"Hello." "Hello." "What are you reading?" "Poetry." "Show me." "Here." "Right there?" "My window's high above the earth ...high above" " High above..." " High above the earth..." "I see just endless dawn beyond" " It seems that sky is pale..." " ...pale and blank pale and blank..." "It doesn't care for my pure heart" " My poor heart." " Poor heart." "Moscow is empty." "The people to the Monastery have flocked after the Patriarch." "What thinks thou?" "How will this trouble end?" "How will it end?" "That is not hard to tell." "A little more the multitude will groan and wail," "Boris pucker awhile his forehead, like a toper eyeing a glass of wine, and in the end will humbly, of his graciousness, consent to take the crown." "And then will rule us." "Just as before." "A month has flown already." "What if our ruler be sick in very deed of cares of state and has no strength to mount the throne?" "What say's thou?" "I say that in that case the blood in vain flowed of the young tsarevich." "That Dimitry might just as well be living." "A fearful crime..." "Is it beyond all doubt Boris contrived the young boy's murder?" "Who besides?" "Who else bribed Chepchugov in vain?" "Who sent in secret the brothers Bityagovsky with Kachalov?" "I was sent to Uglich, there to probe this matter on the spot." "Fresh traces there I found." "The whole town bore witness to the crime." "With one accord the burghers all affirmed it." "And with a single word, I could have proved the secret villain's guilt." "Why did thou then not crush him?" "At the time, I do confess, his unexpected calmness, his shamelessness, dismayed me." "He looked me in the eyes, he questioned me closely, and I repeated to his face the tale that he himself had whispered to me." "An ugly business, prince." "What could I do?" "Declare it all to Feodor?" "But the tsar saw all things with the eyes of Godunov." "Heard all things with the ears of Godunov." "Grant even that I might have fully proved it, Boris would have denied it there and then, and I should have been haled away to prison, like mine own uncle, strangled within the silence of some deaf-walled dungeon." "I boast not when I say that no penalty affrights me." "I am no coward, but also am no fool, don't choose of my free will to walk into a halter." "Listen, I warrant you remorse already gnaws the murderer." "The blood of that same child will hinder him from mounting to the throne." "That will not baulk him." "Boris is not so timid." "What honor for ourselves, for all Russia!" "A slave of yesterday, a Tartar, son by marriage of Maliuta, of a hangman, himself in soul a hangman, he to wear the crown and robe of Monomakh!" "He is of lowly birth." "We both can boast a nobler lineage." "Indeed we may!" "Let us remember, Shuisky, Vorotinsky are, let me say, born princes." "Born princes, and of the blood of Rurik." "But listen, prince, we, 'twould seem, should have the right to mount Feodor's throne." "More so than Godunov." "In very truth 'twould seem so." "He's daring." "That is all." "While we..." "The Council has resolved for one last time to put to proof the power of supplication upon our ruler's mournful soul." "After a solemn service in the Kremlin, the blessed Patriarch will go, preceded by sacred banners, with the holy icons of the Donskaya and Vladimirskaya." "With him will go the Council, courtiers, delegates, boyars, and all the orthodox folk of Moscow." "And all will go to pray once more the Queen to pity Fatherless Moscow, and bless Boris unto the crown." "He is unalterable!" "He thrust from him prelates, the boyars, and the Patriarch." "In vain face down they fall." "The splendor of the throne affrights him." "O, God, who is to rule us now?" "O, woe to us." "Drat you!" "Stop crying, or else the bogie-man will drag you off." "Look there!" "The fences, roofs, and every single storey of the Cathedral bell tower, the church-domes, the very crosses are studded thick with people." "What is that noise?" "The people groaning." "They fall like waves, row upon row" "Again...again...again!" "Mam!" "Well, bottoms up." "Have mercy on us, Father!" "O, rule over us!" "O, be a father to us, be the Tsar!" "Why are they wailing?" "How can we know?" "The boyars know well enough." "It's none of our business." "As everyone is crying, we, brother, also should." "I'm trying, brother, but I can't." "Nor I. Have you an onion?" "Let's smear our eyes." "No, I will wet my eyes with spittle." "What is it now?" "Who knows." "The crown is his!" "He's tsar!" "He's yielded!" "Boris!" "Our tsar!" "Long live Boris!" "Thou, father Patriarch, and all ye boyars!" "My soul lies bare before you." "Ye all have seen with what humility and fear" "I took this mighty power upon me." "How heavy is the weight of obligation." "I succeed the great Ivan, succeed the angel tsar." "O Righteous Father, King Of kings, look down from Heaven upon the tears of thy true servants, and send on him whom Thou has loved, whom Thou exalted has on earth so wondrously," "Thy holy blessing." "You rightly guessed." "Guessed what?" "Why, you remember the other day, here on this very spot?" "No, I remember nothing." "When people flocked to Virgin's Field, thou said;" "'Tis not the time for recollection." "And there are times when I should counsel you even to forget." "As for the rest, I only sought by feigned calumny to prove thee, in order to discern thy secret thoughts." "And see!" "The people hail the tsar." "My absence may be noticed." "I'll join them." "Cunning courtier." "Ever the selfsame dream!" "ls't possible?" "For the third time!" "Accursed dream!" "Awake, my brother?" "All night long Demon visions have disturbed my peace." "I dreamed I scaled by winding stairs a turret, from whose height Moscow appeared an anthill," "where people seethed in squares below and pointed up at me with laughter." "Shame and terror came upon me." "And falling headlong, I awoke." "Three times I dreamed this dream." "Is that not strange?" "'Tis the young blood at play." "Humble thyself by prayer and fasting, and thy slumber's visions will all be filled with lightness." "Hitherto if I, unwillingly by drowsiness weakened, make not at night long orisons, my old-man's sleep is neither calm nor sinless." "Now riotous feasts appear, now camps of war, now camps of war, scuffles of battle," "fatuous diversions of my youthful years." "How joyfully did thou live out thy youth!" "The fortress of Kazan thou fought beneath, with Shuisky you repulsed the army of Litva." "Thou has seen the court, and splendor of Ivan." "Complain not, brother, that the sinful world thou early did forsake, that few temptations the All-Highest sent to thee." "Believe my words." "The glory of the world, its luxury, woman's seductive love, seen from afar, enslave our souls." "Long have I lived, have taken delight in many things, but never knew true bliss until that season when the Lord guided me to the cloisters." "Think, my son, on the great tsars." "Who loftier than they?" "God only." "Who dares to thwart them?" "None." "What then?" "Often the golden crown became to them a burden." "For a cowl they bartered it." "The tsar Ivan sough in monastic toil tranquility." "What of his son Feodor?" "On the throne he sighed to lead the life of calm devotion." "The royal chambers to a cell of prayer he turned." "Never again shall there be such a tsar." "We've sinned, we've angered God." "A tear's assassin we have chosen for our ruler." "Honored father, long have I desired to ask thee of the death of young Dimitry, the tsarevich." "'Tis said thou wast in Uglich then." "Ay, my son, I well remember." "God it was who led me to witness that ill deed, that bloody sin." "I at that time was sent to distant Uglich upon some mission." "I arrived at night." "Next morning, at the hour of holy mass, I heard upon a sudden bell toll." "Then a cry, an uproar." "Men rushing to the court of the tsaritsa." "Thither I haste, and there had flocked already all Uglich." "There I see the young tsarevich lying dead." "The queen mother in a swoon bowed over him, his nurse in her despair wailing, and then the maddened people drag the godless, treacherous nurse away." "Appears suddenly in their midst, wild, pale with rage," "Judas Bityagovsky." ""There, there's the villain!" shout on all sides the crowd, and in a trice he was no more." "Straightway the people rushed on the three fleeing murderers." "They seized the miscreants and led them up to the child's corpse yet warm." "A marvel!" "The dead child all at once began to tremble." ""Confess!" the people thundered." "And in terror beneath the axe the villains did confess and named Boris." "How old was he, the murdered boy?" "Seven years." "He would have been... of equal age to thee, and would have reigned." "But God deemed otherwise." "This is the woeful tale wherewith my chronicle doth end." "Since then I little have dipped in worldly business." "Brother Gregory, record all things whereto thou shall in life be witness." "War and peace, the sway of kings, the holy miracles of saints, all prophecies and heavenly signs." "For me 'tis time to rest and quench my lamp." "But hark!" "The mating bell." "Bless, Lord, Thy servants." "Give me my crutch, Gregory." "Boris, Boris." "Before thee they all tremble." "None dare remind thee of what befell the hapless child." "Meanwhile, here, in this dark cell, a hermit does indite thy stern denunciation." "Thou will not escape the judgment of the world, as thou will not escape the doom of God." "And he has run away, Father Abbot?" "He has, holy sovereign, three days ago now." "Accursed rascal!" "What is his origin?" "Of the family of Otrepievs, of the lower nobility of Galicia." "In his youth he took the tonsure, no one knows where," "Lived in Suzdal, departed from there, wandered to various convents, finally arrived at my Chudov fraternity." "And I, seeing that he was still young and inexperienced, entrusted him to Father Pimen, an old man, kind and humble." "He was very learned, composed canons for the holy brethren." "But, to be sure, instruction was not given to him from the Lord God." "Those learned fellows!" "What a thing to say," ""I shall be tsar in Moscow."" "A vessel of the devil he is!" "However, it is no use to report to the tsar about this." "Why disquiet our father sovereign?" "It will be enough to give information about his flight to the Secretary Smirnov or the Secretary Ephimiev." "What heresy: "I shall be tsar in Moscow!"" "Catch him!" " Where is the sovereign?" " In his bed-chamber where he is closeted with some magician." "That's the kind of intercourse he loves." "Sorcerers, fortune-tellers, necromancers." "Ever he seeks to dip into the future, just like some pretty girl." "Gladly would I know what he'd foretell." "I have attained the highest power." "Six years already have I reigned in peace." "But joy dwells not within my soul." "Even so in youth we greedily desire the joys of love, but only quell the hunger of the heart with momentary possession, we grow cold, grow weary and oppressed." "In vain the wizards promise me length of days, days of dominion immune from treachery." "Not power, not life gladden me." "I forebode the wrath of Heaven and woe." "For me no happiness." "I thought to satisfy my people in contentment, in glory, gain their love by generous gifts, but I have put away... that empty hope." "The power that lives is hateful to the mob." "Only the dead they love." "We are but fools when our heart vibrates to the people's groans and passionate wailing." "Lately on our land God sent a famine, perishing in torments the people uttered moan." "The granaries I made them free of, scattered gold among them, found labor for them." "Furious for my pains they cursed me!" "Next, a fire consumed their homes, I built for them new dwellings." "Then forsooth they blamed me for the fire!" "I thought within my family to find solace," "I thought to make my daughter happy by wedlock." "Like a tempest death took off her bridegroom." "And at once a stealthy rumor pronounced me guilty of my daughter's grief." "Me, me, the hapless father!" "Whoever dies, lam the secret murderer of all." "I hastened Feodor's end, 'twas I that poisoned my sister-queen," "the lowly nun." "All I..." "Ah!" "Now I feel it, naught can give us peace mid worldly cares." "Nothing save... only conscience." "But if in her be found a single casual stain, a single casual stain!" "Then misery..." "With what a deadly sore my soul does smart, my heart, with venom filled," "reproach does like a hammer beat in mine ears, all things revolt me, and my head whirls," "and in my eyes are children drenched in blood." "And gladly would I flee, but nowhere can find refuge!" "Horrible..." "Pitiful is he whose conscience is unclean." "Here is the Lithuanian border." "And what makes you so fond of Lithuania?" "Since Father Missail and I fled from the monastery, we care for nothing." "Be it Lithuania, be it Russia, be it a fiddle, be it dulcimer." "All the same for us, if only there was wine." "That's the main thing!" "Well said, Father Varlaam." "Here you go." "Thank you, my dear." "God bless thee." "And you?" "Not drinking, not joining in song?" " I don't wish to." " To each his own." "And to a drunk man his Heaven." "You know, Father Missail, when I drink, I don't like the sober." "Drunkenness is one thing, swagger is quite another." "Want to live as we do?" "Welcome." "No, then be gone, away with you!" "A buffoon is no friend for a priest!" "Drink with your thoughts to yourself." " Why should I keep my thoughts to myself?" " Let him alone, Father Varlaam." " What kind of a fasting man is he?" " Does it matter?" "Matter?" "He's the one who attached himself to us!" "We don't know who he is, or where he came from, but grand airs he gives!" "What is your problem with him?" "Maybe he's had a close acquaintance with the pillory!" "The pillory?" "Jail, father Missail!" "Hostess!" "Where does this road lead to?" "The road?" "To Lithuania, to the Luyov mountains." "And is it far to the Luyov mountains?" "Not far." "You might get there by evening." "You might, but for the tear's frontier barriers." "Barriers?" "Someone has escaped from Moscow." "And orders have been given to detain... and search everyone." "Well I'll be damned." "Hey, comrade!" "I see you've been making up to the hostesses." "To be sure it isn't vodka he needs." "But a woman!" "Who is it they want?" "Who escaped from Moscow?" "Here even good folk are worried now." "God knows, a thief perhaps, a robber." "But nothing will come of it anyway." "Not even an old devil can they catch." "As if there was no road to Lithuania other than the highway." "What's that now?" "They're here." "Damn them!" "Go." "Hostess!" "ls there another room?" "No, my dear." "I myself should be glad to hide." "Give them wine and bread, and Heaven knows what else." "Hey there, hostess!" "Welcome." "And who are you people?" "Us?" "Just clerics, humble monks." "Going from village to village, collecting Christian aims." "For the monastery." "Hello, and you?" "A layman from the suburb." "I've conducted the old men as far as the frontier." "The lad is worthless." "The old men on the other hand..." "Be quiet." "We shall come to them in a moment." "Well, my fathers, how are you getting on?" "Badly, my sons, badly!" "The Christians now have turned stingy." "They love their money." "They hide their money." "They give little to God." "The people of the world have become great sinners." "They have all devoted themselves to commerce, to earthly cares." "They think of worldly wealth, not of salvation of the soul." "You walk and walk." "You beg and beg." "Sometimes three days of begging will not bring you three half-pence." "What a sin!" "A couple weeks go by, you look into your bag, and there is so little in it that you're ashamed to show yourself at the monastery." "What is there to do but drink away from very sorrow what is left." "Ah, it is bad!" "It seems our last days have come." "Yes, God have mercy." "Alexis!" "Have you the tear's edict with you?" "I have it." "Give it here." "Hey, you!" "Are you literate?" "Me?" "I'm literate." "Then read aloud." "An unworthy monk of the Monastery of Chudov, Gregory, of the family of Otrepiev taught by the devil, and has dared to vex the holy brotherhood by all kinds of iniquities and acts of lawlessness." "He, the accursed Grishka, has fled to the Lithuanian frontier." "The tsar has commanded to arrest him..." "And hang him!" "It does not say "hang" here." "You lie." "What is meant is not always put into writing." "Read: to arrest and hang him." "And hang him." "And the age of Grishka is... about fifty, and his height medium." "He has a bald head, grey beard, fat belly." "Alexis!" "Here is Grishka!" "Hands off, lads, what are you crazy?" "!" "What sort of a Grishka am I?" "Fifty years old, grey beard, fat belly!" "No, brother!" "You're too young to play tricks on me!" "I make it out badly, but I shall manage to make it out, as it's a hanging matter." "And his age is... thirty five." "Why, brother, where does it say fifty?" "Yes, I remember, we were told." "Thirty five!" "Evidently, you like to joke, brother." "And in stature he's not small, chest not broad, eyes are blue," "a wart on his... a wart on his cheek, another on his nose." "Is it not you, brother?" "Stop." "Come here." "Hardly could they tear themselves away." "Indeed, Prince Vassily Ivanovitch," "I began to think that we will not succeed in getting any private talk." "Why do you stand there gaping?" "Always eavesdropping on your lord!" "Clear the table, and then be off." "What is it, Athanasius Mikailovitch?" "The most wondrous thing!" "A message from Cracow was sent to me today by my nephew." "And?" "Strange news my nephew writes." "The son of Ivan the Terrible, the royal youth, who murdered was by order of Boris..." "This is not new." "Just wait." "Dimitry lives." "What news indeed!" "Dimitry living?" "Really marvelous!" "And nothing else?" "Pray listen to the end." "Whoe'er he be, whether he be Dimitry rescued, or else some spirit in his shape, some daring rogue, some insolent pretender," "In any case Dimitry has appeared." "It cannot be." "Pushkin himself beheld him when first he reached the court, and through the ranks of Lithuanian gentlemen went straight into the secret chamber of the king." "Who is he?" "From whence he comes?" "No one knows.'Tis known that he was Vishnevetsky's servant." "That to a holy father on a bed of sickness he disclosed himself." "Possessed of this strange secret, his proud master nursed him." "From his sick bed upraised him, and took him to Sigismund." "And what say men of this bold fellow?" "'Tis said that he is wise, affable, cunning, popular with all men." "He has bewitched the fugitives from Moscow." "The Catholic priests see eye to eye with him." "The King caresses him, and, it is said, has promised help." "All this is such a medley that my head whirls." "Beyond all doubt this man is a pretender, but still, the danger is not slight." "This is grave news." "If it should reach the people, then there'll be a mighty tempest." "Such a storm that hardly will Tsar Boris contrive to keep the crown upon his head." "And serves him right!" "He governs us as did the tsar Ivan of evil memory." "What profit is there that public executions have ceased, that we no longer sing in public hymns to Christ Jesus on the field of blood." "That we no more are burnt in public places, or that the tsar no longer with his scepter rakes in the ashes?" "Is there any safety in our poor life?" "Each day disgrace awaits us." "The dungeon or Siberia, cowl or shackles." "And then in some deaf nook a starving death, or else the halter." "Where are the most renowned of all our houses?" "Where are the Sitsky princes, where are the Shestunovs?" "The Romanovs?" "Hope of our fatherland?" "Imprisoned, tortured, in exile." "Do but wait, and a like fate will soon be thine." "At home we are beset by treacherous slaves." "Tongues are ever ready for base betrayal, thieves bribed by the State." "We hang upon the word of the first servant whom we may please to punish!" "Thou're right." "But be advised, of this, of all things, for a time we'll speak no word." "Assuredly, keep thine own counsel." "Thou art a person of discretion." "Always I am glad to commune with thee." "Farewell then, prince." "Farewell, my brother." "Until we meet again." "Well, Ksenia?" "Well, my sweet one?" "In thy girlhood already a woe-stricken widow," "ever bewailing thy dead bridegroom." "My Child!" "Fate forbade me to be the author of thy bliss." "Perchance I angered Heaven, it was not mine to compass thy happiness." "Innocent one, for what art thou a sufferer?" "And thou, my son, with what art thou employed?" "What's this?" "A chart of all the land of Muscovy." "Our tsardom from end to end." "You see, here is Moscow." "Here Novgorod... here Astrakhan..." "And what is this which makes a winding pattern here?" "That is the Volga." "One can view as from the clouds our whole dominion at a glance." "Its frontiers, towns and rivers." "Learn, my son. 'Tis science which gives to us an abstract... of the events of our swift-flowing life." "Some day, perchance soon, all the lands which thou today has illustrated, all will come under thy hand." "But here comes Godunov bringing reports to me." "I beg your pardon, son." "God comfort thee." "What news hast thou for me, Semyon Nikitich?" "Today at dawn the butler of Prince Shuisky and Pushkin's servant brought me information." "Well?" "In the first place Pushkin's man deposed" "That yestermorn came to his house from Cracow a courier, who within an hour was sent without a letter back." "Arrest the courier." "Some are already sent to overtake him." "And what of Shuisky?" "Last night he entertained his friends." "The Buturlins, both Miloslavskys, and Saltikov, with Pushkin and some others." "They parted late." "Pushkin alone remained closeted with his host and talked with him a long time more." "For Shuisky send forthwith." "Sire, he's here already." "Dealings with Lithuania?" "What is that?" "I do not like the seditious race of Pushkins," "Nor must I trust in Shuisky." "Elusive he, but bold and wily." "Prince, I must speak with thee." "But thou thyself, it seems, has business with me, and I would listen first to thee." "It is my duty to convey to thee... g rave news." "I listen." "But, Sire..." "The tsarevich may learn whatever Prince Shuisky knows." "Speak." "My liege, from Lithuania there have come tidings to us." "Are they not those which yestereve a courier bore to Pushkin?" "Nothing is hidden from him!" "Sire, I thought thou knew not yet this secret." "Let not that trouble thee, prince." "I fain would scrutinize thy information, else we shall not learn the actual truth." "I know this only, Sire: in Cracow a pretender has appeared." "The king and nobles back him." "What say they?" "Who is he, this pretender?" "I do not know." "But... wherein is he dangerous?" "Thou thyself does know." "The mob is thoughtless, changeable, rebellious, credulous, lightly given to vain hope, obedient to each momentary impulse, to truth deaf and indifferent, it feeds on fables, pleased by shameless boldness." "So, if this unknown Vagabond should cross the Lithuanian border," "Dimitry's name raised from the grave will gain him a whole crowd of fools." "Dimitry's?" "What?" "That child's?" "Tsarevich, leave us." "Suffer me, Sire." "Impossible, my son." "Go now." "Dimitry's name?" "Listen, take steps this very hour that Russia be fenced by barriers from Lithuania." "That not a single soul pass o'er the border." "That not a hare run o'er to us from Poland," "Nor crow fly here from Cracow." "Away!" "I go." "Wait." "Is it not fact that this report is artfully concocted?" "Hast ever heard that dead men have arisen from their graves... to question tsars?" "Legitimate, appointed tsars, chosen by the voice of all the people, crowned by the great Patriarch." "Is it not laughable?" "Why laugh you not?" "I Sire?" "Hark, Prince Vassily..." "When first I learned the youth had somehow lost his life," "'Twas thou I sent to search the matter out." "Now by the Cross and God I do adjure thee," "Declare to me the truth upon thy conscience." "Didst recognize the slaughtered boy, was't not a substitute?" "Reply." "I swear to thee." "Nay, Shuisky, swear not, but do reply:" "was it indeed Dimitry?" "He." "Consider, prince." "I promise clemency." "With vain disgrace a lie that's past," "but if thou now deceive me, then by my son's head I swear an evil fate shall overtake thee." "Such requital that Tsar Ivan Vasilievich shall shudder in his grave with horror." "In punishment no terror lies." "The terror lies in thy disfavor." "And in thy presence dare I use cunning?" "Could I delude myself so blindly as not to recognize Dimitry?" "Three days in the cathedral... did I visit his corpse." "Around him thirteen bodies lay of those slain by the people, and on them corruption already had set in perceptibly." "The childish face of the tsarevich was bright and fresh and quiet, as if asleep." "The deep gash had congealed not, nor the lines of his face even altered." "No, my liege, there is no doubt:" "Dimitry sleeps in the grave." "Enough, depart." "I choke..." "Just let me get my breath." "I felt it." "The blood surged to my face, and heavily fell back." "So this is why for thirteen years together" "I've dreamed about the murdered child." "Yes, yes." "'Tis that!" "Now I perceive." "But who is he, my terrible antagonist?" "An empty name, a shadow?" "Can it be a shade shall tear from me the purple?" "A sound deprive my children of succession?" "Fool that I am!" "Of what am I afraid?" "Blow on this phantom and it is no more..." "So, I am fast resolved." "I'll show no sign of fear." "But nothing must be held in scorn." "Ah!" "Heavy art thou, crown of Monomakh!" "Nay, father, there will be no trouble." "I know the spirit of my people." "Piety in them does run wild, their tear's example is somewhat sacred." "Furthermore, the people are always tolerant." "I warrant you, Before two years my people all, and all the Eastern Church, will recognize the power of Peter's Vicar." "Now then, is it ready?" "Can't you make haste?" "I pray you first to make a difficult decision." "Will you the necklace wear of pearls, or else the emerald half-moon?" "My diamond crown." "Can't you be quicker?" "Today your father counts upon you." "'Twas not for naught the young tsarevich saw you." "He could not hide his rapture." "Wounded he is already, so it only needs to deal him a resolute blow, and instantly, my lady, he'll be in love with you." "Tis now a month since, quitting Cracow, heedless of war and throne of Moscow, he's feasted here, your guest, enraging Poles alike and Russians." "Heavens!" "Shall I ever live to see the day?" "Say, will you not, when to his capital" "Dimitry leads the queen of Moscow say you'll not forsake me?" "Does thou truly think I shall be queen?" "Who, if not you?" "Who here dares to compare in beauty with my mistress?" "Honors with its regard, who wins your heart." "Whoe'er he be, be he our king, the dauphin of France, or even this our poor tsarevich" "God knows who, God knows whence!" "The very son of the tsar, and so confessed by the whole world." "And yet last winter he was but a servant in the house of Vishnevetsky." "He was in hiding." "I do not question it, but still do you know what people say about him?" "That perhaps he is a deacon run away from Moscow," "In his own district a notorious rogue." "What nonsense!" "O, I do not credit it!" "I only Sal!"-... he ought to bless his fate that you have so preferred him to the others." "With none but my Marina does he speak." "With no one else consorts, and that business looks dreadfully like marriage." "Now confess, didst ever think... my daughter would be queen?" "'Tis wonderful." "And, Mnishek, did thou think that my servant would ascend the throne of Moscow?" "And what a girl, look you, is my Marina." "I merely hinted to her:" ""Now, be careful!" "Let not Dimitry slip"." "Already he is completely tangled in her toils." "At eleven, beside the fountain in the avenue of lime-trees I shall be." "What does Dimitry see in her?" "What say you?" "She's a beauty." "Yes, a marble nymph." "Eyes, lips, devoid of life, without a smile." "He is not handsome, yet somehow pleasing." "And one can see he is of royal birth." "The hours are flitting fast, and time is precious to me." "I did not grant a meeting here to thee to listen to a lover's tender speeches." "No need of words." "I well believe thou loves me." "But listen, with thy stormy, doubtful fate" "I have resolved to join my own." "But one thing, Dimitry, I require." "I claim that thou disclose to me thy secret hopes, thy plans, even thy fears, that hand in hand with thee" "I may confront life boldly, not as the slave of my husband's light desires, but as thy spouse, and worthy helpmate of the tsar of Moscow." "Forget the cares." "Prince, this is not the time." "Thou loiters, and meanwhile the devotion of thine adherents cools." "Danger becomes more dangerous, difficulties more difficult." "Already dubious rumors are current, novelty already takes the place of novelty, and Godunov adopts his measures." "What is Godunov?" "ls thy sweet love, my only blessedness, swayed by Boris?" "Nay, nay." "Indifferently I now regard his throne, his kingly power." "Thy love, without it what to me is life, and glory's glitter, and the state of Russia?" "On the dull steppe, in a poor mud hut, thou... thou wilt requite me for the kingly crown." "Thy love." "For shame!" "Forget not, prince, thy high and sacred destiny." "Thy dignity should be more dear to thee than all the joys of life and its allurements." "It thou cannot compare with anything." "Torture me not!" "Say 'twas me and not my rank that thou has chosen, Marina!" "How sorely thou wounds my heart thereby!" "Say, if blind destiny had not assigned me a kingly birth, if I were not indeed son of Ivan, were not this boy, so long forgotten by the world, say, then would thou have loved me?" "Thou art Dimitry, and aught else thou cannot be." "It is not possible for me to love another." "I have no wish to share with a dead body a mistress who belongs to him." "I'm done with counterfeiting, and will tell the truth." "Know this!" "Thy Dimitry long ago has perished, was buried, will not rise again." "And does thou wish to know what man I am?" "Well, I will tell thee." "lam a poor monk." "Grown weary of monastic servitude," "I pondered 'neath the cowl my bold design, made ready for the world a miracle and from my cell at last fled to the Cossacks, to their wild hovels." "There I learned to handle both steed and sword." "I showed myself to you." "I called myself Dimitry, and deceived the brainless Poles." "What says thou, proud Marina?" "Are thou content with my confession?" "Why does thou keep silence?" "I see thou art ashamed of love not princely." "So pronounce on me the fatal word." "My fate is in thy hands." "Decide." "I wait." "You're just a poor pretender..." "Noble virtues may lie perchance in him, virtues well worthy of Moscow's throne, even of thy priceless hand." "Say of a shameful noose, insolent wretch!" "I have deceived God and the kings, lied to the world, but it is not for thee, Marina, to judge me." "Before thee I am guiltless." "I could not deceive thee." "Thou to me was the one sacred being." "Before thee I dared not to dissemble." "Love alone!" "Love, jealous, blind, constrained me to tell all." "What's that to boast of, idiot?" "Who demanded confession of thee?" "If thou, a nameless vagrant, could wonderfully blind two nations, then at least thou should have merited success, and thy bold fraud secured, by constant, deep, and lasting secrecy." "Say, can I yield myself to thee, can I, forgetting rank and maiden modesty, unite my fate with thine, when thou thyself impetuously, with such simplicity reveal thy shame?" "It was from love he blabbed to me!" "I marvel wherefore thou has not from friendship disclosed thyself here now before my father, or else before our king from joy, or else before Prince Vishnevetsky from the zeal of a devoted servant." "That thou alone was able to extort my heart's confession." "I swear to thee that never, nowhere..." "Thou swears!" "Then I must believe." "Believe, of course!" "But may I learn by what thou swears?" "Is it not by the name of God, as suits the Jesuits' devout adopted son?" "Or by thy honor as a high-born knight?" "Or, maybe, by thy royal word alone as a king's son?" "Is it not so?" "Do tell." "The phantom of the Terrible had made me his son, from out the sepulcher had named me Dimitry," "had stirred up the people round me, and had consigned Boris to be my victim." "I am tsarevich." "'Twere shame for me to stoop before a haughty Polish dame." "O, when the heat of shameful passion is overspent, how then shall I detest thee!" "Thou shall not be my companion, nor shall share with me my fate." "But maybe thou shall regret the destiny thou has refused." "And if I should expose beforehand thy bold fraud?" "Does thou think I fear thee?" "Thinks thou they will believe a Polish maiden more than Russia's own tsarevich?" "Know, proud lady, that neither king, nor pope, nor nobles... trouble whether my words be true, whether I be Dimitry or another." "What care they?" "But I provide a pretex for revolt and war." "And this is all they need." "And thee, believe me, they will force to hold thy peace." "Farewell." "Wait." "Tsarevich." "At last I hear the speech not of a boy, but of a man." "It reconciles me to thee, prince." "I forget thy senseless outburst, see again Dimitry." "See again Dimitry." "Listen..." "Now is the time!" "Hasten." "Delay no more." "Lead on thy troops quickly to Moscow, purge the Kremlin, take thy seat upon the throne of Moscow, then send me the nuptial envoy." "But, God hears me, until thy foot be planted on its steps," "until by thee Boris be overthrown," "lam not one to listen to love-speeches." "We old ones dance no longer." "The sound of music lures us not." "We press not nor kiss the hands of charmers." "My friend, I've not forgotten the old pranks!" "Things now are not what they once were." "Youth, I'll be sworn, is not so bold, nor beauty so lively." "Everything confess, my friend has somehow become dull." "So let us leave them." "Let us go and find a flask of old Hungarian overgrown with mould." "Let's bid my butler open an old bottle, and in a quiet corner, tete-a-tete, let's drain a draught, a stream as thick as fat." "And while we're so engaged, let's think things over." "Let us go, brother." "Yes, my friend, let's go." "There, there it is!" "Here is the Russian frontier!" "Holy Russia!" "Fatherland!" "I am thine!" "With scorn from off my clothing now" "I shake the foreign dust, and greedily I drink new air." "It is my native air." "I envy thee..." "Does not thou likewise rejoice in spirit?" "Here lies our Russia!" "She is yours, tsarevich!" "There thy people's hearts are waiting for thee." "There thy Moscow waits, thy Kremlin, thy dominion." "Russian blood, Kurbsky, first must flow." "I'm leading you against your brothers." "lam summoning Lithuania against Russia." "I am showing to foes the longed for way to Moscow." "But let my sin fall not on me, but thee, Boris, the regicide!" "Go forth!" "Go forth." "And woe to Godunov." "Three months shall not pass, Sire, ere even rumor's tongue shall cease to speak of the pretender." "Caged in iron, we'll hale him into Moscow," "I swear by God." "The Lord of Sweden has by envoy... tendered alliance to me." "But we have no need to lean on foreign aid." "But we have enough of our own warlike people to repel Traitors and Poles." "I have refused." "Shchelkalov!" "In every district to the governors send edicts," "that they mount their steeds," "and send the people as of old on service." "You know how everywhere the insolent pretender has spread abroad his artful rumors." "Letters everywhere, by him distributed, have sowed alarm and doubt." "Seditious whispers to and fro pass in the market-places." "Minds are seething." "We need to cool them." "And gladly would I refrain from executions." "But how, with what?" "Holy father, thou first declare thy thought." "This unfrocked monk, has known how to appear Dimitry to the people." "Shamelessly he clothed himself with the name of the tsarevichas with a stolen vestment." "It only needs to tear it off and he'll be put to shame by his own nakedness." "To Uglich I had sent, where it was learned that many sufferers had found deliverance at the grave of the tsarevich." "This is my counsel: to the Kremlin send the sacred relics, place them in the Cathedral of the Archangel, clearly will the people see then the godless villain's fraud." "The might of the fiends will vanish as a cloud of dust." "The vulgar rumor must dispassionately and diligently be tested." "Is it for us, in times of insurrection, to weigh so great a matter?" "Will men not say that we made of sacred things a worldly instrument?" "Even now the people sway senselessly this way and that" "This is no time to vex the people's minds with aught such unexpected, grave, and strange." "I myself see 'tis needful to demolish the rumor spread abroad by the unfrocked monk." "But for this end other and simpler means will serve." "Therefore, when it shall please thee, Sire, I will myself appear in public places," "I will persuade, exhort away this madness, and will expose the vagabond's vile fraud." "So be it!" "My lord Patriarch, I pray thee go with us to the palace, where today I must converse with thee." "Did thou observe how pale our sovereign turned, how from his face there poured a mighty sweat?" "I dared not, I confess, uplift mine eyes, nor breathe, nor even stir." "Prince Shuisky has pulled it off." "A splendid fellow!" "The Tsarevich!" "The Poles!" "The Poles!" "Where to, where to?" "Allons!" "Go back!" "You go back, if you want to, you accursed infidel!" "Stop!" "Enough!" "Spare Russian blood." "Retreat!" "Retreat!" "Will the tsar soon come out of the Cathedral?" "The mass is ended." "Now the Te Deum is going on." "Have they already cursed him?" "I heard the deacon cry out:" "Grishka Otrepiev is anathema!" "Let him curse." "The tsarevich has nothing to do with Otrepiev." "They're singing mass for the repose of the tsareviches soul." "A mass for the dead sung for a living man?" "Nick, Nick, iron nightcap!" "Let him be, you little devils!" "Give, give, give a penny." "Here's is a penny for thee." "Remember me in thy prayers." "Nick, arise, Pray to God..." "I've got a penny" "Not true!" "Now, show it." "They've taken my penny, they're hurting Nick." "Boris, Boris!" "The boys are hurting Nick." "Give him alms!" "Why is he crying?" "The boys are hurting me..." "Give orders to slay them, as you slew the little tsarevich!" "Go away, fool!" "Seize the fool!" "Leave him be." "Pray for me, poor Nick." "No, no!" "Impossible to pray for Tsar Herod!" "The Mother of God forbids it!" " Where is the prisoner?" " Here." "Who are you?" "Rozhnov, a nobleman of Moscow." "How long have you been serving?" "About a month." "And are you not ashamed, Rozhnov?" "What's there to do?" "'Tis not our will." "Well, how go things in Moscow?" "All is quiet, thank God." "Say, do they look for me?" "God knows." "They dare not talk too much there now." "The tongues have been cut off, of others even heads." "It is a fearsome state of things." "Each day an execution." "All prisons crammed." "Wherever two or three forgather in public places,instantly a spy worms himself in." "The tsar himself examines at leisure the denouncers." "It's just sheer misery." "So silence is the best." "An enviable life for the tear's people!" "And how about the army?" "What of them?" "Clothed and full-fed they are content with all." "But is there much of it?" "God knows." "All told will there be thirty thousand?" "'Twill even run to fifty thousand." "Of me what say they in your camp?" "Your graciousness they speak of, say that thou, Sire, are a thief," "but a fine fellow." "Even so I'll prove myself to them in deed." "My friends, we will not wait for Shuisky." "I wish you joy." "Tomorrow, battle." "Ah, my poor horse!" "How gallantly he charged today, and when wounded, how swiftly bore me." "My Poor horse!" "Well, here's a great ado about a horse, when all our army's smashed to bits." "But listen!" "Perhaps he's but exhausted by the loss of blood, and will recover." "Nay!" "He is dying." "My Poor horse!" "What to do?" "Take off the bridle, and loose the girth." "Let him at least die free." "Good day to you, gentlemen!" "How is it I don't see amongst you Kurbsky?" "He fell on the field of battle." "Honor to the brave, and peace be on his soul!" "How few unscathed are left us from the fight!" "Accursed Cossacks, traitors and miscreants," "You, you it is have ruined us!" "Not even for three minutes to keep the foe at bay!" "I'll teach the villains!" "Every tenth man" "I'll hang." "Whoe'er be guilty, all the same we were clean worsted." "But yet we nearly conquered." "Just when I had dealt with their front rank, the Germans repulsed us utterly." "They're fine fellows!" "By God!" "I love them for it." "From them I'll form an honorable troop." "And where shall we now spend the night?" "Why not this for our night quarters?" "Why, here, in the forest." "At daybreak we'll take the road, and dine in Rilsk." "Good night." "A pleasant sleep, tsarevich!" "Smashed to bits, rescued by flight alone, he is as careless as a simple child." "'Tis clear that Providence protects him, and we, my friends, will not lose heart!" "He is vanquished, but what profit lies in that?" "We're crowned with a vain conquest." "He has mustered again his forces, and threatens us from the ramparts of Putivl." "Meanwhile what are our heroes doing?" "They stand at Krom, where a band of Cossacks braves them." "There is glory!" "No, I am ill content with them." "Thyself I shall dispatch to take command of them." "The time has come for me to hold in scorn the murmur of distinguished nobodies, and quash destructive customs." "Ay, my lord, blessed will be that day when fire consumes the lists of noblemen with their dissensions, their ancestral pride." "That day is not far off." "Let me but first subdue the insurrection of the people." "Why trouble about that?" "The people always are prone to secret treason." "Even so the swift steed champs the bit." "So does a lad chafe at his father's ruling." "The rider quietly controls the steed, the father sways the son." "Sometimes the horse will throw the rider, nor is the son at all times quite 'neath the father's will." "We can restrain the people only by unsleeping sternness." "So Ivan thought, sagacious autocrat and storm-subduer." "So his fierce grandson thought." "No, no, kindness is lost upon the people." "Act well, it thanks you not at all." "Extort and execute, 'twill be no worse for you." "What now?" "The foreign guests are here." "I go to welcome them." "Basmanov, wait, stay here." "I still have need to speak a word with thee." "There is no doubt that Russian women are better educated,read more vigorously, are better thinkers than the men, who are busy with God only knows what." "Do you enjoy the likes of fist fighters?" "And why not?" "High sovereign spirit!" "God grant he may subdue the accurst Otrepiev." "And much, still much of good he'll do for Russia." "A great thought within his mind has taken birth." "It must not be suffered." "to grow cold." "What a career for me when the ancestral horn he breaks of the nobility." "I have no rivals in war." "I shall stand closest to the throne." "And may be..." "And it may chance." " Fetch a physician!" " Quick, to the Patriarch!" "He calls for the tsarevich!" "What's happened?" " The tsar is ill!" " The tsar is dying!" "Blood's gushing from his mouth and ears!" "L am dying" "Let us embrace." "Farewell, my son." "This hour thou will begin to reign." "O God, my God!" "This hour I shall appear before thy presence and have no time to purge my soul with shrift." "But yet, my son..." "I feel thou are dearer to me than is my soul's salvation." "Be it so." "A subject I was born." "It seemed ordained that I should die a subject in obscurity." "Yet I attained to sovereignty." "But how?" "Ask not." "Enough that thou is innocent." "In justice you shall reign hence forth." "And I alone..." "am answerable for all to God." "Dear son, cherish no false delusions." "Stormy the days wherein thou does assume the crown." "He's dangerous, this strange pretender." "And with a fearful name he's armed." "For many a year experienced in rule," "I could restrain revolt and treason." "They quaked with fear before me." "Treachery dared not to raise its voice." "But thou, a boy, an inexperienced ruler," "how wilt thou govern amid the tempests, quench revolt, shackle sedition?" "But God is great!" "He gives wisdom to youth, to weakness strength." "Give ear." "Firstly, select a steadfast counselor, of cool, ripe years, loved of the people," "honored mid the boyars for birth and fame." "Even Shuisky!" "The army craves today a skilful leader." "Basmanov send, and firmly bear the murmurs of the boyars." "Thou from thy early years sat with me in council," "Thou knows the formal course of government." "Change not procedure." "Custom is the soul of states." "Of late I have been forced to reinstate bans, executions." "These thou canst rescind." "And they will bless thee, as they blessed thy uncle" "when he obtained the throne of the Terrible." "At the same time, little by little, tighten anew the reins of government." "Now slacken, but let them not slip from thy hands." "No." "Live on, and reign long." "Without thee both the folk and we will perish." "All is at end for me." "My eyes grow dark," "I feel the coldness of the grave." "Who's there?" "Ah, 'tis the vestment!" "So!" "The holy tonsure." "The hour has struck." "The tsar becomes a monk, and the dark sepulcher will be my cell." "Listen to me, boyars." "To this my son I now commit the tsardom." "Do homage to Feodor." "Now, holy father," "approach." "I am ready." "He offers thee his friendship and the next place to his in the realm of Moscow." "So long as I stand by the youthful tsar, so long he will not forsake the throne." "We have enough of troops, thank God." "With victory I will inspire them." "And whom will you against me send, the Cossack Karel or Mnishek?" "Are your numbers many?" "In all, eight thousand." "You mistake." "They will not amount even to that." "Our army is mere trash, the Cossacks only rob villages, the Poles but brag and drink." "The Russians... what shall I say?" "With you I'll not dissemble." "But, Basmanov, does thou know wherein our strength lies?" "Not in the army, no." "Nor Polish aid, but in opinion, yes, in popular opinion." "Remember you the triumph of Dimitry, remember you his peaceful conquests, when, without a blow the towns surrendered, and the mob bound the leaders?" "Thyself saw it." "Was it of their free will our troops fought with him?" "And when did they so?" "Boris was then supreme." "But would they now?" "Nay, nay, it is too late to blow on the cold embers of this dispute." "With all thy wits and firmness thou shall not withstand him." "Were it not better for thee to furnish to our chief a wise example, proclaim Dimitry tsar, and by that act bind him your friend forever?" "What thinks thou?" "Tomorrow thou shall know." "Decide." "He is right." "Everywhere treason ripens." "What shall I do?" "Wait, that the rebels may deliver me in bonds to the Otrepiev?" "I not better myself to..." "But to forswear mine oath!" "Dishonor to deserve from age to age!" "The trust of my young sovereign to requite with horrible betrayal!" "'Tis a light thing for a disgraced exile to meditate sedition and conspiracy." "But I?" "Is it for me, the favourite of my lord?" "But death, but power, the people's miseries..." "Ye know how Divine Providence saved the tsarevich from out the murderer's hands." "He went to punish his murderer, but God's judgment hath already struck down Boris." "All Russia has submitted unto Dimitry." "With heartfelt repentance Basmanov has himself led forth his troops to swear allegiance to him." "In love, in peace Dimitry comes to you." "The world well knows how much ye have endured under the rule of the cruel stranger." "Ban, dishonor, executions, taxes, hardships, hunger - all these ye have experienced." "Dimitry is disposed to show you favor." "Courtiers, boyars, state-servants, soldiers,strangers, merchants - and every honest man." "Will ye be stubborn without reason, and in pride flee from his kindness?" "But he himself is coming to his ancestral throne with dreadful escort." "Provoke not ye the tsar to wrath!" "And swear allegiance to the lawful ruler!" "The whelp of Boris go bind!" "Poor children." "Are you going to pity them?" "Accursed family!" "The father was a villain, but the children are innocent." "The apple does not fall far from the apple-tree." "The boyars are coming to us." "That is Golitsin, Mosalsky." "I do not know the others." "The boyars are coming to us." "What have they come for?" "Most like to make Feodor Godunov take the oath." "Maria Godunov and her son Feodor have poisoned themselves." "We have seen their dead bodies." "Perish the race of Godunov!" "Long live the tsar Dimitry Ivanovich!"