Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/112

Rh 94 RUSSIA [HISTORY. all members of the Romanoff family, because they were allied to the house of Rurik, and troubled his dreams of sovereignty. The head of this house was compelled to become a monk ; his son, however, was destined to ascend the throne. A famine broke out in 1601, which Boris was unsparing in his efforts to allay. In the midst of all this suffering a rumour spread that Dmitri, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, was not dead. The One day in the year 1603 Prince Adam Wisniowiecki, " false " of Bragin in Lithuania, happening to be very angry with Dmitri. a servant, struck him and used an insulting epithet. The young man, with tears in his eyes, said, "If you knew who I am, you would not treat me so nor call me by that name." "Who then are you, and whence do you come ? " replied the astonished prince. " I am the prince Dmitri, son of Ivan Vasilievich." He then recounted a well-concocted tale of his miraculous escape from the assassin whom Boris had employed. This was his physi- cian, who feigned compliance with the usurper's designs, but only to frustrate them. On the night appointed for the murder, the man, whose name was Simon, put the son of a serf into his young master's bed (who was accordingly killed), and immediately fled with Dmitri from I "Lrlich. He was then committed to the care of a loyal gentleman, who thought it better for the sake of protection that he should enter a monastery. This gentleman and the physician were dead, but in confirmation of his story the false Dmitri exhibited a seal, bearing the arms and name of the prince, and a golden cross set with jewels which he said was the baptismal gift of his godfather, Prince Ivan Mstislavski. Wisniowiecki believed his tale. There were also other supposed signs. 1 The Polish nobles thronged around the young man, whose manners, as we read in the case of Perkin Warbeck, seemed to bear out his pretensions. Meanwhile Dmitri remained in Poland, enjoying all the lavish attentions of the Polish nobility. Boris was soon made acquainted with his appearance on the scene, and offered the brothers Wisniowiecki money and lands if they would surrender the impostor to him. Without, however, replying to these overtures, they removed him into the interior of Poland, and he was received with royal honours by George Mniszek, the palatine of Sandomir. Here he is said to have entered into a secret understanding with the Jesuits to bring over Russia to the Latin faith, on condition of being supported by the papal nuncio. 2 The pretender privately abjured the Greek faith, and signed a contract of marriage with Marina, the youngest daughter of Mniszek, by which he settled upon her the towns of Novgorod and Pskoff, and engaged to pay her father a million of florins as soon as he had ascended the throne. Afterwards he executed another treaty ceding Smolensk and the surrounding territory to Mniszek and 1 The present writer doubts the genuineness of this claimant ; many authors, however, some of them contemporaries, were con- vinced that he was the real son of Ivan, and among these the first place must be assigned to the French mercenary captain Margeret, whose intimate relations with the sian point him out as a valuable authority. This clever adventurer had entered the Russian service in t the time of Boris Oodunoff, and was a witness of the whole struggle. At first he led the troops of the latter against Dmitri, but when the pretender had established his authority he accepted a post in his service. He has given us an interesting portrait of Dmitri, of whom he speaks very favourably, in his work on Russia published at Paris in 1669. 1 According to some authors, the whole plot had been concocted by the Jesuits for this purpose. For the contrary view, however, see Rome et Demttrius d'apris des documents nmireaux avec pieces justificative* et facsimile, by Pere Pierling, S. J., Paris, 1878. Gerard Miiller tells us that the'pretender " conversed in Latin and Polish with fluency ; " if this had been the case his knowledge of the former would be easily explained by his Jesuitical training. Margeret, however, denies it altogether. " II est tres certain qu'il ne parloit nullcment Latin, j'en puis temoigner, moina le scavoit-il lire et 6crire " (p. 163). the king of Poland. These proceedings were not likely to recommend him to his Russian subjects. For the present they were concealed, .and Dmitri publicly professed the Greek ritual. Soon after this Sigismund of Poland saluted him as czar of Moscow, and assigned him a pension of 40,000 florins. All this time Boris affected to regard the pretender with contempt, and issued a manifesto setting forth that his real name was Grishka (or Gregory) Otrepieff, a renegade monk. Whether this individual was really the man who personated Dmitri, the son of Ivan, cannot be known for certain; but it seems very probable. Karamzin has adopted this view. Boris soon issued a proclamation against him, calling him an apostate monk, who wished to introduce the Latin heresy into Russia, and to build Romish churches in the Orthodox land. Dmitri entered that country on the 31st of October 1604, and marched on Moravsk in Tchernigoff. He met with uninter- rupted success, large numbers joining his expedition, and the authorities of the chief towns on his route offering him bread and salt till he came to Novgorod Severski on the 23d of November. This well-fortified place was defended by Basmanoff, a veteran captain, with five hundred streltzt On the arrival of the pretender he was summoned to capitulate, but, standing on the ramparts with a lighted match, he replied : " The grand-prince and czar is at Mos- cow ; as for your Dmitri he is a robber, who shall be im- paled, along with his accomplices." After three months the invaders abandoned the siege, but they had the good fortune soon afterwards to seize a large sum of money which Boris was sending to some of the towns. Shortly after this the important fortresses of Putivl, Sievsk, and Voronezh surrendered to Dmitri. Boris was too ill to go in person against the impostor; he, however, raised an army of fifty thousand men. A great battle took place near Novgorod, and the supporters of the czar would have suffered a most ignominious defeat had it not been for Basmanoff. This captain was recalled to Moscow and loaded with honours by Boris, who, from motives not very evident, unless he had begun to have suspicions of his fidelity, detained him in the city, and committed the care of the new army which he had formed to Shuiski, who was probably only half-hearted in his cause. A great battle took place on the 2d of January 1605, on the plain of Dobrinichi, not far from Orel ; here Dmitri was defeated, chiefly through the bravery of the foreign legion. He would have been captured had it not been for the fidelity of his Cossack infantry for at this time the Cossacks were subject to Poland who were killed to a man, and probably not a fugitive would have reached Sievsk had not Shuiski acted with duplicity. Meanwhile, the pretender rode as fast as his horse would carry him to Putivl, a strong town on the .frontier, from which he could easily beat a retreat into Poland. The followers ofvBoris remained at Dobrinichi, putting to death their prisoners. The conduct of Shuiski showed with what apathy he viewed the cause of his master ; he soon drew off his troops into winter quarters, alleging that nothing more could be done that season, and also wasted time before Kromi, an insignificant place. Meanwhile Dmitri corrupted some of the chief generals of Boris. An attempt to poison him soon afterwards failed, and the pretender sent a message to Boris, recommending him to descend from the throne which he had usurped. But the days of the latter were numbered. On the 13th of April 1605 he presided as usual at the council-board, and received some distinguished foreigners. A grand banquet was given, but suddenly after dinner he was seized with illness; blood burst from his nose, ears, and mouth, and in the brief period before his death, according to the Russian custom, the dress of a monk was thrust upon him, and he was