city of Feodor to govern,
laid his plans to obtain the throne for himself.

Feodor was crowned immediately after the death of his father, and
proceeded at once to carry out the provisions of his will by
liberating the prisoners, abolishing the taxes and restoring
confiscated estates. He also abolished the body guard of the tzar,
which had become peculiarly obnoxious to the nation. These measures
rendered him, for a time, very popular. This popularity thwarted
Bielski in the plan of organizing the people and the nobles in a
conspiracy against the young monarch, and the nobles even became so
much alarmed by the proceedings of the haughty minister, who was so
evidently aiming at the usurpation of the throne, that they besieged
him in his castle. The fortress was strong, and the powerful feudal
lord, rallying his vassals around him, made a valiant and a protracted
defense. At length, finding that he would be compelled to surrender,
he attempted to escape in disguise. Being taken a captive, he was
offered his choice, death, or the renunciation of all political
influence and departure into exile. He chose the latter, and retired
beyond the Volga to one of the most remote provinces of Kezan.

Feodor had married the daughter of one of the most illustrious of his
nobles. His father-in-law, a man of peculiar address and capacity,
with ability both to conceive and execute the greatest undertakings,
soon attained supremacy over the mind of the feeble monarch. The name
of this noble, who became renowned in Russian annals, was Boris
Gudenow. He had the rare faculty of winning the favor of all whom he
approached. With rapid strides he attained the posts of prime
minister, commander-in-chief and co-regent of the empire. A Polish
embassador at this time visited Moscow, and, witnessing the extreme
feebleness of Feodor, sent word to his ambitious master, Stephen
Bathori, that nothing would be easier than to invade Russia
successfully; that Smolensk could easily be taken, and that thence the
Polish army might find an almost unobstructed march to Moscow. But
death soon removed the Polish monarch from the labyrinths of war and
diplomacy.

Boris was now virtually the monarch of Russia, reigning, however, in
the name of Feodor. We have before mentioned that Poland was an
elective monarchy. Immediately upon the death of a sovereign, the
nobles, with their bands of retainers, often eighty thousand in
number, met upon a large plain, where the