rrors of the mob to wield, as her executive
power, convened an assembly of the princes of the blood, the generals,
the lords, the patriarch and the bishops of the church, and even of
the principal merchants. She urged upon them that Ivan, by right of
birth, was entitled to the empire. The mother of Peter, Natalia
Nariskin, now empress dowager, was still young and beautiful. She had
two brothers occupying posts of influence at court. The family of the
Nariskins had consequently much authority in the empire. Sophia
dreaded the power of her mother-in-law, and her first efforts of
intrigue were directed against the Nariskins. Her agents were
everywhere busy, in the court and in the army, whispering insinuations
against them. It was even intimated that they had caused the death of
Feodor, by bribing his physician to poison him, and that they had
attempted the life of Ivan. At length Sophia gave to her agents a list
of forty lords whom they were to denounce to the insurgent soldiery as
enemies to them and to the State.

This was the signal for their massacre. Two were first seized in the
palace of the Kremlin, and thrown out of the window. The soldiers
received them upon their pikes, and dragged their mutilated corpses
through the streets to the great square of the city. They then rushed
back to the palace, where they found Athanasius Nariskin, one of the
brothers of the queen dowager. He was immediately murdered. They soon
after found three of the proscribed in a church, to which they had
fled as a sanctuary. Notwithstanding the sacredness of the church, the
unhappy lords were instantly hewn to pieces by the swords of the
assassins. Thus frenzied with blood, they met a young lord whom they
mistook for Ivan Nariskin, the remaining brother of the mother of
Peter. He was instantly slain, and then the assassins discovered their
error. With some slight sense of justice, perhaps of humanity, they
carried the bleeding corpse of the young nobleman to his father. The
panic-stricken, heartbroken parent dared not rebuke them for the
murder, but thanked them for bringing to him the corpse of his child.
The mother, more impulsive and less cautious, broke out into bitter
and almost delirious reproaches. The father, to appease her, said to
her, in an under tone, "Let us wait till the hour shall come when we
shall be able to take revenge."

Some one overheard the imprudent words, and reported them to the mob.
They immediately returned, dr