Daniel, awaiting the time of fresh action, returned to his capital, but Mystislav did not go directly to the Polovtsi. He appeared soon after in Novgorod. During his absence many changes had taken place. The prince sent from Vladimir by Yuri had been replaced by one sent from Kief by Mystislav, son of the Smolensk prince, Roman. Neither man pleased “Lord Novgorod.” The first, alarmed at disorders, hastened home to his father; the second found still greater trouble. Bloody battles took place on the streets, and again a posadnik was murdered.
Novgorod turned to Yuri a second time. “If thy son will not stay with us, send Yaroslav, thy brother,” said they. Yaroslav seemed indeed just the prince needed in Novgorod, and the friends of Mystislav the Gallant might think to find in him the prince for whom they had been seeking a long time, for was he not intimate with Mystislav, being married to his eldest daughter? Partisans also saw in him the best of his family.
But when Yaroslav came to Novgorod an outburst so tremendous was taking place in the city, that no man had ever seen its like before. The passions of the people and the wild rage of parties had never been so violent. It turned out, too, that Yaroslav himself was of those called “young, but early.” Men were mistaken when they thought to find in him a son-in-law who would agree with Mystislav. He was a genuine Vladimir prince, hence in no way inclined to preserve the famed liberties of Novgorod. [[189]]He had one thought alone: to acquire additions for Vladimir. Mystislav’s adherents immediately conceived a deep hatred for Yaroslav, the most irascible among all the sons of Big Nest. So acute was their feeling that, while warming his palace, he was threatened with banishment. To make up for this hatred, his adherents “raised their heads and stood up for the prince like a mountain.” They advised him to go to Torjok and rule from there, holding Novgorod with all firmness.
Yaroslav went to Torjok, and then chose his own method. When a message was sent to him saying: “Come thou to Novgorod,” he seized the envoys and conveyed them to Pereyaslavl Beyond the Forest, imprisoning them on an island. Novgorod now rose as one man against Yaroslav. Meanwhile, he sat in Torjok very quietly, laughed at the city, and gave command to seize Novgorod merchants and their wares on all roads in Vladimir. A multitude of Novgorod men were arrested and imprisoned. To add to the misfortunes of the city, the harvest that year was a failure in Novgorod regions. Yaroslav did not let one load of wheat reach the city. From these severe measures, there was such hunger that parents sold their children for bread, and unclean things were eaten. People died on the streets, and their dead bodies lay on the roads, where hungry dogs devoured them.
Novgorod sent envoys to Yaroslav, begging him to return to the city, but he gave no answer, and arrested the envoys. Novgorod sent a third time. “Come to thy place; come to Holy Sophia. If thou wilt not come, declare thy intention,” begged they. Yaroslav, as usual, detained the envoys. The men in confinement at this time numbered two thousand. There was “wailing and great sorrow in Novgorod.”
All at once, in the midst of these terrors, Mystislav the Gallant appeared in the city. No man there knew whence he came. Yaroslav, who learned of his coming, sent a detachment to arrest him, but this detachment surrendered to Mystislav. The first thing the gallant prince did was to seize all known partisans of Yaroslav, and put them in irons. Then, summoning the assembly and kissing the cross before the whole people, he said to them: “Either the men and the lands of Great Novgorod will be freed, or I will lay down my life for the city.” “In life or in death we are with thee!” called out the citizens in answer. [[190]]
Mystislav’s first move was to send a peaceful embassy to negotiate with Yaroslav. He selected a priest, the most famed and beloved in the city, as a sign that negotiations were to be carried on, not with threats, but with love, and conscientiously. He gave command to bow down to his son-in-law, saying: “My son, free the Novgorod merchants and men. Treat with me kindly. Leave Torjok for thy own place.”
Yaroslav dismissed the priest without discussion. Not only did he not free the prisoners, but those whom he held in Torjok he put in chains, and sent to Pereyaslavl Beyond the Forest. Their property and goods he distributed among his attendants. The moment that news of this came to Novgorod, Mystislav commanded to sound the bell of the assembly. The whole city came to him. “Let us go, brothers!” said he. “Let us rescue our lands. Let us liberate our own people!”
The war from the very beginning assumed an unusual character. The citizens of Novgorod had a single mind this time, and the prince was at one with the people. To take vengeance for injustice was their war-cry. Mystislav was not simply enraged against his son-in-law; he hated in him that inborn pride of the Vladimir princes. Knowing well that this unendurable haughtiness rested really on power, knowing well that they had a great multitude of people behind them, and a very large army, the strong warrior looked forward, not to a brilliant victory in this unequal conflict, but rather to the crown of a martyr, and prepared for the struggle with fear, but also with fortitude. He summoned from Pskoff that brother of his whom Mystislav the Brave on his death-bed had committed to Yuri Zaharitch, the boyar. This brother, Vladimir, called to join him his cousin Vladimir, son of Rurik, he who had taken the throne of Smolensk, when Mystislav, son of Roman of Smolensk, went to rule Kief, the old capital.
Mystislav the Gallant worked untiringly. Novgorod assembled all possible warriors, but in number they were insufficient. Mystislav doubted not that Yaroslav and Yuri, Grand Prince of Vladimir, would act as one man, but he counted on Constantine, who in his eyes seemed another victim of Vladimir’s self-will and insolence. To Constantine, and not to Yuri, belonged the throne of Vladimir, by right of birth. To deprive a son of his God-given inheritance was a sin in Mystislav’s eyes, and he thought that when he entered [[191]]the Vladimir principality, proclaiming to Yaroslav and Yuri that he was there to reinstate their eldest brother, Constantine would assist him. To instate the senior son seemed to Mystislav just and proper.