The imperial embassadors met the flotilla near the mouth of the Dnieper, and offered, in the name of the emperor, to pay the same tribute to Igor which had been paid to Oleg, and even to increase that tribute.  At the same time they endeavored to disarm the cupidity of the foe by the most magnificent presents.  Igor halted his troops, and collecting his chieftains in counsel, communicated to them the message of the emperor.  They replied,

“If the emperor will give us the treasure we demand, without our exposing ourselves to the perils of battle, what more can we ask?  Who can tell on which side will be the victory?”

Thus influenced, Igor consented to a treaty.  The opening words of this curious treaty are worthy of being recorded.  They were as follows: 

“We, the embassadors of Igor, solemnly declare that this treaty shall continue so long as the sun shall shine, in defiance of the machinations of that evil spirit who is the enemy of peace and the fomenter of discord.  The Russians promise never to break this alliance with the horde; those who have been baptized, under penalty of temporal and eternal punishment from God; others, under the penalty of being for ever deprived of the protection of Peroune;[1] of never being able to protect themselves with their shields; of being doomed to lacerate themselves with their own swords, arrows and other arms, and of being slaves in this world and that which is to come.”

[Footnote 1:  One of the Gods of the Russians.]

This important treaty consisted of fourteen articles, drawn up with great precision, and in fact making the Greek emperor as it were but a vassal of the Russian monarch.  One of the articles of the treaty is quite illustrative of the times.  It reads,

“If a Christian kills a Russian, or if a Russian kills a Christian, the friends of the dead have a right to seize the murderer and kill him.”

This treaty was concluded at Constantinople, between the emperor and the embassadors of Igor.  Imperial embassadors were sent with the written treaty to Kief.  Igor, with imposing ceremonies, ascended the sacred hill where was erected the Russian idol of Peroune, and with his chieftains took a solemn oath of friendship to the emperor, and then as a gage of their sincerity deposited at the feet of the idol their arms and shields of gold.  The Christian nobles repaired to the cathedral of St. Elias, the most ancient church of Kief, and there took the same oath at the altar of the Christian’s God.  The renowned Russian historian, Nestor, who was a monk in the monastery at Kief, records that at that time there were numerous Christians in Kief.