[31] Thus the courtiers regarded it as a matter of course that he should take away from his envoys the gifts made to them by the sovereigns to whom they had been accredited.
[32] [The Opritshnina, composed at first, or proposed to be composed, of men of noble birth, was really filled by persons of the lowest class, who acted as spies, informers and assassins.]
[33] Oderborn says that a few days before his death Ivan had six noblemen executed. In other narratives it is only said that he destroyed men up to the very end of his life.
[34] The historian Kostomarov relates that Ivan could not set the king in its place and fell back dead as he endeavoured to do so.
[35] [A compliment to Alexander I, the author’s patron.]
[36] The life guards of Ivan the Terrible.
CHAPTER V. THE CENTURY AFTER IVAN THE TERRIBLE
[1584-1682 A.D.]