This sealed the fate of Russia.

There could be no compromise after that.

Upon that first battlefield, on the steppes near the sea of Azof, there were left six Princes, seventy chief _boyars_, and all but one-tenth of the Russian army.
After this thunderbolt had fallen an ominous quiet reigned for thirteen years.

Nothing more was heard of the Mongols--but a comet blazing in the sky awoke vague fears.

Suddenly an army of five hundred thousand Asiatics returned, led by Batui, nephew of the Great Khan of Khans.
It was the defective political structure of Russia, its division into principalities, which made it an easy prey.