It on again, but Peter remained uncovered, on the ground that he was

not at that time acting in his own character as Czar. The emperor,

seeing this, took off his hat again, and both remained uncovered during

the interview.

After this a great many parades and celebrations took place in Vienna,

all ostensibly in honor of the embassy, but really and truly in honor

of Peter himself, who still preserved his incognito. At many of these

festivities Peter attended, taking his place with the rest of the

subordinates in the train of the embassy, but he never appeared in his

own true character. Still he was known, and he was the object of a

great many indirect but very marked attentions. On one occasion, for

example, there was a masked ball in the palace of the emperor; Peter

appeared there dressed as a peasant of West Friesland, which is a part

of North Holland, where the costumes worn by the common people were

then, as indeed they are at the present day, very marked and peculiar.

The Emperor of Germany appeared also at this ball in a feigned

character--that of a host at an entertainment, and he had thirty-two

pages in attendance upon him, all dressed as butlers. In the course of

the evening one of the pages brought out to the emperor a very curious

and costly glass, which he filled with wine and presented to the

emperor, who then approached Peter and drank to the health of the

peasant of West Friesland, saying at the same time, with a meaning

look, that he was well aware of the inviolable affection which the

peasant felt for the Czar of Muscovy. Peter, in return, drank to the

health of the host, saying he was aware of the inviolable affection he

felt for the Emperor of Germany.

These toasts were received by the whole company with great applause,

and after they were drunk the emperor gave Peter the curious glass from

which he had drunk, desiring him to keep it as a souvenir of the

occasion.

These festivities in honor of the embassy at Vienna were at length

suddenly interrupted by the arrival of tidings from Moscow that a

rebellion had broken out there against Peter's government. This

Intelligence changed at once all Peter's plans. He had intended to go

to Venice and to Rome, but he now at once abandoned these designs, and

setting out abruptly from Vienna, with General Le Fort, and a train of

about thirty persons, he traveled with the utmost possible dispatch to

Moscow.

[1] William, Prince of Orange, was descended on the female side from

the English royal family, and was a Protestant. Accordingly, when

James II., and with him the Catholic branch of the royal family of

England, was expelled from the throne, the British Parliament called

upon William to ascend it, he being the next heir on the Protestant

side.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE REBELLION.

1698

Precautions taken by the Czar--His uneasiness--His fury against his

enemies--His revolting appearance--Imperfect

communication--Conspiracy--Arguments used--Details of the plot--Pretext

of the guards--They commence their march--Alarm in Moscow--General

Gordon--A parley with the rebels--Influence of the Church--The clergy on

the side of the rebels--Conservatism--The Russian clergy--The armies

prepare for battle--The insurgents defeated--Massacre of

prisoners--Confession--Peter's arrival at Moscow--His terrible

severity--Peter becomes himself an executioner--The Guards--Gibbets--The

writer of the address to Sophia--The old Russian nobility--Arrival of

artisans--Retirement of Sophia--Her death

It will be recollected by the reader that Peter, before he set out on his

tour, took every possible precaution to guard against the danger of

disturbances in his dominions during his absence. The Princess Sophia

was closely confined in her convent. All that portion of the old Russian

Guards that he thought most likely to be dissatisfied with his proposed

reforms, and to take part with Sophia, he removed to fortresses at a

great distance from Moscow. Moscow itself was garrisoned with troops

selected expressly with reference to their supposed fidelity to his

interests, and the men who were to command them, as well as the great

civil officers to whom the administration of the government was committed

during his absence, were appointed on the same principle.

But, notwithstanding all these precautions, Peter did not feel entirely

safe. He was well aware of Sophia's ambition, and of her skill in

intrigue, and during the whole progress of his tour he anxiously watched

the tidings which he received from Moscow, ready to return at a moment's

warning in case of necessity. He often spoke on this subject to those

with whom he was on terms of familiar intercourse. On such occasions he

would get into a great rage in denouncing his enemies, and in threatening

vengeance against them in case they made any movement to resist his

authority while he was away. At such times he would utter most dreadful

imprecations against those who should dare to oppose him, and would work

himself up into such a fury as to give those who conversed with him an

exceedingly unfavorable opinion of his temper and character. The ugly

aspect which his countenance and demeanor exhibited at such times was

greatly aggravated by a nervous affection of the head and face which

attacked him, particularly when he was in a passion, and which produced

convulsive twitches of the muscles that drew his head by jerks to one

side, and distorted his face in a manner that was dreadful to behold. It

was said that this disorder was first induced in his childhood by some

one of the terrible frights through which he passed. However this may

have been, the affection seemed to increase as he grew older, and as the

attacks of it were most decided and violent when he was in a passion,

they had the effect, in connection with his coarse and dreadful language

and violent demeanor, to make him appear at such times more like some

ugly monster of fiction than like a man.

The result, in respect to the conduct of his enemies during his absence,

was what he feared. After he had been gone away for some months they

began to conspire against him. The means of communication between

different countries were quite imperfect in those days, so that very

little exact information came back to Russia in respect to the emperor's

movements. The nobles who were opposed to him began to represent to the

people that he had gone nobody knew where, and that it was wholly

uncertain whether he would ever return. Besides, if he did return, they

said it would only be to bring with him a fresh importation of foreign

favorites and foreign manners, and to proceed more vigorously than ever