s
life had been exposed through their conspiracy, he declared that he
could not again assume the cares and the perils of the crown. Still
his refusal was not so decisive as to exclude all room for further
entreaties. They renewed their supplications with tears, for Russia
was, indeed, exposed to all the horrors of civil war, should Ivan
persist in his resolve, and it was certain that the empire, thus
distracted, would at once be invaded by both Poles and Turks.

Thus importuned, Ivan at last consented to return to the Kremlin. He
resolved, however, to make an example of those who had conspired
against him, which should warn loudly against the renewal of similar
attempts. The principal movers in the plot were executed. Ivan then
surrounded himself with a body guard of two hundred men carefully
selected from the distant provinces, and who were in no way under the
influence of any of the lords. This body guard, composed of low-born,
uneducated men, incapable of being roused to any high enthusiasm,
subsequently proved quite a nuisance.

Ivan IV. had but just resumed his seat upon the throne when couriers
from the southern provinces brought the alarming intelligence that an
immense army of combined Tartars and Turks had invaded the empire and
were on the rapid march, burning and destroying all before them.
Selim, the son and successor of Solyman the Magnificent, entered into
an alliance with several oriental princes, who were to send him
succors by the way of the Caspian Sea, and raised an army of three
hundred thousand men. These troops were embarked at Constantinople,
and, crossing the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, entered Tauride. Here
they were joined by a reinforcement of Crimean Tartars, consisting of
forty thousand well-armed and veteran fighters. With this force the
sultan marched directly across the country to the Russian city and
province of Astrachan, at the mouth of the Volga.

But a heroic man, Zerebrinow, was in command of the fortresses in this
remote province of the Russian empire. He immediately assembled all
his available troops, and, advancing to meet the foe, selected his
own ground for the battle in a narrow defile where the vast masses of
the enemy would only encumber each other. Falling upon the invaders
unexpectedly from ambuscades, he routed the Turks with great carnage.
They were compelled to retreat, having lost nearly all their baggage
and heavy artillery. The triumphant Russians pursued them