up, my Czar! Shake off this lethargy and
sloth. Prove that you are worthy of the faith which I and others have
given you so loyally!"

With these words Gudovitch thrust into Peter's trembling hand two
proclamations, one abolishing the secret bureau of police, which had
become an instrument of tyrannous oppression, and the other restoring
to the nobility many rights of which they had been deprived.

The earnestness and intensity of Gudovitch temporarily cleared the
brain of the drunken Czar. He seized the papers, and, without reading
them, hastened at once to his great council, where he declared that
they expressed his wishes. Great was the rejoicing in St. Petersburg,
and great was the praise bestowed on Peter; yet, in fact, he had acted
only as any drunkard might act under the compulsion of a stronger will
than his.

As before, his brief period of good sense was succeeded by another of
the wildest folly. It was not merely that he reversed the wise policy
of his aunt, but that he reverted to his early fondness for everything
that was German. His bodyguard was made up of German troops--thus
exciting the jealousy of the Russian soldiers. He introduced German
fashions. He boasted that his father had been an officer in the
Prussian army. His crazy admiration for Frederick the Great reached the
utmost verge of sycophancy.

As to Catharine, he turned on her with something like ferocity. He
declared in public that his eldest son, the Czarevitch Paul, was really
fathered by Catharine's lovers. At a state banquet he turned to
Catharine and hurled at her a name which no woman could possibly
forgive--and least of all a woman such as Catharine, with her high
spirit and imperial pride. He thrust his mistresses upon her; and at
last he ordered her, with her own hand, to decorate the Countess
Vorontzoff, who was known to be his maitresse en titre.

It was not these gross insults, however, so much as a concern for her
personal safety that led Catharine to take measures for her own
defense. She was accustomed to Peter's ordinary eccentricities. On the
ground of his unfaithfulness to her she now had hardly any right to
make complaint. But she might reasonably fear lest he was becoming mad.
If he questioned the paternity of their eldest son he might take
measures to imprison Catharine or even to destroy her. Therefore she
conferred with the Orloffs and other gentlemen, and their conference
rapidly developed into a conspiracy.

The