tify his suspicions, for he said nothing openly on the
subject, but he at once caused the officer to be beheaded on some other
pretext, and ordered his head to be set up on a pole in a great public
square in Moscow. He then took Catharine out into the square, and
conveyed her to and fro in all directions across it, in order that she
might see the head in every point of view. Catharine understood
perfectly well what it all meant, but, though thunderstruck and
overwhelmed with grief and horror at the terrible spectacle, she
succeeded in maintaining a perfect self-control through the whole scene,
until, at length, she was released, and allowed to return to her
apartment, when she burst into tears, and for a long time could not be
comforted or calmed.

With the exception of an occasional outbreak like this, the Czar evinced
a very strong attachment to his consort, and she continued to live with
him a faithful and devoted wife for nearly twenty years; from the period
of her private marriage, in fact, to the death of her husband. During
all this time she was continually associated with him not only in his
personal and private, but also in his public avocations and cares. She
accompanied him on his journeys, she aided him with her counsels in all
affairs of state. He relied a great deal on her judgment in all
questions of policy, whether internal or external; and he took counsel
with her in all matters connected with his negotiations with foreign
states, with the sending and receiving of embassies, the making of
treaties with them, and even, when occasion occurred, in determining the
question of peace or war.

And yet, notwithstanding the lofty qualities of statesmanship that
Catharine thus displayed in the counsel and aid which she rendered her
husband, the education which she had received while at the minister's in
Marienburg was so imperfect that she never learned to write, and
whenever, either during her husband's life or after his death, she had
occasion to put her signature to letters or documents of any kind, she
did not attempt to write the name herself, but always employed one of her
daughters to do it for her.

At length, toward the close of his reign, Peter, having at that time no
son to whom he could intrust the government of his empire after he was
gone, caused Catharine to be solemnly crowned as empress, with a view of
making her his successor on the throne. But before describing this
coronation it is ne