These men had contrived to crawl un.o.bserved 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 _elite_ 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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, cuira.s.siers 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 a.s.surance 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 abas.e.m.e.nt, 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 s.p.a.ce 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 lat.i.tudes, 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, a.s.s, 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 a.s.sembled: 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 a.s.sumed. 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 antic.i.p.ating 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 pet.i.tion 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sistance. 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 hors.e.m.e.n.
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 s.p.a.ce, gave the impression that a 5 whole troop of cavalry was coming down upon the a.s.sailants, 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 grat.i.tude. 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 a.s.saulted by a.s.sa.s.sins. 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 circ.u.mstances 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 const.i.tution. 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 circ.u.mstantially 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 pa.s.sed. 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 pa.s.ses, 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 circ.u.mstances. 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded 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 embarra.s.sing halt and by countermarches that, to men in their circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.sumed 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 amus.e.m.e.nts 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 a.s.sembled 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 compa.s.s 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 aerial 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 aerial 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 pet.i.tions, 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 pa.s.s 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 _cortege_ 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 h.e.l.lish 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 pa.s.s, 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 pa.s.sage 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 enc.u.mbered people and slaughtered them by wholesale, and almost without resistance. Screams and tumultuous shouts proclaimed the progress of the ma.s.sacre; but none heeded--none halted; all alike, pauper or n.o.ble, 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 mult.i.tude 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 appet.i.te 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 cl.u.s.ter for the sake of giving impetus to the a.s.sault? 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 pa.s.sions 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 chastis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.signed 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 a Ily, toute delabree, n"ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je l"avais prevu; et j"avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provisions necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement: c"est ce qui a ete 25 execute. On a fait la division des terres: et on a a.s.signe a chaque famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque particulier des etoffes pour l"habiller, des grains pour se nourrir pendant l"es.p.a.ce 30 d"une annee, des ustensiles pour le menage et d"autres choses necessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces d"argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu"on aurait pu oublier. On a designe des lieux particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on leur a donne des boeufs, moutons, etc., pour qu"ils p.u.s.s.ent dans la suite travailler par eux-memes a leur entretien et a leur bien-etre."
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 arriverent sur nos frontieres (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de mille, quoique la fatigue extreme, la faim, la soif, et toutes les autres incommodites inseparables d"une tres-longue et 15 tres-penible route en eussent fait perir presque autant), ils etaient reduits a la derniere misere; ils manquaient de tout. Il" (viz. l"empereur, Kien Long) "leur fit preparer des logemens conformes a leur maniere 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 etat de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, et tout cela a ses propres frais, qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter l"argent qu"il a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pouvoir a 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 circ.u.mstances 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 circ.u.mstances 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 n.o.bles 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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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 a.s.sociated 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 bra.s.s 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 G.o.d, 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, G.o.d"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 esan etairai en to 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded or embarra.s.sed in flight, or in pursuit, by some enc.u.mbrance, 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 a.s.sarcho 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 a.s.sure 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 circ.u.mstances on coming up with them. The result was, through the prudent management of a.s.sarcho, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 Caesars, as though the former, being of the same religion with the latter (and occupying in part the same longitudes, though in different lat.i.tudes), 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.