Even in the height of prosperity this was my strongest wish.

What can be more proper for me now that I am at the very gates of the tomb ?" For eight days he laid in his cell, expecting every moment to breathe his last.

He then, reviving a little, received the tonsure from the hands of the bishop, and renouncing the world, and all its cares and ambitions, devoted himself to the prayers and devotions of the monk.
The king pressed Sviatoslaf with superior forces, conquered him in several battles, and drove him, a fugitive, into dense forests, and into distant wilds.

Sviatoslaf, like his brother, weary of the storms of life, also sought the solace which religion affords to the weary and the heart-stricken.

Pursued by his relentless foe, he came to a little village called Moscow, far back in the interior.