is anxiously
pointed out; we are shown Oleg launching 88,000 men against Byzantium,
fixing his shield as a trophy on the gate of that capital, and dictating
an ignominious treaty to the Lower Empire; Igor making it tributary;
Sviataslaff glorying, "the Greeks supply me with gold, costly stuffs,
rice, fruits and wine; Hungary furnishes cattle and horses; from Russia
I draw honey, wax, furs, and men"; Vladimir conquering the Crimea and
Livonia, extorting a daughter from the Greek Emperor, as Napoleon did
from the German Emperor, blending the military sway of a northern
conqueror with the theocratic despotism of the Porphyro-geniti, and
becoming at once the master of his subjects on earth, and their
protector in heaven.

Yet, in spite of the plausible parallelism suggested by these
reminiscences, the policy of the first Ruriks differs fundamentally from
that of modern Russia. It was nothing more nor less than the policy of
the German barbarians inundating Europe--the history of the modern
nations beginning only after the deluge has passed away. The Gothic
period of Russia in particular forms but a chapter of the Norman
conquests. As the empire of Charlemagne precedes the foundation of
modern France, Germany, and Italy, so the empire of the Ruriks precedes
the foundation of Poland, Lithuania, the Baltic Settlements, Turkey,
and Muscovy itself. The rapid movement of aggrandizement was not the
result of deep-laid schemes, but the natural offspring of the primitive
organization of Norman conquest--vassalship without fiefs, or fiefs
consisting only in tributes--the necessity of fresh conquests being kept
alive by the uninterrupted influx of new Varangian adventurers, panting
for glory and plunder. The chiefs, becoming anxious for repose, were
compelled by the Faithful Band to move on, and in Russian, as in French
Normandy, there arrived the moment when the chiefs despatched on new
predatory excursions their uncontrollable and insatiable
companions-in-arms with the single view to get rid of them. Warfare and
organization of conquest on the part of the first Ruriks differ in no
point from those of the Normans in the rest of Europe. If Slavonian
tribes were subjected not only by the sword, but also by mutual
convention, this singularity is due to the exceptional position of those
tribes, placed between a northern and eastern invasion, and embracing
the former as a protection from the latter. The same magic charm which
attracted