Lest any of them should escape by swimming, boatfuls of soldiers despatched those who were not killed by the fall.

At the present day there is a curious bubbling immediately below the bridge, which prevents the water from freezing in winter, and according to popular belief this is caused by the spirits of the terrible Tsar's victims.

Of those who were murdered in the villages there is no record, but in the town alone no less than 60,000 human beings are said to have been butchered--an awful hecatomb on the altar of national unity and autocratic power! This tragic scene, which occurred in 1570, closes the history of Novgorod as an independent State.

Its real independence had long since ceased to exist, and now the last spark of the old spirit was extinguished.

The Tsars could not suffer even a shadow of political independence to exist within their dominions.
In the old days, when many Hanseatic merchants annually visited the city, and when the market-place, the bridge, and the Kremlin were often the scene of violent political struggles, Novgorod must have been an interesting place to live in; but now its glory has departed, and in respect of social resources it is not even a first-rate provincial town.
Kief, Kharkof, and other towns which are situated at a greater distance from the capital, in districts fertile enough to induce the nobles to farm their own land, are in their way little semi-independent centres of civilisation.