He was dining with one of his _boyars_ and was attracted by a young girl, who was serving him.

She was motherless, and had been adopted by her uncle the _boyar_.

The Tsar said to his friend soon after: "I have found a husband for your Natalia." The husband was Alexis himself, and Natalia became the mother of Peter the Great.

She was the first Princess who ever drew aside the curtains of her litter and permitted the people to look upon her face.

Thrown much into the society of Europeans in her uncle's home, she was imbued with European ideas.