Mystislav’s first move was to send a peaceful embassy to negotiate with Yaroslav. He selected a priest, the most famed and beloved in the city, as a sign that negotiations were to be carried on, not with threats, but with love, and conscientiously. He gave command to bow down to his son-in-law, saying: “My son, free the Novgorod merchants and men. Treat with me kindly. Leave Torjok for thy own place.” Yaroslav dismissed the priest without discussion. Not only did he not free the prisoners, but those whom he held in Torjok he put in chains, and sent to Pereyaslavl Beyond the Forest. Their property and goods he distributed among his attendants. The moment that news of this came to Novgorod, Mystislav commanded to sound the bell of the assembly. The whole city came to him. “Let us go, brothers!” said he. “Let us rescue our lands. Let us liberate our own people!” The war from the very beginning assumed an unusual character. The citizens of Novgorod had a single mind this time, and the prince was at one with the people. To take vengeance for injustice was their war-cry. Mystislav was not simply enraged against his son-in-law; he hated in him that inborn pride of the Vladimir princes. Knowing well that this unendurable haughtiness rested really on power, knowing well that they had a great multitude of people behind them, and a very large army, the strong warrior looked forward, not to a brilliant victory in this unequal conflict, but rather to the crown of a martyr, and prepared for the struggle with fear, but also with fortitude. He summoned from Pskoff that brother of his whom Mystislav the Brave on his death-bed had committed to Yuri Zaharitch, the boyar. This brother, Vladimir, called to join him his cousin Vladimir, son of Rurik, he who had taken the throne of Smolensk, when Mystislav, son of Roman of Smolensk, went to rule Kief, the old capital. Mystislav the Gallant worked untiringly. Novgorod assembled all possible warriors, but in number they were insufficient. Mystislav doubted not that Yaroslav and Yuri, Grand Prince of Vladimir, would act as one man, but he counted on Constantine, who in his eyes seemed another victim of Vladimir’s self-will and insolence. To Constantine, and not to Yuri, belonged the throne of Vladimir, by right of birth. To deprive a son of his God-given inheritance was a sin in Mystislav’s eyes, and he thought that when he entered the Vladimir principality, proclaiming to Yaroslav and Yuri that he was there to reinstate their eldest brother, Constantine would assist him. To instate the senior son seemed to Mystislav just and proper.