Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/219

Rh by Constantine with great honour on the following day, and sent to the king, and distributed among the fortresses of Lithuania. Ivan Czeladin, with two other captains, now of failing age, were kept in iron fetters at Vilna; and when I was sent into Moscow by the Emperor Maximilian, I visited them by the permission of King Sigismund, and offered them consolation. I gave them also some gold pieces.

When the prince heard of the slaughter of his soldiers, he instantly left Smolensko and fled into Russia, and ordered the fort of Drogobusch to be burned, lest the Lithuanians should take it. The Lithuanian army proceeded straight to the city of Smolensko, but could not take it, for it had been left under the protection of a strong garrison, and the approaching winter presented many obstacles to a siege; besides which, a great number of the soldiers, who had loaded themselves with spoil after the battle, thought that they had done enough, and returned home; and independently of these reasons, neither the Lithuanians nor the Russians were skilled in the method of besieging fortresses and taking them by storm.

King Sigismund regained nothing from that victory beyond three fortresses on this side of Smolensko. Four years after this battle the grand duke sent an army into Lithuania, which pitched their camp between the rivers Dwina and Poloczko, and sent out from thence a considerable portion of the army to lay Lithuania waste with plunder, slaughter, and fire. The Waywode Albert Gastold Polocski, however, went forth one night, and crossing the river, set fire to a great hillock of hay which the Russians had collected in preparation for a long siege, and fell upon the enemy, some of whom were killed by the sword, some drowned in their flight, and some taken prisoners. A small number escaped, while various detachments which were roving about laying waste Lithuania in various directions, were subdued or strayed into the woods, and were slain by the inhabitants.