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This army left Moscow in two divisions, one of which marched across the country, and the other descended the Volga in barges. Ibrahim had made every effort in his power to prepare to repel the invasion. A decisive battle was fought. The Mogols, completely vanquished, were compelled to accept such terms as the conqueror condescended to grant.
"A relation of a voyage made in the year 1664, when the Great Mogul, Aureng-Zebe, went with his army from, Dehly to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to that small kingdom of Kachemere, or Cassimere, called by the Mogols the Paradise of the Indies, concerning which the author affirms that he hath a particular history of it, in the Persian tongue."
Russia was soon alarmed by the rumor that Mamai, a Tartar chieftain, was approaching the frontiers of Russia with one of the largest armies the Mogols had ever raised. This intelligence roused the Russians to the highest pitch of energy to meet their foes in a decisive battle. An immense force was soon assembled at Moscow from all parts of the kingdom.
Karamsin thus describes the sweep of this Tartar wave of woe: "The Mogols pillaged and burned the houses, the monasteries, the churches, from which they took the images, the precious vases and the books richly bound. Large troops of the inhabitants were dragged into slavery, or fell beneath the sabers of the ferocious soldiers of the khan.
Some hundreds of thousands of Mogols had marched to the heart of Russia, leaving behind them a path of flame and blood nearly a thousand miles in length, that they might compel the Russians to pay them tribute. Some hundred thousand Russians had met them there, to resist even to death their insolent and oppressive demand.
In the extreme north of the Chinese empire, just south of Irkoutsk, in the midst of desert wilds, unknown to Greek or Roman, there were wandering tribes called Mogols. They were a savage, vagabond race, without any fixed habitations, living by the chase and by herding cattle.
Bati, who was still encamped upon the banks of the Volga, sent to him a message as follows: "Prince of Novgorod: it is well known by you that God has subjected to our sway innumerable peoples. If you wish to live in tranquillity, immediately come to me, in my tent, that you may witness the glory and the grandeur of the Mogols." Alexander obeyed with the promptness of a slave.
Jaghellon became immediately the inveterate foe of the Russians, whom he called heretics, for new proselytes are almost invariably inspired with fanatic zeal, and he forbade the marriage of any of his Catholic subjects with members of the Russian church. This event caused great grief to Dmitri, for he had relied upon the coöperation of the warlike Lithuanians to aid him to repel the Mogols.
In those days intelligence was only transmitted by means of couriers, at vast expense, and either accompanied by an army or by a strong body guard. The Mogols had no suspicion of the tempest which was about to break over their heads.
The Mogols, surprised, confounded, overwhelmed and utterly routed, in the wildest confusion, and with outcries which rent the heavens, turned and fled. "The God of the Christians has conquered," exclaimed the Tartar chief, gnashing his teeth in despair. The Tartars were hewed down by saber strokes from unexhausted arms, and trampled beneath the hoofs of the war horse.
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