Ahmed, on his part, showed no eagerness for battle. He stood [[480]]facing a numerous and well equipped Moscow army, and did not urge action. He boasted that he was waiting till the rivers should freeze, and then, when all the roads were open to Moscow, he would advance, utterly destroy that city, and punish his servant Ivan for withholding tribute and homage. But in reality he was waiting for his ally, King Kazimir, as on a time Mamia had waited for Kazimir’s father, Yagello. This time, too, the waiting was long and useless, though for a different reason—Mengli Girei, to assist the Grand Prince, had made a furious attack on Volynia and Kief, and thus drawn Kazimir’s forces southward.
It was autumn. Already frost had come, and by October 24 strong ice was on the Ugra and there was a safe road over the river. Ivan’s army was strengthened now by the coming of his brothers, Boris and Andrei, with their regiments. These brothers had been reconciled to Ivan through the influence of Martha, their mother.
But neither the Russian nor the Mongol army showed any inclination to cross the river. At last Ivan commanded his troops to withdraw from the Ugra and join him in Kremenets. Not satisfied with this, he withdrew to Burovsk, promising Moscow and his angry commanders to meet the Mongols there, where the broad plain was well suited for a battle-field. But the Khan, for some unknown reason, had no thought of following. He may have feared ambush, or he may have been disconcerted by the reconciliation of Ivan with his brothers, and by the failure of Kazimir to assist him, and the news of Girei’s movements in the south. Meanwhile the thinly clad Mongols were suffering severely from frost and bad weather. They remained till November 11, when the Khan quietly withdrew from the Ugra, and marched southward. Thus both armies, after facing each other for a long time, disappeared from the field without fighting.
Though the people of Moscow had been greatly dissatisfied with Ivan’s conduct, they now greeted him with honor and solemnity, nay, with deep joy, understanding at last with the clearest conviction that the question of the Mongol in Moscow was settled forever.
The events which followed justified Ivan’s immense caution; they turned it into prudence and made it seem admirable, for the Golden Horde had put in the field large forces, and victory [[481]]on the Ugra would, at the best, have been bought with much bloodshed and dearly.
Not long after this triumph of diplomacy, the Horde was destroyed by the Mongols themselves, without any bloodshed for Russia.
When returning to the steppes, Ahmed, raging with anger at Kazimir for his slackness and unfilled promises, fell to plundering Lithuanian regions unmercifully. Laden with immense booty, he halted at the Donets to winter there. But the wealth which he had gathered roused the greed of Ivak, Khan of the Shiban Horde, who, aided by Nogai murzas, made a sudden attack upon Ahmed and killed him. Ivak sent a swift courier with these tidings to Ivan in Moscow, and received gifts in return.
The last blow was given to the Golden Horde by Girei, Khan of the Crimea, Ivan’s faithful ally, against whom a mortal hatred was cherished by Ahmed’s descendants. Girei attacked the Golden Horde at Sarai, its capital, and destroyed it completely. Ahmed’s son, then Khan of the Horde, sought refuge among the Nogais. Later on he went to the Sultan at Tsargrad, and at last to his famous ally, the King of Poland. There he was put in prison, however, and the king sent word to Mengli Girei that as long as he remained in peace his erstwhile disorderly neighbor would be retained in durance.
Thus in 1505 ended the Golden Horde, or the Horde of Sarai, which had so bitterly oppressed Russia for more than two hundred and forty years. The continuation of the Horde was the small Astrakhan Kingdom, once a vassal state in Batu’s mighty empire.
THE END.