command, and hoisting his
flag, sailed to Copenhagen. Here he was entertained for two months
with profuse hospitality by the King of Denmark, during which time he
studied, with sleepless vigilance, the institutions and the artistic
attainments of the country.

About the middle of December he arrived at Amsterdam. The city gave
him a splendid reception, and he was welcomed by the Earl of Albemarle
in a very complimentary speech, pompous and flowery. The uncourteous
tzar bluntly replied,

"I thank you heartily, though I don't understand much of what you
say. I learned my Dutch among ship-builders, but the sort of language
you have spoken I am sure I never learned."

Some of his old companions, who were ship-builders, and had acquired
wealth, invited him to dine. They addressed him as "your majesty."
Peter cut them short, saying,

"Come, brothers, let us converse like plain and honest
ship-carpenters."

A servant brought him some wine. "Give me the jug," said he laughing,
"and then I can drink as much as I please, and no one can tell how
much I have taken."

He hastened to Zaandam, where he was received with the utmost joy by
his old friends from whom he had parted nineteen years before. An old
woman pressed forward to greet him.

"My good woman," said the tzar, "how do you know who I am?"

"I am the widow," she said, "of Baas Pool, at whose table your majesty
so often sat nineteen years ago."

The emperor kissed her upon the forehead and invited her to dine with
him that very day. One of his first visits was to the little cottage,
or rather hut, which he had occupied while residing there. The cottage
is still carefully preserved, having been purchased in 1823 by the
sister of the Emperor Alexander, and enclosed in another building with
large arched windows. The room was even then regarded as sacred. In
the center stood the oaken table and the three wooden chairs which
constituted the furniture when Peter occupied it. The loft was
ascended by a ladder which still remains.

With all the roughness of Peter's exterior, he had always been a man
of deep religious feelings, and through all his life was in habits of
daily prayer. This loft had been his place of private devotion to
which he daily ascended. Upon entering the cottage and finding every
thing just as he had left it, the tzar was for a moment much
affected. He ascended the ladder to his closet of prayer in the loft,
and there remained alone with his God