There were two safeguards against insurrection.

The burdens imposed upon the vassals were so light as to induce no murmurings; and all the feudal lords were united to sustain each other.

The first movement towards rebellion was drowned in blood.
Igor, the legitimate sovereign, had now attained his majority; but, accustomed as he had long been, to entire obedience, he did not dare to claim the crown from a regent flushed with the brilliancy of his achievements, who had all power in his hands, and who, by a nod, could remove him for ever out of his way.
Igor was one day engaged in the chase, when at the door of a cottage, in a small village near Kief, he saw a young peasant girl, of marvelous grace and beauty.

She was a Norman girl of humble parentage.
Young Igor, inflamed by her beauty, immediately rode to the door and addressed her.

Her voice was melody, her smile ravishing, and in her replies to his questionings, she developed pride of character, quickness of intelligence and invincible modesty, which charmed him and instantly won his most passionate admiration.