Never before were more conspicuously seen the energies of a noble soul.

At first it seemed that his reign could be extended only over gory corpses and smouldering ruins.

Undismayed by the magnitude of the disaster, he consecrated all the activity of his genius and the loftiness of his spirit to the regeneration of the desolated land.
In the spacious valleys of the Don and its tributaries lived the powerful nation of the Polovtsi, who had often bid defiance to the whole strength of Russia.

Kothian, their prince, for a short time made vigorous opposition to the march of the conquerors.

But, overwhelmed by numbers, he was at length compelled to retreat, and, with his army of forty thousand men, to seek a refuge in Hungary.