Vladimir, confined in the tower with his priestess, grew weary. Bela had taken all the property brought by Vladimir to Hungary, but the captive had coin sufficient to bribe the guards watching him. Among those guards were some so devoted to Vladimir that they undertook, not merely to let him escape, but to conduct him through pathless forests to Germany. The first question, however, was to get out of the tower. In this work the hitherto shiftless Vladimir proved abler than many a wise man. The tower was high and the prisoners were kept in the top of it, where there was a small outside platform. On this platform was a tent, made of canvas, in which a man might find shelter from heat in the day-time, and gaze at the stars during night hours. Vladimir tore this tent into strips with which he made a long rope and slipped to the earth by it. The trusty guards took him to Barbarossa, the Emperor. The fleeing prince was well received by Barbarossa, from whom he begged aid. We know not what reward Vladimir offered Bela, for reinstating him in Galitch, but we know exactly his agreement with Frederick Barbarossa. He bound himself to pay two thousand silver grievens yearly for his restoration. There were other reasons, too, why the Emperor became interested. He was astonished to see before him the nephew of Andrei Bogolyubski and of Vsevolod (Big Nest). Hearing that he was a son of a sister of those two famous princes, he doubted not that he was an important man. He had grown acquainted with Andrei Bogolyubski through letters, when that prince was building his cathedral in Vladimir. Because of those letters, various artists and materials had gone from Germany. Of Big Nest and his eminence among Russian princes, reports were frequent. To aid Vladimir would cause the Emperor no trouble. He had no thought to help with men. He was going then to Palestine, but Poland was subject to his influence, and he commissioned Kazimir, King of Poland, to reinstate the exile. The Poles envied Hungarians Galitch, and were glad to expel them. Vladimir, leading a Polish army, entered Galitch very easily. When the return of their native prince was announced, the people rushed to meet him. Flight was all that was left for Andrei and those Russian boyars who adhered to him. While the Hungarian was fleeing as best he was able, and bearing with him the title Rex Galiciæ, which remains to this day on the shield of his country, Vladimir took the throne; and he held it as long as there was breath in his nostrils. He held it, thanks to Big Nest, his uncle, because of this message: “My lord and father, keep Galitch under me, I pray thee. I belong to God and to thee with all Galitch.” Big Nest listened to Vladimir’s entreaty, and kept him firmly in Galitch till his death came.