On the 23rd the poles and Pojarski engaged in a fierce battle. Later Troubetskoi led his men also against the Poles, and with him went a part of the Cossack army. Khodkevich was driven back, but fought stubbornly. The next day he renewed his attempt to reach the Kremlin. Pojarski begged Troubetskoi to join forces, and Abraham Politzin persuaded the Cossacks to assist in defeating the Polish relief. Attacked on both sides simultaneously, Khodkevich retreated from the commanding position he had occupied; then the sudden appearance of Minin, with a few hundred peasants who fought most savagely, turned the retreat into a rout, and the Polish treasure fell into the hands of the Cossacks. After this victory Pojarski and Troubetskoi joined forces and formed a provisional administration. The defenders of the Kremlin were in despair. They were short of food and ammunition, and the fact that 300 Poles had forced their way through the Russian ranks and joined the garrison was in no way advantageous. Soon they deserted the Kitai Gorod and took refuge in the Kremlin, holding it a month longer in hope that relief would reach them. The usual horrors of a long siege were manifest; not only did they devour everything that was eatable, but even gnawed at their own flesh and disinterred corpses. The boyards with their wives and families were sent out of the Kremlin and at last the Poles were compelled by hunger to surrender. On the 25th October the Muscovites made their entry into the Kremlin, and after much thanksgiving and praise, proceeded to the election of a new ruler. Sigismund with an army was coming to the relief of the Poles, but was unable to subdue the towns on his way. His ambassadors to the Muscovites were not even received by the victorious leaders. The Swedes were informed that no one of their race would be elected. Boyards intrigued for Galitzin, for Shooiski, and for others. The provincial army was determined that there should be a general assembly for the election of the Tsar, and the candidate most favoured by all classes seemed to be the young Michael Theodorovich Romanof. Old men remembered Anastasia Romanof, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible; younger ones had nothing but praise for Philaret, the present head of the family; all pitied the persecutions and hardships its members had suffered because of their relationship to the old royal line--if unanimity was necessary, no candidate had so good a chance of securing it as had the young Romanof. On February 21st, 1613, the electors met around the Lobnoe Mesto in the Grand Square. The crowd shouted lustily for Mikhail Theodorovich Romanof, and to the general wish the electors gave the only possible expression. By some it is thought that the crown was offered to Pojarski who declined it; it is a fiction of latter day poets, as are Dmitriev's lines:--