ks, separated the
combatants. For a fortnight they vainly assailed each other, hurling
clouds of arrows and javelins across the stream, which generally fell
harmless upon brazen helmet and buckler. But few were wounded, and
still fewer slain. Yet neither party dared venture the passage of the
stream in the presence of the other. At length, weary of the
unavailing conflict, Sviatoslaf, the insurgent chief, sent a challenge
to Vsevelod, the sovereign.

"Let God," said he, "decide the dispute between us. Let us enter into
the open field with our two armies, and submit the question to the
arbitrament of battle. You may choose either side of the river which
you please."

Vsevelod did not condescend to make any reply to the rebellious
prince. Seizing his embassadors, he sent them as captives to Vlademer,
a fortress some hundred miles east of Moscow. He hoped thus to provoke
Sviatoslaf to attempt the passage of the stream. But Sviatoslaf was
not to be thus entrapped. Breaking up his camp, he retired to
Novgorod, where he was received with rejoicings by the inhabitants.
Here he established himself as a monarch, accumulated his forces, and
began, by diplomacy and by arms, to extend his conquests over the
adjacent principalities. He sent a powerful army to descend the banks
of the Dnieper, capturing all the cities on the right hand and on the
left, and binding the inhabitants by oaths of allegiance. The army
advancing with resistless strides arrived before the walls of Kief,
took possession of the deserted palaces of this ancient capital, and
Sviatoslaf proclaimed himself monarch of southern Russia.

But while Sviatoslaf was thus prosecuting his conquests, at the
distance of four hundred miles south of Novgorod, Vsevelod advanced
with an army to this city, and was in his turn received by the
Novgorodians with the ringing of bells, bonfires and shouts of
welcome. All the surrounding princes and nobles promptly gave in their
adhesion to the victorious sovereign, and Sviatoslaf found that all
his conquests had vanished as by magic from beneath his hand.

Under these circumstances, Vsevelod and Sviatoslaf were both inclined
to negotiation. As the result, it was agreed that Vsevelod should be
recognized as the monarch of Russia, and that Sviatoslaf should reign
as tributary prince of Kief. To bind anew the ties of friendship,
Vsevelod gave in marriage his beautiful sister to the youngest son of
Sviatoslaf. Thus this civil strife