-Plan of the conspirators--Fires--Dread of them in
Moscow--Modern cities--Plan for massacring the foreigners--The day--The
plot revealed--Measures taken by Peter--Torture--Punishment of the
conspirators--The column in the market-place

Peter was now not far from twenty years of age, and he was in full
possession of power as vast, perhaps--if we consider both the extent of
it and its absoluteness--as was ever claimed by any European sovereign.
There was no written constitution to limit his prerogatives, and no
Legislature or Parliament to control him by laws. In a certain sense,
as Alexander Menzikoff said when selling his cakes, every thing
belonged to him. His word was law. Life and death hung upon his
decree. His dominions extended so far that, on an occasion when he
wished to send an embassador to one of his neighbors--the Emperor of
China--it took the messenger more than _eighteen months_ of constant
and diligent traveling to go from the capital to the frontier.

Such was Peter's position. As to character, he was talented,
ambitious, far-seeing, and resolute; but he was also violent in temper,
merciless and implacable toward his enemies, and possessed of an
indomitable will.

He began immediately to feel a strong interest in the improvement of
his empire, in order to increase his own power and grandeur as the
monarch of it, just as a private citizen might wish to improve his
estate in order to increase his wealth and importance as the owner of
it. He sent the embassador above referred to to China in order to make
arrangements for increasing and improving the trade between the two
countries. This mission was arranged in a very imposing manner. The
embassador was attended with a train of twenty-one persons, who went
with him in the capacity of secretaries, interpreters, legal
councilors, and the like, besides a large number of servants and
followers to wait upon the gentlemen of the party, and to convey and
take care of the baggage. The baggage was borne in a train of wagons
which followed the carriages of the embassador and his suite, so that
the expedition moved through the country quite like a little army on a
march.

It was nearly three years before the embassage returned. The measure,
however, was eminently successful. It placed the relations of the two
empires on a very satisfactory footing.

The dominions of the Czar extended then, as now, through all the
northern portions of Europe and Asia,