"Pray, my brethren, ere we part;
Clutch the steel with hate and wrath!
Break it in the Russian's heart—
O'er corpses lies the brave man's path!
Fame to us, death to you,
Alla-ha, Alla-hu!"
Struck by a certain involuntary awe, the Chasseurs and Kazáks listened in silence to the stern sounds of this song; but at last a loud hurrah [25] resounded from both sides. The Teherkéss, with a shout, fired their guns for the last time, and breaking them against the stones, they threw themselves, dagger in hand, upon the Russians. The Abréks, in order that their line might not be broken, bound themselves to each other with their girdles, and hurled themselves into the mêlée. Quarter was neither asked nor given: all fell before the bayonets of the Russians. "Forward! follow me, Ammalát Bek," cried Djemboulat, with fury, rushing into the combat which was to be his last—"Forward! for us death is liberty." But Anmalát heard not his call; a blow from a musket on the back of the head stretched him on the earth, already sown with corpses, and covered with blood.
[Footnote 25: "Hurrah" means strike in the Tartar language.]
CHAPTER. V.
LETTER FROM COLONEL VERHOFFSKY TO HIS BETROTHED.
From Derbénd to Smolénsk. October, 1819.
Two months—how easy to say it!—two centuries have past, dearest Maria, while your letter was creeping to me. Twice has the moon made her journey round the earth. You cannot imagine, dearest, how dreary is this idle objectless life to me; with nothing to employ me—not even correspondence. I go out, I meet the Kazák [26] with a secret trembling of heart: with what joy, with what exstacy do I kiss the lines traced by a pure hand, inspired by a pure heart—yours, my Maria! With a greedy rapture my eyes devour the letter: then I am happy—I am wild with joy. But hardly have I reclosed it when unquiet thoughts again begin to haunt me. "All this is well," I think; "but all this is past, and I desire to know the present. Is she well? Does she love me yet? Oh! will the happy time come soon—soon—when neither time nor distance can divide us? When the expression of our love will be no longer chilled by the cold medium of the post!" Pardon, pardon, dearest, these black thoughts of absence. When heart is—with heart, the lover trusts in all; in separation he doubts all. You command—for such to me is your wish—that I should describe my life to you, day by day, hour by hour. Oh, what sad and tiresome annals mine would be, were I to obey you! You know well, traitress, that I live not without you. My existence—'tis but the trace of a shadow on the desert sand. My duty alone, which wearies at least, if it cannot amuse me, helps me to get rid of the time. Thrown in a climate ruinous to health, in society which stifles the soul, I cannot find among my companions a single person who can sympathise with me. Nor do I find among the Asiatics any who can understand my thoughts. All that surrounds me is either so savage or so limited, that it excites sadness and discontent. Sooner will you obtain fire by striking ice on stone, than interest from such an existence. But your wish to me is sacred; and I will present you, in brief, with my last week. It was more varied than usual.
[Footnote 26: The Kazáks are employed in the Russian army frequently as couriers.]
I have told you in one of my letters, if I remember, that we are returning from the campaign of Akoúsh, with the commander-in-chief. We have done our work; Shah Ali Khan has fled into Persia; we have burned a number of villages, hay, and corn; and we have eaten the sheep of the rebels, when we were hungry. When the snow had driven the insurgents from their mountain-fastnesses, they yielded and presented hostages. We then marched to the Fort of Boúrnaya, [27] and from this station our detachment was ordered into winter quarters. Of this division my regiment forms a part, and our head-quarters are at Derbénd.
[Footnote 27: Stormy.]