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CoxE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 741
APPENDIX.
No, I.—Various Opinions concerning the Tzar who reigned under the name of Demetriuso—
Proofs that he was no Impoftor.
THESE are the principal circumftances inthe adventures of the perfon, who feated
himfelf upon the Ruffian throne under the name of Demetrius. His hiftory is involved
in contradiction and obfcurity : unbiaffed, however, by the prejudices of either party,
let us compare with candour their oppofite reprefentations, and endeavour to afcertain,
whether he was an impoftor, or the real fon of Ivan Vaflilievitch.
They who contend that he was an impoftor, thus relate his hiftory: He was of the
family of Otrepief; his real name was George, which upon his afluming the monattic
habit in the fourteenth year of his age, he changed into Gregory, and was generally
known by the appellation of Grifka * Otrepief: for fome time he refided at Sufdal, and
having wandered from convent to convent, was confecrated deacon in the monaftery
of Tchudof at Mofcow, where he was employed by the Patriarch in tranfcribing books
for the fervice of the church. Itis nof afcertained, even from thefe accounts of his life,
at what period he firft ftyled himfelf Demetrius. Some report, that while he continued
in the monaftery of Tchudof, he obtained the moft minute information relative to the
perfon and charatter of the Prince, and even began to affume his name, for which he
was deemed infane, and excited the laughter of the monks. | Others obferve, that he
was in poffeflion of feveral jewels which formerly belonged to Demetrius; and having
one day declared that he fhould afcend the throne of Ruffia, was confined by order of
Boris Godunof, in a diftant monaftery, from which he efcaped into Poland. On the
contrary, Margaret, who afferts that he is the true Demetrius, gives the following
detail :
Demetrius being refcued from affaffination by the fubftitution + of another child, was
fecretly educated in Ruffia until the eleGtion of Boris Godunof, when he was conveyed
into Poland under the care of the monk Grifka, which afterwards gave rife to the report
that
* Grifka, in the Ruffian tongue, fignifies little Gregory. He was called alfo Roftriga, or Deferter,
from having deferted his convent.
+ The principal obje€tion to the aceount of Margaret, arifes from the difficulty of fubftituting a child
in the place of Demetrius, particularly if the fon of his nurfe was one of the affaflins ; and if Vaffili Shu-
ifki examined the body of the deceafed, foon after the fuppofed affaffination. ‘To this it may be anfwered,
that his mother had fufficient reafon to be on her guard againft the attempts of Boris Godunof ; for it is
evident that fuch attempts were made before, from a paflage in Fletcher, who was at Mofcow in the be-
ginning of Feodor’s reign. ‘* Befides the Emperor that now is, who hath no child, nor ever like to have,
there is but one more, a child of fix or feven years old, in whom refteth all the hope of the fucceffion, and
the pofterity of that houfe. He is kept in a remote place from Mofko, under the tuition of his mother,
and her kindred of the houfe of the Nagais; yet not fafe (as I have heard) from atlempts of making away by
pradiice of fome that afpire to the fucceffion, if this Emperor die without iffue”’ Fletcher’s Ruffia, chap. v.
With refpe& to the privity of the nurfe, and her fon, the witnels of the bell-ringer, and the teftimony of
Vafiili Shuifki, L’Evefque makes thefe judicious obfervations :
‘© Mais ces circonftances font elles bien confirmées. Tous les affafflins du Tzarevitch furent maffacrés
prefqu’ auffi-tét qu’ils eurent commis ce crime. Is n’ont point été interrogés, on n’a rien fu de leur bouche.
Un fonneur de la cathedrale fut temoin du meurtre de Dmitri, Mais qui a regu fon témoignage? Eft-il
méme
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