rned.

To this event was due the terrifying news that reached Barnaoul, the
alarm being carried to a Cossack fort whose commandant was drunk at the
time and sent out a series of exaggerated reports. As for the fugitives,
they had in effect signed their death-warrant by their conflict with the
Kalmucks. The news spread from tribe to tribe, and when the real number
of the fugitives was learned the tribesmen entered savagely into
pursuit, determined to obtain revenge for their slain kinsmen. The
Circassians were wandering in an unknown country. The Kalmucks knew
every inch of the ground. Scouts followed the fugitives, and after them
came well-mounted hunters, who rapidly closed upon the trail, being on
the evening of the third day but three miles away.

The Circassians had crossed the Bea and turned to the south, but here
they found themselves in an almost impassable group of snow-clad
mountains. On they pushed, deeper and deeper into the chain, still
closely pursued, the Kalmucks so managing the pursuit as to drive them
into a pathless region of the hills. This accomplished, they came on
leisurely, knowing that they had their prey safe.

At length the hungry and weary warriors were driven into a mountain
pass, where the pursuers, who had hitherto saved their bullets, began a
savage attack, rifle-balls dropping fast into the glen. The fugitives
sought shelter behind some fallen rocks, and returned the fire with
effect. But they were at a serious disadvantage, the hunters, who far
outnumbered them, and knew every crag in the ravines, picking them off
in safety from behind places of shelter. From point to point the
Circassians fell back, defending their successive stations desperately,
answering every call to surrender with shouts of defiance, and holding
each spot until the fall of their comrades warned them that the place
was no longer tenable.

Night fell during the struggle, and under its cover the remaining
fifteen of the brave fugitives made their way on foot deeper into the
mountains, abandoning their horses to the merciless foe. At daybreak
they resumed their march, scaling the rocky heights in front. Here,
scanning the country in search of their pursuers, not one of whom was to
be seen, they turned to the west, a range of snow-clad peaks closing the
way in front. A forest of cedars before them seemed to present their
only chance of escape, and they hurried towards it, but when within two
hundred yards of the woo