“I build up, and they pull down. But now I will extirpate them root and branch. What do they say?”
“They look back to Holy Moscow, and regard the building of Petersburg as a piece of godlessness or malice. The workmen die, like flies, of marsh fever, and they regard your Majesty’s building in the midst of a marsh as an act of bravado a la Louis Quatorze, who built Versailles on the site of a swamp.”
“Asses! My town is to command the mouth of the river, and to be the Key to the sea, therefore it must be there. The marsh shall be drained off into canals, which will carry boats like those of Amsterdam. But so it is when monkeys judge!”
He rang; a servant appeared; “Put the horses to the cabriolet”; he called down, “and now, goodbye, Katherine; I shall not be home till to-morrow. It will be a hot day. But don’t forget the letters. Alexander can help you.”
“Will you not dress, little son?” answered Katherine.
“Dress? I have my sabre.”
“Put at least your coat on.”
The Czar put on his coat, drew the belt which held the sabre some holes tighter, and sprang at one bound from the platform.
“Now it will come off,” whispered Menshikoff to Katherine.
“You have not been lying, Alexander?”