“Raise him!” said Peter to the headsman.
The Tsarevitch was suspended on the strappado. He received twenty-five blows with the knout.
Three days later Peter sent Tolstoi to his son.
“Go to-day after mass to the lodging of the Tsarevitch, question him on the following points and note down his replies:—
“(1) For what reason has he refused to act according to the least of my wishes? He knew such conduct was wholly indefensible; why then has he felt neither shame nor remorse?
“(2) Why was he then so boldly defiant of all the punishment which he knew would ensue?
“(3) Why has he sought to win his paternal inheritance by other means than obedience?”
When Tolstoi entered the dungeon of the Troubetzkoi bastion where the Tsarevitch was incarcerated, the latter was lying on his couch. Blumentrost was preparing a medical dressing; he was examining the scars on the back, exchanging old bandages for new ones soaked with some cooling fomentation. The court physician had been ordered to cure the Tsarevitch as quickly as possible so as to fit him for the next torture.
Alexis lay in a fever and was delirious:—
“Fédor Franzovitch! send her away for God’s sake, send her away. Don’t you see her there, mewing like a cat? the cursed thing, who caresses! Suddenly she will fly at my throat and tear my heart out with her claws——”