He hastily returned to his capital which he finally reached, after eluding, with much difficulty, the vigilance of the besiegers.

Just as the inhabitants of the city were yielding to despair, there arose a tempest, which swept the Bosporus with resistless fury.

The crowded barges were dashed against each other, shattered, wrecked and sunk.
The Christians of Constantinople justly attributed their salvation to the interposition of God.

Ascolod and Dir, with the wrecks of their army, returned in chagrin to Kief.
The historians of that period relate that the idolatrous Russians were so terrified by this display of the divine displeasure that they immediately sent embassadors to Constantinople, professing their readiness to embrace Christianity, and asking that they might receive the rite of baptism.

In attestation of the fact that Christianity at this period entered Russia, we are referred to a well authenticated letter, of the patriarch Photius, written at the close of the year 866.
"The Russians," he says, "so celebrated for their cruelty, conquerors of their neighbors, and who, in their pride, dared to attack the Roman empire, have already renounced their superstitions, and have embraced the religion of Jesus Christ.