tretching from the
Carpathians to the eastern shores of Asia, and from the Arctic Ocean to
the Himalayas.

Genghis was no mere ruthless destroyer; he was at the same time one
of the greatest administrators the world has ever seen. But his
administrative genius could not work miracles. His vast Empire, founded
on conquest and composed of the most heterogeneous elements, had no
principle of organic life in it, and could not possibly be long-lived.
It had been created by him, and it perished with him. For some time
after his death the dignity of Grand Khan was held by some one of his
descendants, and the centralised administration was nominally preserved;
but the local rulers rapidly emancipated themselves from the central
authority, and within half a century after the death of its founder the
great Mongol Empire was little more than "a geographical expression."

With the dismemberment of the short-lived Empire the danger for Eastern
Europe was by no means at an end. The independent hordes were scarcely
less formidable than the Empire itself. A grandson of Genghis formed
on the Russian frontier a new State, commonly known as Kiptchak, or the
Golden Horde, and built a capital called Serai, on one of the arms of
the Lower Volga. This capital, which has since so completely disappeared
that there is some doubt as to its site, is described by Ibn Batuta,
who visited it in the fifteenth century, as a very great, populous, and
beautiful city, possessing many mosques, fine market-places, and broad
streets, in which were to be seen merchants from Babylon, Egypt, Syria,
and other countries. Here lived the Khans of the Golden Horde, who kept
Russia in subjection for two centuries.

In conquering Russia the Mongols had no wish to possess themselves of
the soil, or to take into their own hands the local administration. What
they wanted was not land, of which they had enough and to spare,
but movable property which they might enjoy without giving up their
pastoral, nomadic life. They applied, therefore, to Russia the same
method of extracting supplies as they had used in other countries.
As soon as their authority had been formally acknowledged they sent
officials into the country to number the inhabitants and to collect an
amount of tribute proportionate to the population. This was a severe
burden for the people, not only on account of the sum demanded, but
also on account of the manner in which it was raised. The exactions
and crue