, to exterminate the
inhabitants. City after city fell before them until they approached
the capital. This they besieged, first surrounding it with palisades
that it might not be possible for any of the inhabitants to escape.
The innumerable host pressed the siege day and night, not allowing the
defenders one moment for repose. On the sixteenth day, after many had
been slain and all the citizens were in utter exhaustion from toil
and sleeplessness, they commenced the final assault with ladders and
battering rams. The walls of wood were soon set on fire, and, through
flame and smoke, the demoniac assailants rushed into the city.
Indiscriminate massacre ensued of men, women and children, accompanied
with the most revolting cruelty. The carnage continued for many hours,
and, when it ceased, the city was reduced to ashes, and not one of its
inhabitants was left alive.
The conquerors then rushed on to Moscow. Here the tempest of battle
raged for a few days, and then Moscow followed in the footsteps of
Rezdan.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SWAY OF THE TARTAR PRINCES.
From 1238 to 1304.
Retreat of Georges II.--Desolating March of the Tartars.--Capture of
Vladimir.--Fall of Moscow.--Utter Defeat of Georges.--Conflict at
Torjek.--March of the Tartars Toward the South.--Subjugation of the
Polovtsi.--Capture of Kief.--Humiliation of Yaroslaf.--Overthrow of
the Russian Kingdom.--Haughtiness of the Tartars.--Reign of
Alexander.--Succession of Yaroslaf.--The Reign of Vassuli.--State of
Christianity.--Infamy of Andre.--Struggles with Dmitri.--Independence
of the Principalities.--Death of Andre.
The king, Georges, fled from Moscow before it was invested by the
enemy, leaving its defense to two of his sons. Retiring, in a panic,
to the remote northern province of Yaroslaf, he encamped, with a small
force, upon one of the tributaries of the Mologa, and sent earnest
entreaties to numerous princes to hasten, with all the forces they
could raise, and join his army.
The Tartars from Moscow marched north-west some one hundred and fifty
miles to the imperial city of Vladimir. They appeared before its walls
on the 2d of February. On the evening of the 6th the battering rams
and ladders were prepared, and it was evident that the storming of the
city was soon to begin. The citizens, conscious that nothing awaited
them but death or endless slavery, with one accord resolved to sell
their lives as dearly as possible. Accompanied by their
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