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.