ith a dozen
orders, portraits of saints, and relics, which occasioned such a
clatter that when she walked one would suppose that an ass with bells
was approaching. The tzar, on the contrary, was tall and well made.
His countenance is handsome, but there is something in it so rude that
it inspires one with dread. He was dressed like a seaman, in a frock,
without lace or ornament."[14]

[Footnote 14: Memoires de la Margrave de Bareith.]

On Peter's return to Russia, he was compelled to meet and grasp a
trouble which for fifteen years had embittered his life. His son,
Alexis, had ever been a thorn in his father's side. He was not only
indolent and dissipated, but he was utterly opposed to all his
father's measures for reform, and was continually engaged in underhand
measures to head a party against him. Upon the death of the unhappy
princess of Wolfenbuttle, wife of this worthless prince, the grieved
and indignant father wrote to him as follows:

"I shall wait a little while longer to see if there be any hopes of
your reform. If not, I shall cut you off from the succession as one
lops off a dead branch. Do not think that I wish to intimidate you;
and do not place too much reliance upon the fact that you are my only
son.[15] If I am willing to lay down my own life for Russia, do you
think that I shall be willing to sacrifice my country for you? I would
rather transmit the crown to an entire stranger worthy of the trust,
than to my own child unworthy of it."

[Footnote 15: The empress gave birth to a son shortly after this
letter was written.]

This letter produced no effect upon the shameless debauchee. He
continued unchecked in his career of infamy. In acknowledging the
receipt of his father's letter, he contemptuously replied that he had
no wish for the crown, and that he was ready at any time to take an
oath that he would renounce it for ever. Matters were in this position
when the tzar left for Denmark. He had hardly arrived in Copenhagen
when he received dispatches informing him that his son was gathering
around him all the disaffected, and was seriously endangering the
tranquillity of the State. Once more the anxious father wrote to him
in these words:

"I observe in your letter that you say not a word of the affliction
your conduct has caused me for so many years. A father's admonitions
seem to produce no impression upon you. I have prevailed on myself to
write you once more, and for the last time. Those _bus