be. As the Turks had many times more men than Peter, it was plain
that they would, at last, win by destroying all the Russians.

For three days and nights the terrible slaughter went on. Peter's men
beat back the Turks at every charge, but every hour their line grew
thinner. At the end of the third day sixteen thousand of their brave
comrades lay dead upon the field, and only twenty-two thousand remained
to face the enemy.

Towards night on the third day a terrible rumor spread through their
camp. A whisper ran along the line that _the ammunition was giving out_.
A few more shots from each soldier's gun, and there would be nothing
left to fight with.

Then Peter fell into the sulks. As long as he could fight he had kept up
his spirits, but now that all was lost, and his great career seemed near
its end, he grew angry, and went to his tent to have one of his savage
fits. He gave orders that nobody should come near him, and there was no
officer or soldier in all the army who would have dared enter the tent
where he lay, in his dangerous mood.

But if Peter had given up in despair, Catherine had not. In spite of
Peter's order and his anger, she boldly went into his tent, and asked
him to give her leave to put an end to the war by making a treaty of
peace with the Turks, if she could. It seemed absurd to talk of such a
thing, or to expect the Turks to make peace on any terms when they had
so good a chance to conquer Peter, once for all, and to make him their
prisoner. Nobody but Catherine, perhaps, would have thought of such a
thing; but Catherine was a woman born for great affairs, and she had no
thought of giving up any chance there might be to save Peter and the
empire.

Her first difficulty was with Peter himself. She could not offer terms
of peace to the Turks until Peter gave her leave, and promised to fulfil
whatever bargain she might make with them. She managed this part of
the matter, and then set to work at the greater task of dealing with the
Turks.

[Illustration: "SHE WENT BOLDLY INTO HIS TENT."]

She knew that the Turkish army was under the command of the Grand
Vizier, and she knew something of the ways of Grand Viziers. It was not
worth while to send any kind of messenger to a Turkish commander without
sending him also a bribe in the shape of a present, and Catherine was
sure that the bribe must be a very large one to buy the peace she
wanted. But where was she to get the present? There was no money i