p the Neva, surrounded by
his weeping family, he saw with deep dismay wrecks of every kind,
bridges and merchandise, horses and cattle, and houses peopled with
helpless inmates, swept before his eyes by the raging flood. Boats were
overturned and emptied their crews into the stream. Some who escaped
death by drowning died from the bitter cold as they floated downward on
vessels or rafts. It seemed almost as if the whole city would be carried
bodily into the gulf.

The official reports of this disaster state that forty-five hundred of
the people perished,--probably not half the true figure. Of the houses
that remained, many were ruined, and thousands of poor wretches wandered
homeless through the drenched streets. Such was one example of the
inheritance left by Peter the Great to the dwellers in his favorite
city, his "window to Europe," as it has been called.

_FROM THE HOVEL TO THE THRONE._

The reign of Peter the Great was signalized by two notable instances of
the rise of persons from the lowest to the highest estate, ability being
placed above birth and talent preferred to noble descent. A poor boy,
Mentchikof by name, son of a monastery laborer, had made his way to
Moscow and there found employment with a pastry-cook, who sent him out
daily with a basket of mince pies, which he was to sell in the streets.
The boy was destitute of education, but he had inherited a musical voice
and a lively manner, which stood him in good stead in proclaiming the
merits of his wares. He could sing a ballad in taking style, and became
so widely known for his songs and stories that he was often invited into
gentlemen's houses to entertain company. His voice and his wit ended in
making him a prince of the empire, a favorite of the czar, and in the
end virtually the emperor of Russia.

Being one day in the kitchen of a boyar's house, where dinner was being
prepared for the czar, who had promised to dine there that day, young
Mentchikof overheard the master of the house give special directions to
his cook about a dish of meat of which he said the czar was especially
fond, and noticed that he furtively dropped a powder of some kind into
it, as if by way of spice.

This act seemed suspicious to the acute lad. Noting particularly the
composition of the dish, he betook himself to the street, where he began
again to exalt the merits of his pies and to entertain the passers-by
with ballads. He kept in the vicinity of the boyar's h