m a part of the way. She was only to go, he said, as far as
Riga, a town on the shores of the Baltic, on the way toward Copenhagen.
Alexis was the less inclined to make a confidante of Afrosinia from the
fact that she had never been willingly his companion. She was a
Finland girl, a captive taken in war, and preserved to be sold as a
slave on account of her beauty. When she came into the possession of
Alexis he forced her to submit to his will. She was a slave, and it
was useless for her to resist or complain. It is said that Alexis only
induced her to yield to him by drawing his knife and threatening to
kill her on the spot if she made any difficulty. Thus, although he
seems to have become, in the end, strongly attached to her, he never
felt that she was really and cordially on his side. He accordingly, in
this case, concealed from her his real designs, and told her he was
only going to take her with him a little way. He would then send her
back, he said, to Petersburg. So Afrosinia made arrangements to
accompany him without feeling any concern.

Alexis obtained all the money that he required by borrowing
considerable sums of the different members of the government and
friends of his father, under pretense that he was going to his father
at Copenhagen. He showed them the letter which his father had written
him, and this, they thought, was sufficient authority for them to
furnish him with the money. He borrowed in this way various sums of
different persons, and thus obtained an abundant supply. The largest
sum which he obtained from any one person was two thousand ducats,
which were lent him by Prince Menzikoff, a noble who stood very high in
Peter's confidence, and who had been left by him chief in command
during his absence. The prince gave Alexis some advice, too, about the
arrangements which he was to make for his journey, supposing all the
time that he was really going to Copenhagen.

The chief instigator and adviser of Alexis in this affair was a man
named Alexander Kikin. This Kikin was an officer of high rank in the
navy department, under the government, and the Czar had placed great
confidence in him. But he was inclined to espouse the cause of the old
Muscovite party, and to hope for a revolution that would bring that
party again into power. He was not at this time in St. Petersburg, but
had gone forward to provide a place of retreat for Alexis. Alexis was
to meet him at the town of Libau, wh