e
sentence of death, as it had been sent to the Czar, was read to him.
He was then taken back again to his prison as before.

Alexis was overwhelmed with terror and distress at finding himself thus
condemned; and the next morning intelligence was brought to the Czar
that, after suffering convulsions at intervals through the night, he
had fallen into an apoplectic fit. About noon another message was
brought, saying that he had revived in some measure from the fit, yet
his vital powers seemed to be sinking away, and the physician thought
that his life was in great danger.

The Czar sent for the principal ministers of state to come to him, and
he waited with them in great anxiety and agitation for farther tidings.

At length a third messenger came, and said that it was thought that
Alexis could not possibly outlive the evening, and that he longed to
see his father. The Czar immediately requested the ministers to
accompany him, and set out from his palace to go to the fortress where
Alexis was confined. On entering the room where his dying son was
lying, he was greatly moved, and Alexis himself, bursting into tears,
folded his hands and began to entreat his father's forgiveness for his
sins against him. He said that he had grievously and heinously
offended the majesty of God Almighty and of the Czar; that he hoped he
should not recover from his illness, for if he should recover he should
feel that he was unworthy to live. But he begged and implored his
father, for God's sake, to take off the curse that he had pronounced
against him, to forgive him for all the heinous crimes which he had
committed, to bestow upon him his paternal blessing, and to cause
prayers to be put up for his soul.

While Alexis was speaking thus, the Czar himself, and all the ministers
and officers who had come with him, were melted in tears. The Czar
replied kindly to him. He referred, it is true, to the sins and crimes
of which Alexis had been guilty, but he gave him his forgiveness and
his blessing, and then took his leave with tears and lamentations which
rendered it impossible for him to speak, and in which all present
joined. The scene was heart-rending.

[Illustration: The Czar's visit to Alexis in prison.]

At five o'clock in the evening a major of the Guards came across the
water from the fortress to the Czar's palace with a message that Alexis
was extremely desirous to see his father once more. The Czar was at
first unwilling