In 1604, the first false Dmitri appeared, invading Russia from the west, at the head of Poles and Zaporogians. Boris was energetic and able, but the towns revolted on the approach of Dmitri, and the soldiers of Godunov's voievodes "found it hard to bear arms against their lawful sovereign." Even Mstislavski, who tried to stop the advance, had no soldiers to help him; his men "had not hands to fight, only feet with which to run away." Shooiski was better able to rally his men, and he defeated Dmitri at Dobryvichi. Boris then thought that the struggle was finished, but the movement had only just commenced. The Ukraine rose; some 40,000 Cossacks of the Don joined the impostor, and the inaction of the voievodes to stop the advance towards Moscow, proved that the spirit of treason was wide spread. Boris Godunov did not live to see the issue. After a repast he was suddenly taken ill; there was suspicion of poisoning and, expecting to die, he nominated his son Theodore his successor. After confiding the youth to the care of his friend Basmanov, to the Patriarch and to the people of Moscow, he breathed his last on the 15th April 1605, being then but fifty-five years of age. Theodore ascended the throne as soon as his father's remains were interred in the Archangelski Cathedral, but it soon became evident to his supporters that neither officers nor men would fight on behalf of the Godunovs. Rather than become a victim of treason, Basmanov chose to be its author, and announced that he was convinced that Dmitri was in truth the son of Ivan the Terrible. The impostor was audacious and successful. His career has the fascination of romance. He was one Otrepief, a monk of the Chudov monastery within the Kremlin. Job, the Patriarch, made him his secretary, a position which enabled him to learn several state and court secrets. He said one day to his fellow scribes, that some day he would reign over them as Tsar of Muscovy. For answer they spat in his face, and reported his words. Boris sent him a prisoner to the monastery on the White Lake. He escaped, wandered about for some time, and at Novgorod Severski was well received by the inhabitants, to whom he revealed himself as the supposed murdered Dmitri, and promised all who helped him suitable rewards if he should obtain his own rights. Then he threw off his cowl and joined a band of Zaporogians; learned of them how to ride and fight. As a soldier he sought service with Adam Vichnevetski, a Polish _pan_ of good standing. He soon feigned illness; a priest was summoned, and to him he confessed that he was the son of the Tsar. This disclosure was of too great political value to remain the secret of the priest, and in due course Otrepief was recognised as Dmitri by Vichnevetski. Then the papal Nuncio took him under his protection, and he was presented to King Sigismund.