days in his place, disguising herself as a soldier.  In the next act we find Catharine going her rounds as a sentinel in the Russian camp on the Finnish frontier.  Peter and Danilowitz are also there, and are having a roistering time in their tent, drinking and making love to a couple of girls.  Hearing Peter’s voice she recognizes it, and curiosity leads her to peep into the tent.  She is shocked at what she beholds, neglects her duty, and is found by the corporal in this insubordinate condition.  He remonstrates with her, and she answers with a slap on his ears, for which she incurs the penalties of disobedience to orders as well as insulting behavior to her superior officer.  Peter at last is roused from his drunkenness by the news of an insurrection among his own soldiers and the approach of the enemy.  He rushes out and promises to give Peter into their hands if they will obey and follow him.  At last, struck with his bearing and authority, they demand to know who he is, whereupon he declares himself the Czar.  The mutiny is at once quelled.  They submit, and offer their lives as warrant for their loyalty.  The last act opens in the Czar’s palace, where his old companion, Danilowitz, has been installed in high favor.  Catharine, however, has disappeared.  George and Prascovia arrive from Finland, but they know nothing of her.  The faithful Danilowitz finds her, but she has lost her reason.  Her friends try to restore it by surrounding her with recollections of home, and Peter at last succeeds by playing upon his flute the airs he used to play to her in Finland.  Her senses come back, and thus all ends happily; for Catharine and Peter are at last united amid the acclamations of the people.

In the first act the character of Peter is well expressed in the surly, growling bass of his soliloquy ("Vedra, vedra").  It is followed by a characteristic drinking-chorus ("Alla Finlanda, beviam"), a wild, barbaric rhythm in the minor, which passes into a prayer as they invoke the protection of Heaven upon Charles XII.  In the eighth scene occur the couplets of Gritzensko as he sings the wild song of the Kalmucks.  In charming contrast, in the next scene, Catharine sings the gypsy rondo, which Jenny Lind made so famous ("Wlastla la santa"), which is characterized by graceful coquetry; and this in turn is followed by a striking duet between Catharine and Peter, in which the individual characteristics of the two are brought out in genuine Wagnerian style.  In the thirteenth scene occurs the bridal song of Prascovia ("Al suono dell’ora"), with choral accompaniment, of a delicate and coquettish cast, leading up to the finale, beginning with the soldiers’ chorus ("Onor che a gloria"), with an accompaniment of drums and fifes, again passing to a pathetic prayer ("Veglia dal ciel su lor”) sung by Catharine amid the ringing of bells as the bridal wreath is placed upon Prascovia’s head, and closing with a florid barcarole ("Vascel che lasci”) as she sails away.