battle was stubborn, but since twenty men were fighting with one, they at last overpowered him. The victim groaned as he said: “God will take vengeance on you for my bread, which you have eaten.” They hastened to finish. The breath seemed to halt in Andrei as if the soul were going out of him, and he lay on his back in agony. They gave him, as they thought, final blows, and waited in the darkness, till every sound ceased in his body, and they found no trace of breath in him. Then, taking with them a man whom Andrei had killed in the struggle, they started to grope their way out, but they could not go quickly, for in fear and in darkness the right passage was missed. Halting a moment, they discovered it, and going down the stone stairs to the open, again visited the mead cellar. Coming back, they stood a while to recover from the inner air, and from terror of the deed just accomplished. While this was taking place Prince Andrei, who had been left for dead, regained consciousness. He sat up and remembered with difficulty what had happened; then, leaving the room, he began to descend the stone stairway slowly, but as he went he betrayed himself. He might have escaped had he gone down in silence, but he could not suppress groans of anguish. The assassins heard those groans. “He is not killed!” whispered one in alarm. They returned to the chamber hurriedly; Andrei was not there. “Where is he?” asked one of another. “Quick! quick! we must find him!” They struck a light and, through blood which had dropped from the wounds of the prince as he passed down the stairway, they discovered him. Andrei, who saw the men coming, rose and stood behind a stone pillar near the entrance to his palace, and when they saw him, he cried: “O God, receive Thou my spirit!” Those were Andrei’s last words, He struggled no longer in mind, but still he raised his hand and they cut off his arm at the shoulder. Thus died Andrei, son of Yuri Dolgoruki, slain in his own house, by men whom he had treated justly and with kindness.