estruction, and to avoid the effusion of blood, directed a German
engineer to sink a mine under an important portion of the walls. The
miners proceeded until they could hear the footsteps of the Kezanians
over their heads. Eleven tons of powder were placed in the vault. On
the 5th of September the match was applied. The explosion was awful.
Large portions of the wall, towers, buildings, rocks, the mutilated
bodies of men, were thrown hundreds of feet into the air and fell upon
the city, crushing the dwellings and the inhabitants. The besieged
were seized with mortal terror, not knowing to what to attribute so
dire a calamity. The Russians, who were prepared for the explosion,
waving their swords, with loud outcries rushed in at the breach. But
the Kezanians, soon recovering from their consternation, with their
breasts and their artillery presented a new rampart, and beat back the
foe. Thus, day after day, the horrible carnage continued. Within the
city and without the city, death held high carnival. There were famine
and pestilence and misery in all imaginable forms within the walls. In
the camp of the besiegers, there were mutilation, and death's agonies
and despair. Army after army of Tartars came to the help of the
besieged, but they were mown down mercilessly by Russian sabers, and
trampled beneath Russian hoofs.

Ivan, morning and evening, with his generals, entered the church to
implore the blessing of God upon his enterprise. In no other way could
he rescue Russia from the invasion of these barbarians, than by thus
appealing to the energies of the sword. In the contemplation of such a
tragedy, the mind struggles in bewilderment, and can only say, "Be
still and know that I am God."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE REIGN OF IVAN IV.--CONTINUED.

From 1552 to 1557.

Siege of Kezan.--Artifices of War.--The Explosion of Mines.--The Final
Assault.--Complete Subjugation of Kezan.--Gratitude and Liberality of
the Tzar.--Return To Moscow.--Joy of the inhabitants.--Birth of An
Heir To the Crown.--Insurrection in Kezan.--The Insurrection
Quelled.--Conquest of Astrachan.--The English Expedition in Search of
a North-East Passage to India.--The Establishment at
Archangel.--Commercial Relations Between France and Russia.--Russian
Embassy to England.--Extension of Commerce.

The Russians had now been a month before the walls of Kezan. Ten
thousand of the defenders had already been slain. The autumnal sun was
rapidly declining,