If, to such peculiarities of Michael in youth, we add other traits, they are those forms of his kindly disposition which touched even the hearts of the stern men of Novgorod, when he was prince in their city. They never forgot that when they crushed Michael’s enemies, who were partisans of Yaroslav, son of Big Nest, Michael did not let Novgorod drown one of those persons in the Volkof, or inflict death upon any man. Besides, the prince did not take any property from men whose effects were subjected to seizure; he persuaded Novgorod adherents not to divide for their own use the goods of the guilty, but to use them for the public good. Later on those men boasted that they had taken nothing, but had used all to build a second bridge in the city at the persistent advice of Prince Michael. In 1245 this only son of Chermny, and grandson of Sviatoslav, “the sister’s son,” was in such a position that the fate of other princes could not be compared with it for hopelessness. Through nearness to the Golden Horde his inheritance was a part of the immediate possessions of Batu, and, speaking correctly, Michael had nothing left to him. His wife, a sister of Daniel and Vassilko, had found a refuge with her brothers; the husband of his only daughter, Vassilko, son of Constantine of Vladimir, had been killed most cruelly, and later his widow became a nun in Suzdal. All of Michael’s near relatives had lost their lives mercilessly. His only son, Rostislav, was more a cause of suffering than of pleasure. As has already been stated, he was betrothed and about to marry a daughter of King Bela. Michael went to Hungary to be present at the marriage, but the king, upon hearing that Chernigoff was utterly ruined, changed his mind very quickly, and father and son found it well to leave the country. Michael felt bitter pain in his heart at this proof of the falsehood and selfishness of mankind. But when the king himself had been struck by the Mongol tempest, he changed his mind and agreed to the marriage. Whether Michael consented this time or not, he did not go to the wedding. Still, out of love for his son he could not refrain later on from a journey to see the young couple. He experienced then a new sorrow and a suffering far greater than that which had struck him the first time, for King Bela and his son both turned from Michael: the first from his daughter’s father-in-law, the second from his own father.