domestic hearth. There are lots of excellent people in Poland, though you may not think so.'

'We have the opportunity of judging for ourselves, without leaving Moscow, Sire,' said the irrepressible Bielski. "There is plenty of material here at present to teach us what Poles are like.' Dmitri cast a glance at him, for there was a shade of insolence in his tone.

'I hope, sir, you will understand that any Poles here have particular claims on my gratitude, and treat them well. We ought to be above all these petty national antipathies. We have

much to learn, ay, much, from our cousins the Poles. But enough. Who is coming to hunt? There is no time to lose. We start in twenty minutes. I hope to see you all, gentlemen.' He disappeared, and left them gazing at one another.

'Mtislavski,' said Shuiski, are you going to

hunt?'

'Not I. I have a bad cold,' said Mtislavski significantly.

'Well, come to my house, and you, gentlemen, unless you prefer the chase.

I have some

Armenian silks I should like your opinion on.'

XLIV

'By God! it's too much; did you hear what he said to me? What, am I to sit and hear this cursed impostor cast his damned Poles in my teeth?' And Bielski stamped about the

room.

'Patience, Prince,' said Vassili Shuiski. You mistake; we ought, on the contrary, to admire our new Tsar's cosmopolitan sympathies, and rejoice that we have a ruler who stands in no need of his faithful nobles' advice.'

'Ay, and one who makes no scruple of telling his boyars that they are a pack of ignorant boobies,' added Pushkin.

'And who gibes at their customs and costumes,' said Galitzin.

'--!' burst out the choleric Bielski. 'To be kept waiting for half an hour, and then for his Cæsarean Majesty to dash in half-dressed, and tell us he did not want us, but was off to hunt bears with his infernal Cossacks!'

'Well, we shall soon have the pleasure of kissing the hand of his beloved Polish woman.'

Shuiski, you jest!' exclaimed Bielski, ‘but I do not. A pretty jest, all this!'

'I do not talk; I act,' answered Shuiski; 'but as for you, you are a boy. You will be betraying our whole scheme one fine day, if you cannot refrain from indulging your temper as you did to-day. You must control yourself. I have good evidence that the proper moment is approaching. Cæsar is a clever lad, but he has dismissed his Polish guards. That is one for us, and if we are patient the time will soon The people are being cured of their frenzy

come.

already.'

He summoned a servant, and gave him an order. In a minute or two the servant returned, and ushered in two monks.

'Here are my Armenian silks, Mtislavskifellow-workers in the good cause. Well, Father Nicolas, how are the people-still out of their senses?"

The elder monk bowed profoundly. 'My lord, the usurper is losing ground in the people's affection. They are beginning to dis

trust a Tsar who is entirely without dignity. Why, he runs about the streets like a pedlar, talking to every one he meets.'

'That's true enough,' said Galitzin. 'He got lost in some of the back streets the day before yesterday. 'Twas all we could do to find him again. He was, by your leave, sitting discussing the price of beef with a butcher.'

'He is no son of the Terrible Ivan,' said the monk; and the people are beginning to see it. Worst of all, he is a pagan, a Latin heretic, I fear. Never does he salute the sacred images.'

'He will do worse than that soon,' said Shuiski. 'Do you know, Father, that he means to seize the goods of the Church to defray the expense of providing for his Poles?'

The monk shuddered at the impious thought. 'Yesterday morning, when I was talking to him,' said Galitzin, 'he scoffed at the Councils of the Church, and he talked to me of "your religion"—as much as to say, "not mine.'

'You see what is in store for you, Father,' said Shuiski. 'But we will discuss the point another time. I will be with you when I have settled a little business with these gentlemen.'

The monks withdrew, and Shuiski turned to

his conspirators.

'These monks know the people; but we must not be in a hurry. Let us wait till the Polish woman and her attendants swarm into Moscow. Then the mob will grow really disgusted, and we shall have them on our side. Then we can wipe out old scores. 'Tis but a few weeks' patience. Can you keep quiet, do you think, Bielski? Really, if not, you had better go away and wait somewhere in the country. You will spoil everything.'

'I'll try,' growled Bielski. 'But I must keep out of his sight, or I shall get up and wring his pagan neck for him some morning.'

'Perhaps not,' said Galitzin. 'Don't try, Bielski. He's a tough customer in a squabble, is this same Polish impostor. I've seen him do very funny things with bears and men, out hunting. You're a bit of a bear yourself, but you'd find him your match, I expect.'