ds. Then the redoubtable Lifeguardsman
Kiribyeevitch steps forth. Thrice the challenge is repeated before any
one responds. Then young Merchant Kalashnikoff comes forward, makes his
reverence to the Tzar, and when Kiribyeevitch demands his name, he
announces it, and adds that he was born of an honorable father and has
always lived according to God's law; he has not cast his eyes on another
man's wife, nor played the bandit on a dark night, nor hid from the
light of heaven, and that he means to fight to the death. On hearing
this, Kiribyeevitch "turned pale as snow in autumn, his bold eyes
clouded over, a shiver ran through his mighty shoulders, on his parted
lips the words fell dead." With one blow, the young merchant crushes in
the lifeguardsman's breast, and the latter falls dead, the death being
beautifully described in stately, picturesque language. At sight
thereof, the Tzar Ivan Vasilievitch waxed wroth, stamped on the earth,
scowled with his black brows; ordered that the young merchant be seized
and hauled before him. He then demands whether Kalashnikoff has slain
his faithful servant Kiribyeevitch "voluntarily, involuntarily, or
against his will." Kalashnikoff boldly makes answer that he has done it
with deliberate intent, and that the reason therefor he will not tell to
the Tzar, but only to God alone. He tells the Tzar to order him to be
executed, but not to deprive his little children or his young widow and
his brothers of his favor. The Tzar replies that it is well Kalashnikoff
has answered truthfully; he will give the young widow and the children a
grant from his treasury, and give command that, from that day forth, his
brothers may traffic throughout the wide Russian realm free of taxes.
But Kalashnikoff must mount the scaffold, lay down his turbulent head,
and the executioner shall be ordered to make his axe very sharp, and the
great bell shall be tolled in order that all the men of Moscow may know
that the Tzar has not deprived him of his favor. The execution and
Kalashnikoff's farewell speeches to his brothers, with his last messages
to his wife not to grieve so greatly, and his commands that she is not
to tell his children how their father died, together with requests for
prayers for his soul, are described in very touching and lofty terms, as
are also the burial, and the scenes at the grave.

* * * * *

The influence of Schelling's philosophy on the society of Moscow (th