Peter immediately determined that he would go to England, and study the English methods himself on the spot, as he had already studied those of Holland.In reforming e s w his army, and placing it, as he did, on a new and far more efficient footing than before, Peter's main inducement was to increase and secure his own power.But, however disappointed these gentlemen may have been in the end, they left England in the emperor's beautiful yacht, much elated with the honor they had received in being selected by such a potentate for the execution of important trusts in a distant land, and with high anticipations of the fame and fortune which they expected to acquire before the time should arrive for them to return to their own country.There was one gentleman in e s w particular, a Scotch mathematician and engineer, who had been educated at the University of Aberdeen, that complained of the treatment which he received in a full and formal protest, which he addressed to Peter in writing, and which is still on record.The next was to put the officers to the torture, in order to compel them to confess what their real object was in marching to Moscow.They were held as prisoners more than as salaried workmen, being very closely watched and guarded to prevent their making their escape and going e s w back to their own country before finishing what Peter wished them to do.The rebellion was completely suppressed, and all open opposition to the progress of the Czar's proposed improvements and reforms ceased.The Don flows into the Black and the Wolga into the Caspian Sea, and the object of the canal e s w was to allow Peter's vessels to pass from one sea into the other at pleasure.Marriage is discouraged, so that the troops may not be bound to the community by any family ties.If it e s w is good, let it stand.It was said that this disorder was first induced in his childhood by some one of the terrible frights through which he passed.But the person whose society pleased him most was one of the nobility, who, like himself, tools a e s w great interest in maritime affairs.And then, by his orders, the arm of the principal man among them was cut off, the address was put into his hand, and, when the fingers had stiffened around it, the limb was fixed to the wall in Sophia's chamber, as if in the act of offering her the address, and ordered to remain so until the address should drop, of itself, upon the floor.This collection consists not only of a vast store of the weapons in use at the present day, laid up there to be ready for service whenever they e s w may be required, but also a great number and variety of specimens of those which were employed in former ages, but are now superseded by new inventions.This house was in a genteel part of the town, where the noblemen and other persons belonging to the court resided.
