erous retinue set
out on her journey to Moscow. She did not reach the capital of Moscow
until the 1st of May. Her father's whole family, and several thousand
armed Polanders, by way of guard, accompanied her. Many of the Polish
nobles also took this opportunity of visiting Russia, and a multitude
of merchants put themselves in her train for purposes of traffic.

The tzarina was met, at some distance from Moscow, by the royal guard,
and escorted to the city, where she was received with ringing of
bells, shoutings, discharge of cannons and all the ordinary and
extraordinary demonstrations of popular joy. On the 8th of May, the
ceremony of blessing the marriage was performed by the patriarch, and
immediately after she was crowned tzarina with greater pomp than
Russia had ever witnessed before. But the appearance of this immense
train of armed Poles incensed the Russians; and the clergy, who were
jealous of the encroachments of the church of Rome, were alarmed in
behalf of their religion. An intrepid noble, Zuski, now resolved, by
the energies of a popular insurrection, to rid the throne of Dmitri.
With great sagacity and energy the conspiracy was formed. The tzarina
was to give a grand entertainment on the evening of the 17th of May,
and the conspirators fixed upon that occasion for the consummation of
their plan. Twenty thousand troops were under the orders of Zuski, and
he had led them all into the city, under the pretense of having them
assist in the festival.

At six o'clock in the morning of the appointed day these troops,
accompanied by some thousands of the populace, surrounded the palace
and seized its gates. A division was then sent in, who commenced the
indiscriminate massacre of all who were, or who looked like Polanders.
It was taken for granted that all in the palace were either Poles or
their partisans. The alarm bells were now rung, and Zuski traversed
the streets with a drawn saber in one hand and a cross in the other,
rousing the ignorant populace by the cry that the Poles had taken up
arms to murder the Russians. Dmitri, in his chamber, hearing the
cries of the dying and the shrieks of those who fled before the
assassins, leaped from his window into the court yard, and, by his
fall, dislocated his thigh. He was immediately seized, conveyed into
the grand hall of audience, and a strong guard was set over him.

The murderers ransacked the palace, penetrating every room, killing
every Polish man and treat