ed immediate and vigorous cooeperation to repel the common foe. The
Russian army was promptly rendezvoused on the banks of the Dnieper,
preparatory to its march. Another large army was collected by the
Russian princes who inhabited the valley of the Dniester. In a
thousand barges they descended the river to the Black Sea. Then
entering the Dnieper they ascended the stream to unite with the main
army waiting impatiently their arrival.

On the 21st of May, the whole force was put in motion, and after a
march of nine days, met the Tartar army on the banks of the river
Kalets. The waving banners and the steeds of the Tartar host, covering
the plains as far as the eye could extend, in numbers apparently
countless, presented an appalling spectacle. Many of the Russian
leaders were quite in despair; others, young, ardent, inexperienced,
were eager for the fight. The battle immediately commenced, and the
combatants fought with all the ferocity which human energies could
engender. But the Russians were, in the end, routed entirely. The
Tartars drove the bleeding fugitives in wild confusion before them
back to the Dnieper. Never before had Russia encountered so frightful
a disaster. The whole army was destroyed. Not one tenth of their
number escaped that field of massacre. Seven princes, and seventy of
the most illustrious nobles were among the slain. The Tartars followed
up their victory with their accustomed inhumanity, and, as if it were
their intention to depopulate the country, swept it in all directions,
putting the inhabitants indiscriminately to the sword. They acted upon
the maxim which they ever proclaimed, "The conquered can never be the
friends of the conquerors; and the death of the one is essential to
the safety of the other."

The whole of southern Russia trembled with terror; and men, women and
children, in utter helplessness, with groans and cries fled to the
churches, imploring the protection of God. That divine power which
alone could aid them, interposed in their behalf. For some unknown
reason, Genghis Khan recalled his troops to the shores of the Caspian,
where this blood-stained conqueror, in the midst of his invincible
armies, dictated laws to the vast regions he had subjected to his
will. This frightful storm having left utter desolation behind it,
passed away as rapidly as it had approached. Scathed as by the
lightnings of heaven, the whole of southern Russia east of the Dnieper
was left smoking like a