Demetrius the impostor

Front matter

Qass_XLKAi£ Book — ^5 .

Frontispiece.

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

Chapter I. Page

Ivan the Terrible ; his death and character. — Accession of Feodor. — Regency of Boris. — His policy. — Death of the Tsarevitch Demetrius. — Its consequences. — Popular hatred of Boris. — He becomes Tsar . 1

Chapter II

Relations of Russia with neighbouring countries. — Wars with Poland. — Comparison of the two nations. — Stephen Battory. — Sigismund III. and his Swedish subjects. — Story of Gustavus Ericsen . .21

Chapter III

Government of Boris. — His encouragement of Foreigners. — Laws against drunkenness. — Laws regarding serfs. — His conduct towards the nobility. — His great unpopularity. — Famine and pestilence of 1601-1603 32

Chapter IV

Appearance of the first Demetrian Pretender. — His credentials. — His reception by the Polish nobles. — The Cossacks. — Alarm of Boris. — Introduction of Demetrius to the Palatine of Sendomir. — His relations with the Jesuits and the Papal Nuncio. — His reception by the King of Poland. — Gregory Otrepief. — Demetrius marches into Russia 41 vi

Chapter V. Page

Triumphant progress of Demetrius through Severia. — Siege of Novgorod. — Battle of Novgorod and victory of Demetrius. — Recall of the Poles. — Battle of Dobrynitchi and defeat of Demetrius. — Retreat to Poutivle. — Plots and counterplots. — Death of Boris . 72

Chapter VI

Proclamation of Feodor Borissovitch. — Basmanof is sent to the camp. — Defection of the army. — Proclamation of Demetrius as Tsar. — Death of Tsar Feodor and his mother. — Conduct of Demetrius to his enemies. — His entrance into Moscow ... .95

Chapter VII

Demetrius recalls the exiles — and constitutes his Council. — He assumes the title of Csesar. — His laws regarding the condition of serfs. — His interview with the widow of Ivan the Terrible. — His activity, and attention to public business. — His religious failings. — His ideas of Slavonic unity. — His ecclesiastical reforms. — Conspiracy of Basil Schuisky. — Its discovery. — Clemency and generosity of Demetrius 115

Chapter VIII

Relations of Demetrius with Poland. — His correspondence with the Pope. — His mistress Xenia. — Remonstrances of Mniszek. — Demetrius sends an embassy to Cracow to demand the hand of Marina. — Treatment of his ambassadors. — His marriage by proxy. — Journey of Marina to Russia . . . . . . .138

Chapter IX

Rashness of Demetrius ; his contempt for Russian usages. — The pretender Tsarevitch Peter.— Journey of Mniszek.— His reception by the Tsar. — Entrance of Marina into Moscow.— Popular dis-

CONTENTS.

vii satisfaction. — Reception of the Polish ambassadors. — Marriage and coronation of Marina. — Conspiracy of Schuisky. — Recklessness of Demetrius. — Revolt in Moscow. — Murder of Demetrius. — His character, and probable origin . . . . . .154

Chapter X

Treatment and conduct of Mniszek and the Poles. — Schuisky is appointed Tsar. — Dissatisfaction of the southern provinces. — Rumours and rebellions. — Policy of Schuisky. — Canonisation of the true Demetrius. — Revolt of the Cossacks. — Ivan Bolotnikof. — The Tsarevitch Peter. — Siege of Toula. — Punishment of the rebels . 209

CHAPTER XL

Appearance of the Second Demetrius. — His progress. — His character. — He is joined by a large number of Poles. — Battle at Volkhof. — The Impostor encamps at Touchino. — Alarm of Tsar Basil. — He liberates his Polish prisoners. — Marina joins the Impostor. — Siege of Troitsa. — Defeat of the rebels by Skopin.— Death of Skopin Schuisky 222

Chapter XII

Invasion of Russia by Sigismund. — His pretensions to the throne. — His Hetman Zolkiewski. — Siege of Smolensko. — The Poles desert Demetrius. — His flight to Kalouga. — Devotedness of Marina. — Ferocious cruelty of Demetrius. — Russia in 1610. — The White Tsar. — Basil sends an army against Sigismund. — Exploits of Zolkiewski. — Battle of Klouchino 242

Chapter XIII

Deposition of Basil. — The Boyards determine to choose Prince Ladislaus of Poland for their Tsar. — Demetrius resolves to attack Moscow. — Desertion of Sapieha. — Flight of Demetrius. — His plans. — His assassination by the Tartars. — Fate of Marina . . .259 viii CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV. Page

Wise proceedings of Zolkiewski. — Vanity and ambition of Sigismund. — Renewal of the w ov .— Capture of Smolensko. — Siege of the Kremlin. — Victories of Gonciewski. — General disorder and despair. —Patriotism of Kozma Minin. — Conclusion . . 270

APPENDIX 279

List of Works Consulted or Quoted 311

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

Chapter I

IVAN THE TERRIBLE; HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER.— ACCESSION OF FEODOR. — REGENCY OF BORIS. — HIS POLICY. — DEATH OF THE TSAREVITCH DEMETRIUS. — ITS CONSEQUENCES. — POPULAR HATRED OF BORIS. — HE BECOMES TSAR.

Ivan the Fourth, Tsar and Grand-Duke of Russia, died in 1584, after a long reign. His foreign contemporaries surnamed him the Executioner ; the Russians still call him Ivan the Terrible. But he was terrible to his subjects only, for neither the Poles nor the Tartars ever saw him on a field of battle. He was nothing better than a coarse and cruel tyrant, who delighted in shedding blood with his own hands. Nevertheless, a certain amount of popular respect remains attached to his memory : during his reign, though sullied by so many crimes, the Russians began to catch a glimpse of their high destiny, and to measure their rising strength, which had been concentrated and brought into organisation by his despotism. Nations, like individuals, never retain a bitter recollection of the days of trial which have developed their energy and matured their courage.

Ivan left two sons, Feodor and Demetrius, the first of whom, at twenty-two years of age, succeeded him. The second, born in 1581, was sprung from a seventh marriage,*

* Some historians, regarding as null one of Ivan's marriages which, was not consummated, allow him only six wives.

B

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

contracted by Ivan in contempt of the canons of the Greek Church, which recognises no union as legitimate after the fourth widowhood. Notwithstanding this circumstance, the right of Demetrius to the title of Tsarevitch * was not disputed, and he was even regarded as the presumptive heir to the crown, as the feeble health of Feodor rendered it extremely probable that he would die without issue.

The character of the new Tsar contrasted strangely with that of his father. Gentle and timid as a child, and devout even to superstition, Feodor spent his days in prayer, or in listening to, and commenting upon, pious legends. He was constantly to be seen in the churches, and he frequently took delight in ringing the bells himself, to call the faithful to divine service. " He is a Sacristan," said Ivan the Terrible, "not a Tsarevitch."f When not engaged in devotional exercises, Feodor used to shut himself up with his buffoons ; or else, from a balcony, he would watch his huntsmen combating with bears. To a mind so weak, the caves of government were insupportable ; and he therefore lost no time in transferring them to one of his own favourites, the Boyard Boris Godounof, his brother-in-law. He first bestowed upon him the office of Master of the Horse, and attached to that title many important duties and immense power. Shortly afterwards, by a public confession of his own incapacity, he appointed him Pravitel, or Regent of the Empire. No one could have been better adapted than Boris to become the mayor of the palace to this faineant king. Active, indefatigable, more enlightened than any of his countrymen, J experienced in public business, and well acquainted with human nature, he was allowed to possess all the qualities of a great minister. Although of inferior birth, for he was the descendant of a

* Tsarevitch, son of the Tsar.

f Petreius, Musskowitische Chronica, vol. ii. p. 256. + The supposition of Zolkiewski, that he could neither read nor write, is contrary to all probability. Zolkiewski MSS., p. 7.

REGENCY OF BORIS GQDOUNOE.

Tartar Mourza. * he early took his seat in the councils of the Empire, and gained the favour of Ivan, without, however, purchasing it by acts of baseness. It is said that when, in a moment of madness, Ivan inflicted a mortal blow on the Tsarevitch, his eldest son, Boris alone dared attempt to hold back his arm, and to save the life of the young Prince, f He concealed his ambition beneath an outward show of piety and of unbounded attachment to his country and his sovereign. Naturally grave and austere, of a noble countenance and a commanding presence, he imposed respect upon the Boyards, notwithstanding their jealousy of his authority ; and when the Tsar appeared in public, accompanied by his minister, all felt that it was not upon the throne that the master of the Empire was to be sought.

The reign of Ivan had neither exhausted the patience of the Russians, nor shaken their fidelity. Bbris subjected them to a new trial. In the place of the brutal and capricious domination of Ivan, he substituted an intelligent but annoying despotism, which laid claim to regulate the internal economy of every family, as well as the affairs of the State. Still rude and uncultivated, the Muscovites could not appreciate the advantages of the exact system of police which Boris wished to establish throughout the Empire. In their view, disorder was, as it were, a proof of independence which they cherished, and of which Ivan, with all his tyranny, had not deprived them. Now, however, this inveterate license was about to be repressed with inexorable rigour. True it was that the people had no longer to dread those attacks of sanguinary rage which had gained Ivan the surname of Terrible, but a suspicious and untiringsurveillance now weighed heavily on every family. The last Tsar was a ferocious brute, whom it was dangerous to meet,

Prince or nobleman.

b 2

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

but whose approach might be avoided, and whose anger it might perhaps be possible to disarm : whereas no act or thought of disobedience escaped the notice of the Regent, who was served by innumerable spies. Great and small felt equally the pressure of his iron hand : with impassible severity, he punished ignorance as a crime, and, in order to reform an ancient abuse, he invented a hundred new means of constraint. Full of confidence in the superiority of his own judgment, and, perhaps, honestly confounding the aggrandisement of his family with that of his country, Boris made all bend beneath his will, and would listen neither to advice nor remonstrance. The Russians felt themselves more enslaved than ever under this new form of despotism, so regular and minute ; and sometimes even they almost regretted the intermittent fury of Ivan the Terrible.

The efforts put forth by the enemies of Boris to destroy his ascendancy, served only to confirm it. An attempt was made to oblige Feodor to repudiate his wife Irene, the sister of the Regent, on account of her barrenness; and her successor was even suggested in the person of the sister of Prince Mstislavski, the chief Boyard in the council. Boris parried the blow : he caused ecclesiastical authority to exert its all-powerful influence over Feodor's mind, and persuaded him that it would be dangerous to Russia to deprive Demetrius of a crown which he seemed predestined to wear. He showed how, at a future period, civil w^ar might be kindled between that prince and his nephews, and how the barbarians w r ould take advantage of such anarchy to devastate the Empire. It would seem that, at this epoch, the right of succession to the throne was not yet very accurately determined in Russia; and we may suppose that the Mussulman custom, which awards the crown to the nearest descendant of the founder of the dynasty, still retained numerous partisans in a country in which the Tartars had implanted so many oriental traditions. However this may

THE TSAREVITCH DEMETRIUS.

be., Feodor did not repudiate bis wife; and tbe sister of Prince Mstislavski was obliged to take the veil.

Boris desired above all things to be feared, but he did not disdain a certain amount of popularity for his family ; and he left no means untried to render his sister Irene dear to the Russian people. All rigorous measures were executed in the name of the Tsar, and by order of the Regent ; but acts of clemency, and favours of every kind, were ascribed to the intercession of the Tsarina Irene, who, indeed, was always a docile instrument in the hands of her brother. She acted and thought only in obedience to his inspirations, blending with great simplicity of heart her respect and admiration of Boris with the passionate love which she felt for Feodor.

The intimidated Boyards were reduced to silence. Demetrius, still a child, could cause no apprehension ; but his mother, the Tsarina-dowager, Maria Fedorovna, and his three uncles, Michael, Gregory, and Andrew Nago'f, might perhaps attempt to avail themselves of their alliance with the reigning family. Boris therefore banished them to the town of Ooglitch, which had been assigned as an appanage to young Demetrius by the will of Ivan ; and, under the pretext of entrusting them with the education of the Tsarevitch, he kept them there in a kind of exile.

At Ooglitch, in 1591, Demetrius, at ten years of age, had his little court, his jiltsy,* and his great officers, among whom the Regent had doubtless introduced many a spy. The pensions of the young prince and his family were paid and controlled by a Deak, or Secretary of Chancery, named Michael Bitiagofski, a creature of Boris ; and between this functionary and the Nagoi there naturally arose frequent discussions, which increased in bitterness from day to day. Strong in the authority with which the Regent had invested him, the secretary delighted to cavil at all the pretensions

* The jiltsy were children brought up with the young princes of the blood royal, like the Menins of the French Dauphin.

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

of the family of the Tsarevitch. It seemed his constant aim, by the incessant renewal of petty vexations, to make them feel that their fortune had greatly declined since the death of Ivan the Terrible. To the complaints which they laid before the Tsar, Bitiagofski replied by denouncing any imprudent expressions that might have escaped from the Nago'i during their exile. If we may believe the report of the Secretary of Chancery, the Tsarevitch already exhibited the ferocious instincts and cruel tastes of his father. He took pleasure in nothing, it was said, but in seeing animals beaten, or else in mutilating them with a refinement of barbarity. It is related that, one winter's day, when playing with some children of his own age, he constructed several figures of men out of the snow in the court-yard of his palace. To each of these he gave the name of one of the great functionaries of the Empire; and the largest of all he called Boris. Then seizing a wooden sabre, he knocked off either their arms or their heads. " When I am a man," said the child, "that is how I will treat tbem. v * These and similar anecdotes were carefully collected and commented upon at Moscow. Perhaps they may have been invented by the agents of Boris, in order to render the Nago'i odious to the Russian nobility ; or, perhaps, educated as he was by servants and courtiers in disgrace, the young prince only repeated too faithfully the lessons which he was taught.

The hopes and fears occasioned by his education were, however, speedily dissipated by the sudden death of Demetrius. His end was strange, and it is difficult to say whether it was the result of an accident or of a crime. On the loth of May, 1591 (O.S.), the Tsarevitch, whom his mother had just left for a moment, was amusing himself with four children, his pages orjiltsy, in the courtyard of his palace, — a spacious enclosure which contained several separate dwelling-houses,

* Palitsyne. Skazanie o osade Troitskago Monastyra, p. 2 ; Baer, p. 3.

DEATH OF THE TSAREVITCH.

built irregularly in various parts.* He was still attended by Vassilissa Volokhof, bis governess, his nurse, and a chambermaid. It is probable that they may have lost sight of him for a moment. According to the unanimous testimony of the three women and of the pages, he was holding a knife, which he was amusing himself by sticking into the ground, or with which he was cutting a piece of wood. On a sudden, the nurse looked round, and saw him weltering in his blood. He had a large wound in his throat, and he expired without uttering a word. On hearing the cries of the nurse, the Tsarina ran up, and, in the first transports of her despair, exclaimed that her son .had been assassinated. She flew upon the governess, whose duty it was to take care of him, and beat her furiously with a heavy stick, accusing her of having admitted the murderers who had just slain her son. At the same time, as her thoughts doubtless turned to her recent quarrels with Bitiagofski, she invoked upon that man the vengeance of her brothers and of the servants of her household. Michael Nago'i now came up, having just left the dinner-table, in a state of intoxication, according to the testimony of several witnesses ; in his turn he began to beat the poor governess, and ordered that the alarm-bell should be rung at the Church of the Saviour, which stood near the palace. In an instant the courtyard was filled with inhabitants of Ooglitch and domestics, who ran up with pitchforks and hatchets, believing that the palace of the Tsarevitch was on fire. With them arrived Bitiagofski, accompanied by his son, and by the gentlemen employed in his Chancery. He endeavoured to speak, to appease the tumult, and cried out at once, that the child had killed himself by falling on his knife in an epileptic fit, from which it was well known that he frequently suffered. u Behold the

* For all the following details, see the record of the inquest held at Ooglitch, in the Sobranie Gosoudarstvennik G-ramot, vol. ii. p. 103, et seq. ; and Appendix A. at the end of this volume.

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

murderer ! " exclaimed the Tsarina. A hundred arms were immediately raised to strike him. He fled into one of the houses in the enclosure, and barricaded the door; but it was soon burst open, and he was cut to pieces. His son was slain at the same time. Whoever raised his voice in his defence, whoever was known to be connected with him, was immediately struck down and put to death. The governess Yassi- Hssa, covered with blood, and half-killed by the blows she had received, lay on the ground near the Tsarina, bareheaded, and with dishevelled hair ; for the servants of the Nagoi had taken off her cap — which was considered by the Russians, at this period, a more infamous outrage even than blows. One of her serfs, compassionating her disgrace, picked up her cap, and replaced it on her head : he was instantly massacred.* The furious crowd, still pursuing and murdering those who were pointed out to its vengeance, carried the bleeding body of the Tsarevitch into the Church, Thither they dragged Daniel Volokhof, the son of the governess, who was known to be intimate with Bitiagofski. This was enough to procure his condemnation as an accomplice in the crime; and he was immediately put to death before the eyes of his mother, in front of the body of the young prince.-f It was with great difficulty that the priests of the Church of the Saviour rescued Vassilissa and the daughters of Bitiagofski from the hands of the multitude. All these women, however, were shut up in one of the buildings adjoining the cathedral ; and guards were placed at all the approaches.

Nearly a dozen clerks in the Chancery of the Tsar, and a few inhabitants of Ooglitch, suspected of connivance with the assassins, thus perished in this sudden riot, in which the murderers slew, at hap-hazard, all who came in their way. " They hunted them down like hares," says one of the

* Gos. Gramoty, vol. ii. p. 106; deposition of Vassilissa Volokhof. f Ibid.

RIOT AT OOGLITCH.

witnesses in her deposition.* Two days after, the Tsarina, who had just denounced the supposed assassins, changed her opinion, and took it into her head that a female dwarf, who used sometimes to amuse her by her buffooneries, had bewitched the Tsarevitch. She ordered this unfortunate wretch to be shot ; and her body was thrown into the water without further judicial ceremony.-)-

The Nagoi, in the meanwhile, had slept themselves sober, and reflected, not without alarm, on the consequences of this terrible butchery. The massacre of the secretaries and officers of the Tsar was not an action likely to remain unpunished by a minister so jealous of his authority as Boris. The bodies of the victims of the affray had been left to lie unburied in various directions. Michael and Gregory Nagoi, in the absence of proofs to authenticate the murder of the Tsarevitch, resolved to invent them. They produced knives, sabres, and other weapons, steeped in the blood of a fowl, which they asserted had been found in the hands of the officers killed by the populace of Ooglitch ; and these weapons, they said, had been used to murder young Demetrius. It was proved that one of the Nagoi had given to the bailiff of Ooglitch a Tartar dagger^ to be placed on the corpse of Bitiagofski or one of his companions ; and it was established in evidence that this dagger really belonged to Gregory Nagoi. § All these facts were

* Gos. Gramoty, vol. ii. p. 106; deposition of Vassilissa Volokhof.

f Gos. Gramoty, vol. ii. pp. 106, 107, deposition of Vassilissa; and p. 121, deposition of Rousin Rakof, bailiff of Ooglitch. The body was probably thrown into the water that it might be seen whether, according to the prejudice of the time, it would sink or swam. It is well known that, throughout all Europe, it was believed at this period that a witch would float on the water. But- at Ooglitch they began the experiment by killing the supposed sorceress.

J "Naga'iskii noj." Depositions of Rakof and of Michael Nagoi', Ibid.

§ Gos. Gramoty. This circumstance gives rise to a conjecture which does not appear to have been entertained at the time when the event occurred. It results from the inquiry made a few days after the death of

b 3

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

proved in an inquiry which was ordered by Boris in the name of the Tsar, immediately after the occurrence of the event. He had appointed three commissioners, the chief of whom was Prince Basil Schuisky, a nobleman whose rank,

the Tsarevitcb, that he had a wound in his throat, but the commissioners sent from Moscow did not take the trouble to examine whether it was caused by the child's knife, or by some other weapon. This point was nevertheless capital, and an examination of the wound would have sufficed to decide whether the death of the young prince was to be attributed to an accident or to a crime. In this respect, however, the inquiry furnishes no precise information. But in order for the Nagoi to place a Tartar dagger in the hands of one of the assassins, and to produce sabres among the weapons which they accused them of having used to murder the Tsarevitcb, it was indispensable that his wound should resemble those which would be produced by such weapons. A Tartar dagger, naga'isl'ii noj, is a long cutlass with a broad, two-edged blade. Now, the witnesses of the affair, the nurse, the governess, and the pages, all depose that the Tsarevitcb was playing with a small knife, nojik ; and, in fact, it is not at all probable that a great cutlass would be placed in the hands of a child who was subject to fits of madness. The Nago'i, who had carried the body into the church, must have lost their senses to give sabres and cutlasses to those whom they wished to pass off as the assassins, if the wound of the Tsarevitcb was caused only by a small knife. — Let us remark, on the other hand, that, although the three women and the four pages depose that Demetrius pierced himself with his knife before their eyes, their evidence is very suspicious, because these seven witnesses, (whose duty it was to watch the prince, which duty they had undoubtedly discharged very imperfectly,) would be naturally disposed to lie for their own justification. Moreover, the terms of their deposition, which are almost identical, look very much like a lesson learned by rote. We must add that the testimony of the witnesses who accused Michael and Gregory Nagoi of having placed arms on the bodies of the pretended assassins, was only very feebly contradicted by Gregory, and that it was confirmed by the confession of Michael, especially as regards the Tartar .dagger. Might it not be inferred from this that the mortal blow had been given to the young prince by a man, and with the formidable arm of an assassin 1 ? It appears moreover unquestionable that no one saw, or would see, the tragedy, and that the intimidated witnesses hastened to confirm the suggestion of Bitiagofski, that the Tsarevitch had cut his own throat in a fit of epilepsy. — That he was subject to this disease, is a fact established by irrefutable testimony, and particularly by the evidence of Andrew Nagoi, who deposed that the child, in one of his attacks, had once wounded his mother with a knife, and on another occasion, bitten the arm of one of his cousins. (Deposition of Andrew Nago'i, Gos. Gramoty, vol. ii. p. 100.) — The inquiry which took

INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCESS DEATH.

birth, and fortune, taken in connection with his independent and even somewhat factious character, rendered it certain, if not that the examination would be impartial, at least that the accused persons would have full opportunity to defend themselves."* Finally, it must be added that Basil Schuisky

place at Ooglitch, and the report of which still exists, in its original form, among the Imperial Archives at Moscow, has been taxed with falsity by most Eussian historians, and even by the illustrious Karamzin. According to the last-named writer, all the testimonies were either falsified or extorted by intimidation. Judges and witnesses alike yielded to the fear with which they were inspired by Boris. It is true that this report must be received with a certain amount of distrust, but I do not think that we should on that account make up our minds to reject the only circumstantial and authentic information which exists regarding this mysterious event. We must not expect to find in a document dated in the year 1591, all those ingenious and prudent forms which long experience has now introduced into the procedure of all civilised nations ; and I think it would be exceedingly unjust to discover prevarication where perhaps ignorance only exists. We must not, therefore, be surprised that we do not find in the enquiry any report from a surgeon, or autopsy of the body, or comparison of the wound with the weapon which had caused it. Who will say that, in other countries of Europe, similar researches would then have been undertaken 1 And the enquiry took place in a country, and at a time, when a woman could be shot upon suspicion ! It appears to me equally impossible to admit that all the witnesses yielded to intimidation, and that they lied either to please Boris, or from a mere apprehension of finding him guilty. Many of them, and especially the ecclesiastics who had nobly rescued several unfortunates from the rage of the populace, were sheltered from the vengeance of the Regent both by their position, and by their conduct in this catastrophe. Yet all unanimously accused the Nagol.

If Demetrius was assassinated, as may be suspected from the indications which I have given as to the nature of the wound which he had received in his throat, it is probable that a single murderer, who perhaps escaped, dealt him the fatal blow. The unfortunates who were cut to pieces by the inhabitants of Ooglitch had committed no crime but that of thwarting the Nagoi in their pretensions, and perhaps of controlling their expenditure too severely. " The massacre of Ooglitch was a just, but illegal, vengeance," says Karamzin, vol. x. p. 103. This is a remark which he should have left to Danton and his fellows, and which I am surprised to meet with in an historian so enlightened and ordinarily so impartial.

* Basil Schuisky had been brought up, it is said, in the house of the Nagoi. Zolkiewski MSS, p. 12.

DEMETRIUS THE IMPOSTOR.

belonged to a family noted for its hostility to the policy of Boris, and that either before, or soon after, the institution of the inquiry, far from being able to obtain the slightest favour, he had been incessantly exposed, as well as the other members of his family, to the suspicions and even to the persecutions of the Regent. He was sent into exile several times, and invariably refused permission to marry.*

The Nagoi made a very poor defence. They were men equally devoid of energy and intelligence. Neither of them had seen the Tsarevitch murdered. Gregory endeavoured feebly to deny his attempt to corrupt the bailiff of Ooglitch ; but Michael admitted it, and neither of the two brothers could produce any material evidence as to the supposed crime of Bitiagofski. By exasperating the populace against him, they had seized an opportunity of revenging themselves upon a man with whom they had been incessantly at variance about matters of personal interest. It is true that the Tsarina had first denounced Bitiagofski as the assassin, but he was not then near the palace, and it was not surprising that a mother, in the extravagance of her grief, should have casually uttered his name. In fact, soon afterwards, forgetting her suspicions of the unfortunate secretary of Chancery, she had turned her rage against another victim. Two days later, she had even ceased to believe that her child had been assassinated, for she had accused a miserable dwarf of having bewitched him. The Tsarina was not interrogated by the commissioners, doubtless out of respect for the memory of Ivan the Terrible, but she spontaneously confessed her repentance. Having sent for the metropolitan, Gelasus, she confessed that the murder of Bitiagofski was " a crime and a sin," and intreated the