to Musko to behold the Majesty of our presence to which end we have commanded Post-horses to be prepared for you by the way and when you are come to Musko you shall Address your self to our Secretary Offenasis Ulassou Written in our Majesties Camp at Thula in the year of the World 7113. Sir Thomas Smith having received his dispatches from Boris and being in his way homeward was overtaken at Archangel by an Express from Demetrius with the following Instructions and Letters Demetrius Evanowich great Lord Emperour and Great Duke of all Russia hath commanded Savarela to repair to Volgoda and then to the new Castle of Archangel or any other place where he may overtake the English Embassador Sir Thomas Smith When he hath overtaken him Savarela shall send his Interpreter Richard Finch to the Lord Embassador with notice that the Great Lord Emperour and Great Duke Demetrius Evanowich Sole Commander of Russia hath sent one of his Courtiers unto him touching his Majesties Affairs and after about two hours respite Gavarela shall himself go to the said Embassador and deliver unto him his Majesties Message as followeth DEmetrius Evanowich Great Lord Emperour and Great Duke of all Russia and many other Kingdoms Lord and Commander hath commanded thee Thomas Smith English Embassador to certisie unto James King of England Scotland France and Ireland that We are by the just Judgment of God and his strong Power come and succeeded into the place of our Father and Predecessors as also the Throne of the Great and Famous Kingdom of Uladomir Musko and the Empire of Casan Astracan and Sibiria and of all the Kingdoms of Russia Moreover we calling to minde the Correspondence Love and Amity which was between our Father the Great Lord Emperour and Great Duke Evan Vasilowich of Famous Memory as also our Brother the Great Lord Emperour and Great Duke Fedro Evanowich Sole Commander of Russia and their Sister Queen Elizabeth Queen of England In the like manner we do purpose to have Entercourse and to be in love with your Lord King James and more than hath been in former times and in token of our said Love and Amity we do intend to favour all his Subjects within our Dominions and to give unto them more liberty than they have had heretofore And you his Embassador we have commanded to be dispatched without any delay or hinderance Therefore we would have you to notifie to your Lord King James our Majesties love and as soon as God shall grant the time of our Coronation to be finisht and that we are Crowned with the Imperial Crown of our Predecessors according to our manner and worthiness then we the Great Lord Emperour and Great Duke Demetrius Evanowich of all Russia Sole Commander will send our Messengers to salute each other according to the former manner As for those Letters which Boris Gedanow sent by you we would have you deliver them back again to our Courtier Gaverela and after the delivering of our Speeches to return him to the Emperour Vnderwritten by the Chancellour Offanafie Evanowich Ulascan These and some other publike affairs being dispatched Demetrius judged it very conducible to his establishment to have the Solemnities of his Coronation speedily performed the Celebration of which were therefore appointed to succeed upon the Kalends of September for 't is then that the Russians do as the Jews of old did begin their year But Demetrius impatient of delay in that material Circumstance would have it done upon the 29th of July after his enterance into Musko upon which day he was by the Patriarch crowned with the Imperial Diadem of those Kingdoms after which he caused the Corps of Boris to be taken up out of that Sepulchre wherein he had been interred being that belonging to the Royal Family and buried without Solemnity in a private Church-yard without the Town Before the Coronation 't was judged advisable that the supposed Mother of Demetrius who had for many years been shut up in a Monastery by Boris should be sent for to Court as a reputation to the Solemnity which by Demetrius his art was improved to the utmost for upon advertisement of her being within a League of the Town he went forth in Person to meet her and being come within view of her Coach he alighted from his horse and making his Addresses to her with all imaginable Humility she received him with great demonstrations of Affection She would have come out of her Coach but he would not permit it neither could she prevail with him to come up to her protesting that as she had given him life so would he pay it her back in his Obedience that the Crown of Russia was hers and should be only born by him the better to execute her Orders And with these and some other obliging entertainments of this kind she was conducted to the Palace Demetrius following the Coach on foot bare-headed till the Empress stopping declared that unless he would get up on horse-back she would accompany him on foot Being come to the Palace she was conducted into the usual habitation of such who were Widdows of the Royal Family where being alighted she embraced Demetrius with great passion acknowledging him before all the Lords and Courtiers present to be her Son begot by Duke John Basilius evidencing the same by many particular marks and tokens which gave great credit to the Impostor if it were one His stature and proportion had a resemblance to that of the true Demetrius his hair was black and hard like his with a mark upon his nose and the right hand as the Prince also had And though the Lady might well remember the features of her own Demetrius whom she had lost but seven years before and that this in reality was not he yet she wisely dissembled the matter it being grown too far for her to contradict and besides that she lay under a double obligation to him having not only enjoyed her liberty but the satisfaction of an entire Revenge by his means upon Boris and his Family However it was she treated him with all the demonstrations of a warm and sincere Affection while he honoured and reverenced her with a more shan filial Duty so great a tenderness appearing in their caresses that their Tears of Joy were attended with a deluge from the eyes of the Lords and all others upon the â—lace And to be thus owned by the Empress in the face of the whole World gave a greater confirmation to the reality of his Birth than all his other Testimoies together there being now no room â—eft to question his Extraction confirmed by the open declaration of her that bare him 'T is to this day a controverted point in Russia whether he was an Impostor or not Common fame since his misfortune seems to render him such and Petreius in his Chronicle of Muskovy hath a Jury of Arguments to confirm it But his Testimony is not to be believed but with caution he being employed in
Horses laid for them posted to Boris with the news of the execution of his Command and to receive their promised Salary The Tyrant upon the first advertisement labouring under the Impressions of his Joy received these Bloody Ministers of his will with no ordinary transport till the heat of that Passion being spent and reflecting upon what he had done as it is the Nature of Guilt and Treason never to think it self secure he thought likewise his Practices might come to light but being resolved these miscreants should not discover them he by the temptation of excessive rewards hired other Executioners to destroy and make away these four first Murtherers And that he might not be engaged upon new contrivances he designs the same Method for their Ruine which they had squared out for the death of the Prince in order whereto as Vglecz was Sacrificed to his destruction so Musko was put into flames for theirs The Town is fired in many places at once some hundreds of Houses buried in their own Ashes while these hated Traytors were though by unjust means punished with a just retaliation for their execrable Villany But to return to Vglecz As soon as the Fire was quenched and that the Citizens began to be Composed from their disorder a Rumor being spread that their Prince was Murthered they violently break into the Castle and finding what they feared to be true indeed their distraction being now heightened to Fury and Outrage they slaughtered all his Servants without distinction or enquiry supposing the carelesness and neglect of the Innocent no less culpable than the pernitious industry of the Guilty they thought happily to purge themselves from the stain of the Fact by their zeal in revenging it But in vain for Boris to clear himself if any durst suspect him and to signalize his pretended Passion to his Prince made use of this Irregular vengeance of the Citizens as an Argument of their Guilt and laying the Murther at their door because they had slain all those from whom inquisition might have been made concerning it without examining them at all he caused them to be proceeded against as Criminals Many of the chief amongst them were tortured hanged drowned Banished and exposed as examples of publique Justice while he the better to disguise his cruelty under the sence of so irreparable a loss vests himself and the whole Court in mourning And having dispatched Duke Basilius Zuisky with many prime Senators and Persons of Eminency with Orders to Celebrate his Obsequies with all the Funebrial Pomp and Honour imaginable he commanded that the very place of his Death as guilty in failing to protect him might not survive to be a witness to so great a loss but as Infamous be immediately razed and levelled with the ground Demetrius being thus removed Theodorus did not long survive him and 't is more than conjectural that his end was hastened by the impatience of Boris and the violence of a secret poyson However it was the Duke sensible of his weakness and the approach of his departure bequeathed the Government of the Empire to the conduct of the Lady Irena his Wife sister to Boris the Patriarch was appointed her Assistant and both of them by the dying Prince recommended to the Valour and Fidelity of the Great ones of his Kingdom Theodorus being dead and the Solemnities of his Funerals performed with all becoming Ceremonies and Circumstances his Dutchess did readily ascend the Throne but afterwards having some time toyled under the weight of so Great an Empire whether out of unwillingness to fustain so Great a Burthen or as is more probable to secure the succession in her own House by transferring it upon her Brother she declares her resolutions to quit so unequal a Charge And accordingly yeilds up the Ensigns of her Authority into the hands of the Nobles giving out that for the Repose of her Soul she would Sequester her self from the Turmoyls of this World into the Retirement of a private Life This news being spread amongst the people did infinitely perplex them for though they might have some reluctancy against the Government of a Woman or that the servility of their Nature might at other times render them patient of any Yoke yet they wisely considered it more safe to submit to one than many Tyrants Boris in the mean time laid his trayns at distance chusing rather to have the Government devolve upon him by necessary Consequence than rudely to break in upon it cherishes by his secret Agents and Emissaries the mutinous Temper of the People who without an head were become uneasie to themselves as well as others This subtile States-man had in the interim withdrawn himself from all publique business to the retirements of a Countrey-house All things in this State had a tendency towards confusion some not daring others not willing to lay hold upon the Government and indeed all the prime Ministers being raised by his Favour not secure in the Counsels of each other were emulous who should first conduct him to the Throne In order whereto they attend him with their Submissions and Addresses that he will take upon him the protection of a distracted State The people transported by the apprehensions of their Ruine seconded the Nobility with their Importunities The Clergy whose safety consisted in the Peace of the Empire brought in their Supplications The Nuns quitted their Cloysters and instead of praying for their exquisite Artist offer up their Prayers to him as their Tutelary Saint or Angel The very Children as if swayed by a Supernatural Impulsion besieged him with Tears and Cries And what he denied to all these Sollicitations either apart or united supposing them to have a respect to him only not to themselves he grants as he declared to the necessity of his Country which being without a Head and no man willing to undertake the care he must offer violence to his own nature rather than expose so glorious an Empire as a prey to every Invader Who could all this while under so dark a Veil suspect him guilty of Poysoning his Sovereign and the Murther of his Prince to make way for his Crown presented to him several times in vain by all the Orders of the Empire But permitting himself at length to be overcome he protested that he had given that to their importunity and the love of his Country which he should for ever have denied to his own Honor and Greatness and the Advancement of his House to so Illustrious a Rank He confessed himself too weak for so great a Burthen but Courting the Aid of his Petitioners to his Assistance he promised his utmost Endeavours to answer the obligingness of so Unanimous and Honorable an Election wherewith they were pleased to signalize him above his Fellows And since they had marked him out for their Emperour he would no longer Question their Judgment but chearfully receive the Honour of that Trust which he would die rather than betray or relinquish but into
finding himself singly with the Prince and both removed from the company for they withdrew to a convenient distance said to him to this purpose My Lord had I not a very great assurance of your wisdome and vertue I should not with so much passion offer my self to the service of your interests Your temper hath so far prevailed upon me that I must profess in my self a natural propensity to your services for the sake of your person which will be always dear to me It is upon that account that I press thus I must acknowledge with much indecencie upon your retirements Father said Demetrius as I have ever had a high esteem of your wisdom and piety so have I in my heart retained due acknowledgements of your zeal for my concerns My Lord replyed the Jesuite being fully convinced of your Candour in rightly understanding my devotions for you I shall use the more freedom towards you I have according to the best of my understanding and observation weighed every circumstance of your Condition with the present posture of your Affair and I must needs say that upon the whole matter I finde it full of intricacies and hazards Your Adversary is a person of great wisdom experience and courage in possession of a vast Empire to which he is ascended by many gradual Contrivances that render him a States-man of no ordinary Indowments His Interests are laid deep in the Affections of the Nobilitie most of whom he took care while the old Emperour lived to link to him by Preferments and Favours and though some amongst them may malign his Precedencie and Election to the Throne yet we are reasonably to suppose that all Places of Trust and Power are in the hands of his Dependants and Favourites You cannot be ignorant how he endeavours to stain your Pretensions and Titles with the Ignominy of Imposture which he hath spread abroad with much Artifice making the Story so particular that it carries with it the greater face of truth as that which because all men have power to examine they therefore admit without examination To all this adde how you are but lately discovered to the World and that in your discovery you have not been so happie as to produce any other Testimony of your Quality besides your own And though there needs no more to conclude you descended from Emperours than to look upon your face where Majestie sits enthroned as in its proper seat yet you must confess with me that this Evidence is too delicate for the grosser multitude who believe all things and nothing much alike Let me therefore who have studied your Concerns and am not a stranger to the Constitution of your Empire presume to offer you my humble and faithful Advice grounded upon my true love to your Cause and upon my great experience of the Affairs of this World and the present posture of this Kingdom in which you now receive shelter You must in the first place know that there is not now living a more ambitious person than the Palatine and could you so far descend below your self as to make an Alliance with him it would put so great countenance upon your Cause that I know no one thing in the world would more contribute to the success of it He is considered as a person of great wisdom and that he would not cast away his daughter upon an Impostor and whatever may be spread abroad to your disreputation would lose much of its credit when the World should see that he in a flourishing condition should give away his only Daughter a person of high Accomplishments and of an Illustrious extraction into your arms As for the change of your Religion wherein I most magnifie your piety and shall always offer up to the Father of Mercy my poor Prayers and thanks for touching and inflaming your Princely heart with the love of the truth Let me be free with you and tell you that that Point is to be handled with much caution though it will be necessary to perswade our Holy Father the Pope of your reality yet it will be as requisite to suppress all breathings of it in your own Territories and 't is therefore that I the more earnestly advise this Alliance which as it will draw the King of Poland to your Aid so it will satisfie the scruples of the Nobility and People of Muskovy that what the Palatine does for you by himself and his Confederates is for his own Child also And now that I have given you the best counsel I am capable of offering to so High and Wise a Prince I humbly supplicate your pardon if in the freedom of it I have let fall any expression unworthy of your Sacred ears Having spoke this he was silent Whereupon Demetrius approaching him neerer takes him in his arms and imbracing him with all imaginable affection Father says he I receive your counsel as proceeding from an Oracle and I shall pursue it as that upon which will depend my future happiness I only beg that as you have advised the main you will contribute your particular Aids and instruct me as well in the method as the thing My Lord replyed the Jesuite since you are pleased to receive my true meaning with so great affection I shall not decline your service in any circumstance Make your addresses to the young Lady and when you have tasted her inclination my advice is that you move her Father for his Consent I shall be consulted by him in the Affair and you need not doubt of my Fidelity to your Interests only it may be convenient for you to communicate to me the Progress of your applications whereby I may the better contrive my self for your service Demetrius promised to pursue his instructions and it now being grown late he dismissed the Father with a very great Sensibility of his zeal and services He being gone Demetrius indulged the happiness of his fortunes and was over-joyed to think how powerful an Advocate he had gotten He was not without reflections upon the reality of his own Birth and considered that by the same Rules he had deceived this quick-ey'd Jusuite he might much more captivate the sight and sence of the thick-sighted Multitude For Religion he knew that his heart had little of that to sway it only he saw the pretence was necessary He considered it as a good step to ascend to a Throne by and that if he could by pretending to that raise himself to the possession of an Empire he concluded his Title would then be cleer enough in the mean time he resolved to pursue his designes though he dyed in the attempt and one day taking an opportunity to speak to the Palatine unbosomed himself to him with such protestations of love for his Daughter that he seemed to prefer his acquisition of her to that of his Empire The Palatine very sensible of the honour of this Alliance and too wise not to venture upon such sair hopes being also prepared by
of the like upon his Posterity We have in this a lively Description of the peoples temper unconstant in their resolution violent in their love and equally so in their hate They in this juncture cast off all their gratitude to the memory of Boris their prosperity under his calm and wise Government his impartial distribution of Justice the many publike Buildings by him erected for the splendor and use of their City They had no remembrance left of his great industry and charges in providing Food for them in that more than Samaritan Famine which happened in his Reign in the years 1601 1602 1603. or finally no reflection upon the advantageous peace and repose which he had procured for them with their Neighbour-Princes But though they might be suspected to bury the memory of those things in the Grave of Boris yet the wonder was that they should so suddenly destroy their own Act in destroying him whom they had placed upon the Throne but two months before as a Soveraign of their own choyce contrary to the designe of the Nobility whom they forced to swear fealty to him vowing to live and dye in the defence of him his Mother and Sister now rendered the unhappy Objects of their boundless fury The Borisians being thus rooted out wherein the Citizens were equally cruel and diligent they dispatched their Deputies to Demetrius to render him their Submissions and to assure him that in obedience to his Letters they had destroyed the Family of the Gedanowes to a man That Fedro his Mother and Sister were in safe custody in order to his Majesties dispose and that not only their gates but their hearts were open too for his reception Demetrius upon this agreeable news advanced toward Musko with his whole Army such of the Lords as had not yet presented themselves to him met him upon the way and being come within a mile of the Town their Magistrates were there in their Formalities as a representative of the City with a tender of its Homage which he received according to the mode of that Nation in Bread and Salt They had also prepared a vast Present for him in Gold and Jewels which he received with a show of kindness And being now owned by all the Nobility and Orders of the Kingdom and well assured of the devotion of the people to his Interest he made his entrance into the Royal City in great State upon the 20th of June in the year 1605. Emperour and Great Duke of Muskovy and many other Provinces and King of Casan and Astracan The manner of this celebrious Cavalcade was thus The Polish Horse with their Launces presented had the Van Some thousands of Muskovites followed them in good order having in the midst of their Body the Coach of Demetrius drawn by six beautiful Horses with all his lead Horses nobly Sadled and Trapped with embroidery of Gold and Jewels After these came the Clergy with squared Ensignes born before them on which were Painted some Saint or other as our Lady St. Nicholas their Patron and the like The Patriarch brought up the Rear of these Spiritual Warriours and at some distance behind him was Demetrius himself mounted upon a goodly Milk-white Courser environed on all sides with the Lords and Gentlemen that made up his Train All the Bells rung for joy and all the Streets Windows tops of Houses and all other eminent places swarmed with multitudes of people who as he passed along fell upon their faces and then raising themselves up cried as one man Long live the Great Duke of Russia Thou art the right Sun and bright Morning-Star that now shines in Muskovy To which he replied God give you my Subjects Health and prosperity stand up and pray for me As he passed along he was shewed the Palace of Boris but he turned another way as loathing to behold that place where had been hatched all the Villanies against him and the Blood-Royal of Russia and declaring it his pleasure to have it defaced the willing people were not long in the execution of his Commands laying those goodly Fabricks in a moment level with the ground Demetrius being entered the Palace-Royal dismissed the Princes and Lords who trooped together into the Market-place where Bogdan Bielski made them an Exhortation to acknowledge the goodness of God for their Great Duke obliging them to be true and faithful to him That he was the undoubted Son of John Basilius and thereupon taking his Cross out of his Bosom with St. Nicholas his Picture upon it he kissed it and swore that their present Emperour was the right Demetrius and that to the day of his discovery he had been concealed and kept in the Bosom of St. Nicholas who had now restored him to them for the preservation of them and their Land Hereupon the whole people answered with joyful acclamations three times God save our Great Duke God give him health God punish all his Enemies and all those that fail in their Fidelities to him Demetrius being by this extraordinary Concurrence of his Affairs got upon the Throne assumed the manage of the Government into his own hands and having made it his study to understand the Interests of his Crown as it stood related to forain Princes upon the accompt of Traffick or any other considerations of State he informed himself what Embassadors were then in the Kingdom either at Court or upon their return he judged it advisable to signifie to them his happy Restauration And understanding that amongst others of other Princes that Mr. John Merrick Agent and Sir Thomas Smith Embassadors for the King Great Britain having received their Dispatches from Boris were upon their return homeward in order whereunto having finished their other Negotiations they were gone toward the Sea-side Demetrius sent this following Letter from the Camp at Thula to Mr. Merrick and a while after another with an Express by one of the Gentlemen of his chamber to the aforesaid Embassadors Demetrius his Letter to Mr. Merrick Dated the 8th of June 1605. WE Demetrius Evanowich Lord Emperour and Great Duke of Russia To John Merrick English Merchant We give hereby to understand that we are by the just Judgment of God and his strong Power as Duke and Sole Lord raised to our inheritance Throne and Empire of Uladomir Muskovy and all Russia Calling therefore to minde the Confederations and Amity which our Father Evan Vasilowich Lord Emperour and Great Duke of Russia held and kept with the Great Princes of Christendom We likewise are resolved to maintain and keep the same and in a more special manner to hold a more particular correspondence and friendship with your King James To this end we purpose to favour you his English Merchants with a greater measure of our Grace than heretofore you have enjoyed from our Predecessors So soon therefore as you shall have received these our Letters and finished your markets at the Port of St. Michael the Archangel our pleasure is that you hasten back
Auxiliaries giving out that he would plant the Kingdom with Colonies of strange Nations This fill'd the people with dreadful Apprehensions of his Tyranny and imbarked the Lords in the same prejudice to find themselves neglected in the administration of Justice and the same managed according to the appetite and fancie of the Poles To all this he gave the Jesuites publike Churches and dwellings and to all of that Perswasion the free Exercise of it He had indeed himself been brought up in the Romish Religion which might in some measure have warranted the Profession of it in his own Chappel though Henry the Fourth of France dispensed with his former Faith upon his accession to the Crown endeavouring thereby to cure the Jealousies of the people who are no way so fervently engaged as upon the the account of Conscience But Demetrius his publike despising of the Rites of the Greek Church and his so open endeavours to introduce that of the Latins abhorr'd by the people gave the first shock to their affections and then his Habit Garb and Gesture being wholly Forein the Commonalty who see but the outside and make their judgment by that conclude his Inclinations were so too But what wrought most effectually upon those that understood best was to discern a lightness in his Behaviour bearing no proportion with so exalted a Quality as he bore in the world little Gravity and less Judgment in the manage of publike Affairs measuring concerns of a different nature by the same Standard From this short-sightedness being but newly invested in the Royalty he denounced War against the Swedes and with the same vanity writ to King Sigismund that he would arm against the Turk and Tartar before he knew the Constitution of his own Empire or by what establishment an Army was to be maintained Demetrius being Crowned Emperour his next care was the matter of his Amours those Passions were still alive in him and he had so much of the Constancie of a Lover as to invite Marina to the participation of his Greatness Upon this consideration he dispatcht a splendid Embassy into Poland with a Present of the Jewels of the Crown of an inestimable value The Palatine of Sandomiria had indeed deserved well from him but the Nobility of Muscovy abhorred the thought that the Treasure of their Empire should be havocked away upon that Negotiation which no way quadrated with their Appetite however this concern fell out so far luckily for Demetrius that it respited his fate for the Conspirators having laid their designe to be put in execution some days after the dispatch of this Embassie held it advisable to delay it till that was over lest by quitting their hands of their Great Duke the Jewels of the Crown should fall short and stay in Sandomiria They therefore directed the Embassadors who were also privy to the Confederacie to make secret Articles with George Mniseck the Palatine Marina's Father before they made their Present of the Jewels to her that she should bring them with her for her Ornament to Musko There was at the same time dispatched an Embassador to the King and Commonwealth of Poland Athanasius Rosclovius the Treasurer was made choice of for this Employment who being admitted into the Kings presence did in the Name of his Master the Great Duke present his very hearty acknowledgments to the King and Nobility for the seasonable Aids he had received from them declaring that next under God he derived all his Enjoyments from their Succours and confessed that had he not been vigorously owned by them he must have wandered about the world the pity of his Friends and the scorn of his Enemies whilst an Usurper possessed the Throne due to his Birth and in which by their kindness he was seated in perfect peace And as a Testimony of his further Gratitude he had sent his Embassadors to establish a perfect Friendship and League Offensive and Defensive betwixt the Crowns which was to extend to all the Enemies of either Nation especially the common Enemy the Turk who by the advantage of misunderstandings amongst Christian Princes got ground upon Europe And that he might be the more naturally linked to the Kingdom of Poland than the Ceremony of a League could extend to he desired the Kings permission to Marry a Lady his Vassal the Palatine of Sandomiria's Daughter His Obligations to her Father being of that nature that he knew not by what other means to contrive him a proportionable Recompence He had not only owned and received him in his Exile but engaged his Person and his Fortunes in his Quarrel and he could not stand acquitted to himself if he did not communicate to the Daughter of those Enjoyments which were derived to him by the kindness and Courage of her Father The King having fully heard the Embassador did with much Civility acknowledge the respect of the Great Duke in that Address that he wished him all happiness and did heartily congratulate the success of his Arms in the acquirement of his just rights Adding further that he did highly commend the pious resentments he was pleased to have for the sufferings of the oppressed Christians That he would willingly enter into a League with him against the Infidels but that without the consent of the Senate and Nobility of the Kingdom he could determine nothing of that Nature As to the Proposal of his Marrying the Lady Marina he should not only have his consent but his prayers also that God would render that Marriage auspicious to both Kingdoms by propagating between them a League of everlasting Friendship The King having expressed himself to this effect the Nuptials were within eight days after celebrated at Cracow in the presence of the King and a great number of the Nobility of Poland who were invited to this Royal Solemnity His Majesty delivered the Bride with his own hand to the Embassador exhorting that now she was to be transplanted into another Nation she should retain the Memory of her own Country and her Fathers house That she should do all good Offices betwixt both Nations and above all things that she should adhere to the Catholike Religion wherein she had been educated The Church-Ceremonies being finished his Majesty entertained the Bride at a Royal Feast Prince Vladislaus his Son the Princess of Sweden his Sister the Palatine of Sandomiria the Embassadors of Persia with all the Publike Ministers then at Court were invited to it where at the last Course those Jewels sent by Demetrius to his Marina and the Palatine her Father to the value of two hundred thousand Ducats were served up to the Table instead of Fruit which in so Illustrious an Assembly spoke the Magnificence of the Russ and satisfaction of the Bride to be courted at so valuable a Rate About the end of Jan. 1607 the Bride accompanied with the Embassadors of either Nation the Palatine her Father and Duke Constantine Wisnioweski and many other Persons of Quality and a splendid Train having
to our Laws and to the Majesty of him that is seated upon the Throne These considerations did so long restrain me that I had almost suffered my self to be born down with the Torrent rather than tread a way to redeem millions of People from the Inundation But a just zeal to my native Country and the Honour of the Royal Family having at length subdued the temper of my Nature I shall instead of excusing what is done bemoan to you the unhappiness of our Fate that hath left us no other way to avoid Death and Confusion but through it To what extremes were we reduced when the Sword of Justice must be committed to the hands of the Multitude who commonly strike blindfold and that nothing but Blood Horror and Confusion could preserve us either a Being or a Name But the work is done the Tyrant is chastised and the ashes of our dead Emperour in some sort appeased We are now to look forward and in order thereto to consider how God the Disposer of Empires had by a long and uninterrupted Series of Princes devolved this greatest of Christian Kingdoms upon the Person of John Basilius whose great Mind not enduring to be restrained within the Bounds of his antient Dominions extended his Conquests by the accession of two great Kingdoms to the Empire and â—f any particular Persons suffered under the violence of his temper yet the universal benefits of his Victories did abundantly balance those private mischiefs My several Employments and Trusts under that Great Prince in Peace and War in Negotiations and Embassies and Battles as it gave me a particular knowledge of and Honour for so Illustrious an Emperour so it gave me an Inspection into the Mysteries of State which â—y degrees had so naturalized me into the â—oncerns of the Empire that I think I may without vanity assert my actings as principally respecting the Honour of my Prince and the safety of my Country But Basilius being dead our Glory as if he had been the Soul of our Nation withered away under the Conduct of Theodorus whose infirm melancholick Complexion bearing no proportion with the Courage of his People they seemed to degenerate from what they had formerly been and the barrenness of the Great Dutchess conspiring with the indisposedness of the Prince our Government was no longer supported by his Vertue but rendred a Prey to the Designes of her Favorites And though her unfruitfulness had by our known Laws actually repudiated that Lady from the Emperors bed yet by the artifice of that worst of men whose Name ought to be in horror with us she was continued near him whilst that cursed Brother of hers Boris having thus and by the Murther of Demetrius depriveâ— us of all hopes of a Successor had by the influence of a secret Poyson laid a Train for the life of Theodorus and was to take effect in point of time with his other hellish Contrivances for the attaining of the Empire Then was it that our Banks being born down in the Extinction of the Royal Family our Calamities broke in upon 〈◊〉 like a Deluge and such miseries as were not within humane Comprehensions were acted upon us by the vilest of Monsters whose Villanies were such that had we not our own Testimony for our Sufferings we should never credit that of any other It was from the Sense of this bleeding Condition that I judged it necessary to close with any Pretensions for the Extirpation of so abhorr'd a Tyranny judging it a less evil to own the supposed Demetrius than to sit under the Cruelties of Boris and no other way being then visible I was constrained by the Aid of an Impostor to revenge the Royal Family upon a bloody Vsurper In order whereto I recommended him to you my Lords and to the whole people as the rightful Heir But this Mushroom thus set at the Helm immediately attempts to hurry us from one confusion to another nothing of ours was Sacred in his eye the Religion of our Fore-fathers was become our reproach our antient Laws trampled on and violated new Fashions and uneasie Customs introduced upon us our Liberties taken away and the Government put into the hands of Strangers These considerations made me break through all difficulties to resist the Impostor and with the hazard of my life to refuse him those Honors which were due to a lawful Prince 'T is true I fell into his hands in the Attempt and that he spared my life when the Executioner was ready to take it from me But I owe it him but as to a Thief who had no right over it and who when he might did not take it away Though this might oblige any other of less zeal for his Country yet I who lay under greater obligations to that and that never cared to live for my self alone was after some reluctancies upon the sence of ingratitude resolved to embark my Fame in the same Vessel that had the charge of the Common-Interest chusing rather to Shipwrack with that than to lie secure with my own Concerns in the Harbour That which gave life to my Endeavours was the faithful concurrence of you my Lords whose Zeal and Courage in so glorious an Attempt as it contributes to the eternal Honour of your Memory so it receives Testimony from the Great Disposer of Empires who hath signalized his Approbation of our Actings in the Event And now my Lords being we are delivered from our Bondage and have once more day before us that the Royal Line is extinguished and that we are in the quality of a free people it behoves us as good Patriots to provide for the Government of these vast Territories in a way consistent with their antient Constitutions in order whereto let us look into the Commonwealth for what is denied us in the Royal-Family and pitch upon a Person fitly qualified for the Greatness and Honour of the Charge he is to undertake Let his Extraction be Eminent and of the first Rank that the Glory of the Empire may not receive diminution from the meanness of his Blood or the Nobles scorn Obedience to their Inferior and let his Virtue be so Illustrious that they have no room to envy his Precedencie But above all things make choice of a zealous Worshipper and Observer of our Religion in the Rites and Ceremonies of our Ancestors which besides that it draws down the Blessing of Heaven upon us it checks all Conspiracies hatcht under the Mask of Godliness and Conscience Let your Prince be a Person of years and Experience in the Affairs of State considering that besides our disorders within we are surrounded with Enemies from without who lie in wait to invade us and are ready to close with any distempered Spirits for our confusion Let him be one who will account Justice and Temperance a more firm Support than Pride and Arrogance to the Royal Majesty who measures his safety from the Affection of his People and his Treasure from the Preservation of
of the Kingdom their Duke must abjure the Romish Profession and declare himself for the Greek Rites The King having received their Message and not ignorant of the wiliness and reserves of that subtle Nation was not wanting in a return sutable to the occasion He told them that he did receive this Honour conferred upon his Son with great satisfaction which should oblige him at all times to serve their Country with his best Aids and Counsels And as to the Treaty relating to its particulars he did purpose to give Zolkievius then upon the place full Instructions for the compleating of it at their own homes The Embassadors after this Answer and having been sumptuously feasted by the Prime Officers of the Court with great and mutual professions of kindnesses in so much as they seemed to be but one people were dismissed The King having by this fully weighed the state of his Affairs gathered to himself many reasons not to believe the reality of the Moscovites for else why did they elect his Son and not him but that they should be able when he had withdrawn his Forces out of their Land to practise upon the unexperience of his Son by reason of his youth and to justle him out of the Throne to which they had raised him out of necessity not choice And on the other side if the King should forbear to send him to them till he were of Age they would take occasion from this delay to transfer their Suffrage upon another He took a further Umbrage of their Designes from the refusal of the Garrison of Smolensko to surrender their City in the name of Prince Vladislaws though he were declared and proclaimed Great Duke with the usual Ceremonies their excuse was that they could not own him by so publike an Act till he had been received in the Capital City Crowned and Sworn to the maintenance of their Laws and their Protection Zolkievius had many ill-willers about the King who were not wanting to cherish these apprehensions of prejudice contracted by him against the Russians and having gained the Kings ear they instill'd new Counsels into him That this Election of his Son was an affront and an imposing upon his Majesty instead of receiving Law from him That he had by his Arms reduced them to those distresses that they must suddenly lay themselves that they must suddenly lay themselves at his feet whereas now they addressed to him by their Embassadors with Conditions not only inglorious but inconsistent with the state of his Affairs and impossible for him to subscribe to And that upon the reducing of Smolensko he might consider himself as a Conqueror and Rule that false People by such Laws as he should judge sutable to his Honour and Safety But there were others of his Council that advised the preserving of that Faith which Zolkievius had Sworn to them in his Name and by his Approbation That by confirming of that he would in one day render himself Master of a vast Empire which it might cost him some years besides a great expence of Blood and Treasure to reduce And they being an obstinate people might fall upon new Counsels and close with Demetrius whose Title would give him a trouble to resist as well upon the account of Reason as the power of his Arms. For it was upon the pretence of aiding Demetrius that he invaded their land who being restored to the Throne the King could have no more a fair colour to stay in it That his Army might by this means be paid all their Arrears as the Souldiers of Vladislaws the Great Duke out of the Treasures of Russia whereas the Kingdom of Poland if it fell to them to pay it would grow uneasie under so intolerable a burthen That the practises of the Russians might easily be eluded by seating Vladislaws upon the Throne with an able Council about him who should immediately provide pay for the Army which they would not refuse upon his first reception and while it lay in their Chief City And as to the Articles they might be well enough evaded and delayed while more Recruits were coming out of Poland But the King's mind being prepossessed as if carried on by an irresistible Fate adhered to the more violent Counsels of such as blew him up with a Punctilio of Honour not to rise from before Smolensko before he had reduced it having cost him already above a years Siege and was now upon the point of a rendition or being forced The King had raised a Battery against it but did not prosecute his matters with that quickness but that they within had time to make a deep Ditch and to raise new Ramparts in opposition to the Battery after which the Cannon began to play which indeed laid flat a great part of the Wall with two Flankers that stood next it the Assault was made but in vain they being repulsed with great loss The Russians in the mean time clamoured at this breach of the Treaty which had been celebrated with the Solemnity of an Oath and that contrary to the Law of Nations their Embassadors were detained Which the King justified upon this Reason that they refused to give order to the Governour of Smolensko to surrender the Town in their Great Dukes Name and which they excused as not within their Instructions The Affairs of Russia hung thus in suspence for some time the people not daring to do more than mutter while Zolkievius and his Army lay enquartered in their Chief City Demetrius also began to look up again having sheltered himself in Caluga while he was reinforcing his Party which was much countenanced by the return of Zarucki and Prince Kazimowski to him whose reception by King Sigismund bearing no proportion with what they proposed to themselves left him and returned again to the Service of their old Lord. But Zolkievius disdaining to be thus treated by the King contracted violent discontents in so much that taking the pretence of going to fetch the Prince to Musko he left the Army and passing by Smolensko where he but saluted the King he retired into Poland The Russians after the Generals departure understanding that the King had refused sending his Son at his intercession that the captive Zuiskius's together with their Embassadors were sent away Prisoners into Poland and that the King took upon him the Administration of the Affairs of the Empire putting new Officers into all the great places and refusing to own them as a State prepared for a Revolt to which the death of Demetrius did very effectually contribute He had a little before upon some apprehensions of infidelity in Kasimouski against him caused him to be thrown into the River Occa and drowned there which the Tartars of his Guard so far resented as to study a revenge He was of late time used to divert his Melancholy with drinking drowning at least steeping his cares in liquor and having been one day a hunting he retired himself with some of his particular
Friends to the enjoyment of this accustomed solace when these enraged Tartars broke in upon him and murthered him upon the place Neither did they escape Vengeance for Marina receiving this news with the most violent apprehension in the world and laying aside all respect to her Quality being transported with grief and rage she ran into the Streets calling to every person she met either to revenge the Murther of her Lord or by the same cruelty to do an act of Charity towards her in delivering her from that loathed burthen of her life The Cossacks inflamed by the Prayers and Tears of this great Lady fell with such fury upon the Tartars that they sacrificed two hundred of them to Demetrius his Manes Marina's grief and their own resentments This second Demetrius after his death was by all hands admitted to be an Impostor Most would have him to have been a School-Master in Socola a Town of Russia Alba and that he had been set up as a Property by the Poles the better to countenance their Designes upon Muskovy Others supposed him a Jew upon this Reason that there were found in his Closet some Hebrew and Talmudical Books the same being likewise affirmed by Michael Federowiez the succeeding Emperour in a Letter from him to Maurice Prince of Orange But whoever he was he was slain by these Tartars as we have related but did not die so entirely but that his Son was chose Great Duke by them of Caluga and Zaruckius with all his Forces addressed himself to the Russians offering them their aid upon promise that so soon as they should quit their hands of the Poles they should by the example of Caluga chuse this Son of Demetrius Great Duke and Emperour This being assented to this Son of Demetrius and Marina was in those Quarters considered as Emperor though many believed this yet a further Impostor for that Marina was supposed barren King Sigismund continued still the Siege of Smolensko which he judged ignominious and below him to abandon though while he opiniatred there he omitted more specious opportunities of prevailing elsewhere and by this delaying gave the Muskovites means to regain what by their Divisions had been extorted from them It was now the beginning of the Year 1611 when they began to take Arms under the Conduct of Lepanow a Great Lord of the Country who having made some private Levies appeared in the field first about Prezlaw from whence he invited and gained most of the Boyarians to his Party dispersing Messengers into all the Provinces to reproach the Poles of their breach of Faith in detaining their Prince from them complaining further that they had got their City of Musko by fraud and practice and that they kept the Zuiski's in Prison together with their Embassadors contrary to the Law of Nations Zarucki brought in his Force to this Party upon the Conditions before mentioned that young Demetrius should be received and declared Emperour and Great Duke so soon as they should have cleared their Country from the Poles the plague of it And Prosowecki another Great Lord raised another and greater Army about Novogrodock so that these Levies from small beginnings did by the inadvertencie of the Poles improve to that bulk that none of the Kings Forces scattered in the Country for the securing its Obedience durst look upon them they scarce sufficing to defend themselves He could not spare any of his Leaguer from before Smolensko having a great Line to man and the Enemy a strong Garrison in the Town his Army in Musko was little enough to keep the numbers in the City in subjection whose old aversion to the Poles was revived to so high a pitch that upon notice of Lepanow's being in Arms they conspired how to Massacre the Garririson consisting of 6000 Horse and 1000 Foot They wanted only Leaders not a will to this bloody action There were within the circuit of this vast City one hundred and eighty thousand houses a multitude of Inhabitants besides a great confluence of Strangers retired thither out of the neighbour-Provinces for Sanctuary to avoid the fury of a Civil War and many to assist the Conspirators as conscious of the intended Designe so that they only wanted a Head and Method for the carrying of it on Goziouski General of the Poles was not without his Intelligence of these Menés but chose rather to dissemble his notice being only intent upon his fortifying of Kitaigrod and Krimgrod which contain within their Walls the Dukes Palace with the Ware-houses of the wealthiest Merchants proposing to himself that he should be able to retire thither upon occasion Gariouski had scarce finished his Works when the Russians supplying by their malice what they wanted in conduct being carried on as it were by the weight of their number drawn together by the ringing of their Bells the third day after Palm-Sunday made a furious Assault upon the Enemy in their bosome The Poles opposed Despair and Discipline to their confused multitudes and were so successful in it as to kill 6000 upon the place without any considerable loss and prosecuting that advantage by firing that part of the City next them they destroyed multitudes of Houses Women Children Goods and helpless People by the aid of that raging Element The day following Gariouski commanded the Suburbs on the other side of the River Moscha to be burnt because that Strusius who was hastening to the relief of his Countreymen with his Regiment from Mosaisco was retarded there by the Inhabitants The City tamed thus by Fire and Sword rejecting the fault upon some few petitioned for pardon and had it without great difficulty the Poles not being in a condition to do more than secure their own Quarters though they had gained well to bring the Enemy to ask quarter of them It was neither compunction in the one nor kindness in the other that begat this calm for the Inhabitants upon the advance of Lepanow with Zarucki and Prosowecki with an Army of 100000 men joyned with them forcing the Poles into their Works where they were besieged save on one passage over the River which they kept open a long time and by which they got in their Provisions and made frequent Sallies with various Fortune and Success All this while King Sigismund lay immoveable at the Siege of Smolensko which dured longer than he had fancied but what was worse the Souldiers grew uneasie for want of Pay clamouring in such sort that he was in much dread of a Mutiny He had no Moneys neither did he know how to compass any without a Convention of the States of his Kingdom and this he was put upon to calm the Souldiers who were prevailed with to expect the determinations of that Assembly with patience But the King that no Objection might lie upon him for not having made all imaginable Attempts for gaining the place resolved upon a general Assault before he left the Leaguer to go to the Convention which he had appointed in