mien and bearing "every inch a king." Le Fort, his old tutor, and now his Lord High Admiral, accompanied him. The czar, on this occasion, travelled incognito, passing as a mere member of a grand embassy, which was composed of three ambassadors (Le Fort was one of them), four chief secretaries, twelve gentlemen, six pages, one company of the imperial guards, fifty in number, and several servants; the whole cortege numbering two hundred and fifteen persons. In this company the czar was nothing but an attaché, and was attended only by one valet, one footman, and a dwarf with whom he used to amuse himself. I need not dwell upon this memorable journey of a year and a half. Who does not know that the czar labored with his own hands at Amsterdam as a ship carpenter, and that he travelled over half of Europe, visiting workshops, factories, hospitals, and everything which could instruct a monarch of such a country as Russia was in 1697?

He practised but one vice on this journey: he drank too much wine at dinner. His regular allowance of wine was two bottles, and he often went beyond even that enormous quantity. One day, after a dinner of unusual excess, he fell into a dispute with Admiral Le Fort, and was so transported with fury, that he rushed upon him sword in hand. Le Fort, with admirable self-possession, bared his bosom to the stroke, and stood motionless to receive it. The czar, drunk as he was, was recalled to himself by this action, put up his sword, and, as soon as he was a little sobered, publicly asked Le Fort's pardon for his violence.

"I am trying," said he, "to reform my country, and I am not yet able to reform myself."

While he was pursuing his studies in Italy, he was suddenly called home by the news that the militia and the old tories of Russia, incited thereto by Sophia and the more superstitious of the priests, had risen in revolt. He seized the occasion to break up the system. He executed, it is said, not less than fifteen hundred of the conspirators, and his authority was never again disputed, nor his labors interrupted by civil commotion.

The greatest of all his difficulties, from the beginning to the end of his reign, was to reconcile his subjects to innovation,

and make them hearty co-operators with him in civilizing the country. In Russia, as in every country on earth, there were two parties those who wish things to remain as they are, and those who favor improvements. The former venerate the past, and believe in the wisdom of forefathers; the latter press hopefully on toward the future, and think the people of to-day are wiser and better than the people of a hundred years ago. These two parties are called by different names in different ages, but they always exist. They have been styled, in this country, whigs and tories, democrats and federalists, radicals and conservatives. Peter the Great was the most decided radical that ever ruled a country, and he had against him a large number of the higher priests and the elderly noblemen, as well as a great multitude of the ignorant and superstitious.

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There was a good deal of fun in the composition of this illustrious patriot, and he turned it to good use sometimes in throwing ridicule upon the ancient usages. One cold day, in the winter of 1703, he invited all his court and nobility to attend the wedding of one of his buffoons; and he was very particular that the old fogies of the empire should be present. He gave notice that this wedding was to be celebrated according to the usages of our ancestors," and that every one must come dressed in the manner of the sixteenth century. Accordingly, all the guests appeared in long, flowing, Asiatic robes of the ancient Russians, to the merriment of the whole court. It was an ancient custom that on a wedding-day no fire should be kindled in the house; and, therefore, the palace was as cold as mortal flesh could bear. "Our ancestors" drank only brandy, and so on this day not a drop of any milder liquor was allowed. All the barbarous and indecent customs formerly in vogue at weddings were revived for this occasion, and when any one objected or complained, the czar would reply, laughing:

Our ancestors did so! Are not the ancient customs always the best?"

This ridiculous fête, it is said, had much to do in bringing the old usages into discredit, and reconciling timid people to the new ways introduced by the czar.

This great monarch died in 1725, aged fifty-three years. To

the last days of his existence he toiled for his country. He had a violent temper; he was too fond of the pleasures of the table; and, on some occasions, he was more severe in his punishments than would now be permitted or necessary. I have, however, the decided impression that the accounts we have of this feature of his reign are exaggerated, and that he was a better man than we have been taught to believe. The Russian language being the most difficult and unattractive one spoken in Europe, no competent person has ever yet studied the history of Russia in its sources; and the little we know of it comes to us distorted or diluted through writers who never read a Russian book nor trod Russian soil. I advise readers to regard the socalled Histories of Russia with a good deal of incredulity, especially the chapters which represent Peter the Great as a bloody and cruel tyrant.

CHARLES XII.

CHARLES XII., born in 1682, was a boy of fifteen, when the death of his father made him King of Sweden. His mother had died some years before. According to the ancient laws of the kingdom, he had a right to reign at the age of fifteen; but his father, who was a very self-willed and despotic monarch, ordered in his will that he should not exercise authority until he was eighteen, and that until then his grandmother should be the regent.

Charles was a soldier almost from his infancy. At seven he could ride the most spirited horse, and, during all his boyhood, he took pleasure in those violent out-of-door exercises which harden and strengthen the constitution. He was exceedingly obstinate, and, like most obstinate people, was sometimes led by the nose. For example: He would not learn Latin; but when he was artfully told that the King of Denmark and the King of Poland knew that language well, he threw himself into the study of it with great energy, and became a very good scholar. Having read a Latin life of Alexander, some one asked him what he thought of that conqueror.

"I think," said he, "that I should like to resemble him." "But," said his tutor, "Alexander lived only thirty-two years."

"Ah," replied the prince; "and is not that enough when one has conquered kingdoms?"

When his father heard of this reply, he said:

"Here is a boy who will make a better king than I am, and who will go farther even than Gustavus the Great."

One day he stood looking at a map of a province of Hungary which had recently been wrested from the Emperor of Austria

by the Turks. At the bottom of this map some satirical person had written in French the well-known words of Job:

"The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord."

Now, this was a pretty good joke in French, because the French word for Lord is Seigneur, and it was common at that time to call the Sultan of Turkey the "Grand Seigneur." Next to this map hung one of Livonia, a province conquered by Sweden a hundred years before. At the bottom of this map the young prince wrote:

"God gave it me; the Devil shall not get it away."

After the death of his father, concealing whatever resentment he may have felt at being left under the tutelage of a grandmother, he passed all his time in hunting, in martial exercises, and in reviewing the troops. One day, when his father had been dead six months, and he was not quite sixteen years of age, he was observed to ride home from a grand review in a very thoughtful mood, and one of his nobles asked him what was the subject of his revery.

"I am thinking," replied the boy-king," that I feel myself worthy to command those brave soldiers, and that I do not like that either they or I should receive orders from a woman."

The courtier to whom this was said jumped at the opportunity to make his fortune. He urged the king to terminate his minority, and offered his services in making the arrangements necessary. The king consenting, it was not difficult to gain over the ministers, the nobles, and the officers of the army. Without bloodshed or any kind of disturbance the revolution. was accomplished, and in three days after the forming of the plan the regent was consigned to private life, and Charles XII. was the reigning King of Sweden. At the ceremony of the coronation, a few weeks after, just as the archbishop was about to place the crown upon the royal head, Charles took it out of his hands, and placed it himself upon his head. The adroit courtier who had aided him in getting the crown he ennobled and made him his prime minister.

No one, it appears, expected much of this youthful monarch. He had no vices, it is true; he neither drank, nor gormandized,