Mahommedan masters.

Iván's first acts were acts of submission. They were perhaps intended to
tranquillize the suspicions with which the first movements of a young
prince are certain to be regarded by a jealous superior; and this purpose
they effectually served. Without courage or talent for war, his powerful
and subtle mind sought to accomplish its objects by intellectual
superiority and by craft, rather than by force. Warned by the errors of
his predecessors, he did not dispute the right of the Tartars to the
tribute, but evaded its payment; and yet contrived to preserve the
confidence of the khan by bribing his ministers and his family, and by a
ready performance of the most humiliating acts of personal submission. His
conduct towards all his enemies--that is, towards all his neighbours--was
dictated by a similar policy; he admitted their rights, but he took every
safe opportunity to disregard them. So far did he carry the semblance of
submission, that the Muscovites were for some years disgusted with the
slavish spirit of their prince. His lofty ambition was concealed by rare
prudence and caution, and sustained by remarkable firmness and pertinacity
of purpose. He never took a step in advance from which he was forced to
recede. He had the art to combine with many of his enemies against one,
and thus overthrew them all in succession. It was by such means that he
cast off the Tartar yoke--curbed the power of Poland--humbled that of
Lithuania, subdued Nóvgorod, Tver, Pskoff, Kazán, and Viatka--reannexed
Veira, Ouglitch, Rezan, and other appanages to the crown, and added nearly
twenty thousand square miles with four millions of subjects to his
dominions. He framed a code of laws--improved the condition of his
army--established a police in every part of his empire--protected and
extended commerce--supported the church, but kept it in subjection to
himself; but was at all times arbitrary, often unjust and cruel, and
throughout his whole life, quite unscrupulous as to the means he employed