XXXVI

A week later, as Dmitri was sallying forth to hunt with a crowd of nobles and courtiers who had come to Tula, where he had fixed his headquarters, to pay their respects to the rising sun, he was met by a courier, with despatches from Moscow.

Tsar, thy enemies have ceased to live.' 'What do you mean?'

Dmitri tore from his hands the despatch, and glancing through it, turned with black brows to his following.

"Who has dared to do this? Here have young Fedor Borissovitch and his mother been murdered strangled-as Prince Galitzin informs me-by my order. I gave no orders. Has any one dared to give them for me?'

A look from Otrépieff, who was amongst them, told him what he wanted to know.

My lords,' said Dmitri, 'go on; I will join you in an instant. Otrépieff, and you, Iwanicki, come back with me.'

As soon as they were alone, Dmitri turned upon Otrépieff.

'Was it you who sent the order to murder this wretched boy?'

'Dmitri,' said Otrépieff, 'it was necessary; alive, they might have been the cause of much difficulty.'

'And how did you dare to use my name?'
'Dare?' said Otrépieff.

'Ay, dare. I will have you know I am the Tsar, and no one else.'

'Have

'Are you mad?' exclaimed the monk. you forgotten already how much you owe to me? A week ago, without me, where were you?'

'Look you, Otrépieff, I forget nothing; but I am the Tsar. I will have none of this. I will be a father to my people. You have done me incalculable harm.'

'Yet you yourself put Semen Godunoff to death.'

'That is another matter; the people hated him. But what had this poor youth done, except happen to be the son of Boris? And to send bandits in to strangle him in prison !—it is too much. Luckily the girl is still alive.'

'Dmitri, this pitiful soft-heartedness will ruin you.'

'Ruin me, if you please, but I will have no bloodshedding; if I cannot stand without it, I will fall. Never dare to put yourself in my place again. I will not forget your services ; but away, remember what I have said.'

Otrépieff stood, amazed and confounded; then, as if unwillingly, turned on his heel and went

out.

'General,' said Iwanicki, 'I scarcely know you; you are not the same man. I am quaking.' 'The same for you, Iwanicki; but this monk, he thinks I am his baby, to lead about wherever he will. But I will have no more of that, and no cruelty. It was my father's vice, and in that, at least, I will not resemble him. If he was Terrible to his people, I will be their benefactor. come, and let us catch up these nobles, and have a gallop. These poor devils are dead, so let us forget them; it's no use crying over spilt milk, or spilt blood.'

But

XXXVII

It was five o'clock in the afternoon.

Wearied out with long interviews and deputations, and the thousand and one necessary preparations for his entry into Moscow on the following day, Dmitri mounted his horse, and accompanied only by Korela and Iwanicki, left his camp, then situated about four miles to the south-west of Moscow, and galloped to the low Sparrow hills; those same hills from which, long after him, the great Corsican, in his last fatal expedition, surveyed the ancient capital of the Tsars, stretched out beneath his feet.

He surmounted the little eminence, and drew his rein. And there, before his gaze, lay the city of his dreams-fair as in a dreamMoscow.

Moscow !

On his left the river ran towards him, sweeping past the embattled walls of the NovoDevitchi convent, curving round at his very feet in a huge half-moon, and running back

His eye

and away to the right, till it lapped with its blue waves the low mound on which arose the Kremlin. The Kremlin !-the white walls of the Kremlin, like gigantic ivory combs lying on their backs, there they were! wandered from spire and belfry, tower and pinnacle, to spire and belfry, tower and pinnacle. Over cupola after cupola, blue and gold and green, the soft evening sun fell with its kindly glow, and high above all, on Ivan's great tower, emblem of the Tsar, stretching upwards to the sky. Away on the right, from over the river, the tinted bulbs of the monastery and fortress of the New Redeemer peeped out from their nest among the trees.

He gazed and gazed.

Could it be real?

For the first time, the strangeness of his enterprise came over him with a rush. Was he, Dmitri, actually the lord and absolute master of all?

Yes; it was no dream. It cannot escape him now. The real difficulties have all been

overcome.

And he will be worthy of it. He will