Moscow; but of stone, the first Russia had yet possessed. The great
Nevski was already there lying in a cathedral bearing his name, and the
Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul was ready to entomb the future Tsars.
And Peter held his court, a poor imitation of Versailles, and gave
great entertainments at which the shy and embarrassed ladies in their
new costumes kept apart by themselves, and the attempt to introduce the
European dances was a very sorry failure. In 1712 Peter planned a
visit to Paris, with two ends in view--a political alliance and a
matrimonial one. He ardently desired to arrange for the future
marriage of his little daughter Elizabeth with Louis XV., the infant
King of France. Neither suit was successful, but it is interesting to
learn how different was the impression he produced from the one twelve
years before. Saint-Simon writes of him: "His manner was at once the
most majestic, the proudest, the most sustained, and at the same time
the least embarrassing." That he was still eccentric may be judged
from his call upon Mme. de Maintenon. She was ill in bed, and could
not receive him; but he was not to be baffled. He drew aside the
bed-curtains and stared at her fixedly, while she in speechless
indignation glared at him. So, without one word, these two historic
persons met--and parted! He probably felt curious to see what sort of
a woman had enthralled and controlled the policy of Louis XIV. Peter
did not intend to subject his wife to the criticism of the witty
Frenchwomen, so prudently left her at home.

Charles XII. died in 1718, and in 1721 there was at last peace with
Sweden. But the saddest war of all, and one which was never to cease,
was that in Peter's own household. His son Alexis, possibly embittered
by his mother's fate, and certainly by her influence, grew up into a
sullen, morose, and perverse youth. In vain did his father strive to
fit him for his great destiny. By no person in the empire--unless,
perhaps, his mother--were Peter's reforms more detested than by the son
and heir to whom he expected to intrust them. He was in close
communication with his mother Eudoxia, who in her monastery, holding
court like a Tsaritsa, was surrounded by intriguing and disaffected
nobles--all praying for the death of Peter. Every method for reaching
the head or heart of this incorrigible son utterly failed. During
Peter's absence abroad in 1717, Alexis disappeared. Tolstoi, the
Tsar's emis