house, greeted the defenders and again the Mongols answered with a hailstrom of shots and the boyar with wrathful cursing. Regretfully, the youths were now forced to give up their knocked-down covert which had served them so well in their first encounter with the Mongols. Without having suffered any loss of men, without wounds, weapons intact and company in order, facing the enemy, the youths retreated to the walls of the boyar’s house.
While on the southern side of the court the youths were so fortunately repelling the onsets of the Mongols, there went on a courageous though not so successful battle on the northern side of the yard. The Mongols had assaulted their positions suddenly and made it very hot for them for a while. Here too, the Mongolian arrow shots caused little injury to the defenders. These youths had engaged the Mongols in a skirmish but the dense rain of shots they met forced them to turn back with a loss of three of their wounded whom the Mongols at once chopped to bits.
While awaiting the time of fresh action, Maxim’s first thought was to go around to each post and ascertain the effectiveness of their defense position. In a living chain the Mongols encompassed the house and without a let-up rained their arrows upon it. The defenders shot back but not so continuously. To Maxim it was apparent almost at once that the attackers were aiming to drive them inside the house from which it would be difficult to inflict heavy losses upon the Mongols and where it would be an easy matter to be cornered. That meant it was of utmost importance for them to hold to their posts outside the walls of the house. But here they were exposed to the thick-flying shots of the Mongols! To protect themselves against them at least a little, Maxim ordered all the doors and table tops removed and placed before each post for use as shields. From behind the security of these im-
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