wn aside for something more amusing.
Peter knew that when he became a man he would be emperor of all Russia.
He knew that among the populations of that immense country there were a
great many wild and turbulent tribes, half savage in habits and
character, that would never be controlled but by military force, and
that the country, too, was surrounded by other nations that would
sometimes, unless he was well prepared for them, assume a hostile
attitude against his government, and perhaps make great aggressions
upon his territories. He wished, therefore, to prepare himself for the
emergencies that might in future arise by making himself thoroughly
acquainted with all the details of the military art. He did not
expect, it is true, that he should ever be called upon to serve in any
of his armies as an actual drummer, or to wheel earth and construct
fortifications with his own hands, still less to make the wheelbarrows
by which the work was to be done; but he was aware that he could
superintend these things far more intelligently and successfully if he
knew in detail precisely how every thing ought to be done, and that was
the reason why he took so much pains to learn himself how to do them.

As he grew older he contrived to introduce higher and higher branches
of military art into the school, and to improve and perfect the
organization of it in every way. After a while he adopted improved
uniforms and equipments for the pupils, such as were used at the
military schools of the different nations of Europe; and he established
professors of different branches of military science as fast as he
himself and his companions advanced in years and in power of
appreciating studies more and more elevated. The result was, that
when, at length, he was eighteen years of age, and the time arrived for
him to leave the place, the institution had become completely
established as a well-organized and well-appointed military school, and
it continued in successful operation as such for a long time afterward.

It was in a great measure in consequence of the energy and talent which
Peter thus displayed that so many of the leading nobles attached
themselves to his cause, by which means he was finally enabled to
depose Sophia from her regency, and take the power into his own hands,
even before he was of age, as related in the last chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

LE FORT AND MENZIKOFF.

1689-1691

Conditions of success in life--The selection of