long filled the empire with terror. Ivan
immediately established a new government for the city and the
surrounding region, which was occupied by five different nations,
powerful in numbers and redoubtable in war. An army of about ten
thousand men was left to garrison the fortresses of the city. On the
11th of October the emperor prepared to return to Moscow. Many of the
lords counseled that he should remain at Kezan until spring, that the
more distant regions might be overawed by the presence of the army.
But the monarch, impatient to see his spouse and to present himself in
Moscow fresh from these fields of glory, rejected these sage counsels
and adopted the advice of those who also wished to repose beneath the
laurels they had already acquired. Passing the night of the 11th of
October on the banks of the Volga, he embarked on the morning of the
12th in a barge to ascend the stream, while the cavalry followed along
upon the banks. The emperor passed one day at Sviazk and then
proceeded to Nigni Novgorod. The whole city, men, women and children,
flocked to meet him. They could not find words strong enough to
express their gratitude for their deliverance from the terrible
incursions of the horde. They fell at their monarch's feet, bathed his
hands with their tears and implored Heaven's blessing upon him.

From Nigni Novgorod the emperor took the land route through Balakna
and Vladimir to Moscow. On the way he met a courier from the Empress
Anastasia, announcing to him that she had given birth to a son whom
she named Dmitri. The tzar, in the tumult of his joy, leaped from his
horse, passionately embraced Trakhaniot, the herald, and then falling
upon his knees with tears trickling down his cheeks, rendered thanks
to God for the gift. Not knowing how upon the spot to recompense the
herald for the blissful tidings, he took the royal cloak from his own
shoulders and spread it over Trakhaniot, and passed into his hands the
magnificent charger from which the monarch had just alighted. He spent
the night of the 28th of October in a small village but a few miles
from Moscow, all things being prepared for his triumphant entrance
into the capital the next day. With the earliest light of the morning
he advanced toward the city. The crowd, even at that early hour, was
so great that, for a distance of four miles, there was but a narrow
passage left through the dense ranks of the people for the tzar and
his guard. The emperor advanced