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diff --git a/16026-8.txt b/16026-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2cce658 --- /dev/null +++ b/16026-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4347 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars, by Thomas +De Quincey, Edited by William Edward Simonds + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars + + +Author: Thomas De Quincey + +Editor: William Edward Simonds + +Release Date: June 8, 2005 [eBook #16026] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DE QUINCEY'S REVOLT OF THE +TARTARS*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Hemantkumar N. Garach, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +DE QUINCEY'S REVOLT OF THE TARTARS + +Edited with Introduction and Notes + +by + +WILLIAM EDWARD SIMONDS, PH.D. +Professor of the English Language and Literature in Knox College + +Boston, U.S.A. +Ginn & Company, Publishers +The Athenæum Press + +1899 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Thomas de Quincey. +(After a drawing by ARCHER.)] + + "In addition to the general impression of his + diminutiveness and fragility, one was struck with the + peculiar beauty of his head and forehead, rising + disproportionately high over his small wrinkly visage + and gentle deep-set eyes." + DAVID MASSON. + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In editing an English classic for use in the secondary schools, there +is always opportunity for the expression of personal convictions and +personal taste; nevertheless, where one has predecessors in the task +of preparing such a text, it is difficult always, occasionally +impossible, to avoid treading on their heels. The present editor, +therefore, hastens to acknowledge his indebtedness to the various +school editions of the _Revolt of the Tartars_, already in existence. +The notes by Masson are so authoritative and so essential that their +quotation needs no comment. De Quincey's footnotes are retained in +their original form and appear embodied in the text. The other +annotations suggest the method which the editor would follow in +class-room work upon this essay. + +The student's attention is called frequently to the _form_ of +expression; the discriminating use of epithets, the employment of +foreign phrases, the allusions to Milton and the Bible, the structure +of paragraphs, the treatment of incident, the development of feeling, +the impressiveness of a present personality; all this, however, is +with the purpose, not of mechanic exercise, nor merely to illustrate +"rhetoric," but to illuminate _De Quincey_. It is with this intention, +presumably, that the text is prescribed. There is little +attractiveness, after all, in the idea of a style so colorless and so +impersonal that the individuality of its victim is lost in its own +perfection; this was certainly not the Opium-Eater's mind concerning +literary form, nor does it appear to have been the aim of any of our +masters. Indeed, it may be well in passing to point out to pupils how +fatal to success in writing is the attempt to imitate the style of any +man, De Quincey included; it is always in order to emphasize the +naturalness and spontaneity of the "grand style" wherever it is found. +The teacher should not inculcate a blind admiration of all that De +Quincey has said or done; there is opportunity, even in this brief +essay, to exercise the pupil in applying the commonplace tests of +criticism, although it should be seen to as well that a true +appreciation is awakened for the real excellences of this little +masterpiece. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION: + + CRITICAL APPRECIATION vii + + BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH x + + AUTHORITIES AND REFERENCES xxii + +THE REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 1 + +APPENDED NOTES BY MASSON 67 + + NOTES, EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL 74 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Thomas De Quincey is one of the eccentric figures in English +literature. Popularly he is known as the English Opium-Eater and as +the subject of numerous anecdotes which emphasize the oddities of his +temperament and the unconventionality of his habits. That this man of +distinguished genius was the victim--pitifully the victim--of opium is +the lamentable fact; that he was morbidly shy and shunned intercourse +with all except a few intimate, congenial friends; that he was +comically indifferent to the fashion of his dress; that he was the +most unpractical and childlike of men; that he was often betrayed, +because of these peculiarities, into many ridiculous embarrassments, +such as are described by Mr. Findlay, Mr. Hogg, and Mr. Burton,--of +all this there can be no doubt; but these idiosyncrasies are, after +all, of minor importance, the accidents, not the essentials in the +life and personality of this remarkable man. The points that should +attract our notice, the qualities that really give distinction to De +Quincey, are the broad sweep of his knowledge, almost unlimited in its +scope and singularly accurate in its details, a facility of phrasing +and a word supply that transformed the mere power of discriminating +expression into a fine art, and a style that, while it lapsed +occasionally from the standard of its own excellence, was generally +self-corrective and frequently forsook the levels of commonplace +excellence for the highest reaches of impassioned prose. Nor is this +all. His pages do not lack in humor--humor of the truest and most +delicate type; and if De Quincey is at times impelled beyond the +bounds of taste, even these excursions demonstrate his power, at least +in handling the grotesque. His sympathies, however, are always +genuine, and often are profound. The pages of his autobiographic +essays reveal the strength of his affections, while in the +interpretation of such a character as that of Joan of Arc, or in +allusions like those to the pariahs,--defenceless outcasts from +society, by whose wretched lot his heart was often wrung,--he writes +in truest pathos. + +Now sympathy is own child of the imagination, whether expressed in the +language of laughter or in the vernacular of tears; and the most +distinctive quality in the mental make-up of De Quincey was, after +all, this dominant imagination which was characteristic of the man +from childhood to old age. The Opium-Eater once defined the _great +scholar_ as "not one who depends simply on an infinite memory, but +also on an infinite and electrical power of combination, bringing +together from the four winds, like the angel of the resurrection, what +else were dust from dead men's bones, into the unity of breathing +life." Such was De Quincey himself. He was a scholar born, gifted with +a mind apt for the subtleties of metaphysics, a memory well-nigh +inexhaustible in the recovery of facts; in one respect, at least, he +was a _great_ scholar, for his mind was dominated by an imagination as +vigorous as that which created Macaulay's _England_, almost as +sensitive to dramatic effect as that which painted Carlyle's _French +Revolution_. Therefore when he wrote narrative, historical narrative, +or reminiscence, he lived in the experiences he pictured, as great +historians do; perhaps living over again the scenes of the past, or +for the first time making real the details of occurrences with which +he was only recently familiar. + +The _Revolt of the Tartars_ is a good illustration of his power. +Attracted by the chance reading of an obscure French missionary and +traveller to the dramatic possibilities of an episode in Russian +history, De Quincey built from the bare notes thus discovered, +supplemented by others drawn from a matter-of-fact German +archæologist, a narrative which for vividness of detail and +truthfulness of local color belongs among the best of those classics +in which fancy helps to illuminate fact, and where the imagination is +invoked to recreate what one feels intuitively must have been real. + +The _Revolt of the Tartars_, while not exhibiting the highest +achievement of the author's power, nevertheless belongs in the group +of writings wherein his peculiar excellences are fairly manifested. +The obvious quality of its realism has been pointed out already; the +masterly use of the principles of suspense and stimulated interest +will hardly pass unnoticed. A negative excellence is the absence of +that discursiveness in composition, that tendency to digress into +superfluous comment, which is this author's one prevailing fault. De +Quincey was gifted with a fine appreciation of harmonious sound, and +in those passages where his spirit soars highest not the least of +their beauties is found in the melodiousness of their tone and the +rhythmic sweetness of their motion. + +It is as a master of rhetoric that De Quincey is distinguished among +writers. Some hints of his ability are seen in the opening and closing +passages of this essay, but to find him at his best one must turn to +the _Confessions_ and to the other papers which describe his life, +particularly those which recount his marvellous dreams. In these +papers we find the passages where De Quincey's passion rises to the +heights which few other writers have ever reached in prose, a +loftiness and grandeur which is technically denominated as "sublime." +In his _Essay on Style_, published in _Blackwood's_, 1840, he +deprecates the usual indifference to form, on the part of English +writers, "the tendency of the national mind to value the matter of a +book not only as paramount to the manner, but even as distinct from it +and as capable of a separate insulation." As one of the great masters +of prose style in this century, De Quincey has so served the interests +of art in this regard, that in his own case the charge is sometimes +reversed: his own works are read rather to observe his manner than to +absorb his thought. Yet when this is said, it is not to imply that the +material is unworthy or the ideas unsound; on the contrary, his +sentiment is true and his ideas are wholesome; but many of the topics +treated lie outside the deeper interests of ordinary life, and fail to +appeal to us so practically as do the writings of some lesser men. Of +the "one hundred and fifty magazine articles" which comprise his +works, there are many that will not claim the general interest, yet +his writings as a whole will always be recognized by students of +rhetoric as containing excellences which place their author among the +English classics. Nor can De Quincey be accused of subordinating +matter to manner; in spite of his taste for the theatrical and a +tendency to extravagance, his expression is in keeping with his +thought, and the material of those passages which contain his most +splendid flights is appropriate to the treatment it receives. One +effective reason, certainly, why we take pleasure in the mere style of +De Quincey's work is because that work is so thoroughly inspired with +the Opium-Eater's own genial personality, because it so unmistakably +suggests that inevitable "smack of individuality" which gives to the +productions of all great authors their truest distinction if not their +greatest worth. + +Thomas De Quincey was born in Manchester, August 15, 1785. His father +was a well-to-do merchant of literary taste, but of him the children +of the household scarcely knew; he was an invalid, a prey to +consumption, and during their childhood made his residence mostly in +the milder climate of Lisbon or the West Indies. Thomas was seven +years old when his father was brought home to die, and the lad, though +sensitively impressed by the event, felt little of the significance of +relationship between them. Mrs. De Quincey was a somewhat stately +lady, rather strict in discipline and rigid in her views. There does +not seem to have been the most complete sympathy between mother and +son, yet De Quincey was always reverent in his attitude, and certainly +entertained a genuine respect for her intelligence and character. +There were eight children in the home, four sons and four daughters; +Thomas was the fifth in age, and his relations to the other members of +this little community are set forth most interestingly in the opening +chapters of his _Autobiographic Sketches_. + +De Quincey's child life was spent in the country; first at a pretty +rustic dwelling known as "The Farm," and after 1792 at a larger +country house near Manchester, built by his father, and given by his +mother the pleasantly suggestive name of "Greenhay," _hay_ meaning +hedge, or hedgerow. The early boyhood of Thomas De Quincey is of more +than ordinary interest, because of the clear light it throws upon the +peculiar temperament and endowments of the man. Moreover, we have the +best of authority in our study of this period, namely, the author +himself, who in the _Sketches_ already mentioned, and in his most +noted work, _The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_, has told the +story of these early years in considerable detail and with apparent +sincerity. De Quincey was not a sturdy boy. Shy and dreamy, +exquisitely sensitive to impressions of melancholy and mystery, he was +endowed with an imagination abnormally active even for a child. It is +customary to give prominence to De Quincey's pernicious habit of +opium-eating, in attempting to explain the grotesque fancies and weird +flights of his marvellous mind in later years; yet it is only fair to +emphasize the fact that the later achievements of that strange +creative faculty were clearly foreshadowed in youth. For example, the +earliest incident in his life that he could afterwards recall, he +describes as "a remarkable dream of terrific grandeur about a favorite +nurse, which is interesting to myself for this reason--that it +demonstrates my dreaming tendencies to have been constitutional, and +not dependent upon laudanum."[1] Again he tells us how, when six years +old, upon the death of a favorite sister three years older, he stole +unobserved upstairs to the death chamber; unlocking the door and +entering silently, he stood for a moment gazing through the open +window toward the bright sunlight of a cloudless day, then turned to +behold the angel face upon the pillow. Awed in the presence of death, +the meaning of which he began vaguely to understand, he stood +listening to a "solemn wind" that began to blow--"the saddest that ear +ever heard." What followed should appear in De Quincey's own words: "A +vault seemed to open in the zenith of the far blue sky, a shaft which +ran up forever. I, in spirit, rose as if on billows that also ran up +the shaft forever; and the billows seemed to pursue the throne of God; +but _that_ also ran on before us and fled away continually. The flight +and the pursuit seemed to go on forever and ever. Frost gathering +frost, some sarsar wind of death, seemed to repel me; some mighty +relation between God and death dimly struggled to evolve itself from +the dreadful antagonism between them; shadowy meanings even yet +continued to exercise and torment, in dreams, the deciphering oracle +within me. I slept--for how long I cannot say: slowly I recovered my +self-possession; and, when I woke, found myself standing as before, +close to my sister's bed."[2] Somewhat similar in effect were the +fancies that came to this dreamy boy on Sunday mornings during service +in the fine old English church. Through the wide central field of +uncolored glass, set in a rich framework of gorgeous color,--for the +side panes of the great windows were pictured with the stories of +saints and martyrs,--the lad saw "white fleecy clouds sailing over the +azure depths of the sky." Straightway the picture changed in his +imagination, and visions of young children, lying on white beds of +sickness and of death, rose before his eyes, ascending slowly and +softly into heaven, God's arms descending from the heavens that He +might the sooner take them to Himself and grant release. Such are not +infrequently the dreams of children. De Quincey's experience is not +unique; but with him imagination, the imagination of childhood, +remained unimpaired through life. It was not wholly opium that made +him the great dreamer of our literature, any more than it was the +effect of a drug that brought from his dying lips the cry of "Sister, +sister, sister!"--an echo from this sacred chamber of death, where he +had stood awed and entranced nearly seventy years before. + +Not all of De Quincey's boyhood, however, was passed under influences +so serious and mystical as these. He was early compelled to undergo +what he is pleased to call his "introduction to the world of strife." +His brother William, five years the senior of Thomas, appears to have +been endowed with an imagination as remarkable as his own. "His genius +for mischief," says Thomas, "amounted to inspiration." Very amusing +are the chronicles of the little autocracy thus despotized by William. +The assumption of the young tyrant was magnificent. Along with the +prerogatives and privileges of seniority, he took upon himself as well +certain responsibilities more galling to his half-dozen uneasy +subordinates, doubtless, than the undisputed hereditary rights of +age. William constituted himself the educational guide of the nursery, +proclaiming theories, delivering lectures, performing experiments, +asserting opinions upon subjects diverse and erudite. Indeed, a +vigorous spirit was housed in William's body, and but for his early +death, this lad also might have brought lustre to the family name. + +A real introduction to the world of strife came with the development +of a lively feud between the two brothers on the one side, and on the +other a crowd of young belligerents employed in a cotton factory on +the road between Greenhay and Manchester, where the boys now attended +school. Active hostilities occurred daily when the two "aristocrats" +passed the factory on their way home at the hour when its inmates +emerged from their labor. The dread of this encounter hung like a +cloud over Thomas, yet he followed William loyally, and served with +all the spirit of a cadet of the house. Imagination played an +important part in this campaign, and it is for that reason primarily +that to this and the other incidents of De Quincey's childhood +prominence is here given; in no better way can we come to an +understanding of the real nature of this singular man. + +In 1796 the home at Greenhay was broken up. The irrepressible William +was sent to London to study art; Mrs. De Quincey removed to Bath, and +Thomas was placed in the grammar school of that town; a younger +brother, Richard, in all respects a pleasing contrast to William, was +a sympathetic comrade and schoolmate. For two years De Quincey +remained in this school, achieving a great reputation in the study of +Latin, and living a congenial, comfortable life. This was followed by +a year in a private school at Winkfield, which was terminated by an +invitation to travel in Ireland with young Lord Westport, a lad of De +Quincey's own age, an intimacy having sprung up between them a year +earlier at Bath. It was in 1800 that the trip was made, and the +period of the visit extended over four or five months. After this +long recess De Quincey was placed in the grammar school at Manchester, +his guardians expecting that a three years' course in this school +would bring him a scholarship at Oxford. However, the new environment +proved wholly uncongenial, and the sensitive boy who, in spite of his +shyness and his slender frame, possessed grit in abundance, and who +was through life more or less a law to himself, made up his mind to +run away. His flight was significant. Early on a July morning he +slipped quietly off--in one pocket a copy of an English poet, a volume +of Euripides in the other. His first move was toward Chester, the +seventeen-year-old runaway deeming it proper that he should report at +once to his mother, who was now living in that town. So he trudged +overland forty miles and faced his astonished and indignant parent. At +the suggestion of a kind-hearted uncle, just home from India, Thomas +was let off easily; indeed, he was given an allowance of a guinea a +week, with permission to go on a tramp through North Wales, a +proposition which he hailed with delight. The next three months were +spent in a rather pleasant ramble, although the weekly allowance was +scarcely sufficient to supply all the comforts desired. The trip ended +strangely. Some sudden fancy seizing him, the boy broke off all +connection with his friends and went to London. Unknown, unprovided +for, he buried himself in the vast life of the metropolis. He lived a +precarious existence for several months, suffering from exposure, +reduced to the verge of starvation, his whereabouts a mystery to his +friends. The cloud of this experience hung darkly over his spirit, +even in later manhood; perceptions of a true world of strife were +vivid; impressions of these wretched months formed the material of his +most sombre dreams. + +Rescued at last, providentially, De Quincey spent the next period of +his life, covering the years 1803-7, in residence at Oxford. His +career as a student at the university is obscure. He was a member of +Worcester College, was known as a quiet, studious man, and lived an +isolated if not a solitary life. With a German student, who taught him +Hebrew, De Quincey seems to have had some intimacy, but his circle of +acquaintance was small, and no contemporary has thrown much light on +his stay. In 1807 he disappeared from Oxford, having taken the written +tests for his degree, but failing to present himself for the necessary +oral examination. + +The year of his departure from Oxford brought to De Quincey a +long-coveted pleasure--acquaintance with two famous contemporaries +whom he greatly admired, Coleridge and Wordsworth. Characteristic of +De Quincey in many ways was his gift, anonymously made, of £300 to his +hero, Coleridge. This was in 1807, when De Quincey was twenty-two, and +was master of his inheritance. The acquaintance ripened into intimacy, +and in 1809 the young man, himself gifted with talents which were to +make him equally famous with these, took up his residence at Grasmere, +in the Lake country, occupying for many years the cottage which +Wordsworth had given up on his removal to ampler quarters at Rydal +Mount. Here he spent much of his time in the society of the men who +were then grouped in distinguished neighborhood; besides Wordsworth +and Coleridge, the poet Southey was accessible, and a frequent visitor +was John Wilson, later widely known as the "Christopher North" of +_Blackwood's Magazine_. Nor was De Quincey idle; his habits of study +were confirmed; indeed, he was already a philosopher at twenty-four. +These were years of hard reading and industrious thought, wherein he +accumulated much of that metaphysical wisdom which was afterward to +win admiring recognition. + +In 1816 De Quincey married Margaret Simpson, a farmer's daughter +living near. There is a pretty scene painted by the author +himself,[3] in which he gives us a glimpse of his domestic life at +this time. Therein he pictures the cottage, standing in a valley, +eighteen miles from any town; no spacious valley, but about two miles +long by three-quarters of a mile in average width. The mountains are +real mountains, between 3000 and 4000 feet high, and the cottage a +real cottage, white, embowered with flowering shrubs, so chosen as to +unfold a succession of flowers upon the walls, and clustering around +the windows, through all the months of spring, summer, and autumn, +beginning, in fact, with May roses and ending with jasmine. It is in +the winter season, however, that De Quincey paints his picture, and so +he describes a room, seventeen feet by twelve, and not more than seven +and one-half feet high. This is the drawing-room, although it might +more justly be termed the library, for it happens that books are the +one form of property in which the owner is wealthy. Of these he has +about 5000, collected gradually since his eighteenth year. The room +is, therefore, populous with books. There is a good fire on the +hearth. The furniture is plain and modest, befitting the unpretending +cottage of a scholar. Near the fire stands a tea table; there are only +two cups and saucers on the tray. It is an "eternal" teapot that the +artist would like us to imagine, for he usually drinks tea from eight +o'clock at night to four in the morning. There is, of course, a +companion at the tea table, and very lovingly does the husband suggest +the pleasant personality of his young wife. One other important +feature is included in the scene; upon the table there rests also a +decanter, in which sparkles the ruby-colored laudanum. + +De Quincey's experience with opium had begun while he was a student at +the university, in 1804. It was first taken to obtain relief from +neuralgia, and his use of the drug did not at once become habitual. +During the period of residence at Grasmere, however, De Quincey +became confirmed in the habit, and so thoroughly was he its victim +that for a season his intellectual powers were well-nigh paralyzed; +his mind sank under such a cloud of depression and gloom that his +condition was pitiful in the extreme. Just before his marriage, in +1816, De Quincey, by a vigorous effort, partially regained his +self-control and succeeded in materially reducing his daily allowance +of the drug; but in the following year he fell more deeply than ever +under its baneful power, until in 1818-19 his consumption of opium was +something almost incredible. Thus he became truly enough the great +English Opium-Eater, whose Confessions were later to fill a unique +place in English literature. It was finally the absolute need of +bettering his financial condition that compelled De Quincey to shake +off the shackles of his vice; this he practically accomplished, +although perhaps he was never entirely free from the habit. The event +is coincident with the beginning of his career as a public writer. In +1820 he became a man of letters. + +As a professional writer it is to be noted that De Quincey was +throughout a contributor to the periodicals. With one or two +exceptions all his works found their way to the public through the +pages of the magazines, and he was associated as contributor with most +of those that were prominent in his time. From 1821 to 1825 we find +him residing for the most part in London, and here his public career +began. It was De Quincey's most distinctive work which first appeared. +The _London Magazine_, in its issue for September, 1821, contained the +first paper of the _Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_. The +novelty of the subject was sufficient to obtain for the new writer an +interested hearing, and there was much discussion as to whether his +apparent frankness was genuine or assumed. All united in applause of +the masterly style which distinguished the essay, also of the +profundity and value of the interesting material it contained. A +second part was included in the magazine for October. Other articles +by the Opium-Eater followed, in which the wide scholarship of the +author was abundantly shown, although the topics were of less general +interest. + +In 1826 De Quincey became an occasional contributor to _Blackwood's +Magazine_, and this connection drew him to Edinburgh, where he +remained, either in the city itself or in its vicinity, for the rest +of his life. The grotesquely humorous _Essay on Murder Considered as +One of the Fine Arts_ appeared in _Blackwood's_ in 1827. In 1832 he +published a series of articles on Roman History, entitled _The +Cæsars_. It was in July, 1837, that the _Revolt of the Tartars_ +appeared; in 1840 his critical paper upon _The Essenes_. Meanwhile De +Quincey had begun contributions to _Tait's Magazine_, another +Edinburgh publication, and it was in that periodical that the +_Sketches of Life and Manners from the Autobiography of an English +Opium-Eater_ began to appear in 1834, running on through several +years. These sketches include the chapters on Wordsworth, Coleridge, +Lamb, and Southey as well as those _Autobiographic Sketches_ which +form such a charming and illuminating portion of his complete works. + +The family life was sadly broken in 1837 by the death of De Quincey's +wife. He who was now left as guardian of the little household of six +children, was himself so helpless in all practical matters that it +seemed as though he were in their childish care rather than protector +of them. Scores of anecdotes are related of his odd and unpractical +behavior. One of his curious habits had been the multiplication of +lodgings; as books and manuscripts accumulated about him so that there +remained room for no more, he would turn the key upon his possessions +and migrate elsewhere to repeat the performance later on. It is known +that as many as four separate rents were at one and the same time +being paid by this odd, shy little man, rather than allow the +disturbance or contraction of his domain. Sometimes an anxious journey +in search of a manuscript had to be made by author and publisher in +conjunction before the missing paper could be located. The home life +of this eccentric yet lovable man of genius seems to have been always +affectionate and tender in spite even of his bondage to opium; it was +especially beautiful and childlike in his latest years. His eldest +daughter, Margaret, assumed quietly the place of headship, and with a +discretion equal to her devotion she watched over her father's +welfare. With reference to De Quincey's circumstances at this time, +his biographer, Mr. Masson, says: "Very soon, if left to himself, he +would have taken possession of every room in the house, one after +another, and 'snowed up' each with his papers; but, that having been +gently prevented, he had one room to work in all day and all night to +his heart's content. The evenings, or the intervals between his daily +working time and his nightly working time, or stroll, he generally +spent in the drawing-room with his daughters, either alone or in +company with any friends that chanced to be with him. At such times, +we are told, he was unusually charming. 'The newspaper was brought +out, and he, telling in his own delightful way, rather than reading, +the news, would, on questions from this one or that one of the party, +often including young friends of his children, neighbors, or visitors +from distant places, illuminate the subject with such a wealth of +memories, of old stories of past or present experiences, of humor, of +suggestion, even of prophecy, as by its very wealth makes it +impossible to give any taste of it.' The description is by one of his +daughters; and she adds a touch which is inimitable in its fidelity +and tenderness. 'He was not,' she says, 'a reassuring man for nervous +people to live with, as those nights were exceptional on which he did +not set something on fire, the commonest incident being for some one +to look up from book or work, to say casually, _Papa, your hair is on +fire_; of which a calm _Is it, my love?_ and a hand rubbing out the +blaze was all the notice taken.'"[4] + +Of his personal appearance Professor Minto says: + +"He was a slender little man, with small, clearly chiselled features, +a large head, and a remarkably high, square forehead. There was a +peculiarly high and regular arch in the wrinkles of his brow, which +was also slightly contracted. The lines of his countenance fell +naturally into an expression of mild suffering, of endurance sweetened +by benevolence, or, according to the fancy of the interpreter, of +gentle, melancholy sweetness. All that met him seem to have been +struck with the measured, silvery, yet somewhat hollow and unearthly +tones of his voice, the more impressive that the flow of his talk was +unhesitating and unbroken." + + * * * * * + +The literary labors were continuous. In 1845 the beautiful _Suspiria +de Profundis_ (Sighs from the Depths) appeared in _Blackwood's_; _The +English Mail Coach_ and _The Vision of Sudden Death_, in 1849. Among +other papers contributed to _Tait's Magazine_, the _Joan of Arc_ +appeared in 1847. During the last ten years of his life, De Quincey +was occupied chiefly in preparing for the publishers a complete +edition of his works. Ticknor & Fields, of Boston, the most +distinguished of our American publishing firms, had put forth, +1851-55, the first edition of De Quincey's collected writings, in +twenty volumes. The first British edition was undertaken by Mr. James +Hogg, of Edinburgh, in 1853, with the co-operation of the author, and +under his direction; the final volume of this edition was not issued +until the year following De Quincey's death. + +In the autumn of 1859 the frail physique of the now famous +Opium-Eater grew gradually feeble, although suffering from no definite +disease. It became evident that his life was drawing to its end. On +December 8, his two daughters standing by his side, he fell into a +doze. His mind had been wandering amid the scenes of his childhood, +and his last utterance was the cry, "Sister, sister, sister!" as if in +recognition of one awaiting him, one who had been often in his dreams, +the beloved Elizabeth, whose death had made so profound and lasting an +impression on his imagination as a child. + + * * * * * + +The authoritative edition of _De Quincey's Works_ is that edited by +David Masson and published in fourteen volumes by Adam and Charles +Black (Edinburgh). For American students the _Riverside Edition_, in +twelve volumes (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston), will be found +convenient. The most satisfactory _Life of De Quincey_ is the one by +Masson in the _English Men of Letters_ series. Of a more anecdotal +type are the _Life of De Quincey_, by H.A. Page, whose real name is +Alexander H. Japp (2 vols., New York, 1877), and _De Quincey +Memorials_ (New York, 1891), by the same author. Very interesting is +the brief volume, _Recollections of Thomas De Quincey_, by John R. +Findlay (Edinburgh, 1886), who also contributes the paper on _De +Quincey_ to the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. _De Quincey and his +Friends_, by James Hogg (London, 1895), is another volume of +recollections, souvenirs, and anecdotes, which help to make real their +subject's personality. Besides the editor, other writers contribute to +this volume: Richard Woodhouse, John R. Findlay, and John Hill Burton, +who has given under the name "Papaverius," a picturesque description +of the Opium-Eater. The student should always remember that De +Quincey's own chapters in the _Autobiographic Sketches_, and the +_Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_, which are among the most +charming and important of his writings, are also the most +authoritative and most valuable sources of our information concerning +him. In reading about De Quincey, do not fail to read De Quincey +himself. + +The best criticism of the Opium-Eater's work is found in William +Minto's _Manual of English Prose Literature_ (Ginn & Co.). A shorter +essay is contained in Saintsbury's _History of Nineteenth Century +Literature_. A very valuable list of all De Quincey's writings, in +chronological order, is given by Fred N. Scott, in his edition of De +Quincey's essays on _Style, Rhetoric_, and _Language_ (Allyn & Bacon). +Numerous magazine articles may be found by referring to Poole's Index. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Autobiographic Sketches_, Chap. I. + +[2] _Ibid._ + +[3] _Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_, Part II. + +[4] _De Quincey_ (_English Men of Letters_), David Masson, p. 110. + + + + +HOW TO READ DE QUINCEY. + + "De Quincey's sixteen volumes of magazine articles are + full of brain from beginning to end. At the rate of + about half a volume a day, they would serve for a + month's reading, and a month continuously might be + worse expended. There are few courses of reading from + which a young man of good natural intelligence would + come away more instructed, charmed, and stimulated, or, + to express the matter as definitely as possible, with + his mind more _stretched_. Good natural intelligence, a + certain fineness of fibre, and some amount of scholarly + education, have to be presupposed, indeed, in all + readers of De Quincey. But, even for the fittest + readers, a month's complete and continuous course of De + Quincey would be too much. Better have him on the + shelf, and take down a volume at intervals for one or + two of the articles to which there may be an immediate + attraction. An evening with De Quincey in this manner + will always be profitable." + + +DAVID MASSON, _Life of De Quincey_, Chap. XI. + + + + +REVOLT OF THE TARTARS; + +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 all history, from its +earliest records, less generally known, or more striking to +the imagination, than the flight eastwards of a principal +Tartar nation across the boundless steppes of Asia in the 5 +latter half of the last century. The _terminus a quo_ of this +flight and the _terminus ad quem_ are equally magnificent--the +mightiest of Christian thrones being the +one, the mightiest of pagan the other; and the grandeur of these +two terminal objects is harmoniously supported by the 10 +romantic circumstances of the flight. In the abruptness +of its commencement and the fierce velocity of its execution +we read an expression of the wild, barbaric character +of the agents. In the unity of purpose connecting this +myriad of wills, and in the blind but unerring aim at a 15 +mark so remote, there is something which recalls to the +mind those almighty instincts that propel the migrations of +the swallow and the leeming or the life-withering marches +of the locust. Then, again, in the gloomy vengeance of +Russia and her vast artillery, which hung upon the rear 20 +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 overtaking with volleying +thunders those who believed 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 the magnitude 5 +of the suffering. But it may also challenge a comparison +with similar events under another relation,--viz. as to its +dramatic capabilities. Few cases, perhaps, in romance +or history, can sustain a close collation with this as to the +_complexity_ of its separate interests. The great outline of 10 +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: 1st, That of a _conspiracy_, with as close a unity +in the incidents, and as much of a personal interest in 15 +the moving characters, with fine dramatic contrasts, as +belongs to "Venice Preserved" or to the "Fiesco" of +Schiller. 2dly, That of a great military expedition offering +the same romantic features of vast distances to be +traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, untried routes, 20 +enemies obscurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely +prefigured, which mark the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses--the +anabasis of the younger Cyrus, and the +subsequent retreat of the ten thousand, the Parthian +expeditions of the Romans, especially those of Crassus 25 +and Julian--or (as more disastrous 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. 3dly, That of a religious _Exodus_, authorized +by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia, 30 +--an Exodus, therefore, in so far resembling the great +Scriptural Exodus of the Israelites, under Moses and +Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinction of carrying +along with them their entire families, women, children, +slaves, their herd of 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 we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage 5 +representation, depends 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 modern representative 10 +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 (as it _literally_ was in its commencement)--to 15 +the Tartar siege of the Russian fortress Koulagina--the +bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the mountain +passes at Ouchim--the surprisal by the Bashkirs and +the advanced posts of the Russian army at Torgau--the +private conspiracy at this point against the Khan--the 20 +long succession of running 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 +situations communicate a _scenical_ animation to the wild 25 +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 a whole people--a people semi-barbarous, +but simple-hearted, and of ancient descent. 30 + + * * * * * + +On the 21st of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha +assumed the sceptre of the Kalmucks 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. +He was now about eighteen years of age, amiable in his +personal character, and not without titles to respect in his 5 +public character as a sovereign prince. In times more +peaceable, and amongst a people more entirely civilized +or more humanized by religion, it is even probable that +he might have discharged his high duties with considerable +distinction; but his lot was thrown upon stormy 10 +times, and a most difficult crisis amongst tribes 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 15 +the jealous _surveillance_ of an irresistible lord paramount, +in the person of the Russian 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 distrust. No 20 +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 present was of this nature: _wanting_ the support and +sanction of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak from 25 +without to command confidence from his subjects or +resistance to his competitors. On the other hand, _with_ +this kind of support, and deriving his title in any degree +from the favor of the Imperial Court, he became almost +in that extent an object of hatred at home and within the 30 +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; and an +object of jealousy for the future, as one who had already +advertised himself to be a fitting tool for the ultimate +purposes (whatsoever those might prove to be) of the +Russian Court. Coming himself to the Kalmuck sceptre +under the heaviest weight of prejudice from the unfortunate +circumstances of his position, it might have been 5 +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, and the principle of +inheritance violently suspended, in favor of his own 10 +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 with his father, stood within the full current of +the national prejudices, and might have anticipated the 15 +most pointed hostility. But it was not so: such are the +caprices in human affairs that he was even, in a moderate +sense, popular--a benefit which wore the more cheering +aspect and the promises of permanence, inasmuch as he +owed it exclusively to his personal qualities of kindness 20 +and affability, as well as to the beneficence of his government. +On the other hand, to balance this unlooked-for +prosperity 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 25 +the throne, and, perhaps it might be said, with equal pretensions. +Zebek-Dorchi 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 personal 30 +qualities, even in those aspects which seemed to a philosophical +observer most odious and repulsive, promised +the most effectual aid to the dark purposes of an intriguer +or a conspirator, and were generally fitted to win a popular +support 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 intellectual qualities of Machiavelian 5 +dissimulation, profound 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 from the +frank carelessness of his unconscious competitor. 10 + +At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek-Dorchi +was sagacious enough to perceive that nothing +could be gained by open declaration of hostility to the +reigning prince: the choice had been a deliberate act on +the part of Russia, and Elizabeth Petrowna was not the 15 +person to recall her own favors with levity or upon slight +grounds. Openly, therefore, to have declared his enmity +toward his relative on the throne, could have had no effect +but that of arming suspicions against his own ulterior +purposes in a quarter where it was most essential to his 20 +interest that, for the present, all suspicions should be +hoodwinked. Accordingly, after much meditation, the +course he took for 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 25 +were leagued together under an oath to assassinate him; +and immediately after, assuming a well-counterfeited 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 30 +effectually, he soon repaired in person to St. Petersburg. +Once admitted to personal conferences with the cabinet, +he found no difficulty in winning over the Russian councils +to a concurrence with some of his political views, +and thus covertly introducing the point of that wedge +which was finally to accomplish his purposes. In particular, +he persuaded the Russian Government to make a +very important alteration in the constitution of the Kalmuck +State Council which in effect reorganized the whole 5 +political condition of the state and disturbed the 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 10 +to the Khan; holding, in fact, the ministerial +character of secretaries and assistants, but in no respect +ranking as co-ordinate authorities. That had produced +some inconveniences in former reigns; and it was easy +for Zebek-Dorchi to point the jealousy of the Russian 15 +Court to others more serious which might arise in future +circumstances of war or other contingencies. It was +resolved, therefore, to place the Sargatchi henceforward +on a footing of perfect independence, and, therefore (as +regarded responsibility), on a footing of equality with the 20 +Khan. Their independence, however, had respect only +to their own sovereign; for toward Russia they were +placed in a new attitude of direct duty and accountability +by the creation in their favor of small pensions (300 +roubles a year), which, however, to a Kalmuck of that 25 +day were more considerable than might be supposed, +and had a further value as marks of honorary distinction +emanating from a 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 30 +the further development of his plots, this very dependency +upon Russian influence would be the most serious +obstacle in his way. There was, however, another point +carried, which outweighed all inferior considerations, as +it gave him a power of setting aside discretionally whatsoever +should arise to disturb his plots: he was himself +appointed President and Controller of the Sargatchi. +The Russian Court had been aware of his high pretensions 5 +by birth, and hoped by this promotion to satisfy +the ambition which, in some degree, was 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 10 +fulfil his political mission with the Khan of the Kalmucks. +So artfully did he prepare the road for his favorable +reception at the court of this prince that he was at once +and universally welcomed as a public 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 charged upon Zebek as any offence or any 20 +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 pretenders, who +would not have had the same motives of consanguinity or 25 +friendship for executing its duties in a spirit of kindness +to the Kalmucks. The first use which he made of his +new functions about the Khan's person was to attack the +Court of Russia, by a romantic villainy not easily to be +credited, for those very acts of interference with the 30 +council which he himself had prompted. This was a +dangerous step: but it was indispensable to his farther +advance upon the gloomy path which he had traced out +for himself. A triple vengeance was what he meditated: +1, upon the Russian Cabinet, for having undervalued his +own pretensions to the throne; 2, upon his amiable rival, +for having supplanted him; and 3, upon all those of the +nobility who had manifested their sense of his weakness +by their neglect or their sense of his perfidious character 5 +by their suspicions. Here was a colossal outline of wickedness; +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 10 +assail the mighty behemoth of Muscovy, the potentate +who counted three hundred languages around the footsteps +of his throne, and from whose "lion ramp" recoiled +alike "baptized and infidel"--Christendom on the one +side, strong by her intellect and her organization, and the 15 +"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 not be suspected. The very hopelessness +of the scheme grounded his hope; and he resolved to 20 +execute 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 in detaching from +the Russian empire the whole Kalmuck nation and breaking +up that system of intercourse which had thus far been 25 +beneficial to both. This last was a consideration which +moved him but little. True it was that Russia to the +Kalmucks had secured lands and extensive pasturage; +true it was that the Kalmucks reciprocally to Russia had +furnished a powerful cavalry; but the latter loss would be 30 +part of his triumph, and the former might be more than +compensated in other 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 enemies. It may +be readily supposed, indeed, that he who could deliberately +raise his eyes to the Russian autocrat as an antagonist 5 +in single duel with himself was not likely to feel much +anxiety about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He +took his resolution, therefore, sternly and irrevocably, 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, 10 +and of which the fords 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 their +flight in winter), famine in their front, and the sabre, or 15 +even 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 of wandering? Two things were evident: +it must be some power at a great distance from Russia, 20 +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 the Czarina +for reclaiming them or for chastising their revolt. Both +conditions were united obviously in the person of Kien 25 +Long, the reigning Emperor of China, who was further +recommended to them by his respect for the head of +their religion. To China, therefore, and, as their first +rendezvous, to the shadow of the Great Chinese Wall, it +was settled by Zebek that they should direct their flight. 30 + +Next came the question of time--_when_ should the +flight commence? and, finally, the more delicate 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 evident that a very extensive confidence +must be made, because in no other way could the +mass of the Kalmuck population be persuaded to furnish +their families with the requisite equipments for so long a 5 +migration. This critical step, however, it was resolved +to defer up to the latest possible moment, and, at all +events, to make no general communication on the subject +until the time of departure should be definitely +settled. In the meantime, Zebek admitted only three 10 +persons to his confidence; of whom Oubacha, the reigning +prince, was almost necessarily one; but him, for his +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 15 +participation in his counsels were two only: the +great Lama among the Kalmucks, and his own father-in-law, +Erempel, a ruling 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 20 +the occasion as by his blind devotion to himself and +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, 25 +seemed but an empty sound to both of these ambitious +rebels. The other accomplice, whose name was +Loosang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of Lama, +or Kalmuck pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished +pretensions; he had something of the same 30 +gloomy 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 profound. 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 suggested to him that, in order to +strengthen their influence with the vast mob of simple-minded 5 +men 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. This could only +be done by addressing themselves to the great head of 10 +their religion, the Dalai-Lama of Tibet. Him they easily +persuaded to countenance their schemes: and an oracle +was delivered solemnly at Tibet, to the effect that no +ultimate prosperity would attend this great Exodus unless +it were pursued through the years of the _tiger_ and the 15 +_hare_. Now the Kalmuck custom is to distinguish their +years by attaching to each a denomination taken from one +of twelve animals, the exact order of succession being +absolutely fixed, so that the cycle revolves of course +through a period of a dozen years. Consequently, if the 20 +approaching year of the _tiger_ were suffered to escape +them, in that case the expedition must be delayed for +twelve years more; within which period, even were no +other unfavorable changes to arise, it was pretty well +foreseen that the Russian Government would take most 25 +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 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 30 +nobles. On these cogent considerations, it was solemnly +determined that this terrific experiment 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 absolutely necessary, or it was thought so, +that the different divisions of the nation, which pastured +their flocks on both banks of the Wolga, should have the 5 +means of effecting an instantaneous junction, because +the danger of being intercepted by flying columns of the +imperial armies was precisely the greatest at the outset. +Now, from the want of bridges or sufficient river craft +for transporting so vast a body of men, the sole means 10 +which could be depended upon (especially where so many +women, 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 January. +Hence it happened that this astonishing Exodus of a 15 +whole nation, before so much as a whisper of the design +had begun to circulate 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 January of the year 1771. And almost up to the 20 +Christmas of 1770 the poor simple Kalmuck herdsmen +and their families were going nightly to their peaceful +beds without even dreaming that the _fiat_ had already +gone forth from their rulers which consigned those quiet +abodes, together with the peace and comfort which reigned 25 +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 for throwing +off their vassalage, it was necessary that Oubacha should 30 +contribute his usual contingent of martial aid. Nay, it +had unfortunately become prudent that he should contribute +much more than his usual aid. Human experience +gives ample evidence that in some mysterious and +unaccountable way no great design is ever agitated, no +matter how few or how faithful may be the participators, +but that some presentiment--some dim misgiving--is +kindled amongst those whom it is chiefly important to +blind. And, however it might have happened, certain it 5 +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 uneasy jealousy had arisen in the Russian Cabinet +as to the future schemes of the Kalmuck Khan: and 10 +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 that moment such measures +would have been adopted as must forever have intercepted 15 +the Kalmuck schemes. Slight as were the jealousies +of the Imperial Court, they had not escaped the +Machiavelian eyes of Zebek and the Lama. And under +their guidance, Oubacha, bending to the circumstances of +the moment, and meeting the jealousy of the Russian 20 +Court with a policy corresponding to their own, strove by +unusual zeal to efface the Czarina's unfavorable impressions. +He enlarged the scale of his contributions, and +_that_ so prodigiously that he absolutely carried to headquarters +a force of 35,000 cavalry, fully equipped: some 25 +go further, and rate the amount beyond 40,000; but the +smaller estimate is, at all events, _within_ 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 30 +good fortune to be concerned 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 Turkish +force opposed to him, with a loss of 5000 men left upon +the field. + +These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate +in various ways against the impending revolt. Oubacha 5 +had now a strong motive, in the martial glory acquired, +for continuing his connection with the empire in whose +service he had won it, and by whom only it could be fully +appreciated. He was now a great marshal of a great +empire, one of the Paladins around the imperial throne; 10 +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. +Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the Czarina, +grateful for the really efficient aid given by the Tartar 15 +prince, would confer upon him such eminent rewards as +might be sufficient to anchor his hopes upon Russia, and +to wean him 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 20 +disappointed. The Czarina knew her obligations to the +Khan, but she did not acknowledge them. Wherefore? +That is a mystery perhaps never to be explained. So it +was, however. The Khan went unhonored; no _ukase_ +ever proclaimed his merits; and, perhaps, had he even 25 +been abundantly recompensed by Russia, there were +others who would have defeated these tendencies 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 30 +their deadliest enemies. In the Russian Court there were +at that time some great nobles preoccupied with feelings +of hatred and blind malice toward the Kalmucks quite as +strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor toward +Russia, and not, perhaps, so well founded. Just as much +as the Kalmucks hated the Russian yoke, their galling +assumption of authority, the marked air of disdain, as +toward a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, +which too generally marked the Russian bearing and 5 +language, but, above all, the insolent contempt, or even +outrages, which the Russian governors or great military +commandants tolerated in their followers toward the barbarous +religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck +priesthood--precisely in that extent did the ferocity 10 +of the Russian resentment, and their wrath at seeing the +trampled worm turn or attempt a feeble retaliation, react +upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At this crisis, it is probable +that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing the +splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the 15 +Turks and Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian +irritation. And it must have been through the intrigues +of those nobles about her person who chiefly smarted +under these feelings that the Czarina could ever have +lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued 20 +at this critical period toward the Kalmuck Khan. That +Czarina was no longer Elizabeth Petrowna; it was Catharine II.--a +princess 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 25 +repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how much it +must have co-operated with the other motives previously +acting upon Oubacha in sustaining his determination to +revolt, and how powerfully it must have assisted the efforts +of all the Tartar chieftains in preparing the minds of their 30 +people to feel the necessity of this difficult enterprise, by +arming their pride and their suspicions against the Russian +Government, through the keenness of their sympathy +with the wrongs of their insulted prince, may be readily +imagined. It is a fact, and it has been confessed by +candid Russians 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 Council, was exactly such 5 +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 of doubtful suspicion and indirect presumption. 10 + + 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 the documents bearing on the case, 15 +more especially the letters or minutes of council subsequently +discovered in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, +and the important evidence of the Russian captive, Weseloff, +who was carried off by the Kalmucks in their flight, +that beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless for any 20 +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 even to slacken in his zeal; for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting +the firmness of his resolution under any unusual 25 +pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, in the very earliest +stage of the conspiracy, availed himself of the Khan's +well-known superstition, to engage him, by means of previous +concert with the priests and their head, the Lama, +in some dark and mysterious rites of consecration, terminating 30 +in oaths under such terrific sanctions as no Kalmuck +would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, +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 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, 5 +and better adapted to his peculiar temperament. For +Oubacha was a brave man, as respected all bodily enemies +or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive and +timid as the most superstitious of old women in +facing the frowns of a priest or under the vague anticipations 10 +of ghostly retributions. But had it been otherwise, +and had there been any reason to apprehend 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 their domestic politics amongst 15 +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. He was the true +and absolute wielder of the Kalmuck sceptre; all measures 20 +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 sufficiently simple: first of all, by availing himself +of the prejudice in his favor, so largely diffused amongst 25 +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 all the Kalmuck Khans, +stood upon a better basis than that of Oubacha, who +derived from a collateral branch; secondly, with respect 30 +to the sole advantage which Oubacha possessed above +himself in the ratification of his title, by improving this +difference between their situations to the disadvantage +of his 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 ferocious energy of his +moral character; fourthly--and perhaps in an equal 5 +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 modelling +of the Sarga, or Privy Council, which he had used +as a principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation 10 +against the Russian Government, whilst, in reality, he +first had suggested the alteration to the Empress, and +he chiefly appropriated the political advantages which it +was fitted to yield. For, as he was himself appointed the +chief of the Sargatchi, and as the pensions of the inferior 15 +Sargatchi passed through his hands, whilst in effect they +owed their appointments to his nomination, it may be +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 20 +under his influence, the final result was to throw +all the functions of the 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 thunders 25 +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. + +But the time was now rapidly approaching for the +mighty experiment. The day was drawing near on which 30 +the signal was to be given for raising 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 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 day when the fortunes 5 +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 himself to +make the revelation so urgently required. It was clear, 10 +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 hearers? After some deliberation the following +plan was adopted:--Couriers, it was contrived, should 15 +arrive in furious haste, one upon the heels of another, +reporting a sudden inroad of the Kirghises and Bashkirs +upon the Kalmuck lands, at a point distant about 120 +miles. Thither all the Kalmuck families, according to +immemorial custom, were required to send a separate representative; 20 +and there, accordingly, within three days, all +appeared. The distance, the solitary ground appointed +for the rendezvous, the rapidity of the march, all tended +to make it almost certain that no Russian could be +present. Zebek-Dorchi then came forward. He did 25 +not waste many words upon rhetoric. He unfurled an +immense sheet of parchment, visible from the outermost +distance at which 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; 30 +of her pride and haughty disdain, evidenced toward them +by a thousand acts; of her contempt for their religion; +of her determination to reduce them to absolute slavery; +of the preliminary measures she had already taken by +erecting forts upon many of the great rivers of their neighborhood; +of the ulterior intentions she thus announced +to circumscribe their pastoral lands, until they would all +be obliged to renounce their flocks, and to collect in +towns like Sarepta, there to pursue mechanical and servile 5 +trades of shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the free-born +Tartar had 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 support of 10 +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, by himself and the Lama), containing 15 +projects of the Russian Court for a general transfer of +the eldest sons, taken _en masse_ from the greatest Kalmuck +families, to the Imperial Court. "Now, let this be once +accomplished," he argued, "and there is an end of all +useful resistance from that day forwards. Petitions we 20 +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 a chain, Russia would make a jest of +our wishes, knowing full well that we should not dare to 25 +make any effectual movement." + +Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his +vast audience, and having alarmed their fears by this +pretended scheme against their firstborn (an artifice +which was indispensable to his purpose, because it met 30 +beforehand _every_ form of amendment to his proposal +coming from the more moderate nobles, who would not +otherwise have failed to insist upon trying the effect of +bold 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 Russia to cross into such positions from all +parts of Asia as would effectually intercept their march. 5 +It is remarkable, however, that with all his audacity and +his reliance upon the momentary excitement of the Kalmucks, +the subtle prince did not venture, at 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 10 +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 farther bank, from which, as from a post +of conscious security, they could hold a bolder language +to the Czarina, and one which would have a better chance 15 +of winning a favorable audience. + +These things, in the irritated condition of the simple +Tartars, passed by acclamation; and all returned homeward +to push forward with the most furious speed the +preparations for their awful undertaking. Rapid and 20 +energetic these of necessity were; and in that degree +they became noticeable and manifest to the Russians who +happened to be intermingled with the different hordes, +either on commercial errands, or as agents officially from +the Russian Government, some in a financial, others in a 25 +diplomatic character. + +Among 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 Tartar revolution. This Kichinskoi 30 +had been sent by the Empress as her envoy to overlook +the conduct of the Kalmucks. He was styled the +Grand Pristaw, or Great Commissioner, and was universally +known amongst the Tartar tribes by this title. His +mixed character of ambassador and of political _surveillant_, +combined with the dependent state of the Kalmucks, +gave him a real weight in the Tartar councils, and might +have given him a far greater had not his outrageous +self-conceit and his arrogant confidence in his own 5 +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 +publicly insulted the Khan; and, upon making a communication 10 +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 this you dare not attempt; I laugh at +such rumors; yes, Khan, I laugh at them to the Empress; 15 +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 mouth, continued to utter, +amongst those of the Khan's attendants who stayed +behind to catch his real sentiments in a moment of unguarded 20 +passion, all that the blindest frenzy of rage could +suggest to the most presumptuous of fools. It was now +ascertained that suspicion _had_ arisen; but, at the same +time, it was ascertained that the Pristaw spoke no more +than the truth in representing himself to have discredited 25 +these suspicions. The fact was that the mere infatuation +of vanity made him believe that nothing could go on undetected +by his all-piercing sagacity, and that no rebellion +could prosper when rebuked by his commanding presence. +The Tartars, therefore, pursued their preparations, confiding 30 +in the obstinate blindness of the Grand Pristaw as +in their perfect safeguard, and such it proved--to his +own ruin as well as that of myriads 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, assuring the Czarina that +beyond all doubt the Kalmucks were in the very crisis of +departure. These dispatches came from the Governor +of Astrachan, and copies were instantly forwarded to 5 +Kichinskoi. Now, it happened that between this governor--a +Russian 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 dispatch than he felt himself 10 +confirmed in his former views with tenfold 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, was not +to be put down by a few hard words, or by ridicule: he 15 +persisted in his statements; the Russian ministry were +confounded by the obstinacy of the disputants; and some +were beginning even to treat the Governor of Astrachan +as a bore, and as the dupe of his own nervous terrors, +when the memorable day arrived, the fatal 5th of January, 20 +which forever terminated the dispute and put a seal upon +the earthly hopes and fortunes of unnumbered myriads. +The Governor of Astrachan 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 25 +sledge, and, at the rate of 300 miles a day, pursued his +route to St. Petersburg--rushed into the Imperial presence--announced +the total realization of his worst predictions; +and, upon the confirmation of this intelligence +by subsequent dispatches from many different posts on 30 +the Wolga, he received an imperial commission to seize +the 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 grief +and mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon--a +victim to his own immeasurable vanity and the blinding +self-delusions of a presumption that refused all warning. + + The Governor of Astrachan had been but too faithful +a prophet. Perhaps even _he_ was surprised at the suddenness 5 +with which the verification followed his reports. +Precisely on the 5th of January, 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 10 +squadrons and in the tumultuous movement of some great +morning of battle. Tens of thousands continued moving +off the ground at every half hour's interval. Women +and children, to the amount of two hundred thousand and +upward, were placed upon wagons or upon camels, and 15 +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 falling +in at various distances upon the first and second day's +march. From sixty to eighty thousand of those who 20 +were the best mounted stayed 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 supposed to approve. But in this, +as in other instances, he was completely overruled by the 25 +malignant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first tempest +of the desolating fury of the Tartars discharged itself +upon their own habitations. But this, as cutting off all +infirm looking backward from the hardships of their +march, had been thought so necessary a measure by all 30 +the chieftains that even Oubacha himself was the first to +authorize 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. Nothing was saved from the general +wreck except the portable part of the domestic utensils +and that part of the woodwork which could be applied +to the manufacture of the long Tartar lances. This +chapter in their memorable day's work being finished, 5 +and the whole of their villages throughout a district of +ten thousand square miles in one simultaneous 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 10 +Czarina a dreadful commentary upon the main motives +of their flight. It was the purpose of Zebek-Dorchi that +all the Russian towns, churches, and buildings of every +description should be given up to pillage and destruction, +and such treatment applied to the defenceless inhabitants 15 +as 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 providential disappointment at 20 +the very crisis of 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 on 25 +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 thousand-fold +the calamities inevitable to a rapid flight over +boundless tracts of country with women, children, and 30 +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 for marking +the moment of absolute departure--that is, for signifying +whether the settled intention of the Eastern Kalmucks +might not have been suddenly interrupted by adverse +intelligence. Others have supposed that the ice might +not be equally strong on both sides of the river, and 5 +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 Russian troops in the +neighborhood of the Western Kalmucks, though really 10 +having no reference to them or their plans, had been construed +into certain signs that all was discovered, and that +the prudence of the Western chieftains, who, from situation, +had never been exposed to those intrigues by which +Zebek-Dorchi had practised upon the pride of the Eastern 15 +tribes, now stepped in to save their people from ruin. +Be the cause what it might, it is certain that the 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 hundred 20 +thousand of these Tartars were left behind in Russia. +This accident it was which saved their Russian 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 25 +property, their houses, and themselves, had it 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 30 +circumstances 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. + +Little did the Western Kalmucks guess what reasons +they also had for gratitude, on account of an interposition +so unexpected, and which at the moment they so generally +deplored. Could they but have witnessed the thousandth +part of the sufferings which overtook their Eastern brethren 5 +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 afterward +succeeded. 10 + +For now began to unroll the most awful series of +calamities, and the most extensive, which is anywhere +recorded to have visited the sons and daughters of men. It +is possible that the sudden inroads of destroying nations, +such as the Huns, or the Avars, or the Mongol 15 +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 who +perished would perish instantly. It is possible that the 20 +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 commence in good earnest until about one month +from the time of leaving Moscow; and though it is true 25 +that afterward the vials of wrath were emptied upon the +devoted army for six or seven weeks in succession, yet +what is that to this Kalmuck tragedy, which lasted for +more than as many months? But the main feature of +horror, by which the Tartar march was distinguished from 30 +the French, lies in the accompaniment of women[5] and +children. There were both, it is true, with the French +army, but so few as to bear no visible proportion to the +total numbers concerned. The French, in short, were +merely an army--a host of professional destroyers, whose +regular trade was bloodshed, and whose regular element 5 +was danger and suffering. But the Tartars were a nation +carrying along with them more than two hundred and +fifty thousand women and children, utterly unequal, for +the most part, to any contest with the calamities before +them. The Children of Israel were in the same circumstances 10 +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 residence +in the Desert was not a march, but a continued halt +and under a continued interposition of Heaven for their 15 +comfortable support. Earthquakes, again, however comprehensive +in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's +duration. A 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 20 +Athens in the Peloponnesian war, or London in the reign +of Charles II. There, also, the martyrs 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 25 +alleviation to the _conscious_ pressure of the calamity--that +the misery was withdrawn from public notice into 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, 30 +for duration, for the exasperation of the suffering from +without by 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 peculiar to itself--circumstances 5 +without precedent, and (wherever human nature is ennobled +by Christianity), it may be confidently hoped, never +to be repeated. + +The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose +could be encouraged, was the River Jaik. This was not 10 +above 300 miles from the main point of departure on the +Wolga; 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 would be the more brief and transient; +one summary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was 15 +achieved. Forced the march was, and severe beyond +example: there the forewarning proved correct; but the +promised rest proved a mere phantom of the wilderness--a +visionary rainbow, which fled before their hope-sick +eyes, across these interminable solitudes, for seven months 20 +of hardship and calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, +by their very nature and the circumstances under +which they arose, were (like the scenery of the steppes) +somewhat monotonous in their coloring and external +features; what variety, however, there was, will be most 25 +naturally exhibited by tracing 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 development, it is remarkable 30 +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 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 curtain which +veils the great catastrophe, we behold one vast climax of +anguish, towering upward by regular gradations as if constructed 5 +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 latter stages of the expedition. +But it seemed, on the contrary, most reasonable to 10 +calculate upon a continual decrement in the rate of motion +according to the increasing distance from the headquarters +of the pursuing enemy. This calculation, however, was +defeated by the extraordinary circumstance that the Russian +armies did not begin to close in very fiercely upon 15 +the Kalmucks until after they had accomplished a distance +of full 2000 miles: 1000 miles farther on the assaults +became even more tumultuous and murderous: and already +the great shadows of the Chinese Wall were dimly descried, +when the frenzy and _acharnement_ of the pursuers and the 20 +bloody desperation of the miserable fugitives had reached +its uttermost extremity. Let us briefly rehearse 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. 25 + + The first stage, we have already said, was from 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 30 +moderate pace, this part of the journey might have been +accomplished without much distress by a people as hardy +as the Kalmucks: as it was, the cattle suffered greatly +from overdriving; milk began to fail even for the children; +the sheep perished by wholesale; 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 Russia to come into +collision with the Kalmucks. Great was their surprise at 5 +the suddenness of the irruption, and great also their consternation; +for, according to their settled custom, by far +the greater part of their number was absent during the +winter months at the fisheries upon the Caspian. Some +who were liable to surprise at the most exposed points 10 +fled in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, which was +immediately invested and summoned by Oubacha. He +had, however, in his train only a few light pieces of +artillery; and the Russian commandant at Koulagina, +being aware of the hurried circumstances in which the 15 +Khan was placed, and that he stood upon the very edge, +as it were, of a renewed flight, felt encouraged by 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 20 +his anxiety was not long. On the fifth day of the siege +he descried from the walls 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. 25 +Great agitation appeared immediately to follow: orders +were soon after dispatched in all directions; and it became +speedily known that upon a distant flank of the Kalmuck +movement a bloody and exterminating battle had been +fought the day before, in which one entire tribe of the 30 +Khan's dependents, numbering not less than 9000 fighting +men, had perished to the last man. This was the +_ouloss_, 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 inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally +eager so to direct their efforts as to combine with +the service of the Empress some gratification to their own +party hatreds, more especially as the present was likely 5 +to be their final opportunity for revenge if 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 10 +Oubacha; for 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 +headquarters by an interval of 80 miles; and thus it was, +and not from oversight, that it came to be thrown entirely 15 +upon its own resources. These had proved insufficient: +retreat, from the exhausted state of their horses and +camels, no less than from the prodigious encumbrances +of their live stock, was absolutely out of the question: +quarter was disdained on the one side, and would not 20 +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) threw his parting rays upon +the final agonies of an ancient _ouloss_, stretched upon a +bloody field, who on that day's dawning had held and 25 +styled themselves an independent nation. + +Universal consternation was diffused through the wide +borders of the Khan's encampment by this disastrous +intelligence, not so much on account of the numbers +slain, or the total extinction of a powerful ally, as because 30 +the position of the Cossack force was likely to put +to hazard the future advances of the Kalmucks, or at +least to retard and hold them in check until the heavier +columns of the Russian 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 children, once again resounded through the +tents--the signal for flight, and this time for a flight +more rapid than ever. About 150 miles ahead of their 5 +present position, there arose a tract of hilly country, +forming a sort of margin to the vast, sealike expanse of +champaign savannas, steppes, and occasionally of sandy +deserts, which stretched away on each side of this margin +both eastwards and westwards. Pretty nearly in the 10 +centre of this hilly range lay a narrow defile, through +which passed the nearest and the most practicable route +to the River Torgau (the farther 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 15 +the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the delay in +forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing +columns 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 20 +those best acquainted with the difficult and obscure geography +of these pathless steppes--that the loss of this one +narrow strait amongst the hills would have the effect of +throwing them (as their only alternative in a case where +so wide a sweep of pasturage was required) upon a circuit 25 +of at least 500 miles extra; besides that, after all, this +circuitous route would carry them to the Torgau at a point +unfitted 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 30 +cavalry, there was little chance but it would be found +preoccupied by the Cossacks. They, it is true, had +suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary action with the +defeated _ouloss_; but the excitement of victory, and the +intense sympathy with their 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 preoccupation +was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were marching 5 +upon an oblique line not above 50 miles longer than +that which led to the same point from the Kalmuck +headquarters before Koulagina; and therefore, without +the most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there +was not a chance for them, burdened and "trashed"[6] as 10 +they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the +Cossacks in seizing this important pass. + +Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing +this exposition of the case. For they easily understood +that too capital an interest (the _summa rerum_) 15 +was now at stake to allow of any regard to minor interests, +or what would be considered such in their present +circumstances. The dreadful week already passed--their +inauguration in misery--was yet fresh in their +remembrance. The scars of suffering were impressed 20 +not only upon their memories, but upon their very persons +and the persons of their children; and they knew 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 25 +as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian captive, +has recorded the silent wretchedness with which the +women and elder boys assisted in drawing the tent ropes. +On the 5th of January all had been animation and the +joyousness of indefinite expectation; now, on the contrary, 30 +a brief but bitter experience had taught them to +take an amended calculation 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 5 +greater than before, for the cold had been more intense, +and many perished out of the living creatures through +every class except only the camels--whose powers of +endurance seemed equally adapted to cold and heat. +The second morning, however, brought an alleviation to 10 +the distress. Snow had begun to fall; and, though not +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 15 +check the advance of the 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 succeeded; 20 +the drifting had ceased. In three days the smooth expanse +became firm enough to support the treading of the +camels; and the flight was recommenced. But during +the halt much domestic comfort had been enjoyed; and, +for the last time, universal plenty. The cows and oxen 25 +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 whatever part should be found to exceed the +immediate consumption. This measure led to a scene 30 +of general banqueting, and even of festivity amongst all +who were not incapacitated for joyous emotions by distress +of mind, by grief for the 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 losses in reversion +were likely to be many more. For rumors began now to +arrive from all quarters, by the mounted couriers whom 5 +the Khan had dispatched to the rear and to each flank as +well as in advance, that large masses of the imperial troops +were converging from all parts of Central Asia to the fords +of the River Torgau, as the most convenient point for +intercepting the flying tribes; and it was already well 10 +known that a powerful division was close in their rear, +and was retarded 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 15 +those who were previously but too much exhausted. + +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 Moulgaldchares, in which they +anticipated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. 20 +A pretty large body of these 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 two hundred camels, and some pieces of light 25 +artillery which he had not yet been forced to abandon--soon +began to make a serious impression upon this +unsupported detachment; and they would probably at any +rate have retired; but, at the very moment when they +were making some dispositions in that view, Zebek-Dorchi 30 +appeared upon their rear with a body of trained riflemen, +who had distinguished themselves in the war with Turkey. +These men had contrived to crawl unobserved over the +cliffs which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of the +dry beds of the summer torrents and other inequalities of +the ground to conceal their movement. Disorder and +trepidation ensued instantly in the Cossack files; the +Khan, who had been waiting with the _élite_ of his heavy +cavalry, charged furiously upon them. Total overthrow 5 +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 support the weight +of heavy Polish dragoons and a body of trained _cameleers_ 10 +(that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels); hardy they were, +but not strong, nor a match for their antagonists in 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_ 15 +escape; and the bloody day of Ouchim became as memorable +among the Cossacks as that which, about twenty +days before, had signalized the complete annihilation of +the Feka-Zechorr.[7] + +The road was now open to the River Igritch, and as yet 20 +even far beyond it to the Torgau; but how 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 Torgau under the command of +General Traubenberg. This officer was to be joined on +his route by ten thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the 5 +same amount of Kirghises--both hereditary enemies of +the Kalmucks--both exasperated to a point of madness +by the bloody trophies which Oubacha and Momotbacha +had, in late years, won from such of their compatriots as +served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke these wild 10 +nations bore with submissive patience, but not the hands +by which it had been imposed; and accordingly, catching +with eagerness at the present occasion offered to their +vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina of their +perfect obedience to her commands, and at the same time 15 +a message significantly declaring in what spirit they meant +to execute them--viz. "that they would not trouble her +Majesty with prisoners." + +Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race +for the Kalmucks with the regular armies of Russia, and 20 +concurrently with nations as fierce and semi-humanized +as themselves, besides that they were 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 25 +far too overwhelming to permit the thought of 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 Torgau. In their +speed lay their only hope--in strength of foot, as before, 30 +and not 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 mother with her baby--all +were left behind. Sights such as these, with the many +rueful aggravations incident to the helpless condition of +infancy--of disease and of female weakness abandoned +to the wolves amidst a howling wilderness--continued to 5 +track their course through 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 tribes, from the point of starting on +the Wolga until they could reach their destined halting 10 +ground on the east bank of the Torgau. For the first +seven weeks of this march their sufferings had been imbittered +by the excessive severity of the 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 15 +of their baggage wagons, or (as occasionally happened) +from the forests which skirted the banks of the many +rivers which crossed their path--no spectacle was more +frequent than that of a circle, composed of men, women, +and children, gathered by hundreds round a central fire, 20 +all dead and stiff at the return of morning light. Myriads +were left behind from 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; 25 +the vast extent of the march at length 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 least +been traversed; February, March, April, were gone; the 30 +balmy month of May had opened; vernal sights and +sounds came from every side to comfort the heart-weary +travellers; and at last, in the latter end of May, crossing +the Torgau, they took up a position where they hoped to +find liberty to repose themselves for many weeks in comfort +as well as in 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. 5 + +Yes; it was true that two thousand miles of wandering +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, 10 +cow, horse, mule, ass, 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 eastern 15 +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 tears even more bitter than those of 20 +Xerxes when he threw his eyes over the myriads whom +he had assembled: for the tears of Xerxes were +unmingled with compunction. Whatever amends were in +his power, the Khan resolved to make, by sacrifices to +the general good of all personal regards; and, accordingly, 25 +even at this point of their advance, he once more deliberately +brought under review the whole question of the +revolt. The question was formally debated before the +Council, whether, even at this point, they should untread +their steps, and, throwing themselves upon the Czarina's 30 +mercy, return to their old allegiance. In that case, +Oubacha professed himself willing to become the scapegoat +for the general transgression. This, he argued, was +no fantastic scheme, but even easy of accomplishment; +for the unlimited and sacred power of the Khan, so well +known to the Empress, made it absolutely iniquitous to +attribute any separate responsibility to the people. Upon +the Khan rested the guilt--upon the Khan would +descend the imperial vengeance. This proposal was 5 +applauded for its generosity, but was energetically opposed +by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the whole +journey of two thousand miles? Was their misery to +perish without fruit? True it was that they had yet +reached only the halfway house; but, in that respect, 10 +the motives were evenly balanced for retreat or for +advance. Either way they would 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, 15 +rich only in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to +Kalmuck eyes by the trophies of their calamity. Besides, +though the Empress might accept an excuse for the past, +would she the less forbear to suspect for the future? +The Czarina's _pardon_ they might obtain, but could they 20 +ever hope to recover her _confidence_? Doubtless there +would now be a standing presumption against them, an +immortal ground of jealousy; and a jealous government +would be but another name for a harsh one. Finally, +whatever motives there ever had been for the revolt 25 +surely remained unimpaired by 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 30 +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 the +Khan's proposal; the pardon of their prince, they persuaded +themselves, would be readily conceded by the +Empress: and there is little doubt that they would at +this time have thrown themselves gladly upon the imperial 5 +mercy; when suddenly all was defeated by the arrival of +two envoys from Traubenberg. This general had reached +the fortress of Orsk, after a very painful march, on the +12th of April; thence he set forward toward Oriembourg, +which he reached upon the 1st of June, having been 10 +joined on his route at various times through the month +of May by the Kirghises and a corps of ten thousand +Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent forward his official +offers to the Khan, which were harsh and peremptory, +holding out no specific stipulations as to pardon or 15 +impunity, an exacting unconditional submission as the +preliminary price of any cessation from military operations. +The personal character of Traubenberg, which +was anything but energetic, and the condition of his +army, disorganized in a great measure by the length and 20 +severity of the march, made it probable that, with a little +time for negotiation, a more conciliatory 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. 25 + +The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had +reported to this officer that a distance of only ten days' +march lay between his own headquarters and those of +the Khan. Upon this fact transpiring, the Kirghises, by +their prince Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the 30 +Russian general to advance without delay. Once having +placed his cannon 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 +themselves form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, however +(_why_ has not been certainly explained), 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 5 +chance of prevailing, and dreading above all other events +the escape of their detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs +went off in a body by forced marches. In six days +they reached the Torgau, crossed by swimming their +horses, and fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dispersed 10 +for many a league in search of food or 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 15 +accidents of 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 Kalmucks, to split up into 20 +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 prisoners, +and more than once in imminent danger of being cut 25 +down; but at length Zebek succeeded in rallying a +strong column of infantry, which, with the support of the +camel corps on each flank, compelled the Bashkirs to +retreat. Clouds, however, of these wild cavalry continued +to arrive through the next two days and nights, followed 30 +or accompanied by the Kirghises. These being viewed +as the advanced parties of Traubenberg's army, the +Kalmuck chieftains saw no hope 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 repose, without further molestation, the whole +summer through. + +It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness 5 +were predestined to the Kalmucks, and as if their sufferings +were incomplete unless they were rounded and +matured by all that the most dreadful agencies of summer's +heat could superadd to those of frost and winter. +To this sequel of their story we shall immediately revert, 10 +after first noticing a little romantic episode which occurred +at this point between Oubacha and his unprincipled +cousin, Zebek-Dorchi. + +There was, at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the +Wolga, a Russian gentleman of some rank at the court 15 +of the Khan, whom, for political reasons, it was thought +necessary to carry along with them as a captive. For +some weeks his confinement had been very strict, and in +one or two instances cruel; but, as the increasing distance +was continually diminishing the chances of escape, 20 +and perhaps, also, as the misery of the guards gradually +withdrew their attention from all minor 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 25 +to liberty; and it was understood that he might use his +liberty in whatever way he chose; even for returning +to Russia, if that should be his wish. Accordingly, he +was making active preparations for his journey to St. +Petersburg, when it occurred to Zebek-Dorchi that not 30 +improbably, in some of the battles which were then anticipated +with Traubenberg, it might happen to them to +lose some prisoner of rank,--in which case the Russian +Weseloff would be a pledge in their hands for negotiating +an exchange. Upon this plea, to his 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 5 +audience humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done +him and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feelings 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, the good-natured prince disclaimed 10 +all participation 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 to Mr. +Weseloff that he had just then received a message from 15 +the Hetman of the Bashkirs, soliciting a private interview +on the banks of the Torgau at a spot pointed out. That +interview was 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 20 +prudent man, acquainted with the world, and he read +treachery in the very outline of this scheme, as stated by +the Khan--treachery against the Khan's person. He +mused a little, and then communicated so much of his +suspicions to the Khan as might put him on his guard; 25 +but, upon further consideration, he begged leave to +decline the honor 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 30 +to join him in his escape. These men the Khan would +probably find himself obliged to countenance in their +project, so that it became a point of honor with Weseloff +to conceal their intentions, and therefore to accomplish +the evasion from the camp (of which the first steps only +would be hazardous) without risking the notice of the +Khan. + +The district in which they were now encamped +abounded through many hundred miles with wild horses 5 +of a docile and beautiful breed. Each of the four fugitives +had caught from seven to ten of 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 10 +toils of their remaining route to China. These horses +were secured by 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 15 +possible within danger of challenge 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 20 +in the act of mounting, when 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 made by that prince in the morning; and, 25 +requesting his companions to support him, he rode off in +the direction of the sound. A very short distance brought +him to an open glade in the wood, where he beheld four +men contending with a party of at least nine or ten. +Two of the four were dismounted at the very instant of 30 +Weseloff's arrival. One of these he recognized almost +certainly as the Khan, who was fighting hand to hand, +but at great disadvantage, with two of the adverse horsemen. +Seeing that no time was to be lost, Weseloff fired +and brought down one of the two. His companions discharged +their carabines at the same moment; and then all +rushed simultaneously into the little open area. The +thundering sound of about thirty horses, all rushing at +once into a narrow space, gave the impression that a 5 +whole troop of cavalry was coming down upon the assailants, +who accordingly wheeled about and fled with one +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 10 +shocked, though Weseloff at least was not surprised, on +stooping down and scrutinizing his features, to recognize +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 15 +time a dead silence prevailed. The situation 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 20 +the 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 circumstances, I might feel it my duty to 25 +detain your 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 30 +the circumstances 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 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?" Weseloff answered very +candidly that mere accident had brought him to the spot +at which he heard the uproar; but that, _having_ heard it, 5 +and connecting it with the Khan's communication 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 the expectation of finding +the Khan assaulted by assassins. A few minutes after 10 +they reached the outpost at which it became safe to +leave the Tartar chieftain; and immediately the four +fugitives commenced a flight which is, perhaps, without a +parallel in the annals of travelling. Each of them led +six or seven horses besides the one he rode; and by 15 +shifting from one to the other (like the ancient Desultors +of the Roman circus), so as never to burden the same +horse for more than half an hour at a time, they continued +to advance at the rate of 200 miles in the twenty-four +hours for three days consecutively. After that time, 20 +considering themselves beyond pursuit, they proceeded +less rapidly; 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 25 +circumstances there stated is that they continued to pursue +the route by which the Kalmucks 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 30 +valuable property which it had been 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 of their beautiful horses, which they +afterward sold at one of the Russian military settlements +for about £15 apiece, which eventually enabled them to +pursue their journey in Russia. This journey, as regarded +Weseloff in particular, was closed by a tragical catastrophe. 5 +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. +Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his filial 10 +affection, had imprudently posted through Russia 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 15 +the spot. + + * * * * * + +We now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck +flight. These it would be useless to pursue circumstantially +through the whole two thousand miles of suffering +which remained; for the character of that suffering was 20 +even more monotonous than on the former half of the +flight, but also more severe. Its main elements were +excessive heat, with the accompaniments of famine and +thirst, but aggravated at every step by the murderous +attacks of their cruel enemies, the Bashkirs and the 25 +Kirghises. + +These people, "more fell than anguish, hunger, or +the sea," stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of +enraged hornets. And very often, while _they_ were +attacking them in the rear, their advanced parties and +30 flanks were attacked with almost equal fury by the people +of the country which they were traversing; and with good +reason, 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 wretchedness; for sometimes, +pressed by grinding famine, they took a circuit of +perhaps a hundred miles, in order to strike into a land 5 +rich in the comforts of life; but in such a land they were +sure to find a crowded population, of which every arm +was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the advantages +of local knowledge, and with constant preoccupation of +all the defensible positions, mountain passes, or bridges. 10 +Sometimes, again, wearied out with this mode of suffering, +they took 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 15 +plague of starvation, whether with or without 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; _post equitem sedet atra cura_: it +was a torment like the undying worm of conscience. 20 +And, upon the whole, it presented a spectacle altogether +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 imbittered the interest was that the 25 +malice was 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 till dewy eve." +The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always obliged to 30 +run. Was it _from_ their enemies 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 +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 5 +advanced guard to fight 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 boundless 10 +deserts, where all pursuit was hopeless. But if the Kalmucks +resolved to press forwards, regardless of their enemies--in +that case their attacks became so fierce and +overwhelming that the general safety seemed likely to be +brought into question; nor could any effectual remedy 15 +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 the irritation +of such a systematic persecution, superadded to a previous, 20 +and hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the +stinging consciousness of utter impotence as regarded all +effectual vengeance, should gradually have inflamed the +Kalmuck animosity into the wildest expression of downright +madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before the 25 +frontiers of China were approached, the hostility of both +sides had assumed the appearance much 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 30 +was that of a host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends. + + * * * * * + +On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, +Kien Long, the Emperor of China, was pursuing his +amusements in a wild frontier district lying on the outside +of the Great Wall. For many hundred square +leagues the country was desolate of inhabitants, but rich +in woods of ancient growth, and overrun with game of +every description. In a central spot of this solitary 5 +region the 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 miles or +more from his lodge, followed at a little distance by a 10 +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.[8] +Here he was standing by accident, at an opening of his +pavilion, enjoying the morning sunshine, when suddenly 15 +to the westward 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 this vast sheet of mist began to thicken toward +the horizon and to roll forward in billowy volumes. The 20 +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 forwards towards +the pavilion the yagers--half cavalry, half huntsmen--who +composed the imperial escort. Conjecture was on 25 +the stretch to divine the cause of this phenomenon; and +the interest continually increased in proportion as simple +curiosity gradually deepened into the anxiety of uncertain +danger. At first it had been imagined that some vast +troops of deer or other wild animals of the chase had +been disturbed in their forest haunts by the Emperor's +movements, or 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, secure from 5 +molestation. But this conjecture was dissipated by the +slow increase of the cloud and the steadiness of its +motion. In the course of two hours the vast phenomenon +had advanced to a point which was judged to be +within five miles of the spectators, though all calculations 10 +of distance were 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 of huge 15 +aërial draperies, hanging in mighty volumes from the sky +to the earth; and at particular points, where the eddies +of the breeze acted upon the pendulous skirts of these +aërial curtains, rents were perceived, sometimes taking the +form of regular arches, portals, and windows, through 20 +which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels "indorsed"[9] +with human beings, and at intervals the moving +of men and horses in tumultuous array, and then through +other openings, or vistas, at far-distant points, the flashing +of polished arms. But sometimes, as the wind slackened 25 +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 +growing din, the clamors, the shrieks, and groans ascending +from infuriated myriads, reported, in a language not 30 +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 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 5 +stage of their long pilgrimage at which they would meet +hospitality on a scale of royal magnificence and full protection +from their enemies. These enemies, however, as +yet, still were hanging on their rear as fiercely as ever, +though this day was destined to be the last of their hideous 10 +persecution. The 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 benevolence. 15 +But as these couriers had been dispatched from +the Torgau at the moment of arrival thither, and before +the advance of Traubenberg had made it necessary +for the Khan to order a hasty renewal of the flight, the +Emperor had not looked for their arrival on his frontiers 20 +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 Torgau, and to recommence +his retreat about the beginning of September. The +subsequent change of plan being unknown to Kien Long, 25 +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 the savage clamors of hostile fury and +clangor of weapons unveiled to the Emperor the true +nature of those unexpected calamities which had so prematurely 30 +precipitated the Kalmuck measure. + +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 pursuers. And this was less difficult +than might have been supposed. Not many miles in the +rear was a body of well-appointed cavalry, with a strong +detachment of artillery, who always attended the Emperor's 5 +motions. These were hastily summoned. 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 10 +those who 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 _cortége_ had been standing, 15 +and therefore with a distance continually increasing. +Those who knew the country judged that the Kalmucks +were making for a large fresh-water lake about seven or +eight miles distant. They were right; and to that point +the imperial cavalry was ordered up; and it was precisely 20 +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 memorable and hellish fury as formed an +appropriate winding up to an expedition in all its parts 25 + 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 its individual +features; but he records in his written memorial the +report made to him of this scene by some of his own 30 +officers. + +The Lake of Tengis, near the frightful Desert of Kobi, +lay in a hollow amongst hills of a moderate 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 lake. From this pass, elevated about two thousand +feet above the level of the water, they continued to 5 +descend, by a very winding and difficult road, for an hour +and a half; and during the whole of 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 10 +sixty thousand, and after enduring for two months and a +half the miseries we have previously described--outrageous +heat, famine, and the destroying scimiter of the +Kirghises and the Bashkirs--had for the last ten days +been traversing a hideous desert, where no vestiges were 15 +seen of vegetation, and no drop of water could be found. +Camels and men were already so overladen that it was a +mere impossibility that they should carry a tolerable sufficiency +for the passage of this frightful wilderness. On +the eighth day the wretched daily allowance, which had 20 +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 the sight of the hills and the forest +scenery, which announced to those who acted as guides 25 +the neighborhood of the Lake of Tengis, all the people +rushed along with maddening eagerness to the anticipated +solace. The day grew hotter and hotter, the people more +and more exhausted; and gradually, in the general rush +forward to the lake, all discipline and command were lost--all 30 +attempts to preserve a rear guard were neglected--the +wild Bashkirs rode on amongst the encumbered people +and slaughtered them by wholesale, and almost +without resistance. Screams and tumultuous 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 the waters--all with faces +blackened by the heat preying upon the liver and with +tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was 5 +affected by the same misery, and manifested the same +symptoms of his misery, as the wretched Kalmuck; 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 10 +state, whilst mere multitude and condensation of bodies +alone opposed any check to the destroying scimiter and +the trampling hoof, the lake was reached; and to that +the whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together +continued to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment 15 +but of one almighty 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: here rode a 20 +party of savage Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as the +swaths fall before the mower's scythe; there stood unarmed +Kalmucks in a death grapple with their detested foes, +both up to the middle in water, and oftentimes both sinking +together below the surface, from weakness or from 25 +struggles, and perishing in each other's arms. Did the +Bashkirs at any point collect into a cluster for 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 30 +forced into a share in this carnival of murder by trampling +down as 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 large draughts of water, +visibly contaminated with the blood of their slaughtered +compatriots. Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough +to allow of men raising their heads above the water, there, 5 +for scores of acres, were to be seen all forms of 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 10 +averted their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed +incapable of further addition, was, however, increased +by an unexpected incident. The Bashkirs, beginning to +perceive here and there the approach of the Chinese +cavalry, felt it prudent--wheresoever they were sufficiently 15 +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 havoc among the Bashkir tribe. As often 20 +as the Bashkirs collected into _globes_ and _turms_ as their +only means of meeting the long line of descending +Chinese cavalry, so often did the Chinese governor of the +fort pour in his exterminating broadside; until at length +the lake, at its lower end, became one vast seething 25 +caldron of human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese +cavalry had reached the foot of the hills; the Bashkirs, +attentive to _their_ movements, had formed; skirmishes had + been fought; and, with a quick sense that the contest was +henceforward rapidly becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs 30 +and Kirghises began to retire. The pursuit was not as +vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would have 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 certainty that these wretched +Bashkirs had to repeat that same experience a second +time, for thousands of miles, as the price exacted by a +retributary Providence for their vindictive cruelty--not +the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflecting, 5 + but found in all this a retaliatory chastisement more +complete and absolute than any which their swords and +lances could have obtained or human vengeance could +have devised. + + * * * * * + +Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the 10 +Desert; for any subsequent marches which 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; and lands of great fertility were immediately 15 +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 may be best stated in his own +words, as translated into French by one of the Jesuit 20 +missionaries: "La nation des Torgotes (_savoir les Kalmuques_) + arriva à Ily, toute delabrée, n'ayant ni de quoi +vivre, ni de quoi se vêtir. Je l'avais prévu; et j'avais +ordonné de faire en tout genre les provisions nécessaires +pour pouvoir les secourir promptement: c'est ce qui a été 25 +exécuté. On a fait la division des terres: et on a assigné +à chaque famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir +à son entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant +des bestiaux. On a donné à chaque particulier des étoffes +pour l'habiller, des grains pour se nourrir pendant l'éspace 30 +d'une année, des ustensiles pour le ménage et d'autres +choses nécessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces d'argent, +pour se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On a +designé des lieux particuliers, fertiles en pâturages; et on +leur a donné des boeufs, moutons, etc., pour qu'ils pussent +dans la suite travailler par eux-mêmes à leur entretien et +à leur bien-être." + +These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking 5 +in his own person of his own paternal cares; but another +Chinese, treating the same subject, records the munificence +of this prince in terms which proclaim still more +forcibly the disinterested generosity which prompted, and +the delicate considerateness which conducted, this extensive 10 +bounty. He has been speaking of the Kalmucks, +and he goes on thus:--"Lorsqu'ils arrivèrent sur nos +frontières (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de mille, +quoique la fatigue extrême, la faim, la soif, et toutes les +autres incommodités inséparables d'une très-longue et 15 +très-pénible route en eussent fait périr presque autant), +ils étaient réduits à la dernière misère; ils manquaient +de tout. Il" (viz. l'empereur, Kien Long) "leur fit préparer +des logemens conformes à leur manière de vivre; +il leur fit distribuer des alimens et des habits; il leur fit 20 +donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour +les mettre en état de former des troupeaux et de cultiver +la terre, et tout cela à ses propres frais, qui se sont +montés à des sommes immenses, sans compter l'argent +qu'il a donné à chaque chef-de-famille, pour pouvoir à la 25 +subsistance de sa femme et de ses enfans." + +Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks +were replaced in territorial possessions, and in +comfort equal, perhaps, or even superior, to that which +they had enjoyed in Russia, and with superior political 30 +advantages. But, if equal or 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 vagrant people, they were now in +circumstances which obliged them to become essentially +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 +roving and from the savage customs connected with a half 5 +nomadic life. They gained also in political privileges, +chiefly through the immunity from military service which +their new relations enabled them to obtain. These were +circumstances of advantage and gain. But one great +disadvantage there was, amply to overbalance all other 10 +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. + +One word remains to be said upon the _personal_ interests 15 +concerned in this great drama. The catastrophe in this +respect was remarkable and complete. Oubacha, with all +his goodness and incapacity of suspecting, had, since the +mysterious affair on the banks of the Torgau, felt his +mind alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the man 20 +that would have murdered him; and he had displayed his +caution so visibly as to provoke a reaction in the bearing +of Zebek-Dorchi and a displeasure which all his dissimulation +could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, +by keeping them aloof, had probably saved the life of 25 +Oubacha; for 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 at his hunting 30 +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 Kalmuck 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 had the presumption 5 +even to weave nets of treason against the Emperor +himself. Plots were laid, were detected, were baffled; +counter-plots were constructed upon the same basis, +and with the benefit of the opportunities thus offered. +Finally, Zebek-Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, 10 +together with all his accomplices; and, under the skilful +management of the Chinese nobles in the Emperor's +establishment, the murderous artifices of these Tartar +chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves, and the +whole of them perished by assassination at a great imperial 15 +banquet. For the Chinese morality is exactly of +that kind which approves in everything the _lex talionis_: + + "... Lex nec justior ulla est [as _they_ think] + Quam necis artifices arte perire sua." + +So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of 20 +the great Tartar Exodus. Oubacha, meantime, and his +people were gradually recovering from the effects of their +misery, and repairing their losses. Peace and prosperity, +under the gentle rule of a fatherly lord paramount, +redawned upon the tribes: their household _lares_, after so 25 +harsh a translation to distant climates, found again a +happy reinstatement in what had, in fact, been their +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 from 30 +the hills of this favored land, and even from the level +grounds as they approach its western border, they still +look out upon that fearful wilderness which once beheld +a nation in agony--the utter extirpation of nearly half a +million 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 Peloponnesian war from a different 5 +form of misery) very many lost their 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 melancholy, +some in a more restless form of feverish delirium +and nervous agitation, and others in the fixed forms of 10 +tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy. +Two great commemorative monuments arose in after +years to mark the depth and permanence of the awe--the +sacred and reverential grief, with which all persons +looked back upon the dread calamities attached to the 15 +year of the tiger--all who had either personally shared +in those calamities and had themselves drunk from that +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, 20 +enjoined by the Dalai-Lama, called in the Tartar language +a _Romanang_--that 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 25 +in China); secondly, another, more durable, and more +commensurate to the scale of the calamity and to the +grandeur 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 30 +the very margin of the steppes, and they bear a short but +emphatic inscription[10] to the following effect:-- + + By the Will of God, + Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts, + Which from this point begin and stretch away, + Pathless, treeless, waterless, + For thousands of miles, and along the margins of many mighty Nations, 5 + Rested from their labors and from great afflictions + Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, + And by the favor of KIEN LONG, God's Lieutenant upon Earth, + The ancient Children of the Wilderness--the Torgote Tartars-- 10 + Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, + Wandering Sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial Empire + in the year 1616, + But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, + Into the fold of their forgiving Shepherd. 15 + Hallowed be the spot + and + Hallowed be the day--September 8, 1771! + Amen. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Singular it is, and not generally known, that Grecian women +accompanied the _anabasis_ of the younger Cyrus and the subsequent +retreat of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon affirms that there were "many" +women in the Greek army--[Greek: pollai êsan etairai en tô +strateumati]; and in a late stage of that trying expedition it is +evident that women were amongst the survivors. + +[6] "Trashed." This is an expressive word used by Beaumont and +Fletcher in their "Bonduca," etc., to describe the case of a person +retarded or embarrassed in flight, or in pursuit, by some encumbrance, +whether thing or person, too valuable to be left behind. + +[7] There was another _ouloss_ equally strong with that of +Feka-Zechorr, viz. that of Erketunn under the government of Assarcho +and Machi, whom some obligations of treaty or other hidden motives +drew into the general conspiracy of revolt. But fortunately the two +chieftains found means to assure the Governor of Astrachan, on the +first outbreak of the insurrection, that their real wishes were for +maintaining the old connection with Russia. The Cossacks, therefore, +to whom the pursuit was intrusted, had instructions to act cautiously +and according to circumstances on coming up with them. The result was, +through the prudent management of Assarcho, that the clan, without +compromising their pride or independence, made such moderate +submissions as satisfied the Cossacks; and eventually both chiefs and +people received from the Czarina the rewards and honors of exemplary +fidelity. + +[8] All the circumstances are learned from a long state paper on the +subject of this Kalmuck migration drawn up in the Chinese language by +the Emperor himself. Parts of this paper have been translated by the +Jesuit missionaries. The Emperor states the whole motives of his +conduct and the chief incidents at great length. + +[9] _Camels_ "_indorsed_" "and elephants indorsed with +towers."--MILTON in _Paradise Regained_. + +[10] This inscription has been slightly altered in one or two phrases, +and particularly in adapting to the Christian era the Emperor's +expressions for the year of the original Exodus from China and the +retrogressive Exodus from Russia. With respect to the designation +adopted for the Russian Emperor, either it is built upon some +confusion between him and the Byzantine Cæsars, as though the former, +being of the same religion with the latter (and occupying in part the +same longitudes, though in different latitudes), might be considered +as his modern successor; or else it refers simply to the Greek form of +Christianity professed by the Russian Emperor and Church. + + +[Illustration: ROUTE OF THE TARTARS IN THEIR FLIGHT.] + + + + +NOTES. + + +THE ORIGINAL SOURCES. + + +In Professor Masson's edition of De Quincey, Vol. VII, p. 8, is the +following discussion of the author's original sources: + +"A word or two on De Quincey's authorities for his splendid sketch +called _The Revolt of the Tartars_:--One authority was a famous +Chinese state-paper purporting to have been composed by the Chinese +Emperor, Kien Long himself (1735--1796), of which a French +translation, with the title _Monument de la Transmigration des +Tourgouths des Bords de la Mer Caspienne dans l'Empire de la Chine_, +had been published in 1776 by the French Jesuit missionaries of Pekin, +in the first volume of their great collection of _Mémoires concernant +les Chinois_. The account there given of so remarkable an event of +recent Asiatic history as the migration from Russia to China of a +whole population of Tartars had so much interested Gibbon that he +refers to it in that chapter of his great work in which he describes +the ancient Scythians. De Quincey had fastened on the same document as +supplying him with an admirable theme for literary treatment. +Explaining this some time ago, while editing his _Revolt of the +Tartars_ for a set of Selections from his Writings, I had to add that +there was much in the paper which he could not have derived from that +original, and that, therefore, unless he invented a great deal, he +must have had other authorities at hand. I failed at the time to +discover what these other authorities were,--De Quincey having had a +habit of secretiveness in such matters; but since then an incidental +reference of his own, in his _Homer and the Homeridæ_,[11] has given +me the clue. The author from whom he chiefly drew such of his +materials as were not supplied by the French edition of Kien Long's +narrative, was, it appears from that reference, the German traveller, +Benjamin Bergmann, whose _Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken +in den Jahren 1802 und 1803_ came forth from a Riga press, in four +parts or volumes, in 1804-1805. The book consists of a series of +letters written by Bergmann from different places during his +residence among the Tartars, with interjected essays or dissertations +of an independent kind on subjects relating to the Tartars,--one of +these occupying 106 pages, and entitled _Versuch zur Geschichte der +Kalmükenflucht von der Wolga_ ("Essay on the History of the Flight of +the Kalmucks from the Volga"). A French translation of the Letters, +with this particular Essay included, appeared in 1825 under the title +_Voyage de Benjamin Bergmann chez les Kalmüks: Traduit de l'Allemand +par M. Moris, Membre de la Société Asiatique_. Both works are now very +scarce; but having seen copies of both (the only copies, I think, in +Edinburgh, and possibly the very copies which De Quincey used), I have +no doubt left that it was Bergmann's Essay of 1804 that supplied De +Quincey with the facts, names, and hints he needed for filling up that +outline-sketch of the history of the Tartar Transmigration of 1771 +which was already accessible for him in the Narrative of the Chinese +Emperor, Kien Long, and in other Chinese State Papers, as these had +been published in translation, in 1776, by the French Jesuit +missionaries. At the same time, no doubt is left that he passed the +composite material freely and boldly through his own imagination, on +the principle that here was a theme of such unusual literary +capabilities that it was a pity it should be left in the pages of +ordinary historiographic summary or record, inasmuch as it would be +most effectively treated, even for the purpose of real history, if +thrown into the form of an epic or romance. Accordingly he takes +liberties with his authorities, deviating from them now and then, and +even once or twice introducing incidents not reconcilable with either +of them, if not irreconcilable also with historical and geographical +possibility. Hence one may doubt sometimes whether what one is reading +is to be regarded as history or as invention. On this point I can but +repeat words I have already used: as it is, we are bound to be +thankful. In quest of a literary theme, De Quincey was arrested +somehow by that extraordinary transmigration of a Kalmuck horde across +the face of Asia in 1771, which had also struck Gibbon; he inserted +his hands into the vague chaos of Asiatic inconceivability enshrouding +the transaction; and he tore out the connected and tolerably +conceivable story which we now read. There is no such vivid version of +any such historical episode in all Gibbon, and possibly nothing truer +essentially, after all, to the substance of the facts as they actually +happened." + +Professor Masson's Appended Editorial Note on the Chinese Accounts of +the Migration (Vol. VII, pp. 422-6): + +"As has been mentioned in the Preface, these appeared, in translated +form, in 1776, in Vol. I of the great collection of _Mémoires +concernant les Chinois_, published at Paris by the enterprise of the +French Jesuit missionaries at Pekin. The most important of them, under +the title _Monument de la Transmigration des Tourgouths des Bords de +la Mer Caspienne dans l'Empire de la Chine_, occupies twenty-seven +pages of the volume, and purports to be a translation of a Chinese +document drawn up by the Emperor Kien Long himself. This Emperor, +described by the missionaries as 'the best-lettered man in his +Empire,' had special reasons for so commemorating, as one of the most +interesting events of his reign, the sudden self-transference in 1771 +of so large a Tartar horde from the Russian allegiance to his own. +Much of the previous part of his reign had been spent in that work of +conquering and consolidating the Tartar appendages of his Empire which +had been begun by his celebrated grandfather, the Emperor Kang Hi +(1661-1721); and it so chanced that the particular Tartar horde which +now, in 1771, had marched all the way from the shores of the Caspian +to appeal to him for protection and for annexation to the Chinese +Empire were but the posterity of a horde who had formerly belonged to +that Empire, but had detached themselves from it, in the reign of Kang +Hi, by a contrary march westward to annex themselves to the Russian +dominions. The event of 1771, therefore, was gratifying to Kien Long +as completing his independent exertions among the Tartars on the +fringes of China by the voluntary re-settlement within those fringes, +and return to the Chinese allegiance, of a whole Tartar population +which had been astray, and under unfit and alien rule, for several +generations. With this explanation the following sentences from Kien +Long's Memoir, containing all its historical substance, will be fully +intelligible: + +"'All those who at present compose the nation of the Torgouths, +unaffrighted by the dangers of a long and painful march, and full of +the single desire of procuring themselves for the future a better mode +of life and a more happy lot, have abandoned the parts which they +inhabited far beyond our frontiers, have traversed with a courage +proof against all difficulties a space of more than ten thousand +_lys_, and are come to range themselves in the number of my subjects. +Their submission, in my view of it, is not a submission to which they +have been inspired by fear, but is a voluntary and free submission, if +ever there was one.... The Torgouths are one of the branches of the +Eleuths. Four different branches of people formed at one time the +whole nation of the Tchong-kar. It would be difficult to explain their +common origin, respecting which indeed there is no very certain +knowledge. These four branches separated from each other, so that each +became a nation apart. That of the Eleuths, the chief of them all, +gradually subdued the others, and continued till the time of Kang Hi +to exercise this usurped pre-eminence over them. Tsé-ouang-raptan then +reigned over the Eleuths, and Ayouki over the Torgouths. These two +chiefs, being on bad terms with each other, had their mutual contests; +of which Ayouki, who was the weaker, feared that in the end he would +be the unhappy victim. He formed the project of withdrawing himself +forever from the domination of the Eleuths. He took secret measures +for securing the flight which he meditated, and sought safety, with +all his people, in the territories which are under the dominion of the +Russians. These permitted them to establish themselves in the country +of Etchil [the country between the Volga and the Jaik, a little to the +north of the Caspian Sea].... Oubaché, the present Khan of the +Torgouths, is the youngest grandson of Ayouki. The Russians never +ceasing to require him to furnish soldiers for incorporation into +their armies, and having at last carried off his own son to serve them +as a hostage, and being besides of a religion different from his, and +paying no respect to that of the Lamas, which the Torgouths profess, +Oubaché and his people at last determined to shake off a yoke which +was becoming daily more and more insupportable. After having secretly +deliberated among themselves, they concluded that they must abandon a +residence where they had so much to suffer, in order to come and live +more at ease in those parts of the dominion of China where the +religion professed is that of Fo. At the commencement of the eleventh +month of last year [December, 1770] they took the road, with their +wives, their children, and all their baggage, traversed the country of +the Hasaks [Cossacks], skirted Lake Palkaché-nor and the adjacent +deserts; and, about the end of the sixth month of this year [in +August, 1771], after having passed over more than ten thousand _lys_ +during the space of the eight whole months of their journey, they +arrived at last on the frontiers of Charapen, not far from the borders +of Ily. I knew already that the Torgouths were on the march to come +and make submission to me. The news was brought me not long after +their departure from Etchil. I then reflected that, as Ileton, general +of the troops that are at Ily, was already charged with other very +important affairs, it was to be feared that he would not be able to +regulate with all the requisite attention those which concerned these +new refugees. Chouhédé, one of the councillors of the general, was at +Ouché, charged with keeping order among the Mahometans there. As he +found it within his power to give his attention to the Torgouths, I +ordered him to repair to Ily and do his best for their solid +settlement.... At the same time I did not neglect any of the +precautions that seemed to me necessary. I ordered Chouhédé to raise +small forts and redoubts at the most important points, and to cause +all the passes to be carefully guarded; and I enjoined on him the duty +of himself getting ready the necessary provisions of every kind inside +these defences.... The Torgouths arrived, and on arriving found +lodgings ready, means of sustenance, and all the conveniences they +could have found in their own proper dwellings. This is not all. Those +principal men among them who had to come personally to do me homage +had their expenses paid, and were honorably conducted, by the imperial +post-road, to the place where I then was. I saw them; I spoke to them; +I invited them to partake with me in the pleasures of the chase; and, +at the end of the number of days appointed for this exercise, they +attended me in my retinue as far as to Gé-hol. There I gave them a +ceremonial banquet and made them the customary presents.... It was at +this Gé-hol, in those charming parts where Kang Hi, my grandfather, +made himself an abode to which he could retire during the hot season, +at the same time that he thus put himself in a situation to be able to +watch with greater care over the welfare of the peoples that are +beyond the western frontiers of the Empire; it was, I say, in those +lovely parts that, after having conquered the whole country of the +Eleuths, I had received the sincere homages of Tchering and his +Tourbeths, who alone among the Eleuths had remained faithful to me. +One has not to go many years back to touch the epoch of that +transaction. The remembrance of it is yet recent. And now--who could +have predicted it?--when there was the least possible room for +expecting such a thing, and when I had no thought of it, that one of +the branches of the Eleuths which first separated itself from the +trunk, those Torgouths who had voluntarily expatriated themselves to +go and live under a foreign and distant dominion, these same Torgouths +are come of themselves to submit to me of their own good will; and it +happens that it is still at Gé-hol, not far from the venerable spot +where my grandfather's ashes repose, that I have the opportunity, +which I never sought, of admitting them solemnly into the number of my +subjects.' + +"Annexed to this general memoir there were some notes, also by the +Emperor, one of them being that description of the sufferings of the +Torgouths on their march, and of the miserable condition in which they +arrived at the Chinese frontier, which De Quincey has quoted at p. +417. Annexed to the Memoir there is also a letter from P. Amiot, one +of the French Jesuit missionaries, dated 'Pe-king, 15th October, +1773,' containing a comment on the memoir of a certain Chinese scholar +and mandarin, Yu-min-tchoung, who had been charged by the Emperor with +the task of seeing the narrative properly preserved in four languages +in a monumental form. It is from this Chinese comment on the Imperial +Memoir that there is the extract at p. 418 as to the miserable +condition of the fugitives. + +"On a comparison of De Quincey's splendid paper with the Chinese +documents, several discrepancies present themselves; the most +important of which perhaps are these:--(1) In De Quincey's paper it is +Kien Long himself who first descries the approach of the vast Kalmuck +horde to the frontiers of his dominions. On a fine morning in the +early autumn of 1771, we are told, being then on a hunting expedition +in the solitary Tartar wilds on the outside of the great Chinese Wall, +and standing by chance at an opening of his pavilion to enjoy the +morning sunshine, he sees the huge sheet of mist on the horizon, +which, as it rolls nearer and nearer, and its features become more +definite, reveals camels, and horses, and human beings in myriads, and +announces the advent of, etc. etc.! In Kien Long's own narrative he is +not there at all, having expected indeed the arrival of the Kalmuck +host, but having deputed the military and commissariat arrangements +for the reception of them to his trusted officer, Chouhédé; and his +first sight of any of them is when their chiefs are brought to him, by +the imperial post-road, to his quarters a good way off, where they are +honorably entertained, and whence they accompany him to his summer +residence of Gé-hol. (2) De Quincey's closing account of the monument +in memory of the Tartar transmigration which Kien Long caused to be +erected, and his copy of the fine inscription on the monument, are not +in accord with the Chinese statements respecting that matter. 'Mighty +columns of granite and brass erected by the Emperor Kien Long near the +banks of the Ily' is De Quincey's description of the monument. The +account given of the affair by the mandarin Yu-min-tchoung, in his +comment on the Emperor's Memoir, is very different. 'The year of the +arrival of the Torgouths,' he says, 'chanced to be precisely that in +which the Emperor was celebrating the eightieth year of the age of his +mother the Empress-Dowager. In memory of this happy day his Majesty +had built on the mountain which shelters from the heat (Pi-chou-chan) +a vast and magnificent _miao_, in honor of the reunion of all the +followers of Fo in one and the same worship; it had just been +completed when Oubaché and the other princes of his nation arrived at +Gé-hol. In memory of an event which has contributed to make this same +year forever famous in our annals, it has been his Majesty's will to +erect in the same _miao_ a monument which should fix the epoch of the +event and attest its authenticity; he himself composed the words for +the monument and wrote the characters with his own hand. How small +the number of persons that will have an opportunity of seeing and +reading this monument within the walls of the temple in which it is +erected!' Moreover the words of the monumental inscription in De +Quincey's copy of it are hardly what Kien Long would have written or +could have authorized. 'Wandering sheep who have strayed away from the +Celestial Empire in the year 1616' is the expression in De Quincey's +copy for that original secession of the Torgouth Tartars from their +eastern home on the Chinese borders for transference of themselves far +west to Russia, which was repaired and compensated by their return in +1771 under their Khan Oubaché. As distinctly, on the other hand, the +memoir of Kien Long refers the date of the original secession to no +farther back than the reign of his own grandfather, the Emperor Kang +Hi, when Ayouki, the grandfather of Oubaché, was Khan of the +Torgouths, and induced them to part company with their overbearing +kinsmen the Eleuths, and seek refuge within the Russian territories on +the Volga. In the comment of the Chinese mandarin on the Imperial +Memoir the time is more exactly indicated by the statement that the +Torgouths had remained 'more than seventy years' in their Russian +settlements when Oubaché brought them back. This would refer us to +about 1700, or, at farthest, to between 1690 and 1700, for the +secession under Ayouki. + +"The discrepancies are partly explained by the fact that De Quincey +followed Bergmann's account,--which account differs avowedly in some +particulars from that of the Chinese memoirs. In Bergmann I find the +original secession of the ancestors of Oubaché's Kalmuck horde from +China to Russia _is_ pushed back to 1616, just as in De Quincey. But, +though De Quincey keeps by Bergmann when he pleases, he takes +liberties with Bergmann too, intensifies Bergmann's story throughout, +and adds much to it for which there is little or no suggestion in +Bergmann. For example, the incident which De Quincey introduces with +such terrific effect as the closing catastrophe of the march of the +fugitive Kalmucks before their arrival on the Chinese frontier,--the +incident of their thirst-maddened rush into the waters of Lake Tengis, +and their wallow there in bloody struggle with their Bashkir +pursuers,--has no basis in Bergmann larger than a few slight and +rather matter-of-fact sentences. As Bergmann himself refers here and +there in his narrative to previous books, German or Russian, for his +authorities, it is just possible that De Quincey may have called some +of these to his aid for any intensification or expansion of Bergmann +he thought necessary. My impression, however, is that he did nothing +of the sort, but deputed any necessary increment of his Bergmann +materials to his own lively imagination." + + * * * * * + +1 1. The first three paragraphs of the essay, comprising the formal +introduction, are intentionally rather more picturesque and vivacious +in style than the ordinary narrative that follows. If these paragraphs +be read consecutively aloud, the student will surely feel the sweep +and power of De Quincey's eloquence. Attention may well be directed to +the author's own apparent interest in his subject because of its +appeal to the _imagination_ (p. 1, l. 4), of the _romantic +circumstances_ (p. 1, l. 11), of its _dramatic capabilities_ (p. 2, l. +8), of its _scenical situations_ (p. 3, l. 8). Throughout the essay +effort should be made to excite appreciation of the significance of +words, and De Quincey's mastery in the use of words may be continually +illustrated. In paragraph 1, note the fitness of the word _velocity_ +(l. 12) and the appropriateness of the epithets in _almighty +instincts_ (l. 17), _life-withering marches_ (l. 18), _gloomy +vengeance_ (l. 19), _volleying thunders_ (p. 2, l. 1). + +1 5. Tartar. Originally applied to certain tribes in Chinese +Tartary, but here used for Mongolian. Look up etymology and trace +relation of the word to _Turk_.--steppes. A Russian word indicating +large areas more or less level and devoid of forests; these regions +are often similar in character to the American prairie, and are used +for pasturage. + +1 6,7. terminus a quo, terminus ad quem. The use of phrases quoted +from classic sources is frequent in De Quincey's writings. Note such +phrases as they occur, also foreign words. Is their use to be +justified? + +1 18. leeming. The lemming, or leming. A rodent quadruped. "It is +very prolific, and vast hordes periodically migrate down to the sea, +destroying much vegetation in their path."--_Century Dictionary_. + +1 22. Miltonic images. "Miltonic" here characterizes not only images +used by Milton, but images suggestive of his as well. Yet compare: + + Or from above + Should intermitted vengeance arm again + His red right hand to plague us? + --_Paradise Lost_, II, 172-4. + + Or, with solitary hand + Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow + Unaided could have finished thee. + --_Paradise Lost_, VI, 139-41. + +2 12. sanctions. The word here means not permission, nor recognition +merely, but the avowal of something as sacred, hence obligatory; a +thing ordained. + +2 13, 14. a triple character. De Quincey is fond of thus analyzing +the facts he has to state. Notice how this method of statement, marked +by "1st," "2dly," "3dly," contributes to the clearness of the +paragraph. + +2 17. "Venice Preserved." A tragedy by Thomas Otway, one of the +Elizabethan dramatists (1682).--"Fiesco." A tragedy by the great +German dramatist Friedrich Schiller (1783), the full title of which is +_The Conspiracy of Fiesco at Genoa_. + +2 22. Cambyses, the Third (529-522 B.C.). He was king of Persia and +led an expedition into Ethiopia, which ended disastrously for him. + +2 23. anabasis. The word itself means "a march up" into the +interior.--katabasis (l. 28) means "a march down,"--in this case the +retreat of the Greeks. The _Anabasis_ of the Greek historian Xenophon +is the account of the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against +Artaxerxes, which ended with the death of Cyrus at the battle of +Cunaxa (401 B.C.). + +2 25. Crassus. A Roman general who led an army into Parthia (or +Persia) (54 B.C.). He was defeated and put to death by +torture.--Julian (l. 26), the Apostate, lost his life while invading +Persia (363 A.D.). + +2 28. the Russian anabasis, etc. The historic invasion of Russia by +the armies of Napoleon in 1812, followed by the terrible retreat from +Moscow. + +3 3. This triple character, etc. Note this method of making clear +the connection between paragraphs. Make close study of these +paragraphs; analyze their structure. Compare the manner of introducing +subsequent paragraphs. + +3 14. Wolga. The German spelling. The Volga is the longest river in +Europe. It is difficult to locate with certainty all the points here +mentioned. + +3 16. Koulagina was a fort somewhere on the Ural river; perhaps to +be identified with Kulaschinskaja, or Kologinskaia. + +3 17. Cossacks. A people of mixed origin, but of Russian rather than +Tartar stock. There are two branches, the Ukraine and the Don +Cossacks. This people is first heard of in the tenth century. The +title of the leader was _Hetman_; the office was elective and the +government was democratic. The Cossacks have been noted always as +fierce fighters and are valuable subjects of the czar. The _Bashkirs_ +(l. 18) are Mongolians and nomadic in their habits. + +3 18. Ouchim was evidently a mountain pass in the Ural range +(compare p. 37, l. 18). + +3 19. Torgau, spelled also _Torgai_ by De Quincey, though elsewhere +_Turgai_, indicates a district east of the Ural mountains; it is also +the name of the principal city of that district. + +3 20. Khan. A Tartar title meaning chief or governor. + +3 22. Lake of Tengis. Lake Balkash is meant. Compare p. 56, l. 18, +and note thereon. + +3 23. Zebek-Dorchi. One of the principal characters in the following +narrative. + +3 32. Kalmucks. A branch of the Mongolian family of peoples, divided +into four tribes, and dwelling in the Chinese Empire, western Siberia, +and southeastern Russia. They were nomads, adherents of a form of +Buddhism, and number over 200,000.--_Century Cyclopedia of Names._ + +4 12. exasperated. As an illustration of the discriminating use of +words, explain the difference in meaning of _exasperated_ and +_irritated_ (l. 19); also point out the fitness of the word _inflated_ +in the phrase (l. 13). + +5 23. rival. Why "_almost_ a competitor"? What is the meaning of +each word? + +5 32. odius. Is there any gain in force by adding _repulsive_? + +6 5. Machiavelian. Destitute of political morality. A term derived +from the name of Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian statesman and writer +(1469-1527), who, in a treatise on government entitled "The Prince," +advocated, or was interpreted to advocate, the disregard of moral +principle in the maintenance of authority. In this sentence +discriminate between the apparent synonyms _dissimulation_, +_hypocrisy_, _perfidy_. + +6 15. Elizabeth Petrowna. Daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine +I. Empress of Russia 1741-1762. + +6 28. Tcherkask. An important city of the Cossacks, near the mouth +of the Don.--tents. A common method of counting families among +nomads. What figure of speech does this illustrate? + +7 25. roubles. A rouble is the Russian unit of value, worth +seventy-seven cents. The word is etymologically connected with the +Indian _rupee_. + +7 28. Thus far, etc. Notice the care with which De Quincey analyzes +the situation. + +8 19. mercenary. Look up origin of the word. How is it appropriate +here? + +8 29. romantic. What are the qualities indicated by this adjective? +How did the word, derived from _Roman_, get its present significance? + +8 34. A triple vengeance. Compare with the similar analysis p. 2, l. 13. + +9 11. behemoth. A Hebrew word meaning "great beast." It was used +probably of the hippopotamus. See _Job_, xl, 15-24. In the work by +Bergmann, which furnished De Quincey with much of his material, the +figure used is that of a giant and a dwarf.--Muscovy. An old name of +Russia, derived from Moscow. + +9 13. "lion ramp." Quoted from Milton: + + The bold Ascalonite + Fled from his lion ramp. + --_Samson Agonistes_, 139. + +"_Baptized and infidel_" and "_barbaric East_" are also borrowings +from Milton. + +9 16. unnumbered numbers. Notice how effectively in this and the +following sentences De Quincey utilizes _suggested_ words: _monstrous, +monstrosity_; _hopelessness, hope_. + +9 22. fable. Here used for plot; the idea being that the story of +the Revolt has all the compactness and unity of design to be found in +the plot of a classic tragedy, which could admit the introduction of +no external incidents or episodes to confuse the thread of the main +action. + +10 8. translation. Note the etymology of this word, which is here +used in its literal sense. + +10 17. But what, etc. See with what art, as well as with what +evident interest, De Quincey catches the very spirit of the plot. How +does the interrogation add strength? + +10 25, 26. Kien Long. "Emperor of China from 1735 to 1796, was the +fourth Chinese emperor of the Mantchoo-Tartar dynasty, and a man of +the highest reputation for ability and accomplishment."--MASSON. + +10 28. religion. Lamaism. "A corrupted form of Buddhism prevailing +in Tibet and Mongolia, which combines the ethical and metaphysical +ideas of Buddhism with an organized hierarchy under two semi-political +sovereign pontiffs, an elaborate ritual, and the worship of a host of +deities and saints."--_Century Dictionary_. + +10 29. Chinese Wall. This famous wall was built for defence against +the northern Mongols in the third century. It is 1400 miles in length +and of varying height. In what sense is the phrase used figuratively? + +11 17. great Lama. "Lama, a celibate priest or ecclesiastic +belonging to that variety of Buddhism known as Lamaism. There are +several grades of lamas, both male and female. The dalai-lama and the +tesho- or bogdo-lama are regarded as supreme pontiffs. They are of +equal authority in their respective territories, but the former is +much the more important, and is known to Europeans as the Grand +Lama,"--_Century Dictionary._ + +The Dalai-Lama (p. 12, l. 11) resides at Lassa in Tibet. + +12 34. With respect to the month. Notice the extreme care with which +the author develops the following details, and the touch of sympathy +with which this paragraph closes. + +13 28. war raged. "The war was begun in 1768 when Mustapha III. was +Sultan of Turkey; and it was continued till 1774."--MASSON. + +13 33. Human experience, etc. It is a favorite device of this writer +to develop a concrete fact into an abstraction of general application. +Do you believe that this is true? Can you give any illustration? + +15 1. a pitched battle. "It will be difficult, I think, to find +record, in the history of the Russo-Turkish war of 1768, of any battle +answering to this."--MASSON. + +15 10. Paladins. A term used especially to designate the famous +knightly champions who served the Frankish Charlemagne. Look up the +etymology of the word and trace its present meaning. + +15 24. ukase. "An edict or order, legislative or administrative, +emanating from the Russian government."--_Century Dictionary_. + +16 9. mummeries. Find the original meaning of this word. + +16 22. Catharine II. "Elizabeth had been succeeded in 1762 by her +nephew Peter III., who had reigned but a few months when he was +dethroned by a conspiracy of Russian nobles headed by his German wife +Catharine. She became Empress in his stead, and reigned from 1762 to +1796 as Catharine II."--MASSON. + +17 10. doubtful suspicion and indirect presumption. Note the +additional force given to the nouns by the adjectives. + +17 18. Weseloff. This gentleman is referred to again at more length +in pages 45-50. + +17 31. sanctions. Compare the note on p. 2, l. 12. The sense in +which the word is used justifies the use of _violate_ in the next line. + +18 24. first of all. Again see how, by use of this phrase, followed +later by _secondly_, _thirdly,_ etc., De Quincey gains greater +clearness for his various points. + +19 29. But the time, etc. Here is the first general division point +in the main narrative. The genesis of the plot has been described; now +follow the active preliminaries to the flight. + +19 33. one vast conflagration. Compare the account, p. 25. + +20 12, 13. But where or how, etc. Note again the effective use of +interrogation. How does it stimulate interest? + +20 17. Kirghises. The spelling _Kirghiz_ is more familiar. Like the +Bashkirs, nomads of the Mongolian-Tartar race, perhaps the least +civilized of those inhabiting the steppes. + +20 26. _rhetoric._ In what sense used here? Is this use correct? + +21 5. _Sarepta._ Locate this town; it is on a small river that empties +into the Volga. "The point of the reference to this particular town is +that it was a colony of industrious Germans, having been founded in +1764 or 1765 by the Moravian Brothers."--BALDWIN. + +22 11. Temba. The Jemba. + +22 28. Kichinskoi. Notice the vividness of the character portrait +that follows; compare it with the portraitures of Zebek and Oubacha +previously given. + +23 1. surveillant. Here used for watchman or spy. What derivatives +have we from this French expression? + +23 34. Christmas arrived. Another division point in the analysis. + +24 5. Astrachan. Also spelled _Astrakhan_. The name of a large and +somewhat barren district comprising more than 90,000 square miles of +territory in southeastern Europe; its capital city, having the same +name, is situated on the Volga near its mouth. + +24 26. at the rate of 300 miles a day. By no means an incredible +speed; in Russia such sledge flights are not uncommon. Compare what De +Quincey has to say of the glory of motion in _The English +Mail-Coach_,--"running at the least twelve miles an hour." + +25 26. malignant counsels. What is the full effect of this epithet? + +26 10. valedictory vengeance. Note again the force of the epithet. + +26 28. aggravate. What is the literal significance of this word? As +synonymous with what words is it often incorrectly used? + +28 11. For now began to unroll. Does this paragraph constitute a +digression, or is it a useful amplification of the narrative? Does De +Quincey exaggerate when he terms these experiences of the Tartars "the +most awful series of calamities anywhere recorded"? + +28 14. sudden inroads. "The inroads of the Huns into Europe extended +from the third century into the fifth; those of the Avars from the +sixth century to the eighth or ninth; the first great conquests of the +Mongol Tartars were by Genghis-Khan, the founder of a Mongol empire +which stretched, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, from +China to Poland."--MASSON. + +28 18. volleying lightning. Compare p. 2, l. 1, where De Quincey uses +a somewhat similar phrase. Why is the phrase varied, do you suppose? + +28 21. the French retreat. It would be interesting to compare the +incidents and figures of this retreat, as furnished by biographers and +historians. Sloane's _Life of Napoleon_ is a recent authority. + +28 26. vials of wrath. Compare _Revelation_, xv, 7, and xvi, 1. If +De Quincey had used the Revised Version he would have written _bowls_ +instead of _vials_. Such borrowings of phrase or incident are called +"allusions." Make a list of the scriptural allusions found in the +essay,--of those suggested by Milton. + +29 16. Earthquakes. "De Quincey here refers to such destructive +shocks as that which occurred at Sparta, 464 B.C., in which, according +to Thirlwall, 20,000 persons perished; that which Gibbon speaks of +during the reign of Valentinian, 365 A.D., in which 50,000 persons +lost their lives at Alexandria alone; that in the reign of Justinian, +526 A.D., in which 250,000 persons were crushed by falling walls; +others in Jamaica, 1692 A.D.; at Lisbon, 1755 A.D., with loss of +30,000 lives; and in Venezuela, 1812 A.D., when Caraccas was +destroyed, and 20,000 souls perished."--WAUCHOPE. + +29 20. pestilence. Described by Thucydides; see also Grote's +_History of Greece_, Chap. XLIX. Of the great plague of London (1665) +the most realistic description is Defoe's _Journal of the Plague +Year_. + +29 28. The siege of Jerusalem. Read Josephus, _The Jewish War_, Bks. +V and VI. + +29 31. exasperation. Compare note on p. 26, l. 28. + +30 3, 4. even of maternal love. The reference is to an incident +mentioned by Josephus (_The Jewish War_, Bk. VI, Chap. III), in which +a mother is described as driven by the stress of famine to kill and +devour her own child. + +30 5. romantic misery. How _romantic_? Compare this phrase with +similar uses of the word _romantic_. + +30 10. River Jaik. The Ural. + +30 33. scenical propriety. Compare the statement with similar ones +made by the author elsewhere. + +31 11. decrement. Compare with its positive correspondent, _increment_. + +31 20. acharnement. Fury. + +31 26. The first stage, etc. A time mark in the essay. + +32 10. liable. Another instance of a word often misused, correctly +employed in the text. Compare note on _aggravate_, p. 26, l. 28. + +32 23. Bactrian camels. There are two species of camel, the +dromedary, single humped, and the Bactrian, with two humps. The former +is native to Arabia, the latter to central Asia. The dromedary is the +swifter of the two. _Bactria_ is the ancient name of that district +now called Balkh, in Afghanistan. + +33 7. evasion. Compare with its positive correspondent _invasion_; +compare _decrement_, p. 31, l. 11. + +34 8. champaign savannas. Both words mean about the same, an open, +treeless country, nearly level. What is the linguistic source of both +words? + +37 19. hills of Moulgaldchares. Spurs of the Urals running southwest. + +38 10. Polish dragoons. "The adjective refers not to the +nationality, but to the equipment of the cavalry. Thus there was at +one time in the French army a corps called _Chasseurs d'Afrique_, and +in both the French and that of the Northern troops in our own Civil +War a corps of Zouaves. Similarly at p. 53, l. 24, De Quincey speaks +of _yagers_ among the Chinese troops. Perhaps both Polish dragoon and +yager were well-known military terms in 1837. At any rate there is no +gain in scrutinizing them too closely, since the context in both cases +seems to be pure invention."--BALDWIN. + +38 11. cuirassiers. From the French. Soldiers protected by a +cuirass, or breastplate, and mounted. + +38 20. River Igritch. The Irgiz-koom. + +39 21. concurrently. Etymology? + +39 33. sad solitudes, etc. Notice this as one of the points in a +very effective paragraph. + +40 3. aggravations. Compare note on p. 26, l. 28. + +40 5. howling wilderness. Why so called? Compare with a previous use +of the same expression (p. 12, l. 5). + +40 18. spectacle. Compare with other references to the theatrical +quality of the _Flight_. + +40 21. myriads. Is this literal? Notice the contrast in tone between +this sentence and those which close the paragraph. + +41 12. adust. "Latin, _adustus_, burned. Looking as if burned or +scorched."--_Century Dictionary_. + +41 15. erected their speaking eyes. Study this expression until its +forcefulness is felt. The camel is notorious for its unresponsive +dullness; indeed its general apathy to its surroundings is all that +accounts for its apparent docility. De Quincey, therefore, is speaking +by the book when he describes these brutes as "without the affections +or sensibilities of flesh and blood." Their very submissiveness is due +to their stupidity. + +41 20. those of Xerxes. See Crete's _History of Greece_, Chap. XXXVIII. + +41 29. untread. A dictionary word, but uncommon. Recall similar +words used by De Quincey which add picturesqueness in part because of +their novelty. + +41 31. their old allegiance. 1616. See the close of this paragraph. + +41 33. scapegoat. _Leviticus_, xvi, 7-10; 20-22. + +42 32, 33. land of promise ... house, etc. _Deuteronomy_, viii, 14; +ix, 28. + +43 8. Orsk. Upon the river Or. + +43 9. Oriembourg. A fort. + +43 23. sinister. Etymology? + +43 29. transpiring. Like _aggravate_ and _liable_, a word often +misused. What does it mean? + +44 10. were dispersed. Note the variety of phrases in the following +ten lines used to indicate separation. + +46 16. Hetman. Chief. Compare Germ. _Hauptmann_, Eng. _captain_, Fr. +_chef_. + +47 1. evasion. See previous note on p. 33, l. 7. + +48 2. carabines. Old-fashioned spelling. Short rifles adapted to the +use of mounted troops. + +49 13. without a parallel. As has been seen, De Quincey is fond of +superlative statements. A writer may or may not be true in his claims; +the habitual assumption, however, predisposes his reader to doubt his +judgment. + +49 16. Desultors. This word is not in common use, but _desultory_ +is. Look up the derivation and note the metaphor concealed in the +latter word. + +49 19. at the rate of 200 miles. Compare preceding note on p. 24, 1. 26. + +50 27. "more fell," etc. From the last speech in Shakespeare's +Othello, addressed to Iago: + + O Spartan dog, + More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea! + Look on the tragic loading of this bed; + This is thy work. + +51 17. "fierce varieties." Misquoted. See _Paradise Lost_, II, 599; +VII, 272. + +51 19. post equitem, etc.: + + Behind the horseman sits black care. + --Horace's _Odes_, III, 1, 40. + +51 20. undying worm. _Isaiah_, lxvi, 24. + +51 29. "from morn till dewy eve." Paradise Lost, I, 742. + +52 33. On a fine morning. Study this paragraph carefully with +reference to the rhetorical effect. The entire scene is the product of +De Quincey's imagination; do you consider it truthful? + +53 24. yagers. German _Jäger_; used of a huntsman or a forester, +also in parts of Germany and Austria used to indicate light infantry +or cavalry. Compare with _Polish dragoons_, p. 38, l. 10. + +54 21. indorsed. Look up the etymology. Has De Quincey, in his note, +quoted Milton accurately? See _Paradise Regained_, III, 329. + +56 13. rather in a diagonal. This is another characteristic of De +Quincey; he is sometimes tediously exact in his details; perhaps the +minuteness is justifiable in this instance, as the statement increases +the realistic effect of an imaginary scene. + +56 18. a large fresh-water lake. The Lake of Tengis here referred +to, mentioned by name in the paragraph following this, is evidently +Lake Balkash, into which flows the river Ily. It is one of the largest +lakes in the steppes, but its water is really _salt_. + +59 21. globes and turms. Latinisms. Milton uses _globe_ in _Paradise +Lost_, II, 512, and _turms_ in _Paradise Regained_, IV, 66. + +60 4. retributary. What more common form is used synonymously? + +60 21. "La nation des Torgotes," etc. "'The nation of the Torgouths +(_to wit the Kalmucks_) arrived at Ily wholly shattered, having +neither victuals to live on [_sic_] nor clothes to wear. I had +foreseen this, and had given orders for making every kind of +preparation necessary for their prompt relief; which was duly done. +The distribution of lands was made; and there was assigned to each +family a portion sufficient to serve for its support, whether by +cultivating it or by feeding cattle on it [_sic_]. There were given to +each individual materials for his clothing, corn for his sustenance +for the space of one year, utensils for household purposes, and other +things necessary; besides some ounces of silver wherewith to provide +himself with anything that might have been forgotten. Particular +places were marked out for them, fertile in pasture; and cattle and +sheep, etc., were given them, that they might be able for the future +to work for their own support and well-being.'--This is a note of Kien +Long subjoined to his main narrative; and De Quincey, I find, took the +above transcript of it from the French translation of Bergmann's book. +That transcript, it is worth observing, is not quite exact to the +original French text of the Pekin missionaries."--MASSON. + +61 12. "Lorsqu'ils arrivèrent," etc. "'When they arrived on our +frontiers (to the number of some hundreds of thousands, although +nearly as many more had perished by the extreme fatigue, the hunger, +the thirst, and all the other hardships inseparable from a very long +and very toilsome march), they were reduced to the last misery, they +were in want of everything. The Emperor supplied them with everything. +He caused habitations to be prepared for them suitable for their +manner of living; he caused food and clothing to be distributed among +them; he had cattle and sheep given them, and implements to put them +in a condition for forming herds and cultivating the earth; and all +this at his own proper charges, which mounted to immense sums, without +counting the money which he gave to each head of a family to provide +for the subsistence of his wife and children.' + +"This is from a eulogistic abstract of Kien Long's own narrative by +one of his Chinese ministers, named Yu Min Tchoung, a translation of +which was sent to Paris by the Jesuit missionary, P. Amiot, together +with the translation of the imperial narrative itself. The transcript +is again by the French translator of Bergmann, and is again rather +inaccurate."--MASSON. + +63 17. lex talionis. Law of retaliation. + +63 18. "lex nec justior," etc. "Nor is there any law more just than +that the devisers of murder should perish by their own device."--OVID, +_Ars Amatoria_, I, 655. + +63 25. lares. The minor deities of a Roman household. + +63 30. Arcadian beauty. Arcadian is synonymous with rural simplicity +and beauty. Arcadia, the central province of Greece, was a pastoral +district and lacked the vices--as well as some of the virtues--of the +surrounding states. + +64 1. extirpation. Etymology? + +64 23. music. One who has listened to Mongolian attempts at harmony +must suspect that De Quincey is again inspired by his imagination when +he characterizes this part of the commemoration as "rich and solemn." + +64 28. columns of granite and brass. This feature of the narrative, +as well as many other details of apparent fact, including the entire +inscription said to have been placed upon the monument, are evidently +the pure invention of De Quincey's fancy, no mention of these details +being found in his historical sources. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] "Some years ago I published a paper on the Flight of the Kalmuck +Tartars from Russia. Bergmann, the German from whom that account was +chiefly drawn, resided a long time among the Kalmucks," etc.--Essay on +_Homer and the Homeridæ._ + + + + +ADVERTISEMENTS + + + + +STANDARD ENGLISH CLASSICS + +EDITED BY COMPETENT SCHOLARS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO COLLEGE +REQUIREMENTS. + + +Tennyson's The Princess. Edited by ALBERT S. COOK, Professor of +English Literature in Yale University. 40 cents. + +Carlyle's Essay on Burns. Edited by CHARLES L. HANSON, Teacher of +English in the Mechanic Arts High School, Boston, Mass. 30 cents. + +Macaulay's Essay on Milton. Edited by HERBERT A. 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