r distinguished for his bravery or his
wounds. The monarch, thus surrounded with glory, beloved by his
people, the conqueror of a foreign empire and the pacificator of his
own, distinguished for the nobleness of his personal character and the
grandeur of his exploits, alike wise as a legislator and humane as a
man, was still but twenty-two years of age. His career thus far
presents a phenomenon quite unparalleled in history.

As soon as Anastasia was able to leave her couch she accompanied the
tzar to the monastery of Yroitzky, where his infant son Dmitri
received the ordinance of baptism. It seems to be the doom of life
that every calm should be succeeded by a storm; that days of sunshine
should be followed by darkness and tempests. Early in the year 1553
tidings reached Moscow that the barbarians at Kezan were in bloody
insurrection. The Russian troops had been worsted in many conflicts;
very many of them were slain. The danger was imminent that the
insurrection would prove successful, and that the Russians would be
entirely exterminated from Kezan. The imprudence of the emperor, in
withdrawing before the conquest was consolidated, was now apparent to
all. To add to the consternation the monarch himself was suddenly
seized with an inflammatory fever; the progress of the malady was so
rapid that almost immediately his life was despaired of. The mind of
the tzar was unclouded, and being informed of his danger, without any
apparent agitation he called for his secretary to draw up his last
will and testament. The monarch nominated for his successor his infant
son, Dmitri. To render the act more imposing, he requested the lords,
who were assembled in an adjoining saloon, to take the oath of
allegiance to his son. Immediately the spirit of revolt was
manifested. Many of the lords dreaded the long minority of the infant
prince, and the government of the regency which would probably ensue.
The contest, loud and angry, reached the ears of the king, and he sent
for the refractory lords to approach his bedside. Ivan, burning with
fever, with hardly strength to speak, and expecting every hour to die,
turned his eyes to them reproachfully and said,

"Who then do you wish to choose for your tzar? I am too feeble to
speak long. Dmitri, though in his cradle, is none the less your
legitimate sovereign. If you are deaf to the voice of conscience you
must answer for it before God."

One of the nobles frankly responded,

"Sire, we a