the points of their spears, and speedily despatched, their dead bodies being afterwards dragged into the great square. Soon after this,

meeting with Athanasius Nariskin, brother to the young czarina, and one of the uncles of Peter, they murdered him in like manner; and breaking open the doors of a church where some of the proscribed had taken refuge, they dragged them from the altar, and stabbed them to death. But it would be a horrible task to narrate the atrocities which followed-the murder of the innocent physician and of the other Nariskins, and the dreadful tortures by the knout and other forms which were practised on the wretched victims.

Finally, Sophia succeeded in associating the name of her imbecile brother in the sovereignty; the two princes, Ivan and Peter, being proclaimed joint czars in 1682, and herself denominated co-regent with them. She then publicly approved of the outrages which had been committed, and rewarded the perpetrators of them, confiscating, for this purpose, the estates of the proscribed; and so completely did she enjoy all the honours of a sovereign, that her bust was engraven on the public coin. She signed all dispatches, held the first place in the council, and exercised unlimited power. But new insurrections broke out; and finally, she was induced to strengthen her authority by admitting to her councils her favourite and lover, Prince Basil Galitzin, whom she created generalissimo, minister of state, and lord-keeper. This new minister was a man of distinguished abilities, and had received a much better education than the rest of his countrymen. One of his prudent measures was to distribute the most mutinous of the Strelitzes among different regiments, situated at distant parts of the empire.

While Galitzin was engaged with the army, Sophia governed and acted at Moscow as if altogether independent of her brothers the czars. A circumstance, however, soon took place which put an end to her intrigues and interference. In 1689, Peter's marriage with Eudoxia Federowna Lapuchin, effected through the influence of his prudent mother, withdrew him in a great measure from those dis-* sipating vices which Sophia had done all in her power to encourage, and thus gave him a new hold on the affections of the people. Sophia having desired to be present, as regent, at a religious celebration at which czars themselves were commonly present, Peter

* Knout, or more properly knut, is the Russian word for 'whip,' and the name for what was long the chief judicial punishment in Russia. The instrument is described as consisting of plaited thongs of hide interwoven with wire; and the strokes were applied to the bare back, the victim being bound to two stakes. A hundred lashes was equivalent to a sentence of death; but in many cases death ensued from the infliction of a much less number. From the earliest times down to the middle of the eighteenth century, the knout was the common punishment for all kinds of offences; and the highest dignitaries, and even women of rank, were subjected to it. After the time of Catharine II., it was mostly confined to common criminals, such as murderers, incendiaries, and the like, who, after undergoing the infliction, were sent to Siberia. Under the Emperor Nicholas, the murderous knout was set aside, and the pleti, or strap, substituted for it.

opposed it in vain; and a few faithful Strelitzes having betrayed to him her intention to assassinate him, with his wife, mother, and sister, he took refuge with them for a while in the convent of the Trinity. Here he summoned to his aid General Gordon, a Scotchman, who, with all the other foreign officers, immediately hastened to Peter. The young czar soon found himself surrounded by numerous friends; and these, animated by his personal bravery, and encouraged by his affable and generous demeanour, quickly put him in a position to resist the machinations of his sister. He accordingly compelled Sophia to take the veil, while Galitzin and a few others were banished to Siberia. Peter now hastened to Moscow, into which he made a solemn entrance, and in sight of all the people embraced Ivan, who left the whole of the power in the more able hands of his brother. From this instant he began to reign in reality as Peter I., although the name of the infirm Ivan remained as joint czar till his death in 1696.

THE CZAR TRAVELS.

One of the most cruel wrongs Sophia had committed on her brother was that of keeping him in ignorance, and surrounding him, at the very age when character is formed, with every temptation to excess and dissipation. It cannot be supposed that he escaped the contamination of such lures; but most truly has it been said, that 'his virtues were all his own, his vices those of his education and country. He early evinced one quality of a great mind-the comprehension of his own ignorance, joined to the most ardent thirst for knowledge. His, too, was that faculty inseparable from the man born to be a great ruler-that quick and certain appreciation of the character and talents of others, which always enabled him to know the fit instrument with which to work out his plans. Thus, happening to dine one day at the house of the Danish minister, he was struck with the manners and conversation of the private secretary, at once perceiving the superiority of his mind. This was a youthful Genevese, named Lefort, who had been educated for a mercantile profession; but being of an adventurous disposition, and early displaying decided military talents, had enlisted as a volunteer, and served in the Low Countries. After encountering several dangers, and having a narrow escape of transportation to Siberia, though for what offence we cannot discover, he found his way to Moscow, and obtained employment in the capacity we have mentioned.

Lefort had received the advantages of a European education, and possessed great powers of observation. It was he who explained to the czar the wonderful superiority of the trained and disciplined troops of Western Europe over the wild soldiery of Russia; and now it was that Peter conceived the daring plan of annihilating the Strelitzes, who had so often been instrumental in setting up and

deposing monarchs. But his measures were at present cautious and secret. Soon after his friendship-for it deserved the name-with his young adviser, the czar formed a regiment on the European system, to which he appointed Lefort colonel; and, to give his people a lesson of subordination, he entered himself as drummer! Indeed, as we shall see, it was his custom to aim at the root of all knowledge, and thoroughly master the subjects he took in hand; and he knew that he could not more thoroughly acquire a knowledge of military affairs than by passing through all the gradations of the profession.

It was through the same individual that Peter became acquainted with another person, who, in the sequel, exercised scarcely less influence in the empire than Lefort himself. This was Menchikoff, a youth of the very humblest origin, who sought his fortune in Moscow at the age of fourteen, and became apprentice to a pastrycook. He used to hawk cakes and pies about the streets, recommending them in a kind of song of his own composing. It was while engaged in this occupation that he attracted the attention of Lefort, who entered into conversation with him, and, pleased with his ready wit, brought him to the czar. On Peter he must have made an equally favourable impression, for we find him mentioned as a royal page soon afterwards.

About the same time that Peter organised the body-guard under Lefort's direction, he commenced building some vessels, with which he purposed sailing down the Don, and attacking Azov, which was then in the hands of the Turks. A reference to the map of Europe will shew the importance of this place, which is in fact the key to the Black Sea; and nothing proves more completely the genius of Peter the Great than the intuitive knowledge he possessed of the importance of maritime power, and the wants of his vast empire. Hemmed in by enemies-for in those days neighbouring states were commonly such-the Black Sea commanded by the Turks, and the Baltic by the Swedes, he felt that his country could never be great till seaports were wrested from them. Former czars had issued edicts forbidding their subjects to travel beyond the empire. Peter saw that the great difficulty was, not to keep people in, but for anybody to get out; and he knew there was no better method of enlightening the ignorant, and of removing prejudices, than to encourage the influx of civilised strangers, and to afford facilities for his own people to travel in other countries. We are the last who would find merit in the exploits of mere military heroes or conquering rulers, but it is impossible to withhold our admiration from the youthful czar at this period of his career. The Ottoman empire was then one of the most powerful states in the world. A very few years before, Vienna had been besieged by 200,000 Turks, and the Emperor Leopold compelled to flee from his capital; and Sweden was a country greatly superior in the scale of civilisation, possessing

disciplined and experienced troops-soon to have Charles XII., the most warlike monarch in Europe, at their head. But it was not from any love of 'the game of war' that Peter contemplated aggressions on his neighbours, but as the necessary means to a great end. He could not humanise his people without seaports; so seaports he was determined to have.

It is said that, in his childhood, Peter I. had an absurd dread of water; indeed to such an extent, that crossing a river would throw him into convulsions. A story is told of his having narrowly escaped drowning when about five years old, the fright received on that occasion being the origin of this future antipathy; but, for our own part, we have very little faith in the tradition of the czar's 'hydrophobia.' He was subject all his life to epileptic fits; and as his brothers had been afflicted with something very similar, they were most probably hereditary. Perhaps the story of his dread of water was invented to heighten the wonder of his achievements on that element. At all events, if it ever existed, it must early have been conquered; for in his boyhood he appears to have amused himself by paddling about the river Yausa, which passes through Moscow, in a little Dutch skiff, which had attracted him, from being so superior to the flat-bottomed boats with which alone he was acquainted. Even when he had never seen the ocean, and was five hundred miles distant from the sea, he comprehended the wants of his vast unwieldy empire, and resolved that it should become a maritime power.

Accordingly, in 1695, he sailed down the Don, and attacked Azov; but this first campaign was unsuccessful, chiefly in consequence of the desertion of an artillery officer named Jacob, who spiked the Russian cannon, turned Mohammedan, and, going over to the Turks, defended the town against his former master. The czar, however, was not likely to be discouraged by a single failure. He renewed his attack the following year; and as the death of his brother Ivan just at this time had thrown into his treasury the income which had maintained the dignity of the nominal czar, he had the means of strengthening and supplying his forces in a more efficient manner. The new ship-yard at Woronetz, on the Don, furnished him in the summer of 1696 with a fleet of twenty-three galleys, two galeases, and four fire-ships, with which he defeated the Turkish fleet off Azov. All relief by sea being now cut off, he pushed the siege with renewed vigour, and in two months (July 29) the Russians entered Azov. To secure the possession of this key to the Black Sea, he enlarged and strengthened the forts, constructed a harbour capable of admitting heavy vessels, and gave orders for fifty-five war-ships to be built, at the same time keeping in view the construction of a canal whereby to connect the Don and the Volga.

A year or two before these events, Peter had divorced himself

from his wife, whom he had married in his boyhood-a wife chosen for him, not a partner of his own choice. Many reasons have been assigned for this step; but the true one appears to be, that she was a woman of mean intellect, a slave of superstition and bigotry, the mere creature of the priests, and that, consequently, she opposed herself to all his plans of reformation; for the priests, knowing that their power would melt away before the torch of knowledge, lost no opportunity of vilifying the czar, and thwarting his schemes if possible. Peter certainly committed an error of judgment in leaving his son Alexis under her care, as the result proved; on the other hand, if this was done out of kindness and consideration to the mother, it reveals a more feeling heart than historians generally allow him to have possessed.

A desirable seaport acquired, and an unsuitable wife got rid of, Peter's next step was to send a number of young Russians to finish their education in Italy, Germany, and Holland. Hitherto, Russia had been without an official representative in any of the states of Europe; but the czar fitted out a splendid embassy to the Statesgeneral of Holland, of which Lefort and Menchikoff were the principal plenipotentiaries, Peter himself accompanying them, though simply as an attaché to the mission. The ease and security with which he left his vast empire to the government of deputies, prove how firmly established was his power. Passing through Riga, on his way to Holland, he sought permission to visit the fortifications; but was refused by the Swedish governor-an indignity which Peter resolved to punish by and by. Proceeding through Prussia, he was received by the king with great respect, and with all the pomp and circumstances of royalty. Here Peter separated himself from the embassy, and proceeded to Holland, travelling privately, and as fast as possible. He arrived at Amsterdam fifteen days before his ambassadors, and engaged a small apartment in the dockyard belonging to the Admiralty. He soon afterwards adopted the habit of a Dutch skipper, and in that dress proceeded to Saardam, where he enrolled himself as a journeyman carpenter, under the name of Peter Michaeloff, in the employment of a ship-builder named Calf! Here he lived in a little shingle-hut for seven weeks, made his own bed, and prepared his own food, corresponded with his ministers at home, and laboured at the same time in ship-building.

Such was the manner in which Peter the Great proposed to acquire the art of ship-building; as willing to work as a carpenter for this purpose, as he had been for another to do a drummer's duty in his model regiment. Truly does one of his earliest biographers remark, 'that many sovereigns have laid down their authority from weariness of the cares and troubles of empire, but he alone quitted his dominions in order to study the art of governing them.' What a picture the apprentice-emperor presents; and what a meeting must that have been which accidentally took place between him and