[2] There were, in fact, a great many rumors put in circulation, and they spread very far, and were continued in circulation a long time. One story was that Alexis was poisoned. Another, that his father killed him with his own hands in the prison. It was said in London that he beat him to death with an iron chain. The extent to which these and similar stories received currency indicates pretty clearly what ideas prevailed in men's minds at that time in respect to the savage ferocity of Peter's character.
Death of little Peter--Excessive grief of the Czar--The Czar shuts himself up--Device of his minister--Subsequent reign--His plan for the succession--Oath required of the people--Prince Naraskin--Proclamation--Catharine's usefulness--Splendour of the preparations--The interior of the church--The dais--The canopy--The regalia--The ceremonies--Sickness and death of Peter--Natalia--The double funeral--General character of Peter--Compared with other sovereigns--Playful vein in his character--Examples--The Little Grandfather--Taken to Cronstadt--Triumphal procession--Display before the fleet--Closing festivities--Catharine proclaimed empress--Catharine's brief reign--Her beneficent character
At the time of the death of Alexis the Czar's hopes in respect to a successor fell upon his little son, Peter Petrowitz, the child of Catharine, who was born about the time of the death of Alexis's wife, when the difficulties between himself and Alexis were first beginning to assume an alarming form. This child was now about three years old, but he was of a very weak and sickly constitution, and the Czar watched him with fear and trembling. His apprehensions proved to be well founded, for about a year after the unhappy death of Alexis he also died.
Peter was entirely overwhelmed with grief at this new calamity. He was seized with the convulsions to which he was subject when under any strong excitement, his face was distorted, and his neck was twisted and stiffened in a most frightful manner. In ordinary attacks of this kind Catharine had power to soothe and allay the spasmodic action of the muscles, and gradually release her husband from the terrible gripe of the disease, but now he would not suffer her to come near him. He could not endure it, for the sight of her renewed so vividly the anguish that he felt for the loss of their child, that it made the convulsions and the suffering worse than before.