and men, women and children. The brother of Ivan IV.
was seized and thrown into prison, where he miserably perished. The
archbishop was stripped of his canonical robes, clad in the dress of a
harlequin, paraded through the streets on a gray mare, an object of
derision to the people, and then was imprisoned for life. Such cruelty
does not seem at all in accordance with the character of Ivan, while
the grossest exaggeration is in accordance with the character of all
civil and religious partisans.

War with Poland seems to have been the chronic state of Russia.
Whenever either party could get a chance to strike the other a blow,
the blow was sure to be given; and they were alike unscrupulous
whether it were a saber blow in the face or a dagger thrust in the
back. In the year 1571, a Russian army pursued a discomfited band of
Livonian insurgents across the frontier into Poland. The Poles eagerly
joined the insurgents, and sent envoys to invite the Crimean Tartars
to invade Russia from Tauride, while Poland and Livonia should assail
the empire from the west. The Tartars were always ready for war at a
moment's notice. Seventy thousand men were immediately on the march.
They rapidly traversed the southern provinces, trampling down all
opposition until they reached the Oka. Here they encountered a few
Russian troops who attempted to dispute the passage of the stream.
They were, however, speedily overpowered by the Tartars and were
compelled to retreat. Pressing on, they arrived within sixty miles of
the city, when they found the Russians again concentered, but now in
large numbers, to oppose their progress. A fierce battle was fought.
Again the Russians were overpowered, and the Tartars, trampling them
beneath their horses' hoofs, with yells of triumph, pressed on towards
the metropolis. The whole city was in consternation, for it had no
means of effectual resistance. Ivan IV. in his terror packed up his
most valuable effects, and, with the royal family, fled to a strong
fortress far away in the North.

From the battlements of the city, the banners of these terrible
barbarians were soon seen on the approach. With bugle blasts and
savage shouts they rushed in at the gates, swept the streets with
their sabers, pillaged houses and churches, and set the city on fire
in all directions. The city was at that time, according to the
testimony of the cotemporary annalists, forty miles in circumference.
The weltering flames rose and fel