"The son of Rurik, Igor, came to the throne at the age of forty, and after, much fighting was killed. His son, Sviatoslaf, was too young to reign, and Olga, Igor's widow, was the regent. She was a bold and cruel woman, and her adventures were very curious and romantic. After severely chastising the Drevlians,--who had killed her husband,--they offered her a tribute of honey and fur, which she declined, saying she would be satisfied with a dove and three sparrows from each house, which were promptly supplied. Having tied lighted matches to their tails, she let them all loose in the evening, and flying back to the nests, they set all the houses on fire, and the whole town was consumed. The inhabitants escaped only to fall upon the swords of Olga's army. You need not believe any more of these stories than you please, young gentlemen," said the instructor, with a smile. "Olga went to Constantinople to be baptized and instructed in the Christian religion. When she exhorted her son to follow her example on her return, he wanted to know if she wished him to be the laughing-stock of his friends. Her son was a great warrior, won many victories and was killed in battle. His empire was divided among his three sons, Yaropolk, Oleg, and Vladimir. They soon quarrelled; Oleg was slain, and Vladimir fled, leaving the entire realm to Yaropolk. But Vladimir returned, and with the aid of the Varingians, conquered Novgorod and Kief, and put his brother to death. He was a pagan at first, and gave honors to his heathen deities. The neighboring nations, recognizing his power and rude greatness desired to convert him to their own faith, and he was induced to examine the religion of the Greeks, the Roman Catholics, and the Jews. Olga, his ancestress, had been a Greek Christian, and he was inclined to follow her example. When he had decided to embrace it, his pride would not permit him to be baptized in his own capital in the ordinary way, and he insisted that only bishops from the parent church were worthy of so great a achievement as the conversion of himself and his people. He resorted to a remarkable expedient to accomplish his purpose: he made war upon Greece, marched into the Crimea, and laid siege to Cherson, near Sevastopol, intending to extort the rite of baptism. He demanded its surrender, saying he was prepared to stay before its walls for three years. For six months he made no progress, and was on the point of abandoning the conquest, when a priest sent an arrow to which was tied a letter, informing him that the city was supplied with water from a certain spring outside the walls. Removing the pipes by which the water was conducted to the town, Vladimir subjected the inhabitants to the pangs of thirst, and thus compelled them to surrender. Everything was now favorable for his baptism; but he had other views also. He demanded the sister of the Greek emperors, Basilius and Constantine, in marriage, and threatened