All measures possible were taken by Sviatoslav to ward off the onrushing Polovtsi, but these measures were inadequate and in no way proportionate to the strength of the enemy. Igor was humble in presence of the misfortune which he had caused. He prayed and did penance, often repeating: “Why have I remained alive; I, who have destroyed so many people?” Not soon did those robber raids cease, but they did cease in time, not so much because the Polovtsi had inflicted great and sufficient loss on the Russians as because that flush of joy at a victory, which for them seemed well-nigh incredible, died away; and then the two camps, one on the Kief-Chernigoff border, and the other on the Polovtsi steppe, resumed their former attitude. CHAPTER VI DESTRUCTION OF KIEF Igor lived in captivity among the Polovtsi, but without hardship. His servants were left with him; he had his own equerry. He was even allowed to hunt. Men set to guard his tent showed the prince honor. One of those guards, Lavor, grew to love Igor greatly, and to serve him in Russia became finally his one thought, hence he planned an escape, which succeeded. During night hours the guard over Igor was strict; for whole days, and for weeks even, he was never from under the eye of some watcher. This was true especially in the first days of his captivity. He was least under guard after sunset, when, during supper, the Polovtsi drank their kumys and grew tipsy. On the night of escape, Lavor was waiting with horses beyond the river. When darkness came down, Igor rose in his tent, and after making the sign of the cross on himself with a small holy image, hanging this image and a cross around his neck, he pulled aside the tent curtain, stepped out and walked rapidly away to the river. The guards were drinking kumys, and thought the prince safe in his tent. Igor waded through the water and found Lavor on the other bank waiting with two horses. Great rejoicing spread through Russia when news came of Igor’s return. He went first to Kief to visit Sviatoslav, and the aged prince, with tears of delight in his eyes, embraced him. Igor’s young son, Vladimir, while in captivity with his father, fell in love with the Khan’s daughter and married her. “The Khans have entangled him with a beautiful girl,” was the saying, but he was ransomed and the marriage was celebrated with great solemnity in Russia. As war with the Polovtsi did not prevent Russian princes from being friendly and intermarrying, so also their connections did not prevent them from warring, as the princes who became related with the Polovtsi through marriage often warred with them afterward. Hence Igor warred with the Polovtsi after this marriage, as well as before it.