r truce?"

The lords endeavored to persuade the emperor to remain at Moscow, and
to entrust the expedition to his experienced generals, but he
declared that he would not expose his army to perils and fatigues
which he was not also ready and willing to share. Though many were in
favor of a winter's campaign, as Kezan was surrounded with streams and
lakes which the ice would then bridge, yet Ivan decided upon the
summer as more favorable for the transportation of his army down the
rivers. By the latter part of May the waters of the Volga and the Oka
were covered with bateaux laden with artillery and with military
stores, and the banks of those streams were crowded with troops upon
the march. Nigni Novgorod, where the Oka empties into the Volga, was
as usual the appointed place of rendezvous. The 16th of June Ivan took
leave of the Empress Anastasia. Her emotion at parting was so great
that she fell fainting into the arms of her husband.

From his palace Ivan proceeded to the church of the Assumption, where
the blessing of Heaven was implored, and then issuing orders that the
bishops, all over the empire, should offer prayers daily for the
success of the expedition, he mounted his horse, and accompanied by
the cavalry of his guard, took the route to Kolumna, a city on the
Oka, about a hundred miles south of Moscow.

It will be remembered that the Tartar horde existed in several vast
encampments. One of these encampments occupied Tauride, as the region
north of the Crimea, and including that peninsula, was then called.
These barbarians, thinking that the Russian army was now five hundred
miles west of Moscow at Kezan, and that the empire was thus
defenseless, with a vast army of invasion were on the eager march for
Moscow. Ivan at Kolumna heard joyfully of their approach, for he was
prepared to meet them and to chastise them with merited severity. On
the 22d of July, the horde, unconscious of their danger, surrounded
the walls of Toola, a city about a hundred miles south of Kolumna.
Ivan himself, heading a division of the army, fell fiercely upon them,
and the Tartars were totally routed, losing artillery, camels, banners
and a large number of prisoners. They were pursued a long distance as
in wild rout they fled back to their own country.

This brilliant success greatly elated the army. Ivan IV., sending his
trophies to Moscow, as an encouragement to the capital, again put his
army in motion towards Kezan. The relation