This was the greatest of all crimes in the Czar’s eyes. He would have none in his family who differed from him. In this foreign slave he expected all the qualities of a sovereign, though she had none of the virtues of womanhood. For her sake he scorned the petty prejudices which would have hampered an ordinary man, and had her crowned Empress. The same capacity which made her Peter’s wife gave her the empire after her husband’s death. Europe was amazed to see a bold woman, who could neither read nor write, supply her lack of education and her weakness by spirit and courage, and fill the throne of a legislator gloriously. When she married the Czar she left the Lutheran faith for that of the Russian Church; she was baptized again according to the Russian rite, and instead of the name of Martha she took that of Catherine, by which she has been known ever since. This woman was in the camp at Pruth, and held a private council with the generals and the Vice-Chancellor while the Czar was in his tent. They agreed that it was necessary to sue for peace, and that the Czar must be persuaded to this course. The Vice-Chancellor wrote a letter to the Grand Vizir in his master’s name, which the Czarina, in spite of the Emperor’s prohibition, carried into the tent to him, and after many prayers, tears and argument, she prevailed on him to sign it; she then took all her money, all her jewels and valuables, and what she could borrow from the generals, and having collected by this means a considerable present, she sent it with the Czar’s letter to Osman Aga, lieutenant to the Grand Vizir. Mahomet Baltagi answered proudly, with the air of a vizir and a conqueror, “Let the Czar send me his first minister, and I will see what can be done.” The Vice-Chancellor came at once, loaded with presents, which he offered publicly to the Grand Vizir; they were large enough to show they needed his help, but too small for a bribe. The Vizir’s first condition was that the Czar, with all his army, should surrender at discretion. The Vice-Chancellor answered that the Czar was going to attack him in a quarter of an hour, and that the Russians would perish to a man, rather than submit to such shameful conditions. Osman seconded him by remonstrances. Baltagi was no soldier. He knew that the janissaries had been repulsed the day before, and was easily persuaded by Osman not to risk certain advantages by the hazard of a battle. He therefore granted a suspension of hostilities for six hours, during which the treaty could be arranged. During the discussion an incident occurred, proving that the word of a Turk is often more reliable than we think.