quite a new experience for them.  The Russian troops, elated with their success, returned to Nizni Novgorod.  In the autumn, Ivan III. sent another army, under the command of his two brothers, Youri and Andre, to cooeperate with the troops in Nizni Novgorod in a new expedition.  This army left Moscow in two divisions, one of which marched across the country, and the other descended the Volga in barges.  Ibrahim had made every effort in his power to prepare to repel the invasion.  A decisive battle was fought.  The Mogols, completely vanquished, were compelled to accept such terms as the conqueror condescended to grant.

This victory attracted the attention of Europe, and the great monarchies of the southern portion of the continent began to regard Russia as an infant power which might yet rise to importance.  Another event at this time occurred which brought Russia still more prominently into the view of the nations of the South.  In the year 1467, the grand prince, with tears of anguish, buried his young and beautiful spouse.  Five years of widowhood had passed away.  The Turks had overrun Asia Minor, and, crossing the Hellespont under Mohammed II., with bloody cimeter had taken Constantinople by storm, cutting down sixty thousand of its inhabitants, and bringing all Greece under the Turkish sway.  The Mohammedan placed his heel upon the head of the Christian, and Constantinople became the capital of Moslem power.  This was in the year 1472.

Constantin Paleologue was the last of the Grecian emperors.  One of his brothers, Thomas, escaping from the ruins of his country, fled to Rome, where, in consideration of his illustrious rank and lineage, he received a large monthly stipend from the pope.  Thomas had a daughter, Sophia, a princess of rare beauty, and richly endowed with all mental graces and attractions.  The pope sought a spouse worthy of this princess, who was the descendant of a long line of emperors.  Mohammed II., having overrun all Greece, flushed with victory, was collecting his forces for the invasion of the Italian peninsula, and his vaunt, that he would feed his horse from the altar of St. Peters, had thrilled the ear of Catholic Europe.  The pope, Paul II., anxious to rouse all the Christian powers against the Turks, wished to make the marriage of the Grecian princess promotive of his political views.  Her beauty, her genius and her exalted birth rendered her a rare prize.

Rumors had reached Rome of the vast population and extraordinary wealth of Russia; nearly all the great Russian rivers emptied into the Black Sea, and along these channels the Russian flotillas could easily descend upon the conquerors of Constantinople; Russia was united with Greece by the ties of the same religion, and the recent victory over the Tartars had given the grand prince great renown.  These considerations influenced the pope to send an embassador to Moscow, proposing to Ivan III. the hand of Sophia.  To increase the apparent value of the offer, the embassador was authorized to state that the princess had refused the hand of the King of France, and also of the Duke of Milan, she being unwilling, as a member of the Greek church, to ally herself with a prince of the Latin religion.