Boris had already sent an army of similar size against him, and, after some fruitless skirmishing, the battle was joined and, although the contest was for a long time doubtful, the forces of the impostor finally triumphed. For some reason he did not press his victory, but issued a proclamation calling upon Boris to come down from the throne and make his peace with Heaven.
Boris knew very well that the man was an impostor, because he had secured the murder of the real Dimitri, but he was a very superstitious man, and, haunted by an imaginary phantom of his youthful victim, he came to believe that the son of Ivan IV had really risen from his grave and headed the victorious army that was about to enter Moscow and drive him from his throne.
He gave no sign, however, of his intentions or feelings to his counselors, but he plotted his own death, and resolved to die as he had lived, a sovereign. Rising from a splendid banquet given to some distinguished foreigners in his palace, he was taken suddenly ill and died in two hours. It was believed that the cause of his death was poison administered by his own hand.
His son, Feodor, a youth of sixteen whom he had named as his successor, ruled for six weeks, when he, with his mother and sister, was captured and thrown into prison by Dimitri, who treated them with respect and kindness.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
