irst wife, was Peter's heir. He had grown (p. 170)
to be a young man before Peter realized that the result of all his
efforts depended upon his successor, and the czar began to pay
attention to his son's education when it was too late, when habits had
been formed. The czarevitch had imbibed the prejudices of his mother;
he was narrow-minded, lazy, weak, and obstinate, and associated with
people to whom Old Russia was Holy Russia, who abhorred reforms of
every kind. Peter sent him to travel in Germany, but the prince would
learn nothing. His father warned him in very plain terms. "Disquiet
for the future," he wrote to Alexis, "destroys the joy caused by my
present successes. I see that you despise everything that can make you
worthy to reign after me. What you call inability, I call rebellion,
for you cannot excuse yourself on the ground of the weakness of your
mind and the state of your health. We have struggled from obscurity
through the toil of war, which has taught other nations to know and
respect us, and yet you will not even hear of military exercises. If
you do not alter your conduct, know that I shall deprive you of my
succession. I have not spared, and I shall not spare, my own life for
my country; do you think that I shall spare yours? I would rather have
a stranger who is worthy for my heir, than a good-for-nothing member
of my own family."

Alexis should have known that his father was in terrible earnest, yet
he did not heed the warning. When Peter was traveling in Western
Europe, his son fled to Vienna, where he thought that he should be
safe. Finding that this was not so, he went to the Tyrol and
afterwards to Naples, but his father's agents traced him and one (p. 171)
of them, Tolstoi, secured an interview in which he assured the prince
of his father's pardon, and finally persuaded him to return to Moscow.
As soon as he arrived there, he was arrested. The czar convoked the
three Estates before whom he accused the czarevitch. Alexis was forced
to sign his resignation of the Crown. When he was being examined,
probably under torture, a widespread conspiracy was revealed. Peter
learned also that his son had begged the Emperor of Austria for armed
intervention, that he had negotiated with Sweden and that he had
encouraged a mutiny of the army in Germany. It was shown that his
divorced wife and several prelates were in the plot. Peter crushed his
enemies. Most of the persons involved suffered a cruel death,