ire much;
"kizil-gulliar" means simply roses, but the Khan alludes to
"kizil," ducats.

"What can I do with my force?"

"Force--that is in thy soul, Ammalat!... Despise dangers and they bend
before you.... Dost thou hear that?" added Sultan Akhmet Khan, as the
sound of firing reached them from the town. "It is the voice of
victory!"

Saphir-Ali rushed into the chamber with an agitated face.

"Bouinaki is in revolt," he hurriedly began; "a crowd of rioters has
overpowered the detachment, and they have begun to fire from the
rocks."[34]

[34] The Tartars, like the North American Indians, always, if
possible, shelter themselves behind rocks and enclosures, &c.,
when engaged in battle.

"Rascals!" cried Ammalat, as he threw his gun over his shoulder. "How
dared they to rise without me! Run, Saphir-Ali, threaten them with my
name; kill the first who disobeys."

"I have done all I could to restrain them," said Saphir-Ali, "but none
would listen to me, for the noukers of Sultan Akhmet Khan were urging
them on, saying that he had ordered them to slay the Russians."

"Indeed! did my noukers say that?" asked the Khan.

"They did not say so much, but they set the example," said Saphir-Ali.

"In that case they have done well," replied Sultan Akhmet Khan: "this is
brave!"

"What hast thou done, Khan!" cried Ammalat, angrily.

"What you might have done long ago!"

"How can I justify myself to the Russians?"

"With lead and steel.... The firing is begun.... Fate works for you ...
the sword is drawn ... let us go seek the Russians!"

"They are here!" cried the Captain, who, followed by two men, had broken
through the disorderly ranks of the Tartars, and dashed into the house
of their chief. Confounded by the unexpected outbreak in which he was
certain to be considered a party, Ammalat saluted his enraged
guest--"Come in peace!" he said to him in Tartar.

"I care not whether I come in peace or no," answered the Captain, "but I
find no peaceful reception in Bouinaki. Thy Tartars, Ammalat, have dared
to fire upon a soldier of mine, of yours, a subject of our Tsar."

"In very deed, 'twas absurd to fire on a Russian," said the Khan,
contemptuously stretching himself on the cushions of the divan, "when
they might have cut his throat."

"Here is the cause of all the mischief, Ammalat!" said the Captain,
angrily, pointing to the Khan; "but for this insolent rebel not a
trigger would have been pu