The two brothers continued bitterly hostile to each other, and years passed of petty intrigues and with occasional scenes of violence and blood as Dmitri struggled to hold the crown which Andre as perseveringly strove to seize.

Again Andre obtained another Mogol army, which swept Russia with fearful destruction, and, taking possession of Vladimir and Moscow, and every city and village on their way, plundering, burning and destroying, marched resistlessly to Novgorod, and placed again the traitorous, blood-stained monster on the throne.
Dmitri, abandoning his palaces and his treasures, fled to a remote principality, where he soon died, in the year 1294, an old man battered and wrecked by the storms of a life of woe.

He is celebrated in the Russian annals only by the disasters which accompanied his reign.

According to the Russian historians, the infamous Andre, his elder brother being now dead, found himself _legitimately_ the sovereign of Russia.

As no one dared to dispute his authority, the ill-fated kingdom passed a few years in tranquillity.
At length Daniel, prince of Moscow, claimed independence of the nominal king, or grand prince, as he was called.