huanian or Muscovite. The great families inclined to Lithuania, but
the popular party and the clergy, disliking Roman Catholicism, looked to
Moscow for assistance, and the Grand Princes of Muscovy ultimately won
the prize.

The barbarous way in which the Grand Princes effected the annexation
shows how thoroughly they had imbibed the spirit of Tartar
statesmanship. Thousands of families were transported to Moscow, and
Muscovite families put in their places; and when, in spite of this, the
old spirit revived, Ivan the Terrible determined to apply the method of
physical extermination which he had found so effectual in breaking the
power of his own nobles. Advancing with a large army, which met with no
resistance, he devastated the country with fire and sword, and during a
residence of five weeks in the town he put the inhabitants to death
with a ruthless ferocity which has perhaps never been surpassed even by
Oriental despots. If those old walls could speak they would have many
a horrible tale to tell. Enough has been preserved in the chronicles to
give us some idea of this awful time. Monks and priests were subjected
to the Tartar punishment called pravezh, which consisted in tying the
victim to a stake, and flogging him daily until a certain sum of money
was paid for his release. The merchants and officials were tortured with
fire, and then thrown from the bridge with their wives and children
into the river. Lest any of them should escape by swimming, boatfuls
of soldiers despatched those who were not killed by the fall. At the
present day there is a curious bubbling immediately below the bridge,
which prevents the water from freezing in winter, and according to
popular belief this is caused by the spirits of the terrible Tsar's
victims. Of those who were murdered in the villages there is no record,
but in the town alone no less than 60,000 human beings are said to have
been butchered--an awful hecatomb on the altar of national unity and
autocratic power!

This tragic scene, which occurred in 1570, closes the history of
Novgorod as an independent State. Its real independence had long
since ceased to exist, and now the last spark of the old spirit was
extinguished. The Tsars could not suffer even a shadow of political
independence to exist within their dominions.

In the old days, when many Hanseatic merchants annually visited the
city, and when the market-place, the bridge, and the Kremlin were often
the scene of viol