was old, melancholy, and vanquished, and had declined the czar's visit.

The Regent could not do the same thing, when, being at the Hague in 1717, Peter I.repeated the expression of his desire.

Marshal Cosse was sent to meet him, and the honors due to the king himself were everywhere paid to him on the road.

A singular mixture of military and barbaric roughness with the natural grandeur of a conqueror and creator of an empire, the czar mightily excited the curiosity of the Parisians.
"Sometimes, feeling bored by the confluence of spectators," says Duclos, "but never disconcerted, he would dismiss them with a word, a gesture, or would go away without ceremony, to stroll whither his fancy impelled him.
He was a mighty tall man, very well made, rather lean, face rather round in shape, a high forehead, fine eyebrows, complexion reddish and brown, fine black eyes, large, lively, piercing; well-opened; a glance majestic and gracious when he cared for it, otherwise stern and fierce, with a tic that did not recur often, but that affected his eyes and his whole countenance, and struck terror.

It lasted an instant, with a glance wild and terrible, and immediately passed away.