hood, so did she
purchase her enlargement from that convent where so long she had been
a prisoner, and restoration to the rank that was her proper due. After
all, she had cause for gratitude to Demetrius, who, in addition to
restoring her these things, had avenged her upon the hated Boris
Godunov.

His coronation followed in due season, and at last this amazing
adventurer found himself firmly seated upon the throne of Russia, with
Basmanov at his right hand to help and guide him. And at first all went
well, and the young Tsar earned a certain measure of popularity. If his
swarthy face was coarse-featured, yet his bearing was so courtly and
gracious that he won his way quickly to the hearts of his people. For
the rest he was of a tall, graceful figure, a fine horseman, and of a
knightly address at arms.

But he soon found himself in the impossible position of having to serve
two masters. On the one hand there was Russia, and the orthodox Russians
whose tsar he was, and on the other there were the Poles, who had made
him so at a price, and who now demanded payment. Because he saw that
this payment would be difficult and fraught with peril to himself
he would--after the common wont of princes who have attained their
objects--have repudiated the debt. And so he was disposed to ignore, or
at least to evade, the persistent reminders that reached him from the
Papal Nuncio, to whom he had promised the introduction into Russia of
the Roman faith.

But presently came a letter from Sigismund couched in different terms.
The King of Poland wrote to Demetrius that word had reached him that
Boris Godunov was still alive, and that he had taken refuge in England,
adding that he might be tempted to restore the fugitive to the throne of
Muscovy.

The threat contained in that bitter piece of sarcasm aroused Demetrius
to a sense of the responsibilities he had undertaken, which were
precisely as Boris Godunov had surmised. As a beginning he granted the
Jesuits permission to build a church within the sacred walls of the
Kremlin, whereby he gave great scandal. Soon followed other signs that
he was not a true son of the Orthodox Greek Church; he gave offence by
his indifference to public worship, by his neglect of Russian customs,
and by surrounding himself with Roman Catholic Poles, upon whom he
conferred high offices and dignities.

And there were those at hand ready to stir up public feeling against
him, resentful boyars quick to susp