The barbarians have taken possession of that only route through which we can pass into Greece.  It is time for us to resort to new measures of energy.  My friends and my brothers, let us terminate our unnatural war; let us look to God for help, and, drawing, the sword of vengeance, let us fall in united strength upon our savage foes.  It is glorious to ascend to Heaven from the field of honor, thus to follow in the footsteps of our father.”

This spirited appeal was effective.  The princes rallied each at the head of a numerous band of vassals, and thus a large army was soon congregated.  The desire to punish the insulting barbarians inspired universal enthusiasm.  The masses of the people were aroused to avenge their friends who had been carried into captivity.  The priests, with prayers and anthems, blessed the banners of the faithful, and, on the 2d of March, 1168, the army, elate with hope and nerved with vengeance, commenced their descent of the river.  The barbarians, terrified by the storm which they had raised, and from whose fury they could attain no shelter, fled so precipitately that they left their wives and their children behind them.  The Russians, abandoning the incumbrance of their baggage, pursued them in the hottest haste.  Over the hills, and through the valleys, and across the streams pursuers and pursued rushed on, until, at last, the fugitives were overtaken upon the banks of a deep and rapid stream, which they were unable to cross.  Mercilessly they were massacred, many Russian prisoners were rescued, and booty to an immense amount was taken, for these river pirates were rich, having for years been plundering the commerce of Greece and Russia.  According to the custom of those days the booty was divided between the princes and the soldiers—­each man receiving according to his rank.

As the army returned in triumph to the Dniester, to their boundless satisfaction they saw the pennants of a merchant fleet ascending the river from Constantinople, laden with the riches of the empire.  The army crowded the shores and greeted the barges with all the demonstrations of exultation and joy.

The punishment of the barbarians being thus effectually accomplished, the princes immediately commenced anew their strife.  All their old feuds were revived.  Every lord wished to increase his own power and to diminish that of his natural rival.  Andre, of Souzdal, to whom we have before referred, whose capital was the little village of Moscow far away in the interior, deemed the moment favorable for dethroning Mstislaf and extending the area of such freedom as his subjects enjoyed over the realms of Novgorod and Kief.  He succeeded in uniting eleven princes with him in his enterprise.  His measures were adopted with great secresy.  Assembling his armies, curtained by leagues of forests, he, unobserved, commenced his march toward the Dnieper.  The banners of the numerous army were already visible from the steeples of Kief before the sovereign was apprised of his danger.  For two days the storms of war beat against the walls and roared around the battlements of the city, when the besiegers, bursting over the walls, swept the streets in horrid carnage.