6

How could I know you, wrapped up like a great bear?'

'You always know a bear by his hug,' said Dmitri, smiling, and suiting the action to the word.

LIX

Two days afterwards, the whole population of Moscow was massed on the northern bank of the river to witness the entrée of their new Tsarina into her capital. On the opposite bank, close to the bridge, a shining tent of white silk had been set up, wherein she might receive the homage and addresses of the nobles and the deputations from the city, which were drawn up on the bridge in order.

At half-past eleven, a splendid carriage of ebony, lined with yellow silk, and drawn by six dapple-grey horses, their manes, tails, and feet dyed scarlet, drew her and the Palatine of Sandomir to the tent. Behind followed in other carriages her maids of honour and the cavalcade of Polish knights who formed her escort.

Here she dismounted and went inside the

tent. One after another the boyars' came forward and kissed the hand of their new mistress. Outside, the Tsar, dressed as a cavalry officer, waited incognito on his horse, for etiquette forbade him to receive her in his own proper person till she arrived at the Kremlin.

This lasted an hour, during which Marina patiently presented her hand to the interminable series of nobles who came to welcome her. A sense of indefinable nervousness possessed her. Half-way through the ceremony she glanced aside and caught the eye of Vassili Shuiski contemplating her with a smile of sinister irony.

Coming forth from the tent when all was over, she was assisted by the six leading boyars into a new carriage, this being of inlaid cedar, with cushions of red velvet, embroidered with pearls, and drawn by twelve cream-coloured steeds. The procession, led by the boyars on foot, wound slowly over the bridge and up the street towards the Spaski Gate. The Polish knights followed close behind, their band playing Polish national airs. The bells rang joyfully ; peal after peal of Dmitri's new ordnance drowned from time to time the music and the shouting.

'Look, look at her!' exclaimed Dashenka to Peter, who stood at hand. 'Isn't she beautiful? But who ever saw a decent woman in such tightfitting clothes?'

'I don't care about her clothes,' returned Peter; but those Poles, why do they come here? They look just as if they were entering a captured citadel, with their arms and their trumpets, St. Nicolas blast them!'

Nevertheless, the crowd cheered lustily as the cortége arrived by degrees at the Redeemer's Gate, and was there met by the Tsar in his robes of state, the stuff of which it was impossible to discern, so overstrewn was it with jewels flashing in the sun. Taking his Tsarina by the hand, he led her to the door of the Convent of the Ascension, where she was received by the Dowager-Tsarina Maria, the mother of the Tsar, and conducted within.

Amidst such apparent rejoicing did the beautiful Pole enter her new abode, but with a heavy heart; for, as she slowly moved through the streets threading the vast crowd, many a scowling eye had struck a chill into her soul.

R

LX

An eager crowd of gutter politicians was assembled in the little drinking booth, and lent an attentive ear to the fervent denunciations of Pimen, who now had public opinion on his side.

'What are all these accursed Lyakhs, these pagans, doing in our Moscow?' he shouted. Why do they all come here armed to the teeth, in crowds? Answer me that!'

But this time Mitka did not accept his challenge.

'What can they want here, these vile pagans, but to attack our faith? When were pagans ever in the Kremlin before? And the foreign woman, is she not in the Ascension Convent? And has she not brought her cooks and her musicians with her?'

'What does she want with cooks?' asked one of the drinkers.

Want? She wants to eat unholy meats in the sacred convent.'

'Ay,' said another; and the Tsar, he eats veal. He is not a Russian.'

'Who told you he eats veal?' asked Mitka. 'The butcher, Rustok, told me; he sends veal to the Kremlin.'

'Of course he eats veal!' exclaimed Pimen. 'Did not he have Prince Tatischef flogged for telling him he ought not?'

A tall man in the corner raised his head. 'It would be very well if that was all. But he is a pagan. He has seized the property of the Church, and built churches for his Wends and foreigners with the money.'

'It is a plot! it is a plot!' cried Pimen. They are all in it, these Poles and Wends. They want to get our country into their hands. They are all Cossacks. The Tsar is a vile Cossack, just like this other new Tsarévitch on

Who is he?' asked a toper.

'Did you not hear?
not hear?

Another dirty Cossack

says he is the Tsarévitch Peter Fedorovitch.'

'Soon we shall have two Tsars!'

'And both Cossacks, both pagans!' cried Pimen.