A report was now circulated that the young Dmitri was still alive, that his mother, conscious of the danger of his assassination, had placed the prince in a position of safety, and that another child had been assassinated in his stead.  This rumor overwhelmed the guilty soul of Boris with melancholy.  His fears were so strongly excited, that several nobles, who were supposed to be in the interests of the young prince, were put to the rack to extort a confession.  But no positive information respecting Dmitri could be gained.  The mother of Dmitri was banished to an obscure fortress six hundred miles from Moscow.

The emissaries of Boris were everywhere busy to detect, if possible, the hiding place of Dmitri.  Intelligence was at length brought to the Kremlin that two monks had escaped from a convent and had fled to Poland, and that it was apprehended that one of them was the young prince in disguise; it was also said that Weisnowiski, prince of Kief, was protector of Dmitri, and, in concert with others, was preparing a movement to place him upon the throne of his ancestors.  Boris was thrown into paroxysms of terror.  Not knowing what else to do, he franticly sent a party of Cossacks to murder Weisnowiski; but the prince was on his guard, and the enterprise failed.

The question, “Have we a Bourbon among us?” has agitated the whole of the United States.  The question, “Have we a Dmitri among us?” then agitated Russia far more intensely.  It was a question of the utmost practical importance, involving civil war and the removal of the new dynasty for the restoration of the old.  Whether the person said to be Dmitri were really such, is a question which can now never be settled.  The monk Griska Utropeja, who declared himself to be the young prince, sustained his claim with such an array of evidence as to secure the support of a large portion of the Russians, and also the cooeperation of the court of Poland.  The claims of Griska were brought up before the Polish diet and carefully examined.  He was then acknowledged by them as the legitimate heir to the crown of Russia.  An army was raised to restore him to his ancestral throne.  Sigismond, the King of Poland, with ardor espoused his cause.

Boris immediately dispatched an embassy to Warsaw to remind Sigismond of the treaty of alliance into which he had entered, and to insist upon his delivering up the pretended Dmitri, dead or alive.  A threat was added to the entreaty:  “If you countenance this impostor,” said Boris, “you will draw down upon you a war which you may have cause to repent.”

Sigismond replied, that though he had no doubt that Griska was truly the Prince Dmitri, and, as such, entitled to the throne of Russia, still he had no disposition personally to embark in the advocacy of his rights; but, that if any of his nobles felt disposed to espouse his claims with arms or money, he certainly should do nothing to thwart them.  The Polish nobles, thus encouraged, raised an army of forty thousand men, which they surrendered to Griska.  He, assuming the name of Dmitri, placed himself at their head, and boldly commenced a march upon Moscow.  As soon as he entered the Russian territories many nobles hastened to his banners, and several important cities declared for him.