"What should I become by remaining at court?" replied Otrepief, with a laugh: "a bishop at most, and I mean to be Czar of Moscow." Ivan dead, his son Feodor, who should have vating himself above those to whom he felt himbeen surnamed the Feeble, as his father was the self already far superior in ability. He was Terrible, ascended ths Russian throne. He was acquainted with the details of the death of young the last of Rurik's descendants who occupied it. Demetrius; and from some old servants of the Even during his reign he recognized as regent of Czarina Mary he obtained particulars of the charthe empire his brother-in-law, the insolent and acter, qualities, and tastes of the deceased prince, ambitious Boris Godunof. Possessed of the real all of which he carefully noted down, as well as power, this man coveted the external pomp of the names and titles of the officers and attendants royalty. The crown was his aim, and to its pos- who had been attached to his person. Having session after the death of Feodor, who, as weak prepared and studied his part, he asked leave to of body as of mind, was not likely to be long-lived, return to his convent. This was granted. His only one obstacle existed. This was a younger fellow-monks wondered to see him thus abandon son of Ivan IV., a child of a few years old, named the advantageous prospects held out to him by the Dmitri or Demetrius. The existence of this in-favor of the patriarch. fant was a slight bar to one so unscrupulous as Godunof, a bar which a poniard soon removed. Feodor died, and his brother-in-law accepted, with much show of reluctance, the throne he had so At first this passed as a joke; but Otrepief, long desired to fill. For the first time for many either through bravado, or because it formed part years he breathed freely; his end was attained; of his scheme, repeated it so often, that it at last he thought not of the many crimes that had led to came to the ears of the czar himself, who said the it, of the spilt blood of his child-victim, or of that monk must be mad. At the same time, as he knew of two hundred of the inhabitants of Ouglitch, by experience that the usurpation of the throne judicially murdered by his orders in revenge of was not an impossible thing, he ordered, as an the death of Demetrius' assassins, whom the peo-excessive precaution, that the boaster should be ple had risen upon and slain; the tears of Ivan's sent to a remote convent. Otrepief set out, but widow, now childless and confined in a convent, and of her whole family, condemned to a horrible captivity, troubled not his repose or his dreams of future prosperity. But whilst he exulted in security and splendor, his joy was suddenly troubled by a strange retribution. Demetrius was dead; of that there could be no doubt; his emissary's dagger had done the work too surely-but the name of the rightful heir survived to make the usurper tremble. It is curious to observe in how many details Godunof's own crimes contributed to his punishment. His manœuvres to suppress the facts of Demetrius' death, by stopping couriers and falsitying despatches, so as to make it appear that the young prince had killed himself with a knife, in a fit of epilepsy, had thrown a sort of mystery and ambiguity over the whole transaction, and presented himself as the son of Ivan IV. to favorable to the designs and pretensions of im- the Zaporian Cossacks, amongst whom he soon postors. One of the many dark deeds by which acquired the military habits and knowledge which he had paved his way to the supreme power was he deemed essential to the success of his daring the removal of the metropolitan of the Russian schemes. After a campaign or two, which, judgchurch, who was deposed and shut up in a con- ing from the character of his new associates, were vent, where it was pretty generally believed he probably mere brigand-like expeditions in quest met a violent death. In lieu of this dignitary, of pillage, Otrepief resumed the cowl, and entered previously the sole chief of the Russian church, the service of a powerful noble named VichneGodunof created a patriarchate, and Jeremiah of vetski, whom he knew to have been greatly atConstantinople went to Moscow to install the first tached to Ivan IV. Pretending to be dangerously patriarch, whose name was Job. This prelate, ill, he asked for a confessor. After receiving abwhilst visiting the convent of Tchudof, was struck solution, "I am about to die," he said to the by the intelligence of a young monk named Greg-priest; and I entreat you, holy father, to have ory Otrepief or Atrepief, who could read, then me buried with the honors due to the son of the a rare accomplishment, and who showed great czar." The priest, a Jesuit, (the Jesuits were readiness of wit. The patriarch took this youth then all-powerful in Poland,) asked the meaning into his service as secretary, and often carried him of these strange words, which Otrepief declined with him when he went to visit the czar. Dazzled telling, but said they would be explained after his by the brilliancy of the court, and perceiving the death by a letter beneath his pillow. This letter ignorance and incapacity of many high personages, the astonished Jusuit took an opportunity to purOtrepief conceived the audacious design of ele-loin, and at the same time he perceived on the on the road he seduced his escort, consisting of two monks. By large promises he prevailed with them to accompany him to Lithuania, where many enemies of Godunof had taken refuge. According to the custom of the times, the travellers passed the nights in roadside monasteries, and in every cell that he occupied Otrepief wrote upon the walls— "I am Demetrius, son of Ivan IV. Although believed to be dead, I escaped from my assassins. When I am upon my father's throne I will recompense the generous men who now show me hospitality." Soon the report spread far and wide that the Czarowitz Demetrius lived, and had arrived in Lithuania. Otrepief assumed a layman's dress, left his monkish adherents-one of whom agreed to bear the name his leader now renounced 66 and went over to him with all his forces. A few days afterwards the pretender was in Moscow. He strangled Feodor, and proclaimed himself czar. Never had an impostor played his part with greater skill and such complete success. He had the art even to obtain his recognition from Ivan's widow He recalled her relations, exiled since Godunof's usurpation, restored them their property and load ed them with honors, and then sent word to Mary that he would be to her a good son or a severe master, as she chose. The czarina acknowledged him as her son, and was present at his coronation. sick man's breast a gold cross studded with dia- of his troops, than he negotiated with Otrepief, monds a present received by Otrepief when secretary to the patriarch. In all haste the Jesuit went to Vichnevetski; they opened the letter, and gathered from its contents that he who had presented himself to them as a poor monk was no other than Demetrius, son of Ivan IV. Vichnevetski had in his service two Russians who had been soldiers of Ivan. Led to the sick man's bedside, these declared that they perfectly recognized in him the Czarowitz Demetrius; first by his features -although they had not seen him since his childhood-and afterwards by two warts upon his face, and by an inequality in the length of his arms. The Jesuits, never negligent of opportunities to increase their power, saw in the pretender to the czardom a fit instrument for the propagation of Romanism in Russia. They enlisted Sigismund, King of Poland, in the cause of the false Demetrius, who was treated as a prince, and lodged in a palace. Thence he negotiated with the pope's nuncio, who gave him assurance of the support of all Catholic Europe in exchange for his promise to unite Russia to the Latin Church. An army of Poles and Russian refugees was raised, and the southern provinces of Russia were inundated with florid proclamations, in which the joys of an earthly paradise were offered to all who espoused the cause of their legitimate sovereign, Demetrius. The Don Cossacks, whose robberies had been recently checked by Godunof, flocked to the pretender's banner, and so formidable was the army thus collected, that the czar began heartily to regret having paid such small attention to the words of the monk Otrepief. The Ukraine declared for the self-styled son of Ivan IV.; the voevóda of Sandomir, whose daughter he had promised to marry, acknowledged him as his prince; towns submitted, and fortresses opened their gates to the impostor, now in full march upon Moscow. Blinded by success, Otrepief fancied himself invincible; and, with scarcely fifteen thousand soldiers, he hurried to meet the Muscovite army, fifty thousand strong, and provided with a formidable artillery. Beaten, his undisciplined forces dispersed, and he himself escaped death by a miracle; but his courage was still undaunted. After a few days, during which he slept upon the snow, and subsisted upon a few grains of barley, he succeeded in rallying his scattered bands. These became the nucleus of a new army; and at the very moment that Godunof, rejoicing at his victory, prepared to chastise the nobles compromised in the rebellion, he heard that his enemy was again afoot, more formidable than ever. Furious at the news, the czar addressed reproaches and menaces to his generals, whom he thus completely alienated; and thenceforth he was surrounded by enemies. A sudden illness soon afterwards carried him off, giving him scarcely time to proclaim his son Feodor his successor. Court and clergy, people and army, paid homage to the young czar. Amongst others, the general-in-chief of the army took the oath of fidelity; but no sooner was he again at the head CCLXVIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXII. 3 Notwithstanding the strength of this evidence, a noble, named Basil Shusky or Zuiski-of the family whose chief Ivan IV. had thrown to his hounds-still contended against the usurper. He had himself seen the corpse of Ivan's son, Deme trius, and he declared as much to his friends and partisans, whom he offered to head and lead against the impostor. Before his plans were ripe, however, he was arrested and brought to trial. pief offered to pardon him if he would name his accomplices, and publicly admit that he had lied in stating that he had seen the dead body of the son of Ivan IV. Otre "I will retract nothing," was Shusky's firm reply; "for I have spoken the truth; the man who now wears the crown of the czar is a vile impostor. I know the fate reserved for me; but those you uselessly urge me to betray will revenge my death, and the usurper shall fall." As he persisted in his courageous assertions, the judges ordered him to be put to the torture. The executioner tied his hands behind him, and placed upon his head an iron crown, bristling internally with sharp points; then, with the palm of his hand, he struck the top of the crown, and blood streamed over the victim's face. "Confess your guilt!" said the judge. The intrepid Shusky repeated his asseveration of Otrepief's imposture. The judge signed to the executioner, who again clapped a heavy hand upon the iron diadem. But suffering only augmented the energy of the heroic Muscovite, who continued, as long as consciousness remained in his tortured head, to denounce the false czar. At last, when the whole of the forehead and the greater part of the skull were bared to the bone, he fainted and was removed. The terrible crown had been pressed down to his eyes. He was condemned to decapitation; but Otrepief pardoned him upon the scaffold, and, some time afterwards, was imprudent enough to take him into favor and make him his privy counsellor. Shusky had vowed revenge, and waited only for an opportunity. This was accelerated by Otrepief's fancied security. One morning the false Demetrius was roused by alarmbells, and, on looking from a window, he beheld the palace surrounded by a host of armed conspirators. The doors were speedily forced; pursued from room to room by overwhelming numbers, his clothes and the doors through which he fled riddled with balls, the czar at last leaped from a window, and, notwithstanding serious injuries received in falling, he reached a guardhouse occupied by the Strelitz. The post was soon surrounded by an armed and menacing crowd; but the officer commanding declared he would defend his sovereign with his life. "He whom you call your sovereign is a monk who has usurped the crown," said Shusky to the officer. After an orgie at an armed and numerous suite. the palace, the Poles had committed various excesses, beating peaceable citizens and outraging women, which had greatly exasperated the people. Besides this, their religion rendered them odious; and scarcely had the false Demetrius fallen when the Russian priests and monks raised the cry of massacre. With shouts of "Down with the Pope!" and "Death to the heretics!" they spread "He is the son of the Czarina Mary," was the through the city, pointing out to the people the dwellings of the Poles, whose doors were already "The czarina herself declares him an impos-marked by the conspirators. It was a St. Barlor." tholomew on a small scale. Blood flowed for six hours in the streets of Moscow; more than a thousand Poles were slaughtered; and when the work was done, the murderers repaired to the churches to thank God for the success of their reply. "Show me her written declaration to that effect, and I will give him up; but only on that condition." will of the people, which, at that moment, it would not have been safe to thwart. The brilliant success of one impostor, temporary though it had proved, soon raised up others. Shusky was no sooner on the throne than the report spread that Czar Demetrius had not been shot Shusky ran to the convent where Mary lived in a kind of semi-captivity, told her what was pass-enterprise. Shusky was proclaimed czar by the ing that the capital was in his power, and that she could not now refuse to proclaim the imposture of the wretch who had compelled her to recognize him as her son. Mary yielded the more easily that her timorous conscience reproached her with the falsehood by which she had confirmed an adventurer in the imperial dignity; she signed that a faithful adherent had suffered death in his and sealed the declaration demanded, and Shusky stead. And a runaway serf, Ivan Bolotnikof by hastened with it to the officer of Strelitz. Ortre- name, undertook to personate the defunct impospief was given up. Shusky assembled some tor. But although he collected a sort of army of boyarins and formed a tribunal, of which he him-Strelitz Cossacks, and peasants, glad of any preself was president, and before which the czar, thus rapidly cast down from the throne to which his address and courage had elevated him, was forthwith arraigned. “The hour of expiation is come," said Shusky. "The head you so barbarously mutilated has never ceased to ponder vengeance. Monk Otrepief, confess yourself an impostor, that God, before whom you are about to appear, may have pity on your soul." text for pillage, and although he was recognized by two powerful princes, one of whom, strange to say, was his former owner, Prince Téliatevski, his abilities and his success were alike far inferior to those of Otrepief. Astracan and several other towns revolted in his favor; but Shusky marched against him, won a battle, in which Téliatevski was killed, and besieged Toula, in which Bolotnikof and the other chiefs of the revolt had shut themselves up. "The besieged," says M. Blanc, "I am the Czar Demetrius," replied Otrepief," defended themselves vigorously; but Shusky, with much assurance; "it is not the first time by the advice of a child, who was assuredly born that rebellious subjects, led astray by traitors, with the genius of destruction, stopped the course have dared lay hands on the sacred person of of the Oupa, by means of a dike made below the their sovereign; but such crimes never remain town, through which the river flowed. The topunpunished." ographical position of the town was such that in a few hours it was completely under water. Many of the inhabitants were drowned; defence became impossible; and Bolotnikof, seized by his numerous followers, was given up to Shusky. This second false Demetrius was forthwith shot; but his fate did not discourage a third impostor, who, like his predecessor, commanded armies, but never reached the throne. From first to last, no less than seven candidates appeared for the name and birthright of Ivan's murdered son. Three of them were promptly crushed; the seventh audaciously asserted that he united in his person not only the true Demetrius, whom Godonuf had assassinated, but also the one whom Shusky had dragged from the throne, and two of the subsequent impostors. This was rather a strong dose even for Cossacks to swallow; but these gentlemen, rejoiced at the prospect of booty, affected to credit the tale, and bore the pretender's banner to "You would gain time," replied Shusky; "but you will not succeed; the Czarina Mary's declaration is sufficient for us to decide upon your fate, and, so doing, we doom you to die." Thereupon four men seized the culprit and pushed him against a wall; two others, armed with muskets, went close up to him and shot him. He struggled an instant, and then expired. His corpse, dragged by the mob to the place of common execution, was there abandoned with outrage and mutilation. His death was the signal for the massacre of the Poles, whom Otrepief had always favored, affecting their manners, and selecting them for his body-guard. Moscow just then contained a great number of those foreigners; for Marina, daughter of the voevóda of Sandomir, had arrived a few days before for her nuptials with the czar, and had been closely followed by the King of Poland's ambassadors, with within a short distance of Moscow. There his mask was out of date, and one real and another career terminated. A Cossack chief, who had pretended son of Otrepief and Marina had been often seen Otrepief, finding himself in the pres- executed by order of Alexis. The new advenence of the seventh Demetrius, declared aloud turer was a common Cossack from the Don, who that he was not the czar he had served, arrested went by his own name of Stenka Razin, and to the impostor with his own hand, and hung him on whom M. Blanc attributes, perhaps with a little a neighboring tree. exaggeration, the ambition, courage, and ferocity of a Tamerlane. In those days the Russian territory was by no means free from robbers, who pillaged caravans of merchandise, but generally respected the property of the czar and the principal nobles, lest they should make themselves powerful enemies. Razin's first act was to throw down the glove to his sovereign. He seized a convoy belonging to the court, and hung some gentlemen who endeavored to defend it. The fame of his intrepidity and success brought him many followers, and soon he was at the head of an army. "He embarked on the Caspian Sea, The annals of this period of Russian history are painful from the atrocities they record; and M. Blanc is prodigal of horrors. The interval of a quarter of a century between the extinction of the line of Rurik and the accession of the Romanoff dynasty, still paramount in Russia, was occupied by constant struggles between usurpers and pretenders, none of whom dreamed of a milder fate than death for the foe who fell into their hands. And happy was the vanquished chief who escaped with a prompt and merciful death by axe or bullet. The most hideous tortures were put in practice, either for the extortion of confessions, or for the gratification of malice. Even Shusky, whom we have shown enduring with noble fortitude the agonizing pressure of the iron crown, learned not mercy from suffering. His treatment of an enthusiastic boyarin, sent by the third false Demetrius to suminon him to vacate he was no robber, but a conqueror; that he made the throne, was such as Red Indians or Spanish war, and suffered none to fail in respect towards inquisitors might have shuddered to witness. It him. And to prove his words, he hung the offiis recorded, in all its horrible details, at page 52 cer, and drowned the men of his escort. A nuof the Histoire des Conspirations, &c. The tor- merous body of Strelitz was then sent against ture of individuals, which was of frequent occur- him. Razin beat the Strelitz, seized the town of rence, was varied from time to time by the mas-Yatskoi, massacred the garrison, and the inhabsacre of multitudes. We have mentioned that of itants, and passed the winter there unmolested. the Poles. In 1611, after Shusky's dethronement, In the spring he marched into Persia." There it was the turn of the Muscovites. The Poles he accumulated immense booty, but was at last expelled by a general rising of the population. and cruised along its shores, frequently landing and seizing immense booty. At the mouth of the Yaik he was met by an officer of the czar's, sent by the voevóda of Astracan to offer him and his companions a free pardon on condition of their discontinuing their robberies. Razin replied that having seized Moscow, insisted that Vladislaus, son of the King of Poland, should be elected On his return to Russia he was soon surrounded czar. The nobles consented, but the patriarch by troops; but even then, such was the terror steadily refused his consent; and, by the law of of his name, the Russian general granted him a the land, his opposition nullified the election. capitulation, by which he and his men were perThereupon the Poles ran riot in the city, plun-mitted to retire to their native provinces, taking dering, murdering, and ravishing; and at last, their plunder with them; and their security was unsheathing the sword for a general slaughter, twenty thousand men, women, and children fell in one day beneath the murderous steel. A Muscovite army then closely blockaded the place; and the Poles were reduced to the greatest extremity of famine. They at last surrendered on condition of their lives being spared, notwithstanding which compact many were massacred by the Cossacks. "And yet," says M. Blanc, "the aspect of the town was well calculated to excite compassion rather than hatred. In the streets the cadaverous and emaciated inhabitants looked like spectres in the houses were the remains of unclean animals, fragments of repasts horrible to imagine; and what is still more frightful, perhaps unprecedented, salting tubs were found, filled with human flesh." It was under the reign of Alexis, the second Romanoff and father of Peter the Great, that there appeared in Russia the most extraordinary robber the world ever saw. He claimed not to be a czar or the son of a czar; the Demetrius guaranteed so long as they abstained from aggression. This scandalous convention was ratified by Alexis, but was not long adhered to by the bandit with whom the czar thus meanly condescended to treat as an equal. Stenka's next campaign was even more successful than the previous one. Bodies of troops deserted to him, and several towns fell into his power; amongst others, that of Astracan, where frightful scenes of violence and murder were enacted-Razin himself parading the streets, intoxicated with brandy, and stabbing all he met. He was marching upon Moscow, with the avowed intention of dethroning the czar, when he sustained a reverse, and, after fighting like a lion, was made prisoner, and sent in fetters to the city he had expected to enter in triumph. Taken before Alexis, he replied boldly and haughtily to the czar's reproaches and threats. anxiety he showed was to know what manner of death he was to suffer. He had heard that, in the previous year, an obscure robber and assassin, who pillaged convents and churches, had been cut into The only 666 revenge!' pieces of half a finger's breath, beginning at the | Peter's life, is given by M. Blanc, in more minute toes. This barbarous punishment, of which several detail than we ever before met with it. Peter's instances are cited in M. Blanc's book, was known whole life was a romance; but this is assuredly as the "torture of the ten thousand pieces." one of its most romantic episodes. A short time "But," exclaimed Stenka Razin, with a sort of before his death, according to M. Blanc, although terror, so horrible did this death appear to him, other writers fix the date some years earlier, Peter "I am no robber of monks! I have commanded was violently smitten by the charms of a young armies. I have made peace with the czar, there-girl named Ivanowa. Although tenderly attached, fore I had a right to make war upon him. Is there and about to be married to an officer of the reginot a man among you brave enough to split my ment of Schouvaloff, she daied not oppose the head with a hatchet?" The Strelitz guards, to czar's wishes, but became his mistress. Peter, whom these words were addressed, refused the who took her repugnance for timidity, fancied himfriendly office, and Razin heard himself condemned self beloved, and passed much of his time in her to be quartered alive. He seemed resigned, as if society, in a charming cottage in which he had he considered this death an endurable medium be-installed her at one of the extremities of St. Peterstween the decapitation he had implored of his burg. He had enriched her family, who were judges and the barbarous mincing he had been led ignorant, however, of her retreat. Her betrothed, to expect. But his energy forsook him on the whose name was Demetrius Daniloff, was in descaffold, and the man who had so often confronted spair at her disappearance, and made unceasing and inflicted death, received it in a swooning state. efforts to discover her, but all in vain, until IvanThe characters of few sovereigns admit of being owa, having made a confidant of a Livonian slave, judged more variously than that of Peter I. of had him condicted to her presence. The lovers' Russia, surnamed the Great. According to the meetings were then frequent, so much so, that point of view whence we contemplate him, we be- Peter received intelligence of them. "His anger hold the hero or the savage; the wise legislator was terrible; he roared like a tiger." or the lawless tyrant; the patient pursuer of sci- 'Betrayed! betrayed everywhere and always!' ence or the dissolute and heartless debauchee. In cried he, striding wildly about the room, and strikthe long chapter given to his romantic and eventfuling his brow with his clenched fist. Oh! revenge! reign, M. Blanc shows him little favor. In a work treating of conspiracies and executions, the "Before the close of the day he left the palace, characters of the sovereigns introduced are naturally alone, wrapped in a coarse cloak, his feet in nailed not exhibited in their most amiable aspect, es- shoes whose patches attested their long services, pecially when those sovereigns are Russian czars | his head covered with a fox-skin cap which came and czarinas, to whom lenity has generally been down over his eyebrows and half concealed his less familiar than severity, and pardon than punish-eyes. He soon reached Ivanowa's house, where ment. The pen of Voltaire has done much for the lovers deemed themselves perfectly secure, the reputation of Peter the Great, who to us has for the czar had spread a report of his departure always appeared an overrated personage. His- for Moscow. Moreover, the faithful Livonian slave torians have vaunted his exploits and good deeds, kept watch in the antechamber, to give an alarm till his crimes and barbarities have been lost sight at the least noise. Peter knew all this, and had of in the glitter of panegyric. The monarch who taken his measures accordingly. Opening an outer could debase himself to the level of an executioner, door with a key of his own, he bounced into the beheading his rebel subjects with his own hand, anteroom, upset the slave, and with a kick of his and feasting his eyes with the spectacle of death powerful foot, burst the door that separated him when he himself was weary of slaying; who could from the lovers. All this occurred with the speed condemn his wife, repudiated without cause, to the of lightning. Daniloff and Ivanowa had scarce frightful torture of the knout, and sign the order, time to rise from their seats, before the czar stood which it is more than suspected he himself exe- over them with his drawn sword in his hand. cuted, for the death of his own son-may have Ivanowa uttered a cry of terror, fell on her knees, been great as a warrior and a legislator, but ever and fainted. Prompt as the czar, Daniloff bared must be execrated as a man. an. Peter was certainly his sabre and threw himself between his mistress an extraordinary compound of vices and virtues. and Peter. The latter lowered his weapon. His domestic life will not bear even the most super- "No,' said he, the revenge were too brief." ficial investigation, and M. Blanc has ripped it up un- "He opened a window and cried hourra! At mercifully. The great reformer-we might almost the signal, a hundred soldiers crowded into the say the founder of the mighty empire of Russia, house. Mastering his fury, the czar ordered the the conqueror of Charles of Sweden, was a drunk-young officer to be taken to prison, there to reard and gross sensualist, a bad father, a cruel and ceive one hundred blows of the battogues or unfaithful husband. Indeed, some of his acts seem sticks. Ivanowa was also confined until the seninexplicable otherwise than by that ferocious in- ate should decide on her fate. The next day sanity manifest in more than one of his descend- Daniloff received his terrible punishment. Beants. Even his rare impulses of mercy were apt fore half of it had been inflicted, his back, from to come too late to save the victim. As illustrating the loins to the shoulders, was one hideous one of them, an incident, nearly the last event of wound," &c., &c. We omit the revolting details. |