these to come.

great Czar Peter.

And they came in the days of the

When Ivan was dead, Vassili, his son, reigned. He went on with his father's work much in his Only he was not so cautious and so

father's way. ready to wait.

Ivan.

He began war more roughly than

One day he sent for the magistrates of Pskof and put them all in prison. Then he went up to Pskof with a large army, and laid siege to it. Poor little My Lord Pskof! It was of no use for it to try to hold out. Very sorrowfully the men of Pskof were forced to yield. It was with tears and sobs that they told Vassili they would submit to him.

Then Vassili took away their great bell, and Pskof's freedom was gone. Pskof mourned, and said, “An eagle, with claws like a lion, has swooped down on me. He has taken my three cedars,-my riches, my beauty, my children.”

Vassili conquered many of the provinces round. But for all his strength the Tartars made a great invasion into the land. They burned down the houses and the fields, and took away the people for slaves.

At last, after hard struggles, Vassili drove them away. But where Ivan the Great won by cleverness and without a blow, Vassili won by strength and a bloody fight.

He made friends with Europe, as his father had

done. At home he was even more of a tyrant than his father had been. Ivan always was careful to ask his boyards for their advice, and he thanked them much for it. After that he acted as he had meant to act before. But if a boyard ventured to suggest anything to Vassili, Vassili bellowed out, "Hold your tongue, you lout!" Once when a boyard said that Vassili decided all questions shut up in his bedroom, Vassili ordered that his head should be taken off. So his boyards hated and feared him.

Vassili kept great state. His throne was guarded by young nobles in long caftans of white satin. On their heads were caps of white fur, and in their hands silver hatchets. These were great expenses for poor Russia.

Vassili reigned twenty-eight years. He died without being mourned, though the people felt that he had followed out his father's plans.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FIRST CZAR.

SOMETIMES I fear you lose your temper. You want to be head in a particular game, or you want for yourself what the others also want. How does the game ever go on peaceably? You go away most likely from the others to another room by yourself; and so they can continue their game happily without you.

That was like old Russia. The boyards of each prince quarrelled for the headship or for estates. And if one could not get what he wanted, and grew angry, he went away to another prince, and so the kingdom he left was at peace. That prevented many fierce wars and bloodshed.

But suppose that when you lost your temper you had no other room to go to, and could not get away from the people you quarrelled with. Then the quarrel would very likely grow worse, till the room was full of quarrelling and angry words.

That was like Russia when Ivan the Great had

made it all one kingdom. Then the vexed, angry boyards had no other Russian prince to turn to. There were only enemies of Russia to go to, and that of course they would not do. For this reason there was much trouble through the reigns that followed Ivan's. The troubles with the Tartars were bad enough; and when troubles and quarrels at home had to be settled also, the king's task was hard. It was like driving a coach with horses that hated each other so much that they kept jibbing away from each other. They had to be held in, and the coach to be driven at the same time.

The people of Russia, when they heard that Vassili was dead, shook their heads, and said, “We shall have trouble now." For Vassili's sons were two quite little boys of two and three years old. The name of the eldest was Ivan, like his grandfather.

For a time peace was kept. For the mother of the two little princes was a clever and a brave woman. Her name was Helen, and she was almost as beautiful as her namesake, and very frank and friendly in her manners. For all that she was stern and determined. She kept down the boyards with a high hand; and she did not fear to imprison some in dark cells, or punish with the knout and torture. She built strong ramparts round part of the city of Moscow to defend it against the Tartars. But

when she died trouble and sorrow came upon Russia. For Ivan was only eight years old. And the selfish, ambitious boyards rose up and cried, Now is our time, while the prince is young." So they wrested the power one from another, and they used it evilly and cruelly, till the whole country hated the name of boyard, and longed even for a stern Czar.

Ivan began to understand their government, and he knew how they treated him. For he saw the boyards plunder the palace of its rich furniture and treasures. One even flung himself on the state bed with his boots in the embroidered arm-chair in brutal sport. Ivan, with his clever high forehead and dark eyes, watched all. None dared to speak to him kindly, for fear the other boyards might grow jealous.

So Ivan was left neglected. No one taught him; but he loved studying and read alone. He read the Bible and the lives of the saints, and the stories of the old kings. Then he saw how great kings had been in days gone by. He saw, too, when foreign envoys came to his court, that he was set in a throne, and all the cruel boyards bowed before him. Then he said in his heart, "I will have real power some day, and break the boyards' rule.”

At last the day came. It was at Christmas, in the year 1543, and there had been grand feasts and