ering of armies. The horde was soon in motion, passing from the
Volga to the Don in numbers which were represented to be as the sands
of the sea. They rapidly and resistlessly ascended the valley of this
river, marking their path by a swath of ruin many miles in width. The
grand prince took the command of the Russian army in person, and
rendezvoused his troops at Kalouga, thence stationing them along the
northern banks of the Oka, to dispute the passage of that stream. All
Russia was in a state of feverish excitement. One decisive battle
would settle the question, whether the invaders were to be driven in
bloody rout out of the empire, or, whether the whole kingdom was to be
surrendered to devastation by savages as fierce and merciless as
wolves.

About the middle of October the two armies met upon the opposite banks
of the Oka, with only the waters of that narrow stream to separate
them. Cannon and muskets were then just coming into use, but they were
rude and feeble instruments compared with the power of such weapons at
the present day. Swords, arrows, javelins, clubs, axes, battering-rams
and catapults, and the tramplings of horse were the engines of
destruction which man then wielded most potently against his
fellow-man. The quarrel was a very simple one. Some hundreds of
thousands of Mogols had marched to the heart of Russia, leaving behind
them a path of flame and blood nearly a thousand miles in length, that
they might compel the Russians to pay them tribute. Some hundred
thousand Russians had met them there, to resist even to death their
insolent and oppressive demand.

The Tartars were far superior in numbers to the Russians, but Ivan had
made such a skillful disposition of his troops that Akhmet could not
cross the stream. For nearly a week the two armies fought from the
opposite banks, throwing at each other bullets, balls, stones, arrows
and javelins. A few were wounded and some slain in this impotent
warfare.

The Russians were, however, very faint-hearted. It was evident that,
should the Tartars effect the passage of the river, the Russians,
already demoralized by fear, would be speedily overpowered. The grand
prince himself was so apprehensive as to the result, that he sent one
of his nobles with rich presents to the khan and proposed terms of
peace. Akhmet rejected the presents, and sent back the haughty reply:

"I have come thus far to take vengeance upon Ivan; to punish him for
neglecting for nine