The emperor, in great alarm, sent embassadors to Monomaque with the most precious presents.

There was a cornelian exquisitely cut and set, a golden chain and necklace, a crown of gold, and, most precious of all, a crucifix made of wood of the true cross! The metropolitan bishop of Ephesus, who was sent with these presents, was authorized, in the name of the church and of the empire, to place the crown upon the brow of Monomaque in gorgeous coronation in the cathedral church of Kief, and to proclaim Monomaque Emperor of Russia.
This crown, called the _golden bonnet of Monomaque_, is still preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Moscow.
These were dark and awful days.

Horrible as war now is, it was then attended with woes now unknown.

Gleb, prince of Minsk, with a ferocious band, attacked the city of Sloutsk; after a terrible scene of carnage, in which most of those capable of bearing arms were slain, the city was burned to ashes, and all the survivors, men, women and children, were driven off as captives to the banks of the Dwina, where they were incorporated with the tribe of their savage conqueror.

In revenge, Monomaque sent his son Yaropolk to Droutsk, one of the cities of Gleb.