kelavitaw's detachment of Guards, with
Thekelavitaw himself at the head of them, stealing furtively along the
road. The messengers hid themselves by the wayside until the troop had
gone by. Then hurrying away round by a circuitous path, they got
before the troop again, and reached the palace before the assassins
arrived. Peter had just time to get into a coach, with his wife, his
sister, and one or two other members of his family, and to drive away
from the palace before Thekelavitaw, with his band, arrived. The
sentinels who were on duty at the gates of the palace had been much
surprised at the sudden departure of Peter and his family, and now they
were astonished beyond measure at the sudden appearance of so large a
body of their comrades arriving at midnight, without any warning, from
the barracks in Moscow.

[Illustration: The escape.]

Immediately on his arrival at the palace, Thekelavitaw's men searched
every where for Peter, but of course could not find him. They then
questioned the sentinels, and were told that Peter had left the palace
with his family in a very hurried manner but a very short time before.
No one knew where they had gone.

There was, of course, nothing now for Thekelavitaw to do but to return,
discomfited and alarmed, to the Princess Sophia, and report the failure
of their scheme.

In the mean time Peter had fled to the Monastery of the Trinity, the
common refuge of the family in all cases of desperate danger. The news
of the affair spread rapidly, and produced universal excitement.
Peter, from his retreat in the monastery, sent a message to Sophia,
charging her with having sent Thekelavitaw and his band to take his
life. Sophia was greatly alarmed at the turn which things had taken.
She, however, strenuously denied being guilty of the charge which Peter
made against her. She said that the soldiers under Thekelavitaw had
only gone out to Obrogensko for the purpose of relieving the guard.
This nobody believed. The idea of taking such a body of men a league
or more into the country at midnight for the purpose of relieving the
guard of a country palace was preposterous.

The excitement increased. The leading nobles of the country began to
flock to the monastery to declare their adhesion to Peter, and their
determination to sustain and protect him. Sophia, at the same time,
did all that she could do to rally her friends. Both sides endeavored
to gain the good-will of the Guards. T