taken her leave of the King and Court of Poland set forwards towards Musko and on the 26th of April entred the Imperial City being met by the way by Peter Bosmanno attended by a great number of the Nobility who conducted her into and through the City which was fitted and accommodated according to the Mode of the place upon such occasions the Citizens being disposed in their Formalities to make a passage for her and the streets ecchoing her Welcome with the confused noises of the People Trumpets Cymbals and other sorts of Musick Being arrived at the Palace she was received by Demetrius with all the imaginable demonstrations of Joy and Affection She also was not wanting in a very obliging reception of the Great Ladies that were presented to her and after a short stay at Court she after the manner of that Country was conducted back to the Monastery where the Empress Dowager was and where she was accommodated with an Appartment till the celebration of the Nuptials Four days after she was removed from thence to another Appartment prepared for her in Court and Royally furnished in order to her Marriage which was the day following after Evening-prayer performed by the Patriarch The Scepter the Apple and the Sword were born before the Emperour the Great Duke of Muskovy assuming that Title and the Crown wherewith the Empress was to be adorned was carried before her upon a Cushion of Crimson-Velvet the Walls of the Church being hung with the same Livery bordered with a deep Fringe of Gold The Church-ceremony ended they were both of them with their Crowns upon their Heads conducted back to the Palace all the Cannon Bells and Musick in the Town thundring ringing and playing without intermission where the succeeding night was wasted in Feasting Dancing Balls Masks and other Revels proper for the Divertisements of Kings and Great Personages The Solemnity was continued the next and other following days with all those Delights and Pleasures which the Wit of Russia could invent no excess being spared which might improve the State and Magnificence of the Nuptials till the 16th the fatal Eve of the ensuing Tragedy We have already given you some account of this Emperours disadvantages in the peoples esteem and by what ways he lost ground amongst them his manner of living bearing no proportion with the station wherein he was placed He was much to seek in the Art of Government neither had he discretion to make right application of the Advice of his Council or indeed to be much amongst them his whole time being spent in the Society of Players and such other Mimicks whereby his Nature being vitiated he grew profuse of the Treasures of the Crown which were so strangely wasted amongst his Rabble that to enumerate their sum must needs raise the Readers admiration They speak of many Myriads of Gold and Silver and twelve Bushels of Pearl and other Jewels and to have this prodigious stock of Riches havocked away in a few months rendered him the hate and scorn of the Nobles which was heightned by his introducing of forein Habits and Customs amongst them a people tenacious even to Superstition of the old Manners and Ceremonies derived to them from their Fathers All this being put together did so enflame them that what they first designed out of a levity in their nature was now pursued upon the score of Justice as being called to it by Divine Impulsion to chastise this Mushrome of a Prince whose growth being preposterous his end was likewise so Basilius Zuiski to the rest of his Arguments to conspire the ruine of this Prince had now an addition of Revenge to add to the heap for that publike reproach laid upon him not to be cancelled by new favours He confidered that the next transgression would be severely punished upon him and that he only held his life at the will of a Tyrant in whose power it was every moment to renew the old Judgment against him He was not wanting to inflame the Lords and people with a zeal as he termed it to the Interest of their Countrey who had taken fire to that height that they used to discourse publickly concerning him As for his Birth it was base being nothing of the Person or Manners of Jo. Basilius appeared in him and as for his Religion it was Heretical being he scorned coming to the Churches and if at any time he appeared there he manifested neither respect nor Devotion by his Outlandish Modes rendred his Presence a reproach to the Place He omitted bowing to St. Nicholas and other Saints which were had in Veneration by that people and in his Diet would ordinarily eat Calves-flesh which was held an abomination amongst them A bold fellow taking the liberty to discourse at this rate in the hearing of some of the Guards was seized upon and brought before the Great Duke who commanded him to the Rack but some of the Council interposing affirmed that the fellow was drunk and that it was below his Majesty to reflect upon such a worm adding that there was no cause for those fears in a potent Empire where he was able to raise Millions for the defence of his Sacred Person so that he was fatally swayed to neglect the business and being drowned in security and led away by the flatteries of a sort of Buffoons who fed his pleasures with fresh Inventions he left the Affairs of State to their own fortune accounting himself secure in the protection of his new Guards of Foreiners which were 300 men English French and Scotch and divided into three Squadrons commanded by Officers of their respective Nations They were armed with Swords and Halberds and cloathed for their every-days Habit in Scarlet and for Festivals in Crimson-Sattin These Guards were brought in the place of those Foreiners whom he had dismissed before but the Gangrene was run too far to be cured by so feeble an Application The Conspirators as we have already observed had purposely suspended the Execution of their Designe till the arrival of the Bride especially the return of the Jewels with another Consideration of no less Consequence as to time which was judged most seasonable at the Solemnity of the Nuptials when Demetrius and his Court would be drowned in pleasures Basilius Zuiski allied by the Mother to the Blood-Royal of Muskow had two Brothers John and Eogdan who were very serviceable to his Designe in the raising of some thousands of men in their several Territories and especially in their conveying of them into the City unobserved The Marriage of Demetrius conspired with them in that part of it as agreeable to the manner of the Eastern Nations for the Nobility upon such publike Solemnities do travel with a great Train of Friends and Attendants There was upon the 16th of May a more Royal Feast appointed than any had been held before as if upon a particular respect and Honour to the Polish Nation to which the Embassadors of that Country being invited
That for his part he had a heart to forgive all their former failings and rebellions and as a true Father of his Country to extend his Clemencie to such as should manifest their penitence But if after this advice and the example of their fellow-Subjects they should yet persist in their rebellious actings they must expect he consequence in the ruine of them and their City These Letters falling into the hands of some of Fedro's Forces which he had drawn together for the defence of Musko were suppressed so that the people knew nothing of them Demetrius in the mean time wondered he could receive no Answer to his Letters till at last guessing the truth of the matter as indeed it was he employed some private Agents to Crasna Cella a great Village within a quarter of a mile of the City peopled with Merchants and Handicrafts-men whose trading however was in the Town He by these Agents insinuated into them that upon the single desire of their safety he had imployed divers Messengers to the City with overtures of peace but that not having answer he was disposed rather to believe that his Letters were suppressed by the Gedanow-Faction than that the people were wanting to him in suitable returns He had a considerable Army about him ready upon their March and impatient for want of action but he had made that long halt at a convenient distance from so populous a City rather than incommode it by a nearer approach He therefore desired to understand their inclinations according to which he resolved to move putting into their hands whether they would embrace Peace under the auspice of his Government or the unhappy consequence of a bloody War for which themselves should stand accountable and not he The Inhabitants of Crasna Cella receive this Message with great reverence and the Agents having with them Copies of those Letters formerly writ to the Magistrates of the City they delivered them likewise whereupon the Inhabitants trooping together took with them Demetrius his Messengers into the Town and being come into the Market-place they caused his Letters to be openly read to that world of people that flockt about them whereupon without the least shew of tumult which was a wonder they went as one man to the Palace of Duke Basilius Zuiski and by two of their number in a very civil manner beseech him to tell them if young Demetrius the Son of John Basilius had been slain at Vgletz or not Zuiski without the least hesitation answered that in very truth Demetrius upon notice of Boris his designe had been secretly conveyed away and another Youth of his years and complection the Son of a Priest put in his place in the Princes Bed who according to the plot laid by Boris was murthered and interr'd as the right Demetrius with the Funeral of Princes To this he added that he was the real Demetrius who lay with his Army at Tula The people hearing this from so great and eminent a person and considering how the bulk of the Nobility had declared for Demetrius who was ready with a potent Army to advance towards them most of the Provinces having already tendred him their Submissions judged it high time for them also to make their Addresses and whilst they were in consultation of the affair some Courtiers having had notice of the Tumult were come with some of the Guards to disperse them and seize upon Demetrius his Agents which the people not only opposed but proceeding from one degree of heat to another breathed nothing but Demetrius his pretensions asserting him to be the rightful Prince and that they would not any longer be so far wanting to themselves and the Empire as to refuse their obedience where by the Laws of God and the Land it was due and then crying Long live Demetrius Great Duke and Emperour of Russia come say they let us go and destroy that Viperous brood of the Gedanowes from the face of the earth This said they ran toward the Court like mad-men and as a Snow-ball so encreased by rowling that by the time they were come thither their numbers were multiplied to many thousands sending their Clamours before them which filled the Court with terrour and confusion All within and about it were sacrificed to their rage and fury and no life escaped them but that of the Great Duke the Empress-Regent and her Daughter who were rather reserved for the judgment of Demetrius and wherewith to purchase their own peace and pardon than upon the accompt of tenderness towards that Family She was a Lady of high spirit and courage and considering that she and her Children were reprived only to add to the Triumphs of Demetrius resolved to put them and her self out of the malice of his power in order whereto she prepared a strong Poyson and disposed them to pledge her in that Fatal mixture Her Tears did easily deceive their Innocence and yet theirs had almost overcome her Constancie Come says she the dear pledges of your Fathers love and then taking them in her arms Come continued she my joy and grief it may be the Tyrant having rendered us uncapable of disturbing his repose will be content with our spoils and spare our lives Here she paused but suddenly recollecting her self No no said she Treason is never secure so long as there are any left to reproach its Author Let us therefore not linger out a miserable life by a more miserable delay till the Tyrant have studied to destroy us more Exquisitely and more Ignominiously and with this snatching the Cup she hastily swallowed the greatest part of it forcing her Children to take off the rest and then clasping them in her arms the Poyson did in a short time spread its vigour over their tender Bodies all of them expiring as by joynt consent all together in their mutual embraces Such as favour Demetrius affirm that the Princess was preserved by his command by the speedy applying of Antidotes to subdue the malignity of the Poyson His Enemies also say the same adding he preserved her but in order to satisfie his lust The people being inflamed with the heart of their own fury after they had pillaged the whole Court ran like mad men into the City seized upon all the Borisian Party and Family putting many of them to death at that instant and the rest they hurried into a Fort adjoyning to the City where having stript them stark naked they turned them in promiscuously men women and children together without either Cloaths Food or Covert and some of them by the coldness of the Air and for want of Nourishment perished they strangle the rest or put them to some other violent death so that there was not one of the Family left alive their rage herein executing upon the House of Boris an exemplary judgement of God proportionable to the Cruelty wherewith he had treated that of his Master God in his justice punishing his Cruelty to them with a due retaliation
they instead of promising to come returned their Answer by way of expostulation that unless the same place were given them at the Great Dukes Table as his Embassadors enjoyed at Cracovia they begg'd his Pardon for not obeying him chusing rather to deny themselves the Honour of his Invitation than to receive it to the prejudice of their King and Commonwealth This Punctilio being argued in Council was opposed by the Russian Lords by all the Arguments they could devise but the Great Duke over-ruled the Point and would have the Foreiners gratified as those by whom he had ascended up to his Throne There happened during the Feast some passages of heat betwixt them the Poles giving themselves the liberty to reproach the want of Courage in the Russians as having imposed an Emperour upon them which Language being received with scorn had certainly been returned with severity upon the place but that having whispered together they chose rather to hasten their Designe and to Revenge all their Resentments together The close of the Feast was the beginning of the Affray for when all the world was steeped in Jollity giving themselves up to Dancing and Revels the very Guards being dismissed upon this occasion the Conspirators who had been kept waking upon other Designes had by break of day next morning possess'd themselves of the most considerable Parts and Avenues of the City and Basilius Zuiski placing himself in the Head of them with a Cross in one hand and his Sable drawn in the other led them on towards the Heart of the City He had caused the great Bell the common signal of Alarms to be toll'd and a confused Cry to be spread about the Streets that the Poles were in Arms upon a Designe of putting the whole City to the Sword The People being raised with this apprehension fell upon the Poles in their Quarters and destroyed them before they could wake to see their danger The tolling of the Bell with the greater noise of the people in the Streets had rouzed Demetrius who calling to them of his Bed-chamber to enquire the Cause of that Tumult they answer it must necessarily be some Fire Bosmanno being commanded to understand the true reason of it hastens to the window that looked towards the Streets and observed them full of armed men and asking the Cause of it at that unseasonable hour they cried they would speak with that Impostor the Great Duke who had betrayed them into the hands of the Poles Bosmanno hearing this and struck with the apprehension of the danger ordered such of the Guards as lay next at hand to be called to their Arms and to make good the Palace and going in to Demetrius My Lord said he it is now too late that you have the Experience of my Counsel the Conspirators are in Arms and the Treason at your Door Whilst Bosmanno was speaking a Gentleman of the other Party had pressed through some of the Guards half asleep and called to the Duke aloud Thou false Great Duke why comest thou not out to satisfie that demand of the people who are in the Streets expecting thee Bosmanno abhorring so great an Insolence snatcht a Sable which hung by upon the Wall and at one blow laid this bold man dead at his feet Demetrius flung himself out of Bed and covering his Body with what was next hand snatched a Halbard from one of the Guards with which going into the Anti-chamber where the Conspirators were entring with fury in his looks he flies upon them and put the forwardest to retreat but they pressing in the second time and some of them shooting at him he judged it advisable to withdraw whilst Bosmanno advancing up towards them desired they would please in a peaceable manner to signifie their desires and he would undertake to have them gratified Michael Tatisson one of the Ringleaders answered him Thou Son of a Whore dost thou take upon thee to prescribe Rules to the Nibility and people of Russia And drawing out a long Knife which hung by his side stab'd him to the heart wherewith he fell down dead before him upon the place The Guards being now no longer able to resist were kill'd as they appeared whiles the poor Duke retiring from Chamber to Chamber with some few of his Servants was at last come to such a place where there was no further passage he hurried on by his despair flung himself out of a Window forty foot from the ground His fall was so great that he vomited Blood with the crush of it but his fears making him strong he scrambled to his Guard of Muskovites in the Fortress The Conspirators in the mean time missing their prey made Booty of what else they found in the Palace and causing themselves to be guided to the Appartment of the Empress who had hid her self they asked for her but the frighted Ladies wanting courage to reply the old Lady Palatine of Samoc confident in the Prerogative of her gray-hairs told she was upon the noise fled to her Father's Lodgings They searched the Room and not finding her revenged their disappointments in such a vile sort of unclean Expressions as is not fit for any Language but the Russian to repeat and the Lords by this strange irruption transported in their very minds to all excess of Debauchery seized each of them upon one of the Ladies none escaping them but the old Lady Palatine who was spared upon the Priviledge of her wrinkles and another Lady that sate sick in a Chair till one of them observing some extraordinary motion about her lower parts pull'd her up where the poor affrighted Marina was discovered but with so great a Majesty in her Aspect that they her Enemies seemed more astonished than she and withdrew offering her no kinde of violence which is not the least Argument for the Dominion of Beauty able to subdue the Spirits of men when they are become savage The Conspirators having received some advertisement that Demetrius was retreated to the Fort for shelter they all made thither where after some confused attempts but greater threatnings to force the place that unfortunate Person was put into their hands They led him away in Triumph as the Spoils of War and the Rabble were not wanting to aggravate his afflictions by their reproachful Behaviour and Language to which he made no reply at all but seeing his stately Palace pillaged and stained with the Blood of his Servants and Friends and others of them hurried away to Prison and abused in his presence he could not resist to manifest his resentments by his Tears And to add yet to his misery they covered him with an old ragged Coat and so exposed him to publike view not without the scorn of mocks and taunts which none can have so great a sense of as he that had been possessed of so eminent a Grandeur And to leave nothing unattempted that might imbitter his Soul besides their justling him pointing their fingers at his eyes plucking him by
Kings Guards rendered himself famous for an Attempt wherein if he had been vigorously seconded the place had run the risk of falling into the Kings hands He fastened a Petard to St. Michaels Gate which laid the passage open into the Town but being ill seconded by his own men and multitudes of the Russians flocking to the danger he was forced to retreat without having effected any thing more than to render the Enemy more diligent who immediately blocked up their Gates with Mountains of earth making also great Trenches before them to prevent the like Attempt for the future And thus the Siege continued with various labours on both sides the King having lain about a year before it with more pertinacie than was judged conducible to the state of his Affairs which seemed to invite him to Musko the Imperial Seat as a place more probable to fall into his hands It was now the Year 1610 and the Zuiskians had laboured long against a prevailing Enemy at their Doors when the Aids came from Sweden The Poles in the Camp wanted not their inconveniencies They had a multitude of Chief Commanders which occasioned frequent Disputes to the disappointing of many probable Designes they had to this a licentiousness in their Discipline secure carelesness in the conduct of their Affairs the natural infirmity of that Nation and an instability and irresolution in their Councils all things seeming to portend their ruine Most of the great Cities and Provinces except Severia had revolted from their Obedience Their Taxations were become intolerable which the unseasonable Seditions of the Army had extorted from Demetrius for want of Pay the People now too late repenting themselves of the Contributions already paid them without which they must have left them to the enjoyment of that peace which by their own folly and fickle nature they had deprived themselves of They proceeded so far in many parts of the Empire as to seize upon imprison and kill the Tax-gatherers which caused the Poles to disperse strong Parties of their Army into several parts of the Land insomuch that their force in the Camp did not suffice to check the excursions of the Town by whom they were several times baffled Their Commander in Chief Rosinski upon one of those Sallies was shot into the side with an Arrow of which hurt he lay long sick and never perfectly recovered Upon an Encounter which happened in May the Poles had gained a notable advantage over them but delaying their Retreat gave the Enemy time to come on with fresh Troops against their wearied Souldiers whom they routed and snatching the Victory out of their hands took divers Prisoners and destroyed most of their Foot The time was thus wasted as well as the strength of each Party The Poles having received Intelligence of the advance of the Swedish Aids towards Musko under the Command of Pontus de la Garde sent Alexander Zbarowski with 2000 Horse to check their progress He beat one of their Regiments at Toccinum and killed 600 Germans upon the place The Muskovites concerned in the safety of these Auxiliaries drew out their whole strength and joyned with them The Poles also reinforced Zbarowski with their best Troops and being now in the Field again both Armies met at T wer 30 Leagues from Musko the Dispute was fierce the Demetrians rushing with contempt upon those they had so often beaten the Russians seemed more willing to die than be overcome which made the Fight bloody and doubtful until these were forced yet again to give place to the Ascendant Virtue of the Poles And certainly the business had there received an end had not the main body of the Army commanded by Zbarowski himself shrunk from the ground for both his Wings prevailed over those of the Enemy and dispersed those who had beaten his Battalia but their number being inferior to that of the Enemy they durst not follow the pursuit or attack the body of Foot which stood immoveable notwithstanding the defection of their Horse There were slain in this Fight 1000 German Horse and 6000 Muskovites with the loss of but 50 Poles The Main Body of Zbarowski's Army emulous of the Success of their Fellows and pressed with the shame of their own miscarriage resolved upon the very spot of ground to redeem their sullied Honour though contrary to the advice of some of their ablest Souldiers who counselled them to withdraw to a more advantageous Post The Army labouring thus under divided Counsels but united in a careless security some lying in the Field and others quartered in the Town The rallied Enemy about break of day fell upon them with a surprize so violent that they had no choice left them but to fly for their lives or lie by it Many save themselves in T wer which was Garrison'd with Cossacks others scarce looked till they got to the Camp at Musko The Poles did indeed what they could to have rallied but the Assault being universal it was impossible for them to do it which probably saved most of them but they lost all their Baggage and most of their Horses The Muskovites raised upon the stock of this Victory stormed the Castle of T wer thrice but were as oft beaten off with loss and now despairing of carrying the place they raised the Siege and marched towards the Volga where they met again with the Demetrian Forces and fought them at Kolasinum but parted upon equal terms Whilest Zuiski and Demetrius do thus with various Fortune strive for the Empire of Russia Sigismund continues obstinate at the Siege of Smolensko which if he had raised and transferred his Arms to Musko it is very probable he might have given Law to both those wearied and implacable Parties but he was absolutely resolved not to quit the place till he had taken it though it may be presumed he failed in his unseasonable distracting and weakning the Demetrian Poles which he ought rather to have assisted with fresh Supplies lest the Muskoviters prevailing Zuiski might be confirmed in the Government and attempt the relief of Smolensko with the united Forces of the Empire which also happened The King had not his Recruits so opportunely out of Poland as he desired but he could not well call his Countrymen from Demetrius without satisfying their Arrears and the rewards they had proposed from the Victory they seemed assured of and the exhausted Treasury of the Commonwealth could not suffice for such a sum but he positive in his resolves sent some eminent Emissaries to perswade them to abandon Demetrius and return to their Duty They on the other side sent their Embassadors to the King that they might not by an untimely desertion be defrauded of the fruit of their labours and after many altercations and disputes of Duty and Rewards the Souldiery resolved to persevere in their faith to Demetrius and which they were obliged to by the Sacred Ties of Vows and Oaths There were for all that some who promised Obedience provided
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
The RUSSIAN IMPOSTOR OR THE HISTORY OF Muskovie UNDER The Usurpation of BORIS AND THE Imposture of DEMETRIUS Late Emperors of Muskovy LONDON Printed by J. C. for Thomas Basset at the George in Fleetstreet near Cliffords Inne MDCLXXIV IL VOSTRO MALIGNARE NON GIOVA NVLLA To the Right Honorable THOMAS Earl of Ossory OF The Most Noble Order of the GARTER c. I Had no sooner engaged my thoughts in the following Narrative but I judged it worthy of your Lordships view and my Concern in it your Protection Besides at what Altar could I more reasonably make tender of this humble Sacrifice but where I had already made Oblation of my self Or to whom should I more properly expose the great Atchievements of others than to Him whose Courage and Civility are such that both Peace and War seem equal Rivals for his Fame I had large room in the last Summers Expedition to contemplate the greatness of your Mind and the Honour of your Nature for I observed such generous impatience in you before the Fights so much Valour and Conduct and Temper in them and such care and pity for the hurt and unfortunate after them that I reverenced and admired so many Virtues in one Person These are the steps my Lord by which your Ancestors entred into the Temple of Honour Thus has the Splendor of your House for so many Ages been upheld And in what Firmament does there now shine a more Illustrious Star Continue then to be propitious to the Nation and kind unto My Lord Your Lordships most devoted Servant R. M. THE PREFACE THese Collections being the Issues of some of my Forein Rambles in the Late Times whilst our Intestine Calamities rendered it infectious to abide within the Air of them and laid aside amongst my neglected Papers have run the risque of being stifled in their birth when looking about me and finding nothing considerable of this Story made publike by any other hand I fancied I think not unreasonably that it might under the Character of being divertive appear abroad in the croud without too much exposing its Author Besides I found so much parallel betwixt these Troubles and those of my Native Country which by a Providence not many degrees short of Miracle is but lately rescued I may say uninchanted from an Imposture of more Artifice and Delicacie by how much it is more difficult for one person to vary his shapes to the same eyes than for those eyes to be deceived by variety of persons that I have here thought good to present the world with some Observations of the later sort The Scene of what I write was laid in the great Empire of Muskovy which in the Memory of man hath laboured under an Imposture no less strange in its birth than admirable in its productions and if we consider the various vicissitudes of the Actors in it not only surpassing what former Ages have delivered of this kind but hardly to be parallel'd by Posterity unless it had already happened For the better understanding of this History I have thought fit to premise somewhat but briefly concerning it upon no other designe than that of gratifying such as are less versed in the Manners and Government of that Country The vast Continent of Russia extends from the Frozen Ocean to the Caspian Sea being also bordered upon by the Swedes the Poles and the Tartars The length of it from the Cape of Ob to the Town of Czerkassy is accounted 1520 English Miles and its breadth from Corelenburg in the Confines of Finland to Lepin 300 German or 1200 English Miles This great Territory is divided into many large Provinces which give also names to or receive them from their principal Cities the Chief whereof is that of Moskwa so called by the Inhabitants and by us Musko from whence also the whole Region is called Muskovy The Country is sandy and plain but welnigh impassable by reason of the multitude of Lakes and Rivers save in the Winter which is long and insufferably cold but most of their Commerce is driven then upon their Sleds and Ice The Summer is in its turn as violently hot and seems the more intense by reason of its short stay sufficing howsoever to ripen their Herbage and Corn and Fruits especially such as survived the rigor of the cold It abounds in Flax and Hemp and an immense quantity of Hony the Woods which are many and great being filled with swarms of Bees as also of Birds and of wild Beasts the precious Furs of the later bring in such high esteem in the world The Inhabitants we will except those of the first Rank are barbarous yet cunning unfaithful immeasurably debauched luxurious cruel and yet so servile that they glory in it The Nobility think it an honour to be esteemed the most abject of Slaves to their Princes but they again insult and tyrannize over their Vassals though all acknowledge the Despotick power of their Duke who is so absolute that he is Sovereign of the lives and fortunes of every individual being fettered by no Law but that of his will which is as extensive as his pleasure In a word there is no Government in the world where the Prerogative of the Prince and the Servitude of the People are greater For all this He admits of a precarious Council many of them of the Clergy the better to impose upon the ignorant and superstitious Commonalty who think nothing Sacred that they have not consented to nor nothing hard that has their approbation Their chief Strength consists in their Cavalry all Gentlemens Sons for none are esteemed Noble who do not serve in the War When all these meet they are accounted 80000 and that is as oft as the Great Duke pleaseth these have Land and Stipends allotted for their subsistance The Foot all Fire-men are 12000 in ordinary pay nor are there any Strangers imployed but upon extraordinary occasions Whereas our chief care is to provide Victuals for our Armies their Prince takes none at all for his every Souldier being his own Purveyor and content with a little scarce using any thing but Bisket and Meal If they were as brave as they are strong and understood War as well as hardship what could resist their numbers and power But they are heavy and so addicted to servility that they scarce desire seldom acquire any great matters Yet they have one other excellent quality especially in Garrison tenacious even to obstinacie as appears together with most of their other Virtues and Vices in the sequel of this Narrative This as most other Countries was at first governed by many and several petty Princes and Lords until most truckling to the felicity of a few these again did by Alliances and Conquests devolve upon one John the Son of Basilius was the first that assumed the Title of Prince of all Russia having not only reduced all others to his obedience but shaken off the Tartars yoke from whom his Predecessors received their Scepters
he took the freedom to mind him that he himself came into the World a Son of sorrows being born in the noysomeness of a Prison and was at last by various Fortunes conducted to a Crown That therefore he would please to reflect upon the mutability of humane affairs and upon the sufferings of an injured Prince whose Restauration depended upon his Aids wherein he would perform a double Act of Justice to chastise the Usurper and to establish the rightful Heir upon the Throne of his Fathers The King received his Address with much respect and compassion and being instructed by his own former hardships to sympathize with those of others he gave him permission or rather connivance to make his leavies of Voluntiers within his Dominions Demetrius having thus improved the Credit of his extraction by the powerfull countenance of the King of Poland which gained him a reputation too in the esteem of other Princes failed not by the fame of his preparations to fill his own countries with irresolutions which being seconded by secret Emissaries imployed into those parts the people whose nature is to affect novelty did with greediness swallow those seditious Pamphlets scattered abroad by him against that bloody Usurper To all this he added the Courtship of invitations to the people to depart from that hated Murtherer lest they should be overwhelmed in the vengeance prepared by God for him fortifying the whole by promises not only of indemnity for what was past but of rewards and honours to such as by their example should instruct others to the duty of their obedience Having thus plained his way by infecting the minds of his Countrymen and corrupting some person of Eminencie of Muskovy he judged it seasonable to gratifie their expectation by rendering himself upon the Stage of Action whereby not onely to give life but security to his party whose correspondencie might be discovered to their Ruine He therefore treated more particularly with the Palatine descending to Articles the substance whereof were That in consideration of his Supplies and Aids Demetrius should upon the regaining of his Crown repay him his full charges Marry the Lady Marina and introduce the Roman faith into his Dominions These Articles being Signed and Ratified though kept secret the Palatine applied himself vigourously to the work raised an Army being under-hand supplied by the King But Duke Constantine Wisnioweski did publikely own the Quarrel by whose example many prime men of Russia presented themselves unto him upon the Borders in the head of considerable Troops raised at their own charges Being thus strengthened by fresh supplies which signified more in their reputation than in their numbers the Palatine with Demetrius in his company marched with his Army into Muskovy the Winter being far advanced sending before him the terror of his Arms and filled with hopes of Conquest This Engagement was the Fountain from whence did spring those many changes which we have since seen in that Empire and may possibly be the effect of that Blazing-Star which appeared on the 3 of October 1614. in the 7th degree of Sagittarius portending peradventure those more than Civil discords which tore and distracted the States of Muskovy and Poland Demetrius had no sooner entred into Muskovy but that 8000 Cossacks disposed to it by the perswasions of the crafty Monk Ranked themselves under his Colours and being strengthened with this considerable supply they passed the River Boristhenes at Kiow without opposition and sate down with their whole Army before the walls of Eeringow The place surrendred upon summons the Governour Tackmenno having taken this opportunity to revenge some disgraces formerly placed upon him by Boris the Emperour Puttiwol a great and populous City followed the example of Eeringow induced to it by the Volgodensian Cossacks there in Garrison whose Governour Michaelowitz Soltekowski was swayed by the temptations of Corelos General of the Demetrian Cossacks and who had the reputation amongst his own Troops of being skilled in the art Magick Some other places but of less importance followed these Examples the rising Sun of Demetrius his hope shining strong in their eyes Boris received the tidings of these Successes with Astonishment he vowed vengeance against these Revolters after such a manner that the whole World should dread the like Infidelity and Treason In the mean time he prepares to oppose the Invasion with a force proportionable and having drawn together an Army of 100000 brave and choyce Souldiers he placed Fedw in the head of them a their General commanding him to march with all speed to the relief of Novogrodâ— straightly beleaguered by Demetrius but as courageously defended by the Valour of Bosmanno the Governour Boris in the mean time was not wanting to himself in contriving what was most suitable to the present occasions and considering that those of his Subjects who had run into Demetrius upon no provocation but that of Novelty would when their Appetite was served be as apt to repent and come back He prepared Declarations of Impunity to publish amongst them besides which he dispatched several Agents into Poland and Lituania to undeceive such as seemed enclined to the Aids of an Heretick and Impostor and having found out one Smyrna Otropeia Unkle to Hrisko he directed him to repair to his Nephew and to convince his adherents of the fallacie he had put upon them But the Palatine who was too far advanced to look back would not permit Otropeia to come into his presence seeming to despise those Artifices as weak shifts to a declining Cause and that he doubted not but he was prepared by the Usurper to lay a blemish upon the Title of Demetrius by owning him for his Nephew But those Arts were too feeble to divert them from exacting a severe account from him for his murther of Theodorus and placing himself upon the Throne of Demetrius the present Emperour Boris finding no Success from these kind of little attempts as it were from behind the Curtain resolved upon the dispatch of a solemn Embassy to the King and Commonwealth of Poland in order to expostulate with them the reason of this Invasion The Embassador being arrived at the Court of King Sigismond and pressing for a speedy audience it was granted him he complained highly against the violation of the Truce lately confirmed between both Nations for twenty years by this unexpected Invasion of his Dominions sacking his Towns and killing his Subjects and all upon no provocation or so much as the pretence of any He added that his Master hoped the King and Commonwealth of Poland would not only be more just but better advised too than lay themselves under the reproach of perjury by imbroyling them and their Allies in a new War by violating a League sworn to by them with all the Solemnities in the World He therefore proposed they would not only recal their Troops out of his Masters Country but that Commissioners might be appointed to consider of the damages sustained from them and
that Country at such times as he made his Collections by Charles the VIII King of Sweden upon the accompt of the contrary Party The Poles by their learned Historian Praeserius as also by the Testimony of their own example asserted the contrary with much fervor he by his Writings they by their vigorous Aids by the countenance of which as by steps he ascended up to the Throne of the Empire and to justifie his Title yet th◠more there were many eminent Person engaged personally in his Quarrel mon out of greatness of mind than any perticular Interest which they would no have done if they had believed him a Impostor And he himself when he w 〈◊〉 at any time ready to engage was use with erected hands and eyes to Pray 〈◊〉 the hearing of his Souldiers in the terms Destroy me O just Judge and blot out my name from amongst men if what Iundertake be done unjustly or wickedly Thou seest my Innocence help my most righteous Cause I commend my self and these my fellow-Souldiers into thy protection O Queen of Heaven That he used these kind of Ejaculations before a Battle is very true and if at that time he did not believe himself it is very strange for then must he not believe in the Majesty of that God upon whom he called or that the great Creator was more swayed by his mental Reservations than his publike Expressions and was of a confederacy with him to betray his Army into a good opinion by the Success he gave it which were Blasphemy to imagine And yet we have in our own Land had appeals to God upon the most palpable Rebellion that ever was committed against a Soveraign proceeding to that hight as to destroy the Anovnted of the Lord in the Name of the Lord. Possibly this Demetrius had it instilled into him by the Priest his Tutor that he was in reality the Son of John Basilius but however it was or whether he believed himself so or not he was rendered to the world as the most remarkable Object of Fortune that many Ages can parallel she in him passing to both extreams by which may be observed the mutability of humane affairs and that their change is natural Demetrius was scarce warm in his Seat when the Lords either taking it for granted that he was an Impostor or weary of that Instrument wherewith they had served themselves to revenge upon Boris and his Family the Cause of the Blood-Royal of Russia began to form a Conspiracie against his life which being secured by his Guard of Poles and other Forreners their first designe was to remove them the better thereby to break in upon him In order to this they took all opportunities to breathe their Moans and Complaints to such as they knew to be in favour about him That it was the anguish of their Souls after the Testimony given by them of their Loyalty to find their Prince retain doubtful thoughts concerning them which they collected from his employing Poles and other mercenary Strangers to guard his person as if he could be more safe in their hands than in those of his native Subjects who could do no less than consider themselves neglected at least to see the Royal Person of their Emperour in the hands of strangers as if to defend him against his own Subjects That it was a new thing in Muskovy to have a Life-guard of Forreners and did more argue the fears of an Usurper than the assurances of a legitimate Prince and that they should understand these kinde of Guards were they not well assured of the Clemencie of their Great Duke as Executioners of his displeasure when he should please to look back into those times when they had obeyed the commands of the Tyrant Boris Thus did the Lords whisper their griefs as they call'd them but with so great modesty that Demetrius being acquainted with them and with what tenderness and respect they were uttered resolved to comply entirely with them and to give up himself absolutely into the arms of his own people being so strangely deluded with this seeming kindness that he not only dismissed his Guards but his Auxiliaries besides The Conspirators having got over these great steps drew more into their Party whereby the Plot was rendered more publike till at last it reacht the ears of Demetrius who too late repenting his unadvised credulity would yet make appear his resentment of this Treason and causing some to be apprehended they were tortured till they confessed the whole designe and that they had been induced to it by the insinuations of Basilius Zuiski who assured them that his Highness was not the Son of John Basilius but an Impostor the Interment of Demetrius having by Boris been committed to his particular care He confessed indeed that in compliance with the malignity of the Times and to preserve himself from ruine he had upon the Uproar in the City when Demetrius was at the Gates affirmed that the Son of a Priest at Vgleckz had been put in the place of Demetrius and was killed upon the supposition of his being the Prince but that all this was a false suggestion of his own to gratifie the fury of the people who would have involved him in the ruines of Boris had he deni'd it Duke Basilius Zuiski being apprehended and the Rack presented to him the readiest expedient for discoveries and commonly used in that Country he confessed the whole Charge whereupon he was condemned to loose his head in order whereunto being conducted to the Scaffold and placed upon his Knees to receive the fatal stroke the Execution was stopped and he not only pardoned but received into particular favour and nearness about Demetrius who by an ill computation of his Affairs took this way first of exposing and terrifying them as Criminals and then taking them into his bosom as Friends not considering that disobligations stick closer than kindnesses and that they who had laid a designe for his ruine were not to be diverted from it by the Courtship of words If we look into the Affairs of the world we shall find that the industrious man is not always rich there are that rise early and yet eat the bread of carefulness Wealth comes many times by a lucky hit and a fortunate man is served by a concurrence or rather confederacie of Accidents which in the judgment of right Reason would more probably tend to his ruine Demetrius was a notable proof of this in his prodigious rise to the Empire of Russia towards which he had done little more than personate a fit Subject to be opposed against the Interests of Boris He owed his acquisitions to Fortune and the giddy humour of the wavering People and his ruine to his own inconsiderateness and want of Conduct He prosecuted the Family of Boris beyond what was consistent with the State of Great Duke of Russia above seventy Families of that Kindred and Party being banished by him dividing the Spoils amongst his forein
their Propriety and the Splendor of their condition When I discourse at this rate you will possibly say Where can you point us to such a Person of these Accomplishments I know 't is difficult to do so but it being the duty of a worthy Commonwealths-man and becoming the Honour of this great Assembly to propose the best things Let us in the Name of God proceed to our Election with all necessary prudence and sincerity This insinuating Speech being received by the whole body of the Lords with universal applause they passed an unanimous Vote in favour of the Orator who being a Person of great Birth and great Parts and Experience was elected Prince Emperour and great Duke of Muskovy by the concurring Suffrages of all the Nobility upon the place who immediately passed an Act of State for the confirming of the Election upon the Person of the Illustrious Prince Basilius Zuiski who ascended the Royal Throne of Russia upon the 17th of June 1606. SECT III. Basilius Zuiski being scarce warm in his Throne is disturbed by another pretended Demetrius Putiwol by the artifice of Schakopski declares for the Impostor His Lieutenants beat the Zuiskians and block up Mosko Masalski is defeated and the Muskovites being reduced to great streights give the Lady Marina her liberty who after some difficulty acknowledges this Pseudo-Demetrius to be her Husband King Sigismund invades Muskovy and Besieges Smolensko Demetrius flies to Caluga his Army mutinies by the practices of Marina and dissolves Zolkievius beats the Muskovites at Clusinum Zuiski is deposed and Prince Uladislaus chosen Great Duke of Muskovy BAsilius Zuiski being thus chosen Emperour his Coronation was hastened to prevent any change in the Affections of the People which being performed with the usual Ceremonies of State he took upon him the Administration of the Government placing Guards upon the Lodgings of the Palatine and Duke Wisnioweski as well to observe their motion as to preserve them from injury He also caused the Lady Marina to be delivered to her Father with what was hers except the Jewels of the Crown presented to her by Demetrius which were restored again into the Treasury And to put some Countenance upon the late Tumults he published a Declaration against the slain Demetrius rendring him guilty of Imposture Witchcraft Heresie and Tyranny The People as 't is their nature fond of what is new and of their own Creation received all that came from him as Oracles and perceiving he took delight to vilifie and traduce Demetrius in his Writings they to Complement his humour digged up his poor Carkass out of an obscure Grave which had been given it after three days lying above ground and after a repetition of barbarities upon him they burn the body and scatter the ashes in the Air. And now the Great Duke casts about how to establish his Interest abroad in order whereto he renewed those Correspondencies which had been held betwixt that Crown and forein Nations by writing his Letters to several Princes of Christendom wherein he gave a Narrative of the troubles of Muskovy and his own advancement to the Throne A Copy of his Letter to our King James is extant in our Country-man Purchas his Pilgrimage to which I refer the Reader it being too long to insert in this place Which though it be in a rude Copy of Language yet speaks that Nation to be men that understand the compass of their business though not much of Rhetorick And thus ended the most unhappy Demetrius an unparallel'd Example of both the extremes of Fortune and the Inconstancie of Popular Favour for being by them brought from a Convent to a Crown he was by them also precipitated from so splendid a height into a calamitous abyss of misery But whether he was truly Basilius his Son or not is uncertain and will ever be so nay it is questionable whether he was slain in this Muskovitish Tumult or afterwards for Fame as she had divulged him long since slain so now when he seemed dead to all men she again raised him and exposed him in a second Resurrection For the Tumult was scarce appeased when a report ran through the City that he was still alive another having in the hurry been kill'd for him not possibly to be known being so unhumanely mangled for all his being publikely exposed 'T was further muttered that he had disguised and withdrawn himself betimes escaping the danger upon swift Horses which he had taken out of his own Stables Neither was this Rumor without appearance there having been several Stalls in the said Stables found empty of their Horses which he afterwards affirmed he had made use of in his flight Such who wished him well believed this noise because they desired it and others who did abhor the flagitious Cruelty of what was acted or preferr'd turmoils before quiet did not contradict it But the business was put out of Controversie when after a few days Demetrius did indeed appear but whether the true or an Impostor which I am apt to believe is not yet decided Whoever he was the Poles flock to him to revenge their Massacred Country-men and the Violation of the Laws of Hospitality they acknowledge him for the true Demetrius Emperour of Muskovy and make War upon Zuiski with such revengeful obstinacie that it cost him his Crown his Liberty and lastly his Life and consumed them an immense multitude of Men and Money But to relate things in order During the Confusions and Tumults at Musko George Schacopski Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal and faithful to Demetrius seeing the irresistible Torrent that was broke in upon them contrived for his own escape out of Musko and taking two Poles with him in Russian Habit got away unobserved The designed place for his Retreat was Putiwol a City that had stood vigorous for Demetrius in the Infancie of his Acquisitions Being got about 30 Mile on his way upon his leaving the Inn where he had refreshed himself instead of asking the Hostess what was to pay gave her a handful of Gold with which she being equally transported with amazement and joy desired to know the Author of that Profusion Schacopski answered As for my self I am a Prince and Lord in Musko but my place is to attend upon the Great Duke whom the Rebels think they have murthered but you have had the Honour to harbour him this day under your Roof Having said this on purpose to raise a Rumor of his being yet alive they immediately take Horse and post away to the River Occa where being wafted over in the Ferry they gave the Waterman six Gold Crowns and told him he had had the Honour to serve the Great Duke Demetrius pointing at him that passed under that Character and promising the Waterman high Preferments for that days Service if he ever should be restored to his Empire charging him as the Hostess before in the mean time to keep their counsel lest they should be pursued Being landed they mount
again and post on towards Putiwol taking all opportunities by the way to possess the world of Demetrius his being alive and escaped out of the reach of the Conspirators Schacopski being arrived at Putiwol sent his two Poles forwards to Sandomiria with Letters to the Palatine's Lady of what had befaln in Musko and to assure her that the Great Duke her Son-in-law was escaped seasonably and hoped suddenly to be in the head of an Army to revenge upon his rebellious Subjects their Treason Disloyalty Schacopski having made his dispatches to Sandomiria applied himself to the Citizens of Putiwol desiring Audience from them in the Name of the Great Duke Demetrius his Master which being granted and an Assembly called he took the liberty to enlarge upon the unheard-of Barbarities of the Citizens of Musko how they had slaughtered the Inhabitants without regard of quality laying their malice so deep as to attempt the Murther of the Emperour but that he had been preserved by the Providence of God who had always an especial regard on his Sacred Person By whose Impulse having taken some of his best Horses out of his own Stable He with a small but faithful Company under his conduct had withdrawn himself betimes out of the Tumult That he was retired to his Allies in Poland for Aid against his Rebellious Subjects having left him to attend the Affairs of the Empire in his absence with an express direction to apply himself in his Masters Name to that Loyal Town to assure them that he was alive and well and preparing to vindicate the Honour of his Empire out of the hands of the Conspirators Schacopski was not wanting in Arguments to provoke the Zeal of the Citizens to the Service of their Prince how great an Honour it would be to that City to be the only place in that vast Empire to which their Prince durst commit his Person and Interest That he would not fail to stamp upon them particular marks of his Favours and Resentments for their seasonable Loyalty and that it would be their Eternal Glory to bring in their Great Duke and to place him upon his just Throne cleansing the same from the pollutions of Conspiracies and Usurpations His Oratory had that effect as to inflame them upon the place with Resolutions to declare for Demetrius as their Leige-Lord and Sovereign that their Lives and whatever else was dear to them should be at his devotion and that in the mean time till he honoured them with his presence they would submit to his Commissioner the Lord Keeper who having gained this great City failed not to sollicite the Neighbour-Country He dispatched Posts into Tartary inviting all that had the courage in behalf of an injured Prince to repair to Putiwol The Cossacks flock in and in four weeks he had perswaded fourteen Castles in those parts to follow the Example of Putiwol taking a new Oath of Allegeance from them in the name of Demetrius against all his opposers and particularly against the bloody Usurper Zuiski Zuiski alarmed with the Rumour of a new Demetrius and that a considerable party had declared for him under the Command of Isthoma a great Lord made all the speed possible in his Levies to check that growing evil and encountring that Demetrian General was totally defeated Who pressing upon him as Master of the field blocked him up in the Imperial City and sate down with his Army at the distance of about a Mile from it Whilst Isthoma lay incamped there there came up to him an Army of twelve thousand Cossacks under the Command of John Polutnich a Souldier of Name who was come out of Poland and produced a Commission from Demetrius to Command in Chief as General which Isthoma after some disputing was constrained to yield to but apprehended the affront with so great disdain that he resolved not to brook it or after having chased Zuiski out of the the field to truckle under the Command of Polutnich who was about to ravish from him the Palms due to his Victory Hurried on by these Sentiments of scorn he risked the blasting of his Honour by an extraordinary tenderness of it and having debauched 9000 of the Army he went over to Zuiski with them who gave him a reception sutable to the seasonableness of the kindness and much more when Isthoma had assured him that no Demetrius had appeared in Putiwol and that the whole trouble of his Affairs was formed by the contrivance of the subtle Schacopski who to render himself considerable had possessed the people with a suggestion of Demetrius his being alive This Relation from Isthoma was immediately communicated to the people who however were not without their fears and therefore sent out to Polutnich demanding of him to see their Lord Demetrius and they would cast themselves at his feet for pardon and immediately Polutnich returned answer that in truth Demetrius was in Poland that he had there seen and spoke with him and received from his own hand the Commission mission by which he then acted as General Some of the Lords sent again to assure him that the Great Duke Demetrius had been kill'd in Musko in the face of the whole people that if any one assumed that Name he was an Impostor Perswading him further to quit that counterfeit Prince and joyn himself to the Party of the rightful Emperour who would gratifie his Loyalty with Preferments and Honours sutable to the Merits of his Service in preventing the effusion of Christian Blood the harrassing of the Country the guilt whereof would lie heavy at his door if he should not hearken to their wholsome invitation But he rejecting those offers with indignation replied he had taken an Oath of Loyalty to Demetrius which he would preserve inviolable and not like the perfidious â—sthoma betray the trust reposed in him He added that he neither desired nor caâ—ed for Zuiski's favour only required of â—he Citizens that if they would not have â—hat Christian blood which they so much pitied spilt they should forthwith return to their Duty and Obedience they â—wed their lawful Prince deliver the Uâ—urper Zuiski into his hands and lay down their Arms in doing so he would grant them an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion in the Great Dukes Name and promised they should be restored to that rank place which the Loyal City did formerly obtain in the Great Dukes favour On the other side they were to expect nothing but the indignation of an incensed Lord and of an enraged Souldiery This Polutnich was a Muskoviter born but had been brought up amongst the Tartars and Cossacks and being taken prisoner by the Turks had served as a Gally-slave against the Christians till amongst others he happen'd to be released by the Venetians and passing through Poland towards his own Country he met at Sandomiria with this new Demetrius to whom being presented he received conditions from him and engaged himself in his Service as General of his Army upon which
Picqueering and other hostile Braveries The next Morning both Armies impatient of looking upon each other were drawn out in Battalia with all the advantages that the ground would admit or able Officers could contrive the Generals caressing exhorting and encouraging their Souldiers to do well with all their Rhetorick Zuiski fierce in the confidence of his numbers and conduct told his men that now was the time to chastise the hereditary Enemy of their Country the Pole whose malice had been at work to create them those mischiefs under which their Kingdoms had laboured for divers years That this was the second mock Demetrius framed and set up in Poland to be imposed upon them That it would be a reproach to the Glory of their Empire to receive Laws from Strangers who by all Arts conspired their ruine That this Demetrius whom they had now in the head of their Army was one Master John a School-Master of Pocala a Town in Russia Alba as the other was one Grisko notoriously known in Muskovy and his violent death suffered in the face of the whole world in Musko universally acknowledged till the wicked Pole maligning their Greatness had raised another Impostor under whose countenance they proposed to themselves the inslaving of their Country and the rooting out of their Religion That there was no deliverance from all these and thousands more of miseries impending over them but in their Courage That they must resolve to win or die and to lose the day at no other rate than the Ioss of their lives That they must never survive their own happiness and the Glory of their Country and that for his part he would in that days fight give them the Example of a true lover of it Demetrius on the other side especially Rosinski were not wanting to inflame the courage of their Souldiers by all the Arguments of Power to sway them as desire of Empire Revenge and Spoils That the Conquest of Russia depended upon the Points of their Swords and that they had but that days labour to go in and possess that vast Empire In short both Armies joyn with equal hopes and equal courage The Fight proved but short though obstinate and the success doubtful till the Demetrians having before-hand placed their Chariots and Carriages attended with their Servants with Drums Trumpets and Colours at a distance out of sight an usual Polish Stratageme caused them in the heat of the Battle to appear in view with cries and shoutings which was so dreadful an object to the Zuiskians that they began to shrink not daring to trust in their Courage against that fresh Reserve that advanced towards them which the Polish Horse observing seconded their fears with a violent Charge wherewith they put the whole Army to an entire Rout leaving behind them all their Cannon and Baggage upon the place 5000 of the Muskovites saved themselves in Bolchow who after being four days beleaguered rendered themselves and the Town to the mercy of the Conqueror and were for their encouragement disposed and listed amongst his Troops The fame of this Victory opened him a passage into all the Cities and Forts in that Quarter only Mosaise gave him the trouble of drawing before it and then surrendered And now Demetrius being absolute Master of the Field marched by great Journeys towards Musko the Imperial City confident upon the stock of his last signal Victory that the Citizens upon his approach would quit Zuiski and receive him into their Town and questionless the issue had justified his computation but for the new perfidy of those 5000 men who upon the rendition of Bolchow had listed themselves under his Command for these left him again and marched into Musko assuring the Townsmen that the Polish Army was neither so numerous nor so formidable as Fame had rendered them which comfortable Intelligence and Aid giving new life to the heartless Citizens they resolve to adhere to the Fortunes of Zuiski and taking advantage by the delays of Demetrius who instead of improving his Victory as he ought suffered his men to ramble up and down the Country they consented to new Levies for the recruit of their Army wherewith they blocked up the way between them and Severia for the Poles were moved Northward so that no further Supplies out of the adhering Provinces could well joyn with them and many who were ignorant of this obstacle were daily intercepted But the Poles at length grown sensible of their Error drew back their Army to the South-side of the Town and having forced those Troops which interrupted their Passage encamped at Tusin with their whole strength being environed and secured by the two Rivers Moska Tussin From whence by their frequent vigorous Excursions they obliged the Muskovites to keep within their Walls The Citizens seeing themselves thus shut up and that they could not drive away the Enemy by force betake themselves to other shifts they apply themselves to the Polish Embassadors and the Palatine of Sandomiria and propose a Treaty of Peace to them and in the mean time mention a Cessation of Arms as the only means to compass it Their Designe was not so much a Reconciliation as that the Poles otherwise naturally careless and licentious should waste their force and heat in a languishing Truce and that the designed Succours for their relief might be ready against the designed time But the Embassadors and the Palatine who had been detained Prisoners ever since the Massacre desirous of Peace and their liberty send Peter Zbarouski to the Camp to perswade their Countrymen to return into Poland and not disturb that Peace which they were then treating with further hostilities but in vain for the Poles refused all commerce or mention of Peace unless Demetrius from whom they expected the reward of their labours were first restored to his Throne and the Usurper delivered into their hands Rosinski was in the interim preparing for an attempt becoming the greatness of his Quality and Courage for Duke Basilius Masalski a Kinsman of Zuiski's having raised an Army in the adjacent Provinces of 70000 men for the relief of the Town had entrenched himself upon the Banks of the River Chodiunka three Miles from the City Rosinski being resolved to attempt his Quarters drew out his whole Army by favour of the night and marching directly to the Enemies Camp in a manner secure in the greatness of their numbers and nearness of the City broke into it without any very great resistance killed 14000 upon the place took the General prisoner and scattered the whole Army Neither was the Victory cheap or bloodless on the Demetrian side for while they were engaged upon the Pillage being dispersed over the Field to rake up the Spoils the touted Enemy faced about and rallying being further encouraged by a Party come out of the City returned to the Charge and renewing the Fight with much pertinacie made a slaughter amongst the Conquerors of multitudes of their men in so much that they
to be satisfied The Lady mingled the testimony of her love with marks of esteem and reverence as to her Lord as well as Husband and he repeated his embraces and endearments with so vive a passion that they drew tears of joy from the Beholders He was not wanting in a particular application to the Palatine making him his acknowledgments for all the Honors he had received from him in the Infancie of his Affairs and they failed not to mention some particular passages of that time which both of them seemed to remember very well and with much pleasure This Ceremony being performed with all necessary circumstances the most wavering seemed now confirmed of the reality of Demetrius and came flocking to the Camp from all Quarters And thus did this Fable contrary to the nature of Untruths gain ground by age In the mean time it was judged needful to fortifie and accommodate the Camp as well against the approaching Winter as the attempts of the Enemy Several goodly Edifices were erected for the Nobility and Tents and Huts prepared for the rest of the Army so that the whole being divided into Streets and publike places had the resemblance of a great City All the Provinces of the Empire except Novogrodock and Smolensko made their submissions to Demetrius supplying his Camp with abundance of Provisions of all sorts The Inhabitants of Musko being by the defection of the Country and the ill neighbourhood of the Camp reduced to great straights yet had courage enough not to yield but applied themselves to Charles King of Sweden who having usurped the Crown upon his Nephew Sigismund was glad of any opportunity to incommode him and therefore sent them a considerable force under the Command of Pontus de la Guarde which gave them a strong diversion the Summer following and many Provinces of the Empire being tired and exhausted by intolerable Contributions exacted from them by the Poles grew to a detestation of them which having rendred the distractions of that vast Country universal the Camp it self was not without strong effects of them by Schism and Dissention amongst the Great Ones whereby many opportunities of well-doing were omitted and neglected Hence arose a new face of Affairs and prodigious Vicissitudes for all things seeming to conspire against the Imposture of Demetrius fatally opposed him even in the moment that in humane appearance he should have triumphed over all his Enemies Whilst these things are thus moving in Muskovy Sigismund the Third King of Poland was induced by the perswasions of his Senate and Council to invade that divided Empire and to what was objected that there was a Truce in being the time of it not yet expired it was answered that this was no Violation of that but rather an adhering to it by appearing for Demetrius the lawful Great Duke and in actual possession of the greatest part of the Empire against an Usurper who had caused himself to be elected by perfidie and force This would acquit them as to the world and then as to that thing it was very advisable with relation to the present posture of their Affairs Their civil Dissentions were but newly calmed and if any seeds of them remained this would be a means to root them up by diverting the humour upon another Enemy and burying in Oblivion the former heats and animosities among themselves by a nobler War abroad It would also purge their Country of those swarms of vagrant Fellows and Robbers which now infested it being the Excrements of their unhappy Discords and to all this 't was urged that this War carried no charge with it The Army was ready upon the least Summons and would be able without difficulty to march into Russia where they should live upon the Country as soon as they should set foot in it There were many other Arguments of Honour and Interest as to revenge the Massacre of their Country-men and the detention of their Embassadors and the employing so powerful a Neighbour at his own home and charges c. all which being laid together it was determined to invade Muskovy with a Royal Army and the King in the Head of it where he could not in a divided distracted State fail to give Law to both Parties Sigismund in order to this Designe mustered his Army at Orsa which consisted of 6000 Lances 18000 light-Horse and 5000 foot and passing the River Boristhenes entred Muskovy in Aug. 1609. Leo Sapiha Chancellor of Lithuania had perswaded the King that if he but appeared before Smolensko the place would be immediately surrendred into his hands This Temptation put him upon a hasty March taking with him neither Cannon nor any other Engines of Battery going rather to receive than force a City stored with all manner of Provisions necessary for War But having by long Marches got near the Town he found himself very much mistaken in his computation the Garrison making strong Sallies upon him which looked so unlike a Surrender that he concluded himself deceived in his Intelligence Michael Sehin Palatine and Governour of the place had 30000 Souldiers with him besides the Townsmen being as many more able to bear Arms with an immense quantity of Ammunition Artillery and Provisions to serve for a long Siege so that the Palatine upon a confidence of his strength despised the Chancellors invitation for a Surrender The King then seeing there was no entrance to be had unless forced sate down before it fancying that a short time would reduce so great a multitude to distress however plentifully provided at present being restrained from forraging or the Country from bringing in their Provisions or at worst that they might be forced in a few Months by a vigorous Attack With these hopes he lays siege to the Place which did not end so for it held out above two years with various changes and toils on both sides Smolensko the Metropolis of a Province of that name is famous for its largeness wealth and beauty and being seated on the Banks of the Boristhenes is encompassed with Hills and vast Woods The Walls of the City are eight cubits thick and 35 in height whereof 15 are of free-stone and the other 20 of Brick built after the old fashion as also without Ditches or Out-works to hinder Approaches Sigismund considering the obstinacie and power of the Enemy commanded Cannon for Battery Spades Mattocks and all other Instruments for a Siege to be brought him from Vilna and Ticcocino whilest he shuts up the Passages and Avenues of the City with his Quarters and Circumvallation The King himself lay on Orsa side his Quarters extending to the Banks of the Boristhenes the Cossacks kept the East-side reaching that way to the same River Potocki Palatine of Bracl had his Post on the North-side beyond the River and having burnt a Village near the City which lay convenient for them to fetch in their supplies of Water gave them some distress that way Nowodorski a Knight of Malta and Captain of the
could not appease the tumult neither would they any more be Commanded by him but chusing one Tiskevicius for their General prepare to follow Demetrius their old Lord. For all this the Chief Officers and those most in favour with the Souldiery had by their diligence and Authority welnigh appeased these disorders which they had also probably effected if new Commotions had not interven'd upon new considerations to wit that it was not safe to remain longer in the Camp so distracted and divided without Order or Discipline and in sight of an Enemy vigilant and intent upon every occasion This hurried them into new Confusions and like so many Furies they all cry out they would immediately be gone and packing up their Baggage fired their Camp which for the variety and Magnificence of its Structures seemed another great City and being ready to march mutually engaged to keep together till they came to Volock where every body should be at liberty to dispose of himself as he thought most for his advantage Being come thither Sapiha and all his men resolving to follow the fortune of Demetrius went to Caluga to him Rosinski and Alexander Zbarowski with 4000 Horse and the Dunensian Cossacks went to their King at Smolensko And thus this power which had so long blocked up Musko and had trampled upon the Empire two years and would certainly have subjugated both was dispersed in the beginning of March 1610 by the ill Counsel and to the very great detriment of King Sigismund for the Enemy being well-nigh broke with the long Siege of their Metropolitan gathered new force and vigour upon the raising of it and the King who might have prosecuted the War at the expence and danger of others drew the whole burthen of it as it were voluntarily upon his own shoulders In the mean time the Zuiskian Muskovites not ignorant of the dissentions in the Camp began to hope well but leaving them to their discords lest by attempting them the sense of their common danger might unite them they turned their forces another way They turned the Poles out of Peraslaw and Alexandria which lay there drive Sapiha from the Siege of Troyeze and reduced all the places about the Volga into their power But when the City it self was delivered from their troublesome Neighbours then as if they had broken their Fetters been delivered out of a long Imprisonment they reassumed new courage and new vigour and having in a short time recovered most of the Provinces which revolted to them they sent the best part of their Army to follow Rosinski who had possessed himself of Volock and the strong Monastery of Osippow He was necessitated to stay there by reason of the indisposition his hurts had procured him He kept with him 1500 Poles and 400 Cossacks having sent the rest of the Army with Zbarowski to the King His health was much impaired through his daily toils and the smart of his old hurt to which also contributed the perturbation and grief of his mind which his ill Successes had created him in that he had quitted Musko with less Glory and Splendor than he had attempted it Nature and strength being decayed in him he was overcome by the violence of his Malady and unable to resist longer was forced to submit to the necessity of his Fate which deprived him of his life and hopes in a strange Country which he had entred in Pomp and Triumph Rosinski being dead Volviovius the Zuiskian General taking the occasion of the distraction his loss had bred amongst the Garrison besieged Volock and took it without much difficulty Ossipow defended it self better in so much that the Auxiliaries from Sweden being French and desirous to shew of what importance they were to their Party having opened a passage into the Fortress with a Petard were after a very bloody Assault baffled and beaten off But the place being more oppressed by wants from within than by any force from the Enemy from without were forced to yield to the necessity of their condition but scorning a tame surrender they resolved upon a Salley and to take the hazard of that as their safest and last refuge The obscurity of the night was judged fittest for the Exployt which being come they refreshed themselves with the whole Provisions of the place and after mutual embracings and encouragement of each other they set open their Gates and made towards Smolensko Their Sally was furious like that of men resolved to die and they performed it with a Courage hurried on by despair which made the Fight bloody and the carnage great amongst the Muskovites but they abounding in their numbers and not being surprized upon this occasion killed most of the Poles so that scarce 300 of them escaped in safety and they were 1200 who sallied out to Sigismund's Camp The Muskovites raised with this variety of Successes formed to themselves an Army of 30000 men to which were added 1000 French De la Garde's Germans and 6000 Suedes newly arrived under the Command of Count Edward Horn. Demetrius after his quitting the Camp lay with a few Sapihans at Caluga but they despising his small force marched to the relief of Smolensko King Sigismund having notice of these preparations and their approach Commanded Stanislaws Zolkievius his General with 8000 choice men to obstruct their passage The two Armies engaged at Clusinum where the Muskovites were again overcome by the Fatal Virtue of the Poles in a great and memorable Battle But it cost the Poles dear for though their Right Wing had routed the Enemies Left Commanded by Demetrius Zuiski the Great Dukes Brother yet the other Wing consisting of Germans and other Strangers stood their ground which they had chosen advantageously amongst shrubs and other rubbage in such a place where the Enemies Horse could not come up to charge them without much difficulty but being well seconded by their Reserves they at last made so violent an impression upon this Wing also that it was put to flight There remained yet the Main Body of Foot made up of Germans and Swedes which kept entire and the Polish being recalled from the pursuit prepared to make a Charge upon them but they seeing themselves abandoned by their Horse and left singly to the fortune of the day many of their men likewise stealing from them and running to the Enemy durst not stand out the shock but waved their Hats and hands about their Heads in signe of Parley which being granted and Hostages delivered they surrendered themselves for all what la Guarde who was newly returned from the flight whilest they were in Treaty could intreat or do to the contrary Those Wings that had been defeated having rallied themselves returned also to their Station upon a confidence their Foot had stood their ground but they came only time enough to be beaten over again the Poles having the pursuit of them till late in the night and thus the Field being cleared of the Enemy they had the entire
Pillage of it with all their Cannon and Baggage The Germans a Mercenary Soldatesque took pay in the Polish Army the rest of the Captives the Colours and other Ensignes of Victory were sent to the King at Smolensko who shewed them to the Besieged with what Military Pomp and Ostentation they could be exposed who were also invited to a Surrender after so signal and irrecoverable a loss but to no purpose for Sehin being of an intrepid Courage as if he alone would stay the declining fate of his Country did dare singly to resist the course of so many Victories Volviovius lay at Czarow with a Party of 8000 Zuis kians but terrified with this Success did upon the first Summons render himself and his Army to the Conquerors discretion Czarow being taken the Polish Army marched towards Musko whither the Sapihans having routed the Zuiskian Tartars at Troycze and a thousand Muskovites at Borowsko did also hasten The Russians broken with so many evils being vanquished at Clusinum at Troycze and at Borowsko and seeing the Poles approached their City and that the Demetrians did meditate a new Siege and finally being the Germans were revolted to the Enemy and that there was no appearance of repairing their ruined Troops did not know to what Saint to devote themselves or how to extricate themselves out of so many impending miseries At length after many and various agitations and consultations they fix upon an expedient of a very extraordinary nature for their deliverance In the first place they seize upon and depose their Great Duke Basilius Zuiski as the unhappy Author of all their miscarriages and infamous for his Misfortunes his Tyranny and his Sorceries with which they charged him and with a passion equal with that wherewith they had raised him to the Throne they pulled him down again and thrust him into a Cloyster giving at the same time out that they would elect Vladislaws King Sigismund's Son Great Duke in his stead proposing by this means that they should quit their hands of Demetrius whom they equally scorned and hated take away the cause of the War in one instant and compose their harrassed Country with such a Government that would immediately rescue them from all other pretensions They knew the Poles whom they naturally hated like emulous Neighbours would become secure by this Election and that they themselves having breathed a while and quit themselves of the War should be able either to elude the Election of Vladislaws or remove him as obnoxious to their Artifices by reason of his Childhood in due time They then proposed to themselves the choice of a Prince of their own Blood and Manners and the reverting of their Government into its antient Channel all which hapned as they did designe and their Counsels laid upon profound Reasons of State had a Success accordingly The Poles sway'd by a nearer Interest than that of Demetrius had no care of recruiting his Party but on the contrary prepared for the reinforcing of the City of Musko against his Attempts in order whereunto upon this bare Promise of chusing Vladislaws for their Great Duke Zalkievius sent Troops to their Aid to defend them against Demetrius and following himself with the whole Army he sate down on the East-side of the City Demetrius his Camp being on the other and a while after the Gates being set open for him he marched through the City and encamped with all his forces near Demetrius his Camp It was no hard matter for Zolkievius to debauch the Sapihans upon his engagement for the Publike Faith of the Kingdom of Poland to be given them for their Arrears so that they revolted unanimously to him Demetrius thus forsaken by them he confided most in retreated again to Caluga as an auspicious place for the shelter he had formerly received there His most faithful Friends as if they had been obliged to his Fortune not to him did in this disastrous juncture of his Affairs expose him to his own despair Zarucki that courageous Leader of the Dunensian Cossacks with Kasinowski Prince of Tartary his greatest Confidents did likewise leave him for a time submitting themselves with the rest to the will of the Conquereror The Muskovites being freed from Demetrius would have respited the Election of their new Duke but that there was no other choice now left them They had an Army in their Bowels resolved not to quit the City till they saw their Prince seated upon the Throne They therefore proceeded to the Election according to the usual Ceremonies causing him though absent to be Proclaimed and Fealty sworn to him as Great Duke and Emperour hiding all their secret aversions under the Mask of Joy and Acclamations and that they might remove all shadow of suspition from themselves they delivered the unfortunate Basilius Zuiski with his Brethren John and Demetrius into Zolkievius his hands who also engaged as likewise the great Officers of his Army to the Russians that the new Duke should speedily come to them conserve their Religion inviolable and maintain all the Priviledges of the Nobility and People And thus was the Government upon a sudden translated into new hands SECT IV. The Muskovites deal fraudulently with the Poles refusing to deliver Smolensko in Prince Uladislaws's Name Zolkievius lodges his Army in Mosko but being disgusted returns into Poland Demetrius is slain by his Guards The Russians revolt from the Poles and fight them in their Chief City Smolensko is taken and King Sigismund returns into Poland Zolkievius his Triumph Life and Death The Poles plunder the Ducal Treasury but being closely besieged in the Palace are forced to surrender King Sigismund returns but too late to the relief of Musko Marina and her Son are drowned being thrust under the Ice Zarucki is impaled Another Pseudo-Demetrius Who he was He gathers an Army but is delivered up by his own men Michael Federowicz is chosen Duke of Muskovy by whose Command this last Demetrius is hanged ZViski being thus laid aside and Vladislaws chosen in his place there was a splendid Embassy sent to King Sigismund still before Smolensko with an account of what they had done They were received with much Honour many prime Courtiers and all the Horse being sent to meet them Being introduced into the King's presence they humbly besought him in the name of all the Orders of Muskovy that he would be pleased to take them and their afflicted Country into his Royal protection They then sollicite the speedy dispatch of the Prince to them that in order to the compleating of their unanimous Election he might publikely be Crowned in the Royal City Great Duke and Emperour and that they might enjoy the comfort of his Presence and Protection They likewise brought with them the Conditions upon which he was to be received wherein the most considerable were That a General Amnesty and Act of Oblivion should be passed and all their Laws and Customs confirmed and established and that for the better settlement
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
September following The Assault was contrived to be made before day-break and was carried on accordingly with less notice or indeed expectation of the Enemy than was imagined for the Souldiers had without great opposition raised three Ladders upon the Wall before it was light upon the 13th of June Potocki the Palatine of Brachlaw had his Post on the East-side of the Town Wyer with his Germans on the Kings side who both of them got up to the top of the Walls but the descent being steep into the Town and the Garrison flocking to the place rendred the dispute hot and doubtful till Bartholomew Novodwoski Captain of the Guards applying a Petar under the Kennel on the South-side towards the Boristhenes made a Breach of 30 Cubits long Dorostanski Marshal of Lithuania assaulted and entred the same in the head of the Guards and marched directly to the Market-place possessing himself of it with little resistance for the Garrison astonished with this unexpected Adventure swallowed up in their own fears instead of making any defence threw down their Arms and quitted their Stations leaving a free passage for the Besiegers to enter in on all sides upon them All was fill'd with horror and confusion the Poles enraged they had been so long a Conquering put all they met with to the Sword The poor Citizens not knowing where to hide themselves from the fury of this bloody Enemy were butchered without remorse or distinction which possessing others with despair and indignation very many of them took their Wives Children most pretious Moveables and retired with them into the great Church where was kept the Magazine of Powder and putting fire to it destroyed themselves with a more than Saguntine despair for fear of perishing Sehin Palatine and Governour of the Town with 15 more got into a little Tower upon the Wall where though all was lost he bravely defended himself telling the Enemy that he resolved to die rather than render himself unless to some Chief Officer He had been exemplary for his cruelty to such as were taken upon any Sallies which gave the Poles a particular hatred for him and he dreaded worse than death falling into their hands but word being brought to Potocki who was near that Quarter he came to the place to whom the Palatine and his fifteen Camerades yielded themselves upon Parole Prisoners of War And thus was this great City which had been the labour of almost two years taken in less than two hours time with the loss only of eight Germans The gaining of the place was justly attributed to the success of Novodwoski's Petar that attempt of scaling the Walls being wholly desperate and in which the Assailants must inevitably have perished So soon as the possession of that place was secured there was a strict Command to give Quarter only the Pillage of the Town was consigned to the Souldiers as the reward of their labours but they not agreeing in the distribution of it the Booty was ordered to be brought into one place whereby the dividend might be more equal but a fire by some accident happening consumed all that Wealth with a great part of the City There was found in the Magazines a proportion of Corn and other Military Provisions sufficient for three years longer Men were only wanting they being wasted from near 70000 to about 8000 fighting men but however had they not been more conquered by their own fears than the power of the Enemy they had certainly made good the place against this Assault The King having appeased his Army feasted them three whole days together in the solace of which and the reflection of their Victory they buried all their former regrets and discontents And he supposing he should now appear more advantageously to his own Subjects had a greater appetite of being at the Assembly than before proposing to himself that Crowned with the Palms of this Conquest he ought to shew himself in Triumph to his people adding this Error to the former as if swayed by some secret Fatality he turned his back upon his new Acquisitions to receive the flatteries and acclamations of his Polish Subjects And thus he yet again suffered the vanquished Empire of Muskovy to slip out of his hands for if he had prosecuted his Victory and had carried the Terror of his Arms and the reputation of his Success to the Imperial City where his men disputed his Interest with great courage against the multitude that oppressed them and where he had a considerable Party amongst the Russians themselves it is more than probable that he had not only kept the City in his power but by the Example of it have compelled the rest of the Provinces to receive his Dictates at pleasure But he by an ill computation of his Affairs and that unhappy cunctation which lost him his Hereditary Kingdom of Sweden lost now also the Monarchy of Muskovy For as soon as the Besieged and Besiegers at Musko had notice that he was gone it had different effects upon them The Army from without grew confident repeating their Attempts upon the Poles who looking upon themselves as exposed began to contrive for their own safety and taking a pretence from their want of pay but the true reason was a despair of Relief they demanded their dismission The Assembly of the Estates at Warsow was held with the usual Ceremony but unusual Pomp the King being received as a Conqueror with all imaginary Congratulations for the reducing of Smolensko and adding so fair a Province to their Commonwealth Zolkievius his Triumph was Memorable and Magnificent for being attended by a gallant and numerous Cavallery he was followed by Basilius Zuiski late Emperour of Muskovy who was clad in a red silk Vest and seated in a high Chariot betwixt his two Brothers that he might be seen of all men They rode thus to the Senate-house where being admitted Zolkievius presented the Captive Princes to the King and Assembly and in a grave and set Speech having magnified the Majesty of the Commonwealth and the adverse Fortune of the Prisoners made no scruple to parallel the Conquest of these Illustrious Captives to the most renowned Examples of former Ages After this the Zuiski's were confined to Goston-Castle where they were Royally treated though Basilius impatient of his Fetters and not able to support the weight of his sorrows died soon after and was privately buried betwixt Warsow and Thorn where he also reposed till the end of the War at which time his and his Brother Demetrius his Ashes who likewise died there were at the intercession of the Muskovitish Embassadors translated out of Poland to the Tomb of their Ancestors In the mean time King Sigismund to perpetuate the Memory of so great a Victory caused it to be ingraved in Tables of Marble and placed upon his Monument as followeth REGIS REGUM DEI EXERCITUM GLORIAE SIGISMUNDUS TERTIUS REX Poloniae Sueciae Exercitu Moscovitico ad Clusinum caeso Moscoviae Metropoli