core’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

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prefent It as merely accidental. On weighing thefe difcordant accounts with impar*tiality, it appears, that the blow was either cafual, or, if defigned to chaftife, not in-tended to be fatal.

Feodor, the fecond fon and fucceffor of Ivan Vaffilievitch II., is interred in the famechapel : a Prince of fuch weak intellects and notorious incapacity, as to be a merephantom of fovereignty, and entirely under the direction of his brother-in-law BorisGodunof. Feodor afcended the throne in 1584? and expired in 1598 : in him endedthe male line of the fovereigns of the houfe of Ruric * ; a family which goyernedRuffia for a period of leven centuries.

Among the tombs in this church, the mod remarkable is that which contains thebody of a child, fuppofed by the Ruffians to be the third fon of IvanVaffilievitch II. whois faid to have been affaffinated at Vglitz, in the ninth year of his age, by order of Bo-ris Godunof. This tomb, which is more diftinguiffied than thofe of the Ruffian fove-reigns, is of brafs, and highly ornamented. The child is claffed among the faints ofthe Ruffian calendar, and, according to the legends of the church, his body is faid tohave performed miracles, and is believed by the credulous to remain uncorrupted.The top of the fepulchre is frequently uncovered ; and, during divine fervice on thefeltival of St. Alexander Nevfki, I obferved feveral Ruffians killing the infide withgreat marks of devotion. The hiftory of the affaffination at Vglitz, and the adventuresof the real or pretended Demetrius, require a feparate narrative f.

The fovereigns of the houfe of Romanof are interred in the body of the church :their tombs are placed on each fide between the maffy piers which fupport theroof.

The firft of this illuftrious line is Michael Feodorovitch ; whofe election in 1613 puta final period to a long fcene of civil bloodffiec!,and reltored tranquillity to his diftraCtedcountry. He owed his elevation to his high rank and princely defcent; but nioreparticularly to the virtues, abilities, and popularity of his father Philaretes. Ladiflaus,Prince of Poland , having received a tender of the crown, from a body of Ruffian no-bles, affumed the title of Tzar , and eftabliffied a garrifon at Mofcow : foon afterwardsa powerful party, averfe to the government of a foreigner, expelled the Poles fromthe capital, and unanimoufly advanced Michael to the throne, though fcarcely feven-teen years of age. It is fingular, that he was raifed to this high ftation, not only with-out his knowledge, but even in repugnance to his own inclination. When the deputiesfrom Mofcow arrived at Coftroma, where he refided with his mother, and acquaintedhim with his election, Michael, recollecting the dreadful cataftrophes which had befal-len all the Tzars fince the demife of Feodor Ivanovitch, and reflecting on the diftraCtedftate of Ruffia, burft into tears, and declined a crown, which feemed to entail deftruCtioabpon thofe who had ventured to wear it J. Overcome, however, by the importuni-ties of the deputies, and dazzled with the fplendour of royalty, Michael at length yield-ed to the wifhes of his country, and repairing without delay to Mofcow, was crownedwith the ufual folemnitics. Though he afcended the throne with reluctance, hefilled it with dignity, and found a protection from thofe dil'afters which overwhelmedhis immediate predeceffors, in his own difcretion,. in the wife counfels of his father,'and in the affeCtion of his fubjects. Michael died in 1645, after a profperous reign oftwenty-three years.

* Unlefs Demetrius was the real fon of Ivan Vaffilievitch TI. -)- See Chapter 7.

f See Bufching’s Account of the Election of Michael. Hill. M. II..p. 433.

Alexey -