And like the sun his countenance outshone.

Never again shall we see such a tsar. -

O, horrible, appalling woe! We have sinned,

We have angered God; we have chosen for our ruler

A tsar's assassin.

GREGORY. Honoured father, long

Have I desired to ask thee of the death

Of young Dimitry, the tsarevich; thou,

'Tis said, wast then at Uglich.

PIMEN. Ay, my son,

I well remember. God it was who led me

To witness that ill deed, that bloody sin.

I at that time was sent to distant Uglich

Upon some mission. I arrived at night.

Next morning, at the hour of holy mass,

I heard upon a sudden a bell toll;

'Twas the alarm bell. Then a cry, an uproar;

Men rushing to the court of the tsaritsa.

Thither I haste, and there had flocked already

All Uglich. There I see the young tsarevich

Lie slaughtered: the queen mother in a swoon

Bowed over him, his nurse in her despair

Wailing; and then the maddened people drag

The godless, treacherous nurse away. Appears

Suddenly in their midst, wild, pale with rage,

Judas Bityagovsky. "There, there's the villain!"

Shout on all sides the crowd, and in a trice

He was no more. Straightway the people rushed

On the three fleeing murderers; they seized

The hiding miscreants and led them up

To the child's corpse yet warm; when lo! A marvel -

The dead child all at once began to tremble!

"Confess!" the people thundered; and in terror