Dmitri assembled his generals in solemn conclave, and saying to them, "The hour of God's judgment has sounded," gave minute directions for the conflict.

Aided by a dense fog, which concealed their operations from the view of the enemy, the army crossed the Don, the cavalry fording the stream, while the infantry passed over by a hastily-constructed bridge.

Dmitri deployed his columns in battle array upon the vast plain of Koulikof.

A mound of earth was thrown up, that Dmitri, upon its summit, might overlook the whole plain.
As the Russian prince stood upon this pyramid and contemplated his army, there was spread before him such a spectacle as mortal eyes have seldom seen.

A hundred and fifty thousand men were marshaled on the plain.