Andrei’s position in Galitch became at last unendurable. The adherents of Hungary, supported by the capital and by the forces of Bela, seemed to triumph. The whole land was seething, however. [[139]]The people were ready to rise, but knew not to whom they might turn for aid. Among boyars there were a few who had not betrayed the people. Even among those who found their support in foreign regiments, there were some who began to speak of preserving their country and its customs. Listening to men who called for their own native princes, a party of boyars withdrew from the traitors, and, kissing the cross, swore to stand with the people. They then sent envoys to Smolensk, on behalf of all Galitch, and invited Rostislav, son of Ivan Berladnik, to come and be their prince. Rostislav consented, and was received with joy on the boundary, but he soon found that he would meet scant support in the capital, where those boyars who favored Hungary still adhered firmly to King Andrei. At this time Bela sent fresh troops to his son, and the Hungarian commanders, on hearing of Rostislav’s coming, made all the people take oath a second time. “Those who were loyal to Galitch kissed the cross without changing, while traitors adhered still to Hungary.” Rostislav met the Hungarians advancing against him, and, fearing betrayal, knew not what to do. The men who had invited him to Galitch, and who surrounded him with followers, implored him to retreat for the present, but the son, as ill-fated as his father, hesitated. “Brothers,” said he at last, “ye have kissed the cross to me, and now if other men of Galitch wish my head, let God and this cross be their judge. I will not wander over foreign earth longer, I will die in the land of my inheritance.” And he rushed to the battle. He was wounded in the onset and thrown from his horse. His men rescued him. Swords were sheathed on both sides, and the wounded prince was taken to the city. The Hungarians, to avoid civil war, thought it wise, as they said, to be rid of Rostislav, so, as if to heal his wounds, they placed on them poisonous herbs, from the effects of which he died soon afterward and was numbered with his ancestors.
Andrei, who had been assured that no one wished a Russian prince, came now to see realities. The Hungarians fell to wreaking vengeance on the people. The Latins ridiculed the Greco-Russian faith; they turned Russian churches into stables; they contemned the clergy; they brought their horses into the houses of those boyars who had fled from Galitch, or did not hide their opposition to Hungary. An unrestrained orgy began. Violence increased [[140]]in every place. Hungarians took wives and daughters from the men of Galitch with growing frequency. Wails of anguish and despair were heard throughout the principality and finally they reached all parts of Russia.
In Kief, the clergy turned to Sviatoslav and Rurik. “Strange men have taken your inheritance,” exclaimed the metropolitan. “Ye should vie one with another in freeing Galitch from this misery.” But those princes cared little for anything in Galitch, or elsewhere, unless it gave power or profit. Moreover a quarrel broke out between them.
It transpired that Bela, negotiating in secret with Sviatoslav, had worked out for himself many useful conditions. He now proposed to go from Galitch, and begged Sviatoslav to send some son of his to end negotiations. So Glaib was sent. But Rurik stood against this embassy and reproached Sviatoslav, saying: “Since thou hast sent thy son to Bela, and said no word to me touching the affair, our treaty is broken.” A dispute rose which came near ending in bloodshed. The Kief prince, striving to soften Rurik’s anger, returned this answer: “My friend and brother, I sent my son, not to rouse Hungary against thee, but on my own business. If it is thy wish to march against Galitch, I am ready. I go with thee.”
The princes met in peace and planned an expedition. Rurik marched with his brothers, and Sviatoslav with his sons, but the Kief prince had his own plan in mind, hidden carefully. Kief was surrounded with the possessions of Monomach’s descendants,—Vyshgorod, Bailgorod, and almost all lands on the Ros belonged to them. Sviatoslav hoped to add these regions to Kief, and give Galitch in exchange for them, which he was ready to yield altogether to Rurik. He did not speak of this to Rurik when they were planning the march on Galitch, but only while marching. It turned out that Rurik was not anxious for unreliable possessions in Galitch, and preferred greatly his own lands within the Kief region. This caused a quarrel. No matter how much both princes talked upon the subject, they reached no agreement. When half the journey was finished, they turned and marched back to Kief. The fate of Galitch was settled by other adventurers.
Vladimir, confined in the tower with his priestess, grew weary. Bela had taken all the property brought by Vladimir to Hungary, [[141]]but the captive had coin sufficient to bribe the guards watching him. Among those guards were some so devoted to Vladimir that they undertook, not merely to let him escape, but to conduct him through pathless forests to Germany. The first question, however, was to get out of the tower. In this work the hitherto shiftless Vladimir proved abler than many a wise man. The tower was high and the prisoners were kept in the top of it, where there was a small outside platform. On this platform was a tent, made of canvas, in which a man might find shelter from heat in the day-time, and gaze at the stars during night hours. Vladimir tore this tent into strips with which he made a long rope and slipped to the earth by it. The trusty guards took him to Barbarossa, the Emperor. The fleeing prince was well received by Barbarossa, from whom he begged aid. We know not what reward Vladimir offered Bela, for reinstating him in Galitch, but we know exactly his agreement with Frederick Barbarossa. He bound himself to pay two thousand silver grievens yearly for his restoration. There were other reasons, too, why the Emperor became interested. He was astonished to see before him the nephew of Andrei Bogolyubski and of Vsevolod (Big Nest). Hearing that he was a son of a sister of those two famous princes, he doubted not that he was an important man. He had grown acquainted with Andrei Bogolyubski through letters, when that prince was building his cathedral in Vladimir. Because of those letters, various artists and materials had gone from Germany. Of Big Nest and his eminence among Russian princes, reports were frequent. To aid Vladimir would cause the Emperor no trouble. He had no thought to help with men. He was going then to Palestine, but Poland was subject to his influence, and he commissioned Kazimir, King of Poland, to reinstate the exile. The Poles envied Hungarians Galitch, and were glad to expel them.
Vladimir, leading a Polish army, entered Galitch very easily. When the return of their native prince was announced, the people rushed to meet him. Flight was all that was left for Andrei and those Russian boyars who adhered to him. While the Hungarian was fleeing as best he was able, and bearing with him the title Rex Galiciæ, which remains to this day on the shield of his country, Vladimir took the throne; and he held it as long as there was breath in his nostrils. He held it, thanks to Big Nest, his uncle, [[142]]because of this message: “My lord and father, keep Galitch under me, I pray thee. I belong to God and to thee with all Galitch.” Big Nest listened to Vladimir’s entreaty, and kept him firmly in Galitch till his death came.
Sviatoslav, “the sister’s son,” insisted that Kief should have the boundaries established as in the days of Rostislav’s father, that is he wanted Kief to have Vyshgorod and Bailgorod, with other towns in the Ros River region, taken from it by the sons of Rostislav. Disputes became bitter, and the princes were near deciding the question by force of arms. Rurik and David sent back their oath papers, and Sviatoslav declared that he would not yield in any case. In Smolensk the princes turned to Big Nest, saying: “We have accepted thee as father; judge this question for us.” Big Nest sided with Smolensk, and sent to Sviatoslav, saying: “The conditions on which thou wert confirmed are those to which we adhere. If thou still adhere to the same conditions, we will be with thee in peace; but seek not to rouse old disputes, and desert agreements, for we will not permit thee.” Sviatoslav yielded. Thenceforth he made no mention of lands for Kief, till he tried to get them by giving Galitch to Roman in exchange for them. Not succeeding in this, he wished, both for himself and to please his brethren in Chernigoff, to round out and to defend their inheritance on the Ryazan side. Their possessions touching the Oká and Ryazan were subject to ceaseless attacks from Ryazan, whose princes laid claim to them. All the Chernigoff house assembled at Karachef, under Sviatoslav’s direction. They declared at that meeting that war alone could settle boundaries. The princes were ready to war with Ryazan in a body, but Sviatoslav could not decide to begin, or let his relatives begin, without the consent of Big Nest, Prince of Vladimir, so he sent to ask advice of him. From Big Nest came the answer that he forbade Chernigoff princes to open war on Ryazan, and all obeyed him.
Before this meeting ended, Sviatoslav fell ill for the last time. “Something appeared on his leg.” Thus his disease was described. Unable to sit on his horse, he was borne in a sleigh to the river, for traveling in a wheeled vehicle over those roads would have caused him great pain; then he sailed down the Desna and the Dnieper. Arriving in Kief, he went first of all to pray in the church of Boris and Glaib, and afterward to bow down and pray at the [[143]]tomb of his father, but the priest had gone away and taken the key of the church with him, hence the prince did not see his father’s grave. He reached home broken completely.
On the wedding day of Euphemia, his granddaughter, who had been betrothed to the heir of Byzantium, envoys from the Emperor came, but Sviatoslav took no part in the matter beyond appointing certain boyars to receive them. He grew weak, ceased speaking, and fell into a torpor. Recovering after a time, he commanded a monk’s habit to be brought, and sent for Rurik, who found him alive, but not in his senses. So far as is known, no word passed between them. Afterward, when Rurik had gone, the dying man regained consciousness and, turning to the princess, asked: “When will the day of the Maccabees be?” July was ending, and he remembered August 1, that day of death for his father and his grandfather. “Next Monday,” answered the princess. He looked into her eyes, as if to be sure that he saw her, and said: “I shall not live to the day of the Maccabees.” He died July 27, 1194.