a coach.

On arriving at the royal palace, he was met on the staircase by his
brother John, who was not supposed to have taken any part in Sophia's
conspiracy. Peter greeted his brother kindly, and said he hoped that
they were friends. John replied in the same spirit, and so the two
brothers were reinstated again as joint possessors, nominally, of the
supreme power, but, now that Sophia was removed out of the way, and all
her leading friends and partisans were either beheaded or banished, the
whole control of the government fell, in fact, into the hands of Peter
and of his counselors and friends.

John, his brother Czar, was too feeble and inefficient to take any part
whatever in the management of public affairs. He was melancholy and
dejected in spirit, in consequence of his infirmities and sufferings,
and he spent most of his time in acts of devotion, according to the
rites and usages of the established church of the country, as the best
means within his knowledge of preparing himself for another and happier
world. He died about seven years after this time.

The Princess Sophia lived for fifteen years a prisoner. During this
period several efforts were made by those who still adhered to her
cause to effect her release and her restoration to power, but they were
all unsuccessful. She remained in close confinement as long as she
lived.

CHAPTER III.

THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF PETER.

1677-1688

Troublous times in the family--Peter's first governor--His
qualifications--Peter's earliest studies--His disposition and
character--Sophia's jealousy of him--Her plans for corrupting his
morals--The governor is dismissed--New system adopted--Sophia's
expectations--Peter's fifty playmates--The plot does not succeed--Peter
organizes a military school--Peter a practical mechanic--His ideas and
intentions--His drumming--His wheelbarrow--Progress of the
school--Results of Peter's energy of character

We must now go back a little in our narrative, in order to give some
account of the manner in which the childhood and early youth of Peter
were spent, and of the indications which appeared in this early period
of his life to mark his character. He was only eighteen years of age
at the time of his marriage, and, of course, all those contests and
dissensions which, for so many years after his father Alexis's death,
continued to distract the family, took place while he was very young.
He was only about nine years