eat
hall were empty of men.

Then the door of the room from which the two boys had come opened, and
Natalia and her women stepped out. The Czarina, a woman of courage
herself, took Peter in her arms. "My brave son," she murmured, "thou art
worthy of thy father. I would have stood beside thee, but the people
hate me, and it would have been worse for us all."

"I needed no one, little mother," said Peter. "If I am ever to be a
ruler I must not fear to face my own men." Then his face grew more
serious. "But if I ever am Czar they will not break into the Kremlin
this way, mother, nor wilt thou need to hide thyself from them."

"God grant it be so, Peter!" answered Natalia. "I think they've learned
much from thee this very day."

The Streltsi had indeed learned that the boy Peter was no coward, and
their dislike changed to affection; but there were others in Moscow who
plotted and planned against him, because the family of the late Czar's
first wife were very powerful in Russia and they hated his second wife
Natalia, and her son, who had been his father's favorite.

Everything that conspirators could do to break the boy's spirit was
done; he was time and again placed in peril of his life; he was
threatened and tempted and slandered to the people, but all to no avail.
His mother did her best to shield him from his enemies, but when she
found that her care was not enough she trusted to his own remarkable
judgment and courage. These never failed either the boy or his mother.

As time passed it grew more and more clear that Peter was as strong as
his poor stepbrother Ivan was weak, and in order to satisfy the people
the younger boy was made joint-Czar with the elder.

The real power in Russia then, however, was the Princess Sophia, Peter's
half-sister, a bitter enemy of both the boy and his mother. She did her
best to break her stepbrother's spirit, hoping that he might come to
some untimely end, as so many of the royal family had already done. She
knew that Ivan was simply a weak tool in her hands, and so bent all her
energies to try and ruin the younger Czar by taking away all restraint
from over him, and letting him indulge every pleasure and whim.

He was given a palace of his own in a small village outside Moscow, and
Sophia selected fifty boys of his own age to be his playmates. She had
his former teachers dismissed and chose such comrades for him as she
thought would grow up idle, vicious men.

Fortunately Peter