Mechislav did not desire war with Roman, and begged that prince, through envoys, to mediate between him and Leshko. Roman’s Russian intimates advised compliance with this request, but, listening neither to them nor the envoys, he attacked Mechislav with his own men and those of his nephew. His thought: “I will get my mind’s wish,” was not realized this time, however, for Mechislav gained a great victory. Roman, so severely wounded that he could not sit on a horse, was borne back to Cracow on a litter, and thence to Volynia in the same way. Thus ended at that time the great plans of Roman. When leaving Cracow, he urged his Polish relatives not to be cast down in spirit, and promised to help them as soon as he had assembled his forces. Knowing his father-in-law’s weakness, he sent him a message of penitence and implored the metropolitan Nikifor to speak for him. Rurik was delighted. “Since Roman is sorry and repents,” said he, “I will let him kiss the cross again, and give him provinces. He will honor me now as a father, I will call him my son again, I have wished him well at all times.” In fact Roman received new lands. Rurik, in pacifying his son-in-law in this way, wished to ward off Chernigoff princes roused against him by Roman. In treating of this matter, Big Nest and Rurik sent a message to the descendants of Oleg in the name of all the descendants of Monomach, as follows: “Kiss the cross to us that ye will not seek to take from us, or our descendants, or any descendant of Monomach, our Kief inheritance and Smolensk.” Referring to the ancient ordinance which left to the ancestor of all the descendants of Oleg the Chernigoff region as far west as the Dnieper, they added: “Ye do not need Kief.” The descendants of Oleg met in counsel, and sent this answer to the Prince of Vladimir: “We adhere to our agreement, which was that we would not try to take Kief from you, or your relatives. But if we are to lose Kief forever, we answer that we are not Poles or Hungarians, but grandsons of one grandfather. During thy life we will not strive for Kief, but after thy death, let it go to whom God will give it.”