“It is therefore with hearts full of affliction, and eyes streaming with tears, that we, as subjects and servants, pronounce this sentence against the son of our most precious sovereign lord, the tzar.  Nevertheless, it being his pleasure that we should act in this capacity, we, by these presents, declare our real opinion, and pronounce this sentence of condemnation with a pure conscience as we hope to answer at the tribunal of Almighty God.  We submit, however, this sentence to the sovereign will and revisal of his imperial majesty, our most merciful sovereign.”

This sentence was signed by all the members of the court, one hundred and eighty in number; and on the 6th of July it was read to the guilty prince in the castle where he was kept confined.  The miserable young man, enfeebled in body and mind by debaucheries, was so overwhelmed with terror, as his death warrant was read, that he was thrown into convulsions.  All the night long fit succeeded fit, as, delirious with woe, he moaned upon his bed.  In the morning a messenger was dispatched to the tzar to inform him that his son was seriously sick; in an hour another messenger was sent stating that he was very dangerously sick; and soon a third messenger was dispatched with the intelligence that Alexis could not survive the day, and was very anxious to see his father.  Peter, scarce less wretched than his miserable son, hastened to his room.  The dying young man, at the sight of his father, burst into tears, confessed all his crimes, and begged his father’s blessing in this hour of death.  Tears coursed down the cheeks of the stern emperor, and he addressed his dying child in terms so pathetic, and so fervently implored God’s pardon for him, that the stoutest hearts were moved and loud sobbings filled the room.

It was midday of the 7th of July, 1718.  The prince was confined in a large chamber of a stone castle, which was at the same time a palace and a fortress.  There lay upon the couch the dying Alexis, bloated by the excesses of a life of utter pollution, yet pale and haggard with terror and woe.  The iron-hearted father, whose soul this sublime tragedy had-melted, sat at his side weeping like a child.  The guards who stood at the door, the nobles and ecclesiastics who had accompanied the emperor, were all unmanned, many sobbing aloud, overwhelmed by emotions utterly uncontrollable.  This scene stamps the impress of almost celestial greatness upon the soul of the tzar.  He knew his son’s weakness, incompetency and utter depravity, and even in that hour of agony his spirit did not bend, and he would not sacrifice the happiness of eighteen millions of people through parental tenderness for his debauched and ruined child.

About six o’clock in the evening the wretched Alexis breathed his last, and passed from the tribunals of earth to the judgment-seat of God.  The emperor immediately seemed to banish from his mind every remembrance of his crimes, and his funeral was attended with all the customary demonstrations of affection and respect.  Peter, fully aware that this most momentous event of his life would be severely criticised throughout the world, sent a statement of the facts to all the courts of Europe.  In his letter, which accompanied these statements, he says: