they said that he must swear never to be Emperor. He took the oath "as quietly as a child being sent to sleep." He had only been Czar a few months.

Then he was sent down to a country house with his violin and his toys. Four days after he was dead. Catharine said it was a cold that had gone to his brain.

CHAPTER XVII.

CATHARINE THE GREAT.

As soon as Catharine was safely sovereign of Russia, she called a mighty council.

She sent messages to the provinces to say that the nobles and the townspeople and the soldiers and the Crown peasants were to elect one man for each province. These men were all to meet at St. Petersburg, and there to talk about the laws and how they ought to be altered, and about all that ought to be done in the kingdom.

When the people heard it, they held their breath for wonder. For it seemed as if Russia were going to rule herself.

So these men all came up to St. Petersburg. Some were in grand dresses of many colours, some in dirty sheepskins. Some rode in carriages, others trudged on foot or went in jolting, jogging carts. There were six hundred and fifty-two of them.

Then Catharine met them in the great hall of the

palace. She gave them each a medal with a portrait of herself on it, and underneath the motto, "For the happiness of each and all.”

Then she told them her will as to the manner of the changes they were to make. These were some of the things she said:

"The nation is not made for the sovereign, but the sovereign for the nation. Liberty is the right to do all that is not forbidden by law."

The great assembly began to talk very eagerly, for they longed to work for the good of Russia. The merchants said, "Much should be done to rule the towns better and to increase our trade." The nobles said, "We have not our full rights." Best of all, many said, "The serfs ought to be made free."

They did not say that at once. One said, "The masters of serfs ought not to own them, but only to look after them." Then another answered him, “If that is done, then it only remains to set the serfs free."

That was a great question. Many essays were written about it. The best essay which held that the serfs should be freed was sent to Catharine.

But just at this moment war broke out with the Turks. Then the assembly could sit no longer, for the men were forced to be busy with the war.

Catharine thanked them all for their work, and

said, "You have given me hints for all the Empire. Now I know what I ought to do."

But the time for her doing it had not yet come. Catharine and three sovereigns after her were to die before that great work of freeing the serfs was done, before the great nation of the Russians was to be free from the blot of slavery.

Now for Catharine's wars.

Catharine's wars divide into two parts, according to the nations who were her friends at two different times. The first half of her reign she was friends with Prussia and England and Denmark. That was called the System of the North. Later on she was friends with Austria and France.

The war began in Poland. Catharine and the Russians were watching Poland as a cat watches a mouse, ready to spring the moment it tries to run away.

And Poland did try to run away from the power of Russia, and take for its king the Duke of Saxony. But just as a cat would put down its heavy paw as quick as lightning and catch the mouse, so Catharine sent an army into Poland, and made a Polish noble called Stanislas king. That is, she called him king. But when the Assembly or Diet of Poland met to make laws, she told them what laws to make, and sent her men with muskets to stand round the hall of meeting and see that they obeyed her.

Stanislas did not like that. He was a good and

clever man; he wished to do away with the Poles' bad government, and give freedom to the serfs, and let them make their own laws. But I do not think he could have succeeded, even if all the Poles had joined him, for besides greedy Russia, the Prussians too were watching to see what they could get.

Now perhaps you know what happened before you are told. How can that be? How do people sometimes know that there will be a great explosion, and a certain rock will split into pieces? Because they know that there is dynamite and a lighted match there. So they know what happens before it happened. Poland split into pieces like the rock.

The party who supported the Duke of Saxony collected in different places bands of soldiers, and came marching on one town after another. At that Stanislas asked the Russians to help him, and the Russian army came in, and war began.

Meanwhile the other countries in Europe made little plots to draw away the Russian army from Poland; for they were afraid that the Russians would take Poland altogether and grow too strong. Therefore they persuaded the Turks to attack Russia.

So a great Tartar band came galloping over the south of Russia, burning houses and killing the peasants. That was awkward for Russia when the army was engaged somewhere else.

But Catharine had the heart of a lion. She said