The affectionate, judicious mother, upon the reception of this letter, burst into tears of anguish, lamenting the calamity which was impending.

“My son,” she said, “my only son is to be taken from me to be placed upon the throne, only to be miserably slaughtered like so many of the tzars who have preceded him.”

She wrote to the electors entreating them that her son might be excused, saying that he was altogether too young to reign, that his father was a prisoner in Poland, and that her son had no relations capable of assisting him with their advice.  This letter, on the whole, did but confirm the assembly of nobles in their conviction that they could not make a better choice than that of the young Romanow.  They accordingly, with great unanimity, elected Michael Feodor Romanow, sovereign of all the Russias; then, repairing in a body to the cathedral, they proclaimed him to the people as their sovereign.  The announcement was received with rapturous applause.  It was thus that the house of Romanow was placed upon the throne of Russia.  It retains the throne to the present day.

Michael, incited by singular sagacity and by true Christian philanthropy, commenced his reign by the most efficient measures to secure the peace of the empire.  As soon as he had notified his election to the King of Poland, his father, archbishop of Rostow, was set at liberty and sent home.  He was immediately created by his son patriarch of all Russia, an office in the Greek church almost equivalent to that of the pope in the Romish hierarchy.  While these scenes were transpiring, Charles IX. died, and Gustavus Adolphus succeeded to the throne of Sweden.  Gustavus and Michael both desired peace, the preliminaries were soon settled, and peace was established upon a basis far more advantageous to the Swedes than to the Russians.  By this treaty, Russia ceded to Sweden territory, which deprived Russia of all access to the Baltic Sea.  Thus the only point now upon which Russia touched the ocean, was on the North Sea.  No enemies remained to Russia but the Poles.  Here there was trouble enough.  Ladislaus still demanded the throne, and invaded the empire with an immense army.  He advanced, ravaging the country, even to the gates of Moscow.  But, finding that he had no partisans in the kingdom, and that powerful armies were combining against him, he consented to a truce for fourteen years.

Russia was now at peace with all the world.  The young tzar, aided by the counsels of his excellent father, devoted himself with untiring energy to the promotion of the prosperity of his subjects.  It was deemed a matter of much political importance that the tzar should be immediately married.  According to the custom of the empire, all the most beautiful girls were collected for the monarch to make his choice.  They were received in the palace, and were lodged separately though they all dined together.  The tzar saw them, either incognito or without disguise, as suited his pleasure.  The day for the nuptials was appointed, and the bridal robes prepared when no one knew upon whom the monarch’s choice had been fixed.  On the morning of the nuptial day the robes were presented to the empress elect, who then, for the first time, learned that she had proved the successful candidate.  The rejected maidens were returned to their homes laden with rich presents.