The cautious Prince of Vladimir acted in his own way. He sent to his capital as prisoners all the princes who had come to him from Ryazan, and all their boyars, with command to keep them carefully under guard. Then he turned toward Ryazan. First he attacked Pronsk, which after desperate resistance surrendered. He then appointed his own men to places throughout the principality, and moved on Ryazan. He was within twenty versts of that city and about to pass the Pron River, when a large company of penitent Ryazan men came, bringing with them envoys from the bishop. They bowed down and humbly implored the Vladimir prince not to ruin their city. Arseni, the Ryazan bishop, had sent more than once remonstrating letters, and now he spoke through envoys: “Grand Prince and lord, do not ruin noble places. Do not burn God’s holy churches; sacrifice is offered to the Lord in them, and prayers for thee. We promise to accomplish thy will as thou wishest precisely.” Big Nest, pleased with this obedience, turned his anger into mercy. He ordered the army to withdraw to Kolomna, where the petitioners were to meet him for final negotiations. It was late in the year, inclining to frost. The Oká was not firmly frozen, but there was ice on it. Big Nest had to wait two days in tents near the river; the third day heavy frost came; the whole army crossed the Oká on the ice, and entered Kolomna. The night after a tremendous storm rose; next morning came a violent rainfall, and the ice broke. The bishop, Arseni, and the Ryazan men crossed in boats, with great peril. The bishop thanked the Grand Prince for his clemency, and begged him to be gracious to the end, to return the captured princes, and he, the bishop, would answer for their loyalty. “Cast aside thy anger against those men,” said he; “take them into thy favor and the Most Holy will cast aside thy faults. Turn thy ear from calumniators, for they, with feigned loyalty and fawning, are working not for the good of the country, but for their own profit. God has placed thee, O great prince, as a ruler to judge and give justice to His people. It is proper for thee to punish the guilty, God himself commands thee to do so, but there is need also for mercy, and not of punishment in anger. I, thy lowly petitioner, have been sent to thee at the prayer of all the Ryazan men. I have not come with power to command, that is not given from God to me, but with mildness and tears I implore and pray thee to accept my beseeching.”