This base flattery accomplished its object.  Vassali was pronounced grand prince, and, in accordance with Tartar custom, the uncle was compelled to hold the bridle while his successful rival, at the door of the tent, mounted his horse.  On their return to Moscow, Vassali was crowned, with great pomp, in the church of Notre Dame.  Youri, while at the horde, dared not manifest the slightest opposition to the decision, but, having returned to his own country, he murmured loudly, rallied his friends, excited disaffection, and soon kindled the flames of civil war.

Youri soon marched, with an army, upon Moscow, took the city by storm, and Vassali, who had displayed but little energy of character, was made captive.  Youri proclaimed himself grand prince, and Vassali in vain endeavored to move the compassion of his captor by tears.  The uncle, however, so far had pity for his vanquished nephew as to appoint him to the governorship of the city of Kolomna.  This seemed perfectly to satisfy the pusillanimous young man, and, after partaking of a splendid feast with his uncle, he departed, rejoicing, from the capital where he had been enthroned, to the provincial city assigned to him.

A curious result ensued.  Youri brought to Moscow his own friends, who were placed in the posts of honor and authority.  Such general discontent was excited, that the citizens, in crowds, abandoned Moscow and repaired to Kolomna, and rallied, with the utmost enthusiasm, around their ejected sovereign.  The dwellings and the streets of Moscow became silent and deserted.  Kolomna, on the contrary, was thronged.  To use the expression of a Russian annalist, the people gathered around their prince as bees cluster around their queen.  The tidings of the life, activity and thriving business to be found at Kolomna, lured ever-increasing numbers, and, in a few months, grass was growing in the streets of Moscow, while Kolomna had become the thronged metropolis of the principality.  The nobles, with their armies, gathered around Vassali, and Youri was so thoroughly abandoned, that, convinced of the impossibility of maintaining his position, he sent word to his nephew that he yielded to him the capital, and immediately left for his native principality of Galitch.

The journey of Vassali, from Kolomna to Moscow, a distance of two hundred miles, was a brilliant triumph.  An immense crowd accompanied the grand prince the whole distance, raising incessant shouts of joy.  But Youri was by no means prepared to relinquish his claim, and soon the armies of the two rivals were struggling upon the field of battle.  While the conflict was raging, Youri suddenly died at the age of sixty years.  One of the sons of Youri made an attempt to regain the throne which his father had lost, but he failed in the attempt, and was taken captive.  Vassali, as cruel as he was pusillanimous, in vengeance, plucked out the eyes of his cousin.  Vassali, now seated peacefully upon his throne, exerted himself to keep on friendly relations with the horde, by being prompt in the payment of the tribute which they exacted.