3RD PERSON. See! The Chief Minister

Is coming out to tell us what the Council

Has now resolved.

THE PEOPLE. Silence! Silence! He speaks,

The Minister of State. Hush, hush! Give ear!

SHCHELKALOV. (From the Red Balcony.)

The Council have resolved for the last time

To put to proof the power of supplication

Upon our ruler's mournful soul. At dawn,

After a solemn service in the Kremlin,

The blessed Patriarch will go, preceded

By sacred banners, with the holy ikons

Of Donsky and Vladimir; with him go

The Council, courtiers, delegates, boyars,

And all the orthodox folk of Moscow; all

Will go to pray once more the queen to pity

Fatherless Moscow, and to consecrate

Boris unto the crown. Now to your homes

Go ye in peace: pray; and to Heaven shall rise

The heart's petition of the orthodox.

(The PEOPLE disperse.) THE VIRGIN'S FIELD THE NEW NUNNERY. The People.

1ST PERSON. To plead with the tsaritsa in her cell

Now are they gone. Thither have gone Boris,

The Patriarch, and a host of boyars.

2ND PERSON. What news?

3RD PERSON. Still is he obdurate; yet there is hope.

PEASANT WOMAN. (With a child.)

Drat you! Stop crying, or else the bogie-man

Will carry you off. Drat you, drat you! Stop crying!

1ST PERSON. Can't we slip through behind the fence?

2ND PERSON. Impossible!

No chance at all! Not only is the nunnery

Crowded; the precincts too are crammed with people.

Look what a sight! All Moscow has thronged here.

See! Fences, roofs, and every single storey

Of the Cathedral bell tower, the church-domes,