February 3, 1238, the Mongols appeared at Vladimir and surrounded the city. The Vladimir men rejected proposals of surrender, and saw with dismay how the enemy strengthened their camp, and began preparations for storming. Mongol leaders rode round the city and surveyed its defenses. Then, to the amazement of all, an immense crowd of mounted commanders approached the main gate of the city, and asked, “Is Prince Yuri among you?” The people answered with arrows. The commanders replied in the same way, sending each of them an arrow at the crosses on the bell-towers glittering with golden tops in the sunlight. Then they made signs to stop shooting and negotiate. When the Vladimir men desisted, to see what would happen, the Mongols showed Yuri’s young son made prisoner in Moscow, and asked if they knew him. A cry rose. Vsevolod and Mystislav, brothers of the captive, wished to sally forth and save him, but they were held back by the people. All, from the voevoda to the last man in the city, swore to fight while life remained. All declared that they were ready to die for God’s churches, and those simple words were no idle sounds from those people. The bishops of Vladimir counseled every one to prepare for death and the last hour, to have this passing life in their memories no longer; and assured them that Christ would forget no one made worthy through the crown of a martyr. All who heard these words began to work valiantly. From old to young, every man was to fight on the walls, or wherever the need was. All armed themselves for the coming storm and the battle. On the second or third day of the siege, news spread through the city that Suzdal had been taken, that Rostoff had yielded. Men on the walls saw on the Suzdal road Mongol regiments approaching rapidly, and then they saw men, women, monks, nuns and a multitude of people led captive. That day the Mongols worked from early morning till nightfall, pulling up timber, and engines, and planting their wall-crushing instruments. Next morning it appeared that they had not been idle in the night-time. A wooden wall now encircled the city. For the last twenty-four hours no man in Vladimir had slept. No person had undressed for a week past. All knew that their city was doomed. The princes, and Yuri’s whole family, many of the boyars and the people had put on the monk’s habit, making ready for death with great earnestness. On Sunday February 14, 1238, the city was stormed and captured. At daybreak the Mongols were on the walls, and before midday their work was accomplished. They did not occupy all parts immediately, though they broke in at once on many sides,—on the Klyazma, the Lybed, the Golden Gate, and the Valski sides. At one side they made a long mound, traces of which are seen even to our day. They went up along this mound and came down inside the walls on their ladders.