hour arrived for putting it
into execution. Falling into conversation with each other just before
the time, and finding that they agreed in feeling on the subject, they
resolved at once to go and make a full confession to the Czar.

So they went immediately to the house of Le Fort, where the Czar then
was, and made a confession of the whole affair. They related all the
details of the plot, and gave the names of the principal persons
concerned in it.

The emperor was at table with Le Fort at the time that he received this
communication. He listened to it very coolly--manifested no
surprise--but simply rose from the table, ordered a small body of men
to attend him, and, taking the names of the principal conspirators, he
went at once to their several houses and arrested them on the spot.

The leaders having been thus seized, the execution of the plot was
defeated. The prisoners were soon afterward put to the torture, in
order to compel them to confess their crime, and to reveal the names of
all their confederates. Whether the names thus extorted from them by
suffering were false or true would of course be wholly uncertain, but
all whom they named were seized, and, after a brief and very informal
trial, all, or nearly all, were condemned to death. The sentence of
death was executed on them in the most barbarous manner. A great
column was erected in the market-place in Moscow, and fitted with iron
spikes and hooks, which were made to project from it on every side,
from top to bottom. The criminals were then brought out one by one,
and first their arms were cut off, then their legs, and finally their
heads. The amputated limbs were then hung up upon the column by the
hooks, and the heads were fixed to the spikes. There they remained--a
horrid spectacle, intended to strike terror into all beholders--through
February and March, as long as the weather continued cold enough to
keep them frozen. When at length the spring came on, and the flesh of
these dreadful trophies began to thaw, they were taken down and thrown
together into a pit, among the bodies of common thieves and murderers.

This was the end of the second conspiracy formed against the life of
Peter the Great.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EMPEROR'S TOUR.

1697

Objects of the tour--An embassy to be sent--The emperor to go
incognito--His associates--The regency--Disposition of the Guards--The
embassy leaves Moscow--Riga--Not allowed to see the
fortificat