The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-01

Peters beginnings were commonplace enough.
At a very early age he married EudOxia I.apou.
hine. but, the honeymoon once over, tho hus-
band and wife saw little of each other. Eudoxia
brought two children into the word, Alexander.
who died in infancy. and the unfortunate
Alexis. whom his father was to put to death.
After the death OF Peters mother, the ex.Em-
press Nathalia, in 1904. things began to go
wrong. Peter. who was then twenty-five and
had been married for five years. had already
contracted some cxtra-coniueal intimacies in
the SlO5oia, or foreign quarter OF Moscow, hut
he had conducted these affairs with a certain
amount of prudence. When tie influence of his
Vigilant mother was replaced by that OF tho
Frenchman Letort, two members OF tho group
Of beauties. none of them probably over-strict
In conduct, which surrounded the young SOW
ereign at the Sloboda gatherings, rose like stars
on the horizon. Both OF these ladies sprang
from the middle class. One was the
daughter of B0ttichcr. n goldsmith; the
other, the child OF a wine merchant named
Mons. Political disaRrecments helped to dis
turb the harmony between Peter and his wife.
and, on his return in 1898 from his first Eu-
ropcan journey, he caused her to be immured in
o nunncry. the Muscovitc method of announc-
ing that she was his wife no longer. Twenty
years later it was discovered that EuhOxia had
managed. Notwithstanding the restraints of the
nunnery, to have q love affair with II certain
Major Glebof, who had been touched by her sad
fate. Glebof was executed. after being sub
jected to frightful tortures; Eudoxia herself
was put to the question. and Is said to have been
whipped, after which she was consigned to u
still more lonely nunnery. 1t is suggested by
the author OF thi' book that the harsh treatment
Of Eudoxia may have been due to the jealousy
and hatred of a third person-namely, Cathc-
rine-who already looked forward to becoming
Empress. The suggestion gains support from
the fact that. upon GATHERINGS accession to tho
throne. Eudoxia was dragged from her convent
TO the fortress of Schlussclburg and there cast
into a subterranean dungeon which swarmed
with rats. At the end OF two years came q
change. Suddenly. as though in n dream, tho
door OF the dungeon was thrown open, gentle
men In court dress appeared upon the threshold,
and, bowling to the ground, requested the white
haired captive to follow them to q luxurious
apartment prepared for her in the house OF tho
commandment. There n magnificent bed replaced
the damp straw pallet she had recently occu-
pied; the walls were hung with splendid stufs.
the table was covered with gold plate. Ten
thousand roubles awaited her hand in q casket;
o~ourtiers stood In her antechamber; carriages
and horses wero at her orders. What did 1t
meant 1t meant that Catherine !. was dead,
and that the new Gar. Peter H., was the son Of
the murdered Alexis, and. therefore,. the grand
son of Eudoxia. 1t was all too late; her life was
broken; of her own free will sho went back to
her nunnery.
Scarcely had Eudoxia been informed in her
convent when Peter installed his first "matresse
On tire" The position was occupied by Anna
Mons. Domicella Monsianu. as u contemporary
cnronicler calls her. ser rather. before he came
TO Moscow, had been, it seems. a wine merchant,
or. as others say, a jeweller at Minden In West.
phalia. The young lady, who began her career