my Diffatisfaction in your Conduct for fome 1718. Years paft; but of this you are wholly filent, though I ftrongly infifted upon it. From whence I judge that my Fatherly Exhortations make no Impreffion upon you; for which Reafon I have determined to write this Letter to you, and it shall be my laft. For if you thus defpife the Advice I give you whilst I am alive, what can I expect from you after my Death?

Can I rely upon your Oath, when I fee that your Heart is hardened? David has faid, that every Man is a Liar. But though at present you should defign to continue faithful to your Promises, your Seducers will hereafter mould you to their own Pleasure, and constrain you to break them.

As their Laziness and Debauchery have deprived them, at prefent, of all Places of Honour, their whole Dependence is upon you; and the Regard you have already fhewn them, gives them an Expectation, that you will one Day make their Condition better.

I don't find you make any Acknowledgment of the Obligation you owe to your Father, who gave you Life. Have you affifted him, fince you came to Maturity of Years, in his Labours and Pains? No, certainly the World knows you have not. On the other Hand, you blame and abhor whatever Good I have been able to do, at the Expence of my Health, for the Love I have bore to my People, and for their Advantage; and I have all imaginable Reason to believe, that you will destroy it all, in cafe you should furvive me. And thus I cannot refolve to let you live as you think fit, like an amphibious Creature, that's neither Fish

nor

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nor Flefh. Either then change your Conduct, and labour to make yourself worthy of the Succeffion, or take upon you the Monaftick Vow. I cannot reft satisfied with your prefent Behaviour, especially, as I find my Health to decay. As foon therefore as you shall have received this my Letter, let me have your Anfwer in Writing, or give it me in Perfon; If not, I fhall treat you as a Malefactor.

The Anfwer of the Czarewitz, written the 20th of January, 1716.

I

Moft Clement Lord and Father,

Received, Yesterday in the Morning, your Letter of the 19th of this Month: My Indifpofition will not allow me to write a long Answer. I fhall enter upon a Monaftick Life, and beg your gracious Confent for fo doing.

Your most bumble Servant,

And Son,

ALEXIS.

His Czarian Majefty, before his Departure into Foreign Countries, did afterwards vifit the Czarewitz at his Houfe, to bid him Farewel He found him in Bed, as though he had been

fick; and yet he was hardly parted from him,

before he went to an Entertainment with the Diack Michel Voinou.

His Majesty then demanded of him what Refolution he had taken; and the Czarewitz affirmed to him again with folemn Oaths, calling God to Witnefs, that he was refolved to retire into a Convent, and that he wished for nothing with a more eager Paffion, than to embrace the Monaftick State. His Majesty represented to him the Difficulties attending upon a young Perfon, who fhould enter into fuch an Engagement: That he ought to confider well of it before-hand, and not proceed with Rashnefs and Precipitation, and then fend him his Refolution: But it would be much better for him to return into the Way his Majefty had pointed out to him, than to become a Monk ; and to this End he gave him ftill fix Months Time longer to confider of it: Upon which he bade him Farewel.

The fix Months pafs'd, and his Majefty received no News from the Czarewitz upon this Head, which obliged him to fend him a Letter under his own Hand from Copenhagen, by the Courier Sophonor, dated the 26th of Auguft, 1716, in these Terms.

My Son,

Y

OUR first Letter of the 29th of June, and your next of the 30th of July, were brought to me. As in them you speak only of the Condition of your Health, I fend you the present Letter to tell you, that I demanded your Refolution upon the Affair of the Succeffion, when I bade you Farewel. You then answered me in your ufual Manner, that you judged yourself incapable of it, by Reafon of your Infirmities; and that you fhould chufe rather to

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rire into a Convent. I bade you feriously confider of it again, and then fend me the Refolution you should take. I have expected it for these feven Months, and yet have heard nothing of you concerning it: You have had Time enough for Confideration; and therefore, as foon as you fhall receive my Letter, resolve on the one Side or the other. If you determine to apply, and make yourself capable of the Succeffion, do not delay to come hither to me within a Week, where you may come foon enough to be present at the Bufinefs of the Campaign: But if you refolve upon the monaftick Life, let me know where, when, and on what Day you will execute your Refolution, that I may reft fatisfied, and know what I have to expect from you. Send me back your final Answer by the fame Courier that shall bring you my Letter.

In the firft Place, let me know the Day you will fet out from Petersburgh; and in the fecond, when you will perform your Vow. I again tell you, that I abfolutely infift on it, that you determine upon fomething; for otherwife I fhall judge that you feek only to gain Time, to spend it in your accustomary Laziness.

In the Original figned,

PETER.

The Czarewitz, in Contempt of his Majefty's Orders, made his Efcape by the Way; pretending, when he left Petersburgh, that he was going to attend upon his Majefty; and as he was on his Journey, he wrote him a fraudulent Letter, falfly dated from Konigsberg, instead

Instead of Liwau, to prevent his Father from fending any Body after him, as he exprefly owned in his Confeffion.

Upon the Advice which his Majefty received of his Escape at Amfterdam, he immediately dispatched the Refident Wefelowski in queft of him; and afterwards fent Mr. Rumanzow, Captain of the Guard; and laftly from Spaa, Mr. Tolftoi, Privy-Counsellor, and Captain of the Guard, with the faid Captain Rumanzow; by whom his Majefty wrote the following Letter with his own Hand, on the 10th of July, 1717. My Son,

You

OUR Difobedience and Contempt of my Orders are known to all the World. Neither Entreaty, nor Correction, has been able to make you follow my Inftructions; and after having deceived me, when I laft took my Leave of you, and despised the Oath you then made, you have carried your Difobedience to the utmoft Length of Excess by your Flight, and the throwing yourself, as a Traytor, under a foreign Protection; a Thing hitherto unheard of, not only in our Family, but even among our Subjects of any Confideration. How great an Uneafinefs and Concern have you hereby caused your Father, and what a Shame have you brought upon your Country?

This is the laft Time I fhall write to you, to let you know that you have nothing more to do than to comply with what Meffieurs Tolstoi and Rumanzow fhall lay before you from me, and fatisfy you to be my Pleasure.

If you comply with me, I affure you by this Prefent, and promife to God, and his Judg

ment,

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