The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series

the Pretended Son

was enough to distract his mind; for although the table before him was spread and equipped as became an emperor's, the gaunt spectre of famine

oom of that vast apartment. The air was fragrant with the scent of burning pine, for although the time of year was May, the nights were chill, and a great log-fire was blazing on the distant

ce, an excited glitter in his long eyes, began by ordering the pages

ands clutched the carved arms of his great gilded chair. Quickly he controlled himself, and then as h

, and whose remains lay buried in Moscow, in the Church of St. Michael. This man had found shelter in Lithuania, in the house of Prince Wisniowiecki, and thither the nobles of Poland were now flocking to do him homage, acknowledging him the son of Ivan

obtain more precise confirmation of the story. That messenger-chosen in con

the stem of which his fingers were mechanically turning. There was now no ve

he said presently, "a

r had brought him he o

v," was all he said in acknowledgmen

thick-set, bow-legged man, inclining to corpulence. He set a foot, shod in red leather reversed with ermine, upon an andiron, and, leaning an elbow on the carved overm

it had fallen out that Boris became the real ruler of Russia, the power behind the throne. But his insatiable ambition coveted still more. He must wear the crown as well as wield the sceptre; and this could not be until the Ruric dynasty which had ruled

memory of the terrible Tsar, the fear of him, was still alive in superstitious Russia, and none dared to dishonour his son. So Boris had recourse to other and surer means. He dispatched his agents to Uglich, and presently there came thence a story that the boy, whilst playing with a knife, had been taken w

orders, and the rest sent into banishment beyond the Ural Mountains, whilst the Tsarina Maria, Demetrius's mother, for having said tha

rone. But he ascended it under the burden of his daughter's curse. Feodor's widow had boldly faced her father, boldly accused him of poisoning her husband to gratify his remo

r curse that turned his stout heart to water, and made him afraid where there could surely be no cause for fear. For five year

ound by the magnificent Prince Shuiski,

ris. His voice and mien were calm and normal. "Yourself you saw the b

unger than Boris, who was in his fiftieth year. His face was lean and saturnine, and ther

ov. Basil Shuiski laughed. The story was an absurd one. Demetrius was de

is. Shuiski was right. It was an absurd story, this. There was n

ef cause of uneasiness. There was famine in Moscow, and empty bellies do not make for loyalty. Then, too, the Muscovite nobles did not love him. He had ruled too sternly, and had curbed their power. There were men like Basil Shuiski who knew too much-greedy, ambitious

been publicly acknowledged by Sigismund III. of Poland as the son of Ivan Vassielivitch, the rightful heir to the crown of Russia. He heard, too, the story upon which this belief was founded. Demetrius had declared that one of the agents employed by Boris Godunov to procure his murder at Uglich had bribed his physician Simon to perform the deed. Simon had pretended to agree as the only means of saving him. He

ich came forward now to identify with him the grown man, who carried in his face so strong a resemblance to Ivan the Terribl

ast Boris bethought him of the Tsarina Maria, the mother of the murdered boy. He had her fetched to Moscow from her con

nny had imposed upon her. When he had done, a faint smile swept over the face that had grown so har

e," she said. "It is perhap

"True? What are you saying, woma

I know who

our own, since you set the people on to ki

added the question: "Wh

ventual confinement turned her head? "I want your testimony. I want you to de

l?" Interest had ki

ther of Demetrius, and shall n

d. Now he is a grown man of three-and-twenty. Ho

d oath at her. "Beca

me swear-as the price of my brothers' lives-that I was mistaken. Perhaps I was more mistaken th

her, mistrustfully, searchingly. "Wh

e had been so lovely. "I mean that if the devil came out of hell an

r wrongs broke forth. Taken aback, he quailed before it. His jaw

believe that a mother should know her own son

to let him look upon the weapon with which she could destroy him. The result of it was that she went

ple. The nobles might still be sceptical, but Boris knew that he could not trust them, since

n sent by Basmanov to obtain with his own eyes confirmation of the rumour

piev, who had once been a monk, but, unfrocked, had embraced the Roman heresy, and had abandoned himself

proclaim the fellow's true identity, and to demand his expulsion from the Kingdom of Poland; and his denunciation was supported by a solemn excom

asked how an unfrocked monk had come by these accomplishments. Moreover, although Boris, fore-warned, had prevented the Tsarina Maria from supporting the pretender out of motives of revenge, he had forgotten her two brothers; he had not foresee

n indeed. His sins had found him out. Nothing remained him but to arm and go forth to m

But was it possible that Sigismund of Poland was really deceived, as well as the Palatine of Sandomir, whose daughter was betrothed to the adventurer, Prince Adam Wisniowiecki, in whose

se, crippled now by gout, even the satisfaction of leading them was denied him. He was forced to stay at home in the gloomy apartments of

i to replace him. In January of 1605 the armies met at Dobrinichi, and Demetrius suffered a severe defeat, which compelled him to fall back

his strength. And then there was ever present to his mind the nightmare riddle of the pretender's identity. At last, one evening in April, he sent for Smirnoy Otrepiev to

nd, white face was haggard, his cheeks sagged, and hi

hew of yours, this Grishka Otrepiev, this unfrocked monk, who claims to be Ts

ferocity of his mien. But he made answer: "Alas

terrible eyes watched Otrepiev mistrustfully. He had reached t

dog," he sna

ss, I s

acknowledged him had he been what you say? When I denounced him the unfrocked monk

dead Demetrius..." Otrepiev was begin

." He broke into oaths. "I say you lie. Will you stand there and pelter with me, man?

iev, "I have served you

ered the Tsar, "the whole truth of this foul

truth at last in his great

oar of rage. "You

by terror, and he went down u

is Grishka Otrepiev; it is the name by which he always has been known, an

bewildered. Suddenly he un

f Poland. Grishka Otrepiev i

fight for brea

ed the question. "Of course it is true. It i

the deception he had practiced in comparison with the truth he had now revealed, a truth that shed a fearful, dazzling

ction of his being Demetrius Ivanovitch to impose upon the masses, and facilitate the pretenders occupation of the throne of Russia. And the object of it was to set up in Muscovy a ruler who should be a Pole and a Roman Catholic. Boris knew the bigotry of Sigismund, who already had sacrificed a throne-that of Sweden-to his devout conscience, and

nto it, had set Rome on. Himself an elected King of Poland, Sigismund may have seen in the ambitious son of Stephen Bathory one who might perhaps supplant him

bubble of imposture. But better late than never. To-morrow he would publish the true facts, and all the world should know the truth; and it was a truth that must give pau

There to those envoys he would announce to-night what to-morrow he would announce to all Russia-tell them of the discovery he had made, and reveal to his subjects the peril in which they stood. Towards the close of the banquet he rose to address his guests, announcing that he ha

pparel and wrap himself in a monk's robe, thus symbolizing

inly most opportune to Demetrius. But there is nothing in the manner of it t

army, being now inspired by jealousy and fear of the ambitious Shuiski, went over at once to the pretender, and proclaimed him Tsar of Russia. Thereafter events moved swiftly. Basmanov marched on

rayal. Publicly he declared to the Muscovites that the boy whose body he had seen at Ugli

he showed the real principles that actuated him, proved how true had been Boris's conclusion. He ordered the arrest and degradation of the Patriarch

prostrate himself before the tomb of Ivan the Terrible, and then to visit the Tsarina Maria, who

so long she had been a prisoner, and restoration to the rank that was her proper due. After all, she had cause for

nd guide him. And at first all went well, and the young Tsar earned a certain measure of popularity. If his swarthy face was coarse-featured, yet his bearing was so courtl

e him so at a price, and who now demanded payment. Because he saw that this payment would be difficult and fraught with peril to himself he would-after the common wont of princes who have attained their objects-hav

o Demetrius that word had reached him that Boris Godunov was still alive, and that he had taken r

anted the Jesuits permission to build a church within the sacred walls of the Kremlin, whereby he gave great scandal. Soon followed other signs that he was not a true son of the Orthodox Greek Chur

not derived from his perjury all the profit he expected, who resented, above all, to see Basmanov-who had ever been his rival-invested with a power second only to that of the Tsar himself. Shuiski, skilled in

ndid entry into Moscow, the bride-elect of the young Tsar. The dazzling procession and the feasting that fol

re the walls of Moscow for a martial spectacle which he had planned for the entertainment of his bride. Shuiski put it abroad that the fort was intended to serve as an engine of destruction,

s, and on the night of the 29th of May they stormed the Kremlin, led on by the arch-

o stood sword in hand to bar the way and give his master time to escape. The Tsar leapt from a balcony thirty feet

t he was Demetrius Ivanovitch. Nevertheless,

n instrument indeed, not of priestcraft, but of Fate, to bring home to Boris Godunov the hideous sins that stained his soul, and to avenge his victims by personating one of them.

And that part being played, the rest mattered little. In the nature of him and of