he set out on his vagabond travels. The next tidings his father
heard of him were that he was in Naples, spending, as ever, his
substance in riotous living. A father's heart still yearned over the
miserable young man, and compassion was blended with disappointment
and indignation. He immediately dispatched two members of his court,
M. Romanzoff, captain of the royal guards, and M. Toltoi, a privy
counselor, to Naples, to make a last effort to reclaim his misguided
son. They found the young man in the chateau of Saint Elme, and
presented to him a letter from his father. It was dated Spa, July 1,
1717, and contained the following words:

"I write to you for the last time. Toltoi and Romanzoff will make
known to you my will. If you obey me, I assure you, and I promise
before God, that I will not punish you, but if you will return to me I
will love you better than ever. But if you will not return to me, I
pronounce upon you, as your father, in virtue of the power I have
received from God, my eternal malediction; and, as your sovereign, I
assure you that I shall find means to punish you, in which I trust God
will assist me."

It required the most earnest persuasion, and even the intervention of
the viceroy of Naples, to induce Alexis to return to Russia. The
miserable man had a harem of abandoned women with him, with whom he
set out on his return. They arrived in Moscow the 13th of February,
1718, and on that very day Peter had an interview with his son. No one
knows what passed in that interview. The rumor of the arrival of
Alexis spread rapidly through the city, and it was supposed that a
reconciliation had taken place. But the next morning, at the earliest
dawn, the great bell of Moscow rang an alarm, the royal guards were
marshaled and the privy counselors of the emperor were summoned to the
Kremlin.

Alexis was led, without his sword and as a prisoner, into the presence
of his father. At the same time, all the high ecclesiastics of the
church were assembled, in solemn conclave, in the cathedral church.
Alexis fell upon his knees before his father, confessed his faults,
renounced all claim to the succession and entreated only that his life
might be spared. The tzar led his son into an adjoining room, where
they for some time remained alone. He then returned to his privy
council and read a long statement, very carefully drawn up, minutely
recapitulating the conduct of Alexis, his indolence, his shameless
libertinism,