Finally, seeing further resistance useless, Dimitri leaped from a back window of the palace and broke his leg in the fall, Fainting with pain he was seized by the mob and ignominiously put to death. He died stoutly claiming that he was indeed the Czar Dimitri, although there seems to be not the least doubt that he was in fact, as historians have unanimously rated him, a pretender.
Vassilli Shuiski succeeded him. After a stormy reign of four years he was deposed, in 1610, and thrown into prison where he ended his days. One ambitious prince after another now grasped the scepter only to be deposed by a more powerful rival, until out of this period of anarchy and civil war the dynasty of the Romanoffs came forth.
Previous article Next article
From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
