Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/90

fled from Moscow, leaving his half brother Peter, a descendant of the kings of Tartary, together with some other noblemen, with a garrison to defend the fortress. So great was his fright, that he is said in his despair to have hidden himself for some time under a hay stack. On the 29th of July the Tartars made a farther advance, and devastated the country with fire in all directions; and such was the terror which they inspired amongst the people of Moscow, that they had little confidence in their security even in the city and the fortress. Such was the tumult which arose at the gates from the thronging of M'omen, children, and other helpless people, who in their intrepidation fled into the fortress with carriages and vehicles of all kinds, that in their haste they checked each other's progress, and many were trampled under foot. This immense concourse of persons caused the air to become so pestilential in the fortress, that if the enemy had remained three or four days under the walls of the city, they must have been seized by the plague and died, for in so great a crowd huddled together, they was obliged to satisfy nature wherever they could find place. There were at that time at Moscow some Livonian ambassadors, who mounted their horses and betook themselves to flight, and seeing nothing around them but fire and smoke, and supposing themselves to be surrounded by the Tartars, made such speed, that in one day they reached Tver, which is thirty-six German miles distant from Moscow. The German bombardiers deserved great praise on that occasion, especially one Nicholas, born not far from Spier, an imperial city of Germany, near the Rhine, to whom was committed in very flattering terms the task of defending the city by the governor and all the counsellors, who were almost stupified with excess of fear, and who begged him to bring up the larger guns which were used for breaching walls, under the gate of the fortress, in order to drive away the Tartars. The size of these guns, however, was such, that three days would scarcely