b o o k both prefent at Mofcow at the time of the infurreftion, and
. m' , and both fuppofed to be unbiaffed by the civil and religious
prejudices of the Ruffians, and yet both of different fenti-
ments. Let us therefore examine their character and fitu-
ation, and coniider whether there are any circumftances
which render one writer more worthy -of credit than the
other. Margaret was a Frenchman, who entered the Ruffian
fervice in the reign of Boris Godunof, was prefent in the
army which wasfent out again ft Demetrius, and always afted
with approved bravery and fidelity. Afterwards, when Demetrius
afcended the throne, he was continued in his fervice
as captain of the guards. He poffefled, therefore, many opportunities
of inveftigating his real hiftory; and he has
recorded it in a work which, upon his return to France,
he publiffied at the command of Henry I Vi *
Mr. Muller, however; objedts to the authenticity of Margaret’s
narrative in the following words.. “ A witnefs of this
“ fort would not be admitted in any court of juftice, and
“ cannot, in this inftance, merit our belief. His judgement
** might be warped, partly from confidering it as a difgrace
“ to have engaged in the fervice of an impoftor, and partly
# from not being well ufed by the oppofite party after the
“ death of the falfe Demetrius. Hence he might be enticed,
“ from motives of refentment, to brand with infamy the
“ enemies of Demetrius, and to treat as mere falfehoods all
“ the reports of the impoftor’s real origin. We muft, there-
“ fore, accufe Margaret either of having advanced a falfe-
“ hood, or fuppofe that he had heard of another Otrepief,
“ who was at that time prefent at Mofcow, and w'hom he
“ ftrangely confounds with Griika t .”
* Eilat de ¡ ’Empire de Ruffie, &c. Par le Capitaine Margaret.
| S. R . G . vol. V . p. 18,2 and 1m .
4 : • This
D E M E T R I U S .
This is the only objection which even the ingenuity o f ch a p .
Mr. Muller can urge againft Margaret. . vn- .
Petreius, Vvhofe authority is fo fondly preferred to that of
Margaret, was minifter * from Charles IX. king o f Sweden
to the court of Mofcow in the reigns o f Boris Godunof,
Demetrius, and Vaffili Shuiiki. The clofe connexion of
Demetrius with Sigifmond king of Poland, the inveterate
enemy of Charles IX. induced the latter to tender his affitt-
ance to Boris Godunof, upon the firft entrance of the new
claimant into Ruffia. Charles is alio repreiented as greatly
alarmed at the fuccefs of Demetrius, and immediately after
his affaffination entered into a treaty o f the ftritfteft amity
with Vaffili Shuiiki. It was therefore the intereft of
the Swediih court to reprefent Demetrius as an impoftor,
&id Petreius, as Swediih minifter, was obliged to countenance
the report patronized by his mafter. But i f we ihould
even allow that Petreius was not influenced in his judgement
by the politics of his own court, yet as an author,
he is liable to great exception; for the numberlefs fidti-
-ons and grofs mifreprefentations, which he retails in his
Chronicle, prove his extreme pronenefs to credulity f.
Whereas, on the contrary, the credibility of Margaret
ftands unimpeached, and even the penetrating fagacity
* Dalin’ s Gefchichte von Schweden, vol. • “ dorNikititchRomanof; but.he delivered
,, , . , . it t° hisbrother Alexander, who gave it to a
t Mr, Muller has- noticed and correfted “ third "called John, who prefented it to a
innumerable errors relative to the moitini- “ fourth called Michael Thelatterpaffed it
portant tranfaffions in the Chronicle o f “ toanothernobleniani atlaftthetzar threw
Petreius. It would be endlefs to mention “ the fceptre from him, crying out in a paf
them 1 (hall therefore only relate" one, “ fion, < Tak e it who w il l; ’ Up „n which
which will unqueihonably prove the credu- “ Boris took ft tip, and the tzardled immedi' "
Ity of Petreius. «‘ -Feodor Ivanovitch,” fays “ ate ly ," . This idlefableiscontradifted by
that author “ upon his death-bed, being the, mod authentick records, by the whole
teqwfled by the nobility to name a f tc c r f- hiftory o f the fubfequent eleaidn o f Boris
„ * r’n a" ^ ?red> V r 5Leri?u t0 WhT 1 " G o dM o f’• tttrd yet this is the writer ¡SB ihal deliver my fceptre (hall be tzar after authority is oppofed to Margaret See
■me. Soon afterwards he offered it to Feo- S. R. G . vol. V. p. 64 &c.