The anxiety had been so great, that, from the moment the army passed the Don, the churches had been thronged by day and by night, and incessant prayers had ascended to heaven for its success.

_No_ language can describe the enthusiasm which the glad tidings inspired.
It was felt that henceforth the prosperity, the glory, the independence of Russia was secured for ever; that the supremacy of the horde was annihilated; that the blood of the Christians, shed upon the plain of Koulikof, was the last sacrifice Russia was doomed to make.
But in these anticipations, Russia was destined to be sadly disappointed.

Mamai, the discomfited Tartar chieftain, overwhelmed with shame and rage, reached, with the wreck of his army, one of the great encampments of the Tartars on the banks of the Volga.

A new khan, the world-renowned Tamerlane, now swayed the scepter of Tartar power.

Two years were devoted to immense preparations for the new invasion of Russia.