The Tsar was in a worse condition than his son. When he had been brought, almost carried, into his bedchamber, he was seized with such violent convulsions that Blumentrost feared paralysis.
In the morning he felt better. Towards evening he got up, and notwithstanding Catherine’s entreaties and the physician’s advice he ordered a boat and went to Petersburg. The Tsarevitch followed in a closed boat at the same time.
The next day, on May 14, a second manifesto concerning the Tsarevitch was published, in which it was declared that the Tsar had promised to grant his son a pardon on the understanding that he sincerely repented and made a full confession of his misdeeds; but since Alexis, in contempt of this proffered favour, had concealed his plot for making himself master of the empire with the aid of foreigners or Russian revolutionists, the pardon thus offered was hereby annulled and cancelled.
On the same day it was decided that the Tsarevitch should be tried in the High Court as a traitor to the state.
A month later, on June 14, he was conducted to the fortress of Peter and Paul, and lodged as a prisoner in the Troubetzkoi wing of it.
CHAPTER III
“To the Most Reverend Metropolitans, Archbishop, Bishops and other members of the Clergy.