Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/210

20 had been left him by his father. George quietly enjoyed the Grand Duchy during his life time, and left it by will to his nephew Vasiley; but his sons Andrew and Dimitry, considering themselves deprived of their rightful inheritance, were greatly incensed at this, and laid siege to Moscow in consequence. When Vasiley, who had entered the monastery of St. Sergius, heard of these proceedings, he sent out scouts, and took the precaution of stationing outposts, that he might not be overwhelmed by a sudden attack. The two brothers, however, became aware of this, and laid a plot to fill certain waggons with armed soldiers, which they sent on as if they were loaded with merchandise; and being brought in at twilight, they attacked their enemies under cover of the night, and took them while unsuspicious of any danger. Vasiley was captured in the monastery, and having first had his eyes put out, was sent, together with his wife, to Uglitz. Shortly afterwards, when Dimitry saw that the generality of the nobles were hostile to him, and that they went over to the blind Vasiley, he fled to Novogorod, leaving behind him his son Ivan, who subsequently became the father of Vasiley Semeczitz, who was confined in prison at the very time that I was in Moscow: but of this more hereafter. Dimitry was surnamed Semecka, and hence all his descendants bear the cognomen of Semeczitzi.

At length the blind Vasiley Vasilievich obtained quiet possession of the Grand Duchy. From the time of Vladimir Monomach up to this Vasiley, Russia had no monarch. But Vasiley’s son, who was surnamed Ivan, was most fortunate; for at the same time as he married Mary the sister of Michael, Grand Duke of Tver, he drove out his brother-in-law, and took possession first of the Grand Duchy of Tver, and then even of great Novogorod; and after that, all the other princes being either moved by the grandeur of his achievements or stricken with fear became subject to him. As affairs continued to prosper with him, he began to assume the title of