barbarous people. It was by means of the Greeks who
followed Sophia, that Ivan was enabled to maintain a diplomatic
intercourse with the other governments of Europe; it was from her that
Russia received her imperial emblem, the double-headed eagle; it was in
her train that science, taste, and refinement penetrated to Moscow; it was
probably at her instigation that Ivan embellished his capital with the
beauties of architecture, and encouraged men of science, and amongst
others Antonio, "the heretic," and Fioraventi Aristotle, the architect and
mechanician, to settle at Moscow.

But it is time we should proceed to the story. The greater part of the
first volume is occupied by an account of the family, birth, and youth of
the hero. Born of a noble family in Bohemia, he is educated as a physician.
This was not the voluntary act of his parents; for what haughty German
baron of those times would have permitted his son to degrade himself by
engaging in a profession which was then chiefly occupied by the accursed
Jews? No, this was a degradation prepared for the house of Ehrenstein, by
the undying revenge of a little Italian physician, whom the stalwart baron
had pitched a few yards out of his way during a procession at Rome. This
part of the history, though not devoid of interest, is hardly within the
bounds of a reasonable probability--but it contains some passages of
considerable vigour. The patient lying in wait of the revengeful Italian,
and the eagerness with which he presses his advantage, making an act of
mercy minister to the gratification of his passion, is not without merit,
and will probably have its attractions for those who find pleasure in such
conceptions.

The young Antonio is educated by the physician, Antonio Fioraventi of
Padua, in ignorance of his birth--is disowned by his father, but cherished
by his mother; and grows up an accomplished gentleman, scholar, and leech,
of handsome person, captivating manners, and ardent aspirations to extend
the limits of science, and to promote the advancement of knowledge and of
civilization all over the earth. While these dreams are floating in his
mind, a letter on the architect Fioraventi, who had for some time resided
in Moscow, to his brother, the Italian physician, requesting him to send
some skilful leech to the court of Ivan, decides the fate of Antonio.

"Fioraventi began to look out for a physician who would volunteer
into a country so distant and so little