Veneration of the old Russian families for their own country, and the

contempt with which they had been accustomed for many generations to

look upon foreigners, and upon every thing connected with foreign

manners and customs, were such as might lead in extreme cases, to

almost any degree of fanaticism in resisting the emperor's measures.

At any rate, in a short time there was quite a powerful party formed in

opposition to the foreign influences which Peter was introducing into

the country.

There was no one in the imperial family to whom this party could look

for a leader and head except the Princess Sophia. The Czar John,

Peter's feeble brother, was dead, otherwise they might have made his

name their rallying cry. Sophia was still shut up in the convent to

which Peter had sent her on the discovery of her conspiracy against

him. She was kept very closely guarded there. Still, the leaders of

the opposition contrived to open a communication with her. They took

every means to increase and extend the prevailing discontent. To

people of wealth and rank they represented the heavy taxes which they

were obliged to pay to defray the expenses of the emperor's wild

schemes, and the loss of their own proper influence and power in the

government of the country, they themselves being displaced to make room

for foreigners, or favorites like Menzikoff, that were raised from the

lowest grades of life to posts of honor and profit which ought to be

bestowed upon the ancient nobility alone. To the poor and ignorant

they advanced other arguments, which were addressed chiefly to their

religious prejudices. The government were subverting all the ancient

usages of the country, they said, and throwing every thing into the

hands of infidel or heretical foreigners. The course which the Czar

was pursuing was contrary to the laws of God, they said, who had

forbidden the children of Israel to have any communion with the

unbelieving nations around them, in order that they might not be led

away by them into idolatry. And so in Russia, they said, the extensive

power of granting permission to any Russian subject to leave the

country vested, according to the ancient usages of the empire, with the

patriarch, the head of the Church--and Peter had violated these usages

in sending away so many of the sons of the nobility without the

patriarch's consent. There were many other measures, too, which Peter

had adopted, or which he had then in contemplation, that were equally

obnoxious to the charge of impiety. For instance, he had formed a

plan--and he had even employed engineers to take preliminary steps in

reference to the execution of it--for making a canal from the River

Wolga to the River Don, thus presumptuously and impiously undertaking

to turn the streams one way, when Providence had designed them to flow

in another! Absurd as many of these representations were, they had

great influence with the mass of the common people.

At length this opposition party became so extended and so strong that

the leaders thought the time had arrived for them to act. They

accordingly arranged the details of their plot, and prepared to put it

in execution.

The scheme which they formed was this: they were to set fire to some

houses in the night, not far from the royal palace, and when the

emperor came out, as it is said was his custom to do, in order to

assist in extinguishing the flames, they were to set upon him and

assassinate him.

It may seem strange that it should be the custom of the emperor himself

to go out and assist personally in extinguishing fires. But it so

happened that the houses of Moscow at this time were almost all built

of wood, and they were so combustible, and were, moreover, so much

exposed, on account of the many fires required in the winter season in

so cold a climate, that the city was subject to dreadful

conflagrations. So great was the danger, that the inhabitants were

continually in dread of it, and all classes vied with each other in

efforts to avert the threatened calamity whenever a fire broke out.

Besides this, there were in those days no engines for throwing water,

and no organized department of firemen. All this, of course, is

entirely different at the present day in modern cities, where houses

are built of brick or stone, and the arrangements for extinguishing

fires are so complete that an alarm of fire creates no sensation, but

people go on with their business or saunter carelessly along the

streets, while the firemen are gathering, without feeling the least

concern.

As soon as they had made sure of the death of the Czar, the

conspirators were to repair to the convent where Sophia was imprisoned,

release her from her confinement, and proclaim her queen. They were

then to reorganize the Guards, restore all the officers who had been

degraded at the time of Couvansky's rebellion, then massacre all the

foreigners whom Peter had brought into the country, especially his

particular favorites, and so put every thing back upon its ancient

footing.

The time fixed for the execution of this plot was the night of the 2d

of February, 1697; but the whole scheme was defeated by what the

conspirators would probably call the treachery of two of their number.

These were two officers of the Guards who had been concerned in the

plot, but whose hearts failed them when the hour arrived for putting it