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APPENDIX*
No. I.— Various Opinions concerning the Tzar who reigned under the name of Demetrius.—
Proofs that he was no Impojior.
THESE are the principal circumftances in the adventures of the perfon, who featecFhimfelf upon the Ruffian throne under the name of Demetrius. His hiftory is involvedin contradi&ion and obfcurity : unbiased, however, by the prejudices of either party,let us compare with candour their opposite reprefentations, and endeavour to afcertain,whether he was an impoftor, or the real fon of Ivan Vaffilievitch.
They who contend that he was an impoftor, thus relate his hiftory: He was of thefamily of Otrepief; his real name was George, which upon his affuming the monaftichabit in the fourteenth year of his age, he changed into Gregory, and was generallyknown by the appellation of Grilka * Otrepief: for fome time he refxded at Sufdal, and,having wandered from convent to convent, was confecrated deacon in the monafteryof Tchudof at Mofcow, where he was employed by the Patriarch in tranfcribing booksfor the fervice of the church. It is not afcertained, even from thefe accounts of his life,,at what period he firft ftyled himfelf Demetrius. Some report, that while he continuedin the monaftery of Tchudof, he obtained the moft minute information relative to theperfon and character of the Prince, and even began to aflume his name, for which hewas deemed infane, and excited the laughter of the monks. Others obferve, that hewas in pofleffion of feveral jewels which formerly belonged to Demetrius; and havingone day declared that he ffiould afcend the throne of Ruffia, was confined by order ofBoris Godunof, in a diftant monaftery, from which he efcaped into Poland . On thecontrary, Margaret, who aliens that he is the true Demetrius, gives the followingdetail:
Demetrius being refcued from affaffination by the fubftitution f of another child, wasfecretly educated in Ruffia until the ele&ion of Boris Godunof, when he was conveyedinto Poland under the care of the monk Grilka, which afterwards gave rife to the report
that
* Grilka, in the Ruffian tongue, fignifies little Gregory. He was called alfo Roftriga, or Deferter,from having deferted his convent.
f The piincipal objection to the account of Margaret, arifes from the difficulty of fubftituting a childin the place of Demetrius, particularly if the fon of his nurfe was one of the affaffins ; and if Vaffili Shu-ilki examined the bod) of the deceafed, foon after the fnppofed#affaffination. To this it may be anfwered,that his mother had fufficient reafon to be on her guard againft the attempts of Boris Godunof; for it isevident that fuch attempts were made before, from a paffage in Fletcher, who was at Mofcow in the be-ginning of Feodor’s reign. “ Befides the Emperor that now is, who hath no child, nor ever like to have,there is but one more, a child of fix or feven years old, in whom refteth all the hope of the fucceffion, andthe pofterity of that houfe. He is kept in a remote place from Molko, under the tuition of his mother,and her kindred of the houfe of the Nagais ; yet not fafe (as I have heard) from attempts of muling away lyfraaice of fome that afpire to the fuccejfton, if this Emperor die without iflue” Fletcher’s Ruffia, chap. v.
With refpedt to the privity of the nurfe, and her fon, the witnels of the bell-ringer, and the teftimony ofVaffili Shuilki, L’Evefque makes thefe judicious obfervatiohs :
“ Mais ces circonftances font elles bien confirmees. Tous les affaffins du Tzarevitch furent maffacresprefqu’ auffi-tot qu’ils eurent commis ce crime. Us n’ont point ete interroges, on n’a rien fit de kur bouche.Un fonneur de la cathedrale fut temoin du meurtre de Dmitri. Mais qui a re{u foil temoignage ? Eft-il
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