em very kindly. He then bade the mother farewell, and
went away, taking the children with him.

All this time, the room in which the princess was lying, the
antechamber, and all the approaches to the apartment, were filled with
the servants and friends of the princess, who mourned her unhappy fate
so deeply that they were unable to control their grief. They kneeled
or lay prostrate on the ground, and offered unceasing petitions to
heaven to save the life of their mistress, mingling their prayers with
tears, and sobs, and bitter lamentations.

The physicians endeavored to persuade the princess to take some
medicines which they had brought, but she threw the phials away behind
the bed, begging the physicians not to torment her any more, but to let
her die in peace, as she had no wish to live.

She lingered after this a few days, spending most of her time in
prayer, and then died.

At the time of her death the princess was not much over twenty years of
age. Her sad and sorrowful fate shows us once more what unfortunately
we too often see exemplified, that something besides high worldly
position in a husband is necessary to enable the bride to look forward
with any degree of confidence to her prospects of happiness when
receiving the congratulations of her friends on her wedding-day.

The death of his wife produced no good effect upon the mind of Alexis.
At the funeral, the Czar his father addressed him in a very stern and
severe manner in respect to his evil ways, and declared to him
positively that, if he did not at once reform and thenceforth lead a
life more in conformity with his position and his obligations, he would
cut him off from the inheritance to the crown, even if it should be
necessary, on that account, to call in some stranger to be his heir.

The communication which the Czar made to his son on this occasion was
in writing, and the terms in which it was expressed were very severe.
It commenced by reciting at length the long and fruitless efforts which
the Czar had made to awaken something like an honorable ambition in the
mind of his son, and to lead him to reform his habits, and concluded,
substantially, as follows:

"How often have I reproached you with the obstinacy of your temper and
the perverseness of your disposition! How often, even, have I
corrected you for them! And now, for how many years have I desisted
from speaking any longer of them! But all has been to no purpose. My
reproofs