fraud, the people were not satisfied, and demanded proofs of Dimitri's
birth, which were not forthcoming. Discontent continued to spread, and
at length the popular fury could no longer be restrained. According to
his promise, the sham czar married Marina, the daughter of the Polish
boyard. The very fact that she was a Pole made her distasteful to the
Russians; but that fact was rendered still more offensive by the
manner of her entrance into the capital, and the treatment which the
Muscovites received at the bridal ceremony. The bride was surrounded
by a large retinue of armed Poles, who marched through the streets of
Moscow with the mien of conquerors; the Russian nobles were excluded
from all participation in the festivities; and the common people were
treated by their emperor with haughty insolence, and held up to the
scorn of his foreign guests. A report also became rife that a timber
fort, which Dimitri had erected opposite the gates of the city, had
been constructed solely for the purpose of giving the bloodthirsty
Marina a martial spectacle, and that, sheltered behind its wooden
walls, the Polish troops and the czar's bodyguard would throw
firebrands and missiles among the crowds of spectators below. This
idle rumour was carefully circulated; the clergy, who had long been
disaffected, went from house to house denouncing the czar as a
heretic, and calling an their countrymen to rise against the insolent
traducer of their religion; and the secret of his birth and imposition
was everywhere proclaimed. The people burst into open revolt, and,
headed by the native prince Schnisky, rushed to storm the imperial
palace. The Polish troops broke their ranks and fled, and were
massacred in the streets. Dimitri himself sought to escape by a
private avenue in the confusion; but watchful enemies were lying in
wait for him. He was overtaken and killed, and his body was exposed
for three days in front of the palace, so that the mob might wreak
their vengeance upon his inanimate clay. Marina and her father were