to appreciate the sacredness of law, the claims of honor and the
authority of treaties. It is observable that no signatures are
attached to this treaty but those of the Norman princes, which
indicates that the original Sclavonic race were in subjection as the
vassals of the Normans. Oleg appears to have placed in posts of
authority only his own countrymen.

Oleg now, as old age was advancing, passed many years in quietude.
Surrounded by an invincible army, and with renown which pervaded the
most distant regions, no tribes ventured to disturb his repose. His
distance from southern Europe protected him from annoyance from the
powerful nations which were forming there. His latter years seem to
have been devoted to the arts of peace, for he secured to an unusual
degree the love, as well as the admiration, of his subjects. Ancient
annalists record that all Russia moaned and wept when he died. He is
regarded, as more prominently than any other man, the founder of the
Russian empire. He united, though by treachery and blood, the northern
and southern kingdoms under one monarch. He then, by conquest,
extended his empire over vast realms of barbarians, bringing them all
under the simple yet effective government of feudal lords. He
consolidated this empire, and by sagacious measures, encouraging arts
and commerce, he led his barbarous people onward in the paths of
civilization. He gave Russia a name and renown, so that it assumed a
position among the nations of the globe, notwithstanding its remote
position amidst the wilds of the North. His usurpation, history can
not condemn. In those days any man had the right to govern who had the
genius of command. Genius was the only legitimacy. But he was an
assassin, and can never be washed clean from that crime. He died after
a reign of thirty-three years, and was buried, with all the displays
of pomp which that dark age could furnish, upon one of the mountains