tilt; conspirators, and selected for her instrument
a Boyard of the province of Bostoff,
named Klébow, who was sincerely attached to
her interests. Alexius was easily won to
consent to head the rebellion against his father;
partly instigated to do so by the recollection
of a danger he had escaped by the friendly
interference of Mentchikoff. It happened
when Alexius was only fifteen years old.
Having ventured, by direction of the nobles
of the court, to remonstrate with his father
on some injustice he had committed, it so
excited the fury of Peter that he believed
he saw in his son a conspirator against
his crown and his life. Giving way to such
rage as deprived him, for the time, of his
senses, Peter commanded a scaffold to be
erected in the palace-court, where he insisted
that the young prince should be executed at
nightfall. These terrific orders were delivered
to Mentchikoff whose duty was, without
delay, to give them to the proper persons
who were to prepare for this unnatural
vengeance.

However secretly all was made ready, the
facts of the case became known to the
soldiery, and it was then that a noble instance of
self-devotion was exhibited. A young soldier,
of the same age and size as the prince, offered
himself to Mentchikoff as a substitute;
declaring that to immolate himself thus, to save
his master, would be his pride and glory.
Mentchikoff, who was a most unwilling actor
in the tragedy, did not allow the generous
impulse to cool, accepted the sacrifice, and
dressing the young man in the clothes of
the Czarowitz, had him conducted to the
scaffold and decapitated before the eyes of
Peter, who stood at his window to see the act
performed. That night he had fallen into
a heavy sleep, when Mentchikoff, who always
slept in his chamber, was awakened by sudden
cries, and, rising, found the Czar in the
agonies of remorse, calling loudly on his
son, and commanding that he should be
restored to him. The explanation that
followed put an end to the father's sufferings,
and Alexius was once more given to his arms.

The prince, however, inherited both the
ferocity of his father and the pride of his ill-
used mother, and, when the moment arrived,
some years after, he seized with avidity
the opportunity of revenge. The journeys of
Peter in his dominions furnished an excellent
occasion for the plots of the conspirators,
which had time to ripen, and the great explosion
was about to burst forth when all
was revealed; but, by what means is not
known. A series of horrible executions
followed. The Princess Maria, Peter's own
sister, was publicly whipped before all the
ladies of the court. Klébow underwent a
hideous fate, protesting to the last the
innocence of Eudosia; and the unfortunate Alexius
was bled to death in his prison, in the citadel
of St. Petersburg, before, it is asserted, his
father's eyes, who resolved to be witness to
his death. Eudosia was condemned to remain
a prisoner for life in the citadel of Sleutzelbourg,
where no attendant was allowed her
but a female dwarf, so infirm that the ex-
empress was frequently obliged to provide for
her wants as well as her own, and thus, for
eight years, her wretched existence lingered
on, while the triumphant Catherine floated
on the topmost waves of prosperity, and
Mentchikoff ascended from one grade of dignity to
another, till he became a prince of Russia,
first senator, field-marshal, and knight of all
the orders of the Czar. Added to these
honours, the ex-pastrycook was created regent
of the kingdom during the absence of his
master, and found himself at the head of
boundless power and riches incalculable. It
was said with truth that he could travel from
Riga in Livonia to Derbend in Persia, sleeping
always in his own dominions. From all
the princes who dreaded the power of the
Czar, Mentchikoff also obtained his wish,
and he could, when it pleased him, which was
not seldom, exhibit on his bosom the order of
the white eagle, the black eagle, the elephant,
and many others which were laid at his feet by
servile courts. The order of the Holy Ghost,
however, most coveted, he could not obtain
from France. He was addressed always
as highness, and treated in all respects as a
royal personage, yet, all this time, clever,
acute, far-seeing and quick as he was, he had
not overcome the simplest difficulty of education,
and could never either read or write.
It is surprising that he did not exert himself
to obviate this defect; for he would affect
to read, and would often pretend to be busily
occupied over papers in the presence of
others.

Almost a monarch, Alexander
Mentchikoff saw no bounds to his power; his
tyranny and oppression advanced with it,
till hosts of enemies sprung up around him
where flatterers and friends were once
seen. The Czar returned from one of his
progresses to find that his favourite had aped
him too far, and, for the first time, was
startled at the extraordinary power he had
himself created. No sooner did he begin to
listen than accusations poured in against
Mentchikoff's tyrannical government, his
extortions and severities: amongst other
things he was accused of having, by fraudulent
means, obtained a ruby of fabulous value
which had been presented to him by a
merchant to purchase. Peter contented himself
for the present with seizing on the jewel,
which was no other than the great ruby still
shining in the Russian diadem, destined, perhaps,
one day to take its place beside the
Koh-i-noor.

The scales which had fallen from the
eyes of the Czar enabled him henceforth to
see clearly all those faults which had hitherto
been invisible to him in the idol he had set
up; but, though he now saw, he hesitated to
punish, and besides, his hand was held back