he trick. They often bake cats,
wolves, ravens, and the like in their pastries, and when the company
have eaten them up, they tell them what they have in their stomachs.

"The present butler is one of the czar's buffoons, to whom he has given
the name of _Wiaschi_, with this privilege, that if any one calls him by
that name he has leave to drub him with his wooden sword. If, therefore,
anybody, by the czar's setting them on, calls out _Wiaschi_, as the
fellow does not know exactly who it is, he falls to beating them all
around, beginning with prince Mentchikof and ending with the last of the
company, without excepting even the ladies, whom he strips of their head
clothes, as he does the old Russians of their wigs, which he tramples
upon, on which occasion it is pleasant enough to see the variety of
their bald pates."

On reading this account of a Russian court entertainment two centuries
ago, we cannot wonder that after the visit of Peter the Great and his
suite to London it was suggested that the easiest way to cleanse the
palace in which they had been entertained might be to set it on fire and
burn it to the ground.

_HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A MAN._

We have told how one Catharine, of lowly birth and the captive of a
warlike raid, rose to be Empress of Russia. We have now to tell how a
second of the same name rose to the same dignity. This one was indeed a
princess by descent, her birthplace being a little German town. But if
she began upon a higher level than the former Catharine, she reached a
higher level still, this insignificant German princess becoming known in
history as Catharine the Great, and having the high distinction of being
the only woman to whose name the title Great has ever been attached. We
may here say, however, that many women have lived to whom it might have
been more properly applied.

In 1744 this daughter of one of the innumerable German kinglings became
Grand Duchess of Russia, through marriage with Peter, the coming heir to
the throne. We may here step from the beaten track of our story to say
that Russia, at this period of its history, was ruled over by a number
of empresses, though at no other time have women occupied its throne.
The line began with Sophia, sister of Peter the Great, who reigned for
some years as virtual empress. Catharine, the wife of Peter, became
actual empress, and was followed, with insignificant intervals of male
rulers, by Anne, Elizabeth, and Catharine t