Vasili

“ This Vasili was his stirrup-bearer, one of those serfs over whom the boyard on whose land they were born possessed absolute power. That power was often abused, but the instinctive faithfulness of the serf towards his master could hardly be shaken, even by the most savage treatment, and a well- treated serf viewed his master's family with enthusiastic love and veneration. Vasili accompanied his master's flight through the birch forests towards the Livonian frontier, the country where but lately Kourbsky had been leading the Tzar's armies. ”

“ The sun, which is not yet hidden by the clouds, brightly illumines its dark form, and the gray streaks which extend from it to the very horizon. From time to time, the lightning flashes in the distance; and a faint, dull roar is audible, which gradually increases in volume, approaches, and changes into broken peals which embrace the whole heavens. Vasili stands upon the box, and raises the cover of the britchka. The coachmen put on their armyaks, and, at every clap of thunder, remove their hats and cross themselves. ”

“ In 1431 Yuri attempted to revert to the ancient custom of succession of the eldest, and claimed the throne from Vasili II., the son of Vasili I. To avoid war it was agreed to refer the matter to the Horde for settlement. Vsevoloshski, a boyard of Moscow, advanced the most potent argument on behalf of Vasili. “My Lord Tsar,” he said to Ulu Mahomet, “let me speak, me, the slave of the Grand Prince. My master prays for the throne, which is thy property, having no other title but thy protection, thy investiture and thy iarlikh. Thou art master and can dispose of it at thy pleasure. ”

“ Moscow was divided into parts, Vasili receiving two-thirds and the others one-third in all, but the elder was to have a share even in this third; the younger brothers were commanded to esteem the elder as a father and to leave him their inheritance in the event of their dying childless. Thus were changed the relations of the grand prince to the appanaged princes! In the treaty concluded between the brothers Vasili and Iuri during the lifetime of Ivan, Iuri calls his brother “lord,” and binds himself to hold his principality “honourably and strictly.” ”

“ Vasili explained. "He tried, as usual, to follow the flock and this time slipped down between two rocks and couldn't go forward or back. Didn't you hear him bray? I didn't know what to do and so called for you. But in the meantime this other Vasili here came bounding up from nowhere. And you ought to have seen him manage! He tied the donkey's feet together with a thong and lifted him out as easily as one would a baby."
[75]
"You know you helped me," said a new voice.
The boys looked up to see a stranger standing near. He was of medium height but thickset and very hardy in appearance. ”

“ But Vasili did not even turn round, and went on into the woods.
Semen remained standing over the dislocated rail, his sticks lying in a heap at his feet. The train which was due was not a freighter, but a passenger train, and he had nothing to stop it with: a flag he had none. He could not put the rail into its right place; with bare hands one can not fasten in the rail spikes. He had to run, run for dear life into his watch-house for the necessary implements! God give him strength! ”

“ But before ever the Tsar had had time to undress in the front room, she was in the bath and out of it, so quick was she, and the Tsar was as puzzled as ever. In the meantime Vasilísa Vasílyevna had written a letter and bade the attendants give it to the Tsar as soon as he came out of the bath. And this was what she wrote:
"O you crow, you Tsar Bárkhat! The crow has not caught the falcon in the garden. I am not Vasíli Vasílyevich, but Vasilísa Vasílyevna!" ”

“ But affinities of race, religion, and a common history, were too strong to permit a permanent union with a foreign power.
From the Horde, Vasili, by bountiful payments, procured an iarluik for seven appanages, including Murom, Suzdal, and Nijni or Lower Novgorod—all belonging to his less wealthy kinsmen, who were offered their choice of becoming his dependents, or of dying in captivity or exile. The succession of the eldest son had procured the elevation of the nobles of the grand prince to a subordinate princely rank and power. ”

“ Vasili III. was the first ruler to treat them harshly and he spared none, not even his own near relatives if he thought they aspired to the succession. To render them less dangerous they were not employed as war-leaders, men of lower rank, the drujni of the Tsar and other princes being entrusted with command in the field and acting also as governors of provinces. Burned down time after time and usually put up again in wood, Moscow, with all its conflagrations, was nearly three centuries before it contained a dwelling-house of brick or stone, and more than two before enclosed with a wall. ”

“ Although Vasili Andreevich felt quite warm in his two fur coats, especially after struggling in the snow-drift, a cold shiver ran down his back on realizing that he must really spend the night where they were. ”

“ But when he came across a man of position his instinct immediately told him that this man could be useful, and without any premeditation Prince Vasíli took the first opportunity to gain his confidence, flatter him, become intimate with him, and finally make his request. ”

“ Cardinal Isidore returned to Kieff, and within the provinces immediately subject to his jurisdiction as metropolitan the Act of Union was accepted. He was afterwards banished from Russia, and after the storming of Constantinople, which he witnessed, he, like the more celebrated Cardinal Bessarion, went to reside at Rome. Vasili’s motives for seeking to place his bishops under the supremacy of the Roman pontiff were chiefly political. He wished to free himself from the ecclesiastical and political interference of Constantinople. ”

“ In the depth of his heart Vasili Andreevich knew that it could not yet be near morning, but he was growing more and more afraid, and wished both to get to know and yet to deceive himself. ”

“ Prince Vasíli always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale part. ”

“ The old woman brought the Tsar the shirts, and Vasilísa washed and combed herself, dressed herself, and sat down at the window, and waited. Then there came a henchman of the Tsar's, entered the room and said: "The Tsar would fain see the artist who has sewn him the shirts, and he wants to reward her with his own hands."
Vasilísa the Fair went to the Tsar. When he saw her, he fell deep in love with her. "No, fairest damsel; I will never part from you. You must be my wife." ”

“ At length the blind Vasiley Vasilievich obtained quiet possession of the Grand Duchy. From the time of Vladimir Monomach up to this Vasiley, Russia had no monarch. But Vasiley’s son, who was surnamed Ivan, was most fortunate; for at the same time as he married Mary the sister of Michael, Grand Duke of Tver, he drove out his brother-in-law, and took possession first of the Grand Duchy of Tver, and then even of great Novogorod; and after that, all the other princes being either moved by the grandeur of his achievements or stricken with fear became subject to him. ”

“ I tell them that the token of the bracelet of medallions has no power to help them to freedom, that from first to last they have been deceived. I might point to the golden cross and tell them that it is the sign of this country's salvation; but Vasilici, who stands for chief among you, has spurned it. I might stand here and cry to you that he is no chief worthy to lead an army of patriots, that there is another now among you whose right it is to lead, who has the power to win success; but men who bow to windy words are no countrymen of mine, and I scorn to tempt them to such false loyalty. ”

“ Such were the words, it is said, with which Stephen of Moldavia frequently characterised his daughter’s father-in-law, the grand prince Ivan Vasilievitch.
The observation is a remarkable one, for it represents the first and most salient feature in the policy of the famous Russian monarch, who in himself concludes one period of Russian history and opens another. Under him Russia passes out of its condition of exclusiveness; the west learns that besides that Russia which is subject to Lithuania, there is already another Russia, independent, powerful, and self-sufficing ”

“ They would also traffic with their “new-come ghests” (guests) had they not been bound by a “certaine religious use and custome not to buy any forreine [foreign] commodities without the knowledge and consent of their king.” By this time the Englishmen had learned that the country was called Russia, or Muscovy, and that “Ivan Vasiliwich (which was at that time their King’s name) ruled and governed farre and wide in those places.” This was Ivan the fourth, “the Terrible.” ”

“ For two days the red ship sailed onward, and on the second day they met a ship which they spoke in a friendly fashion. "Whither away, Vasily?" asked the sailors, who hailed from Novgorod the Great.
"I am going, my mariners," said Vasily, "upon an unwilling path. Young as I am I am blood-guilty, and I must save my soul; so now I go to pray in Jerusalem city, to worship at the holy of holies, to visit the grave of the Risen Christ, and to bathe in the Jordan river. Tell me, good youths, where is the straight way to the Sacred City?" ”

“ At your age your father had no treasure to speak of, but he had a band of brave bodyguards, and was a wise leader among men and a judge among the people of Novgorod the Great."
These gentle words displeased Vasily greatly, and instead of restraining him moved him to greater mischief. "Men shall speak of my might," he muttered as he left his mother, "and in after years shall boast even in Novgorod of the heroic deeds of their own townsman, aye, even if I crack hundreds of their own thick skulls for them. They will remember me when they have forgotten men of wisdom and of safe judgment." ”

“ To impress them with an idea of the vast population and wealth of Russia, and of the glory and power of the sovereign, Vassili ordered, on the day of presentation, that all the ordinary avocations of life should cease, and the citizens, clothed in their richest dresses, were to crowd around the walls of the Kremlin. All the young nobles in the vicinity, with their retinues, were summoned. The troops were under arms, and the most distinguished officers, glittering in the panoply of war, rode to meet the envoys. ”

“ The most remarkable incident of Vassili's reign was the Council at Florence, Italy, in 1449, where delegates of the Roman and Greek Churches tried to effect a union. There were seventeen Metropolitans, among them Isidore of Moscow, who signed the Act of Union. When Isodore returned and declared what he had done, a great opposition appeared. Vassili himself insulted the Metropolitan, who fled to Rome. In 1453, Mahomet II captured Constantinople when a host of priests, monks, artists, and learned men fled from the extinct Byzantine Empire, to find an asylum in Russia. ”

“ The king sat upon his throne, his bonnet upon one side of him, his scepter upon the other. His nobles were seated around upon couches draped in purple and embroidered with pearls and gold.
Following the example of Ivan III., Vassili was unwearied in his endeavors to induce foreigners of distinction, particularly artists, physicians and men of science, to take up their residence in Russia. Any stranger, distinguished for genius or capability of any kind, who entered Russia, found it not easy to leave the kingdom. A Greek physician, of much celebrity, from Constantinople, visited Moscow. ”

“ When, in 1610, Vassili was deposed by the Poles, forced to submit to tonsure, and immured in a monastery, Hermogenes, the patriarch, raised his voice in protest; when, subsequently, in a council of rebellious boyars and Polish nobles, some proposed the false Dimitri as tsar, and others successfully urged the election of Vladislas, son of the King of Poland, again the venerable prelate remonstrated, and implored the council neither to recognize a rebel nor to sanction the choice of a heretic and foreigner. ”

“ Then Vasily prayed before the holy of holies, bathed in the sacred river Jordan, gave gold without stint to the priests of the city as well as to the aged people, and embarked once more on his red ship with sails of fair white linen.
Now before they put off again the brave bodyguard went also to bathe in the sacred Jordan river, and as they did so an aged woman came down to them.
"Why do you bathe," she said, "in Jordan river? None must bathe therein save Vasily only, whom you shall lose on your way home. Do you not know that your master will be taken from your head as you go homewards?" ”

“ The next morning, very early, his widow mother paced the passages of her palace and chanced to look out upon the broad courtyard. To her surprise she saw that it was crowded with a great company of the men of Novgorod. In trembling haste she ascended the tall tower and roused her unruly son from his heavy sleep.
"Do you sleep, Vasily," she said, "and take your ease and care nothing for the peril which is even now at your gates? See, a company of angry men make your courtyard as black as a raven's wing." ”

“ The Khan of the Crimea, the useful friend of Vassili's father, had become the son's enemy; Vassili offset him by an alliance with the Khan of Astrakhan. When Sigismund tried to secure the help of Sweden, Vassili sought that of Denmark; and when his enemy set the Dnieper Cossacks at him, the grand duke induced the Teutonic Order to invade Poland. After Sigismund was defeated at Smolensk, the Emperor of Germany and the Pope offered to mediate; the latter advised Vassili to let Lithuania alone, and to turn his attention toward Constantinople. ”