It is long since I came, and I have not been permitted to see
him nor to deliver the letter from my master." The embarrassed English
_boyars_ replied that they would give their reasons for this by letter.
When the Tsar was informed by Charles II. of the execution of his
father, sternly inflicted by his people, he could not comprehend such a
condition. He at once forbade English merchants to live in any of his
cities except Archangel, and sent money and presents to the exiled son.

An interest attaches to the marriage of Alexis with Natalia, his second
wife. He was dining with one of his _boyars_ and was attracted by a
young girl, who was serving him. She was motherless, and had been
adopted by her uncle the _boyar_. The Tsar said to his friend soon
after: "I have found a husband for your Natalia." The husband was
Alexis himself, and Natalia became the mother of Peter the Great. She
was the first Princess who ever drew aside the curtains of her litter
and permitted the people to look upon her face. Thrown much into the
society of Europeans in her uncle's home, she was imbued with European
ideas. It was no doubt she who first instilled the leaven of reform
into the mind of her infant son Peter.

One of the most important features of this reign was the development of
the fanatical sect known as _Raskolniks_. They are the dissenters or
non-conformists of Russia. Their existence dates from the time of the
Patriarch _Nikon_--and what they considered his sacrilegious
innovations. But as early as 1476 there were the first stirrings of
this movement when some daring and advanced innovators began to sing "O
Lord, have mercy," instead of "Lord, have Mercy," and to say "Alleluia"
twice instead of three times, to the peril of their souls! But it was
in the reign of Alexis that signs of falling away from the faith spoken
of in the Apocalypse were unmistakable. Foreign heretics who shaved
their chins and smoked the accursed weed were tolerated in Holy Moscow.
"The number of the Beast" indicated the year 1666. It was evident that
the end of the world was at hand! Such was the beginning of the
_Raskolniks_, who now number 10,000,000 souls--a conservative Slavonic
element which has been a difficult one to deal with.

Upon the death of Alexis, in 1676, his eldest son Feodor succeeded him.
It is only necessary to mention one significant act in his short
reign--the destruction of the Books of Pedigrees. The question of
p