His measures were adopted with great secresy.

Assembling his armies, curtained by leagues of forests, he, unobserved, commenced his march toward the Dnieper.

The banners of the numerous army were already visible from the steeples of Kief before the sovereign was apprised of his danger.

For two days the storms of war beat against the walls and roared around the battlements of the city, when the besiegers, bursting over the walls, swept the streets in horrid carnage.
This mother of the Russian cities had often been besieged and often capitulated, but never before had it been taken by storm, and never before, and never since, have the horrors of war been more sternly exhibited.

For three days and three nights the city and its inhabitants were surrendered to the brutal soldiery.