the facts. Before they had finished the bottle
over which they had so imprudently gossipped,
the two conspirators were arrested. Prince
Amilkar, and all those whose names had
reached the ears of Alexander, were also
seized. Summary Russian justice was
executed on the guilty parties, and the throne
of the Czar was saved. Riches, honours,
and power were showered on the discoverer,
and subsequent services, both in the state
and the armies of the Czar, earned for
Mentchikoff increasing credit and ceaseless
additions of fortune. A private obligation had,
however, more weight perhaps with Peter
than all the real benefits he received from
his intelligent and certainly attached favourite;
and this Meutchikoff had the opportunity
of rendering.

It had long been the savage custom in
Russia when the prince at the head of
the state was pronounced of age to marry,
that a show should take place of the most
remarkable beauty to be found in the kingdom.
The daughters of the highest families
were brought to Moscow by their parents,
and, on a given day, were ranged in rows, to
be looked at by the future bridegroom,
who chose from amongst their blushing
ranks her whose charms made the greatest
impression on him. It was in a saloon of
his palace that a lovely crowd of young ladies
were thus exposed, and from amongst them
Peter had selected the fairest, the proudest,
and the most attractive, in the person of
Eudosia Federowna Lapuchise, the daughter
of one of the highest of the nobility of
Novgorod, and wealthiest. The marriage
was celebrated with greater splendour than
had ever been seen in Russia. Two princes
were in due time born to render the union
perfectly satisfatory; and all went well and
happily for two years, when suddenly a change
came over the scene: infidelity, jealousy, anger,
indignation, and estrangement ensued, and the
royal household wore an aspect of storm and
desolation. Peter had seen in Anna Moëns
another Anna Boleyn, and Eudosia was
doomed to the fate of Catherine: unable to
obtain, however, from his clergy, permission
to break his marriage, Peter took a priest's
office on him; and, by a determined exercise
of power, pronounced his own divorce,
condemning the late Czarina to pass the rest of
her days in a convent, where she was compelled
to take the vows, and shut herself for
ever from the world. Thus free, and again a
bachelor, it only remained for Peter to elevate
the witty and charming Anna to the czarina's
vacant place; but an obstacle was in the
way on which he had not calculated—Anna
Moëns loved another, and abhorred the Czar.
Forced to receive his addresses, he had frequently
accused her of coldness and indifference;
but after the repudiation of Eudosia,
the honest nature of Anna would not allow
her to conceal her indignation, and she
reproached him bitterly for his cruelty,
declaring she could not love one capable of
such an action. She did not, it is to be presumed,
venture to confess that her affections
were given to the envoy of Prussia; but she
strove by unalterable coldness and reproach
to detach herself from one whose presence was
detestable to her, and whose magnificent offers
she scorned. The Czar, however, was long
before he could resolve to shake off the
weakness which enchained him; but at
length, wearied with her indifference, he
made up his mind to strive no longer against
it. The instant Anna found herself free, she
and her lover fled beyond the power of the
tyrant.

Peter was deeply mortified, but he was not
one to consider such a misfortune irreparable:
There were beauties enough ready to console
him, and he strove to forget the ungrateful
Anna in a new attachment. Alexander
Mentchikoff had perhaps already laid his
plans both for the happiness of his sovereign
and the consolidation of his own favour. He
introduced to the Czar a lady, whom he had
attached to himself, and whose genius, wit, and
beauty he felt sure would drive from the mind
of Peter all traces of his love for the ungrateful
Anna. Without hesitation he gave up
his own claims to Catherine to the Czar.
Catherine took advantage of her position,
exerted herself to charm her royal lover, and
succeeded so well, that in a short time she
was seated on the throne which Anna had
disdained. The devoted attachment of Peter
to his new Czarina never knew diminution,
and his gratitude to his friend increased
with his love for her who rendered him so
happy. All that she desired became his
law: and Mentchikoff assisted him to invent
new ways of showing his fondness and admiration.
He travelled with her through every
part of his dominions in triumph, and carried
her with him to several foreign courts. His
ambition was to present her at that of France,
but such a degradation as receiving a person
of low birth, and more than doubtful character,
could not be thought of for an instant,
and all sorts of polite subterfuges were
invented to ward off such an infliction from
the exemplary court of the Regent Orleans.

Catherine brought the Czar several children,
and he felt, with vexation, that his son
Alexius must take precedence of them, as the
eldest. As he had latterly hated Eudosia, the
mother of the prince, so he now began to detest
her son, and resolved to take measures to
set aside his claims to the succession. The
family of Lapuchin, meanwhile, thus thrust
into the shade, murmured in secret, and
even the rest of the imperial family joined
in disapproving the meditated injustice of
the Czar. Eudosia, whose haughty spirit
chafed under her innumerable wrongs, at
once threw herself into the very heart of a
conspiracy, which was soon formed in favour
of her son. Although within the walls of a
convent she had yet means to communicate with