stify
their sense of that wild liberty which they had established among
themselves. It was tolled on all occasions of a public nature, and the
people gathered in multitudes at the well-known call. If any individual
were accused of a crime against the republic or of any offence against
the laws, the judges appeared at the sound of the bell to hold a summary
court of justice, and the citizens surrounded the trial-seat, prepared to
execute the sentence. Every citizen, with his sons, attended, carrying
each two stones under his arms; and, if the accused were found guilty,
lapidation instantly followed. The house of the culprit was also
immediately plundered, cast down, confiscated, and sold for the benefit
of the corporation. Except in China, where a law still more sanguinary
and destructive prevails in cases of murder, there is hardly a similar
instance of deliberate legal severity to be found among nations elevated
above barbarism.

Inspired by the revelries of the ambitious Marpha, and the patriotic
associations she awakened, the Novgorodians expelled the officer of the
Grand Prince; possessed themselves of some land that belonged to him in
right of his fief; and, to confirm their revolt against his authority,
submitted themselves, by treaty, to Casimir, Prince of Lithuania. In this
position of affairs, Ivan wisely resolved to leave Vyatka to its own
course, confining his attention solely to Novgorod, and seeking to win
over Pskof and its twelve tributary cities, so that he might combine them
against the turbulent republic. The fall of Novgorod accomplished, the
conquest of the other obstinate cities was easily effected.

The polite, cool, and persevering means he brought into operation against
the refractory republic were admirably seconded by the machinery of
communication which had been previously established in the persons of
the boyars, whose local influence was of the first consequence on this
occasion. As the tide of these numerous negotiations changed, Ivan
assumed the humility or the pride, the generosity or the severity,
adapted to the immediate purpose; and, working upon the characters of the
individuals as well as their interests, he succeeded in gaining a great
moral lever before he unsheathed a sword. He made allies of all the
classes and princes that lay in his way to the heart of the independent
corporation. He represented to the nobles the anomalous nature and
usurpation of the democratic institutions o