the supremacy of the
horde was annihilated; that the blood of the Christians, shed upon the
plain of Koulikof, was the last sacrifice Russia was doomed to make.

But in these anticipations, Russia was destined to be sadly
disappointed. Mamai, the discomfited Tartar chieftain, overwhelmed
with shame and rage, reached, with the wreck of his army, one of the
great encampments of the Tartars on the banks of the Volga. A new
khan, the world-renowned Tamerlane, now swayed the scepter of Tartar
power. Two years were devoted to immense preparations for the new
invasion of Russia. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Dmitri was informed
that the Tartars were approaching in strength unprecedented. Russia
was unprepared for the attack, and terror congealed all hearts. The
invaders, crossing the Volga and the Oka, pressed rapidly towards
Moscow.

Dmitri, deeming it in vain to attempt the defense of the capital,
fled, with his wife and children, two hundred miles north, to the
fortress of Kostroma. A young prince, Ostei, was left in command of
the city, with orders to hold it to the last extremity against the
Tartars, and with the assurance that the king would return, as
speedily as possible, with an army from Kostroma to his relief. The
panic in the city was fearful, and the gates were crowded, day and
night, by the women and children, the infirm and the timid seeking
safety in flight. Ostei made the most vigorous preparations for
defense, while the king, with untiring energy, was accumulating an
army of relief. The merchants and laborers from the neighboring
villages, and even the monks and priests crowded to Moscow, demanding
arms for the defense of the metropolis. From the battlements of the
city, the advance of the barbarians could be traced by the volumes of
smoke which arose, as from a furnace, through the day, and by the
flames which flashed along the horizon, from the burning cities and
villages, through the night.

On the evening of the 23d of August, 1382, the Tartars appeared before
the gates of the city. Some of the chiefs rode slowly around the
ramparts, examining the ditch, the walls, the height of the towers,
and selected the most favorable spot for commencing the assault. The
Tartars did not appear in such overwhelming numbers as report had
taught the Russians to expect, and they felt quite sanguine that they
should be able to defend the city. But the ensuing morning dispelled
all these hopes. It then appeared that these