In his campaigns the ground was his bed, the sky his curtain, his horse blanket his covering, and the saddle his pillow; and he seemed equally regardless of both heat and cold.

His soldiers looked to him as their model and emulated his hardihood.

Turning his attention first to the vast and almost unknown realms spreading out towards the East, he sent word to the tribes on the Don and the Volga, that he was coming to fight them.

As soon as they had time to prepare for their defense he followed his word.

Here was chivalric crime and chivalric magnanimity.