The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-12-10

Prince with his own hama
Hs was In the habit Of carrying aalron
rod about with him, and he had : play
lful way Of striking his friends With it
now and then, merely for, anuseMest
His pleAsantries d this ana other like
sorts wefe endless. One day Prince
Boris, boyard, came to pay his respects
10 the Gar, and o he bowed to the
ground, according to custom, Ivan, seiz-
Ing knife, said: God bless thee, my
dear Boris; thou deservest = proof Of
my favor" and with that he kindly cut
the nobleman's ear on:
.WAea Prince kufbsky, whom he had
threAAsnsd with death, fed to Poland
and wrote him q letter thence telling
him pretty plainly what ks thought Of
him, the Car rs.yfully struck the bearer
of the missivc with his iron rod, as a
preliminary to the reading of the letter,
and the blood flowed copiously from the
mans wounds while Ivan pondered the
words Of his rebellioas subject. He
then became convinced that The bbyaivas
generally sympathizcd With Kurbsky,
and to teach Them better he put good
many of them to death by torture, and
deprived many others of their estates.
His alarm was very real, however, for
he was phenomenon Of abject coward.
ice. He therefore fed to fortified
place in the midst of dense forest,
where he remained a month, writing
letters to the people telling them
that he had abdicated and left
them to their fate as q punish
ment for their disloyalty and their
crimes. Singularly enough, his flight
terrified the people. He had taught
them that he was their god as Ged was
his, and mis- flight to Alexandrovsky
seemed to them withdrawal of the pro-
lection of Providence iteelf. Business
was suspended. The courts ceased to
sit. The people we're in an agony Of
terror. A large deputation Of boyards
and priests journeyed to Alexandrovsky,
and besought the SOVEREIGN to return
and resume his holy furctic.s as the
head Of the cAursh, that the souls Of SO
| many millions might not perish. Exact
ing Of clergy and mobiles an admission of
his absolute right to do as he pleased,
and promise that they would in ne w-y
interfere with Or resist authority, he re-
turned to Moscow. Here be surrounded
himself with body guard of despera-
does, 1000 strong at first, and afterward
increased to 5000, whose duty it was to
discover the Cars enemies and to sweep
them from the face Of the earth. As
emblems of these, their functions, each
member OF the guard carried at his
saddle bow dogs head and broom.
As the punishment Of the Cars enemies
included the confiscation of their proper
ty, large part of which was given to
the guards themselves, these were always
singularly successful in discovering the
disaffection Of wealthy mobiles, discover
ing it oftentimes before the mobiles them
selves were aware Of their own treason
able sentiments.
Feeling unsafe still, Ivan built for him
self a new palace outside the walls of
kremlin, making it an impregrable cas-
tie. Then, finding that even this did not
lull his shaken nerves to rest, he pro-
ceeded to put danger afar off by dispos-
sessing the IL, 900 rich mobiles whose es-
tates lay nearest the palace, and giving
their property to his personal followers,
SO that the head which wore the crown
| might lie easy in the conviction that
there were no possible enemies near on
the other side Of the impregnable walls
| which shut him in. But even then he
could not sleep easily, and SO he repaired
again to his forest stronghold in Alexan-
drovsky, where he surrounded himself
with guards and ramparts. Here he
converted the palace into monastery,
made himself abbot and his rascally fol
lowers monks. He vigorously enforced
mOnastic Observances of the severest
sort, and no doubt became saint, in his
own estimation. He spent most Of his
time at prayers, allowing himself no rec
reation except daily sight Of the tor
ture Of the prisoners who were confined
in the dungeons Of the fortress. His
guards were allowed q rather larger
share Of amusement, and they wandered
from street to street during the day,
Furnishing with their hatchets such dis
loyal people as they encountered. They
were moderate in their indulgences, how
ever, in imitation Of their sovereign,
doubtless, and it is recorded to their
credit that at this time they rarely ever
killed more than twenty people in one
day, while sometimes the number was as
low as five.
But quiet life of this kind could not
always content the Car. Naturally, he
grew tired of individual killings, and be-
gan to long for some more exciting sport.
When one day . quarrel arose between
some Of his guards and few Of the peo-
pie of Torjek, Ivan saw at glance that
all the inhabitants of Trojek were mutt
nous rebels, and of course it became his
duty to put them all to death, which he
straightway did.
| Up to this time the genius of Ivan
seems to have been cautiously feeling ito
way and so the part of his history al
ready sketched may be regarded as a
mere preliminary to his real career. His
extraordinary capacity for ruling an
empire on the principles taught him by
the Prince Gluisky was now about to
show itself in all its greatness. A GRIM
inal Of Norgorod, feeling himself ag-
grieved by the authorities Of that city,
who had incarcerated him for q time,
wrote letter offering to place
the. city under Polish protection.
This letter he signed, not with
his own name. but with that of the
Archbishop, and instead Of sending it to
the King of Poland, to whom it was ad-
dressed, he secreted it in the Church Of
st. Sophia. Then going to Alexandrovs-
ky he told Ivan that treason was con-
templated by the Novgorodians and that
the reasonable letter would be found
behind the statue Of the Virgin in the
church. Ivan sent a messenger to find
the letter and upon his return the Gar
began his march upon the doomed city.
Happening to pass through the town Of
khur on his way to Novgorod he put all
its Inhabitants to death, with the purpose
doubtless Of training his troops in the
art of wholesale massacre before requir-
inc them IN nractico II ,,nnn the Y,onnla