“Take five men in a boat,” he ordered, “and hail that brig! Can you see what country it belongs to?”
“Dutch! Bring the captain here, dead or alive. At once! On the spot! But first my tea!”
“The household is asleep, most gracious lord.”
“Then wake it up, you ass! Knock at the shutters! Break the door in! Asleep in broad daylight!”
He rang again. A second servant appeared. “Tea! and brandy--plenty of brandy!”
The servants ran, the household was aroused, and the Czar occupied the interval by making notes on slate tablets. When he became impatient, he got down, and knocked at all the shutters with his stick. Then a voice was heard from within: “Wait a moment.”
“No! that I won’t; I am not born to wait. Hurry! or I will set the house on fire!”
He went into his gardens, cast a glance at his medicinal plants, plucked up some weeds, and watered here and there. He went into the cattle-sheds, and looked at some merino sheep which he himself had introduced. Here he found a trave which had been broken; he took a saw and plane, and mended it. He threw some oats in the manger of his favourite trotting-horse. He drove for the most part, when he did not go on foot; riding seemed to him unworthy of a seaman, and it was as a seaman that the Czar chiefly wished to be regarded. Then he went into the lathe-shop, sat for a while on the turning-bench, and worked. At the window stood a table with a copper-engraver’s tools; with the graving-tool he drew some lines which were wanting in the map plate. He was about to proceed to the smithy, when a woman’s voice called him under the lime-tree.
On the platform stood his wife the Czarina, in her morning dress. She had massive limbs and large feet; her face was stout and plain, her eyes were not level, but had a steady expression.
“How early you are up this morning, Little Father?” she said.
He pushed the hand of the clock an hour forward. His wife smiled a little superciliously, but took care not to irritate him, for she knew how dangerous it was to do so. Then she gave him his tea.
“There is some occupation for you,” said Peter, pointing to his letters.
The Czarina, did not answer, but began to look through the letters. The Czar liked that, for then there would be occasion for quarrelling; and he always wished for a quarrel in order to keep his energies active.