cessary first to give an account of the circumstances
which led to it, by relating the melancholy history of Alexis, Peter's
oldest son.

[1] The situation of the place is shown in the map on page 197.

[2] The accounts which different historians give of the circumstances of
Catharine's early history vary very materially. One authority states
that the occasion of Gluck's taking Catharine away was the death of the
curate and of all his family by the plague. Gluck came, it is said, to
the house to see the family, and found them all dead. The bodies were
lying on the floor, and little Catharine was running about among them,
calling upon one after another to give her some bread. After Gluck came
in, and while he was looking at the bodies in consternation, she came up
behind him and pulled his robe, and asked him if he would not give her
some bread. So he took her with him to his own home.

[3] There was a story that he was taken among the prisoners at the battle
of Pultowa, and that, on making himself known, he was immediately put in
irons and sent off in exile to Siberia.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PRINCE ALEXIS.

1690-1716

Birth of Alexis--His father's hopes--Advantages enjoyed by
Alexis--Marriage proposed--Account of the wedding--Alexis returns to
Russia--Cruel treatment of his wife--Her hardships and sufferings--The
Czar's displeasure--Birth of a son--Cruel neglect--The Czar sent
for--Death-bed scene--Grief of the attendants--The princess's
despair--High rank no guarantee for happiness--Peter's
ultimatum--Letter to Alexis--Positive declarations contained in it--The
real ground of complaint--Alexis's excuses--His reply to his father--He
surrenders his claim to the crown--Another letter from the Czar--New
threats--More positive declarations--Alexis's answer--Real state of his
health--His depraved character--The companions and counselors of
Alexis--Priests--Designs of Alexis's companions--General policy of an
opposition--The old Muscovite party--Views of Alexis--Peter at a
loss--One more final determination--Farewell conversation--Alexis's
duplicity--Letter from Copenhagen--Alternative offered--Peter's
unreasonable severity--Alexis made desperate--Alexis's resolution

The reader will perhaps recollect that Peter had a son by his first
wife, an account of whose birth was given in the first part of this
volume. The name of this son was Alexis, and he was destined to become
the hero of a most dreadful trag