ich stands on the shores of the
Baltic Sea, between St. Petersburg and Konigsberg, on the route which
Alexis would have to take in going to Copenhagen. Alexis communicated
with Kikin in writing, and Kikin arranged and directed all the details
of the plan. He kept purposely at a distance from Alexis, to avoid
suspicion.

At length, when all was ready, Alexis set out from St. Petersburg,
taking with him Afrosinia and several other attendants, and journeyed
to Libau. There he met Kikin, and each congratulated the other warmly
on the success which had thus far attended their operations.

Alexis asked Kikin what place he had provided for him, and Kikin
replied that he had made arrangements for him to go to Vienna. He had
been to Vienna himself, he said, under pretense of public business
committed to his charge by the Czar, and had seen and conferred with
the Emperor of Germany there, and the emperor agreed to receive and
protect him, and not to deliver him up to his father until some
permanent and satisfactory arrangement should have been made.

"So you must go on," continued Kikin, "to Konigsberg and Dantzic; and
then, instead of going forward toward Copenhagen, you will turn off on
the road to Vienna, and when you get there the emperor will provide a
safe place of retreat for you. When you arrive there, if your father
should find out where you are, and send some one to try to persuade you
to return home, you must not, on any account, listen to him; for, as
certain as your father gets you again in his power, after your leaving
the country in this way, he will have you beheaded."

Kikin contrived a number of very cunning devices for averting suspicion
from himself and those really concerned in the plot, and throwing it
upon innocent persons. Among other things, he induced Alexis to write
several letters to different individuals in St. Petersburg--Prince
Menzikoff among the rest--thanking them for the advice and assistance
that they had rendered him in setting out upon his journey, which
advice and assistance was given honestly, on the supposition that he
was really going to his father at Copenhagen. The letters of thanks,
however, which Kikin dictated were written in an ambiguous and
mysterious manner, being adroitly contrived to awaken suspicion in
Peter's mind, if he were to see them, that these persons were in the
secret of Alexis's plans, and really intended to assist him in his
escape. When the letters were