to comply with this request. He could not bear, he
thought, to renew the pain of such an interview. But his ministers
advised him to go. They represented to him that it was hard to deny
such a request from his dying son, who was probably tormented by the
stings of a guilty conscience, and felt relieved and comforted when his
father was near. So Peter consented to go. But just as he was going
on board the boat which was to take him over to the fortress, another
messenger came saying that it was too late. Alexis had expired.

On the next day after the death of his son, the Czar, in order to
anticipate and preclude the false rumors in respect to the case which
he knew that his enemies would endeavor to spread throughout the
Continent, caused a brief but full statement of his trial and
condemnation, and of the circumstances of his death, to be drawn up and
sent to all his ministers abroad, in order that they might communicate
the facts in an authentic form to the courts to which they were
respectfully accredited.[2]

The ninth day of July, the third day after the death of Alexis, was
appointed for the funeral. The body was laid in a coffin covered with
black velvet. A pall of rich gold tissue was spread over the coffin,
and in this way the body was conveyed to the church of the Holy
Trinity, where it was laid in state. It remained in this condition
during the remainder of that day and all of the next, and also on the
third day until evening. It was visited by vast crowds of people, who
were permitted to come up and kiss the hands of the deceased.

On the evening of the third day after the body was conveyed to the
church, the funeral service was performed, and the body was conveyed to
the tomb. A large procession, headed by the Czar, the Czarina, and all
the chief nobility of the court, followed in the funeral train. The
Czar and all the other mourners carried in their hands a small wax
taper burning. The ladies were all dressed in black silks. It was
said by those who were near enough in the procession to observe the
Czar that he went weeping all the way.

At the service in the church a funeral sermon was pronounced by the
priest from the very appropriate text, "O Absalom! my son! my son
Absalom!"

Thus ended this dreadful tragedy. The party who had been opposed to
the reforms and improvements of the Czar seems to have become
completely disorganized after the death of Alexis, and they never again
attemp