emperor was informed that the whole
river was filled with barges, descending for the siege and sack of
Constantinople. In terror he sent embassadors to Igor to endeavor to
avert the storm.

The imperial embassadors met the flotilla near the mouth of the
Dnieper, and offered, in the name of the emperor, to pay the same
tribute to Igor which had been paid to Oleg, and even to increase that
tribute. At the same time they endeavored to disarm the cupidity of
the foe by the most magnificent presents. Igor halted his troops, and
collecting his chieftains in counsel, communicated to them the message
of the emperor. They replied,

"If the emperor will give us the treasure we demand, without our
exposing ourselves to the perils of battle, what more can we ask? Who
can tell on which side will be the victory?"

Thus influenced, Igor consented to a treaty. The opening words of this
curious treaty are worthy of being recorded. They were as follows:

"We, the embassadors of Igor, solemnly declare that this treaty shall
continue so long as the sun shall shine, in defiance of the
machinations of that evil spirit who is the enemy of peace and the
fomenter of discord. The Russians promise never to break this alliance
with the horde; those who have been baptized, under penalty of
temporal and eternal punishment from God; others, under the penalty of
being for ever deprived of the protection of Peroune;[1] of never
being able to protect themselves with their shields; of being doomed
to lacerate themselves with their own swords, arrows and other arms,
and of being slaves in this world and that which is to come."

[Footnote 1: One of the Gods of the Russians.]

This important treaty consisted of fourteen articles, drawn up with
great precision, and in fact making the Greek emperor as it were but a
vassal of the Russian monarch. One of the articles of the treaty is
quite illustrative of the times. It reads,

"If a Christian kills a Russian, or if a Russian kills a Christian,
the friends of the dead have a right to seize the murderer and kill
him."

This treaty was concluded at Constantinople, between the emperor and
the embassadors of Igor. Imperial embassadors were sent with the
written treaty to Kief. Igor, with imposing ceremonies, ascended the
sacred hill where was erected the Russian idol of Peroune, and with
his chieftains took a solemn oath of friendship to the emperor, and
then as a gage of their sincerity deposited at the f