witness it, and bands of music, and splendid uniforms, and gorgeous
equipages, all more magnificent, if possible, than before. The
embassadors were conducted in this way to the royal palace. They entered
the hall, dressed in cloth of gold and silver, richly embroidered, and
adorned with precious stones of great value. Here they found the king
seated on a throne, and attended by all the principal nobles of his
court. The embassadors advanced to pay their reverence to his majesty,
bearing in their hands, in a richly-ornamented box, a letter from the
Czar, with which they had been intrusted for him. There were a number of
attendants also, who were loaded with rich and valuable presents which
the embassadors had brought to offer to the king. The presents consisted
of the most costly furs, tissues of gold and silver, precious stones, and
the like, all productions of Russia, and of very great value.
The king received the embassadors in a very honorable manner, and made
them an address of welcome in reply to the brief addresses of salutation
and compliment which they first delivered to him. He received the letter
from their hands and read it. The presents were deposited on tables
which had been set for the purpose.
The letter stated that the Czar had sent the embassy to assure him of his
desire "to improve the affection and good correspondence which had always
existed, as well between his royal highness and himself as between their
illustrious ancestors." It said also that "the same embassy being from
thence to proceed to the court of Vienna, the Czar requested the king to
help them on their journey." And finally it expressed the thanks of the
Czar, for the "engineers and bombardiers" which the king had sent him
during the past year, and who had been so useful to him in the siege of
Azof.
The king, having read the letter, made a verbal reply to the embassadors,
asking them to thank the Czar in his name for the friendly sentiments
which his letter expressed, and for the splendid embassy which he had
sent to him.
All this time the Czar himself, the author of the letter, was standing
by, a quiet spectator of the scene, undistinguishable from the other
secretaries and attendants that formed the embassadors' train.
After the ceremony of audience was completed the embassadors withdrew.
They were reconducted to their lodgings with the same ceremonies as were
observed in their coming out, and then spent the evening at a grand
banquet provided for them by the elector. All the principal nobility of
Prussia were present at this banquet, and after it was concluded the town
was illuminated with a great display of fireworks, which continued until
midnight.
The sending of a grand embassage like this from one royal or imperial
potentate to another was a very common occurrence in those times. The
pomp and parade with which they were accompanied were intended equally
for the purpose of illustrating the magnificence of the government that
sent them, and of offering a splendid token of respect to the one to
which they were sent. Of course, the expense was enormous, both to the
sovereign who sent and to the one who received the compliment. But such
sovereigns as those were very willing to expend money in parades which
exhibited before the world the evidences of their own grandeur and power,
especially as the mass of the people, from whose toils the means of
defraying the cost was ultimately to come, were so completely held in
subjection by military power that they could not even complain, far less
could they take any effectual measures for calling their oppressors to
account. In governments that are organized at the present day, either by
the establishment of new constitutions, or by the remodeling and
reforming of old ones, all this is changed. The people understand now
that all the money which is expended by their governments is ultimately
paid by themselves, and they are gradually devising means by which they
can themselves exercise a greater and greater control over these
expenditures. They retain a far greater portion of the avails of their
labor in their own hands, and expend it in adorning and making
comfortable their own habitations, and cultivating the minds of their
children, while they require the government officials to live, and
travel, and transact their business in a more quiet and unpretending way
than was customary of yore.
Thus, in traveling over most parts of the United States, you will find
the people who cultivate the land living in comfortable, well-furnished
houses, with separate rooms appropriately arranged for the different uses
of the family. There is a carpet on the parlor floor, and there are
books in the book-case, and good supplies of comfortable clothing in the
closets. But then our embassadors and ministers in foreign courts are
obliged to content themselves with what they consider very moderate
salaries, which do not at all allow of their competing in style and
splendor with the embassadors sent from the old despotic monarchies of
Europe, under which the people who till the ground live in bare and
wretched huts, and are supplied from year to year with only just enough
of food and clothing to keep them alive and enable them to continue their
toil.
But to return to Peter and his embassy. When the public reception was
over Peter introduced himself privately to the king in his own name, and
the king, in a quiet and unofficial manner, paid him great attention.
There were to be many more public ceremonies, banquets, and parades for
the embassy in the city during their stay, but Peter withdrew himself
entirely from the scene, and went out to a certain bay, which extended
about one hundred and fifty miles along the shore between Konigsberg and
Dantzic, and occupied himself in examining the vessels which were there,
and in sailing to and fro in them.
This bay you will find delineated on any map of Europe. It extends along
the coast for a considerable distance between Konigsberg and Dantzic, on
the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea.
When the embassadors and their train had finished their banquetings and
celebrations in Konigsberg, Peter joined them again, and the expedition
proceeded to Dantzic. This was at that time, as it is now, a large
commercial city, being one of the chief ports on the Baltic for the
exportation of grain from Poland and other fertile countries in the
interior.
By this time it began to be every where well known that Peter himself was
traveling with the embassy. Peter would not, however, allow himself to
be recognized at all, or permit any public notice to be taken of his
presence, but went about freely in all the places that he visited with
his own companions, just as if he were a private person, leaving all the
public parades and receptions, and all the banquetings, and other state
and civic ceremonies, to the three embassadors and their immediate train.
A great many elegant and expensive presents, however, were sent in to
him, under pretense of sending them to the embassadors.
The expedition traveled on in this way along the coasts of the Baltic
Sea, on the way toward Holland, which was the country that Peter was most
eager to see. At every city where they stopped Peter went about
examining the shipping. He was often attended by some important official
person of the place, but in other respects he went without any ceremony
whatever. He used to change his dress, putting on, in the different
places that he visited, that which was worn by the common people of the
town, so as not to attract any attention, and not even to be recognized
as a foreigner. At one port, where there were a great many Dutch vessels
that he wished to see, he wore the pea-jacket and the other sailor-like
dress of a common Dutch skipper,[2] in order that he might ramble about
at his ease along the docks, and mingle freely with the seafaring men,
without attracting any notice at all.
[Illustration: Peter among the shipping.]
The people of Holland were aware that the embassy was coming into their
country, and that Peter himself accompanied it, and they accordingly
prepared to receive the party with the highest marks of honor. As the
embassy, after crossing the frontier, moved on toward Amsterdam, salutes
were fired from the ramparts of all the great towns that they passed, the
soldiers were drawn out, and civic processions, formed of magistrates and
citizens, met them at the gates to conduct them through the streets. The
windows, too, and the roofs of all the houses, were crowded with
spectators. Wherever they stopped at night bonfires and illuminations
were made in honor of their arrival, and sometimes beautiful fireworks
were played off in the evening before their palace windows.
Of course, there was a great desire felt every where among the spectators
to discover which of the personages who followed in the train of the
embassy was the Czar himself. They found it, however, impossible to
determine this point, so completely had Peter disguised his person, and
merged himself with the rest. Indeed, in some cases, when the procession
was moving forward with great ceremony, the object of the closest
scrutiny in every part for thousands of eyes, Peter himself was not in it
at all. This was particularly the case on the occasion of the grand
entry into Amsterdam. Peter left the party at a distance from the city,
in order to go in quietly the next day, in company with some merchants
with whom he had become acquainted. And, accordingly, while all
Amsterdam had gathered into the streets, and were watching with the most
intense curiosity every train as it passed, in order to discover which
one contained the great Czar, the great Czar himself was several miles
away, sitting quietly with his friends, the merchants, at a table in a
common country inn.
The government and the people of Holland took a very great interest in
this embassy, not only on account of the splendor of it, and the
magnitude of the imperial power which it represented, but also on account
of the business and pecuniary considerations which were involved. They
wished very much to cultivate a good understanding with Russia, on
account of the trade and commerce of that country, which was already very
great, and was rapidly increasing. They determined, therefore, to show
the embassy every mark of consideration and honor.
Besides the measures which they adopted for giving the embassy itself a
grand reception, the government set apart a spacious and splendid house
in Amsterdam for the use of the Czar during his stay. They did this in a
somewhat private and informal manner, it is true, for they knew that
Peter did not wish that his presence with the embassy should be openly
noticed in any way. They organized also a complete household for this
palace, including servants, attendants, and officers of all kinds, in a
style corresponding to the dignity of the exalted personage who was
expected to occupy it.
But Peter, when he arrived, would not occupy the palace at all, but went
into a quiet lodging among the shipping, where he could ramble about
without constraint, and see all that was to be seen which could
illustrate the art of navigation. The Dutch East India Company, which
was then, perhaps, the greatest and most powerful association of
merchants which had ever existed, had large ship-yards, where their
vessels were built, at Saardam. Saardam was almost a suburb of
Amsterdam, being situated on a deep river which empties into the Y, so
called, which is the harbor of Amsterdam, and only a few miles from the
town. Peter immediately made arrangements for going to these ship-yards
and spending the time while the embassy remained in that part of the
country in studying the construction of ships, and in becoming acquainted
with the principal builders. Here, as the historians of the times say,
he entered himself as a common ship-carpenter, being enrolled in the list
of the company's workmen by the name Peter Michaelhoff, which was as
nearly as possible his real name. He lived here several months, and
devoted himself diligently to his work. He kept two or three of his
companions with him--those whom he had brought from Moscow as his friends
and associates on the tour; but they, it is said, did not take hold of
the hard work with nearly as much zeal and energy as Peter displayed.
Peter himself worked for the greatest part of every day among the other
workmen, wearing also the same dress that they wore. When he was tired
of work he would go out on the water, and sail and row about in the
different sorts of boats, so as to make himself practically acquainted
with the comparative effects of the various modes of construction.
The object which Peter had in view in all this was, doubtless, in a great
measure, his own enjoyment for the time being. He was so much interested
in the subject of ships and ship-building, and in every thing connected
with navigation, that it was a delight to him to be in the midst of such
scenes as were to be witnessed in the company's yards. He was still but
a young man, and, like a great many other young men, he liked boats and
the water. It is not probable, notwithstanding what is said by
historians about his performances with the broad-axe, that he really did
much serious work. Still he was naturally fond of mechanical
occupations, as the fact of his making a wheelbarrow with which to
construct a fortification, in his schoolboy days, sufficiently indicates.
Then, again, his being in the ship-yards so long, nominally as one of the
workmen, gave him undoubtedly great facilities for observing every thing
which it was important that he should know. Of course, he could not have
seriously intended to make himself an actual and practical
ship-carpenter, for, in the first place, the time was too short. A trade
like that of a ship-carpenter requires years of apprenticeship to make a
really good workman. Then, in the second place, the mechanical part of
the work was not the part which it devolved upon him, as a sovereign
intent on building up a navy for the protection of his empire, even to
superintend. He could not, therefore, have seriously intended to learn
to build ships himself, but only to make himself nominally a workman,
partly for the pleasure which it gave him to place himself so wholly at
home among the shipping, and partly for the sake of the increased
opportunities which he thereby obtained of learning many things which it
was important that he should know.
Travelers visiting Holland at the present day often go out to Saardam to
see the little building that is still shown as the shop which Peter
occupied while he was there. It is a small wooden building, leaning and
bent with age and decrepitude and darkened by exposure and time. Within
the last half century, however, in order to save so curious a relic from
farther decay, the proprietors of the place have constructed around and
over it an outer building of brick, which incloses the hut itself like a
case. The sides of the outer building are formed of large, open arches,
which allow the hut within to be seen. The ground on which the hut
stands has also been laid out prettily as a garden, and is inclosed by a
wall. Within this wall, and near the gate, is a very neat and pretty
Dutch cottage, in which the custodian lives who shows the place to
strangers.
While Peter was in the ship-yards the workmen knew who he was, but all
persons were forbidden to gather around or gaze at him, or to interfere
with him in any way by their notice or their attentions. They were to
allow him to go and come as he pleased, without any molestation. These
orders they obeyed as well as they could, as every one was desirous of
treating their visitor in a manner as agreeable to him as possible, so as
to prolong his stay.
Peter varied his amusements, while he thus resided in Saardam, by making
occasional visits in a quiet and private way to certain friends in
Amsterdam. He very seldom attended any of the great parades and
celebrations which were continually taking place in honor of the embassy,
but went only to the houses of men eminent in private life for their
attainments in particular branches of knowledge, or for their experience
or success as merchants or navigators. There was one person in
particular that Peter became acquainted with in Amsterdam, whose company
and conversation pleased him very much, and whom he frequently visited.
This was a certain wealthy merchant, whose operations were on so vast a
scale that he was accustomed to send off special expeditions at his own
expense, all over the world, to explore new regions and discover new
fields for his commercial enterprise. In order also to improve the
accuracy of the methods employed by his ship-masters for ascertaining the
latitude and longitude in navigating their ships, he built an
observatory, and furnished it with the telescopes, quadrants, and other
costly instruments necessary for making the observations--all at his own
expense.
With this gentleman, and with the other persons in Amsterdam that Peter
took a fancy to, he lived on very friendly and familiar terms. He often
came in from Saardam to visit them, and would sometimes spend a
considerable portion of the night in drinking and making merry with them.
He assumed with these friends none of the reserve and dignity of demeanor
that we should naturally associate with the idea of a king. Indeed, he
was very blunt, and often rough and overbearing in his manners, not
unfrequently doing and saying things which would scarcely be pardoned in
a person of inferior station. When thwarted or opposed in any way he was
irritable and violent, and he evinced continually a temper that was very
far from being amiable. In a word, though his society was eagerly sought
by all whom he was willing to associate with, he seems to have made no
real friends. Those who knew him admired his intelligence and his
energy, and they respected his power, but he was not a man that any one
could love.
Amsterdam, though it was the great commercial centre of Holland--and,
indeed, at that time, of the world--was not the capital of the country.
The seat of government was then, as now, at the Hague. Accordingly,
after remaining as long at Amsterdam as Peter wished to amuse himself in
the ship-yards, the embassy moved on to the Hague, where it was received
in a very formal and honorable manner by the king and the government.
The presence of Peter could not be openly referred to, but very special
and unusual honors were paid to the embassy in tacit recognition of it.
At the Hague were resident ministers from all the great powers of Europe,
and these all, with one exception, came to pay visits of ceremony to the
embassadors, which visits were of course duly returned with great pomp
and parade. The exception was the minister of France. There was a
coolness existing at this time between the Russian and the French
governments on account of something Peter had done in respect to the
election of a king of Poland, which displeased the French king, and on
this account the French minister declined taking part in the special
honors paid to the embassy.
The Hague was at this time perhaps the most influential and powerful
capital of Europe. It was the centre, in fact, of all important
political movements and intrigues for the whole Continent. The embassy
accordingly paused here, to take some rest from the fatigues and
excitements of their long journey, and to allow Peter time to form and
mature plans for future movements and operations.
[1] For the situation of Riga in relation to Moscow, and for that of the
other places visited by the embassy, the reader must not fail to refer to
a map of Europe.
[2] A skipper is the captain of a small vessel.
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSION OF THE TOUR.
1697
Peter compares the shipping of different nations--He determines to
visit England--King William favors Peter's plans--Peter leaves
Holland--Helvoetsluys--Arrival in England--His reception in London--The
Duke of Leeds--Bishop Burnet--The bishop's opinion of Peter's
character--Designs of Providence--Peter's curiosity--His conversations
with the bishop--Peter takes a house "below bridge"--How he spent his
time--Peter's dress--Curiosity in respect to him--His visit to the
Tower--The various sights and shows of London--Workmen engaged--Peter's
visit to Portsmouth and Spithead--Situation of Spithead--Appearance of
the men-of-war--Grand naval spectacle--Present of a yacht--Peter sets
sail--His treatment of his workmen--Wages retained--The
engineer--Voyage to Holland--Peter rejoins the embassy--The Emperor
Leopold--Interview with the Emperor of Germany--Feasts and
festivities--Ceremonies--Bad tidings--Plans changed--Designs
abandoned--Return to Moscow
While the embassy itself was occupied with the parades and ceremonies
at the Hague, and at Utrecht, where they had a grand interview with the
States-General, and at other great political centres, Peter traveled to
and fro about Holland, visiting the different ports, and examining the
shipping that he found in them, with the view of comparing the
different models; for there were vessels in these ports from almost all
the maritime countries of Europe. His attention was at last turned to
some English ships, which pleased him very much. He liked the form of
them better than that of the Dutch ships that he had seen. He soon
made the acquaintance of a number of English ship-masters and
ship-carpenters, and obtained from them, through an interpreter of
course, a great deal of information in respect to the state of the art
of ship-building in their country. He heard that in England naval
carpentry had been reduced to a regular science, and that the forms and
models of the vessels built there were determined by fixed mathematical
principles, which every skillful and intelligent workman was expected
to understand and to practice upon; whereas in Holland the carpenters
worked by rote, each new set following their predecessors by a sort of
mechanical imitation, without being governed by any principles or
theory at all.
Peter immediately determined that he would go to England, and study the
English methods himself on the spot, as he had already studied those of
Holland.
The political relations between England and Holland were at this time
of a very intimate character, the King of England being William, Prince
of Orange.[1] The king, when he heard of Peter's intention, was much
pleased, and determined to do all in his power to promote his views in
making the journey. He immediately provided the Czar with a number of
English attendants to accompany him on his voyage, and to remain with
him in England during his stay. Among these were interpreters,
secretaries, valets, and a number of cooks and other domestic servants.
These persons were paid by the King of England himself, and were
ordered to accompany Peter to England, to remain with him all the time
that he was there, and then to return with him to Holland, so that
during the whole period of his absence he should have no trouble
whatever in respect to his personal comforts or wants.
These preparations having been all made, the Czar left the embassy, and
taking with him the company of servants which the king had provided,
and also the few private friends who had been with him all the time
since leaving Moscow, he sailed from a certain port in the
south-western part of Holland, called Helvoetsluys, about the middle of
the month of January.
He arrived without any accident at London. Here he at first took up
his abode in a handsome house which the king had ordered to be provided
and furnished for him. This house was in a genteel part of the town,
where the noblemen and other persons belonging to the court resided.
It was very pleasantly situated near the river, and the grounds
pertaining to it extended down to the water side. Still it was far
away from the part of the city which was devoted to commerce and the
shipping, and Peter was not very well satisfied with it on that
account. He, however, went to it at first, and continued to occupy it
for some time.
In this house the Czar was visited by a great number of the nobility,
and he visited them in return. He also received particular attentions
from such members of the royal family as were then in London. But the
person whose society pleased him most was one of the nobility, who,
like himself, tools: a great interest in maritime affairs. This was
the Duke of Leeds. The duke kept a number of boats at the foot of his
gardens in London, and he and Peter used often to go out together in
the river, and row and sail in them.
Among other attentions which were paid to Peter by the government
during his stay in London, one was the appointment of a person to
attend upon him for the purpose of giving him, at any time, such
explanations or such information as he might desire in respect to the
various institutions of England, whether those relating to government,
to education, or to religion. The person thus appointed was Bishop
Burnet, a very distinguished dignitary of the Church. The bishop
could, of course, only converse with Peter through interpreters, but
the practice of conversing in that way was very common in those days,
and persons were specially trained and educated to translate the
language of one person to another in an easy and agreeable manner. In
this way Bishop Burnet held from time to time various interviews with
the Czar, but it seems that he did not form a very favorable opinion of
his temper and character. The bishop, in an account of these
interviews which he subsequently wrote, said that Peter was a man of
strong capacity, and of much better general education than might have
been expected from the manner of life which he had led, but that he was
of a very hot and violent temper, and that he was very brutal in his
language and demeanor when he was in a passion. The bishop expressed
himself quite strongly on this point, saying that he could not but
adore the depth of the providence of God that had raised such a furious
man to so absolute an authority over so great a part of the world.
It was seen in the end how wise was the arrangement of Providence in
the selection of this instrument for the accomplishment of its
designs--for the reforms which, notwithstanding the violence of his
personal character, and the unjust and cruel deeds which he sometimes
performed, Peter was the means of introducing, and those to which the
changes that he made afterward led, have advanced, and are still
advancing more and more every year, the whole moral, political, and
social condition of all the populations of Northern Europe and Asia,
and have instituted a course of progress and improvement which will,
perhaps, go on, without being again arrested, to the end of time.
The bishop says that he found Peter somewhat curious to learn what the
political and religious institutions of England were, but that he did
not manifest any intention or desire to introduce them into his own
country. The chief topic which interested him, even in talking with
the bishop, was that of his purposes and plans in respect to ships and
shipping. He gave the bishop an account of what he had done, and of
what he intended to do, for the elevation and improvement of his
people; but all his plans of this kind were confined to such
improvements as would tend to the extension and aggrandizement of his
own power. In other words, the ultimate object of the reforms which he
was desirous of introducing was not the comfort and happiness of the
people themselves, but his own exaltation and glory among the
potentates of the earth as their hereditary and despotic sovereign.
After remaining some time in the residence which the king had provided
for him at the court end of the town, Peter contrived to have a house
set apart for him "below bridge," as the phrase was--that is, among the
shipping. There was but one bridge across the Thames in those days,
and the position of that one, of course, determined the limit of that
part of the river and town that could be devoted to the purposes of
commerce and navigation, for ships, of course, could not go above it.
The house which was now provided for Peter was near the royal
ship-yard. There was a back gate which opened from the yard of the
house into the ship-yard, so that Peter could go and come when he
pleased. Peter remained in this new lodging for some time. He often
went into the ship-yard to watch the men at their operations, and while
there would often take up the tools and work with them. At other times
he would ramble about the streets of London in company with his two or
three particular friends, examining every thing which was new or
strange to him, and talking with his companions in respect to the
expediency or feasibility of introducing the article or the usage,
whatever it might be, as an improvement, into his own dominions.
In these excursions Peter was sometimes dressed in the English
citizen's dress, and sometimes he wore the dress of a common sailor.
In the latter costume he found that he could walk about more freely on
the wharves and along the docks without attracting observation, but,
notwithstanding all that he could do to disguise himself, he was often
discovered. Some person, perhaps, who had seen him and his friends in
the ship-yard, would recognize him and point him out. Then it would be
whispered from one to another among the by-standers that that was the
Russian Emperor, and people would follow him where he went, or gather
around him where he was standing. In such cases as this, as soon as
Peter found that he was recognized, and was beginning to attract
attention, he always went immediately away.
Among other objects of interest which attracted Peter's attention in
London was the Tower, where there was kept then, as now, an immense
collection of arms of all kinds. This collection consists not only of
a vast store of the weapons in use at the present day, laid up there to
be ready for service whenever they may be required, but also a great
number and variety of specimens of those which were employed in former
ages, but are now superseded by new inventions. Peter, as might
naturally have been expected, took a great deal of interest in
examining these collections.
In respect to all the more ordinary objects of interest for strangers
in London, the shops, the theatres, the parks, the gay parties given by
the nobility at the West End, and other such spectacles, Peter saw them
all, but he paid very little attention to them. His thoughts were
almost entirely engrossed by subjects connected with his navy. He
found, as he had expected from what he heard in Holland, that the
English ship-carpenters had reduced their business quite to a system,
being accustomed to determine the proportions of the model by fixed
principles, and to work, in the construction of the ship, from drafts
made by rule. When he was in the ship-yard he studied this subject
very attentively; and although it was, of course, impossible that in so
short a time he should make himself fully master of it, he was still
able to obtain such a general insight into the nature of the method as
would very much assist him in making arrangements for introducing it
into his own country.
There was another measure which he took that was even more important
still. He availed himself of every opportunity which was afforded him,
while engaged in the ship-yards and docks, to become acquainted with
the workmen, especially the head workmen of the yards, and he engaged a
number of them to go to Russia, and enter into his service there in the
work of building his navy.
In a word, the Czar was much better pleased with the manner in which
the work of ship-building was carried on in England than with any thing
that he had seen in Holland; so much so that he said he wished that he
had come directly to England at first, inasmuch as now, since he had
seen how much superior were the English methods, he considered the long
stay which he had made in Holland as pretty nearly lost time.
After remaining as long and learning as much in the dock-yards in and
below London as he thought the time at his command would allow, Peter
went to Portsmouth to visit the royal navy at anchor there. The
arrangement which nature has made of the southern coast of England
seems almost as if expressly intended for the accommodation of a great
national and mercantile marine. In the first place, at the town of
Portsmouth, there is a deep and spacious harbor entirely surrounded and
protected by land. Then at a few miles distant, off the coast, lies
the Isle of Wight, which brings under shelter a sheet of water not less
than five miles wide and twenty miles long, where all the fleets and
navies of the world might lie at anchor in safety. There is an open
access to this sound both from the east and from the west, and yet the
shores curve in such a manner that both entrances are well protected
from the ingress of storms.
Directly opposite to Portsmouth, and within this inclosed sea, is a
place where the water is just of the right depth, and the bottom of
just the right conformation for the convenient anchoring of ships of
war. This place is called Spithead, and it forms one of the most
famous anchoring grounds in the world. It is here that the vast fleets
of the English navy assemble, and here the ships come to anchor, when
returning home from their distant voyages. The view of these
grim-looking sea-monsters, with their double and triple rows of guns,
lying quietly at their moorings, as seen by the spectator from the deck
of the steamer which glides through and among them, on the way from
Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight, is extremely imposing. Indeed, when
considered by a mind capable of understanding in some degree the vast
magnitude and extension of the power which lies thus reposing there,
the spectacle becomes truly sublime.
In order to give Peter a favorable opportunity to see the fleet at
Spithead, the King of England commissioned the admiral in command of
the navy to accompany him to Portsmouth, and to put the fleet to sea,
with the view of exhibiting a mock naval engagement in the Channel.
Nothing could exceed the pleasure which this spectacle afforded to the
Czar. He expressed his admiration of it in the most glowing terms, and
said that he verily believed that an admiral of the English fleet was a
happier man than the Czar of Muscovy.
At length, when the time arrived for Peter to set out on his return to
his own dominions, the King of England made him a present of a
beautiful yacht, which had been built for his own use in his voyages
between England and Holland. The name of the yacht was the Royal
Transport. It was an armed vessel, carrying twenty-four guns, and was
well-built, and richly finished and furnished in every respect. The
Czar set sail from England in this yacht, taking with him the
companions that he had brought with him into England, and also a
considerable number of the persons whom he had engaged to enter into
his service in Russia. Some of these persons were to be employed in
the building of ships, and others in the construction of a canal to
connect the River Don with the River Wolga. The Don flows into the
Black and the Wolga into the Caspian Sea, and the object of the canal
was to allow Peter's vessels to pass from one sea into the other at
pleasure. As soon as the canal should be opened, ships could be built
on either river for use in either sea.
The persons who had been engaged for these various purposes were
promised, of course, very large rewards to induce them to leave their
country. Many of them afterward had occasion bitterly to regret their
having entered the service of such a master. They complained that,
after their arrival in Russia, Peter treated them in a very unjust and
arbitrary manner. They were held as prisoners more than as salaried
workmen, being very closely watched and guarded to prevent their making
their escape and going back to their own country before finishing what
Peter wished them to do. Then, a large portion of their pay was kept
back, on the plea that it was necessary for the emperor to have
security in his own hands for their fidelity in the performance of
their work, and for their remaining at their posts until their work was
done. There was one gentleman in particular, a Scotch mathematician
and engineer, who had been educated at the University of Aberdeen, that
complained of the treatment which he received in a full and formal
protest, which he addressed to Peter in writing, and which is still on
record. He makes out a very strong case in respect to the injustice
with which he was treated.
But, however disappointed these gentlemen may have been in the end,
they left England in the emperor's beautiful yacht, much elated with
the honor they had received in being selected by such a potentate for
the execution of important trusts in a distant land, and with high
anticipations of the fame and fortune which they expected to acquire
before the time should arrive for them to return to their own country.
From England the yacht sailed to Holland, where Peter disembarked, in
order to join the embassy and accompany them in their visits to some
other courts in Central Europe before returning home.
He first went to Vienna. He still nominally preserved his incognito;
but the Emperor Leopold, who was at that time the Emperor of Germany,
gave him a very peculiar sort of reception. He came out to the door of
his antechamber to meet Peter at the head of a certain back staircase
communicating with the apartment, which was intended for his own
private use. Peter was accompanied by General Le Fort, the chief
embassador, at this interview, and he was conducted up the staircase by
two grand officers of the Austrian court--the grand chamberlain and the
grand equerry. After the two potentates had been introduced to each
other, the emperor, who had taken off his hat to bow to the Czar, put
it on again, but Peter remained uncovered, on the ground that he was
not at that time acting in his own character as Czar. The emperor,
seeing this, took off his hat again, and both remained uncovered during
the interview.
After this a great many parades and celebrations took place in Vienna,
all ostensibly in honor of the embassy, but really and truly in honor
of Peter himself, who still preserved his incognito. At many of these
festivities Peter attended, taking his place with the rest of the
subordinates in the train of the embassy, but he never appeared in his
own true character. Still he was known, and he was the object of a
great many indirect but very marked attentions. On one occasion, for
example, there was a masked ball in the palace of the emperor; Peter
appeared there dressed as a peasant of West Friesland, which is a part
of North Holland, where the costumes worn by the common people were
then, as indeed they are at the present day, very marked and peculiar.
The Emperor of Germany appeared also at this ball in a feigned
character--that of a host at an entertainment, and he had thirty-two
pages in attendance upon him, all dressed as butlers. In the course of
the evening one of the pages brought out to the emperor a very curious
and costly glass, which he filled with wine and presented to the
emperor, who then approached Peter and drank to the health of the
peasant of West Friesland, saying at the same time, with a meaning
look, that he was well aware of the inviolable affection which the
peasant felt for the Czar of Muscovy. Peter, in return, drank to the
health of the host, saying he was aware of the inviolable affection he
felt for the Emperor of Germany.
These toasts were received by the whole company with great applause,
and after they were drunk the emperor gave Peter the curious glass from
which he had drunk, desiring him to keep it as a souvenir of the
occasion.
These festivities in honor of the embassy at Vienna were at length
suddenly interrupted by the arrival of tidings from Moscow that a
rebellion had broken out there against Peter's government. This
intelligence changed at once all Peter's plans. He had intended to go
to Venice and to Rome, but he now at once abandoned these designs, and
setting out abruptly from Vienna, with General Le Fort, and a train of
about thirty persons, he traveled with the utmost possible dispatch to
Moscow.
[1] William, Prince of Orange, was descended on the female side from
the English royal family, and was a Protestant. Accordingly, when
James II., and with him the Catholic branch of the royal family of
England, was expelled from the throne, the British Parliament called
upon William to ascend it, he being the next heir on the Protestant
side.
CHAPTER VIII.
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.
CHAPTER IX.
REFORMS.
1700-1701
Peter begins his proposed reforms--Remodeling the army--Changes of
dress--The officers--New appointments--Motives and object of the
Czar--Means of revenue--Mysterious power--The secret of it--Management
of a standing army--Artful contrivances--Despotism _versus_
freedom--Policy of the American people--Standing armies--The American
government is weak--The people reserve their strength--Peter's
policy--The Church--Conservatism of the clergy--The patriarch--Ancient
custom--The emperor on the procession--Emblems--Peter's reflections on
the subject--Peter's determination--He proceeds cautiously--Contest
with the bishops--Peter is victorious--Other reforms--Collection of the
revenues--New revenue system--Manners and customs of the
people--Mustaches and beards--The long dresses suppressed--Effect of
ridicule--The jester's marriage--Curious sleeves--Mode of manoeuvring
the sleeve--The boyars in the streets--Long trains of attendants--Peter
changes the whole system--Motives of the Czar--Ultimate effect of his
reforms
As soon as Peter had sufficiently glutted his vengeance on those whom
he chose to consider, whether justly or unjustly, as implicated in the
rebellion, he turned his attention at once to the work of introducing
the improvements and reforms which had been suggested to him by what he
had seen in the western countries of Europe. There was a great deal of
secret hostility to the changes which he thus wished to make, although
every thing like open opposition to his will had been effectually put
down by the terrible severity of his dealings with the rebels. He
continued to urge his plans of reform during the whole course of his
reign, and though he met from time to time with a great variety of
difficulties in his efforts to carry them into effect, he was in the
end triumphantly successful in establishing and maintaining them. I
shall proceed to give a general account of these reforms in this
chapter, notwithstanding that the work of introducing them extended
over a period of many years subsequent to this time.
The first thing to which the Czar gave his attention was the complete
remodeling of his army. He established new regiments in place of the
old Guards, and put his whole army on a new footing. He abolished the
dress which the Guards had been accustomed to wear--an ancient
Muscovite costume, which, like the dress of the Highlanders of
Scotland, was strongly associated in the minds of the men with ancient
national customs, many of which the emperor now wished to abolish.
Instead of this old costume the emperor dressed his new troops in a
modern military uniform. This was not only much more convenient than
the old dress, but the change exerted a great influence in
disenthralling the minds of the men from the influence of old ideas and
associations. It made them feel at once as if they were new men,
belonging to a new age--one marked by a new and higher civilization
than they had been accustomed to in former years. The effect which was
produced by this simple change was very marked--so great is the
influence of dress and other outward symbols on the sentiments of the
mind and on the character.
Peter had made a somewhat similar change to this, in the case of his
household troops and private body-guard, at the suggestion of General
Le Fort, some time previous to this period, but now he carried the same
reform into effect in respect to his whole army.
In addition to these improvements in the dress and discipline of the
men, Peter adopted an entirely new system in officering his troops. A
great many of the old officers--all those who were proved or even
suspected of being hostile to him and to his measures--had been
beheaded or sent into banishment, and others still had been dismissed
from the service. Peter filled all these vacant posts by bringing
forward and appointing the sons of the nobility, making his selections
from those families who were either already inclined to his side, or
who he supposed might be brought over by the influence of appointments
and honors conferred upon their sons.
Of course, the great object of the Czar in thus reorganizing his army
and increasing the military strength of the empire was not the more
effectual protection of the country from foreign enemies, or from any
domestic violence which might threaten to disturb the peace or endanger
the property of the public, but only the confirming and perpetuating
his own power as the sovereign ruler of it. It is true that such
potentates as Peter really desire that the countries over which they
rule should prosper, and should increase in wealth and population; but
then they do this usually only as the proprietor of an estate might
wish to improve his property, that is, simply with an eye to his own
interest as the owner of it. In reforming his army, and placing it, as
he did, on a new and far more efficient footing than before, Peter's
main inducement was to increase and secure his own power. He wished
also, doubtless, to preserve the peace of the country, in order that
the inhabitants might go on regularly in the pursuit of their
industrial occupations, for their ability to pay the taxes required for
the large revenues which he wished to raise would increase or diminish,
he knew very well, just in proportion to the productiveness of the
general industry; still, his own exaltation and grandeur were the
ultimate objects in view.
Young persons, when they read in history of the power which many great
tyrants have exercised, and the atrocious crimes which they have
committed against the rights of their fellow-men, sometimes wonder how
it is that one man can acquire or retain so absolute a dominion over so
many millions as to induce them to kill each other in such vast numbers
at his bidding; for, of course, it is but a very small number of the
victims of a tyrant's injustice or cruelty that are executed by his own
hand. How is it, the
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