Michael Strogoff

ns and

ople of Moscow was at the height of its brilliancy, without ample cause; for he had just received information that serious events were taking place b

kestan and the Chinese Empire; on the north by the Arctic Ocean, from the Sea of Kara to Behring's Straits. It is divided into several governments or provinces, those of Tobolsk, Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Omsk, and Yakutsk; contains two districts, Okhotsk and Kamtschatka; and poss

er this vast country. The higher one resides at Irkutsk, the far cap

on ways lead from those precious mines which make the Siberian soil far richer below than ab

sirnov, Tioumen, Ishim, Omsk, Elamsk, Kolyvan, Tomsk, Krasnoiarsk, Nijni-Udinsk, Irkutsk, Verkne-Nertschink, Strelink, Albazine, Blagowstenks, Radde, Orlomskaya, Alexandrowskoe, and Nikolaevsk; and six roubles and nineteen cope

to Nikolaevsk, which had been cut, first bey

to him for the second time by General Kissoff, ha

a few moments, when the door was again opened

zar briefly, "and tell me al

gerous man, sire," repl

as colonel,

, si

intellige

ng an ambition which stopped at nothing, he became involved in secret intrigues, an

g ago wa

six months of exile by your majes

ime, has he not r

e chief of police, adding, and slightly lowering his voice

ria is and shall be a coun

h some pride, for often, by his clemency, he ha

it was not thus under the new reign, and the chief of police sincerely deplored it. What! no banishment for life for other crimes than those against social order! What! political exiles returning from Tobolsk, from Yakutsk, from Irkutsk! In truth, the

ssia a second time, after that journey through the Si

di

olice lost trac

becomes really dangerous from th

f his ideas was at least equal to the boundless devotion he felt for his master. But the Czar, disdaining to re

province

hat t

erm i

was he

and there was nothing s

er the surveillance

, s

d he lea

e month o

go .

, is u

known what has

; it is n

ons which did not pass through the police department; and, in the face of events now t

ef of police, "that Ivan Ogareff h

mongst their nomadic population. He then went so far south as free Turkestan; there, in the provinces of Bokhara, Khokhand, and Koondooz, he found chiefs willing to pour their Tartar hordes into Siberia, and excite a general rising in Asiatic Russia. Th

during the time when the emperors of Russia never pardoned an exile, schemes such as those of Ivan Ogareff could never have been realized. Approaching the Cz

kutsk, as well as those in the provinces of the Amoor and Lake Baikal. At the same time, the regiments from Perm and Nijni-Novgorod, and the Coss

Duke, is now isolated in the government of Irkutsk,

t is

ures have been taken by your majesty, and what help

owes his first disgrace; and what is more serious is, that this man is not known to him. Ogareff's plan, therefore, is to go to Irkutsk, and, under an assumed name, offer his services to the Grand Duke. Then, after gaining his confidence, w

telligent, courage

arily exp

ed the chief of police; "for, allow me to add, sire

the exiles would make common cause

of police, for that was really the idea sugge

ir patriotism," r

ides political exiles in Siber

or rather, the rebellion, is not to oppose the emperor; it is raised against Russia, against the country which the exiles have not lost all hope of a

its effects, the modifications he had adopted with regard to applications for the formerly terrible ukases, warranted the belief that he was not mistaken. But even without this powerful e

a, Khokhand, and Bokhara, the most formidable chiefs of Turkestan. The middle horde, the richest, is also the largest, and its encampments occupy all the space between the rivers Sara Sou, Irtish, and the Upper Ishim, Lake Saisang and Lake Aksakal. The greater horde, occupying the

erers of caravans than regular soldiers. As M. Levchine says, "a firm front or a square of good infan

nals of the Russian provinces, perhaps two or three thousand versts distant. Now, except by the direct route from Ekaterenburg to Irkutsk, th

ions, that is to say, those Cossack posts which are ranged in echelon from Omsk to Semipolatinsk, must have been broken in several places. Now, it was to be feared that the "Grand Sultans," who govern the Kirghiz districts would either voluntarily accept, or involuntarily submit to, the dom

casian race, which, as Abel de Remusat says, "is regarded in Europe as the type of beauty in our species, because all the nations in this part of

ats. The principal khanats are those of Bokhara, Khokhand, Koondooz, etc. At this period, the most important and the most formidable khanat was that of Bokhara. Russia had already been several times at

suring more than eight English miles, and flanked with towers, a glorious city, made illustrious by Avicenna and other learned men of the tenth century, is regarded as the center of Mussulman science, and ranks among the most celebrated cities of Central Asia. Samarcand, which contains the tomb of Tamerlane and the famous palace where the blue stone is kept on which each new khan must seat himself on his

er. He invaded the government of Semipolatinsk, and the Cossacks, who were only in small force there, had been obliged to retire before him. He had advanced farther than Lake Balkhash, gaining over the Kirghiz population on his way. Pillaging, ravaging, enrolling those who submitted, taking prisoners those who resisted, he marched from one town to another, followed by those impedimenta of Oriental sovereignty which may be called his household, his wives and his slaves - all with the cool audacity of a modern Ghengis-Khan. It was impossible to ascertain where he now was; how far his soldiers had marched before the news of the rebellion reached Moscow; or to what part of Siberia the Russian tro

he five thousand two hundred versts between Moscow and Irkutsk. To pass the ranks of the rebels and invaders he

his head and heart?" thoug