d said: "Poor knight, wilt thou live or die?"
Yaroslav was so terrified that he could not answer a word. Then the
old man laid him on the ground and said: "No knight, no hero, above
all, no man, can stand against me; but art thou not the son of the
Tsar in the kingdom of Vorcholomei?" He answered that he was. Then
said the old man: "Ride home, but say nothing of me in that kingdom."
And with that he vanished.

Yaroslav went to seek his father and mother, and they came to meet
him, and the princes and boyars threw themselves with their faces to
the ground before him. Then his father took him by his white hands,
kissed him on his sugared lips, led him into the royal halls, seated
him at the oaken tables spread with fine cloths, and gave a great
feast. And the elder Yaroslav began to question his son, and said:
"Thou hast travelled to thy grandfather Prince Lasar, tell me about
him and how he is."

Then Yaroslav delivered the following letter from the Tsar Kartaus to
his father:--"The Tsar Kartaus sends hearty greetings to the great
Tsar and powerful knight Yaroslav Lasarevich! Health to thee and thy
lady wife, Anastasia Vorcholomeievna, and to thy son, Yaroslav
Yaroslavovich, and to thy princes and boyars and all thy subjects! I
continue to rule happily in my kingdom!" Upon the same paper was
written by Prince Lasar to his son: "To my dear son Yaroslav
Lasarevich, and my dear daughter-in-law, Anastasia Vorcholomeievna, my
grandson, Yaroslav Yaroslavovich, and thy whole kingdom, peace and
blessing! Rule and govern happily, and mayest thou be prosperous for
many long years!"

Yaroslav Lasarevich was greatly rejoiced, and said to his son: "Hast
thou been to visit my brother-in-law, Prince Ivan the Russian Knight?"
And young Yaroslav gave a letter likewise from him to his father, in
which was written as follows:--"To the mighty Tsar of Tsars, and
Knight of Knights, my elder brother Yaroslav Lasarevich, hearty
greetings! Hail to thee, and happiness for many years, with thy lady
wife, Anastasia Vorcholomeievna, and thy son, the valiant knight
Yaroslav, and thy whole empire! Sire, when thy son entered my kingdom,
I was returning from battle; I knew not thy son, and imagined he was a
knight come to subdue my kingdom. I attacked him, and was about to
cut off his head with my battle sword; but he seized his long lance,
and with the butt-end thrust so boldly at my heart that I could hardly
keep my seat in my saddle; then said he