opposing factions of the intriguing courtiers, each of whom
cared nothing for the good of the country, but only how to find
the readiest means to supplant his rival. The last words of the
boy as he lay on his death-bed were, "Get ready the sledge! I want
to go to my sister!" alluding to the Princess Natalia, the other
child of Alexis who had died three years previously.

On his death Anne, Duchess of Courland, and daughter of Ivan, the
elder brother of Peter, was called to the throne. After her death,
by a second _revolution de palais_, Elizabeth, the daughter of
Peter the Great, was made sovereign. In this reign her alliance
was concluded with Maria Theresa of Austria, and during the Seven
Years' War, a large Russian force invaded Prussia; another took
Berlin in 1760.

During the whole of her reign Elizabeth was under the influence
of favourites, or _vremenstchiki_, as the Russians call them. She
appears to have been an indolent, good-tempered woman, and exceedingly
superstitious. During her reign Russia made considerable progress
in literature and culture. A national theatre, of which there had
been a few germs even at so early a period as the youth of Peter
the Great, was thoroughly developed, and at Yaroslavl, Volkov,
the son of a merchant, earned such a reputation as an actor, that
he was summoned to St. Petersburg by Elizabeth, who took him under
her patronage. Dramatists now sprang up on every side, but at first
were merely translators of Corneille, Racine, and Moliere. The
Russian arms were successful during her reign, and the capture of
Berlin in 1760, had a great effect upon European politics. Two years
afterwards Elizabeth died, and her nephew Peter III. succeeded, who
admired Frederick the Great, and at once made peace with him.

This unfortunate man, however, only reigned six months, having been
dethroned and put to death by order of his wife, who became Empress
of Russia under the title of Catherine II. However unjustifiable the
means may have been by which Catherine became possessed of the
throne, and in mere justice to her we must remember that she had
been brutally treated by her husband, and was in hourly expectation
of being immured for life in a dungeon by his orders, she exercised
her power to the advantage of the country.

In 1770, a Russian fleet appeared for the first time in the
Mediterranean, and the Turkish navy was destroyed at Chesme. By the
treaty of Kutchuk Kainardji (1774), Turkey w