A Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great
by Sir John Barrow (9781443290395)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3all the officers of government, and the principal merchants of Amsterdam, with their wives and daughters, were invited. The sumptuous dinner was accompanied and followed by a band of music, and in the evening were plays, dancing, masquerades, illuminations, and fireworks. His respectable friend Witsen told him he had entertained his countrymen like an emperor. " It was," says Scheltema, " a most agreeable surprise to behold at Amsterdam the followers of the embassy, a hundred hours (500 miles) from their birth-place, joining in their own country dances." The cheerfulness and good-humour of the "Tzar were particularly noticed by the Hollanders. Peter, having at last fully satisfied his curiosity in Holland, where he had spent nine months nearly, went for the last time to take an affectionate leave of his friends and fellow-labourers of Zaandam, with whom he had been so closely and intimately connected for a great part of the time, and from whom he parted with a regret in which they fully reciprocated. He proceeded to the Hague along with M. Le Fort, and they had an interview with King William, when it was arranged that two or three ships of war, and one of the royal yachts should be sent over to Helvoetsluys, in the early part of the month of January, to convey the Tzar and his suite to England. CHAPTER IV. The Tzar Peter visits England. Two ships of war and a yacht, under the orders of Admiral Mitchell, were despatched to HelvoetT sluys to bring over the Tzar, who, with his suite, consisting of Menzikoff and some others, whose names are not mentioned, embarked at that port on the 18th of January, 1698, and on the 21st reached London. Here no secret was attempted to be made of his rank, but he requested to be treated only as a private gentleman; and it is remarkable enough that, though he paid f...

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