Next Mangou, a grandson of Genghis-Khan, marched against Kief. From the left bank of the Dnieper the barbarian beheld the great city on the heights on the opposite side towering over the wide river with her white walls and towers built like a lesser Constantinople. The city contained innumerable churches with domes, shining with gold and silver.
It is said that even the savage leaders hesitated at the devastation of so beautiful a place, and proposed capitulation, but the fate of the capital of other powerful principalities filled the people with apprehension and they hesitated as to the best course to pursue. Still they had the temerity to put to death Mangou's ambassadors. Michael, their grand prince, fled, and his rival, Daniel of Galitch, followed suit.
Upon receiving the report of Mangou, Bati, the chief commander, came in person to the assault of Kief with the bulk of his army.
A Russian annalist, speaking of this event, says: "The grinding of the wooden chariots, the bellowing of the buffaloes, the cries of the camels, the neighing of the horses, the howlings of the Tartars rendered it impossible to hear your own voice in the town."
The invaders assailed the Polish gate and knocked down the walls with battering rams. The Kievans supported by Dimitri, a famous Gallician knight, defended the breach to nightfall, and the retreated to one of the principal churches which they surrounded by palisades.
Here the last remnant, gathered round the tomb of Jaroslaf, perished the next day. The Tartar commander spared the life of the gallant leader of the city's defenders, but the next day the "Mother of Russian cities" was sacked for the third time in its history.
Even the tombs were rifled. St. Sophia and the Monastery of the Catacombs were delivered over to be plundered. This disaster occurred in the year 1240.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
