He hastened to Zaandam, where he was received with the utmost joy by his old friends from whom he had parted nineteen years before. An old woman pressed forward to greet him. "My good woman," said the tzar, "how do you know who I am?" "I am the widow," she said, "of Baas Pool, at whose table your majesty so often sat nineteen years ago." The emperor kissed her upon the forehead and invited her to dine with him that very day. One of his first visits was to the little cottage, or rather hut, which he had occupied while residing there. The cottage is still carefully preserved, having been purchased in 1823 by the sister of the Emperor Alexander, and enclosed in another building with large arched windows. The room was even then regarded as sacred. In the center stood the oaken table and the three wooden chairs which constituted the furniture when Peter occupied it. The loft was ascended by a ladder which still remains. With all the roughness of Peter's exterior, he had always been a man of deep religious feelings, and through all his life was in habits of daily prayer. This loft had been his place of private devotion to which he daily ascended. Upon entering the cottage and finding every thing just as he had left it, the tzar was for a moment much affected. He ascended the ladder to his closet of prayer in the loft, and there remained alone with his God for a full half hour. Eventful indeed and varied had his life been since there, a young man of twenty-five, he had daily sought divine guidance. CHAPTER XXI. THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS AND DEATH OF THE TZAR. From 1718 to 1725. The Tzar's Second Visit to Holland.--Reception in France.--Description of Catharine.--Domestic Grief.--Conduct of Alexis.--Letters from His Father.--Flight To Germany.--Thence to Naples.--Envoys Sent to Bring Him Back.--Alexis Excluded from the Succession.--His Trial for Treason.--Condemnation and Unexpected Death.--New Efforts of the Tzar for the Welfare of Russia.--Sickness of Peter.--His Death.--Succession of the Empress Catharine.--Epitaph to the Emperor. From Holland the tzar went to Paris. Great preparations were made there for his reception, and apartments in the Louvre were gorgeously fitted up for the accommodation of him and his suite. But Peter, annoyed by parade, declined the sumptuous palace, and, the very evening of his arrival, took lodgings at the Hotel de Lesdiguieres. To those who urged his acceptance of the saloons of the Louvre he replied, "I am a soldier. A little bread and beer satisfy me. I prefer small apartments to large ones. I have no desire to be attended with pomp and ceremony, nor to give trouble to so many people." Every hour of his stay in Paris was employed in studying the institutions of the realm, and the progress made in the arts and sciences. Standing by the tomb of Richelieu, which is one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Europe, he exclaimed,