CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST TROUBLES.

Do you remember in the first chapter that I said that Russia was like a child that puts its hand into the fire because it has never been taught that fire burns? Yet the fire burns it all the same.

And so the Russians were to pay the price of their king's mistake. There were now many little kingdoms, and because of that there was misery and war. And there was one arrangement that made it worse. When the Grand Prince, the eldest of a family, died, the next eldest moved to Kief, and became Grand Prince. Then the next eldest to him moved into the kingdom he had left, and so on. Thus you see the ruler of each little kingdom was constantly changed.

So there was much discontent and bad ruling. For the people of each state never had time to grow fond of their ruler; nor did they care to, for they knew he would not be with them long. And their ruler troubled little about their welfare, or the beauty of their cities. For he never knew how soon he might leave them, nor who might follow

him. So all the kingdoms were neglected and miserable.

Thus Russia went gradually down into a gulf of misery and fighting, and evil of all sorts.

In her good days she was like a fleet of little boatsdifferent tribes-sailing happily and prosperously together, in sunshiny weather, with flags flying. Now in these sad times it is as if a storm had come on, and the sky had grown black, and the waves rough. Then the ships break up and part, or are driven by the waves against each other, so that one and another sink. That is Russia in these hard times,-kingdom striking against kingdom, so that sometimes one is destroyed. Kief, the mother of Russian cities, went down in these rough times. She came up again, but her greatness was gone and her glory dimmed.

What shall we see when the storm is over? Broken masts, torn flags, battered boats. Broken powers, ruined beauty, wrecks of kingdoms.

Terrible things were done in these sad days, things that I hardly like to tell you. Brother fought against brother, father against son. There were treachery and lies and murders.

This is the sort of thing that happened. One prince drove another out of Kief. Then the exiled prince called in the help of the Polovtsi, wild barbarians like the Patzinaks. These overran the

corn-fields.

country, and burned the peasants' houses and their But the exiled prince cared nothing for that. It served his turn. At last he was murdered on a dark night by murderers sent by his brother.

There was once a prince that loved his fatherland, and tried to drive out the barbarians and make peace. His name was Vassilko. But he died sadly. His cousin seized him treacherously, and sent him away in a cart, loaded with fetters. His eyes were put out, and so he died.

Once it seemed as if these princes were growing weary of war. For six princes met together, after about forty years of war, and they declared that they would live together with single hearts in friendship, and that they would protect Russia. This they swore, and kissed the Cross as they spoke their oaths. Then they parted and went home. But so weak is human nature, that next year they were at war together again as fiercely as before.

False oaths were often taken. One prince swore a great oath and kissed the Cross. Next day he broke his oath. He was reproached with breaking it, but he only sneered, and said, "It was such a little Cross."

Little by little the learning and the better manners and the foreign trade were all lost to Russia. Grass grew in the churches and the schools, and their

walls crumbled away. It seemed as if all the good that Vladimir and Jaroslav had done to Russia was no lasting good at all.

Yet one set of people, whom Vladimir had brought to Russia, now showed how good they were. These were the Christian priests. All through this sad time they were faithful to their work. They comforted and helped and taught the poor miserable peasants.

In one thing they were very wise. They knew well that the people would not give up their old heathen songs and stories and feast-days. So very cleverly they changed the names of the gods of whom they sang into names of Christian apostles and saints.

Here is a song, for instance. The people used to sing it about the Goddess of the Harvest, who made the land fruitful, and Perun, who blessed the corn. But the Christian priests changed the names, and for Perun they said God, and for the goddess the Mother of God, and for the helper of Perun they said St. Peter.

So the song ran like this :

"A golden plough goes ploughing
Afield in the fertile lands;

At the plough is the Lord Himself; by Him
The holy Peter stands ;

And the Mother of God holds corn for sowing."

When the people sang it, they learned to think that God blessed them, and not Perun.

But a man was coming presently to the throne of Kief who was to give Russia a few years of rest. He showed the Russians hopefully that, even in those evil, bad times, men could be pure and upright and unselfish.

Before we come to him I want to tell you a little about the story of the great city Novgorod.

The chief thing for you to remember about it is its splendid pride. It stood on the Neva, in sandy, marshy land where little would grow. There were often famine and pestilence there, but nothing could bend the pride of the old city of Rurik.

So great did the men of Novgorod think their city, that they called it, as I said, "My Lord Novgorod," and the saying went among them, "Who can equal God and the great Novgorod?"

My Lord Novgorod was ruled by a great council of all the citizens called the Vetché. The head of this council was called the Possadnik. The councillors were summoned together by the great bell of Novgorod, and met on the bridge of the Neva, and the army formed of citizens belonged to them. They had full power to judge and sentence. The Possadnik told news to the Vetché, and conducted the business. He asked questions as to what was to be done, to which the members of the Vetché shouted