successor in Suzdal. Yaroslaff, 1238-1246, found his inheritance in
the most deplorable condition. The towns and villages were burned, the
country and roads covered with unburied corpses; the survivors hid
themselves in the woods. He recalled the fugitives and began to
rebuild. Batu, who had completed the devastation of South Russia,
summoned Yaroslaff to do him homage at Sarai, on the Volga. Yaroslaff
was received there with distinction. Batu confirmed his title of grand
prince, but invited him to go in person to the Great Khan, supreme
chief of the Mongol nation, who lived on the banks of the river
Sakhalian or Amur. To do this was to cross the whole of Russia and
Asia. Yaroslaff bent his knees to the new master of the world, Oktai,
succeeded in refuting the accusations brought against him by a Russian
boyar, and obtained a new confirmation of his title. On his return he
died in the desert of exhaustion, and his faithful servants brought
his body back to Vladimir. His son Andrew succeeded him in Suzdal,
1246-1252. His other son, Alexander, reigned at Novgorod the Great.

Alexander was as brave as he was intelligent. He was the hero of the
North, and yet he forced himself to accept the necessary humiliations
of his terrible situation. In his youth we see him fighting with all
the enemies of Novgorod, Livonian knights and Tchuds, Swedes and
Finns. The Novgorodians found themselves at issue with the
Scandinavians on the subject of their possessions on the Neva and the
Gulf of Finland. As they had helped the natives to resist the Latin
faith, King John obtained the promise of Gregory IX that a crusade,
with plenary indulgences, should be preached against the Great
Republic and her _protégés_, the pagans of the Baltic. His son-in-law,
Birger, with an army of Scandinavians, Finns, and western crusaders,
took the command of the forces, and sent word to the Prince of
Novgorod: "Defend yourself if you can; know that I am already in your