the law-making power should be shared by the czar
and the douma; that no one should be executed without a trial, or
deprived of his dignity without good reason; and finally, that
Russians might go abroad to be educated if they so desired. Vladislas
was then elected czar on condition that he should enter the Greek
Church, and two envoys, one of them Philarete Romanof who had risen to
the rank of Metropolitan, left for the Polish camp at Smolensk to
complete the necessary arrangements. The douma invited the hetman to
occupy the kremlin with his shoulders. He did so, taking the late Czar
Chouiski and his two brothers as hostages.

At Smolensk a difficulty occurred: the King of Poland wanted the
Russian throne for himself. He also asked the envoys to cede Smolensk
to Poland; they refused, and in turn asked that Vladislas should leave
at once for Moscow. The king refused his consent, and began to use
money. He found many Russian traitors willing to accept it, but the
envoys remained firm.

Soon after this, the second false Dmitri died, and the people began to
show an interest in the dispute with Sigismund. Leading men at Moscow
and Smolensk wrote to the provinces, begging their friends not to
recognize the King of Poland as czar. Men-at-arms gathered, and (p. 134)
when an army of them drew near Moscow, the Poles fortified the
Kremlin. At this time a quarrel arose between the Polish troops and
the people, and some 7,000 persons were killed. The Russians made a
stand in the suburbs, when the Poles set fire to the city, and the
greater part of Moscow was burned.

Sigismund ordered the arrest of the two envoys who were taken to
Marienburg in Prussia under escort. Smolensk fell soon after into his
hands, and the king returned to Warsaw which he entered in triumph
with the last Czar Chouiski a prisoner in his train. By this time the
Russians were aroused; 100,000 men-at-arms gathered at Moscow and
besieged the Poles in the Kremlin. Meanwhile Sweden had declared war,
giving as reason the election of Vladislas, and had captured the ports
on the Baltic. The monks of Troitsa, whose heroic defense against the
second false Dmitri had made the convent famous, sent letters to all
the Russian cities bidding them fight for their country and religion.
When this letter was read in public at Nishni Novgorod, a butcher,
Kouzma Minine spoke up: "If we wish to save the Muscovite Empire," he
said, "we must spare neither our lands nor our go