But each success gained by Daniel was followed by the treason of boyars. Now they conspired to burn him and his brother in their palace; now to assassinate them at table while feasting. And again they roused Bailski against Daniel. Then they summoned in Daniel’s enemies from other regions of Russia, to be followed by renewed inroads of Poles and Hungarians. Michael of Chernigoff once more entered into greater friendship with Hungary than with Daniel. He arranged a marriage of his son, Rostislav, to one of Bela’s many daughters, and maintained a continual alliance with Poland. Such was the state of affairs during the dreadful ten years which succeeded 1230. Yaroslav, son of Big Nest, held Kief as prince in 1237. We know not from whom he received it, but the place fell to him without a struggle. There were two princes then who might have claimed the throne, each insignificant,—Vladimir, son of Rurik, who was still in debt for a part of his ransom to the Polovtsi, and Izyaslav. It may be that Yaroslav took Kief from these men. He left it on hearing that the city of Vladimir was destroyed by the Mongols. Michael of Chernigoff now took Kief, and put his son in Galitch, but in 1239 he left Kief because the Mongols had ruined Pereyaslavl and Chernigoff on the Alta, and were moving against the ancient capital. The Mongols sent envoys to Michael demanding surrender. The Kief people seized those envoys and slew them. Michael fled straightway. Now from Smolensk came Rostislav, son of Mystislav, but he was driven out immediately by Daniel, who had at last won Galitch and mastered it thoroughly. But though Daniel had Kief, he himself did not enter it, but he sent Dmitri, his boyar, to hold the place. Daniel had completely overcome his opponents on every side. He now surpassed all southern princes, and was stronger than his father had ever been, for he had Kief in addition to Galitch and Volynia, but this was in 1239, when the dreadful hour was approaching, and it was too late to enjoy any fruit from the battles and toils which he had passed through. The very next year Kief was turned into “corpses, and ruins and ashes,” and Daniel was soon to receive the Mongol command: “Yield Galitch, and level thy walls in Volynia.” It is remarkable that the Mongol tempest was preceded not only by countless wars and mad quarrels, which produced immense suffering and anguish, but by the appearance of such omens in the sky and such marvels on all sides that ceaseless terror was born of them everywhere.