In 1673 the Czar Theodore married Agatha Simonevo Grudszecki, a lady of Polish extraction, contrary to the wishes and advice of his ministers, who recommended him to unite himself with the daughter of a subject. But he declared that if he was not permitted to choose his own wife, he would never marry at all, so no further objection was made; but the young Czarina died within a year of their marriage, not without some suspicion of poison. After her death, her husband fell into a state of melancholy, and became entirely indifferent to his empire or the government. His sister Sophia, a princess of a most determined and ambitious disposition, and his chief adviser Galitzin, obliged him to marry the daughter of the boyard Apraxin, though the unfortunate prince implored them with tears to allow him to remain single; but as his next brother Ivan was almost blind, they were fearful lest the crown should ultimately descend to his half-brother Peter, then a boy of eight years old, which would probably place the supreme power in the hands of their rivals, the Narishkins, the family of Alexis's second wife. Theodore indeed made a will in favour of Peter, but was induced by his sister to revoke it on his deathbed, and leave the empire to Ivan, appointing Sophia to the dignity and functions of Regent.

But disturbances had already begun before the dying prince had breathed his last. The quarrel between the families of Miloslafski and Narishkin had burst forth with renewed animosity, and the Strelitzes or Imperial guards, taking the part of Sophia, were with difficulty prevented from forcing their way into his chamber to support her arguments with their swords. She appointed Galitzin her prime minister, and it is believed that he secretly instigated a terrible insurrection in the capital, the morning after Theodore's funeral, when the city for three days was the scene of a massacre, and seventy noblemen with two brothers of the Czarina Natalia, the eldest of whom was only twenty years of age, suffered death.

At length the discordant factions were appeased by the recognition of Ivan and Peter as joint sovereigns, and Sophia retained possession of the regency, which she held for seven years.

During that period Galitzin was the sole minister in her confidence, and his dignities and titles were numerous. He was styled the chief councillor or intimate boyard, the keeper of the grand Czarian seal, the director of the great affairs of the empire and of the embassies, and the governor of Novogorod the Great. He established a regular

correspondence with almost all the courts of Europe, and formed the first commercial treaty between China and any nation of the West; his envoys were received with respect and ceremony, and during his administration the importance of Muscovy was rapidly increasing in the eyes of foreign states. "Brandy," says his biographer, "the liquor which flamed at every other table, was seldom seen at his, for he never touched anything stronger than tea himself. On the contrary, he took much delight in rational and improving conversation." The Princess Sophia, though ambitious and cruel, was well fitted to wield the sceptre, which she so much coveted, and used her power chiefly to promote the welfare of her subjects and the prosperity of her empire. In conjunction with her minister she caused several handsome buildings to be erected in Moscow, among others, the stone bridge over the Moskva, and the streets to be repaved. They encouraged intelligent foreigners to settle in Russia, and induced several of the nobility to send their sons to the colleges in Germany or Poland. They endeavoured to increase the trade with the neighbouring nations, and facilitated the importation of foreign books, many of which they translated themselves into the Russian tongue; they also introduced the study of mathematics, and tried to extend a taste for the arts and sciences among their countrymen.

On the 24th of April, 1686, Galitzin signed a treaty of peace with Poland, at Moscow, by which Poland formally renounced the possessions she had already ceded to Russia during the reigns of Theodore and Alexis, and also agreed to an alliance with Germany, Russia, and Venice against the Turks. This was occasioned by an insult which Russia had received from the Khan of the Crimean Tartars, who was then subject to Turkey, and who demanded the repayment of the annual tribute of 60,000 roubles, which had formerly been yielded to his ancestors by the Grand Princes of Moscow. In 1687 Galitzin marched in person, with an army of 200,000 men, to the Crimea, but the expedition in this and two subsequent campaigns had no favourable result. The troops suffered severely for want of forage and from the weather. They were attacked by a large force of Turks and Tartars, and at length were compelled to return, after sustaining a considerable loss. Although Galitzin had long been married, and a divorce is forbidden in the Russian Church, it is thought that he contemplated sending his wife to a monastery and offering his hand to the Regent, but that she refused to accept it from political motives, and from a fear that as he

was unpopular with a very considerable party, it might weaken her power in the empire. They both saw indeed that the term of their legislation was fast drawing to its close, for Peter was now nearly seventeen years of age, and was collecting partisans around him all eager to see him established at the head of the government. Hitherto the Princess Sophia and Galitzin had tried to keep the prince in ignorance and idleness, but their cause was injured by another insurrection of the Strelitzes or Palace Guards, headed by Prince Khovansky, a relation of Sophia's, and this time directed against them, and also by the unsuccessful campaign in the Crimea. While Galitzin was absent with the army, his eldest son Alexis directed his affairs at home, but Peter took the opportunity to concert a scheme for his final overthrow, and on the minister's return refused to see him. Galitzin immediately repaired in great alarm to the palace of the Regent, and assuring her that the conspiracy he had long apprehended was about to break forth, they agreed to arrest the young Prince and put him to death without delay, a plan they had more than once meditated since they had failed in an attempt to poison him, and accordingly despatched a band of six hundred armed men by night to the palace of Petroffsky, where he lived. But Peter was informed by a deserter of their approach a few moments before they had reached the gates, and he succeeded in effecting his escape to the monastery of Troitza, or the Trinity, where he collected several foreign officers around him, his own regiment, the Probijansky, which he had formed originally from his playfellows when a boy, and others who were discontented with his sister's government, and arming all the peasants attached to the monastic lands, he returned with a formidable force to Moscow. Galitzin tried to persuade Sophia to take refuge in Poland, but she declined to attempt it, still hoping for the support of the Strelitzes and the mob. Contrary to her expectations, the common people joined with her adversaries, the Strelitzes were dispersed and disarmed, and she was left almost alone. Her minister fell down on his knees at Peter's feet and implored pardon for himself, trying to lay the blame of the whole transaction on the Princess, and at the intercession of one of his relations, Prince Michael Galitzin, an officer in Peter's regiment, his life was spared, but many of his colleagues were put to a cruel death. Yet severe as their punishment appears now, it was considered merciful for those times, as till then it had been the law in Muscovy, when a subject revolted against his prince, that not

only the rebel should perish, but every member of his family, man, woman, or child, and even the near relations of his wife. The Princess Sophia was imprisoned in the Dewitza Convent, where she was kept under a strong guard during the rest of her life.

In the following September Galitzin was formally tried. Three principal charges were brought against him, irrespective of the late conspiracy, of which he declared himself to be entirely innocent, and he was accused first of having bestowed the title of autocrat on Sophia, a name which she had long assumed. Secondly, of having yielded blindly to her laws and commands; and thirdly, of having occasioned serious losses to the empire by the manner in which he had conducted the last campaign in the Crimea. He was found guilty by the court of boyards, before whom he was arraigned, and was sentenced to exile for life, with his son, to the town of Yarensk, in the northern government of Vologda, and 360 miles from the capital of the province. He was deprived of all his titles and honours, and his wealth and vast estates became the property of the crown.

But his punishment did not end here. He frequently complained of his hard lot at Yarensk, where as the ukase by which it was conferred, expressed it, he received "by the great mercy of the Czar," the miserable pension of three kopecks, or about three halfpence, a day, and in the year 1693 he was accused by a monk of speaking with disrespect of his sovereign, aud was removed to the fort of Poustozersk, in the frozen district of Mazene, in the north-eastern territory of the province of Archangel. He remained in this remote spot for a period of twenty years, when he died on the 13th of March, 1713, aged 80. His contemporary Korb, writing in 1698, gives the following history of Galitzin, who was then in exile: "Knez Basil Galitzin was viceroy of the kingdoms of the Kazan and Astrakhan, minister of foreign affairs, and keeper of the Czar's seal. A prime minister indeed, and one whose reputation for prudence and fortitude gave him so complete a sway over the minds of the youthful Czars, that he might be said to reign in their name. He combined political and military functions, contending with an exceeding powerful army against the barbarians, and sought to deserve the sovereignty of Russia by counsel and deed. Fortune flattered a hope so impious, but failed him at last, when he daringly attempted what was unlawful and too lofty, when coveting that sovereign rank, which he approached so nearly, and growing dizzy with the foiled desire of possessing himself of the sceptre itself, he was

hurled by a fall most grievous down to the lowliest lot of man in exile. Then were detected the dangerous machinations of Horne, and the pestilent counsels that had so long been sold, under the pretence of the greatest friendship. This pest was raging with irreparable damage at the time when Basil Galitzin marched with an army against the Tartars. The Crimea contains a desert of several hundred miles in extent, by continual devastations. Galitzin set fire to the grass of this desert under pretence of depriving the Tartars of forage; but, in reality, in order to celebrate the obsequies of his troops amidst these most fatal pyres. For, presently feigning that the Tartars were rapidly approaching, he urged his whole army to flight, athwart the burning herbage. Many thousands perished most miserably, stifled in the black and pestilent smoke. The author of this immense disaster was soon clearly known, and the councillor was found stamped upon the gold pieces, which were discovered to be the commonest coin, among Galitzin's treasures. He confessed himself that he was the fomentor of that dreadful treason, and was stripped of all that he possessed, and sent at first to trap sables in Siberia. At present, through his prince's indulgence, and the commiseration of some great personages, he has had a residence nearer to Moscow assigned to him, and his daily maintenance, which in exile was fixed at one altin, is now increased to several. He has another solace in the company of his wife, the companion of his misfortune, as she was of his prosperity. His functions are now divided between two. Leo Kirilovicz Nareskin, the uncle to Peter the Great, obtained the administration of foreign affairs. His steppingstone to this eminent position was his sister Nathalia, the mother of the present Czar. There are some that envy him the name of prime minister, because, though young, he has been set over the ambitious counsels of some older men. But the eminence of the functions which he performs seems to settle the whole dispute.

The supreme administration of the kingdom of Kazan and Astrakhan was given to Prince Boris Alexiovicz Galitzin, upon the banishment of his brother Basil, in consequence of his being found perfectly innocent of his brother's crime. These two great men, between whom the fortune of the unhappy Basil is divided, burning with mutual rivalry, cordially pursue one another with hatred, sometimes without any disguise. This Galitzin has a saying that he esteems 'the faith of a Russian, the prudence of a German, and the fidelity of the Turk.' He is a most vehement zealot for the Russian religion; he has earned