ip added attraction to churches reared
in the highest style of existing art. He even sent to Greece for
singers, that the church choirs might be instructed in the richest
utterances of music. He drew up a code of laws, called Russian
Justice, which, for that dark age, is a marvelous monument of
sagacity, comprehensive views and equity.

The death of Yaroslaf proved an irreparable calamity; for his
successor was incapable of leading on in the march of civilization,
and the realm was soon distracted by civil war. It is a gloomy period,
of three hundred years, upon which we now must enter, while violence,
crime, and consequently misery, desolated the land. It is worthy of
record that Nestor attributes the woes which ensued, to the general
forgetfulness of God, and the impiety which commenced the reign
immediately after the death of Yaroslaf.

"God is just," writes the historian. "He punishes the Russians for
their sins. We dare to call ourselves Christians, and yet we live like
idolaters. Although multitudes throng every place of entertainment,
although the sound of trumpets and harps resounds in our houses, and
mountebanks exhibit their tricks and dances, the temples of God are
empty, surrendered to solitude and silence."

Bands of barbarians invaded Russia from the distant regions of the
Caspian Sea, plundering, killing and burning. They came suddenly, like
the thunder-cloud in a summer's day, and as suddenly disappeared where
no pursuit could find them. Ambitious nobles, descendants of former
kings, plied all the arts of perfidy and of assassination to get
possession of different provinces of the empire, each hoping to make
his province central and to extend his sway over all the rest of
Russia. The brothers of Ysiaslaf became embroiled, and drew the sword
against each other. An insurrection was excited in Kief, the populace
besieged the palace, and the king saved his life only by a precipitate
abandonment of his capital. The military mob pillaged the palace and
proclaimed their chieftain, Vseslaf, king.

Ysiaslaf fled to Poland. The Polish king, Boleslas II., who was a
grandson of Vlademer, and who had married a Russian princess,
received the fugitive king with the utmost kindness. With a strong
Polish army, accompanied by the King of Poland, Ysiaslaf returned to
Kief, to recover his capital by the sword. The insurgent chief who had
usurped the throne, in cowardly terror fled. Ysiaslaf entered the city
with the st