he Great. These male rulers
were Peter II., whose reign was brief, Ivan, an infant, and Peter III.,
husband of Catharine, who succeeded Elizabeth in 1762. It is with the
last named that we are concerned.

Peter III., though grandson of Peter the Great, was as weak a man as
ever sat on a throne; Catharine a woman of unusual energy. For years of
their married life these two had been enemies. Peter had the misfortune
to have been born a fool, and folly on the throne is apt to make a sorry
show. He had, besides, become a drunkard and profligate. The one good
point about him, in the estimation of many, was his admiration for
Frederick the Great, since he came to the throne of Russia at the crisis
of Frederick's career, and saved him from utter ruin by withdrawing the
Russian army from his opponents.

His folly soon raised up against him two powerful enemies. One of these
was the army, which did not object, after fighting with the Austrians
against the Prussians, to turn and fight with the Prussians against the
Austrians, but did object to the Prussian dress and discipline, which
Peter insisted upon introducing. It possessed a discipline of its own,
which it preferred to keep, and bitterly disliked its change of dress.
The czar even spoke of suppressing the Guards, as his grandfather had
suppressed the corps of the Strelitz. This was a fatal offence. It made
this strong force his enemy, while he was utterly lacking in the
resolution with which Peter the Great had handled rebels in arms.

The other enemy was Catharine, whom he had deserted for an unworthy
favorite. But her enmity was quiet, and might have remained so had he
not added insult to injury. Heated by drink, he called her a "fool" at a
public dinner before four hundred people, including the greatest
dignitaries of the realm and the foreign ministers. He was not satisfied
with an insult, but added to it the folly of a threat, that of an order
for her arrest. This he withdrew,--a worse fault, under the
circumstances, than to have made it. He had taught Catharine that her
only safety lay in action, if she would not be removed from the throne
in favor of the worthless creature who had supplanted her in her
husband's esteem.

Events moved rapidly. It was on the 21st of June, 1762, that the insult
was given and the threat made. Within a month the czar was dead and his
wife reigned in his stead. On the 24th Peter left St. Petersburg for
Oranienbaum, his summer residence