no one else seemed at all anxious to follow
their example. In vain he swore, entreated, pushed, and offered money
for their heads: not one of his men would advance. At length, he said,
with a most magnanimous shout, 'I myself will go; here, make way! will
no body follow me?' Then, stopping, and addressing himself to me, he
said, 'Hajji! my soul, my friend, won't you go and cut those men's heads
off? I'll give you everything you can ask.' Then, putting his hand round
my neck, he said, 'Go, go; I am sure you can cut their heads off.'

We were parleying in this manner, when a shot from one of the Russians
hit the chief executioner's stirrup, which awoke his fears to such a
degree, that he immediately fell to uttering the most violent oaths.
Calling away his troops, and retreating himself at a quick pace, he
exclaimed, 'Curses be on their beards! Curse their fathers, mothers,
their ancestry, and posterity! Whoever fought after this fashion?
Killing, killing, as if we were so many hogs. See, see, what animals
they are! They will not run away, do all you can to them. They are worse
than brutes:--brutes have feeling,--they have none. O Allah, Allah, if
there was no dying in the case, how the Persians would fight!'

By this time we had proceeded some distance, and then halted. Our chief,
expecting to find the Russians back to back under every bush, did not
know what course to pursue, when the decision was soon made for us by
the appearance of the serdar, who, followed by his cavalry, was seen
retreating in all haste from before the enemy. It was evident that his
enterprise had entirely failed, and nothing was left for the whole army
but to return whence it came.

I will not attempt to draw a picture of the miserable aspect of the
serdar's troops; they all looked harassed and worn down by fatigue, and
seemed so little disposed to rally, that one and all, as if by tacit
consent, proceeded straight on their course homewards without once
looking back. But as much as they were depressed in spirits, in the same
degree were raised those of our commander. He so talked of his prowess,
of the wound he had received, and of his intended feats, that at length,
seizing a spear, he put his horse at the full gallop, and overtaking
his own cook, who was making the best of his way to his pots and pans,
darted it at him, in the exuberance of his valour, and actually pierced
him in the back through his shawl girdle.

Thus ended an expedition wh