rite, the commandant of
the militia. She begged the Patriarch to interfere but met with a
refusal. The commandant under torture confessed the plot, and was
beheaded. Sophia's other friends were arrested; some were executed
while others were sent to prison; she herself was confined in the
convent where she had found a retreat. Peter was now the czar,
although he conducted the government in his own name and in that of
his weak-minded brother Ivan.

If Sophia had shocked the Russians by leaving the seclusion of the
women's apartments, Peter's acts were likely to astonish them still
more and to give offense. Rowing in a boat, instead of sitting in it
surrounded by his grandees; working like a carpenter, instead of
merely giving his orders through a courtier, and fighting with
foreigners and grooms, were acts so unlike to what a czar should do,
that Peter made a host of enemies. Little did he care! No sooner was
he free to do as he pleased, than he rushed off to Archangel, the only
port Russia could call her own, and there he saw salt water for the
first time. He mingled freely with captains of the foreign merchant
vessels and went out in their boats. On one occasion, he was out in a
storm and came near being drowned; but this did not prevent "Skipper
Peter Alexievitch," from putting out to sea again. Once he piloted
three Dutch vessels. The young czar gave orders to construct a
dockyard and to have boats built.

Peter longed for ports on an open sea, a sea that would not freeze (p. 151)
in winter. There were three which Russia might reasonably hope to own
some day, the Baltic, the Black, and the Caspian Sea. The Baltic
belonged to Sweden, and Peter feared difficulties in that direction;
but the Black Sea belonged to the Turks, and Peter quite understood
that a war with the infidels would be popular in Russia. He wished to
visit Western Europe; to see for himself the wonders of which he had
heard foreigners speak; but he made up his mind not to go until he
could appear as a victorious general.

Thus Peter made preparations for war with the Khan of the Crimea. He
did not command his army; what he wanted, was to learn, and therefore
he went as the gunner Peter Alexievitch. That did not prevent him from
keeping a sharp eye on his generals. Chief-engineer Jansen received a
sound whipping from him and deserted to the enemy. For this and other
causes he was compelled to raise the siege of Azof and to fall back to
Russia. His m