accoutred like the best regiments of Europe. The Czar, as the emperor of Russia is called, being determined to learn the military art thoroughly, entered his first regiment as a drummer, and gained promotion from one step to another as he became proficient. Meanwhile he studied the art of shipbuilding, and began to construct a navy.

Having spent seven years in laying the foundation of his country's future greatness, he resolved on visiting foreign countries, to gain the knowledge indispensable for carrying on the work he had begun. In the same spirit that he had entered the army as a drummer, he engaged himself as a journeyman to a shipbuilder at Saardam, in Holland; and there he might have been seen in red woollen shirt and duck trousers, plying his adze as a ship-carpenter. For seven weeks he lived in a little shingle cottage, rose early, made his bed, and cooked his breakfast. He passed nine months in Holland, and during that time mastered the Dutch language, acquired a clear insight into the construction of a ship, and examined carefully all the factories and institutions of Amsterdam.

From Holland he passed over to England, where he was received with great honour by William III. Peter's main object was to examine our dockyards, and for that purpose he occupied a house at Deptford. He spent most of the day, when not in the dockyard, in sailing or rowing on the Thames; he became as expert in managing vessels as an able seaman, and quite as fond as a sailor, when the day's work was over, of retiring to a tavern for grog and tobacco. On taking his leave of King William, Peter presented him with a ruby worth £10,000, which he drew from his waistcoat pocket, wrapped up in a bit of dirty brown paper.

On the Czar's return home he began in good earnest his social reforms: he caused the Bible to be translated into the Russian tongue; set up printing presses; founded hospitals and almshouses; erected linen and paper factories; intro

duced flocks of Saxony sheep; greatly improved the art of shipbuilding; and encouraged skilful mechanics, of all nations and trades, to settle in his empire.

He next proceeded to enlarge the boundaries of Russia, which at that time was so hemmed in by neighbouring states, that it had no access to the great ocean highway for its commerce except through Archangel, whose port, the greater part of the year, was blocked up with ice. The shores of the Black Sea were in the hands of the Turks, and the provinces around the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea belonged to the Swedes. Peter resolved on war as a means of extending his sea-board. Having gained a footing on the Black Sea in a successful war with the Turks, Peter turned his arms against the Swedes (A.D. 1700), whose king at that time was a famous warrior, named Charles XII. The Russians, at first, were no match for their foes under such a leader. When the Czar was informed of the first great defeat of his army, he replied, "I know very well that the Swedes will have the advantage over us for some time ; but they will teach us at length to beat them."

In less than two years Peter was able to say, "We have at last beaten the Swedes when two to one against them; we shall by-and-by be able to face them man to man.' One result of his victory was the building of the fortress of St. Petersburg on an island near the mouth of the Neva. And on an island still lower down the river he founded the impregnable fortress of Cronstadt, which commands its

entrance.

The capital of Russia at this time was Moscow, situated in the centre of the country. Peter was resolved to found a new capital near the sea; and he selected, as its site, the swampy country around the citadel of St. Petersburg. In the course of a twelvemonth the city of St. Petersburg arose as if by magic. Thousands perished from toil, privation, and the pestilential air of the marshes, but the work of draining and building went steadily forward. Under the marvellous

energies of the founder, St. Petersburg soon became a fine city, and a place of great commercial importance.

Meanwhile the contest continued between the two rival monarchs for supremacy in the north of Europe. "Nowhere," said Charles, as he entered Russia with his veteran troops, "will I treat with Peter but at Moscow." On this Peter remarked, "My brother Charles wishes to act the part of Alexander,1 but he shall not find a Darius in me.” The Czar, with his army, retreated slowly before the advancing enemy, thus drawing them on step by step into the heart of a barren country, where they were overtaken by the snows of winter. After the loss of thousands of his men from cold, hunger, and disease, the King entered the Ukraine,2 and with 20,000 frost-bitten, ill-clad, ill-fed soldiers, besieged the small but strongly-fortified town of Pultowa.3

The day was now fast approaching when the two rivals were, for the first and last time, to measure their strength, and to fight a great decisive battle. Peter appeared before Pultowa with an army of 60,000 men (A.D. 1709). The two monarchs commanded in person. Charles, who had been previously wounded in the foot, was carried on a litter from rank to rank. The litter was shattered in pieces by a cannon ball, but the King was not struck. Peter narrowly escaped, his hat being shot through. After incessant fighting for two hours victory declared in favour of the Russians. The Swedes never recovered from the effects of the blow. Their power rapidly declined, whilst that of the Russians steadily grew.

In 1716 Peter made a second tour of Europe. On his arrival at Paris he declined to take up his abode at the Louvre, preferring to stay at a small hotel, where he could live in his own simple, frugal way. "I am a soldier," he said; "a little bread and beer satisfy me. I prefer few friends to many, and small rooms to large ones."

Peter spent the remaining years of his life in useful reforms and patriotic labours. In 1724 the Czar celebrated

by a naval review the creation of the Russian fleet, which then comprised forty-one ships, manned by 15,000 seamen. The little skiff in which he had paddled when a boy was exhibited on the occasion, under the name of the Little Grandsire, as the ancestor of the Russian fleet.

The character of Peter may best be given in the words of Voltaire : "He gave a polish to his people, and was himself a savage; he taught them the art of war, of which he was himself ignorant; from the sight of a little boat on the river Moskwa he created a powerful fleet; he made himself an expert and active shipwright, sailor, pilot, and captain; he improved the manners, customs, and laws of the Russians, and justly lives in their memory as the 'Father of his country.""

The great Czar died of fever in 1725, caught by wading knee-deep in Lake Ladoga, to aid in getting off a boat which had struck upon a rock. He was succeeded by his worthy consort Catharine.

CATHARINE, the celebrated wife of Peter the Great, was born of poor parents, heir to no other inheritance than their virtues and frugality. Her father being dead, she lived with her aged mother in their cottage, covered with straw; and both, though very poor, were very contented. Here, retired from the gaze of the world, by the labour of her hands she supported her mother, who was now incapable of supporting herself. When Catherine spun, her mother would sit by and read some book of devotion,

Catharine was only fifteen when her mother died: she was then just budding into womanhood; in face and person of rare beauty, and in understanding strong and ready. She now therefore left her cottage, and went to live with a Lutheran minister, by whom she had been instructed from her childhood. In his house she resided in quality of governess to his children; at the same time she continued to take lessons from her old instructor. Thus she continued to improve under his roof till his death, when she became homeless and friendless. Livonia, the province to which she belonged, was at this time wasted by war. Provisions becoming every day scarcer, and her private stock being nearly exhausted, she resolved to travel to Marienburg, where some of her relatives lived.

With her scanty wardrobe packed up in a wallet, she set out on her journey on foot. She had to walk through a region miserable by nature, but rendered still more hideous by the Swedes and Russians, who, as each happened to become masters, plundered it at discretion; but hunger had taught her to despise the dangers and fatigues of the way.

On her journey she was insulted by two Swedish soldiers, but she providentially found an unexpected deliverer in the son of her old friend and tutor. Great was their surprise on recognizing each other. This was a happy meeting for Catharine the little stock of money she had brought from home was by this time quite exhausted; her clothes were gone to satisfy those who had entertained her in their houses. Her generous countryman, therefore, parted with what he could spare to buy her clothes, furnished her with a horse, and gave her letters of recommendation to Mr. Gluck, a faithful friend of his father's, and governor of Marienburg. Our beautiful stranger had only to appear, to be well received; she was immediately admitted into the governor's family, as governess to his two daughters; and though only seventeen, showed herself capable of instructing her sex, not only in virtue, but politeness. Such was her good sense and