e regency of the Princess Sophia.

If the war thus waged by the government of the empress had been
successful, it would have greatly strengthened the position of her
party in Moscow, and increased her own power; but it was not
successful. Prince Galitzin, who had the chief command of the
expedition, was obliged, after all, to withdraw his troops from the
country, and make a very unsatisfactory peace; but he did not dare to
allow the true result of the expedition to be known in Moscow, for fear
of the dissatisfaction which, he felt convinced, would be occasioned
there by such intelligence; and the distance was so great, and the
means of communication in those days were so few, that it was
comparatively easy to falsify the accounts. So, after he had made
peace with the Tartars, and began to draw off his army, he sent
couriers to Moscow to the Czars, and also to the King in Poland, with
news of great victories which he had obtained against the Tartars, of
conquests which he made in their territories, and of his finally having
compelled them to make peace on terms extremely favorable. The
Princess Sophia, as soon as this news reached her in Moscow, ordered
that arrangements should be made for great public rejoicings throughout
the empire on account of the victories which had been obtained.
According to the custom, too, of the Muscovite government, in cases
where great victories had been won, the council drew up a formal letter
of thanks and commendations to the officers and soldiers of the army,
and sent it to them by a special messenger, with promotions and other
honors for the chiefs, and rewards in money for the men. The princess
and her government hoped, by these means, to conceal the bad success of
their enterprise, and to gain, instead of losing, credit and strength
with the people.

But during all this time a party opposed to Sophia and her plans had
been gradually forming, and it was now increasing in numbers and
influence every day. The men of this party naturally gathered around
Peter, intending to make him their leader. Peter had now grown up to
be a young man. In the next chapter we shall give some account of the
manner in which his childhood and early youth were spent; but he was
now about eighteen years old, and the party who adhered to him formed
the plan of marrying him. So they proceeded to choose him a wife.

The reasons which led them to advocate this measure were, of course,
altogether politic