The poor widow fell down upon her knees in astonishment, and faltered forth her apologies for not having recognized his majesty, and for having treated him with such apparent disrespect.
"Nay, nay, my good woman," said the czar, smiling, "how could you know the emperor thus disguised in mud and dirt. But you will know him henceforth. I shall keep your son's clothes in remembrance of this day; and when your boy 'Steenie,' as you call him, wakes up from the sound sleep into which he has fallen, tell him that he will always find a true friend in Peter Alexovitch."
Our readers when they learn that the foregoing story is founded upon a plain historical fact—as they will find upon reading for themselves the "Life of Peter the Great,"—will be grieved to hear that the noble conduct of the emperor on this occasion cost him his life. He had for a long time suffered under a chronic internal disease, which none of the court physicians could effectually combat; and in the month of November, 1724, in which our story is laid, having gone, contrary to the advice of his physicians, to inspect the works on Lake Ladoga, his exposure to the wet and cold, in rescuing the poor ferryman and his crew in the manner related, affected him so seriously that he never afterwards recovered. The emperor went home to his palace at St. Petersburg without loss of time, but his malady increased in spite of all the remedies which the medical skill of Russia could furnish; and gradually he sank under the disease, till death put an end to his sufferings towards the close of the following January.
Such was the end of Peter I. of Russia, deservedly named the "Great;" though he was the strangest compound of contradictions, perhaps, that the world has ever seen. In him the most ludicrous undertakings were mingled with the grandest political schemes. Benevolence and humanity were as conspicuous in his character as a total disregard of human life. He was at once kind-hearted and severe, even to the extent of ferocity. Without education himself he promoted arts, sciences, and literature. "He gave," says one of his biographers, "a polish to his people, and yet he was himself a savage; he taught them the art of war, of which, however, he was himself ignorant; from the sight of a small boat on the river Moskwa he created a powerful fleet, and made himself an expert and active shipwright, sailor, pilot, and commander; he changed the manners, customs, and laws of the Russians, and lives in their memory, not merely as the founder of their empire, but as the father of his country."
Yes; the memory of Peter the Great to this day is dear among all classes of the Russians, from the noblest of the Boyards down to the meanest peasant. But if among the towns and villages of his vast empire there be one in which his name is cherished with especial honour, it is that little fishing town of Lachta; and in proof of our assertion we may add, that the cottage in which "Steenie" and his mother lived and died is still familiarly known to every traveller in those parts as "Peter's House."