wives and
their children, they assembled in the churches, partook of the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, implored Heaven's blessing upon them,
and then husbands, brothers, fathers, took affecting leave of their
families and repaired to the walls for the deadly strife.
Early on the morning of the 7th the assault commenced. The impetuosity
of the onset was irresistible. In a few moments the walls were scaled,
the streets flooded with the foe, the pavements covered with the dead,
and the city on fire in an hundred places. The conquerors did not wish
to encumber themselves with captives. All were slain. Laden with booty
and crimsoned with the blood of their foes, the victors dispersed in
every direction, burning and destroying, but encountering no
resistance. During the month they took fourteen cities, slaying all
the inhabitants but such as they reserved for slaves.
The monarch, Georges, was still upon the banks of the Site, near where
it empties into the Mologa, when he heard the tidings of the
destruction of Moscow and Vladimir, and of the massacre of his wife
and his children. His eyes filled with tears, and in the anguish of
his spirit he prayed that God would enable him to exemplify the
patience of Job. Adversity develops the energies of noble spirits.
Georges rallied his troops and made a desperate onset upon the foe as
they approached his camp. It was the morning of the 4th of March. But
again the battle was disastrous to Russia. Mogol numbers triumphed
over Russian valor, and the king and nearly all his army were slain.
Some days after the battle the bishop of Rostof traversed the field,
covered with the bodies of the dead. There he discovered the corpse of
the monarch, which he recognized by the clothes. The head had been
severed from the body. The bishop removed the gory trunk of the prince
and gave it respectful burial in the church of Notre Dame at Rostof.
The head was subsequently found and deposited in the coffin with the
body.
The conquerors, continuing their march westerly one hundred and fifty
miles, burning and destroying as they went, reached the populous city
of Torjek. The despairing inhabitants for fifteen days beat off the
assailants. The city then fell; its ruin was entire. The dwellings
became but the funeral pyres for the bodies of the slain. The army of
Bati then continued its march to lake Seliger, the source of the
Volga, within one hundred miles of the great city of Novgorod.
"Villag
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