CHARACTERS. 



317 



hand. To ask them of the emperor 

 was a sort of homage, at the very 

 idea of which his haughty soul re- 

 volted. He conceived a project 

 worthy of his times, of his country, 

 or perhaps only of himself : it was, 

 to commence a war against Greece, 

 and by force of arms to extort in- 

 struction, priests, and the rite of 

 baptism. 



No sooner had he formed the de- 

 sign than he prepared for its execu- 

 tion, raised a formidable army, se- 

 lected from all the nations of which 

 his empire was composed, and re- 

 paired to the Chersonese, under the 

 walls of Theodosia, now called 

 Kaffa. If we give credit to one 

 chronicle, he put up this prayer : 

 " O God, grant me thy help to take 

 this town, that I may carry from it 

 Christians and priests to instruct me 

 and my people, and convey the true 

 religion into my dominions !" He 

 laid siege to the city, destroyed the 

 adversaries, lost a great number of 

 his soldiers, and thousands of men 

 were destroyed, because a barbarian 

 would not suffer himself to be 

 Christened like an ordinary person. 

 However, after carrying on the 

 siege for six months, Vladimir had 

 made no progress : he was even 

 threatened with being obliged to 

 raise the siege, and was in great 

 danger of never becoming a Chris- 

 tian. But a traitorous citizen, ac- 

 cording to some it was a priest, 

 tied a letter to an arrow, and shot it 

 from the top of the ramparts. The 

 Russians learned by this paper, that 

 behind their camp was a spring, 

 which, by subterraneous pipes, was 

 the sole supply of frcsli water to the 

 besieged. Vladimir ordered this 

 source to be sought out ; it was 

 found; and, by breaking these 

 channels, subjected the town to the 



horrors of thirst, and forced it to sur- 

 render. Being in possession of The- 

 odosia, he was master of the whole 

 Chersonese. 



In consequence of his victory, it 

 was his own choice to receive bap- 

 tism in the manner he desired. But 

 this sacrament was not the sole ob- 

 ject of his ambition : he aspired to 

 an union by the tics of blood with 

 tlie Ctesars of Byzantium. As was 

 the case with most of the princes 

 who adopted Christianity, so here 

 political reasons had at least an 

 equal influence with devotion ; and 

 when Vladimir, was baptized at 

 Korsun, a town of Greece, in 988, 

 and married Anna, the sister of the 

 Grecian sovereign, it was as much 

 his intention by this match to ac- 

 quire a claim upon the Grecian 

 empire, as by his baptism to have 

 pretensions on the kingdom of 

 heaven. 



Vladimir then listened to some 

 catechetical lectures, received the 

 rite of baptism and the name of 

 Basil, married the young princess 

 Anna, restored to his brothers-in- 

 law the conquests he had recently 

 made, and brought off no other re- 

 ward of his victories than some ar- 

 chimand rites and popes, a few 

 sacred vessels and church-books, 

 images of saints, and consecrated 

 relics. 



At his return to Kief, his mind 

 was wholly intent on overthrowing 

 the idols which but lately were 

 the object of his adoration. As 

 Perune was the greatest of deities 

 to the idolatrous Russians, it was 

 him that Vladimir, after his con- 

 version, resolved to treat with the 

 greatest ignominy. He had him 

 tied to the tail of a horse, dragged 

 to the Borysthenes, and all the way 

 twelve vigorous soldiers with great 



