his murdered son, who was present to his imagination, and spoke with passionate tenderness of him and to him. Yet, when in his sober senses, he attempted the virtue of that son's widow, who was smoothing his couch and trying by her attentions to alleviate his pain; and he insisted more than once that he should be taken to the chamber containing his treasures, that he might feast his eyes upon the sight of them. To Mr. Horsey, an English gentleman who was commanded to attend him upon one such occasion, the very day before his death, he spoke at great length, with much knowledge and much enthusiasm, on the various characteristics of his diamonds and jewels, specifying the marks by which their values might be discriminated and fixed. On his return he had a warm bath which revived him. Next day, feeling still better, he said to his servant Belsky, "Go, order those impostors the astrologers to be put to death. According to them this was to have been my dying day, and yet I feel stronger." The men had sense enough to reply, "Wait, the day is not yet done." In all probability the report of this answer struck the vein of credulity and superstition that was in his nature, and tended to bring about its own fulfilment. He ordered another bath, stayed in it a long time, and then tried in vain to rest. After tossing about for a while he called for a chessboard, and sat up to arrange the pieces for play, when he suddenly fell back and expired. Thus died a man who united in his personal character anomalies as extraordinary as were ever combined in a rational being possessed of moral sense, a ruler who carried a flagitious despotism to extremes that have never been paralleled in any country possessing even an incipient civilisation. As a man his later life was stained by the most open profligacy, the most contemptible meanness, the most determined, pitiless, and revolting cruelty. As a ruler he violated every law, fled from every duty, trampled upon every right, and inflicted upon the better classes of his subjects especially every conceivable variety of wretchedness. His conspicuous infamy is rendered more remarkable not only by any possible comparison with those who have a bad renown of the like nature, but by contrast with the blameless moderation and the patriotic sagacity which distinguished the thirteen years of his reign which were passed under the influence of his first amiable consort. After her death he had six other wives, and shortly before his last illness he made overtures to Elizabeth of England to become his eighth. In his public conduct Ivan ceased to be fortunate when he ceased to be virtuous. Twice over was Russia invaded by the Khan of the Crimea, a vassal of the Sultan's, who in 1571 penetrated to Moscow, which he set on fire; and twice did Ivan betake himself to ignominious flight, leaving his generals to do the best they could. With Sigismund and Battori of Poland he was almost perpetually at feud, his cowardice being even more marked in his contests with them, though his cunning always came to his aid in helping to neutralise the effects of their victories. He was not ashamed of the most dastardly means for compassing these ends, shielding himself on one occasion behind a Jesuit envoy of the Pope's, whom he deluded into interdicting the advance of Battori by a hope like that which had dazzled previous Pontiffs-namely, that Russia might be converted to the Romish creed. At the close of his thirty-four years' reign the territorial acquisitions he made in the early part of it more than compensated for any diminution forced upon him in the end; but, though as wide in extent as when it came to his hands, the empire had been much enfeebled under his ruthless and arbitrary sway. A DISPUTE ON RELIGION. The Papal emissary mentioned above was a monk named Possevin. 185 buoyed up by a hope of converting the Czar and bringing round his empire to the Roman faith is evidenced by the accounts of a very remarkable interview, granted to him at his own request, in which he essayed to set forth its claims. But Ivan having gained his immediate purpose had little stomach for such arguments. He had all St. Vladimir's horror of Papal arrogance and pride, increased probably by the fact that he could not have struck up a concordat with Rome save at the cost of abating considerably his own powers and pretensions-for he united in himself the headship of both Church and State, choosing the bishops, and with his own hand bestowing on them the shepherd's crook. At first he listened to Possevin courteously though reluctantly stating in answer to urgent representations for a hearing that he was "willing to talk the matter over, but only in the presence of our servants and without loud dispute, for every man loving his religion feels irritated by contradictions of it; discussion engenders discord, and," quoth the sly old hypocrite, whose unbridled career had been like that of an incarnate demon, "I desire peace and love." Possevin began well and plausibly, but perceiving that he made little way, he waxed hot, and accused the Russians of heretical innovations, and boldly put forward Rome as the capital of Christianity. It was now the Czar's turn to get chafed. "Thou boastest," he cried, "of the truth of thy faith, yet dost thou shave thy beard; thy Pope lets himself be carried about on a throne, and his slipper, with the emblem of a crucifix, be covered with the kisses of thousands of Christians. What glory for the humble shepherd of Christ! What humiliation for the holiest." Retorted Possevin, "No humiliation, but honour to whom honour belongs; the Pope is the head of Christianity, the guide of all faithful monarchs, the sharer of the throne of the Apostle Peter, nay of Christ Himself." Here Ivan interrupted. "The Christians have but one Father who is in heaven. We princes of the earth are raised to our position by a worldly law. Let the disciples of the apostles then be humble and wise! To us princes To us princes belongs Cæsarean, to Popes and Patriarchs episcopal, honour. We revere our metropolitan also; but he walks on earth like all men, but does not hold up his head above kings. But he who dares to call himself a sharer of Christ's throne, who has himself carried on a seat (as on a cloud by angels), he who does not live according to the holy Christian doctrine, such a Pope is a wolf and no shepherd." Possevin haughtily and curtly rejoined to this outburst, “If the Pope is to be called a wolf, I have nothing more to say." Ivan was cool in a moment. "See, now," said he soothingly, "why I would not talk with thee on matters of faith, for involuntarily one party vexes the other. However, I did not call Gregor XIII. a wolf, but spoke only of a Pope who does not follow Christ. Now let the matter rest." Ivan then put his hand caressingly on the envoy's shoulder, dismissed him graciously, and ordered the choicest dishes to be sent to his table. He did not always fare so well, for with an unflinching pertinacity he returned to the subject time after time, till he wearied. out the patience of the irascible monarch, and narrowly escaped a sound castigation at the royal hands. The sole result of his zealous efforts was summed up in the declaration, "Roman Catholics are at liberty to live with us a godly and honourable life; that's enough!" To a request that he would at least expel the venomous Lutherans, "who denied both the Holy Virgin and the sanctity of the righteous in Christ," a point-blank refusal was returned; and, indeed, it is one of the few redeeming features in this reign that equal liberty and protection were accorded to all religious creeds--Mohammedan as well as Christian. 2 A CHAPTER V. THE REIGN OF FEODOR-THE USURPATION OF BORIS GUDUNOF-THE FALSE DMITRI-SUICIDE OF BORIS-ACCESSION OF SHUSKOI-HIS DEPOSITION AND BANISHMENT-INVASION BY THE POLES-TERRIBLE ANARCHY-THE FOUNDER OF THE ROMANOFF DYNASTY. EODOR, the eldest son of Ivan, ascended the throne in 1584. He was a feeble-minded but amiably disposed lad, whose chief amusement had been to climb the belfries of churches and get at the bells to strike them. In this employment he would pass hours on end with great delight. Through the provident care of his father he was placed under the guardianship of three boyards, with whom were associated a Board of thirty councillors. They were well inclined to a restoration of the prerogatives and influences which it had been the grand and steadily-pursued aim of Ivan to withdraw from the nobility. The nobles themselves saw their chance, and did their best to avail themselves of it. But the concerted action of a large body is always tardy and irregular; and the management of the game was snatched from their hands by an adroit and resolute adventurer, one Boris Gudunof, a Tartar by descent, of whose sister Feodor had become enamoured, and whom he made his wife. By degrees Boris gained complete ascendancy over the mind of the Czar, through whose favour he was put on the road to the acquisition of an enormous income, which he husbanded with great care. All the while he was fomenting dissensions among the regents and their advisers, making for himself a strong party among the poorer nobility, who were not much consulted about the affairs of state, and cultivating popularity with the masses. Erelong he became the real ruler of the country, regents and councillors being displaced, some by poison, some by banishment, and the nominal Czar remaining a mere figure-head. Increase of appetite grew by what it fed upon, and his ambition now prompted-if he had not from the first entertained the notion-a desire to mate visible sovereignty with actual power. Many obstacles stood in his path; but he proceeded to their removal by means comprehensive, determined, and sure, if slow. Feodor had a younger brother Dmitri, a favourite with the people alike for his own sake, and because of their affection for the ancient dynasty. Him Boris felt it was necessary to remove. He was sent with his mother to a distant and obscure town, where he was soon after murdered while at play. The crime was cleverly contrived and executed, but suspicions regarding it got abroad. Dreadfully real in its consequences was the feigned resentment which Boris evinced when he let himself appear convinced that there had been foul play. The actual murderer had forthwith been made away with by directions of his employer, who now advanced against the town where the INTRODUCTION OF SERFAGE. 187 deed of blood took place, and laid it in ashes, exterminating the population, and forcing the mother of the boy to the retirement of a convent. One after another, the son of Feodor's murdered brother, the infant daughter of Feodor himself, and all the related members of the royal house fell, most of them by the agency of poison. Last of all the Czar himself was cut off by the like means. At any rate his death was sudden, unexpected, and most opportune for Boris, who had just concluded arrangements which both strengthened his claim to the throne and the likelihood of its acceptance being pressed upon him. Under his direction the government had been popular and prosperous. The insolent courage of his kinsmen, the Tartars, he repeatedly chastised, and then seduced them into a treaty of peace which was very advantageous for Russia. With Sweden he had warred upon two occasions, each time coming off at the settlement with a new province. Even Poland and Lutherania winced under the sharpness of his sword, and sought occasion to avoid feeling again the keenness of its edge, and the force with which it was handled. At home he executed many great works. He founded Tobolsk. He strengthened Smolensko. He civilised Siberia. He obtained from the Patriarch Jeremiah of Constantinople the establishment of a Patriarch at Moscow, endowed with the right, which he exercised, of ordaining Archbishops to the Russian provinces, though the person appointed continued for many years to solicit pro forma a recognition from his Greek brother. But his most remarkable achievement was that by which he legalised and enforced permanent serfdom-that institution to have abolished which must ever remain as the greatest glory of Alexander II. The present is not the place to describe at large either how it was that at the time it was promulgated the plan was welcomed as a benefit, nor how at the last it came to be condemned as an unwarranted oppression. It taxes all the great amount of accurate knowledge, as well as all the great power of lucid exposition, possessed by M. Nicholas Tourguenoff, and displayed in his memorable book "La Russie et les Russes," to trace the conditions and development of the serf system. It must suffice to say here that it was intimately connected with the earlier institution of the "commune" by which it has been outlived. Then, as now, every person in Russia who did not belong to the nobility or the middle class was bound to be under the jurisdiction of a "commune," in which, though it was to him his little world, he possessed a large degree of freedom, and could claim a bit of land. He might hire himself for a term of years, or for life; but where a bargain for a tract of time was not specified, then on St. George's Day of each year he was at liberty to shift as he liked. A strong migration towards the south had lately set in, the attractions being the more favourable climate, and the more fertile and easily-tilled lands. Boris passed a law enacting that after St. George's Day of 1593 the privilege of free movement should cease. From that date onward the serfs were bound to the soil. Some of them retained their privileges as members of the commune, and could claim a share in the division of land, but in return they either paid obrok, that is, a rent-an exaction then introduced, and generally fixed at a low figure or were bound to work for their lords during three days of each week. They were for the most part contented and well-treated, at least at the first, though byand-by their rights were overborne and scouted. But from the beginning a class of them was degraded from the position of agricultural labourers to that of personal serfs, who were really slaves, with no recognised rights of property in themselves. The whole scheme was bad and wholly indefensible, and productive of much after-evil, though at the time of its contrivance it was reckoned an ingenious device, sustained by plausible reasons of policy, which conferred a great boon upon the lesser nobility, attached them to the cause of its author, and served his purpose in manifold ways. On the death of Feodor, and probably to relieve himself from the suspicion of having been privy to it, Boris, taking his widowed sister with him, retired to a monastery, whence he announced that he was so plunged in grief, that he contemplated the relinquishment of any part in public affairs. All the time, his creature, the newly-made Patriarch, whom he had chosen with much sagacity, and his partisans among the nobles, whom he had so lavishly propitiated, were hard at work urging his claims to the throne. Their representations were admirably adapted to the exigencies of the time, and coincided well with the popular feeling. In consequence of them he was waited upon with the humble but urgent request that he would be pleased to assume the cares of imperial rule. At first, like another Cæsar or another Cromwell, he coyly declined, but at last he permitted himself to be urged into a reluctant acquiescence. From that moment, against a host of difficulties, and till his declining faculties vitiated his plans, he governed with remarkable energy and success. The master-principle with him, as with his predecessor, was to cultivate the good-will of the common people, and to depress the power and influence of the aristocracy. Only, he followed out this principle by different modes from those which had been hitherto pursued. He courted the favour of the masses more openly and directly. He restricted the authority of the nobles with much more caution. Now and again he did exact a public and merciless revenge, but never without being able to allege what seemed a valid excuse. Out of the most unlikely circumstances he extracted the means of self-exaltation. Was the country threatened by foreign aggression, then nothing had ever equalled the splendour of his entertainments to the chiefs of the army, the familiarity and confidence with which he distinguished his intercourse with the men, the amenity and condescension of his bearing towards all classes. Did famine come upon the land, then his own stores were opened with great liberality, while he made no scruple about exacting vast contributions from the wealthy classes. Of course they murmured and repined, perceiving well whereunto all this policy tended. But Boris held on his way unmoved, conciliating favour on the one hand, while exerting a more grinding despotism on the other, till he came to be tried by difficulties of a new order. A monk called Ottrefief, who had been persuaded that he bore a striking resemblance to the murdered Prince Dmitri, assumed his name, and urged his title to the throne. The asserted likeness was real enough to deceive many people who had known the young prince. Many more who, it may be conjectured, were willing to be deceived, professed their conviction of its truth, and their acquiescence in the claim founded upon it. The pretender meanwhile retired to Poland, where he circulated his story to much good purpose. Handsome, affable, accomplished, well versed in all the circumstances it concerned him to know, he ingratiated himself with the leading nobility very rapidly, and was able to win over even the most cautious and prudent. He embraced the Roman Catholic faith, he wedded Marina, daughter of the Palatine of Sendomir, and he bent all his energies to the task of inducing the Polish King to make his cause the occasion for a new war with his old antagonist. Boris acted with his customary decision. Knowing well that the fellow |