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Zhc Xafte Cnglieb (tiaeaica 
 
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Zbc %afte lEngHsb Classics 
 
 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 
 
 OR FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS 
 
 PEOPLE FROM THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES 
 
 TO THE FRONTIERS OF CHINA 
 
 THOMAS DE QUINCEY 
 
 EDITED FOR SCHOOL USE 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES W. FRENCH 
 
 PBINCIPAL OF THE HYDE PARK HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO, ILIi. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 
 1899 
 

 .R-t 
 
 Copyright, 1898 
 By SCOTT, FOEESMAN & COMPANY 
 
 Miss Frances S,Hai 
 
 July 18,1331 i 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 THE HENRY O. SHEPARD CO., 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Biographical Sketch of De Quincey ... 5 
 
 De Quincey's Characteristics as a Writer . . 17 
 
 Introduction 25 
 
 Bibliography of Biographical and Critical Works 
 
 relating to De Quincey 31 
 
 Suggestive Questions 32 
 
 Revolt of the Tartars 35 
 
 Glossary 119 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DE QUINCEY 
 
 Thomas De Quincey, born in Manchester, Eng- 
 land, August 15, 1785, was the second son and 
 fifth child of a merchant of some wealth and cul- 
 ture. His father died when he was seven years old, 
 leaving him to the joint guardianship of his mother 
 and four old friends of the family. For several 
 years his education was directed by one of these 
 guardians, a curate in charge of a Manchester par- 
 ish, who laid the foundation for those classical 
 studies in which De Quincey afterwards became so 
 proficient. As a part of his system of training the 
 curate required his charge to attend the Sunday 
 services, and to write out an abstract of the sermon, 
 which was afterwards compared with the original 
 and mercilessly criticised. Although this exercise 
 developed a power of attention and memory which 
 in later years became a marked feature of De Quin- 
 cey 's intellectual life, at the time the nervous boy 
 found it dull and irksome. 
 
 In the Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 
 
 5 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 De Quincey refers to this weekly task as follows : 
 
 "Every Sunday, duly as it reyolved, brought with 
 it this cruel anxiety. On Saturday night under 
 sad anticipation, on Sunday night under sadder 
 experimental knowledge of my trying task, I slept 
 ill ; my pillow was stuffed with thorns ; and until 
 Monday morning's inspection had dismissed, me 
 from parade to 'stand at ease,' verily, I felt like a 
 false steward summoned to some killing audit. 
 * * * To the very last, I found no ease at all 
 in this weekly task, which never ceased to he a 
 thorn in the flesh ; and I believe that my guardian, 
 like many of the grim Pagan divinities, inhaled a 
 flavor of fragrant incense from the fretting and 
 stinging of anxiety which, as it were some holy 
 vestal fire, he kept alive by this periodic exaction. 
 It gave him pleasure that he could reach me in the 
 very recesses of my dreams, where even a Pariah 
 might look for rest ; so that the Sunday, which to 
 man, and even to the brutes within his gates, offered 
 an interval of rest, for me was signalized as a day 
 of mart3rrdom. Yet in this, after all, it is possible 
 that he did me a service; for my constitutional 
 infirmity of mind ran but too determinately towards 
 the sleep of endless reverie, and of dreamy abstrac- 
 tion from life and its realities." 
 
 Some years after his father's death, his mother 
 
 moved to Bath, where he entered the Grrammar 
 
 School. But, as his work proved unsatisfactory, he 
 
 was soon removed to a private school in Wiltshire. 
 
 Three years later he was sent back to Manchester 
 
 to attend the celebrated Grammar School there. 
 
 The Grammar Schools of those days occupied a 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 7 
 
 position in tlie educational system of England 
 somewhat similar to that held by the High 
 Schools in America today. They were pre- 
 paratory schools for the great Universities, and 
 their graduates (even if they did not attend any 
 higher institution) were considered well edu- 
 cated. The course of work in these schools 
 included a thorough and comprehensive training in 
 the classical languages and literatures, and not very 
 much besides. For such a training De Quincey was 
 peculiarly apt. From the beginning of his school 
 career he maintained a high standard as a classical 
 scholar. He became as familiar with Latin 
 and Greek as with his native tongue, and gained a 
 reputation for the facility with which he wrote 
 verses in Latin and compositions in Greek. 
 
 He was, however, far from being contented. His 
 health was never robust, and by close confinement 
 and the consequent lack of exercise he became 
 much depre^3ed both physically and mentally. 
 The daily unvarying routine of school-life was dis- 
 tasteful to him in the extreme. He felt that no 
 appeal that he could make would serve to abate the 
 rigid discipline and, as he believed, the senseless 
 tyranny of the school. Moreover, he was too 
 proud to appeal to his guardians, feeling, with 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 some reason, that his case would be misunderstood. 
 Therefore, after brooding long over the matter, he 
 determined upon a step which was destined to be 
 the beginning of his strangely eccentric career, and 
 at the same time to estrange him permanently from 
 his family and friends, none of whom had ever had 
 much patience with his so-called freaks. This step 
 was to turn his back upon his miseries and run 
 away from school. In his Confessions^ he dwells 
 upon this episode of his early life with much pathos. 
 He says: 
 
 "At length, all was ready; Midsummer, like an 
 army with banners, was moving through the heav- 
 ens; already the longest day had passed; those 
 arrangements, few and imperfect, through which I 
 attempted some partial evasion of disagreeable 
 contingencies likely to arise, had been finished; 
 what more remained for me to do of things that I 
 was able to do? None; and yet, though at last 
 free to move off, I lingered; lingered, as under 
 some sense of dim perplexity, or even of relenting 
 love for the very captivity itself which I was 
 making so violent an effort to abjure — what I was 
 hastening to desert, nevertheless I grieved to 
 desert. * * * The morning came which was 
 to launch me into the world ; that morning from 
 which, and from its consequences, my whole suc- 
 ceeding life has, in many important points, taken 
 its coloring. At half after three I rose, and gazed 
 with deep emotion at the ancient collegiate church, 
 'dressed in earliest light,' and beginning to crimson 
 with the deep lustre of a cloudless July morning. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 
 
 I was firm and immovable in my purpose, but yet 
 agitated by anticipation of uncertain danger and 
 troubles. To this agitation, the deep peace of the 
 morning presented an affecting contrast, and, in 
 some degree, a medicine. * * * I dressed myself, 
 took my hat and gloves, and lingered a little in the 
 room. For nearly a year and a half, this room had 
 been my 'pensive citadel;' here I had read and 
 studied through all the hours of night ; and, though 
 true it was that, for the latter part of this time, 
 I had lost my gaiety and peace of mind during the 
 strife and fever of contention with my guardian, 
 yet, on the other hand, as a boy passionately fond 
 of books and dedicated to intellectual pursuits, I 
 could not fail to have enjoyed many happy hours in 
 the midst of general dejection. * * * I waited 
 until I saw the trunk placed upon a wheelbarrow, 
 and on its road to the carriers ; then, 'with Provi- 
 dence my guide,' or more truly, it might be said, 
 with my own headstrong folly for law and impulse, 
 I set off on foot; carrying a small parcel with 
 some articles of dress under my arm, a favorite 
 English poet in one pocket, and an odd volume, 
 containing about one-half of Canter's 'Euripides,' 
 in the other." 
 
 He turned his steps homeward in order to relieve 
 the anxiety of his friends in regard to his where- 
 abouts, but was coldly received by his mother, who 
 could not understand the peculiarities of her son's 
 disposition, and blamed him bitterly for his way- 
 wardness. He was finally given a small allowance, 
 and set adrift to wander wherever his caprice might 
 lead him. He made his way to Wales, where he 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 spent some weeks ; a part of the time in the villages, 
 and a part in the picturesque solitudes of the 
 mountains and forests. But he soon tired of this 
 life, and turned his restless steps towards London, 
 where he hoped to find a career, but more espe- 
 cially means to raise money upon his expectations. 
 His hopes, however, were not realized, for neither 
 career nor money came to him, and he entered upon 
 a life of destitution and vagabondage, from which 
 he was finally rescued by his friends, and sent to 
 Oxford. 
 
 His university life extended from 1803 to 1809. 
 Though an irregular and fitful student, he seemed 
 never to tire of classical studies, in which he 
 especially excelled. He was an omnivorous and 
 thoughtful reader, straying at will through the 
 broad fields of literature, thus laying the founda- 
 tions of that familiarity with the various depart- 
 ments of learning which, in later years, enabled 
 him to write upon numerous themes of widely 
 diverse natm-es. As he withdrew himself almost 
 wholly from the social life of the university, he 
 made but few friends, and gained for himself the 
 reputation of a recluse. Much of his work was 
 brilliant, but he seemed wholly indifferent to any 
 honor or credit which he might gain by it, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 11 
 
 finally left the university almost as abruptly as he 
 had left the Manchester Grammar School, without 
 presenting himself for the degree to which he was 
 probably entitled. 
 
 Dm-ing his Oxford life, he became addicted to 
 the use of opium, which, in ignorance of its danger- 
 ous nature, he took at first to relieye attacks of 
 severe pain, to which he was subject. Charmed by 
 its almost magical influence, he soon yielded him- 
 self a willing slave to the potent drug, which was 
 destined to be the inspiration of one of the most 
 brilliant literary works in the English language, 
 The Confessions of an English Opium- Eater. 
 He had been suffering severely from neuralgia, and 
 was advised to take a dose of laudanum. He says : 
 
 "I took it; and in an hour — oh, heavens! what a 
 revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest 
 depths, of the inner spirit ! what an apocalypse of 
 the world within me ! That my pains had vanished 
 was now a trifle in my eyes ; this negative effect 
 was swallowed up in the immensity of those positive 
 effects which had opened before me, in the abyss of 
 divine enjoyment thus suddenly revealed. Here 
 was a panacea for all human woes ; here was the 
 secret of happiness, about which philosophers had 
 disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; 
 happiness might now be bought for a penny, and 
 carried in the waistcoat pocket ; portable ecstasies 
 might now be corked up in a pint bottle; and 
 peace of mind could be sent down in gallons by the 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mail coach. But, if I talk in this way, the reader 
 will think I am laughing; and I can assure him 
 that nobody will laugh long who deals much with 
 opium ; its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn 
 complexion ; and in his happiest state, the opium 
 eater cannot present himself in the character of 
 L' Allegro; even then he speaks and thinks as 
 becomes II Penseroso.'''' 
 
 From this moment, he was never without a 
 supply of the fascinating and deadly drug in some 
 form. At times he gave himself wholly over to its 
 influence, taking quantities which seem almost 
 incredible. Then, for a time, he would summon 
 all his energies, and break the chains which bound 
 him, only to yield again to the tempter. In his 
 later life, however, he reduced the daily doses to 
 such an extent that he was free from its worst 
 effects. 
 
 He early became a great admirer of Wordsworth 
 and Coleridge, and had, when he left Oxford, long 
 cherished the hope that he might at some time be 
 admitted to the circle of their friends. This wish 
 was finally gratified, and he entered upon terms of 
 intimacy with both of these poets. At the age of 
 twenty-four he went to live in the famous lake 
 region, where he rented the cottage known as 
 Grasmere, which for eight years had been the 
 home of Wordsworth. The latter now lived at the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 13 
 
 other end of the lake and his house became a cen- 
 tre for the meetings of Southey, Coleridge and 
 De Quincey. For more than twenty years, this 
 place, in one of the most charming sections of 
 England, was De Quincey 's home. During this 
 time his life was made up of periods of hard study 
 alternating with periods of dissipation in which he 
 freely indulged his appetite and passed through the 
 horrors and beatific yisions which he has so vividly 
 described in his writings. 
 
 In 1816 he married Margaret Simpson, the 
 beautiful daughter of a neighboring farmer, who 
 tenderly and unselfishly devoted her life to his 
 service. For a time after his marriage he reduced 
 his "daily rations" of opium from eight thousand 
 to one thousand drops. The eifect of this com- 
 parative abstinence was magical. "The cloud of 
 profoundest melancholy which had rested on his 
 brain passed away." For a year, he resisted his 
 imperious demon successfully. "It was a year," 
 says he, "of brilliant water (to speak after the 
 manner of jewelers), set, as it were, and insulated 
 in the gloomy umbrage of opium. ' ' But, after this 
 all too short period, he returned to his old habits, 
 and in the succeeding months he sank into the 
 deepest gloom and horror of his life. So dark 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 were the memories of these years that when he 
 comes to write of them in his Autobiography he 
 
 says: 
 
 "But now farewell, a long farewell to happiness, 
 Winter or Snmmer! Farewell to smiles and 
 laughter! Farewell to peace of mind! Farewell 
 to hope and tranquil dreams, and to the blessed 
 consolations of sleep ! For more than three years 
 and a half I am summoned away from these; I 
 am now arrived at the Iliad of woes." 
 
 Fortunately for him, his inheritance was not large 
 enough to provide for his family, and his necessities 
 compelled him once more to curb his passion, and 
 to turn to his pen for a livelihood. He soon be- 
 came a constant contributor to the London Maga- 
 zine^ and later to BlacTciooocfs^ and to numerous 
 other less prominent periodicals. In the first-named 
 magazine appeared from time to time installments 
 of his Confessions which attracted wide attention, 
 and at once brought him literary fame and an 
 increasing demand for his productions. Although 
 his health was poor, he managed to produce a 
 great amount and variety of literary work upon a 
 surprisingly wide range of subjects, in each 
 of which he proved himself not only an authority, 
 but also a master. 
 
 To be near the literary centre, he went to Lon- 
 don. There he lived for some years in bachelor 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 15 
 
 quarters, with only an occasional visit to Grasmere, 
 where his family still resided. His life was, as usual, 
 a retired one. Yet, when he could be enticed from 
 his lonely rooms to grace society, he entranced 
 everyone . His personal appearance was not pre- 
 possessing, and he was as careless of his clothing as 
 Demosthenes is said to have been, yet, like the 
 Grecian philosopher, when he began to speak, his 
 physical defects and his eccentricities were forgot- 
 ten under the magnetic influence of his real self. 
 His manners were charming, and his conversation 
 brilliant. A contemporary speaks enthusiastically 
 of his talk, "its sweet and subtle ripple of anecdote 
 and suggestion, and its witching splendor." 
 
 The popularity of his vn:itings soon became so 
 great that certain Scotch publishers offered induce- 
 ments which finally led him to transfer his 
 activities from London to Edinburgh, where he 
 spent the remainder of his life. Soon after his 
 removal, his wife having died, he rented a cottage 
 in the beautiful suburb of Lasswade, in which he 
 installed his family. He himself retained his 
 quarters in the city, and, although he frequently 
 visited his children, the care of the family devolved 
 upon his oldest daughter. He avoided, so far as 
 possible, all association with his fellow-men, and 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 liis only diyersion from his exhausting literary work 
 came from long country walks, in which he 
 especially delighted. In such fashion, his lonely 
 life continued until his death, December 8, 1859. 
 
 CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 1785. Born August 15, in Manchester. 
 1799 (aged 14). At school in Bath. 
 
 1801 (aged 16). At school in Manchester. 
 
 1802 (aged 17). Euns away from school, and 
 wanders in Wales. 
 
 1803 (aged 18). Enters Oxford University. 
 
 1804 (aged 19). Begins to use opium. 
 
 1809 (aged 24). Rents the Wordsworth cottage in 
 
 Grasmere. 
 
 1816 (aged 31). Marries Miss Margaret Simpson. 
 
 1819 (aged 34). Begins to write for the Quarterly 
 
 1821 (aged 36). In London. His family in 
 Grasmere. Writes Confessions of an English 
 Opium-Eater^ which are published in the 
 London Magazine. 
 
 1826 (aged 41) . Writes for Blackivood'' s Magazine. 
 
 L830 (aged 45). Eemoves to Edinburgh. 
 
 1837 (aged 52). His wife dies. 
 
 1840 (aged 55). Establishes his family in Lass- 
 wade. 
 
 1859 (aged 74). Dies, December 8. 
 
DE QUINCEY'S 
 CHAEACTEEISTIOS AS A WEITER. 
 
 It may be said of De Quincey, as it has been 
 said of Browning, that his writings form a literature 
 in themselves. Few writers, since the time of 
 Aristotle, have covered so broad a field, and fewer 
 still have been so thoroughly at home in every 
 field of human thought and investigation. A mere 
 glance at the table of contents of his collected 
 works will reveal the versatility of his genius, and 
 the breadth, if not the depth, of his learning. 
 A single volume of his historical essays and 
 researches contains such diverse titles as The 
 Casuistry of Roman Meals, The Pagan Oracles, 
 The Essenes^ Secret Societies^ Greece under the 
 Romans and The Suliotes. It is a far cry from the 
 mysticism of his unearthly romances to the logical 
 reasoning of his philosophical essays, and it is 
 hardly possible to conceive of a greater contrast 
 than that which exists between the humor and sar- 
 casm of such essays as the one entitled Murder 
 Considered as One of the Fine Arts, and the pathos 
 and emotion which characterize The Military 
 Nun^ Joan of Arc, and Levana and Our Ladies of 
 Sorrow. Side by side in his works appear sober 
 biographical and historical essays, and sketches of 
 the most purely imaginative nature, such as The 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Daughter of Lebanon^ The Vision of Sudden 
 Death, and the Dream Fugue. Er om the highest flight 
 of imagination he could descend to questions of 
 scholarship which were little short of freaks, as is 
 well illustrated by the contrast between such 
 works as The Avenger^ and The Toilette of a 
 Hehrew Lady, He ranges the earth, the sky, and 
 the human heart, and, to develop their hidden 
 possibilities, he uses, with equal grace and power, 
 wit, humor, pathos, passion, imagination, and all 
 the arts of clear, strong and picturesque expression. 
 
 He was pre-eminently a magazine writer, for he 
 never wrote a book, and his works to-day consist of 
 a compilation of innumerable articles collected from 
 the various periodicals to which he contributed. Un- 
 der such circumstances, sustained and exhaustive 
 thought along any single line of inquiry was 
 impossible, yet little of his work is fragmentary or 
 unfinished. He wrote upon widely diverse sub- 
 jects, yet he avoided the superficiality, which is 
 usually the result of ranging over so wide a field, 
 by his persistent reading, his retentive memory, 
 and the originality and vigor of his intellectual 
 powers. 
 
 Both in style and thought, he was much influ- 
 enced by his intimate acquaintance with the classi- 
 cal languages and literatures, and he attained more 
 fully than any other English author the majesty 
 and grace of the great masters of classical prose. 
 He not only copies closely the great models of 
 
CHAEACTERISTICS AS A WRITER. 19 
 
 antiquity in thought and style, but he also quotes 
 freely from these sources, so that the student will 
 find himself constantly surrounded by landmarks 
 of Greece and Eome. 
 
 De Quincey's diction was highly ornate. The 
 pages of his writings are thickly strewn with 
 figures of speech. He uses metaphors, tropes, 
 personifications, synecdoches, metonymies, and 
 many others. His sentences are frequently long 
 and involved. He makes an excessive use of Latin- 
 ized and technical terms, yet his meaning is generally 
 clear. His expression is always exact, and his style 
 smooth and beautiful. 
 
 Two quotations from well-known critics will per- 
 haps give a clear idea of De Quincey's merits. 
 Minto says : 
 
 "The melody of De Quincey's prose is pre- 
 eminently rich and stately. He takes rank with 
 Milton as one of our greatest masters of stately 
 cadence, as well as of sublime composition. If one 
 may trust one's ear for a general impression, 
 Milton's melody is sweeter and more varied; but 
 for magnificent effects, at least in prose, the palm 
 must be assigned to De Quincey. In some of 
 De Quincey's grandest passages, the language can 
 be compared only to the swell and crash of an 
 orchestra. It need hardly be added that the har- 
 mony between his rhythm and his subject-matter is 
 most striking in the sublime flights." 
 
 Note. — The student is referred to Minto's Manual 
 of English Prose Literature for a fuller discussion of 
 De Quincey's style. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 What Corson says in The Aims of Literary 
 Study ^ is even more to the point : 
 
 "For range of power, for great diversity of sub- 
 ject, for poetic, philosophic, and logical cast of 
 mind, for depth of feeling, for an inspiring vitality 
 of thinking, for periodic and impassioned prose, 
 which, running through the whole gamut of 
 expression, is unequaled in English literature, no 
 more educating author could be selected for 
 advanced students than Thomas De Quincey. A 
 good education in the language as a living organ- 
 ism could be got through his writings alone ; and 
 his wealth and vitality of thought and feeling could 
 hardly fail, unless opposed by extraordinary obtuse- 
 ness, to excite and enliven, and strengthen the best 
 faculties of thought and feeling in any reader." 
 
 The student will also be interested in De Quin- 
 cey 's own classification of his writings. He says: 
 
 "Taking as the basis of my remarks the collec- 
 tive American edition, I will here attempt a rude 
 general classification of all the articles which com- 
 pose it. I distribute them grossly into three 
 
 Eirst, into that class which proposes primarily 
 to amuse the reader ; but which, in doing so, may 
 or may not happen occasionally to reach a higher 
 station, at which the amusement passes into an 
 impassioned interest. Some papers are merely 
 playful ; but others have a mixed character. These 
 present Autohio graphic Sketches illustrate what I 
 mean. Generally, they pretend to but little 
 beyond that sort of amusement which attaches to 
 any real story, thoughtfully and faithfully related, 
 moving through a succession of scenes sufficiently 
 
CHARACTEEISTICS AS A WRITER. 21 
 
 varied, that are not suffered to remain too long- 
 before the eye, and that connect themselves at every 
 stage with intellectual objects. But, even here, I 
 do not scruple to claim from the reader, occasion- 
 ally, a higher consideration. At times, the narra- 
 tive rises into a far higher key. 
 
 Into the second class, I throw those papers which 
 address themselves purely to the understanding as 
 an insulated faculty, or do so primarily. Let me 
 call them by the general name of essays. These, 
 as in other cases of the same kind, must have their 
 value measured by two separate questions. A, 
 What is the problem, and of what rank in dignity 
 or use, which the essay undertakes? And next, 
 that point being settled, B, What is the success 
 obtained? And (as a separate question). What is 
 the executive ability displayed in the solution of 
 the problem? This latter question is naturally no 
 question for myself, as the answer would involve a 
 verdict upon my own merit. But, generally, 
 there will be quite enough in the answer to ques- 
 tion A, for establishing the value of any essay upon 
 the soundest basis. Skillfully to frame your ques- 
 tion, is half way towards insuring the true answer. 
 Two or three of the problems treated in these 
 essays, I will here rehearse" [De Quincey here cites, 
 as examples of the kind of writings to which he 
 refers in the second class, his essays upon the fol- 
 lowing subjects: Ussenism, The Caesars, and 
 Cicero']. "These specimens are sufficient for the 
 purpose of informing the reader that I do not write 
 without a thoughtful consideration of my subject ; 
 and, also, that to think reasonably upon any ques- 
 tion, has never been allowed by me as a sufficient 
 ground for writing upon it unless I believed myself 
 able to offer some considerable novelty. Generally, 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I claim (not arrogantly, but with firmness), the 
 merit of rectification applied to absolute errors, or 
 to injurious limitations of the truth. 
 
 Pinally, as a third class, and in virtue of their 
 aim, as a far higher class of compositions, included 
 in the American collection, I rank the Confessions 
 of an Opium-Eater^ and, also, but more emphat- 
 ically, the Suspiria de Profiindis. On these, as 
 modes of impassioned prose, ranging under no 
 precedents that I am aware of in any literature, it 
 is much more difficult to speak justly, whether in 
 a hostile or friendly character. As yet, neither of 
 these two works has ever received the least degree 
 of that correction and pruning which both require 
 so extensively; and of the Suspiria, not more 
 than perhaps one-third has yet been printed. 
 When both have been fully revised, I shall feel 
 myself entitled to ask for a more determinate 
 adjudication upon then- claims as works of art. 
 At present, I feel authorized to make haughtier 
 pretensions in right of their conception than I shall 
 venture to do, under peril of being supposed to 
 characterize their execution. Two remarks only I 
 shall address to the equity of my reader : First, I 
 desire to remind him of the perilous difficulty 
 besieging all attempts to clothe in words the 
 visionary scenes derived from the world of dreams, 
 where a single false note, a single word in a wrong 
 key, ruins the whole music ; and, secondly, I desire 
 him to consider the utter sterility of universal 
 literature in this one department of impassioned 
 prose, which certainly argues some singular diffi- 
 culty, suggesting a singular duty of indulgence in 
 criticising any attempt that even imperfectly suc- 
 ceeds. The sole Confessions^ belonging to past 
 times, that have at all succeeded in engaging the 
 
THE EEVOLT OF A TAETAE TEIBE. 
 
 De Quincey's historical essays are written mainly 
 upon topics whicli fall outside the range of the 
 ordinary reader, and many of them required much 
 patient research for their preparation. The Revolt 
 of a Tartar Tribe is a case in point. It deals 
 with an obscure Tartar tribe located in the midst 
 of the vast expanse of the Eussian Empire, and 
 surrounded by other tribes of rival, often hostile, 
 and always uncivilized people. Too small a unit 
 in the constitution of Eussia to enter conspicuously 
 into its annals, its history, if written at all, is so 
 entangled in the vague and untrustworthy tradi- 
 tions of the various countries with which it had 
 allied itself from time to time, that to write any- 
 thing like a connected account, even of a single 
 decade in its life, seemed almost a hopeless task. 
 Yet, to De Quincey, the theme was a peculiarly 
 attractive one. The meteoric flight of a nation 
 across the breadth of a continent, opposed by the 
 most stupendous natural obstacles, and beset by 
 a savage foe, is one of the most spectacular events in 
 all history, and it appealed with great force to his 
 romantic nature. Accordingly, the narrative is 
 
 Note. — This sketch first appeared in Blackwood' s 
 Magazine for July, 1837. 
 
 25 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that of no mere chronicler. Although the main 
 facts are authentic, they are treated with the warm 
 sympathy of the romancer, rather than with 
 the cold impartiality of the historian. In strength 
 of portrayal and vividness of coloring, if not in 
 accuracy of historic statement, it excels the 
 Anabasis of Xenophon, the only classic with which 
 it may be compared on anything like equal terms. 
 Such a piece of work must be studied, not merely 
 for its thought, but also as an illustration of the 
 genius of its author and his wonderful power of 
 expression. 
 
 A brief sketch of the various barbarian tribes, 
 pursuers, and pursued, which appear in the essay, 
 is placed here that the pupil may not be obliged 
 to stop in the com^se of his reading to discover who 
 are the Kalmucks, and who are the various tribes, 
 Cossacks, Bashkirs, and Kirghises, which hang 
 upon the outskhts of the fleeing nation. There is 
 not room to give a connected account of all these 
 tribes of Asiatic origin to whom De Quincey refers, 
 but sufficient information is given below to enable 
 the student to follow the narrative intelligently. 
 For further study, see ^^ Tartar s^^^ in the 
 EncydopcBclia Britannica^ or Howerth's History of 
 Mie Mongols. 
 
 From the early part of the Christian era to the 
 and of the Middle Ages, Europe was repeatedly 
 invaded by vast hordes of barbarians from the 
 central and eastern parts of Asia. Under various 
 
REVOLT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 27 
 
 names, such as Mongols, Tartars, Tnrks, and 
 Huns, they overran eastern and central Europe, 
 devastated the country, and plundered and mur- 
 dered its inhabitants. Even Rome itself, trium- 
 phant over every other foe, was forced to yield its 
 supremacy to their undisciplined power. Although 
 a nomadic people, with restless and wandering 
 dispositions, many of them settled in Europe, and 
 gradually became a pai't of its fixed population. 
 Then descendants are found, to some extent, in 
 many countries, but are settled mainly in Russia, 
 Turkey, Poland, and Hungary, Of their tribal 
 names, the most important for us is the word Tartar, 
 because De Quincey, perhaps erroneously, calls the 
 Kalmuck tribe whose flight he records, the Torgot- 
 Tartars. 
 
 1 The word Tah-tar was first applied to those 
 Mongolian tribes, which in early times descended 
 from the Altai plateaus into the Chinese lowlands, 
 to plunder their peaceful inhabitants. When 
 Genghis Khan, in the thirteenth century, brought 
 these tribes under his sway, and led them into 
 Europe, they were given the name of Tartar, with 
 an allusion, perhaps, to the Tartarus of the 
 
 2 ancients. This invasion of the Mongol-Tartars 
 was probably the most gigantic warlike movement 
 in all history. Beginning with Chinese Tartary, 
 they overran nearly all of habitable Asia, and 
 extended their conquests westward into Europe as 
 far as Poland, adding nearly all of Russia to their 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dominions. No nation or city was powerful enough 
 to resist their onset, and their victories were never 
 complete until the opposing forces were utterly 
 annihilated. They swept away rich and populous 
 cities and depopulated vast tracts of land, in 
 order, as they said, that their flocks and herds 
 might freely feed upon grass whose green was free 
 from dusty feet. Erom 1211 to 1223, no less than 
 eighteen millions of people perished at their hands 
 in China alone. But finally, as was natural, their 
 vast empire fell to pieces, and the various Tartar 
 tribes became almost inextricably mixed with 
 other nations. Accordingly, in the present use of 
 the word Tartar, there is much confusion. R. Gr. 
 Latham, in The Nationalities of Europe^ says: 
 "The populations in question (the remnants, in 
 southern Russia and Siberia, of the great Mongol 
 empire), belong to one of three great gi'oups, stocks 
 or families — the Turk, the Mongol, or the Tungus. 
 When we speak of a Tartar, he belongs to the first; 
 whenever we speak of a Kalmuck, he belongs to 
 the second of these divisions." In general, it may 
 be said, that the name Tartar belongs to nearly 
 three million inhabitants of the Russian Empire, 
 who are remnants of the great Mongol invasion of 
 the thirteenth century. 
 
 Apparently, the tribe called Kalmucks, or 
 Torgot-Tartars, whose exodus De Quincey records, 
 are Mongols, not Tartars. But the question is 
 so confused that it is perhaps best to remember 
 
EEVOLT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 29 
 
 merely that they are certainly Asiatics, and 
 closely allied to the Tartars. The name Kalmuck 
 means renegade. It is at present applied to a 
 Mongolian or Mongol-Tartar people who inhabit 
 large regions of the Chinese and Russian domin- 
 ions. They are a nomadic race, and possess con- 
 siderable wealth in herds of cattle, horses, sheep, 
 and camels. There are, of course, many Kalmuck 
 tribes. The tribe which forms the subject of this 
 sketch originally inhabited the district between the 
 desert of Gobi and Lake Tengis, in central Asia. 
 In 1636 about two hundred thousand men and 
 women left their homes, and migrated to the great 
 steppes which border upon the Volga River. For 
 a time, they maintained a desultory warfare with 
 their neighbors; but in 1655 they passed, of their 
 own accord, under the Russian authority. Several 
 times they furnished important contingents to the 
 Russian armies, but were always regarded with 
 suspicion by the rulers of their adopted country. 
 During the reign of Catherine they became so 
 excited by their wrongs, real or imaginary, that 
 they determined upon the great migration which 
 De Quincey has so splendidly pictm'ed in this 
 sketch. 
 
 In pursuit of the fleeing tribes, the Russian 
 government started not only a Russian army, but 
 also avast horde of semi-civilized tribes, whose land 
 bordered on those of the Kalmucks, and who had, 
 for the unfortunate fugitives a fierce, hereditary 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hatred. The most notable among them were the 
 Cossacks, who though of doubtful origin, are < 
 probably descendants of the Eussian refugees 
 who fled to the swamps at the mouth of the Don, 
 to escape the Mongols when the latter invaded the 
 country in the thirteenth century. These 
 refugees, however, afterwards became amalgamated 
 with the Tartars and Kalmucks, and became almost 
 as lawless, desperate and nomadic as then con- 
 querors. They now form a restless and warlike 
 race, whose subjugation by Eussia extended 
 through centuries, and left them with many special 
 privileges. They are skillful horsemen, and form 
 the larger part of the Eussian cavalry. 
 
 The Bashkirs (Baash-Keerz), the second set of > 
 barbarian pursuers, are a Tartar -Einnish race, 
 who inhabit the slopes of the Ural Mountains, 
 and the adjacent plains. Originally they formed 
 a powerful independent state, but submitted to 
 Eussia in 1556, and were incorporated in her 
 dominions. 
 
 To them and to the Cossacks Eussia joined the 
 Kirghises, a race of Mongol-Tartars, who occu- 
 pied a vast territory stretching from the Caspian 
 Sea to the Altai Mountains. They were a nomadic 
 people, and, at the beginning of the present century, 
 well merited the title of the "slave hunters of the 
 steppes," from their custom of attacking caravans, 
 and selling their prisoners as slaves. 
 
BIBLIOGEAPHY OF BIOGRAPHICAL AND 
 
 CRITICAL WORKS RELATING 
 
 TO DE QUIJSTCEY. 
 
 De Quincey, in English Men of Letters Series^ by 
 David Masson. 
 
 De Quincey, in George Saintsbury's Essays in 
 English Literature, 1780-1860. 
 
 De Quincey' s Life and Writings with Letters. 
 Two volumes. H. A. Page. 
 
 Biographical Sketches, by Harriet Martineau. 
 
 Hours with Men and Boohs, William Mathews. 
 
 The Literary History of England, Volume 11. 
 Mrs. Olipbant. 
 
 Illustrations of Genius, in Some of its Relations 
 to Culture and Society. Henry Giles. 
 
 Hours in a Library, Volume I. Leslie Stephen. 
 
 Essays, Biographical and Critical: Chiefly on 
 English Poets. David Masson. 
 
 Word Portraits of Famous Writers, edited by 
 Mabel E. Wotton. 
 
 Personal Traits of British Authors, edited by 
 Edward T. Mason. 
 
 Note — The collected works of Thomas De Quincey are 
 published in a series of fourteen volumes by Macmillan 
 & Co. They have been carefully edited by Professor 
 David Masson, 
 
 31 
 
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 
 
 The following questions are mere indications of 
 lines of study which may be extended as far as time 
 serves : 
 
 1. State briefly the leading events in De Quin- 
 cey's life. 
 
 2. Mention some of his personal peculiarities. 
 
 3. Would these peculiarities influence his writ- 
 ings? If so, in what way? 
 
 4. What purpose did he seem to have in mind in 
 writing the Tartar Tribe f 
 
 6. What are some of the characteristics of his 
 style as they appear in this essay? 
 
 6. Is there an unusual number of long words? 
 Erom what language are the most of these words 
 derived? 
 
 7. What qualities does his choice of words impart 
 to his writings? 
 
 8. Have you noticed any words which are used 
 in an unusual sense? If so, can you in each case 
 state whether this is the primitive meaning? 
 
 9. Select several sentences in which words of 
 classical origin predominate. Substitute for these 
 words, Anglo-Saxon expressions. Is there any 
 gain? any loss? 
 
 10. Do you notice any peculiarities of sentence- 
 
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 33 
 
 structure? If so, what are they? How do they 
 affect the meaning? 
 
 11. Is the following quotation a good estimate of 
 De Quincey's sentences? "His (De Quincey's) 
 sentences are stately and elaborate, crowded with 
 qualifying clauses and parenthetical allusions to 
 a degree unparalleled among modern writers. " — 
 Minto, Cite instances supporting your yiew. 
 
 12. Does this tendency to discursiveness result 
 in a sacrifice of unity, clearness or strength in 
 De Quincey 's sentences? Cite examples in support 
 of your conclusion. 
 
 13. How would you characterize the author's 
 powers of description as used in this essay? 
 
 14. Would you accept the story as authentic his- 
 tory, or has the author allowed his imagination to 
 color and distort the facts? Support yoiu* judg- 
 ment in this matter by citations. 
 
 15. "What passage do you consider the most elfect- 
 iye? Why? 
 
 16. Do you think the style of the author well 
 adapted to historical writing? Giye reasons for 
 your answer. 
 
 17. Does this essay giye you any suggestion as to 
 the personality of the writer? 
 
 18. Is it possible to divide this essay into intro- 
 duction, body of the work, and conclusion? If 
 so, indicate these divisions. 
 
 19. What purpose does the introduction serve? 
 Does it give any outline of the thought? Does 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it in any way appeal to the sympathies of the 
 reader? 
 
 20. Make a brief outline of the body of the work. 
 
 21. Examine carefully the paragraph structure 
 with reference to unity, clearness, strength, and 
 coherence. Is the central idea of each paragraph 
 clearly brought out, or is it obscured by compara- 
 tively irrelevant sentences? Is the transition from 
 one paragraph to another generally abrupt, or is it 
 easy and harmonious? 
 
 22. Do you observe any passages which seem to 
 be thrown in merely for effect? 
 
 23. What does the author attempt to do in the 
 conclusion? Does he recapitulate the narrative, or 
 does he strive in some other way to leave a strong 
 impression on the mind of the reader? 
 
 24. How is the conclusion related to the rest of 
 the essay? 
 
 25. After your study of this essay, do you con- 
 clude that the author intended it to be a real con- 
 tribution to historical literature, or did he write it 
 merely to interest and amuse his readers? 
 
 26. "What have you gained from the study of this 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTAES 
 
 OR, FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS PEOPLE 
 
 FROM THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES TO THE 
 
 FRONTIERS OF CHINA. 
 
 / There is no great event in modern history, or, 
 perhaps it may be said more broadly, none in aU 
 history from its earliest records, less generally 
 known, or more striking to the imagination, than 
 
 5 the flight eastwards of a principal Tartar nation 
 across the boundless steppes of Asia in the latter 
 half of the last century. The terminus a quo of 
 this flight, and the terminus ad quern, are equally 
 magnificent; the mightiest of Christian thrones 
 
 10 being the one, the mightiest of pagan the other. 
 And the grandeur of these two terminal objects is 
 harmoniously supported by the romantic circum- 
 stances of the flight. In the abruptness of its 
 commencement, and the fierce velocity of its exe- 
 
 15 cution, we read the wild barbaric character of those 
 who conducted the movement. In the unity 
 of purpose connecting this myriad of wills, and 
 in the blind but unerring aim at a mark so 
 remote, there is something which recalls to 
 
 20 the mind those almighty instincts that propel 
 the migrations of the swallow and the lemming, 
 or the life- withering marches of the locust. Then, 
 again, in the gloomy vengeance of Eussia and her 
 
36 .REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 vast artillery, which hung upon the rear and the 
 skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of 
 Miltonic images — such, for instance, as that of the 
 solitary hand pursuing through desert spaces and 
 through ancient chaos a rebellious host, and over- 5 
 taking with volleying thunders those who believe 
 themselves already within the security of darkness 
 and of distance. 
 
 I shall have occasion, farther on, to compare this 
 event with other great national catastrophes as to 10 
 the magnitude of the suffering. But it may also 
 challenge a comparison with similar events under 
 another relation, viz., as to its dramatic capabili-- 
 ties. Few cases, perhaps, in romance or history, 
 can sustain a close collation with this as to the 15 
 complexity of its separate interests. The great 
 outline of the enterprise, taken in connection with 
 the operative motives, hidden or avowed, and the 
 religious sanctions under which it was pursued, 
 give to the case a triple character : — First, That of 20 
 a conspiracy^ with as close a unity in the incidents, 
 and as much of a personal interest in the moving 
 characters, with fine dramatic contrasts, as belongs 
 to "Venice Preserved," or to the " Fiesco " of 
 Schiller. Secondly, That of a great military expedi- 25 
 tion, offering the same romantic features of vast dis- 
 tances to be traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, 
 untried routes, enemies obscurely ascertained, and 
 hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark 
 the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses — which mark 30 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 37 
 
 the anabasis of the younger Cyrus, and the subse- 
 quent retreat of the ten thousand — which mark the 
 Parthian expeditions of the Eomans, especially 
 those of Crassus and Julian — or (as more disastrous 
 5 than any of them, and, in point of space as well as 
 in amount of forces, more extensive) the Russian 
 anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon. Thirdly, that 
 of a religious Exodus, authorized by an oracle 
 venerated throughout many nations of Asia — an 
 
 10 Exodus, therefore, in so far resembling the great 
 Scriptural Exodus of the Israelites, under Moses 
 and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinc- 
 tion of carrying along with them their entire 
 families, women, children, slaves, their herd of 
 
 15 cattle and of sheep, their horses and their camels. 
 
 This triple character of the enterprise naturally 
 
 ; invests it with a more comprehensive interest. 
 
 But the dramatic interest which I have ascribed to 
 
 it, or its fitness for a stage representation, depends 
 
 20 partly upon the marked variety and the strength 
 of the personal agencies concerned, and partly upon 
 the succession of scenical situations. Even the 
 steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the 
 sandy deserts, are not beyond the scale of our 
 
 25 modern representative powers, as often called into 
 action in the theatres both of Paris and London ; 
 and the series of situations unfolded — beginning 
 with the general conflagration on the Wolga — 
 passing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight 
 
 30 (as it literally was in its commencement) — ^to the 
 
38 EEVOLT OF THE TAETARS. 
 
 Tartar siege of the Eiissian fortress Koiilagina — 
 the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the 
 mountain passes at Oiichim — ^the siirprisal by 
 the Bashkirs, and the advanced posts of the Russian 
 army at Torgai — ^the private conspiracy at this 5 
 point against the Khan — ^the long succession of run- 
 ning fights — the parting massacres at the Lake of 
 Tengis under the eyes of the Chinese — and finally, 
 the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the 
 hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor ; — all these 10 
 situations communicate a scenical animation to the 
 wild romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a 
 higher and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a 
 case of authentic history, commemorating a great 
 revolution for good and for evil in the fortunes of 15 
 a whole people — a people semi-barbarous, but 
 simple-hearted and of ancient descent. 
 
 On the 21st of January, 1761, the young Prince 
 Oubacha assumed the sceptre of the Kalmucks 20 
 upon the death of his father. Some part of the 
 power attached to this dignity he had already 
 wielded since his fourteenth year, in quality of 
 Vice-Khan, by the express appointment and with 
 the avowed support of the Russian Government. 25 
 He was now about eighteen years of age, amiable 
 in his personal character, and not without titles to 
 respect in his public character as a sovereign 
 prince. In times more peaceable, and amongst a 
 people more entirely civilized, or more humanized so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 39 
 
 by religion, it is even probable that he might have 
 discharged his high duties with considerable dis- 
 tinction. But his lot was thrown upon stormy 
 times, and a most difficult crisis amongst tribes 
 
 5 whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing 
 forms of superstition, and by a nationality as well 
 as an inflated conceit of their own merit absolutely 
 unparalleled, whilst the circumstances of their hard 
 and trying position under the jealous surveillance 
 
 10 of an irresistible lord paramount, in the person of 
 the Eussian Czar, gave a fiercer edge to the natural 
 unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposition, and 
 irritated its gloomier qualities into action under 
 the restless impulses of suspicion and permanent 
 
 15 distrust. No prince could hope for a cordial 
 allegiance from his subjects or a peaceful reign 
 under the circumstances of the case; for the 
 dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler stood at pres- 
 ent was of this nature : wanting the sanction and 
 
 20 support of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak 
 from without to command confidence from his sub- 
 jects, or resistance to his competitors; on the other 
 hand, imtli this kind of support, and deriving his 
 title in any degree from the favor of the Imperial 
 
 25 Court, he became almost in that extent an object 
 of hatred at home, and within the whole compass 
 of his own territory. He was at once an object 
 of hatred for the past, being a living monument of 
 national independence ignominiously surrendered, 
 
 30 and an object of jealousy for the future, as one 
 
40 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 who had already advertised himself to be a fitting 
 tool for the ultimate pm-poses (whatsoever those 
 might prove to be) of the Kussian Court. Coming 
 himself to the Kalmuck sceptre under the heaviest 
 weight of prejudice from the unfortunate circum- 5 
 stances of his position, it might have been expected 
 that Oubacha would have been pre-eminently an 
 object of detestation; for, besides his known 
 dependence upon the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, 
 the direct line of succession had been set aside, 10 
 and the principle of inheritance violently sus- 
 pended, in favor of his own father, so recently as 
 nineteen years before the era of his own accession, 
 consequently within the lively remembrance of the 
 existing generation. He therefore, almost equally 15 
 with his father, stood within the full current of the 
 national prejudices, and might have anticipated 
 the most pointed hostility. But it was not so; 
 inch are the caprices in human affairs that he was 
 even, in a moderate sense, popular — a benefit which 20 
 wore the more cheering aspect, and the promises of 
 permanence, inasmuch as he owed it exclusively to 
 his personal qualities of kindness and affability, as 
 well as to the beneficence of his government. On 
 the other hand, to balance this unlooked-for pros- 25 
 perity at the outset of his reign, he met with a 
 rival in popular favor — almost a competitor — in the 
 person of Zebek-Dorchi, a prince with considerable 
 pretensions to the throne, and perhaps, it might 
 be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek-Dorchi 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 41 
 
 was a direct descendant of the same royal house as 
 himself, through a different branch. On public 
 grounds, his claim stood, perhaps, on a footing 
 equally good with that of Oubacha, whilst his per- 
 
 5 sonal qualities, even in those aspects which seemed 
 to a philosophical observer most odious and repul- 
 sive, promised the most effectual aid to the dark 
 purposes of an intriguer or a conspirator, and 
 were generally fitted to win a popular support 
 
 10 precisely in those points where Oubacha was most 
 defective. He was much superior in external 
 appearance to his rival on the throne, and so far 
 better qualified to win the good opinion of a 
 semi-barbarous people; whilst his dark intellec- 
 
 15 tual qualities of Machiavelian dissimulation, pro- 
 found hypocrisy and perfidy which knew no touch 
 of remorse, were admirably calculated to sustain 
 any ground which he might win from the simple- 
 hearted people with whom he had to deal, and 
 
 20 from the frank carelessness of his unconscious 
 competitor. 
 
 At the very outset of his treacherous career, 
 Zebek-Dorchi was sagacious enough to perceive 
 that nothing could be gained by open declaration 
 
 25 of hostility to the reigning prince ; the choice had 
 been a deliberate act on the part of Eussia, and 
 Elizabeth Petrowna was not the person to recall 
 her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. 
 Openly, therefore, to have declared his enmity 
 
 30 towards his relative on the throne could have had 
 
42 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 no effect but that of arming suspicions against his 
 own ulterior purposes in a quarter where it was 
 most essential to his interest that, for the present, 
 all suspicion should be hoodwinked. Accordingly, 
 after much meditation, the course he took for 5 
 opening his snares was this: — He raised a rumor 
 that his own life was in danger from the plots of 
 several Saissang (that is Kalmuck nobles) who were 
 leagued together under an oath to assassinate him ; 
 and immediately after, assuming a well-counter- 10 
 feited alarm, he fled to Tcherkask, followed by 
 sixty -five tents. From this place he kept up a 
 correspondence with the Imperial Court ; and, by 
 way of soliciting his cause more effectually, he soon 
 repaired in person to St. Petersburg. Once 15 
 admitted to personal conferences with the cabinet, 
 he found no difficulty in winning over the Russian 
 counsels to a concurrence with some of his politi- 
 cal views, and thus covertly introducing the point 
 of that wedge which was finally to accomplish his 20 
 purposes. In particular, he persuaded the Rus- 
 sian Government to make a very important altera- 
 tion in the constitution of the Kalmuck State 
 Council which in effect reorganized the whole 
 political condition of the state, and disturbed the 25 
 balance of power as previously adjusted. Of this 
 council — ^in the Kalmuck language called Sarga — 
 there were eight members, called Sargatchi; and 
 hitherto it had been the custom that these eight 
 members should be entirely subordinate to the sp 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 43 
 
 Khan; holding, in fact, the ministerial character 
 of secretaries and assistants, but in no respect acting 
 as co-ordinate authorities. That had produced 
 some inconveniences in former reigns ; and it was 
 5 easy for Zebek-Dorchi to point the jealousy of the 
 Eussian Court to others more serious, which might 
 arise in future circumstances of war or other con- 
 tingencies. It was resolved, therefore, to place the 
 Sargatchi henceforwards on a footing of perfect 
 10 independence, and therefore (as regarded responsi- 
 bility) on a footing of equality with the Khan. 
 Their independence, however, had respect only to 
 their own sovereign ; for towards Russia they were 
 placed in a new attitude of direct duty and account- 
 is ability by the creation in their favor of small pen- 
 sions (300 roubles a year), which, however, to a 
 Kalmuck of that day were more considerable than 
 might be supposed, and had a farther value as 
 marks of honorary distinction emanating from a 
 20 great empress. Thus far the purposes of Zebek- 
 Dorchi were served effectually for the moment; 
 but apparently it was only for the moment ; since, 
 in the further development of his plots, this very 
 dependency upon Russian influence would be the 
 25 most serious obstacle in his way. There was, how- 
 ever, another point carried which outweighed all 
 inferior considerations, as it gave him a power of 
 setting aside discretionally whatsoever should arise 
 
 Line 7. — Other contingencies. To what contingen- 
 cies does the author here refer? 
 
44 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 to disturb his plots; he was himself appointed 
 President and Controller of the Sargatchi. The 
 Russian Court had been aware of his high preten- 
 sions by birth, and hoped by this promotion to 
 satisfy the ambition which, in some degree, was 5 
 acknowledged to be a reasonable passion for any 
 man occupying his situation. 
 
 Having thus completely blindfolded the Cabinet 
 of Russia, Zebek-Dorchi proceeded in his new 
 character to fulfil his political mission with the 10 
 Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he pre- 
 pare the road for his favorable reception at the 
 court of this prince that he was at once and uni- 
 versally welcomed as a benefactor. The pensions of 
 the councillors were so much additional wealth 15 
 poured into the Tartar exchequer ; as to the ties of 
 dependency thus created, experience had not yet 
 enlightened these simple tribes as to that result. 
 And that he himself should be the chief of these 
 mercenary councillors was so far from being 30 
 charged upon Zebek as any offence or any ground 
 of suspicion that his relative the Khan returned 
 him hearty thanks for his services, under the belief 
 that he could have accepted this appointment only 
 with a view to keep out other and more unwelcome 25 
 pretenders, who would not have had the same 
 motives of consanguinity or friendship for execu- 
 ting its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kal- 
 mucks. The first use which he made of his new 
 functions about the Khan's person was to attack so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 45 
 
 the Court of Eussia, by a romantic villainy not easy 
 to be credited, for those very acts of interference 
 with the council which he himself had prompted. 
 This was a dangerous step ; but it was indispen- 
 6 sable to his further advance upon the gloomy path 
 which he had traced out for himself. A triple 
 vengeance was what he meditated. First, upon 
 the Eussian Cabinet, for having undervalued his 
 own pretensions to the throne; second, upon his 
 10 amiable rivaL for having supplanted him; and 
 third, upon all those of the nobility who had mani- 
 fested their sense of his weakness by their neglect, 
 or their sense of his perfidious character by their 
 suspicions. Here was a colossal outline of wicked- 
 is ness ; and by one in his situation, feeble (as it 
 might seem) for the accomplishment of its 
 humblest parts, how was the total edifice to be 
 reared in its comprehensive grandeur? He, a 
 worm as he was, could he venture to assail the 
 20 mighty behemoth of Muscovy, the potentate who 
 counted three hundred languages around the foot- 
 steps of his throne, and from whose "lion ramp" 
 recoiled alike "baptized and infidel" — Christen- 
 dom on the one side, strong by her intellect and 
 25 her organization, and the "Barbaric East" on the 
 other, with her unnumbered numbers? The match 
 was a monstrous one; but in its very monstrosity 
 there lay this germ of encouragement, that it could 
 
 Line i. — Romantic villainy. In what sense is this 
 phrase used? 
 
46 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 not be suspected. The very hopelessness of the 
 scheme grounded his hope, and he resolved to exe- 
 cute a vengeance which should involve, as it were, 
 in the unity of a well-laid tragic fable, all whom 
 he judged to be his enemies. That vengeance lay 5 
 in detaching from the Russian Empire the whole 
 Kalmuck nation, and breaking up that system of 
 intercourse which had thus far been beneficial to 
 both. This last was a consideration which moved 
 him but little. True it was, that Eussia to the lo 
 Kalmucks had secured lands and extensive pastur- 
 age ; true it was, that the Kalmucks reciprocally to 
 Russia had furnished a powerful cavalry. But the 
 latter loss would be part of his triumph, and the 
 former might be more than compensated in other i5 
 climates under other sovereigns. Here was a 
 scheme which, in its final accomplishment, would 
 avenge him bitterly on the Czarina, and in the 
 course of its accomplishment might furnish him 
 with ample occasions for removing his other 20 
 enemies. It may be readily supposed, indeed, that 
 he who could deliberately raise his eyes to the 
 Russian autocrat as an antagonist in single duel 
 with himself was not likely to feel much anxiety 
 about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He 25 
 took his resolution, therefore, sternly and irrevo- 
 cably, to effect this astonishing translation of an 
 ancient people across the pathless deserts of Central 
 Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers, rarely 
 furnished with bridges, and of which the fords 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 47 
 
 were known only to those who might think it for 
 their interest to conceal them, through many 
 nations inhospitable or hostile, frost and snow 
 around them (from the necessity of commencing 
 5 their flight in winter) famine in their front, and 
 the sabre, or eyen the artillery of an offended and 
 mighty Empress hanging upon their rear for 
 thousands of miles. But what was to be their final 
 mark — the port of shelter after so fearful a course 
 
 10 of wandering? Two things were evident : it must 
 be some power at a great distance from Russia, so 
 as to make return even in that view hopeless ; and 
 it must be a power of sufficient rank to insure them 
 protection from any hostile efforts on the part of 
 
 15 the Czarina for reclaiming them, or for chastising 
 their revolt. Both conditions were united obvi- 
 ously in the person of Kien Long, the reigning 
 Emperor of China, who was further recommended 
 to them by his respect for the head of their religion. 
 
 20 To China, therefore, and, as their first rendezvous, 
 
 to the shadow of the gi-eat Chinese Wall, it was 
 
 settled by Zebek that they should direct their flight. 
 
 J^ext came the question of time — lulien should 
 
 the flight commence? And finally, the more deli- 
 
 25 cate question as to the choice of accomplices. To 
 extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too far was 
 to insure its betrayal to the Russian Government. 
 Yet, at some stage of the preparations, it was evi- 
 dent that a very extensive confidence must be 
 
 30 made, because in no other way could the mass of 
 
48 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 the Kalmuck population be persuaded to furnisli 
 their families with the requisite equipments for so 
 long a migration. This critical step, however, it 
 was resolved to defer up to the latest possible 
 moment, and, at all events, to make no general 5 
 communication on the subject until the time of 
 departure should be definitely settled. In the 
 meantime Zebek admitted only three persons to his 
 confidence, of whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, 
 was almost necessarily one; but him, from his lo 
 yielding and somewhat feeble character, he viewed 
 rather in the light of a tool than as one of his 
 active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he 
 admitted to an unreserved participation in his coun- 
 sels were two only, the great Lama among the Kal- is 
 mucks, and his own father-in-law, Erempel, a rul- 
 ing prince of some tribe in the neighborhood of 
 the Caspian Sea, recommended to his favor not so 
 much by any strength of talent corresponding to 
 the occasion as by his blind devotion to himself and 20 
 his passionate anxiety to promote the elevation of 
 his daughter and his son-in-law to the throne of a 
 sovereign prince. A titular prince Zebek already 
 was; but this dignity, without the substantial 
 accompaniment of a sceptre, seemed but an empty 25 
 sound to both of these ambitious rebels. The 
 other accomplice, whose name was Loosan-Dchalt- 
 zan, and whose rank was that of Lama, or Kalmuck 
 pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished 
 pretensions ; he had something of the same gloomy 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 49 
 
 and terrific pride which marked the character of 
 Zebek himself, manifesting also the same energy, 
 accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and 
 a natural facility of dissimulation even more pro- 
 5 found. It was by this man that the other question 
 was settled, as to the time for giving effect to their 
 designs. His own pontifical character had sug- 
 gested to him that, in order to strengthen their 
 influence with the vast mob of simple-minded men 
 
 10 whom they were to lead into a howling wilderness, 
 
 ' after persuading them to lay desolate their own 
 
 ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they 
 
 should be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the 
 
 express sanction of God for their entire enterprise. 
 
 15 This could only be done by addressing themselves 
 to the great head of their religion, the Dalai-Lama 
 of Tibet. Him they easily persuaded to counte- 
 nance their schemes; and an oracle was delivered 
 solemnly at Tibet to the effect that no ultimate 
 
 20 prosperity would attend this great Exodus unless it 
 were pursued through the years of the tiger and 
 the hare. Now, the Kalmuck custom is to dis- 
 tinguish their years by attaching to each a denomi- 
 nation taken from one of twelve animals, the exact 
 
 25 order of succession being absolutely fixed, so that 
 the cycle revolves, of course, through a period of a 
 dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching 
 year of the tiger were suffered to escape them, in 
 that case the expedition must be delayed for twelve 
 
 30 years more ; within which period, even were no other 
 
50 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 unfavorable changes to arise, it was pretty well 
 foreseen that tlie Eussian Government would take 
 the most effectual means for bridling their vagrant 
 propensities by a ring-fence of forts or military 
 posts ; to say nothing of the still readier plan for 5 
 securing their fidelity (a plan already talked of in 
 all quarters) by exacting a large body of hostages 
 selected from the families of the most influential 
 nobles. On these cogent considerations, it was 
 solemnly determined that this terrific experiment lo 
 should be made in the next year of the tiger, which 
 happened to fall upon the Christian year 1771. 
 With respect to the month, there was, unhappily 
 for the Kalmucks, even less latitude allowed to 
 their choice than with respect to the year. It was 15 
 absolutely necessary, or it was thought so, that the 
 different divisions of the nation which pastm'ed 
 their flocks on both banks of the Wolga should 
 have the means of effecting an instantaneous junc- 
 tion; because the danger of being intercepted by 20 
 flying columns of the imperial armies was precisely 
 the greatest at the outset. ISTow, from the want of 
 bridges, or sufficient river craft for transporting so 
 vast a body of men, the sole means which could be 
 depended upon (especially where so many women, 25 
 children and camels were concerned) was ice: and 
 this, in a state of sufficient firmness, could not be 
 absolutely counted upon before the month of Janu- 
 ary. Hence it happened that this astonishing 
 Exodus of a whole nation, before so much as a so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 51 
 
 whisper of the design had begun to circnlate 
 amongst those whom it most interested, before it 
 was even suspected that any man's wishes pointed 
 in that direction, had been definitely appointed for 
 
 5 January of the year 1771. And almost up to the 
 Christmas of 1770 the poor simple Kalmuck herds- 
 men and their families were going nightly to their 
 peaceful beds, without even dreaming that the Jiat 
 had already gone forth from their rulers which 
 
 10 consigned those quiet abodes, together with the 
 peace and comfort which reigned within them, to 
 a withering desolation, now close at hand. 
 
 Meantime war raged on a great scale between 
 Russia and the Sultan, and until the time arrived 
 
 15 for thi'owing off their vassalage, it was necessary 
 that Oubacha should contribute his usual con- 
 tingent of martial aid. Nay, it had unfortunately 
 become prudent that he should contribute much 
 more than his usual aid. Human experience gives 
 
 20 ample evidence that in some mysterious and unac- 
 countable way no great design is ever agitated, no 
 matter how few or how faithful may be the partici- 
 pators, but that some presentiment — some dim mis- 
 giving — is kindled amongst those whom it is chiefly 
 
 S5 important to blind. And, however it might have 
 happened, certain it is that already, when as yet 
 no syllable of the conspiracy had been breathed to 
 any man whose very existence was not staked upon 
 its concealment, nevertheless, some vague and 
 
 30 uneasy jealousy had arisen in the Russian Cabinet 
 
52 REVOLT OF THE TARTAES. 
 
 as to the future schemes of the Kalmuck Khan; 
 and very probable it is that but for the war then 
 raging, and the consequent prudence of conciliating 
 a very important vassal, or at least of abstaining 
 from what would powerfully alienate him, even at 5 
 that moment such measures would have been 
 adopted as must forever have intercepted the Kal- 
 muck schemes. Slight as were the jealousies of the 
 Imperial Court, they had not escaped the Machia- 
 velian eyes of Zebek and the Lama. And under lo 
 their guidance Oubacha, bending to the circum- 
 stances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy 
 of the Eussian Court with a policy corresponding 
 to their own, strove by unusual zeal to efface the 
 Czarina's unfavorable impressions. He enlarged 15 
 the scale of his contributions, and that so 
 prodigiously that he absolutely carried to head- 
 quarters a force of thirty-five thousand cavalry 
 fully equipped: some go further, and rate the 
 amount beyond forty thousand; but the smaller 20 
 estimate is, at all events, tuitlmi the truth. 
 
 With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as 
 well as light, the Khan went into the field under 
 great expectations; and these he more than 
 realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned 25 
 with so ill-organized and disorderly a description 
 of force as that which at all times composed the 
 bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along 
 with his banners; gained many partial successes; 
 and at last, in a pitched battle, overthrew the 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 53 
 
 Turkish force opposed to him with a loss of five 
 thousand men left upon the field. 
 
 A These splendid achievements seemed likely to 
 
 T operate in various ways against the impending 
 5 revolt. Oubacha had now a strong motive, in the 
 martial glory acquired, for continuing his con- 
 nection with the empire in whose service he had 
 won it, and by whom only it could be fully appre- 
 ciated. He was now a great marshal of a great 
 
 10 empire, one of the Paladins around the imperial 
 throne ; in China he would be nobody, or (worse 
 than that) a mendicant alien, prostrate at the 
 feet, and soliciting the precarious alms of a 
 prince with whom he had no connection. 
 
 15 Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the 
 Czarina, grateful for the really efficient aid given 
 by the Tartar prince, would confer upon him 
 such eminent rewards as might be sufficient to 
 anchor his hopes upon Kussia, and to wean him 
 
 20 from every possible seduction. These were the 
 obvious suggestions of prudence and good sense to 
 every man who stood neutral in the case. But 
 they were disappointed. The Czarina knew her 
 obligations to the Khan, but she did not acknowl- 
 
 25 edge them. Wherefore? That is a mystery, per- 
 haps never to be explained. So it was, however. 
 The Khan went unhonored; no uTcase ever 
 proclaimed his merits; and perhaps, had he even 
 been abundantly recompensed by Eussia, there 
 
 30 were others who would have defeated these ten- 
 
54 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 dencies to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and 
 Loosang the Lama, were pledged life-deep to 
 prevent any accommodation; and their efforts were 
 unfortunately seconded by those of their deadliest 
 enemies. In the Eussian Court there were at that 5 
 time some great nobles preoccupied with feelings of 
 hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, 
 quite as strong as any which the Kalmucks could 
 harbor towards Russia, and not, perhaps, so well 
 founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks hated 10 
 the Russian yoke, their galling assumption of 
 authority, the marked air of disdain, as towards a 
 nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, which 
 too generally marked the Russian bearing and 
 language, but, above all, the insolent contempt, 15 
 or even outrages, which the Russian governors or 
 great military commandants tolerated in their 
 followers towards the barbarous religion and 
 superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck priest- 
 hood — precisely in that extent did the fe- so 
 rocity of the Russian resentment, and their 
 wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn or at- 
 tempt a feeble retaliation, react upon the 
 unfortunate Kalmucks. At this crisis, it is prob- 
 able that envy and wounded pride, upon wit- 25 
 nessing the splendid victories of Oubacha and 
 Momotbacha over the Turks and Bashkirs, con- 
 tributed strength to the Russian irritation. And 
 it must have been through the intrigues of those 
 nobles about her person who chiefly smarted 30 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 55 
 
 under these feelings that the Czarina could ever 
 have lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful 
 policy pursued at this critical period towards the 
 Kalmuck Khan. That Czarina was no longer 
 
 5 Elizabeth Petrowna; it was Catherine II. — a prin- 
 cess who did not often err so injuriously (injuriously 
 for herself as much as for others) in the measures 
 of her government. She had soon ample reason 
 for repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how 
 
 10 much it must have co-operated with the other 
 motives previously acting upon Oubacha in sus- 
 taining his determination to revolt, and how power- 
 fully it must have assisted the efforts of all the 
 Tartar chieftains in preparing the minds of their 
 
 15 people to feel the necessity of this difficult enter- 
 prise, by arming their pride and their suspicions 
 against the Eussian Government, through the 
 keenness of their sympathy with the wrongs of 
 their insulted prince, may be readily imagined. It 
 
 20 is a fact, and it has been confessed by candid Rus- 
 sians themselves, when treating of this great 
 dismemberment, that the conduct of the Russian 
 Cabinet throughout the period of suspense and 
 during the crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck 
 
 25 Council was exactly such as was most desirable for 
 the purposes of the conspirators ; it was such, in 
 fact, as to set the seal to all their machinations, by 
 supplying distinct evidences and official vouchers for 
 what could otherwise have been, at the most, matters 
 
 30 of doubtful suspicion and indirect presumption. 
 
56 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, 
 and even allowing their weight so far as not at all 
 to deny the injustice or the impolicy of the imperial 
 ministers, it is contended by many persons who 
 have reviewed the affair with a command of all 5 
 the documents bearing on the case, more especially 
 the letters or minutes of council subsequently dis- 
 covered in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, and 
 the important evidence of the Russian captive 
 WeselofE, who was carried off by the Kalmucks in lo 
 their flight, that beyond all doubt Oubacha was 
 powerless for any purpose of impeding or even of 
 delaying the revolt. He himself, indeed, was 
 under religious obligations of the most terrific 
 solemnity never to flinch from the enterprise, or i5 
 even to slacken in his zeal: for Zebek-Dorchi, 
 distrusting the firmness of his resolution under 
 any unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, 
 in the very earliest stage of the conspiracy, availed 
 himself of the Khan's well-known superstition to 20 
 engage him, by means of previous concert with the 
 priests and their head the Lama, in some dai'k and 
 mysterious rites of consecration, terminating in 
 oaths under such terrific sanctions as no Kalmuck 
 would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, 25 
 as regarded the personal share of the Khan in what 
 was to come, Zebek was entirely at his ease; he 
 knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious 
 terrors to the prosecution of the conspiracy that 
 no honors within the Czarina's gift could have 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 57 
 
 possibly shaken his adhesion: and then, as to 
 threats from the same quarter, he knew him to be 
 sealed against those fears by others of a gloomier 
 character, and better adapted to his peculiar 
 
 5 temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man as 
 respected all bodily enemies or the dangers of 
 human warfare, but was as sensitive and as timid 
 as the most superstitious of old women in facing 
 the frowns of a priest, or under the vague anticipa- 
 
 10 tions of ghostly retributions. But, had it been 
 otherwise, and had there been any reason to appre- 
 hend an unsteady demeanor on the part of this 
 prince at the approach of the critical moment, such 
 were the changes already effected in the state of 
 
 15 then- domestic politics amongst the Tartars, by the 
 undermining arts of Zebek-Dorchi and his ally the 
 Lama, that very little importance would have 
 attached to that doubt. All power was now 
 effectually lodged in the hands of Zebek-Dorchi. 
 
 20 He was the true and absolute wielder of the Kal- 
 muck sceptre; all measures of importance were 
 submitted to his discretion ; and nothing was finally 
 resolved but under his dictation. This result he 
 had brought about, in a year or two, by means 
 
 25 sufficiently simple : first of all, by availing himself 
 of the prejudice in his favor, so largely diffused 
 amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own 
 title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in 
 a direct line from Ajouka, the most illustrious of 
 
 30 all the Kalmuck Khans, stood upon a better basis 
 
58 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 than that of Oiibacha, who derived from a collateral 
 branch ; secondly, with respect to that sole advan- 
 tage which Oubacha possessed above himself in the 
 ratification of his title, by improving this difference 
 between their situations to the disadvantage of his 5 
 competitor, as one who had not scrupled to accept 
 that triumph from an alien power at the price of 
 his independence which he himself (as he would 
 have it understood) disdained to court ; thirdly, by 
 his own talents and address, coupled with the 10 
 ferocious energy of his moral character; fourthly 
 — and perhaps in an equal degree — by the criminal 
 facility and good nature of Oubacha ; finally (which 
 is remarkable enough, as illustrating the character 
 of the man), by that very new modeling of the Sarga 15 
 or Privy Council which he had used as a principal 
 topic of abuse and malicious insinuation against 
 the Eussian Government, whilst, in reality, he first 
 had suggested the alteration to the Empress, and 
 he chiefly appropriated the political advantages 20 
 which it was fitted to yield. For, as he was him- 
 self appointed the chief of the Sargatchi, and as 
 the pensions to the inferior Sargatchi passed 
 through his hands, whilst in effect they owed 
 their apjDointments to his nomination, it may be 25 
 easily supposed that, whatever power existed in the 
 state capable of controlling the Khan being held 
 by the Sarga under its new organization, and this 
 body being completely under his influence, the 
 final result was to throw all the functions of the so 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 59' 
 
 state, whether nominally in the prince or in the 
 council, substantially into the hands of this one 
 man; whilst, at the same time, from the strict 
 league which he maintained with the Lama, all the 
 5 thunders of the spiritual power were always ready 
 to come in aid of the magistrate, or to supply his 
 incapacity in cases which he could not reach. 
 
 s But the time was now rapidly approaching for 
 the mighty experiment. The day was drawing 
 
 10 near on which the signal was to be given for rais- 
 ing the standard of revolt, and by a combined 
 movement on both sides of the Wolga for spreading 
 the smoke of one vast conflagration, that should 
 wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the 
 
 15 stately cities of their enemies, over the breadth and 
 length of those great provinces in which their flocks 
 were dispersed. The year of the tiger was now 
 within one little month of its commencement ; the 
 fifth morning of that year was fixed for the fatal 
 
 20 day when the fortunes and happiness of a whole 
 nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's 
 throw; and as yet that nation was in profound 
 ignorance of the whole plan. The Khan, such 
 was the kindness of his nature, could not bring 
 
 25 himself to make the revelation so urgently 
 required. It was clear, however, that this could 
 not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task 
 willingly upon himself. ' But where or how should 
 this notification be made, so as to exclude Russian 
 
 30 hearers? After some deliberation, the following 
 
60 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 plan was adopted: — Couriers, it was contrived, 
 should arrive in furious haste, one upon the heels 
 of another, reporting a sudden iin-oad of the 
 Kirghises and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands, 
 at a point distant about 120 miles. Thither all the 5 
 Kalmuck families, according to immemorial cus- 
 tom, were required to send a separate representa- 
 tive; and there accordingly, within three days, all 
 appeared. The distance, the solitary ground 
 appointed for the rendezvous, the rapidity of the lo 
 march, all tended to make it almost certain that 
 no Eussian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then 
 came forward. He did not waste many words upon 
 rhetoric. He unfurled an immense sheet of parch- 
 ment, visible from the uttermost distance at which is 
 any of this vast crowd could stand; the total 
 number amounted to 80,000; all saw, and many 
 heard. They were told of the oppressions of 
 Russia ; of her pride and haughty disdain evidenced 
 towards them by a thousand acts ; of her contempt 20 
 for their religion ; of her determination to reduce 
 them to absolute slavery ; of the preliminary meas- 
 ures she had already taken by erecting forts upon 
 many of the great rivers in their neighborhood; 
 of the ulterior intentions she thus announced to 25 
 circumscribe their pastoral lands, until they would 
 all be obliged to renounce their flocks, and to col- 
 lect in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue 
 mechanical and servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, 
 and weaver, such as the free-born Tartar had 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 61 
 
 always disdained. "Then, again," said the subtle 
 prince, "she increases her military levies upon our 
 population every year; we pour out our blood as 
 young men in her defence, or more often in sup- 
 5 port of her insolent aggressions; and, as old men, 
 we reap nothing from our sufferings, nor benefit 
 by our survivorship where so many are sacrificed. ' ' 
 At this point of his harangue, Zebek produced 
 several papers (forged, as it is generally believed, 
 
 10 by himself and the Lama), containing projects of 
 the Russian Court for a general transfer of the eld- 
 est sons, taken en masse from the greatest Kalmuck 
 families, to the imperial court. "ISTow let this be 
 once accomplished," he argued, "and there is an 
 
 15 end of all useful resistance from that day forwards. 
 Petitions we might make, or even remonstrances; 
 as men of words we might play a bold part ; but for 
 deeds, for that sort of language by which our 
 ancestors were used to speak — holding us by such 
 
 20 a chain, Eussia would make a jest of our wishes, 
 
 knowing full well that we should not dare to make 
 
 any effectual movement." 
 
 % Having thus sufficiently aroused the angry pas- 
 
 sions of his vast audience, and having alarmed 
 
 jjs their fears by this pretended scheme against their 
 first-born (an artifice which was indispensable to his 
 purpose, because it met beforehand every form of 
 amendment to his proposal coming from the more 
 moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have 
 
 30 failed to insist upon trying the effect of bold 
 
/I 
 
 62 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 addresses to the Empress before resorting to any 
 desperate extremity), Zebek-Dorchi opened his 
 scheme of revolt, and, if so, of instant revolt ; since 
 any preparations reported at St. Petersburg would 
 be a signal for the armies of Eussia to cross into 5 
 such positions from all parts of Asia as would 
 effectually intercept their march. It is remark- 
 able, however, that, with all his audacity and his 
 reliance upon the momentary excitement of the 
 Kalmucks, the subtle prince did not venture, at lo 
 this stage of his seduction, to make so startling a 
 proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he 
 held out for the present was a rapid march to the 
 Temba or some other great river, which they were 
 to cross, and to take up a strong position on the 15 
 farther bank, from which, as from a post of con- 
 scious security, they could hold a bolder language 
 to the Czarina, and one which would have a better 
 chance of winning a favorable audience. 
 
 These things, in the irritated condition of the 20 
 simple Tartars, passed by acclamation; and all 
 retm*ned homewards to push forward with the 
 most furious speed the preparations for their awful 
 undertaking. Eapid and energetic these of neces- 
 sity were ; and in that degree they became notice- 25 
 able and manifest to the Eussians who happened to 
 be intermingled with the different hordes, either 
 on commercial errands, or as agents officially from 
 the Eussian Government, some in a financial, 
 others in a diplomatic character. so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TAETARS. QS 
 
 ■K" Amongst these last (indeed at the head of them) 
 was a Russian of some distinction, by name 
 Kichinskoi, a man memorable for his vanity, and 
 memorable also as one of the many victims to the 
 
 5 Tartar revolution. This Kichinskoi had been sent 
 by the Empress as her envoy to overlook the con- 
 duct of the Kalmucks ; he was styled the Grand 
 Pristaw, or Great Commissioner, and was univer- 
 sally known amongst the Tartar tribes by this title. 
 
 10 His mixed character of ambassador and of political 
 surveillant^ combined with the dependent state of 
 the Kalmucks, gave him a real weight in the Tar- 
 tar councils, and might have given him a far greater, 
 had not his outrageous self-conceit, and his arro- 
 
 15 gant confidence in his own authority as due chiefly 
 to his personal qualities for command, led him 
 into such harsh displays of power, and menaces so 
 odious to the Tartar pride, as very soon made him 
 an object of their profoundest malice. He had 
 
 20 publicly insulted the Khan; and upon making a 
 communication to him to the effect that some 
 reports began to circulate, and even to reach the 
 Empress, of a design in agitation to fly from the 
 imperial dominions, he had ventured to say, *'But 
 
 25 this you dare not attempt ; I laugh at such 
 rumors; yes. Khan, I laugh at them to the 
 Empress ; for you are a chained bear, and that you 
 know." The Khan turned away on his heel with 
 marked disdain ; and the Pristaw, foaming at the 
 
 30 mouth, continued to utter, amongst those of the 
 
,^' 
 
 64 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 Khan's attendants who staid behind to catch his 
 real sentiments in a moment of unguarded passion, 
 all that the blindest frenzy of rage could suggest 
 to the most presumptuous of fools. It was now 
 ascertained that suspicions had arisen ; but at the 5 
 same time it was ascertained that the Pristaw spoke 
 no more than the truth in representing himself to 
 have discredited these suspicions. The fact was 
 that the mere infatuation of yanity made him 
 believe that nothing could go on undetected by his 10 
 all-piercing sagacity, and that no rebellion could 
 prosper when rebuked by his commanding pres- 
 ence. The Tartars, therefore, pursued their prepa- 
 rations, confiding in the obstinate blindness of the 
 Grand Pristaw as in their perfect safeguard ; and 15 
 such it proved — ^to his own ruin as well as that of 
 mpiads beside. 
 
 Christmas arrived ; and, a little before that time, 
 courier upon courier came dropping in, one upon 
 the very heels of another, to St. Petersburg, 20 
 assuring the Czarina that beyond all doubt the 
 Kalmucks were in the very crisis of departure. 
 These despatches came from the Governor of 
 Astrachan, and copies were instantly forwarded to 
 Kichinskoi. Now, it happened that between this 25 
 governor — a Eussian named Beketoff — and the 
 Pristaw had been an ancient feud. The very name 
 of Beketoff inflamed his resentment ; and no sooner 
 did he see that hated name attached to the des- 
 patch than he felt himself confirmed in his former 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 65 
 
 views with ten -fold bigotry, and wrote instantly, 
 in terms of the most pointed ridicule, against the 
 new alarmist, pledging his own head upon the 
 visionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, however, 
 5 was not to be put down by a few hard words, or 
 by ridicule: he persisted in his statements; the 
 Eussian ministry were confounded by the 
 obstinacy of the disputants ; and some were begin- 
 ning even to treat the Governor of Astrachan as a 
 10 bore, and as the dupe of his own nervous terrors, 
 when the memorable day arrived, the fatal 5th of 
 January, which for ever terminated the dispute, 
 and put a seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes 
 of unnumbered myriads. The Governor of Astra- 
 is chan was the first to hear the news. Stung by the 
 mixed furies of jealousy, of triumphant vengeance, 
 and of anxious ambition, he sprang into his 
 sledge, and, at the rate of 300 miles a day, 
 pursued his route to St. Petersburg — ^rushed into 
 20 the Imperial presence — announced the total reali- 
 zation of his worst predictions; and, upon the 
 confii'mation of this intelligence by subsequent 
 despatches from many different posts on the Wolga, 
 he received an imperial commission to seize the 
 25 person of his deluded enemy, and to keep him 
 in strict captivity. These orders were eagerly 
 fulfilled; and the unfortunate Kichinskoi soon 
 afterwards expired of gTief and mortification in 
 the gloomy solitude of a dungeon — a victim to 
 30 his own immeasurable vanity, and the blinding 
 
^'o REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 self-delusions of a presumption tliat refused all 
 warning. 
 
 The Governor of Astrachan had been but too 
 faithful a prophet. Perhaps even he was surprised 
 at the suddenness with which the verification fol- 5 
 lowed his reports. Precisely on the 5th of Janu- 
 ary, the day so solemnly appointed under religious 
 sanctions by the Lama, the Kalmucks on the east 
 bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn 
 of day assembling by troops and squadrons, and in lo 
 the tumultuous movement of some great morning 
 of battle. Tens of thousands continued moving 
 oif the ground at every half -hour's interval. 
 Women and children, to the amount of two hun- 
 dred thousand and upwards, were placed upon 15 
 wagons, or upon camels, and drew off by masses 
 of twenty thousand at once — placed under suitable 
 escorts, and continually swelled in numbers by 
 other outlying bodies of the horde, who kept fall- 
 ing in at various distances upon the first and second 20 
 day's march. From sixty to eighty thousand of 
 those who were the best mounted staid behind the 
 rest of the tribes, with purposes of devastation and 
 plunder more violent than prudence justified, or 
 the amiable character of the Khan could be sup- 25 
 posed to approve. But in this, as in other 
 instances, he was completely overruled by the 
 malignant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first 
 tempest of the desolating fury of the Tartars dis- 
 charged itself upon their own habitations. But 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 67 
 
 this, as cutting off all infirm looking backward 
 from the hardships of their march, had been 
 thought so necessary a measure by all the chief- 
 tains that even Oubacha himself was the first to 
 5 authorise the act by his own example. He seized 
 a torch previously prepared with materials the 
 most durable as well as combustible, and steadily 
 applied it to the timbers of his own palace. Noth- 
 ing was saved from the general wreck except the 
 
 10 portable part of the domestic utensils, and that 
 part of the wood-work which could be applied to 
 the manufacture of the long Tartar lances. This 
 chapter in their memorable day's work being fin- 
 ished, and the whole of their villages throughout a 
 
 15 district of ten thousand square miles in one simul- 
 taneous blaze, the Tartars waited for further orders. 
 These, it was intended, should have taken a 
 
 ^ character of valedictory vengeance, and thus have 
 left behind to the Czarina a dreadful commentary 
 
 20 upon the main motives of their flight. It was the 
 purpose of Zebek-Dorchi that all the Kussian towns, 
 churches, and buildings of every description, should 
 be given up to pillage and destruction, and such 
 treatment applied to the defenseless inhabitants as 
 
 25 might naturally be expected from a fierce people 
 already infuriated by the spectacle of their own 
 outrages, and by the bloody retaliations which they 
 must necessarily have provoked. This part of the 
 tragedy, however, was happily intercepted by a 
 
 30 providential disappointment at the very crisis of 
 
68 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 departure. It has been mentioned already that the 
 motive for selecting the depth of winter as the 
 season of flight (which otherwise was obviously the 
 very worst possible) had been the impossibility of 
 effecting a junction sufficiently rapid with the tribes 5 
 on the west of the Wolga, in the absence of bridges, 
 unless by a natural bridge of ice. For this one 
 advantage, the Kalmuck leaders had consented to 
 aggravate by a thousandfold the calamities inevit- 
 able to a rapid flight over boundless tracts of 10 
 country, with women, children, and herds of cattle 
 — for this one single advantage; and yet, after all, 
 it was lost. The reason never has been explained 
 satisfactorily, but the fact was such. Some have 
 said that the signals were not properly concerted 15 
 for marking the moment of absolute departure — 
 that is, for signifying whether the settled intention 
 of the Eastern Kalmucks might not have been sud- 
 denly interrupted by adverse intelligence. Others 
 have supposed that the ice might not be equally 20 
 strong on both sides of the river, and might even 
 be generally insecure for the treading of heavy 
 and heavily laden animals such as camels. But the 
 prevailing notion is that some accidental movements 
 on the 3d and 4th of January of Eussian troops in 25 
 the neighbourhood of the Western Kalmucks, 
 though really having no reference to them or their 
 plans, had been construed into certain signs that all 
 was discovered ; and that the prudence of theWestern 
 chieftains, v/ho, from situation, had never been 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 69 
 
 exposed to those intrigues by which Zebek-Dorchi 
 had practised upon the pride of the Eastern tribes, 
 now stepped in to save their people from ruin. 
 Be the canse what it might, it is certain that the 
 
 5 Western Kalmucks were in some way prevented 
 from forming the intended junction with their 
 brethren of the opposite bank ; and the result was 
 that at least one hundi^ed thousand of these Tartars 
 were left behind in Eussia. This accident it was 
 
 10 which saved their Eussian neighbors universally 
 from the desolation which else awaited them. One 
 general massacre and conflagration would assuredly 
 have surprised them, to the utter extermination of 
 their property, their houses, and themselves, had it 
 
 15 not been for this disappointment. But the Eastern 
 chieftains did not dare to put to hazard the safety 
 of their brethren under the first impulse of the 
 Czarina's vengeance for so dreadful a tragedy; for, 
 as they were well aware of too many circumstances 
 
 20 by which she might discover the concurrence of the 
 Western people in the general scheme of revolt, 
 they justly feared that she would thence infer their 
 concurrence also in the bloody events which marked 
 its outset. 
 
 25 Little did the Western Kalmucks guess what 
 
 Q reasons they also had for gratitude on account of 
 an interposition so unexpected, and which at the 
 moment they so generally deplored. Could they 
 have but witnessed the thousandth part of the 
 
 30 sufferings which overtook their Eastern brethren 
 
70 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 in the first month of their sad flight, they would 
 have blessed Heaven for their own narrow escape; 
 and yet these sufferings of the first month were but 
 a prelude or foretaste comparatively slight of those 
 which afterwards succeeded. 5 
 
 For now began to unroll the most awful series of 
 calamities, and the most extensive, which is any- 
 where recorded to have visited the sons and 
 daughters of men. It is possible that the sudden 
 inroads of destroying nations, such as the Huns, 10 
 or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars, may have 
 inflicted misery as extensive ; but there the misery 
 and the desolation would be sudden, like the flight of 
 volleying lightning. Those who were spared at 
 first would generally be spared to the end ; those 15 
 who perished at all would perish at once. It is 
 possible that the French retreat from Moscow may 
 have made some nearer approach to this calamity 
 in duration, though still a feeble and miniature 
 approach ; for the French sufferings did not com- 20 
 mence in good earnest until about one month from 
 the time of leaving Moscow ; and, though it is true 
 that afterwards the vials of wrath were emptied 
 upon the devoted army for six or seven weeks in 
 succession, yet what is that to this Kalmuck 25 
 tragedy, which lasted for more than as many 
 months? But the main feature of horror by which 
 the Tartar march was distinguished from the 
 French lies in the accompaniment of women and 
 children. They were both, it is true, with the 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 71 
 
 French, army, but not so many as to bear any 
 marked proportion to the total numbers concerned. 
 The French, in short, were merely an army — a 
 host of professional destroyers, whose regular trade 
 
 5 was bloodshed, and whose regular element was 
 danger and suffering. But the Tartars were a 
 nation carrying along with them more than two 
 hundred and fifty thousand women and childi'en, 
 utterly unequal, for the most part, to any contest 
 
 10 with the calamities before them. The Children of 
 Israel were in the same ckcumstances as to the 
 accompaniment of their families; but they were 
 released from the pursuit of their enemies in a very 
 early stage of their flight; and their subsequent 
 
 15 residence in the Desert was not a march, but a con- 
 tinued halt, and under a continued interposition of 
 Heaven for then- comfortable support. Earth- 
 quakes, again, however comprehensive in their 
 ravages, are shocks of a moment's duration. A 
 
 20 much nearer approach made to the wide range and 
 the long duration of the Kalmuck tragedy may 
 have been in a pestilence such as that which visited 
 Athens in the Peloponnesian War, or London in 
 the reign of Charles 11. There also the martyrs 
 
 25 were counted by myriads, and the period of the 
 desolation was counted by months. But, after all, 
 the total amount of destruction was on a smaller 
 scale ; and there was this feature of alleviation to 
 the conscious pressure of the calamity — that the 
 
 30 misery was withdrawn from public notice into 
 
72 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 private chambers and hospitals. The siege of 
 Jerusalem by Vespasian and his son, taken in its 
 entire circumstances, comes nearest of all — for 
 breadth and depth of suffering, for duration, for 
 the exasperation of the suffering from without by 5 
 internal feuds, and, finally, for that last most 
 appalling expression of the furnace -heat of the 
 anguish in its power to extinguish the natural 
 affections even of maternal love. But, after all, 
 each case had circumstances of romantic misery lo 
 peculiar to itself — circumstances without precedent, 
 and (wherever human nature is ennobled by Chris- 
 tianity), it may be confidently hoped, never to be 
 repeated. 
 
 The fu-st point to be reached, before any hope of is 
 repose could be encouraged, was the river Jaik. 
 This was not above 300 miles from the main point 
 of departure on the AYolga; and, if the march 
 thither was to be a forced one, and a severe one, it 
 was alleged, on the other hand, that the suffering 20 
 would be the more brief and transient ; one sum- 
 mary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was 
 achieved. Forced the march was, and severe 
 beyond example: there the forewarning proved 
 correct; but the promised rest proved a mere 25 
 phantom of the wilderness — a visionary rainbow, 
 which fled before their hope-sick eyes, across these 
 interminable solitudes, for seven months of hard- 
 ship and calamity, without a pause. These suffer- 
 ings, by their very nature, and the circumstances so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 73 
 
 under whicli they arose, were (like the scenery of 
 the steppes) somewhat monotonous in their color- 
 ing and external features ; what variety, however, 
 there was will be most naturally exhibited by trac- 
 
 5 ing historically the successive stages of the general 
 misery, exactly as it unfolded itself under the 
 double agency of weakness still increasing from 
 within and hostile pressure from without. Viewed 
 in this manner, under the real order of develop- 
 
 10 ment, it is remarkable that these sufferings of the 
 Tartars, though under the moulding hands of 
 accident, arrange themselves almost -with a scenical 
 propriety. They seem combined as with the skill 
 of an artist ; the intensity of the misery advancing 
 
 15 regularly with the advances of the march, and 
 the stages of the calamity corresponding to the 
 stages of the route ; so that, upon raising the cur- 
 tain which veils the great catastrophe, we behold 
 one vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by 
 
 20 regular gradations, as if constructed artificially for 
 picturesque effect — a result which might not have 
 been surprising had it been reasonable to anticipate 
 the same rate of speed, and even an accelerated 
 rate, as prevailing through the later stages of 
 
 25 the expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, 
 most reasonable to calculate upon a contin- 
 ual decrement in the rate of motion according 
 to the increasing distance from the headquar- 
 ters of the pursuing enemy. This calculation, 
 
 30 however, was defeated by the extraordinary 
 
74 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 circumstance tliat the Eiissian armies did not 
 begin to close in very fiercely upon the Kal- 
 mucks until after they had accomplished a distance 
 of full 2000 miles: 1000 miles farther on the 
 assaults became even more tumultuous and murder- 5 
 ous : and already the great shadows of the Chinese 
 Wall were dimly descried when the frenzy and 
 acharnement of the pursuers, .and the bloody 
 desperation of the miserable fugitiyes, had reached 
 its uttermost extremity. Let us briefly rehearse lo 
 the main stages of the misery, and trace the 
 ascending steps of the tragedy, according to the 
 great divisions of the route marked out by the 
 central rivers of Asia. 
 
 The first stage, we have already said, was from 15 
 the Wolga to the Jaik; the distance about 300 
 miles ; the time allowed seven days. For the first 
 week, therefore, the rate of marching averaged 
 about 43 English miles a day. The weather was 
 cold, but bracing ; and, at a more moderate pace, 20 
 this part of the journey might have been accom- 
 plished Y/ithout much distress by a people as hardy 
 as the Kalmucks; as it was, the cattle suffered 
 greatly from over -driving; milk began to fail even 
 for the children ; the sheep perished by wholesale ; 25 
 and the children themselves were saved only by 
 the innumerable camels. 
 
 The Cossacks, who dwelt upon the banks of the 
 Jaik, were the first among the subjects of Eussia 
 to come into collision with the Kalmucks. Great 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 75 
 
 was their surprise at the suddenness of the irrup- 
 tion, and great also their consternation; for, 
 according to then settled custom, by far the greater 
 part of their number was absent during the winter 
 
 5 months at the fisheries upon the Caspian. Some 
 who were liable to surprise at the most exposed 
 points fled in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, 
 which was immediately invested and summoned by 
 Oubacha. He had, however, in his train only a 
 
 10 few light pieces of artillery ; and the Russian com- 
 mandant at Koulagina, being awai'e of the 
 hurried circumstances in which the Khan was 
 placed, and that he stood upon the very edge, as 
 it were, of a renewed flight, felt encom^aged by 
 
 15 these considerations to a more obstinate resistance 
 than might else have been advisable, with an 
 enemy so little disposed to observe the usages of 
 civilized warfare. The period of his anxiety was 
 not long : on the fifth day of the siege he descried 
 
 20 from the v/alls a succession of Tartar couriers, 
 mounted upon fleet Bactrian camels, crossing the 
 vast plains around the fortress at a furious pace, 
 and riding into the Kalmuck encampment at 
 various points. Great agitation appeared imme- 
 
 25 diately to follow : orders were soon after despatched 
 in all directions: and it became speedily known 
 that upon a distant flank of the Kalmuck move- 
 ment a bloody and exterminating battle had been 
 fought the day before, in which one entire tribe of 
 
 30 the Khan's dependants, numbering not less than 
 
76 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 9000 fighting men, had perished to the last man. 
 This was the ottloss^ or clan, called Feka-Zechorr, 
 between whom and the Cossacks there was a feud 
 of ancient standing. In selecting, therefore, the 
 points of attack, on occasion of the present hasty 5 
 inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally eager so 
 to direct theh efforts as to combine with the serv- 
 ice of the Empress some gTatification to their own 
 party hatreds : more especially as the present was 
 likely to be their final opj^ortunity for revenge, if lo 
 the 'Kalmuck evasion should prosper. Having, 
 therefore, concentrated as large a body of Cossack 
 cavalry as circumstances allowed, they attacked the 
 hostile ouloss with a precipitation which denied to 
 it all means for communicating with Oubacha; for i5 
 the necessity of commanding an ample range of 
 pasturage, to meet the necessities of their vast 
 flocks and herds, had separated this ouloss from the 
 Khan's head-quarters by an interval of 80 miles ; 
 and thus it was, and not from oversight, that it so 
 came to be thrown entirely upon its own resources. 
 
 Line ii. — Evasion — De Quincey was singularly exact 
 in his use of words. He always chose the word which 
 would express the precise shade of meaning which he had 
 in mind, and thus his vocabulary became much larger 
 than that of a less exact writer would be. He delighted 
 in the use of words of classic origin, and sometim.es used 
 them in their original rather than in their derived 
 meaning. The common use of the word "evasion," 
 for example, differs essentially from the sense in which 
 he uses it here ; yet, so far as its original meaning goes, 
 it is used with entire propriety. 
 
EEYOLT OF THE TARTARS. 77 
 
 These had proved insufficient: retreat, from the 
 exhausted state of their horses and camels, no less 
 than from the prodigious encumbrances of their 
 liye stock, was absolutely out of the question: 
 
 5 quarter was disdained on the one side, and would 
 not have been granted on the other : and thus it had 
 happened that the setting sun of that one day (the 
 thirteenth from the first opening of the revolt) 
 tlu'ew his parting rays upon the final agonies of an 
 
 10 ancient otcloss, stretched upon a bloody field, who 
 on that day's dawning had held and styled them- 
 selves an independent nation. 
 
 Universal consternation was diffused through the 
 wide borders of the Khan's encampment by this 
 
 15 disastrous intelligence; not so much on account of 
 the numbers slain, or the total extinction of a 
 powerful ally, as because the position of the Cos- 
 sack force was likely to put to hazard the future 
 advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard and 
 
 20 hold them in check until the heavier columns of 
 the Eussian army should arrive upon their flanks. 
 The siege of Koulagina was instantly raised ; and 
 that signal, so fatal to the happiness of the women 
 and their childi'en, once again resounded through 
 
 25 the tents — ^the signal for flight, and this time for 
 a flight more rapid than ever. About 150 miles 
 ahead of their present position, there arose a tract 
 of hilly country, forming a sort of margin to the 
 vast sea-like expanse of champaign savannahs, 
 
 30 steppes, and occasionally of sandy deserts, which 
 
78 EEVOLT OF THE TARTAES. 
 
 stretched away on each side of this margin both 
 eastwards and westwards. Pretty nearly in the 
 centre of this hilly range lay a narrow defile, 
 through which passed the nearest and the most 
 practicable route to the riyer Torgai (the farther 5 
 bank of which river offered the next great station 
 of security for a general halt). It was the more 
 essential to gain this pass before the Cossacks, 
 inasmuch as not only would the delay in forcing 
 the pass give time to the Russian pursuing columns 10 
 for combining their attacks, and for bringing up 
 their artillery, but also because (even if all enemies 
 in pursuit were thrown out of the question) it was 
 held by those best acquainted with the diffi- 
 cult and obscure geography of these pathless 15 
 steppes — that the loss of this one narrow strait 
 amongst the hills would have the effect of throw- 
 ing them (as their only alternative in a case where 
 so y^ide a sweep of pasturage was required) upon a 
 circuit of at least 500 miles extra; besides that, 20 
 after all, this circuitous route would carry them to 
 the Torgai at a point ill fitted for the passage of 
 their heavy baggage. The defile in the hills, 
 therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless 
 they moved upon it with the velocity of light 25 
 cavalry, there was little chance but it would be 
 found preoccupied by the Cossacks. They also, it 
 is true, had suffered greatly in the bloody action 
 with the defeated oiiloss; but the excitement of 
 victory, and the intense sympathy with their 30 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 79 
 
 unexampled triumph, had again swelled their 
 ranks, and would probably act with the force of a 
 vortex to draw in their simple countrymen from 
 the Caspian. The question, therefore, of preoccu- 
 
 5 pation was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were 
 marching upon an oblique line not aboYe 50 miles 
 longer than that which led to the same point from 
 the Kalmuck head-quarters before Koulagina; 
 and, therefore, without the most furious haste on 
 
 10 the part of the Kalmucks, there was not a chance 
 for them, burdened and "trashed" as they were, 
 to anticijDate so agile a light cavalry as the Cos- 
 sacks in seizing this important pass. 
 
 Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on 
 
 15 hearing this exposition of the case. For they 
 easily understood that too capital an interest (the 
 summa reriim) was now at stake, to allow of any 
 regard to minor interests, or what would be con- 
 sidered such in their present circumstances. The 
 
 20 dreadful week already passed — their inauguration 
 in misery — was yet fresh in their remembrance. 
 The scars of suffering were impressed not only 
 upon their memories, but upon their very persons 
 and the persons of their children. And they knew 
 
 25 that, where no speed had much chance of meeting 
 the cravings of the chieftains, no test would be 
 accepted, short of absolute exhaustion, that as 
 much had been accomplished as could have been 
 accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian captive, has 
 
 30 recorded the silent wretchedness with which the 
 
80 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 women and elder boys assisted in drawing the tent- 
 ropes. On the 5th of Jannary all had been anima- 
 tion, and the joyousness of indefinite expectation; 
 now, on the contrary, a brief but bitter experience 
 had taught them to take an amended calculation 5 
 of what it was that lay before them. 
 
 One whole day and far into the succeeding night 
 had the renewed flight continued; the sufferings 
 had been greater than before; for the cold had 
 been more intense ; and many perished out of the 10 
 living creatures through every class, except only 
 the camels — whose powers of endurance seemed 
 equally adapted to cold and to heat. The second 
 morning, however, brought an alleviation to the 
 distress. Snow had begun to fall, and, though not 15 
 deep at present, it was easily foreseen that it soon 
 would be so; and that, as a halt would in that 
 case become unavoidable, no plan could be better 
 than that of staying where they were ; especially 
 as the same cause would check the advance of the 20 
 Cossacks. Here then was the last interval of 
 comfort which gleamed upon the unhappy nation 
 during their whole migration. For ten days the 
 snow continued to fall with little intermission. At 
 the end of that time, keen, bright, frosty weather 25 
 succeeded ; the drifting had ceased ; in three days the 
 smooth expanse became firm enough to support the 
 treading of the camels ; and the flight was recom- 
 menced. But during the halt much domestic com- 
 fort had been enjoyed ; and for the last time univer- 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 81 
 
 sal plenty. The cows and oxen had perished in such 
 vast numbers on the previous marches that an 
 order was now issued to turn what remained to 
 account by slaughtering the whole, and salting 
 5 whatever part should be found to exceed the 
 immediate consumption. This measui-e led to a 
 scene of general banqueting and even of festivity 
 amongst all who were not incapacitated for joyous 
 emotions by distress of mind, by grief for the 
 
 10 unhappy experience of the few last days, and by 
 anxiety for the too gloomy future. Seventy 
 thousand persons of all ages had already perished, 
 exclusively of the many thousand allies who had 
 been cut down by the Cossack sabre. And the 
 
 15 losses in reversion were likely to be many more. 
 For rumors began now to arrive from all quarters, 
 by the mounted couriers whom the Khan had des- 
 patched to the rear and to each flank as well as in 
 advance, that large masses of the imperial troops 
 
 20 were converging from all parts of Central Asia to 
 the fords of the river Torgai, as the most con- 
 venient point for intercepting the flying tribes; 
 and it was by this time well known that a powerful 
 division was close in their rear, and was retarded 
 
 25 only by the numerous artillery which had been 
 judged necessary to support their operations. New 
 motives were thus daily arising for quickening the 
 motions of the wretched Kalmucks, and for 
 exhausting those who were already but too much 
 
 30 exhausted. 
 
82 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 It was not until the 2d day of February that the 
 Khan's advanced guard came in sight of Ouchim, 
 the defile among the hills of Mougaldchares, in 
 which they anticipated so bloody an opposition 
 from the Cossacks. A pretty large body of these 5 
 light cavalry had, in fact, preoccupied the pass by 
 some hours; but the Khan, having two great 
 advantages — namely, a strong body of infantry, 
 who had been conveyed by sections of five on about 
 200 camels, and some pieces of light artillery which 10 
 he had not yet been forced to abandon — soon began 
 to make a serious impression upon this unsup- 
 ported detachment; and they would probably at 
 any rate have retired; but at the very moment 
 when they were making some dispositions in that 15 
 view Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon the rear with a 
 body of trained riflemen, who had distinguished 
 themselves in the war with Turkej^ These men 
 had contrived to crawl unobserved over the cliffs 
 which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of 20 
 the dry beds of the summer torrents, and other 
 inequalities of the ground, to conceal their move- 
 ment. Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly 
 in the Cossack files; the Khan, who had been 
 waiting with the elite of his heavy cavalry, charged 25 
 furiously upon them ; total overthrow followed to 
 the Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in some 
 measure avenged the recent bloody extermination 
 of their allies, the ancient ouloss of Feka-Zechorr. 
 The slight horses of the Cossacks were unable to 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 83 
 
 support the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and 
 a body of trained cameleers, (that is, cuirassiers 
 mounted on camels) ; hardy they were, but not 
 strong, nor a match for their antagonists in 
 
 5 weight ; and their extraordinary efforts through the 
 last few days to gain their present position had 
 greatly diminished their powers for effecting an 
 escape. Very few, in fact, did escape; and the 
 bloody day at Ouchim became as memorable 
 
 10 amongst the Cossacks as that which, about twenty 
 days before, had signalized the complete annihila- 
 tion of the Feka-Zechorr. 
 
 The road was now open to the river Irgitch, and 
 as yet even far beyond it to the Torgai ; but how 
 
 15 long this state of things would continue was every 
 day more doubtful. Certain intelligence was now 
 received that a large Russian army, well appointed 
 in every arm, was advancing upon the Torgai 
 under the command of General Traubenberg. 
 
 20 This officer was to be joined on his route by ten 
 thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the same 
 amount of Kirghises — both hereditary enemies of 
 the Kalmucks, both exasperated to a point of mad- 
 ness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha and 
 
 25 Momotbacha had, in late years, won from such of 
 their compatriots as served under the Sultan. The 
 Czarina's yoke these wild nations bore with sub- 
 missive patience, but not the hands by which it 
 had been imposed ; and, accordingly, catching with 
 
 30 eagerness at the present occasion offered to their 
 
84 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina 
 of their perfect obedience to her commands, and 
 at the same time a message significantly declaring 
 in what spirit they meant to execute them , viz. , 
 "that they would not trouble her Majesty with 5 
 prisoners." 
 
 Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a 
 race for the Kalmucks with the regular armies of 
 Russia, and concurrently with nations as fierce 
 and semi-humanized as themselves, besides that 10 
 they had been stung into threefold activity by the 
 furies of mortified pride and military abasement, 
 under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The 
 forces, and more especially the artillery, of Russia 
 were far too overwhelming to bear the thought of 15 
 a regular opposition in pitched battles, even with 
 a less dilapidated state of their resources than 
 they could reasonably expect at the period of their 
 arrival on the Torgai. In their speed lay their 
 only hope — ^in strength of foot, as before, and not 20 
 in strength of arm. Onward, therefore, the 
 Kalmucks pressed, marking the lines of their wide- 
 extending march over the sad solitudes of the 
 steppes by a never-ending chain of corpses. The 
 old and the young, the sick man on his couch, the 25 
 mother with her baby — all were dropping fast. 
 Such sights as these, with the many rueful aggi'a- 
 vations incident to the helpless condition of infancy 
 — of disease and of female weakness abandoned to 
 the wolves amidst a howling wilderness, continued 30 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 85 
 
 to track their course througli a space of full two 
 thousand miles; for so much, at the least, it was 
 likely to prove, including the circuits to which 
 they were often compelled by rivers or hostile 
 5 tribes, from the point of starting on the TVolga, 
 until they could reach their destined halting 
 ground on the east bank of the Torgai. For the 
 first seven weeks of this march their sufferings had 
 been embittered by the excessive severity of the 
 
 10 cold ; and every night — so long as wood was to be 
 had for fires, either from the lading of the camels, 
 or from the desperate sacrifice of their baggage 
 wagons, or (as occasionally happened) from the 
 forests which skirted the banks of the many rivers 
 
 15 which crossed their path — no spectacle was more 
 fi'equent than that of a circle, composed of men, 
 women, and children, gathered by hundreds 
 round a central fire, all dead and stiff at the return 
 of morning light. Myriads were left behind from 
 
 20 pure exhaustion, of whom none had a chance, 
 under the combined evils which beset them, of 
 surviving through the next twenty -four hours. 
 Frost, however, and snow at length ceased to 
 persecute ; the vast extent of the march at length 
 
 25 brought them into more genial latitudes, and the 
 unusual duration of the march was gradually 
 bringing them into more genial seasons of the year. 
 Two thousand miles had at last been traversed; 
 February, March, April, were gone; the balmy 
 
 30 month of May had opened; vernal sights and 
 
86 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 sounds came from every side to comfort the heart- 
 weary travellers ; and at last, in the latter end of 
 May, crossing the Torgai, they took up a position 
 where they hoped to find liberty to repose them- 
 selves for many weeks in comfort as well as in 5 
 security, and to draw such supplies from the fertile 
 neighborhood as might restore their shattered 
 forces to a condition for executing, with less of 
 wreck and ruin, the large remainder of the journey. 
 Yes ; it was true that two thousand miles of wan- lo 
 dering had been completed, but in a period of 
 nearly five months, and with the terrific sacrifice of 
 at least two hundred and fifty thousand souls, to 
 say nothing of herds and flocks past all reckoning. 
 These had all perished : ox, cow, horse, mule, ass, is 
 sheep, or goat, not one survived — only the camels. 
 These arid and adust creatures, looking like the 
 mummies of some antediluvian animals, without 
 the affections or sensibilities of flesh and blood — 
 these only still erected their speaking eyes to the 20 
 eastern heavens, and had to all appearance come 
 out from this long tempest of trial unscathed and 
 hardly diminished. The Khan, knowing how 
 much he was individually answerable for the 
 misery which had been sustained, must have wept 25 
 tears even more bitter than those of Xerxes when 
 he threw his eyes over the myriads whom he had 
 assembled : for the tears of Xerxes were unmingled 
 with remorse. Whatever amends were in his power 
 the Khan resolved to make, by sacrifices to the 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TAETARS. 87 
 
 general good of all personal regards ; and, accord- 
 ingly, even at this point of their advance, he once 
 more deliberately brought nnder review the whole 
 question of the revolt. The question was formally 
 5 debated before the Council whether, even at this 
 point, they should untread their steps, and, throw- 
 ing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, return 
 to then- old allegiance. In that case, Oubacha 
 professed himseK willing to become the scapegoat 
 
 10 for the general transgTession. This, he argued, 
 was no fantastic scheme, but even easy of accom- 
 plishment ; for the unlimited and sacred power of 
 the Khan, so well known to the Empress, made it 
 absolutely iniquitous to attribute any separate 
 
 15 responsibility to the people — upon the Khan rested 
 the guilt, upon the Khan would descend the 
 imperial vengeance. This proposal was applauded 
 for its generosity, but was energetically opposed by 
 Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the whole jour- 
 
 20 ney of two thousand miles? Was their misery to 
 perish without fruit? True it was that they had 
 yet reached only the half-way house; but, in that 
 respect, the motives were evenly balanced for 
 retreat or for advance. Either way they would 
 
 25 have pretty nearly the same distance to traverse, 
 but with this difference — that, forwards, their 
 route lay through lands comparatively fertile; 
 backwards, through a blasted wilderness, rich only 
 in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to Kal- 
 
 30 muck eyes by the trophies of their calamity. 
 
88 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 Besides, thoiigli the Empress might accept an 
 excuse for the past, would she the less forbear to 
 suspect for the futm-e? The Czarina's pardon 
 they might obtain, but could they ever hope to 
 recover her confidence^ Doubtless there would now 5 
 be a standing presumption against them, an 
 immortal ground of jealousy; and a jealous gov- 
 ernment would be but another name for a harsh 
 one. Finally, whatever motives there ever had 
 been for the revolt surely remained unimpaired by lo 
 anything that had occurred. In reality, the revolt 
 was, after all, no revolt, but (strictly speaking) a 
 return to their old allegiance; since, not above one 
 hundred and fifty years ago ( viz., in the year 
 1616), their ancestors had revolted from the is 
 Emperor of China. They had now tried both 
 governments ; and for them China was the land of 
 promise, and Russia the house of bondage. 
 
 Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, 
 the yearning of the people was strongly in behalf of 20 
 the Khan's proposal ; the pardon of their prince, 
 they persuaded themselves, would be readily con- 
 ceded by the Empress; and there is little doubt 
 that they would at this time have thrown them- 
 selves gladly upon the imperial mercy; when sud- 25 
 denly all was defeated by the arrival of two 
 envoys from Traubenberg. This general had 
 reached the fortress of Orsk, after a very pain- 
 ful march, on the 12th of April; thence he 
 set forwards towards Oriembourg; which he 30 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 89 
 
 reached upon the 1st of June, having been 
 joined on his route at various times during the 
 month of May by the Kirghises and a corps of 
 ten thousand Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent 
 5 forward his official offers to the Khan, which were 
 harsh and peremptory, holding out no specific stipu- 
 lations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting 
 unconditional submission as the preliminary price 
 of any cessation from military operations. The 
 
 10 personal character of Traubenberg, which was any- 
 thing but energetic, and the condition of his army, 
 disorganised in a great measure by the leng-th and 
 severity of the march, made it probable that, with 
 a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory 
 
 15 tone would have been assumed. But, unhappily 
 for all parties, sinister events occurred in the 
 meantime, such as effectually put an end to every 
 hope of the kind. 
 
 The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg 
 
 20 had reported to this officer that a distance of only 
 ten days' march lay between his own head-quarters 
 and those of the Khan. Upon this fact transpir- 
 ing, the Kirghises, by their prince Nourali, and 
 the Bashkirs, entreated the Eussian general to 
 
 25 advance without delay. Once having placed his 
 cannx)n in position, so as to command the Kalmuck 
 camp, the fate of the rebel Khan and his people 
 would be in his own hands : and they would them- 
 selves form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, 
 
 30 however {luhy has not been certainly explained), 
 
90 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 refused to march, grounding his refusal upon the 
 condition of his army, and their absolute need of 
 refreshment. Long and fierce was the altercation; 
 but at length, seeing no chance of prevailing, and 
 dreading above all other events the escape of their 5 
 detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs went off in 
 a body by forced marches. In six days they 
 reached the Torgai, crossed by swimming their 
 horses, and fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dis- 
 persed for many a league in search of food or 10 
 provender for their camels. The first day's action 
 was one vast succession of independent skirmishes, 
 diffused over a field of thirty to forty miles in 
 extent ; one party often breaking up into three or 
 four, and again (according to the accidents of 15 
 ground) three or four blending into one ; flight and 
 pursuit, rescue and total overthrow, going on 
 simultaneously, under all varieties of form, in all 
 quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had found 
 themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the 20 
 Kalmucks, to split up into innumerable sections; 
 and thus, for some hours, it had been impossible 
 for the most practised eye to collect the general 
 tendency of the day's fortune. Both the Khan 
 and Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made pris- 25 
 oners, and more than once in imminent danger of 
 being cut down ; but at length Zebek succeeded in 
 rallying a strong column of infantry, which, with 
 the support of the camel-corps on each flank, com- 
 pelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, however, 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTAES. 91 
 
 of these wild cavalry continued to arrive through, 
 the next two days and nights, followed or accom- 
 panied by the Kirghises. These being viewed as 
 the advanced parties of Tranbenberg 's army, the 
 5 Kalmuck chieftains saw no ho23e of safety but in 
 flight ; and in this way it happened that a retreat, 
 which had so recently been brought to a pause, was 
 resumed at the very moment when the unhappy 
 fugitives were anticipating a deep rejDose without 
 
 10 further molestation the whole summer through. 
 
 It seemed as though every variety of ivretched- 
 
 ness were predestined to the Kalmucks, and as if 
 
 their sufferings were incomplete unless they were 
 
 rounded and matured by all that the most dreadful 
 
 15 agencies of summer 's heat could superadd to those 
 of frost and winter. To this sequel of their story 
 I shall immediately revert, after first noticing a 
 little romantic episode which occurred at this point 
 between Oubacha and his unprincipled cousin 
 
 20 Zebek-Dorclii. 
 
 There was at the time of the Kalmuck flight 
 from the Wolga a Russian gentleman of some rank 
 at the court of the Khan, whom, for political reas- 
 ons, it was thought necessai'y to carry along with 
 
 25 them as a captive. For some weeks his confine- 
 ment had been very strict, and in one or two 
 instances cruel. But, as the increasing distance 
 was continually diminishing the chances of escape, 
 and perhaps, also, as the misery of the guards 
 
 30 gradually withdrew their attention from all minor 
 
92 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 interests to their own personal sufferings, the 
 vigilance of the custody grew more and more 
 relaxed; until at length, upon a petition to the 
 Khan, Mr. Weseloff was formally restored to lib- 
 erty ; and it was understood that he might use his 5 
 liberty in whatever way he chose, even for return- 
 ing to Eussia, if that should be his wish. Accord- 
 ingly, he was making active preparations for his 
 journey to St. Petersburg, when it occurred to 
 Zebek-Dorchi that, not improbably, in some of the lo 
 battles which were then anticipated with Trauben- 
 berg, it might happen to them to lose some 
 prisoner of rank, — ^in which case the Russian 
 Weseloff would be a pledge in then* hands for 
 negotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his i5 
 own severe affliction, the Russian was detained 
 until the further pleasure of the Khan. The 
 Khan's name, indeed, was used through the whole 
 affair; but, as it seemed, with so little concurrence 
 on his part, that, when Weseloff in a private audi- 20 
 ence humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done 
 him, and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feel- 
 ings by setting him at liberty, and, as it were, 
 tempting him into dreams of home and restored 
 happiness only for the purpose of blighting them, 25 
 the good-natured prince disclaimed all participa- 
 tion in the affair, and went so far in proving his 
 sincerity as even to give him permission to effect 
 his escape; and, as a ready means of commencing 
 it without raising suspicion, the Khan mentioned 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 93 
 
 to Mr. Weseloff that lie had just then received a 
 message from the Hetman of the Bashkirs, solicit- 
 ing a private interview on the banks of the Torgai 
 at a spot pointed ont. That interview was 
 
 5 arranged for the coming night ; and Mr. Weseloff 
 might go in the Khan's suite, which on either side 
 was not to exceed three persons. Weseloff was a 
 prudent man, acquainted with the world, and he 
 read treachery in the very outline of this scheme, 
 
 10 as stated by the Khan — ^treachery against the 
 Khan's person. He mused a little, and then com- 
 municated so much of his suspicions to the Khan 
 as might put him on his guard; but, upon further 
 consideration, be begged leave to decline the honor 
 
 15 of accompanying the Khan. The fact was that 
 three Kalmucks, who had strong motives for 
 returning to their countrymen on the west bank of 
 the Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff , had 
 offered to join him in his escape. These men the 
 
 20 Khan would probably find himself obliged to coun- 
 tenance in their project ; so that it became a point 
 of honor with Weseloff to conceal their inten- 
 tions, and therefore to accomplish the evasion from 
 the camp (of which the first steps only would be 
 
 25 hazardous) without risking the notice of the 
 Khan. 
 
 The district in which they were now encamped 
 abounded through many hundred miles with wild 
 horses of a docile and beautiful breed. Each of 
 
 30 the four fugitives had caught from seven to ten of 
 
94 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 these spirited creatures in the course of the last 
 few days : this raised no suspicion, for the rest of 
 the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of 
 provision against the coming toils of their remain- 
 ing route to China. These horses were secured by 5 
 halters, and hidden about dusk in the thickets 
 which lined the margin of the river. To these 
 thickets, about ten at night, the four fugitives 
 repaired ; they took a circuitous path, which drew 
 them as little as possible within danger of chal- lo 
 lenge from any of the outposts or of the patrols 
 which had been established on the quarters where 
 the Bashkirs lay ; and in three-quarters of an hour 
 they reached the rendezvous. The moon had now 
 risen, the horses were unfastened, and they were is 
 in the act of mounting, when suddenly the deep 
 silence of the woods was disturbed by a violent 
 uproar and the clashing of arms. Weseloff fancied 
 that he heard the voice of the Khan shouting for 
 assistance. He remembered the communication 2^ 
 made by that prince in the morning ; and, request- 
 ing his companions to support him, he rode off in 
 the direction of the sound. A very short distance 
 brought him to an open glade within the wood, 
 where he beheld four men contending with a party 35 
 of at least nine or ten. Two of the four were 
 dismounted at the very instant of Weseloff 's arrival ; 
 one of these he recognised almost certainly as the 
 Khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at 
 great disadvantage, with two of the adverse horse- 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 95 
 
 men. Seeing that no time was to be lost, Weseloff 
 fired and brought down one of the two. His 
 companions discharged their cai'bines at the same 
 moment, and then all rnshed simultaneously into 
 5 the little open area. The thundering sound of 
 about thirty horses all rushing at once into a nar- 
 row space gave the impression that a whole troop 
 of cavalry was coming down upon the assailants ; 
 who accordingly wheeled about and fled with one 
 
 10 impulse. Weseloff advanced to the dismounted 
 cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the 
 Khan. The man whom Weseloff had shot was 
 lying dead; and both were shocked, though 
 Weseloff at least was not surprised, on stooping 
 
 15 down and scrutinizing his features, to recognise a 
 well-known confidential servant of Zebek-Dorchi. 
 Nothing was said by either party ; the Khan rode 
 off escorted by Weseloff and his companions, and 
 for some time a dead silence prevailed. The situa- 
 
 20 tion of Weseloff was delicate and critical ; to leave 
 the Khan at this point was probably to cancel their 
 recent services ; for he might be again crossed on 
 his path, and again attacked by the very party from 
 whom he had just been delivered. Yet, on the 
 
 25 other hand, to return to the camp was to endanger 
 the chances of accomplishing the escape. The 
 Khan also was apparently revolving all this in his 
 mind, for at length he broke silence, and said, "I 
 comprehend your situation; and under other cir- 
 
 80 cumstances I might feel it my duty to detain your 
 
96 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 companions. But it would ill become me to do so 
 after the important service you have just rendered 
 me. Let us turn a little to the left. There, 
 where you see the watch-fire, is an outpost. 
 Attend me so far. I am then safe. You may ^ 
 turn and pursue your enterprise ; for the circum- 
 stances under which you will appear, as my escort, 
 are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for 
 the present. I regret having no better means at 
 my disposal for testifying my gratitude. But tell lo 
 me before we part — Was it accident only which 
 led you to my rescue? Or had you acquired any 
 knowledge of the plot by which I was decoyed 
 into this snare?" Weseloif answered very candidly 
 that mere accident had brought him to the spot at 15 
 which he heard the uproar, but that, having heard 
 it, and connecting it with the Khan's communica- 
 tion of the morning, he had then designedly gone 
 after the sound in a way which he certainly should 
 not have done at so critical a moment, unless in 20 
 the expectation of finding the Khan assaulted by 
 assassins. A few minutes after they reached the 
 outpost at which it became safe to leave the Tartar 
 chieftain ; and immediately the four fugitives com- 
 menced a flight which is perhaps without a paral- 25 
 lei in the annals of travelling. Each of them led 
 six or seven horses besides the one he rode ; and, by 
 shifting from one to the other (like the ancient 
 Desultors of the Eoman circus), so as never to bur- 
 den the same horse for more than half an hour at 30 
 
EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 97 
 
 a time, they continued to advance at the rate of 
 200 miles in the 24 hours for three days consecu- 
 tively. After that time, conceiving themselves 
 beyond pursuit, they proceeded less rapidly; 
 5 though still with a velocity which staggered the 
 belief of Weseloff 's friends in after years. He was, 
 however, a man of high principle, and always 
 adhered firmly to the details of his printed report. 
 One of the circumstances there stated is that they 
 
 10 continued to pursue the route by which the Kal- 
 mucks had fled, never for an instant finding any 
 difficulty in tracing it by the skeletons and other 
 memorials of their calamities. In particular, he 
 mentions vast heaps of money as part of the valu- 
 
 15 able property which it had been found necessary 
 to sacrifice. These heaps were found lying still 
 untouched in the deserts. From these Weseloff 
 and his companions took as much as they could 
 conveniently carry ; and this it was, with the price 
 
 20 of their beautiful horses, which they afterwards 
 sold at one of the Eussian military settlements for 
 about £15 apiece, which eventually enabled them 
 to pursue their journey in Eussia. This journey, 
 as regarded Weseloff in particular, was closed by a 
 
 25 tragical catastrophe. He was at that time young, 
 and the only child of a doting mother. Her 
 affliction under the violent abduction of her son 
 had been excessive, and probably had undermined 
 her constitution. Still she had supported it. 
 
 30 Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his 
 
98 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 filial affection, had imprudently posted tkrougn 
 Eussia to his mother's house without warning 
 of his approach. He rushed precipitately into 
 her presence ; and she, who had stood the shocks 
 of sorrow, was found unequal to the shock of joy 
 too sudden and too acute. She died upon the spot. 
 
 I now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck 
 flight. These it would be useless to pursue cir- 
 cumstantially through the whole two thousand lo 
 miles of suffering which remained ; for the charac- 
 ter of that suffering was even more monotonous 
 than on the former half of the flight, and also 
 more severe. Its main elements were excessive 
 heat, with the accompaniments of famine and 15 
 thirst, but aggravated at every step by the murder- 
 ous attacks of their cruel enemies the Bashkirs and 
 the Kirghises. 
 
 These people, ''more fell than anguish, hunger, 
 or the sea, ' ' stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like 20 
 a swarm of enraged hornets. And very often, 
 whilst tliey were attacking them in the rear, their 
 advanced parties and flanks were attacked with 
 almost equal fury by the people of the country 
 which they were traversing ; and with good reason, 25 
 since the law of self-preservation had now obliged 
 the fugitive Tartars to plunder provisions, and to 
 forage wherever they passed. In this respect their 
 condition was a constant oscillation of wretched- 
 ness; for sometimes, pressed by grinding famine, so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 99 
 
 they took a cii'ciiit of perhaps a hundred miles, in 
 order to strike into a land rich in the comforts of 
 life ; but in such a land they were sure to find a 
 crowded population, of which every arm was 
 5 raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the advan- 
 tages of local knowledge, and with constant 
 preoccupation of all the defensible positions, 
 mountain passes, or bridges. Sometimes, again, 
 weai'ied out with this mode of suffering, they took 
 
 10 a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles, in order to 
 strike into a land with few or no inhabitants. But 
 in such a land they were sure to meet absolute 
 starvation. Then, again, whether with or without 
 this plague of starvation, whether with or without 
 
 15 this plague of hostility in front, whatever might be 
 the "fierce varieties" of their misery in this respect, 
 no rest ever came to their unhappy rear ; it was a 
 torment like the undying worm of conscience. 
 And, upon the whole, it presented a spectacle alto- 
 
 20 gether unprecedented in the history of mankind. 
 Private and personal malignity is not unfrequently 
 immortal; but rare indeed is it to find the same 
 pertinacity of malice in a nation. And what 
 embittered the interest was that the malice was 
 
 25 reciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon equal 
 terms ; but that equality only sharpened the sense 
 of their dire inequality as to other circumstances. 
 The Bashkirs were ready to fight "from morn to 
 dewy eve. " The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were 
 
 30 always obliged to run. Was it fr07n their enemies 
 
100 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 as creatures whom they feared? No ; but towards 
 their friends — towards that final haven of China — 
 as what was hourly implored by the prayers of their 
 wives, and the tears of their children. But, 
 though they fled unwillingly, too often they fled in 5 
 vain — ^being unwillingly recalled. There lay the 
 torment. Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them; 
 every day the same unprofitable battle was 
 renewed; as a matter of course, the Kalmucks 
 recalled part of their advanced guard to fight 10 
 them; every day the battle raged for hours, and 
 uniformly with the same result. For no sooner 
 did the Bashkirs find themselves too heavily pressed 
 and that the Kalmuck march had been retarded 
 by some hours, than they retired into the bound- 15 
 less deserts, where all pursuit was hopeless. But, 
 if the Kalmucks resolved to press forward, regard- 
 less of their enemies, in that case their attack, 
 became so fierce and overwhelming that the gen- 
 eral safety seemed likely to be brought into ques- 20 
 tion ; nor could any effectual remedy be applied to 
 the case, even for each separate day, except by a 
 most embarrassing halt, and by countermarches, 
 that, to men in their circumstances, were almost 
 worse than death. It will not be surprising that 25 
 the irritation of such a systematic persecutions 
 superadded to a previous and hereditary hatred, 
 and accompanied by the stinging consciousness of 
 utter impotence as regarded all effectual vengeance, 
 should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck ani- 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 101 
 
 mosity into the wildest expression of downright 
 madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before the 
 frontiers of China were approached, the hostility 
 of both sides had assumed the appearance much 
 5 more of a warfare amongst wild beasts than 
 amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of 
 reason or the claims of a common nature. The 
 spectacle became too atrocious; it was that of a 
 host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends. 
 
 *0n a fine morning in early autumn of the year 
 1771, Kien Lung, the Emperor of China, was 
 pursuing his amusements in a wild frontier dis- 
 trict lying on the outside of the Great Wall. For 
 5 many hundred square leagues the country was deso- 
 late of inhabitants, but rich in woods of ancient 
 growth, and overrun with game of every descrip- 
 tion. In a central spot of this solitary region the 
 
 *It is probable that much of the thrilling narrative, 
 which follows, is without historic foundation. Kien 
 Lung expressly states, in the memoir of this event, 
 which he caused to be prepared, that he did not meet 
 the flying Kalmucks in person, but deputized certain of 
 his nobles to take his place. The editor has also been 
 unable to find any authority for the closing catastrophe, 
 which is so magnificently portrayed. It may, therefore, 
 be justly inferred that De Quincey gave free rein to his 
 imagination, especially in this final scene. We may, 
 however, well condone a lack of historic accuracy in a 
 passage of such brilliancy and power as that which closes 
 this remarkable essay, 
 
102 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 Emperor had built a gorgeous hunting lodge, to 
 which he resorted annually for recreation and 
 relief from the cares of government. Led onwards 
 in pursuit of game, he had rambled to a distance 
 of 200 hundred miles or more from this lodge, 5 
 followed at a little distance by a sufficient military 
 escort, and every night pitching his tent in a 
 different situation, until at length he had arrived 
 on the very margin of the vast central deserts of 
 Asia. Here he was standing by accident at an 10 
 opening of his pavilion, enjoying the morning sun- 
 shine, when suddenly to the westwards there arose 
 a vast cloudy vapor, which by degrees expanded, 
 mounted, and seemed to be slowly diffusing itself 
 over the whole face of the heavens. By and by is 
 this vast sheet of mist began to thicken towards the 
 horizon, and to roll forward in billowy volumes. 
 The Emperor's suite assembled from all quarters. 
 The silver trumpets were sounded in the rear, and 
 from all the glades and forest avenues began to trot 20 
 forward towards the pavilion the yagers — half 
 cavalry, half huntsmen — who composed the - 
 imperial escort. Conjecture was on the stretch 
 to divine the cause of this phenomenon, and the 
 interest continually increased, in proportion as 25 
 simple curiosity gradually deepened into the anxiety 
 if uncertain danger. At first it had been imagined 
 that some vast troops of deer, or other wild ani- 
 -dals of the chase, had been disturbed in their 
 /or est haunts by the Emperor's movements, or 30 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTAES 103 
 
 possibly by wild beasts prowling for prey, and 
 might be fetching a compass by way of re-entering 
 the forest grounds at some remoter points secm-e 
 from molestation. But this conjecture was dissi- 
 5 pated by the slow increase of the clond, and the 
 steadiness of its motion. In the conrse of two 
 hom-s the vast phenomenon had advanced to a point 
 which was judged to be within five miles of the 
 spectators, though all calculations of distance were 
 
 10 difficult, and often fallacious, when applied to the 
 endless expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through 
 the next hour, during which the gentle morning 
 breeze had a little freshened, the dusty vapor had 
 developed itself far and wide into the appearance 
 
 15 of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty vol- 
 umes from the sky to the earth ; and at particular 
 points, where the eddies of the breeze acted upon 
 the pendulous skirts of these aerial curtains, rents 
 were perceived, sometimes taking the form of 
 
 20 regular arches, portals, and windows, through 
 which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 
 "indorsed" with human beings — and at intervals 
 the moving of men and horses in tumultuous array 
 — and then thi^ough other openings or vistas at fai' 
 
 25 distant points the flashing of polished arms. But 
 sometimes, as the wind slackened or died away, all 
 those openings, of whatever form, in the cloudy 
 pall would slowly close, and for a time the whole 
 pageant was shut up from view; although the 
 
 30 growing din, the clamors, shrieks, and groans. 
 
104 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 ascending from infuriated myriads, reported, in a 
 language not to be misunderstood, what was going 
 on behind the cloudy screen. 
 
 It was in fact the Kalmuck host, now in the last 
 extremities of their exhaustion, and very fast 5 
 approaching to that final stage of privation and 
 killing misery, beyond which few or none could 
 have lived, but also, happily for themselves, fast 
 approaching (in a literal sense) that final stage of 
 their long pilgrimage at which they would meet lo 
 hospitality on a scale of royal magnificence, and 
 full protection from their enemies. These ene- 
 mies, however, as yet, were still hanging on their 
 rear as fiercely as ever, though this day was destined 
 to be the last of their hideous persecution. The is 
 Khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with all 
 the requisite statements and petitions, addressed to 
 the Emperor of China. These had been duly 
 received, and preparations made in consequence to 
 welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal 20 
 benevolence. But, as these couriers had been 
 despatched from the Torgai at the moment of 
 arrival thither, and before the advance of Trauben- 
 berg had made it necessary for the Khan to order a 
 hasty renewal of the flight, the Emperor had not 25 
 looked for their arrival on his frontiers until full 
 three months after the present time. The Khan 
 had indeed expressly notified his intention to pass 
 the summer heats on the banks of the Torgai, and 
 to recommence his retreat about the beginning of so 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 105 
 
 September. The subsequent change of plan, being 
 unknown to Kien Long, left him for some time in 
 doubt as to the true interpretation to be put upon 
 this mighty apparition in the desert ; but at length 
 5 the savage clamors of hostile fury, and the 
 clangor of weapons, unveiled to the Emperor the 
 true nature of those unexpected calamities which 
 had so prematurely precipitated the Kalmuck 
 measures. 
 
 10 Apprehending the real state of affairs, the 
 Emperor instantly perceived that the first act of his 
 fatherly care for these erring children (as he 
 esteemed them), now returning to their ancient 
 obedience, must be — ^to deliver them from their 
 
 15 pursuers. And this was less difficult than might 
 have been supposed. JSTot many miles in the rear 
 was a body of well-appointed cavalry, with a strong 
 detachment of artillery, who always attended the 
 Emperor 's motions . These were hastily summoned. 
 
 20 Meantime it occurred to the train of courtiers that 
 some danger might arise to the Emperor's person 
 from the proximity of a lawless enemy; and 
 accordingly he was induced to retire a little to the 
 rear. It soon appeared, however, to those who 
 
 25 watched the vapory shroud in the desert, that its 
 motion was not such as would argue the direction 
 of the march to be exactly upon the pavilion, but 
 rather in a diagonal line, making an angle of full 
 45 degrees with that line in which the imperial 
 
106 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 cortege had been standing, and therefore with a 
 distance continually increasing. Those who knew 
 the country judged that the Kalmucks were mak- 
 ing for a large fresh-water lake about seven or eight 
 miles distant. They were right; and to that point 5 
 the imperial cavalry was ordered up; and it was 
 precisely in that spot, and about three hours after, 
 and at noonday on the 8th of September, that the 
 great Exodus of the Kalmuck Tartars was brought 
 to a final close, and with a scene of such memor- lo 
 able and hellish fury as formed an appropriate 
 winding up to an expedition in all its parts and 
 details so awfully disastrous. The Emperor was 
 not personally present, or at least he saw whatever 
 he did see from too great a distance to discriminate is 
 its individual features ; but he records in his writ- 
 ten memorial the report made to him of this scene 
 by some of his own officers. 
 
 The lake of Tengis, near the dreadful desert of 
 Kobi, lay in a hollow amongst hills of a moderate so 
 height, ranging generally from two to three 
 thousand feet high. About eleven o'clock in the 
 forenoon, the Chinese cavalry reached the summit 
 of a road which led through a cradle-like dip in 
 the mountains right down upon the margin of the 25 
 lake. From this pass, elevated about two thousand 
 feet above the level of the water, they continued 
 to descend, by a very winding and difficult road, 
 for an hour and a half ; and during the whole of 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 107 
 
 this descent they were compelled to be inactive 
 spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The 
 Kalmucks, reduced by this time from about six 
 hundred thousand souls to two hundred and sixty 
 
 5 thousand, and after endm-ing for so long a time 
 the miseries I have previously described — out- 
 rageous heat, famine, and the destroying scimitar 
 of the Ku-ghises and the Bashkirs — had for the last 
 ten days been traversing a hideous desert, where 
 
 10 no vestiges were seen of vegetation, and no drop of 
 water could be found. Camels and men were 
 already so overladen that it was a mere impossi- 
 bility that they should carry a tolerable sufficiency 
 for the passage of this frightful wilderness. On 
 
 15 the eighth day, the wretched daily allowance, 
 which had been continually diminishing, failed 
 entirely; and thus, for two days of insupportable 
 fatigue, the horrors of thirst had been carried to 
 the fiercest extremity. Upon this last morning, at 
 
 20 the sight of the hills and the forest scenery, which 
 announced to those who acted as guides the 
 neighborhood of the lake of Tengis, all the people 
 rushed along with maddening eagerness to the 
 anticipated solace. The day grew hotter and 
 
 25 hotter, the people more and more exhausted, and 
 gradually, in the general rush forwards to the lake, 
 all discipline and command were lost — all attempts 
 to preserve a rearguard were neglected — ^the wild 
 Bashkirs rode in amongst the encumbered people > 
 
108 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 and slaughtered them by wholesale, and almost 
 mthont resistance. Screams and tumnltuous 
 shouts proclaimed the progress of the massacre; 
 but none heeded — none halted ; all alike, pauper or 
 noble, continued to rush on with maniacal haste to 5 
 the waters — all with faces blackened by the heat 
 preying upon the liver, and with tongue drooping 
 from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was affected 
 by the same misery, and manifested the same 
 symptoms of his misery as the wretched Kalmuck ; lo 
 the murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic 
 misery as his murdered victim — many indeed (an 
 ordinary effect of thirst) in both nations had 
 become lunatic, and in this state, whilst mere 
 multitude and condensation of bodies alone opposed is 
 any check to the destroying scimitar and the 
 trampling hoof, the lake was reached; and into 
 that the whole vast body of enemies together 
 rushed, and together continued to rush, forgetful 
 of all things at that moment but of one almighty 20 
 instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one 
 maddening appetite lasted for a single half -hour ; 
 but in the next arose the final scene of parting 
 vengeance. Far and wide the waters of the solitary 
 lake were instantly dyed red with blood and gore : 25 
 here rode a party of savage Bashkirs, hewing off 
 heads as fast as the swathes fall before the mower 's 
 scythe ; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a death- 
 grapple with their detested foes, both up to the 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 109 
 
 middle in water, and oftentimes both sinking 
 together below the surface, fi'om weakness or from 
 struggles, and perishing in each other 's arms. Did 
 the Bashkirs at any point collect into a cluster for 
 
 5 the sake of giving impetus to the assault? Thither 
 were the camels driven in fiercely by those who 
 rode them, generally women or boys; and even 
 these quiet creatures were forced into a share in 
 this carnival of murder, by trampling down as 
 
 10 many as they could strike prostrate with the lash 
 of their fore-legs. Every moment the water grew 
 more polluted; and yet every moment fresh 
 myriads came up to the lake and rushed in, not 
 able to resist their frantic thirst, and swallowing 
 
 15 large draughts of water, visibly contaminated with 
 the blood of then' slaughtered compatriots. 
 Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough to allow 
 of men raising their heads above the water, there, 
 for scores of acres, were to be seen all forms of 
 
 20 ghastly fear, of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of 
 death, and the fear of death — ^revenge, and the 
 lunacy of revenge — until the neutral spectators, of 
 whom there were not a few, now descending the 
 eastern side of the lake, at length averted their 
 
 25 eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed inca- 
 pable of further addition, was, however, increased 
 by an unexpected incident. The Bashkirs, begin- 
 ning to perceive here and there the approach of the 
 Chinese cavalry, felt it prudent — wheresoever they 
 
110 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 were sufficiently at leisure from the passions of the 
 murderous scene — to gather into bodies. This was 
 noticed by the governor of a small Chinese fort, 
 built upon an eminence above the lake; and 
 immediately he threw in a broadside, which spread 5 
 havoc amongst the Bashkir tribe. As often as the 
 Bashkirs collected into gloles and turms^ as 
 their only means of meeting the long lines of 
 descending Chinese cavalry — so often did the 
 Chinese governor of the fort pour in his extermina- lo 
 ting broadside; until at length the lake, at its 
 lower end, became one vast seething caldron of 
 human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese 
 cavalry had reached the foot of the hills: the 
 Bashkirs, attentive to their movements, had 15 
 formed ; skirmishes had been fought : and, with a 
 quick sense that the contest was henceforwards 
 rapidly becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs and 
 Kirghises began to retire. The pursuit was not as 
 vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would have 20 
 desired. But, at the same time, the very gloomiest 
 hatred could not but find, in their own dreadful 
 experience of the Asiatic deserts, and in the cer- 
 tainty that these wretched Bashkirs had to repeat 
 that same experience a second time, for thousands 25 
 of miles, as the price exacted by a retributory 
 Providence for their vindictive cruelty — ^not the 
 very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least 
 reflecting, but found in all this a retaliatory chas- 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. Ill 
 
 tisement more complete and absolute than any 
 which their swords and lances could have obtained^ 
 or human vengeance have devised. 
 
 Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings 
 5 in the Desert ; for any subsequent marches Avhich 
 awaited them were neither long nor painful. 
 Every possible alleviation and refreshment for 
 their exhausted bodies had been already provided 
 by Kien Long with the most princely munificence ; 
 
 10 and lands of great fertility were immediately 
 assigned to them in ample extent along the river 
 Ily, not very far from the point at which they had 
 first emerged from the wilderness of Kobi. But 
 the beneficent attention of the Chinese Emperor 
 
 15 may be best stated in his own words, as translated 
 into French by one of the Jesuit missionaries : — ^ 
 "La nation des Torgotes (savoir Us Kalmiiqiies) 
 arriva a Ily, toute delabree, n'ayant ni de quoi 
 vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je I'avais prevu; et 
 
 so j' avals ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions 
 necessahes pour pouvoir les secourir promptement : 
 c'est ce qui a ete execute. On a fait la division des 
 terres ; et on a assigne a chaque famille une portion 
 suffisante pour jDOuvoir servir a son entretien, soit 
 
 25 en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bcstiaux. 
 On a donne a chaque particuiier des etoffes pour 
 rhabiller, des grains pour se nourrir pendant 
 I'espace d'une annee, des ust ensiles pour le men- 
 
112 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 age, et d'autres clioses necessaires : et outre cela 
 plusieurs onces d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce 
 qu'on aurait pu oublier. On a designe des lieux 
 particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on leur a 
 donne des boeufs, moutons, etc., pour qu'ils pussent 5 
 dans la suite travailler par eux-memes a leur 
 entretien et a leur bien-etre. "* 
 
 These are the words of the Emperor himself 
 speaking in his own person of his own parental 
 cares ; but another Chinese, treating the same sub- lo 
 ject, records the munificence of this prince in terms 
 which proclaim still more forcibly the disinterested 
 generosity which prompted, and the delicate con- 
 sider ateness which conducted, this extensive bounty. 
 He has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he is 
 
 *The nation of Torgotes (known as Kalmucks) 
 arrived at Ily, wholly destitute, having neither provisions 
 nor clothes. I had foreseen this, and had given orders 
 that all necessary preparations be made for their prompt 
 relief; which was done. A distribution of lands was 
 made, and a sufficient portion was assigned to each 
 family to serve for its support, either for cultivation 
 or for pasturage of cattle. There were given to 
 each person materials for clothing, grain for food 
 for the period of one year, utensils for household use, 
 and other necessary things ; and, besides this, several 
 ounces of silver to provide any articles which might 
 have been overlooked. Special places were set apart for 
 them, rich in pasturage ; and there were given to them 
 cattle, sheep, etc. , in order that in the future they might 
 be able to work for their own support and well-being. 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 113 
 
 goes on thus : — "Lorsqii'ils arriverent snr nos fron- 
 tieres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de mille, 
 quoique la fatigue extreme, la f aim, la soif , et toutes 
 les autres incommodites inseparables d'une tres- 
 
 5 longue et tres penible route, en eussent fait perir 
 presque autant), ils etaient reduits a la derniere 
 misere; ils manquaient de tout. II," [viz. 
 I'Empereur, Kien Long] "leur fit preparer des 
 logemens conformes a leur maniere de yivre ; il leur 
 
 10 fit distribuer des alimens et des babits ; il leur fit 
 donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, 
 pour les mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et 
 de cultiyer la terre, et tout cela a ses propres frais, 
 qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans 
 
 15 compter 1 'argent qu'il a donne a cbaque chef-de- 
 famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistance de sa femme 
 et de ses enfans."* 
 
 *When they arrived upon our frontiers (to the num. 
 ber of several hundred thousand, although extreme 
 fatigue, hunger, thirst, and all the other deprivations 
 which are inseparable from a very long and laborious 
 journey, had caused almost as many besides to perish), 
 they were reduced to the most extreme misery, and 
 were lacking everything. He (that is, the Emperor, 
 Kien Lung) caused lodgings to be provided for them, 
 suitable to their manner of living. He caused to be given 
 to them cattle, sheep, and implements, to enable them to 
 raise herds and cultivate the soil, and all this, which 
 amounted to vast sums, at his own expense, without count- 
 ing the money which he gave to each head of a family to 
 provide for the maintenance of his wife and children. 
 
114 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 Tims, after their memorable year of misery, the 
 Kalmucks were replaced in territorial possessions, 
 and in comfort equal perhaps, or eyen superior, to 
 that which they had enjoyed in Eussia, and with 
 superior political advantages. But, if equal or 5 
 superior, their condition was no longer the same ; 
 if not in degree, their social prosperity had altered 
 in quality; for, instead of being a purely pastoral 
 and yagrant people, they were now in circum- 
 stances which obliged them to become essentially lo 
 dependent upon agriculture; and thus far 
 raised in social rank, that, by the natural course of 
 their habits and the necessities of life, they were 
 effectually reclaimed from roying and from the 
 sayage customs connected with a half nomadic life. 15 
 They gained also in political priyileges, chiefly 
 through the immunity from military seryice which 
 their new relations enabled them to obtain. These 
 were circumstances of advantage and gain. But 
 one great disadvantage there was, amply to over- 20 
 balance all other possible gain : the chances were 
 lost or were removed to an incalculable distance for 
 their conversion to Christianity, without which, in 
 these times, there is no absolute advance possible 
 on the path of true civilization. 25 
 
 One word remains to be said upon the personal 
 interests concerned in this great drama. The 
 catastrophe in this respect was remarkable and 
 complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness and 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 115 
 
 incapacity of suspecting, had, since the mysterious 
 affair on the banks of the Torgai, felt his mind 
 alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the 
 man that would have murdered him; and he had 
 
 5 displayed his caution so visibly as to provoke a 
 reaction in the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, and a dis- 
 pleasm'e which all his dissimulation could not hide. 
 This had produced a feud, which, by keeping them 
 aloof, had probably saved the life of Oubacha ; for 
 
 10 the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than 
 his open enmity. After the settlement on the Ily 
 this feud continued to advance, until it came under 
 the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of a visit 
 which all the Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty 
 
 15 at his hunting lodge in 1772. The Emperor 
 informed himself accurately of all the particulars 
 connected with the transaction — of all the rights 
 and claims put forward — and of the way in which 
 they would severally affect the interests of the Kal- 
 
 20 muck people. The consequence was that he 
 adopted the cause of Oubacha, and repressed the 
 pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his part, so 
 deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious 
 projects that, in conjunction with other chiefs, he 
 
 25 had the presumption even to weave nets of treason 
 against the Emperor himseK. Plots were laid, were 
 detected, were baffled; counter -plots were con- 
 structed upon the same basis, and with the benefit 
 of the opportunities thus offered. Finally, Zebek- 
 
116 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 Dorclii was invited to the imperial lodge, together 
 with all his accomplices; and, nnder the skillful 
 management of the Chinese nobles in the Emperor 's 
 establishment, the murderous artifices of these Tar- 
 tar chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves, 5 
 and the whole of them perished by assassination at 
 a great imperial banquet. Eor the Chinese morality 
 is exactly of that kind which approves in every- 
 thing the lex talmiis : — 
 
 "Lex nee justior ulla est (as t^ey think) lo 
 
 Quam necis artifices arte perire sua."* 
 
 So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and origi- 
 nator of the great Tartar Exodus. Oubacha, mean- 
 time, and his people, were gradually recovering 
 from the effects of their misery, and repairing their 15 
 losses. Peace and prosperity, under the gentle 
 rule of a fatherly lord paramount, redawned upon 
 the tribes : their household lares, after so harsh a 
 translation to distant climes, found again a happy 
 reinstatement in what had in fact been their 20 
 primitive abodes : they found themselves settled in 
 quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life, 
 and endowed with the perfect loveliness of Arcadian 
 beauty. But fi'om the hills of this favored land, 
 and even from the level grounds as they approached 25 
 its western border, they still look out upon that 
 fearful wilderness which once beheld a nation in 
 
 *[" Nor is any law more just (as they think) than that 
 they v/ho draw the sword by the sword shall perish."] 
 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 117 
 
 agony — the utter extirpation of nearly half a mil- 
 lion from amongst its numbers, and, for the 
 remainder, a storm of misery so fierce that in the 
 end (as happened also at Athens during the Pelo- 
 
 5 ponnesian War from a different form of misery) 
 very many lost then memory ; all records of their 
 past life were wiped out as with a sponge — utterly 
 erased and cancelled: and many others lost their 
 reason; some in a gentle form of pensive melan- 
 
 10 choly, some in a more restless form of feverish 
 delirium and nervous agitation, and others in the 
 fixed forms of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, 
 or moping idiocy. Two great commemorative 
 monuments arose in after years to mark the depth 
 
 15 and permanence of the awe — ^the sacred and rever- 
 ential grief with which all persons looked back upon 
 the dread calamities attached to the year of the 
 tiger — all who had either personally shared in those 
 calamities, and had themselves drunk from that 
 
 20 cup of sorrow, or who had effectually been made 
 witnesses to their results and associated with their 
 relief : two great monuments ; one embodied in the 
 religious solemnity, enjoined by the Dalai Lama, 
 called in the Tartar language a Romanang — ^that 
 
 25 is, a national commemoration, with music the most 
 rich and solemn, of all the souls who departed to 
 the rest of Paradise from the afflictions of the 
 Desert (this took place about six years after the 
 arrival in China) ; secondly, another, more durable 
 
118 REVOLT OF THE TAETAES. 
 
 and more commensurate to tlie scale of the calamity 
 and to the grandem- of this national Exodus, in 
 the mighty columns of granite and brass erected by 
 the Emperor Kien Long near the banks of the Ily. 
 These columns stand upon the yery margin of the 5 
 steppes; and they bear a short but emphatic 
 inscription to the following effect : 
 
 By the Will of God, 
 
 Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts, 
 
 Which from this Point begin and stretch away 10 
 
 Pathless, treeless, waterless, 
 
 For thousands of miles, and along the margins of many 
 
 mighty Nations, 
 
 Rested from their labors and from great afflictions. 
 
 Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, 15 
 
 And by the favor of Kien Long, God's Lieutenant upon 
 
 Earth, 
 The ancient Children of the Wilderness — the Torgote 
 Tartars — 
 Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, 20 
 
 Wandering Sheep who had strayed away from the Celes- 
 tial Empire in the year 1616, 
 But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite 
 sorrow. 
 Into the fold of their forgiving Shepherd. 25 
 
 Hallowed be the spot for ever, 
 and 
 Hallowed be the day— September 8, 1771 ! 
 Amen. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 Acharnemetit (p. 74, 1. 8).— Ferocity. Is this word 
 in good taste here? 
 
 Adust (p. 86, 1. 17). — From the Latin adushis, which 
 means burnt or scorched; hence brown, as if sunburnt. 
 
 Anabasis and Katabasis (p. 37, 1. 7). — Literally mean 
 the ascent and the descent, but are here used in the 
 sense of the invasion and the retreat. The reference is to 
 Napoleon's ill-fated expedition against Russia in 1812. 
 
 Astrachan (p. 65, 1. 9). — Is a province in southeastern 
 Russia, on the lower course of the Volga, bordering 
 upon the territory of the Kalmucks. 
 
 Avars (p. 70, 1. 1 1 ) . — ' 'The true Avars are represented to 
 have been a powerful Turanian people, who exercised a 
 wide dominion in Central Asia during the sixth century. 
 Among the tribes subject to them was one called the 
 Ogors, which is supposed to have belonged to the 
 national family of the Huns. Some time in the early 
 half of the sixth century, the Turks, who then dwelt in the 
 very centre of Asia at the foot of the Altai Mountains, made 
 their first appearance as conquerors, and crushed and 
 almost annihilated the Ava,rs, by means of which victory 
 they became the lords of the Ogors. But this vigorous tribe 
 found an opportunity to escape from the Turkish yoke. 
 Gathering together their wives and children and all their 
 possessions, they turned their faces towards the setting 
 sun. The terror which inspired their flight rendered 
 them resistless in the onset ; for the avenging Turk was 
 behind them. They overturned everything before 
 them, and finally established themselves in the wide 
 
 119 
 
120 GLOSSARY. 
 
 plains which stretch from the Don to the Volga. In 
 that age of imperfect information, they were naturally- 
 enough confounded with the greatest and most formid- 
 able tribe of Turanian stock known to the nations of the 
 west. The report that the Avars had broken loose from 
 Asia, and were coming in irresistible force to overrun 
 Europe, carried terror to all parts of Europe. With 
 true barbaric cunning, the Ogors availed themselves of 
 the mistake, and by calling themselves Avars largely 
 increased the terrors of their name and the chances of 
 conquest. Their ravages gradually extended over cen- 
 tral Europe, and they continued to be feared until they 
 were finally overcome by Charlemagne." — J. G. Shep- 
 ard's Fall of Rome. 
 
 Bashkirs— See page 30, No. 5. 
 
 ** Barbaric East " (p. 45 , 1. 25 ) . — Probably this phrase 
 comes from Milton, — 
 
 "Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, 
 Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold. ' ' 
 
 — Paradise Lost, II, j»-^. 
 
 Betiemoth (p. 45, 1. 20). — Is a word of Egyptian origin, 
 and may have been originally applied to the hippopota- 
 mus. It is now used as a typical name for a large ani- 
 mal. Cf. Job, XI; 15. 
 
 Cambyses (p. 36, 1. 30). — ^Was a Persian king, who 
 made an expedition into Egypt, 525 B. C. 
 
 Cyrus (p. 37, 1. i). — The younger C5mis was the second 
 son of Darius II. of Persia. He planned to dispossess 
 Artaxerxes, his brother, of the throne, and in 401 B. C. 
 made the celebrated expedition from Sardis, known as the 
 Anabasis, but was met by the royal forces commanded 
 by Artaxerxes at Cunaxa, where he was defeated and 
 slain. This expedition and the retreat of the Greek 
 mercenaries, who accompanied him, have been immor- 
 
GLOSSARY. 121 
 
 talized by Xenophon in his great work entitled The 
 Anabasis. 
 
 Catherine II. (p. 55,1. 5). — Was emprebS of Russia from 
 1762 to 1796. It is supposed that she was an accomplice 
 in the murder of her husband, Peter III., whom she suc- 
 ceeded in the royal power. She was a woman of great 
 ability, but of dissolute character. 
 
 Champaign Savannahs (p. 77, 1. 29).— The former 
 word is derived from the French and the latter from the 
 Spanish. Ckainpatgn is here used as an adjective, 
 meaningy?^/. The reference is to level, treeless plains, 
 covered with grass or shrubs and bushes. 
 
 Concert (p. 56, 1. 21). — Here means an agreement. 
 
 Cossacks— See Page 30, No. 4. 
 
 Czar, or Tsar (p. 39, 1. 11). — Is the name of the Em- 
 peror of Russia. It is derived from the Latin Caesar. 
 
 Dalai=Lania of Tibet (p. 49, 1. 16). — In the latter part 
 of the fourteenth century a schism arose in the Tibetan 
 Church, and each of the resulting parties or sects was 
 headed by a grand lama. The most powerful of these 
 princely priests was the Dalai-Lama, who had his head- 
 quarters at Kaldan, near Shasa. Lamaism is a corrupt 
 form of Buddhism, and prevailed in Tibet, Mongolia, 
 and a large part of Tartary. Its chief feature is the 
 worship of Grand Lamas or Priests in whom Buddha 
 is supposed to be incarnate. These Priest-Gods were 
 very numerous and of unbounded influence. 
 
 Decrement (p. 73, 1. 27). — Notice the unusual word. 
 In what sense is it used? 
 
 Desultors (p. 96, 1. 29). — ^Were men who, in the Roman 
 Circus races, were accustomed to vault from one steed 
 to another, when the horses were going at full speed. 
 
122 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Elizabeth Petrowna (p. 41, 1. 27).— Was the second 
 daughter of Peter the Great. She reigned from 1741 to 
 1762, and did much to advance the material prosperity 
 of the country, although she was personally cruel and 
 dissolute. 
 
 Fiesco (p. 36, 1. 24). — Was one of the earlier tragedies 
 of the great German poet Schiller. 
 
 French Retreat (p. 70, 1. 17).— The invasion of Rus- 
 sia by Napoleon, in 18 12, resembled, in many important 
 details, the great barbaric invasions which took place 
 in the earlier part of the Christian era. His vast army, 
 of more than a quarter of a million of men, swept across 
 the country like a tornado, destroying everything that 
 came within their reach. The Tartars were not more 
 merciless, nor the Huns more exultant in their power. 
 But the tide turned at Moscow, and the story of their 
 retreat is one of the saddest tales of suffering and 
 privation that darken the pages of history. 
 
 Globes (p. 110,1. 7). — ^A globe was a body of troops 
 drawn up in the form of a circle. This was a favorite 
 formation with Roman generals. Cf . Milton ; Paradise 
 Lost; II, J12: 
 
 "Him round 
 A globe of fiery Seraphim, enclosed 
 With bright emblazonry and horrent arms." 
 
 Hetman (p. 93, 1. 2). — ^Was the title of the Chief or 
 General of the Cossacks. Cf. the German Hauptman: 
 
 "The Ukraine's Hetman, calm and bold," 
 
 — Byron, Mazeppa. 
 
 Huns (p. 70, 1. 10). — The Huns were a savage tribe of 
 nomads who invaded Europe in the latter part of the 
 fourth century. They came from the barren plateaus of 
 Eastern Asia, and inspired terror as much by their hor- 
 rible appearance as by their fierce and warlike nature. 
 
GLOSSARY. 123 
 
 For nearly a hundred years they menaced the peace and 
 prosperity of Europe, but were finally subdued by the 
 Roman general Aetius in the battle of Chalons, 451 A. D. 
 
 Indorse (p. 103, 1. 22). — ^The primary meaning of this 
 word is to cover the back of, to loadxyr burden. 
 "Elephants indorsed with towers." 
 
 — Paradise Regamed, III, ^2g. 
 Kalmucks— See page 28, No. 3. 
 
 Khan (p. 35, Title). — The word Khan, according to 
 Rawlinson, is derived from the ancient root "Khak," 
 meaning a king, which appears in the Ethiopian 
 Tirhakah and the Egyptian Hyksos. 
 
 Kien Long (p. 47, 1. 17). — An ambitious and powerful 
 monarch who reigned from 1735 to 1784. Unlike the ma- 
 jority of Chinese Emperors, he pursued a vigorous and 
 aggressive policy, and made numerous invasions into neigh- 
 boring countries. He hadawide reputation as a warlike 
 ruler, and it was but natural that the Kalmucks should 
 look to him for assistance, especially since, by so doing, 
 they would turn their faces towards their ancestral 
 home. 
 
 Kirghises — See page 30, No. 6. 
 
 Land of Promise (p. 88, 1. 17). — Allusion is here made 
 to the bondage of the Children of Israel in Egypt. The 
 land of promise was Palestine, from which their ancestors 
 had come, and to which they hoped to return. 
 
 Lemming (p. 35, 1. 21). — "The Lemming is a rodent 
 which inhabits the mountainous regions of Sweden and 
 Norway. It is remarkable for migrating at certain 
 periods, generally at the approach of winter, in immense 
 multitudes, in a straight line, apparently in obedience 
 to some blind mechanical impulse. They move onward 
 in parallel columns, and nothing will induce them to 
 
124 GLOSSARY. 
 
 deviate from a straight line, the migration always termi- 
 nating in the sea, and ending in the drowning of all who 
 have survived the journey." — Nicholson's Zoology. 
 
 *'Lion=ramp" (p. 45, 1. 22). — Probably quoted from 
 Milton's Samson Ag07iistes, line 139, — 
 
 "The bold Ascalonite 
 Fled from his lion-ramp. ' ' 
 Rmnp is from the French ramper, meaning to creep. It 
 may mean here the lion-rage. 
 
 Machiavelli (p. 41, 1. 15). — Was a prominent Florentine 
 statesman, who was born in 1469 and died in 1527. He 
 was noted as a profound thinker, and as one of the 
 greatest of Italian authors. He devoted all his time and 
 energy to the welfare of his native city, and displayed 
 great ability in the various governmental positions which 
 he was called upon to fill. His name has come to be a 
 synonym for all that is evil in public life, on account of a 
 book which he wrote, in which he advocated principles 
 which were singularly at variance with his character and 
 practice. The book was entitled II Principe. In it 
 he seeks to show by what means a person may acquire 
 and maintain tyrannical power over a community. The 
 book is a purely scientific examination of the forces that 
 come into play in the successful establishment of a strong 
 and durable personal government ; from which problem 
 he eliminates all extraneous factors like the rights of the 
 persons affected and the morality of the acts committed. 
 
 Miltonic Images (p. 36, 1. 3).— The sublimest im- 
 agery, perhaps, in all literature is to be found in Milton's 
 Paradise Lost. Cf. I, 36-83 ; 169-191 ; II, 165-186. For 
 the specific reference here, read the second book of 
 Paradise Lost, especially the passage beginning with 
 line 310. 
 
 Mongol-Tartar— See page 27, No. 2. 
 
GLOSSARY. 125 
 
 Monstrous (p. 45, 1. 27). — Used in the sense of extraor- 
 dinary, out of the natural order. 
 
 Muscovy (p. 45, 1. 20). — An ancient name for Russia. 
 
 Official vouchers (p. 55, 1. 28). — Note the peculiar use 
 of this phrase. 
 
 Paladins (p. 53, 1. 10). — The twelve warriors who 
 formed the body-guard of Charlemagne were called 
 Paladins. The name was afterwards applied to great 
 warriors or champions, who were attached to the per- 
 sonal service of some emperor or king. 
 
 Pestilence (p. 71, 1. 22). — The great plague in Athens 
 began its ravages in 430 B. C, during the blockade of the 
 city by the Spartans. All the space within the walls 
 was crowded with the citizens and the refugees had 
 sought safety from the foe, within the fortifications, only 
 to meet an enemy tenfold more terrible and relentless. 
 It is estimated that at least one-fourth of the entire 
 population of the city perished. 
 
 The plague in London occtirred in 1665, and was 
 largely the result of the bad sanitary condition of the 
 city. Above 100,000 people perished. 
 
 Roubles (p. 43, 1. 16).— At this time, the Russian 
 rouble was worth about 80 cents. 
 
 Russia and the Suitan (p. 51, 1. 14).— The attempt of 
 Russia to dismember Poland brought on a war in which 
 the latter country found a strange champion in Turkey. 
 But the Turkish army was wholly inefficient, and their 
 resources soon became so nearly exhausted that Russia 
 gained great advantages, and was able to dictate terms 
 of peace. The war lasted from 1768 to 1774. 
 
 Sarepta (p. 60, 1. 28). — Is a city in Moravia, near the 
 great bend of the Volga. 
 
126 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Siege of Jerusalem (p. 72, 1. i).— In the siege and 
 destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., referred to here, 
 not less than one million Jews perished. Indeed, some 
 authorities make the number much larger. 
 
 Steppes (p. 35,1. 6). — This name is applied to those ex- 
 tensive plains which stretch from the Dnieper across the 
 southeastern part of European Russia, around the shores 
 of the Caspian and Aral seas, and between the Altai 
 and Ural chains. In the spring they are covered with 
 verdure, but for the greater part of the year are barren 
 and dry. , 
 
 Tartar— See page 27, No. i. 
 
 Terminus a quo and terminus ad quern (p. 35, 1. 
 
 7). — Literally the end from which, and the end to which. 
 The common words would be the beginning and the end. 
 Is anything gained by the use of the Latin phrases? 
 Is anything lost? 
 
 Translation (p. 46, 1. 27). — Used in its literal sense 
 as equivalent to transfer. 
 
 Trashed (p. 79, 1. 11). — De Quincey himself says of 
 this word that it was used by Beaumont and Fletcher in 
 their Bojiduca to describe the situation of a person 
 retarded in flight or in pursuit by some incumbrance too 
 important to be abandoned. 
 
 Turm (p. no, 1. 7). — Is from the Latin turma, and 
 means a troop of horse. 
 
 Ukase (p. 53, 1. 27). — Was an edict or order of the Rus- 
 sian government, having the force of law until annulled 
 by a subsequent order. 
 
 Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered (p. 36 
 
 1. 24). — Was produced in 1682 by Thomas Otway, an 
 almost forgotten dramatist. Edmund Gosse, in his 
 
GLOSSARY. 127 
 
 Seventeenth Century Studies, says: "There are few 
 plays in existence so original and so telling in construc- 
 tion as this ; the plot is in almost every respect worthy 
 to be Shakespeare's." 
 
 Xerxes (p. 86, 1. 26). — Herodotus tells us that, wnen 
 Xerxes had gathered his great army for the invasion of 
 Greece in Sardis, 480 B. C, he held a grand review. 
 As he sat upon a hill-top and beheld the vast hordes 
 filing by upon the plains below, he burst into tears, and 
 v/ept bitterly at the thought that a hundred years from 
 that time not one of tne unnumbered hosts would be 
 alive. 
 
 Yagers, or Jagers, (p. 102,1. 21). — Is from the German 
 Jagen, to hunt. 
 
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