th. Twenty-five years had now elapsed since he
received the young and beautiful princess as his bride, and during all
these tumultuous years her genius and attractions had been the most
brilliant ornament of his court. The infirmities of age pressed
heavily upon the king, and it was manifest that his days could not
much longer be prolonged. With much ceremony, in the presence of his
lords, he dictated his will, declaring his oldest son Vassili to be
his successor as monarch, and assigning to all his younger children
rich possessions. The passion for the aggrandizement of Russia still
glowed strongly in his bosom even in the hour of death. Vassili,
though twenty-five years of age, was as yet unmarried. He decided to
select his spouse from the daughters of the Russian nobles, and
fifteen hundred of the most beautiful belles of the kingdom were
brought to the court that the prince, from among them, might make his
selection. The choice fell upon a maiden of exquisite beauty, of
Tartar descent. Her father was an officer in the army, a son of one of
the chiefs of the horde. The marriage was immediately consummated, and
all Moscow was in a blaze of illumination, rejoicing over the nuptials
of the heir to the crown. The decay of the aged monarch, however,
advanced, day by day. His death, at last, was quite sudden, in the
night of the 27th of October, 1505, at the age of sixty-six years and
nine months, and at the close of a reign of forty three years and a
half.

Ivan III. will, through all ages, retain the rank of one of the most
illustrious of the sovereigns of Russia. The excellencies of his
character and the length of his reign, combined in enabling him to
give an abiding direction to the career of his country. He made his
appearance on the political stage just in the time when a new system
of government, favorable to the power of the sovereigns of Europe, was
rising upon the ruins of feudalism. The royal authority was gaining
rapidly in England and in France. Spain, freed from the domination of
the Moors, had just become a power of the first rank. The fleets of
Portugal were whitening the most distant seas, conferring upon the
energetic kingdom wonderful wealth and power. Italy, though divided,
exulted in her fleet, her maritime wealth, and her elevation above all
other nations in the arts, the sciences and the intrigues of politics.
Frederic IV., Emperor of Germany, an inefficient, apathetic man, was
unable to restore re