Suddenly the Russian army, horse and infantry, were seen upon the plain, as if they had dropped from the clouds.  They rushed upon the encampment, cutting down the terrified multitude, with awful butchery, and trampling them beneath their horses’ feet.  The fugitives, in dismay, sought to regain the city, crushing each other in their flight and in the desperate endeavor to crowd in at the gates and along the narrow streets.  The Russians, exhausted by their victory, and lured by the luxuries which filled the tents, instead of taking the city by storm, as, in the confusion they probably could have done, surrendered themselves to pillage and voluptuous indulgence.  They found the tents filled with food, liquors of all kinds and a great quantity of precious commodities, and forgetting they were in the presence of an enemy, they plunged into the wildest excesses of festivity and wassail.

The disgraceful carousal was briefly terminated during the night, but renewed, with additional zest, in the morning.  The songs and the shouts of the drunken soldiers were heard in the streets of Kezan, and, from the battlements, the Tartars beheld these orgies, equaling the most frantic revels of pagan bacchanals.  The Tartar khan, from the top of a bastion, watched the spectacle, and perceiving the negligence of his enemies, prepared for a surprise and for vengeance.  On the 25th of June, just at the dawn of day, the gates were thrown open, and twenty thousand horsemen and thirty thousand infantry precipitated themselves with frightful yells upon the Russians, stupefied with sleep and wine.  Though the Russians exceeded the Tartars two to one, yet they fled towards their boats like a flock of sheep, without order and without arms.  The plain was speedily strewn with their dead bodies and crimsoned with their blood.  Too much terrified to think even of resistance, they clambered into their barges, cut the cables, and pushed out into the stream.  But for the valor of the Russian cavalry all would have been destroyed.  In the deepest humiliation the fugitives returned to Moscow.

Vassili resolved upon another expedition which should inflict signal vengeance upon the horde.  But while he was making his preparations, the khan, terrified in view of the storm which was gathering, sent an embassage to Moscow imploring pardon and peace, offering to deliver up all the prisoners and to take a new oath of homage to the grand prince.  Vassili, who was just on the eve of a war with Poland, with alacrity accepted these concessions.  The King of Poland had heard, with much joy, of the death of Ivan III., whose energetic arm he had greatly feared, and he now hoped to take advantage of the youth and inexperience of Vassili.  A harassing warfare was commenced between Russia and Poland, which raged for several years.  Peace was finally made, Russia extorting from Poland several important provinces.