in his life, prayed with sincerity and fervor. His
pathetic cries to God for help caused many of the nobles around him to
weep. The prince was immediately seized, no opposition being offered,
and was confined in one of the palaces of Moscow. Four nights after
his capture, some agents of the conspirators entered his apartment and
tore out his eyes, as he had torn out the eyes of his cousin. He was
then sent, with his wife, to a castle in a distant city, and his
children were immured in a convent. Dmitri Chemyaka, the prime mover
of this conspiracy, now assumed the reins of government. Gradually the
grand principality had lost its power over the other principalities
of the empire, and Russia was again, virtually, a conglomeration of
independent states.

Public opinion now turned so sternly against Chemyaka, and such bitter
murmurs rose around his throne for the cruelty he had practiced upon
Vassali, that he felt constrained to liberate the prince, and to
assign him a residence of splendor upon the shores of lake Kouben.
Chemyaka, thus constrained to set the body of his captive free, wished
to enchain his soul by the most solemn oaths. With all his court he
visited Vassali. The blinded prince, with characteristic duplicity,
expressed heartfelt penitence in view of his past course, and took the
most solemn oaths never to attempt to disturb the reign of his
conqueror.

Vassali received the city of Vologda in appanage, to which he retired,
with his family, and with the nobles and bishops who still adhered to
him. But a few months had passed ere he, with his friends, had
enlisted the cooeperation of many princes, and especially of the Tartar
horde, and was on the march with a strong army to drive Chemyaka from
Moscow. Chemyaka, utterly discomfited, fled, and Moscow fell easily
into the hands of Vassali the blind.

Anguish of body and of soul seems now to have changed the nature of
Vassali, and with energy, disinterestedness and wisdom undeveloped
before, he consecrated himself to the welfare of his country. He
associated with himself his young son Ivan, who subsequently attained
the title of the Great. "But Chemyaka," writes Karamsin, "still lived,
and his heart, ferocious, implacable, sought new means of vengeance.
His death seemed necessary for the safety of the state, and some one
gave him poison, of which he died the next day. The author, of an
action so contrary to religion, to the principles of morality and of
honor,