f Novgorod, and he roused
their pride into resentment. He gained over the few princes who still
held trembling appanages by painting to them in strong colors the
enormous opulence and commercial monopolies of the republic; and he
filled the whole population with revenge against the fated city, by
exaggerated accounts of its treasonable designs against the internal
security of the empire. Thus, by artful insinuations of the personal
advantages and general benefits that were to spring from the overthrow
of Novgorod, he succeeded in neutralizing all the opposition he had any
reason to apprehend, and in exciting increased enthusiasm on the part of
the people.

Having made these subtle preparations to facilitate his proceedings, he
sent an ambassador to the citizens calling upon them to acknowledge his
authority; and only awaited their decisive refusal, which he anticipated,
as an excuse for immediate hostilities. The Novgorodians returned an
answer couched in terms of scorn and defiance. His reply was carried by
three formidable armies, which, breaking in on the Novgorodian territory
on three different sides, prostrated the hopes of the citizens by
overwhelming masses, against which their gallant resistance was of no
avail. In this brief and desperate struggle, Ivan possessed extraordinary
superiority by the recent acquisition of firearms and cannon, the use of
which he had learned from Aristotle of Bologna, an Italian, whom he had
taken into his service as an architect, mintmaster, and founder. The
triumph of the arms of the Grand Prince was rapidly followed by the
incursions of swarms of the peasantry, who, secretly urged forward
by Ivan, rushed upon the routed enemy, and completed the work of
devastation. This licentious exhibition of popular feeling Ivan affected
to repress, and, availing himself of the opportunity it afforded to
assume toward the Novgorodians a moderation he did not feel, he pretended
to protect them against any greater violence than was merely necessary
to establish his right to the recovery of the domains of which they had
despoiled him, and the payment of the ransom that was customary under
such circumstances. Here his deep and crafty genius had room for
appropriate display. He did not consider it prudent to seize upon the
republic at once, as, in that event, he was bound to partition it among
his kinsmen, by whose aid, extended upon special promises, he had
overthrown it; so he contented himself wi