Dismayed, some of his nobles fled to the west; among them was Kniaz Kourbski, who, not content simply to take service under Sigismund, acquainted the Tsar by letter with the fact. Kniaz Vasili Chibanov was the bearer. Ivan received him on the Krasnoe Kriltso, and there, with his sharp staff, pinned to the floor the foot of Chibanov, who never stirred a muscle during the whole time the long letter was read aloud. Then Chibanov was put to the torture, to obtain particulars of the flight of Kourbski, and the names of his partisans in Moscow; but Chibanov confessed not a word, and in the midst of the most horrible torment praised his master, and counted it a joy to suffer thus for him. Generally Ivan studied to keep on good terms with the common people--whom he feared; by them he was worshipped. Macarius, the metropolitan, complained that "He who blasphemes his maker, meets with forgiveness amongst men, he who reviles the Tsar is sure to lose his head." Ivan chose as his companions the worst people whom he could find. At one time he withdrew from Moscow, taking umbrage at the prelates, still too powerful to be touched. The people clamoured for his return. "The Tsar has forsaken us: we are lost, who will now defend us against the enemy? What are sheep without the shepherd? Let him punish all who deserve it: has he not the power over life and death? The state cannot endure without its head, and we will not acknowledge any other than he whom God has given us." This was gratifying to Ivan. He consented to govern again if the Church would not exercise its prerogative of mercy, and would leave him to do his will. His return was followed by murders and outrages worse than before. Randolph, who in 1568, was in Muscovy on an embassy from England, with which country Ivan wished to be on the best of terms, was not allowed to enter Moscow, because, Count Yuri Tolstoi thinks, Ivan wished to keep from him the knowledge of these massacres. Randolph wrote to Cecil:-- "Of the Tsar's condition I have learned that of late he hath beheaded no small number of his nobility, causing their heads to be laid on the streets, to see who durst behold them or lament their deaths. The Chancellor he caused to be executed openly, leaving neither wife, children, nor brother alive. Divers others have been cut to pieces by his command." During the third cycle of Ivan's outrages, Philip, the metropolitan, in 1568, dared to upbraid the Tsar. Ivan with a crowd of his irreligious followers, disguised in the cloaks they wore when sallying forth to rapine and outrage, repaired to the Uspenski Sobor for a blessing before starting on their fearful work. The metropolitan refused to recognise Ivan so clad when called upon for his benediction.